This is my last semester in TD, I had the opportunity to observe my instructor in her assessment course here at LIU. The courses that I took with her made me feel very
fortunate to have been able to complete my degree because she really uses what she taught me.
The
instructor as usually creates an environment that i conducive to learning in
which all the students appear to feel at ease due to her warm,
friendly personality and also because she is approachable and appear
to possess a genuine interest in hearing our opinions and never push us away. One
thing that I learned from this instructor related to planning and
adapting those plans to fit the students' needs like she always do with us. She is very
organize and plan all of her information ahead of time and not just read from the book inside the classroom. Her methods and enthusiasm is a huge world for me, that I wish to apply within my teaching methods.
I have deep believe that this instructor is highly effective and someone to whom I
can use as a model in my career. She incorporates many things that I liked into the courses in order to make from us effective teachers , including proper planning, providing authentic and
interesting materials, promoting learner autonomy through strategies
training, allowing group work, employing a communicative approach to
learning, and creating a learner-centered environment. It wasn't related to content but always to students.
As parents, it is very hard to wisely
select the appropriate perfect school for your child. Thus, it is very
important to keep on mind these main questions while searching: "will the
chosen school provide my child with a good foundation for better preparation; therefore
better future by better SES, thus
a suitable environment in which they can thrive, develop, and
progress". In fact, no one can have
a clear cut answer for this question and no one school is the best. Many
parents feel that their responsibility to wisely select the right school weighs
heavily on their shoulders especially if they felt that their choice was wrong.
The parents have a wide range of chances where they can choose from the public
governmental schools to the private sector schools that offers a variety of
education choices. So how can the parents think wisely to make an informed and
confident choice about which school would best suit their child abilities and
needs? Thus, as parents keep these guidelines on mind while doing your search.
The first guideline to keep on mind is to
carefully know and understand the child's needs and personality. This will in
turn allow us to consider the key characteristics to search for in the expected
ideal learning environment. That will be suitable for his/her personality to
progress and thrive. After knowing the child's characteristics, we should
consider the fact of what are the educational preference and values to be
provided by the chosen one because schools usually offer a wide range of
philosophies and practices. For example a strong philosophical (open-mind) or
religious (Christian or Muslim) views will for sure highly influence our child
developing cognitive process toward these different theories that we might not
support. Thus, parents should be highly aware and do their homework while
searching, looking for all details; the obvious and the hidden ones. Therefore,
understanding the type of school we prefer for our child isn’t enough but we
should also to be able to match the chosen school with the child needs and the
desired qualities.
The second guideline is to start the
actual homework by gathering information available about the surrounding
schools. Start by collecting brochures (if available), check out the ministry
of education website or the schools own website (if available), ask other
parents for their own feedback according to prior experience, and visit the
school campus to take a tour, meet with principal and the teaching staff to
understand more about the school policy. While doing the research think and ask
about the following aspects. The schools' location because the daily long and
inconvenient travel arrangement will make our children very tired, unable to
continue studying the tasks and required material. The school philosophical and
religious as said previously. The educational curriculum offered whether it’s
the national one or special for the schools own philosophy or whether the
school provide different educational options for the child to choose from. The
schools fees and associated costs whether it meets the expected budget or it is
too expensive. The predominant emphases of the school regard the academic
achievement and how the student failure or success is dealt with. The social-emotional
well being balanced environment available for the learners. The facilities
offered by the school starting from the academic ones like the science
laboratories and libraries to the extra curriculum ones sports and performing
arts. The class size and structure including the number of students in each
class and its' effect on the child's processing information. And finally, the
schools' own reputation in the official exams.
The third and last guideline in the
process of selecting a school is the evaluation-match step. Parents must
evaluate all the gathered information regarding what cultural capital a school
can provide to the child. Comparing the different school offers into lists of
the good-bad and advantages-disadvantages of each. Then match the schools at
the top of the list with their own preferences, values and desired SES level. The ones that pass this stage of
matching and eliminating the unwanted schools must be further matched with the
child needs and quality, and finally with the desired outcomes. At this stage
the wide range of schools is diluted into just one or two best. Thus the choice
is easier.
