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sherrilattimer

2001 Beder - 0 views

  • Their most commonly expressed intention was to meet learners' needs.
    • sherrilattimer
       
      Meeting learner's needs rather than challenging them to rise to find out more.
  • In contrast, the data from our 40 observations portrayed a type of instruction that was the near antithesis of learner-centered instruction. In each and every case the organizing unit of instruction was a teacher-prepared and teacher-delivered lesson. There was virtually no evidence of substantive learner input into decisions about instruction. Communication was overwhelmingly teacher-to-learner, learner-to-teacher. Learner-to-learner communication rarely occurred unless the teacher directed it to occur through such things as peer coaching exercises.
  • They enabled the teacher to determine if learners had "learned" the lesson and they supplemented the content of the lesson by reinforcing learners' correct responses and demonstrating the correct answer to learners whose responses were incorrect.
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  • Although adult literacy teachers intend to be learner-centered they, teach in teacher-directed ways. Why? Although it could be that teachers were induced to teach in teacher-directed ways by supervisors or other forces, we found no evidence of this. Rather, we conclude that there two reasons. The first pertains to the socialization process that all teachers and learners are products of. The roles of teacher and student are two of the most intensely socialized roles in our society. The great majority of the teachers we observed were certified in K-12 education. For them, socialization into the teacher role began in grade school and continued through their teacher training. For learners, socialization into the student role also began in grade school and continued until they dropped out of school.
    • sherrilattimer
       
      This is so true! If you ask a random person to teach a lesson, they think it's about standing in front of the room and talking to the group. They will ask questions, and ask for "students" to raise their hand to answer.
  • We infer that teachers taught in teacher-directed ways because that that way of teaching was a deeply ingrained product of their socialization.
  • teachers believed that their learners were primarily motivated toward obtaining their GEDs, and the perceived benefits of doing so, in the shortest possible time
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education. Thus teachers wanted to maximize efficiency and believed that teacher-directed, basic skills-oriented instruction was the best way of doing so.
  • Most teachers maintained a helping posture in class. Thus, there appears to be a duality to the meaning teachers of adult literacy education ascribe to their teaching. While their instruction is teacher directed, their learner-centered values and beliefs are manifest in their affective relations with learners. In this sense, for adult literacy teachers being learner-centered is not a teaching technology or methodology. Rather, it is a set of values that guide teacher-learner interactions.
    • sherrilattimer
       
      This is the key to all of it for me, personally. I think all of this is true for my co-workers and me.
  • Teachers liberally praised learners for correct answers and rarely sanctioned learners negatively for such things as being tardy or tuning out.
    • sherrilattimer
       
      I JUST finished writing this exact thing about myself!!! Who would have thought that I fit into the research-based mold of an adult literacy instructor.
  • If teacher-directed instruction is indeed a product of intense and protracted socialization and commonly held beliefs about learners' motivations, then changing teacher-directed behavior will be a very difficult task, perhaps requiring re-socialization. Such an effort may be beyond the means of the current professional development system in adult literacy education.
    • sherrilattimer
       
      I think it is beyond the means of the current professional development system in adult literacy education because there is a high rate of turnover. I think once someone has a certain degree of skill or education, they are seeking out another position. I think this report should have been followed up/accompanied by a survey of the teachers.
  • Equipped for the Future (Stein 1999) advocates a form of adult literacy based on what learners need to do in their roles of worker, parent and citizen.
  • Gillespie (1989) advocates an instructional model for adult literacy that emphasizes critical thinking.
  • the amount of time available for instruction was relatively short in comparison to elementary, secondary or higher education
Irene Watts-Politza

Teachers' Invisible Presence in Net-based Distance Education | Hult | The International... - 0 views

