Peer Evaluation

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The West Lothian Council (2016) makes many valid and founded points regarding the raising of attainment for students. These include effective questioning, improvement feedback, peer tutoring, peer evaluation, metacognition and self-regulated learning. I am going to delve deeper into the specific concept of peer evaluation.

Peer evaluation is described as a method of assessment in which pupils can collaborate and share their learning and original work. This allows for the opportunity of children to understand other’s work and understanding. They then are able to give and receive constructive criticism as well as, and importantly, praise for their efforts and good results. This would be very valuable to use in my practice as it allows for children to learn beneficial transferrable skills in communication. Furthermore, it develops in their social skills and assists in building their character. It is an optimum time for children to learn and value the opinions and understanding of others around them.

Within a classroom setting, I would need to ensure that the peer evaluation is still structured. This would allow me the opportunity to assess and evaluate how effectively children have grasped the learning taught to them. It would be a clear indication of the further learning for the children. While the children are also able to use this opportunity to consolidate and revise their learning.

It would also be good practice to assign groupings according to each child’s specific ability. The West Lothian Council (2016) state that initially children should be paired or grouped with children of a different ability. This allows for the weaker student to receive help from the stronger student. This grouping would need to be done carefully to prevent children feeling ostracised and losing motivation but rather feel encouraged and stimulated in their learning. The second time, children should be paired or grouped with children of the same ability. This provides opportunity for stronger children to also feel challenged and motivated to improve. Careful planning is required to allow children the self-belief and encouragement to succeed.

There are many contexts in which peer evaluation can be done such as check lists for paired or group evaluation, traffic lighting or ‘two stars and a wish’.

My personal favourite method of evaluation lies with ‘two stars and a wish’. It allows children to remain praised and motivated while providing them with some constructive criticism. Providing them with evidence of good work lets them continue with this. While giving them a ‘wish’ allows them to review and correct their errors and gives them the understanding of the requirements for future work and learning.

I feel peer evaluation must be practiced in the classroom regularly. It provides children with the necessary skills and learning which can be used throughout the curriculum. It also gives children the opportunity to share ideas and work collaboratively with other children. Having a variety of methods results in children having the ability to learn from their mistakes and improve their work.

West Lothian Council (2016) Raising Attainment – Improving Life Chances. Available at: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/sac43-raising-attainment-improving-life-chances.pdf (Accessed: 15.10.16)

What Causes Wellness?

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In the video clip ‘What Causes Wellness’ (2014) by Sir Harry Burns he poses the question about the cause of wellness for the common wealth? Is it simply the absence of illness? He explains that during his experience in The Royal Infirmary he realised that people with a challenging background, especially during childhood, had a longer recovery time from illness and operations. It was determined that 70% of people who experienced abuse and disruption in childhood experienced significant difficulties in later life. Whereas, 30% survived and acquired resilience which was due to having a mentor in their childhood. It has been made clear that children need to have people in their childhood who care for them and support them.

Social circumstances experienced in childhood link to health when children grow up. Therefore, he states that children need to have a sense of belonging and meaningfulness. Children especially need to acquire a sense of reason in their doing. This allows them to flourish in what they do. If people want to survive then they need a secure reason as to their purpose. Having a good mental wellbeing allows for people to flourish and have a more controlled self-esteem.

If people don’t have the sense of purpose and value then this can lead to biological consequences such as depression, anxiety and stress. It is important for children to have a significant person in which they can lean on such as a parent. Despite this, longer away from their significant person can leave them socially incapable and unable to manage stress. These issues need to be detected early to prevent children from abusing drugs and alcohol in later life. If children have chaotic and unsupported early years then this leads to mental ill health and bad behaviour. Children that are alone and alienated often feel excluded. This cycle of alienation leads to poverty and a person struggling with their life. He states that to break this cycle all of it needs to be addressed and supported not just one aspect.

Ultimately, Sir Harry Burns makes the assertion that connection to a significant person is important as it gives people meaning and purpose and the necessary support system. He also believes that attachment can be improved by bedtime stories. In my practice as a teacher, I am going to ensure each child in my class understands the importance of what they are doing and why. I believe each child should also feel safe and comfortable in my classroom environment so that if they need to they can share their worries and stresses while having someone that will listen and support them. I will explore with my class, through the Health and Wellbeing part of the curriculum, their feelings and emotions in depth and help them to understand the result of their actions.

Burns, H. (2014) What Causes Wellness. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEh3JG74C6s (Accessed: 20.10.16)

Map Reading. Where do I go from here?

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Developing map reading skills is vital within the classroom as it also develops such skills as higher order thinking skills (HOTS). HOTS is a child’s ability to reason, problem solve, judge and think critically. Understanding how to read a map gives children a better spatial reasoning, a greater understanding of the difference between 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional shapes, objects and angles.

Higher Order Thinking Skills

Despite the fact electronics have taken over from the ‘old-fashioned’ paper copy, it is still a vital skill to be able to read, follow and understand the different symbols and illustrations on a map. Even to give and receive basic directions require you to be able to have this knowledge to draw upon. Everyday situations require the understanding of map reading such as the various stops on a public transport route to ensure you get off at the correct location closest to your destination requires the understanding of maps.

