Old and Modern Teaching Techniques That Work Best on Both the Teachers and the Students - Essay Example

Education Name Institution Introduction The major effective way of using technology in early childhood setting involves application of materials and tools which help in enhancing children’s learning and development. As technology is increasingly finding its way into the mainstream culture, there are several ways where technology in early childhood program have been extended to include the use of computers, mini-white boards, response cards and streaming media. Response cards increases scores on delayed assessments, and goes about reducing disruptive behavior among students. Response cards allow teachers to be involved with every single student in the class since all the students are able to participate. Limitations that are associated to RC are seen to be, error rates are likely to be high when the students present their answers, along with this, a lot of time is needed for the preparations of response cards because of the time needed for teaching the students on how to use them. The essay below is used as an eye opener to most teachers and shows the approach undertaken by the teacher and the student, evidence based evaluation, the outcomes of the technique, and the strengths and limitation of using this technique as a teaching methods at Hertswood School (Marzano, 2007). 1. Classroom Experiment: ‘Mini-whiteboard’ In this case, it is understood that, an experiment in form of a video was undertaken to evaluate the use of mini whiteboards in the classroom. It was noted that, both teachers and students were happy after the demonstration process on the use of mini whiteboards. It was also noted that, the demonstration provided a very effective and useful way which teachers expressed was proper using at class. More so, the experiment showed that, the evaluation of cards indicates several positive effects on student’s reactions and thus provides some evidence that the exercise promotes and facilitates learning process. The video further indicated that the exercise motivated the students to attend the class an issue which in the past has been seen to be raise a big problem and contributed to student’s grades. It was noted that the cards improved exams performances on the one third question that was tested. This was shown where beneficial effect on learning occurred since the card questions provided a great opportunity for students to practice recalling materials and also receive immediate feedback about the answers. Paddle pop stick and no hands up was found useful for students since one cold demonstrate and decorate what he/she wanted. 2. Response Cards Evidence Based Evaluation of Response Cards This study evaluates the effects of using response cards during whole group. In a math session in a grade, four classrooms were selected and using an ABA research design. During conditions A and B, the classroom teacher conducts her math lessons as planned. Using HR in condition A, the teacher asks questions and instructs the students to raise their hands. After each question she calls on one of the students whose hand is raised. Using RC in condition B, whenever the teacher asks a question, she instructs the entire class to write their answers on individual response cards. After each question, she instructs the entire class to hold up their RC (Randolph, 2007). Data collected on a selected few students who represents the class range in general level of participation, academic skills, and on-task behavior. Results indicate that student participation is higher in using RC effect than in HR effect, specifically the number of student-initiate opportunities to respond and the number of student responses. Student’s performance increased and they scored higher on the weekly math quiz after the RC condition than after the HR conditions. Outcomes of using Response Cards Student response and test scores are usually higher for all targeted students in the response-card condition. When the teacher asks a similar number of questions in both RC and HR condition, students seem to provide more feedback in the response-card condition than in the HR condition (Angelo 1993). Hattie identifies a landmark where he gathered 800 education Meta analyses with an aim of making sense out of the results, where by he found out that there exist different things which educators could do to assist the learners though some education pedagogies are more effective than others. Hattie identified and provided a mode of evaluating Meta analysis, whereby he postulated that 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 are classified as small, medium and above or large respectively. Students are observed to learn best when they are actively engaged, despite what subject they undertake, in learning relevant instructional material. Response cards are a promising strategy designed to enhance active student responding by the use of opportunities to responds. Currently, studies from various literature materials show that the use of response cards increase the frequency and precision of a student’s response during whole-class instruction, it shows that there is an increases scored on instantaneous assessments. Response cards increases scores on delayed assessments, and goes about reducing disruptive behavior among students. In a meta-analysis of 6 studies, Randolph found the average effect of using response cards on test achievement was 0.38. Using Hattie’s benchmarks for small, medium and large effects in educational research, this can be thought of as a “medium” effect (Randolph, 2007). According to Randolph off task behavior and participation take different mode from size effects when accessing the impact of effect size as they use percentage change Different researchers have provided different results in relation to response cards evaluation. Randolph indicated that after performing Meta analysis of 6 studies it was discovered that in average the effect of using quiz achievement was 0.38. According to Hattie similar response could be benchmarked as medium. Randolph also meta analyzed 7 response cars to identify the effects on participation on the class room where by it was found out that there was 48% increase in average participation, similarly Hattie benchmarks showed a large participation. When using RC effect, if a student gives an incorrect answer, the teacher provides corrective feedback by reminding the students from past-learnt material; alternatively, the teacher offers a new set of information to increase the students understanding (Marzano, 2007). Although has in a few cases included students with E/BD (emotional behavior disabilities), it has been investigated and has shown to reduce disruptive behaviors, increase time on task, and increase student achievement from the elementary school level to the university level. In short, using RC offers active responding, active participation, and effective instruction as research shows on any given single subject. In addition, Eric