Wednesday, 19 April 2017

Thank you guys!

A very special thanks to my lecturer, Mr. Yusuf Adiwijaya for his encouragement and helps throughout completing this blog. My greatest gratitude I dedicated towards my classmates (Bro Mad, Bro Dihar, Bro Seb, Sis Ira, Sis Fini and Sis Elfa) who had mustered everything they have in helping me to write this Pedagogy in Education blog. And a big praise to myself since this is actually my first time blogging despite my exposure to the Internet many many years ago. Like they say, there will always be a first time for everything, right?

So with this last post, hopefully I have provided sufficient knowledge and information regarding Pedagogy. If you have further inquiry or requires extensive explanation, you may leave it at the comment below and I will get at it as fast as I possibly can. Till then, feel free to navigate through my blog and leave a comment or two if you were feeling generous! :p

Classroom Management

Classroom management is a term teachers use to describe the process of ensuring that classroom lessons run smoothly despite disruptive behavior by students. The term also implies the prevention of disruptive behavior. It is a difficult aspect of teaching for many teachers. Problems in this area causes some to leave teaching. In 1981 the US National Educational Association reported that 36% of teachers said they would probably not go into teaching if they had to decide again. A major reason was negative student attitudes and discipline.

Why is classroom management important?

Classroom management is important to the whole education process because it offers students an ideal learning environment, helps prevent teacher burnout and makes students and teachers feel safer and happier. Classroom management involves more than just discipline and rules. It also entails organization, routines with which students come to feel comfortable, and positive attitudes on the part of teachers and students.

A well-organized classroom with routines and rituals helps students feel more secure. Children need structure. The routines and rituals of a well-managed classroom allow more time for learning. Teachers spend more time teaching and less time getting class started. Students are more easily engaged and less distracted in an organized, well-managed classroom, so the learning environment is greatly enhanced.

When rules and consequences are clear, teachers do not have to nag and discipline students as often. This helps prevent fatigue and teacher burnout from occurring, and it allows the teacher to have better, more positive rapport with the students. Both students and teachers enjoy the educational process more. In a well-managed classroom, discipline issues are more quickly spotted and addressed. Issues are less likely to get out of hand or become volatile. Students are more likely to feel they are treated fairly because they understand the policies from the beginning. Classroom management gives students parameters that help them feel a measure of control over their environment. When students know the rules and consequences of breaking the rules, what happens to them is within their control.

In practice, classroom-management techniques may appear deceptively simple, but successfully and seamlessly integrating them into the instruction of students typically requires a variety of sophisticated techniques and a significant amount of skill and experience. While the specific techniques used to manage classrooms and facilitate learning can vary widely in terminology, purpose, and execution, the following representative examples will provide a brief introduction to a few basic classroom-management techniques (NOTE: While the general strategies described below are widely used by teachers, the specific terms in bold are not):

Entry Routine is a technique in which teachers establish a consistent, daily routine that begins as soon as students enter the classroom—preparing learning materials, making seat assignments, passing in homework, or doing a brief physical “warm-up” activity would all be examples of entry routines. This technique can avoid the disorder and squandered time that can characterize the beginning of a class period.
Do Now is a brief written activity that students are given as soon as they arrive in the classroom. This technique is intended to get students settled, focused, productive, and prepared for instruction as quickly as possible.
Tight Transitions is a technique in which teachers establish transition routines that students learn and can execute quickly and repeatedly without much direction from a teacher. For example, a teacher might say “reading time,” and students will know that they are expected to stop what they are working on, put away their materials, get their books, and begin reading silently on their own. This technique helps to maximize instructional time by reducing the disarray and delay that might accompany transitions between activities.
Seat Signals is a technique in which students use nonverbal signals while seated to indicate that they need something, such as a new pencil, a restroom break, or help with a problem. This technique establishes expectations for appropriate communication and helps to minimize disruptions during class.
Props is the act of publicly recognizing and praising students who have done something good, such as answering a difficult question or helping a peer. Props is done by the entire class and is typically a short movement or spoken phrase. The technique is intended to establish a group culture in which learning accomplishments and positive actions are socially valued and rewarded.
Nonverbal Intervention is when teachers establish eye contact or make gestures that let students know they are off-task, not paying attention, or misbehaving. The technique helps teachers efficiently and silently manage student behavior without disrupting a lesson.
Positive Group Correction is a quick, affirming verbal reminder that lets a group of students know what they should be doing. Related techniques are Anonymous Individual Correction, a verbal reminder that is directed at an anonymous student; Private Individual Correction, a reminder given to an individual student as discretely as possible; and Lightning-Quick Public Correction, a quick, positive reminder that tells an individual student what to do instead of what not to do.
Do It Again is used when students do not perform a basic task correctly, and the teacher asks them to do it again the correct way. This technique establishes and reinforces consistent expectations for quality work.

