Assessment of Classroom Learning

Chapter 14: Summary

The Role of Assessment in Teaching

Assessment-collecting information about how much knowledge and skill students have learned (measurement) and making judgments about the adequacy of acceptability of each student's level of learning (evaluation) (Ex. exams, respond to oral questions, do homework exercises, write papers, solve problems, create products, and make oral presentations)

Measurement- assigning numbers or ratings according to rules to create a ranking

Evaluation- making judgments about the value of a measure

Why should we assess student's learning?

1. summative evaluation: (to provide summaries of learning) measure achievement, assign grades; to provide to all interested parties a clear, meaningful, and useful summary or accounting of how well a student has met the teacher's objectives; when testing is done for the purpose of assigning a letter or numerical grade; a one time event after instruction
2. formative evaluation: (to monitor learning progress) monitor progress and plan remedial instuction; are the students keeping up with the pace of instruction and are understanding all of the material that has been covered so far (Ex. periodic quizzes, homework assignments, in-class worksheets, oral reading, responses to teacher questions, and behavioral observations); a dynamic, ongoing and interactive relationship with teaching
3. diagnosis: constructing an assessment that will provide specific diagnostic information
4. effects on learning: potentially positive effects on various aspects of learning and instruction; it guides students' judgment of what is important to learn, affects their motivation and self-perceptions of competence, structures their approaches to and timing of personal study, consolidates learning, and affects the development of enduring learning strategies and skills

Moderate testing produces more learning than no testing or infrequent testing

Ways to Measure Student Learning

Objectives can be classified in terms of: knowing about something; and knowing how to do something

Written tests- measures that attempt to assess the range and accuracy of someone's knowledge

Performance tests- measures that attempt to assess how well somebody can do something

Written Tests:

1. Selected-Response Tests: (multiple-choice, true-false, and matching) sometimes called "objective" tests because they have a simple and set scoring system; used to assess foundational knowledge (the basic factual information and cognitive skills that students need in order to do such high-level tasks as solve problems and create products); they are objectively scored and efficient but usually measure lower levels of learning and do not reveal what students can do
2. Short-Answer Tests: (a brief written response from the student) they are used for measuring foundational knowledge; scored quickly, accurately, and consistently; easily written; but measure lower levels of learning (no information on how the student can use what they learned)
3. Essay Tests: (students must organize a set of ideas and write a somewhat lengthy response to a broad question); reveal how well students can recall, organize and clearly communicate previously learned information; they can call on higher-level abilities such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation; hard to grade; consistency in grading; time-consuming to grade and only a few questions can be given

Constructing a Useful Test:

1. significance- test measures worthwhile skills
2. teachability- effective instruction can help students acquire the skills and knowledge measured by the test
3. describability- the skills and knowledge measured by the test can be described with sufficient clarity that they make instructional planning easier
4. reportability- test produces results that allow a teacher to identify areas of instruction that were probably inadequate
5. nonintrusiveness- the test does not take an excessive amount of time away from instruction

Performance Test- measure ability to use knowledge and skills to solve realistic problems, create products

Authentic assessment- realistic conditions when using performanc testing

TYPES OF PERFORMANCE TESTING:

1. Direct Writing Assessment- ask students to write about a specific topic under a standard set of conditions; each essay is then scored by 2 or more people according to a set of defined criteria
2. Portfolios- contains one or more pieces of a student's work, some which demonstrate different stages of completion
3. Exhibitions- involves a showing of such products as paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, videotapes, and models
4. Demonstrations- students are required to show how well they can use previously learned knowledge or skills to solve a somewhat unique problem or to perform a task

Characteristics of Performance tests:

1. emphasis on active responding- focus on processes and products
2. degree of realism- are more like everyday tasks when appropriate (time, cost, availability of equipment, and the nature of the skill being mastered are all factors that affect realism)
3. emphasis on complex problems- questions asked should be open ended and ill structured
4. close relationship between teaching and testing- must be established by the teacher it is not automatic
5. use of scoring rubrics- they increase objectivity and consistency of scoring, align instruction with assessment, communicate teachers' expectations, and help students monitor progress
6. emphasize formative evaluation- can be used as a source of feedback to help students improve the quality of their learning efforts (Ex. dress rehearsals, reviews of writing drafts, and peer response groups)
7. probably more responsive to cultural diversity

Concerns with Performance Testing:

1. the amount of time required by these tests to construct, administer, and score
2. it is harder to explain to parents the relationship between how such tests are often scored and the letter grades on students' report cards
3. adopting new responsibilities; the teachers becomes more of a collaborator and facilitator than a gatekeeper
4. different purposes of traditional standardized tests and performance test

Ways to Evaluate Student Learning

Norm-referenced grading- assumes that classroom achievement will naturally vary among a group of heterogeneous students because of differences in such characteristics as prior knowledge, learning skills, motivation, and aptitude

Norm-referenced grading: compare one student with others

1. determine percentage of students who will receive each grade
2. arrange the scores from highest to lowest
3. calculate which scores fall in which category and assign the grades accordingly

