My first mind-map of culture before reading unit 1 material has its own heading and is on the left side. After reading week 1 material, many things were added in my mind-map, and they are on the right side of my map. Moreover, at the end of this course, after reading material and watching videos in different weeks, especially after reading the book, ‘The Skin That We Speak’ and reading other groups’ presentation based on their books, a few more things were added to my mind-map of culture and they are on the top of my mind-map. After reading articles and watching videos, I understand that there are still many more things which are included in culture but they are invisible. When we hear the word ‘culture,’ certain things come to our minds, like music, dance, clothing, marriages, festival, food, language, religion, etc. However, after reading the book ‘The Skin That We Speak,” my understanding is that culture is a mindset and politics more than anything. It is deeply rooted and more often is not easily seen.
The concept of multiculturalism, multicultural education, and diversity have impacted me more than anything. The book ‘The Skin That We Speak” and the presentations of my course mates about their books mad me very sad. I am still unable to stop thinking about the impact of these books. After taking this course, I will strive to be more careful towards those who are different and marginalized in society based on their differences. If I ever become a teacher, I would treat all my students the same way. I would not judge them or dismiss the stereotypes about them. As stated in the Confucius’ quote in Unit 8 posted by my professor, I believe education is the only way to change politics and mindsets in a positive way.
If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; If in terms of ten years, plant a tree; If in terms of 100 years, teach the people. — Confucius
After reading this book, I believe education is meaningless until and unless all students are given fair, sufficient, and just opportunities to be successful in their academic journies. All languages, dialects, and cultures should be treated equally and respected. I, as an educator, as an ESL (English as a Second Language) would learn the strategies and techniques to allow students of all backgrounds to follow the path of success. I learned from the book that the disrespectful attitude of teacher towards students’ language and cultures damage students’ self-esteem and cause inferiority complex. Teachers’ respectful behavior towards languages and cultures motivates students to participate actively in the learning process. Failing students in the classroom are the failure of the society as a whole.
The social class of the home country influences immigrants’ lives and language learning in the host country. Immigration has become a hot topic in the daily lives of Americans and of American politics. Immigration has direct ties with the U.S. education system. When immigrants come to the U.S. they bring a bag of their culture, language, values, religion, socioeconomic status, and education with them. When it comes to education then, immigration hooks up with language. They or their children go to schools with their specific social, educational, and racial identities. There are two type of immigrants: involuntary immigrants (those who do not want to leave their homelands, but various issues force them to leave their countries, such as war, drought, security, human rights violations, political unrest) and voluntary immigrants.
Forced immigrants usually belong to a low-income class of their home country with little or no educational background. That type of migration brings more challenges to their lives, many of which are related to the language of the host country. Voluntary immigrants usually belong to the middle or upper classes of their countries with strong educational backgrounds. Since U.S. schools link immigration with English language, because the medium of education in public schools is English, usually, these immigrants belong to the privileged or educated class of their homeland. These educated immigrants have a great deal of value for their children’s education.
Gebeloff, Evans, & Scheinkman (n.d) stated that, “Fueled by the latest wave of immigration, enrollment of Hispanic and Asian students in American schools has increased by more than 5 million since the 1990s. The increases are occurring not just in long-time immigration hotbeds, but in places as far flung as Sevier County, Arkansas to Colfax County, Nebraska, to Marion County, Oregon.”
Carola Suárez-Orozco, & Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco (2002, 128) stated that, “Clearly, a child’s educational experiences before coming to the United States will have a profound influence on his or her transition to American schools.” Picot, Hou, and Oiu (2016, p.13) meanwhile state that, “There are numerous other longer-run benefits associated with a continued focus on highly educated immigrants, beyond the economic benefits. Highly educated immigrants are more likely to have highly educated children, raising the educational attainment of the labour force.”
Immigrant students who are from a low-class and/or a poor-literacy background face more difficulties in U.S. schools. The parents of these students sometimes are timid, have less knowledge or tend to have more struggles in learning about the school system, and usually do not understand the school policies mostly because they have limited or no English at all.
