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Essay on how to use active learning in the classroom
Merits and demerits of active learning
Merits and demerits of active learning
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Curriculum Comparisons
One of the foremost developers of modern curriculum was Ralph W. Tyler. Tyler had a passion to teach, and to do it well. In his early years in education, both as a student and as an educator, Tyler witnessed many deficiencies in the American Education system. This paper will discuss Tyler's understanding of the nature and structure of knowledge and the needs of the learner. It will also compare two approaches to curriculum development, product and process models. It will discuss their impact on curriculum development in relation to Tyler's interlocking system.
Nature and structure of knowledge and needs of the learner
Tyler's extensive travels and educational experiences, helped to influence his writings on the nature and structure of knowledge. For example, during his doctorate work at the University of Chicago, Tyler assumed the same position as his mentor Dr. Judd, that "students can learn how to generalize while acquiring facts" (Kral, 2008). Kral, in his article, goes on to point out that Tyler's research also brought him in contact with some of the newest and radical theories in education to date. From the works of Dewey, Counts, and others, Tyler too, believed that children learned best by doing (2008). Active learning, previously, had never been heard off, nor utilized in the scholastic arena. Tyler was quickly becoming an advocate of change in the area of teaching and education.
One such area was testing (Kral, 2008). Tyler believed that testing, at the present, only served to evaluate what pupils had memorized. Actual learning in the majority of American schools was failing to occur. Tyler felt that testing should be utilized to determine if understanding was taking place ...
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...lum Development, Advisory Role. Retrieved January 28, 2012, from http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2517/Tyler-Ralph-W-1902-1994.html
Kral, E. (2008). Ralph Winfred Tyler: Curriculum, instruction, and evaluation reformer ranked among world's fifty modern thinkers on education. Retrieved January 28, 2012, from nsea.org: http://www.nsea.org/news/RWTylerProfile.htm
Mednick, F. (2006, March 13). Cirriculum Theories. Retrieved January 27, 2012, from ncx.org: http://cnx.org/content/m13293/latest/
Sheehan, J. (1986, January 17). Curriculum models: product versus process. Retrieved January 27, 2012, from Journal od Advance Nursing: http://www.hci.sg/admin/uwa/MEd7_8678/Curriculum_models- product_versus_process.pdf
Smith, M. (1996, 2000). curriculum theory and practice. Retrieved January 27, 2012, from infed.org: http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-curric.htm
Connected to this theme is the development of a shared, lived experience, where students and teacher are involved in an ongoing negotiation of curriculum. In the first 13 chapters, Paley’s central focus is to develop a learning community within the safety of the classroom. In the second half of her book, Paley illustrates how the combination of these two themes in turn offers an opportunity for what we call an opening up of the definition of curriculum. This review is an analysis of these three themes within the organizational framework of Paley’s book. The theme of children and teachers as co-creators of curriculum is established in the first chapter when Paley says, “Each year I wait to be reawakened by a Reeny … something to ponder deeply and expand upon extravagantly” (p.10). Reeny responds to this call by asserting herself early on as a curriculum leader in Paley’s classroom. Because children themselves are curriculum makers and leaders, curriculum cannot be imposed upon the learner. Ultimately, this opening up of the discussion of what curriculum means is established by Reeny in the last lines of the book when she announces: “But I’m thinking, why don’t you stay and we’ll talk about it. Don’t fly away. See we can keep talking about it, okay?” (p. 99). It is in Reeny’s utterance that we understand—the curriculum conversation must necessarily begin with students’
Current educational policy and practice asserts that increased standardized student testing is the key to improving student learning and is the most appropriate means for holding individual schools and teachers accountable for student learning. Instead, it has become a tool solely for summarizing what students have learned and for ranking students and schools. The problem is standardized tests cannot provide the information about student achievement that teachers and students need day-to-day. Classroom assessment can provide this kind of information.
To teach to the test or trust the child; is the question in today’s education. Over the past twenty years state curriculum standards have changed. Teachers need to make the choice on how to teach the children in their classroom. In today’s society where testing runs the educational world, a teacher must decide how to prepare students for standardized testing.
