Information About Strategic Teaching, Strategic Learning and Thinking Skills Essay Example for Free

Information About Strategic Teaching, Strategic Learning and Thinking Skills Essay Teachers, whether brand new to the classroom, or veterans of many years of service, are always looking for ways to make what they do more effective and more efficient. That even goes for students in teacher preparation programs, as well it should. Efficiency is a measure of what is obtained (results) in relation to what was expended (resources). Effectiveness is a bit more elusive. To be sure, effectiveness in anything, including teaching, can be difficult to describe and to measure. The following is a discussion about some fundamental principles that may lead to actual improvement of instruction. Please read on. In order to use any instructional technique effectively, anyone who teaches must, of necessity, understand the fundamental principles and assumptions upon which the specific technique is based. There is certainly no shortage of descriptions or labels for activities that may be classified as pertaining to instruction. From the ever-popular lecture method to complex student-teacher, student-student interactions, instruction encompasses a broad range of teacher behaviors. At one end (the lecture method) the teacher is an imparter of information, and the students are the intended recipients of the information the teacher imparts. At the other end of the range of teacher behaviors are methods in which teachers interact with students in vastly more complex ways. Most researchers and experts in the field are in agreement that the most permanent and meaningful learning takes place at this end of the range. Strategic teaching, and, concomitantly, strategic learning are techniques in which significant student-teacher interaction and resultant learning and thinking are at the high end of the scale. To learn strategic teaching techniques, and to foster the ability of students to engage in strategic learning, it is important to define some terms. In fact, one of the principles of strategic teaching is to define terms. Below are terms that are relevant to this process. Strategic teaching describes instructional processes that focus directly on fostering student thinking, but goes well beyond that. Strategic teaching and strategic learning are inexorably linked. A strategic teacher has an understanding of the variables of instruction and is aware of the cognitive requirements of learning. In such an awareness, comes a sense of timing and a style of management. The strategic teacher is one who: 1. s a thinker and decision maker; 2. possesses a rich knowledge base; 3. is a modeler and a mediator of instruction. Variables of instruction refer to those factors that strategic teachers consider in order to develop instruction. These variables, as the name implies, change, and therefore the teacher must be aware of the nature of change as well as the actual variables themselves. These variables are: 1. characteristics of the learner; 2. material to be learned (curriculum content); 3. the criterial task (the goals and outcomes the teacher and learner designate); 4. earning strategies (goal directed activities in which learners engage). In teaching content at the elementary, middle, or secondary level, the strategic teacher helps guide instruction by focusing on learning strategies that foster thinking skills in relation to the content. In connecting new information to what a student already knows, learning becomes more meaningful, and not simply retained for test-taking purposes. There are numerous strategies that teachers can develop that accomplish this purpose. To give one information is not difficult, but to help one be able to develop the tools to both know what information is relevant and the means to acquire it, is perhaps the most important function of any social studies teacher. There are numerous techniques for engaging students in thinking about content. Besides thinking skills, there are such practical matters as how best to present a lesson on weather, teaching map and globe skills, helping students work together in groups, how to question effectively, and how to answer student questions. The first and foremost criterion is that the teacher thoroughly know the content, the second criterion is that the teacher have a set of rules for classroom management that are understood and implemented, and the third criterion is that the teacher have the resourcefulness and knowledge to rehearse unfamiliar techniques, and more importantly, have the capacity to adjust any lesson plan to maintain academic focus. Many of these tasks are learned on-the-job. Nothing you can learn in any course is more valuable than learning what to do when you dont know what to do. When you can do that, you are well on your way to becoming a great teacher. Strategic Learning Strategic learning is, in effect, a highly probable outcome of effective strategic teaching. Reduced to its essentials, strategic learning is learning in which students construct their own meanings, and in the process, become aware of their own thinking. The link between teaching, thinking, and learning is critical. As a teacher, if you are not causing your students to think about what you are presenting, discussing, demonstrating, mediating, guiding, or directing, then you are not doing an effective job. You must be more than a dispenser of information. You must create conditions and an environment that encourages thinking, deepens and broadens it, and which causes students to become aware of how they think. The process of thinking about how we think is referred to as metacognition. In helping students create knowledge, it is useful to think of knowledge as occupying space that can be thought of as a pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid is declarative knowledge, or knowledge of what is. Declarative knowledge is akin to awareness. One step up on the pyramid is procedural knowledge, or knowledge of how something works, or functions. At the top of the pyramid is conditional knowledge, or knowledge of when or why a particular procedure will work. Conditional knowledge is closely related to the predictive function of knowledge. When students develop a broad and deep system of conditional knowledge, they are able to predict more accurately, solve problems more efficiently, and in a sense, are more free because they can identify and articulate more options from which to choose. Strategic learning is a valuable system to help your students develop conditional knowledge. Content Connections The creation of knowledge is, in the most practical and profound sense, a primary and direct result of learning. As teachers, we must strive to assist our students to develop intellectual tools by which they can create knowledge. Any knowledge, once created, becomes a part of a larger system that enhances learning and is capable of integrating and accommodating new information with greater efficiency and reliability. Each person creates knowledge in similar, yet uniquely distinct ways. Connecting information provided or described by others in novel and personal ways is a key to learning and developing knowledge. The more one knows, the more one can know. The idea of content links or connections is not exactly new, but offers some unique opportunities to chart your own course, learn, and add to your knowledge system. Enter the idea of Constructivism. Constructivism is a philosophy as well as a psychology of education. Constructivism is about how knowledge is created.

