Skip to main content

Home/ Malaysian Teachers & Education/ Group items tagged math

Rss Feed Group items tagged

izz aty

Main - Opinion - Erna Mahyuni - The language that divides us @ Wed Nov 16 2011 - 0 views

  •  
    Teaching science and maths in English was a bad idea from the start. Let's be honest here; - half our teaching force, especially in the rural areas, can barely speak English, much less teach in it. If poor English standards don't matter, then why do our politicians send their children abroad for studies? There is a simple fix to our horrible public education system: Force all members of parliament and state assembly representatives to send their children to public schools and universities. Make it a condition of office - if a politician is elected, then his or her children must be enrolled locally or face a punitive fine for each year spent abroad. Right now the politicians in power don't care because they don't have to worry about their children's future. Malaysian parents have to worry not just about the rising cost of education but slipping standards.
izz aty

Finite Maths & Applied Calculus On-Line Mathematics Utilities - 0 views

  •  
    Utilities for graphers, regression tools, matrix and linear algebra tools, probability and stats tools, calculus tools, math of finance tools etc
izz aty

Learning Disabilities (LD) | Center for Parent Information and Resources - 0 views

  • Learning disability is a general term that describes specific kinds of learning problems. A learning disability can cause a person to have trouble learning and using certain skills. The skills most often affected are: reading, writing, listening, speaking, reasoning, and doing math. “Learning disabilities” is not the only term used to describe these difficulties. Others include: dyslexia—which refers to difficulties in reading; dysgraphia—which refers to difficulties in writing; and dyscalcula—which refers to difficulties in math.
  • there are certain clues. We’ve listed a few below. Most relate to elementary school tasks, because learning disabilities tend to be identified in elementary school.
  • school focuses on the very things that may be difficult for the child—reading, writing, math, listening, speaking, reasoning
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • IDEA’s Definition of “Specific Learning Disability”
  • instead of using a severe discrepancy approach to determining LD, school systems may provide the student with a research-based intervention and keep close track of the student’s performance. Analyzing the student’s response to that intervention (RTI) may then be considered by school districts in the process of identifying that a child has a learning disability.
  • There are also other aspects required when evaluating children for LD. These include observing the student in his or her learning environment (including the regular education setting) to document academic performance and behavior in the areas of difficulty.
  • Once a child is evaluated and found eligible for special education and related services, school staff and parents meet and develop what is known as an Individualized Education Program, or IEP. This document is very important in the educational life of a child with learning disabilities. It describes the child’s needs and the services that the public school system will provide free of charge to address those needs.
  • Supports or changes in the classroom (called accommodations) help most students with LD. Common accommodations are listed in the “Tips for Teachers” section below. Accessible instructional materials (AIM) are among the most helpful to students whose LD affects their ability to read and process printed language. Thanks to IDEA 2004, there are numerous places to turn now for AIMs. We’ve listed one central source in the “Resources Especially for Teachers” section.
  • Assistive technology can also help many students work around their learning disabilities. Assistive technology can range from “low-tech” equipment such as tape recorders to “high-tech” tools such as reading machines (which read books aloud) and voice recognition systems (which allow the student to “write” by talking to the computer). To learn more about AT for students who have learning disabilities, visit LD Online’s Technology section, at: http://www.ldonline.org/indepth/technology
  •  
    "Supports or changes in the classroom (called accommodations) help most students with LD. Common accommodations are listed in the "Tips for Teachers" section below. Accessible instructional materials (AIM) are among the most helpful to students whose LD affects their ability to read and process printed language. Thanks to IDEA 2004, there are numerous places to turn now for AIMs. We've listed one central source in the "Resources Especially for Teachers" section. Assistive technology can also help many students work around their learning disabilities. Assistive technology can range from "low-tech" equipment such as tape recorders to "high-tech" tools such as reading machines (which read books aloud) and voice recognition systems (which allow the student to "write" by talking to the computer). To learn more about AT for students who have learning disabilities, visit LD Online's Technology section, at: http://www.ldonline.org/indepth/technology"
izz aty

