Category Archives: TDT

Narrow-minded Maths

Our recent lecture really got me thinking about how narrow-minded we can be when considering mathematics. Before 2000px-babylonian_numerals-svg today’s input I had never really considered how our number system came about or in fact where maths in general came from. I found that discovering other number systems extremely interesting and creating our own was good fun too. This was also an opportunity to use some mathematical knowledge with creativity. Like many other groups in the class we tried to create a number system that symbolised the value of the number itself (1 dot for 1, 2 dots for the number 2, etc.), to us this seemed very logical. However had we placed our number system in front of someone from the Babylonian era, they would be completely baffled by our sense of logic.

After reading ‘Alex’s Adventures in Numberland’ I have discovered that the Babylonians were infact the first people to introduce a place holder. The Babylonians used a base 60 system (which is much different from our base ten system). The first column is for units, the second was for 60s, the next for 3600s. Comparing this to our system, (1, 10, 100, 1000) I feel like we have certainly developed a much more easily understandable system. ishango_bone

I have never really paid much attention or thought as to where maths originated from. Nor have I spent anytime researching ancient maths techniques and systems. After the lecture I decided to further research the Ishango Bone.

The Ishango bone was found in 1960 and is suspected to be more than 20,000 years old. Research claims that the bone is the fibula of a baboon and it was found on the shores of Lake Edward in the Ishango region. On first glance it looks like the bone is covered in tally marks, but there is clearly more to this artifact than simple tallies. Scientists believe that these marks are more than tallies, they are infact an indication that the Babylonians had a much deeper understanding of mathematics. Some scientists suggest that these marks follow a mathematical succession, others interpret the marks as some form of rule. What they can agree on is the fact that maths existed 20,000 years ago. This I find fascinating and extremely eye-opening as I’d been so narrow-minded in terms of maths believing it was something that had evolved and that all countries use a similar system.

Reference:

Bellos, A. and Riley, A. (2010) Alex’s adventures in numberland. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.

Stand and Deliver

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Stand and Deliver is an American drama filmed in 1988 based on the non-fictional story of a mathematics teacher named Jaime Escalante. Escalante becomes a mathematics teacher at Garfield High School where he faces the daily challenge of teaching an uninspired class. The pupils face many difficulties in their learning, they are well below the average grades and are deemed incapable by many of the teachers in the school. During a staff meeting Escalante confronts the other teachers’ low expectations of their pupils and sets an ultimate goal of getting his pupils through the AP Calculus Exam. Other teachers think he is crazy however his undying determination and commitment sees all eighteen of his pupils pass the calculus exam despite allegations of cheating by the Educational Testing Service. Yet again Escalante shows sheer grit and determination by defending his hardworking pupils by challenging the exam board and allowing all eighteen pupils to re-sit the exam with every pupil passing with top grades. The story is extremely inspirational as it demonstrates the ability of a strong-minded, dedicated teacher to challenge and change not only pupils’, but teachers’ perceptions of mathematics and the ability of lower-class children to succeed.

It could be argued that Jaime Escalante is different due to his unwillingness to give up on a class of ‘less abled’ pupils. He shows that he is unlike other teachers at Garfield High School by challenging their opinions of the pupils’ abilities. He uses controversial teaching points (such as making one pupil sit at the front of the class for not cooperating in the class test) to control his class. Although debateable, his techniques provide him with the capability to break down barriers and build relationships with each of his pupils. His commitment to his class was inspiring, dedicating over sixty hours a week to improving his class’ knowledge on the subject, running extra classes after school, throughout holidays and on weekends. He was determined not to let his pupils down despite facing ill health through exhaustion. Through providing his pupils with insight as to the relevance of mathematics in the real world the teacher further encouraged the students’ willingness to learn. Despite facing several challenges Escalante never gives up. He gains the respect of his pupils and their families and even goes to great lengths to keep several of the pupils in school on the prospect of them passing the exam and furthering their education. After the exam, Escalante’s hard work is rewarded through every pupil passing the exam. Not only did his hard work benefit each and every one of the pupils’ in his class, he showed the school that negative teacher mind-set and low expectations only prevents achievement. Garfield High School’s grades rose each year after Escalante’s success. His sheer grit and resolve makes him a true inspiration.

Reference:

Stand And Deliver. Ramón Menéndez, 1998. DVD.

Scientific Literacy TDT

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“Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity.”
While this is a definition of scientific literacy, once you begin to look into what it means to be scientifically literate, it is easy to see that it is a little shallow. Being literate in science is about being able to question so-called science based on our knowledge; evaluating scientific stories and discoveries made every day. It is the critical analysis of science that makes us scientifically literate, not the ability to blow things up in a lab. While the UK is above average in terms of literacy rates (OECD study), the curriculum in England is beginning to put more emphasis on scientific literacy, and teachers and pupils alike are beginning to notice the change. Based more in secondary than primary education, teachers notice that while it is trickier to teacher, they believe it is more worthwhile. In terms of primary schools, the teacher is essential in building up scientific literacy among children (Shulman 1987), and therefore as training teachers, it is our responsibility to ensure we educate ourselves in terms of science as much as possible.

