Essays on Teaching

The Relationship between Curriculum and Instruction

A common misconception is that the curriculum dictates exactly what and when a child is taught. In reality, and in more recent revisions of the curriculum, it actually shapes and influences what a child must learn in order to help them become a functioning member of society. For many, the curriculum is merely a selection of standards by which we must measure our nation’s children’s progress – instruction is the methods implemented to carry out those lessons. Therefore, the relationship between curriculum and instruction must be close but still kept as fluid as possible. It is clear that Continue reading...

Introduction

Notably, education is one of the factors that determine the standard of living in the world today. Education is merely the passing of skills, knowledge, and information to student by their teachers. It affects different aspects of human life, namely political, social, and economical. Education trains people to explore their potentials to optimum level regardless of gender, race nationality, or background. Certainly, education is an important and lucrative form of human capital that helps in furthering economic escalation as well as improving general productivity of a nation. In Bangladesh education is poorly developed. Furthermore, the rate of literacy is Continue reading...

Things happen…Indeed, they do happen when you are not waiting for them. And the worst is that bad things happen to you when you are not waiting for them at all, when you are disarmed, they like stab you into your back with a knife, like a traitor…the next feeling is devastation, despair and darkness. These three ‘Ds’ overwhelm you like a big wave and it seems that the world has collapses.
Not so long ago I’ve had these very feelings – my world stopped functioning for me. Its engines broke down and the whole system of ‘ Continue reading...

Summary

The issue of parents-teachers communication is very crucial in the development of children both academically and socially. The way parents and teachers relate considerably affects the performances of children in school. The performances of children whose parents are always in touch with teachers perform well in academics and other areas. Good parent-teacher relationship promotes a lot to the high self-esteem of children, which makes them to be confident in whatever they do as they grow; leading them to be responsible and industrious people in maturity.
It is therefore, obligatory for both parents and teachers to ensure that they Continue reading...

Reflection:

1. Did the teacher use Communicative Language Teaching? What did you observe which supports your answer? Yes, the teacher used Communicative Language in her teaching approach. In fact, she encouraged students to reflect on positive communication in classrooms. The students were encouraged to communicate through the English language. There were massive communicative interactions between the teacher and students. Students mainly learnt from the interactions in their classroom rather than solely relying on their teacher’s input. Students discussed ideas, and constructed meaningful solutions among themselves given the fact that they communicated and interacted freely with each other in their classroom.

2. What did you notice about teacher talk time vs. student talk time?How much were the students involved in and engaged with the lesson? For sure, the teachers’ talk time was well balanced with the instructions. The ratio of teacher to student talk time was approximately twenty five to seventy five percent and they were highly engaged in the class. Students worked in pairs and groups and they were encouraged to participate and share their opinions and enhance understanding with the rest of their classmates. When students were asked questions, the teacher provided them with clear clarifications on concepts and statements in a very appealing and respectful manner. Important still, the teacher asked questions to test student’s understanding since she transformed the classroom to be student-centered.

3. Did the warm-up effectively prepare students for the lesson? Explain. The teacher used a combination of bottoms-up and tops-down kind of approach in her teaching strategy so that students could be well prepared for the new topics. The teacher pre- trained them vocabularies and then she provided us with the background information before introducing them to their new items. Students were able to apply their schematic knowledge. Basically, she engaged them to be cognitively aware before introducing them to new areas of study. Students’ participations in games, puzzles, and various activities, familiarized made them conversant with the topics that they were trained on especially on areas like new vocabularies and grammatical structures. As time went by, they were capable of tackling new items and demonstrating their functions.