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - 0 views

  •  
    Choose a math concept and your grade level, and you will be eld to a page with the appropriate tools.
izz aty

Charts and Posters - 0 views

  •  
    Posters and printables for Math and Science references.
izz aty

Studyhub - Online Resource Centre - 0 views

  •  
    Studyhub is our online resource library. It lists a range of SLSS web pages that offer tips on topics relating to academic writing, study skills, grammar, maths and others. Visit the different sites for further details. Alternatively, download the relevant SLSS handouts directly from SLSS Study Resources.
izz aty

Where In The World You Can Find The Best Schools - And The Happiest Kids - 0 views

  •  
    "The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's triennial international survey compared test scores from 65 countries. Happiness was ranked based on the percentage of students who agreed or disagreed with the statement "I feel happy at school." Test scores were ranked based on the combined individual rankings of the students' math, reading, and science scores."
izz aty

Streaming pupils by ability in primary school widens the attainment gap - Institute of ... - 0 views

  • The practice of "streaming" children by ability in the early years of primary school is widening the achievement gap between children from better-off homes and those facing disadvantage
  • while relatively high-attaining pupils do better if placed in a top stream than they would in schools which do not have streaming, those given a place in the middle or lower streams do worse than they would if there were no streaming, the research finds.
  • streaming in primary schools would appear to increase the gap between higher- and lower-attaining pupils, and also to accentuate socio-economic differences, because more of those from poorer backgrounds tend on average to be in the lower streams.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • a child being placed in a top stream enjoyed a significant positive benefit, in terms of reading, maths and overall results by the end of year two, compared to children who had not been streamed. But pupils placed in middle or bottom streams fared significantly worse in their reading and overall results than those who were not streamed, while those placed in the bottom sets also fared significantly worse than their non-streamed peers in maths.
  • pupils, of any given ability level, tended to do better if placed in a class with high-performing peers. It was therefore logical that, in a streamed system in which such classmates were only available to other high-performers, those already adjudged to be doing well enough to be placed in a top stream would tend to benefit disproportionately.
  • "Streaming…advantages those who are already high attainers, disadvantaging those who are placed in middle or lower groups who are deprived of working with those who are more advanced."
  • Bottom stream pupils are more likely to have behaviour problems, to be from poor backgrounds and to have less educated mothers, the researchers have shown in the past.
izz aty

The French Educational System - French expat school-guide - 0 views

  • the French educational system is highly centralized
  • Ministry of National Education establishes the national curriculum followed by a very large majority of the country's schools
  • very well developed learning program for children starting at three years of age (see grades and cycles below). Though school is not obligatory before a child turns six , 99% of the three-year-olds in France go to school at least part-time, and by four they attend school full time, from 8:30am to 4:30pm
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • very important baccalaureate exam at the end of secondary school and the prestigious Grandes Ecoles which provide higher education for the country's elite are two other factors that mark the French system.
  • in a majority of the countries schools, students receive a good, albeit traditional, education.
  • In primary school rote learning, memorization and a tidy, well-presented written page are a big part of learning
  • As children move on to secondary school long written exams, as opposed to multiple choice or fill in the blank questions, competitiveness and a certain reverence for math as well as for a neat presentation are common. At this level also, knowledge goes from the top down. Students are encouraged to study and understand what their teachers and the experts have to say on a particular subject, then, within an established framework, they can carefully offer their point of view. Advanced math classes, where students are often encouraged to think for themselves and to find original solutions, are about the only exception to these somewhat austere learning practices.
  • the large majority of schools in France are French system schools
  • Public Schools, Private Schools sous contrat (state funded) or hors contrat (not state funded), - bilingual schools and many of those referred to as international schools follow the French national curriculum
  • Only the schools which apply the methods of well-known pedagogues (Montessori, Steiner, etc) or those adhering to curriculums from other countries (British School of Paris, The International School of Paris, Marymount) don't fall into this category
  • Public schools are free of charge, you pay only for your child's personal supplies
  • rivate schools vary. The sous-contrat private schools that are religious (Catholic for the most part) are the least expensive of the state funded schools with an annual tuition between for most 1200 and 2000 euros a year, depending on your child's grade level. Extra expenses such as registration fee, insurance, class outings and extra curricular activities can add up to between 100 and 500 euros a year while a school lunch will cost at around 5,50 euros a day
  • In state funded secular schools the annual tuition starts at around 3000 euros plus the extra expenses which can exceed those mentioned above
  • The most expensive schools are those that are not state funded. The tuition in schools belonging to this category, which includes those following curriculums from other countries, range between 5000 and 20, 000 euros a year plus the extra expenses
izz aty