Strengths and Weaknesses of norm-referenced grading:

1. evaluating advanced levels of learning
2. selection for limited-enrollement programs
3. few situations in public schools were it is appropriate to use

Criterion-Referenced Grading- permits students to benefit from mistakes and improve their level of understanding and performance; it establishes an individual reward structure, which fosters motivation to learn to a greater extent

Criterion-referenced grading: compare individual performance with stated criteria; provides information about strengths and weaknesses

Strengths and Weaknesses of criterion-referenced grading:

1. provide more specific and useful information about student strengths and weaknesses
2. promote motivation to learn
3. the performance standards that one specifies are arbitrary and may be difficult to justify to parents and colleagues
4. a teacher's standards may appear to be stable from one test to another, but they may actually fluctuate as a result of unnoticed variation in the difficulty of each test and the quality of instruction

A Mastery Approach: give students multiple opportunities to master goals at their own pace (Suggestions for this approach on page 496-497)

Improving Your Grading Methods: Assessment Practices To Avoid

1. worshipping averages- it ignores measurement error or extenuating circumstances
2. using zeros indiscriminately- for late or incomplete assignments
3. providing insufficient instruction before testing
4. teaching for one thing but testing for another
5. using pop quizzes- surprise tests produce undesirable level of anxiety or other students may just give up
6. keeping the nature and content of a test a secret- what will be on a test needs to be told to your students
7. keeping the criteria for assignments a secret- students need to know what is expected of them
8. shifting criteria- trying to shock students into more appropriate learning behaviors (changing the amount each part is worth after informing the students)
9. combining apples and oranges

Technology for Classroom Assessment

1. Electronic gradebooks and grading programs
2. Technology-based Performance Assessment: (Ex. GLOBE- a web-based simulation that leads itself to the assessment of scientific inquiry www.globe.gov/globe_flash.html ; multimedia tools with audio, text, video, and graphics)
3. Digital-Portfolios: collection of work that is stored and illustrated electronically; exhibits individual efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas (Ex. digitized pictures and scanned images, documents, audio recordings, video clips, and multimedia presentations)

Advantages: the ability of students to explain in text and narration why they gave their portfolio it particular content and form; they can demonstrate what they know, how they came to know it, how their knowledge increased and evolved, and what they have accomplished with that knowledge

Disadvantages: access needs to be restricted, passwords can be forgotten, portfolios that are stored on a school server can be altered or destroyed by hackers; work on saved while working can be lost if computer crashes

Special rubrics available to assess digital portfolios and presentations. www.4teaches.org contains Rubistar (provides templates for creating rubrics for several kinds of digital products)and other things related to technology

Suggestions for Teaching in Your Classroom: Effective Assessment Techniques

1. As early as possible in a report period, decide when and how often to give tests and other assignments that will count toward a grade, and announce tests and assignments well in advance
2. Prepare a content outline or a table or specifications of the objectives to be covered on each exam, or otherwise take care to obtain a systematic sample of knowledge and skill acquired by your students
3. Consider the purpose of each test or measurement exercise in the light of the developmental characteristics of the students in your classes and the nature of the curriculum for your grade level
4. Decide whether a written test or a performance test is more appropriate
5. Make up and use a detailed answer key or rubric: (a) evaluate each answer by comparing it with the key or rubric (b) be willing and prepared to defend the evaluations you make
6. During and after the grading process, analyze questions and answers in order to improve future exams

Life Experiences:

We have all had to deal with testing or assessment. Now days our poor students have to deal with even more than we ever had to. I am not a big supporter of all of this standardized testing and how much pressure they put on students and teachers about it. There is way too many flaws in our state-wide assessment procedures right now. We can not have one test that "ALL" students must take except those that fall as significantly cognitively impaired. What about all those kids with learning disabilities, they are not significantly, cognitively impaired but they can not take those tests and do well like they want them to because they are not on grade level and they may never be. (Sorry didn't mean to get on my soap box, but this topic really gets me going)

Educational Psychology class:

I have learned so much from this class. It has been a great semester full of really good information. Sometimes you take a class and really wonder what did you learn, but not with this class. Ms. Graff, you are a great teacher. Keep up the good work.

BLOG of the Week:

I looked at each of these but I did not really care for http://www.speedofcreativity.org/ because it mainly deals with just technology and many ideas are way ahead of what can be done in a class. I also did not appreciate the OLPC foundation very much. How many students to computers do our school have right now, but we are to be so concerned with every child in another country having a laptop. I think we need to take care of our own children's needs in school and then we can take care of others. (Just strictly my opinion though) I just hate that our schools are so tight on money right now that we can not afford to add more technology resources for our teachers.

I choose the blog http://www.k12opened.com/blog/ because it contained some new information that I was not familiar with, open education. I have never heard of it and this website has some really great information. The idea of open-education textbooks that are out there and are free was a new thing to me. Also the idea of open-licensed content was new too. The blog about open vs. free unveiled some really important ideas about students blogging on certain sites and just because something is free does not mean it is open. This blog helps teachers to realize the importance of what they use out their and what their students may also be using.