4. Do you think that the target language structures (e.g., new grammar, vocabulary, expressions) and/or skills were taught effectively? Why or why not? Yes, the target language structures and skills were taught effectively to students. Their teacher clearly wrote and illustrated everything on the board in a manner that was simple, concise and clear, for them to understand well. She drew pictures and as well used picture cards to effectively present and convey her lectures in classroom. She presented the entire content in a systematic and organized way. For real, her lectures were not overburdening us in any way since every one of them felt free and at home. Another imperative thing is that, the teacher also used interactive strategies in her communicative language in teaching instructions. She clearly demonstrated and explained the task before asking students to respond. She accorded them with sufficient time which enabled them to respond fruitfully to her questions. She also gave students plenty of time for extracurricular activities so that they could have ample time to interact with each other, re-discover and find meaning among them. The teacher also provided them with key vocabularies before she could ask them to create dialogues using the key words. She helped students to practice and exercise learned vocabularies and skills in different categories of the lesson and they were able to give their thoughts and opinions on the same subject.

5. Do you think that the teacher’s activities encouraged students to practice the target language and/or skills effectively? Yes, the teacher’s activities encourage students to practice the language target as well as skills effectively. She brought authentic materials to the classroom whereby I realized that they were enjoying themselves and at the same time they were actively participating in the activities. The students volunteered to express their thoughts and opinions through language target while participating in the classroom. Students were communicating by helping each other in finding solutions to problems. Eventually, she went around the class by randomly asking students to answer questions while students tried their best to answer them right. It was quite evident that they were effectively practicing their language skills in speaking and listening. The teacher gave sufficient information so that students could be well prepared to practice independently outside the class.

Did the teacher effectively evaluate the target language and/or skills? Explain. Sincerely speaking, the teacher evaluated the target language and the entire skills due to the fact that she understood each one of the students, their capability in proficiency level as well as their needs. I was told that that center tracked the ongoing student’s assignments on English proficiency and used ongoing students’ assessments in planning and implementation of a two hour lesson for classes. She was constantly testing their understanding by asking them challenging questions and at the same time she could be able to constantly monitor the student’s progress.

In this space, write any final comments you have about the lesson you observed (required).

Consequently, the teacher created for them a learning-friendly environment in the classrooms. She managed to control the class very well and provided them with plenty of examples for them to enable them learn the rules by themselves. She questioned them on various grounds and they immediately answered correctly. She taught them on how to interact in groups. She gave them freedom of learning independently. They were all motivated and really enjoyed whatever they were doing because she even organized a fashion show for them. She also prepared for them computers so that they could learn communication skills of learning and listening through programs like Rosetta stone language. They learnt the art of asking questions while they were also encouraged to be sensitive towards the asked questions. They became so confident that they were not even afraid of making mistakes inappropriately because they could easily remedy whatever the situation. They positively challenged each other enough and it really helped them to improve their spoken grammar. If there is one thing that that class need to do right now, is that they need to focus on reading and writing skills of language learners. They are the only skills that I did not see being applied in any of the lessons but I guess maybe it was the nature of the syllabus in that center that it only focused on oral language proficiency, conversational as well as spoken.

Corporal punishment is the intentional infliction of physical pain given to students for an offence committed. It may take several forms such as hitting, slapping, pinching, kicking, slapping and use of various objects. The main objective of applying corporal punishment is intended to reform behavior. However, it has been viewed as a result of both social and collective problems. For example, corporal punishment in schools is associated with reduced quality of school life among students. On the other hand, spanking is a form of discipline used on children. Also, it takes the form of deliberate striking the bottom of Continue reading...

While motivation is essential to all ages, it is of paramount importance and has become a big issue in secondary education. Motivation plays a crucial part with success in student education and later in adulthood. Parents have the utmost impact on adolescents when it comes to expectations and goals. The lack of parental involvement has become a major issue for many public schools. In order to change how students value their education, parents have to be involved at home, school and set expectations for their children. While there is extensive research on strategies for teachers to use to help Continue reading...