Essay on Condemnation of a Patriarchal Society in Yellow Wallpaper

Condemnation of a Patriarchal Society in The Yellow Wallpaper      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Charlotte Perkins Gilman was crafty. Taken at face value, her short work, The Yellow Wallpaper, is simply the diary of a woman going through a mental breakdown. The wallpaper itself is the arbitrary object on which a troubled mind is obsessively fixated. The fact that Gilman herself suffered from a nervous breakdown makes this interpretation seem quite viable. This explanation is, however, dead wrong.    The wallpaper is not merely the object upon which she obsesses. The madness that overtakes the narrator is not rooted in any nervous disorder that her husband diagnoses. The wallpaper is actually meant to represent a mould into which all women are supposed to fit. The insanity is rooted in the narrator's inability to fall easily into that mould. Gilman's descriptions of the wallpaper are really eloquent delineations of the restrictions and constraints placed upon women. In short, the wallpaper is what all proper women are supposed to be; the narrator is one woman who is unable to adapt and, hence, she becomes a lunatic.    The narrator's first description of the wallpaper puts forth most plainly what the nature of women is believed to be: "dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they . . . destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions" (Gilman 4-5). Initially here, women are depicted as confusing objects; so confounding that they are always annoying and yet curious enough to demand "study" or scrutiny. Upon further examination, women are then found to be "lame uncertain curves" so full of contradictions they ... ...f the wallpaper and towards schizophrenia.    It is easy to see how someone could misinterpret what Gilman was attempting to express in The Yellow Wallpaper, but if you take into account her other books (which are clearly feminist), her intentions become more apparent. She obviously uses the wallpaper as a medium to expose the constraints that were placed upon women in the 19th century. Her attitude towards these restrictions is quite apparent from the narrator's account of the wallpaper and her subsequent insanity from overexposure to it. She despises the general view of women and of their mental capabilities. This work lashes out at a patriarchal society's belief system and, the funny thing is, not many of the patriarchs noticed.    Work Cited Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. 1892. Alexandria, VA: Orchises Press, 1990.      

