research – Page 2 – ThinkEdu Blog

Recognizing and Addressing the Barriers to Adolescents’ “Reading Like Historians”

Posted on April 25, 2014 by admin

I believe that every History teacher should read Professor Jeffery Nokes’ well-written paper on “Recognizing and Addressing the Barriers to Adolescents’
“Reading Like Historians”. He makes a very strong argument for creating a learning and questioning culture that is more like the actual discipline of History, rather than just uncritically rote learning and accepting what is in a textbook. Nokes’ research is firmly rooted in real classroom practice, which makes it all the more powerful and easier to apply practically.

Below you will find my highlighted sections and summary of the article. There is also a very clear overview table that lists the four barriers to “Reading like a Historian” and some suggestions as to how to overcome these barriers.

Some resources:

http://teachinghistory.org/
A blog post about ‘ahistorical thinking’
http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/why/
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/high-school-teachers/807
http://www.historymatters.group.shef.ac.uk/
http://www.thinkinghistory.co.uk/index.php
Great reading: http://www.criticalthinking.org/files/historical%20thinking.pdf
Using the textbook as A source, not THE source. Here are some guided questions for students while reading A textbook and here are some ways to challenge the textbook, created by Stanford University.
Nokes’ book: Building Students’ Historical Literacies: Learning to Read and Reason with Historical Texts and Evidence

Continue reading “Recognizing and Addressing the Barriers to Adolescents’ “Reading Like Historians””

Historians on World War 1, the debate goes on

Posted on January 4, 2014 by admin

Conservative politician Michael Gove, UK’s Secretary of Education

It promises to be a great year for World War One Historiography. In the first week of 2014 UK’s Tory Secretary of Education Michael Gove started a heated debate about the way the centenary of WW1 should be commemorated. Gove attacked the “Left-wing” and “the Blackadder” interpretations WW1. Twitter erupted in response and soon many respected historians weighed in on the debate. I found all of these viewpoints fascinating so I collected some of the recent articles and summarised them. Below you will find key excerpts of articles by Richard Evans, Gary Sheffield and Nigel Birrar. I outlined book reviews of Christopher Clark, Sean McMeekin and Margaret McMillan and there is a great article by History teacher John Blake. I included an old interview (YouTube) with Niall Ferguson on his book “The Pity of War” and there is a fantastic Twitter discussion between History teacher Russel Tarr and Historians Simon Schama, Tom Holland and Gary Sheffield.

It is vital for any society to discuss historical interpretations so we should be thankful to Michael Gove for igniting this debate. It also highlights the importance of good History teachers, they should present students with different viewpoints and let them arrive at their own well-informed and well-substantiated conclusions.

‘History: the best debates and the best arguments’ #historyteacher #histedchat http://t.co/YXMq9Ce7bc

Download a Word version of the WW1 historiography dinner party. The sheet contains student tasks and all information in this post.

Continue reading “Historians on World War 1, the debate goes on”

Good learning, criterion-referenced assessment, feedback and learning objectives

Posted on December 17, 2013 by admin

I am on a steep learning curve when it comes to criterion-referenced assessment. Like many teachers, I have used the standard norm-referenced assessment model for years. This is recognizable to everyone, for example: Question 1 asks for three main points. If the student identified the three points, three marks are awarded. In contrast to this, criterion-referenced assessment works with pre-defined criteria which describe increasing levels of success in understanding the curriculum. The more I read about it and work with it in the MYP and the IB DP, the more I see how using criterion-referenced assessment allows for a more sophisticated understanding and assessment of a student’s learning, skill and knowledge.

The example below shows what an MYP criterion (in “Individuals and Society”) looks like: Continue reading “Good learning, criterion-referenced assessment, feedback and learning objectives”

Motivation, mindset, students’ efficacy

Posted on December 13, 2013 by admin

Teachers play a vital role in fostering a positive attitude towards learning. John Hattie, Carol Dweck and Daniel Pink have done great work on researching student efficacy, mindset and motivation. In this post, I have collated some of their ideas.

Carol Dweck is the key authority regarding the growth mindset. She makes the following points:

Fixed Mindset self-esteem is about feeling good about yourself, often in relation to the perceived lower achievement of others
Growth Mindset self-esteem is about having the courage & determination to address weaknesses
Confidence & self-efficacy comes from mastery of problems through resilience, not from false self-esteem
Growth Mindset Teacher: “I am not interested in judging how good your work is, I am interested in the quality of your learning”

Hattie suggests that self-efficacy, aspirational, and other psychosocial influences account for considerable variance in academic achievement.
^a Dweck shows how to address this by promoting a Growth Mindset in the classroom. Continue reading “Motivation, mindset, students’ efficacy”

Self-Efficacy and Academic Achievement in Australian High School Students: The Mediating Effects of Academic Aspirations and Delinquency. By Annemaree Carroll, Stephen Houghton, Robert Wood, Kerrie Unsworth, John Hattie, Lisa Gordon, and Julie Bower. URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19027942 (back)

Kuhlthau, the research process

Posted on November 6, 2013 by admin

Have you experienced that moment where an academic task or question seemed so big that it made you slightly anxious? I have, and I see my students go through it too. Research essays, the IB Extended Essay and the IB Internal Assessment are all big academic inquiry processes where students are required to research and grapple with a large amount of information that has to be distilled and synthesised into a coherent and sophisticated argument.

Professor Carol Kuhlthau has researched the research process. I find her notion of the “uncertainty principle” very interesting and recognisable. She describes it as follows:

“Uncertainty is a cognitive state that commonly causes symptoms of anxiety and lack of confidence. Uncertainty and anxiety can be expected in the early stages of the information searching process. Uncertainty, confusion, and frustration are associated with vague, unclear thoughts about a topic or problem.

