The Thumb Through

Good morning! Today we're discussing  Unicaf University, an African institution founded in 2012 with programs in fields like business, education and health care management, and the efforts of American colleges and universities with prison education programs to use technology to deliver instruction to incarcerated individuals, even with strict limitations on internet access in correctional facilities.

Website:  https://leafletreview.wordpress.com/ 

Articles Discussed:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/education/learning/online-higher-education-opportunities-africa.html>

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-06-06-technology-is-helping-prison-education-programs-scale-what-s-the-catch

Good morning! Today we're discussing the Trump administration's new budget plans for refugee centers that house minors, the significance of sounding out words in teaching children to read, and Tom Siebel's strategy to promote furthering of education in his company.

Website:  https://leafletreview.wordpress.com/ 

Articles Discussed:

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/05/730082911/administration-cuts-education-and-legal-services-for-unaccompanied-minors>

https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2019/06/05/billionaire-tom-siebel-is-offering-his-employees-the-most-generous-education-benefit-ever/#58aee4b73af9

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/phonics-not-whole-word-best-teaching-reading/591127/

Good morning! Today we're discussing Democratic candidates responses to the historic wave of teacher strikes and protests, the long-term effect of the Great Recession on state funding for higher-ed, state spending comparisons in K-12 districts, and how Dr. Seuss changed American education forever.

Website:  https://leafletreview.wordpress.com/ 

Articles Discussed:

https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-state-education-spending-revenue-data.html

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/06/05/public-higher-education-continues-feel-pinch-great-recession-decade-later

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/06/04/729423163/what-economists-think-about-democrats-new-education-proposals

https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/how-dr-seuss-found-himself-at-the-forefront-of-a-debate-over-education-in-america

Good morning! Today we're looking at the problems with America's scientific education in public schools (and how to improve it), Walmart's new education benefits, how UNICEF is using big data to close the education divide, and West Virginia's sweeping new education bill.

Website: https://leafletreview.wordpress.com/ 

Articles Discussed:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/learning/editorial-winner-limiting-science-education-limiting-ourselves.html

https://bigthink.com/videos/michio-kaku-2638674345

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/jun/04/walmart-boosts-education-benefits-20190/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasfearn/2019/06/04/how-unicef-is-using-big-data-to-close-the-education-divide/#604950476a02

https://thinkprogress.org/west-virginia-senate-passes-sweeping-education-bill-to-ban-teacher-strikes-3c8c7ba83f06/

Good morning! Today's topics of interest are the impact of education level on physical and mental health, the struggle to create meaningful education in fast-paced courses, and the warning received by Chinese students studying in the U.S. to be vigilant as the Trump administration steps up restrictions on academic visas amid growing trade tensions between the two countries.

Articles Discussed:

 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/upshot/education-impact-health-longevity.html 

 https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-06-02-the-failure-of-fast-education 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-03/china-warns-students-on-growing-risks-of-seeking-u-s-education

Website: https://leafletreview.wordpress.com/ 

Summary and review of:

Park. (2013). All the Ways of Reading Literature: Preservice English Teachers’ Perspectives on Disciplinary Literacy.

National Council of Teachers of English

English Education, V45 N4, July 2013

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9dce/c609583e471f25ee1e1338be722ba443cff7.pdf

Transcript:

Park’s goal was to explore and analyze the perspectives of preservice educators on the teaching of disciplinary literacy to adolescents. Over the course of two years, she collected projects from students in her teacher preparation program and conducted six interviews. She reviewed the interview transcripts and the projects extensively, eventually organizing her student’s works and remarks thematically. 

Teaching disciplinary literacy invites students to become active participants in the particular discipline being studied. Historians and linguists are likely to have different approaches to, different ways of reading, the same texts. Disciplinary literacy instruction acknowledges this and asks that students exercise reading in a variety of mindsets and with an array of intentions, each correlating to the discipline being studied generally.

