Group items tagged

Dewey’s discussion of experiential and progressive learning. What in the chart is labelled 21st century learner is in fact the kind of learner Dewey theorized in his work more than half  a century ago. Therefore, the ethos are not new but the circumstances are different.

dichotomizing traditional and 21st century learning does not necessarily favour the latter over the earlier though 21st century model of learning is what is expected in our classes but more importantly it raises educators critical awareness of the affordances and of inconveniences of each model  in the hope of constructing a robust model that meets the learning needs of individual students.

This chart is created by Like to Write  which has two interesting resources: liketowrite.com and liketoread.com .

Foreword

because you've accomplished something, you are already published, and your name is well known.

Webspiration is a free Web 2 tool that allows you to create online mind maps. These mind maps are easy to use in groups and the tool also has a chat function that allows students to remotely discuss aspects of the mind map before committing themselves online.

BlogBooker allows you to produce Pdf blog books from all your blog entries and comments. These can be generated from any blog running on Wordpress, Livejournal or Blogger.

SpeakingImage allows you to create interactive images on online and then share them with others. You can also create groups, add wikis and set different permissions to manage collaborative work.

There are different levels of fluency. At the very least, being “fluent” means being able to communicate well enough to take care of daily tasks, including shopping, ordering food, communicating with drivers, getting medical care, etc. That’s a lot different, for example, than being fluent in the business lingo of your target language. To keep focused, and motivated, define your fluency goals based on your own needs. Then, when you reach a fluency goal, congratulate yourself on a job well done. After that, if you so desire, make a new fluency goal. Doing this will give you motivational “victories” in what can otherwise seem like a never-ending conquest.

This is Meena. She’s 17 years old. She’s a student in Balkh province in northern Afghanistan. Meena is also one of the 687 Afghan students interviewed for Oxfam’s new report, High Stakes: Girls’ Education in Afghanistan, published today. Since the fall of the Taliban, girls’ enrolment in education has increased from an estimated 5,000 under the Taliban, to a current total of 2.4 million girls. Obviously, this is a significant gain, but there’s still a long way to go.

For decades, Bloom's Taxonomy has helped teachers plan lessons and design instruction. When Benjamin Bloom and a team of educators first conceived the classification in the late 1940's, they probably never imagined the impact their work would have over 50 years later. While other theories and systems have come and gone, Bloom's taxonomy appears to have become the most commonly used standard in many educational settings. In the 1990's, Lorin Anderson and a group of psychologists updated the taxonomy in the hope that it would have more relevance for 21st century students and teachers, transforming the nouns to verbs and making some other seemingly small but significant changes. An interesting account of the history of Bloom's Taxonomy can be found here. The Blooming Butterfly poster was designed by the Learning Today product development team as a tribute to Bloom and Anderson and to the educators all over the world that continue to implement their vision. We hope that it will serve as a visual reminder for teachers as they continue to guide students to become better thinkers, just as Bloom imagined many years ago!

Anda orang Malaysia? Flying overseas to study for the first time? This blog tells you just what to expect.

This blog is written primarily for first-time undergraduate students from Malaysia, regardless of their academic pursuits and funding, who are flying off to study in any of the following countries:New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia (and Europe etc.), Japan, South Korea and ChinaI am a Malaysian who has returned home after four years of studying in New Zealand. I was sponsored by a government agency. But nobody had told me the things I should expect before I arrived. I wish someone had written something like this when I was a student.

The Invigilator, directed by Manesh Nesaratnam, is a story about two high-school teachers and their aspirations in the teaching profession. Starring celebrity actor Cheryl Samad and Tony Eusoff, this film is at once a light-hearted clash of pedagogical perspectives and at the same time an echo of societies' frustrations with the inadequacies of available education systems. The Invigilator has been selected and screened for the Fukuoka International Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, Australian Malaysian Film Festival, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia Pacific, Dawnbreakers International Film Festival and London Asian Film Festival.

Mr. Mollison posed his young subjects — more than 200 of them — in front of blank white backgrounds for their portraits, leaving their bedrooms to do the talking. More than 50 pairings are in the book, which has a glow-in-the-dark cover (a nod to the glow-in-the-dark stars on so many childhood ceilings).As much as the project is about the quirkiness of childhood, it is, more strikingly, a commentary on class and on poverty. But the diversity also provides a sense of togetherness.

Everybody sleeps. And eventually, everybody grows up.

Every time you think a negative thought reword it in your own mind. Even though this might seem silly, it is the core of internal happiness.

create an overall task list that you need to accomplish and store this someplace where you can check it over each week. Then make yourself a daily to-do list that is reasonable and doable. Try to limit yourself to 3-5 tasks that you can accomplish in one day. Then when you mark them off the list you can feel a sense of accomplishment, and you will have something to celebrate.

Each time something happens beyond your control, you can just ask for the courage to change the things you can, the strength to accept the things you cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Discuss the influence that advertising has had on your life or the lives of your friends.

Is romantic love a good basis for marriage? Discuss.

