This was an exercise done at my GRSC7800 class today. We were trying to gauge the inhabitance of multi-tasking in note-taking during the class lecture. We were shown a video (see below) and asked to take notes in two conditions a) while doing multi-tasking and b) without multi-tasking.
Should I be skeptical of Science?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUB4j0n2UDU
Condition-A
The first set of 5 minutes of the video were shown and we were asked to write notes as in a regular class with multi-tasking. For doing multi-tasking we were given a set of "activities" to be done that needed some attention too and explicitly made us deviate from concentrating on the video.
Everything including any theory proposed by anyone should be learning and not just following.
The following last six points of the Bologney detection kit without distraction (multi-taksing):
1. How reliable is the science and the data used to support a theory. E.g. was given for the case of global warming
2. Are there sources for similar claims, can one verify the data?
3. Are the claims verified using the experiments that can be repeated?
4. Does the theory sound logical, give a thought using common sense. E.g. the email spams from Nigeria offering huge sums of money
5. Have any counter examples/theory that disprove the claims of some theory.
Condition-B
The following notes were taken for second half of the video where we were asked not to do multi-tasking and concentrate on note taking and the lecture.
Science is like solving a crime and a person has to look for theory that explains all the observed facts seen by others.
7. Are the claims valid by the science?
Or simply calling out some thoughts. Eg. The Seti community compared to the UFO claim people. Seti people are having hypothesis and testing various thesis's and in UF ppl are not using logic.
8. Is the Claimant providing support of his theory or just denying theories of others.
For e.g. the area-51 documents are hidings facts but this logic cannot prove the existence of UFO theory. Need to have positive evidence.
9. Does the new theory count or the old theory
E.g. the theory of everything
10. Do the personal beliefs are driving the research or its the objective fact that supports the theory
E.g the global warming is just a theory driven by politics or can we use a scientific data and conclude our understanding.
There is a range of theories going around ranging from unscientific and scientific (true to probably not true facts).
On a personal note, I think this is a good video to be shown to school students and might help in promoting interest in science and questioning and seeking answers for 'strange' things that one encounters in daily life.
Thanks,
-Sairam
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Feb 27th Tutoring session: Demonstrations Evoke Interest
Attendees: Vikram, Sairam, Sonu, Ravi, Shilpa
This blog is in particular meant for our tutoring group. Tutoring group, I am thinking of maintaining blog pages for all the tutoring sessions. This can serve as a medium to communicate by leaving comments etc. Please feel free to add your comments to this. It served two ways by logging our experience for all tutoring sessions and secondly for communications between the group.
Today we all assembled at Q203 and 2:30pm to rehearse the following three experiments before going to the tutoring venue. We got a little late reaching there and met Ben, Jeff, Caroline there at 3:25pm. Today the number of students was less around 8 as many students had gone to a party arranged for one student who was scheduled to undergo a surgery in near future.
As discussed in earlier meeting (refer last week’s MoM) we demonstrated following experiments today.
1)Burning the paper by dipping it in mixture of ethanol and water. Thanks to Shilpa for helping us with Ethanol for the experiment.
2)Demonstrating the reaction of Sodium hydroxide + sugar with water and potassium permanganate. When reactants are mixed the mixture changes color from pink to blue, green, brown and finally yellow.
3)Effect of surface tension of water, Ravi Prasad demonstrated this experiment by putting about 30 coins in water and showing the curved miniscule resulting from surface tension
After arriving there we set up two tables in front and around 8 children were made to sit facing the table. It was like a demonstration being done before a very anxious audience.
Following method was used to do the demonstrations. The demonstrators talked about what they were about to show. Children were asked to think about the experiment and their reasons that could explain the experiment. This gave them an opportunity to argue their point of view and understand the logical explanation.
Vikram and Shilpa were careful enough to keep the demonstration-2 simple for the school children to understand. Ravi showed demo-3 and finally the experiment-1 was shown by Sonu and Sairam.