  • The stance taken in this paper, then, is constructivist – that conversation is learning in the making.
  • Any conversation, that is, draws on heteroglossia (Bakhtin’s neologism) – pools of different ideas whose elements, when exchanged, foster learning. According to Bakhtin, every utterance has a double significance. It is an expression of a 'unitary [common] language' used to conduct the conversation and, at the same time, it builds on the 'social and historical' differences embedded in the heteroglossia (1981, p. 272).
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This is what happens in a discussion thread.
  • Yuri Lotman,
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  • described conversations as multi-authored texts rather than as multi-voiced heteroglossia (see Bakhtin, 1994,
  • texts “fulfill at least two basic functions:
  • fulfilled best when the codes of the speaker and the listener most completely coincide and, consequently, when the text has the maximum degree of univocality” (1988, p. 34). The generation of new meanings occurs when there are differences between the speaker and the listener. Texts used in educational exchanges cease:
  • online adult education is not the delivery of texts but, rather, the creation and insertion of ‘thinking devices’ into conversation.
  • For this article we have concentrated on teacher and student views of teachers’ role orientations in online courses.
  • our intention has been to identify and clarify teaching ‘saliences’ that have emerged in online adult education in Sweden. In a wider sense, however, our analysis is also a response to the question: ‘Whatever happened to teaching in the learning society?’
  • the posting data support the claim that the teachers adopted an initiating role.
  • Greater activity:
  • Greater influence on topic:
  • Faster response times:
  • When asked about their views, all students felt that teachers played a central role in supporting Net-based learning. Indeed, some of them suggested that moderation in online settings of adult education is more important than in face-to-face settings.
  • Orientations to Teaching
  • Activity Orientation
  • In this perspective, teachers gave students tasks that activated them and, thereby, fostered their understanding of subject matter.
  • offered students tips about articles, books and Internet sites
  • Some students spoke about being activated by stimulating tasks that led them to engage with the Web and libraries, with one of them adding ‘seeking by your self is a pre-condition for learning.’ Active searching also meant that students came into contact with information which extended their learning beyond the task itself.
  • None of the teachers, however, was entirely satisfied with their dialogic or conference practice. Levels of engagement, dialogue, and initiative-taking were not as high as they had hoped. In response, they tried to promote conversation by encouraging students to react to each other’s postings, by organising tasks where cooperation and interaction was needed, or by introducing new aspects and questions when discussion faltered.
  • Further, teachers reported that they also tried to act as models of good behaviour by giving swift replies to student postings and by making their own postings appropriate yet concise.
  • In contrast to the teachers most of the student group were satisfied with the course conversations.
  • A few
  • felt that sharing different aspects of the subject matter with the teacher and fellow students raised fresh questions. It made them reach beyond the book, evoking learning and thinking along new pathways. Even if they thought that well-chosen tasks were the most effective way of fostering dialogue, they also expected the course leader to participate fully, developing new themes if student postings declined, and remaining alert to student proposals that might enhance the interchange of ideas and knowledge.
  • Many students emphasised the importance of teaching that corroborated or validated their learning.
  • None of the teachers, however, spontaneously offered this view as their primary role or orientation. Nevertheless, when asked whether they had any correspondence with students through private mailboxes rather than ‘conferences’ and ‘cafes,’ some of them said that they occasionally responded privately to correct misinterpretations.
  • This task raises many questions about teaching, highlighting the difference, for example, between instructionist and constructionist paradigms for learning (Wilensky, 1991). Would a too well-planned course be instructionist, thus constraining student influence and the pursuit of democracy? In their postings, teachers in this study felt that there was no necessary contradiction – that well-planned courses could, indeed, strengthen student influence. Nevertheless, busy distance education students, according to the teachers, often appreciate instructionist courses with clearly stated activities and tasks, even if the students are left with limited opportunities to ‘construct their own relationships with the objects of knowledge’ (Wilensky, 1991, p. 202).
  • Teacher’s invisible presence is exemplified in taking a stand-by role and/ or being reluctant to intervene. ‘The [teachers’] silence should be deafening,’ one teacher recommended. Although most of the teachers agreed that well-planned courses do not inhibit course dialogue, the fact that in their own online course deliberations they set aside time to discuss this issue may reflect ambivalence in their stance. The question of when and how teachers should intervene remains impossible to resolve, except in practice.
  • three different aspects of teaching,
  • a second conclusion – that the promotion of learning in an open environment requires an animating or steering presence. Such teaching, however, is not a process of instruction. And for this reason the word teacher may no longer be appropriate. In English, the word tutor is commonly used in adult education, because it has connotations of ‘supervision’ and ‘guardianship’ as well as ‘instruction’ (see Oxford English Dictionary). More recently, Salmon has suggested ‘e-moderating,’ but even moderation carries instructionist connotations – to exercise a controlling influence over; to regulate, restrain, control, rule (OED) – that may not be appropriate to all forms of liberal education. In the context of mainland Europe, the word pedagogue may be appropriate since, etymologically, pedagogue denotes someone engaged in 'drawing out.'
  • Intellectual development, however, can be an intra- as well as an inter-personal phenomenon. That is, learning may not come directly from teachers but rather from their absent or invisible presence. Online pedagogues, therefore, can be present in different ways. They may be present in person, participating in learning conversations. They may constitute an absent presence that, nonetheless, is embodied in the learning resources directed towards students (e.g., the selected readings or activities). Or pedagogues may exist merely as inner voices, inherited from the language of others, that (invisibly) steer the desires, self-regulation, and self-direction of learners. Indeed, this last pedagogic position ‘auto-didacticism,’ has always been central to the post-Enlightenment ideals of liberal adult education.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Here's the money.
  •  
    Swedish study of university student and professor attitudes toward satisfaction with and definition of teacher presence in online adult learning. Implications for course design with respect to knowing one's audience.
Heather Kurto