Independent school (United Kingdom) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • History
  • Edward Thring of Uppingham School introduced major reforms, focusing on the importance of the individual and competition, as well as the need for a "total curriculum" with academia, music, sport and drama being central to education
  • The Independent Schools Council say that UK independent schools receive approximately £100m tax relief due to charitable status whilst returning £300m of fee assistance in public benefit and relieving the maintained sector (state schools) of £2bn of costs
  • ...70 more annotations...
  • They were schools for the gentlemanly elite of Victorian politics, armed forces and colonial government. Often successful businessmen would send their sons to a public school as a mark of participation in the elite
  • the public school system influenced the school systems of the British Empire, and recognisably "public" schools can be found in many Commonwealth countries
  • The Direct Grant Grammar Schools (Cessation of Grant) Regulations 1975 required these schools to choose between full state funding as comprehensive schools and full independence
  • Until 1975 there had been a group of 179 academically selective schools drawing on both private and state funding, the direct grant grammar schools
  • Both these trends were reversed during the 1980s, and the share of the independent schools reached 7.5 percent by 1991
  • 119 of these schools became independent.
  • share of the independent sector fell from a little under 8 percent in 1964 to reach a low of 5.7 percent in 1978
  • changes since 1990 have been less dramatic, participation falling to 6.9 percent by 1996 before increasing very slightly after 2000 to reach 7.2 percent, as seen at present.
  • England
  • As of 2011[update] there were more than 2,600 independent schools in the UK educating some 628,000 children, comprising over 6.5 percent of UK children, and more than 18 percent of pupils over the age of 16
  • According to a study by Ryan & Sibetia,[7] "the proportion of pupils attending independent schools in England is currently 7.2 percent (considering full-time pupils only)".
  • Most independent schools, particularly the larger and older institutions, have charitable status
  • Most public schools developed significantly during the 18th and 19th centuries, and came to play an important role in the development of the Victorian social elite
  • Independent schools, like state grammar schools, are free to select their pupils, subject to general legislation against discrimination
  • Selection
  • principal forms of selection are financial, in that the pupil's family must be able to pay the school fees, and academic, with many administering their own entrance exams - some also require that the prospective student undergo an interview, and credit may also be given for musical, sporting or other talent
  • Nowadays most schools pay little regard to family connections, apart from siblings currently at the school.
  • Only a small minority of parents can afford school fees averaging over £23,000 per annum for boarding pupils and £11,000 for day pupils, with additional costs for uniform, equipment and extra-curricular facilities.[2][12]
  • Scholarships and means-tested bursaries to assist the education of the less well-off are usually awarded by a process which combines academic and other criteria.[13][14]
  • generally academically selective, using the competitive Common Entrance Examination at ages 11–13
  • Schools often offer scholarships to attract abler pupils (which improves their average results)
  • Poorly-performing pupils may be required to leave,
  • Conditions
  • generally characterised by more individual teaching
  • much better pupil-teacher ratios at around 9:1;[16]
  • more time for organised sports and extra-curricular activities
  • longer teaching hours (sometimes including Saturday morning teaching) and homework, though shorter terms