English

In the ENG101, I have gained vast experiences and skills in essay development, sentence structuring and presentation. Most importantly, I have gained skills in essay writing such as the use of styles and critical presentation of ideas. Currently, I know that essay development and presentation adopts various techniques dependent on the style of writing. The teacher emphasized on the need to observe clarity and originality in writing essays. Overall, essay writing must incorporate a five-paragraph style containing an introduction, with viable thesis statement, three-body paragraphs and conclusion. The thesis statement forms the platform for the development of the entire Continue reading...

The original issue that center staged my research was oriented along the angles of how to come up with an effective teaching plan that shall facilitate great learning tactics in schools. In this regard, the issue had come of pertinent relevant was because most schools were manifested by instances that called for immediate attention. In this context, the issues that were circumscribed included; those that are oriented along instances of students underperforming in their studies. On the same note, it should be regarded that, schemes of teaching have been the most influencing instances that been used in criticizing schools Continue reading...

Introduction

Schools are the best place where children can learn and practice good nutrition. The school environment provides good opportunities for teachers to make an excellent impact on children’s health. What a child eats now has a significant impact on the child’s future health, throughout the adolescence stage to adulthood. A good child’s development depends on the consumption of nutritious food. Consuming nutritious food makes the child to perform well academically and feel good physically. Children poor eating habits is adding up to the rising cases of disorders, dental cavities, obesity and other child deficiency disorders which Continue reading...

Introduction

Indiana University Bloomington is public/government owned university in America that offers an array of faculties includes technical professions, as well as liberal arts. This university that is popularly known as IU Bloomington is located in Bloomington, Indiana. The university was founded in the year 1820 as a state seminary. Today, several years after this institution was established, the university offers a large number of various programs to its relatively large student population. Some of the faculties that can be found in this university include the school of business, public health, Jacob’s school of music, school of law and Continue reading...

Analyzing Pre-Kindergarten Week-2 Lesson Plan for “Farm Animals”

Skills and Knowledge/Standards and Strategies Required in Teaching the Lesson
Generally, the teacher should have undergone through training in teaching methodologies and content of the subject matter he is about to teach. In this regard, the teacher is supposed to have trained in general science to the level required for the Pre-K class. Moreover, in teaching methodologies, he is supposed to be equipped with skills to bring stimuli that activate receptors. His lesson should be aimed at making children gain attention for instance, by singing a song about farm animals, or by making them hold pictures of farm animals Continue reading...

Introduction

“The chosen topic is of Urban Childhood Education”
Reasons for Choosing this Topic
I selected this topic because I feel that Education plays a vital role in making a child successful and independent. For any child’s life, an aspect of early childhood education is very important as it goes against the concept of childhood slavery when a child cannot fulfill his childhood needs, and others exploit him by excessive work and as a tool to get work done. in spite of being given important academic education, he spends his childhood in slavery. In the critical years from birth Continue reading...

Overview

Balanced literacy involves language arts acquisition using a program consisting of word study, small strategy groups, and interactive read aloud, along with shared, independent, and guided reading. These essential components help a learner to understand written and spoken communication by emphasizing on reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing. Literacy is an important aspect everyday activities and modern social networks emphasize this, people cannot “Tweet” and comment if they do not write.
Yet even with increasing trends in globalization some children are more advanced, and some need to learn solutions to their education challenges. Balanced literacy instruction supports students’ need Continue reading...

Abstract

English is a global language that started in Europe but has been adapted by other countries as a lingua franca. It is a language that is mainly used for communication between and among people. Just like any other language, English contains the four language skills that need to be mastered in order for an individual to manipulate the language for fluent communication. The four language skills include reading, listening, speaking and writing, the learners find them difficult, and this affects their education and communication. The focus is to explore strategies that help in the development of the four language Continue reading...

The concept of a paradigm shift gives a means of making connections between changes that are linked to communicative language teaching. There are eight changes, which fit with the communicative language teaching paradigm shift. These are the social nature of learning, the autonomy of the learner, curricular integration, diversity, focus on meaning, individual thinking skills, teachers as co-learners and alternative assessment.
Paradigm shift in education is used to represent change. A paradigm shift takes place when we see things from a different perspective. Paradigm shifts in the twentieth Century can be due to a large shift from positivism to Continue reading...

