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Many UK children have become less confident about succeeding in life by the time they leave school, a report says. The study by think-tank Demos says some pupils feel school is just preparing them for exam success. It urges the government to help schools and colleges explore how self-belief, perseverance and resilience can be instilled in pupils.

I think that not only UK chidren but also our children less confident and unhappy in real life. If same research is done in Turkey, I think that similar results can be obtained. Students spend 12 years in school (primary school, secondary and high school). And they learn socialising, success, failure in school. In traditional classrooms, success is gaining high score in exam, ranked in first three in competition and failure is gaining lower scores on exam. When students leave the school, they face with new environment that is not similar to school. I think, therefore, they can not adopt to this new environment they feel unhappy and less confident. For this reason, schools should bring the skills and qualities that are needed for out of the school. Community service course, role playing, field works should be done in the schools to introduce real life experinces to students. In addition, changing the laerning activites, assesment procedures in school also can be helpful for real life experinces.

In several videos it was said that we start to prepare our pupils for jobs that are not invented yet. It is because there are lots of information production and exchange throughout world now, which makes lots of jobs become obsolete in short period of times. Our students need to have skills to locate, synthesis, and evaluate information and adapt theirselves to new contexts instead of having static knowledge about specific jobs.

I think that sharing our motivations of pursuing masters or PhD would be interesting. The attached video is a fun video of getting a Phd in humanities.

While I was working at a primary school, one of my students asked me:" Öğretmenim, neden hala okuyorsunuz? Tatile falan gitseniz daha iyi bence:)" I had two day off for graduate courses, that's why he thought I would go on a holiday:) (Or maybe I looked tired:) People who do not know me very well question my motivation for being a Phd student. But, those who know me well think that I should engage in academic studies. Interestingly, whenever I feel demotivated, they try to motivate me:) I love searching, learning new things and sharing them with people around me. Şermin is right: it is the hunger for knowledge and it is the most effective motive for graduate students:)

My motive for doing Master is to feel competent in my expertise field .But the main thing underlying is like everybody else is to learn and look for the best.I have always wondered `What is the best practice in teaching?` `How can I improve my skills both personally and professionally? Quest for the answers are keeping me motivated.

I am curious about what you think on this. Do you agree?

While reading I felt that the author is somewhat close to new ideas coming from other people, other thinkers, actually coming from the rest of the world. I mean as I understood at some parts, he is not open to accept the judgements or theories of some thinkers because what they said were already out there, they did not bring anything new. However I would name these people as men of action and thinkers ahead of their time. Because they draw attention to critical points that were ignored or missed by others. Maybe yes what they put forth were already out there or maybe some of their methods are not sufficient compared to our current methodologies but still they were the ones to see the complete picture and summarize things.

Thank you Evrim Hocam:) I strongly believe in community, wikinomy, we have to share, we can learn from each other in an informal environment but social constructivism is not working on me:) As he wrote "At University I learned almost everything in the quiet of my own room and the library. In corporate life, I relished the opportunity to learn on trains and planes, havens of forced isolation, peace and quiet. To this day I blog a lot and enjoy periods of intense research, reading and writing. It's not that I've learned everything in these contexts, only that they go against the idea that all learning needs to be social." I always got successful with deliberate practice and with "Learning by Doing". I don't like social media as well, there are many damages than benefits and I'm not so introvert, maybe a little:) but it's not about being introvert or extrovert, it's about talking or doing... I want to tell a real story of my friend who was a novice programmer in a company. There were many experts, novices and they were taking courses, online, offline, with collaboration every time. Everybody were sharing, commenting, discussing but he began a real life project first week by himself and after 6 month they were still asking to each other but he finished his project. After one year he was the best programmer in the company. And everyone began to ask to him. I asked him, he told that he believes in working until suffering and just doing:) And he added this interesting sentence "You will learn and you will be successful when you will be so related, so suffering that one day you will see dreams and solve problems about the topics in your sleep" My friend's opinions are maybe a little bit dramatic but I believe in "doing" too, at least it's working for us:)

I found his video highly interesting in that it begins with a thrilling question "when does learning start?" , it talks about the research that shows how much we learn in the womb -- from the lilt of our native language to our soon-to-be-favorite foods.

