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mahadi hasan

8 Practical Methods for Job Analysis | HRMC Matrix - 0 views

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    Methods for job analysis or how to do a job analysis may be the common asking question related to HR. Job analysis helps organization to identify the basic requirement of any position. There are many methods or ways to conduct an effective job analysis. Practical Methods for Job Analysis Observation Method This is the only direct method from where a HR professional or job analyst can collect job related information practically. Thus, information of this source is very trustworthy. This was the first job analysis methods used by I-O psychologists. The process involves simply watching what an employee does or does not for the specific period. During observation, HR professional or job analyst some time ask question to gather required information. Interview Method Interview is methods for job analysis where structured questionnaire used by the HR professional or job analyst. Organization conduct this "interview" job analysis methods using structured interview method or unstructured interview method. In structural interview process, questionnaire is similar for every employee, even due to change of interviewer. On the other hand, interview process may be different due to the change of interviewer. Job Interview Methods Critical Incidents Technique Critical Incident Technique (CIT) is a flexible method for job analysis comprises with set of procedures and used for collecting direct observations of human behaviors related to any specific job. The critical incident technique of job analysis asks supervisors to identify critical aspects of human behavior for a particular job that lead to success or failure. This method of job analysis helps to identify the critical incident or aspects of a job. Questionnaires and Surveys Method Some expert incumbents conduct questionnaires or surveys as methods for job analysis. These questionnaires include task statements to identify the form of worker behaviors. Information gathered from questionnaires or surveys can
anonymous

Critical Issue: Using Technology to Improve Student Achievement - 0 views

shared by anonymous on 23 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Technologies available in classrooms today range from simple tool-based applications (such as word processors) to online repositories of scientific data and primary historical documents, to handheld computers, closed-circuit television channels, and two-way distance learning classrooms. Even the cell phones that many students now carry with them can be used to learn (Prensky, 2005).
  • Bruce and Levin (1997), for example, look at ways in which the tools, techniques, and applications of technology can support integrated, inquiry-based learning to "engage children in exploring, thinking, reading, writing, researching, inventing, problem-solving, and experiencing the world." They developed the idea of technology as media with four different focuses: media for inquiry (such as data modeling, spreadsheets, access to online databases, access to online observatories and microscopes, and hypertext), media for communication (such as word processing, e-mail, synchronous conferencing, graphics software, simulations, and tutorials), media for construction (such as robotics, computer-aided design, and control systems), and media for expression (such as interactive video, animation software, and music composition). In a review of existing evidence of technology's impact on learning, Marshall (2002) found strong evidence that educational technology "complements what a great teacher does naturally," extending their reach and broadening their students' experience beyond the classroom. "With ever-expanding content and technology choices, from video to multimedia to the Internet," Marshall suggests "there's an unprecedented need to understand the recipe for success, which involves the learner, the teacher, the content, and the environment in which technology is used."
  • In examining large-scale state and national studies, as well as some innovative smaller studies on newer educational technologies, Schacter (1999) found that students with access to any of a number of technologies (such as computer assisted instruction, integrated learning systems, simulations and software that teaches higher order thinking, collaborative networked technologies, or design and programming technologies) show positive gains in achievement on researcher constructed tests, standardized tests, and national tests.
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  • Boster, Meyer, Roberto, & Inge (2002) examined the integration of standards-based video clips into lessons developed by classroom teachers and found increases student achievement. The study of more than 1,400 elementary and middle school students in three Virginia school districts showed an average increase in learning for students exposed to the video clip application compared to students who received traditional instruction alone.
  • Wenglinsky (1998) noted that for fourth- and eighth-graders technology has "positive benefits" on achievement as measured in NAEP's mathematics test. Interestingly, Wenglinsky found that using computers to teach low order thinking skills, such as drill and practice, had a negative impact on academic achievement, while using computers to solve simulations saw their students' math scores increase significantly. Hiebert (1999) raised a similar point. When students over-practice procedures before they understand them, they have more difficulty making sense of them later; however, they can learn new concepts and skills while they are solving problems. In a study that examined relationship between computer use and students' science achievement based on data from a standardized assessment, Papanastasiou, Zemblyas, & Vrasidas (2003) found it is not the computer use itself that has a positive or negative effect on achievement of students, but the way in which computers are used.
  • Another factor influencing the impact of technology on student achievement is that changes in classroom technologies correlate to changes in other educational factors as well. Originally the determination of student achievement was based on traditional methods of social scientific investigation: it asked whether there was a specific, causal relationship between one thing—technology—and another—student achievement. Because schools are complex social environments, however, it is impossible to change just one thing at a time (Glennan & Melmed, 1996; Hawkins, Panush, & Spielvogel, 1996; Newman, 1990). If a new technology is introduced into a classroom, other things also change. For example, teachers' perceptions of their students' capabilities can shift dramatically when technology is integrated into the classroom (Honey, Chang, Light, Moeller, in press). Also, teachers frequently find themselves acting more as coaches and less as lecturers (Henriquez & Riconscente, 1998). Another example is that use of technology tends to foster collaboration among students, which in turn may have a positive effect on student achievement (Tinzmann, 1998). Because the technology becomes part of a complex network of changes, its impact cannot be reduced to a simple cause-and-effect model that would provide a definitive answer to how it has improved student achievement.
  • When new technologies are adopted, learning how to use the technology may take precedence over learning through the technology. "The technology learning curve tends to eclipse content learning temporarily; both kids and teachers seem to orient to technology until they become comfortable," note Goldman, Cole, and Syer (1999). Effective content integration takes time, and new technologies may have glitches. As a result, "teachers' first technology projects generate excitement but often little content learning. Often it takes a few years until teachers can use technology effectively in core subject areas" (Goldman, Cole, & Syer, 1999). Educators may find impediments to evaluating the impact of technology. Such impediments include lack of measures to assess higher-order thinking skills, difficulty in separating technology from the entire instructional process, and the outdating of technologies used by the school. To address these impediments, educators may need to develop new strategies for student assessment, ensure that all aspects of the instructional process—including technology, instructional design, content, teaching strategies, and classroom environment—are conducive to student learning, and conduct ongoing evaluation studies to determine the effectiveness of learning with technology (Kosakowski, 1998).
Roland Gesthuizen

