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"In Singapore schools, algebraic word problems are taught using two methods: formal algebra and model. The latter depicts relevant quantitative relationships between unknowns in a pictorial format. In this study, we used fMRI to investigate whether the two methods are subserved by different cognitive processes. "
Adolescence is the most efficient time for motor learning, when teens can aptly take on such activities as sports, drawing, and instrumental music.
Last week, I began a Stanford Experiment-inspired activity with my seniors, who are reading "Lord of the Flies." It was my intent to introduce to them the concept of group mentality, and the effects of unchallenged rumor and unquestioned leadership - all leading (hopefully) to a greater understanding of the behavior of the boys on the island. Friday I assigned them a simple project, a pamphlet about survival skills which I am later going to use to pave the way to their major research projects next six weeks (it's undoubtedly artsy, but it will have far-reaching impact). Then I allowed them the period to read silently, and begin working on the project.You will need to click over to read the rest of the story, but it was quite an experiment. It also a perfect example about how to challenge students minds, open them up to new ideas, and instill critical thinking skills. If only we had more teachers like RedKudu.
Near the end of class, I removed a small group of students I’d been observing who had worked consistently all period, took them out in the hall, and told them I wanted them to go back and tell their friends that I had told them they didn’t have to do the project. But I warned them I wasn’t going to tell the other students anything about it. They all willingly agreed to be a part of the plan. (Note, none of the other students had behaved badly, but some had been off-task for some portion of time, and some had turned secretly to other homework. I knew they would later pinpoint this as the reason they were excluded.)
I’d intended for them to wait until they were outside of class, but didn’t time it quite right. A few of them asked their friends quietly what had happened out there, and they were told. The tension (and rumor) rocketed around the room as I pretended to be completely unaware behind my desk. When the bell rang, there were some choice words for me muttered under breaths, which I pretended not to hear.
Reading through your efforts, especially this week, to bring Christopher up to speed in order to perform well on his upcoming test, leads me to ask the question:
In hindsight (20/20), what would you have done differently over the last few years? I imagine this is not an easy question to answer because, from what I recall, you’ve “discovered” many things along the path to today. “It’s always worse than you think.”
In the domain of foundations of education, the books most often required by the programs we reviewed were authored by Anita Woolfolk, Jonathan Kozol, Henry Giroux, Paulo Freire, Joel Spring, Howard Gardner, and John Dewey. Woolfolk’s work is a textbook in educational psychology, and one of Joel Spring’s volumes is a textbook in educational foundations. The rest are well-known works that embrace a constructivist and/or progressive standpoint. Conspicuously absent from almost all such syllabi were works that took a very different approach to teaching, such as those by E. D. Hirsch or Diane Ravitch. (We found Hirsch on two syllabi, Ravitch on just one.) Equality of education is a central theme of these courses, as evident from the included authors. Nonetheless, not one of the foundations courses, in the 15 schools of education for which we had complete data sets for that domain, asked students to read The Black-White Test Score Gap, at the time of our review arguably the leading collection of scholarly writings on that subject. We also noted that eight of the programs of teacher certification we reviewed did not cover either the philosophy or the history of education among the courses required for certification.
source:
Skewed Perspective
David Steiner
Education Next
re:
Functional implications of these gains for real world competence, however, remain unclear, particularly given the paradoxical finding that increasing fluid cognitive demand of early elementary math education has not led to substantial increased math achievement over time.
Darwin's Origin of Species sparked the modern debate about genes versus environment in explaining differences between human individuals and groups. Ever since, the pendulum of scientific opinion has swung back and forth with consensus always out of reach. For the last 15 years, psychologists have been plagued by a paradox that suggests that environment is both feeble and overwhelmingly potent.
The paradox emerged from a debate about race. US whites outscore US blacks on IQ tests by 15 points. Does that gap have environmental causes or is it partially due to genes? In 1973, Arthur Jensen constructed a model that applied kinship data to group differences in IQ. Evidence from kinship studies showed identical twins separated at birth and raised in different homes grow up with very similar IQs. The fact that they have identical genes provides an obvious explanation. Jensen argued that fully 75 percent of IQ variance between individuals was due to genetic differences (a value which sits in the middle of the range recently endorsed by a select committee of the American Psychological Association for adult IQ). Jensen's model showed that a purely environmental explanation of the black/white IQ gap meant that the environment of the average US black must be as unfavorable for the development of IQ as the lowest one percent of white environments measured in terms of their effects on IQ. That simply did not seem possible.
Jensen's model seemed to preclude a purely environmental explanation for any large IQ gap between groups. Then, in 1987, Flynn showed that in nation after nation, the current generation outscores the last generation by some 9 to 20 IQ points. The gains are greatest on those tests often called the best measures of intelligence. Their size and speed dictate an environmental explanation. Flynn applied Jensen's model. An environmental explanation meant putting the current generation within the top one-tenth of one percent of the last generation in terms of environmental quality. What was known to be true was shown to be impossible.
Robert Plomin of the Institute of Psychiatry in London stands at the forefront of such research. "g shows significant genetic influence," he says. Plomin points to dozens of twin and adoption studies indicating that genes contribute substantially to individual differences in g.
Such studies find that genetic influences on g are modest among infants and children but become progressively stronger throughout adulthood. This suggests that, as people grow older, they find and create environments congenial to promoting their own genetic strengths, Plomin theorizes. "It may be more appropriate to think about g [general intelligence] as an appetite rather than an aptitude," he says.