Analysis of an example where a lack of scientific literacy has led to inaccurate media reporting
In 1998 Andrew Wakefield published a fraudulent report claiming that he combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine could be linked to causing colitis and autism amongst children. The media were quick to publish the story and vaccination rates fell rapidly putting children at severe risk. The public instantly believed the findings as Wakefield was seen as a figure to trust resulting in his publishing not being questioned. One flaw with his experiment was that he only used 12 children for the experiment and some of these children had previous underlying medical conditions which were not taken into account before the experiment (he also did not disclose this information to the general public). This is a good example of science illiteracy as members of the public did not evaluate the quality of the science. Many people did not question the findings or see the flaws within the experiments and as a result put their own children’s lives at risk. Perhaps if we were a more science literate nation controversies and scandals like the 1998 MMR vaccine be avoided.
It is important that when teaching science, children are taught about fair testing. Without having a sound knowledge of fair testing children would struggle to do anything else in science. Being scientifically literate means having the ability to use scientific knowledge, and so in order to learn how to use and apply your knowledge you must first understand fair testing. A lot of science work within the classroom is practical and involves experiments. Science experiments require fair testing in order for them to provide accurate results, and so if children are not taught the importance of fair testing then they will not be able to develop their knowledge and understanding of science.

References – (Explanation of the concept of scientific literacy)
http://www.literacynet.org/science/scientificliteracy.html
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/investigate/
http://www.nier.go.jp/symposium/sympoH20/john.pdf
http://www.ejmste.com/v3n2/brv3n2_cakmakci.pdf

Behaviour Management TDT

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How do they help maintain the attention of the children?

In this short clip, the teachers use multiple ways to maintain the attention of the children in their class. The most common approach was the use of arm gestures. By gesturing their arms and nodding their heads, the teachers invite the class into the lesson and encourage them to share their ideas. Another common technique is that of pacing up and down the classroom, this allows the teacher to ensure that the distance between themselves and their class never becomes too great and reinforces the idea that they are there to be listened to. By varying the pitch of their voice the teacher can encourage children to stay engaged in their lesson

How do they show respect for the children?

One way the teachers respect the children is by encouraging them to share ideas. When the shared idea may be incorrect the teacher does not embarrass the pupil by immediately saying “no that is wrong”, instead he takes the wrong answer and manipulates it and presents it back to the class. They also tend not to raise their voice when they are annoyed with a situation, respecting the children by not shouting but simply changing the tone of the sentence.

How do the teachers show authority?

They show authority by freely moving around the classroom and mingling amongst the classroom. They do not allow the children to have this freedom as they are there to listen and learn. The teachers also show authority by only allowing children to share ideas when asked and not allowing them to shout out or speak over them.

How does the teacher gain and maintain authority through using and moving in their space?

When first coming into the classroom the children are persuaded to walk in single file by the teacher positioning herself carefully in the doorway. This settles the class down so that upon entering the classroom they are reading to learn. When using the whiteboard the teacher paces back and forth to maintain attention but this also ensures that every child can see the board. They do not stand behind their desk as this can seem like a protective barrier and can suggest the teacher is not confident.

How do the teachers manage the movement of the children?

One teacher encourages the children to enter her class in single file. This instantly calms them down. When tidying up after a lesson, the teacher assigns each pupil with a specific job and monitors this closely to ensure that children are following her instructions. By continually talking the pupils through the process the children remain aware that the teacher is still in command and in control. Upon ending her lesson the teacher asks each table a question and if they answer correctly they are allowed to stand ready to be dismissed. The teacher then conducts them to leave one table at a time, this again reinforces that she is maintaining control.

How do the teachers manage the behaviour of the children?

One teacher adopts a ‘thinking pose’ by touching her chin with her hand. This indicates to the children that she wants them to think about the question she has asked. When a pupil continues to talk over the teacher she signals that he should stop by placing her finger in front of her mouth signalling “shht”. Instead of raising her voice to the pupils the her intonation remains reasonably flat even when she seems angry or irritated. Instead, she maintains control by using signals collectively.