Study Program

Review of Keenan, J. & Evans, A. 2014. ‘‘I am a starbucks worker my life no longer belongs to me’: the performance of enstrangement as a learning tool,’ Teaching in Higher Education, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 101-112.
This paper examines the use of autoethnography as a means of approaching the experience of estrangement, thereby making the researcher’s personal experience a topic of investigation. Autoethnographic practices that emphasize the location of the researcher as an important response to post-structuralist epistemologies in which older forms of certainty in the validity traditional scientific inquiry have been edged out by greater Continue reading...

Introduction

The rapid growth of technology worldwide baffles many; every sector of the society, workplace, and even schools depict the influence of technological advancements. Schools have not been left behind either; the use of computers and other technological devices incorporated into the learners’ learning experiences. With focus on the incorporation of technology in schools, it is needed to question whether the technology is indeed beneficial to learners. Technology rapidly changes the way the students of all abilities and ages learn and live. For instance, in the USA, many K-12 schools incorporate computer hardware and software in the curriculum (Saba, 2009).
Continue reading...

Eric Zwingel

Valley City State University
Video games have become a large part of many peoples’ lives with ages ranging from toddlers to middle aged adults. Teachers are seeing this integration of gaming into the classroom with such things as Smartboards and Ipads to utilize the tech skills that students are developing. Unfortunately most teachers relate gaming to negative effects which are major concerns amongst most school faculties. As a future teacher, I want to know how gaming is affecting the students in a positive, negative, and social aspect. My experiences with gaming have been positive but how I view the Continue reading...

Is Online Education Just as Legitimate as Traditional Education? Why or Why not?

Abstract
This paper strongly supports the claim that online education is not as legitimate as traditional education. It makes use of three arguments which explain the superiority of traditional education over online education. In the first argument, the lack of a physical class-room environment is discussed. In the second argument, lack of motivation and its impact on students’ outcome is discussed while the last argument highlights the technological issues associated with online courses. The paper supports the presented claims with adequate data and therefore develops a strong recommendation for traditional education as compared to online education.

Is Online Education Just as Legitimate as Traditional Education?

Over the past Continue reading...

Importance of Teaching Pragmatics in a Foreign Language Classroom

Abstract
Pragmatics requires a well-defined environment for the learner to grasp the basic concepts of communicative aspects of the target language. The complexity and sophistication most foreign languages are characterized with, a foreign language student would take as long as 10 years to attach quality communicative meaning like the natives; this can be reduced by enhancing the quality of pragmatics for second language learners. Like every learning situation, the environment has a big role to play in the learning process. As a matter of fact, language is tied to culture and socialism and shaped by psychology; therefore, the most Continue reading...

Children must live as children; they must get affection and love and in the process, they must build their abilities and experience traumatic situations such as; be exposed to drugs and porn. We all want children to be the productive force of the nation, in spite our good thought on the well-being of children issues, there are still some places in the US where children do not live as one, especially in the inner part of Chicago city. Alex Kotlowitz in his book “There Are No Children Here” talks about the children who live in the mess violence of Continue reading...

Introduction

Textbooks are fundamental instruments of learning in our schools. The underlying argument of quality assurance is not based on the textbooks in general but on the specific textbook upon which a school and the subject teacher use as the course book. As a matter of importance, a teacher should consider the choice of books he or she uses to teach. Therefore, as part of the school textbook committee, a textbook selection program should be carried out in order to evaluate the best textbook that can be used for the Math Curriculum. Three Math textbook samples from different publishers, Edexcel Continue reading...