Lesson Plans

A lesson plan is the instructor’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time. Before you plan your lesson, you will first need to identify the learning objectives for the class meeting. Then, you can design appropriate learning activities and develop strategies to obtain feedback on student learning. A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates these three key components:

Objectives for student learning
Teaching/learning activities
Strategies to check student understanding

Specifying concrete objectives for student learning will help you determine the kinds of teaching and learning activities you will use in class, while those activities will define how you will check whether the learning objectives have been accomplished (see Fig. 1).

How to write a good lesson plan?

Here's a video for easier comprehension on how to write a lesson plan.

(1) Outline learning objectives

The first step is to determine what you want students to learn and be able to do at the end of class. To help you specify your objectives for student learning, answer the following questions:

What is the topic of the lesson?
What do I want students to learn?
What do I want them to understand and be able to do at the end of class?
What do I want them to take away from this particular lesson?

Once you outline the learning objectives for the class meeting, rank them in terms of their importance. This step will prepare you for managing class time and accomplishing the more important learning objectives in case you are pressed for time. Consider the following questions:

What are the most important concepts, ideas, or skills I want students to be able to grasp and apply?
Why are they important?
If I ran out of time, which ones could not be omitted?
And conversely, which ones could I skip if pressed for time?

(2) Develop the introduction

Now that you have your learning objectives in order of their importance, design the specific activities you will use to get students to understand and apply what they have learned. Because you will have a diverse body of students with different academic and personal experiences, they may already be familiar with the topic. That is why you might start with a question or activity to gauge students’ knowledge of the subject or possibly, their preconceived notions about it. For example, you can take a simple poll: “How many of you have heard of X? Raise your hand if you have.” You can also gather background information from your students prior to class by sending students an electronic survey or asking them to write comments on index cards. This additional information can help shape your introduction, learning activities, etc. When you have an idea of the students’ familiarity with the topic, you will also have a sense of what to focus on.
Develop a creative introduction to the topic to stimulate interest and encourage thinking. You can use a variety of approaches to engage students (e.g., personal anecdote, historical event, thought-provoking dilemma, real-world example, short video clip, practical application, probing question, etc.). Consider the following questions when planning your introduction:

How will I check whether students know anything about the topic or have any preconceived notions about it?
What are some commonly held ideas (or possibly misconceptions) about this topic that students might be familiar with or might espouse?
What will I do to introduce the topic?

(3) Plan the specific learning activities (the main body of the lesson)

Prepare several different ways of explaining the material (real-life examples, analogies, visuals, etc.) to catch the attention of more students and appeal to different learning styles. As you plan your examples and activities, estimate how much time you will spend on each. Build in time for extended explanation or discussion, but also be prepared to move on quickly to different applications or problems, and to identify strategies that check for understanding. These questions would help you design the learning activities you will use:

What will I do to explain the topic?
What will I do to illustrate the topic in a different way?
How can I engage students in the topic?
What are some relevant real-life examples, analogies, or situations that can help students understand the topic?
What will students need to do to help them understand the topic better?

(4) Plan to check for understanding

Now that you have explained the topic and illustrated it with different examples, you need to check for student understanding – how will you know that students are learning? Think about specific questions you can ask students in order to check for understanding, write them down, and then paraphrase them so that you are prepared to ask the questions in different ways. Try to predict the answers your questions will generate. Decide on whether you want students to respond orally or in writing. You can look at Strategies to Extend Student Thinking, http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/P4_4.php to help you generate some ideas and you can also ask yourself these questions:

What questions will I ask students to check for understanding?
What will I have students do to demonstrate that they are following?
Going back to my list of learning objectives, what activity can I have students do to check whether each of those has been accomplished?

An important strategy that will also help you with time management is to anticipate students’ questions. When planning your lesson, decide what kinds of questions will be productive for discussion and what questions might sidetrack the class. Think about and decide on the balance between covering content (accomplishing your learning objectives) and ensuring that students understand.