  • a broader education than that prescribed by the national curriculum, to which state school education is in practice limited.
  • Educational achievement is generally very good
  • As boarding schools are fully responsible for their pupils throughout term-time, pastoral care is an essential part of independent education, and many independent schools teach their own distinctive ethos, including social aspirations, manners and accents, associated with their own school traditions
  • Most offer sporting, musical, dramatic and art facilities, sometimes at extra charges, although often with the benefit of generations of past investment
  • more emphasis on traditional academic subjects
  • Independent school pupils are four times more likely to attain an A* at GCSE than their non-selective state sector counterparts and twice as likely to attain an A grade at A-level
  • Some schools specialise in particular strengths, whether academic, vocational or artistic, although this is not as common as it is in the State sector.
  • A much higher proportion go to university
  • set their own discipline regime
  • In England and Wales there are no requirements for teaching staff to have Qualified Teacher Status or to be registered with the General Teaching Council
  • impact of independent schools on the British economy
  • 2014 a report from Oxford Economics highlighted the impact that independent schools have on the British economy
  • independent schools support an £11.7 billion contribution to gross value added (GVA) in Britain. This represents the share of GDP that is supported by independent schools
  • Independent schools support 275,700 jobs across Britain, around 1.0% of all in employment in Britain
  • the report quantified the savings to the taxpayer derived from c.620,000 British pupils at independent schools choosing not to take up the place at a state school to which they are entitled. This results in an annual saving to the taxpayer of £3.9 billion, the equivalent of building more than 590 new free schools each year
  • the report highlighted the additional value to Britain’s GDP that results from the higher educational performance achieved by pupils at independent schools
  • many of the best-known public schools are extremely expensive, and many have entry criteria geared towards those who have been at private "feeder" preparatory-schools or privately tutored
  • the achievement of pupils at independent schools in Britain results in an estimated additional annual contribution to GDP of £1.3 billion.
  • Criticisms
  • often criticised for being elitist
  • often seen as outside the spirit of the state system
  • the treatment of the state sector as homogeneous in nature is difficult to support
  • Although grammar schools are rare, some of them are highly selective and state funded boarding schools require substantial fees
  • Even traditional comprehensive schools may be effectively selective because only wealthier families can afford to live in their catchment area
  • may be argued that the gap in performance between state schools is much larger than that between the better state and grammar schools and the independent sector
  • Smithers and Robinson's 2010 Sutton Trust commissioned study of social variation in comprehensive schools (excluding grammar schools) notes that "The 2,679 state comprehensive schools in England are highly socially segregated: the least deprived comprehensive in the country has 1 in 25 (4.2 percent) of pupils with parents on income benefits compared with over 16 times as many (68.6 percent) in the most deprived comprehensive"
  • Every 2.3 pupils at an independent school supports one person in employment in Britain
  • large number (c. one third[citation needed]) of independent schools provide assistance with fees
  • The Thatcher government introduced the Assisted Places Scheme in England and Wales in 1980, whereby the state paid the school fees for those pupils capable of gaining a place but unable to afford the fees
    • izz aty
       
