Group items tagged

Excerpt: Reading has been taught by the translation procedure in EFL situations such as Japan. But today there is a trend towards the use of ESL-type "skills building" text books and procedures and, to a much lesser extent, towards extensive reading. There is a considerable difference between these two procedures, not only for teachers and learners. but aiso for the allocation of institutional resources. Despite this. there is little useful research comparing them. This paper examines previous research on extensive reading. and then describes an experiment comparing the improvement of reading comprehension by Japanese college freshmen taught by either a skills-based or extensive reading procedure. The results suggest that extensive reading may be at least as effective as skills-building. with the important advantage that it is more interesting: for the learners.

Chat comparing pedagogy, andragogy, heutagoty by Lindy McKeown.

Good chart comparing pedagogy, andragogy and heutagogy

Good chart comparing pedagogy, andragogy and heutagogy

Excellent statistics for my divorce/widowhood module. "Widowhood: Many married women will outlive their spouses. On average, women live seven years longer than their male counterparts, and women aged 65 and over are three times as likely as men of the same age to lose a spouse (44% compared with 14%).

online vs face to face vs blended

This study investigates the counter-intuitive observation that older students tend to thrive better than younger students in online classes. We use a variety of measures to compare performance and attitudes of undergraduates and continuing adult professionals in separate but nearly identical class sections led by the same instructor at a US university during the same nine-month study period. Findings are consistent with theoretical predictions about differences in readiness of younger and older adults for elf-directed learning experiences. Results also suggest that online educators should be proactive in stimulating younger students' participation in class discussions, and should find ways to evaluate explicitly the tacit learning that online discussion can foster.

This is the second in a series of three papers about online pedagogy and educational practice as part of the JISE "Online Education Forma." This paper deals with the question: How is teaching online different from conventional teaching? By comparing these differences along several dimensions, a set of recommended practices for online teaching emerges. This article examines issues such as online course organization and planning, teaching guidelines and constraints, relationships between students and teacher, lectures versus tutorials, and assessment of student performance. A transition is underway. The same networking and computing technology that has revolutionised global commerce, and many other facets of modem life, is now being targeted at education. Partnering the Internet with modern course management systems makes it possible for universities to offer online courscwork on a global basis. The critical task that lies ahead is to create and disseminate curricula of high quality online that students can embrace and educators can sustain. The overall objective of JISE's Online Education Forum is to examine the realities of college and university online teaching, and the processes of education using today's information technologies. The issues and insights discussed in this forum will provide educators with important tools and the understanding needed to embrace the world of online education. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Bloom's Taxonomy and designing/writing objectives, but how do we evaluate how well students employ the higher order thinking skills?

Study comparing effectiveness of community building practices in the f2f and ALN environments

Explains the differences between these two types of tests. Criterion-Referenced tests are based on learning outcomes and the application of knowledge rather than how one student compares with the norm group of students.

Abstract This meta-analysis of the experimental literature of distance education (DE) compares different types of interaction treatments (ITs) with other DE instructional treatments. ITs are the instructional and/or media conditions designed into DE courses, which are intended to facilitate student-student (SS), student-teacher (ST), or student-content (SC) interactions.

Love the step child reference!

MERLOT-Teaching at internet distance

module 4 merlot

An interesting article comparing two theories on constructivism

"Based on a 2008 survey of 20 virtual schools in 14 states, UF researchers found that the average yearly cost of online learning per full-time pupil was about $4,300. This compared with a national average cost per pupil of more than $9,100 for a traditional public school in 2006 (the most recent year in which such data was available). Their cost estimates covered course development and teaching, and administrative and technical expenses. "

For example, Mel Riddile points out that when one conditions on various measures of poverty, instead of trailing other nations, the U.S. actually comes out on top! He concludes that "when it comes to school improvement, it's poverty not stupid." Poverty causes educational deficiency. Now, I like to actually have data to play around with, in part because people have been known to lie about politically charged issues and in part because I like to have nice graphs (which are not provided by Riddile). Anyway, it turns out that international poverty data is pretty hard to come by and fraught with interpretational difficulties. On the other hand, the National Assessment of Educational Progress provides test data for most of the states in the U.S., and the U.S. Census Bureau provides data on the percentage of people in poverty by state. I took the NAEP data for 8th grade science achievement and regressed on the percentage of people below the poverty line for the measured states. The two are negatively associated: as poverty increases, science achievement scores decrease according to the relationship in the plot below. (Alaska, Kansas, Nebraska, and Vermont did not meet NAEP reporting guidelines and are not included in the plot above.) The association is highly significant (p=9.98*10-6). I also took pilot NAEP data for 8th grade mathematics achievement and regressed on the percentage of people below the poverty line for the measured states. (Evidently, the NAEP has only just started testing for mathematics achievement, and only eleven states were included in their pilot.) Again, the two are negatively associated. The slope of the relation turns out to be almost exactly the same as for science achievement. The association is not as significant, but it is still significant (p=0.0186). (My guess is the association is less significant in this case because fewer states were measured.) Clearly there is an association between poverty and achievement in science and mathem

This was taken from Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education (Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXX, no. 3, September 2000.

Article reviews evidence for multiple intelligences theory, the Mozart effect theory, and emotional intelligence theory and argues that despite their wide currency in education these theories lack adequate empirical support and should not be the basis for educational practice. Each theory is compared to theory counterparts in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuro- science that have better empirical support. The article considers possible reasons for the appeal of these 3 theories and concludes with a brief rationale for examining theories of cognition in the light of cognitive neuroscience research findings.

Wigram T. Indications in music therapy: evidence from assessment that can identify the expectations of music therapy as a treatment for autistic spec trum disorder (ASD): meeting the challenge of evidence based practice. Br J Music Ther. 2002;16:11-28.