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Heather Kurto

The Myth of Learning Styles - 0 views

  • . While many of those scientists seek to discover general principles of learning, we all acknowledge that there are differences among students. Understanding these differences and applying that understanding in the classroom can improve everyone's education
  • First, whether we call it talent, ability, or intelligence, people vary in their capacity to learn different areas of content
  • Second, and often intertwined with ability, students differ in their interests. If a student loves the piano, or basketball, or chess, or the biology of frogs, that student will no doubt learn material related to that subject faster than another one who does not share that fascination.
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  • Third, students differ in their background knowledge, and that difference influences their learning
  • Many students will report preferring to study visually and others through an auditory channel. However, when these tendencies are put to the test under controlled conditions, they make no difference—learning is equivalent whether students learn in the preferred mode or not
  • The emphasis on learning styles, we think, often comes at the cost of attention to these other important dimension
  • just as our social selves have personalities, so do our memories.
  • Finally, some students have specific learning disabilities, and these affect their learning in specific ways.
  • The proof that the learning-styles theorist must find is that for some sort of content—whether it be math, poetry, or dodgeball—changing the mode of presentation to match the learning styles helps people learn. That evidence has simply not been found.
  • While such evidence of learning styles would serve as a proof that they exist, the lack of evidence does not prove definitively that they do not exist
  • Teachers should take into account the differences in learners' abilities. And adjusting a lesson not just to be appropriately pitched at the students' level of ability but to take into account their background knowledge and interests is surely an important first step in fostering learning.
  • if a student believes she is a visual learner and therefore disengages and daydreams when a lecturer turns off the PowerPoint and tells a story, this will prevent her from learning the concept through a compelling narrative. And while these beliefs may not have as direct an impact on performance reviews as they do in K-12 settings, a belief in learning styles occasionally shows up in student evaluations of teaching:
  • (can the auditory learner learn geography through hearing it? Can the visual learner become better at music by seeing it?)
  • Third, learning-styles theory has succeeded in becoming “common knowledge.” Its widespread acceptance serves as an unfortunately compelling reason to believe it
  • econd, learning-styles theory is sometimes offered as a reason to include digital media in the classroom.
  • . We shouldn't congratulate ourselves for showing a video to engage the visual learners or offering podcasts to the auditory learners. Rather, we should realize that the value of the video or audio will be determined by how it suits the content that we are asking students to learn and the background knowledge, interests, and abilities that they bring to i
  • Assessment of student interest can also be a useful tool for deciding how to approach the material in a given class
  • Students differ in their abilities, interests, and background knowledge, but not in their learning styles. Students may have preferences about how to learn, but no evidence suggests that catering to those preferences will lead to better learning. As college educators, we should apply this to the classroom by continuing to present information in the most appropriate manner for our content and for the level of prior knowledge, ability, and interests of that particular set of students.
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    Great article for all teachers. Thank you!
Maria Guadron