      1980 Assisted Places Scheme: financial aid
  • The scheme was terminated by the Labour government in 1997, and since then the private sector has moved to increase its own means-tested bursaries.
  • Some parents complain that their rights and their children’s are compromised by vague and one-sided contracts which allow Heads to use discretionary powers unfairly, such as in expulsion on non-disciplinary matters. They believe independent schools have not embraced the principles of natural justice as adopted by the state sector, and private law as applied to Higher Education
  • Nowadays, independent school pupils have "the highest rates of achieving grades A or B in A-level maths and sciences" compared to grammar, specialist and mainstream state school
  • pupils at independent schools account for a disproportionate number of the total number of A-levels in maths and sciences.
  • In 2006, pupils at fee-paying schools made up 43 percent of those selected for places at Oxford University and 38 percent of those granted places at Cambridge University (although such pupils represent only 18 percent of the 16 years old plus school population)
  • A major area of debate in recent years has centred around the continuing charitable status of independent schools, which allows them not to charge VAT on school fees. Following the enactment of the Charities Bill, which was passed by the House of Lords in November 2006, charitable status is based on an organisation providing a "public benefit" as judged by the Charity Commission.[23]
  • "ceteris paribus, academic performance at university is better the more advantaged is the student's home background".
  • In 2002, Jeremy Smith and Robin Naylor
  • they also observed that a student educated at an independent school was on average 6 percent less likely to receive a first or an upper second class degree than a student from the same social class background, of the same gender, who had achieved the same A-level score at a state school
  • The same study found wide variations between independent school, suggesting that students from a few of them were in fact significantly more likely to obtain the better degrees than state students of the same gender and class background having the same A-level score
  • Richard Partington at Cambridge University[29] showed that A-level performance is "overwhelmingly" the best predictor for exam performance in the earlier years ("Part I") of the undergraduate degree at Cambridge
  • A study commissioned by the Sutton Trust[30] and published in 2010 focussed mainly on the possible use of U.S.-style SAT tests as a way of detecting a candidate's academic potential. Its findings confirmed those of the Smith & Naylor study in that it found that privately educated pupils who, despite their educational advantages, have only secured a poor A-level score, and who therefore attend less selective universities, do less well than state educated degree candidates with the same low A-level attainment
  • Independent sector schools regularly dominate the top of the A-level league tables, and their students are more likely to apply to the most selective universities; as a result independent sector students are particularly well represented at these institutions, and therefore only the very ablest of them are likely to secure the best degrees.
  • In 2013 the Higher Education Funding Council for England published a study [31] noting, amongst other things, that a greater percentage of students who had attended an independent school prior to university achieved a first or upper second class degree compared with students from state schools
izz aty

