In
the beginning, teachers would prompt students, correct
their answers, and model better ones. Students would
practice giving the better responses. Verbal
praise for matching the model was given. As
students progressed, teachers would require students
to assume the role of leader in the training
session---hence, the name "reciprocal
teaching".
Q:
Are
you teaching the right skills for remembering?
A: Better
teachers teach metacognitive skills.
They:
1)
give suggestions about what kinds of cognitive
processing students could use in a particular lesson
(e.g., using dictionaries, checking work for
correctness, changing a novel problem into one they
already know how to solve)
2)
provide rationales for the use of each strategy
How
to make a good impression every day
There
is a recognizable pattern for successfully opening a
lesson without incurring behavioral problems:
1)
not wasting time. That is, teachers who
experience the fewest behavioral management problems
got the class started quickly, while those with more
problems took twice or even four times as long.
2)
establishing a routine. The more successful lessons
relied on routines or scripts that were virtually
automatic---call to order, quick roll call, opening
remark about expectations, anticipation of confusions,
call for questions.
3)
visual scanning to quickly halt possible problems
before they escalate.
Why
you what you write on homework papers counts
Students
who receive personal and pertinent feedback about
homework errors outperform students who receive only
their scores as feedback, rate their enjoyment of the
subject higher, and show reduced anxiety about the
topic.
How
to increase scientific literacy: teach it!
Few
teachers "contextualize" science
education---they spend roughly 98% of teaching time
teaching facts. Homework and tests are just as
bad. Students perform better if the following
four factors are observed:
1)
impact on society
2)
knowledge about the reasoning processes used by
scientists
3)
knowledge about the historical development of science
4)
development of positive attitudes toward science
Q:
What
do we know about well-managed classrooms?
A: Good
classroom managers prevent most management problems
from occurring by keeping events from escalating out
of control. They do this by:
As
far as accomplishment, the work oriented classroom
achieved slightly better performance but only slightly
better than the learning oriented classroom.
Both were better than the work avoidance classroom.
Q:
Do
grades undermine motivation?
A: It depends on the type of evaluation. Ruth
Butler (1988) identified two types of evaluation:
1.
Task-involving: giving students feedback about
how they are doing on a specific activity.
2.
Ego-involving: feedback through grades or other norm
referenced evaluations (i.e., those that compare a
student's performance with that of other students).
Task-involving feedback seems to operate through pride of
accomplishment, whereas ego-involving feedback is
concerned with personal worth.
Results
showed that grades, relative to comments, produced
lower scores. As time went on, most of the group
receiving task involving comments still found the
tasks interesting, but students receiving grades had
lost interest.
Motivating
students through project based learning
Project
based learning was a trend in the early part of the 20th century.
However, the idea never really
caught on and it faded away as a teaching method.
Projects were time consuming, unpredictable in
outcome, required independent and unsupervised work,
and could be hard to assess.
Motivational
researchers use three dimensions to describe
classrooms and schools:
1)
mastery vs. ability oriented
2)
learning vs. performance oriented
3)
task involvement vs. ego involvement
Mastery,
learning, or task-involved students learn for the sake
of it rather than for the rewards they might gain.
What kinds of activities might produce such desirable
student behavior? Instructional projects--
provided they meet three conditions.
a)
they have a question or problem that serves to
organize the activities involved in a project.
b)
the activities have a real world quality-- that is,
not too easy and without pre determined solutions.
c)
the activities associated with a project must results
in artifacts, for it is in the process of producing
the artifact that knowledge is constructed (the
learning is in the doing).
Student
motivation is highest when projects have some novel
elements, are authentic, are challenging, and have
some sense of closure.
However,
the uncertainty of projects can be anxiety provoking,
nor will all projects pan out.
"Fictional
inducements to attention"
The
term comes from John Dewey, who noted that in order to
keep interest in a particular topic, authors
might lace a text with novel, personally involving but
irrelevant bits of information that did not really
address the ideas to be learned. Ruth Garner
(1992) tested the hypothesis that these seductive
details might be better remembered than the main
points. She was right-- although such details
might result in higher degree of motivation, they
apparently can lead to lower achievement.
Students tend to remember whatever they find most
interesting rather than what is most important.
The
roots of Asian students' school achievement
According
to Stevenson, Lee, & Stigler (1986), the superior
performance of Asian schoolchildren was not due to
special tutoring, superior ability, or higher IQs.
Rather, they identified three key factors:
1)
more class time devoted to academics and to direct
instruction
2)
more support of children's academic activities from
parents
3)
more student effort encouraged by teachers and parents
Let's
look at number three. American teachers used 21%
class time for direct instruction, compared to 50% for
Chinese teachers and 30% for Japanese teachers. In
fact, United States teachers spend more time giving
directions (26%) than presenting instruction!
