Student Motivation – What you need to know?

Motivation is a critical component of learning. Motivation is important in getting students to engage in academic activities. It is also important in determining how much students will learn from the activities they perform or the information to which they will be exposed to. Students who are motivated to learn something use higher cognitive processes in learning about it. Motivation to do something can come about in many ways. It can be a personality characteristic or a stable long-lasting interest in something. There are several theories of motivation that exist. Some state that motivation is tied to the idea that behaviours that have been rewarded in the past will be more likely to be repeated in the future. Therefore past experiences will motivate a student to perform in future ones.

Other theories prefer to think of motivation as a way to satisfy certain needs. Some basic needs people must satisfy are food, shelter, love and positive self-esteem. Therefore, motivation to do something may be based on the achievement of these needs.

Yet another theory (the attribution theory) seeks to understand people’s explanations and excuses when it comes to their successes and failures. When people feel that they have control over their success in something, then they are more motivated to achieve in it. If they feel that they will not have any control in their success they might not be as motivated to achieve.

The expectancy theory of motivation is based on the belief that peoples efforts to achieve depends on their expectations of rewards. People will be motivated to do something based on whether they think that they will be successful and be rewarded.

How to enhance motivation:
The most important types of motivation for educational psychology are achievement motivation, people’s tendencies to strive for success and choose activities that are goal oriented. They main difference in achievement is the difference in how someone is motivated. Some people are motivated to learn, while others are motivated to perform well and get a good grade. It is important that teachers should try to convince there students that learning rather than grades are the purpose of academic work. This can be done by emphasizing the interest value and practical importance of the material that the students are studying and by de-emphasizing grades and other rewards.

It has also been seen that teachers' expectations of their students have an effect on student motivation. Research has generally found that students will live up or down to their teachers' expectations for them, particularly in younger grades when teachers know relatively little about their students' levels of achievement. In order to make sure that students will achieve communicates positive expectations to them. The teacher must communicate the expectation to their students that they feel that their students can learn the material. There are also ways that a teacher can imply that they have positive expectations for their students. These include:

* Waiting for the student to respond to a question.
* Avoid making distinctions of achievement among students. Assessment and results should be a private matter.
* Treat all students equally. Call on all students regardless of achievement levels, and spend equal amounts of time with them. Guard against biases.

Increasing Motivation
Sometimes the course itself is interesting enough and useful enough for a student to be motivated to do well in it. However, much of what is learned in school is not inherently interesting to most students. For this reason a variety of incentives and rewards for learning are introduced. These might be praise, grades, recognition or prizes. However, it has been researched whether or not extrinsic rewards end up decreasing intrinsic motivation. There are ways to enhance intrinsic motivation in the classroom:

1) Arouse interest: It is important to convince students of the importance and interest level of the material that is about to be presented, to show that the knowledge to be gained will be useful.

2) Maintaining curiosity: A skilful teacher will use a variety of means to further arouse or maintain curiosity in the course of the lesson. The use of demonstrations helps to make students want to understand.

3) Use a variety of interesting presentation modes: The motivation to learn is enhanced by the use of interesting materials, as well as by a variety in the way that material is presented. For example a teacher can use films, guest speakers, demonstrations and so on, in order to maintain interest in a subject. However, all of these different materials need to be carefully planned and should all focus on the course objectives and complement each other.

4) Help students set their own goals: People will work harder for goals that they have set for themselves, than if they were set by others.

5) Express clear expectations: Students need to know exactly what they are supposed to do, how they will be evaluated, and what the consequences of success will be. Failure often stems from confusion about what was asked of them.

6) Provide clear feedback: Feedback can serve as an incentive. It can be an adequate reward in some cases. Feedback must be clear and specific and given close in time to the performance. It should be informative and motivational and help by giving them suggestions for future success.

7) Increase the value and availability of extrinsic motivators: Students must value incentives that are used to motivate them. For example, some students may not be all that interested in receiving teacher praise and grades, but might value notes sent home to parents, more recess time or special privileges.