This website has effective lesson ideas and concepts to teach map reading skills to children effectively: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/mapping/6430

Despite the value, map reading is often not seen as a good subject to teach as many teachers fail to provide the correct lessons and support for children in their class. Many lesson plans fail to deliver the skills children require to effectively read maps. They fail to provide instruction to make clear the different attributes and qualities of a map. Children then fail to achieve the knowledge and understanding needed for these skills and additionally for the ability to transfer skills into another area.

I believe, when taught correctly, map reading skills is highly beneficial to children. It helps with their ability to analyse, reflect and problem solve. These skills can be transferred to understanding different concepts such as co-ordinates, spatial awareness and graphs. I credit the implementation of new technology and programs which ease the effort and knowledge required to get to an unknown location but i believe these fundamental skills are still vital to a person’s welfare.

Intelligence

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What defines a person’s intelligent?

http://wilderdom.com/intelligence/WhyIntelligentPeopleFail.html

Sternberg’s definition of intelligence is – “the cognitive ability to learn from experience, to reason well, to remember important information, and to cope with the demands of daily living.”

Sternberg depicts the idea of intelligence as an ability to gain knowledge from any environment in which they experience. As a person faces a certain challenge they gain the skills and knowledge to overcome the challenge. If that person fails to use the skills and knowledge to overcome the same or similar challenge their intelligence is put into question. The demands a person must go through each day can be overcome with more ease if they use their previous knowledge to achieve this.

Sternberg doesn’t believe that a person can acquire a true representation of their IQ by taking an intelligence test as they do not portray the genuine experiences a person goes through in their day-to-day living. Sternberg believes how well a person can function effectively in their day-to-day living is a true mark of their intelligence.

Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence

Analytical – How well a person can use their skills to complete academic, problem solving tasks.

Creative – How well a person can deal with new and unusual problems by using their previous knowledge.

Practical – how well a person can adapt to everyday life by using their existing knowledge and skills.

Sternberg and Wagner devised a test of intelligence called Sternberg’s Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT). STAT (1993) has nine four-option multiple-choice subtests, each consisting of four items, plus three essays. The nine multiple-choice subtests embrace three kinds of process areas (analytical, creative, and practical) with three major content areas (verbal, quantitative, and figural). The three essays assess a person’s performance in analytical, creative, and practical domains.

http://en.copian.ca/library/research/measlit/302.htm

Sternberg’s key idea towards intelligence is that it isn’t just a single trait that defines a person’s intelligence but how well a person can cope in different environments.

Fibonacci sequence

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Fibonacci sequence 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144…

The Fibonacci sequence is extraordinarily interesting. It is surprisingly in so many things around us. Like the staggered pattern of certain plants’ leaves to optimise the absorption of sunlight so it hits every leaf. The golden ratio (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio) is present in the angles between each leaf so it perfectly separates them to prevent as much overlap as possible.

If you take a look at the nearest plant to you, how many leaves does it have? When you count them in spirals they may begin to reflect the Fibonacci sequence and spiral. This isn’t easy to do on many plants (evident below) and it may not be possible on certain ones. There are always exceptions to the rule. But maybe these aren’t exceptions but instead they have their own rules…

It’s also in many plants and therefore fruit such as pinecones and pineapples. Wait, there’s a common theme there. Pine. Pine comes from the root *peie meaning “to be fat, swell”. Could this relate to the Fibonacci spiral which grows you could even say it somewhat swells.

The pineapple shows the fibonacci sequence as they possess the fibonacci spirals and also have the fibonacci sequence shown in the number of sections there are.

Pineapple showing the Fibonacci sequence

Through this we see that the fibonacci sequence is all around us from sunflowers to the curves of waves, we just need to look for them.

Teachers work-life balance

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The teaching profession is famous among uninformed people for having early evenings and months of holidays. Teachers are often mocked for having an easy day working 9 till 3 where all they do is ‘paint by numbers’. But little do people know the time and complexities this professions requires. It is a stressful job which often requires extreme amounts of dedication.

Each child requires the personalisation and care individually from their teacher who has a class of potentially 30. Teachers can be up working into the early hours of the morning to have everything prepared perfectly for their lessons with all the children’s work marked too. But, is it worth it? This isn’t a disapproval of an appropriate level of preparation, yet we must ponder the worthiness of it? Is the lesson taught at an appropriate standard if the teacher is exhausted from planning it? It is the teacher who inspires, nurtures and stimulates the learning of the children in their class. But can this be done with only a few hours of sleep and no effective method of stress relief.

Despite this, it doesn’t make it acceptable to cut corners or not provide the necessary support for the children in the class. Teachers still need to have the dedication and passion to acquire the best possible outcome of their class.

It’s about finding the balance.

Finding an appropriate balance isn’t easy. It is not a sign of a bad teacher to take personal time and have a life. Teachers require the satisfaction of doing something pleasurable without the need to constantly mark excessive amounts of work. They must therefore plan lessons accordingly, changing the content of the lesson can prevent the unnecessary quantity of marking a teacher must do and can further stimulate a child’s mind. A teacher should look after themselves through the balance of their personal and professional time.