Pedagogical Love and Good Teacherhood | Määttä | in education - 1 views

shared by Heather Kurto on 15 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A teacher’s proficiency is manifested by the ability to look at the subject from a learner’s point of view, to foresee the critical junctions in learning, and to design teaching to meet learners’ information acquisition and collection processes (e.g., Zombylas, 2007).
  • van Manen (1991) claims that as teachers embrace all children, regardless of their characteristics they become real educators, and thus, educators’ pedagogical love becomes the precondition for pedagogical relations to grow (p
  • Individualistic features, position, nationality, gender, abilities, race, or language do not determine a human being’s value. Those differences based on skills, intelligence, or knowledge are insignificant compared with that basic human presence that is the same for all people: the right and need to be loved, accepted, and cared for as well as the right and need to grow and develop (Bradshaw, 1996; Lanara, 1981; Sprengel & Kelly, 1992).
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  • A teacher’s ethical caring means genuine caring, aspiring to understand and make an effort for pupils’ protection, support, and development. Because of this pedagogical caring, the teacher especially pursues pupils’ potential to develop and thus help them to find and use their own strengths.
  • Pedagogical love has been considered the core factor in the definition of good teacherhood for decades, though the characteristics of a good teacher have always included a variety of features. Features such as the ability to maintain discipline and order, set a demanding goal level, and the mastery of substance have been especially emphasized (e.g., Davis, 1993; Zombylas, 2007; Hansen, 2009)
  • Love influences the direction of people’s action as well as its intensity. Positive emotions, joy, strength, and the feeling of being capable lead mental energy toward the desired goal (Rantala & Määttä, 2011). Negative emotions, grief, fear, and anger cause entropy, an inner imbalance that burns off energy, brands the target with negative status, and pursues nullifying and undervaluing (e.g., Isen, 2001).
  • he educator’s task is to provide pupils with such stimuli and environment where students are guided to limit their instincts by controlling enjoyment and vital-based values, in order to be able to achieve higher values and skills (Solasaari, 2003).
  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990, 2000) has launched the concept that refers to an optimal or autotelic experience where people are riveted so comprehensively by a challenging performance that the awareness of time and place blurs. Flow is possible when the challenges in a task are balanced with an actor’s abilities. Flow is an enjoyable state of concentration and task orientation, leading to optimal performance, whether the case is wall creeping, chess playing, dancing, surgery, studying languages, painting, or composing music.
  • This sets challenges for skill development. If a task is too easy, it will bore. If it is too difficult, it will cause anxiety and fear. The exact experience of flow and the active sense of well-being resulting from the former, encourage people to develop and improve their skills. People are willing to strive for flow whether it was about love for math, art, programming, or orthopedics (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
  • In an interview, Gardner (as cited in Goleman, 1999) said flow is intrinsically rewarding without the hope for reward or threat of punishment. We should use learners’ positive moods (love) and through it get them to learn things about fields they can succeed in. People have to discover what they like, what things and doings they love and do these things. Even a child learns the best when he/she loves what he/she is doing and finds it enjoyable. (p. 126)
  • Pedagogical love might contribute to pupils’ learning and success by providing them with positive learning experiences, initial excitement, and perceived successes. These are the seeds of expertise as a positive feeling that can be considered the source of human strengths (Isen, 2001).
  • Pedagogical love springs from an individual learner’s presence persuading it to come forward more and more perfectly and diversely. A skillful educator does not just sit by and watch if a learner makes worthless choices or fails in his or her opportunities to grow and develop.
  • Haavio emphasized the meaning of pedagogical love in teachers’ work and considered that teachers’ work consists of the following two obligations: attachment to learners and dutiful perseverance of life values.
  • Pedagogical love speaks to interdependence—the recognition and acceptance that we need others.
  • Love appears in teaching as guidance toward disciplined work, but also as patience, trust, and forgiveness. The purpose is not to make learning fun, easy, or pleasing but to create a setting for learning where pupils can use and develop their own resources eventually proceeding at the maximum of their own abilities
  • A loving teacher reveals for a pupil the dimensions of his or her development in a manner of speaking. This is how a pupil’s self-esteem strengthens and he or she can develop toward higher activities from the lowest, pleasure-oriented ones. Achieving high-level skills is rewarding because it brings pleasure, and yet, it often demands—as mentioned previously—self-discipline and rejections
  • A teacher’s work is interpersonal and relational, with a teacher’s own personality fundamental to building relationships with students. A teacher’s work involves plenty of emotional strain. In addition, a teacher inevitably has to experience frustration in his or her work. There are many situations when a teacher will feel like she or he has failed regardless of the solution he or she creates.
  • Consequently, teachers are likely to experience guilt because they cannot sufficiently attend to all pupils in an appropriate way that is congruent with the notion of caring.
  • However, teachers have to realize that their own coping, motivation, and engagement require attention; they are not automatic.
  • Pedagogical love emerges through teachers’ emotions, learned models, moral attitude, and actions
  • Good teachers are examples to learners even in the most difficult life situations. Teachers have to believe in their work and endeavour to build a nurturing environment and a more humane world.
  • To be happy about life, to guide students to see the wonder and joy in the mundane is a teacher’s most important skill. Being able to help students find and negotiate the joy, wonder, happiness, and pain in the everydayness of life is an increasingly important quality in today’s insecurities, with the mounting pressure of increased demands for efficiency
ian august

