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.
Group items matching
in title, tags, annotations or url
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Review of Weimer, Learning-Centered Teaching - 0 views
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. The function of content in a learner-centered course changes from covering content to using content
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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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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).
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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)
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eimer explains several strategies for creating a climate that produces self-regulated intrinsically motivated learners:
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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.
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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.
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, 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.
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The communication is frequent and explicit The communication encourages and positively reinforces The communication solicits feedback from students The communication resists their resistance.
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developmental approach to transforming passive dependent learners into self-confident autonomous learners. Learners become self-directed in stages, not in one sin
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shared by Diane Gusa on 27 Jun 11
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Bloom's Taxonomy - Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching and Technology - 0 views
projects.coe.uga.edu/...index.php
blooms_taxonomy thinking revised module activities gendered lives objectives education
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, Lorin Anderson, led a new assembly which met for the purpose of updating the taxonomy, hoping to add relevance for 21st century students and teachers
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Emphasis is placed upon its use as a "more authentic tool for curriculum planning, instructional delivery and assess
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Learning to be - 0 views
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educating children for a given society, the challenge will be to ensure that everyone always has the personal resources and intellectual tools needed to understand the world and behave as a fair-minded, responsible human being. More than ever before, the essential task of education seems to be to make sure that all people enjoy the freedom of thought, judgement, feeling and imagination to develop their talents and keep control of as much of their lives as they can.
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Learning to know - 0 views
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since knowledge is multifarious and capable of virtually infinite development, any attempt to know everything becomes more and more pointless
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icate with other people. Regarded as an end, it is underpinned by the pleasure that can be derived from understanding, knowledge and discovery. That aspect of learning is typically enjoyed by researchers, but good teaching can help everyone to enjoy it. Even if study for its own sake is a dying pursuit with so much emphasis
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giving students the tools, ideas and reference methods which are the product of leading-edge science and the contemporary paradigms.
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Learning to know implies learning how to learn by developing one's concentration, memory skills and ability to think
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From behaviorism to humanism: Incorporating self-direction in learning concept - 0 views
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It appears that many adult educators today, especially those recognizing the value of self-direction in learning, operate primarily from humanist beliefs and c
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It also has been our observation that some instructional designers (and many other educators) seem to have difficulty accepting or incorporating humanist beliefs and instead appear guided primarily by behaviorist or neobehaviorist beliefs and paradigms based primarily on logical positivism, although cognitive psychology is increasingly informing the instructional design field.
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We consider it important to understand why some of the philosophical differences between the two disciplines exist.
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instructional design as a separate discipline, has developed from several forms of inquiry: (a) research pertaining to media usage and communications theory; (b) general systems theory and development; and (c) psychological and learning theory. Reigeluth (1983) suggests that the three theorists most responsible for the current development of instructional design knowledge include B. F. Skinner (1954), David Ausubel (1968), and Jerome Bruner (1966). Skinner is identified because of his work with behaviorism and Bruner and Ausubel are recognized because of their contributions to cognitive psychology. Reigeluth (1987) has also compiled information on several other authors, theories, and models he believes important to the development of instructional design as a profession. Gagne (1985), Piaget (1966), and Thorndike (and colleagues) (1928) are other scholars frequently cited as foundational for much of today's thinking about instructional design.
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As Hollis (1991) notes, "traditionally, instructional technologists have largely ignored the humanists' ideas among all the available theories from which to draw upon and incorporate into their schemes. Theoretically, instructional technology has been based on research in human learning and communications theories. In reality, more borrowing of ideas is needed, especially from the ranks of the humanists" (p. 51
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Humanism generally is associated with beliefs about freedom and autonomy and notions that "human beings are capable of making significant personal choices within the constraints imposed by heredity, personal history, and environment"
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Humanist principles stress the importance of the individual and specific human needs. Among the major assumptions underlying humanism are the following: (a) human nature is inherently good; (b) individuals are free and autonomous, thus they are capable of making major personal choices; (c) human potential for growth and development is virtually unlimited; (d) self-concept plays an important role in growth and development; (e) individuals have an urge toward self-actualization; (f) reality is defined by each person; and (g) individuals have responsibility to both themselves and to others (Elias & Merriam, 1980).
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"If an individual is concerned primarily with personal growth and development, how can that person truly be concerned with what is good for all of society?"
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The learning environment should allow each learner to proceed at a pace best suited to the individual.