Classroom Management

Chapter 13: Summary

Authoritarian, Permissive, and Authoritative Approaches to Classroom Management
3 styles approaches to classroom management

1. Authoritarian- parents establish rules for their children's behavior and expect them to be blindly obeyed; explanations are not always given; rewards and punishments are given; "Do what I say because I said so"
2. Permissive- parents represent the other extreme; they impose few controls; allow their children to make many basic decisions and provide advice or assistance only when asked; "Do what I say because you are like me and respect my judgment"
3. Authoritative- parents provide rules but discuss the reasons for them, teach their children how to meet them and reward children for exhibiting self-control; cede more responsibility for self-governance to their children as the children demonstrate increased self-regulation skills; this style leads to children's internalizing the parent's norms and maintaining intrinsic motivation for following them in the future; "Do what I say because doing so will help you learn more"

The students of authoritative teachers better understand the need for classroom rules and tend to operate within them most of the time.

Preventing Problems: Techniques of Classroom Management

Kounin's Observations on Group Management

1. Show your students that you are "with it"- withitness (teachers that prove to their students that they know what is going on in a classroom usually have fewer behavior problems than teachers who appear to be unaware of incipient disruptions)
2. Learn to cope with overlapping situations- being able to handle overlapping activities helps maintain classroom control
3. Strive to maintain smoothness and momentum in class activities- some teachers caused problems for themselves by constantly interrupting activities without thinking about what they were doing
4. Try to keep the whole class involved, even when you are dealing with individual students- call on students in an unpredictable order
5. Introduce variety and be enthusiastic, particularly with younger students
6. Be aware of the ripple effect- when criticizing student behavior, be clear and firm, focus on behavior rather than on personalities, and try to avoid angry outbursts

University of Texas Studies on Group Management (well-managed classroom)

1. Students know what they are expected to do and generally experience the feeling that they are successful doing it
2. Students are kept busy engaging in teacher-led instructional activities
3. There is little wasted time, confusion, or disruption
4. A no-nonsense, work-oriented tone prevails, but at the same time there is a relazed and pleasant atmosphere

The first point can be interpreted as supporting the use of instructional objectives. The next three points stress productivity under teacher guidance.

Effective teachers plan how to handle classroom routines.

During first weeks, have students complete clear assignments under the teachers direction.

Middle, Junior High and High school classroom management:

1. classroom management has to be approached differently because of the segmented nature of the education for these grades

Emmer suggestions for classroom environments:

1. the arrangement of the seating, materials, and equipment is consistent with the kinds of instructional activities the teacher favors
2. high traffic areas, such as the teachers desk and the pencil sharpener are kept free of congestion
3. the teacher can easily see all students
4. frequently used teaching material and student supplies are readily available
5. students can easily see instructional presentations and displays

Manage behavior of adolescents by making and communicating clear rules and procedures.

Technology Tools for Classroom Management

1. Integrated Learning Systems- curriculum courseware and management systems that provide a type of individualized instruction; adjust for difficulty levels and content lessons to each person's progress rate; provide continuous assessment reports
2. New classroom roles for teachers

Techniques for Dealing with Behavior Problems

Influence Techniques

1. Planned Ignoring
2. Signals
3. Proximity and Touch Control
4. Interest Boosting
5. Humor
6. Helping ouver Hurdles
7. Program Restructing
8. Antiseptic Bouncing
9. Physical Restraint
10. Direct Appeals
11. Criticism and Encouragement
12. Defining Limits
13. Postsituational Follow-up
14. Marginal Use of Interpretation

I-Messages- tell how you feel about an unacceptable situation

Problem-Ownership- determine who owns a problem before deciding on a course of action

Violence in American Schools

Incidents of crime and serious violence occur relatively infrequently in public schools and have been decreasing in recent years.

Male aggressiveness due to biological and cultural factors.

Middle school and junior high boys with low grades may feel trapped

Misbavior of high school students may reveal lack of positive identity.

Classroom disruptions can be significantly reduced by various approaches:

1. classroom rules
2. teacher movement
3. reinforcement
4. token economy
5. response cost
6. group contigency

Judicious Discipline- this program teaches students that they have both rights and responsibilities with respect to their behavior (teachers and students discuss problems that have occurred and how they can be addressed)

Unified Discipline- teachers, administrators, and other school personnel create a uniform approach to managing disruptive behavior.

Life Experiences:

Every teacher that I have had has had a different idea or style regarding classroom management. Some have worked and some did not. This is a topic in education that is just not discussed enough in college. I never feel that I have a good grasp of different techniques that might work. This chapter has given me many ideas and the understanding of why they might work. But I feel that it is a topic that you just have to gain from experience too.

EDU Perspective

I have gained so much insight into education and working with children from this class this semester than any other elementary education class that I have taken. I was supposed to take it at West Plains but I am so glad that I did not. I have seen their book and it did not have half the information that this book did. I have also really enjoyed Ms. Graff, she is always there giving such great advice and so many different ideas that really make you think. She is a great teacher and I have truly learned alot from this class.