Issues about Outcomes Based Education - 0 views

  • Outcome-based education (OBE) is one of those that is new, even revolutionary, and is now being promoted as the panacea for America's educational woes. This reform has been driven by educators in response to demands for greater accountability by taxpayers and as a vehicle for breaking with traditional ideas about how we teach our children. If implemented, this approach to curriculum development could change our schools more than any other reform proposal in the last thirty years.
  • According to William Spady, a major advocate of this type of reform, three goals drive this new approach to creating school curricula. First, all students can learn and succeed, but not on the same day or in the same way. Second, each success by a student breeds more success. Third, schools control the conditions of success. In other words, students are seen as totally malleable creatures. If we create the right environment, any student can be prepared for any academic or vocational career. The key is to custom fit the schools to each student's learning style and abilities.
  • Outcome-based education will change the focus of schools from the content to the student
  • ...29 more annotations...
  • The teacher's role in the classroom will become that of a coach. The instructor's goal is to move each child towards pre-determined outcomes rather than attempting to transmit the content of Western civilization to the next generation in a scholarly fashion
  • the focus is no longer on content. Feelings, attitudes, and skills such as learning to work together in groups will become just as important as learning information--some reformers would argue more important.
  • Where traditional curricula focused on the past, reformers argue that outcome-based methods prepare students for the future and for the constant change which is inevitable in our society.
  • Reformers advocating an outcome-based approach to curriculum development point to the logical simplicity of its technique. First, a list of desired outcomes in the form of student behaviors, skills, attitudes, and abilities is created. Second, learning experiences are designed that will allow teachers to coach the students to a mastery level in each outcome. Third, students are tested. Those who fail to achieve mastery receive remediation or retraining until mastery is achieved. Fourth, upon completion of learner outcomes a student graduates.
  • According to William Spady, a reform advocate, outcomes can be written with traditional, transitional, or transformational goals in mind. Spady advocates transformation goals.
  • Traditional outcome-based programs would use the new methodology to teach traditional content areas like math, history, and science
  • Many teachers find this a positive option for challenging the minimal achiever
  • An outcome-based program would prevent such students from graduating or passing to the next grade without reaching a pre-set mastery level of competency.
  • Transformational OBE subordinates course content to key issues, concepts, and processes. Indeed, Spady calls this the "highest evolution of the OBE concept." Central to the idea of transformational reform is the notion of outcomes of significance.
  • Spady supports transformational outcomes because they are future oriented, based on descriptions of future conditions that he feels should serve as starting points for OBE designs
  • little mention is made about specific things that students should know as a result of being in school.
  • The focus is on attitudes and feelings, personal goals, initiative, and vision--in their words, the whole student.
  • It is in devising learner outcomes that one's world view comes into play. Those who see the world in terms of constant change, politically and morally, find a transformation model useful. They view human nature as evolving, changing rather than fixed.
  • Advocates of outcome-based education point with pride to its focus on the student rather than course content. They feel that the key to educational reform is to be found in having students master stated learner outcomes. Critics fear that this is exactly what will happen. Their fear is based on the desire of reformers to educate the whole child. What will happen, they ask, when stated learner outcomes violate the moral or religious views of parents?
  • Under the traditional system of course credits a student could take a sex-ed course, totally disagree with the instruction and yet pass the course by doing acceptable work on the tests presented. Occasion-ally, an instructor might make life difficult for a student who fails to conform, but if the student learns the material that would qualify him or her for a passing grade and credit towards graduation.
  • If transformational outcome-based reformers have their way, this student would not get credit for the course until his or her attitudes, feelings, and behaviors matched the desired goals of the learner outcomes.
  • Another goal requires students to know about and use community health resources. Notice that just knowing that Planned Parenthood has an office in town isn't enough, one must use it.
  • transformational outcome- based reform would be a much more efficient mechanism for changing our children's values and attitudes about issues facing our society
  • the direction these changes often take is in conflict with our Christian faith
  • "Who has authority over our children?"
  • Outcome-based education is an ideologically neutral tool for curricular construction; whether it is more effective than traditional approaches remains to be seen. Unfortunately, because of its student-centered approach, its ability to influence individuals with a politically correct set of doctrines seems to be great. Parents (and all other taxpayers) need to weigh the possible benefits of outcome-based reform with the potential negatives.
  • who will determine the learner outcomes for their schools
  • consideration of what learner outcomes the public wants rather than assuming that educators know what's best for our children. Who will decide what it means to be an educated person, the taxpaying consumer or the providers of education?
  • If students are going to be allowed to proceed through the material at their own rate, what happens to the brighter children? Eventually students will be at many levels, what then? Will added teachers be necessary? Will computer-assisted instruction allow for individual learning speeds? Either option will cost more money. Some reformers offer a scenario where brighter students help tutor slower ones thereby encouraging group responsibility rather than promoting an elite group of learners. Critics feel that a mastery- learning approach will inevitably hold back brighter students.
  • With outcome-based reform, many educators are calling for a broader set of evaluation techniques. But early attempts at grading students based on portfolios of various kinds of works has proved difficult. The Rand Corporation studied Vermont's attempt and found that "rater reliability--the extent to which raters agreed on the quality of a student's work--was low." There is a general dislike of standardized tests among the reformers because it focuses on what the child knows rather than the whole child, but is there a viable substitute? Will students find that it is more important to be politically correct than to know specific facts?
  • whether or not school bureaucracies will allow for such dramatic change? How will the unions respond? Will legislative mandates that are already on the books be removed, or will this new approach simply be laid over the rest, creating a jungle of regulations and red tape?
  • although districts may be given input as to how these outcomes are achieved, local control of the outcomes themselves may be lost.
  • Many parents feel that there is already too much emphasis on global citizenship, radical environmentalism, humanistic views of self-esteem, and human sexuality at the expense of reading, writing, math, and science.
  • education may become more propagandistic rather than academic in nature
izz aty

Scandinavia school science slowcoach Norway gets left behind in PISA polls / News / The... - 0 views