Definition of Social Work | IFSW - 0 views

  • Send me updates var fnames = new Array();var ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]='EMAIL';ftypes[0]='email'; try { var jqueryLoaded=jQuery; jqueryLoaded=true; } catch(err) { var jqueryLoaded=false; } var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]; if (!jqueryLoaded) { var script = document.createElement('script'); script.type = 'text/javascript'; script.src = 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.4/jquery.min.js'; head.appendChild(script); if (script.readyState && script.onload!==null){ script.onreadystatechange= function () { if (this.readyState == 'complete') mce_preload_check(); } } } var script = document.createElement('script'); script.type = 'text/javascript'; script.src = 'http://downloads.mailchimp.com/js/jquery.form-n-validate.js'; head.appendChild(script); var err_style = ''; try{ err_style = mc_custom_error_style; } catch(e){ err_style = '#mc_embed_signup input.mce_inline_error{border-color:#6B0505;} #mc_embed_signup div.mce_inline_error{margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 5px 10px; background-color:#6B0505; font-weight: bold; z-index: 1; color:#fff;}'; } var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]; var style= document.createElement('style'); style.type= 'text/css'; if (style.styleSheet) { style.styleSheet.cssText = err_style; } else { style.appendChild(document.createTextNode(err_style)); } head.appendChild(style); setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250); var mce_preload_checks = 0; function mce_preload_check(){ if (mce_preload_checks>40) return; mce_preload_checks++; try { var jqueryLoaded=jQuery; } catch(err) { setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250); return; } try { var validatorLoaded=jQuery("#fake-form").validate({}); } catch(err) { setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250); return; } mce_init_form(); } function mce_init_form(){ jQuery(document).ready( function($) { var options = { errorClass: 'mce_inline_error', errorElement: 'div', onkeyup: function(){}, onfocusout:function(){}, onblur:function(){} }; var mce_validator = $("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").validate(options); $("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").unbind('submit');//remove the validator so we can get into beforeSubmit on the ajaxform, which then calls the validator options = { url: 'http://ifsw.us4.list-manage2.com/subscribe/post-json?u=2ba1006fc5fe4f46217ba1378&id=f1659bc18d&c=?', type: 'GET', dataType: 'json', contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8", beforeSubmit: function(){ $('#mce_tmp_error_msg').remove(); $('.datefield','#mc_embed_signup').each( function(){ var txt = 'filled'; var fields = new Array(); var i = 0; $(':text', this).each( function(){ fields[i] = this; i++; }); $(':hidden', this).each( function(){ var bday = false; if (fields.length == 2){ bday = true; fields[2] = {'value':1970};//trick birthdays into having years } if ( fields[0].value=='MM' && fields[1].value=='DD' && (fields[2].value=='YYYY' || (bday && fields[2].value==1970) ) ){ this.value = ''; } else if ( fields[0].value=='' && fields[1].value=='' && (fields[2].value=='' || (bday && fields[2].value==1970) ) ){ this.value = ''; } else { this.value = fields[0].value+'/'+fields[1].value+'/'+fields[2].value; } }); }); return mce_validator.form(); }, success: mce_success_cb }; $('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').ajaxForm(options); }); } function mce_success_cb(resp){ $('#mce-success-response').hide(); $('#mce-error-response').hide(); if (resp.result=="success"){ $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(resp.msg); $('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').each(function(){ this.reset(); }); } else { var index = -1; var msg; try { var parts = resp.msg.split(' - ',2); if (parts[1]==undefined){ msg = resp.msg; } else { i = parseInt(parts[0]); if (i.toString() == parts[0]){ index = parts[0]; msg = parts[1]; } else { index = -1; msg = resp.msg; } } } catch(e){ index = -1; msg = resp.msg; } try{ if (index== -1){ $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg); } else { err_id = 'mce_tmp_error_msg'; html = ' '+msg+''; var input_id = '#mc_embed_signup'; var f = $(input_id); if (ftypes[index]=='address'){ input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-addr1'; f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0); } else if (ftypes[index]=='date'){ input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-month'; f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0); } else { input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]; f = $().parent(input_id).get(0); } if (f){ $(f).append(html); $(input_id).focus(); } else { $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg); } } } catch(e){ $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg); } } } Definition of Social Work Definition* The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work. Commentary Social work in its various forms addresses the multiple, complex transactions between people and their environments. Its mission is to enable all people to develop their full potential, enrich their lives, and prevent dysfunction. Professional social work is focused on problem solving and change. As such, social workers are change agents in society and in the lives of the individuals, families and communities they serve. Social work is an interrelated system of values, theory and practice. Values Social work grew out of humanitarian and democratic ideals, and its values are based on respect for the equality, worth, and dignity of all people. Since its beginnings over a century ago, social work practice has focused on meeting human needs and developing human potential. Human rights and social justice serve as the motivation and justification for social work action. In solidarity with those who are dis-advantaged, the profession strives to alleviate poverty and to liberate vulnerable and oppressed people in order to promote social inclusion. Social work values are embodied in the profession’s national and international codes of ethics. Theory Social work bases its methodology on a systematic body of evidence-based knowledge derived from research and practice evaluation, including local and indigenous knowledge specific to its context. It recognises the complexity of interactions between human beings and their environment, and the capacity of people both to be affected by and to alter the multiple influences upon them including bio-psychosocial factors. The social work profession draws on theories of human development and behaviour an
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    The International Federation of Social Workers updated its 1982 definition of the social work profession, a dynamic and evolving field. Social Work values multiple types of knowledge, including empirical knowledge and indigenous knowledge.
Irene Watts-Politza