BLOG: http://mspappas.preknow.org/

Wow, what a great site. It is really enjoyable to read. I found a lot of great articles that I have saved so that I can go back and read them better and more intently when I have more time. I have said this blog in my favorites because it is full of some really important information for becoming teachers and certified teachers. I loved the article about "Eric Carle". His books are some of my favorites for young children. I use them with my students quite often. I can't wait until I can really go through this site and see exactly what all it has to over because I have already seen some ideas that I can't wait to try.

Chapter 12: Motivation

Chapter 12: Summary



The Behavioral View of Motivation



Behavioral view of motivation: reinforce desired behaviors.

Students are motivated to complete a task by being promised a reward of some kind. (praise, grade, token, or a priviledge)



Disadvantages:

• overuse or misuse of these techniques


• extrinsic motivation- the learner decides to engage in an activity to earn a reward that is not inherently related to the activity


• undermining effect (intrinsic motivation falls when students must compete for a limited supply of rewards; it may rise when the reward consists of positive verbal feedback and is available to all who meet the standard)

Intrinsic motivation- the student will study or acquire a skill because it produces such inherently positive consequences as becoming more knowledgeable, competent, and independent.

Extrinsic motivation can be dangerous because:

• changes in behavior may be temporary


• students may develop a materialistic attitude toward learning


• giving students extrinsic rewards for completing a task may lesson whatever intrinsic motivation they may have for that activity

Give rewards sparingly, especially on tasks of natural interest.

The Social Cognitive View of Motivation

2 factors influence motivation to learn

1. the models to which people are exposed


2. people's sense of self-efficacy (how capable they believe they are to handle a particular task)

So the social cognitive view of motivation is to observe and imitate admired models and raise self-efficacy.

vicarious reinforcement- we expect to receive the same reinforcer that we see someone else get for exhibiting a particular behavior

Choice of learning goals:

1. task mastery goal: doing what is necessary to learn meaningfully the information and skills that have been assigned


2. performance-approach goals: demonstrating to teachers and peers one's superior intellectual ability by outperforming most others in class


3. performance-avoidance goals: reducing the possibility of failure so as not to appear less capable than other students

Self-handicapping behaviors: allow students to blame poor performance on the circumstances rather than on one's ability (such as putting off homework, studying superficially for an exam, getting involved in many in-school and out-of-school nonacademic activities)

Self-efficacy affects choice of goals, expectations of success, attributions for success and failure.

Other Cognitive Views of Motivation

Cognitive development view of motivation: strive for equilibration and master the environment

Need for achievement revealed by desire to attain goals that require skilled performance. Individuals with a high need for achievement have a stronger expectation of success than they do a fear of failure formost tasks and therefore anticipate a feeling of pride in accomplishment.

High-need achievers prefer moderately challenging tasks.

Low-need achievers prefer very easy or very hard tasks.

The four most commonly given reasons for why they did or did not do well: (Attribution theory)

1. ability


2. effort


3. task difficulty


4. luck

Unsuccessful students attribute success to luck and easy tasks; failure to lack of ability.

Successful students attribute success to effort and ability; failure to lack of effort.

There are two points where noticeable changes in children's ability conceptions occur: between 7-8 and 10-12

Students can be placed into one of three categories based on their beliefs about the nature of cognitive ability:

1. Entity theorists- they talk about intelligence as if it were a thing, or an entity, that has fixed characteristics


2. Incremental theorists- intelligence can be improved gradually by degrees or increments as they refine their thinking skills and acquire new ones


3. Mixed theorists- subscribe to both entity and incremental theories

Students with incremental beliefs tend to have mastery goals and are motivated to meaningfully learn, improve skills.

Students with entity beliefs tend to have performance goals and are motivated to get high grades, avoid failure.

A person's interest in a topic can come from personal or situational sources.

Personal interest marked by intrinsic desire to learn that persists over time; situational interest is context dependent and short term.

Personal interest may be influenced by one or more of the following factors:

• ideas and activities that are valued by one's culture or ethnic group


• the emotions that are aroused by the subject or activity


• the degree of competence one attains in a subject or activity


• the degree to which a subject or activity is perceived to be relevant to achieving a goal


• level of prior knowledge


• a perceived hole in a topic that the person already knows a good deal about

Factors that influence situational interest:

• a state of cognitive conflict or disequilibrium


• well-written reading material


• the opportunity to work on a task with others


• the opportunity to engage in hands-on activities


• the opportunity to observe influential models


• the teacher's use of novel stimuli


• the teacher's use of games and puzzles

Flow is the mental state of high engagement in an activity. It is characterized by intense concentration, sustained interest, and enjoyment of the activity's challenge.

It is often difficult to arouse cognitive disequilibrium (such as when they have to go through dull and unrewarding information to answer)

Need for achievement difficult to assess on basis of short-term observations.