Review of Weimer, Learning-Centered Teaching - 0 views

  • Chapter two examines the effects of too much teacher control and its adverse effects on student motivation, confidence, and enthusiasm for learning. Students are more likely to become self-regulated learners when some of the conditions of their learning are more in their control. Weimer does not advocate abandoning our professional responsibility and letting students determine course content or whether they will do assignments; instead she recommends that teachers establish parameters within which their students will select options. Increasing the decisions students can make about assignments and activities more fully engages them in the course and its content. Among Weimer’s suggestions are providing a variety of assignments to demonstrate learning the course outcomes (students choose a combination), negotiating policies about class participation, and letting students choose which material the teacher will review in class the period before a major test. 
  • . The function of content in a learner-centered course changes from covering content to using content
  • describes the changed role of the teacher in a learner-centered classroom from sage on stage to guide on the side
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  • When the teacher dominates the learning, students take shallow approaches to learning.
  • 1.  Teachers do learning tasks less. Assign to students some of the tasks of organizing the content, giving examples, summarizing discussions, solving problems, and drawing diagrams, charts, and graphs.            2.  Teachers do less telling; students do more discovering. Give a quiz on your syllabus and policies without going over it first. Let students discover information in assigned readings without presenting it first or summarizing it later.  3.  Teachers do more design work. Design activities and assignments that move students to new skill levels, motivate engagement in the course content by doing the work of practitioners in the discipline, and that develop self-awareness of their learning of the content. 4.   Faculty do more modeling. Demonstrate how a skilled learner (the teacher) continues to learn. Show them drafts of your articles, notes on your own reading in professional journals; talk aloud as you solve a problem, thereby revealing  and modeling your thinking process. 5.  Faculty do more to get students learning from and with each other. Create work for small groups to do in class. 6.  Faculty work to create climates for learning. Create a climate that promotes interaction, autonomy, and responsibility (more in chapter five). 7.  Faculty do more with feedback. In addition to assigning grades, use other means of providing frequent feedback (more in chapter six).
  • focuses on student responsibility for learning and how to promote it.
  • transforming passive students into autonomous learners
  • The more structured we make the environment, the more structure students need
  • The more motivation we provide, the less they find within themselves. The more responsibility for learning we try to assume, the less they accept on their own. The more control we exert, the more restive their response. We end up with students who have little commitment to and almost no respect for learning and who cannot function without structure and imposed control. (p. 98)
  • The more we decide for students, the more they expect us to decide.
  • eimer explains several strategies for creating a climate that produces self-regulated intrinsically motivated learners: 
  • The instructor should “make the content relevant, demonstrate its power to answer questions, and otherwise show its apparent intrigue.” Make the student responsible for learning decisions by relying on logical consequences of action and inaction, rather than punishment. For example, to deal with lateness, present important material or assignments early in the period that you do not repeat, rather than deduct attendance points for lateness. Do not summarize chapters if students have not read them. If they arrive unprepared, put the unread material on a test; give frequent tests. Be consistent in administering policies. If your syllabus says late homework is not accepted, never accept late homework despite the heart-wrenching excuse offered by the student. Involve students in a discussion of creating a climate that promotes learning. Have this discussion early in the semester. Weimer’s suggestion for starting the discussion is to have students complete sentence stems such as “In the best class I ever had, teachers . . .” “In the best class I ever had, students . . .” “I learn best when . . .” “I feel most confident as a learner when . . .” (p. 108) Obtain feedback on the classroom climate occasionally and revisit the discussion of policies and procedures. Employ practices that “encourage students to encounter themselves as learners” (p. 111). Explain the purposes and benefits of assignments and projects; tell students what problems they might run into in doing the assignments and suggest remedies. Help them with time management. With group projects, provide guidance in managing the project, handling group dynamics, and assigning individual responsibilities.
  • helps us deal with the fact that almost all students will resist their teacher’s learning-centered approaches. Most of the learner-centered strategies recommended in this book change what students have become accustomed to. Understanding the reasons will help teachers deal with the inevitable student resistance when they present learner-centered practices and policies that withdraw the support students have become dependent upon during their first twelve years of schooling. The good news is that most students see the benefits of learner-centered approaches and benefit from them.
  • , why do students resist it? Based on her research, Weimer lists four reasons: Learner-centered approaches are more work. When the teacher does not summarize the important points in the chapter, the students will have to read it for themselves. When the teacher asks small groups to produce five applications of a concept, rather than supply it in a handout, the students have to do more work. Learner-centered approaches are more threatening. Students who lack confidence in themselves as learners become filled with anxiety at the prospect of becoming responsible for decisions that might be wrong. Students who are not used to questions with no single, authority-approved right answer are fearful of being wrong. Learner-centered approaches involve losses. The strategies recommended in this book are designed to move students to higher stages of self-directedness and higher stages of intellectual development. Moving from one stage to another requires a loss of certainty and the comfort that certainty brings. Learner-centered approaches may be beyond students. Some students’ lack of self-confidence or intellectual immaturity may prevent their accepting responsibility for their own learning.
  • overcome student resistance to learner-centered approache
  • The communication is frequent and explicit The communication encourages and positively reinforces The communication solicits feedback from students The communication resists their resistance.
  • developmental approach to transforming passive dependent learners into self-confident autonomous learners. Learners become self-directed in stages, not in one sin
  • moment of transformatio
Joan McCabe

Teaching Adults: Is It Different? - 0 views

  • The following assumptions underlie Knowles' (1984) andragogical model: o Adults tend to be self-directing. o Adults have a rich reservoir of experience that can serve as a resource for learning. o Since adults' readiness to learn is frequently affected by their need to know or do something, they tend to have a life-, task-, or problem-centered orientation to learning as contrasted to a subject-matter orientation. o Adults are generally motivated to learn due to internal or intrinsic factors as opposed to external or extrinsic forces.
  • Knowles has gradually modified his position regarding the contrast between how preadults learn (pedagogy) and how adults learn (andragogy). According to Feuer and Geber (1988), "[w]hat he once envisioned as unique characteristics of adult learners, he now sees as innate tendencies of all human beings, tendencies that emerge as people mature" (p. 33). Nevertheless, the andragogical model has strongly influenced the adult education field, with one result being the assumption teaching adults should differ from teaching children and adolescents.
  • CONSIDERATIONS FOR PRACTICE Is teaching adults different? Based on the literature discussed here, the answer is both yes and no. Although teachers perceive adults as being different, these perceptions do not automatically translate into differences in approaches to teaching. Perhaps a better way to frame the question is to ask "Should teaching adults be different?" According to Darkenwald and Beder (1982), "the real issue is not whether learner-centered methods are universally applied by teachers of adults, but rather for what purposes and under what conditions such methods, and others are most appropriate and effective and in fact used by teachers" (p. 153). Gorham (1985), in citing studies that identified interaction patterns of "master" preadult teachers as being less directive and more student-centered than those of "average" preadult teachers, suggests that "the most cogent prescription might be to define responsive teaching techniques as the approved practice for educators at all levels..." (p. 207). Based on these observations, some considerations for practice emerge. 1. Determine the purpose of the teaching-learning situation. The andragogical or learner-centered approach is not appropriate in all adult education settings (Feuer and Geber 1988). The decision about which approach to use is contextual and is based upon such things as the goals of the learners, the material to be covered, and so forth. 2. Provide opportunities for teachers to practice learner-centered methods. Gorham (1984) suggests training teachers in techniques especially suitable for adult students, such as small-group discussion methods, effective use of nontraditional room arrangements, and so forth. 3. Select teachers on the basis of their potential to provide learner-centered instructional settings. Gorham's (1984, 1985) study identified some characteristics of teachers who seemed to be more flexible and responsive in adult settings. However, she also suggests that more research is needed.
  •  
    Based on the research, the conclusion of this article is "Should teaching adults be different than teaching children?" Many teachers have preconceived notions about the differences between the two groups and some that have these notions do not act upon them. It is better to asses the contextual information in deciding which teaching style is the most appropriate at a specific time or for a specific course or set of people.
Alicia Fernandez