Regarding homework, Japanese students do much more
homework than American students, and Chinese students
do much more than Japanese. While only 63% of American
students work at a desk at home, in Japan the rate was 98%.
Chinese parents provide assistance with homework over
90% more often than did American parents.
Changing
minds to change behavior
Called
behavior modification (CBM) was utilized with
students who had mild but annoying behavior problems.
The experimental group received CBM twice a week
for fifteen minutes at a time for four weeks.
The trainer used modeling, cueing and reinforcement.
The control group received lectures about behaving
better. Teachers did not know the group to which
their students had been assigned. Results showed that
time on task was 42% higher for the experimental group
at the end of training, 99% higher after one month, an
84% higher at the end of three months.
SCHOOL
AND SOCIETY
Q:
Does
culture effect reading comprehension?
A: American
and East Indian adults read passages about either an
American or Indian wedding and then answered questions
about the passages. Results showed that readers
took more time to read a passage about the wedding
that was not from their culture, recalled less from
it, and were more likely to distort (as opposed to
elaborate) the passage.
Big
gains in reading overnight: creating the right
context for learning.
Diaz,
Moll, & Mehan (1986) found reading gains of three
years after children's instruction was changed.
Children in a bilingual program were performing at
much higher levels and Spanish language instruction
than in English language instruction-- not because of
poor language skills, but rather because their
capabilities were being underestimated by the teacher.
Performance in the English language classroom shot up
after instruction was changed to a mixture of Spanish
and English and more was demanded of them
Creating
better school citizens
Five
factors taught by instructors seem to have a large
impact on prosocial behaviors:
1)
use of cooperative learning where fairness,
responsibility, helpfulness, and mutual respect were
emphasized.
2)
a discipline program based on self-control and
personal commitment to the rules, where rules are
developed through class discussion and teacher-student
negotiations.
3)
promotion of social understanding through both
spontaneous events and formal means.
4)
fostering helping activities through "Buddy"
programs, helping others students, etc.
5)
highlighting pro social values, such as recognizing
students who share, cleanup, tutor, or take
responsibility for helping someone else.
Effective
schools: teachers make the difference
Researchers
compared effective vs. ineffective schools. Ten
observable characteristics distinguished between the
teacher's in the more and less affected schools.
1)
Time on task higher
2)
Number of interruptions lower
3)
Higher teacher expectations
4)
More positive reinforcement
5)
Presented new material more frequently
6)
Provided more frequent opportunities for independent
practice
7)
Friendlier classrooms
8)
Rooms were more pleasant in appearance, with more
student work displayed
9)
Teachers spend less time sequestered away from
students in the teacher's lounge
TESTING
Getting
the best estimate of learning potential
Delcos,
Burns, & Kulewisc (1987) compared static
(traditional) assessment with dynamic assessment.
Dynamic assessment involves presented a novel problem,
carefully explaining rules, strategies, and
principles, and then providing feedback about
solutions. the form his speech-test-give
feedback-teach, as opposed to the traditional form
test-test-test. Teachers who saw videos of
dynamic assessment read the potential of a given
channel 61% higher compared to teachers who viewed
videos of static assessments, suggesting that
traditional assessments may underestimate potential
and ability.
Student
anxiety and test achievement
Andreas
Helmke (1987) found that the higher the average levels
of testing site in a class, the lower the achievement.
Several factors were found to increase anxiety:
1)
Strict time management. When time management was
less strict, the debilitating effects of anxiety on
achievement were not seen. However, there is a
tradeoff-- the higher the instructional density, the
greater the achievement.
2)
Fewer opportunities for preview and review.
3)
Less time informing students of what will happen next,
where they should be, what they should be studying,
etc.
4)
Higher importance placed upon academic success.
Should
students be made test wise?
Should
we coach students in test taking skills?
Literature reviews find that in the majority studies,
students who receive test test-wiseness training acted
wiser on their tests---that is, they scored higher on those tests
than did students of equal
ability who did not have test-wiseness training.
The more contact hours that were devoted to learning
test-taking skills, the higher the test scores.
However, note that data show diminishing returns as training
time is increased above 20 to 30 hours.
Performance
testing and education: an increase in
authenticity.
In
many areas, performance tests are natural:
athletics, the arts, recitals, plays and debates.
However, these kinds of performance tests are
"transparent"-- that is, test takers know
what is coming, they know how to prepare for it so there are
few surprises, standards for performance are
known in advance, and those preparing for performance
tests are coached.
Grant Wiggins (1989) argues
for the use of more performance tests in traditional
academic areas. Richard Shavelson (1991) found
that students who score high on traditional tests many
times were low on performance tests, and vice versa.