We missed many of our tutors today. Good luck to Tina for her Ph.D defense!
thanks,
-Sairam
This blog is in particular meant for our tutoring group. Tutoring group, I am thinking of maintaining blog pages for all the tutoring sessions. This can serve as a medium to communicate by leaving comments etc. Please feel free to add your comments to this. It served two ways by logging our experience for all tutoring sessions and secondly for communications between the group.
Today we all assembled at Q203 and 2:30pm to rehearse the following three experiments before going to the tutoring venue. We got a little late reaching there and met Ben, Jeff, Caroline there at 3:25pm. Today the number of students was less around 8 as many students had gone to a party arranged for one student who was scheduled to undergo a surgery in near future.
As discussed in earlier meeting (refer last week’s MoM) we demonstrated following experiments today.
1)Burning the paper by dipping it in mixture of ethanol and water. Thanks to Shilpa for helping us with Ethanol for the experiment.
2)Demonstrating the reaction of Sodium hydroxide + sugar with water and potassium permanganate. When reactants are mixed the mixture changes color from pink to blue, green, brown and finally yellow.
3)Effect of surface tension of water, Ravi Prasad demonstrated this experiment by putting about 30 coins in water and showing the curved miniscule resulting from surface tension
After arriving there we set up two tables in front and around 8 children were made to sit facing the table. It was like a demonstration being done before a very anxious audience.
Following method was used to do the demonstrations. The demonstrators talked about what they were about to show. Children were asked to think about the experiment and their reasons that could explain the experiment. This gave them an opportunity to argue their point of view and understand the logical explanation.
Vikram and Shilpa were careful enough to keep the demonstration-2 simple for the school children to understand. Ravi showed demo-3 and finally the experiment-1 was shown by Sonu and Sairam.
We missed many of our tutors today. Good luck to Tina for her Ph.D defense!
thanks,
-Sairam
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Maximizing learning in an conventional undergraduate class
In this relfection blog, I am considering a traditional class room teaching set-up where a teacher uses blackboard and his experience in transmitting knowledge to the class.
As a part of this reflection writing, I was sitting in a physics 1112 class taught three times a week. This class is held in a large lecture hall with around 120 undergraduate students. Typically the students are freshman or sophomores who are required to learn basic physics before completing their major degree. Its interesting to see them in a theory class where there is a less probability of individual attention from the lecturer as compared to a lab where the teacher to student ratio is better.
Firstly as the lecture class is large, almost all the rows in the front were occupied and in the last rows there were more unoccupied seats between the students. The lecturer was teaching by looking at the entire class but in my opinion his eye contact was not enough to grab attention of the students in the class. The lecturer wrote down the topic on the board and then looked at the students and explained the concept. In my opinion due to the nature of physics concepts, the teacher did not have time to write the entire definitions on the board. The content written on the board included the topic names, formulas, diagrams that were important in explaining a physics concept. The students had an opportunity to take notes as the teacher spoke and more importantly it is essential for them to note down all that is written on the board.
I realized that the students sitting in the front rows were less probable to get distracted due to their proximity to the teacher and less visual distractions. Students sitting in the immediate front rows were busy with listening and note taking and did not have their text books open where as some students at the middle rows were observed to look through the text book along with note taking. The students sitting at the last rows were seen to have laptops open with non-physics related topics on the screen. In my opinion, they were more probable to miss out on the lecture notes as the volume of the lecturer faded off coupled with more chances of getting distracted by seeing a large number of students sitting in their front view. Another disadvantage of students sitting in the last rows is that on the last rows, there are more vacant seats between students (as compared to the front seats) and students don't have a chance to look at neighboring students notes. Ultimately if a student sitting on back rows misses out on some notes, he has very less chances of making it up from the neighbors notes.
From my experience of this class, I think its wise to sit in the middle rows where there is a probability to see neighbors notes and also look at the text book as the lecture is going on. Also a little distance from the lecturer gives an opportunity to talk with neighboring student to clarify an concepts being taught in the class.
As a part of this reflection writing, I was sitting in a physics 1112 class taught three times a week. This class is held in a large lecture hall with around 120 undergraduate students. Typically the students are freshman or sophomores who are required to learn basic physics before completing their major degree. Its interesting to see them in a theory class where there is a less probability of individual attention from the lecturer as compared to a lab where the teacher to student ratio is better.
