28 years later

BOS Special Education Needs

2007-09-06T11:52:00.000+08:00

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/special_ed/faq_secondary.html

Using technology for social interaction skills instruction for children and adolescents with Asperger's Syndrome

2007-09-04T12:43:00.001+08:00

http://www.closingthegap.com/home/detail_full.lasso

Fashion break

2007-09-04T12:17:00.000+08:00

Alternative Input Devices for Students

2007-09-04T12:06:00.000+08:00

Alternative Input Devices for Students with Physical Disabilities

Switches:
Switches control the flow of electrical power to a device that the user
wants to turn on or off. Switches can be activated by almost any part of the
body a person is able to voluntarily and reliably control—for example,
switches are available that can be activated by the use of an arm, hand, finger,
leg, foot, head, or chin. They also may be controlled by less obvious move-
ments of the eyebrow, or the rib cage with access through controlled breath-
ing. While the movement does not have to be big, it must be controllable and
reliable, and often considerable training is required before the use of the
switch is reliable.

Basic Adaptive Keyboards:
Basic keyboard adaptations that assist physically dis-
abled students to use computers include replacing standard keys with larger
keys that are easier to see and touch, reducing the number of keys on the key-
board, placing letter keys in alphabetical order, and providing keys that are
brightly colored and easy to read. Other keyboards are much smaller than
their traditional counterparts and have keyboard surfaces that are much more
sensitive to touch. These keyboards are excellent for individuals with a limited
range of motion or for individuals who have a difficult time applying pressure
to keys.

Touch-Sensitive Screens:
Touch-sensitive screens are very popular with young
computer users and with individuals who have severe developmental or phys-
ical disabilities. This technology allows the user to simply touch the computer
screen to perform a function. Many touch-sensitive screens come complete
with multiple screen overlays that can be used to perform a variety of tasks.
Similarly, many companies provide additional software that enables the users
to create their own overlays.

Infrared Sensors with Pneumatic Switches:
Use of an infrared sensor worn on the
head, along with use of a pneumatic switch, can enable physically disabled stu-
dents to interact with the computer. As the user looks at the computer screen,
the cursor follows the user’s head movement. Moving the head to the left
moves the cursor in the same direction on the screen. Thus, users can position
the cursor anywhere on the screen by moving their head left, right, up, or
down. The pneumatic switch, which is activated by inhaling or exhaling
through a plastic tube, enables the user to use the mouse. When the user sips
or puffs on the switch, the computer responds as if the mouse button had been
clicked. In this manner, the user can move a cursor and click on items dis-
played on the computer screen. Special software is used in conjunction with
these movements to allow the user to type out information on a facsimile of a
keyboard that is displayed on the computer monitor.

Voice Recognition:
Using voice recognition software, the user can bypass the key-
board and just speak to the computer. By programming the computer with a
set of predefined instructions, the user can control the computer by verbally
issuing commands into a microphone. In most cases, the reliability of the
system can be enhanced by having the user “train” the computer to recognize
his or her speech patterns. Voice recognition systems allow students to operate
a variety of application programs, to dictate to a word processor, and to enter
data into spreadsheets.

Devices to Assist Students with Visual Impairments

2007-09-04T11:57:00.000+08:00

Closed-Circuit Television Magnification (CCTV):
CCTV is designed to enlarge
any type of text or graphic material by using a small vertically mounted
video camera with a zoom lens directly connected to a monitor for display-
ing the image. The text or graphic material is placed under the camera lens
on a sliding reading stand and the image is projected on the attached video
monitor. CCTVs allow the user to adjust the magnification, contrast,
brightness, and focus, and to change the background display to either
black or white, or in some cases, color. Older CCTVs, while still useful for
many classroom applications, are expensive and cumbersome to move. But
the newer, smaller versions of this technology are portable, and thus much
easier for students to use.

Computer Screen Magnification:
Most computers sold today allow for the
magnification of the screen through the use of special software. Typically,
the user can select a portion of the screen and then enlarge that section up
to 16 times the original size. Although the user is somewhat inconve-
nienced by having to view a smaller portion of the original screen as the
magnification increases, this technology makes it possible for students with
visual impairments to use computers in ways similar to their nondisabled
peers.

Descriptive Video Services (DVS):
DVS technology inserts a narrative verbal
description of visual elements—such as sets and costumes, characters’ phys-
icaldescriptions, and facial expressions—into pauses in a program’s dialogue.
The majority of television sets and VCRs manufactured in the past six years
have been designed with a “second audio program” (or SAP) switch that
can be turned on so that the user can automatically hear descriptive video.
DVS is available for both standard VHS and DVS formatted videotapes.
DVS technologies help students by providing them with access to informa-
tion, and through the increased opportunities to discuss programs and
movies that are part of the popular culture, by providing them with oppor-
tunities for increased socialization and knowledge building.

Screen Readers:
Screen reader software represents what is known as a text-to-
speech application, which analyzes letters, words, and sentences and con-
verts them into synthetic or digital speech. Today, text-to-speech software is
common in many software packages, including many word processing and
educational software programs in math, reading, and spelling. In some
instances, the student can adjust the volume, pitch, and speed of reading, and
even choose between a male or a female voice. With synthetic speech, the
computer reads text passages, analyzes the phonetic structure of words, and
attempts to reconstruct the words by putting together a string of synthetic
phonemes that are then “spoken” by the computer. However, when the
words are not phonetically predictble, the results can be difficult to under-
stand. In contrast, digital speech is composed of actual recordings of human
speech. While digital speech is much easier to understand, it requires a large
amount of storage because each word that the computer may encounter
must be prerecorded. Consequently, its use is often not feasible for class-
roominstruction. As more low-cost options for storing electronic information
become available, however, this technology will likely be used more extensively
to assist students who have communication disorders or visual impairments.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR):
OCR technology enables blind stu-
dents to place books or other print materials on a scanner and have the text
interpreted and read using synthetic or digital speech. The first OCR
system for individuals with visual impairments was introduced in 1976,
when Ray Kurzweil invented the Kurzweil Reader. The early Kurzweil
Reader was about the size of a small photocopy machine and was consid-
ered to be a truly remarkable advance for students with visual disabilities.
While the device was often found in libraries, it was too bulky and expen-
sive to be available to students in the classroom. Today, there are portable
stand-alone OCR devices and devices that can attach to other computers
and scanners.

Braille Notetakers:
Braille notetakers are small, portable devices that enable
students to enter and store Braille characters in the form of words and sen-
tences. The notetakers use the same six keys found on a traditional Braille
writer used for making a paper copy of Braille. However, most notetakers
allow users to review what they have written by listening to the text-to-
speech function of the device. In addition, software translators allow the
Braille to be converted into text. The stored files can then be used with a
standard word processor or a screen reader. To get a hard copy of the infor-
mation that was entered, the user can connect the notetaker directly to a
standard printer for text output or a Braille printer for Braille output.
Similarly, a paperless Braille display can be attached to a computer or a per-
sonal notetaker that can display up to 80 characters simultaneously. Devices
such as the Braille notetaker that combine Braille with computer technol-
ogy have made Braille much more useful than it was in the past.

Devices to assist students.

2007-09-04T11:48:00.000+08:00

Devices to Assist Students with Hearing Impairments

Hearing Aids:
The hearing aid is a miniature public address system worn by
the user (listener). It works best in quiet, structured settings, where the
speaker is no more than a few feet away and extraneous noise is minimized.
Hearing aids are generally available in four styles: body-worn, behind-the-
ear, eyeglass, and in-the-ear. School-age children most often use postauricu-
lar hearing aids, which are designed to fit unobtrusively behind the ear.
Almost all people with hearing loss, including “nerve loss,” can benefit to
some extent from hearing aids.

Frequency-Modulated (FM) Amplification Systems:
Also known as an auditory
trainer, the FM transmission device creates a direct link between the
teacher, who wears a microphone, and the student, who wears a hearing
aid. In this system, background noise is reduced and the teacher and stu-
dents are free to move around the room. For more than 40 years, FM sys-
tems have been used by teachers and students in the classroom, and they
are still one of the most commonly used auditory enhancement devices in
schools because of their versatility and portability for use in or out of the
school building.

Audio Loops:
The audio loop is another type of amplification system. It was
introduced in an attempt to meet the need to control the sound level of the
teacher’s voice, to maintain consistency in auditory cues between home
and school, to deal more effectively with background noise, and to provide
maximum mobility within a classroom. An adaptation of the FM device
described above, the audio loop directs sound from its source directly to
the listener’s ear through a specially equipped hearing aid. Sound may be
transmitted through a wire connection or by using radio waves. Audio
loops can be built into the walls of a room or created to surround only a
certain section of seats in a room.

Infrared Systems:
Infrared systems transmit clean, clear sound invisibly to
hearing impaired listeners. They provide better hearing in public places
without the hassle of wires and cords, and they suffer less from interference
emanating from pagers and other outside radio signals, but they may have
limited accessibility because of issues related to line-of-site or distance
between the emitter and the transceiver. Nevertheless, as costs come down,
the popularity of infrared systems is increasing.

Cochlear Implants:
A cochlear implant is a relatively new device designed to
provide sound information for people with profound hearing impairments.
While hearing aids and other assistive devices are designed to amplify
sound, an implant can actually enable the wearer to hear sounds that were
previously indistinguishable. The implant, which is surgically placed
beneath the skin, bypasses the damaged parts of the inner ear and stimu-
lates nerves that have not been stimulated before. Signals are sent contin-
uously when sound is present in the environment, but special circuitry in
the speech processor reduces unwanted background noise.

Telecommunication Devices for the Deaf (TDDs):
The TDD, which enables a
person with no hearing to make or receive telephone calls, is the most
widely known telecommunication device used today. The TDD is attached
to a telephone and resembles a small keyboard with a screen to display the
incoming or outgoing messages. Some TDDs have a paper printout to
record a permanent copy of the conversation. To use a TDD, the user types
a message on the keyboard that is automatically converted into tones and
transmitted over the phone line to another TDD, which converts the mes-
sage back into text form. In this system, both the sender and the receiver
of the message must have access to the technology. Although these tech-
nologies are not typically used in the classroom environment, they enable
students with disabilities to interact with each other outside of the school
environment for both academic and social reasons, just as their nondisabled
peersdo.

Captioned Television:
Captioning refers to the addition of text to a visual dis-
play, where the words that are spoken are seen as text. The early form of
captioning was seen primarily as subtitles for translating foreign films.
There are two kinds of captions, open and closed. Open captioning is
seldom used, because it cannot be turned off and is consequently unpopu-
lar with the general public. Conversely, closed captioning is very common
and it can be turned on or off by the user on all modern televisions. Since
1993, all television manufacturers have been required to place built-in
decoders in their products to provide individuals with hearing impairments
with access to closed captioned television programs and videos for educa-
tional and recreational purposes. Given that consumers purchase more
than 20 million televisions each year, the majority of classrooms and private
homes in this country have access to this technology.

Live Speech Captioning:
Live speech captioning is another variation of this
technology that allows individuals with hearing impairments to access
words as they are being spoken. This technology works much like steno key-
boards that are used to record judicial proceedings. When captioning is
used in educational settings, a stenographer typically enters information as
the teacher talks and the text is displayed on a computer monitor. This
technology has proven to be very helpful for students with hearing disabil-
ities who are enrolled in college courses or who attend public lectures.

Catering for a difference websites

2007-09-04T11:43:00.000+08:00

http://www.abilityhub.com/
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/
http://www.independentliving.org/links/links-computers-internet-disability.html
http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/computing/index.htm
http://www.enablemart.com/
http://www.csudh.edu/soe/tbe550/spec.html
http://www.csudh.edu/soe/tbe550/spec/sld006.htm
http://www.rit.edu/~nrcgsh/arts/gallaudet.htm
http://www.futureofchildren.org/usr_doc/vol10no2Art5.pdf
http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=45400052
http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED315936&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&accno=ED315936
http://www.newhorizons.org/spneeds/inclusion/teaching/front_teaching.html#technology
http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/lit_reviews/Learning_Difficulties_Review.pdf
http://www.newhorizons.org/spneeds/inclusion/teaching/kahn.htm
http://www.newhorizons.org/spneeds/inclusion/teaching/sax.htm
http://www.netc.org/cdrom/fueling/pdf/fueling.pdf
http://www.ataccess.org/

Question 3

2007-06-20T08:08:00.000+08:00

The Restorative Justice model is a peaceful approach that can be used to deal with incidents of bullying within the classroom. It takes into account both the victim and bully’s needs in the hope to create ‘more socially responsible relationships, and promoting ‘empathy and concern for others’.
Within schools it is important to have a well-structured, whole school approach to bullying. So that if incidents happened within the classroom there is already a procedure in place that can be swiftly put into action. To implement the Restorative Justice model these are the things that the website ‘Bullying. No way!’ states that you must have in place:

• the support of the victimised person who needs to have identified that he/she is being bullied and is confident that the approach advocated will work

It is very important for this model that the victim is very involved, which can be a confronting and intimating thought, the school must therefore set up a culture that promotes this model by explaining it in classes such as PDHPE, through video’s that are available, group discussions and role playing activities.

• preliminary investigation to clearly understand the issues before the process is implemented

The teacher’s who are implementing this approach must have a thorough understanding of the incidents, the back ground of the relationship between the victim and the Bullies, have discussed with other teachers and students what they know about the incidents and have tried to find out as much background information about the victims because without this they will be unable to help foster change for both parties.

• staff guidelines and professional development to build understanding, skills and confidence in using the strategies

This approach is not easy, without the skill and confidence in what they are implementing, teachers could actually make the situation worse.

• support within the school community for the approach

As I stated before it is best implemented with a whole school approach because a lot of support is required in it’s implementation and follow up process.

• agreement that the goal is to solve the problem rather than to interrogate, punish, blame or label individuals
• respectful facilitation of the process by trained people
• follow up monitoring of the agreement.

Restorative Justice methods include these four approaches:
• No blame approach
• Method of shared concern
• Formal apology
• Community conference

In a situation where a student is being pushed, name called and excluded from the group my first choice of approach from the Restorative Justice Model is the Method of Shared Concern. This method is about the reconciliation of differences, which encourages empathy and equitable relationships within groups of students.

After a teacher has established that the victim has agreed that this method be used, they have a greater understanding of the incident, and the victims and bullies backgrounds meetings are set up. All the perpetuators are meet individually to allow the teacher to encourage the students to acknowledge what has been happening; why it is happening and help the students establish a way to modify this misbehavior. It is very important that at this meeting the teacher does not bully the perpetrator. This method is about understanding all parties involved.

A meeting is set up with the victim to establish what has been happening and ways in which teachers can help to change this situation.

Then another meeting is held individually with the perpetuators to establish what progress has been made in the modification of their behaviour.

After the evidence of positive change then a meeting can be set up to reinforce the good behaviour.

A final meeting is held that allows both the bullies and the victims to meet and acknowledge that the bullying has stopped.

I have also seen a demonstration that showed the two parties meeting before this final meeting to discuss the situation, so that the victim can explain now it felt to the bully allowing them to have a greater understanding of what it was like for the victim.
With each of the meetings the teacher must have a thorough understanding of this method and Psychology so that they can draw out the bullies ‘acknowledgment of the situation’ and help the students to implement changes in their behaviour.

It is stated in the Bully No way website that “it was found that multiple strategies are needed for those students who persistently bully others.”

Question 2 Exam 2

2007-06-19T08:33:00.000+08:00

Question 2

An inspiring lesson is one that has come from a bright spark of inspiration from the teacher. A teacher’s inspiration comes from knowing their subject area and having a passion for it and teaching. (Hattie) To be an expert teacher all these things must come together, with a passion for teaching but only a little knowledge you can possibly create an alright lesson but a teacher with no passion is not a teacher at all.