The Instructional Conversation: Teaching and Learning in Social Activity [eScholarship] - 0 views

  •  
    For more than a century, American schooling has ben conducted in much the same way: The teacher assigns a text for the students to master and then assesses their learning. Known as the "recitation script," this repeated cycle of assign-assess is far from the natural kind of teaching by which societies have been instructing their young since the dawn of time. Contemporary educational reform is now emphasizing the fundamental, natural method of teaching, which is the assisting of learners through the instructional conversation. Newly understood through the principles of socio-historical theory, real teaching is understood as assisting the learner to perform just beyond his or her current capacity. This assistance in the "zone of proximal development" awakens and rouses into life the mental capacities of learners of all ages. This assistance is best provided through the instructional conversation, a dialogue between teacher and learners in which the teacher listens carefully to grasp the students' communicative intent, and tailors the dialogue to meet the emerging understanding of the learners. This pattern of relationship should be characteristic of the communication of the entire school, in which the teachers assist and converse with one another, administrators assist and converse with teachers, and administration provides activity settings in which these instructional conversations can occur. Such a school becomes a true community of learners, in which school reliably assists the performance of all.
alexandra m. pickett

Ian August etap 640 SuMmEr 2011 - 1 views

  • Student centered learning
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      question your assumptions! why do you assume that "student-centered" means "teacher-less"?
  • why do I need to pay for this if I am on my own. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      well... if this were true, you could walk into a library and "BAM" - you would know it all! digg into your assumptions here... it is about role and expectations and where the focus is. Is it on the student or on the teacher? see my blog post "if i do all the work, who does all the learning?" : )
    • Kimberly Barss
       
      I wish I could walk into a library and know it all! I sometimes (jokingly) tell my students to put their textbooks under their pillow at night in hopes that learning-by-diffusion may come true!
  • leaders. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      self-assessment?!
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      missing from every post! check the rubric!
    • ian august
       
      i did not even realize, :O
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  • could not locate a link for diigo but I contacted Mimi for more info
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      excellent! : )
  • But the last article I read after the, yawn, diffusion one, yawn, was about digital natives. WOW .
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      I am glad that Prensky "engaged" you, but in the long run the other article would help you to better understand and serve the fauclty you work with. Theories help us frame and understand probelms systematically. I need you to think about this and to think about what "engages" you and why. So here is something to engage you. Prensky is WRONG!!! I was hoping you would find find this on your own: http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2011/05/natives-are-revolting.html - Steve is a friend of mine and a well-known and respected blogger. Digg into this controversy! And then come back and tell me what you think!
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I so agree. I use the polling option in my online course and was told I was the first to ever try. I believe that part of the problem is that online learning is coming from the top down, with little support.
    • ian august
       
      how do you use the polling option diane, for what type of assignments? Prof. Pickett has been telling me to let the student decide on many things, like Bill Pelz course, where the students approve each others final essays. when you say top down do you mean the teacher ruling the classing room? Because that seems to be the norm, how f2f classes run as well.
  • They use the basics like read this article and write this paper or take this quiz.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I am a visual person and find that I don't still have a mental map of this class. I wander around quite a bit. I have developed a few shortcuts, but it is definitely a work in progress.
    • ian august
       
      The map of the class has definitley gotten better since the start, I dont know if you used angel, but we use it at our college, I dont think I can send pics through here but I will send them to you another way.
  • t took me a minute to figure out the moodle system.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Do you like moodle better than Angel? I am disappointed in Angel's blog, so I will need to send my students to edublogs.
  • These ideas are the modern theories in action,  of the students new role in the classroom, whether online or f2f. Professor's have said in the past "this is our class", but these ideas I have mentioned are really creating an "our class" type of atmosphere where the teacher and students are more equal participants in the learning process than the traditional model of the teacher being the boss, and the student being the subordinate.
    • Kimberly Barss
       
      I agree. This is certainly a benefit of online learning. You don't have to worry, as an instructor, about who's paying attention or talking in the back or being the "disciplinarian" you can all just focus on coming together and learning as a community.
  • Randy Pausch
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      love him. saw his last lecture a few years ago on youtube.
  • wikis's
    • Donna Angley
       
      I'm going to include a student project that also has them create and work within a Wiki. It looks to be the perfect environment for collaboration on a single document (a short story).
  • This also shows the teacher asking the student to be an active participant in their own learning,
    • Donna Angley
       
      Yes, that's what the online environment is all about...student centered social learning.
  • Every one of the teachers in Exempler courses for observation talked about they way analzye their course, sometimes when its over sometimes during, to see what worked and what did not work
    • Donna Angley
       
      We are already learning this through our use of "self assessment." I would imagine it takes a few runs through the course to work out all the kinks, and if it's a subject like science or technology where the information changes constantly, it's ever-evolving.
  • That was the role of student.
    • Donna Angley
       
      In the wake of new technology, the role of the student is changing very quickly to one of self-directed learning.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Ah this is a philosophical stand. Many times we teach by the way we learn; however, this may not be the best for our students.
  • The Angel LMS that I am familiar with even gives he teacher the option to shut off news posts in a discussion forum so the student has only one option and that is to reply to a previous post.
    • Donna Angley
       
      That's an interesting idea, especially when there are too many discussions going on.
  • build a wiki together
    • Donna Angley
       