Do iPads Have the Capacity to Change Education? - iPads in Education - 0 views

  • In the Automating stage, new tools are used to reinforce existing practices and processes. We see this stamped all over the educational space. Smartboard use that reinforces existing frontal teaching methods. Digital content replacing paper distribution. Technology that speeds the efficiency of existing standardized testing. The essence and character of traditional educational practices however hasn't changed. It's still "business as usual" in most American schools. 
  • "Informating" as Professor Zuboff calls it - involves the re-imagination of processes using the new technologies. Instead of focusing on making existing processes more efficient, we start to look at entirely new methods and goals. We are in the infancy of that stage in education. In the Informating phase, educators reevaluate goals, visions and processes: 
  • Professional development becomes far more valuable when it searches beyond the simple nuts and bolts of technical use and instead encourages teachers to disrupt the traditional flow of education - to dabble, experiment and re-imagine how that technology can be used to create new educational horizons.
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  • A skilled teacher knows that technology implementations won't have any impact as long as you try and retrofit them on to outdated teaching methods. That teacher will instead try to utilize the technology to forge creative new educational paths for his/her students.
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    You hear it repeatedly. You can't throw technology into schools without training and support for teachers. If you purchased a truckload of iPads for your school then you better have a plan for developing teachers that are skilled in using them ... but what does it really mean to be "skilled .. What constitutes effective professional development
Melissa Seifman

Education Outrage: Why do we still have schools? - 1 views

  • Competition: Why should school be a competitive event?
  • We learn what we choose to know in real life.
  • Stress: When 6 year olds are stressed about going to school you know that something is wrong.
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  • Right answers: School teaches that there are right answers.
  • But, in real life, there are very few right answers.
  • Bullying and peer pressure
  • In school there are always other kids telling you how to dress, how to act, how to be cool.
  • Stifling of curiosity: Isn’t it obvious that learning is really about curiosity?
  • Adults earn about things they want to learn about. Before the age of 6, prior to school, one kid becomes a dinosaur specialist while another knows all about dog breeds. Outside of school people drive their own learning. Schools eliminate this natural behavior.
    • Tero Toivanen
       
      Exactly!
  • Subjects chosen for you:
  • Classrooms:
  • Classrooms make no sense as a venue for learning unless of course you want to save money and have 30 (or worse hundreds of) students be handled by one teacher.
  • Schools cannot work as places of learning if they employ classrooms.
  • Grades: Any professor can tell you that students are pretty much concerned with whether what you are telling them will be on the test and what they might do for extra credit.
    • Melissa Seifman
       
      I disagree - Employers do have rating systems, performance evaluations, but most of those are on the whole person, not just technical or academic skills
  • Parents do not give grades to children and employers do not give grades to employees. They judge their work and progress for sure, but not by assigning numbers to a report card.
  • Certification: We all know why people attend college. They do primarily to say they are college graduates so they can get a job or go on to a professional school.
    • Caroline Roche
       