Firstly as the lecture class is large, almost all the rows in the front were occupied and in the last rows there were more unoccupied seats between the students. The lecturer was teaching by looking at the entire class but in my opinion his eye contact was not enough to grab attention of the students in the class. The lecturer wrote down the topic on the board and then looked at the students and explained the concept. In my opinion due to the nature of physics concepts, the teacher did not have time to write the entire definitions on the board. The content written on the board included the topic names, formulas, diagrams that were important in explaining a physics concept. The students had an opportunity to take notes as the teacher spoke and more importantly it is essential for them to note down all that is written on the board.
I realized that the students sitting in the front rows were less probable to get distracted due to their proximity to the teacher and less visual distractions. Students sitting in the immediate front rows were busy with listening and note taking and did not have their text books open where as some students at the middle rows were observed to look through the text book along with note taking. The students sitting at the last rows were seen to have laptops open with non-physics related topics on the screen. In my opinion, they were more probable to miss out on the lecture notes as the volume of the lecturer faded off coupled with more chances of getting distracted by seeing a large number of students sitting in their front view. Another disadvantage of students sitting in the last rows is that on the last rows, there are more vacant seats between students (as compared to the front seats) and students don't have a chance to look at neighboring students notes. Ultimately if a student sitting on back rows misses out on some notes, he has very less chances of making it up from the neighbors notes.
From my experience of this class, I think its wise to sit in the middle rows where there is a probability to see neighbors notes and also look at the text book as the lecture is going on. Also a little distance from the lecturer gives an opportunity to talk with neighboring student to clarify an concepts being taught in the class.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Virtual Demos: A new teaching paradigm ?
As I was thinking about my experiences with virtual demos for the class, I couldn't help but merge the differences(?) between simulations,computer models and virtual demos. I think of virtual demos as a super set that contain all computer models, scale models, demos that can be used to augment educational experience without actually going through the real-time live experience .
As far as learning is concerned virtual demos can only supplement the main material and cannot stand alone as a teaching paradigm, in my opinion.
As far as learning is concerned virtual demos can only supplement the main material and cannot stand alone as a teaching paradigm, in my opinion.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Experiences of using: Learning Management Systems
I think its a good idea for me to keep a blog entry of the research papers I read. In this blog I am attempting to put together the research findings of Steven Lonn and Stephanie D. Teasley on the effectiveness of using Learning Management System (LMS) in a university set up.
This research article is titled "Saving time or innovating practice: Investigating perceptions and uses of Learning Management Systems". It was uploaded for my EDHI 9040 class. The paper can be found here: Computers & Education 53 (2009) 686–694 The research was conducted in a US university setup consisting of a heterogeneous group of people with respect to their computer/IT expertise. Their research took into account these differences and attempted to inform the readers about the preceived advantage of using an online learning management tool in promoting student learning.
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
Learning Management Systems (LMS) is a web-based system that allows instructors and students to share instructional materials, make class announcements, submit and return course assignments, and communicate with each other online.
Although most LMS are used for the distribution, management, and retrieval of course materials, these systems can also incorporate functionality that supports interaction between students and instructors and among students to provide opportunities for enabling institutional innovations in learning and education.
These tools provide opportunities for using LMS that are consistent with constructivist approaches to learning rather than simple transmission of knowledge models. Specifically, LMS can facilitate a shift from ‘‘the transmission of information towards the management and facilitation of student learning”
Aim of Research:
The authors looked at two years of survey data to learn whether LMS was changing instructors’ pedagogical practice and the new online methodology affected student's learning preferences. This peper investigated the survey responses focusing on items relating to efficiency vs. interactive-teaching and learning practices of the students.
Research Findings :
- About 39% of the instructors agreed to an improved communication to their students. While 45% of the students reported that LMS improves efficiency (saves time).
- About 26% of instructors chose ‘‘efficiency (saves time)” indicating that efficiency is important to many instructors as well as their students.
- Very few instructors or students chose teaching or learning improvements as the most valuable benefit from using IT in their courses, nor did many respondents choose the items about student-to-instructor communication
or student-to-student communication.
