Group items tagged

Problem-based approaches to learning have a long history of advocating experience-based education. Psychological research and theory suggests that by having students learn through the experience of solving problems, they can learn both content and thinking strategies. Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional method in which students learn through facilitated problem solving. In PBL, student learning centers on a complex problem that does not have a single correct answer. Students work in ollaborative groups to identify what they need to learn in order to solve a problem. They engage in self-directed learning (SDL) and then apply their new knowledge to the problem and reflect on what they learned and the effectiveness of the strategies employed. The teacher acts to facilitate the learning process rather than to provide knowledge. The goals of PBL include helping students develop 1) flexible knowledge, 2) effective problem-solving skills, 3) SDL skills, 4) effective collaboration skills, and 5) intrinsic motivation. This article discusses the nature of learning in PBL and examines the empirical evidence supporting it. There is considerable research on the first 3 goals of PBL but little on the last 2. Moreover, minimal research has been conducted outside medical and gifted education. Understanding how these goals are achieved with less skilled learners is an important part of a research agenda for PBL. The evidence suggests that PBL is an instructional approach that offers the potential to help students develop flexible understanding and lifelong learning skills.

An attempt to address communication between researchers and dissemination of content. Research happens, how do we stay in contact, share results, ask questions, COLLABORATE! We use the latest research tool available to the public to share, that's how! Models the wikiway approach, not radical, just smart.

Read Steve Fulton's approach to researching with his middle school students as they were reading the Hunger Game. I love his approach to incorporating the book, what students already knew, Diigo for sharing, summarizing, and gathering data, and then the writing process. In my opinion, this is how it should be, the focus is on writing not the use of technology. The technology just helps achieve the goal more effectively. 

This wiki collects information about tools and resources that can help scholars (particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively. Whether you need software to help you manage citations, author a multimedia work, or analyze texts, Digital Research Tools will help you find what you're looking for. Not all the software is free, but it does provide an extensive list of software for use.

What mathematical competencies must a teacher have to teach the subject well? This has proven difficult to investigate (1). A current view is that teachers' knowledge of mathematics "remains inert in the classroom unless accompanied by a rich repertoire of mathematical knowledge and skills relating directly to the curriculum, instruction, and student learning" (2). Unfortunately, there is no consensus on which "knowledge and skills" might activate teachers' inert knowledge. Two perspectives prevail, neither with a research base that enables strong claims about practice. The majority of current studies focus on explicit knowledge of curriculum content and instructional strategies. Such knowledge might be assessed directly through observation, interview, or written test (2), with a parallel research emphasis on the formal contents of teacher education programs [e.g., (3)]. A second school of thought, presented here, is that the most important competencies tend to be tacit, like skills involved in playing concert piano, learned but not necessarily available to consciousness.

Great twitter like site designed for schools and classrooms. Great for sharing research and backchannel conversations that have research breaks built into them because students and teachers can embed images, videos, and links for sharing. If a school is concerned about twitter and access, this would be a great classroom alternative. 

Great opportunity to collaborate online with scientists researching real questions: "the team is trying to answer the question - how do the skeletal muscles of seals develop to work during deep dives, even when the animal is not breathing for long periods of time. The researchers believe the answers to this question may have tremendous implications for human medicine. By understanding how another mammal has successfully overcome the debilitating effects of working under low oxygen conditions, we may be able to learn new therapeutic approaches to assist humans with heart or lung disease. "

Mix of research, products, PD, and leadership support. McREL is now a nationwide resource. 

Talking History, based at the University at Albany, State University of New York, is a production, distribution, and instructional center for all forms of "aural" history. Our mission is to provide teachers, students, researchers and the general public with as broad and outstanding a collection of audio documentaries, speeches, debates, oral histories, conference sessions, commentaries, archival audio sources, and other aural history resources as is available anywhere. We hope to expand our understanding of history by exploring the audio dimensions of our past, and we hope to enlarge the tools and venues of historical research and publication by promoting production of radio documentaries and other forms of aural history.

"Staffed with about 60 full-time researchers, many of them Indians with PhDs from top universities in the United States, the center is at the cutting edge of Microsoft's R&D. It covers seven areas of research including mobility and cryptography." For now, the US is still the center of tech education. How long will people continue to come to the US for education? How can we change the tide of American students not choosing/being prepared for engineering/leadership

How many of the PhD's are going back to India, though?

It's what we are moving our students to by teaching to the test and in this article it's being used against India.

Google continues to support educators in developing student capacity to use the internet for academic search. Great resource to help teachers take an intentional developmental approach to student research skills. 

From the site, "Research and revise a wide variety of school subjects as Videojug presents tips and tutorials for a range of subjects across the school-board. Learn or re-learn English, Maths, Science , Modern and Traditional Foreign Languages, Sign Language, Politics, History and Geography. Between brain-teasers and fun experiments theres something for scholars old and new." Interesting take on organizing some of the many videos available on the internet. 

An article by DeZure, Kaplan, and Deerman about implications for instructors about student note-taking. An interesting look at what research tells us about how students take notes, what they are able to remember and write down, mistakes that are commonly made, and what instructors can do to make their students more successful.

We introduced Diigo to WJHS this summer and I thought I would pass this news along to everyone, but especially that group. I still think Diigo is an incredible tool for collaboration in the classroom for research, group work/accountability, formative assessment, reaching beyond classroom walls both with students and colleagues. Additionally, Sean does some nice simple video production (with totally FREE tools) that I want to share with other teachers. It's easy to do, is a way of getting information to your students easily and in a manner that allows them to access the information as many times as they like/need.

Great set of resources for research starting points beyond Google for younger students.

"This report is based on evidence from a small-scale survey carried out between April and July 2009 in 35 maintained schools in England. It evaluates the extent to which the schools taught pupils to adopt safe and responsible practices in using new technologies, and how they achieved this. It also assesses the extent and quality of the training the schools provided for their staff. It responds to the report of the Byron Review, Safer children in a digital world."

Welcome to the Animated Atlas of African History! This map gives a year-by-year presentation of selected themes in the history of Africa between 1879 and 2002. Toggle buttons allow you to select which thematic layers to activate. Choices include: Territory names Changing boundaries, imperial rulers and political systems Violent conflicts Economic and demographic trends You can advance or reverse the chronology and change the speed with "play," "fast forward," and "rewind" buttons. The site also offers a textual summary of the year-by-year changes. The Flash-based animation may be operated interactively on the web or downloaded as Mac OS X or Windows executibles. The AAAH is designed to be an instructional tool at the secondary and college levels as well as for the general learner. It is subject to revisions based on new research and user feedback. Please check often for the latest version.

I'm not an English teacher, but this approach to writing with middle schools students makes great sense to me! I love the tools he is using with his students. It doesn't do the work for them but lets the students focus on figuring out the important information instead of how to format the paper! 

Not a research article itself, but more evidence that supports the approach of activating prior knowledge, having students anticipate answers before reading a piece of text.