Developing studying skills that incorporate testing myself will take the ease of being overwhelmed, as well as help with concentration, and becoming more comfortable and confident. Practicing recalling information over time will help in recalling for an actual assessment, by retaking study guides, and creating at home pre-test. 3The information provided by Karpicke and Roediger can me as an educator and other educators by considering various methods of learning. Using test as an instrument of learning rather than solely an assessment on knowledge can be essential in helping students’ learning effectiveness. Since the experiment showed that the learning conditions where retrieval was repeated caused students to have 80% of the pairs recalled compared to the 33% of where retrieval was not practice shows that testing can be used as a tool of learning. In my classroom I would implement take pre-test for homework and/or extra credit assignments, as well as implement classroom activities such as games where testing occurs in a communal group setting. Retrieval is easier when related pieces of information are stored in close association with one another (Ormord p. 212). Therefore, I would have students get in pairs and test each other on the information as soon as the lesson is over as a form of review and test
tests were primarily employed as measures of student achievement that could be reported to parents, and as a means of noting state and district trends (Moon 2) . Teachers paid little attention to these tests, which in turn had little impact on curriculum. However, in the continuing quest for better schools and high achieving students, testing has become a central focus of policy and practice. Standardized tests are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same, predetermined conditions and with consistent scoring and interpretation so that students have equal opportunities to give correct answers and receive an accurate assessment. The idea is that these similarities allow the highest degree of certainty in comparing result...
Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test. Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests. Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students.
Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1-22.
“If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” This quote by Michelle Obama illustrates the idea that standardized testing should not have such a large influence on education in America. However, a majority of people are under the impression that standardized tests are an accurate method to measure a person's intellectual ability. I believe that standardized tests have developed into a very critical part of the American education system that is hindering the growth of students and teachers instead of providing a tool that can accurately measure knowledge.
The goal of education is to provide children with the opportunity to amass a wealth of knowledge, love for learning, and academic strength. Children go to school to read, write, and learn a variety of subjects. While education is meant to be exciting for children, there have to be standards in order to make sure that progress is being and those children are where they need to be in order to move onto the next phase of their education. Education builds as it grows, and students need a strong foundation in order to succeed and continue. Without those strong building blocks, students will continue to fall back and repeat the same material again and again. And so, testing and assessment come into play to make sure children are where they need to be. However, in early childhood settings testing is almost non-existent because of the stigma around testing. The current debate in our education system argues that testing is not a good measure of a child’s actual knowledge. Rather, assessment gives teachers a better picture of a student’s abilities and capabilities in the classroom. Thus, currently the debate continues over assessment versus testing in the classroom due to the demand for knowledge on whether or not testing is a good way of measuring a student’s progress in school.
When reviewing the literature regarding the past, present and future of educational curriculum, several main points seem apparent, namely that curriculum is cyclical, that a dilemma or paradox exists, and that curriculum must be looked at with a sensitive view.
Posner, G. (1998) ‘Models of curriculum planning’. In Beyer, L. and Apple, M. (eds) The Curriculum. Problems, Politics and Possibilities (2nd edn). New York: State University of New York Press.
In 1949, a small book had a big impact on education. In just over one hundred pages, Ralph W. Tyler presented the concept that curriculum should be dynamic, a program under constant evaluation and revision. Curriculum had always been thought of as a static, set program, and in an era preoccupied with student testing, he offered the innovative idea that teachers and administrators should spend as much time evaluating their plans as they do assessing their students.
Educational institutions today are increasing their emphasis on high standards as a crucial factor in improving the quality of education imparted to their students. They are, therefore, looking at new and better ways to develop such a curriculum that meets all the pre-decided standards. This calls for a change in the way schools are run and the methods of teaching in order to design, implement and evaluate curriculum effectively.
One of my most influential experiences took place with my very first class, ED 523 taught by Dr. Howe. In this course, I learned about the Understanding by Design (UbD) Framework created by Wiggins and McTighe. This framework focuses on a backward design approach that uses big ideas, essential questions, and authentic assessments to create and guide curriculum (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005). The design encourages educators to “start with the end in mind.” Along with UbD, I also learned about a calendar-based curriculum mapping process created by Heidi Hayes Jacobs. The curriculum map allows for educators to examine curriculum both horizontally in a course and also vertically over the student’s K-12 academic career (Jacobs, 1997).
Often time’s curriculum is thought of as a set of rules and standards given to teachers to follow. However, more goes into a curriculum than just what meets perceived. Teachers are not just the vehicles from which a curriculum flows but in a sense, they embody it. There are four main different avenues in which curriculum is constructed. It’s constructed through government agencies, publishers, school systems, and teachers. It can be defined as “content, a set of specific educational plans, a changing series of planned learning experiences, or as everything that learners experience in school” (Van Brummelen, 20). A curriculum is strongly built behind a worldview. “A worldview is a comprehensive framework of basic convictions about life. Worldviews