| Definition: | Anchored instruction is an approach in which instruction anchors around an interesting topic. This is done in order to help students become involved in learning and thus develop effective thinking skills and attitudes, which contribute to effective problem solving and critical thinking. “Anchored instruction emphasizes the need to provide students with opportunities to think…” |
| Application: | In using the anchored instruction approach, a teacher would use “a story, adventure, or situation that includes a problem or issue to be dealt” that is interesting to students and that includes rich resources that can be explored as they interact to solve the problem. |
| Source(s): | Chen, I. “An Electronic Textbook on Instructional Technology.” Web page accessed 6 January 2003: http://users.coe.uh.edu/~ichen/ebook/ET-IT/ai.htm. |
| Definition: | An authentic activity is an activity, which is truly applicable as it deals with real life situations and thus helps students to become engage as they see the value of the subject material (Woolfolk, 1998). |
| Application: | The use of any activity in a classroom setting that would be relevant outside of school can be considered an authentic activity. It should have both global and local aspects, the global defining the general tasks and the local being the sub-problems. An authentic environment should also be created promote the generation and evaluation of alternative perspectives as in real life people are often confronted with various points of view. |
| Source(s): | Honebein et al. (1993). As cited by Hemstreet, S. 6 May 1997. Web page accessed 6 January 2003: http://www.edb.utexas.edu/mmresearch/Students97/Hemstreet/pbl2.htm. |
| Definition: | Assessment is authentic when we directly examine a student’s performance on worthy intellectual tasks. In contrast, traditional assessment relies on indirect items—efficient, simplistic substitutes from which we think valid inferences can be made about the student’s performance at those valued challenges. Authentic assessment requires students to apply the knowledge they acquired through authentic activities in ‘real world’ activities. Authentic assessments present students with the full array of tasks that mirror the priorities and challenges found in the instructional activities. Authentic assessment strategies include: open-ended test questions, conducting and analyzing research, group work collaboration, and debates. One will not find multiple choice tests or rote learning in authentic assessment. |
| Application: | A teacher could divide his or her classroom into two groups. The two groups would conduct research over an assigned topic, write an argument for the group’s stance on the issue, and then the two groups would orally analyze their findings in a well organized debate. |
| Source(s): | Wiggins, Grant. The case for authentic assessment. Eric Digest. 1990. |
| Definition: | Sharing the resources of the mix of human beings involved in teaching and learning creates a community of learners. COL also creates a comfortable environment that emphasizes the active strategic nature of learning. Effective learners operate best when they have insight into their own strengths and weaknesses and access to their own skills for learning. Collaboration is necessary for a community of learners. Because students excel in different areas of knowledge, they must share their areas of expertise. A culture of learning, negotiating, sharing, and producing work that is displayed by others is the backbone of a community of learners. |
| Application: | The teacher uses the jigsaw puzzle method for implementing instruction in a certain area. For example, a teacher wants to teach the habitat of animals and/or plants in the rain forest. Each student would become an expert on his or her plant or animal and report on its functioning in its natural habitat. Then the students could create a collage mirroring their findings. Because of the comfortable environment of COL, each student would feel comfortable with communicating their thoughts and participating in the project. |
| Source(s): | Brown, Ann. Harvard University. “Transforming schools into communities of thinking and learning about serious matters.” American Psychologist. April 1997. |
| Definition: | Scaffolding is the building process of or in learning by providing assistance in acquiring new knowledge with the help of others to achieve higher levels of development and experience. |
| Application: | By providing the student with technology tools (example: Graphics) and real-life experiences that fit their needs or close to those needs, the student will reach or attain a higher level in their development. |
| Source(s): | Davydov, V. (1995). The Influence of L. S. Vygotsky on
education theory, research, and Practice. Educational Researcher, 24, (3);
Gage N., and Berliner, D. (1988). Educational Psychology (4th Ed). Boston:
Houghton Mifflin; and Ormrod, J. (2000). Educational Psychology: Developing
leaners (3rd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Roblyer, M. D. Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching, Third Edtion. (2003). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. |
| Definition: | Knowledge is transmitted to people and they store it in their minds (called learning). |
| Application: | By using present or newly gained knowledge, the student will transfer this to whatever problems/situations they encounter. To me, it appears that all knowledge (past, present, and future) will transfer to any given situation. |
| Source(s): | Sfard, 1998; Willis, 1995. Roblyer, M. D. Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching, Third Edition. (2003). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. |
| Definition: | “Thinking about thinking”, having a conscience awareness of our own thoughts and the ability to assess them. |
| Application: | If students are taught to "think about" what they are "thinking about" before actually writing it down, they can sometimes dramatically improve their grades. |
| Source(s): | Developing Metacognition. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Information Resources Syracuse NY. Web page accessed 2 March 2003: http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed327218.html. |
| Definition: | A product of working on "authentic and realistic tasks that reflects the real world." |
| Application: | Using subjects and materials that help to relate learning and cognition to everyday events, teachers will find students more perceptive and more apt to learn. |
| Source(s): | Jonassen (1994) as cited by rutledge@tenent.edu. Web page accessed 2 March 2003 http://www.edb.utexas.edu/mmresearch/Students97/Rutledge/html/situated_learning.html. |
| Definition: | Cooperative learning uses small group interactive procedures. Students work together in groups to help themselves and their team mates learn together. They share common tasks that are handled through group work. They use cooperative, pro-social behavior to accomplish the assigned goals. Furthermore, the activities require that students work together in order to accomplish the learning task. Students are however accountable for their own work and learning. “Collaborative Learning is a personal philosophy, not just a classroom technique. In all situations where people come together in groups, it suggests a way of dealing with people which respects and highlights individual group members' abilities and contributions. There is a sharing of authority and acceptance of responsibility among group members for the group’s actions. The underlying premise of collaborative learning is based upon consensus building through cooperation by group members.” |
