Attention is paid to:
-skills children have mastered
-skills they are in the process of acquiring
-skills they need to acquire to maximize their dev. potential
Dev. is a series of physical, cognitive, & social changes
Grade 1-3: Best time for most students to learn to read efficiently
Best predictor of continued academic success is the early mastery of essential literacy & numeracy skills
Development follows an orderly and logical progression
Dev. is a gradually progressive process, not necessarily @ a constant rate
Individuals learn to think & form multiple constructs for the same thing
Individuals dev. @ different rates
Combo of genetics (nature) & environment (nurture)
Consider personality & temperament
Make notes for each student regarding their dev. level (may not match up w their age or grade)
Consider physical changes alongside cognitive & social changes
Executive cognitive functioning: individuals organize, coordinate, & reflect on their thinking to achieve more efficient processing outcomes
Learn by observing and direct guidance by others
Piaget (1970) humans have 2 basic learning instincts from our natural curiosity
1. Desire to organize our behaviors & thoughts into coherent systems
2. Adaptation: innate drive to adjust to one's environment
As independent entities, Children construct their own knowledge
Vygotsky (1962;1978)
Children learn more & more efficiently w some assistance & on tasks just beyond their independent abilities
Bandura's (1977;1986) reciprocal determinism: constant social interactions btw students & teachers reciprocally determines how each of them will interact in the future w each other
Dynamic Classroom Management (DCM)
1. Develop caring, supportive relationships w & among studnets
2. Organize & implement instruction that optimizes student access to learning
3. Use groups to encourage student engagement in academic tasks
4. Promote dev. of social skills & self-regulation
5. Use appropriate interventions to assist students w behavior problems
Fundamental student needs:
1. To belong & feel connected; teachers believe in them & treat them w respect
2. To feel autonomous & self-determination
3. To feel competent, successful, & accomplished
Student behavior & psychological needs can be satisfied & transformed by exemplary teacher behaviors
Positive teacher behaviors:
Provide positive feedback
Respond supportively
Respond w more support to low-ability students
Ask Q's that the students can answer correctly
Student high probability for success tasks
Use time efficiently
Have low-ratio of punitive to positive interventions
Low rate of criticism
Keep off-task time at a minimun
Waste little time on transitions
Chapter Four:
Making Instructional Decisions
How teachers decide what to teach & how to teach
Assessment & instruction to be designed together
Put assessment considerations ahead of instructional considerations
Backward design
What do I want my students to learn?
Instructional goal/ learning objective
How will I know if they've learned?
Assessment Q
What will I teach?
Topics/units that directly address the intended instructional goal/ learning objective
How will I teach?
Instructional method so that the objectives are fully realized
Bloom's Taxonomy (1956): explains & clarifies the complex, hierarchical series of intellectual abilities involved in the acquisition & use of knowledge
6 distinct levels
1) Knowledge
2) Comprehension
3) Application
4) Analysis
5) Synthesis
6) Evaluation
All forms of thinking classified into 6 basic cognitive processes
Remembering
Understanding
Applying
Analyzing
Creating
Evaluating
Universal Instructional Design (UID): physical spaces & objects that consider the needs of all users & those w disabilities
Equitable accessibility & utility
Classrooms that value respect & diversity
Select-Organize-Integrate (SOI) information processing model of meaningful learning: learning happens when students engage in these cognitive processes
1) selecting relevant info
2) organizing it
3) integrating organized info w prior knowledge
Engage students' motivations w challenging & meaningful tasks
Problem-, Project-, Inquiry-based learning (PPIL)
Students help teachers design comprehensive curricular tasks
Inquiry base
Complete tasks w peers collaboratively
Problem base
Create specific educational products
Project base
Reflect on learning
Chapter Five:
Assessing Student Progress
Goal of instruction is to optimize student learning
Purpose of assessment is to measure & indicate student achievement
Diagnostic Assessment
Completed before instruction
Formative Assessment
Completed during instruction
Type 1: Asking students curricular Q's, monitoring progress during in-class activities
Type 2: assigned seat work, homework, class participation, short quizzes to obtain grades
Summative Assessment
Completed after instruction
Assessment Q's
Selected-response
True/False
Matching
Multiple Choice
Constructed- response
Short answer
Restricted Essay/Essay
Authentic Assessments
Students use knowledge & skills to carry out academic tasks that replicate or are similar to those found in real world activities
Low-incidence exceptionalities (moderate & severe disabilities
Inclusion philosophy
IEPs
Psycho-educational assessment
Differentiated Instruction (DI)
ADHD: emotional disturbance caused by a deficiency, imbalance, or inefficiency in brain chemicals that affect certain brain regions
Autism spectrum disorder: neurodevelopment disorder incorporating several diagnoses
Mild intellectual disability
Gifted & talented
Specific Learning Disorder
Chapter Seven:
Socio-Cultural Considerations
FNMI Oral Histories/Education
Aboriginal Ed: many risk factors
Many protective factors & strategies!
