EDU 5015
Week 9
Justification and explanation of standardized tests
https://vimeo.com/96207765
Performance Level Scores
Classifications of student performance that describe and clarify standardized assessment results
Criticisms
Stressful for students and teachers
Content of tests does not reflect instruction
Does not enhance student learning
Takes up too much time
Results in teaching to the test
Biased tests
Original Purpose:
To asses effective instruction
Test Types
Norm-Referenced
Student's score determined by comparing performance to that of other students
Criterion-Referenced
Student's score determined by comparing performance to established criteria
Standardized Test
Are different from teacher-made tests and aptitude tests
Are scored in systematic and uniform manner
Are administered to all test-takers in same fashion
Contain the same questions for all test-takers
Standarized Testing in Canada
Provincial/Territorial
Different uses including math and literacy testing at certain grade levels and Grade 12 exit exams
Federal
Achievement levels of 13 year olds
Science
Reading
Math
Week 8
Culturally Responsive Teaching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uOncGZWxDc
Instrumental Value of Education
Degree to which students believe that doing well in school produces benefits
Aboriginal Education Risk Factors
Lack of resources
Remote geographic location
Lack of teachers with knowledge of Aboriginal Studies
lack of parent support
Moving from school to school
Early school failures
Dimensions of Multicultural Education
Prejudice reduction
Empowering school culture
Equity pedagogy
Content integration
Views of Multicultural Education
Diversity and Dominant culture
Valued striking a balance between the other two outlooks
Dominant culture stressed
Recognizing the power differentials between majority and minority groups
Diversity Valued
No culture considered dominant
Socioeconomic status
Kids from Low Ses
Lack of Resources
Economic hardship
Developmental risks
Has the greatest impact on scholastic achievement
Stereotype Threat
Can be brought on by seemingly innocuous comments
Those with strong ties to their identity group are most vulnerable
Fear that one’s behaviour will confirm a negative stereotype about one’s identity group
Building a Culturally Responsive Practice
A culturally responsive practice has a broad cultural knowledge and instructional base that grows and changes.
Teachers must know
How to establish links across cultures
How to develop teaching approaches and curriculum to meet needs of culturally diverse learners
How to inquire about students’ backgrounds
Their own cultural assumptions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
The Chalenges of A Single Narrative
Exploring the need for multiple positionalities on a given topic
Do not just rely on the loudest or most priveledged voice
Student Dilemma
Individualism Vs. Collectivism
Collectivism
Act within a shared identity and common purpose
Individualsim
Act within a unique identity and exclusive purpose
Increasing Diversity in Schools
Religions practiced
Newcomers to Canada
Same-sex couples
One-parent families
Aboriginal Students
Language spoken
Week 7
TED Talk
https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity/transcript
Sir Ken Robinson: Does school kill creativity?
Do the academic, psychological and social confines of academia preach conformity of learning?
Or do they made to be successful for a certain learning type?
UNESCO sees inclusion as....
process of addressing and responding to diversity of needs of all learners through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing exclusion within and from education.
Building an Inclusive Practive
Those who teach students with exceptional needs develop deeper diagnostic skills and a wider repertoire of teaching strategies.
https://www.pallisersd.ab.ca/inclusive-education/goals-beliefs-and-values
Forget thinking outside the box
Throw away the box
And create a new one, does it have to be a box?
Goals, Beliefs and Values
School Process for Identification and Support
Circumstantial
School/ Board procedures
Communicate
Best interest of the student
Physical Vs. Cognitive access to Curriculum
Includes the (in)ability to understand assignments, plan and execute approaches to tasks
Physical
Includes sensory and motor access to learning and/or curriculum
Low-Incidence Exceptionalities
Moderate and severe diabilities
Typically include autism, hearing and visual impairments, serious health impairments, and multiple disabilities
High Incidence Expceptionalities
Mild disabilities
Typically include learning disabilities, behavioural disorders, giftedness, and intellectual disabilities
Labelling Exceptionalities
Handicap
A disadvantage in certain situations
Disability
Inability to do something
What is Special Education?
Specialized instruction based on the assessment of students’ abilities
Accommodating the special learning needs of students with exceptionalities
How is Intelligence measured?
P4C Model
Made up of 4 C's + 1P
Partnering
Contexts
Coaching
Collaborating
Capacity
aims to to build the Capacity of educators and families to support children with special needs in all spaces and places.
Achievement Tests
predict ability to learn a skill or accomplish something with further education
Aptitude Tests
measure what the student has learned or the skills they have mastered
What is Intelligence?
Source?
