Group items tagged

The benefits of embedding the teaching of writing into the curriculum have been advocated by educators and researchers. However, there is currently little evidence of embedded writing instruction in the UK's higher education context. In this article, we present a case study in which we report the design, implementation and evaluation of an academic writing intervention with first-year undergraduate students in an applied linguistics programme. Our objectives were to try a combination of embedded instructional methods and provide an example that can be followed by lecturers across disciplines and institutions. Through the integration of in-class and online writing tasks and assessment feedback in a first-term module, we supported students' writing development throughout the first term. We evaluated the effects of the intervention through the analysis of notes on classroom interaction, a student questionnaire and interviews, and a text analysis of students' writing and the feedback comments over time. The evaluation findings provide insights into the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach. The embedded writing instruction was perceived as useful by both students and teachers. The assessment feedback, whilst being the most work-intensive method for the teachers, was valued most by the students and led to substantial improvements in the writing of some. These findings suggest that embedded writing instruction could be usefully applied in other higher education contexts.

"Now's the time to transcend the usual debates over how to make our schools better and our teachers more effective - and break free of the myths that keep us fighting 20th century battles. Instead we need to look hard at the realities, framed by research evidence as well as the challenges teachers face everyday"

The high volume of research on different programs, products, practices, and policies in education can make it difficult to interpret and apply the results. We review the research. Then, by focusing on the results from high-quality research, we try to answer the question "What works in education?"  Our goal is to provide educators with the information they need to make evidence-based decisions.

Something we probably all know, but it's good that new confirming evidence is being accrued.

Not Left and Right brains -not cientific Evidence-, but four different brains

"Too many teachers are totally absorbed in the process of teaching, by which is meant the 'delivery of information,' and are barely concerned with the process of learning. Teaching is NOT the goal of education, learning is! ... Our major concern must shift from teaching to learning to achieve our goals."

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup/referral:msreliford free CER Rubric This is a printable PDF of a 4 point rubric for the CER, or Claim, Evidence, Reasoning activities. CER promotes critical thinking.

The notion that people have different "learning styles" -- e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic -- is a myth with no evidence to support it. It is a widely-held belief that is harmful to students as it sends the message that are only capable of certain types of learning.

"We recognize that in the march of the semester we begin on a different note than we end on. The early weeks hold promise and high hopes, both often curtailed when the first assignments are graded. The final weeks find us somewhere between being reluctant or relieved to see a class move on. There is an inexplicable but evident interaction between our teaching persona and the persona a class develops throughout a semester. Some structural factors influence both: among them-the type and level of a course, the discipline, the time of day, and whether the students are a cohort or a unique collection of individuals. "

I'm considering sharing these questions with my students as the semester progresses.

"What kinds of questions make for good inquiry-based projects? As we said, they must first be questions that the kids truly care about because they come up with them themselves. In addition, good questions share the following characteristics: The questions must be answerable. "What is the poem 'Dream Deferred' based on?" is answerable. "Why did Langston Hughes write it?" may be answerable if such information exists, or if the students have some relevant and defensible opinions. "Why did he choose this particular word in line six?" is not answerable because the only person likely to know such a specific answer is Hughes himself, now deceased. The answer cannot be a simple fact. "In what year was Lincoln killed?" doesn't make for a very compelling project because you can just look it up in any number of books or Web sites. "What factors caused the assassination attempt?" might be a good project because it will require research, interpretation, and analysis. The answer can't already be known. "What is hip-hop music?" is a bit too straightforward and the kids are not likely to learn much more than they know already. "What musical styles does hip-hop draw from and how?" offers more opportunity for exploration. The questions must have some objective basis for an answer. "Why is the sky blue?" can be answered through research. "Why did God make the sky blue?" cannot because it is a faith-based question. Both are meaningful, valid, real questions, but the latter isn't appropriate for an inquiry-based project. "What have people said about why God made the sky blue?" might be appropriate. Likewise, "Why did the dinosaurs become extinct?" is ultimately unanswerable in that form because no humans were around to know for sure, but "What do scientists believe was the reason for their extinction?" or "What does the evidence suggest about the cause?" will work. Questions based on value judgments don't work for similar reasons. You can't objectively answer "Is Hamle

"Despite the popularity of goal setting, there is compelling evidence that regardless of good intentions and effort, people and organizations consistently fall short of achieving their goals. More often than not, the fault is attributed to the goal setter. But the real problem may be in the efficacy of goal setting itself."

"Evidence suggests that developing cooking and food preparation skills is important for health and nutrition, yet the practice of home cooking is declining and now rarely taught in school. A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that developing cooking skills as a young adult may have long-term benefits for health and nutrition."

"It is often claimed that people who are bilingual are better than monolinguals at learning languages. Now, the first study to examine bilingual and monolingual brains as they learn an additional language offers new evidence that supports this hypothesis, researchers say. The study, conducted at Georgetown University Medical Center and published in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, suggests that early bilingualism helps with learning languages later in life."

"The education twitter-sphere has been all a-buzz today with stuff about helping (or failing) bright pupils. I am not at all qualified to contribute directly to the debate; I can only recount my own experiences, and anecdotal evidence is not very valuable in such a case. Because of my work as an examiner, I meet history teachers from scores of other schools every summer, and I do not think my approaches were in any way unusual. Yes, I taught at an independent school, so it was selective in terms of ability to pay fees. It was not very selective in terms of ability; plenty of our pupils did well to get C passes at GCSE with a couple of Bs thrown in."

We are a happy and stable staff, and my colleagues are a fabulous group of people who look after each other and genuinely care about one another. We have an experienced leadership team, and always aim to take account of how people are feeling and the pressure they are under when trying  new approaches and changes to practice. Even so, it has become more and more clear that workload is becoming untenable and wellbeing is suffering a result. I feel that we have felt obligated at times to put policies in place that seem to be there to collect evidence for Ofsted rather than solely to improve the learning of the children in our care. We want to change this.

We are told 'Don't let the system get you down', and 'rail against the system' and endure the untold misery of 'We are updating your system.' Systems have a bad reputation for being bureaucratic, red-tape decorated jumping hoops. This is certainly true of many systems and no more so than in education. A system which isn't working well is clearly evident while those that are working as they should are often invisible or unnoticed, but vital to the smooth working of work, learning and life.

It's probably one of the most commonly used strategies evident in classrooms around the world, but researchers from the University of Liverpool have concluded that group work can actually harm memory. In a joint study, psychologists from the University of Liverpool and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) have revealed that collaborating in a group to remember information is harmful...

"Even with 'expert' advice from consultants, self-proclaimed gurus, or politicians, managing behaviour in secondary schools is an art within itself. Different personalities, socio-economic conditions and expectations are all unique to each individual setting so no one slant on how to manage behaviour will suit all schools. Yet the role of pastoral care in many schools has evidently been diminished with the focus turning towards academic achievement in high stakes exam results, with pupils being reduced to 'units of progress'. This is not only a UK shift in focus, with many jurisdictions around the world following a similar pattern."

"An amazing feedback app. Create QR codes and attach audio feedback for students/parents to listen to. QR codes are emailed to you after requesting them from the app. Glue into books to evidence your feedback. Get your students to reply to begin a conversation about their work."