This suggests that these systems are valued most by faculty and students for the ways they improve instructors’ ability to push out information to students rather than general support for teaching and learning, and for opening up
communication from the students to the instructor or from the students to their peers.
- Interestingbly among 95% of the users, the document management and broadcast-oriented communication tools (Content Sharing, Assignments, Announcements, Schedule, and Syllabus) were used heavily. By contrast, tools that are more interactive (Chat, Discussion, and Wiki) are not used as much (5% of all user actions) and more instructors and students rated them as Not Valuable.
- For Sending/Receiving an announcement, more instructors rated this activity as Very Valuable than did students. With the passage of time and regular use of the LMS system both instructors’ and students’ ratings increased over time.
- For Posting/Accessing online readings and supplementary course materials, more instructors rated this activity as Very Valuable than did students.
- For students posting questions after lecture, more instructors rated this activity as Valuable than did students.
Concluding Remarks:
As long as students fail to see the relevance of interactive tools for their learning or for instructors’ teaching, they are likely to continue to view IT as merely a quick and accessible means to retrieve course documents and get messages from instructors.
This survey results indicate that while both instructors and students agree that information technologies improve learning, students do not agree as strongly as
instructors that such technologies do improve instruction. These ratings suggest that students, in particular, may be responding not to whether these tools are used, but rather how they are used.
Using tools to scaffold more interactive forms of instruction and learning may be required for success of LMS/on-line systems.
This research article is titled "Saving time or innovating practice: Investigating perceptions and uses of Learning Management Systems". It was uploaded for my EDHI 9040 class. The paper can be found here: Computers & Education 53 (2009) 686–694 The research was conducted in a US university setup consisting of a heterogeneous group of people with respect to their computer/IT expertise. Their research took into account these differences and attempted to inform the readers about the preceived advantage of using an online learning management tool in promoting student learning.
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
Learning Management Systems (LMS) is a web-based system that allows instructors and students to share instructional materials, make class announcements, submit and return course assignments, and communicate with each other online.
Although most LMS are used for the distribution, management, and retrieval of course materials, these systems can also incorporate functionality that supports interaction between students and instructors and among students to provide opportunities for enabling institutional innovations in learning and education.
These tools provide opportunities for using LMS that are consistent with constructivist approaches to learning rather than simple transmission of knowledge models. Specifically, LMS can facilitate a shift from ‘‘the transmission of information towards the management and facilitation of student learning”
Aim of Research:
The authors looked at two years of survey data to learn whether LMS was changing instructors’ pedagogical practice and the new online methodology affected student's learning preferences. This peper investigated the survey responses focusing on items relating to efficiency vs. interactive-teaching and learning practices of the students.
Research Findings :
- About 39% of the instructors agreed to an improved communication to their students. While 45% of the students reported that LMS improves efficiency (saves time).
- About 26% of instructors chose ‘‘efficiency (saves time)” indicating that efficiency is important to many instructors as well as their students.
- Very few instructors or students chose teaching or learning improvements as the most valuable benefit from using IT in their courses, nor did many respondents choose the items about student-to-instructor communication
or student-to-student communication.
This suggests that these systems are valued most by faculty and students for the ways they improve instructors’ ability to push out information to students rather than general support for teaching and learning, and for opening up
communication from the students to the instructor or from the students to their peers.
- Interestingbly among 95% of the users, the document management and broadcast-oriented communication tools (Content Sharing, Assignments, Announcements, Schedule, and Syllabus) were used heavily. By contrast, tools that are more interactive (Chat, Discussion, and Wiki) are not used as much (5% of all user actions) and more instructors and students rated them as Not Valuable.
- For Sending/Receiving an announcement, more instructors rated this activity as Very Valuable than did students. With the passage of time and regular use of the LMS system both instructors’ and students’ ratings increased over time.
- For Posting/Accessing online readings and supplementary course materials, more instructors rated this activity as Very Valuable than did students.
- For students posting questions after lecture, more instructors rated this activity as Valuable than did students.
Concluding Remarks:
As long as students fail to see the relevance of interactive tools for their learning or for instructors’ teaching, they are likely to continue to view IT as merely a quick and accessible means to retrieve course documents and get messages from instructors.