The primary goal of disciplinary literacy instruction is to increase student achievement across areas of content. A student with a passion for literature must learn how to read proofs analytically as a mathematician and to question validity of claims and context as a historian. Furthermore, this increased flexibility of perspective allows students to question the work of each discipline as a knowledge-generating researcher in that field would, rather than to accept as fact all information and interpretation presented in the classroom.

Park requires that her preservice teachers, in their reflections on disciplinary literacy instruction, try out a new medium or genre in order to ensure depth of learning and encourage creative reconstruction of their beliefs. This reminds me of Bentley’s Supernovas and Superheroes: Examining Unfamiliar Genres and Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (2013), in which it is argued that exposure to unfamiliar genres improves student writing proficiency, and that ELA teachers should write in unfamiliar genres as a means of developing further pedagogical content knowledge. In fact, reading with the intent of increasing pedagogical content knowledge is one example of disciplinary literacy in action. Reader intent informs both navigation, retention, and interpretation when reading informative text.

While many of Park’s preservice teachers recognized the value of teaching disciplinary literacy, they expressed concerns about their abilities to actually instruct accordingly, given the diverse background knowledge of students in public schools. Perhaps predisposition outweighs one’s ability to take the role of an active member in each discipline studied, and to read relevant texts accordingly. It is also worth noting that a strong focus on disciplinary literacy may not be compatible with the cognitive flexibility expected of adolescent students. Students transition from one discipline to another throughout the day anywhere from four to eight times. It may not be appropriate to expect their methods as readers to switch so seamlessly.

Park closes by suggesting further research on the active use of disciplinary literacy instruction is necessary, focusing not only on “what students take away from disciplinary learning communities but also what they bring into them.” (Park, 380)

Summary and review of:

Gottfried, Robinson, Scott. (2019). Taking It to the Next Level: A Field Experiment to Improve

Instructor-Student Relationships in College.

AERA Open

January-March 2019, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 1–15

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2332858419839707

Transcript:

Nearly 50% of all undergraduates in the United States do not graduate. This study suggests the improvement of instructor-student relationships as an effective means of decreasing this percentage. Instructors and students were both surveyed comprehensively on their personal lives, community involvement, and preferences regarding student-teacher interactions. Students and instructors with commonalities were then paired and continuously reminded of their commonalities, asked brief questions about the details behind their answers, and information on how they might use these similarities to foster meaningful interactions throughout the semester.

These interventions did not increase student retention or exam scores, and did not decreased drop-out rates within the group of study. However, the exploratory analyses involved in the study provide evidence that instructors tend to report more positive relationships with high-achieving students, and that a given student is more likely to report a positive ISR (instructor-student relationship) than the instructor involved.

As an aspiring high school educator, maintaining positive instructor-student relationships is paramount to my work. This article encourages me to take care in how I handle and display these interactions, in order that I treat students with equal respect and value, providing each student with the academic challenge and guidance needed for the thriving of each individual student.

Motamedi. (2019). Mastery Learning: An Effective Teaching Strategy

Tarbiat Moallem University

http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/waoe/motamediv.htm

Transcript:

This study is an evaluation of mastery learning as a teaching strategy, written by Vahid Motamedi, Assistant Professor of Educational Technology at Tarbiat Moallem University in Tehran Iran. I list these details because it only seems appropriate, given the nature of mastery learning, to do so. The globally-connected world we live in today is one in which mastery learning has the highest potential. 

Instructional methods based on the mastery learning philosophy require each student to master a certain level of performance before progressing to the following unit of study. The achievement of these levels becomes the constant factor in the classroom, while time spent in each unit varies on an individual basis. Independent study is emphasized, and the educator primarily takes the roll of small-group study facilitator and one-on-one tutor. 

Mastery learning is designed to keep students from progressing through units of study without a comprehensive understanding of the preceding components of study. For example, one cannot be expected to thrive in an Algebra class without first developing a proper, deeply-ingrained understanding of arithmetic. 

The technological progress of the past several decades has allowed achievement based independent study, the most efficient model for mastery learning, to thrive. When every student has access to information and engaging content on the internet, though my preference is that the educator in such a classroom create this content himself, students are able to be much more productive in the classroom than previously thought possible.