I structure my lessons from the starting point of being an ‘expert’ (an always learning more expert), in my area with a passion for my art and teaching. (Hattie) I am always trying to source inspiration for new ideas for interesting projects, keeping my knowledge of fashion and textiles up to date.

Relevance is a major starting point for motivation. Sewing is in some ways a dying art form but by keeping it relevant and inspiring through the projects I choose and the fabric’s maybe I can inspire a new generation of cutting edge designers. For year 8 I selected a range of fashionable fabric from which they can chose for their boxer shorts or short shorts and for their next project they design a soft toy bling keyring. The inspiration for this was the influence of the Japanese youth culture and it’s growing influence on Australian youth culture.

I find Glasser’s five Drivers integral to the way I structure my lessons. Leader teacher is the only way to handle teaching, if I start to become a boss teacher I feel I have lost the class.
I try to make sure everyone in my class is accepted and feels they belong through being very conscious of acknowledging every student and where they are up to and what they need to get done. In a lesson that can be so fragment due to the fact that students are up to different parts of the task I find this very important otherwise the students get lost or go under the raider and don’t engage in the lesson. It is also very important to give constant feedback. (Hattie)

I find the power and freedom of choice is very motivational, within every task I try to have areas of choice, choice of fabric, design elements or whole design. (Glasser)

Fun is ultimately the best motivator.
I had an outcome that had to covered in year 8 textiles “Identify the role of designers and their contributions to improvement of life” (Mandatory technology year 7-8 Syllabuses). My first plan was to get the students to research the history of the elements of textiles that have improved our lives safety pins, buttons, zipper e.t.c I went on to the internet to do the research myself and found it took me less than five minutes to copy and paste the information into a document. I wasn’t inspired so I changed my whole lesson plan. I took my research and turned it into a quiz. In my Quiz Show I was the presenter and the students where placed in groups of three or more, I tried to eliminate friendship groups by choosing the groups.
My quiz included multiple choice, who am I questions, role play, charades and the highly amusing test of trying to find the object in the sand (inspired by Reality TV shows definitely a Gen Y thing) Points where given but in the end everyone received a prize. This was the lead in lesson to a group discussion of the ‘role of designers and their contributions to improvement of life’

Piaget said “Children construct their knowledge” (from a sheet that Allan Coman present to us).
I endeavour to teach students the starting point from which to launch their knowledge of sewing and constructing garments by setting a series of tasks that build up their knowledge.

Social interaction (Vygotsky) is another strong motivator by using peer to peer coaching and group work students can encourage and motivate each other to deepen their learning.

In this High School I am very lucky to that the School culture of the Wearable Arts helps to encourage and motivate students to learn about sewing. WAVE promotes the making of costumes and fantastical garments giving the students impetus to learn constructions of garments so that they are able to enter into the competition.

Exam 2

2007-06-19T08:24:00.000+08:00

Question 1

William Glasser’s 5 drivers:

• A safe secure place where they belong
• To be loved and valued
• To have power
• To have freedom
• To have fun and learn

Choice Theory.

Walking into a year 9 classroom is daunting prospect; these students are at an age where it’s all about their peers. Their social interaction is the most important thing to them and they are the stage of development where a lot of misbehaviour surface. This has started maybe midway through year 7 or in year 8 and starts to settle down again in year 10 (if your lucky).
So knowing all this from your own experience or here say you must be very clear when you prepare for year 9 that you come into each lesson with a “Focus on the present and avoid discussing/thinking of the past” (Reality therapy [From WikEd] Glasser choice theory underpins reality therapy which is a method of counseling) by doing this you will be able to allow the students to develop and move beyond their misbehaviours.

Walking into the room as leader teacher not boss teacher you can address each of the five drivers in many ways here are some ways that each driver can be met.

A safe secure place where they belong.
Classrooms need to be laid out in ways that encourage constructivist learning, desks set up in blocks which promote group work and social interaction.
Encourage students to have a place in the room that is there own, this could be a desk, and maybe a locker as well, this quite often happens anyway, it seems very natural thing that humans do, students and adults a like. Knowing they have a place that is theirs helps students feel safer. As well as physical place the teacher needs to ensure it is an emotionally safe space eliminating bullying and encouraging respect between peers and students and teachers.

To be loved and valued.
The teachers must know their students by knowing them they can quickly understand the purpose of the students behaviours and misbehaviour and help the student in what ever way is necessary and help them replace misbehaviours.
Being valued is very important at this age, it is in a stage of development when adolescents can feel unheard and that no one cares or understands what they are going through. Teach them that they are valued through listening and acknowledging their ideas and thoughts. When considering what the activities you will be doing with them give students choices within that activity this gives the students a sense that their decisions are of value as well as giving them personal power within the lesson.

To have power and to have freedom.
Giving them choices gives them power and freedom; it allows them to feel that they have control over their learning, thereby giving them ownership and helps in their development as individual empowered humans.
By setting up boundaries and guidelines for your classroom rather than ruling with a strict Skinner approach you give them more power, freedom and trust therefore love.

Most important is fun, every lesson and every subject can be fun, as teachers we must strive to incorporate fun in how we teacher even the driest of subjects.

Question 4

2007-06-18T08:04:00.000+08:00

The Board of Studies website is a quick resource centre for any of your board of studies requirements, once you have located it through a search engine such as Google it is easy to navigate around through it’s internal search engine. Some of the menu’s include:

"HSC Exam Papers
HSC Assessment
HSC Syllabuses
School Certificate
All NSW Syllabuses
K to 6 Website
Assessment Resource Centre
Manuals & Guides
Employers
Parents Page
Special Education Needs
Vocational Education
Official Notices
Board Bulletin
Statistics Archive
Registered NSW Schools
Board of Studies NSW
Job Vacancies

Dates & Events"

From the BOS site http://boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/
The website also have What's new this week, contacts, links and resources for students and teachers.

Here is the list of what is available for Design and Tech:

"• Stage 4 year 7 and 8 mandatory technology Syllabus
• The guide to the new Year7- 8 syllabus
• Mapping of Information and Communications Technologies in Revised Mandatory Stages 4 and 5 Syllabuses
• Support documents (that include Establishing a scope and sequence plan, advice on assessment, programming units of work, sample units of work)
• Life skills years 7-10 advice on planning, programming and assessment
• Stage 5 syllabus Design and Technology
• Equipment list for School certificate test
• Stage 6 syllabus Design and Technology
• Stage 6 Design and Technology Support document
• An introduction to design and technology stage 6 in the new HSC
• Specimen papers (mapping grid, marking guidelines, specimen examinations)
• Past HSC papers
• The new standards-based Higher School Certificate
• Stage 6 syllabus Design and Technology Resources
• Draft performance bands for D&T
• Marking Guidelines
• To name a few."
http://boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/

The Board of studies provide each subject with a Syllabus which have at least the following:

• Rationale for Design and Technology in the Stage …
• Curriculum
• Continuum of Learning for Design and Technology Students
• Aims
• Objectives
• Course structure, objectives and outcomes in table form, post school opportunities
• Assessment and reporting
• And more

As well as support documents that outline how to program units of work.

All of this is used in the process of programming. Here is one way you could go about programming:

"• Select the outcomes (from your syllabus) that will be focus of the design task and those that will be contributing outcomes for the unit of work. Ensure that you have a manageable number of outcomes.
• Decide on the specific evidence of learning to be observed through the teaching, learning and assessment activities. This evidence will facilitate judgments of student achievement in relation to the outcomes and identified content.
• Select the relevant syllabus content, identifying what students are going to ‘learn about’ and ‘learn to’ do.
• Plan the teaching and learning strategies for the identified content and decide on the assessment for learning strategies that will provide evidence of learning.
• Strategies should include a range of student-centered experiences that promote the development of knowledge, understanding and skills.
• Provide feedback so that students have the necessary information and direction to progress their learning.
• Reflect on the previous steps and evaluate the degree to which the unit has remained focused on the outcomes."
(Modified from the support document for year7-8 mandatory technology)

The Board of studies are the starting point for your programming and resource centre for any series of lessons, and as a NSW registered school we need to document our application of the Syllabus in each of the KLA areas.
After programming comes the planning of a series of lessons, once you have established the outcomes you need to cover in the unit of work then you need establish what out comes you are going to cover within each lesson.

Question 3

2007-06-18T07:41:00.000+08:00

Provide an analysis of how you would provide for the diversity of learning styles and ensure the deep learning occurs in all students when teaching a lesson.

• Know the intelligences/ diversity of learning styles
• Know the students
• Know how to identify each of the learning styles in the students
• Prepare tasks with the intelligences/ diversity of learning styles in mind
• Have a range of tasks that foster/ are aimed at each or some of the different learning styles so that students can chose a learning style they feel most comfortable with.
• Have a set of tasks throughout the series of lessons that cater for a diversity of learning styles
• Keep your teaching style balanced by thinking outside your square (own preferred style of learning) and make sure you’re not always teaching one way, variety is the spice of life
• Deep learning will occur if you are reaching your students with a diversity of learning styles
• Promote and foster deep learning by allowing students time to critically reflect on the lesson, their work, the process, what they have learnt e.t.c

Gardner states there are 9 intelligences:

Linguistic intelligence ("word smart");
Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart");
Spatial intelligence ("picture smart");
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart");
Musical intelligence ("music smart");
Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart");
Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")
Existential intelligence

Each student will have a unique combination of these with a possible dominate one.

Within my area of textiles I have found it fascinating to watch different groups of year7 and year8 be challenged by the technical act of sewing. In textiles/ sewing you use an interesting combination of logical-mathematical, spatial, and body-kinaesthetic intelligence.

For some students it is the body-kinaesthetic intelligence that is the most challenging in relation to sewing because it is the about using your body in conjunction with a machine. This is all about practice, for some students it comes naturally as they get more confident and less afraid of the machines. I am very aware of teaching students how to a line their bodies with the machine, there by giving them the best starting point of working towards sewing a straight line. I do this by visual and spoken demonstration as well as observing how they sew and being very conscious of reminding them constantly of how to sit properly.

The logical-mathematical and spatial intelligences comes into play with pattern making, understanding patterns, how garments are constructed, the design elements, and aesethic aspects of textiles.
It is fascinating to watch some students get thoroughly confused as they try to assemble a garment even after I have:

Given visual and spoken demonstrations of how to make a garment;
Posted up on the wall the instructions step by step in writing and actual fabric samples of the garments;
Or posted up instructions of written and drawn instruction;
Laid out on the table step by step fabric samples that can be looked at and be handled;
And sometimes I get the students to layout the garment on a partner to see how they think it would look (in the case of making the Kimono).

Sometimes I think they forget what they are making and can only see pieces of fabric in front of them not the garment they are trying to create.

Trying to provide deep learning for a variety of learning styles is a challenge with sewing but I feel it can be achieved by not only being very competent with the craft itself but being able to break it down into bite sized chucks, back to the basics, it’s about being very clear about what you are teaching and being able to know your students well enough to find the best in with to teach each of them.

Deep learning can also occur when teachers create a series of lessons that both teach new skill and allow time for practice while building confidence.

Question 2

2007-06-18T07:31:00.000+08:00

Assessment:

When teachers establish the way in which a lesson or outcome is going to be assessed they need to:

• be clear, and have direct links with outcomes (in syllabus)
• be integral to there area of teaching and learning
• be balanced, comprehensive and varied
• be valid and fair
• Engage the learner
• be time efficient and manageable
• resource availability
• how the task will be administered
• the way in which feedback will be provided.

The standard Framework
"The Board of studies curriculum framework is a standards –reference framework that describes, through syllabuses and other documents, the expected learning outcomes for students.
Standards in the framework consist of two interrelated elements:
• outcomes and content in syllabuses showing what is to be learnt
• descriptions of levels of achievement of that learning”
From the year7-8 mandatory technology Syllabus

The other types of assessing are Norm-reference Assessment or normative assessing which is used to compare the performance of individuals or groups against/ in comparison with each other or other comparable students doing the same task.
When a test is taken the average score (mean) of that test becomes the mark against which each student is compared. The average score becomes the performance standard against which every student is compared.
This can be used within a class, within a school or a district.

As a teacher you have to have professional judgement and is base your assessment of students on reliable data acquired in a fair and challenging environment, from multiple performances in a variety of contexts. You should use the assessments to determine the students’ initial knowledge, understanding and skills, to monitor student progress and to collect information to report student achievement.

In year 7 and year 8 Textiles I use classroom observation, students demonstration of their skill, project work completion and quality, and design folio completion and quality among other things. Other way of assessing could be through research activities, that show’s the students ability to obtain information and interpret it, presentations of ideas etc, written responses and reports, Peer assessments and Self-assessment.

Assessment for learning:
• Enhances teaching and improve learning.
• Reflects the belief that all students can improve.
• Involves setting learning goals with students.
• Involves students in self-assessment and peer assessment.
• Provides feedback

With thanks from the Technology (mandatory) Year7-8 Syllabus and Principles for assessment and reporting in NSW Government Schools.

Exam 1 Question 1

2007-06-18T07:12:00.000+08:00

Describe how you would go about selecting and applying a range of instructional strategies and resources to a lesson in your main teaching area.

"Instructional methods are used by teachers to create learning environments and to specify the nature of the activity in which the teacher and learner will be involved during the lesson.

Instructional strategies determine the approach a teacher may take to achieve learning objectives."

According to the Instructional strategies online website http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/index.html

At the beginning of the year I start with my room as a blank canvas, my area is Textiles so there are some essential resources that I must have sewing machines, thread, scissors the list goes on, there are also things that dictate how my room must be set up like power points so keeping all this in mind I go about creating a place that is both functional and inspirational.
Once I have formulated my layout of my room, this changes depending on the lesson that I am teaching. One such layout was made up of three different work stations, that promotes ease for group work a strategy I often use within my lessons either in pairs or small groups encouraging social interaction (Vygotsky).

Then I create inspiration walls of images that change and expand throughout the year and areas of instructional material (visual and written instructions of how to use the machine or make boxer shorts etc) which helps promote different styles of learning (Gardner).

Now I have created a place that is motivational (loads of images of fashion, soft toys etc) and hopefully safe, a place that is friendly in which the students can feel like they belong (Glasser).

Then my next reference is my program that outlines the Board of studies outcomes that I plan to cover though out the semester (or year depending on how your lessons are structured). My program has the area of the outcomes I will need to focus on in relation to the tasks that I have set. Within my area of teaching, Textiles, I have decided to cover the outcomes by sewing tasks that are set out in an order that always keeps in mind the students prior knowledge and ZPD (Vygotsky) within which they will start and end the lesson.

The actual lesson, I start with the outcome that is the focus of the lesson then I create a key question.
This key question gives the teacher an in for the lesson something from which the whole lesson can be formulated and referenced back too, it also helps the students a get into the ZPD for that lesson and gives them security of knowing what it is they have to learn about or achieve through out the day (Glasser).
I also list on the board the aims for the day before they enter the room so I can quickly reference it when I am verbally going through the day’s aims (Gardner).

Once I have formulated my Key question I would look at how I would structure the class considering the percentage of teacher input, teacher directed, student centred, student groups and remember that the timing of it all is very important.
Piaget “emphasised the importance of active problem solving” sewing is all about problem solving. Firstly there is the problem of how you logistically teacher fifteen children how to sew (a seemingly dying art in a lot of peoples eyes), one teacher, fifteen or so students in a room with machines and sharp objects.
(I have a list of safety and appropriate behaviour laminated in bold colourful writing on my wall for a start.)