Personally I really like the idea of the teachers constantly grabbing their pupils’ attention through big hand gestures and whole body movements. I tend to have quite closed body language and know this is something I definitely need to work on in order to show my confidence and authority. Before this video I didn’t really understand the importance of gesturing things such as the ‘thinking pose’ to pupils however I feel that this is something I may try if my class are not engaging with my questions as it seemed to work extremely well for these teachers. Another technique I would like to try out when on placement is voice control. These teachers all remained calm and in control no matter how they were really feeling inside. Varying pitch allowed the teacher to maintain the pupils attention but also showed when she was impressed with answers or perhaps displeased with behaviour. I believe that every teacher will have a technique that works extremely well for them and others that do not work at all. I hope to try as many of these techniques as possible whilst out on placement in order to find out which suits me best but more importantly which stimulates pupils learning most successfully.

Improving through our peers

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I have always enjoyed using other people’s work to improve and influence my own. Not only can we learn lots from our peers but we also learn lots about ourselves by comparing writing and learning styles. I am really glad that today we were encouraged to view other’s blogs, read and comment on posts that we particularly enjoyed. I found myself learning and reading things which I had perhaps not even thought about before and feel that I have learned lots of new tips and ways to improve my writing.

I was really interested by one blog in particular which used a game to simulate and create a classroom layout. I had never thought of using so much imagination in relation to my own blog! I also found that referencing throughout a post allows others to see exactly where you got your information from but also gives you the opportunity to easily revisit sites and books which influenced your post. This is definitely something which I plan on doing in future posts.

Some bloggers posted things which weren’t necessarily related to teaching but managed to link their understanding of the original concept and related it to their teaching practice very well. I feel like this is something I could begin to do. I often notice videos or newspaper articles about children or interesting topics but don’t blog them as they don’t relate to what we have been asked to post. Through my peers I have learned that there is no limit to blogging and although something may first seem irrelevant links to education often begin to arise. I hope to continue to post TDTs and now to also post anything interesting I discover and give my opinion on matters. I will definitely be revisiting other sites as I feel that I learned so much in the past hour!

Using Animoto

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During my primary school years Microsoft powerpoint was always used for presenting work both by the teacher and by us as pupils. I have never really thought of new and exciting ways to present my work as a teacher and recent lectures have really opened up my eyes as to how many opportunities there are to create fun and exciting work presentations.

Today I created a short Animoto on how to be internet “SMART”. Although I didn’t spend much time creating this video I can fully understand how using this site can make simple presentations more exciting. Animoto is a fairly simple website and I found that importing images and music was straightforward and could be taught to children in the class relatively quickly. Over time I hope to develop my skills using Animoto and also other sites such as Fakebook.

I have attached the link to the short video I made today.

The 6 Pillars of Self-Esteem – Nathaniel Branden

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Branden helps us develop our understanding of self-esteem by describing the “six pillars” which he believes act as the foundation to gaining an understanding. The pillars include:

The Practice of Living Consciously
The Practice of Self-Acceptance
The Practice of Self-Responsibility
The Practice of Self-Assertiveness
The Practice of Living Purposefully
The Practice of Personal Integrity

I decided to research what each of the pillars stood for in the hope of improving my own knowledge.

1. By living consciously we show an openness to learn about the world and ourselves. It gives us the opportunity to develop as a person as we seek information and feedback on the way we perform and behave. To live consciously a person should also show respect towards facts and the truths of life.

2. Self-Acceptance in my opinion is being able to think freely and not being scared to express yourself through thoughts and feelings. I also believe that self-acceptance allows a person to understand that they are an individual and takes them away from the notion of comparison with others.

3. The practice of self-responsibility can be defined as accepting that we are responsible for our own actions and behaviour. It is up to an individual to set themselves goals and to achieve them. We cannot blame others for our failures and must come to a solution as to solving our own problems.

4. The practice of self-assertiveness. I believe this to be our willingness to stand up for what we believe in. It could also be seen to be respecting our beliefs and opinions and not changing them in the fear of disapproval.

5. Living Purposefully implies that it is our duty to set ourselves long-term ad short-term goals and to recognise the actions needed to attain them. Goals should be monitored and reflected upon to allow us to improve as individuals. Setting goals also allows a person to feel good about themselves when they feel like it has been achieved.

6. The practice of personal integrity means that as individuals we must value honesty. It is our responsibility to tell the truth and to honour our personal commitments.

The Big 5

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I had never really heard of the “Big 5” in relation to personality. I found it interesting that our personality can be seperated into different categories. After today’s lecture I decided to see how my personality can be perceived by taking a quick online test. I agree to a certain extent with the outcome. I like to be organised and can get stressed at the thought of missing deadlines or forgetting to do work. I try to stay as positive as I can on a day to day basis so was happy to see that the Neuroticism score was one of the the lowest. I tend to come across quite shy around new people so am not surprised that my openness score is also low.This test can be found at: http://personality-testing.info/tests/BIG5.php

Extraversion

3.3

Extraversion reflects how much you are oriented towards things outside yourself and derive satisfaction from interacting with other people.

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness reflects how careful and orderly an individual is.

Neuroticism

2.4

Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions.