Online Teaching Effectiveness: A Tale of Two Instructors | Gorsky | The International R... - 0 views

  • We propose, as have others (i.e., Shea, Pickett, & Pelz, 2003), that the community of inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) reflects the principles of good practice in undergraduate education and can accurately quantify them.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Go, Dr. Pickett!
  • issues of pedagogy, dialogue, and interaction
  • guide the coding of transcripts.
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  • Social presence is the perceived presence of others in mediated communication (Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 1999), which Garrison et al. (2000) contend supports both cognitive and teaching presence through its ability to instigate, to sustain, and to support interaction. It had its genesis in the work of John Dewey and is consistent with all theoretical approaches to learning in higher education.
  • Teaching presence is defined as “the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing [students’] personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile outcomes” (Anderson et al., 2001, p.5). Vygotsky’s (1978) scaffolding analogies illustrate an assistive role for teachers in providing instructional support to students from their position of greater content knowledge. Although many authors recommend a “guide on the side” approach to moderating student discussions, a key feature of this social cognition model is the adult, the expert, or the more skilled peer who scaffolds a novice’s learning
  • Shea, Pickett, & Pelz , 2004
  • Each category of a tutor’s presence is vital to learning and to the establishment of the learning community; tutors' behavior must be such that they are seen to be “posting regularly, responding in a timely manner and modeling good online communication and interaction” (Palloff & Pratt, 2003, p.118). Without an instructor’s explicit guidance and “teaching presence,” students were found to engage primarily in “serial monologues” (Pawan et al., 2003). Baker (2004) discovered that “instructor immediacy, i.e., teaching presence (Rourke et al., 1999), was a more reliable predictor of effective cognitive learning than whether students felt close to each other. Studies have demonstrated that instructor participation in threaded discussion is critical to the development of social presence (Shea, Li, Swan, & Pickett, 2005; Swan & Shih, 2005) and sometimes not fully appreciated by online faculty (Liu, Bonk, Magjuka, Lee, & Su, 2005). Shea, Li, and Pickett (2006) proposed that teaching presence – viewed as the core role of the online instructor – is a promising mechanism for developing learning community in online environments.
  • students ranked instructor modeling as the most important element in building online community, while instructors ranked it fourth.
  • Shea (2006), who completed an extensive study of teaching presence and online learning, concluded that two categories (“design” and “directed facilitation”) sufficed to define the construct.
  • Kalman, Ravid, Raban, and Rafaeli (2006) argued that interactivity is an essential characteristic of effective online communication and plays an important role in keeping message threads and their authors together. Interactive communication (online as well as in traditional settings) is engaging, and loss of interactivity results in a breakdown of the communicative process.
  • Research indicates the existence of a relationship between learners’ perceptions of social presence and their motivation for participation in online discussions (Weaver & Albion, 2005).
  • Northrup (2002) found that online learners felt it was important for instructors to promote collaboration and conversation. When interactive activities are carefully planned, they lead not only to greater learning but also to enhanced motivation (Berge 1999; Northrup, 2002).