I have tried to grab the student’s attention by providing a room that is exciting and inspiring so this helps the process of drawing them into the right space to learn.

Next there is the problem of the diverse range of teaching styles of which I try to cover as many as possible.(Gardner). Covered in question three.

Group work is vital the different methods that can be used are ‘Think, pair, share’, Jigsaw Groups, and the grafitti model depending on the lesson. Group work encourages Social interaction (Vygotsky).
One thing I try to incorporate into each lesson is critical reflection time, this helps to provide students with positive feedback and monitor their learning. (Hattie) I usually make my round up of the lesson (at the end of each lesson) a critical reflection time this helps them to reflect on the aims of the day and how they have achieved it. Through self-evaluation, group evaluation and the teacher’s evaluation students are able to become more effective learners and their learning experience is deepened. (Blooms Taxonomy) The evaluation process helps the students to synthesis their knowledge and there by giving them the skill to create new ideas.

BULLYING-ZERO TOLERANCE

2007-06-13T14:25:00.000+08:00

The issues

Making informed responses to bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence based on understanding of the issues helps us to create safe school communities.

Your rights

Everyone has the right to safety and respect. We also have the responsibility to help guarantee these same rights for others.

The behaviours

Understanding the role of power in relationships helps us to identify harmful behaviours and to develop a shared approach to these issues.

Deeper issues

Day-to-day relationships in the school community are influenced by underlying factors that maintain behaviours such as bullying, harassment and discrimination in society.

Creating change

Positive change incorporates support for individuals, fair and consistent expectations, and approaches that address the deeper issues and encourage wellbeing for all individuals, groups and the whole school community.

Where to now?

We know that school communities are addressing issues of bullying, harassment and violence. Social capital suggests ways to measure and benchmark these changes.
posted by sallyd

BULLYING-RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

2007-06-13T14:21:00.000+08:00

Restorative justice methods for addressing social problems include the method of shared concern, the no blame approach, restitution, community conferencing and the formal apology.

Restorative justice approaches use the incident of misbehaviour as an educative opportunity for repairing the harm and fostering more socially responsible relationships and behaviours that take others' perspectives into account. This is achieved through carefully structured opportunities for individuals to understand the impact of their actions, recognise their social responsibilities and make amends to those who have been affected by their actions. The young person is also assisted to reintegrate successfully into the school community. The most common form of restorative justice is community conferencing.

The key principles of these methods are:

* Bullying and harassment occur in the context of group behaviour.
* The aim is to develop empathy and concern for others.
* The dynamics that sustain bullying and harassment can be shifted by working with the perpetrators, and often their family and/or peer group.
* A shift in behaviour can be achieved by developing a sense of shared concern for the bullied or harassed persons.
* Punitive measures model and reinforce the abuse of power to meet individual needs, place the target at greater risk of revenge and may send the bullying underground.

Restorative justice approaches require these factors to be in place first:

* the support of the victimised person who needs to have identified that he/she is being bullied and is confident that the approach advocated will work
* preliminary investigation to clearly understand the issues before the process is implemented
* staff guidelines and professional development to build understanding, skills and confidence in using the strategies
* support within the school community for the approach
* agreement that the goal is to solve the problem rather than to interrogate, punish, blame or label individuals
* respectful facilitation of the process by trained people
* follow up monitoring of the agreement.

Examples

* No blame approach
* Method of shared concern
* Formal apology
* Community conference

Posted by Sally d

Maslow

2007-06-13T13:57:00.000+08:00

Self-actualization
Self-actualization is the instinctual need of humans to make the most of their abilities and to strive to be the best they can.
Self Actualization is the intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more accurately, of what the organism is.

Maslow writes the following of self-actualizing people:

They embrace the facts and realities of the world (including themselves) rather than denying or avoiding them.
They are spontaneous in their ideas and actions.
They are creative.
They are interested in solving problems; this often includes the problems of others. Solving these problems is often a key focus in their lives.
They feel a closeness to other people, and generally appreciate life.
They have a system of morality that is fully internalized and independent of external authority.
They have discernment and are able to view all things in an objective manner.

In short, self-actualization is reaching one's fullest potential. Very few people reach this level, two percent to be exact.

According to Maslow, the tendencies of self-actualizing people are as follows:

Awareness

efficient perception of reality
freshness of appreciation
peak experiences
ethical awareness

Honesty

philosophical sense of humor
social interest
deep interpersonal relationships
democratic character structure

Freedom

need for solitude
autonomous, independent
creativity, originality
spontaneous

Trust

problem centered
acceptance of self, others, nature
resistance to enculturation - identity with humanity

Self-transcendence
At the top of the triangle, self-transcendence is also sometimes referred to as spiritual needs. Spiritual Needs are a little different from other needs, accessible from many levels. [3]
Maslow believes that we should study and cultivate peak experiences as a way of providing a route to achieve personal growth, integration, and fulfillment. Peak experiences are unifying, and ego-transcending, bringing a sense of purpose to the individual and a sense of integration. Individuals most likely to have peak experiences are self-actualizing, mature, healthy, and self-fulfilled. All individuals are capable of peak experiences. Those who do not have them somehow suppress or deny them.

Maslow originally found the occurrence of peak experiences in individuals who were self-actualizing, but later found that peak experiences happened to non-actualizers as well but not as often:

I have recently found it more and more useful to differentiate between two kinds of self-actualizing people, those who were clearly healthy, but with little or no experiences of transcendence, and those in whom transcendent experiencing was important and even central… It is unfortunate that I can no longer be theoretically neat at this level. I find not only self-actualizing persons who transcend, but also non-healthy people, non-self-actualizers who have important transcendent experiences. It seems to me that I have found some degree of transcendence in many people other than self-actualizing ones as I have defined this term…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

Exactly what is Emotional Intelligence?

2007-06-13T13:43:00.000+08:00

The term encompasses the following five characteristics and abilities:
1. Self-awareness--knowing your emotions, recognizing feelings as they occur, and discriminating between them
2. Mood management--handling feelings so they're relevant to the current situation and you react appropriately
3. Self-motivation--"gathering up" your feelings and directing yourself towards a goal, despite self-doubt, inertia, and impulsiveness
4. Empathy--recognizing feelings in others and tuning into their verbal and nonverbal cues
5. Managing relationships--handling interpersonal interaction, conflict resolution, and negotiations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_intelligence

Managing children in pain

2007-06-13T13:32:00.000+08:00

The very difficult children in your classroom.
Children in pain need to be helped to remove the pain.

Whole brain teaching

Definition
Whole-brain teaching is an instructional approach derived from neurolinguistic descriptions of functions of the brain’s left and right hemispheres.

Basic elements
Neurolinguistic findings about the brain’s language functions shows that in the integrated brain, the functions of one hemisphere are immediately available to other, producing a more balanced use of language. Whole-brains teaching emphasizes active learning, in which the learner makes connections that tap both hemispheres.

Another aspect of whole-brain teaching is managing the emotional climate, to relax learners.
In whole-brain learning, imaging is seen as the basis for comprehension. For this reason, learners are encouraged to visualize, draw, and use drama as they develop new ideas, in order to retain them. (even in mathematics)

Emotional intelligence (developing emotional intelligence removes pain)

In a 1994 report on the current state of emotional literacy in the U.S., author Daniel Goleman stated:

"...in navigating our lives, it is our fears and envies, our rages and depressions, our worries and anxieties that steer us day to day. Even the most academically brilliant among us are vulnerable to being undone by unruly emotions. The price we pay for emotional literacy is in failed marriages and troubled families, in stunted social and work lives, in deteriorating physical health and mental anguish and, as a society, in tragedies such as killings..." Goleman attests that the best remedy for battling our emotional shortcomings is preventive medicine. In other words, we need to place as much importance on teaching our children the essential skills of Emotional Intelligence as we do on more traditional measures like IQ and GPA.
Exactly what is Emotional Intelligence?

The term encompasses the following five characteristics and abilities:

1. Self-awareness--knowing your emotions, recognizing feelings as they occur, and discriminating between them
2. Mood management--handling feelings so they're relevant to the current situation and you react appropriately
3. Self-motivation--"gathering up" your feelings and directing yourself towards a goal, despite self-doubt, inertia, and impulsiveness
4. Empathy--recognizing feelings in others and tuning into their verbal and nonverbal cues
5. Managing relationships--handling interpersonal interaction, conflict resolution, and negotiations

Glasser and Classroom management.

2007-06-13T13:21:00.000+08:00

• Look to behaviour to find solutions
• Who do you have control over only your self
• Major focus is relationships and so need connecting habits not disconnecting habits
• All behaviour is purposeful.
• A students behaviour is an attempt to meet a biological or psychological need.

Sucessful teachers ask

“What is the purpose of the student’s behaviour?”
“How can I help this student learn a replacement behaviour?”

Behaviour is made up of these 4 components:
1. Acting
2. Thinking
3. Feeling
4. Physiology

Glasser suggests that we have considerable control or choice over the first two of these, and little ability to directly choose the latter two.

The choices we make in our thinking and acting greatly affect our feeling and physiology.

Choice theory posits that most mental illness is, in fact an expression of unhappiness and that we are able to learn how to choose alternate behaviours that will result in greater satisfaction.

The democratic Discipline model. Rudolf Dreikurs

Students should be given a choice rather than be forced to behave as directed.
Attaining recognition as a worthy, able individual in the group is central to personality and happiness.

This theory of classroom management is for pre adolescents. It is useful for year 7 and year 8. Some of the ideas are useful for older children.

This theory is based on the fundamental idea that
People are, basically, social in nature and, as such, have an innate drive to belong to a social group.

Principles of democratic discipline
1. Try to understand why a student is behaving in a particular manner
2. Allow students to have some say in decisions that effect them
3. Be a kind, responsible accepting person who models for students the behaviour that is expected of them.

Preventive Strategies

1. Offer encouragement on a regular basis
2. Focus on effect rather than achievement
3. Encourage in a way that highlights the value of learning
4. Classroom discussions are helpful in preventing discipline problems
5. Develop a positive relationship with students
6. Establish a relationship of mutual respect
7. Look for assets in each of the students
8. Have a flexible attitude towards students

Taken from a paper given out by Alan Coman.

Successful Classroom Teaching

2007-06-13T09:10:00.000+08:00

“To be successful in the classroom, teachers
• Need a well-planned, individual model of discipline
• Must understand various psychological theories of discipline
• Must understand the assumptions upon which they are based,
• Must understand their own values and educational philosophy
• Must use a model of discipline that is in harmony with their convictions.”

The best approach is the leader teacher not the boss teacher.

This is best achieved using Glasser’s choice theory.

Essentially it is saying that the only thing we can control is the way we think and act- not the way we feel, which is a consequence. So we can choose to think and to act in certain ways.

Children and adolescents seek five main things in life.

• A safe secure place where they belong
• To be loved and valued
• To have power
• To have freedom
• To have fun and learn

A good teacher will provide these things in the way they structure their lesson.

In some situations teachers can resort to Assertive Discipline

Assertive discipline is a structured, systematic approach designed to assist educators in running an organized, teacher-in-charge classroom environment. Lee and Marlene Canter, when consulting for school systems, found that many teachers were unable to control undesirable behavior that occurred in their classrooms. The Cantors, rightfully so, attributed this to a lack of training in the area of behavior management. Based on their research and the foundations of assertiveness training and applied behavior analysis, they developed a common sense, easy-to-learn approach to help teachers become the captains of their classrooms and positively influence their students' behavior. Today, it is the most widely used "canned" (prepared/packaged) behavior management program. Assertive discipline has evolved since the mid 70's from an authoritarian approach to one that is more democratic and cooperative.

• What are some of the positive consequences that so motivate students?

• Personal attention from the teacher--greetings, short talks, compliments, acknowledgements, smiles, and friendly eye contact.
• Positive notes/phone calls to parents.
• Special awards--from comments on papers to certificates.
• Special privileges--five extra minutes of a desired activity for the whole class, choosing a friend with whom to work.
• Material rewards--posters, school pencils, popcorn.
• Home rewards--in collaboration with parents, privileges can be extended at home. Completing homework can earn extra TV time. Reading a book can earn a favorite meal.
• Group rewards--Preferred Activity Time.

Motivation to Learn.

2007-06-13T09:05:00.000+08:00

• Guide
• Facilitate
• Prompt
• Open doors
• Make a learning Place not space

SPACE IS EMPTY…
What engages a child?
• From the moment they walk in the door Grab their attention.
• Get them into the zone of proximal development.
• Bring them into a learning place
• Create places in the room for different kind of learners
• Make them feel connected.
• Skill the students

Basic Assumption (Dreikurs)

2007-06-13T08:31:00.000+08:00

All misbehavior is the result of a child’s mistaken assumption about the way he can find a place and gain status (Dreikurs, 1968, p. 36).

Rudolf Dreikurs main focus is on establishing a classroom which is democratic in nature and gives students a sense of belonging. This is put in place when students have some voice as to the functions of the classroom. Mutual trust between the teacher is created in various ways, including common group discussions about class concerns.

Dreikurs maintains that "discipline makes no use of punishment." He further believes that students have different levels of misbehavior. These misbehaviors occur in a progressive manner. The child first tries to get attention. If this does not work, the child will misbehave further in an effort to achieve power over the teacher or others. When attention or power do not gain the student sufficient status, they seek revenge. They believe they can only feel significant if they hurt others. After all else fails, the student then displays inadequacy. This is also called "learned helplessness." The student sees themselves as a complete failure. They feel others will leave them alone if others see them as inadequate.
Dreikurs model is an ideal one for enhancing student empowerment.

Dreikurs defined three types of teachers: autocratic, permissive and democratic.

• Autocratic teachers are teachers who exhibit the following traits: the are bossy, use a sharp tone of voice, command, exercise power, dominate, exert pressure, demand cooperation, tell you what you should do, impose ideas, dominate, criticize, find fault, punish and unilaterally establish all procedures, rules and consequences. • Permissive teachers place few if any limits on student’s behavior, nor do they invoke logical consequences when misbehavior disrupts the class. Their demeanor is wishy washy and they tend to make excuses for students who misbehave.

• Democratic teachers stand in marked the following traits of democratic teaching: leadership, friendliness, inviting nature, stimulation traits of ideas, cooperation, guidance, encouragement, acknowledgement, helpfulness and shared responsibilities. Dreikurs believed that democratic teachers in contrast to autocratic and permissive teachers are more likely to help students become self-disciplined.

Dreikurs did not consider punishment as an effective method of discipline. He viewed punishment as an action taken by the teacher to get back at students and show them whose boss. He believed that punishment was humiliating and offensive to students.

Dreikurs central focus was on constructive behavior rather than coercive discipline. He believed that teachers should have a democratic classroom and teaching style, for helping students gain a sense of belonging (genuine goal). He believed that in this manner students would have a social interest: a condition in which students come to see that it is to their advantage to contribute to the welfare of a group.
posted by sallyd

EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY-WORKING WITH GROUPS

2007-06-13T08:26:00.000+08:00

MODEL OF EDUCATION IN VOGUE: CONSTRUCTIVIST EDUCATION

PIAGET- Children are not adults; children construct their own understanding of reality through trial and error. Piaget gave the example of his own daughter who was asked, 'what makes the wind'. The answer she gave was that 'the trees make the wind'. Then her father asked her what makes the wind on the water. This question required further contemplation and enhances the possibility of the child entering what Vygotsky was later to name the Zone of Proximal Development. A good teacher engages students by finding their current understandings and then giving them the opportunity to gather more information and integrate it into their current scheme of understanding. Piaget refers to knowledge as a scheme that can be modified and built upon.