Connection with the Course Objectives
Our course objectives seek to understand the cultural and ethnic identities of students of different backgrounds in the U.S. school system. Another objective was to prepare future and current trustees of education to provide a friendly learning environment to all students regardless of their culture, ethnicity, language, skin color, socioeconomic background, and religion. These objectives are directly linked to the immigrants whose major issue is a lack of knowledge and fluency in the English language. Immigrants with low or less education and their children face many hardships, beginning from the home country to the new country, and hardships which are different from every aspects of their old lives. In educational settings, immigrants’ educational background makes a huge difference such as: their education from their homeland, their parents’ education, the value of education in the home country, literacy skills, learning habits (for example, coming to school daily, doing work on time, following teachers’ instructions, respect for the school and class environment), and some knowledge of other languages or cultures. If these areas have positive indicators, immigrant children do a lot better in school from the beginning, and their achievement rate is higher. Their academic success and career opportunities are higher as well, and their anxiety level is low, too.
Negative indicators suggest that a child/student would have a lot of anxiety. These students would face difficulties in adjusting to a new culture and acquiring a new language, and may have low achievement rates, higher drop-out rates, and low career opportunities. Most forced immigrants live in poverty, spend more time at work and little with their children, and are unable to pay more attention to their children’s education. “Teacher and student attitudes are only part of the larger story. The kind of love and reverence of school that immigrant children demonstrate may not always be enough to outweigh the multiple challenges and obstacles they typically encounter (Orozco, C.S., Orozco M.S., p. 128, 2002). Characteristics of children’s families are associated with children’s educational experiences and their academic achievement. Prior research has found that the risk factors of living in a household without a parent who has completed high school, living in a single-parent household, or living in poverty are associated with poor educational outcomes. (The Condition of Education, 2020)
Teachers must understand the difference based on the educational background of the student attending the school. Carola Suárez-Orozco, & Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco (2002) stated:
We find that children from middle-class urban backgrounds usually have been preparing in their countries since early childhood for high-stakes, competitive exams. These children are typically highly literate and have well-developed study skills; their parents have taught them about what it takes to succeed in school. In sharp contrast are those children arriving from strife-ridden countries with little or no schooling. These children have missed critical years of classroom experience and often cannot read or write in their own language. They have not mastered the basics of either rote learning or the use of higher-level cognitive strategies. (p.128)
Importance of this issue for society
Since the topic is related to immigration and U.S. schools, we cannot ignore the importance of having students of other backgrounds. It is necessary to look at different aspects of the lives of immigrant students. The well-being of immigrant students in schools results in an educated society, greater tolerance for differences, a more skilled workforce, a well-grown society, future prosperity of society, and a higher achievement rate for schools. Our society must be a beautiful ‘salad bowl,’ where every student grows as a successful individual who is taking part to build society positively, which requires that individualism and collectivism go hand in hand. (Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., & Greenfield, P.M., 2000). Where the needs of all students are met, equal opportunities to learn and means of growth are available for all students.
Another interesting aspect of educated versus less educated immigrants which has a strong impact on American society is that educated immigrants get better employment opportunities mostly at the time of their arrival even if they are not fluent in English. Peri and Sparger (2011) point out that, “Natives specialize in occupations demanding interactive or communication skills, while highly educated immigrants disproportionately work in occupations requiring quantitative and analytical skills. (p.24)
We cannot ignore the issue of immigration because “Over a million young people in United States live in limbo status, without formal documentation. Many were brought here as young children and spent most of their formative years in our neighborhoods, attending our schools, and internalizing a sense of themselves as young Americans. (Suarez-Orozco, C., Yoshikawa, H., Teranishi, R. T., & Suarez-Orozco, M. M., 2011). Jung and Suhyun (2018, p.4) quoted Ryu (2015), “Even within the same ethnic group, students’ levels of academic skills vary greatly depending on their parents’ education, their age of immigration, their school contexts, and the socioeconomic backgrounds of their families.”
A teacher who is aware of these indicators, respects other cultures and languages, and provides equal learning opportunities to his/her students can lead many disadvantaged students on to the path of success. All students are not from the same cultural or ethnic backgrounds, nor are they from the same social class. It should not be ‘my way’ or ‘your way’, it should be ‘our way’ to create a respectful learning environment for all students (JCPSEmployee, 2012). Schools should be the place where the needs of all students are met, and where equal opportunities to learn and grow are available for all students.