  • Researchers have suggested that timing of messages can serve as a proxy for a sense of social presence (Blanchard, 2004), as an indication of attentiveness (Walther & Bunz, 2005) or respect (Bargh & McKenna, 2004), and as a clue to the sociability of a community (Maloney-Krichmar & Preece, 2005). As such, the frequency of messages may serve as a signal for how engaged participants are with the community.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Agreed.
  • Eom found that the most significant factors for increasing student satisfaction with online classes are paying attention to students and responding to their concerns.
  • The highly esteemed instructor was especially active from semester midpoint to semester end; she more than doubled her active participation in both teaching presence (especially discourse and instruction) and social presence (all three categories).
  • the lack of specific, progressively structured inquiry tasks and/or the lack of facilitation skills (teaching presence/facilitating discourse) may have contributed to the relatively limited occurrences of cognitive presence.
  • something else accounted for the extreme satisfaction and dissatisfaction experienced by students in the two forums. The something else may be the two exceptional events that occurred during the third month: The instructor held in low esteem became nearly dysfunctional, while the highly esteemed instructor exhibited very high teacher presence and social presence (see Table 3 and 4).
  • Shea, Pickett, and Pelt (2003) found that students’ perceived teacher presence also correlates with perceived learning as well as with students’ satisfaction with the forum. This correlation points to the tentative conclusion that teaching presence affords learning by setting a convenient climate.
  • we suggest that students’ perceived learning in course forums has a significant impact on their participation
  • the table is suggestive of the eventual possibility of having an “objective” tool for evaluating the quality of a given forum.
  • (Anderson et al., 2001).
  • Teaching effectiveness may be defined as how an instructor can best direct, facilitate, and support students toward certain academic ends, such as achievement and satisfaction. Teaching effectiveness has been investigated extensively in traditional classrooms for more than seven decades (for a meta-analysis of empirical studies from 1995-2004, see Seidel & Shavelson, 2007). Over the past five years, research has become directed toward teaching effectiveness in online or virtual classes. As a preface to our study, we discuss findings and conclusions concerning teaching effectiveness in traditional classrooms.
  • Journal Help ISSN: 1492-3831 Journal Content Search All Authors Title Abstract Index terms Full Text Browse By Issue By Author By Title User Username Password Remember me Article Tools Abstract Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item Review policy Email this article (Login required) Email the author (Login required) Post a Comment (Login required) Font Size Make font size smaller Make font size default Make font size larger SUBSCRIBE TO MAILING LIST 5,591  subscribers Select Language​▼ function googleTranslateElementInit() { new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en', autoDisplay: false, layout: google.translate.TranslateElement.InlineLayout.SIMPLE }, 'google_translate_element'); } Home About Register Archives Announcements Resources Submissions http://www.irrodl.org/
  • One of the most widely cited sources for teacher effectiveness in traditional classrooms is Chickering and Gamson (1987), who suggested seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education.
  • encourages student-faculty contact, encourages cooperation among students, encourages active learning, gives prompt feedback, emphasizes time on task, communicates high expectations, respects diverse talents and ways of learning.
Donna Angley