Introduction

The worldwide technological revolution has impacted many facets of global systems in a major way (Aaron 1). Technological innovation has improved the archaic traditional methodology of obtaining results. Speed and productivity have been enhanced thanks to this technological advancement. However, compared to other sectors, the education system has lagged behind in incorporating technology in the learning process (Aaron 1). The education system stands to gain a lot if it incorporates technology in the learning models. The most innovative way to do this is the gamification of the learning process. This paper aims to illustrate gamification, how it operates and Continue reading...

There have been debates on whether family morals have declined or not, as regards the comparison between morals in the present time and those in the last decade. Family morals are beliefs that families espouse regarding good or bad, and wrong or right. Morals are considered to be the foundation of discipline, which is helpful in guiding children about their boundaries. Currently, there are sources that confirm that family morals, which are the primary sources of children’s discipline, are declining. Moreover, the sources note that the morals are declining because there are many factors that are overwhelming or Continue reading...

Waiting for “Superman”

Waiting for “Superman” is a documentary film produced by Lesley Chilcott and directed by Davis Guggenheim. This documentary produced in 2010 analyzes the shortcomings of the American public school system by following the struggles of several students and their families to gain access into a charter school (Guggenheim, 2012). It features students from across America that has been negatively affected by the public school system. These students together with their families have numerous hardships to overcome yet show a strong determination to succeed and an attitude of never giving up (Spina, 2011). The producer says that the problem lies Continue reading...

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of learning a new language with new characters, in particular Chinese characters, in other words, how do second language adult students acquire knowledge about orthographic characters of a new language system. While past research has shown that adult learners with no previous Chinese exposure learn more effectively by receiving explicit instructions of orthographic rules (Taft & Chung, 1999; Dunlap, Perfetti, Liu & Wu). This study focuses particularly in the semantic rules. Our results support previous results in that those learners who were given explicit instructions of semantic rules did learn more Continue reading...

- Why teaching math and Science is important in the early years?
Science and mathematics are very important for children at early ages because it offers them the basic foundation on which future learning and understanding is built one. Therefore, the children need to be exposed to basic principles of both mathematics and science especially in the children’s day to day activities. The learning can be specifically integrated into the play activities of the children.
- What is the continuum of cognitive development and how does it relate to learning math and science?
The brain of children progressively develops Continue reading...

The Department of education would this financial year like to make the connectED Initiative the core focus of our department. The mission of the Department of Education continues to be promoting student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. American students need to be adequately equipped with skills that enable them to compete with students from all over the world (Adam, 58). This can only be done through increasing interactive and individualized learning experiences driven by new technology which uses platforms such as digital textbooks that assists students to visualize complex concepts Continue reading...

The research problem

Introduction
Balanced literacy approach to reading is a program involving language art acquisition. The program has every component that a learner needs to understand written and spoken communication. The program puts more emphasize on reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing. Literacy is a very vital aspect in the modern society because almost every activity is guided by education. However, even with the high rate of globalization and as more people become more advanced, some people are yet to get solutions to education challenges they face. Literacy courses are integrate in the school curriculum because if two main reasons. Firstly, Continue reading...

In a world so like ours complex communication difficulties are inevitable. Multicultural communication has experienced major challenges which have hampered smooth and easy communication between persons of different cultures. An article titled Cross Cultural Communication Challenges found in the Miskito Mission Network highlights a couple of points are highlighted with regard to multicultural communication which might help teachers as they go about their communication with English language learners.
Three of these challenges stand out as those that can go a long way into easing communication between English language learners. One of them is the understanding of the different communication Continue reading...

‘Instructor’s name’

‘Subject’
I would like to begin by saying that, the assignment was an excellent opportunity to better understand the various research methodologies and techniques we studied, during the course of our class lectures. By developing a research draft, I was able to obtain an explicit idea about the process of conducting a research and the various concepts associated with a research process.
While preparing the draft I faced many challenges, which I overcame with the help of the data available in the text book, class lectures, and the college library. One such challenge was to find out the best Continue reading...