VYGOTSKY- SOCIAL INTERACTION: Students need to have effective social interaction for good learning to occur. While an individual can build their own schemes, a person only really learns when they discuss an idea with another person. This requires that they question, think, ask, help and rethink. Their Scheme of Understanding is constantly developing. It is important to remember this in the classroom.

Group work and the classroom
For effective group work we need the following factors to be present
i) Three, four or five members only
ii) Positive Interdependence
iii) A clear set of specific student learning outcomes
iv) Recognition of the group
v) Interaction within the group
vi) Structuring the task
vii) Resources
viii) Post Group Reflection
ix) Assessment in groups

The social interaction in a classroom is provided by group work. This involves students collaborating in their learning. Your may remember the conditions required for a group to be able to function effectively. In summary these are
i) Appropriate Place
ii) Quality Time

Collaborative Learning Types
i) Pairs. This is very important and really needs to be taking place constantly in a classroom. The challenge for the teacher is to focus the students on discussion of the topic in hand. For it to be successful it is important that the pair have the sense of a common project, that they are solving a problem, that they are building knowledge. It is necessary to tap into this creative side of the individuals. They have to have a sense of working on a project together to find an original solution.
It is largely a waste of time to tell them to discuss what you have just been saying. What you have to do is throw out a challenging question or issue that they discuss in order to form an opinion or to find an answer. The need for a well prepared lesson including the preparation of good key questions is the key to success here.
Remember it is through their discussion, their social interaction that the learning occurs, that their Scheme of Understanding develops. They need to have a feedback mechanism for their solution to you the teacher and their fellow students. It is here that group work begins.

Think ---- Pair --- Share

ii) Group work.
One of the frustrations in group work is that only some individuals contribute. This is why it is important that you prepare well for group work. The technical word is scaffold learning. There are two proven methods to improve group work.
a) Think, pair, share
Here the students come to the group having thought about the issue and already discussed it with another person. We know that the most effective way to learn is to teach others. So, when you are doing the think, pair, share activity make sure they know they have to teach their group. Do not put the pair in the same group. The students can then teach the students their ideas and then discuss gaining further insights.

b) Jigsaw Groups
We covered this earlier this semester. Check on your notes. But basically it is
a. Teacher nominates members of the group
b. Teacher allocates a number of tasks to each group
c) Group members allocate a task to each member
d) The group member becomes an expert on that task
e) The Experts from each group meet and discuss and gain further understanding
f) Members return to their group and teach the other members of the group.

Posted by sallyd

Basics of Adler and Dreikurs’s social theory

2007-06-12T09:00:00.000+08:00

Adler’s Basic premises (Dreikurs, 1972, pp. 8-9)

i) Man is a social being and his main desire (the basic motivation) is to belong.
ii) All behavior is purposive. One cannot understand behavior of another person unless one knows to which goal it is directed, and it is always directed towards finding one's place.
iii) Man is a decision-making organism.
iv) Man does not see reality as it is, but only as he perceives it, and his perception may be mistaken or biased.

Students’ goals that motivates misbehavior (Wolfgang, 2001, pp. 117-122) (Dreikurs, 1968, pp. 37-40)

 i) Attention Getting
Students who are looking to belong and be recognized in the class. This is more often identified with disturbing behavior. Many times this occurs because students are not getting the recognition that they feel they deserve. If students cannot get attention for their positive behaviors (being on task, completing work, arriving on time, etc.), they will seek it with inappropriate behaviors (continually calling out, refusing to work, asking irrelevant questions, etc.)

Wolfgang (2001) explains, "A student who seeks attention should not receive it when he acts out. To give attention to the student for inappropriate behavior would be playing into the student's plan and would not help the student learn how to behave productively in the group" (p. 120).

Instead of giving attention to the attention seeker, look to these techniques:
• Minimize the Attention (Ignore the behavior, stand close by, give written notice)
• Legitimize the Behavior (Make a lesson out of the behavior, have the whole class join in the behavior)
• Do the Unexpected (Turn out the lights, play a musical sound, talk to the wall)
• Distract the Student (Ask a direct question, ask a favor, change the activity)
• Notice Appropriate Behavior (Thank students, write well-behaved students' names on the chalkboard)
• Move the Student (Change the student's seat, send the student to the thinking chair)

 ii) Power and Control

Students who feel inferiority, so trying to be boss. Once the battle has been joined, the child has already won it. Behavior characteristics consist of the student repetitively doing a behavior to make him or her the center of attention. When asked to stop, he or she becomes defiant and escalates his or her negative behavior and challenges the adult. The teacher will feel annoyed at the student’s actions.

Wolfgang (2001) states, "A student who wishes to possess power should not be able to engage the teacher in a struggle. The teacher who falls for this 'bait' and gets pulled into the battle is merely continuing the excitement and challenge for the student. The student becomes increasingly bolder and pleased with trying to test the teacher. The teacher should attempt to remove the issue of power altogether and force the student to look for some other goal for behaving" (p. 121).

 iii) Revenge

Students who think the only way to get recognition is to retaliate against adults for the way they feel they have been unfairly treated. This is formed after a long series of discouragement by failing trials for attention getting and power.
Behavior characteristics consist of a student who hurts others physically or psychologically. The teacher will feel hurt in relation to the student's actions.

Wolfgang (2001) explains, "In this case, the teacher is dealing with a more difficult task. A student who feels hurt and wishes to retaliate must be handled in a caring, affectionate manner. It is likely that this student appears unloving and uncaring, and is very hard to 'warm up to.' But this is exactly what the student needs--to feel cared for" (p. 121).

Look to these techniques with students who are seeking power and/or revenge:

• Make a Graceful Exit (Acknowledge student's power, remove the audience, table the matter)
• Use Time-Out
• Set the Consequence

 iv) Helplessness and Inadequacy

Students who gave up on the possibility of being a member or of gaining any status in the group and no longer care what happens.
Behavior characteristics consist of the student wishing not to be seen, acting passive and lethargic, rejecting social control, refusing to comply, or trying most educational demands. The teacher will feel inadequate or incapable in relation to the student's actions.
Students may sit silently and engage in no interaction, passively refuse to participate, or request to be left alone in this instance.

Wolfgang (2001) states, "The student who shows inadequacy or helplessness is the most discouraged. She has lost all initiative of ever trying to belong to the group. The teacher must exercise great patience and attempt to show the child that she is capable" (p. 122).

To assist a helpless student look to these techniques:
• Modify Instructional Methods
• Use Concrete Learning Materials and Computer-Assisted Instruction
• Teach One Step at a Time
• Provide Tutoring
• Teach Positive Self-Talk
• Make Mistakes Okay
• Build Confidence
• Focus on Past Success
• Make Learning Tangible
• Recognize Achievement

Teachers’ Role

• The teacher must recognize students’ inner goal and them help the students change to the more appropriate goal of learning how to belong with others (Wolfgang, 2001, p. 115).
 • Techniques of modifying child’s motivation (Dreikurs, 1972, p. 34, 41)

i) Observe the child’s behavior in detail.
ii) Be psychologically sensitive to your own reaction.
iii) Confront the child with the four goals. The purpose of confrontation is to disclose and confirm the mistaken goal to the child. Use the four "could it be…" questions: 1. Could it be that you want special attention? 2. Could it be that you want your own way and hope to be boss? 3. Could it be that you want to hurt others as much as you feel hurt by them? 4. Could it be that you want to be left alone?
iv) Note the recognition reflex.
v) Apply appropriate corrective procedures.
"In carrying out this procedure, the teacher moves through silently looking, questions, command, and back to questions" (Wolfgang, 2001, p. 118).
 • What teachers need are…(Dreikurs, 1968, pp. 53-54) (Dreikurs, 1972, p. 43)
i) Disinvolvement
ii) Use of logical consequences rather than reward and punishment
iii) Encouragement – accepts the child as worthwhile and assists them in developing his capacity and potentialities. Unlike the reward, which is given to a child for something well done, encouragement is needed when the child fails.

Classroom Meetings
  Basic Idea
Students need to practice democratic principles in school in order to learn how to contribute later to society as a whole. The central process for carrying out this modeling of democracy is the use of the class meeting. Any problem child is a problem for the whole class, and the solution to the problem grows most naturally out of the helpful involvement of all class members (Dreikurs, 1972, p. 78).

 Purpose
Open classroom meetings create a context for developing empathy and group membership. Group discussions provide the teacher with an opportunity to help the children understand themselves, and to change their concept of themselves and others which will eventually change their motivations from hostile to cooperative living (Dreikurs, 1972, p. 79).

  Eight building blocks for carrying out effective classroom meetings (Suggested by Jane Nelson (a Dreikurs-Adlerian writer))

i) Form a circle
ii) Practice compliments and appreciation
iii) Create an agenda
iv) Develop communication skills
v) Learn about separate realities
vi) Recognize the four purposes of behavior
vii) Practice role playing and brainstorming
viii) Focus on nonpunitive solutions

Expectations of Generation Y

2007-06-12T08:36:00.001+08:00

1.Provide challenging work that really matters.
2. Balance clearly delegated assignments with the freedom and flexibility to produce results in their own way.
3. Offer increasing responsibility as a reward for accomplishments 4.Spend time getting to know staff members and their capabilities.
5. Provide ongoing training and learning opportunities.
6. Establish mentoring relationships.
7. Create a comfortable low stress work environment.
8. Allow some flexible scheduling.
9. Be personable and joke around with the staff, while still getting the job done.
10.Balance the role of boss with team player
11.Treat them as colleagues not as interns assistant or teenagers.
12. Be respectful and call forth respect in return.
13. Consistently provide constructive feedback. (Hattie- single most important ingredient for higher performance)
14. Let them know when they have done a good job.

There are fundamental differences in Generation Y's, in fact, their brain function is actually different, and the way their neurons connect is different. They love to multitask, they hate to do one thing at a time. Although this could lead to superficial learning, their ability to network is fundamental-remember the connecter in the classroom! As they all have ipods and mobiles, it is a matter of getting them to use these appropriately.

The Y Gen are the clickerati, the thumb gen., digital natives in a world where we are but digital immigrants.
Did you know that statistics state that in public schools in N.S.W students in years 7-10 are absent 25% of the time, while 50% are regularly absent. So the rate of attendance over 4 years, based on the figures, says 50% of students are only there for 2 years.
Why are these students not engaged? Is the solution being put forward of a back to basics curriculum relevant? Perhaps these trends are what's driving the increase in numbers being experienced by the private education system. It may well be that the state system in ten years will be where you go if you can't go anywhere else. The problems are social, economic, values, family, school culture and community. These problems are placed before us as educaters to inspire real solutions.

Posted by sallyd @ 6:54 PM

Ausubel's

2007-06-12T08:30:00.000+08:00

Ausubel's
Ausubel's theory is concerned with how individuals learn large amounts of meaningful material from verbal/textual presentations in a school setting (in contrast to theories developed in the context of laboratory experiments). According to Ausubel, learning is based upon the kinds of superordinate, representational, and combinatorial processes that occur during the reception of information. A primary process in learning is subsumption in which new material is related to relevant ideas in the existing cognitive structure on a substantive, non-verbatim basis. Cognitive structures represent the residue of all learning experiences; forgetting occurs because certain details get integrated and lose their individual identity.

A major instructional mechanism proposed by Ausubel is the use of advance organizers:

"These organizers are introduced in advance of learning itself, and are also presented at a higher level of abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness; and since the substantive content of a given organizer or series of organizers is selected on the basis of its suitability for explaining, integrating, and interrelating the material they precede, this strategy simultaneously satisfies the substantive as well as the programming criteria for enhancing the organization strength of cognitive structure." (1963, p. 81).

Ausubel emphasizes that advance organizers are different from overviews and summaries, which simply emphasize key ideas and are presented at the same level of abstraction and generality as the rest of the material. Organizers act as a subsuming bridge between new learning material and existing related ideas.

Advanced Organizers
The "advanced organizer" approach to teaching is a cognitive instructional strategy used to promote the learning and retention of new information. Proposed by David Ausubel in 1960, this strategy is one of the most utilized methods of instruction in our schools today.
In the development of this approach, Ausubel (1960) promoted meaningful learning upholding that the most important thing a child could bring to learning situation was what s/he already knows. Therefore, meaningful learning results when that child consciously and explicitly ties new knowledge to relevant concepts within his/her schema. When this occurs it produces a series of changes within our entire cognitive structure. Existing concepts are modified and new linkages between concepts are formed.
Ausubel (1960) believed that meaningful learning is idiosyncratic and involves personal recognition of the links between concepts. The most important element of meaningful learning is not so much how information (rote vs. discovery) is presented but how new information is integrated into an existing knowledge base.
In order to enhance meaningful learning Ausubel believed that it was important to have students’ preview information to be learned. Teachers could do this by providing a brief introduction about the way that information that is going to be presented is structured. An example of this might be opening a lesson with a statement that provides an overview of what will be taught. In presenting outlines of information, teachers can help students see the big picture to be learned. This approach encourages students to build upon prior knowledge and mentally organize their thoughts before being introduced to the details of new concepts.
By making new material more familiar and meaningful to students, it should be easier to retrieve. (Gagne, 1988)

Ausubel documented these ideas in his book The Acquisition and Retention of Knowledge. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000. This shows the connection between new learning material and related conceptual material that the learner already knows, and how it can be more easily stabilized and assimilated into the learner’s cognitive structure thereby becoming more resistant to forgetting.

References: -
http://www.davidausubel.org/newProjects.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ausubel
http://tip.psychology.org/ausubel.html
http://chd.gse.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/strategies/cognitivism/AdvancedOrganizers.htm

Posted by sallyd @ 7:41 PM

Gagne

2007-06-12T08:22:00.000+08:00

Gagne outlines the following Nine Instructional Events and corresponding cognitive processes:

1.gaining attention (reception)

2.informing learners of the objective (expectancy)

3.stimulating recall of prior learning (retrieval)

4.presenting the stimulus (selective perception)

5.providing learning guidance (semantic encoding)

6.eliciting performance (responding)

7.providing feedback (reinforcement)

8.assessing performance (retrieval)

9.enhancing retention and transfer (generalization)

These events should satisfy or provide the necessary conditions for learning and serve as the basis for designing instruction.

1.Gain attention
In order for any learning to take place, you must first capture the attention of the student. A multimedia program that begins with an animated title screen sequence accompanied by sound effects or music startles the senses with auditory or visual stimuli. An even better way to capture students' attention is to start each lesson with a thought-provoking question or interesting fact. Curiosity motivates students to learn.

2.Inform learners of objectives
Early in each lesson students should encounter a list of learning objectives. This initiates the internal process of expectancy and helps motivate the learner to complete the lesson. These objectives should form the basis for assessment and possible certification as well. Typically, learning objectives are presented in the form of "Upon completing this lesson you will be able to. . . ."

3.Stimulate recall of prior learning
Associating new information with prior knowledge can facilitate the learning process. It is easier for learners to encode and store information in long-term memory when there are links to personal experience and knowledge. A simple way to stimulate recall is to ask questions about previous experiences, an understanding of previous concepts, or a body of content.

4.Present the content
This event of instruction is where the new content is actually presented to the learner. Content should be chunked and organized meaningfully, and typically is explained and then demonstrated. To appeal to different learning modalities, a variety of media should be used if possible, including text, graphics, audio narration, and video.

5.Provide "learning guidance"
To help learners encode information for long-term storage, additional guidance should be provided along with the presentation of new content. Guidance strategies include the use of examples, non-examples, case studies, graphical representations, mnemonics, and analogies.