This survey results indicate that while both instructors and students agree that information technologies improve learning, students do not agree as strongly as
instructors that such technologies do improve instruction. These ratings suggest that students, in particular, may be responding not to whether these tools are used, but rather how they are used.
Using tools to scaffold more interactive forms of instruction and learning may be required for success of LMS/on-line systems.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Growth of Expertise
These are my reflections on the paper on "Model of Domain Learning (MDL)" by Patricia A. Alexander.
To answer why some people never think of quitting the mastery of the unkown probably roots in themselves, in the form of motivation. Definately, without understanding the motivational dimension, educators cannot explain why some individuals persist in their journey toward expertise, while others yield to unavoidable pressures and change their fleeting interest to something else.
It is relevant to consider the importance of of learner's interest on the possibility of gaining expertise. The sustained interest leads to subtle and significant transformations occurring between a novice and an expert.
Few components that I can relate with the transformation of a novice to an expert in academic domains can be stated as knowledge acclimation, competence, and proficiency.
Model components as per MDL theory:
The MDL distinguishes between two forms of subject-matter knowledge: domain and topic knowledge. Domain knowledge represents the breadth of knowledge within a field. Where as topic knowledge is about depth; how much an individual knows about specific domain topics.
MDL tracks two forms of interest in expertise development: individual and situational interest. Individual interest is the investment one has in a particular domain or some facet thereof.
Forms of Interests:
The two forms of individual interest evident in expertise: general and professional. Through general interest, the individual engages in domain-related activities more available in everyday experiences. Professional interest is a more specialized, goal-oriented interest aligned with vocational activities. The situational interest is tied to the "here and now." It is an arousal or piquing of attention sparked by events or features of the environment. Because it is bound to the immediate situation, such interest is fleeting
I am sure one can relate to this fact that individuals care more about domains for which they know more and know more about domains in which they are individually inrerested. Making it a circle which perhaps is not closed!
The Stages of Expertise Development:
Acclimation: The initial stage in domain expertise. Within acclimation, learners have limited and fragmented knowledge.
Competence: Competent individuals not only demonstrate a foundational
body of domain knowledge, but that knowledge is also more cohesive and principled in structure.
In general these stages of knowledge and strategy changes in competent learners are linked to increases in individuals' personal interest in the domain
and less dependence on situational features of the environment.
Expertise: Not only is the knowledge base of experts both broad and deep, but the experts are also contributing new knowledge to the domain. To create new knowledge, experts must be well versed in the problems and methodologies of the domain and actively engaged in problem finding. These experts are posing questions and instituting investigations that push the boundaries of the domain.
Who knew that problem finding is also an expertise, well I know it now. Most important being individuals' investment in their learning and development. Schools can do much to nurture emerging competence by allowing students
to pursue topics and tasks of interest and by immersing them in meaningful learning experiences that are fertile ground for the growth of enduring interest.
Finally, The truth is that the journey toward expertise is well a journey that does not end. Even those who have attained the knowledge, strategic abilities, and interests indicative of expertise cannot sit idly by as the domain shifts under their feet. Keep running cause its good!
To answer why some people never think of quitting the mastery of the unkown probably roots in themselves, in the form of motivation. Definately, without understanding the motivational dimension, educators cannot explain why some individuals persist in their journey toward expertise, while others yield to unavoidable pressures and change their fleeting interest to something else.
It is relevant to consider the importance of of learner's interest on the possibility of gaining expertise. The sustained interest leads to subtle and significant transformations occurring between a novice and an expert.
Few components that I can relate with the transformation of a novice to an expert in academic domains can be stated as knowledge acclimation, competence, and proficiency.
Model components as per MDL theory:
The MDL distinguishes between two forms of subject-matter knowledge: domain and topic knowledge. Domain knowledge represents the breadth of knowledge within a field. Where as topic knowledge is about depth; how much an individual knows about specific domain topics.
MDL tracks two forms of interest in expertise development: individual and situational interest. Individual interest is the investment one has in a particular domain or some facet thereof.