Do you believe that violence in television programs leads to violence in our society? Explain.

But most of all, people remember injustices. False accusations of cheating. Getting singled out randomly for scolding. Points deducted on a cheap technicality. As a teacher myself, I vowed I’d do better, that I’d run a fair classroom where every student got a voice and a straight deal.

The asymmetries of the classroom are intense. With each teacher responsible for a hundred students or more, the typical kid occupies a teacher’s thoughts for—at best—a minute or two per day. But each student only has a handful of teachers. Every instructor looms large in her world, wielding power over her days, via class periods; her nights, via homework; and her future, via grades. She spends much of her time thinking about the teacher’s demands, the teacher’s expectations, the teacher’s preferences and inconsistencies.

So when a teacher briefly focuses attention on a particular student, it comes with the heat and intensity of a spotlight. A moment the teacher barely remembers might stick with the student for years.

The social theory of disability and the debates around it have been particularly influential in the past three decades. These have helped to shape the approach of this research into understanding the experiences of persons with learning difficulties in the labour market in Malaysia.

the general understanding of disability from an Islamic perspective

The empirical contribution of the thesis is through a study of supported employment initiated in Malaysia to enable persons with learning difficulties to work in the mainstream retail sector, and sets that experience in the context of relevant policy and practice. It aims to produce key insights into the ‘lived realities’ of employees with learning difficulties taking part in the scheme. It foregrounds their perceptions but also explores the viewpoints of government officials, managers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) coordinators involved in the development of policy and practice relating to the scheme.

Avoid medical labels. They say little about people as individuals and tend to reinforce stereotypes of disabled people as ‘patients’ or unwell. Don’t automatically refer to ‘disabled people’ in all communications – many people who need disability benefits and services don’t identify with this term. Consider using ‘people with health conditions or impairments’ if it seems more appropriate.

Everyday phrases Most disabled people are comfortable with the words used to describe daily living. People who use wheelchairs ‘go for walks’ and people with visual impairments may be very pleased – or not – ‘to see you’. An impairment may just mean that some things are done in a different way. Common phrases that may associate impairments with negative things should be avoided, for example ‘deaf to our pleas’ or ‘blind drunk’.

Words to use and avoid Avoid passive, victim words. Use language that respects disabled people as active individuals with control over their own lives.

No Child Left Behind and other education reforms promoting high-stakes testing, accountability, and competitive markets continue to receive wide support from politicians and public figures. This support, the author suggests, has been achieved by situating education within neoliberal policies that argue that such reforms are necessary within an increasingly globalized economy, will increase academic achievement, and will close the achievement gap.

the author offers preliminary data suggesting that the reforms are not achieving their stated goals. Consequently, educators need to question whether neoliberal approaches to education should replace the previously dominant social democratic approaches.

Federal Register, vol. 71, no. 156, 2006, Rules and Regulations, p. 46756 a, 2006.

examined the definition of autism published by state education agencies (SEAs), as well as SEA-indicated evaluation procedures for determining student qualification for autism

compared components of each SEA definition to aspects of autism from two authoritative sources: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA-2004)

Until the 1980s, preschools in most countries were largely focussed on providing simple child minding. But as economies shift towards more knowledge-based activities, awareness about child development—the need to improve their social awareness, confidence and group interaction skills, and to prepare them for starting primary education—continues to grow. Nevertheless, policymakers still give most attention to the tertiary, secondary and primary levels of education, in descending order of importance, with the least focus given to the early years of child development.

also broader reasons to invest in preschool. At one level, it helps facilitate greater female participation in the workforce, which bolsters economic growth

From neuro-scientific research, we understand the criticality of early brain development; from social science research, we know that high quality programmes improve children’s readiness for school and life; and from econometric research, we know that high quality programs save society significant amounts of money over time.  Early childhood contributes to creating the kinds of workforces that are going to be needed in the twenty-first century.”

A writing buddy relationship can offer a number of benefits to those involved. In addition to commiserating on the daily struggles of their writing careers, writing buddies can brainstorm together, bounce ideas off one another, share job leads and writing tips and help one another with reading and/or editing work. Every writing buddy relationship is different, just like every writer is different. That's why it's important to find a buddy with whom you're compatible. Some writing buddies check in several times each day, discussing their daily agendas and touching base on an hourly basis. In these cases, the partnership may also include a personal friendship. Other writing buddy relationships are strictly business. They may check in daily or weekly, or less often in some cases.

The WM Writing Buddy Program The WM Freelance Writers Connection rolled out a new writing buddy matching service earlier this year. The service is free, and applicants are asked to fill out a brief questionnaire. Once the questionnaire is submitted and reviewed, you'll receive an email when they've found a match for you. Learn more and apply for the free program at The WM Freelance Connection.

The Writer's Digest Forum At the Writer's Digest forum, writers can create buddy-seeking posts (like this one) in the designated Goal Posts forum, designed to connect writers who are seeking encouragement and accountability. The site even has a specific forum for people looking for other writers or editors to critique their work.