6.Elicit performance (practice)
In this event of instruction, the learner is required to practice the new skill or behavior. Eliciting performance provides an opportunity for learners to confirm their correct understanding, and the repetition further increases the likelihood of retention.

7.Provide feedback
As learners practice new behavior it is important to provide specific and immediate feedback of their performance. Unlike questions in a post-test, exercises within tutorials should be used for comprehension and encoding purposes, not for formal scoring. Additional guidance and answers provided at this stage are called formative feedback.

8.Assess performance
Upon completing instructional modules, students should be given the opportunity to take (or be required to take) a post-test or final assessment. This assessment should be completed without the ability to receive additional coaching, feedback, or hints. Mastery of material, or certification, is typically granted after achieving a certain score or percent correct. A commonly accepted level of mastery is 80% to 90% correct.

9.Enhance retention and transfer to the job
The repetition of learned concepts is a tried and true means of aiding retention, although often disliked by students. (There was a reason for writing spelling words ten times as grade school student.)

EXAMPLE

The following example applies Gagne's nine instructional events.

Instructional Objective: Recognize an equilateral triangle (example from Kearsley 1994a).

Methodology:

1.Gain attention - show a variety of computer-generated triangles

2.Identify objective - pose question: "What is an equilateral triangle?"

3.Recall prior learning - review definitions of triangles

4.Present stimulus - give definition of equilateral triangle

5.Guide learning - show example of how to create equilateral

6.Elicit performance - ask students to create 5 different examples

7.Provide feedback - check all examples as correct/incorrect

8.Assess performance - provide scores and remediation

9.Enhance retention/transfer - show pictures of objects and ask students to identify the equilateral triangles.

In summary, what constitutes a 'good lesson' when taking into account Robert Gagne's instructional model is one where the Conditions of Learning are addressed via the 9 events of instruction.

References:

http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_3.htm
http://tip.psychology.org/gagne.html http://www.psy.pdx.edu/PsiCafe/KeyTheorists/Gagne.htm
http://en.wilipedia.org
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/gagnesevents/index.htm

Merrill's keys to learning:

2007-06-12T08:15:00.000+08:00

Merrill's keys to learning: 

• provide structured knowledge
•  provide practice 
• provide guidance 

The five principles of instruction (Merrill, 2006)

•   The demonstration principle:  Learning is promoted when learners observe a demonstration 
• The application principle:  Learning is promoted when learners apply the new knowledge 
• The activation principle:  Learning is promoted when learners activate prior knowledge or experience 
• The integration principle:  Learning is promoted when learners integrate their new knowledge into their everyday world
•  The task-centered principle:  Learning is promoted when learners engage in a task-centered instructional strategy

NATIONAL CURRICULUM DEBATE

2007-06-12T08:07:00.000+08:00

As posted by Miss Sally D

Labor the lesser evil

Comment Judith Wheeldon
March 03, 2007

I CONTINUE to believe that the arguments against a national curriculum outweigh potential benefits. The danger of nationalising bad policy is significant; divisiveness among the states over who wins will be serious; the expense will not be insignificant; loss of intellectual diversity will be similar to loss of biodiversity.
But when both the Government and the alternative government choose to support a national curriculum, the best strategy for the voter is to choose the better option and try to influence what can be influenced.
This week, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd and education spokesman Stephen Smith published Labor's new policy document, establishing a national curriculum to improve our children's educational outcomes. In his 20-page easy-to-read statement, Rudd produces a policy with some strong features and an approach to national agreement that has a chance of working.
The most often heard argument for a national curriculum is consistency across the country to assist students who move interstate. Consistency is not only the hobgoblin of small minds; it is also a poor argument for a major change. Of the 80,000 students estimated to change states each year, only some experience avoidable difficulty due to different curriculums, and those are generally older students facing examinations on specific syllabuses. There are already many strategies to assist these students and their teachers if schools are sensitive and well-enough resourced. Centralising curriculum for this purpose is overkill.
A better argument is one based on international competitiveness, an idea that is prominent in Labor's policy, which gives ample evidence of the strength of Australian curriculums as revealed in international benchmarking, in which Australia holds a proud but not top place in each category.
Two countries that are consistently placed ahead of us in almost all categories and clearly do significantly better than Australia are Finland and South Korea. Why? What do they do that we don't?
The top students in all three countries are roughly equal but Finland and South Korea do much more to ensure all students reach their full potential. This achievement is not made suddenly in the senior years of school or by offering a few brilliant teachers so-called performance pay.
Solid achievement for all is built by many teachers, from pre-school through to Year 12, applying a sound curriculum that develops first-class fundamental skills and thinking ability that can be used in all other study: that is, primarily, literacy and numeracy. Foundation knowledge of history, science and literature are crucial, too. For this reason, the Labor policy has taken a brave and important step in offering a national curriculum that covers kindergarten to Year 12.
Take the example of science teaching, which is in crisis across Australia. We are not producing enough scientists or keeping the ones we have. We do not have a scientifically educated populace that is able to apply scientific principles to make good personal, political and economic judgments. As just two examples, consider alternative medicine and water recycling.
Labor's plan for a K-12 science curriculum is ambitious but well placed and suggests seriousness of purpose. A main reason for our difficulties in senior sciences today is that we fail utterly in teaching science in primary years. Almost no new primary teachers have any qualifications whatsoever in science; they seldom even have significant high school science. Thus, they are not capable of recognising and developing the natural scientific thinking of young children that should grow into a love of science. A strong primary science curriculum supported by qualified specialist science teachers would, over the years, make a significant intellectual and economic change in Australia. Finding and educating these teachers will be a major challenge, but it can be done and is an urgent task. Serious curriculum imbalance can quickly develop when four disciplines are selected above others for national attention.
It is hard to imagine that national assessment; reporting and certification would not follow close behind the national curriculum. The same curriculum measured by different standards and reported in different terms will not achieve the goal of consistency across the country and equality in university entrance competition. A bitter battle can be expected on the issue of external examinations versus continuous assessment. This battle has been fought and different resolutions have been found in each state or territory. It will be essential that professional educators making these decisions put aside local pride and make judgments in the interests of the nation and its young people.
Once we have equivalent assessment and reporting, there will be great pressure for a national certificate as an easy way of communicating the achievements that can so easily be compared. When this happens, the elevation of the national courses will cause serious problems for the other subject areas that will seem to students, and especially to parents, less important and therefore will not be studied as seriously. Do we want to then embrace these subjects in the national curriculum, too, or are there other strategies? We need to discuss these problems now. The implications are huge and require a clear policy statement to match this one.
Rudd does not seem to value the creative arts, which hardly get a mention; I hope he fixes that. Similarly, biology (and probably geology) should be named alongside chemistry and physics.
Rudd does, however, recognise the very real conundrum of languages other than English, a giant weakness for a country that hopes to compete internationally. The solution will not be easy, but at least the Labor call for "a new policy approach" suggests we can look forward to a much-needed breakthrough in a funded policy that addresses one of our most embarrassing educational failures.
The best national curriculum will be meaningless if it cannot be adopted by the states and territories on the sole criterion of being the best. Political sparring, jealous guarding of present curriculums and point scoring will not produce success.
Education Minister Julie Bishop says she looks forward to winning the states' and territories' agreement to her plan by 2009. It is less clear what they are meant to agree to but, as Bishop points out, she has three years to convince the states. And if they are not convinced, she will withhold funding. Judging by national agreement to the sad requirement for A to E grading on school reports, she will win the argument through force and a national curriculum will become law.
Rudd has committed to a three-year program with $50 million in funding for representative experts from the states, territories and Catholic and independent schools to write the new curriculum. He outlines the process and the required qualifications of the writers. Labor will negotiate with state and territory governments when the impact on their education budgets is known and will provide funding accordingly. The government would need to be well prepared, for this will not be an inexpensive exercise.
This two-pronged approach of collaborative writing and funding is more likely to gain support than Coalition funding threats and claims the present curriculum comes "straight from chairman Mao". The Coalition has some valid criticisms of some curriculums but these get lost in hostility that obviates the possibility of fruitful negotiation with main participants.
If we have to have a national curriculum, the Labor policy at least brings a definite benefit in valuing the early years, including kindergarten, in its proposition. Labor's implementation strategy may be more palatable to the many who see benefit in both a national curriculum and states' rights.
If you are going to vote based on the better national curriculum proposal, Labor should give greater satisfaction. In seeking endorsement of the new curriculum through the Council of Australian Governments, it will be imperative that the new prime minister uses all his leadership skills to ensure those responsible at all levels have the best interests of children and of the Australian nation as their only priority. Otherwise a national curriculum could be a national disaster.
Judith Wheeldon is a former head of two private Sydney girls' schools, Abbotsleigh and Queenwood.

posted by sallyd

MCEETYA

2007-06-12T08:01:00.000+08:00

In June 1993, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) amalgamated a number of ministerial councils in order to optimise coordination of policy making across interrelated portfolios. One of the combinations involved merging three previously existing councils – the Australian Education Council (AEC), the Council of Ministers of Vocational Education, Employment and Training (MOVEET) and the Youth Ministers Council (YMC) – to form the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). http://www.mceetya.edu.au/mceetya/default.asp?id=11318

The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century

2007-06-12T07:52:00.000+08:00

The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century

“The State, Territory and Australian Government Ministers of Education met as the 10th Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) in Adelaide, 22-23 April 1999, chaired by the Minister for Education, Children's Services and Training in South Australia, the Hon Malcolm Buckby MP. Conscious that the schooling of Australia's children is the foundation on which to build our future as a nation, Council agreed to act jointly to assist Australian schools in meeting the challenges of our times. In reaching agreement to address the following areas of common concern, the State, Territory and Australian Government Ministers of Education made an historic commitment to improving Australian Schooling within a framework of national collaboration.”

“It acknowledges the capacity of all young people to learn, and the role of schooling in developing that capacity. It also acknowledges the role of parents as the first educators of their children and the central role of teachers in the learning process.
Schooling provides a foundation for young Australiansâ€™ intellectual, physical, social, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development. By providing a supportive and nurturing environment, schooling contributes to the development of studentsâ€™ sense of self-worth, enthusiasm for learning and optimism for the future.”

“The achievement of these common and agreed national goals entails a commitment to collaboration for the purposes of:
• Further strengthening schools as learning communities where teachers, students and their families work in partnership with business, industry and the wider community
• Enhancing the status and quality of the teaching profession
• Continuing to develop curriculum and related systems of assessment, accreditation and credentialing that promote quality and are nationally recognised and valued
• Increasing public confidence in school education through explicit and defensible standards that guide improvement in studentsâ€™ levels of educational achievement and through which the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of schooling can be measured and evaluated.”

Goals
1. Schooling should develop fully the talents and capacities of all students. In particular, when students leave school, they should:
1.1 have the capacity for, and skills in, analysis and problem solving and the ability to communicate ideas and information, to plan and organise activities, and to collaborate with others.
1.2 have qualities of self-confidence, optimism, high self-esteem, and a commitment to personal excellence as a basis for their potential life roles as family, community and workforce members.
1.3 have the capacity to exercise judgment and responsibility in matters of morality, ethics and social justice, and the capacity to make sense of their world, to think about how things got to be the way they are, to make rational and informed decisions about their own lives, and to accept responsibility for their own actions.
1.4 be active and informed citizens with an understanding and appreciation of Australia’s system of government and civic life.
1.5 have employment related skills and an understanding of the work environment, career options and pathways as a foundation for, and positive attitudes towards, vocational education and training, further education, employment and life-long learning.
1.6 be confident, creative and productive users of new technologies, particularly information and communication technologies, and understand the impact of those technologies on society.
1.7 have an understanding of, and concern for, stewardship of the natural environment, and the knowledge and skills to contribute to ecologically sustainable development.
1.8 have the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle, and for the creative and satisfying use of leisure time.

2. In terms of curriculum, students should have:
2.1 attained high standards of knowledge, skills and understanding through a comprehensive and balanced curriculum in the compulsory years of schooling encompassing the agreed eight key learning areas:

* The arts; * English; * Health and physical education; * Languages other than English; * Mathematics; * Science; * Studies of society and environment; and * Technology.

and the interrelationships between them.
2.2 attained the skills of numeracy and English literacy; such that, every student should be numerate, able to read, write, spell and communicate at an appropriate level.
2.3 participated in programs of vocational learning during the compulsory years and have had access to vocational education and training programs as part of their senior secondary studies.
2.4 participated in programs and activities which foster and develop enterprise skills, including those skills which will allow them maximum flexibility and adaptability in the future.

3. Schooling should be socially just, so that:
3.1 students’ outcomes from schooling are free from the effects of negative forms of discrimination based on sex, language, culture and ethnicity, religion or disability; and of differences arising from students’ socio-economic background or geographic location.
3.2 the learning outcomes of educationally disadvantaged students improve and, over time, match those of other students.
3.3 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have equitable access to, and opportunities in, schooling so that their learning outcomes improve and, over time, match those of other students.
3.4 all students understand and acknowledge the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures to Australian society and possess the knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to, and benefit from, reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
3.5 all students understand and acknowledge the value of cultural and linguistic diversity, and possess the knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to, and benefit from, such diversity in the Australian community and internationally.
3.6 all students have access to the high quality education necessary to enable the completion of school education to Year 12 or its vocational equivalent and that provides clear and recognised pathways to employment and further education and training.

http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/policy_initiatives_reviews/national_goals_for_schooling_in_the_twenty_first_century.htm

Gardner's Three Domain

2007-05-05T12:35:00.000+08:00

http://surfaquarium.com/MI/mi_domains.htm

Maslows Hierarchy of needs

2007-05-05T11:48:00.000+08:00

Maslow and Glasser

2007-05-05T11:45:00.000+08:00

Glasser's five needs

Explanations > Needs > Glasser's five needs

William Glasser, in his 'Control Theory' (later renamed to 'Choice Theory') detailed five needs that are quite close to Maslow's Hierarchy, but with some interesting twists.
1. Survival
This is similar to Maslow's Physiological and Safety level. They are basic needs which are of little interest unless they are threatened.
2. Love and belonging
This is the same as Maslow's Belonging need and recognises how important it is for us as a tribal species to be accepted by our peers.
3. Power or recognition
This maps to some extent to Maslow's Esteem need, although the Power element focuses on our ability to achieve our goals (which is perhaps a lower-level control need).
4. Freedom
This is the ability to do what we want, to have free choice. It is connected with procedural justice where we seek fair play.
5. Fun
An interesting ultimate goal. When all else is satisfied, we just (as Cyndi Lauper sang) 'want to have fun'.

http://changingminds.org/explanations/needs/glasser_five_needs.htm

Choice theory

2007-04-03T08:52:00.000+08:00

These basic needs are:  
(a) the need to survive, 
(b) the need to belong,
(c) the need to gain power, 
(d) the need to be free,
and  (e) the need to have fun.

The ways in which we fulfill psychological needs can be summarized as follows:  
1. We fulfill the need to belong by loving, sharing, and cooperating with others. 
2. We fulfill the need for power by achieving, accomplishing, and being recognized and respected. 
3. We fulfill the need for freedom by making choices in our lives. 
4. We fulfill the need for fun by laughing and playing.

  To satisfy needs, people must be able to sense what is going on both around them and within them, and then be able to act on that information. When we sense a discrepancy between what we have and what we want, we behave by acting upon the world and upon ourselves as a part of the world. If we examine this behavior, it may seem to be composed of four different behaviors, but these are actually four components of what is always a total behavior.
These four components, which always occur synchronously, are as follows:

1. Doing (e.g., walking, talking)
2. Thinking (e.g., reasoning, fantasizing)
3. Feeling (e.g., angering, depressing)
4. Physiology (e.g., sweating, headaching)

By recognizing that the feeling component is just one of four that make up total behavior, people can be more in control of their lives.