A Constructivist Approach to Teaching - 1 views

  • Presenting instructional content online requires faculty to consider course objectives and the learning outcomes that are produced. How those outcomes are achieved and by how many students are important concerns of higher education institutions and their faculty members
  • Constructivism, on the other hand, is founded on the notion that “the only important reality is in the learner’s mind, and the goal of learning is to construct in the learner’s mind its own, unique conception of events”
  • learner is not a passive recipient but rather the center of instruction
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  • constructivists believe in independent exploration by students that will lead to a deeper understanding of the content
  • cooperative/collaborative approach
  • socio-cultural model
  • cooperative or collaborative model of learning argues that learning occurs as an individual interacts with other individuals
  • socio-cultural model of learning argues that learning best occurs when the learning event is meaningful, more deeply or elaborately processed, situated in context, and rooted in the learner’s cultural background and personal knowledge
  • one goal is to create a meaningful environment that includes communication and collaboration
  • New technologies allow for construction of knowledge through what is actually deeper reflection by the learner
  • Through groups and other learning interactions with their online peers, students acquire deeper understanding because of the “opportunities for exposure to multiple perspectives and interpretations
  • Learning involves active cognitive processing
  • Learning is adaptive
  •   Learning is subjective, not objective
    • jessica mascle
       
      again, does it need to be balanced?
  • Learning involves both social/cultural and individual processes
  • socializing function by fostering a friendly environment
  • Organizing involves setting the objectives, procedural rules, and timetables
  • intellectual role, guide the students’ journey to understanding. This is accomplished by probing and questioning students about their responses, by summarizing main themes, and by linking these to assignments such as readings, written responses, and independent and group projects.
  • discussion board posts serve as learning artifacts as well as springboards for more learning and the development of community
  • social negotiation and mediation
  • authentic and real-world environments
  • Teachers serve primarily as guides and facilitators
  • prompting students to develop their own inquiry questions
  • allowing students to express their knowledge through multiple avenues
  • encouraging group projects and collaborative learning
  • If, on the other hand, we believe that learners actively construct knowledge in their attempts to make sense of their world, then learning will likely emphasize the development of meaning and understanding
  • use of discussion boards
  • provide forums that require students to research an area of interest and report back to the class in the forum
  • incorporates collaborative elements
  • instructor should build in as many collaborative opportunities for group work
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    ooooh execllent tags highlighting and comments!!
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    The author contends that using a learning-centered, or constructivist, approach in online courses is critical to student success.
alexandra m. pickett

Thoughts About Teaching Spanish Online - 0 views

  • In an online environment it is fundamental.  Discussions generate questions, and questions promote critical thinking.  I now firmly believe, and understand, that in order to promote a higher level of language usage, I need to help my students learn how to think critically through questioning.  This is best accomplished through a dialogue format, where all students are expected to contribute in a relaxed and supportive learning environment.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      Brilliant!!! yes! you are getting it!
  • I am wondering if there is a way to copy a module set-up, and then simply customize the web pages within each module. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      i wish there were in moodle but to my knowlege there is not. Believe me, i understand.
  • Suddenly, the student is propelled to think clearly and critically, as now their core ideas have the potential to be shared with anyone, anywhere.
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  • t occurred to me that real learning requires the removal of classroom walls in the sense that students need to be made to feel empowered  in their ability to learn independently, as well as in the amount of information they learn. 
  • Personal stories give life to a faceless person, just as they do in literature.  We come to know, like, love, despise, and sympathize with characters the more we know about them.  Online it is very different in the sense that we are communicating interactively, but unless we become ‘real’ to our students, there will be a disconnect between instructor-student that must ultimately interfere with knowledge acquisition, particularly since effective teaching presence has been shown to directly affect the quality of education in online environments based on interactions between students and instructors (Alex – Breeze presentation module 5).
  • Specifically, I need to ask myself:  Do these questions simply ask student to use their  foundational knowledge, and book resources,  in order to answer the questions? Or do they need to think, analyze, research and push themselves cognitively in order to understand, and answer, the posted questions?
  •   Online learning requires a different framework of thinking and behaving.  It requires a sense of self-reliance, responsibility and an openness to collaboration and reflection. 
  • Many of our high school students are not equipped with these survival skills. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      barbara: it is my experience that students rise to your expectations. I have seen remarkable work by k12 students and lower level college students. And even if it is true that they are not well equipped, they will have a fantastic teacher in you to get them there : ) me
  • online learning not only allows students to learn according to their favored multiple intelligences (visual, auditory, tactile, etc.), it also allows students to learn according to their own rate of information reception.  While the classroom forces us all to be quick thinkers, and immediate responders, many of us are not.  We need time to formulate ideas, responses and concepts.  Students who cannot respond immediately are left out of the learning environment and many may eventually ‘check-out’. 
  • Seeing others accomplish things that I had either not thought of, or was too intimidated to attempt, made me take chances. 
  • This is what learning is all about – moving out of our comfort zone and pushing our possibilities.
Anne Deutsch

Wikipedia: Beneath the Surface - 0 views

  • This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
    • Anne Deutsch
       
      Good - no barriers to use
  • focuses on questions such as "what is a wiki?" "How does information get into Wikipedia in the first place?" and "Who creates it?"
    • Anne Deutsch
       
      Not only does it focus on questions, it encourages students to "dig deeper" - tying into two of our course themes!
    • Anne Deutsch
       
