Category Archives: 3. Prof. Skills & Abilities

Peer Evaluation

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)

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.

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.