I recently observed in a Sp.Ed. Elementary classroom. While students were rotating through “learning centers” I noticed that, at one of the centers, four different children with varying reading levels were listening to four different audiobooks, each suited to his/her level. This would simply not be possible without the philosophy of mastery learning and the technology of the modern classroom coming together. 

Summary and review of:

Bentley. (2013). Supernovas and Superheroes: Examining Unfamiliar Genres and Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge

English Education, V45 N3

http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EE/0453-apr2013/EE0453Super.pdf

Transcript:

This study furthers research suggesting that exposure to unfamiliar genres improves student writing proficiency. The focus here, however, is not on students, but on ELA teachers. ­­­­Bentley argues that developing, examining, and improving upon writing skills is paramount to the professional development and long-term success of ELA educators. A firm focus on writing in unfamiliar genres has been shown to improve student proficiency and morale, by “leveling the playing field.” Challenging ELA teachers in a similar way allows them to increase ELA pedagogical knowledge by taking on the role of a writer exploring new terrain, as their students often are, and ought to be. 

Bentley’s study was a comprehensive case-study, involving a small group of teachers from one educational setting. Representation of the average American ELA teacher is not the goal; the aim is to provide meaningful insight on professional development strategies for ELA teachers in general.

Teachers involved in the study expressed increased empathy for their ELA students, and learned the importance of seeking support as a writer (a relationship in which they have primarily worked on the opposite end). 

The major implication of this study is that ELA teachers need more time, space, and encouragement to write creatively as part of their professional development, with a strong focus on exploring unfamiliar genres. Having experience as a writer in several genres provides educators with the pedagogical content knowledge required to teach several genres well. This insider experience is much more valuable than mere knowledge of the traditional conventions and functions of each genre of literature, as viewed from afar.

Summary and review of:

Bassok, Latham, & Rorem. (2016). Is kindergarten the new first grade?

AERA Open, 1(4), 1-31.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2332858415616358

Transcript:

This research uses two nationally representative data sets to compare kindergarten classrooms in public schools from 1998 to 2010, seeking to understand whether (and if so, how) recent years have shown increased academic expectations and a reduction in hands-on, playful activities. Changes in assessments, classroom organization, time management, teaching philosophies, and pedagogical methods were studied. The research shows that academic expectations for kindergarten students are higher than ever before, that more time is spent studying verbal and mathematical content, as well as assessing students on their progress in these areas, and that significantly less time is devoted to the arts and sciences (as well as to play in general).

While research suggests that early childhood education has important long-term implications for students, this article admits that it is not clear which aspects of the early learning classroom are most significant. There is where the debate about a focus in early childhood on academic content comes into play. While school-readiness is important, students may not be developing social, physical, and regulatory skills as much as in previous generations of early childhood education. Large-scale empirical evidence for either side is lacking, with the extremes of each focused more on “impressions” and “narratives.” This is a dangerous game, and thorough, conclusive research is needed. Unfortunately, this article does not provide such research. Instead of studying the short-term and long-term academic progress of students who received differing styles of early-childhood education (while controlling for socioeconomic factors), the methods described rely almost entirely on personal surveys taken by current early-childhood educators. These teachers are likely to have chosen their “side” already, to have adhered to their desired narrative. The impact that even a handful of educators in such a position could have on the research described is cause for caution in evaluating its results.

As a pre-school teacher, research such as this plays an important role in my lesson planning, my organization, and my pedagogical approach. Currently, my intention is to help students develop:

1. Academic skills

2. Interpersonal skills

3. Motor skills

4. Intrapersonal skills (ethics, self-control)

5. Creative expression

6. Basic understanding of nutrition and wellness

The implications of such research, when it is done thoroughly and carefully, is meant to inform pedagogical approach to appeal to different aspects of development and to the specific needs of each student and class. Creative activities and free-play are widely recognized as a great time for students to learn problem solving skills. The article describes the changes in the organization of space and management of time in the early-childhood classroom. Finally, the research deals with the increased use of assessments in early-childhood education, with the intention of evaluating its effectiveness and engages in the analysis of data from a variety of classrooms.