When people begin to think in terms of total behaviors, they can see that they choose these behaviors and have the option to change them. The most direct way to change a total behavior is to change the behavior's doing and thinking components. We have almost total control over the doing component of behavior and some control over the thinking component; we have less control over the feeling component and very little control over physiological phenomena. Behavior in its totality ultimately gives us control over all components. When we change what we are doing, we will notice that our thoughts, feelings, and physiological responses change as well.

“Because we always have control over the doing component of our behavior, if we markedly change that component, we cannot avoid changing the thinking, feeling, and physiological components as well. The more we get involved in an active doing behavior that is markedly different from what we were doing when choosing a misery, like depressing or headaching, the more we will also change what we think, feel, and experience from our bodies. And if what we do gives us greater control, it will be accompanied by better feelings, more pleasant thoughts, and greater physical comfort.’ (p. 51, Control Theory, by William Glasser, MD)

The message is that, because people always have control over the doing component of behavior, if they change that component, they cannot avoid changing the thinking, feeling, and physiological components as well. A choice of action that results in greater control will be accompanied by better feelings, more pleasant thoughts, and greater physical comfort. To get their needs met effectively, people must realize that they always have control over the doing component and can choose to do something more effective than being miserable.
www.choicetheory.com /
retrieved on the 3rd of April 2007

Adlerian Principles of Parent Education

2007-04-02T12:24:00.000+08:00

Mutual respect

Encouragement

Feelings of "security"

Reward and punishment are ineffective.

Natural consequences are the direct result of the child's behaviour, i.e. Tommy refuses to wear a coat while it is raining: he will get wet.

Logical consequences are established by the parents, and are a direct and logical--not arbitrarily imposed -- consequence of the behaviour, i.e. Helen doesn't want to eat her lunch: she will be hungry until teatime.

Acting instead of talking

Don't interfere in children's fights.

Take time for teaching the child essential skills and habits. Don't attempt this in a moment of conflict or in company. The parent who "does not have time" for such teaching will have to spend more time correcting an untrained child.

Never do for a child what he can do for himself.

Overprotection pushes a child down.
Over-responsible parents often produce irresponsible children.
Distinguish between positive and negative attention
Understand the child's goal.
The four goals of misbehaviour…

• Attention-getting • Power • Revenge • Display of assumed inadequacy
If your first impulse is to react in one of these four ways, you can be fairly sure you have discovered the goal of the child's misbehaviour.

Minimize mistakes

A Family Meeting once a week or so, can give every member of the family a chance to express certain issues and discuss what can be done about them. The emphasis should be on "What we can do about the situation."

Have fun together…

retrieved from the net 2.04.07

http://www.adleriansociety.co.uk/phdi/p3.nsf/supppages/0939?opendocument&part=7

Rudolf Dreikurs

2007-04-02T11:31:00.000+08:00

If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with fear, he learns to be apprehensive.
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns to be confident.
If a child lives with acceptance, he learns to love.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with recognition, he learns it is good to have a goal.
If a child lives with honesty, he learns what truth is.
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith in himself and those about him.
If a child lives with friendliness, he learns the world is a nice place in which to live, to love and be loved.

William Glasser

2007-03-31T12:31:00.000+08:00

The Ten Axioms of Choice Theory

The only person whose behavior we can control is our own.

All we can give another person is information.

All long-lasting psychological problems are relationship problems.

The problem relationship is always part of our present life.

What happened in the past has everything to do with what we are today, but we can only satisfy our basic needs right now and plan to continue satisfying them in the future.

We can only satisfy our needs by satisfying the pictures in our Quality World.

All we do is behave.

All behavior is Total Behavior and is made up of four components: acting, thinking, feeling and physiology.

All Total Behavior is chosen, but we only have direct control over the acting and thinking components. We can only control our feeling and physiology indirectly through how we choose to act and think.

All Total Behavior is designated by verbs and named by the part that is the most recognizable.

http://www.choicetheory.com/ct.htm
31st march

Group Work ED2135

2007-03-31T09:01:00.000+08:00

Model of Education...
Constructivist Education
Piaget

Children are not adults.
Children construct there own understanding of reality.
Children learn through trail and error.
Children can construct their knowledge by

As written by Agualunar:

Think
Pair
Share

There are two good ways for group discussion:
Jigsaw
Think, pair, share.

What are the characteristics of an effective group discussion?
Be careful that it is done in a certain way.
eg. jigsaw
or
Think, pair, share

Think: purpose is to get the person to think about what they already know about the topic.

You want to get the person close to the Zone of Proximal Development. Get them to think!

Question:
Write out what are the characteristics of a good, effective, efficient discussion?

Contribution by all members of the group
The ability to LISTEN TO others who have a different opinion to oneself and to embrace rather than reject their opinions if you don't agree.
The ability of group members to ask questions of other group members in regard to their opinion.
An understanding of the amount of time the group has to discuss and therefore time for each to contribute.
A question that is topical and relevant to the student will induce an efficient discussion.
Emphasise topics that the group already has knowledge about to enhance confidence and interest.
That each member of the group is valued for their opinion and input.
Within the group there are delegated roles.
There is a clear objective to the discussion which keeps the discussion focused.

Written by Bellarosa.

We then where randomly given numbers, so we ended up in a group of 5, we then given a topic:
TOPIC:
WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD, EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE GROUP DISCUSSION?

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
HOW TO CONTACT GOOD GROUP DISCUSSION?

GOAL/TASK:
TO HAVE AN EFFECTIVE GROUP DISCUSSION TO UNDERSTAND WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTIC OF AN EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE GROUP DISCUSSION.

SUB-TASK:

ROLES
TIME
ON TASK
EVERYONE LEARN
RESOURCES
ETC

MEMBERS IN A GROUP

Leader/ Chair person/ facilitator
Scribe
Time keeper
Participator/ Reasearcher
Participator/ Spokesperson

Here are the points we came up with:

everyone is valued
clear objective of the group discussion and outcome allow for flexibility in presentation
willingless to be challenged
feel heard/ everyone listens/ not aggressively interrupted/
learn from others
be open without judgement
recognision and respect
"Yes and" not "no but" techniques
eye contact
seating circle
everyone participates
prior knowledge base to work from
encourage each others, ask question
facilitator pulls it together and makes sure everyone attends and understands
keep it inclusive
accept and challenge
learn from others differences
make sure the environment is safe for everyone to air their ideas
be open to change your perception, opinion
ask why
non violent communication- non attacking language
relevant topic- feel connected, passionate, engaging, heated
take time for quality communication
outlines the stages the group must go through
allow time for conclusion and reflection and evaluation
summaries scribe's notes

BIG BOS

2007-03-31T07:51:00.000+08:00

Here is the link to School Certificate performance descriptors:
http://boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/schoolcertificate/sc_cpd.html

Link to the Bos Syllabuses:
http://boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/index.html#4_5

Here is the link to the Primary school Bos site, this gives the background knowledge of what the students pior learning:
http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/arts/#arts-syllabus

Whatever....Gen y

2007-03-03T12:02:00.001+09:00

Gen Y
Holistic Learners
2. Making Tasks Real -
Real world analogies & elaboration strategies
3. Ludic (Play) Behavior
4. Active & Kinesthetic
5. Graphic/Visual
6. Customization
Other Learning Style Characteristics:
Motivation by technology.
Low threshold for boredom and short attention span.
Desire for adults to act as their peers.
Memorization - not something they will do.
http://www.library.csuhayward.edu/staff/ginno/ACRL/examples.htm
retrieved on the 3rd March

Whatever....Gen y

2007-03-03T12:02:00.000+09:00

Blooms Taxonomy

2007-03-03T09:24:00.000+09:00

National Curriculum

2007-03-03T08:36:00.000+09:00

My analysis of the National Curriculum proposal by the Labour Party discussed by Judith Wheeldon in The Weekend Australian march 3-4.
• Why did we never have a National Curriculum?
• How can we agree on a national curriculum when our education dept’s are so different?
• “The danger of the nationalising bad policy is significant; divisiveness among the states over who wins will be serious; the expense will not be insignificant; loss of intellectual diversity will be similar to loss of biodiversity”
• Where is the creativity?
• What are the proposed “educational outcomes” and who is selecting them?
• Measured against other benchmark results of other countries we seem to be lacking but how are there health and metal health of the child results, there suicide levels, their creative capacities, there enjoyment of life… yes we should advocate intelligence, but maybe not through a reign of fear. I hear in Germany that education is so grilling due to the fear of getting a job or into Higher education and they are not alone.
•

Solo Taxonomy

2007-03-03T07:09:00.000+09:00

SOLO Taxonomy

SOLO stands for Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome. The taxonomy is a useful way to characterise different levels of questions in exams and the corresponding responses expected from students. It originates from Biggs and Collis (1982).

Pre-structural
• Students are acquiring pieces of unconnected information
• No organisation
• No overall sense

Uni-structural
• Students makes simple and obvious connections
• The significance of the connections is not demonstrated

Multi-structural
• Students make a number of connections
• The significance of the relationship between connections is not demonstrated

Relational Level
• Students demonstrate the relationship between connections
• Students demonstrate the relationship between connections and the whole

Extended Abstract Level
• Students make connections beyond the immediate subject area
• Students generalise and transfer the principles form the specific to the abstract

Beauty created by technology....

2007-02-28T10:26:00.000+09:00

Mariko Mori at the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art
http://www.assemblylanguage.com/reviews/MoriMoT.html

2007-02-10T11:57:00.000+09:00

Jigsaw in 10 Easy Steps

The jigsaw classroom is very simple to use. If you're a teacher, just follow these steps:

1 Divide students into 5- or 6-person jigsaw groups. The groups should be diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, and ability.

2 Appoint one student from each group as the leader. Initially, this person should be the most mature student in the group.

3 Divide the day's lesson into 5-6 segments. For example, if you want history students to learn about Eleanor Roosevelt, you might divide a short biography of her into stand-alone segments on: (1) Her childhood, (2) Her family life with Franklin and their children, (3) Her life after Franklin contracted polio, (4) Her work in the White House as First Lady, and (5) Her life and work after Franklin's death.

4 Assign each student to learn one segment, making sure students have direct access only to their own segment.

5 Give students time to read over their segment at least twice and become familiar with it. There is no need for them to memorize it.

6 Form temporary "expert groups" by having one student from each jigsaw group join other students assigned to the same segment. Give students in these expert groups time to discuss the main points of their segment and to rehearse the presentations they will make to their jigsaw group.

7 Bring the students back into their jigsaw groups.

8 Ask each student to present her or his segment to the group. Encourage others in the group to ask questions for clarification.

9 Float from group to group, observing the process. If any group is having trouble (e.g., a member is dominating or disruptive), make an appropriate intervention. Eventually, it's best for the group leader to handle this task. Leaders can be trained by whispering an instruction on how to intervene, until the leader gets the hang of it.

10 At the end of the session, give a quiz on the material so that students quickly come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and games but really count.

2007-02-10T10:32:00.001+09:00

Whoa cool blog!!!

Adelaide Declaration

2007-02-10T08:16:00.000+09:00

The State, Territory and Australian Government Ministers of Education met as the 10th Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) in Adelaide, 22-23 April 1999, chaired by the Minister for Education, Children's Services and Training in South Australia, the Hon Malcolm Buckby MP. Conscious that the schooling of Australia's children is the foundation on which to build our future as a nation, Council agreed to act jointly to assist Australian schools in meeting the challenges of our times. In reaching agreement to address the following areas of common concern, the State, Territory and Australian Government Ministers of Education made an historic commitment to improving Australian Schooling within a framework of national collaboration.

Goals

1. Schooling should develop fully the talents and capacities of all students. In particular, when students leave school, they should:
1.1 have the capacity for, and skills in, analysis and problem solving and the ability to communicate ideas and information, to plan and organise activities, and to collaborate with others.
1.2 have qualities of self-confidence, optimism, high self-esteem, and a commitment to personal excellence as a basis for their potential life roles as family, community and workforce members.
1.3 have the capacity to exercise judgement and responsibility in matters of morality, ethics and social justice, and the capacity to make sense of their world, to think about how things got to be the way they are, to make rational and informed decisions about their own lives, and to accept responsibility for their own actions.
1.4 be active and informed citizens with an understanding and appreciation of Australia’s system of government and civic life.
1.5 have employment related skills and an understanding of the work environment, career options and pathways as a foundation for, and positive attitudes towards, vocational education and training, further education, employment and life-long learning.
1.6 be confident, creative and productive users of new technologies, particularly information and communication technologies, and understand the impact of those technologies on society.
1.7 have an understanding of, and concern for, stewardship of the natural environment, and the knowledge and skills to contribute to ecologically sustainable development.
1.8 have the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle, and for the creative and satisfying use of leisure time.

2. In terms of curriculum, students should have:
2.1 attained high standards of knowledge, skills and understanding through a comprehensive and balanced curriculum in the compulsory years of schooling encompassing the agreed eight key learning areas:
the arts;
English;
health and physical education;
languages other than English;
mathematics;
science;
studies of society and environment; and
technology.
and the interrelationships between them.

2.2 attained the skills of numeracy and English literacy; such that, every student should be numerate, able to read, write, spell and communicate at an appropriate level.
2.3 participated in programs of vocational learning during the compulsory years and have had access to vocational education and training programs as part of their senior secondary studies.
2.4 participated in programs and activities which foster and develop enterprise skills, including those skills which will allow them maximum flexibility and adaptability in the future.

3. Schooling should be socially just, so that:
3.1 students’ outcomes from schooling are free from the effects of negative forms of discrimination based on sex, language, culture and ethnicity, religion or disability; and of differences arising from students’ socio-economic background or geographic location.
3.2 the learning outcomes of educationally disadvantaged students improve and, over time, match those of other students.
3.3 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have equitable access to, and opportunities in, schooling so that their learning outcomes improve and, over time, match those of other students.
3.4 all students understand and acknowledge the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures to Australian society and possess the knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to, and benefit from, reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
3.5 all students understand and acknowledge the value of cultural and linguistic diversity, and possess the knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to, and benefit from, such diversity in the Australian community and internationally.
3.6 all students have access to the high quality education necessary to enable the completion of school education to Year 12 or its vocational equivalent and that provides clear and recognised pathways to employment and further education and training.

Retrieved 10.2.o7

/www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/policy_initiatives_reviews/national_goals_for_schooling_in_the_twenty_first_century.htm

2006-11-22T12:34:00.000+08:00

2006-11-22T12:20:00.000+08:00

question 2

2006-11-21T09:45:00.000+08:00

Constructivist Education:
• Problem solving
• Group
• Peer group learning
• DLE- Distributed Learning Environment
• Proximal development
• Action research
• Social interaction

Constructivism
Definition Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own "rules" and "mental models," which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences
http://www.funderstanding.com/constructivism.cfm

“Constructivists believe that knowledge is ‘constructed’, that the thinker is both mentally and physically active in this construction and that the sociocultural context in which knowledge construction occurs provides the thinker with invaluable resources, support and direction.” (Fosnot, 1993; Phillips, 2000; Wells and Chang-Wells, 1992) From the ‘Education Phycology-Krause, Bochner and Duchesne 2003
All the fundamental underpinnings of constructivist education as stated in the list at the top of this posting are all elements of both Piaget and Vygotsky theories of education
Piaget and Vygotsky both stated that cognitive development took place in stages.

