Classroom Social Climate and Student Absences and Grades; that's the title of the article my group members and I worked on for our journal article presentation. This article is dated 1978. a research done by Rudolf H. Moos.
I found myself reading the article, Grade-Level, Gender and Ethnic Differences in Attitudes and Learning Environment in High School Mathematics by Gloria as I was reading the Moos article.
The Gloria article is set in 2005 and it shows how much the Educational research area has grown in terms of instruments and the way in which researchers conduct their research. From just being quantitative, studies have evolved to being both quantitative and qualitative.
The emergence of the CES led to the sprouting of other instruments such as the WIHIC and SLEI. Instruments custom made for the western environment and culture have been adapted and validated to suit and to be used in the Asian settings.
Though the settings and tools have changed, the fundamentals still remain; to enable educators to better comprehend the kind of learning environments they create and provide practical suggestions to improve on the learning environments for the betterment of their charges.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Thoughts on Group Presentations
Being part of the group which studied on Moos one can not deny the impact of his work on the Learning Environment.
However, after sitting through the presentations, we could appreciate the work of others such as Murray and Lewin who had started way before Moos.
Fraser has succeeded Moos in leading the journey on Classroom Learning Environment.
Though interested in different aspects, everyone of them has played a major part. Moos with his Classroom Environment scales, Fraser and his SLEI, Lewin with his Force Field Analysis and Murray's TAT.
All of these have some kind of effect in the researches done in Asia as many Asian researchers tend to modify the instruments crafted by westerners for use in their countries.
This trend has deprived Asia of its own researchers developing their own tools.
Are these tools designed for western Learning Environments effective in assessing our Asian Learning Environments?
Will there be a change in this trend?
Will Asia have its own developed tools to assess the Learning Environments in Asia?
However, after sitting through the presentations, we could appreciate the work of others such as Murray and Lewin who had started way before Moos.
Fraser has succeeded Moos in leading the journey on Classroom Learning Environment.
Though interested in different aspects, everyone of them has played a major part. Moos with his Classroom Environment scales, Fraser and his SLEI, Lewin with his Force Field Analysis and Murray's TAT.
All of these have some kind of effect in the researches done in Asia as many Asian researchers tend to modify the instruments crafted by westerners for use in their countries.
This trend has deprived Asia of its own researchers developing their own tools.
Are these tools designed for western Learning Environments effective in assessing our Asian Learning Environments?
Will there be a change in this trend?
Will Asia have its own developed tools to assess the Learning Environments in Asia?
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Reflection on The Design of Learning Environment
The word Learning Environments initially gave me a feel that it was mainly about the physical aspect of the classroom. However, after reading, How People Learn: The Design of Learning Environment, I've been enlightened. The 4 perspectives, Learner-centered, Knowledge-centered, Assessment-centered and Community-centered environments may seem like new terms. However, in retrospect, we as educators have been practising these theories all along.
Lessons designed for lower primary children are mostly centered around the experiences and culturally setting they tend to come from as these are the areas whereby pupils will have prior knowledge on. This will enable children to build on their existing knowledge and construct new understandings. Such an approach can be viewed as learner-centered.
All of us are aware of the 3 step approach in Mathematics; Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract. Children are first exposed to a concept through the use of concrete examples which is later progressed to pictorial representation and finally to abstract. Through this approach, we hope to organize the learning process for pupils according to their developmental age and learning ability.
As of late, we see the trend of providing platforms for pupils and teachers to provide feedback in different manners apart from the usual formative and summative assessments. Projects whereby feedback is given in the form of written comments instead of just numbers or grades are no longer a taboo. Even pupils give teachers feedback in their reflections and blogs.
Community-centered environments have also been around and its gaining importance as schools are gearing towards partnerships with communities in CIP programmes and learning journeys. Hence, creating opportunities for pupils to interact within the class and bond as a community and also to interact with the community outside school.
Lessons designed for lower primary children are mostly centered around the experiences and culturally setting they tend to come from as these are the areas whereby pupils will have prior knowledge on. This will enable children to build on their existing knowledge and construct new understandings. Such an approach can be viewed as learner-centered.
All of us are aware of the 3 step approach in Mathematics; Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract. Children are first exposed to a concept through the use of concrete examples which is later progressed to pictorial representation and finally to abstract. Through this approach, we hope to organize the learning process for pupils according to their developmental age and learning ability.
As of late, we see the trend of providing platforms for pupils and teachers to provide feedback in different manners apart from the usual formative and summative assessments. Projects whereby feedback is given in the form of written comments instead of just numbers or grades are no longer a taboo. Even pupils give teachers feedback in their reflections and blogs.
Community-centered environments have also been around and its gaining importance as schools are gearing towards partnerships with communities in CIP programmes and learning journeys. Hence, creating opportunities for pupils to interact within the class and bond as a community and also to interact with the community outside school.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Session One
Today was the first day of tutorial and I've to make a decision on whether to join the Monday 4pm class or Tuesday 6pm class..........
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