      So, why is this the student's fault? Why blame, or disadvatage them for this? We should be fighting the system that causes students to work like this, not blaming them for doing it! it is the constant testing and league table system that is wrong.
  • Confined children: Children like to run around.
  • Of course in school, sitting still is the norm. So we have come up with this wonderful idea of ADD, i.e. drug those who won’t sit still into submission. Is the system sick or what?
  • Academics viewed as winners: Who are the smartest kids in school?
  • Those who are good at these subjects go on to be professors. So those are certainly the smartest people we have in our society.
  • But, I can tell you from personal experience that our society doesn’t respect professors all that much, so something is wrong here.
  • Practical skills not valued: When I was young there were academic high schools and trade high schools. Trade high schools were for dumb kids. Academic high schools were for smart kids.
  • The need to please teachers: People who succeed at school are invariably people who are good out at figuring what the teacher wants and giving it to them.
  • In real life there is no teacher to please and these “grade grubbers” often find themselves lost.
  • Self worth questioned: School is full of winners and losers.
  • In school, most everyone sees themselves as a loser. Why do we allow this to happen?
  • Politicians in charge: Politicians demand reform but they wouldn’t know reform if it hit them over the head.
  • Major learning by doing mechanism ignored: And last but not least, scholars from Plato to Dewey have pointed that people learn by doing. That is how we learn. Doing. Got it? Apparently not. Very little doing in schools. Unless you count filling in circles with number 2 pencils as doing.
  • Government use of education for repression: As long as there have been governments there have been governments who wanted people to think that the governments (and the country) is very good.
  • School is about teaching “truth.”
  • Discovery not valued: The most important things we learn we teach ourselves.
    • Tero Toivanen
       
      Autotelic learning!
  • This kind of learning is not valued in school because it might lead to, heaven forbid, failure, and failure is a really bad word in school. Except failure is how we learn, which is pretty much why school doesn’t work.
    • Tero Toivanen
       
      Exactly!
  • Boredom ignored: Boredom is a bad thing. We drug bored kids with Ritalin so they will stop being bored.
  • What they mean is that school should be like they remember rather than how it is now
    • Caroline Roche
       
      Not accepting students with straight A's only shows your own prejudices. Students can be good at a range of subjects, without being passionately interested in all of them. Lots of people are self motivated, without being teacher pleasers, they just wish to do their best in everything for their own satisfaction.
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    Why do we have schools? Instead of answering this question by listing all the good things that schools provide, which anyone can do, I will turn the question around: What is bad about having schools?
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    Why do we have schools? Instead of answering this question by listing all the good things that schools provide, which anyone can do, I will turn the question around: What is bad about having schools?
Steve Ransom

Technology in Schools Faces Questions on Value - NYTimes.com - 9 views

  • Critics counter that, absent clear proof, schools are being motivated by a blind faith in technology and an overemphasis on digital skills — like using PowerPoint and multimedia tools — at the expense of math, reading and writing fundamentals. They say the technology advocates have it backward when they press to upgrade first and ask questions later.
    • Steve Ransom
       
      A valid criticism when technology implementation is decoupled from meaningful and effective pedagogy. You can't buy measurable change/improvement.
  • district was innovating
  • how the district was innovating.
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Again, this is very different than how TEACHERS are innovating their PRACTICES. It's much more challenging than making a slick brochure that communicates how much technology your district has.
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  • there is no good way to quantify those achievements — putting them in a tough spot with voters deciding whether to bankroll this approach again
  • “We’ve jumped on bandwagons for different eras without knowing fully what we’re doing. This might just be the new bandwagon,” he said. “I hope not.”
    • Steve Ransom
       
      There's a confidence building statement for you....
  • $46.3 million for laptops, classroom projectors, networking gear and other technology for teachers and administrators.
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Exactly... and how much was spent on equipping teachers to change their practices to effectively leverage this new infrastructure?
  • If we know something works
    • Steve Ransom
       
      And what is that "something"? New technology? If so, you missed the boat.
  • it is hard to separate the effect of the laptops from the effect of the teacher training
  • The high-level analyses that sum up these various studies, not surprisingly, give researchers pause about whether big investments in technology make sense.
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Why does the argument for making schools relevant and using current cultural tools need to be backed with performance data? Give politicians and superintendents horses instead of cars and see how long that lasts.
  • Good teachers, he said, can make good use of computers, while bad teachers won’t, and they and their students could wind up becoming distracted by the technology.
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Finally, a valid point.
  • “Test scores are the same, but look at all the other things students are doing: learning to use the Internet to research, learning to organize their work, learning to use professional writing tools, learning to collaborate with others.”
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Exactly. But somehow, "value" has been equated with test scores alone. Do we have a strong body of research on pencil effectiveness or clay effectiveness or chair effectiveness?
  • “It’s not the stuff that counts — it’s what you do with it that matters.”
  • “There is a connection between the physical hand on the paper and the words on the page,” she said. “It’s intimate.”
  • “They’re inundated with 24/7 media, so they expect it,”
    • Steve Ransom
       
