Group items tagged

Online math practice problems offer hints and integrated Step-by-step solutions. Prefer pen and paper? Generate a printable worksheet for study sessions and quizzes. (After registration, you can try it for 7 days)

This is what I like most! Hints are useful and i could decide the level also. Thanks for sharing.

thanks for sharing, wish it was more than 7 days :)

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.

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.

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:)

The article totally reflects my opinions about blended learning. Technology integration is necessary but to what extent?

I agree with you Sermin, use of technology is considered as a must for effective instruction by most of the teachers nowadays. However, in some cases using traditional methods and techniques can be more feasible, cost-effective and practical.

Here is an interesting example how learning is practiced in social media. If you want to find out more about the theoretical background, google "Professor Sreenivasan".

Some of social media samples can be used during some spesific classes such as History, English, Biology and likewise. But as a Maths teacher, I do not believe that I can use it as a tool to teach a subject. However, I definately aggree that it is obviously a great thing to exchange new ideas, to make brain storms, to create a discussion platform and broaden ideas according to several perspectives.

I liked the idea of integrating social media into instruction. But the teacher or instructor should be extra careful and strategic as it may be risky. Such devices or technology are mostly to capture the attention of the students or to keep students engaged in the lesson. I still think that the magic is in the hands of the teacher to keep the students attention and ensure effective learning. It may be too much technological to use facebook or tweeter in each lesson, which constitutes a balance issue. The students need to be close to the books, pencils and notebooks, papers etc. The dose of social media should be arranged carefully and strategically.

The article has talked about the importance of communication with parents for learning as well as what problems we as educators may confront with by asking parents to help their children in order to enhance learning.

Thanks for sharing this:) Actually, it is not only important but also vital to include parental communication into education procedure. I think school, parents and the student himself/herself compose the core family in education process rather than the biological family of the student. In the literature about this issue, it has been put forward that there is a positive relation between parental communication and student learning or achievement both academically and psychologically.

One of the most difficult tasks that educators are to achieve is ensuring positive parental involvement in education. As parents are very sensitive about their children's education, nowadays most of the teachers have difficulty to create fruitful communication with parents. Parents question and crticize everything at school as they do not have confidence in educators because of improper practices they experienced or witnessed. Having training sessions, meetings and home visits can be useful in this framework. In this way, parents will be informed about the activities at school and can be involved in decision making process which will change their perceptions in a positive way.

Michael Posner here explains how brain develoment and brain function can be applied in educational practice.

The link provides useful info about expert resources that enhance deliberate practice presented by a professor as part of a class.

I think the references of this page can be beneficial for us as well, thank you.

This is a good writing which explains the paradox and gives specific examples on his issue.

This explains many things :) "The moral of the spotlight effect is that we think everyone is paying attention to everything we do, consumed with our tiny missteps and bad hair days, but they aren't. Why? Because they are busy thinking about you paying attention to their tiny missteps and bad hair days. The bad news is that people are pretty self-absorbed thinking others are paying attention to them. The good news is that people aren't paying that much attention to you, so don't worry so much about what others will think if you do x, y, or z."

"EXPERT" is a very powerful word. It gives many responsibilities to the people who are considered "experts" in their fields. As the writer says, "It is hard to let others know that you don't know everything they think you know." What professional and social pressure on people! I don't know how to get rid of such feelings but I think people should be aware of the fact that being a leader and at the same time an expert necessiates at least 20,000 hours of deliberate practice :-))

Here is the book review of the book. We were going to bring it to the class but it has been borrowed from the library :(( You can check it if you want to learn more about expertise and deliberate practice.

While googling the handbook I came across 25 quotes from the book. Here is the link: http://solutionfocusedchange.blogspot.com/2011/07/25-quotes-about-expertise-and-expert.html

"Every child is a scientist!!!" Do you agree?

I wish he were not a scientist but eventually he is especially in the kitchen he can create different tastes he prepares coctails for himself and drinks it and tries new forms of chemical experiements and reaches different tastes it goes on like this :)

I totally agree with the idea. If you had a chance of observing little kids around you, you may have seen that they have lots of questions that even we as grown ups do not know the answer. also, the simple answers that you provide for them are never enough for them. Our professor Mr. Ok shared his experience with one of his colleague's daughter. a five year old girl learned from her parents that she came to the world as her father and mother loved each other so much. When she saw that our professor do not have a child she concluded that he doesn't love his wife so much :) and then her parents had to provide a new answer for her curiosity about how she came to world.

I would like to share the music especially for the ones who are interested in practices for meditation or relaxation. This is the one which is used by one of the professors, Alev Yemenici, who does research and gives seminars on brain-based learning. While you are listening, please do not forget to close your eyes, sit back, take a deep breath and imagine how you feel when you remember one of the good moments you had before. Annnddd let this feeling spread over your body...

gives some insights for etcher collaboration..

Thanks for sharing this Hatice. As Afranur, I am in need of such useful sources. These really help for the design of lessons.

Beyond textbooks:) Actually if teachers are left alone in finding out brilliant applications and applying it would be no use. Now, we can register online platforms and share. Here, what is unique is that teachers search, gather to discuss, practice and discuss again. This is collaboration in real terms!

I like this website as it is full of cases. I strongly recommend it as you can learn how TPACK is in practice.

The video provides three websites that can be used for collaboration. They are really interesting websites. I hope you'll have a chance to look at them :-))

They are all cool stuff, thanks:) Especially twiddla.com seems very practical for Math. I am so excited to explore it now :)

This is a popular journal focusing on all aspects of development, innovations and good practice in higher education teaching and learning, including the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and issues concerning the management of teaching and learning. You can check the abstracts from Abstract/Index part for such titles as educational research, educational administration, PsycINFO and so on.