Nature and Nurture
The ability (or abilities) to acquire and use knowledge for solving problems and adapting to the world
Ability to adapt to one’s environment
Ability to learn from experience
Week 6
Enduring Understanding
Endurance
Leverage
Prepare for the next level
Allow for strong culture of instructional practice
Not broader(more) deeper ( less)
Offer potential for engaging students
Required un-coverage of abstract or often misunderstood ideas
Resides at the heart of the discipline
Enduring value beyond the classroom
Not just material worth covering
Purposes of assesment
Three stages of Backwards Design
3. Plan learning experiences and instruction.
2. Determine Acceptable Evidence (means to assess if learners have learned)
1. Identify desired results (learning outcomes)
Must be planned and purposeful
See Backwards Design for facilitation strategies
or may be used to let students and their parents know how much they have learned within a prescribed amount of time
it may be used to help students improve their learning;
It may be used to find out what students already know and can do;
The Basis of Curriculum Planning
Topics, themes, resources
Teaching Strategies
Assesment and Evaluation
Expectations
Agricultural model of assesment
If we plant lettuce and the
Lettuce does not grow, we don’t
blame the lettuce.
We look for reasons why
It isn’t doing well
Wanting to move the culture from teacher as a judge to teacher as a coach
Week 5
Strategy Use
Students in middle and late elementary school tend to mix effective and ineffective strategies
Evidence of greater strategy use, across domains, with increasing age/grade level
People who are skilled in a particular domain (e.g., writing) use effective strategies, and have many of them from which to choose
Problem Based Learning
Inquiry Based Learning
Direct instruction looks like...
What happens in Direct Instruction Classrooms Compared to Age Mates in DA settings?
Less end of year progress in motor, language and social skills
Does not enjoy challening tasks
Decreased confidence in one's abilities
Increased inattention, restlessness, stress behaviours
Lots of practice
Explicit Teaching
Well-planned lessons
Clear learning objectives
Developmentally Appropriate schools offer advantages in
Academically
Increased reading and math scores
Social / Emotional Development
Increased motivation for school
Decreased behaviour problems
Increased Emotional regulation
The Importance of Play
- Play and learning are NOT incompatible
- Play is not wasted free time!
- If used properly, play can be a powerful tool!
- To INCREASE children’s learning in literacy, math and even science….
Universal Instructonal Design
Made up of 3 principles:
Principle lll: Provide Multiple Means of Engagement
Connect students interest with the curriculum in order for students to remain interested and engaged
Support students in all aspects of their learning process
Inspire students to learn for intrinsic purposes not always for extrinsic rewards
Instructional Methods
Principle ll: Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression
Provide students the opportunity to learn from different forms of media (print, computer, and online resources)
Provide students with multiple way s to communicate and express themselves and what they have learned
Give students the opportunity to set goals and provide them with the support necessary for them to achieve their goals
Principle l: Provide Multiple Means of Representation
Ensure all information is accessible to all learners through different learning styles (auditory, visually, kinesthetic)
Provide information through words and symbols
Teach students information in a way that they can transfer it to different situations
Results in instruction that is accessible and effective for all students
Instructional system designed and delivered with the needs of the least independently able students in mind
Applications of Constructivist-Based Classrooms
Collaborative learning
Cognitive Apprenticeships
Cognitive apprenticeship is a theory of the process where a master of a skill teaches that skill to an apprentice. Constructivist approaches to human learning have led to the development of a theory of cognitive apprenticeship.
Teacher and peer learning
Problem-based learning
Inquiry Learning
Dialogu & Instructional Conversations
Cognitive Verbs
Indicate the thinking required for particular learning objectives
Classified according to six cognitive processes
Evaluating
Creating
Analyzing
Applying
Understanding
Remembering
Blooms Taxonomy
Six Levels:
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge
Hierarchical classification of cognitive learning objectives
Backward Design
Developing curricular units and lessons from the same instructional goals/objectives that are used to develop the assessment tools for that curriculum
Diagnostic Assesment
Examples:
Pretests
Determining the starting point for instruction based on initial assessment strategies
What Motivates a Student to Learn
Feeling that the teacher cares for them
Being required to demonstrate knowledge
Having teacher's support
Being able to effectively use learning strategies
Challenging and Meaningful tasks
Week 4
TRIBES
Participation/The Right to Pass
Attentive Listening
Appreciations
No Put Downs
Mutual Respect
Release of Responsibility
Subtopic
Controlling Instructional Variables
Interpersonal relaitons
Language
Time
Space
Difficulty level
Student Self Regulated Learning
Collaboration
Students and teachers engage in shared problem-solving.