Conclusion
Immigration is a reality in U.S. society. Immigrants come from different countries, speak different languages, and have different racial, ethnical, religious, and educational backgrounds. The have one common characteristic, which is that they are all immigrants. Some of them are forced migrants and some migrate here by choice. The difference is that the immigrant with a strong educational background adjusts in their new society easily and performs better in their educational settings. They learn English faster because of their literacy skills and their children face less hardships in their educational endeavors. Therefore, the teachers must have some knowledge of students and their parents’ educational background. Then they can lead them on to a faster pace of success. At the same time, having knowledge of less-educated students and their less-educated parents allows teachers to understand the hardships of these immigrant students’ lives, alerts them to pay these students more attention, and helps them provide the students more opportunities to succeed here academically and professionally. Teachers can make this land for all the immigrants ‘a dream land’.
References
Carola Suárez-Orozco, & Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco. (2002). Children of Immigration. Harvard University Press.
Jung, W.H. & Suhyun, S. (2018). Community-University Partnerships in Practice: Development of Welcoming Learning Environments for New Immigrants. Journal of Higher Education Outreach & Engagement; 2018, Vol. 22 Issue 3, p45-67, 23p
Picot, G., Hou, F., Qiu, H. (2016). The Human Capital Model of Selection and Immigrant Economic Outcomes. International Migration. Jun2016, Vol. 54 Issue 3, p73-88. 16p.
Professional Resource Catalogue (Annotated Resources)
Syeda H. Naqvi
Post University
Professional Resources Catalogue
Underneath are some resources which are related to English Language Learners needs and requirement. These resource are helpful for classroom and ESL teachers. These resources cover many areas related to English Language Teaching which includes the state standards, some teaching materials, concepts, ideas, strategies, issues and their possible solutions.
This is a good resource to easy and quick access to CELP (Connecticut English Language Proficiency) standards. To know the standard are essential for the Connecticut teachers. The site has the FAQ in the beginning, then states the standards. The best thing about this site is easy and understandable language. The language is specific and precise as well. It is easily available on the internet if the teacher does not have a written copy of them with him/her.
Stephan Krashen’s SLA (Second Language Acquisition) five hypotheses made an important place in teaching ELLs. He presented five hypotheses in this video, ‘The Acquisition Hypothesis’, ‘The Monitor Hypothesis’, ‘The Natural Order Hypothesis’, ‘The Input Hypothesis’, ‘The Affective Filter Hypothesis’. These hypotheses are relevant, practical and easy to implement to help ELLs to acquire a new language and be successful in academic life. I personally use these hypotheses whenever I have a chance to work with ELLs and I found them effective. Especially, I love ‘The Affective Filter Hypothesis’. I always try to lower the affective filter of ELLs’ to make sure that they are learning.
3. Materials Development for TESOL by Freda Mishan and Ivor Timmis. (Edinburgh University Press+)
This book is available online. I found it on the library resources of Post University. This book covers some important topics related to ELLs’ academic achievement. It provides information related to effective vocabulary and grammar teaching materials. The chapters cover the material related to helping ELLs in developing Speaking and Writing skills, material for the Technological Environment, material for Reading and Listening Skills. This book helps the educator step by step in preparing the related language domain material which is very effective.
4. BICS/CALP: Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills vs. Cognitive Academic Language ProficiencyRetrieved from
These terms were used and described by Jim Cummins in 1984. BICS stands for Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills CALP stands for Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency. The information about BICS and CALP gives TESOL and classroom teachers the idea why ELLs develop BICS quicker than CALP. This article provides fair enough information about BICS and CALP and how to monitor the progress of ELLs in both areas.
This webpage allows teachers/educators to know how and why they should assess their ELLs all year long. All year long informal assessment is a feedback to the teacher about the progress and the areas of need of their ELL population in the classroom. This article provides insight into the classroom/ESL teacher on how to assess their ELLs students based on their performance and how to measure their progress. Also, this article talks about why the teachers should have portfolios of their ELLs and how to keep different types of students’ works. It also provides insight into what type of work teachers can keep in their students’ portfolios. The informal assessment also can help the teachers to assess their ELLs’ content knowledge.
This blog posting is about using the games to help ELLs in developing their language skills. The blog is created by Jeff Kuhn and is the part of the ‘tesol international association’. The games in this blog are tabletop games. These games have amazing picture cards that are eye-catching. Especially good for the elementary and middle school grade ELLs. The board games ‘Dixit’, ‘Gloom’ and ‘The Resistance are for harnessing the speaking and listening skills.