Faulty attributions difficult to change

The Humanistic View of Motivation

Maslow's theory of Growth Motivation: need gratification

5-level hierachy of needs: physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and self-actualization (the lower a need is in the hierachy, the greater its strength; because when a lower-level need is activated people will stop trying to satisfy the higher-level needs)

Deficiency needs: physiological, safety, belongingness and love, and esteem (they motivate people to act only when they are unmet to some degree)

Growth need: self-actualization (people constantly strive to satisfy it)

Maslow also describes cognitive needs (the needs to know and understand) and aesthetic needs (the needs for order, symmetry, or harmony) besides the above 5

When deficiency needs are not satisfied, a person is likely to make bad choices.

Encourage growth choices by enhancing attractions, and minimizing dangers.

Teachers may be able to satisfy some deficiency needs but not others.

The Role of Self-Perceptions in Motivation

Maslow, Rogers, and Combs stressed that how students see and judge themselves and others plays an important part in determining how motivated they are and how much they learn.

Self-esteem is global judgment we make of self; self-concept is judgment we make of self in specific domains; self-efficacy is belief in our ability to carry out a specific action.

Self-concept and achievement have reciprocal effects. Not only does prior achievement affect children's academic self-concept, but also the current strength of a child's academic self-concept influences subsequent achievement.

Teachers should design instructional programs that are aimed directly at improving both academic self-concept and achievement

Motivating Students with Technology

Extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation

• the best combine both approaches (Jasper Woodbury series


• membership in multimedia clubs, special computer events and fairs for parents or the community, and certficates of recognition

Using technology to increase motivation to learn

• Technology increases intrinsic motivation by making learning more interesting and meaningful


• Students were more inclined to complete their projects and to do high-quality work when they knew it would be seen by a wider audience


• Email is often used to heighten student interest and motivation through pen-pal projects that links students in different countries or locales or to coordinate interest groups

Suggestions For Teaching in Your Classroom: Motivating Students to Learn

p.421- 428

1. Use behavioral techiniques to help students exert themselves and work toward remote goals: (a) give praise as positive reinforcement, but do so effectively; (b) use other forms of positive reinforcement Ex. on page 421 (happy faces, check marks, personal comments, reward menu based on the Grandma's rule)
2. Make sure that students know what they are to do, how to proceed, and how to determine when they have achieved goals (personal contracts with students)
3. Encourage low-acheiving students to attribute success to a combination of ability and effort and failure in insufficient effort (make sure they have the ability to succeed)
4. Encourage students to think of ability as a set of cognitive skills that can be added to and refined, rather than as a fixed entity that is resistant to change, by praising the processes they use to succeed.
5. Encourage students to adopt appropriate learning goals: (a) help students to develop mastery learning goals; (b) use cooperative learning methods (STAD: Student Teams-Achievement Divisions- includes a 4 step cycle Teach, Team Study, Test, Recognition)
6. Maximize factors that appeal to both personal and situational interest: (a) find out what your students' interests are and design as many in-class and out-of-class assignments as possible around those interests; (b) try to associate subjects and assignments with pleasureable rather than painful experiences by using techniques such as cooperative learning and constructivist approaches to teaching, as well as providing students with the information-processing tools they need to master your objectives; (c) link new topics to information students are already likely to have or provide relevant background knowledge in creative yet understandable ways; (d) select reading materials that are logically organized and written in an engaging style.
7. Try to make learning interesting by emphasizing activity, investigation, adventure, social interaction, and usefulness. (www.jasonproject.org, www.learner.org/jnorth, www.thinkquest.org, http://quest.classroom.com )

Activities:

• give a few students a set of problems to do on the board rapidly as well as those at their desk; then have them switch out
• find ways for students to go out of the classroom for learning

Investigations:

• Elementary: learning centers with themes such as library, games, social sciences (lots of maps, charts and documents), cultural appreciation, and computer use (educational software, database programs, student created publications, computer with Internet access with a list of appropriate and interesting online sites)
• Middle School: centers that pertain to different aspects of a single subject Ex. Science (appreciation center stressing aesthetic aspects of science, display center showing new developments in science, library center with attractive and provocative books)

Adventures:

• redecorate the room to match what they are studying the next day
• twenty questions about things in a newspaper; students compete to see who can answer the most questions accurately in the shortest amount of time

Social Interactions:

• students pair up to ask each other questions before an exam or for difficult material
• organize an end-of-unit extravaganza where students present or display projects then maybe celebrate with refreshments

Usefulness:

• continually point out what is being learned can be used outside the class and have students keep a record of how they will use them
• develop exercises that make students aware that what they learn has transfer value; job applications in writing class, balance a checkbook in math class, fill out a tax form or make a budget in math class, biology students will use their knowledge to figure out how they will use it to not get sick

Suggestions for Teaching in Your Classroom: Satisfying Deficiency Needs and Strengthening Self-Perceptions

1. Make learning inviting to students
2. Direct learning experiences toward feelings of success in an effort to encourage an orientation toward achievement, high self-esteem, and a strong sense of self-efficacy and academic self-concept: (a) make use of objectives that are challenging but attainable and, when appropriate, that involve student input, (b) help students master your objectives

Life Experiences:

If students are not motivated, they are not going to learn. I know that when I had teachers that just pushed facts and information and not the reason why I needed to know it, or made it worth learning I just did not do as well as if they had tried to motivate me. I think that motivation is one of the most important parts of teaching. It takes a special person to go the extra effort to make their students want to learn and give them a reason to enjoy it. In my classroom, if my students do not want to help themselves then how can I ever truly help them. We must give them the reasons why they need it, and not just because "I said so".