  • “We must have higher ambitions than staying around the average level among OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries,” declared the Minister at Tuesday’s press conference in Oslo.
  • Norway is within the OECD (mean) average bracket when it comes to the sciences (494), and slightly below it in math (501). But these are still not results, “we can be satisfied with,” added Minister Isaksen.
  • The PISA 2012 survey results were slightly different when it came to Norwegian students’ reading skills. They have improved since the last time, albeit just slightly, with 503 in 2009, against 504 now – though female pupils still did better than their male peers.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • “I am convinced that teachers want more professional input,” declared Minister Isaksen.   “Good teachers will have the opportunity to be even better with our teacher boost,” he concluded.
  • below Finland with its 524 points, Norway also comes second amongst the Nordics. Denmark gets 496 points, while Iceland and Sweden ‘tie’ with 483. The OECD’s mean average is 496.
  • Math skill levels measured by the PISA 2012 presented a significant decline of 9 points compared to 2009 (external link) to 489.As a Nordic country, Norway also trails Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. These countries got 519, 500, and 493, respectively. Sweden got 478. Norway’s scores when it came to science subjects also dropped compared with 2009, getting 500 against 495 now (external link).
izz aty

Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley | Talk Video | TED - 0 views

  • . I have found no evidence that Americans don't get irony. It's one of those cultural myths, like, "The British are reserved." I don't know why people think this. We've invaded every country we've encountered.
  • I knew that Americans get irony when I came across that legislation No Child Left Behind. Because whoever thought of that title gets irony, don't they, because -- (Laughter) (Applause) — because it's leaving millions of children behind. Now I can see that's not a very attractive name for legislation: Millions of Children Left Behind. I can see that. What's the plan? Well, we propose to leave millions of children behind, and here's how it's going to work. 2:04 And it's working beautifully. In some parts of the country, 60 percent of kids drop out of high school. In the Native American communities, it's 80 percent of kids. If we halved that number, one estimate is it would create a net gain to the U.S. economy over 10 years of nearly a trillion dollars. From an economic point of view, this is good math, isn't it, that we should do this? It actually costs an enormous amount to mop up the damage from the dropout crisis.
  • the difference between the task and achievement senses of verbs. You know, you can be engaged in the activity of something, but not really be achieving it, like dieting. It's a very good example, you know. There he is. He's dieting. Is he losing any weight? Not really. Teaching is a word like that. You can say, "There's Deborah, she's in room 34, she's teaching." But if nobody's learning anything, she may be engaged in the task of teaching but not actually fulfilling it.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The role of a teacher is to facilitate learning. That's it. And part of the problem is, I think, that the dominant culture of education has come to focus on not teaching and learning, but testing. Now, testing is important. Standardized tests have a place. But they should not be the dominant culture of education. They should be diagnostic. They should help.
izz aty

Academy (English school) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • Academy schools are state funded schools in England which are directly funded by central government (specifically, the Department for Education) and independent of direct control by the Local Authority. They are roughly equivalent to the charter schools in the USA.[1]
  • majority of academies are secondary schools, but some primary schools also have academy status.
  • Academies are self-governing and all are constituted as non-profit charitable trusts
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • transformed to academy status as part of a Government intervention strategy
  • eet the same National Curriculum core subject requirements as other state schools and are subject to inspection by Ofsted
  • may receive additional support from personal or corporate sponsors, either financially or in kind
  • Sponsored Academy
  • Traditional Academies
  • Converter Academy:
  • voluntarily converted to academy status
  • Free School:
  • An academy trust that operates more than one academy is known as an Academy Chain
  • All academies are expected to follow a broad and balanced curriculum
  • many have a particular focus on, or formal specialism in, one or more areas, such as science; arts; business and enterprise; computing; engineering; mathematics; modern foreign languages; performing arts; sport; or technology
  • academies are required to follow the National Curriculum in the core subjects of maths, English and science
  • otherwise free to innovate, although they still participate in the same Key Stage 3 and GCSE exams as other English schools (which effectively means they teach a curriculum very similar to maintained schools, with small variations)
  • academies are required to adhere to the National Admissions Code
  • In terms of their governance, academies are established as companies limited by guarantee with a Board of Directors that acts as a Trust.
  • Academy Trust has exempt charity status, regulated by the Department for Education
izz aty