Reframe Q's in ways that the student can understand
Students: battle with the internal struggle of desiring individuality, & at the same time shared a common identity (collectivism)
There are many differences, & degrees of differences btw individuals from w/in groups as there are btw group members and non-group members
Cultural identity should not be positioned w/in the group, but personally contextualized w/in the individual
Critical consciousness
Teachers should have an awareness of the cultural capital that students bring to the classroom& take advantage of the rich resources @ their disposal
Students & teachers work together to construct cultural meanings out of the content
Banks' Model of Multicultural Education (2001)
Stereotype threat: fear that a behavior will confirm a negative stereotype about your identity group
Reduces working memory capacity & undermines actual ability
Prejudice: an unjustified & negative perception about an individual based on their group (any kind of group membership)
Socio-economic status (SES)
Social class based on education, occupation, & income
Greatest impact on scholastic achievement
Poverty (part of SES) most negative influential factor on achievement
Education shown to break generational cycle of poverty & low educational attainment
Baumrind (1991) parenting style plays significant role on student scholastic achievemny
Authoritarian (strongest negative effect)
Permissive (openly tolerant, few consequences)
Authoritative (highest grades, higher cognitive competence, best overall)
Chapter Eight:
Standardized Achievement Tests
Good for differentiating btw groups of students for instructional reasons
Evaluate teacher competencies
Conduct large-scale analyses of student abilities
Set performance standards to improve scores
Teacher-made tests: learning objectives in one classroom
Standardized achievement tests: learning objectives common in ALL classrooms
Criterion-referenced
Aptitude tests: assesses a student's specific cognitive, social, & behavioral skills
Norm-referenced
Criticisms:
Coerces teaching to the test
Does not increase student learning or their motivation to learn
Arguably biased
Content on reflected in the mandated curriculum
Constructing better ones
Critical to focus on serving student LEARNING
Can be useful, but imperfect indtruments
Matching the tests to what teachers teach
Tests must be specific enough to directly guide instruction
The assessment process must be minimally intrusive on classrooms
Constructed response Q's over M/C Q's
Ontario's EQAO
Teachers prepare students for test writing: teach well, practice test-taking, show optimism & positivity
Classroom Management
Immediately establish a calm and assertive atmosphere
Negotiate rewards and consequences with your students
Don't assume or expect children/youth to automatically & easily engaged in setting rules, boundaries, and limitations for their behavior (BE CONSCIOUS OF their dev. stage!)
Understanding motivation is key to understanding why things happen in classrooms
Nothing makes learning less efficient than emotional worries
PROACTIVE better than REACTIVE
Integrated within the class environment (not separate)
Teaching Philosophy
Teaching practice as constantly testable hypotheses
Teacher-centered approach with some student-centered aspects
Constructivism: knowledge is actively constructed through experience
Competence & Control beliefs affect student learning behaviors in classrooms
Students need to be effective self-regulators of learning
Human beings are born with an innately powerful curiosity about the world around them
Scaffolding: active instructional support while relating to, considering, & interacting w students' responses
Acquisition of the ability to learn from their mistakes
Student diversity must be acknowledged & celebrated, not merely accomodated
A culturally responsive practice that builds broad cultural knowledge & instructional base, & grows & changes as students, contexts, & school content shift
All students can be taught
School = high instrumental value! (Student belief that doing well in school provides direct events to their lives
For my students to be intrinsically motivated learners