Source Courtesy:www.psychologycampus.com

Dealing with Misbehaviour – What you need to know?

Misbehaviour and behaviour problems can arise because students feel frustrated and bored in school. Instructional programs that actively involve students can prevent such problems. Another common reason students misbehave is because they want the teacher's attention. To deal with this, teachers should just pay attention to the student's good behaviour and ignore them when they are misbehaving. As well, students may be seeking peer attention as well. To deal with this - either remove the misbehaviour from the room or use group contingencies (where the entire class is rewarded on the basis of everyone's behaviour). A lot of problems which teachers must deal with are minor disruptions in the classroom. Students must respect teachers and the rules that they have made. Therefore, teachers need to establish their authority over the classroom. In dealing with classroom problems, it is best to correct behaviours by using the simplest intervention. The more time spent disciplining, the less achievement from students. Dealing with it should be effective, quick and not disrupt the lesson.

Prevention is a way to deal with misbehaviour before it occurs. This can be done by keeping students busy and interested, as well as avoiding frustration due to too hard of lessons. There are some non-verbal cues that can be used to avert misbehaviour. Making eye contact with a misbehaving student may be enough to stop them. Moving closer to a student may also stop them.

Source Courtesy: www.psychologycampus.com

Patterns of Thinking

Project Zero's Patterns of Thinking Project was supported by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The recently completed Patterns of Thinking project was a multi-year investigation into the nature of critical and creative thinking. The project's focus is the understanding, teaching, and assessment of thinking dispositions.

Traditionally, good thinking has been defined as a matter of cognitive ability or skill. Hence the term "thinking skills." Certainly, good thinkers have skills. But they also have more. Passions, attitudes, values, and habits of mind all play key roles in thinking, and, in large part, it is these elements that determine whether learners use their thinking skills when it counts. In short, good thinkers have the right "thinking dispositions."

The Patterns of Thinking project has investigated several key thinking dispositions that support high-level thinking in and across subject matters. A thinking disposition is a tendency toward a particular pattern of intellectual behavior. For example, good thinkers have the tendency to identify and investigate problems, to probe assumptions, to seek reasons, and to be reflective. However, research has revealed that often learners possess thinking abilities in these areas, but aren't disposed to use them.

The project has identified three logically distinct components that are necessary for dispositional behavior: ability, inclination, and sensitivity. Ability concerns the basic capacity to carry out a behavior. Inclination concerns the motivation or impulse to engage in the behavior. Sensitivity concerns likelihood of noticing occasions to engage in the behavior. As an example, consider open-mindedness. In order to engage in an episode of open-mindedness, one has to (a) have the basic capacity to see a situation from more than one perspective, (b) feel inclined to invest the energy in doing so, and (c) recognize an appropriate occasion to be open to alternative perspectives.

Research has shown that inclination and sensitivity make unique contributions to intellectual behavior that are empirically separable from the contribution of ability. Interestingly, findings revealed that the contribution of sensitivity is larger than would have been predicted, and that it is sensitivity, rather than inclination, that appears to be the chief bottleneck in effective intellectual performance. This is a provocative finding both instructionally and from the standpoint of intelligence theory. It is instructionally provocative because the cultivation of cognitive sensitivity almost certainly presents a different sort of instructional challenge than that of directly teaching for cognitive ability. It is provocative from the standpoint of intelligence theory because sensitivity does not receive much attention in current theories of intelligence, although the research undertaken in this project suggests that it ought to.

Courtesy: Project Zero

Cultivating the Art of Questioning

By C. Radhakrishnan

Let me begin with a quote of Albert Einstein - “The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

Why do we need to be good questioners?