      This is a great video for my "working knowledge" section - it helps students understand both the benefits and drawbacks of Wikis and how to best use wikipedia for academic research.
Diane Gusa

Teachers as experts in . . . inquiry? « Fires in the Mind - 0 views

  • Browse: Home / Featured Posts / Teachers as experts in . . . inquiry? Teachers as experts in . . . inquiry? A study just published in Science magazine sure makes one think twice about how we deliver “content knowledge” the classroom. The method by which a course is taught, it indicates, may be even more important than the instructor’s background. In a college physics class, listening to a lecture by a highly experienced and respected professor yielded fa
  • a control group performed more than twice as well when their teachers—a research associate and a graduate student—used discussions, active learning, and assignments in which students had to grapple with both new and old information.
  • “deliberate practice,
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  • These students had time to synthesize and incorporate new ideas from the lecture into their prior knowledge and experiences.
  • ombined in-class practice and frequent formative assessments (such as pretests) with an emphasis on real-world applications.
Irene Watts-Politza

Disconnect: Common Core, Content, and Context | 21st Century Collaborative - 0 views

  • Maybe it is because standardization in some ways is demeaning to educators. They should be the designers of learning and orchestrators of creative curriculum implementation and student ownership of learning.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      When faculty develop their own courses it promotes autonomy and independence. The disconnect between SLOs and course development has already been discovered b at least one coursemate (Joan).
  • Testing data should be used by students themselves to improve learning choices and reflect upon the learning experience.
  • In my mind the problem with State and National tests is they support a belief that we can create a standardization of the learning process. Standardization of learning is what I am against. The belief that somehow it is possible to standardize thinking, knowledge construction, aha moments, innovation, learning, creativity, and even teachers themselves.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Many of these educational aspects fall within the development domain of online teching and learning.
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  • Teachers become part of the learning process. They bring the expertise in the art of learning, metacognition, research, and pedagogy. Their role should be to model best practice, to coach, facilitate, organize, ask good questions, negotiate learning contracts and to provide a safe, intriguing environment for learning.
  • If projects were crowdsourced out to student/teacher networks, other classes could join in and build and learn together.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Wow! Is this what is known as scalability?
  • The teacher could operate in the role of curator and bring in important content and resources he/she felt added to the understanding and expertise of the student designers. Technology would have an important role to play, but quietly in the background supporting the learning.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      It seems there is growing consensus that technology is learner-selected in order to support content learning. Use of technology for the sake of use of technology is not valuable.
Erin Fontaine

The Importance Of Teaching Culture In The Foreign Language Classroom - 0 views

  • In reality, what most teachers and students seem to lose sight of is the fact that ‘knowledge of the grammatical system of a language [grammatical competence] has to be complemented by understanding (sic) of culture-specific meanings [communicative or rather cultural competence]’ (Byram, Morgan et al., 1994: 4).
  • Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, so to speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. It is always in the background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language learners when they expect it least, making evident the limitations of their hard-won communicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world around them. (Kramsch, 1993: 1)
  • According to them, the teaching of culture has the following goals and is of and in itself a means of accomplishing them: To help students to develop an understanding of the fact that all people exhibit culturally-conditioned behaviours. To help students to develop an understanding that social variables such as age, sex, social class, and place of residence influence the ways in which people speak and behave. To help students to become more aware of conventional behaviour in common situations in the target culture. To help students to increase their awareness of the cultural connotations of words and phrases in the target language. To help students to develop the ability to evaluate and refine generalizations about the target culture, in terms of supporting evidence. To help students to develop the necessary skills to locate and organize information about the target culture. To stimulate students’ intellectual curiosity about the target culture, and to encourage empathy towards its people.
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  • teachers should ‘present students with a true picture or representation of another culture and language’ (Singhal, 1998). And this will be achieved only if cultural awareness is viewed as something more than merely a compartmentalised subject within the foreign language curriculum; that is, when culture “inhabits” the classroom and undergirds every language activity
ian august

