Education Investigation

From time to time you come across a post that is worth sharing and collecting for future reference.

Today I was catching up on my Netvibes account (as you do) and Durff’s post “Who Do You Want To Be?” caught my attention.

According to research there are three types of teachers: expert, experienced, and novice. They each focus on different aspects of classroom culture.

Expert teachers are more effective scanners of classroom behaviour, make greater reference to the language of instruction and learning of students, whereas experienced teachers concentrate more on what the teacher is saying and doing to the class and novices concentrate more on student behaviour. (Hattie, 2003).

Reference: Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference: What is the research evidence? Interpretations, 36(2), 27-38, Retrieved November 23, 2007 from http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/RC2003_Hattie_TeachersMakeADifference.pdf

Hmmm now which one am I?

Thanks Durff (and Hattie) for challenging us with your work.

Picture Author: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Blue_flag.svg

• Leave a comment... (4)

Ok I had other ideas for a post but after reading Wesley Fryer’s post “The Ouboard Brain, Memory, Transfer and Learning” I have to ask the question - Who has hit the nail on the head when it comes to teaching spelling? What works best for you?

In his post Wesley says “The fact that my own children are regularly taking spelling tests at school continues to both trouble and irritate me as well. There is virtually NO academic research I read or was exposed to in my masters and doctoral graduate coursework in education which suggests giving students spelling tests of decontextualized words on a weekly basis improves their abilities to spell, read or write. The real skill related to spelling is WRITING, and the best way to improve writing skills (according to the body of literacy research reviewed by Dr. Stephen Krashen of USC in his excellent book, ““The Power of Reading, Second Edition: Insights from the Research” is to encourage students to READ prolifically.”

Options I have used in the past include:

1. Giving Parents a list to go through with their child.
2. Using Essential Spelling Lists and then placing these new words into children’s homework books.
3. Progressing through spelling activity books where children complete fun games that teach them to learn how to spell and use grammar correctly.
4. Taking misspelt words out of their writing and placing it into their homework books.
5. Teaching spelling as part of my “Word of the Week” feature where I hit an English rule once a week eg: “When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking.”

In all of the situations above there is a test on Friday with the teacher/buddy to monitor progress. Sometimes we graph the results so the students can see a trend.

I don’t feel I have hit the nail on the head yet - does anyone else have any other ideas??

Picture Author:

"Classroom" - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart

• Leave a comment... (9)

Every now and then it is good to engage with someone or something that challenges your thinking.

Last term I was asked (along with my colleague) to present to the School BOT on the topic of what a 21st Century Classroom and Learner looked like. During the question time one Trustee asked us “what is the difference between information and knowledge…… Have you read “The Flickering Mind” by Todd Oppenheimer?” Well………..

• Firstly this book is critical of the use of computers in education. It comes out of 3 years of research completed in American Schools.
• He agrees to some “exceptional” use of ICT but believes ICT is often used in excess.
• Click here for the excerpt.

To cut a long story short I want to share my current thoughts after reading this book. These are a collection of positive and negative thoughts on the impact of using ICT in education:

• Leave a comment... (8)