(5) Develop a conclusion and a preview

Go over the material covered in class by summarizing the main points of the lesson. You can do this in a number of ways: you can state the main points yourself (“Today we talked about…”), you can ask a student to help you summarize them, or you can even ask all students to write down on a piece of paper what they think were the main points of the lesson. You can review the students’ answers to gauge their understanding of the topic and then explain anything unclear the following class. Conclude the lesson not only by summarizing the main points, but also by previewing the next lesson. How does the topic relate to the one that’s coming? This preview will spur students’ interest and help them connect the different ideas within a larger context.

(6) Create a realistic timeline

GSIs know how easy it is to run out of time and not cover all of the many points they had planned to cover. A list of ten learning objectives is not realistic, so narrow down your list to the two or three key concepts, ideas, or skills you want students to learn. Instructors also agree that they often need to adjust their lesson plan during class depending on what the students need. Your list of prioritized learning objectives will help you make decisions on the spot and adjust your lesson plan as needed. Having additional examples or alternative activities will also allow you to be flexible. A realistic timeline will reflect your flexibility and readiness to adapt to the specific classroom environment. Here are some strategies for creating a realistic timeline:

Estimate how much time each of the activities will take, then plan some extra time for each
When you prepare your lesson plan, next to each activity indicate how much time you expect it will take
Plan a few minutes at the end of class to answer any remaining questions and to sum up key points
Plan an extra activity or discussion question in case you have time left
Be flexible – be ready to adjust your lesson plan to students’ needs and focus on what seems to be more productive rather than sticking to your original plan

Presenting the Lesson Plan

Letting your students know what they will be learning and doing in class will help keep them more engaged and on track. You can share your lesson plan by writing a brief agenda on the board or telling students explicitly what they will be learning and doing in class. You can outline on the board or on a handout the learning objectives for the class. Providing a meaningful organization of the class time can help students not only remember better, but also follow your presentation and understand the rationale behind in-class activities. Having a clearly visible agenda (e.g., on the board) will also help you and students stay on track.

Reflecting on Your Lesson Plan

A lesson plan may not work as well as you had expected due to a number of extraneous circumstances. You should not get discouraged – it happens to even the most experienced teachers! Take a few minutes after each class to reflect on what worked well and why, and what you could have done differently. Identifying successful and less successful organization of class time and activities would make it easier to adjust to the contingencies of the classroom. For additional feedback on planning and managing class time, you can use the following resources: student feedback, peer observation, viewing a videotape of your teaching, and consultation with a staff member at CRL.

Conclusion

To be effective, the lesson plan does not have to be an exhaustive document that describes each and every possible classroom scenario. Nor does it have to anticipate each and every student’s response or question. Instead, it should provide you with a general outline of your teaching goals, learning objectives, and means to accomplish them. It is a reminder of what you want to do and how you want to do it. A productive lesson is not one in which everything goes exactly as planned, but one in which both students and instructor learn from each other.

However, we are restricted to follow the Ministry of Education (MoE) of Malaysia regarding the guidelines for writing a lesson plan. Here are the guidelines and several examples of it.

Teaching Strategies

To become an effective teacher, one must posses an effective teaching strategies first. Teaching strategies refer to methods used to help students learn the desired course contents and be able to develop achievable goals in the future. Teaching strategies identify the different available learning methods to enable them to develop the right strategy to deal with the target group identified. Assessment of the learning capabilities of students provides a key pillar in development of a successful teaching strategy.

There are tons of teaching strategies that can be adapted to your classroom. However, I will only be discussing about 4 of it.

a) Jigsaw

b) Context-rich problems

c) Socratic questionning

d) Music

Let's start off with Jigsaw Teaching Strategies!

The jigsaw classroom is a research-based cooperative learning technique invented and developed in the early 1970s by Elliot Aronson and his students at the University of Texas and the University of California. Since 1971, thousands of classrooms have used jigsaw with great success.

The jigsaw classroom has a four-decade track record of successfully reducing racial conflict and increasing positive educational outcomes such as improved test performance, reduced absenteeism, and greater liking for school.

Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each piece — each student's part — is essential for the completion and full understanding of the final product.

If each student's part is essential, then each student is essential; and that is precisely what makes this strategy so effective.

The second one is Context-Rich Problems.

Context-rich problems are short, realistic scenarios giving the students a plausible motivation for solving the problem. The problems require students to utilize the underlying theory to make decisions about realistic situations.