Forms of Interests:
The two forms of individual interest evident in expertise: general and professional. Through general interest, the individual engages in domain-related activities more available in everyday experiences. Professional interest is a more specialized, goal-oriented interest aligned with vocational activities. The situational interest is tied to the "here and now." It is an arousal or piquing of attention sparked by events or features of the environment. Because it is bound to the immediate situation, such interest is fleeting
I am sure one can relate to this fact that individuals care more about domains for which they know more and know more about domains in which they are individually inrerested. Making it a circle which perhaps is not closed!
The Stages of Expertise Development:
Acclimation: The initial stage in domain expertise. Within acclimation, learners have limited and fragmented knowledge.
Competence: Competent individuals not only demonstrate a foundational
body of domain knowledge, but that knowledge is also more cohesive and principled in structure.
In general these stages of knowledge and strategy changes in competent learners are linked to increases in individuals' personal interest in the domain
and less dependence on situational features of the environment.
Expertise: Not only is the knowledge base of experts both broad and deep, but the experts are also contributing new knowledge to the domain. To create new knowledge, experts must be well versed in the problems and methodologies of the domain and actively engaged in problem finding. These experts are posing questions and instituting investigations that push the boundaries of the domain.
Who knew that problem finding is also an expertise, well I know it now. Most important being individuals' investment in their learning and development. Schools can do much to nurture emerging competence by allowing students
to pursue topics and tasks of interest and by immersing them in meaningful learning experiences that are fertile ground for the growth of enduring interest.
Finally, The truth is that the journey toward expertise is well a journey that does not end. Even those who have attained the knowledge, strategic abilities, and interests indicative of expertise cannot sit idly by as the domain shifts under their feet. Keep running cause its good!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Reflection on the teaching perspectives
After a weekend at Georgia International Leadership Conference (GILC) (here), it came back to me that not all the learning contents are to be taught using same methodology. Neither one size fits all students nor all subject contents are meant to be taught in one way. From my in-class experiences at EDHI classes, I gathered that for a subject like management information systems (which essentially rests on the knolwledge of certain principles which have been optimized for applications), such content is best taught in the "Transmission mode" and the teacher needs to focus on transferring the content to the students. Making sure that students can implement the taught content on "as is presented" basis.
This ofcourse sharply contrasts with the content that focuses on encouraging the students to start thinking independently. Topics (including business, management, sciences, math, engineering, etc) by nature grow based on independent thoughts of the learner.
This ofcourse sharply contrasts with the content that focuses on encouraging the students to start thinking independently. Topics (including business, management, sciences, math, engineering, etc) by nature grow based on independent thoughts of the learner.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Teaching Perspectives
I am a part of over ninety percent of teachers who share same thoughts as far as teaching is concerned. According to "Teaching Perspectives Inventory" (Pratt and Collins, 2000) over ninety percent of teachers holding only one or two perspectives as their dominant view of teaching.
The Developmental Perspective:
The primary goal of education or training is to develop increasingly complex and sophisticated ways of reasoning and problem solving within a content area or field of practice. With that information teachers try to build bridges from the learners’ way of thinking to better, more complex and sophisticated ways of thinking and reasoning. The assumption behind this strategy is that learning brings about one of two kinds of change inside the brain: First, when a new experience fits with what someone already knows, it builds a stronger and more elaborate pathway to that knowledge. Second, if a new experience or new content doesn’t fit the learner’s current way of knowing, s/he must either change the old way of knowing or reject the new knowledge or experience. The goal is to change the way learners think, rather than increase their store of knowledge
Developmental teachers employ two common strategies: first, the judicious use of effective questioning that challenges learners to move from relatively simple to more complex forms of thinking; and second, the use of examples that are meaningful to learners. Indeed, from this perspective, sometimes less (telling) means more (learning).
The Apprenticeship Perspective:
Learning, therefore, is a matter of developing competence and identity in relation to
other members of a community of practice.
Developmental teachers employ two common strategies: first, the judicious use of effective questioning that challenges learners to move from relatively simple to more complex forms of thinking; and second, the use of examples that are meaningful to learners. Indeed, from this perspective, sometimes less (telling) means more (learning).