In the 21st century, challenges and demands are expanding and changing faster than ever before. Our environment is one of rapid communications, exposing huge potentials for increasing knowledge. How can schools prepare their students for the 21st century? Educators should recognize the need for new approaches to learning and teaching in a rapidly changing society and, at the same time, be prepared to respond to much more diverse needs of the learners. Some of the most significant influences in the world today are the changes to how we live and work which are brought about by technology and globalization. In this context critical thinking and questioning skills play a predominant role in deciding the success or failure of the generation we teach. So the skill of forming good questions is vital to both teaching and learning. Being able to create inquisitive questions empowers both teacher and children. Questioning is a life long learning skill that is very important for success in the current world.

Who needs to be good questioners?
Good questioning skill is very crucial for teachers, students, doctors, researchers and almost all professionals.

What is a good question?
There are generally different types of questions. A good question is the one that gets us information we need at any given time. Sometimes the answer will be a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’, however, on other occasions it will be much more complex and so will the question that is required to prompt that answer. A good research question is one that guides the questioner through a quest to build personal meaning and understanding. Here again this can be very simple or complex.

Where does questioning belong in the curriculum?
The role of questioning runs throughout the curriculum. Motivation to learn is often prompted by questions. Clarifying details and thoughts, developing understanding, finding information and selecting relevant information are among the many skills crucial to all disciplines that depend on effective questioning skills. Critical thinking, regardless of the subject content depends on the ability to ask effective questions. The need for effective questioning skill is ever-present.

When do we teach questioning strategies?
In the primary classes we teach students to differentiate between statements and questions. We also introduce them to the “5W’s” (why, who, what, where & when). We need to continue to take a systematic approach to teaching questioning skill. It is essential that questioning skills are introduced and taught formally. Regardless of the class level, take time to observe and assess student skill level so that you can intervene with appropriate learning experiences.

How do we teach students to become good questioners? What tools can we use to help develop and hone questioning skills? The following questions will help you find the answer. Why don’t you be the first researcher in finding the advantage of questioning in teaching?
• How can the “5W’s and How” help students in question trekking?
• How can I help students organise data?
• How can questioning help students explore a topic?
• Q Task Quickies: KWL (Know, Wonder & Learn) Quickies (Developed by Donna M. Ogle).
• How can creating a question web help students develop a focus?
• How can I introduce the Question Builder to students?
• How can the Question Builder be used to help guide research?
• Q Task Quickies: Using the Question Builder (chart or web).
• How will a rubric help students create a better research question?
• How can students narrow and focus their questions?
• Q Task Quickies: Power-up Q Cards (Cards with 5W’s on a topic).
• How do I help students create a statement of purpose?
• How do students get to the right question?
• How can I help students move from question to thesis statement?

I am sure you will be able to find wonderful answers to all of the above questions through the “5W’s and H” technique. Any help or clarification in finding answers to these questions please doesn’t hesitate to contact me.

TOMORROW'S CHILDREN - ABLUEPRINT FOR PARTNERSHIP EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

By Riane Eisler

What will the world be like for tomorrow's children? When I look at my little two year-old granddaughter's face, bright with wide-eyed curiosity and joyful expectation of love and life, I see wonderful possibilities. But when I look at the challenges she and her generation will inherit, I see that these possibilities will not be realized unless today's and tomorrow's children learn to live in more environmentally conscious, equitable, and peaceful ways.

Today, young people often feel powerless to change the course of their lives, much less the course of the world around them. Many become immersed in ‘me-firstism’ and ‘over materialism’ that permeates much of our mass culture, futilely seeking meaning and belonging in the latest fad or commercial offering. Some bury their pain and anger in drugs, gangs, and other destructive activities, unconscious and seemingly uncaring of the effect their actions have on themselves and others. A number become violent, under the thrall of hate-mongering or religious fanaticism, or simply because our video games, television, ads, and movies make violence seen normal and even fun. And the vast majority, including the young people who expect to get a decent job or go on to college to pursue a professional career, fail to see how what we do with our lives is both affected by, and affects, our cultural beliefs and social institutions.