When parents are searching for a
suitable school for their own child, they have to be aware to all the terms
mentioned in the following list because it's one of the most important
decisions parents take for their child, where the child have to spend around 14
years in school from KG till high-school graduation. Thus, be careful and aware
for all details and don’t take the easy choice that seems already made to meet
your needs because some may deceive you by the look.
A list to help you
in your research:
Assess your child’s personal qualities.
Determine
your education preferences and values.
List
your education goals for your child.
Match
your child and your preferences to the school.
These days, technology is becoming an important component and a rich subject to debate. Every day there is some
new gadget or software that should make our lives easier and improves the
technology and software that already exists on-hands. However making live easier is
not the only role technology.
Technology
is playing an increasing role in education. As technology advances, it
is used to benefit students of all ages in the learning process by addressing their different styles and learning preference. Technology
used in the classroom helps students to adsorb the material. For example,
since some people are visual learners, projection screens linked to
computers can allow students to see their notes instead of simply
listening to a teacher deliver a boring long lectures.
Software can be used to
supplement class curriculum. The programs provide study questions,
activities, and even tests and quizzes for a class that can help
students continue learning outside the classroom.
Also technology has become part of many curriculum subjects, even outside of computer and
technology classes. Students use computers to create power point presentations and
use the Internet to research topics for research, papers and essays.
Students
also learn to use the technology available to them in computer and tech
classes as we are learning in Educ 560. This ensures that after graduation we will be able to use
the technology in the work setting, which may put us ahead of someone
who didn't have access this huge world.
As technology advances, students have better
access to educational opportunities like these. Because when something new and
"better" is revealed, the "older" technology becomes more affordable,
allowing it to be used in the Lebanese public educational system that has tight budget.
Technology has also advanced to help children
even before they've started school. Educational video games and systems
for young children helps them prepare for school and in some cases get
a head start on their education; such as the ABC games, singing, drawing games. That are widely used by parents every where even on cell-phone or ipads, iphones.
Of course in Lebanon we are always against improvement. Therefore, there are people who may say parents are spoiling their children by technology. Instead of being able to add a
long column of numbers in their heads, for example, they turn to a
calculator. Regardless of these arguments, technology has an important
part of today's society whether positive or negative. So why always focus on the negative side of technology. By incorporating it into the classroom,
students will be better equipped to transition from the classroom to
the work place. Because nowadays there isn't any job without any technology background.
Examinations are a great curse for everyone. They are one type of punishment of our
educational system. They come like electric shocks to students even if well prepared. When they come,
even the smartest of us forget all the hard work (information) at the day and night to finish what is supposed to be finished.
Everybody is afraid of them. All agree on one opinion, "O God ! help me pass just this once." This gives one some idea of the terror they strike into the
hearts of the poor examinees like me.
I had to take the assessment examination. I had swotted for it and yet I
had a lurking fear that I would not do well. A night before the
examination. I felt worried to death. I could not get a wink of sleep-
My heart was throbbing with fear. The grade isn't there yet but still waiting in fear due to the thought of getting a failing grade."O God, I hope the best."
At last the fatal day dawned. Samir asked all to enter the auditorium and all the candidates
hurried in, each taking his seat. I tried to compose myself but all to
no purpose. My heart went on palpitating. The examinees sat calm and
quiet, waiting for the question paper that was to decide their fate. At
last at the fixed time, the question papers were distributed , to discover the number of pages to be filled. The shock they were 30 blank pages that must be filled. There was
a pin-drop silence in the hall due to the huge effort we should try and concertate to finish it.
I read the question paper carefully once and again. Answers to most
of the questions were at my finger-ends. My fear decreased with the number of pages. My
heart beat normally as the exam started to end.
At that time some students, who had no time to finish all the questions, began
to whisper and look sideways amazed from the lack of time to fill 30 pages. The supervisor of the exam (Bilal) administered them a warning for their complains.