The Apprenticeship Perspective:
Learning, therefore, is a matter of developing competence and identity in relation to
other members of a community of practice.
The Nurturing Perspective:
The Nurturing Perspective assumes that long-term, hard, persistent efforts to achieve
come from the heart, not the head. People will become motivated and productive learners when they are working on issues or problems without fear of failure. Learners are therefore nurtured by the knowledge that (a) achievement is a product of their own effort and ability, rather than the benevolence of a teacher; and that (b) their efforts to learn will be supported by their teacher and their peers. To do this they promote a climate of caring and trust, helping people set reasonable but challenging goals, and supporting effort and achievement. Above all else, they are cautious not to sacrifice self-efficacy in favor of academic achievement.
Nurturing teachers provide a great deal of encouragement and support, along with clear expectations and reasonable goals for each learner. And, their assessment of learning often considers individual growth or progress, as well as absolute achievement. caring does not negate having high expectations.
Texts and practices are interrogated for what is said, what is not said, what is included and what is excluded, and who is represented and who is not represented in the dominant discourses of practice.
come from the heart, not the head. People will become motivated and productive learners when they are working on issues or problems without fear of failure. Learners are therefore nurtured by the knowledge that (a) achievement is a product of their own effort and ability, rather than the benevolence of a teacher; and that (b) their efforts to learn will be supported by their teacher and their peers. To do this they promote a climate of caring and trust, helping people set reasonable but challenging goals, and supporting effort and achievement. Above all else, they are cautious not to sacrifice self-efficacy in favor of academic achievement.
Nurturing teachers provide a great deal of encouragement and support, along with clear expectations and reasonable goals for each learner. And, their assessment of learning often considers individual growth or progress, as well as absolute achievement. caring does not negate having high expectations.
Texts and practices are interrogated for what is said, what is not said, what is included and what is excluded, and who is represented and who is not represented in the dominant discourses of practice.
Teaching Paradigm
Today was a MLK holiday and I was sitting in my office trying to understand some new research finding I had stumbled upon last Friday. I would like to state that just last week I saw some new result I was then not sure if the data obtained by me had supporting science. I am in the process on looking for an understanding of the results, thats what a scientist does. I've had similar 'new-findings' often times where I feel exhilirated, this prmopts me to first make sure that the data is repordiucible and secondly look for a scientific explanation.
On Monday (today) I came back for seeing some more related data and the conclusions that I made onlast Friday did not seem to be 'facts'. Now, its my job to see what is the logical story that binds the results that I get and hopefully present it to the peers through scientific journals. This exercise after all gives me a Ph. D!
This probably means that learning is not a destination but the journey itself. It must be very difficult to 'pass on' the way-to-learn through teaching! Nice finding I must say. I know its not new. I will have to dwell on the teaching paradigm on my other blog, I have experienced a long textual communication often misses its goals.
On Monday (today) I came back for seeing some more related data and the conclusions that I made onlast Friday did not seem to be 'facts'. Now, its my job to see what is the logical story that binds the results that I get and hopefully present it to the peers through scientific journals. This exercise after all gives me a Ph. D!
This probably means that learning is not a destination but the journey itself. It must be very difficult to 'pass on' the way-to-learn through teaching! Nice finding I must say. I know its not new. I will have to dwell on the teaching paradigm on my other blog, I have experienced a long textual communication often misses its goals.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
First class of EDHI9040; but why now?
Was going through a couple of friend's blogs on teaching issues and wondering what is the thing I will take home with this class.Why were we sitting in this class was something that made me realize that similar theme based classes probably didn't exist. There must have been a need among the academicians that led to the creation of this course EDHI9040 and now that I am taking this course does count for something.
It has given us an opportunity to most importantly listen and understand other folks including ones from varied backgrounds and academic levels. Thats one of the unique thing about this class, I am sitting in a class with students from sociology, plant-biology, MIS, chemistry, social work, some academic fields I haven't heard of before. Hey remember we all live together and there is a need to talk with each other and the opportunity to take advantage of synergy that could have been caught.
Best part, I feel is that the I get an opportunity to present my views and to see how they fair with my peers and in general with people who are not me.