There are many factors that contribute to all this. But there is one factor that can play a major role in providing young people with the understandings and skills to both live good lives and create a more sustainable, less violent, more equitable future: education.

For over two centuries, educational reformers such as Johann Pestalozzi, Maria Montessori, John Dewey, and Paolo Freire have called for an education that prepares us for democracy rather than authoritarianism and fosters ethical and caring relations. Building on the work of these and other germinal educational thinkers, Tomorrow's Children proposes an expanded approach to educational reform that can help young people meet the unprecedented challenges of a world in which technology can either destroy us or free us to actualize our unique human capacities for creativity and caring.

I call this approach partnership education. It is an education to help children not only better navigate through our difficult times but also create a future orienting more to what in my study of cultural evolution I have identified as a partnership rather than dominator model.

We are all familiar with these two models from our own lives. We know the pain, fear, and tension of relations based on domination and submission, on coercion and accommodation, of jockeying for control, of trying to manipulate and cajole when we are unable to express our real feelings and needs, of the miserable, awkward tug of war for that illusory moment of power rather than powerlessness, of our unfulfilled yearning for caring and mutuality, of all the misery, suffering, and lost lives and potentials that come from these kinds of relations. Most of us also have, at least intermittently, experienced another way of being, one where we feel safe and seen for who we truly are, where our essential humanity and that of others shines through, perhaps only for a little while, lifting our hearts and spirits, enfolding us in a sense that the world can after all be right, that we are valued and valuable.

But the partnership and dominator models not only describe individual relationships. As I will detail, they describe systems of belief and social structures that either nurture and support — or inhibit and undermine — equitable, democratic, nonviolent, and caring relations. Without an understanding of these configurations – and the kind of education that creates and replicates each – unwittingly we reinforce structures and beliefs that maintain the inequitable, undemocratic, violent, and uncaring relations which breed pathologies that afflict and distort the human spirit and are today decimating our natural habitat.

Once we understand the partnership and dominator cultural, social, and personal configurations, we can more effectively develop the educational methods, materials, and institutions that foster a less violent, more equitable, democratic, and sustainable future. We can also more effectively sort out what in existing educational approaches we want to retain and strengthen or leave behind.

The partnership framework outlined in this book offers the basic design for a new integrated primary and secondary education for the 21st century. This framework draws from my research over three decades, from my own teaching experiences, and from the work of educators at many levels.

Partnership education has three core interconnected components. These are partnership process, partnership structure, and partnership content.
Partnership process is about how we learn and teach. It applies the guiding template of the partnership model to educational methods and techniques. Are each child's intelligences and capabilities treated as unique gifts to be nurtured and developed? Do students have a real stake in their education so that their innate enthusiasm for learning is not dampened? Do teachers act as primarily lesson-dispensers and controllers, or more as mentors and facilitators? Is caring an integral part of teaching and learning? Are young people learning the team work needed for the postindustrial economy or must they continuously compete with each other? Are students offered the opportunity for both self-directed learning and peer teaching? In short, is educating children merely a matter of filling an "empty vessel" or are students and teachers partners in the adventure of learning?

Partnership structure is about where learning and teaching take place: what kind of learning environment we construct if we follow the partnership model. Is the structure of a school, classroom, and/or home school one of top-down authoritarian rankings, or is it a more democratic one? If it were diagramed as an organizational chart, would decisions flow only from the top down and accountability only from the bottom up, or would there be interactive feedback loops? Are management structures flexible, so that leadership is encouraged at all organizational levels? Are there ways of involving parents and other community members? Do students, teachers, and other staff participate in school decision-making and rule-setting? In short, is the learning environment organized in terms of hierarchies of domination ultimately backed up by fear, or is it a combination of horizontal linking and hierarchies of actualization where power is not used to disempower others but rather to empower them?