I did not like the ‘Gloom’ game for it is about making the player’s own family miserable. However, the other two games sound interesting to me.
This is an excellent video with a personal experiment of a teacher, Mr. Roberto Guzman. This video is only nineteen minutes long. Mr. Guzman’s students in Puerto Rico were superb in their English writing skills. However, when it came to speaking English skills, his students were afraid. Mr. Guzman was so frustrated about the inability of his students’ English speaking skills. At last, he found a way how to help his students in the Speaking domain of English language and critical thinking as well.
8- Language Assessment Principles (2013) by Frank Tuzi Retrieved from
This video talks about the different principles related to ELLs assessment such as validity, reliability. It also talks about the perspective of ELLs in regard to assessment and testing. This video is an excellent source to know different aspects of validity such as content-related validity, criterion-related validity, construct-related validity, consequential validity, face-validity.
9- A Review of Studies on Cognitive and Metacognitive Reading Strategies in Teaching Reading Comprehension for ESL/EFL Learners by Ali, Aziza M.; Razali, Abu Bakar
This article is a good resource to know if the reading strategies which ESL teachers use are effective or not. This article explicitly explains that ESL teachers should review the current reading strategies and related issues with them. This article also talks about how these issues are creating problems in ELLs’ reading comprehension. The best part of the article is that it does not only mention the issues but also suggests some reading strategies which are applicable to help improve ELLs’ reading comprehension.
10- Leveling the Playing Field: The Efficacy of Thinking Maps on English Language Learner Students’ Writing by Cooks, Jamal; Sunseri, Anita
English writing is an essential part of ELLs’ academic success. This article explains some writing strategies to help ELLs writing in a more organized way. Some of the strategies used to help ELLs were prewriting and scaffolding. It reveals that these strategies improved ELLs’ writing skills at some point. It is a good source to learn and apply these strategies.
11. Tefltunes.com
I love this site because it brings music in the class which has ELL in it. It has songs for every level of English language proficiency. It has made the search easy such as what type of song the teacher is looking for, what is the theme, the level of English language proficiency. I personally like it because music causes the Affective filter to go down which is necessary for ELLs to fully participate in the learning activities. The website address is:
It is another website which consists of many resources not only for young learners but also for adult ELLs. The material available on this website is free and has printable lesson plans, flashcards, worksheet and much more. An exciting feature of this website is that it provides material even to help foreign businessmen who need to learn English in the global market. The address is:
It is a resource for digital stories. These stories are especially helpful for young students. The stories are good for both types of students, native English speakers or ELLs. The stories are categorized with themes. The stories have beautiful and colorful pictures that are attractive for
14. 7 Learning Styles: An ESL Teaching Strategy That Works
This is a blog that seems helpful for ESL teachers. This blog has resources for the teaching strategies which can be useful for teachers and ESL students. The lesson plans are available on this blog address many learning styles of many students. The blog itself a good source of teaching ELLs. The address is:
15. SIOP – Home- Center for Applied Linguistics
This is a valuable resource for all the teachers who have English language learners in their classroom. This website has SIOP lesson plans, resources, services, projects, and much more to use effectively. SIOP is significantly useful for the ELLs who enroll in high grades such as third grade and up.
This is a great website for quick access to simple and effective activities to warm up ELLs. Mini-lessons are also available to target learning and language objectives. These mini-lesson are easy to follow and implement. This website is not only to get ideas or lesson plans from here but you can post your lesson plans, ideas, tips, and strategy you have used effectively.
Since it is an international website, so you can learn many things from the professionals across the globe who are in the field of teaching ELLs. The address is:
17. Practical Applications of TESOL’s “The 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners”
This article is written by Trenton Hagar. This article talks about the six principles for the effective teaching of ELLs. These principles are basically the tips like, know your learner, create conditions for language learning, design high-quality lessons for language development, monitor and assess student language development, and engage and collaborate within a community of practice. These tips are useful for TESOL teachers which they can adapt to teach ELLs around the globe. To access this article click:
18. Exploring the use of online Educational Platform Teaching Writing among ESL Students
This article is written by Katrina Ninfa M. Topacio. This article investigates the impacts of online writing help for ELLs and face-to-face writing instruction. The investigation revealed that ESL students feel comfortable when expressing opinions, doing assignments, and getting feedback online. However, when it comes to the instructions they like face-to-face contact with the instructors. This article can be found here:
19. “Platform Nine and Three-Quarters” and More Scaffolding ESL Writing through Teacher Modelling and Creative Imitation.
