1. You have just heard a
colleague say : "No more computer activities for me! I've tried
and that's it! Sure, students love them, but they're so hard to manage
they're going to kill me. I have to think of me first."
Which of the following choicee
seem(s) to be most compatible with the way you would react to the above
assertion?
a) You feel your colleague
is right. Teachers do not get enough help and support to engage in computer
activities with students, or, as a matter of fact, in any other activities
that require consistent student participation.
b) You understand your colleague's
reaction. You feel schools always tend to want to comply to students'
desires instead of having them adapt to well-organized and stable teaching
frameworks.
c) You understand your colleague's
reaction but you think students should not be deprived of opportunities
to develop skills such as researching, organizing and sharing information
from the net.
d) You strongly disagree as
you are thoroughly convinced that teachers should keep informed and should
use whatever approach is observed to be most compatible with the constructing
of knowledge.
2. Below are four suggestions
that a group of teachers put forward as being the knowledge building
approach they would favor at all times.
a) Lectures, demonstrations,
explanations and discussions are most helpful to acquire knowledge and
skills in any circumstances.
b) Projects are most useful
to engage students in complex learning experiences.
c) Collaboration based activities
offer students the possibility to explore the social dimensions of learning.
d) Socratic dialogue (drawing
responses from a questioning conversation) is more successful in maintaining
student interest and involvement.
3. When asked to describe
how appropriate learning should occur, a student teacher wrote the following
answer: "Appropriate learning occurs when the teacher has been
able to capture student interest and when effort has been extended to
understand and master the prescribed subject matter."
Which of the following statements
best reflect(s) your appreciation of the above answer?
a) He or she is right in stressing
the teacher's concern for motivation but has omitted to consider the knowledge
building process as an opportunity for students to experience and reflect
on complex real life learning situations.
b) The answer appropriately
focuses on student effort to understand the subject matter since sustained
student engagement is present day teachers' most important challenge.
c) He or she does not seem
to consider learning as requiring free student engagement in choosing
among alternatives whereby personal responsibilities can be discussed
and understood.
d) The answer is a good brief
definition of what learning is, but too little is known about strategies
used by teachers to capture interest and support student understanding.
4. To a question that was
asked in a workshop having to do with present changes in teaching practices,
the facilitator's answer seemed to create quite a stir in the assistance.
What the facilitator said can be summarized in the following way:"There
is no more place in schools for teachers who still view their role in
a traditional way."
a) I believe the role of the
teacher does have to change, especially in the area of computer-based
activities.
b) I think teaching methods
come and go but good teachers do not change much.
c) I think teachers should
be consistent with their beliefs and not let progress overrule successful
teaching practices.
d) I believe in students and
student empowerment, and that in itself is a tremendous shift.
5. If you were to express
your opinion on what the curriculum should include, which of the following
statements would best reflect your thinking?
a) The curriculum should include
language arts, languages and humanities for better comprehension of the
world we live in, science, technology and mathenatics for better reasoning
and problem-solving and arts for more beauty, creativity and imagination.
b) The curriculum should focus
on subjects that provide a basis for culture and literacy and offer a
well-balanced distribution of other school subjects bound to prepare students
adequately for the job market.
c) The curriculum should concentrate
on proper development of skills and competences and thus include broad
topics or fields of interest capable of providing suject matter in all
areas of culture, arts and natural sciences.
d) The curriculum should insist
on the development of skills, attitudes and values and include a framework
for teachers and students to select subject matter in accordance with
planned knowledgebuilding activities.
6. Teachers discussing ideas
on how to value their students' written assignments came up with the
following suggestions:
Which
of the above is (are) more inspiring to you?
a) Make sure to mark the assignments
properly and write positive as well as negative comments on each of them.
b) Let students be given the
opportunity to respond to their classmates' work.
c) Favor exhibitions of all
kinds, including websites, whereby students' work could be made more meaningful
to them.
d) Train students to hand
in neatly done assignments and teach them the pride of self-accomplishment
7. If you were given the
opportunity to vote for two of the following statements, which one(s)
would you select?
a) Education is maximizing
intellectual abilities.
b) The essence of education
is reflecting on experience.
c) Education should inculcate
the child with essential skills and knowledge.
d) Students need a passionate
encounter with the world.
e) Assimilation of knowledge
and critical thinking go hand in hand.
f) Education is finding your
own personal way to truth.
g) Students should live, not
prepare for life.
h) Schools ought to bring
teachers, students and success together