It has given us an opportunity to most importantly listen and understand other folks including ones from varied backgrounds and academic levels. Thats one of the unique thing about this class, I am sitting in a class with students from sociology, plant-biology, MIS, chemistry, social work, some academic fields I haven't heard of before. Hey remember we all live together and there is a need to talk with each other and the opportunity to take advantage of synergy that could have been caught.
Best part, I feel is that the I get an opportunity to present my views and to see how they fair with my peers and in general with people who are not me.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Teaching Philosophy
Fortunately teaching philosophies are not written in stone and I believe that is what
makes them interesting and make it easier in adapting it to the student-audience.
Learning, in my opinion is a personal experience that vastly depends on the way how information is presented. To the same information taught to a group of students, the amount of learning that it leads to depends on the factors such as their current level of understanding, ability to correlate information, enthusiasm in the class, ability to be open to new ideas and active thinking about the taught content. If any one of the above stages encounters a bottle-neck, it eventually is reflected as perceived difficulty in learning process which can mistakenly be attributed to teaching methodology. Of course, as most of the academic learning (until college) occurs in a class-room set up aided by a qualified teacher, there some amount of subjectivity introduced in the learning process at the source itself.
In my experience teaching becomes most effecting when the process of learning becomes spontaneous as student's curiosity and inquisitive nature. The advantage of teaching is that student’s curiosity can be stimulated by the teacher. I believe that a teacher can enhance learning by presenting the course information as a natural extension to the student's existing knowledge. While presenting a new content I think, enough time needs to be given in the student firstly, to promote logical thinking about its need and application, and secondly to promote student’s thinking and understanding to correlate and processes the taught content.
I understand that the best way to learn is to implement the acquired information in
practice such as experimental labs, real-world examples etc. However, in many cases that might not be feasible, for such topics learning can be enhanced by revisiting the topic frequently, by connecting the new information with existing knowledge, by sharing the knowledge with peers, making journal entries of a personal point view about the learnt topic. Having known about the learning process, in my teaching I would like to makes sure that the teaching style I choose preferable involves a student-oriented approach to revisit the newly gathered information.
Keeping all the above in mind, I do not underestimate the role of keeping the learning environment open to criticism and constructive feed-back from my students. After all learning is best if it is done in a peer-like environment with an ‘experienced’ peer (teacher) besides them to facilitate the learning.
makes them interesting and make it easier in adapting it to the student-audience.
Learning, in my opinion is a personal experience that vastly depends on the way how information is presented. To the same information taught to a group of students, the amount of learning that it leads to depends on the factors such as their current level of understanding, ability to correlate information, enthusiasm in the class, ability to be open to new ideas and active thinking about the taught content. If any one of the above stages encounters a bottle-neck, it eventually is reflected as perceived difficulty in learning process which can mistakenly be attributed to teaching methodology. Of course, as most of the academic learning (until college) occurs in a class-room set up aided by a qualified teacher, there some amount of subjectivity introduced in the learning process at the source itself.
In my experience teaching becomes most effecting when the process of learning becomes spontaneous as student's curiosity and inquisitive nature. The advantage of teaching is that student’s curiosity can be stimulated by the teacher. I believe that a teacher can enhance learning by presenting the course information as a natural extension to the student's existing knowledge. While presenting a new content I think, enough time needs to be given in the student firstly, to promote logical thinking about its need and application, and secondly to promote student’s thinking and understanding to correlate and processes the taught content.
I understand that the best way to learn is to implement the acquired information in
practice such as experimental labs, real-world examples etc. However, in many cases that might not be feasible, for such topics learning can be enhanced by revisiting the topic frequently, by connecting the new information with existing knowledge, by sharing the knowledge with peers, making journal entries of a personal point view about the learnt topic. Having known about the learning process, in my teaching I would like to makes sure that the teaching style I choose preferable involves a student-oriented approach to revisit the newly gathered information.
Keeping all the above in mind, I do not underestimate the role of keeping the learning environment open to criticism and constructive feed-back from my students. After all learning is best if it is done in a peer-like environment with an ‘experienced’ peer (teacher) besides them to facilitate the learning.
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