100 Terrific Cheat Sheets for K-12 Teachers | Teaching Degree.org - 0 views

  • Cheat sheets have a bad rap as a way for students to succeed on tests without actually knowing the information, but now it’s time for them to have a more positive place in education. Cheat sheets can offer a succinct way for students to study their lessons and provide an excellent boost to what you are already teaching them in class. Cheat sheets can provide helpful information for teachers too. Browse through this selection to find cheat sheets for a variety of subjects.
izz aty

Job prospects bleak for adults with autism | Disability Now - 0 views

  • The National Autistic Society’s (NAS) Don’t Write Me Off report says that only 15 per cent of adults with autism in the UK are in full-time paid work and that many of those not in work are also excluded from the benefits system and rely on friends and family for financial support. More than a third of those surveyed said that their disability employment adviser’s knowledge of autism was “very bad” or “bad”. Peter Griffin, who has Asperger syndrome and is from Hertfordshire, works on a check-out at a supermarket one day a week. He has a masters degree in astrophysics and would like to teach maths.
  • The National Autistic Society’s (NAS) Don’t Write Me Off report says that only 15 per cent of adults with autism in the UK are in full-time paid work and that many of those not in work are also excluded from the benefits system and rely on friends and family for financial support.
izz aty

10 questions to understanding PISA results | The EDifier - Center for Public Education - 0 views

  • The rhetoric pertaining to the quality of our public schools is certainly going to be amplified tomorrow, with critics lamenting how the results show our public schools are in dire straits while others will argue the results are meaningless
  • an assessment of reading, math, and science literacy given every three years to 15-year-old students in public and private schools in about 65 countries.
  • international institution Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) coordinates the development and administration of PISA worldwide
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • PISA is one of the few tools we have to compare the outcomes of high school students internationally.  PISA provides valuable information on how prepared high school students are for postsecondary success whether in the workplace, career training, or higher education.
  • PISA is designed to measure how well students can apply their knowledge to real-world situations. To measure such skills, the test items on PISA are primarily “constructed response,” meaning the test-taker has to write their answers to the questions, and there are few multiple-choice items.
  • Every industrialized country now educates all their students, including language minority, special needs and low-performing students. Every country that participates in PISA must adhere to strict sampling rules to ensure the country’s results are nationally representative of all 15-year-old students. Indeed, the decision to test secondary students at age 15 was made in part because young people at that age are still subject to compulsory schooling laws in most participating nations, which provides more assurance that PISA will capture the broadest sample.
  • OECD reports statistically significant differences in performance between nations, which is a more accurate way to look at PISA rankings than a straight listing of average scores.
  • Does PISA measure the effectiveness of public school systems? Not completely, for three reasons: 1) PISA results are representative of the performance of all 15-year-olds in participating countries including those  attending private schools; 2) PISA makes no attempt to isolate schools from outside factors such as poverty or high proportions of non-native language speakers that may have an impact on  performance —such factors are important to include in the mix when evaluating the effectiveness of each country’s schools; and 3) No single measure can incorporate every outcome we expect from our public schools
  • look at how much time other countries give teachers for professional development, how much they pay their teachers, how much time teachers spend in the classroom, how much flexibility exists at the local level, how special needs students are taught, and how much time students spend in school.
  • see PISA results as an opportunity to assess if best practices in teaching and learning in other countries can also work for secondary schools here in the U.S.
  • just because a high-performing or high-gaining country does something does not mean it will work in U.S. schools.
  • Many analysts observe that poverty has a greater impact on student performance in the U.S. than elsewhere. For one thing, the U.S. has the highest child poverty rates among industrialized countries. For another, students in the U.S. who live in poverty tend to have less access to resources that research consistently shows impact student achievement, including highly effective teachers, access to rigorous curriculum, and high quality pre-k programs.
1 - 17 of 17
Showing 20 items per page