Partnership content is what we learn and teach. It is the educational curriculum. Does the curriculum effectively teach students not only basic skills such as the three Rs of reading, writing, and arithmetic but also model the life-skills they need to be competent and caring citizens, workers, parents, and community members? Are we telling young people to be responsible, kind, and nonviolent at the same time that the curriculum content still celebrates male violence and conveys environmentally unsustainable and socially irresponsible messages? Does it present science in holistic, relevant ways? Does what is taught as important knowledge and truth include – not just as an add-on, but as integral to what is learned – both the female and male halves of humanity as well as children of various races and ethnicities? Does it teach young people the difference between the partnership and dominator models as two basic human possibilities and the feasibility of creating a partnership way of life? Or, both overtly and covertly, is this presented as unrealistic in "the real world"? Does what young people are learning about "human nature" limit or expand human possibilities? In short, what kind of view of ourselves, our world, and our roles and responsibilities in it are children taking away from their schooling?

As we will see, teachers all over the world are already working with some of these elements of partnership education. There are good resources for moving toward both partnership process and structure. There are also good supplementary materials for teaching science in more holistic ways, for bringing information about women and various cultures into our schools, and for greater consciousness about social and economic equity and our natural environment.

But still lacking, and urgently needed, is an integrated partnership curriculum that can not only help today's and tomorrow's children build healthy bodies, psyches, families, businesses, governments, and communities but also give them a clearer understanding of our human potential, our place in history, our relationship to nature, and our responsibility to future generations.

What I am interested in is systemic or long-term educational change. Certainly schools need the best new technologies if they are to prepare children for the future. But schools also need to help students look at the environmental, social, and economic challenges young people face in the 21st century from a partnership perspective.
The curriculum proposed in this book will make it possible for young people to more clearly understand our past, present, and the possibilities for our future. It integrates the practical and the theoretical and the sciences and the humanities. It brings science to life by placing it in the larger context of both the history of our planet and our species and our day-to-day lives. Because the social construction of the roles and relations of the female and male halves of humanity is central to either a partnership or dominator social configuration, unlike the traditional male-centered curricula, partnership education is gender-balanced. It integrates the history, needs, problems, and aspirations of both halves of humanity into what is taught as important knowledge and truth. Because in the partnership model difference is not automatically equated with inferiority or superiority, partnership education is multicultural. It offers a pluralistic perspective that includes peoples of all races and a variety of backgrounds, as well as the real life drama of the animals and plants of the Earth we share. Since partnership education offers a systemic approach, environmental education is not an add-on but an integral part of the curriculum.

Through partnership education, young people will learn the dramatic story of our human adventure on this Earth against the backdrop of the need and prospects for a major cultural transformation. They will begin to see school as a place of exploration, a place to share feelings and ideas, an exciting community of educators, students, and parents working together to ensure that each child is recognized and valued, that the human spirit will be nurtured and grow. Above all, partnership education will help young people form visions of what can be and acquire the understandings and skills to make these visions come true.

The materials that follow offer resources for restructuring primary and secondary education that can be immediately put to use by teachers, parents, and students in public schools, in private schools, and in home schooling. These resources are also designed to be useful in universities and colleges, not only in education departments that offer teacher and school counsellor education, but in all departments interested in teaching that more adequately addresses current needs and problems. Tomorrow's Children can further be useful for community-based study and action groups, both those with a direct interest in education, and those interested in personal development and positive social and environmental action.

In sum, although the focus of Tomorrow's Children is on primary and secondary education, it is for all who want to explore new frontiers and become more active co-creators of our future.

I want to close these brief opening remarks with an invitation. I want to invite not only parents, students, primary and secondary school teachers, university professors, and other educators, but also all those working for a better future to become active partners in developing partnership education from the early years on. I want to invite you to use the materials offered in this book in your own teaching and learning as well as to develop replicable materials for others. These can be lesson plans or entire units to be incorporated into existing classes. They can be whole new courses, like those being developed through the Centre for Partnership Studies in collaboration with a number of schools and universities for distribution through the Centre website, bookstores, and other avenues. They can even be curricula for an entire school. The goal is to gradually put together new partnership curricula for kindergarten to 12th grade and beyond.