Language acquisition process of babies is a real miracle.They are born with certain tendencies towards their mother language which is an indicator that they strart language learning before birth as mentioned in the video recording. Moreover, they acquire their native language in an incredible speed without any special training. Thus, this video reminded me a major debate in understanding language acquisition: Is language an innate or learned abilitiy?

I agree that such research can be influential in discussing precautions or alternative perspectives for pregnant women and also for all involved in the study of learning. About the language acquisition, the very interesting question you raised has a long history of debate as you already mentioned. Maybe additional research in the future will help to put more light on the issue.

The video is very funny and it shows the importance of interest, motivation, self-esteem as well as prior knowledge in learning to me, what do you think?

Thank you for sharing this. Sheldon typically may have aimed to transfer what is written in the books or most probably imitated his teachers as this was the way he was instructed. I say so as the physics teacher at the high school I studied was instructing in the same way and this is why I could not learn physics and developed a kind of prejudice towards that subject matter. As I could not comprehend the abstract terms he was talking about I quitted:(

I think we usually experience such a thing. Teachers want to teach whatever they want without stopping, but they sometimes forget that not every students is very interested in the stuff :( an important thing to keep in mind.

After I read this I become more worried about our students especially in secondary schools. There were SBS (exam for entering high schools) and they were taking 3 different exams at each grade, 6,7,8 but now with the new regulations they will have 36 exams. Apart from that in 10 years the system has changed for 5 times. what can be more devastating their chilhood than that?

I agree with you about the testing system in Turkey but it is only the top of the iceberg. For me, childhood ends for children who start the formal education in Turkey. Our system is so demanding and competitive that children cannot endure the difficulties they encounter. First of all, we have very overloaded curricula and students always need to be alert and hardworking to keep up with the required activities. While trying to make use of constructivist understanding curriculum developers missed some points: the opportunities and facilities the schools and students have, the difficulty level of activities, background of the learner and student and parent profile in Turkey, teacher characteristics in our schools and so on. The curricula cannot be implemeted in most of the schools so teachers invented their own methods and techniques which do not match to any of the instructional theories properly. Parents started to find out ways to protect their children and they made lots of mistakes. For example, some parents do projects of their children and smarter children started to sell ready-made projects at schools. Although teachers know the truth, he grade these projects because the system makes it nearly impossible to fail. In short, our system is working but not in the way writen in the curricula. The changes, negativities and difficulties in the system is damaging the childhood and future of the students. Somebody should change it, not the curricula:)

World is getting more populated, and each individual wants to have a better life. And a better life is significantly related to education. So, exams still appear to be a "must" in this racing system. Actually, I am a supporter of the exams if we want to have a more "fair race". I remember the terrible old days when successful people couldn't get what they deserved because of the bribery system in Turkey. On the other hand, I agree about the side effects of the overtesting. And as an individual who has been exposed to overtesting, the question I ask to myself is "How has the overtesting affected my mental health?" The truth is I have been stressed, depressed and sad because of the tests :(

Research on how deliberate practice combined with innate abilities lead to expertise.

Elanur, Actually, I was trying to find the movie that you mentioned about high-wire actor (Petit). Then I realized that you have already written here. What made me so impressed about him that he worked on that about 6 years. I have read somewhere "experts view mistakes as opportunities to learn", however, this man had no chance to do mistake. the story of the guy in this link http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2015/09/30/the_real_story_behind_philippe_petits_highwire_act_in_the_walk.php

Yes Yasin I totally agree with you about the mistake part but this man dedicated his life to perform on the wire between Twin Towers so I thought that someone who dedicates oneself to perform in a particular area develops expertise in that area eventually and we can call him an expert in being a juggler even he put his life in danger. By the way this is an extreme example of being an expert. I just try to make connections between dedication and developing an expertise through this example.