This article is written by Tat Heung Choi and Wai Ching Crystal Wong. This article talks about how to scaffold ESL students to become an effective and creative writers of different English genre. Scaffolding is a great strategy to help the ELLs who are at the beginning, intermediate, and about to proficiency levels. The link is:
20. Teachers’ Assessment of ESL Students in Mainstream Classes
Challenges, Strategies, and Decision-Making. In this article, Terry Milnes wrote that different teachers use different approaches to assess ESL students writing. Therefore, more professional developments are needed to have a basic approach to assess ESL students’ writings. Having different and unstructured approaches can cause confusion in assessing ESL’s writings. The link is:
Six Principles of Language Development: Implications for Second Language Learners’ very interesting. The areas it covers like what students already know and what they want to know interest me the most.
Language Acquisition: An Overview’ by Colorín Colorado website is my favorite site. Whenever I need something to learn about ELLs, I always visit the above-said website
Why Teach Pragmatics in Language Classes? ‘
I believe that the pragmatics of L2 is the most challenging aspect of the target language. I think the pragmatics of any language is more related to the smartness of the person rather than the other linguistic factors. Using the students’ first language and nonverbal cues is an attempt to sharpen the brain and activating the smartness.
References
Ali, A.M. & Abu Bakar, R. (2019). A Review of Studies on Cognitive and Metacognitive Reading Strategies in Teaching Reading Comprehension for ESL/EFL Learners. English Language Teaching, v12 n6 p94-111 2019. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1215830
Hagar, Trenton. (2019). Practical Applications of TESOL’s “The 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners” English Teaching Forum, v57 n1 p44-52 2019. (EJ1212463) Retrieved from:
Jamal, C., & Sunseri, A. (2014). Leveling the Playing Field: The Efficacy of Thinking Maps on English Language Learner Students’ Writing. CATESOL Journal v25 n1 p24-40 2013-2014. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1111866
Konishi, H., Kanero, J., Freeman, M. R., Golinkoff, R. M., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2014). Six principles of language development: Implications for second language learners. Developmental Neuropsychology, 39(5), 404-420.
Cognitive illusions: World Mysteries (n.d) article stated, “The way you look at an object can affect how you see it. Sometimes there are two images in the same picture, but you can only see one at a time so your brain chooses one (when it deals with too much information).” Cognitive illusions usually affect adults learning because they have more prior knowledge, experience, and information.
Are you looking at this cylinder from left to right or right to left?Version of the image first created by Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd Google images of cognitive illusions
Cognitive illusion are significantly different in adults and children as ‘World Mysteries’ (n.d) article explained, “Cognitive “illusions” rely on stored knowledge about the world (depth, rabbits, women) and are also under some degree of conscious control (we can generally reverse the perception at will).” Since adults have more stored knowledge, information, and experience than the children, so, adults become bias when they perceive a situation or something. Moreno-Fernandez, Blanco, & Matute (2017, p.1) also endorsed this theory that children suffer fewer illusions because they have fewer experiences, less prior knowledge, and exposure to the world. Also, because of the above-said reasons, children are less biased.
The cognitive illusion affected by the point of view one has about a thing or situation. Space also plays an important role in visual illusions. Like, from where a person is looking at the image or a thing. “Work on embedded cognition, by contrast, draws on the view that cognition deeply depends on the natural and social environment”(Embodied Cognition, 2011, para 9). Since the dynamic system theorizes that cognition also happens when the body of a person tries to adjust in the environment, senses it, and processes it. One example of it is the different behavior of a person in a different environment. A person perceives the situation, senses it, and acts upon it. We do understand the world through our sense, and this world mostly comes to us through our senses. A person shows the weather impact on him/her and acts upon it. The celebration and the sad situation. Playtime or conversation time. Also, a person acts and perceives things as he/she sees it.
Dynamic System: Humans do not follow what is actually happening in their heads but also the outside forces also shape their behavior. As Liu (2015) stated that Task, organism, and environment, are the dynamic system which plays an important role in our cognition development. I observe it during different activities in my school. The students act according to the task they are given. I want to give one example from the physical education class. The students adjust quickly as the gym teacher asks them to do some ‘warm-up’ exercises, like, ‘roll like a pencil’, walk like a crab’, ‘show me how to swim’, etc. The students adjust their bodies according to the task and use their bodily organism to the required task. Or when the gym teacher gives them a choice of free play, the students adjust quickly in the environment and move to their favorite activities in the gym like, bicycling, throwing a ball in the basketball hoop, run freely, hula a hoop, rope swinging, etc.