Agreeableness

4.4

Agreeableness reflects how much you like and try please others.

Openness

2.9

Fear of Feedback.

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Feedback is defined in the Oxford dictionary as: “Information about reactions to a product, a person’s perform Screen Shot 2015-11-03 at 10.44.53 ance of a task, etc. which is used as a basis for improvement.” Feedback can range from praise too criticism, each are equally importance. Praise allows us to realise that what we are doing is correct and that we are on the right path, it also makes a person feel good about their work and themselves. Criticism can create an opportunity for development, it allows us to view our work from another person’s perspective and most importantly learn from our mistakes.

I have titled this blog post “fear of feedback” as I believe that giving feedback can sometimes much more difficult than receiving it. Criticising a person’s work is never easy. You don’t want to offend a person or insult their work however it is also important to highlight areas for improvement so they don’t continue making regular mistakes. Personally, I prefer receiving feedback. I love being able to see where I have made key points and perhaps am working in the correct direction, but I also get motivated by criticism as I always try to better myself and my work. Sometimes when criticism is too harsh it can knock a person’s confidence and this has happened to me in the past. When your feedback is all negative and doesn’t give you any tips to improve it can make you feel like giving up so it is important as teachers we learn how to give effective feedback to allow successful learning and improvement.

The feedback I received on my lasted blog post has so far been very positive. This has made this task a more positive experience. I was initially worried about the thought of giving feedback to people I didn’t know too well. I sometimes find it easier to give feedback to people I have a strong connection with as you know exactly how to word any critique in order for them to take it on board but to not be offended. However giving feedback to friends can also cause you to feel pressurised into saying that everything is great when in reality there are various improvements to be made. Thankfully, both blog posts I read were extremely well written and met the criteria fully. This did make this process a lot easier for me as personally giving positive feedback is much more enjoyable than highlighting areas for improvement.

I have learned a lot from this task. Firstly, that giving feedback is extremely important to allow an individual to progress. I have also learned that giving criticism is just as important as giving positive feedback. I hope that overtime I gain more confidence in relation to providing peers with feedback, and this this found confidence will make giving small criticisms slightly less daunting.

This task can also teach us a lot for when we are on placement and eventually qualified teachers. It is important not to overwhelm children with criticism. This can not onl Screen Shot 2015-11-03 at 10.18.48 y knock their confidence but force them into a negative frame of mind in relation to learning. Their are multiple ways to give feedback such as 2 stars and a wish, stickers and reward charts. Although 2 stars and a wish can work positively in most situations, it is possible for some children to get fed up of constantly having an improvement and if their work is of high standards we shouldn’t force ourselves to find faults. I hope that when on placement I learn other effective feedback systems which I can use and develop in my teaching. I also hope that I can effectively use feedback I receive to improve my writing technique and teaching styles.

There are multiple websites giving advice on how to give effective feedback. I found this site very interesting and am sure it will be beneficial for future use:

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/tips-providing-students-meaningful-feedback-marianne-stenger

What it means to be an enquiring practitioner

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An enquiring practitioner conducts research to find out valuable information. The practitioner then shares this information with colleagues. Working together is vital to being an effective practitioner however group work can pose may challenges. Ineffective communication can be a major problem when working in partnership and could cause breakdowns in relationship and misunderstandings. Conflict between team members hinders the amount of work completed and lowers the group moral. It could also isolate members and cause them to show a lack of focus and non-contribution.

There are many benefits associated with group work. Working in groups can raise an individual’s confidence. It also creates opportunities to share and develop ideas, allowing individuals to gain knowledge from their peers. Increased efficiency is also associated with successful group work, tasks and workloads can be shared and any problems can be discussed and solved quickly.

I believe that being an enquiring practitioner is important to consider as a student teacher. Acting as an enquiring practitioner allows student teachers to effectively work with colleagues to plan and develop lessons. Group discussions also highlight areas of improvement, and as a student teacher it is important to recognise weaknesses and learn how to improve on these areas. Working with colleagues in the school environment can also give you the opportunity to observe how other teachers take lessons and perhaps you can use their techniques and incorporate them into your own lessons. Being able to research issues and share your findings is valuable as it creates the ability to learn new ideas, new solutions and ways to enforce your findings. Practitioner enquiry gives teachers confidence to challenge and improve the curriculum. Donaldson states:

“…if we are to achieve the aspiration of teachers being leaders of educational improvement, they need to develop expertise in using research, inquiry and reflection as part of their daily skill set.’”(Donaldson, 2011:4)

In conclusion being an enquiring practitioner can develop our teaching skills and professional attributes. It is important as a student teacher to research and then reflect on research. Student’s can gain confidence and knowledge from working with qualified teachers and should value their opinions as professionals. Working with others helps us improve a number of skills including our teaching technique.

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