METU EDS 544

"Dinçer.., serbest kıyafet sayesinde çocukların yeteneklerinin ön plana çıkacağını ve özgüven kazanacaklarını belirtti." this is a part of the newsderived from this link: http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/id/25402921/ Ministery believes it will be useful for our country. I wanna ask to him "Is it real?". Also, we will have two different generation in two or third decades; one of them are doormat, the other one is jakanapess and provincial, I think.

The previous policy, when students required to wear school uniform, was still unsuccesful since students' shoes or shirts(gömlek) made difference among social classes of students. The new policy will increase this gap. Although wearing a school uniform seems to similarize students psychologically, this negative aspect can be ignored when the danger of social class imposition is considered. In my opinion, instead of requiring parents to buy school uniform theirselves, school boards should provide them with shoes also, just as they provide school books. While this will reduce class differention, the gap still can not be closed completely since students, for example, will buy different foods in line with their allowance. However, decreasing gap as much as possible is stilll more valuable than free clothes permission.

it is an unforgettable lesson both st.s and teacher

An article which describes constructivist classroom

It is one to one lesson and there is an activity to divide 4,5 into 3/4. The teacher gives the control of learner's understanding to learners and only guides the student according to gain the objective by asking effective questions, following step by step. However, there should be more than one learner, at least two, because the learner looks like a little bit not into the situation. Maybe with a friend they could better understand.

This a new course that will be offered freely by UK's Open University. 

Why I put this video is because the environment looks like we had in the kindergartens, even maybe we may not have been given that freedom. They are 4th grades and the study environment is so learner friendly, which I adore.

An interesting thought piece on digitized classrooms.

Aa nice platform for sharing questions and answers in the classes. I plan to use this in my undergrad courses.

A report on new pedagogies. Check out the report to see what changes we might see in the near future's educational settings.

I have no positive attitude towards this application, children at school age always, especially in middle schools, have tendencies to criticize their friends according to their different appearance, different accents they use etc. Clothing is one of them. Now, equal opportunity for education is diminished. Children who even can not afford to pay school fee or price for textbooks may not want to come to school. What about Japanese culture.They still use uniform in schools, they are successfull. I think government tries to change the daily hot topics of Turkey.

I completely agree. I think dressing children like they are in military and having strict rules is wrong but with this new system so many new problems come up. I think -as always- this change have not been thought well.

I believe that this lesson plan is a very good example of a constructivist lesson plan for a science lesson. It has many steps that involve the student actively. And as I read I felt that the student is not only hands on, but minds on also. What I mean is that it is clearly a process-oriented plan. Even if the student can't do well in some steps, there are other activities that he can accomplish and enjoy. Also the stress on group work is evident, student can learn from each other and take responsibility. Evaluation part is also very clear, explained to the students with a rubric and it relies on presentations and all the wprk students gather till that day. Making the family involved is another strong part of this plan to me. The things that may not work can be that it takes one month totally, so to keep the attention of the students on the same topic for such a time may be hard, maybe the project could last like two or three weeks. Also the organization of the peer groups is critical.

Here is my constructivist environment example. In the past, I installed the second life software considering that it was a game. I roamed and roamed in worlds that already were created, chatted with people in another countries with my avatar. Then I thought that it was boring. It was just like sitting on Sunshine and talking with friends. Why I had to do this via my computer? This video shows us how Second Life Worlds can be used to create constructivist learning environments. In the video, a Second Life World that was prepared by a group of people called TELLS TEAM is presented. In this world, you can attend lectures, have group meetings for discussion, work on simulations and role plays whereever you are. All participants including the teacher has an avatar and walking, sitting, chatting as if they were in the same room. In this project, learners are active participants. They roam, talk, immediately can fly to role playing sessions and etc. Teacher is only responsible to present initial knowledge. I could not find how they evaluate the learners. However, it is up to you. This environment is just a tool. You can arrange your role plays, your simulations, and also your assesment. Also they have some guides to use the environment effectively on this web site: https://sites.google.com/site/secondlifeuwnshss/Home