The Last Samurai

1) Japan. The end of XIX  century,  Capt. Nathan  Algren(main character), an American  military officer  hired by  the Emperor of Japan  to train  the country's  first army  of the rising sun  to contemporary art  of warfare. The Emperor  is trying to  eradicate the  ancient  Imperial  warrior  class  of samurai, in preparation for  a more  pro-Western  government policies  supporting  foreign trade. Meanwhile,  as a result of  collisions with the  samurai,  Algren  finds himself in the center of  the confrontation  of two worlds and  civilizations,  where  the only way to  survive  is  guided by  its own  concept  of honor. ) Nathan Algren: What do you want? Katsumoto: To know my enemy. Nathan Algren: I've seen what you do to your enemies. Katsumoto: Warriors in your country do not kill? Nathan Algren: They don't cut the heads off defeated, kneeling men. Katsumoto: General Hasegawa asked me to help him e nd his life. A samurai cannot stand the shame of defeat. I was honored to cut off his head. Katsumoto: And who was your general? Nathan Algren: Don't you have a rebellion to lead? Katsumoto: People in your country do not like conversation? Nathan Algren: He was a  lieutenant colonel.His name was  Custer. Katsumoto: I know this name. He killed many warriors. Nathan Algren: Oh, yes. Many warriors. Katsumoto: So he was a good general. Nathan Algren: No. He wasn't a good general. He was arrogant and foolhardy. And he got massacred because he took a single battalion against two thousand angry Indians. Katsumoto: Two thousand Indians? How many men for Custer? Nathan Algren: Two hundred and eleven. Katsumoto: I like this General Custer. Nathan Algren: He was a murderer who fell in love with his own legend. And his troopers died for it.Katsumoto: I think this is a very good death. Nathan Algren: Well, maybe you can have one just like it someday. 3) Differences  between the two culture s  of these countries  are very strong  as we  can see in  the dialogue, Nathan Algren  protagonist  does not understand  what Katsumoto,  the rebel leader  says,  but  only in  the beginning and  at the end of  the film  author  quite  clearly shows  how Englishman understood the ancient culture of  Japan. In this film  the best  scenes  is a  heroic  death,  let's say,  three hundred  Japanese who encountered  by continuous  fire from the  guns and  howitzers.Here  we are talking about  personal  valor and military honor,  above all,  including –  devotion to  their ruler  or  lord. The human  personality, which remains independent and free, even in  the moment of death,  when  made   a conscious choice  between  fame and infamy,  is  the main measure of  value. And this,  director  showed  the viewers by  eyes  of the protagonist,  a foreigner. The fact that he   has mastered the  culture which he didn’t know at all   and  in the end  decided to be  for it. 4) Finally, I want to say that the main principle of survival in the harsh environment of foreign life is adaptation.And I chose this film because there are clearly shown and gradually as the main character throughout the film get used to the Japanese environment. The protagonist, taken prisoner by samurai, gradually turns into a samurai. Contemplation of people indifferent to his own death, talks with rebel leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), stating that the person who saw the perfect shape of a flower, has lived a life not in vain, a clear rhythm and strict rest of life around make from American captain a new man.He understands why his former enemies’ absolute hero – not the one who kept the army and strategic positions, but the one who led a detachment of 211 troops against the two thousandth. And he understands why Katsumoto smiles happily when he hear d that all 300 soldiers were killed Spartan  at Thermopylae; he understands why widow of killed by him Samurai nursed him after being wounded – killed for a fair fight can not be an enemy. And, realizing this, Olgren wears the captain samurai armor, stands in order of their recent opponents and comes with a sword against guns and howitzers.Predetermined outcome of the battle, but it absolutely does not matter: death – only worthy end of life as a single ceremony of honor. Therefore, before the final battle, the protagonist offers a simple truth, which requires a long way to me: fate can not be change or submit- the fate amenable to recognition only. University of International Business and Economics The Last Samurai Intercultural communication Student: Farrukh Khamraev ID: IUP2010070 Date: November 29,2011 Beijing, 2011

Synthesis of Salicylic Acid and Potentiometric...

Synthesis of Salicylic Acid and Potentiometric Determination of its Purity and Dissociation Constant ------------------------------------------------- Abstract The purpose of the study is to synthesize salicylic acid from the ester, methyl salicylate, and determine the acid’s dissociation constant and purity. The ester was converted to salicylic acid by base hydrolysis. The products were refluxed and recrystallized, to ensure maximum purity, and filtered, dried, and weighed. The melting point of the product was determined using a Fischer-Johns melting point apparatus. The acid then dissolved in separate beakers with 95% ethanol and water and titrated with 0.050 M NaOH, previously standardized with potassium hydrogen phthalate, through†¦show more content†¦In the case where a weak monoprotic acid is being titrated with a strong base, subsequent addition of the titrant will cause a reaction to occur between the acid and the base. HA + OH– → H2O + A– (4) The presence of the acid and its conjugate base in solution will cause the formation of a buffer solution, which are solutions that resist a drastic change in pH, should a strong acid or base be added to the system. At these points, the slope of a constructed titration curve is at its minimum. This is the pre-equivalence point. There is a point during the pre-equivalence point region wherein both the acid and its conjugate base are present in equal amounts. This occurs when half of the acid has been neutralized, or when the titration is at the half-equivalence point. At this point, the buffering capacity of the system is at its maximum. Aside from that, simplifying Eq. 3 at this point by inspection, the [H+] is equal to that of the Ka. Taking the negative of the logarithm of both sides, one will be able to get the relation