A traditional problem focused on the concept of present value in economics would follow this type of format:

A discount bond matures in 5 years. The face value of the bond is $10,000. If interest rates are 2%, what is the present value of this bond?

A context-rich problem would instead follow this type of format:

You and your sister just inherited a discount bond. The bond has a face value of $10,000 and matures in 5 years. You would like to hold onto the bond until maturity, but your sister wants her money now. She offers to sell you her half of the bond, but only if you give her a fair price. What is a fair price to offer her? How can you convince your sister it is a fair price

While the traditional problem tells the student what concept to use, the context-rich problem allows the student to connect the discipline to reality by requiring the student to decide present value is the appropriate concept to apply. The context-rich problem also requires the students to make the assumptions underlying the solution process explicit. Rather than being told to use 2% as an interest rate in the calculation, the student must come up with a reasonable interest rate and be able to defend that choice.

Components of context-rich problems

Every context-rich problem has the following properties:

The problem is a short story in which the major character is the student. That is, each problem statement uses the personal pronoun "you."
The situation in the problems are realistic (or can be imagined) but may require the students to make modeling assumptions.
The problem statement includes a plausible motivation or reason for "you" to do something.
Not all pictures or diagrams are given with the problems (often none are given). Students must visualize the situation by using their own experiences and knowledge.
The problem may leave out common-knowledge information
The problem's target variable may not explicitly be stated

Moving on to Socratic Questionning.

Socratic questioning (or Socratic maieutics) is disciplined questioning that can be used to pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes, including: to explore complex ideas, to get to the truth of things, to open up issues and problems, to uncover assumptions, to analyze concepts, to distinguish what we know from what we don't know, to follow out logical implications of thought or to control the discussion. The key to distinguishing Socratic questioning from questioning per se is that Socratic questioning is systematic, disciplined, deep and usually focuses on fundamental concepts, principles, theories, issues or problems.

Due to the rapid addition of new information and the advancement of science and technology that occur almost daily, an engineer must constantly expand his or her horizons beyond simple gathering information and relying on the basic engineering principles. A number of homework problems have been included that are designed to enhance critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is the process we use to reflect on, access and judge the assumptions underlying our own and others ideas and actions.

Socratic questioning is at the heart of critical thinking and a number of homework problems draw from R.W. Paul's six types of Socratic questions:

1. Questions for clarification:	Why do you say that? How does this relate to our discussion? "Are you going to include diffusion in your mole balance equations?"
2. Questions that probe assumptions:	What could we assume instead? How can you verify or disapprove that assumption? "Why are neglecting radial diffusion and including only axial diffusion?"
3. Questions that probe reasons and evidence:	What would be an example? What is....analogous to? What do you think causes to happen...? Why:? "Do you think that diffusion is responsible for the lower conversion?"
4. Questions about Viewpoints and Perspectives:	What would be an alternative? What is another way to look at it? Would you explain why it is necessary or beneficial, and who benefits? Why is the best? What are the strengths and weaknesses of...? How are...and ...similar? What is a counterargument for...? "With all the bends in the pipe, from an industrial/practical standpoint, do you think diffusion will affect the conversion?"
5. Questions that probe implications and consequences:	What generalizations can you make? What are the consequences of that assumption? What are you implying? How does...affect...? How does...tie in with what we learned before? "How would our results be affected if neglected diffusion?"
6. Questions about the question:	What was the point of this question? Why do you think I asked this question? What does...mean? How does...apply to everyday life? "Why do you think diffusion is important?

The last one is MUSIC!

Music allows learners to acquire information naturally and presents information as parts and wholes. A song gives students a chance to reduce the information into parts yet work with it as a whole. Frances H. Rauscher (2003) explored the relationship between spatial/temporal skills and music with high risk preschoolers and conducted three studies that examined the effects of music. The children who received music training scored higher on the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) in reading, spelling, reading comprehension, mathematical reasoning, numerical operations and listening tasks. Rauscher concluded:

“Learning music is an important developmental activity that may help at-risk children compete academically on a more equal basis with their middle-income peers…improvement on the spatial-temporal tasks was confined to those children who received music instruction…the music instruction was found to continue for at least two years after the intervention ended.”

Jeannette Hachmeister leads her class in a song that teaches her students how to wash their hands.