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It is important to help learners continuously assess their progress and make feedback a part of the learning process. 5. The learner's previous experience is an invaluable resource for future learning and thus enhancing the value of advanced organizers or making clear the role for mastery of necessary prerequisites.
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We do recognize there may be times when self-directed opportunities are minimal, such as when involved in collaborative learning or when learning entirely new content, but believe that the assumption of personal responsibility is possible in ways not tied to the type of learning or content.
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Benefits of Project-Based Learning - DEP_pbl_research.pdf - 0 views
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complex, challenging, and sometimes even messy problems that closely resemble real life
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engage students, cut absenteeism, boost cooperative learning skills, and improve academic performance
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have significance beyond the classroom
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To Multitask or Not? | Oxford Learning - 0 views
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o deal with distractions and interruptions
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When deadlines loom at the office and in the classroom, it is better to complete portions of all tasks, than to only complete one. In the classroom, part marks add up to better grades than no marks at all.
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doing a lot, but accomplishing nothing
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Preparing Instructors for Quality Online Instruction - 1 views
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The major concerns are centering on the following questions: What will be the new role for instructors in online education? How will students' learning outcomes be assured and improved in online learning environment? How will effective communication and interaction be established with students in the absence of face-to-face instruction? How will instructors motivate students to learn in the online learning environment?
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Instructors have many concerns about online education. Their primary concern is how online education changes their roles and responsibilities, and how they can adapt to this change. Online education is widely accepted as student-centered education, and the traditional education is regarded as professor-centered education. Due to a shift to online education, the instructor's role has become more of a facilitator than a traditional lecturer. Therefore, the traditional professor-centered educational environment and student-centered online educational environment will have many differences. Besides their role shifting, the role of the virtual instructor is to select and filter information for student consideration, to provide thought-provoking questions, and to facilitate well-considered discussion (Kettner-Polley, 1999).
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Clark (2002) pointed out that online learner must be a constructivist learner. This suggests that the learner must be active in the process, cognitively complex and motivated. According to Clark , motivating factors in the learning process include self-reference, personal goals, control and autonomy . Howland & Moore's (2002) study examined 48 students' experiences in online environments. Their results confirmed that the students who were the most positive in their perceptions of online learning were those with attributes consistent with constructivist learners. The most positive students were more independent, proactive and responsible for their learning.
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Alley and Jansak (2001) have also identified 10 keys to quality online learning. The authors suggested that online courses will be high quality when they are student-centered and when: Knowledge is constructed, not transmitted. Students can take full responsibility for their own learning. Students are motivated to want to learn. The course provides “mental white space” for reflection. Learning activities appropriately match student learning styles. Experiential, active learning augments the Web site learning environment, Solitary and interpersonal learning activities are interspersed. Inaccurate prior learning is identified and corrected. “Spiral learning” provides for revisiting and expanding prior lessons, The master teacher is able to guide the overall learning process. (p. 6-17)
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While arguments have been made in opposition to online education, there are proponents who are in support of this mode of instruction. They suggest that the lack of face-to-face interaction can be substituted by online discussions in bulletin board systems, online video conferences or on listservs (Blake, 2000). Online education can also promote students' critical thinking skills, deep learning, collaborative learning, and problem-solving skills (Ascough, 2002; Rosie, 2000). Donlevy (2003) asserted that online education may help schools expand curricula offerings with less cost and can help graduates gain important technology skills to improve their marketability. Proponents also argue that online education can encourage non-discriminatory teaching and learning practices since the teachers and students, as well as students and their classmates typically do not meet face-to-face. Palloff and Pratt (1999) have concluded that because students cannot tell the race, gender, physical characteristics of each other and their teachers, online education presents a bias-free teaching and learning environment for instructors and students.
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academic dishonesty of online learners (Muirhead, 2000)
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lack of professional prestige
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While many critics have suggested that there is no sure way to hold students accountable for academic dishonesty, Heberling (2002) concluded that while maintaining academic integrity in the online instructional setting may be a challenging, many strategies may be employed to detect and prevent plagiarism, such as reversing an Internet search, tracking back to an original source.