Blog:

I am still using this blog to help me organize all the great information that I get from this class. But, I am trying to begin to use the idea of blogs in many different areas. My daughters are very smart children and they need extra things to help them receive continued enrichment in other things. I am beginning to teach them how to create their own blogs, like a daily journal. They can write their thoughts, wants, wishes, problems, and anything else that is on their mind. They are learning how to express themselves while also learning about technology.

Question of the Week:

Find another school district's website (this will be your fourth) outside of your hometown and/or Springfield (or the city you reside). Make sure that this school district is in a different state. Copy and paste (or type) the link into your blog. Answer the following questions about the school district in your blog:
Why would you want to teach in this particular school district?
What makes this school district stand out from others that you found on the Internet?
Are there specific features that this school district has to offer that you hadn't thought of before? What are they? If not, what would you like?
Would you ever consider applying for a job at this school district? Why or why not?
Based on what we've learned so far in this class, how does this school district measure up?

Campbell County School District in Gillete, WY http://www.ccsd.k12.wy.us/

This school district is a very large district that is divided up into many different smaller schools, approximately 20. I have lived here before and it is a nice area. I did not like the winters but we did like the landscape of this area and of the area around Sheridan. I like being close to my whole family so I would not want to have to move their unless my husband's job called for it. There are many schools in this area to choose from which helps, because many of them have drug problems. Their website was very informative. Most websites do not even focus on the Special Education part of the school, they just tell you about each of the different grade levels. Their website had alot of information about their special education department which I really liked. They use technology in many different areas and they have more specialist for these disabled students than most schools around here in our rural area.

Chapter 11: Approaches to Instruction

Chapter 11: Summary



Devising and Using Objectives

• goals are broad, general statements of desired educational outcomes


• instructional objectives specify observable, measurable student behaviors


• Taxonomy- a classification scheme with categories arranged in hierarchical order

3 taxonomy areas:

1. cognitive domain- stresses knowledge and intellectual skills


2. affective domain- concentrates on attitudes and values


3. psychomotor domain- focuses on physical abilities and skills

Cognitive Domain- knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation

Affective Domain- receiving(attending), responding, valuing, organization, characterization by a value or value complex

Psychomotor Domain- perception, set, guided response, mechanism, complex or overt response, adaptation, origination

Most test questions stress knowledge, ignore higher levels of cognitive taxonomy. Using taxonomies will help to avoid ignoring entire classes of outcomes and overemphasizing the lowest level of the cognitive domain

Ways to State and Use Objectives

Mager's recommendations for the use of specific objectives

1. describe what you want learners to be doing when demonstrating achievement, and indicate how you will know they are doing it


2. in your description, identify and name the behavioral act that indicates achievement, define the conditions under which the behavior is to occur, and state the criterion of acceptable performance


3. write a separate objective for each learning performance

Gronlund's recommendations for the use of general objectives

1. examine what is to be learned with reference to lists of objectives such as those included in the 3 taxonomies


2. under each general instructional objective, list up to five specific learning outcomes that provide a representative sample of what students should be able to do when they have achieved the general objective (use action verbs: explain or describe)

Objectives work best when the students are aware of them, are clearly written, and the learning task is neither too easy or too difficult.

Students with average ability profit more from objectives than higher or lower ability.

Objectives lead to an improvement in intentional learning but a decline in incidental learning.

The Behavioral Approach to Teaching: Direct Instruction

• behavioral approach to teaching involves arranging and implementing those conditions that make it highly likely that a desired response will occur in the presence of a particular stimulus


• Direct Instruction- focus on learning basic skills, teacher makes all decisions, keep students on-task, and emphasize postive reinforcement

Components of Direct Instruction: orientation, presentation, structured practice, guided practice, and independent practice

1. Orientation- teacher gives an overview of the lesson, explains why students need to learn the material, relates the new subject to past learning or life experiences, and tells students what they will need to do to learn the material and what level of performance is expected


2. Presentation- explaining, illustrating, and demonstrating new material; also evaluate's student's understanding (question and answer session)


3. Structured practice- teacher leads the entire class through each step in a problem or lesson


4. Guided practice- students work at their own desks on problems of the type explained and demonstrated by the teacher; teacher circulates around the room


5. Independent practice-when students can solve at least 85% of the problems given during guided practice, they are then given problems to work independently in class or at home

Using technology to support behavioral approaches to instruction

• computer-based approach


• drill-and-practice computer-assisted instruction tools and integrated learning systems


• multimedia technology

The Cognitive Approach to Teaching: Facilitating Meaningful and Self-Directed Learning

Information-Processing Approach: design lesson around principles of meaningful learning, teach students how to learn more effectively