In another study by Rauscher and colleagues, music training gave a significant boost to spatial-temporal memory (Rauscher et al., 1997). In this study, 78 preschoolers were divided into two groups with one group receiving music instruction. The researchers tested if music cognition would activate the same neural activities as those in spatial-temporal reasoning. This type of reasoning maintains and transforms mental images without a physical model and is used in both mathematics and science. The researchers found that:

“Music training, unlike listening, produces long-term modifications in underlying neural circuitry (perhaps right prefrontal and left temporal cortical area) in regions not primarily concerned with music. The magnitude of the improvement in spatial-temporal reasoning from music training was greater than one standard deviation equivalent to an increase from the 50th percentile on the WPPSI-R standardized test to above the 85th percentile.”

Students with low language levels could benefit the most from this increase in memory.

Music benefits children’s oral communication. They learn to be attentive listeners, which is a skill that helps their phonological awareness, phonemic awareness and overall fluency. When teachers use music naturally, they expand vocabulary, promote sight words, identify rhymes and retell stories. According to Wiggins, simple songs such as “Down by the Station,” when coupled with a book, “nurtures auditory and visual discrimination, eye-motor coordination, visual sequential memory, language reception and, most importantly, promotes comprehension and dialogue” (Wiggins, 2007).

When you think of a classroom singing a song together, you probably envision a kindergarten class learning the alphabet or counting. But a new generation of classroom songs has arrived, and this time they’re helping older students learn difficult topics or concepts in math, English and just about any other subject you can think of. Through videos, interactive games, and online courses, teachers are integrating songs and music in general directly into their lessons and classroom activities, giving students the chance to join in. By using a song as an introduction to a new topic or to support the understanding of various topics being discussed in class, students are able to familiarize themselves with the relevant terminology and concepts in an easily, memorable way. Since most of today’s digital natives grew up learning through catchy YouTube videos or watching cartoons on their parent’s iPads, even older students are comfortable with musical lessons. For example, the song below, “Mean Median and Mode”, pulled from a course offered through Learning Upgrade’s online curriculum, is often used by math teachers to introduce basic measures of center to a class. It can keep students more engaged than a traditional lecture, and embeds the melody (and the facts) in their minds so they’ll continue to think with it long after they’ve left the classroom.

Cognitive School of Thought

Here we are, for the last school of thought, which is Cognitive.

Cognitive Learning Theory is a broad theory that explains thinking and differing mental processes and how they are influenced by internal and external factors in order to produce learning in individuals. When cognitive processes are working normally then acquisition and storage of knowledge works well, but when these cognitive processes are ineffective, learning delays and difficulties can be seen.

These cognitive processes are: observing, categorizing, and forming generalizations about our environment. A disruption in these natural cognitive processes can cause behavioral problems in individuals and the key to treating these problems lies in changing the disrupted process. For example, a person with an eating disorder genuinely believes that they are extremely overweight. Some of this is due to a cognitive disruption in which their perception of their own weight is skewed. A therapist will try to change their constant pattern of thinking that they are overweight in order to decrease the unhealthy behaviors that are a result of it.

You must be perplexed by the definition right? How about we meet Teacher Tony from the last post again? Maybe he can help us understanding this learning theory.

There you have it guys! Again Teacher Tony with his wonderful explanation about Cognitive Learning. Thank you, Teacher Tony!

I bet by now you have grasp some ideas about this school of thought, right? Well, I certainly hope so. If not, then you might want to check out these stuffs I personally handpicked for your understanding.

Le' Blooms Taxonomy of thinking skills.

Different learning styles. Are you right-brained or left-brained? Check it out, now!

The process of transferring information, from receiving it till storing it in our long term memory.

Behavioral School of Thought

This is the second school of thought of learning, which is Behavioral.

Behaviorism is a learning theory that only focuses on objectively observable behaviors and discounts any independent activities of the mind. Behavior theorists define learning as nothing more than the acquisition of new behavior based on environmental conditions.

As per usual, have your daily doses of informational video first!

I guess we have learned a bit from Teacher Tony, right? On how he used behavioral learning for his class management? The way the students changed after he introduced that learning? So it is imperative to know that certain ways of learning can have different effects both on the learners and the teacher.

But, that's not it! Let's explore a bit more on this interesting topic.

Behavioral learning can be identified by these two theorist. Ivan Pavlov from Russia and B.F.Skinner from USA. Both of these men have been tremendous in coming out with their own behavioral theories, which were Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian) or Instrumental Conditiong (Skinnerian).