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Knowledge is constructed, not transmitted. Students can take full responsibility for their own learning. Students are motivated to want to learn. The course provides “mental white space” for reflection. Learning activities appropriately match student learning styles. Experiential, active learning augments the Web site learning environment, Solitary and interpersonal learning activities are interspersed. Inaccurate prior learning is identified and corrected. “Spiral learning” provides for revisiting and expanding prior lessons, The master teacher is able to guide the overall learning process. (p. 6-17)
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Is Broadband Internet Access a Public Utility? | TIME.com - 0 views
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State and local laws that make it difficult — if not impossible — for new competition to emerge in broadband markets should be reformed, according to Crawford. For example, many states make it very difficult for municipalities to create public wireless networks, thanks to decades of state-level lobbying by the industry giants. In order to help local governments upgrade their communications grids, Crawford is calling for an infrastructure bank to help cities obtain affordable financing to help build high-speed fiber networks for their citizens. Finally, U.S. regulators should apply real oversight to the broadband industry to ensure that these market behemoths abide by open Internet principles and don’t price gouge consumers. Should broadband Internet service be considered a public utility like water and electricity? “We treated the telephone industry like a utility and people don’t seem to be surprised by that,” says Crawford. “High-speed Internet access plays the same role in American life. It’s just that these guys have succeeded in making us think that it’s a luxury.”
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According to Crawford, the interests of cable and telecom giants like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and AT&T, are not aligned with the interests of the public. Those corporate giants are concerned first and foremost with maximizing the profits of their shareholders. And all too often, profit maximization — especially in a market that lacks robust competition — is not consistent with providing the best possible service at reasonable prices.
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“You let a little bit of competition exist so you can point to it and say ‘Ha, we’re competing!’ But otherwise it’s mostly controlled by one company.”
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One of the main themes in the book is the “digital divide,” which refers to the fact that millions of people in the U.S., mostly in the poorest and most rural communities, don’t have access to affordable broadband service, including 2.2 million people in New York City, according to Crawford. “We’re depriving people of basic communications access,” she says. Still, broadband and wireless services have become so important to our business and personal lives that most people are willing to pay up, even in the face of high prices driven in part by a lack of competition in the broadband and wireless markets.
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Crawford, who has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale and Michigan, spent a year on the National Economic Council as a top telecommunications advisor to President Obama. In her book, she directs much of the blame for the sorry state of the U.S. broadband market at the federal government. “Instead of ensuring that everyone in America can compete in a global economy,” she writes, “instead of narrowing the divide between rich and poor, instead of supporting competitive free markets for American inventions that use information — instead, that is, of ensuring that America will lead the world in the information age — U.S. politicians have chosen to keep Comcast and its fellow giants happy.”
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“Truly high-speed wired Internet access is as basic to innovation, economic growth, social communication, and the country’s competitiveness as electricity was a century ago,” Crawford writes, “but a limited number of Americans have access to it, many can’t afford it, and the country has handed control of it over to Comcast and a few other companies.”
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Crawford argues that the Internet has replaced traditional phone service as the most essential communications utility in the country, and is now as important as electricity was 100 years ago.
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shared by Alicia Fernandez on 03 Jun 14
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Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,Part II: Do They Really Think Differently? - 1 views
www.marcprensky.com/...l%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf
Prensky digital natives neuroplasticity malleability
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Put to the Test: Confronting Concerns About Project Learning | Edutopia - 0 views
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"The biggest concern revolves around the implications for high-stakes testing," Rice says. "Teachers ask, 'Will my students perform as well on standardized tests if I incorporate PBL?'"
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At first, I was concerned about spending three weeks on this project, but when I look back, I realize how much my students learned and how much time I saved by not having to reteach the same thing over and over again,"
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"Project learning can require more time, but it's time well spent, because the students are really taking ownership of their learning, and the end result is that their learning is so much deeper," she explains. "That's something they carry with them for the rest of their life."
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He recommends using a series of team-building exercises (5) from his company's Web site at the beginning of the project. These exercises will teach the students be attentive to one another's needs, be more communicative, and think about the consequences of their words before they speak
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Amber's Secret | OER Commons - 0 views
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This case study is amazing! It discusses pregnancy and relates to my students because Amber is just out of high school. It gives some great guiding questions and has great resources at the end. This activity could be used online but I think I'd rather do it in class. I would love to hear my students discuss the questions, debate, and listen to their classmates differing opinions.
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FILLING THE TOOL BOX - 0 views
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If on the other hand, they are used to information questions, they may ask, "Which states joined the Confederacy? What were the six main causes of the war? What happened at Shiloh? Who was the Union commander at Shiloh? When did the war end?"
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If you ask many tantalizing and divergent questions in your classroom, your students are likely to model after your behavior for example, "What would have happened if Lincoln was shot in the first month of the war? Why did Lincoln only free the slaves in the rebel states? How did it feel to be a woman in the path of Sherman's army?"