Perkins’ Seven Principles: Perkins’ seven principles are the road map to make learning life long and applicable to other areas of life whenever needed. Today’s differentiated instruction approach, which was not available when we were going to school, most beneficial to students where a teacher can apply all Perkins principles through literacy and math centers. Through literacy and math centers, the teachers can apply Perkins Seven Principle (play the whole game, make the game worth playing, work on the hard parts, play out of town, uncover the hidden game, learn from the team, learn the game of learning). Through the centers, a teacher can not only apply Perkins principles but can provide the students to use their unique style of learning. These centers are dynamic system development too because the centers require task, organism and environment constraints. For elementary grades, centers is a good idea to apply Perkins’ principles and dynamic system theory, however, project-based teaching and different options of completing the task or project at hand will give the student to learn through their own learning style.
Bronfenbrenner’s Biological Model: Bronfenbrenner’s biological model states that an individual is influenced by and influences the environment around him/her. Urie Bronfenbrenner presented the four layers of influence on an individual. The first layer is the close environment and people around an individual who are his/her parents, siblings, peers, teachers, and neighborhood people. This layer is called ‘Microsystem’. The second influential layer is called ‘Mesosystem’, the relationship between among the first immidiate circles around an individual like home, school, community, or neighborhood. The third layer is ‘Exosystem’. This is an indirect layer but influences one’s life. This layer includes parents’ friends, their work place or siblings’ friends or their work place. The fourth layer is called, Macrosystem’, which includes culture, the country’ ideology, country’s laws, or the world.
Over time, an individual’s concepts, perception, and cognition change. In turn, his/her thoughts, cognition, perception affects all four layer of other people’s lives. (Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model)
Life cannot be imagined without feelings and emotions. Animals and humans are able to express their emotions and feeling. These feeling rule every aspect of our life. Humans emotions and feeling affect the world significantly then any other living thing.
We cannot ignore the role of emotions or feeling in education. Teaching and learning both are influenced by emotions. Especially, learning is not possible without taking feelings into consideration. If students are bored, angry, hungry, sleepy, tired, or violent, it is not possible for the teacher to teach such a student. A skilled and experience teacher address the students emotions and keep them into the healthy learning environment.
Bored students
Ginott (n.d) stated, “Learning depends on the emotional climate engendered by empathy and civility. In their daily contacts with children, teachers must preserve these vanishing virtues.”
Calm student
Ready to learn students
I
must say that teachers also come to school with different emotions
which impact their teaching. They also get tired, exhausted, and
sometimes disappointed to provide emotional support to their students by
the end of the day.
I see it every day in our school, in our classrooms that students come to school with different emotions, some happy, some sad, some very active, some not interested at all, some sleepy, some angry, some hungry, some hurt, etc. This procedure continues during their day in school with their friends, teachers, and other staff. I think it is a difficult job for a teacher to handle twenty-two or twenty-three students’ emotions and bring all of them to the learning goal and produce work required from them. I observe many teachers do a great job addressing the emotional needs of the students and academic needs as well. However, there are still some students who lay behind. To make learning possible, I agree with Ginott (n.d) who quoted Hein, “Talk to the feelings and not just the situation” is an even higher goal.
Whole Game
“In settings of learning, a whole game is generally some kind of inquiry or performance in broad sense. It involves problem solving, explanation, argument, evidence, strategy, skill, craft (Perkins, 2009, P. 30).”
Using the technique of ‘whole game’ in teaching and learning is equipping the students to use their learning in other field of life. Perkins used the terms ‘play out of town’ and ‘transfer of learning’ in chapter 4 of his book ‘Making Learning Whole; How Seven Principles of Teaching Can Transform Education’, establishing a point that teaching the students the concepts, the bigger picture, connecting it to their lives, would give them the skill to use this learning in other situations. Applying the learning to other situations with some modification is ‘play out of time’ and ‘transfer of learning’.