Some of what I am proposing will create controversy. But without controversy there is no possibility for real change.

If enough of us are committed to personal and collective transformation — if together we keep moving forward, as Marian Wright Edelman wrote, "putting one foot ahead of the other, basking in the beauty of our children, in the chance to serve and engage in a struggle for a purpose higher than ourselves"5 — we will succeed in laying the educational foundations for a safer, more liveable, more loving world for tomorrow's children and generations still to come.

Schools That Learn

A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education

By
Peter Senge, Nelda Cambron-McCabe, Timothy Lucas, Bryan Smith, Janis Dutton, Art Kleiner

Reviewed by C. Radhakrishnan

In a fast changing world it is very essential for everyone to think about new paradigms in educational theory and practice. Schools That Learn gives us new approaches and system models to build learning organizations that suit the 21st century requirements of the society. Today people around the world see education as the highest form of influence to improve society. When more people than ever are concerned about the ability of today’s institutions to live up to that goal, Peter Senge and his colleagues have released Schools That Learn. This helps us to see our educational institutions in a new perspective – Learning Organisations.

“Capacity building” is a term widely discussed by educationists and policy makers to help schools in developing the skills and knowledge necessary to improve. But what is capacity building? How do schools actually develop capacity? Capacity to do what? This book provides satisfactory answers for all these questions and questions that may arise at the time of building learning organisations.

In Schools that Learn, Peter Senge argues that teachers, administrators, and other members of school communities must learn how to build their own capacity; that is, they must develop the capacity to learn. From the author’s viewpoint, real improvement will only happen if the people responsible for implementation, design the change itself: “It is becoming clear that schools can be re-created, made vital, and sustainably renewed not by fiat or command, and not by regulation, but by taking the learning orientation” (p. 5). Senge, author of the best-selling The Fifth Discipline, has written a highly readable companion book directly focused on education. He proposes five skills or disciplines at the heart of the learning orientation: developing personal mastery, creating shared mental models, establishing a shared vision, engaging in team learning, and thinking systemically. Collectively, these five disciplines represent the component skills underlying the learning process. According to him, if an individual, group, or organisation develops the capacity to do each of the disciplines well, they will have become proficient in learning itself.

The numerous exercises, techniques, and stories included in the book help the people who work with and within schools learn how to develop their capacity to find solutions to the problems that prevent improvement. Schools That Learn is presented in “three nested systems of activity” (p. 11): the classroom, the school, and the school community. In each section along with Senge, more than hundred authors contribute anecdotes about systemic thinking, exercises designed to facilitate learning the disciplines, and lists of resources to connect the reader to other important concepts.

‘Margin icons’ used by Peter Senge is very helpful to the reader to understand the material and easily connect to the related concepts in the book. Icons are used to denote individual and team exercises; the etymology of key words; practical techniques for learning the disciplines; lists of relevant books, articles, and videos; and opportunities for reflection. Three elements of “organizational architecture” are also indicated with icons: guiding ideas or principles, innovations in organisational design, and the theoretical underpinnings of the techniques for learning the five disciplines. These markings are very useful in orienting the reader to help see the connections between the nested systems and find illustrative examples of the concepts that are explained.

The author makes a powerful argument regarding the need for a systems approach and learning orientation by introducing Schools That Learn with a historical perspective on educational systems. Specifically, he details “industrial age” assumptions about both learning — that “children are deficient and schools should fix them” (p. 35), that learning is strictly an intellectual enterprise, that everyone should learn in the same way, that classroom learning is distinctly different than that occurring outside of school, and that some kids are smart while others are not — and schools — schools “are run by specialists who maintain control” (p. 43), knowledge is inherently fragmented, schools teach some kind of objective truth, and “learning is primarily individualistic and competition accelerates learning” (p. 48). These assumptions about learning and the nature and purpose of schools reflect deeply fixed cultural beliefs that must be considered, and in many cases directly confronted, if schools are to develop the learning orientation necessary for improvement.