stated that the use of mini-whiteboard in classroom experiment indicates that both teachers and students are happy while using them since they show a very useful technique of teaching in class. The whiteboard thus stimulates students learning and gives teachers ample time to understand what they are doing and further achieve fruitful results. Printed response cards Printed response cards used in EC setting are cards that can be reused and permits students to give independent answers to all questions that are asked by the teacher. In this case taking an example When early childhood teacher is teaching colors they can use preprinted card make red card, blue card, yellow card etc since this helps in showing the colors to children to learn different colors, More so, response cards system is an intercession that increases student’s active engagement and provides a way for a teacher to assess immediate efforts of the students and provide feedback to individual students, a group of students within the class or the whole class. The main aim for using response cards is to allow students respond simultaneously to a teacher immediately using a card with a printed with printed answers, a white board, interactive white board or other technologies that are allowed for response cards. According to Heward preprinted RC in EC settings procedure has been seen to increase student’s performance on both short-term and delayed assessments. Randolph points out that this procedure has also been shown to minimize off-task and disruptive behaviors among students. Dylan argues that instead of hand raising (HR) technique is the most damaging thing that can happen to a class since only a quarter of the students actively participate in the class session. Hattie, on his side, advises the use lollipop sticks or the use mini-whiteboards, which gives a snapshot of how the whole class is doing. Response cards procedure has been proven to be more successful than using hand rising since it incorporates all students in a class. Research shows that the use of response cards is operational in all levels of education, from primary to college, with a variety of subjects (Heward, 1994). 3. Strengths and Limitations of Using Response Response cards and mini white boards are used to increasing active student’s response (ASR). Through doing this, several benefits are seen. The students are not only limited to giving predetermined answers but can be creative to give responses that they feel is what the question demands from them. The use of mini white cards gives room for curriculum content and questions for which multiple correct answers can be used. Nonetheless, taking into account the fact that there are no studies conducted for response cards that are normally conducted to children under school age, I think it will be reasonable to be skeptical about their potential since this will be of great help in understanding of early childhood setting. RC in early childhood setting is used as a way of learning mode that incorporates the use of lollipop and /or mini-whiteboards as an interactive method of teaching. This technique of teaching provides the teacher with a centered way of teaching approach and when properly put in use it yields very high results in the student’s performance. More so, teachers use teaching colors in classrooms in order to give the student ample time to practice handwriting, to jeopardize style game and for spell test. Taking into account Randolph statement concerning EC settings, as an individual teaching a pre-school of students of ages from 3-5 years old I would establish a method of using of preprinted RC in early childhood setting i will be able to provide effective answers through checking spellings from the answers that the students have provided to me while trying to correct them on the spelling mistakes they might have made while providing the answers. By the use of this condition, the use of a more demanding recall type response is required than the most common simpler recognition types used. Response cards mechanism gives teachers the ability to check effective on going lesson, the teacher asks the students if they have understood the point s/he intended for them to understand and if not, he re-teach again to make sure they do. Since response cards are used to shape students behavior at EC setting and making them less disruptive, students are able to concentrate more in class sessions and become more involved in class activities. No students feel shy and fear that they will give a wrong answer this boosts the students self esteem (Marzano, 2007). Response cards are also not appropriate for lessons with large number of different answers e.g. 50 states, elements of the periodic table. They are not also appropriate for use where variation in the size and legibility of students writing can make their sponses difficult to the teacher to see. Also, the instructions are limited to recognition tasks. There are also disadvantages where write on cards have a very lower ASR rate compared to preprinted response cards because of the time needed for writing and erasing answers,. In addition, the error rates are thus likely to be higher than for the preprinted cards. Conclusion It has been proved that old teaching techniques such as hand rising does not pay the required attention to all the students, especially those who are shy and suffer from low self-esteem. All this change, when a different technique is applied and the results works best on the both the teachers and the students; students become lively in class and they no longer hide in their low esteem mode. Response cards as a teaching technique has given these students a second chance to be the students they are supposed to be and has boosted their interactivity in class sessions and their performance. References Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York, NY: Routledge. Jason, Eric. (2008). Importance of using Response card: New York, NY: Routledge. Heward,W. L. (1994). Three low tech strategies for increasing the frequency of active student response during group instruction: In R. Gardner, III, D. M. Sainato, J. O. Cooper, & T. E. Heron (Eds.), Behavior analysis in education: Focus on measurably superior instruction (pp. 283-320). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. Marzano, R.J. (2007). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, VA: ACSD. BEd Common EDUF University of Sydney Education, Teachers & Teaching: 17 2012 1 EDUF1018 Randolph, J.R. (2007). Meta-analysis of the research on response cards: Effects on test achievement, quiz achievement, participation, and off-task behavior. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 9, 113-128. Hardy, E. (2010a, September 27). The Classroom Experiment. Episode 1. [Television broadcast]. London: British Broadcasting Corporation.   Hardy, E. (2010b, September 28). The Classroom Experiment. Episode 2. [Television broadcast]. London: British Broadcasting Corporation. 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