      I was going to have my students do the same, however, I just noticed that the course shell has an option for a Wiki...did anybody else see that? Anybody know how it works? I have since decided to give my students a choice other than to "write" a short story in small groups within a Wikispace. I'm going to allow them to recreate or interpret a short story in a multi-media fashion. Howard Gardner influenced. :-)
  • don’t show them how you do it, let them find out how it is done on their own
  • leave it up to the student to choose,
    • Donna Angley
       
      I think they will surprise you!
  • I guess I can guide, so when the students get off course I can say hey you should check this guy out, or this writer out.
    • Kimberly Barss
       
      I had an instructor last semester (Jason Vickers, if you get a chance to take a class with him, he's great! Also, he's a PhD student) who would do this exactly. He would scarcely add to our discussions as he said that oftentimes that can shut them down, but when he did it usually was to suggest that we check certain authors/theories/articles out that might help put us back on the right track.
    • Donna Angley
       
      I remember Alex suggesting something to me during the first week or two when I was a little lost. She pointed me in the right direction and that was good because I was able to focus my energies.
  • Case Study
    • Donna Angley
       
      Very good idea, because you're right...it seems like a very large amount of information that you're trying to cover. Case studies might work better.
  • Hopefully they will read the author I provide them with and than on their own they will read more articles by that author because they like him.
    • Donna Angley
       
      Perhaps you can assign one particular article, and then actually provide them with the links to 1-3 other article they might find of interest.
  • Another issue I am having is questioning if I have too much for the student to do. I really wanted them to do a group project but it seems like too much work.
    • Donna Angley
       
      Have you gone through the learning activities for each module and guesstimated how long it would take them to do? That might give you a better idea of whether it's too much. Just a suggestion.
  • letting the student do the heavy lifitng. Professor Pickett told me that it is a hard concept to implement as a teacher and I am seeing that.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      letting go of control of someone else's learning is a constant struggle. just keep telling yourself that it is NOT about you and what you know. It is about your students and catalyzing the passion for the topic of your course in them... they are the only ones that can do that... remember... if you do all the work, who does the learning? you have to let go and trust them to learn. That does NOT mean you are not there or that you have chaos.... you have to design it and facilitate it so that it works that way. It is a LOT of work : )
  • I am so glad I took this class. I learned so much, I feel so much more confident in my job as an instructional designer, and I feel more confident to take my skills to a new job envirnment. ANYONE HIRING OUT THERE?
  • I learned about some really important concepts for teaching online, like; -supply the students with a lot of information, module overviews, due dates, contact info, detailed explanation of how to complete assignments, rubric describing what type of work constitutes a Grade of A, B, C etc, -show your teacher presence in the course, by answering questions fairly quickly, posting in the discussion to guide, engage, provoke the student to do more research, asking for student input and using it, -Let the students do as much as possible instead of giving them everything ona silver platter. -Let students play the role of teacher in some of their assignments
  • After the first two weeks of this course, the first module, I learned so much, and grew so much more confident in my ability to work with faculty developing online courses.
Jessica Backus-Foster

STUDENT SELF-EVALUATION: WHAT RESEARCH SAYS AND WHAT PRACTICE SHOWS - 1 views

  • Self-evaluation is defined as students judging the quality of their work, based on evidence and explicit criteria, for the purpose of doing better work in the future.
  • enhanced self-efficacy and increased intrinsic motivation
  • Do students self-evaluate fairly? Many teachers, parents, and students believe that if students have a chance to mark their own work they will take advantage, giving themselves higher scores regardless of the quality of their performance. We have found that students, especially older ones, may do this if left to their own devices. But, when students are taught systematic self-evaluation procedures, the accuracy of their judgment improves. Contrary to the beliefs of many students, parents, and teachers, students' propensity to inflate grades decreases when teachers share assessment responsibility and control (Ross, et al., 2000). When students participate in the identification of the criteria that will be used to judge classroom production and use these criteria to judge their work, they get a better understanding of what is expected. The result is the gap between their judgments and the teacher's is reduced. And, by focusing on evidence, discrepancies between teacher and self-evaluation can be negotiated in a productive way.
    • Jessica Backus-Foster
       
      this is what I was wondering
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • E. Is simply requiring self-evaluation enough, or do students have to be taught how to evaluate their work accurately? Students harbor misconceptions about the self-evaluation process (e.g., the role that evidence plays). As a result, self-evaluation is unlikely to have a positive impact on achievement if these misconceptions are not addressed by teaching students how to evaluate their work. Simply requiring self-evaluation is unlikely to have an effect on achievement. Students have to be taught how to evaluate their work accurately and need time to develop the appropriate skills.
    • Jessica Backus-Foster
       
      this is the important part...to really get the full benefits, we have to teach students the process and make them part of the process
  • G. What is the greatest challenge for teachers incorporating self-evaluation into their assessment repertoires? One of the greatest challenges for teachers is the recalibration of power that occurs when assessment decisions are shared. Data collected in one of our projects (Ross et al., 1998a) suggested that teachers found it difficult to share control of evaluation decision-making, a responsibility at the core of the teacher's authority. Such difficulty may be due to the fact that teaching students to be self-evaluators involves the implementation of fundamental changes in the relationship between teachers and students in the classroom. Changing root beliefs, behaviors and relationships is difficult and takes time. Accordingly, another challenge is time. Teachers need considerable time to work out how to accommodate an innovation that involves sharing control of a core teacher function with their existing beliefs about teacher and learner roles. As well, students need time to understand what self-evaluation is and how it relates to their learning, in addition to learning how to do it.
  • STAGE 1- Involve students in defining the criteria that will be used to judge their performance
  • STAGE 1- Involve students in defining the criteria that will be used to judge their performance.
  • STAGE 1- Involve students in defining the criteria that will be used to judge their performance.
  • STAGE 2- Teach students how to apply the criteria to their own work.
Heather Kurto