As per my understanding, author offers no remedies for success. He believes that, in order to be effective, answers must be developed locally, not by “specialists” who sit far outside classroom and school walls. Instead, Senge presents a set of principles and activities, along with illustrative stories, designed to engage the reader in a process of learning and reflection. Schools That Learn is really a must have and read book for every one related to education because it is an excellent resource book for those working to “build capacity” in schools. Policymakers at all levels, school principals, teachers, parents, and students can benefit from the ideas, stories of inspiration, and many tools that are included. In Schools That Learn, Senge simplifies the complex conversation regarding what building capacity looks like in schools and offers practical suggestions for how to begin to do it.

To conclude in a rapidly altering world where school violence is not uncommon, moral standard and tolerance are at the brink of collapse, the value of standardised tests is questioned, where rapid advances in science and technology threaten to leave students sadly unprepared, and increased pressures cause many teachers to burn out before retirement age, Schools That Learn offers much needed fuel for the dialogue about the future of educating children into the coming decades of the 21st century.

About the Authors
• Peter Senge is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the chairman of the Society for Organizational Learning, and a recognized pioneer, theorist, and writer in the field of management innovation.
• Nelda Cambron-McCabe is a Professor at the Department of Educational Leadership at Miami University and a nationally known expert on learning organization work in public education.
• Timothy Lucas has been a teacher and administrator in public education for the past 27 years, most recently as the superintendent of the Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey school district, and a recognized innovator with systems thinking tools in classroom and school administration.
• Bryan Smith is a vice president of Arthur D. Little, Inc. and a director of Innovations Associates; his work focuses on strategy implementation, corporate governance, and sustainable development.
• Janis Dutton is an editor, writer and educational consultant who is active in community and school change efforts.
• Editorial Director Art Kleiner is a faculty member at New York University and the author of The Age of Heretics, a finalist for the Edgar Booz Award for most innovative business book of 1996.

Book Courtesy: The High Range School Library, TTL, Mattupatti.

To Buy this book online click here: Schools That Learn

A Task-Centered Instructional Strategy

Based on a review of instructional design models previous papers identified first principles of instruction. These principles prescribe a cycle of instruction consisting of activation, demonstration, application, and integration. These instructional phases are best implemented in the context of real-world tasks. A Pebble-in-the-Pond approach to instructional development prescribes a task-centered, content-first instructional design procedure which implements these first principles in the resulting instructional products. This conceptual paper elaborates the component analysis and instructional strategy phases of this instructional design model. This paper also integrates previous instructional strategy prescriptions from Component Display Theory with the content components of knowledge objects. The strategy for teaching within the context of a whole task consists of applying strategy components to these various knowledge components in a way that enables learners to see their interrelationships and their relationship to the whole. The resulting instructional strategy is a guided task-centered approach as contrasted with more learner-centered problem-based approaches to instructional design. The application of this component analysis and task-centered instructional strategy is illustrated.

In coming days the trends in education shall change forcing changes in shaping the school planning and design. The 10 major trends shall be

1. The Lines of Prescribed Attendance Areas Will Blur
2. Schools Will Be Smaller and More Neighbourhood Oriented
3. There Will Be Fewer Students Per Class
4. Technology Will Dominate Instructional Delivery
5. The Typical Spaces Thought to Constitute a School May Change
6. Students and Teachers Will Be Organized Differently
7. Students Will Spend More Time in School
8. Grade Configurations Will Change
9. Instructional Materials Will Evolve
10. Schools Will Disappear Before the End of the 21st Century (Or Will They?)

Trends are defined as lines of direction or movement. Some trends may prevail; others, may not. What is important is not so much an awareness of a particular trend, but knowing what trends will likely affect a particular school.

If you are interested to read in detail about New trends in education, please contact me by email.