| Application: | A teacher could create an assignment, which uses the jigsaw puzzle technique. Each student would be placed in a specific group, then, within their group they would be responsible for becoming an expert in a particular area that relates to their groups subject. Each expert would then report their findings to the whole group, in order to create a final product. |
| Source(s): | The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Instructional Excellence Retreat, May 1996. Barbara J. Millis, PhD, Associate Director for Faculty Development, United States Air Force Academy, Facilitator. A Definition of Collaborative vs Cooperative Learning. Ted Panitz, (1996). |
| Definition: | “Students select goals to pursue and they work on a variety of tasks. They have choices to consider and autonomy to select different purposes. All students understand they must complete a variety of tasks and must plan how to use their time and resources. Self-regulated learners can select appropriate goals such as mastery of course materials and task completion.” |
| Application: | A teacher could give a web-based assignment were students would know how to use the resources around them and have control over what they learn and when they learn it. Independent study courses are a great example. The students plan their time, research on their own, ask for help when needed, examine their own performance, and revise and correct their work. |
| Source(s): | Web page accessed 3 March 2003: http://www.rit.edu/~609www/ch/faculty/self-reg.htm |
| Definition: | Generative learning is a process or theory that integrates new ideas with existing/prior knowledge to apply to problem solving. |
| Application: | : By providing technological tools (videodisc based products) to help the student apply their prior knowledge to new situations. |
| Source(s): | Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1991b). Technology and the design of generative learning environments. Educational Technology, 31 (5), 34-40. Roblyer, M. D., Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching, Third Edition, (2003). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. http://chd.gse.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/strategies/cognitivism/Generative.html Accessed 02-27-03. |
| Definition: | Problem-based Learning (PBL) can elevate active learning, as it is an instructional strategy that can be used in the curricula. |
| Application: | By providing the student with communication and team building skills as well as their knowledge in problem solving situations. The student should be able to transfer knowledge into new, diverse areas and which they will use all their lives. |
| Source(s): | Samford University. Accessed 02-27-03. http://www.samford.edu/pbl/what.html |
| Definition: | When considering a students learning, there is material that a student has already master, material that he can do with help, and also that which is totally outside of his current capability. The ZPD is the level of material that the student can learning with limited help. |
| Application: | Being able to recognize students’ ZPD is absolutely necessary if teachers are going to teach effectively. In discerning this, they will be able to tell what prerequisite material is required and what material is not currently too hard for the students. |
| Source(s): | Vygotsky (1978) as cited by North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Web page accessed 4 March 2003: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1zpda.htm |
| Definition: | The facilitation of thinking by providing multiple media. |
| Application: | This should be used by educators in order to help develop multiple links between schemata in students’ minds. Simple examples of this would be the use of physical objects, technology, social support, etc. |
| Source(s): | McDevit & Ormrod. Child Development and Education. 2002. |
| Definition: | The various sides of a story. |
| Application: | The presence of this allows for a more full and developed understanding of subject. It can be done simply by providing material that covers multiple sides of a subject. |
| Source(s): | Web page accessed: http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/H/Brandon.J.Hall-1/concepts.html. |
| Definition: | "an instructional strategy for teaching strategic reading developed by Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar that takes place in the form of a dialogue between teachers and students. In this dialogue the teacher and students take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading the dialogue about a passage of text. Four strategies are used by the group members in the dialogue: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. At the start the adult teacher is principally responsible for initiating and sustaining the dialogue through modeling and thinking out loud. As students acquire more practice with the dialogue, the teacher consciously imparts responsibility for the dialogue to the students, while becoming a coach to provide evaluative information and to prompt for more and higher levels of participation.” |
| Application: | In a secondary classroom, reciprocal teaching can be used during the reading of a novel. In a small group, students can take turns being the discussion leaders. As they read, they can take breaks in order to take turns discussing the story or text, summarizing what they have read, asking each other questions, clarifying, and predicting what might happen next. |
| Source(s): | Web page accessed 8 March 2003: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr2recib.htm. |
| Definition: | "...situated within the social constructivist paradigm. They suggest students work in teams on projects or problems with close scaffolding of the instructor. Cognitive apprenticeships are representative of Vygotskian "zones of proximal development" in which student tasks are slightly more difficult than students can manage independently, requiring the aid of their peers and instructor to succeed.” |
| Application: | The teacher gives the students a math problem and works with them, taking the students through the problem step by step. Then the students can divide the problem amongst classmates and each work on a step of the problem, until they discover the answer together. |
| Source(s): | Web page accessed 9 March 2003: http://www.edtech.vt.edu/edtech/id/models/cog.html |
| Definition: | The characteristics of medium (middle position/degree) usage, which means conveying/effecting or condition/environment in order for something to grow/function. |
| Application: | A classroom/environment for learning or as a tool to be used in education/lesson plan. |
| Source(s): | Roblyer, M. D., Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. Third Edition. 2003. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. |
| Definition: | A standard (part) of authentic instruction that features student interaction on a certain subject/topic, sharing their comments/ideas with others and using those ideas to show that all understands the topic being discussed. |
| Application: | This type of conversation can be used in the classroom on a given subject and if all participate in the sharing. |
| Source(s): | Web page accessed 03-07-03: http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/9304/newmann.html. |
| Definition: | State of not being completely comfortable with an event or object. |
| Application: | Anything that helps to push students beyond their normal boundaries is disequilibrium. By such, students are force to adapt and thus learn from the educational setting. |
| Source(s): | McDevit & Ormrod. Child Development and Education. 2002. |