Self-Evaluation
Students monitor their own process and outcomes and learn to adjust their efforts in order to attain goals
Control
Students make decisions, have choices, and take responsibility for planning, setting goals, judging progress
Tasks
Should be complex in nature
Developing a Student Profile
As the information is collected, a 'picture' of the student’s learning profile begins to emerge. Recognizing the signs of a learning difference is key to finding solutions.
What do you consider when you gather all this information?
child's vision and goal for the future
special abilities
interests
learning styles
academic strengths
Gather information through...
Review creative work
OSR
Previous report cards
journals/ learning logs
assesment of products
observation
Exemplary Learning Envirnonments
exemplary learning environments especially important for students with exceptionalities
goal of classroom management is to provide all students with optimum opportunities for learning
creating exemplary learning environments requires good planning and good classroom management
academic success is dependent on the learning environment
Features of Communities of Learners
Engage in socially constructist learning process
Develop pedagogical content
Emphasize reflective dialogue
Ongoing
Collegial
Collaborative
Job-embeded
How does the teacher affect student achievement?
3. Makes effective use of classroom management techniques
2. Makes wise choices about the most effective instructional strategies to employ
1. Designs classroom curriculum to facilitate student learning.
Research Shows
Effective teachers...
If the teacher is ineffective, students will achieve inadequate progress regardless of how similar or different they are regarding their academic achievement
Appear to be effective with students of all achievement levels regardless of the heterogeneity in their classes
There is a wide variation in teacher effectiveness
Our Belief Systems
School systems are not responsible for meeting every need of their students. But when the need directly affects learning, the school must meet the challenge
Week 3: Theories of Learning
Creating Constructivist-Based Classrooms
Student-centered instruction; student ownership of learning
Making students aware of the knowledge construction process –becoming self-regulated learners
Multiple representations of content
Social negotiation – collaborative work
Real world situations
Complex, challenging learning environments
See Week 2 for....
Instructional Approaches
Scaffolding
Social Interaction
Theories of Learning and Teaching
Social Cognitive and Constructivist Views
Behavioural
Cognitive
Learners bring knowledge to each new learning situation, and that affects what they learn from that situation (more related knowledge = better learning).
Sources of plans, intentions, goals, ideas, memories, and emotions actively used to attend to, select, and construct meaning from stimuli and knowledge from experience
Mental processes exist and they are important to learning.
Week 2: Beginning with the End in Mind
Vygotsky
Scafolding
Use verbal cues and prompts to assist students
Break a task into small, more manageable tasks with opportunities for intermittent feedback
Relate content to what students already know or can do
Assess the learner’s current knowledge and experience for the academic content
Zone of Proximal Development
The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers
Berliner's 9 Foundational Topics
Teaching Method in Classroom
Acheivement and Evaluation
Behaviour and Classroom Management
Social and Childhood Influences
Learning And Cohesion
Principles of Development
Environment determines potential realized
Genetics set developmental potential
Individuals develop at different rates
Quantitative and qualitative changes
Periods of rapid and slow growth
Orderly progression/gradual process
What is Development?
Behaviours become more adaptive
Learning becomes more organized
Physical, cognitive and social changes
Constructivist Views of Learning
Self-determination is needed to further knowledge development
Learning includes developing skills to solve problems, think critically, answer questions, accept multiple views
Social negotiating is important to knowledge construction /learning
Learners are active in constructing their own personal knowledge –they actively seek meaning
Growth Mindset
As a result, they reach ever-higher levels of achievement
All this gives them a greater sense of free will
Leads to a desire to learn and therefore a tendency to...
Find lessons and inspiration in the success of others
Learn from criticism
See effort as the path to mastery
Persist in the face of setbacks
Embrace challenges
Week 1: Early August
Curricular Planning: Top Down Approach
Determine what will be taught
Break the curricula down into units
Determine the curricula for each term
Determine curricula for the year
Results of Effective Planning
Exemplary Environments
Enhanced Student Learning
Excellent Instruction
Instructional Strategies
Student Centered Approach
Teacher adopts constructivist perspective and acknowledges that students actively construct their own understandings
Teacher Centered Approach
Teacher determines content, provides direction, and sets academic and social tone
Steps of the Research Process
4. Development of Theories
5. Development of Guiding Principles
3. Application of Research Methods
2. Formation of Questions
1. Observation of Phenomena
Central Topics of Educational Psychology
Psychological Foundations of Curricula
Teaching and Instruction
Assessment and Evaluation
Individual Differences
Behaviour/Classroom Management
Motivation
Social and Cultural Influences
Development
Learning and Cognition
Four Common Places of Education
4. Student
3. Setting
2. Topic
1. Teacher