In this article Roy Pea, who is one of the pioneers of learning sciences, discussing how computers are changing our cognitive lifes beyond amplifying. Article first supports this proposition, then discusses implications of applying computer-based technologies into education. Lastly it suggests updating educational practices in order to be harmonious with this new emerging cognitive life. This article is also important for being quite early, it constitutes one of the foot stones of the learning sciences area.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Ted Talk about how the flow term is appeared. Beyond, how he started to deal with psychology and the only aim of him to find an answer to "What makes a life worth living?" He searched an answer at different area and find the best answer at psychology. Although he know nothing about Carl Jung, even he doesn't know the name of him (I am surprised to that); after participating at one of his conference; he affected and started to deal with psychology. Finally, after this studies, he appeared the term, 'flow'.

I also add the most famous painting of Dali, persistence of memory. Because flow term remind me that painting. I think we are at our surreal world at the flow instance and also the time term is completely lost. http://www.dalipaintings.com/images/paintings/the-persistence-of-memory.jpg

I like this painting of Dali! Although it can be commented in various ways, we can comment it from the point of view of flow theory like; in the flow moment you don't realize time flies until that moment ends. Thus, I agree with you that it really fits into distortion of sense of time.

The Pursuit Of Happyness is beyond a film for me, because the impact of film changed my point of view and ideas a lot. Maybe you watched it but if you do not know its topic, the film is based on true life story of Chris Gardner who established Gardner Rich company at Wall Street starting with selling medical devices at his penniless situation. The scene is taken from that movie and although it is simple scene, I think the idea behind that scene is really important for intrinsic motivation. Because like at the scene, people say you cannot and we believe them or we want to believe them because we think it is really hard. However, all we have to do is just wanting and struggling.

An interesting commentary from the voice of an engineer on teaching.

When I was 1 st year undergraduate student in METU, We were using this online platform at my physic's course. Generally there were 10 problems assigned with sub-layers. It was offering rapid feedback, simulations and we were also graded.

Mustafa, It was really helpful from some aspects but I remember that I was frequently complaining about the software. It gave a chance to practice a lot what I had learnt previous class. It was good to have problems in a large scale of complexity ( from easiest to hardest). And sometimes questions were picturized and there were graphs etc. Mostly, they were for real life situations. We were trying to solve problems which we come face to face everyday.However, there were also drawbacks, for example the answers arranged in a way that they do not accept any other solution computer offers.Our answers had to be exactly same from decimals to points. This could sometimes let a disoppointment and robbed my motivation down.And there were fear of getting bad marks because in the and of the homework we were graded by our performance. All in all, despite its drawbacks, 7 years ago it was nice to have this different kind of method in our classess.

Thank you Ceren for sharing your experiences, you underlined very important points especially the one about answers.

Based on Evrim Hoca's questions, while googling I came across this. While considering the motivation we disregard one important point I guess. What about the social and economic status of learners and its influence on motivation? Here the news tell us about the accesibility problem. If some are not able to access can we talk about the motivation?

I am studying on learning environments in socioeconomically disadvantaged schools Yelda, :) May be I can provide some information during the course. Thanks for sharing this :)

Yelda, I have no idea about the target population of MOOCs when they first broke out..But I know they have many pros like no-cost for students (mostly), quality (some Ivy League universities are leading), opportunity for who has no chance to enroll a famous university, no presequities like diplom and chance of discussing things through an online platform (diversity)..So motivation is not one of the pros but cons. Because those MOOC institutions does not offer any college credit but a certificate which does not help you for employment and they are free, nothing forces you to complete..Anyway I have already enrolled a 6 weeks Cryptography Course (I am a Courseran now) offered by a Stanford Professor.