Inquiry: Learning from the Past with an Eye on the Future | Bonnstetter | Electronic Jo... - 0 views

  • I have observed at least three major phases that many teachers go through, or far too often, fail to go through. Phase I might be described by Harry Wong as "Doing what you have been doing, and getting what you have been getting". In other words, Phase I is simply the pre-reform effort phase. Of course, we as educators hope to move teachers to a new vision and this can result in Phase II.
  •     In Phase II, teachers are presented with a new teaching strategy, usually in the context of an afternoon or one day workshop. So armed with this new skill, but little else, they venture back to their classroom to try implementation or worse, write off the whole experience and tell colleagues seated near them that they already do that. What is immediately noticeable for those who at least think about possible implementation, is how these teachers internalize this new strategy and attempt to move it into practice.
  • Phase III is where teachers reflect on 1. what they were doing that worked, and 2. how they might integrate these new ideas into their pre-workshop repertoire of teaching tools.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  •     The sad fact is that we far too often fail to invest either the time or the necessary resources to reach and build Phase III teachers. My personal experience suggests that on average it takes anywhere from three to five years for wide spread single component teacher behavior changes to be firmly implemented among a building faculty and from three to eight years with the same general educational reform agenda to accomplish anything close to systemic change.
  • classroom teachers or teacher educators, we must take the time to reflect on our past efforts and make needed mid-course corrections. Looking for patterns within our reform projects and helping teachers see reform as an evolutionary process and not an either/or response, will help all of us grow as professionals and ultimately improve the education of our children.
Melissa Pietricola

Research Center: Teacher Quality - 1 views

  • ven so, the specific characteristics that constitute an effective teacher are hotly debated. Teacher quality is extremely difficult to measure. As a result, most studies resort to measurable teacher inputs such as certification, academic degrees, and years of experience. Some studies that have correlated teacher test scores on basic skills tests and college entrance exams with the scores of their students on standardized tests have found that high-scoring teachers are more likely to elicit significant gains in student achievement than their lower-scoring counterparts
  • Deep content-area knowledge
  • e research is not detailed enough to clarify how much subject matter is critical for teaching specific course levels and grades.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Teaching experience
  • less consensus about certification.
  • Many schools have also introduced induction and mentoring programs to address high attrition rates and improve the practice of their inexperienced teachers.
  •  
    teacher experience, content knowlege
Diana Cary

Facilitating Interaction in Computer Mediated Online Courses - 0 views

  • In order to change to a learner-controlled instructional system and to maximize interaction, I had to change my role from that of a teacher at the front of the classroom and the center of the process to that of facilitator who is one with the participants and whose primary role is to guide and support the learning process.
  • The result was a course designed as a learner-centered system based on dialogue and cooperation among students (1992, p. 61).
  • Such a move engenders a radical shift in the power and interaction structures in the classroom as the students must accept the responsibility for their own knowledge creation, and the instructor must relinquish a certain amount of control over the process.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • control
  • From oracle and lecturer to consultant, guide, and resource provider From passive receptacles for hand-me-down knowledge to constructors of their own knowledge Teachers become expert questioners, rather than providers of answers
  • Students become complex problem-solvers rather than just memorizers of facts
  • Teachers become designers of learning student experiences rather than just providers of content Students see topics from multiple perspectives
  • Teachers provide only the initial structure to student work, encouraging increasing self- direction Students refine their own questions and search for their own answers
  • Teacher presents multiple perspectives on topics, emphasizing the salient points Students work as group members on more collaborative/cooperative assignments ; group interaction significantly increased
  • From a solitary teacher to a member of a learning team (reduces isolation sometimes experienced by teachers) Increased multi-cultural awareness
  • From teacher having total autonomy to activities that can be broadly assessed Students work toward fluency with the same tools as professionals in their field
  • From total control of the teaching environment to sharing with the student as fellow learner More emphasis on students as autonomous, independent, self-motivated managers of their own time and learning process
  • More emphasis on sensitivity to student learning styles Discussion of students’ own work in the classroom
  • Teacher-learner power structures erode Emphasis on knowledge use rather than only observation of the teacher’s expert performance or just learning to "pass the test" Emphasis on acquiring learning strategies (both individually and collaboratively) Access to resources is significantly expanded
dkiesel

15 Stress-Busting Tips From Teachers | Scholastic.com - 0 views

  •  
    This article reviews tips to help teachers reduce stress of being a teacher.
  •  
    This article reviews tips to help teachers reduce stress of being a teacher.
Lauren D

Understanding Rubrics by Heidi Goodrich Andrade - 1 views

  • Rubrics appeal to teachers and students for many reasons. First, they are powerful tools for both teaching and assessment. Rubrics can improve student performance, as well as monitor it, by making teachers’ expectations clear and by showing students how to meet these expectations. The result is often marked improvements in the quality of student work and in learning. Thus, the most common argument for using rubrics is they help define “quality.” One student actually didn’t like rubrics for this very reason: “If you get something wrong,” she said, “your teacher can prove you knew what you were supposed to do!”
  •  
    Rubrics appeal to teachers and students for many reasons. First, they are powerful tools for both teaching and assessment. Rubrics can improve student performance, as well as monitor it, by making teachers' expectations clear and by showing students how to meet these expectations. The result is often marked improvements in the quality of student work and in learning. Thus, the most common argument for using rubrics is they help define "quality." One student actually didn't like rubrics for this very reason: "If you get something wrong," she said, "your teacher can prove you knew what you were supposed to do!"
mikezelensky

Who Makes the Rules in a Classroom? Seven Ideas About Rule-making - Teacher in a Strang... - 0 views