For instance, teaching mathematics, relate it to daily life, shopping, making the smart choices when spending money, using measurements in cooking, measuring the living room, dinning room, and other geographical situations are using classroom learning in other area of life, is playing out of the town and transfer of learning.
After, reading the chapter 1 and 2 of the Making Learning Whole I can conclude that this is the teacher who can make the learning long-lasting by planning the lesson carefully, I know sometimes curriculum is to blame for non-interesting education, however, it is the teacher who can connect any lesson to the learners daily live. It is the teacher who can create enthusiasm in the learners. A teacher can make any topic worth learning and assure students with examples that this learning is applicable in real-world situations. As Perkins (2009, P.77) stated, “I wonder how I can make most of the beginning, understanding, expectations, choices, challenge, and imagination.”
Attention, Memory, and Transfer
Gazzaley (2011, 9:51) quoted Samuel Johnson, “The true art of memory is the art of attention. Mills 2019 explained, “Researchers believe that consciousness involves both attention and memory although the exact neuronal process has not been identified. Although we cannot directly measure consciousness; observations of human behavior have documented what we describe as attention and memory. (The Cognitive Science of Teaching and Learning, Unit 5 explanation)
I personally believe if anyone pays close attention to anything, brain register that it stays in the brain for a long period of time and becomes the memory. Furthermore, if this memory is continuous in action, it becomes a working memory. For instance, any math formula, or physic law, or writing practice, etc, if it is in practice it becomes not only the lasting working memory but consciousness too.
Mills (2019) explained, “Attention is important and has been intensively studied because it is the gateway to the rest of cognition. That is, learners, must be paying attention if they are to organize incoming information, comprehend it, remember it, engage in problem-solving, and the like. (The Cognitive Science of Teaching and Learning, Unit 5 explanation)
I would use some of the strategies Perkins (2009, p.131) has mentioned such as making connections to the real-life, problem based, activities, activate their prior knowledge, and transfer that prior knowledge to increase the new knowledge, or if the new information is a ‘hard part’, I would find some general ground of the topic, then narrowing it down to the specific topic at hand.
Steven (2011) described, “The authors conclude from this that working memory capacity is tied to attention. This makes sense in that working memory can be a resource that contributes to the budget of attention. The more working memory capacity someone has, the more attention they have to spread around to various tasks.”
Application to my own teaching setting
My best teaching practice is and would be to address the emotions of the students to make my lesson worth learning. Providing the positive, happy, and healthy learning environment is teacher’ job.
Then, ‘the whole game’ and ‘hard parts’ would be my main strategy for preparing my students to use their learning in their daily life. The one part which I would love to do to address the ‘hard parts’ would be the vocabulary. When I ponder my learning, I always try to understand the meaning of the words used in the text or discourse fully. I believe when you do not know the meaning of words you are dealing with, you are unable to use them appropriately in your writing, discourse, and conversation. I would be using it as my first strategy to address the hard parts in teaching any subject such as math, science, social studies, etc.
I would use the specific feedback and if time permits I would give my students another chance to practice them in their next assignment. For example, if a student is unable to provide enough evidence from the text, I would give him an example and an opportunity to fix it like Perkins (2009, p.82) posit through examples that proper feedback and opportunities to fix the errors are a good way to work on ‘hard parts’ To teach a new concept or theory or idea, I would be using short videos if available to present it to my students to aware of the ‘whole game’.
Mills, M. (2019). The Cognitive Science of Teaching and Learning, Unit 5 explanation. Perkins, David N. (2009). Making Learning Whole: How Seven Principles of Teaching Can Transform Education
I am not a science student, and science subjects like Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Medicine, and other subjects like them scare me. Having said that I always surprise to see the advancements of humans in all areas, which include science and social science subjects.
The study of human brain and findings of its activity which dominates the human behavior is my particular interest. Since my work is in the education field, so I want to make it possible that students are learning what is necessary for them to be a successful learner in their academics and beyond. I also want to know how brain activity is related to their learning styles and behavior.
Cognitive science, which is my current course to take, is beneficial and exciting to me because it has a direct link to my work. This course offered me to learn about my learning style. I have never thought of myself a sensing learner, but the result shown below is reveling the fact.