Piaget ‘was particularly interested in peer interaction as a means for children to expand their ideas, to overcome conflicts and achieve shared solutions that are more mature than individual efforts (Brown, Metz and Campione, 1996 [From the ‘Educational Phycology-Krause, Bochner and Duchesne 2003]))

How Piaget's Theory Impacts Learning
Curriculum--Educators must plan a developmentally appropriate curriculum that enhances their students' logical and conceptual growth.
Instruction--Teachers must emphasize the critical role that experiences--or interactions with the surrounding environment--play in student learning. For example, instructors have to take into account the role that fundamental concepts, such as the permanence of objects, play in establishing cognitive structures.

Vygotsky also stressed the “importance of social interaction in learning” [From the ‘Educational Phycology-Krause, Bochner and Duchesne 2003] After reading Vygotskys theories I believe one of the important things he observed was that learning and development occurs within a ‘sociohistorical’ and ‘sociocultral’ context.

How Vygotsky Impacts Learning:
Curriculum--Since children learn much through interaction, curricula should be designed to emphasize interaction between learners and learning tasks.

Instruction--With appropriate adult help, children can often perform tasks that they are incapable of completing on their own. With this in mind, scaffolding--where the adult continually adjusts the level of his or her help in response to the child's level of performance--is an effective form of teaching. Scaffolding not only produces immediate results, but also instills the skills necessary for independent problem solving in the future.
Assessment--Assessment methods must take into account the zone of proximal development. What children can do on their own is their level of actual development and what they can do with help is their level of potential development. Two children might have the same level of actual development, but given the appropriate help from an adult, one might be able to solve many more problems than the other. Assessment methods must target both the level of actual development and the level of potential development.

'Some Differences Between Vygotsky and Piaget

A Progression of Development

1 Piaget believed that development proceeds from the individual to the social world. Egocentric speech suggests that the child is self-centered and unable to consider the point-of-view of others. Piaget also maintains that development precedes learning.

2 Vygotsky believed that development begins at the social level and moves towards individual internalization. Egocentric speech is seen as a transition between the child's learning language in a social communicative context, and attempting to internalize it as "private" or "inner speech" (i.e., thoughts). For Vygotsky, learning precedes development.

3 Both agree that development may be initiated by cognitive conflict.

4 Like Piaget, Vygotsky believed that children's egocentric speech was an important part of their cognitive development. The two differed in how they viewed the purpose of egocentric speech.'

http://www.gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/CEP564/Lectures/CogDev.htm

Question Three

2006-11-21T08:49:00.000+08:00

Question Three
In the use of BOS syllabuses, explain the use of the following documents at school level:

Scope and Sequence
SCOPE: time allocated to topic
SEQUENCE: order in which topics are taught

Teaching Programme
Programme help teachers by
• Divided into topics or modules
• Identifying syllabus requirements
They state what
• “students learn about”
• “students learn to’
• Teaching/ learning strategies
• Resources
• Assessments
• Registration/ evaluation

Assessment program
Assessment occurs as an integral part of teaching and learning. Teacher instruction and assessment influence student learning and learning processes. This involves using assessment activities to clarify student understanding of concepts, and planning ways to remedy misconceptions and promote deeper understanding.
From Design and Technology
Years 7–10
Advice on Programming and Assessment

The teacher interprets the syllabus, the local resources and need inform the scope and sequence, programme and assessment plan and these three areas are a key factor in planning of a lesson.

QUESTION 1

2006-11-11T10:30:00.000+08:00

The real vogage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes
Marcel Proust

Question 1

LIST AND EVALUATE IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE, THE QUALITIES YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE AS A TEACHER.

As a teacher everyday is a voyage of discovery and by having "new eyes" our passion for learning and teaching can foster in the children a sense of wonder and joy for the world in which we live.
For me the most important quality of a teacher is a passion for living harmoniously and artistically that informs a passion for teaching.
This passion must follow through to the subject area in which they teach and for the well-being of the children who they teach.

Passion

With this passion as the driving force teachers must strive to be ‘leader teachers’ who create a ‘safe secure’ environment in which to learn.
• SURVIVAL
• POWER
• LOVE
• BELONGING
• FREEDOM, and FUN
This can only come into effect when the teacher has excellent communication skills.
As a teacher one must constantly refine and refect on ones communication skills.

Communication Skills

Good communication skills strengthen the ability of a teacher to hold a class. Holding a class, motivating student learning and creating a sense of belonging and connectedness is the aim of a great teacher.

Passionate teachers can change student’s lives by creating positive and creative learning environment in which all types of learning styles are catered for.

Creativity

“New eyes” could be one way of saying creativity. If teachers are always approaching their work with “new eyes” emphasising the importance of creativity this will foster a new generation of creative individuals.

Passion, good communication and creativity maybe listed in that order but they feed into each other and a mix of all these qualities makes for a well-rounded teacher.

One great teacher alone can only achieve a little but with in a like-minded group…

Together
Everyone
Achieves
More

Yes expert teachers can stand alone with Hatties 5 attributes:
• can identify essential representations of their subject,
• can guide learning through classroom interactions,
• can monitor learning and provide feedback,
• can attend to affective attributes, and
• can influence student outcomes

And make a difference but if they are placed in a creative environment that they themselves feel nurtured in…
• SURVIVAL
• POWER
• LOVE
• BELONGING
• FREEDOM, and FUN

Then in Margaret Wheatley’s words “ yet in this strange new world, I believe we can only succeed in understanding and influencing this world if we are able to think and work together in new ways”

In ‘new ways’ with ‘new eyes’ enforced by past and present learning and teaching theories together in a creative, warm community…maybe that could be the motto of every school.

Jigsaw Theory

2006-11-11T10:16:00.000+08:00

The jigsaw classrom is very simple to use. If you're a teacher, just follow these steps:

1 Divide students into 5- or 6-person jigsaw groups. The groups should be diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, and ability.

2 Appoint one student from each group as the leader. Initially, this person should be the most mature student in the group.

3 Divide the day's lesson into 5-6 segments. For example, if you want history students to learn about Eleanor Roosevelt, you might divide a short biography of her into stand-alone segments on: (1) Her childhood, (2) Her family life with Franklin and their children, (3) Her life after Franklin contracted polio, (4) Her work in the White House as First Lady, and (5) Her life and work after Franklin's death.

4 Assign each student to learn one segment, making sure students have direct access only to their own segment.

5 Give students time to read over their segment at least twice and become familiar with it. There is no need for them to memorize it.

6 Form temporary "expert groups" by having one student from each jigsaw group join other students assigned to the same segment. Give students in these expert groups time to discuss the main points of their segment and to rehearse the presentations they will make to their jigsaw group.

7 Bring the students back into their jigsaw groups.

8 Ask each student to present her or his segment to the group. Encourage others in the group to ask questions for clarification.

9 Float from group to group, observing the process. If any group is having trouble (e.g., a member is dominating or disruptive), make an appropriate intervention. Eventually, it's best for the group leader to handle this task. Leaders can be trained by whispering an instruction on how to intervene, until the leader gets the hang of it.

10 At the end of the session, give a quiz on the material so that students quickly come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and games but really count.

Art...

2006-11-10T18:40:00.000+08:00

Only the best art can order the choatic tumble of events, only the best can realign the chaos to suggest both the choas and order it will become."

Michael Ondaatje
In the skin of a lion

Having a Bear moment...

2006-11-10T18:27:00.000+08:00

When your a bear with very little brain and you think things, you find sometimes that a thing which seemed very thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it. A.A. Milne 1882-1956 The house of Pooh Corner (1928)

2006-11-10T17:56:00.000+08:00

Stephen Downes

2006-11-10T17:00:00.000+08:00

I want and visualize and aspire toward a system of society and learning where each person is able to rise to his or her fullest potential without social or financial encumberance, where they may express themselves fully and without reservation through art, writing, athletics, invention, or even through their avocations or lifestyle. Where they are able to form networks of meaningful and rewarding relationships with their peers, with people who share the same interests or hobbies, the same political or religious affiliations - or different interests or affiliations, as the case may be. This to me is a society where knowledge and learning are public goods, freely created and shared, not hoarded or withheld in order to extract wealth or influence. This is what I aspire toward, this is what I work toward. - Stephen Downes

http://www.downes.ca/

what makes a great teacher?

2006-11-10T16:41:00.000+08:00

Teachers’ repertoires of best practices

Provide learner with clear tasks, goals, and requirement and inform them of progress made. A key skill in teaching is the ability to explain and describe things clearly

Encourage pupils to think, to make connections, to practise and reinforce, to learn from other learners and to feel that if they make mistakes they will not be ridiculed or treated negatively

Promote pupil participation through problem solving, questioning, discussion and “buzz group” activities

Treat all pupil questions seriously and do not intimidate or ridicule

Use regular informal assessment strategies including a range of types of questioning, observation and listening in

Understand that, since individuals learn at different rates and in different ways, we need to provide a variety of activities, tasks and pace of work, and monitor and evaluate children’s progress

Use breaks and activities to engage pupils’ thinking and interest

Turn to reading and research for fresh insights and relating these to their classroom and school

Work in a shared and collegial way with other staff

http://www.highlandschools-virtualib.org.uk/ltt/inclusive_enjoyable/teacher.htm

Margaret J Wheatley

2006-11-09T19:27:00.000+08:00

Innovation Means Relying on Everyone's Creativity
Leader to Leader, Spring 2001

"Recognize people's innate capacity to adapt and create-to innovate."

"In my own work I am always constantly and happily surprised by how impossible it is to extinguish the human spirit...My questions are, How do we acknowledge that everyone is a potential innovator? How can we evoke the innate human need to innovate?

"The human capacity to invent and create is universal. Ours is a living world of continuous creation and infinite variation. "

Margarat Wheatley on herself:

I have always found my attention drawn to many different disciplines: science, history, literature, systems thinking, organizational behavior, social policy, cosmology and theology. I value what I’ve learned from each of these different fields, because no one discipline, institution, or specialization can answer the questions that now confront us. We all must draw from many different perspectives to reweave the world.

www.margaretwheatley.com

Every year that I have worked on the Wearable Arts or WAVE as it is now called, I am over whelmed by the capacity of creativity and innovation that goes into creating our show.
My little room that I have contsant battle with whilst teaching produced with the amazing help of other teachers and parents a massive ammout of production costumes. As the Head Seamstress of such a deciated group of helpers I am touched, inspired and constantly amazed at the work that is the created.

Maybe it is the history that resides in that room that against all odds and amongst my little fits of 'I can't go on, this space is to small and messy' helps the ever expanding team of people achieve such amazing feats as producing 100 or so costumes in such a short space of time.

John Hattie

2006-11-09T18:36:00.001+08:00

Written on the 21st of September 2006

After reading John Hatties “Teachers Make a Difference What is the research evidence?” article 4 or 5 times my feelings went from absolute fear (how can I be all this all the time to all students), to an acceptance that these are “goal posts” that as young new teacher I am now aware of, so I can always be striving towards and reaching.
Coming to my subject area as an artist (designer) rather than a qualified teacher has been an interesting process of growth and development. Over the last four years I have assisted classes ranging from Preschool to Stage 6 and been able to observe a lot of different teachers, which has helped me in my transition from Artist to Artist Teacher.

Reading Hatties article has clarified areas to focus on in the process of becoming a better teacher.

This year I have had the daunting task of taking on three different lots of 16 or so Year 7 students through the Introduction to sewing lesson. When I start to plan this lesson I am first faced with the obstacle of my rather small room (due to the fact that our new classrooms are being built as I write), due to the size of my room there is only 10 sewing machines and 4 overlockers and 2 tables for cutting out.
Teaching in these conditions an activity that requires machines (that can break or get knotted up at any moment) and being the only one who can fix the machines and mostly without an assistant has given me an insight into how flexible and adaptable you have to be as a teacher.

“Expert teachers adopt a problem-solving stance to their work.”

As the year has unfolded I have been able to come to each group with a better understanding of how the lesson can be improved. Bringing to each group my previous experience therefore becoming better at “anticipating problems and then improvising” in any new situation.
One thing I quickly learnt was that through out a very active lesson of one and half hours you have to have points of contraction because the nature of these types of lesson are that students are up to different things at different times, (some people cutting, sewing, pinning different parts of their projects), so they are incredibly expanded throughout most of the lesson. To counter act this expansion (which if left unchecked can get out of control), I always bring the students in at the beginning of the lesson, sit them in a circle and outline what they are going to be doing that lesson, ask what they would like to achieve in the lesson and talk about new skills etc. Then throughout the lesson I will pull them into silence for a moment to clarify, restate, or highlight something that has come to my notice as I observe and help the individual students. At the end of the lesson after they have tidied up I once again form a circle with the chairs and have a feedback session with show and tell, reinforcement of lesson, achievements and outcomes and of course encouragement and complement.

Through studying John Hatties article “Teachers Make a Difference What is the research evidence?” I have been able to reflect on myself as a teacher and as a learner and the many different teachers I have had and what made them great teachers.
I use great teachers instead of “expert” because even through I have a total appreciation of what Hattie is seeking to uncover, highlight and therefore influence change in a society where teachers are for the most part undervalued and are ‘rewarded primarily by experience irrespective of excellence”, I have problem with the term ‘expert’… who can really define what is an expert?

On the one hand as a teacher I find these great goals to strive for but as a clarifying term to pit one teacher against another and to be labelled as experienced and expert etc, I find these terms to be somewhat limiting.
In my own experience as a learner and through discussions with past and present students from different backgrounds I think that to try to find a way of monitoring, clarifying and group teachers into categories in an objective manner would be extremely difficult because learning is such a subjective process.

I agree of course that by just leaving it as that, (in the to hard basket) it is by no means gong to improve the quality of teaching in society but I think that researchers have to be mindful of the subjective nature of learning. Hattie states in his conclusion that this research is one of the few that has been ‘based on evidence from classrooms, particularly considering the effects on student learning’, this is a start to a more thorough understanding of how to clarify teachers and I realise that I myself would have to do more research to form a deeper understanding of such a complex topic.

Extras from the mind of a Head Seamstress...

2006-11-09T16:32:00.000+08:00

Why become a teacher?

The classroom is a familiar environment we have all spent some 12 years or so in one but to come back to one on the other side is an experience not to be taken on by the light hearted.
We have all had our favourite teachers and our never to be forgotten, the bad and the spectacular. We carry with us the complements and the self-esteem crunches. Their words lift us up to create our best and the ones that haunt us in our moments of doubts. We each bring with us all our experiences as we take centre stage and “teach”.
I don’t feel like I choose teaching I feel like it choose me, so here I am and for the last 4 years I have been taking a crash course in teaching through assisting in Pre-school to year 12 and then teaching in high school.
It has been an interesting process to come in as a practicing Costume Designer and to bring the knowledge of my craft into a classroom environment becoming a textile teacher.

I am pleased to say for the most part I had good teachers and some great especially in high school.
It’s interesting to reflect back on who you remember and why. Unfortunately I think one remembers the extremes moments the most whether they be good or bad. The ones that believe in you stick out, the ones that said, “If you believe in yourself you can do it” and the ones that complimented, and encouraged.
Coming into teaching takes you back to your own teachers and helps you reflect on what kind of teacher you want to be. Of course I want to be one of those teachers that inspired me and made a difference in my life. Now standing on the other-side of that is a daunting prospect. How can I become all that to every student all the time?
Harry Potter
JK Rowling has kindly laid out some of the stereotypes of teachers to help us decide which type we want to be.
Maybe the truth is that we need to be each one of these teachers according to the circumstances we find ourself in. there are moments we need to lay down the rules (Snape) and the moment when you need to be wise (Dumbledore) and moments of nursing, caring and patching up the wounds (Madame Pomfrey).