      And you expect them to always engage enthusiastically with tools that are no longer relevant in their culture?
  • The 30 students in the classroom held wireless clickers into which they punched their answers. Seconds later, a pie chart appeared on the screen: 23 percent answered “True,” 70 percent “False,” and 6 percent didn’t know.
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Okay... and you follow up with a totally trivial example of the power of technology in learning.
  • term” that can slide past critical analysis.
  • engagement is a “fluffy
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Very true
  • rofessor Cuban at Stanford argues that keeping children engaged requires an environment of constant novelty, which cannot be sustained.
    • Steve Ransom
       
      If that is so, why not back up your claim by linking to the source here. I have a feeling he has been misquoted and taken out of context here.
  • that computers can distract and not instruct.
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Computers don't really "instruct". That's why we have teachers who are supposed to know what they are doing and why they are doing it... and monitoring kids while keeping learning meaningful.
  • guide on the side.
    • Steve Ransom
       
      But many teachers are simply not prepared for how to do this effectively. To ignore this fact is just naive.
  • Professor Cuban at Stanford
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Are they in love with Cuban or something? Perhaps they should actually look at the research... or interview other authorities. Isn't that what reporting is all about? I think this reporter must be a product of too much Google, right?
  • But she loves the fact that her two children, a fourth-grader and first-grader, are learning technology, including PowerPoint
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Again, the fact that any supporter is happy that their kids are learning PowerPoint illustrates the degree of naiveté in their understanding of technology's role in learning.
  • creating an impetus to rethink education entirely
  • Mr. Share bases his buying decisions on two main factors: what his teachers tell him they need, and his experience. For instance, he said he resisted getting the interactive whiteboards sold as Smart Boards until, one day in 2008, he saw a teacher trying to mimic the product with a jury-rigged projector setup. “It was an ‘Aha!’ moment,” he said, leading him to buy Smart Boards, made by a company called Smart Technologies.
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Herein lies another huge problem. Mr. Director of Technology seems to base no decisions on what the learning and technology literature have to say... nor does he consult those who would be considered authorities on technology infused learning (emphasis on learning here)
  • This is big business.
    • Steve Ransom
       
      No kidding.
  • “Do we really need technology to learn?” she said. “It’s a very valid time to ask the question, right before this goes on the ballot.”
    • Steve Ransom
       
      Anyone who asks that should volunteer to have their home and work computer confiscated. After all, it's just a distraction, right?
Leonard Miller

Final College-Readiness Definition Guides Test Consortium - Curriculum Matters - Educat... - 0 views

  • PARCC's policy will be that students earn the "college readiness" determination by performing at level 4 on a 5-level test
  • Reaching that level on the language arts part of the exam will mean that students have "demonstrated the academic knowledge, skills, and practices necessary" to skip remedial classes and go directly into entry-level, credit-bearing courses in "college English composition, literature, and technical courses requiring college-level reading and writing."
  • college-readiness scores on the test will be set in such a way that students who score at that level—level 4—will have a 75 percent chance of earning a grade of C or better in those college courses.
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  • Scoring at level 5 on the test will reflect a "distinguished command" of the subject, and level 4 will reflect a "strong" command. Level 3 shows a "moderate" command, level 2 a "partial" command, and level 1 a "minimal" command.
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    PARCC definition of "college ready"
limj629

VocabularySpellingCity | Build Literacy Skills with Vocabulary and Spelling - 6 views

shared by limj629 on 04 Aug 09 - Cached
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    Teachers can create an account for school. Provides practice and quizzes. Probably best for elementary or sped.
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    Teachers can create an account for school. Provides practice and quizzes. Probably best for elementary or sped. I also like SpellingTube which has videos created by students (UK accent) to reinforce spelling.
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    This is way cooler than I thought it would be! You input some vocab or spelling words and it creates tests or teaches the words including spelling, and using them in a sentence.
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    Start by entering your spelling words to create free spelling and vocabulary games, activities, resources, and printables.
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    A superb resource where teachers can sign in and input spelling lists for pupils to learn by playing games. Give pupils the link and they don't need to sign in to use it. Site only recognises US spelling when generating example sentences, but you can input your own easily. Free option should be enough for most users, but 'paid for' option is available. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
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