• Tell students what you want them to learn and why, and how they will be tested
• Use attention-getting devices (orally emphasize certain words or phrases by raising or lowering your voice, use dramatic gestures, underline key words and phrases that you write on a chalkboard or whiteboard, when discussing the work of important people dress up to look like the person and speak as you think the person might have spoken)
• Present organized and meaningful lessons (concept mapping- this technique involves specifying the ideas that make up a topic and indicating with lines how they relate to one another p.376)
• Present new information in small chunks and do not introduce new topics until you have evidence that the students have learned the presented material
• Build into lessons opportunities for students to write about, discuss, and use the ideas they are learning
• Arrange for short practice sessions spread over several weeks rather than one or two long practice sessions
• Present information through different medias such as pictures, videotape, audiotape, live models, and manipulation of physical objects; use alot of examples and analogies; prompt students to elaborate by asking them to put ideas in their own words, relate new ideas to personal experience, and create their own analogies
• Practice what you preach

Constructivist Approach: creating their own understanding of reality using characteristics such as existing knowledge, attitudes, values, and experiences

• Provide scaffolded instruction within the zone of proximal development (instruction should demand more than what a student is capable of doing independently and because of these demands instruction should be scaffolded {teachers should provided just enough support through such devices as explanations, modeling, prompting, offering clarifications, and verifying the accuracy of responses, that the learner can successfully complete the task})
• Provide opportunities for learning by discovery
• Meaningful learning aided by exposure to multiple points of view
• Emphasize relevant problems and tasks (need to challenging and realistic)
• Encourage students to become self-directed learners (how do teachers interact with the students)

Challenges to being a Constructivist teacher

• they need to understand how different students think, how complete each student's knowledge is about a subject, how accurate that knowledge is, and how aware students are about the state of their own knowledge
• they must know how to use a variety of methods to support understanding problem-based activities (modeling; providing prompts, probes, and suggestions; providing problem-solving rules of thumb; and using technology to organize and represent information)
• they must guide students to choose meaningful projects or issues to investigate
• they have to teach students how to work productively in collaborative activities
• they need to have a deep enough understanding of a subject to be able to guide students who become puzzled by an observation to an explanantion
• they need to know how to used a wide range of alternative assessment devices (interviews, observations, student journals, peer reviews, research reports, art projects, building physical models, and participating in plays, debates, and dances)

Technology and Cognitive Approaches

• helps students to code, store, and retrieve information (electronic encyclopedias {Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia}, hypermedia databases that contain conceptual resources such as timelines, information maps, and overviews, and concept mapping software such as Inspiration)
• Exploratory Environments: students might explore exciting information resources on the Web, enter simulations or microworlds like LEGO-LOGO, browse and rotate objects in a hypermedia or web database, and use imaging technologies to explore inaccessible places such as underwater canyons or planet surfaces)
• Geometric Supposer: a tool that students can use to construct, manipulate, and measure different geometric figures
• GenScope: help students better understand the principles of genetics
• Guided Learning: teachers help students set goals, ask questions, encourage discussions, and provide models of problem-solving processes (Higher Order Thinking Skills program {HOTS}- grades 4 through 8 www.hots.org)
• Problem and Project-Based Learning: requires learners to develop solutions to real-life problems
• Situated Learning: knowledge is closely linked to environment in which it is acquired (CSILE, WISE, and the GLOBE Program, and the WEB Project, Author-on-Line Project {students read a book, wrote a book reports, posted them on a school website, the author posted her/his reactions, these were then shared in the class)

The Humanistic Approach to Teaching: Student-Centered Instruction

Humanistic Approach: pays attention to the role of noncognitive variables in learning, specifically, students' needs, emotions, values, and self-perceptions

Abraham Maslow: help students develop their potential by satisfying their needs (Self-actualizers: have an inherent need for experiences that will help them fulfill their potential)

Carl Rogers: Learner-centered education (teaches should try to establish the same conditions as do person-centered therapists); establish conditions that allow self-directed learning

Arthur Combs: The teacher is the facilitator, encourager, helper, assister, colleague, and friend of his/her students

Teachers seek to create a classroom atmosphere in which students believe that the teacher's primary goal is the understand the student's needs, values, motives, and self-perceptions and to help the student learn (student-directed or nondirective)

The Humanistic Model

1. defining the helping situation
2. exploring the problem
3. develop insight
4. planning and decision making
5. integration
   

Japanese classrooms marked by humanistic orientation, high scores on international math and science test. They also place high value on children's social and ethical development by (1.) giving children various classroom responsibilities so they feel a valued part of the school, (2) emphasizing such qualities as friendliness, responsibility, and persistence, (3) communicating to students that teachers value their presence in the classroom and the contributions that they make.