Not only as a teacher do you need to be an expert in:

• group management

• teenagers(or children)
• classroom management
• lesson structure
• group dynamic
• student outcomes(just to state a few)
we also need to be:
• tough skinned
• versatile
• quick on your feet
• have a sense of humour
• caring
• calm
• passionate
and above all want to foster well rounded, passionate, hopeful human beings for the next generation.

GLASSERhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

2006-09-23T09:06:00.000+08:00

SURVIVAL

POWER

LOVE

BELONGING

FREEDOM, and FUN

http://raider.muc.edu/~schnelpl/Control%20Theory%20-%20Overhead.html

Blooms Taxonomy

2006-08-05T09:48:00.000+08:00

TO EXCEL OR NOT TO EXCEL

2006-07-04T12:32:00.000+08:00

I have created a excel work sheet on the outcomes of students doing the multiple intelligence test but after trying my best to work out how to put it on the blog and asking the experts at school and no one seems to know how!!!

Constructivist Education mind map

2006-07-04T11:40:00.000+08:00

After trying for hours to get my own 'freemind mind' map up with out any luck I have found this one on the internet.
Oh the joys of technology!!!

'Oject of inspiration' A Constructivist lesson

2006-06-24T11:05:00.000+08:00

Brainstorning a design idea in 3D

This exercise was given to a year 10 Visual Design class who have been instructed through subjective and cultural exploration of the social conventions and various traditional practices of designing and wearing that ‘special garment’.
The focus for their “Object of Inspiration” is this year’s WAVE Production: “The Jade Paladin and the flying Garuda.” Students are invited to display inspirational ideas and investigate new technologies.
Through exercises like these students will develop a sense of being artists responding to the WAVE production criteria and establish their own expressive relationship to the work they will create.
The final aim of this lesson is have the students (in groups) create an entry for the WAVE production.
The instructions given to the class were in groups of 3 or 4 create in one lesson a costume on a mannequin in response to the Wave categories. They could use anything in the room as long as they didn’t break anything and remembered where it came from.
The focus was on silhouette.

The students thoroughly enjoyed this lesson it came after a few theory and static lesson so it was well timed. So far this term the students have created design inspiration collages on the different sections for the WAVE production and the directors of the show have given an overview of the ideas behind the show.
So they came to this exercise with reasonable background knowledge.
It was interesting to see how this group of 13 female students formed dynamic groups that all worked well together. The students had 1½ hour’s to create and pull down their creations.
After giving the instructions I pulled back and observed the students interacting in their groups, taking photos and encouraging when they started to slow down. If I did this lesson again I would have a bunch of interesting objects placed around the room and not let them just focus on fabric.

This was quite a constructivist lesson I had been reading a lot about constructivism so it was at the forefront of my mind.
This lesson was driven by the impulse to focus on discovery learning allowing learner centred experiences and activity through social interaction.
It provided the students with an opportunity to work in groups in a collaborative learning environment. Through this the students got an experience of how different people work with in a group. They focused on creative problem solving, nutting out their ideas in 3D form which gave them a greater scope to work with rather than being limited by pen and paper.

One of the sighted limitations of the constructivist approach is that it is time consuming for the teacher to create a well-scaffolded lesson. The importance of providing a sufficient scaffold should not be underestimated it is the make or break in facilitating constructivist learning.

A Constructivist lesson continued...

2006-06-24T10:33:00.000+08:00

On reflection this lesson I created could have had a stronger scaffolding to help the students focus on the silhouette. I have given an exercise to year 11 Visual Design students where they had only random objects and muslin, which provided a limited focus on the colour and fabric choice. The year 10 Visual design students got caught up on focusing on the fabrics, which made the focus of the lesson shift a bit.

Group work can be very productive but can also disadvantage some groups. Some groups have highly motivated students who will help to focus the group keeping them on task creating exciting work. Then you have students who dominate groups making the others feel second best and unable to express their creative ideas. Then you can get groups of totally unmotivated students who will try to get away with doing nothing, letting down their groups.

Discovery learning at best is suited to the self-motivated student where as the less confidant, unexperienced or lazy student can fall behind and get lost and bored. Discovery learning has to be monitored by the teacher to make sure the student doesn’t start to focus on something that the teacher didn’t intend.

Overall this lesson was well received and encouraged the students in their next step of inspiration. They found the groups that they went on to design pieces for the WAVE production with. It encouraged them to play with brainstorming in a physical form rather than being limited to the pen and paper.

They all had a lot of fun and were very pleased with their final products.
It was fascinating to see the ideas blossom and the dynamic of the groups un fold.

ACTION RESEARCH

2006-06-24T07:36:00.000+08:00

A (usually cyclic) process by which change and understanding can be pursued at the one time, with action and critical reflection taking place in turn. The reflection is used to review the previous action and plan the next one. (Dick 1997)

http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/learning/literate-futures/glossary.html

Action research is a fancy way of saying let’s study what’s happening at our school and decide how to make it better place. Emily Calhoun (1994)

Action research is a three-step spiral process of: 1 planning which involves reconnaissance;
2 taking action; 3 fact finding about the results of action. Kurt Lewin (1947)

Action research aims to contribute to the practical concerns of people in an immediate problematic situation and to the goals of social science by joint collaboration within a mutually acceptable ethical framework. (Rapoport 1970: 499)

Action research is a method that as a Design teacher I am always using. When I plan a class I will make the item that I have set as their project, (“planning which involves reconnaissance”) the I will teach the lesson, (“taking action”), then I study the results of the lesson through it’s effectiveness, evaluating the way I have constructed the lesson, the way in which they have responded to the instructions and the results of their projects. Then I start again with the action of how I would do it differently when teaching the same lesson or another one. As a teacher we should be going through this process everyday.
As a learner one also follows this cyclic process of ‘action research’.
This whole blog has been just that Action Research.

DISTRIBUTED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

2006-06-24T07:29:00.000+08:00

"Distributed learning is not just a new term to replace the other 'DL,' distance learning. Rather, it comes from the concept of distributed resources. Distributed learning is an instructional model that allows instructor, students, and content to be located in different, non-centralized locations so that instruction and learning occur independent of time and place. The distributed learning model can be used in combination with traditional classroom-based courses, with traditional distance learning courses, or it can be used to create wholly virtual classrooms."

http://techcollab.csumb.edu/techsheet2.1/distributed.html

‘A distributed learning environment is a physical learning space that has been enhanced or extended by technology to include virtual features and capabilities’

Children’s learning happens in a distributed learning environment, an environment that incorporates the family, society, school culture, classroom and peers among other things. As an educator one needs to be aware of the different environments the students are coming in contact with and by taking this into account one can focus on the whole well being of the student rather than looking the school culture and classroom as an isolated facet of their learning environment. Thus creating a school system that encourages the possibility of deeper, higher order learning.

‘Computers can be a part of this environment, opening up a whole new Distributed Learning Environment within it’s self.’

Constructivist Theorist

2006-06-22T16:31:00.000+08:00

PIAGET

Piaget identified four stages of learning, which he believed where ‘universal (that is, they apply to everyone);…and that they are invariant (that is, unchanging), meaning that the order in which children pass through the stages can not be varied.’(From the ‘Education Phycology-Krause, Bochner and Duchesne 2003)

1 Sensorimotor: (birth to about age 2)
2 Preoperational: (begins about the time the child starts to talk to about age 7)
3 Concrete: (about first grade to early adolescence)
4 Formal Operations: (adolescence)

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/piaget.htm

After reading Piagets theories one can appreciate the insight this man had by reflecting on ones own experiences of learning and teaching. Like most theorist there are the both the strengths and limitations, the ‘fors’ and ‘againsts” that could be discussed at great length but I would like to look at the relevant factors that promote higher learning in ICT in education.

Piaget ‘emphasised the importance of active problem solving’, a well-constructed Webquest can be an effective way for students to learn concepts by inquiry and problem solving, with the aid of the Internet and other resources. Webquests are a clever way to help educators filter the great expanse of the Internet into bite size chunks that can be evaluated for their relevance and quality. “Webquests are inquiry activities that present students with a challenging task, provide access to a range of resources (most often accessed through the Internet) and scaffold the learning process to promote higher order thinking.”(March, 2001) [From the ‘Educational Phycology-Krause, Bochner and Duchesne 2003])

Piaget ‘was particularly interested in peer interaction as a means for children to expand their ideas, to overcome conflicts and achieve shared solutions that are more mature than individual efforts (Brown, Metz and Campione, 1996 [From the ‘Educational Phycology-Krause, Bochner and Duchesne 2003]))

I have seen this theory realised through my observations of a Year 8 (14 year old) digital media/ film/ art class especially the male students. Year 8 at the best of times are hard to keep quite let alone focused, interested and committed. But through the use of programs such as I Movie, Final Cut Pro, Garage Band and PhotoShop in a art theory / art making class these students are producing articulate, postmodern, creative, innovative and stimulating work.
This Social Constructivist learning environment has “encouraged learner-centred experiences and activities”, “provided opportunities for learners to work together” and “assisted novice learning to develop expertise” thus achieving the deeper order learning that it is postulated ICT can facilitate.

Vygotsky

“One of the many advantages of computer-based learning resources is their capacity for facilitating individualised learning. This is evident in behaviourist-style drill-and-practice programs, but computers may also function as scaffolds that identify a learner’s ‘zone of proximal development’ and foster their cognitive development (Salomom, Perkins, and Globerson, 1991)

“ZDP- the distance between children’s current level of competence on a task and the level they can achieve with supporter guidance. [From the ‘Educational Phycology-Krause, Bochner and Duchesne 2003]

Vygotsky also stressed the “importance of social interaction in learning” [From the ‘Educational Phycology-Krause, Bochner and Duchesne 2003]
After reading Vygotskys theories I believe one of the important things he observed was that learning and development occurs within a ‘sociohistorical’ and ‘sociocultral’ context.
Taking that into consideration educators need to very aware of the way ICT is used within today’s society. As a teacher of teenagers they themselves are one of best benchmarks in discovering what is new, interesting and relevant to them in the ICT world. For most teenagers computers are an everyday reality through which they express themselves. They are not afraid to use them, navigating their way rapidly through any new programs that they encounter. These children can be MSNing, Downloading songs, whilst writing a word document without even a second thought. Today’s students are multi-taskers of the highest order so to bring ICT in as an effective educational tool the teachers have to form well structured scaffolding and relevant, achievable outcomes within the lesson.
The Postmodern society is the ‘socio-historical context’ in which we teach.

“Postmodernism is away of thinking which suggests that everything can be explained and interpreted in a number of different ways due to the changing nature of what is true and how we accept facts” (Revised HSC Visual Art in a month-Craig Malyon)

Postmodernism posses many question non more prevalent than ‘ownership’. In a world where copying information is as swift as a click of the mouse the issue of ownership becomes very blurred, especially when you look at it through the ideals of Postmodernism.
As an art movement Postmodernism revolves around the idea of appropriation, recontextualisation, and eclecticism deeply challenging traditional modes of thinking.
This is a ‘Brave new World’ in which we live where new rules have to be written to accommodate the rapidly morphing realm of Cyber Space. This becomes an issue when setting students tasks to research information, which these days will be done primarily on the Internet. First there is the question of the quality of the information with which they have easy access to through such search engines as ‘Google’ (a search engine that lists there websites by popularity [how many hits]). Then once the information is found there’s the quick copy, cut, paste method of creating a document, this is an easy and tempting road for some students and an even less productive method than copying straight from a book. At least the student will have had to read the information as it was copied which isn’t the case when using a computer.
Computers have many quick, effective and resourceful qualities as a cognitive tool but they have just as many negative ones and as an educator it’s best to find a balanced and enhancing way to integrate them into education.

“Vygotsky argued very strongly that the children and the environment interact to mould cognition in a culturally appropriate way” [From the ‘Educational Phycology-Krause, Bochner and Duchesne 2003]

Howard Garner

Howard Garner states in this article “Multiple Intelligences after twenty years” written in 2003 that MI (Multiple Intelligences) ‘should not in it’s self be an educational goal. Educational goals need to reflect one’s own values, and these can never come simply or directly from a scientific theory.’

http://pzweb.harvard.edu/PIs/HG_MI_after_20_years.pdf

After reading this article I feel I have formed a better understanding of how Garners MI could be used to help formulate lessons.
The way in which instructions are given is a great example of how teachers could take in to consideration the different ‘intelligences’. A well formulated interactive website uses among other things text, graphics, photos, animation and video to instructed and inform the student of the task and information thus considering some of the intelligences.

Using this web site, http://www.mitest.com/omitest.htm, teachers could test their classes to establish what intelligences the class is made up of, the teacher could also use observation of different class activities to form a even deeper understanding of this.

Bruner

Bruner like Vygotsky observed that knowledge was constructed not in isolation but in a ‘social context’. He was a structural theorist, who believed ‘knowledge is most effectively gained by personal discovery’ and that teachers would engage students in a ‘active dialogue’ and guide them when necessary so that students would progressively build their own knowledge base, rather than be ‘taught’.

In the year 8 film class of which I have already written about, I have observed these theories in practice. These students have been guided by film makers / teachers who have implemented the students personal discovery in the finer points of the art of film making.
By encouraging, supporting, and providing the scaffolding, the ‘hows’ in using the programs, the teachers have helped the students understand the cognitive tool and facilitated the possibility of higher order learning in the realm of ICT.

It is surely the case that schooling is only one small part of how a culture inducts the young into its canonical ways. Indeed, schooling may even be at odds with a culture's other ways of inducting the young into the requirements of communal living.... What has become increasingly clear... is that education is not just about conventional school matters like curriculum or standards or testing. What we resolve to do in school only makes sense when considered in the broader context of what the society intends to accomplish through its educational investment in the young. How one conceives of education, we have finally come to recognize, is a function of how one conceives of culture and its aims, professed and otherwise. (Jerome S. Bruner 1996: ix-x)

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm

For me this sums up the way in which all education should be considered. In an ideal world Education would be about the whole wellbeing of the a child who is living within a conscious community whose ideals and expectations are interconnected.

A constructivist approach...

2006-06-18T13:55:00.001+08:00

Welcome to our Computer generated world!

Here in Cyber SPACE this BLOG has been created to facilitate my ‘higher order learning’ on the topic of ICT in education. Within this BLOG I plan to start the discussion on the ‘relevance of the constructivist approach to education’ with in the realm of computer technology.

What is a Constructivist learning environment?

“Constructivists believe that knowledge is ‘constructed’, that the thinker is both mentally and physically active in this construction and that the sociocultural context in which knowledge construction occurs provides the thinker with invaluable resources, support and direction.” (Fosnot, 1993; Phillips, 2000; Wells and Chang-Wells, 1992)
From the ‘Education Phycology-Krause, Bochner and Duchesne 2003

At best a Constructivist Learning Environment acknowledges the rapidly changing world we live in, and by doing so allows students to become active learns within the new modern world that they see surrounding them.
This point is illustrated affectively in the realm of ICT in education. As an educator one must be constantly updating ones skills in ICT to keep up with the upcoming ‘Digital Natives’, whose knowledge supersedes most older generations from generation ‘Y’ and below. But even with sufficient skills ICT is still a new realm in which educators need to find the best possible way of facilitating higher learning.
I think the key to using ICT effectively in the classroom is to ensure that as a cognitive tool the computer is used to enhance learning rather than becoming the ‘object of construction’ (McClintock, 1992[From the ‘Educational Phycology-Krause, Bochner and Duchesne 2003])

The Constructivist approach to education “focuses on cognition as a collaborative process”(Rosoff, 1998); computer technologies when effectively used promote both interactivity between machines and user, and between users’. (Pachler, 2001)