...the assumption of large environmentally driven gains in intelligence can be reconciled with the assumption of high heritability for intelligence. This is because the occurrence of gene-environment correlation resulting from reciprocal causation between phenotypic IQ and environment can mask the potency of the effect of the environment on intelligence. [Blair, et al]
These tools were made to save teachers time and money! Stop paying for all those reproducible forms and worksheets that are out there. Let’s share what we already have made and stop reinventing the wheel. You can help us by submitting your own forms, letters, and reproducible materials and by visiting the sponsors on the bottom right of each page.
Illinois law now requires Algebra, Geometry, and an additional year of high school math for high school graduation (previous requirement was 2 years of math, courses not specified).
Sounds good - until the Illinois State Board of Education changed their policy so that students are not allowed to earn credit towards high school graduation before 9th grade.
Net effect: No one can take Algebra before 9th grade.
There are students who have completed Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II/Pre-Calculus before 9th grade. Under Illinois law and ISBE policy they have had those three years of high school honors math credits and grades stripped from their Academic Records and High School transcripts. They have exhausted the High School math curriculum through AP Calculus BC by 10th grade, leaving them short of the three years of H.S. math credits required for H.S. graduation - and their GPAs and Class Ranks are now below those of students who have completed H.S. math only through Algebra II.
The ISBE has refused to revise their policy for cases like these, effectively placing a limit on the high end of the achievement spectrum and effectively punishing those students for achieving to the best of their ability.
School policy usually reads something like this example: *No high school credit will be awarded to elementary or middle school students concurrently enrolled in high school courses.* These kids have taken high school courses at the high school, taken the same quizzes, tests, and finals as their high school classmates, but are then informed that their work and effort do not count (and will actually count against them) because they took those classes before they were in 9th grade.
“The student teachers seemed to appreciate the fact that what they had just been listening to could really be of help to them in the classroom. Hands shot up all over the room to ask questions like, Where do you get the books? How do you handle competition between the kids? What do you do when parents complain that their kids aren’t learning phonics?” Her answer to that one brought down the house. “Don’t tell them you don’t teach phonics,” she said. Then added, “You do.” They all smiled and nodded, as though they understood quite well what she meant.”
This category relies heavily on the recall and recognition of previously learned concepts and principles. Items typically specify what the student is to do, which is often to carry out some procedure that can be performed mechanically. It is not left to the student to come up with an original method or solution.
Over the years researchers have debated the meaning of the decline in SAT scores. Some have concluded that it is solely a reflection of the democratization of American higher education meaning a growing number of minority, low-income, and low-ability students in the test-taking pool. Certainly, changing demographics contributed to the decline, yet something more was happening. Declines occurred at the top of the ability distribution, especially on the verbal part of the test. For example, in 1972 (the first year for which comparable data were available), 116,585 students - 11.4 percent of test takers -scored higher than 600 on the verbal test. By 1983 that number had fallen to only 66,292, or 6.9 percent of the total. Since then the proportion of high-scoring students has remained around 7 percent. By contrast, in mathematics the decline at the top was only temporary. In 1972, 17.9 percent of test takers scored over 600. That proportion dipped as low as 14.4 percent in 1981, but by 1995 it reached 21 percent - the highest proportion of students ever to exceed 600 on the math test.
4th grade classroom, students have demonstrated mastery of basic multiplication facts and some conceptual understanding of multiplication as arrays and repeated addition.On the board, the teacher writes a column of 15’s (there are ten in all)151515…15——She instructs students to find the sum mentally but not to raise their hands with any answers at that moment. After a minute, she directs students to discuss their ideas in small groups of 3-4. She tells them to compare their results, not just the sum but HOW they did this. After 2 minutes, she leads a discussion, inviting students from each group to share their ideas. She comments and adds other ways, insuring that students see at least 4 methods. She asks, “Which method is easiest for you? Why?” etc… This does not take more than 15 minutes in all.”
Business types (upper management)don't hire math types. They may authorize the job posting, but they are clueless after that. I always laugh when I hear about business types talking about what they want out of education. They want cheap labor that can get the job done.
What do the people who make the decisions want? Skills and experience. What have you worked on and how good are you? For the "high tech" world, it's a balance. They don't want newbies without experience and they don't want older people, who have experience(and high salary), but are not necessarily up to date on the latest technology. Younger people tend to have more drive and less commitments. Many companies are known to chew them up and spit them out, driven by good salaries and stock options. Can you say 60+ hour work weeks?
There is little loyalty anymore. Businesses do not care about employees as individuals. Salaries and benefits might be good, but you could be out on the street in an instant. High tech types have to be very careful about what jobs they work on and what experience they get. Many thought that Digital's VAX and VMS OS would go on forever. Now the Unix types better watch out, and I'm not talking about Linux. This has nothing to do with education.
Given the nature of the developmentalist view, experimentally demonstrated teaching practices are bound to invite a great degree of skepticism. The object of experimental research is to demonstrate the impact of an independent variable as an agent of change. Contrary to such an objective, developmentalism requires that social, emotional, and cognitive change emerge, not as an effect induced by an external agent, but as an independent expression of the student. Thus experimentally tested methodologies are automatically considered suspect if not outrightly objectionable depending on which developmental limitations are presumed applicable. In effect, developmentalist doctrine discourages reliance on the most important and most credible research educators have at their disposal (Bloom, 1980 as cited in Gage & Berliner, 1992; Cook & Campbell, 1979)