  •  
    I don't believe teachers should abdicate their roles as rule-setters, formal leaders of the classroom pack. Especially new teachers, who haven't yet established an authoritative, authentic teacher-persona.
Hedy Lowenheim

Teacher-Centered vs. Student-Centered Pedagogy - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher E... - 1 views

  •  
    "Last week, I had my first peer-to-peer teacher observation as a new assistant professor. After teaching at the college level for 10 years, I felt my teaching and pedagogy were sound, so I wasn't too concerned about being observed by a colleague. In a debriefing after the observed session, my colleague noted that the class seemed to be "teacher-centered." This was not offered as a critique, but simply as a statement. The statement, however, surprised me. I had always seen myself as a "student-centered" type of teacher. Since I teach composition, which is typically a student-centered discipline, I was confused. I wondered if we'd been in the same classroom and witnessed the same interactions or if we were using the same definitions of those often-used terms."
sherrilattimer

Depth of Knowledge in the 21st Century - 0 views

  • Depth of knowledge offers some advantages over Bloom’s Taxonomy for planning lessons and choosing instructional techniques. By increasing the DOK levels of activities, teachers can teach students to adapt to challenges, work cooperatively and solve problems on their own.Whereas Level 1 of DOK prompts students to recall or reproduce, Levels 3 and 4 require students to work without the constant supervision of teachers. Usually students work on higher DOK activities in groups, communicating with one another to solve challenging problems and freely offering their own ideas.
  • The teacher’s role at higher DOK levels is therefore to facilitate, not simply dispense the acquisition of knowledge.
  • Working on creating activities in such peer groups enables teachers to learn and articulate while planning for lessons that promote high expectations and cognitively challenging curriculum. In addition, administrators need to provide ongoing support for their teachers in order to empower teachers to succeed in this endeavor.Administrative leadership must mentor and assist teachers in providing the enthusiasm and motivation to continuously teach lessons that promote high student expectations and cognitively challenging lessons.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The students in one classroom are prompted to recall facts and procedures while the students in the other classroom are encouraged to apply their learned knowledge to solve complex problems featuring real-world relevance.
  • Through his work with the business community, he has learned that there is no shortage of employees that are technically proficient, but too few employees that can adequately communicate and collaborate, innovate and think critically. So, rather than simply equating 21st century skills with technical prowess, educators need to expand their understanding of such skills to increasingly emphasize preparing students to think on their feet, communicate effectively and value the ideas of others.
  • The depth-of-knowledge levels of Norman Webb’s depthof-knowledge (DOK) levels constitute a system that addresses how to teach these skills. Depth of knowledge is a scale of cognitive demand that reflects the complexity of activities that teachers ask students to perform. DOK-1. Recall — Recall or recognition of a fact, information, concept, or procedure DOK-2. Basic Application of Skill/Concept — Use of information, conceptual knowledge, follow or select appropriate procedures, two or more steps with decision points along the way, routine problems, organize/ display data DOK-3. Strategic Thinking — Requires reasoning, developing a plan or sequence of steps to approach problem; requires some decision making and justification; abstract and complex; often more than one possible answer DOK-4. Extended Thinking — An investigation or application to real world; requires time to research, think, and process multiple conditions of the problem or task; non-routine manipulations, across disciplines/content areas/multiple sources Level 1 of DOK is the lowest level and requires students to recall or perform a simple process.As DOK increases toward the highest (fourth) level, the complexity of the activity moves from simple recall problems to increasingly difficult and teacher independent problem-solving classroom activities, as well as real-world applications.As students are prompted to work within the realms of higher DOK levels, they will learn to independently employ higher-level thinking skills.
  •  
    Webb's Depth of Knowledge
Donna Angley

K-16 - 0 views

  •  
    K-16 Initiatives and Access Programs (HEOP, STEP, CSTEP, LPP, Perkins, Teachers of Tomorrow, NYS Teacher of the Year, Teacher Opportunity Corps (TOC)
Michael Lucatorto

In Teachers We Trust: An Interview with Finnish Education Expert Reijo Laukkanen | LFA:... - 0 views

  • And that's why we set objectives high, and we never set objectives in the way that they would prevent teachers [from using] their own capacity to broaden education.  We only talk about the objectives, not the methods of education.  Because teachers, if they have high-level education, should be given leeway enough to use their own innovation capacity.
  •  
    And that's why we set objectives high, and we never set objectives in the way that they would prevent teachers [from using] their own capacity to broaden education.  We only talk about the objectives, not the methods of education.  Because teachers, if they have high-level education, should be given leeway enough to use their own innovation capacity. 
sherrilattimer

ERIC - Teaching Adults: Is It Different? Myths and Realities., 2002 - 0 views

  •  
    Teaching adults should be different if adults learn differently than children do. Theories or perspectives on adult learning, such as andragogy, make a number of assertions about the characteristics of adults as learners. If there are indeed distinctive characteristics of adults, on which claims for the uniqueness and coherence of adult education are based, then one might expect them to be taken into account in all organized education for adults. However, each of these characteristics is contested. Some question the extent to which these assumptions are characteristic of adults only. The literature promotes learner-centeredness as another distinguishing characteristic of adult education. Research indicates learner centeredness is an expression of a teacher's values, not a teaching method. Adult learners are more concerned with teacher character and appropriate teaching methods; adult students' conceptions of good teaching include a mix of teacher-directed and learner-centered characteristics. Ongoing debates--andragogy vs. pedagogy, teacher directed vs. learner centered--may mean no single theory explains how adult learning differs from children's learning. Appropriate choices about teaching practices should be based on numerous considerations, including context, learner knowledge and characteristics, and teacher beliefs and values. (Contains 22 references) (YLB)
  •  
    This is the link to the abstract page of the pdf file for the article.
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