I went on with my work. One by one, I managed to answer all the questions required. I think that I had done very well. I was
full of hope. All my fears were gone.
When the time was over, I handed over my exam to the
supervisor and came out of the hall. I met my friends and asked them
how they had fared in the examination.
Whenever I think of the sleepless nights before the examination, I
still tremble and shudder. The fear of the examination is still
embedded in my heart. The anxiety that exams make me feel isn't going to disappear ever whether I did well or didn't.
Pragmatism is a philosophical
tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a
process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice
to form what is called intelligent practice.Important positions
characteristic of pragmatism include instrumentalism,
radical empiricism, verificationism,
conceptual
relativity, and fallibilism. There is general consensus among
pragmatists that philosophy should take the methods and insights of modern
science into account. Charles Sanders Peirce (and his pragmatic
maxim) deserves much of the credit for pragmatism, along with later
twentieth century contributors, William James
and John Dewey.
For pragmatists, only those things that are
experienced or observed are real. In this late 19th century American
philosophy, the focus is on the reality of experience. Unlike the Realists and
Rationalists, Pragmatists believe that reality is constantly changing and that
we learn best through applying our experiences and thoughts to problems, as
they arise. The universe is dynamic and evolving, a "becoming" view
of the world. There is no absolute and unchanging truth, but rather, truth is
what works. Pragmatism is derived from the teaching of Charles Sanders Peirce
(1839-1914), who believed that thought must produce action, rather than linger
in the mind and lead to indecisiveness.
John
Dewey (1859-1952) applied pragmatist philosophy in his progressive approaches.
He believed that learners must adapt to each other and to their environment.
Schools should emphasize the subject matter of social experience. All learning
is dependent on the context of place, time, and circumstance. Different
cultural and ethnic groups learn to work cooperatively and contribute to a
democratic
society.
The ultimate purpose is the creation of a new social order. Character
development is based on making group decisions in light of consequences.
Education must teach one how to think so that one can adjust to an ever-changing
society. The school must aim at developing those experiences that will enable
one to lead a good life. These objectives include:
1.Good
health.
2.Vocational
skills.
3.Interests
and hobbies for leisure living.
4.Preparation
for parenthood.
5.Ability
to deal effectively with social problems.
Additional
specific goals must include an understanding of the importance of democracy.
Democratic government enables each citizen to grow and live through the social
interaction that takes place with other citizens. Education must help its
students become excellent citizens in the democracy.
For
Pragmatists, teaching methods focus on hands-on problem solving, experimenting,
and projects, often having students work in groups. Curriculum should bring the
disciplines together to focus on solving problems in an interdisciplinary way.
Rather than passing down organized bodies of knowledge to new learners,
Pragmatists believe that learners should apply their knowledge to real situations
through experimental inquiry. This prepares students for citizenship, daily
living, and future careers. According to the Experimentalists and Pragmatists,
the democratic tradition is a self-correcting tradition. As such, the social
heritage of the past is not the focus of educational interest. Rather, the
focus is for the good life now and in the future. The standard of social good
is constantly being tested and verified through changing experiences;
therefore, education must work to preserve democracy. The nature of this
democracy is dynamic and changing as a result of its continually undergoing
reconstructive experiences. However, this reconstruction does not demand or
include total change. Only the serious social problems of society are
re-examined in order to arrive at new solutions.
In the
Experimentalists and Pragmatists view, the curriculum of the education
imparting institution must not exist apart from the social context. The subject
matter of education is the tool for solving individual problems and as the
individual learner is improved or reconstructed, society is improved in similar
fashion. Therefore, the problems of democratic society must form the basis of
the curriculum; and the means to resolve the problems of democratic
institutions must also be included in the curriculum. Therefore, there must
be
1.A
social basis to the curriculum.
2.Opportunity
to practice democratic ideals.
3.Democratic
planning at every level of education.
4.Group
definition of common social goals.
5.Creative
means to develop new skills.
