Learning Strategies and Goals - Research Paper Example

? Theory and Practice College: Theory and Practice Teachers are usually faced with indecision over what to teach and what to assess (Schwab, 2004). Practice is looked at as putting theoretical concepts into action. Attention to differences between theory and practice is accompanied by criticism in curriculum studies, as well as educational leadership (Mullen, 2003). Paradigms undermining the problem solving capability ultimately discredit the potential of practitioners. Binocular vision helps in bridging theory with the practical bit. Most teachers work on covering large content in preparing the student for the next class rather than depth coverage. For instance, studies in mathematics and sciences have shown that better performance emanates from depth rather than breadth (Cogan & Schmidt, 2002). Teaching is termed successful, if students learn what has been taught. Therefore, this paper focuses on what students are learning. It is subdivided into three sections: the role of assessment in the context of instruction, most essential and long lasting concepts the students should be taught and, finally, the role of assessments. Beginning from looking at the role of assessment in the context of instruction, assessment is supposed to be developed to fit the learning targets set for the students in order to be supportive to the students. It should be consistent with methods of instruction as poor connection among learning targets. Instructions and assessment only amount to more than confusion and frustration leading to anger and despair. Learning is accompanied by a cognitive change and behavioral experience among people. Contrary to what teachers believe, much of what students learn come from experiences outside school rather than from classroom. Therefore, an ideal relationship should be established among learning targets, instructions and assessment. In setting learning targets, four main steps are recommended: the teacher has to find out the learners’ goals; they should then agree on an action plan; they should set targets and agree that targets are met. For instance, whereas, in mathematics, the teacher wants students to be able to draw and interpret graphs and data; in language arts, the target is to enable students develop proper reading and interpretation of texts, creative and informative writing among others. In determining what students are to learn, it best begins with one’s knowledge of the subject combined with their values as an educator. No time is sufficient for a student to learn all that is required of them. Factory model of schooling in which teachers rush to cover a topic after topic leaves little or no time for internalizing ideas and making the concepts gained a solid part of the student’s cognitive and behavioral experience. Students retain little of what is taught in courses that is based on content coverage other than deep understanding of the concepts. In the event that students cannot learn all that is taught, wise choices ought to be made about what is possible in a given fixed time. Learning goals and learning objectives are the terms used as labels for statements about what teachers want students to learn. Learning goals reflect ultimate aims of schooling; whereas, learning objectives focus more on knowledge and skills that help students attain their goals. The term subject areas are used to refer to conventional titles of content taught in school, while discipline refers to fields or study and work. Four questions can assist in framing learning goals for teaching and these include: evaluating the dimensions of the subject are to be taught, the chief aspects of these subject areas to students of a certain year and the level of sophistication. Students can, hence, continue working on the broad goals after moving to other teachers. The third question is the knowledge and skills within the discipline that will help students understand the working of other people in the field, the knowledge of people in the field that makes them successful and their line of thinking in the discipline. The fourth question is what adult people do relative to the discipline that shows the achievement of the larger goals. For instance, scientists make observations on controlled experiments, data analysis of the resulting investigations and prepare research reports. These reports are presented in conferences and published in journals. In choosing the learning objectives for each goal, the challenge occurs when the goal is extremely broad. In framing the objectives, three strategies have been used: behavioral objectives, teaching objectives and learning objectives. Behavioral objectives were based on tightly defined knowledge or skill in which students would show acquisition of a skill through observable behavior. These were written in terms of specific verbs, for instance, identify, define, recognize and were derived from what could be assessed by use of traditional test items. The behavioral objectives notion emanated from a learning theory called behaviorism. This learning behavior encompasses a combination of individual skills leading to an ultimate build up of skills resulting in a significant outcome. Animal studies formed the basis for the derivation of this theory wherein animals were taught complex activities by using simple activities and reinforcement in stages till they could combine these simple behaviors to complex ones (Skinner, 1938). However, this theory has at least two problems in generalizing to human behavior and human cognition. Firstly, humans want to comprehend reasons or grounds behind their acts, and secondly, the inability to show or define all that is learnt in terms of overt and specific behaviors. Behavioral objectives along with problems of behaviorism as a human learning theory have limitations. Firstly, objectives written in terms of specific behaviors trivialized learning rather than focusing on cognitive or changes in behavior. Secondly, to get a vital understanding or skill