A teacher’s work involves many activities such as ethics. Teachers apply the code of ethics to display discipline (Kompf, 2013). A teacher’s job is an ethics-demanding job as they train the young people. The teaching profession reflects on ethics since the teacher should show an ethical example to the students. Teachers should be ethically aware of their place in the inclusion of the education trainings.
As a teacher who has taught for eight months, I have gained a lot during this period that concerns .ethics and leadership. In the course of my training, I have realized that Continue reading...

Introduction

According to Burns (99), learning is comparatively permanent change in behavior, whereby behavior is the observable activity as well as internal processes such as attitudes, thinking and emotions. Burns holds that learning may not show itself in observable behavior immediately the educational program has happened. Learning occurs in different settings such as at home, during play, at work or more commonly, at school. In formal settings, learning takes place in a classroom, library or laboratory. Teachers facilitate learning on different levels. On the other hand, apprenticeship is a combination of training on the job and related classroom instruction through Continue reading...

- What are the common teacher incentive pay program designs?
- Are the teachers’ incentive programs effective in enhancing students’ performance?
In that view, the study summarizes the four articles’ study findings as well as authors’ conclusion and then draws a conclusion on the issue based on the quantitative studies presented by the authors. Those articles include Steele, Murname and Willnett (2009) that seek to analyze the effect of incentive on teachers’ retention. In the article, a natural experiment done in California between the year 2000 and 2003 involving an incentive of $20,000 that was called the Governor’ Continue reading...

Dear Prof X

On behalf of tutors, we are honoured to explain and resolve the issues you raised on late assignment submission and make-up questions. The professor incorporated us in the ongoing reforms the subject. It is true that the existing policies on late assignment submission and make-up questions for students seem to create lapses in the overall management of our academic work. Currently, the protocol of late assignment submission and make-up question postulates that students must provide a viable reason for such act. Currently, we are trying to apply the inclusion factors for the involved parties through discussion. The forthcoming meeting Continue reading...

Critique of Joshua M. Englehart (2011). Why class size effects cannot stand alone: Insights from a qualitative exploration. Learning Environ Res 14:109–121
This is a critique of a qualitative study on why class effects cannot stand alone in influencing performance, comfort and participation amongst students in both large and small classes. This critique uses several criteria to analyze the qualitative study and its social and conceptual justification. Example of the criteria used include methods used to reduce bias, the use of the qualitative approach, interpretation of results, sample size, study results and any strengths or limitations to the Continue reading...

- Describe a situation where a Goodness-of-Fit Test could be used
We know, that chi-square goodness-of-fit test is a non-parametric test which helps us to understand if there is a significant difference between observed and expected frequencies of some experiment.

Where f0 are observed frequencies, fe are expected frequencies.

For example, consider the coin tossed 100 times with the result of 65 tails and 35 heads. We want to test hypothesis if the coin is symmetric. If the coin is symmetric, then expected frequencies will be 50 and 50.
So,
X 2Pearson = (Oi-Ei) 2/Ei = (65-50) 2/50 + (35-50) 2/50 = 2*225/50 = 9.
The resulting value should be compared with Continue reading...

Every day, homeschooling continues gaining popularity as compared to state schooling. The statistics show that the growth rate ranges between seven and 15 percent annually. There are close to two million learners under this learning process in their homes. It is observed that homeschooled kids perform better in the standardized tests and are welcomes in colleges and universities. As adults, they have reputations for self-directed learners as well as reliable employees (Hughs, 2014). Close to a decade ago, the perception of homeschooling was fought by many policy makers with the question of its impact on developing reliable students. In Continue reading...

Overview

This paper is across examination of a specified primary school education experience on the overall academic performance of junior secondary school students’ one, in Egerton Junior high school, Ndeffo, Naks. The private schools that are used in this study used instructional materials in a teaching and learning experiences in class. The materials varied from charts, tables and other audio visual aids used in a normal class setting. A sample class size of a 100 students of the school with 50% having come from government public primary schools and the rest of the students from private primary school institutions. In Continue reading...