I've watched the video twice and in the end I've felt some concerns about the results of the studies. In the "how people learn" part, researchers were testing the storage and connection system of the brain through some high-tech tools. However, does neuropsychology provide enough evidence on the functioning of the brains? Can we generalize the results to all people from all cultures? I am not the one who is against neuropsychology, but for me one discipline may not give an appropriate answer to such a deep question. My second concern is about the integration of computer programs into the curriculum as a major learning tool. We see a program where "Betty" is speaking and giving feedback on the video. The program seems user friendly, but what about the negative aspects and limitations of the integration of technology into learning? Ok, I agree that we have to adapt to the rapid technological changes in the society. However, is technology the key to all learning processes? Plus, the program is designed on the mapping of the concepts. Does concept mapping make a curriculum compelling all the time? I am not sure about all characteristics of the program, but if it hasn't been designed in a challenging style and if all students come up with the same products, then how will they develop their knowledge and reasoning abilities? I couldn't find an answer to that. As for the part "effective teaching", I am in the same opinion with the researchers that there should be a connection between the real world and the subject taught. Moreover, I think the integration of the disciplines is difficult but a very good way of giving meaning to life. Besides, in the video we see teachers as a guide, as a facilitator and there is no doubt that providing individual support to the students helps students feel more involved.

Firstly, even if it is designed by utilizing modern technology and different understanding, which makes it a more developed and complicated one, the program used in the video reminded me the teaching machines of old times. It gives the priority to the cognitive aspect of learning. This seems to be a one-dimensional approach which underestimates the social aspect of learning. I think the value of classroom interaction for effective learning cannot be replaced by any kind of computer programs. Research on brain is really important and it provides very useful insights for learning and instructional activities. However, it should be supported by the findings of research by social psychologists as well. The very same individual may perform at varying levels when he is taught with the same methods in different environments. I personally experienced many times that even the absence of one individual in my classes affected the teaching an learning processes in a negative or positive way depending upon the classroom dinamics.

it seems that we will try to go to some Chinese Universities in ten years time, instead of Europe or States.

In my opinion education policy of the countries do not be planned based on the students' academic achievement. Real achievement of an education system could be observed as individuals' adaptation to life. For example the main vision of the elementary science curriculum defined by Ministry of National Education of Turkey [MONE] (2005) is that regardless of the individual differences of students, they are educated to become scientifically literate, the uniqueness nature of the learner; background and culture of the learners and motivation of the learners were taken into consideration in the development of the curriculum (MONE, 2005), but putting those in the practice is very difficult.

Also, as mentioned in the text "… those results come at the cost of one of the highest levels of student anxiety in the world." Anxiety is very important and big research area in educational psychology also the news in the link http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-04/10/content_9710997.htm exemplifies its importance in Chinese case.

A nice example of learning by design.

A very good example :-)) I think this supports the idea that projects should have an aim and provide possible solutions to existing problems. As we all know, necessity is the mother of invention. So when we want to engage sts with design activities, we should be realistic and provide them with problems from real life.

Perhaps, you've watched it before, but pls watch it if you haven't...it is one of my favourites...Enjoy it :-))

The video presents the reality of women, we are really complicated;) I really enjoyed watching it Şermin thanks for sharing:)

Wow that was funny! I want to share what happened when me an my friend were trying to assemble my disassembled table:) I was following the directions 'step by step' at the mean time thinking where to put the table according to day light,the lamp and so on when he just started to assemble it without thinking anything, really anything and for sure without checking the instructions. He had a glance what it is supposed to look like in the end and just gave a start. I think this is also the way men perceive the life :)

This is an article by Chris Dede (Harvard Graduate School of Education August, 2004). It focuses on the importance and difficulties of DBR. You can get help from this article, while trying to answer the questions on LMS.

There was a case in one of the articles, the researchers were asked to provide an example of their research findings which helped them to solve a problem in practice and they were silent. It is a really good example of the gap between research and practice.When I think that research findings will not help to solve problems in the field, I start to question the things I am doing because being a part of the solution, not the problem" was the starting point of my academic life...

I really like the idea offered by DBR that is against the highly controlled laboratory settings are settings that research settings resembling that. But I still can not grasp how multi number of variables can healthly or in a valid sense can be studied all together in DBR. Maybe the local issue gains importance at this point.