Humanistic Approach and technology

• learner-centered technology tools can link concepts to everyday experiences, guide students in the problem-solving process, encourage learners to think more deeply, facilitate unique knowledge construction, and provide opportunities for social interaction and dialogue (Graphing calculators, hand-held computers, microcomputer laboratory equipment, prompts embedded in a word processing program, computer conferencing on the Web)

The Social Approach to Teaching: Teaching Students How To Learn From Each Other

Classroom tasks can be structured so that students are forced to compete with one another, to work individually, or to cooperate with one another to obtain the rewards that teachers make available for successfully completing these tasks.

Types of Classroom Reward Structures

1. Competitive: those in which one's grade is determined by how well everyone else in the group performs (grading on a curve); these may decrease motivation to learn
2. Individualistic Structures: students working alone and earning rewards solely on the quality of their own efforts; other students reward or failure do not matter;
3. Cooperative Structures: students working together to accomplish shared goals; positive interdependence; leads students to focus on effort and cooperation as the primary basis of motivation; motivated by obligation

Cooperative Learning

1. Group heterogeneity- small groups (4 to 5) and as heterogeneous (males and females, different ability levels, and different ethnic backgrounds and social classes if possible) as allowed
2. Group goals/positive interdependence- specific goals for the group to attain
3. Promotive interaction- students are shown how to help one another overcome problems and complete whatever task has been assigned (peer tutoring, temporary assistance, exchanges of information and material, challenging of one another's reasoning, feedback, and encouragement to keep one another highly motivated)
4. Individual Accountability- each member has to make a significant contribution to achieving the group's goal
5. Interpersonal skills- they must be taught basic skills such as leadership, decision making, trust building, clear communication, conflict management
6. Equal opportunities for success- ensure that all students have an opportunity to contribute to their team
7. Team competition- must be used appropriately between well-matched team, in the absence of a norm-referenced grading system, and not used too frequently

Does Cooperative Learning Work: YES (It affects motivation, achievement, and social interaction)

Why? Likely due to stimulation of motivation, cognitive development, and meaningful learning

Because of the proacademic attitudes of groupmates, appropriate attributions for success and failure, and greater on-task behavior.

Why do teachers follow the spirit but not the letter of the cooperative learning model?

1. perhaps teachers find the models too complicated and difficult to put into practice
2. teachers don't really believe the researchers' claims that certain elements of cooperative learning are essential for improved learning, perhaps because their classroom experience has led them to believe otherwise
3. teachers interpret the research as providing suggestions or guidelines rather than prescriptions that must be followed, leaving them free to construct personal adaptations
4. reseachers rarely explicitly state that the demostrated benefits of cooperative learning will occur only when certain conditions are met

Students with low and average ability in mixed-ability groups outperform peers in homogeneous groups on problem-solving tests; students with high ability in homogeneous groups score slightly higher than peers in mixed-ability groups.

Social Approaches and Technology

• successful technology applications are embedded in an active social environment
• collaborative learning- allows the students themselves to decide on their roles and use their individual areas of expertise to help investigate problems (GLOBE Program www.GLOBE.gov, WEB Project www.webproject.org, 4Directions Project www.4directions.org)

Life Experiences:

Every teacher throughout by educational career even up to now uses different approaches to instruction. They all would fall into the categories that are discussed in this chapter, but each teacher uses these approaches in a different manner. I really never had one that focused primarily on the humanistic approach though. This is an approach that I intend on using some because how a student speaks affects their basic needs. Most of my teachers used direct instruction, information processing and a constructivist approach. With the development of technology, we as teachers are able to use so many more different instruction techniques to help individualize our instruction.

Blog:

I have shared my blog ideas with the lady that I work with. She really likes all the ideas that I am adding to my blog from what I have learned. Besides being responsible for the Special Education Students and being the Speech Therapist, she is also in charge of writing our high school ACSIP plan. We have used some of the research that is discussed in this book within this plan. By having my information saved in a special place, I have been able to access it easily for her. We have also shared many of the technology ideas with so many of the other teachers that I work with. Without this blog I would never be able to find these ideas as quickly as I do.

Question of the Week: Find another school district's website (this will be your third) outside of your hometown and/or Springfield (or the city you live in). Make sure that this school district is in a different state. Copy and paste (or type) the link into your blog. Answer the following questions about the school district in your blog:
Would you want to teach in this particular school district?
What makes this school district stand out from others that you found on the Internet?
Are there specific features that this school district has to offer that you hadn't thought of before? What are they? If not, what would you like?
Would you ever consider applying for a job at this school district? Why or why not?
Based on what we've learned so far in this class, how does this school district measure up?

Thayer, MO website at http://thayer.k12.mo.us/

I do not think that I would want to teach in this particular school district mainly because it just does not have the qualities that I am looking for in a school district. It is pretty close to me so distance would not be bad but my license that I am receiving is not for Missouri, it will be for Arkansas. It is a good school district, but a little larger than I am looking for. I do know some of the teachers and adminstration there. They do use technology more than the school that I am currently at which is a major plus. The kids class scheduling is also different than what I am used to, but could be a plus I think. They do have more resources in some areas than where I am currently at, but unfortunately even with these additional resources and more technology their academic scores do not seem to be as high as I would have thought. They have a high majority of their students that are just in the basic range, I would have thought their scores would be a little higher.