As knowledge states shift to more clearly focused thoughts, a parallel shift occurs in feelings of increased confidence. Uncertainty due to a lack of understanding, a gap in meaning, or a limited construct initiates the process of information seeking”

(Kuhlthau, C. C. (1993). Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services. Norwood, NJ: Ablex., p. 111)

Below is a visual representation of the uncertainty experienced during a research / inquiry process: Continue reading “Kuhlthau, the research process”

Making change happen, workshop with Michael Fullan.

Posted on November 30, 2012 by admin

Today I attended a full day workshop with Michael Fullan, expert on Change Leadership in education. We were provided with an informative booklet full of articles and ideas. There was in fact so much information that I reached saturation point at the end of the day. Below are some of my thoughts and pick-ups.

What works (in Change Leadership):

Focus
Capacity building
Consistency of practice
Learning from each other
Leadership that obsesses with points 1 – 4.

Teaching like a pro means:

Continuously inquiring into and improving one’s own teaching.
Planning teaching, improving teaching and often doing teaching as part of a high performing team. Continue reading “Making change happen, workshop with Michael Fullan.”

Pedagogy Science | Pedagogical Reflections

Posted on March 22, 2012 by admin

Summary below. See the full blog post here: Pedagogy Science | Pedagogical Reflections
- Teachers and educational organisations need to ensure that the pedagogy which we employ and condone is grounded in evidence-based research.
- Pedagogy needs to become more scientific
- Teachers Make a Difference: What is the research evidence? by John Hattie (2003)
- Hattie looks to ‘highlight that which truly makes a difference’ and identifies particular practices which – backed by extensive research – are most likely to enhance student learning. His first point, however, establishes the role of teachers as a key source (30%) of variance in student achievement – second only to the student themselves (50%). This means that, according to Hattie, the home, school, principal and peers make very little difference to student achievement.
- Hattie then goes onto list the influences in order of effect on student achievement: Continue reading “Pedagogy Science | Pedagogical Reflections”

Research: Twitter in Education; another case for the PLN

Posted on November 19, 2011 by admin

Below are my highlights from a research paper about Twitter in educational use. The full report can be found here: JOLT – Journal of Online Learning and Teaching.

This research again makes a case for the professional benefits that teachers obtain from a PLN (Personal Learning Network).

I have compiled this post using the Diigo highlighting tool in the Diigo Toolbar. It’s a fantastic tool.

Abstract of the research:

This research study provides new insight into how teachers use social networking sites, such as Twitter, as professional learning networks. The researchers surveyed and analyzed the public Twitter feeds of classroom teachers to determine the specific purposes for which teachers use Twitter. The K-12 educators in this study engaged in true dialogue, where evidence of actual conversation occurred in Twitter over 61% of the time. Continue reading “Research: Twitter in Education; another case for the PLN”

Report Findings: Fostering “Innovative Teaching and Learning”

Posted on November 19, 2011 by admin

This report by “Innovative Teaching and Learning” was sponsored by Microsoft Partners in Learning. It contains very interesting and pertinent points about creating a culture of innovative teaching in schools.

2011 ITL Research Findings and Implications

Full report here

This report provides the findings from the 2011 analysis across 7 participating countries.

Key Findings from ITL Research in 2011

Innovative teaching supports students’ development of the skills that will help them thrive in future life and work.
However, students’ opportunities to develop these skills are typically scarce and uneven, both within and across the sample of schools in the study.
While ICT use in teaching is becoming more common, ICT use by students in their learning is still an exception.
Innovative teaching practices are more likely to flourish when particular supportive conditions are in place:
- Teacher collaboration that focuses on peer support and the sharing of pedagogical approaches
- Professional development that involves the active engagement of teachers, particularly in practicing and researching new teaching methods
- A school culture that offers a common vision of innovation and consistently encourages new types of teaching
- Researchers observed examples of innovative teaching at the classroom level. However, coherent and integrated support for the adoption of innovative teaching was lacking in most of the schools and all of the systems in this study.
- Students: efforts to provide ubiquitous ICT access to students must continue to ensure that all students have equal opportunities inside and outside school to develop the skills they will need for life and work.
- Teachers: they need professional development opportunities that leverage the most innovative teachers in each school to drive peer collaboration focused on teachers themselves designing, practicing and researching the innovative teaching approaches that develop students’ future skills.
- Schools: critically, school leaders need to cultivate holistic and shared visions of innovation that integrate advanced pedagogies with technology.
- Systems: innovative teachers and schools need the kinds of assessment and performance accountability measures that help more innovative teaching and learning to flourish.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Teenage Brains – Interesting reading

Posted on November 1, 2011 by admin

Below are my highlighted sections from a National Geographic article about the teenage brain and how it has evolved to crave the company of peers and take risks.

So much more out there. Here’s a link to more: http://goo.gl/u4ItD.

Also read: http://diigo.com/0ksxe, which is my annotated link from this article: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/structural-changes-in-teenage-brains-causes-dramatic-shifts-in-intelligence/story-e6frg6so-1226171382504.

Both links courtesy of our Head of PD!

Teenage Brains – Pictures, More From National Geographic Magazine

- To see past the distracting, dopey teenager and glimpse the adaptive adolescent within, we should look not at specific, sometimes startling, behaviors, such as skateboarding down stairways or dating fast company, but at the broader traits that underlie those acts. Continue reading “Teenage Brains – Interesting reading”

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