6.Activity-centered
and pupil-centered curriculum.
In
Experimentalism and Pragmatism, learning is always considered to be an
individual matter. Teachers ought not to try to pour the knowledge they have
into the learners, because such efforts are fruitless. What each learner learns
depends upon his own personal needs, interests, and problems. In other words,
the content of knowledge is not an end in itself but a means to an end. Thus, a
learner who is faced by a problem may be able to reconstruct his environment so
as to solve this felt need. To help him the teacher must
1.Provide experiences that will
excite motivation. Field trips, films, records, and guest experts are examples
of activities designed to awaken learner interest in an important problem.
2.Guide the learner into formulating
a specific definition of the problem. Because each learner approaches the
problem from his own experiential background, the teacher should encourage the learners
to formulate their own aims and goals.
3.Plan with the class the individual
and group objectives to be used in solving the problem.
4.Assist the learners in collecting
the information pertaining to the problem. Essentially, the teacher serves as a
guide by introducing skills, understandings, knowledge, and appreciations
through the use of books, compositions, letters, resource speakers, films,
field trips, television, or anything else that may be appropriate.
5.Evaluate with the class what was
learned; how they learned it; what new information occurred; what each learner
discovered for himself.
The
teaching-learning method just described is the method of problem solving.
Experimentalists and Pragmatists are committed to the use of the
problem-solving inquiry and discovery method. This approach to teaching
requires that a teacher be
My science experience
started at the elementary cycle like most students, at which I hated the Science
class due to the mean teacher giving us the subject. This hatefulness
individual created a huge gap between me and the Science world. In this young
period, the method used by the teacher was mainly in the direct manner where
everything written on the board is to be written on my copybook and then back
on the exam if I wish to pass, and any other opinion would fail me. There were
no chances for any critical thinking about the interesting subject so called
"the earth and life science".
However as I moved on to the intermediate
cycle, a wonderful teacher gave me the biology subject making it look like "love
from the first sight". Here I understood biology as the natural science concerned with studying life and living organisms;
in other words everything around us, including their structures, function, and growth.
Biology has different well-known sub-disciplines unified into the five so-called axioms
of modern Biology: the amazing cell that is the basic and simplest unit of life,
genes are the basic unit
of heredity,
new species and inherited traits are the product of evolution,
an organism regulates its internal environment to maintain a stable and
constant condition, and living organisms consume and transform energy in order to
survive. For me, Biology is the core-center of the world controlling and
determining what we are and how we are different. It can explain anything. So in
the intermediate cycle, the teacher was more caring than the awful mean teacher
in the elementary school. Thus I was able to love the subject and be able to
learn and understand. It was more concerned with building knowledge instead of
copy-pasting the elementary teachers' opinion. The strategies used were mainly
the lecture-discussion method through the deductive way and the information
processing technique, in addition to application where we had the chance to do
experiments with little guidance. I can say proudly that from this stage in my
life I choose to enter the college to study something related to biology. So the teacher gave us the example
in order to know the rules or concepts by student-student and student-teacher
discussion. The teacher concentrated on our understanding more than grades.
In the
secondary cycle, my love got bigger and deeper with the more interesting topics
in life science. My secondary teacher used the same techniques as in the
intermediate cycle with her ultimate for us is to get good understanding about life
science and be able to use the learned information in our real world life. Also
at this stage we did lots of research to gather information. Therefore a chance
for my own construction mechanism is granted, making Science become interesting
location for my thoughts and dreams.
When I graduated from high-school with a high
grade in Biology, I exactly knew where I'm going. Some usually are lost in this
transition state, but my love desire took me to the right place. At the
university, unfortunately the style of teaching changed completely from a
discussion area to a lecturing zone only. At this stage, the lecturing method
wasn’t a problem for me because with almost every course there was additional
credit for the lab that represents excellent application of the course theories
or concepts. Thus the lab was able to satisfy my needs in discovering the
information by myself therefore constructing my own thoughts and ideas upon my
effort.