‘A.I. is everywhere around you every second of the day. People don’t
notice it.’ (Artificial Intelligence in Schools) Today’s human living is
almost impossible without artificial intelligence. From TVs remotes to
GPS (Global Positioning System), from computer programs to auto
operating air conditioners, we see these artificial intelligence
machines all around us. However, I believe the aspect of human thinking
which rules by the emotions is the most difficult for the AI. My
understanding is that AI cannot compete with human intelligence, where
humans act through their common sense and become pragmatic. Humans make
rules for their convenience and make changes when it is necessary for
them. On the other hand, as I know, the machines known for AI cannot
make any rules on their own. They do not have emotions, or they are not
affected by the environment or the situation around them. Humans are
affected by all these factors and act accordingly. ‘The half-century
history of AI shows that researchers have made progress in the narrower
goal of creating “intelligent computer programs,” even if the larger
goal of creating human-like machines has thus far proven elusive.’
(Artificial Intelligence in Schools)
In this era, education does not mean to educate only children, but it
has encompassed adult (normally assumed they have passed the age of
going to traditional schools). Scholars are trying to differentiating in
the teaching styles used to teach adults and children. For children,
MaKenzie (2003) stated, “Content pedagogy refers to the pedagogical
(teaching) skills teachers use to impart the specialized
knowledge/content of their subject area(s). Effective teachers display a
wide range of skills and abilities that lead to creating a learning
environment where all students feel comfortable and are sure that they
can succeed both academically and personally.” On the other hand, adults
bring, ‘his/her accumulated reservoir of life experiences to aid
learning.’ And, ‘Is ready to learn when he/she assumes new social or
life roles.’ (TEAL, 2011)
I agree that there should be some difference between teaching adults and
children because both groups have different mental conditions towards
the world and life. Children learn with less responsibility and usually
do not possess a broader picture of the world and typically live in a
fantasy world. According to my own experience, the adult usually go back
to school for only one reason, to find a better job
Teaching children is different from adult teaching because children
cannot decide for themselves what they need to learn to be successful
academically and in life. So, ‘Even if a focus in teaching is on
children’s agency and creating their meaning in learning, educators
still have to supply guidance and challenge.’ (Samulesson & Park, P.
279)
On the other hand, adults, ‘Moves from dependency to increasing
self-directedness as he/she matures and can direct his/her own
learning.’ (TEAL, 2011)
References:
Artificial Intelligence in Schools (n.d). RESEARCH STARTERSACADEMIC TOPIC OVER
McKenzie, J. (2003). Pedagogy Does Matter! The Educational Technology Journal. Vol 13|No 1|September|2003
Samuelsson, I., Park, E. (2017). How to Educate Children for Sustainable Learning and for a Sustainable World. International Journal of Early Childhood; Dec2017, Vol. 49 Issue 3, p273-285, 13p
TEAL Center Fact Sheets No. 11. (2011). Adult Learning Theories
As I started the course EDU520, I was so nervous. But as the course progressed, it increased my nervousness and interest as well.
what I like the discussion board where one post his/her thoughts and reply at least three other posts. My knowledge increased considerably. The content material was a major source of information about the ‘Digitally Mediated Teaching and Learning’.
In unit 5 and 6 we were asked to build wiki pages and talk about digital citizenship.
We were four in our group and each of us have a role to act upon. I was the content locator in our group.
It was a new experience to me, where I was working with the group of people whom I never met.
We contact each other via cell phones and started participating in discussion about setting up the wiki website and wiki pages.
I personally liked this collaborative work where all of us had a different responsibility. And come to an agreement of what artifact should go on our pages.
We created the pages, ‘Digital Literacy’, ‘Digital Access’, and ‘Digital Communication’.
Digital Literacy page talks about how to use digital devices carefully and safely. Also, how to use the digital devices to keep one’s privacy, what to post on social media, how careless postings can ruin one’s personal and professional life.
The other page is ‘Digital Access’. This page has content and video to show how important it is for students to have access to digital devices. Digital access is the key to success for today’s students anywhere in the world. Internet and digital devices have transformed the world into a global village. The students, because of these devices have access to the information, new inventions, different approaches, innovations without the limitations of time and space. On this page we have discussed the importance and necessity of digital access in this modern world. The address of our ‘Digital Access’ page is:
The third page of our wiki website is ‘Digital Communication’. This page talk about what digital communication is. It also talks about how to share information to the audience of same interest. Also, how to become a responsible digital citizen. It also has an article which explains that digital communication not only occurs among individuals, but also is possible and important among institutions. The address of this page is:
braintouse 