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The four rules of brainstorming: 1. all contributions are accepted without judgment; 2. the goal is a large number of ideas or questions; 3. building on other people's ideas is encouraged; 4. farout, unusual ideas are encouraged.
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And why do we bother with a time-consuming activity like developing a typology of questions? Because once students have the labels, you can lead them to practice each type of question thoughtfully. You can show a film and ask each student to think of three "why?" questions to share with the class at its conclusion. You may assign a story to read and ask for three "inference" questions. Suddenly the students can reach into their questioning tool box and carefully select the saw for sawing and the plane for planing.
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When questions are nurtured, admitting a lack of knowledge is rewarded. It is the first step in learning and problem-solving
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Unlike answers, questions carry little risk because the activity has made it acceptable to identify what it is that you do not know.
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Some questions deserve 10 seconds of thought. Others require days or even months. Great questions span centuries of human civilization (i.e., "why are we here?" "How do we know?" "Can we know?" "How can we know if we know?").
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Research into wait-time for American classrooms paints a distressing picture. Many teachers wait less than two seconds for the answer to each question and ask hundreds of questions per hour. These types of questions are generally recall questions demanding little thought.
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Unlike many textbook publishers, reporters like to ask questions that flow from or stimulate curiosity, because unlike schools, televisions do not have captive audiences. A reporter will ask the victim how he or she is feeling, the rock star why he or she used drugs and the politician why he or she betrayed his or her constituents. Sometimes we are offended by the boundary lines of decency that curiosity compels these people to cross, so a recent rock song portrayed the phenomenon as "We love dirty laundry." We should expect considerably more sensitivity from our students, yet the model can work powerfully for us as we explore the issues surrounding any human event being studied in a classroom.
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How to Design Effective Online Group Work Activities Faculty Focus | Faculty Focus - 0 views
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Online collaboration tools While Skype and other real-time collaboration tools make it easier for dispersed students to “get together,” Mandernach cautions against overusing synchronous tools. Instead, she says, you should encourage your students to take advantage of the many asynchronous collaborative tools inside your course management system or some of the new Web 2.0 tools. Some of her favorite Web 2.0 tools include: Tokbox, VoiceThread, Creately, Google Docs, and Teambox. These tools are relatively easy to use and help build a sense of community in the online classroom. They’re also another way to get students to buy into group work activities and using them makes the students more marketable upon graduation. “If you can use the collaborative environment to really bring them into your classroom and get connected to you and connected to their peers you’re going to see a lot of benefits besides increased test scores,” Mandernach says. “Many employers and graduate schools really view online learning as learning in isolation, and I think it’s important for students to show that they are capable of collaborative work — that they can work independently and with others.”
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In the recent online seminar Online Group Work: Making It Meaningful and Manageable, Mandernach provided tips for adapting proven face-to-face group work strategies to the online environment. The key is to design tasks that are truly collaborative, meaning the students will benefit more from doing the activity as a group than doing it alone. Effective online group activities often fall into one of three categories: There’s no right answer, such as debates, or research on controversial issues. There are multiple perspectives, such as analyzing current events, cultural comparisons, or case studies. There are too many resources for one person to evaluate, so a jigsaw puzzle approach is needed with each student responsible for one part.
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Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0 (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUC... - 3 views
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global “platform” that has vastly expanded access to all sorts of resources, including formal and informal educational materials. The Internet has also fostered a new culture of sharing, one in which content is freely contributed and distributed with few restrictions or costs.
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the Web 2.0 is creating a new kind of participatory medium that is ideal for supporting multiple modes of learning
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social learning is based on the premise that our understanding of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions.
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, “We participate, therefore we are.”
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We are entering a world in which we all will have to acquire new knowledge and skills on an almost continuous basis.
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culture of sharing,
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Students in these groups can ask questions to clarify areas of uncertainty or confusion, can improve their grasp of the material by hearing the answers to questions from fellow students, and perhaps most powerfully, can take on the role of teacher to help other group members benefit from their understanding (one of the best ways to learn something is, after all, to teach it to others).
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seeking the knowledge when it is needed in order to carry out a particular situated task
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thereby enabling a new kind of critical reading—almost a new form of literacy—that invites the reader to join in the consideration of what information is reliable and/or important
British Museum - A History of the World in 100 objects - 0 views
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CTE - Using Effective Questions - 0 views
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Put the question through the following filters: Does this question draw out and work with pre-existing understandings that students bring with them? Does this question raise the visibility of the key concepts the students are learning? Will this question stimulate peer discussion? Is it clear what the question is about?