Changing Education Paradigm

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Changing Education Paradigms

Sir Ken Robinson’s video of Changing Education Paradigms creatively reflects on the issues in the current education system. A system which he describes as being ‘industrial’, cleverly highlighting the painful likenesses an industry has to our education system. He captures the image of the production line mentality, segregating children because of their age, gender or subject choice. He humorously states that the most important thing about our children is their manufacture date, conveying the understanding that they do not all learn at the same rate despite the fact that this is how they are treated.

He furthermore states the current epidemic of ADHD is in fact a fictitious one, only known to deaden the creativity children hold. In this era of advanced technology which stimulates the minds of children, the education system still insists upon reprimanding them for being distracted and bored in class. The high dispersal of this medication aims for children to be calm and relaxed but instead gets children through education by ‘anaesthetising’ them. Robinson then states that we need to wake children up to what they have inside of them. Children need to be stimulated and given the best opportunity for great learning to occur and not judge them against a particular view of the mind.

‘Class Ceiling’ Polly Toynbee

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The Class Ceiling

In the Radio 4 show with Polly Toynbee about the ‘Class Ceiling’ we listen to the effect of class and the possibility of breaking out of the class you’ve grown up in. She explains that class is still a big divider in this society. Despite the fact that, like in past generations there isn’t as much obvious differentiation, class is still present. We are urged to reflect on what advantages our class has provided us with and where we would be if we didn’t have it. Furthermore, she talks about the different factors which portray a certain class, for example, names, manners and even the clothes we wear. The most popular argument she used is the educational debate which reflects the values of a class with a person’s learning and future career. It is common knowledge that in previous generations only the wealthiest and most powerful went to university but now there is a greater chance of working class people attending. This highlights the ability of people to break free from the social class constricting them and change their class identity. Despite this, in this present day people in a lower social class still have a poor chance in achieving the grades to get a place in further education. Class is dictated in the early stages of an infant’s life and thereon becomes engrained into them. Toynbee states that a knowing parent will push harder for the best for their child, this stresses the impact in which a parent has in their child’s standing in society. The quality of parenting in early years like a parent reading, singing and simply talking to their children can significantly affect them compared to parents who don’t do this with their children. Toynbee concludes her show by referring to the greater number of people breaking out of the limitations of their social class and the positive effects this is having on their lives.

Happy Birthday to… us?

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Birthday Probability

In this video Sal explains why there is a high probability that 2 people in a room of 30 (which is a potential size of a classroom) may share a birthday. He explains the pattern created by the calculations which find the probable percent of 2 or potentially more people in a room with the same birthday.

He considers the 365 days in a year that person 1 could be born on which is 1. Person 2 would therefore only has 364 possible days for a different birthday. That pattern would continue eg. person 3 – 363 days, person 4 – 362 days, person 5 – 361 days etc.

Sal states that, since this is only for 30 people, the number of days of each of the 30 people get multiplied over the number of days in the year (365) to the power of 30 as that’s how many people there are.

But that gives us the probability that no one would share a birthday so he shows it more simply with factorials which is also much easier to type into a calculator.

It can be written as 365!/(365-30)! = .2937 therefore equaling a 29.37% probability that no one in the class shares a birthday.

So… the probability that 2 or more people in a room of 30 is all the people minus the probability that no one shares a birthday which is 100% – 29.37% = 70.63%

In a room of 30 people there is a 70.63% chance 2 people share a birthday

I believe it is an interesting concept to teach children. It would provide them with the ability to connect the notion of patterns throughout mathematics and link it to other areas to gain a greater understanding. Other skills are also gained through doing this such as calculator skills, the use of percentages and basic arithmetic. Mathematics is connected in many ways and these skills can be transferred to other areas.

Tessellation

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Tessellation involves tiling using geometric shapes. These shapes are ones which, when replicated and placed next to each other, have no spaces or overlaps between them. The geometric shapes used must be regular polygons meaning all the angles are of the same degrees and the sides must be of the same length. These include: squares, hexagons and equilateral triangles.

Where three of the regular polygons vertices meet, they form 360°. As the vertex of:

A square is 90° therefore 90° x 4 = 360° hence four squares would tessellate

An equilateral triangle is 60° therefore 60° x 6 = 360° hence six equilateral triangle would tessellate.

A hexagon is 120° therefore 120° x 3 = 360° hence three hexagons would tessellate.

Any shapes with 4 sides (quadrilaterals) can tessellate as where the vertices meet it must equal 360°. Hence, Vertex A + Vertex B + Vertex C + Vertex D = 360°. Therefore it is proven that any quadrilaterals can be repeated allowing them to tessellate.

The tiling of irregular shapes without any gaps or overlap can also produce tessellation. To create tessellated patterns three techniques are used, rotation, reflection, translation. Here is an example I made:

Tessellation like many other mathematical skills and concepts are an art. M. C. Esher used tessellation and other geometric patterns and distortions in his art.