requires a large number of objectives. Finally, confusion of many teachers between behavioral objectives and instructional activities should be taken into account. Teaching objectives are the statements based on which the teacher is going to present a lesson or make students do during a lesson. They serve to guide teaching and lesson planning. Learning objectives infer what is to be learned, and some may refer it to a conceptual understanding. It is recommended that, other than specific behaviors, teachers should focus on student learning based on broader statements. Learning objectives aiming at acquisition of skills will start with “students will learn how to” and those aimed at conceptual understanding will commence with “students will learn.” These do not use phrases such as “learn about” or “learn that.” Learning objective has two elements. The preceding part for students would be learning on pre-writing techniques, where the student’s skills will be identified, as well as their capacity to generate ideas for their own writing. The second learning objective is one in which students learn to use a variety of decoding skills. These assist students to understand the meaning of texts. Assessment should be aimed at giving students practice with concepts and skills and determine how well they are developing those concepts and skills. Crucial links in relating learning goals and objectives, instruction, and assessment are identifying valued performances, planning lessons and organizing of those lessons. Assessment must be incorporated in the planning process from the very beginning. The first step in planning for assessments involves sizing up assessments. Assessment can be done in the following ways: creation of assignments, exams, classroom assessment, concept maps, concept tests, and assessing group work. In theory and practice, other techniques can also be used such as self directed learning in which learning tasks are largely within the learner’s control. It steers students in accepting responsibility in their individual learning. Constructivism also has important applications in teaching, as well as learning. The teacher is seen as a guide other than transmitter of knowledge. When one struggles to make sense of theory-practice relationship, their reflective capacity triggers a questioning process. This helps in internalizing the concept and makes it easier to put to practice whatever has been learned. Some researchers are working towards bringing theory and practice, theoreticians and practitioners into a new relationship (Jenlink, 2002). The challenge was to test theory against a practice and involve practitioners in theory development. The concept of possibility thinking should be adopted as poised by Anna Craft’s. This visualizes problem solving as a puzzle in which one seeks alternative ways to a barrier, asks questions finds problems and their solutions (Jeffrey & Craft, 2004). Teaching methods should be geared towards critical thinking that could help scholar-practitioners in breakthrough discoveries stemming from deep reflection and “out of the box thinking.” Learning here is based on prior knowledge. As once stated, without prior knowledge of how buildings are built, an architect could not do his job correctly, implying that theorists need to have an understanding of the practical applications in education so as to create a valid theory. Therefore, these two phenomena are interdependent. It is, therefore, helpful to be able to at least reflect on the theory behind our practices. Assessment in the concept of classroom testing usually involves several rules. The first rule is deciding whether the learning objective is best assessed through a multiple choice question. Different items in this case are used basing on the objective. For example, recollecting a variety of related facts, a matching item is recommended other than use of multiple choices. Secondly, one ought to ensure clarity of the question so that the student knows what the question wants before reading the answer choices. The third rule is to assess the recall of facts, comprehension of texts or simple algorithm applications. The fourth rule is to assess their thinking by use of questions that begin with why, how or which of the following. The fifth rule is to make sure that the grammar in the stem does not give clues to the answer. Distracters are most useful if they are examples of common errors or misconceptions. For young children, oral directions are recommended and also use of art. Similarly, there are rules for evaluating short answer questions. Stating just but a few, rule one is to ensure that stem asks for the skill relevant to the learning objectives. Short answer questions having absolutely no correct responses and no key words or ideas, list all key ideas and at least one sample response that includes the key words. Thirdly, for open-ended short answer items and subject to many different valid responses, a brief scoring rubric is created focused on the relevant learning objective, in scoring the objective. Fourth is to determine whether the number of points given to an item is reasonable given the total number of points on the test. There are also rules in developing and evaluating matching item sets, true-false items and developing and evaluating completion items. It is, therefore, evident that several factors are considered under theory and practice and are dependent on a given grade of school. For effective understanding of the concept, teachers and instructors should strive to merge both theoretical and practical bits for enhanced understanding by the student. References Mullen, C. A. (2003). “What is a scholar-practitioner? K–12 teachers and administrators respond.” Scholar-Practitioner Quarterly, 1(4), 9-26. Cogan, L. S., & Schmidt, W. H. (2002). “Culture shock – eighth grade mathematics from an international perspective.” Educational Research and Evaluation, 8(1), 41-54. Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis. New York, NY: Appleton-Century Company. Read More