Learning by teaching - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • Students as teachers in order to improve the learning-process
  • Jean-Pol Martin developed the concept systematically for the teaching of French as a foreign language and gave it a theoretical background in numerous publications.[9] 1987 he founded a network of more than a thousand teachers that employed learning by teaching (the specifical name: LdL = "Lernen durch Lehren") in many different subjects, documented its successes and approaches and presented their findings in various teacher training sessions.
  • . The new material is divided into small units and student groups of not more than three people are formed. Each group familiarizes itself with a strictly defined area of new material and gets the assignment to teach the whole group in this area
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  • Advantages Student work is more motivated, efficient, active and intensive due to lowered inhibitions and an increased sense of purpose By eliminating the class division of authoritative teacher and passive audience, an emotive solidarity is obtained. Students may perform many routine tasks, otherwise unnecessarily carried out by the instructor Next to subject-related knowledge students gain important key qualifications like teamwork planning abilities reliability presentation and moderation skills self-confidence Disadvantages The introduction of the method requires a lot of time. Students and teachers have to work more than usual. There is a danger of simple duplication, repetition or monotony if the teacher does not provide periodic didactic impetus.
  • Sudbury schools, since 1968, do not segregate students by age, so that students of any age are free to interact with students in other age groups. One effect of this age mixing is that a great deal of the teaching in the school is done by students.[18] Here are some statements about Learning by teaching in the Sudbury Schools:[19] "Kids love to learn from other kids. First of all, it's often easier. The child teacher is closer than the adult to the students' difficulties, having gone through them somewhat more recently. The explanations are usually simpler, better. There's less pressure, less judgment. And there's a huge incentive to learn fast and well, to catch up with the mentor. Kids also love to teach. It gives them a sense of value, of accomplishment. More important, it helps them get a better handle on the material as they teach; they have to sort it out, get it straight. So they struggle with the material until it's crystal clear in their own heads, until it's clear enough for their pupils to understand
  • This cooperative atmosphere mimics potential workplace scenerios that students would expect to find in there careers after college
  • Jean-Pol Martin (1989): Kontaktnetz: ein Fortbildungskonzept, in: Eberhard Kleinschmidt,E.(Hrsg.), Fremdsprachenunterricht zwischen Fremdsprachenpolitik und Praxis: Festschrift für Herbert Christ zum 60. Geburtstag, Tübingen. 389-400, (PDF 62 KB)
Diane Gusa

ISJ 27: MYTHS ABOUT ONLINE EDUCATION: - 0 views

  • Online education, on the other hand, is declared to be “a more student-centered, collabora- tive, and egalitarian learning environment” (Weisenberg & Hutton, 1996). In this new paradigm, students become self-motivated managers of their own learning instead of passive bystanders, with the ability to select learning activities that best fit their backgrounds, interests, and careers
  • (Zhang and Nunamaker, 2003), while instructors move away from the roles of an oracle, lecturer, and purveyor of knowledge toward those of a facilitator, guide, and mentor (Bernard et al., 2000; Eastmond, 1996; Leidner & Jarvenpaa, 1995; Murphy & Cifuentes, 2001; Raymond, 2000; Shedletsky & Aitken, 2001; Weisenberg & Hutton, 1996). In essence, it is believed that the online forum breaks down the teacher-student hierarchy (Weisenberg & Hutton, 1996).
  • Our conclusion after reviewing the various points of view on this issue is that the notion of stu- dent-centeredness needs to be further clarified before one can even start determining whether or not the student-centered philosophy is a precondition for effective online IS courses
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • This myth, somewhat related to myth #2, arises from and also reinforces the belief regarding the (allegedly) changing role of faculty.
  • This myth therefore implies that Page 11 Sarker & Nicholson 65 online education either automatically enables a change, or at the very least, requires a change in attitude/approach of the instructor in order to be effective
  • Our own conclusion is that the “guide” versus “sage” debate reflects deep-rooted assumptions and philosophical beliefs regarding the nature of education, including online education, rather than empirical reality associating pedagogical style and effectiveness of courses delivered over different media. I
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