Jorge Ramos
Language IX
Crystal Hickerson
May 20th, 2009.
Policies about Homework
Harris Cooper, in his article called “Homework Research and Policy”, argues about the lack of interest on homework in the United States and the need of policies to regulate its implementations. The author supports his arguments on researchers which represent a limited population and at the same time reduces the spectrum of analysis in a certain period of time which does not represent the real tendency on students’ way of life because society is constantly changing as themselves.
According to studies that Cooper mentions in his research, some points such as; amount of homework, grade, students’ levels and internal and external factors that should affect students’ performances doing homework appear as considerable factors to take into consideration but they are not really decisive when the purpose of homework is students’ learning. In other words, establishing homework as an instrument that has time at home as its main characteristic, means a big issue that students have to deal without any possibility to question its effectiveness.
Arguing about the importance of Homework, Cooper demonstrates using researchers, the importance of homework in his country. He states that the higher is the level where the task is given the higher is the effectiveness of the homework on students learning. However he has not developed a clear example about the importance of considering homework as an instrument to help students to progress in their learning. When the author constructs a table that contains the positive and negative effects of it implementation there is not a clear perspective about how effective homework is on students. The negative effects such as; lost of interest in academic duties, mental and physical fatigue and parental interferences, shows us that homework represents a complex element that teachers and students have to deal with.
On the other hand, the concept of not using homework as a punishment given by Cooper it is a complementary idea about the use of policies to determine homework as a standardized instrument to implement in every district. It demonstrates the lack of evidence that the author gives us about having a common framework to put this idea into practice. Why the author establishes a common framework for homework when he argues that every students in every level has different needs and different reactions in front of homework. Moreover, Cooper mentions parental control to help students in their tasks which is a risk, because it depends on their economical situation and parents’ educational levels. Considering the importance of homework in any society, its use and utility compels teachers who have to observe cautiously its consequences and at the same time, the role of implementing policies that become homework in something general without any strong and updated research that should affect learning negatively.
Finally, this research built under a model which is not a suitable representation of students realities, deals with a big and non identified problem by the author, which is the lack of attention on learners who are part of the forgotten percentage that appear as an statistic in the final numbers. There is not any attention for them, when the real purpose of giving homework is to facilitate the learning process of every student and not only the ones who can deal with this instrument. Homework has to be focused on identify learners learning and to achieve specific goals with them.
Sources
Cooper , Harris. “Homework Research and Policy: A review of literature”. CAREI Newsletter. (May ,2006) May 12th, 2009 retrieved from
<http://cehd.umn.edu/CAREI/Reports/Rpractsctice/Summer94/homework.html>
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Corrections
Book Review
Jorge Ramos A.
Language IX
Crystal Hickerson
8th May, 2009.
Helping Teachers in the Learning Process
Woodward, Tessa. “Planning Lessons and Courses”. Designing sequences of work for the language classroom. UK: Ed.Cambridge University Press, 2001.1-108.
A vivid analysis of teachers’ work oriented towards how to improve their performances using practical steps and advice, this is what proposes the author in this book. Defining a plan, a good or a bad lesson is a reflexive exercise to help teachers in the process of learning, where there are many difficulties, problems and experiences they have to solve. Knowing students is fundamental according to Woodward, who believes that teachers need to be immerse not only in contents but also with students as central elements to plan classes. As a common mistake, the amount of time that teachers spend doing classes appears as another part to solve in the process. How long the lesson is? It reveals a normal problem for teachers when they are trying to teach content deeply and effectively. At the same time, this book contains pieces of advice oriented towards identify what teachers have to consider as valuable contents for students. However, this idea is absolutely relative and depends on students’ capacities or teachers’ qualities in the real scenario. Most of the author’ s suggestions are part of an analysis which gives some logical and regular stops? which does not mean that they have been used effectively by teachers, on the contrary, topics in this book are what teachers ought to follow to improve the quality of their classes and as a consequence, the quality of students’ learning process. Maybe, this book will help old and new teachers to be proactive or to be reactive if the process has been weak because all the ideas that this book contains are practical methods to create a powerful, dynamic and effective class.
Woodward, Tessa. “Planning Lessons and Courses”. Designing sequences of work for the language classroom. UK: Ed.Cambridge University Press, 2001.1-108.
A vivid analysis of teachers’ work oriented towards how to improve their performances using practical steps and advice, this is what proposes the author in this book. Defining a plan, a good or a bad lesson is a reflexive exercise to help teachers in the process of learning, where there are many difficulties, problems and experiences they have to solve. Knowing students is fundamental according to Woodward, who believes that teachers need to be immerse not only in contents but also with students as central elements to plan classes. As a common mistake, the amount of time that teachers spend doing classes appears as another part to solve in the process. How long the lesson is? It reveals a normal problem for teachers when they are trying to teach content deeply and effectively. At the same time, this book contains pieces of advice oriented towards identify what teachers have to consider as valuable contents for students. However, this idea is absolutely relative and depends on students’ capacities or teachers’ qualities in the real scenario. Most of the author’ s suggestions are part of an analysis which gives some logical and regular stops? which does not mean that they have been used effectively by teachers, on the contrary, topics in this book are what teachers ought to follow to improve the quality of their classes and as a consequence, the quality of students’ learning process. Maybe, this book will help old and new teachers to be proactive or to be reactive if the process has been weak because all the ideas that this book contains are practical methods to create a powerful, dynamic and effective class.
Annotated Bibliography
Improving Test scores. What teachers can do.
Burns, David J. “Will do as well on the final exam as I expect? An examination of students`expectations.” Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 8. 3 (2008): 1-19. The relation between students` expectations and final results is the leitmotiv of this analysis in which David J. Burns tries to support that there are internal and external factors that would impede success at the end of the road. The researcher assumes that students are more affected by mental factors and that their abilities are connected to their actions which have nothing to do with final scores. Higher or lower results are more than a demonstration of the amount of knowledge that students manage. However, there are not clear evidences about the positive effects of high expectations in students’ minds. In fact, those constructions are part of the environment which promotes diffuse theories without any support and few evidence that affects the learning process and the possibility of teaching in a cleaner and proactive scenario.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Book Review
Jorge Ramos A.
Language IX
Crystal Hickerson
8th May, 2009.
Helping Teachers in the Learning Process
Woodward, Tessa. “Planning Lessons and Courses”. Designing sequences of work for the language classroom. UK: Ed.Cambridge University Press, 2001.1-108.
A vivid analysis of teachers’ work oriented to how to improve their performances using practical steps and advices, it is what the author proposes in this book. Defining a planning, a good or a bad lesson is a reflexive exercise to help teachers in the process of learning, where there are many difficulties, problems and experiences they have to face. Knowing students is fundamental according to Woodward, who believes that teachers need to be committed not only in contents but also on students as central elements to plan classes. As a common mistake, the amount of time that teachers spend doing classes appears as another point to solve in the process. How long is the lesson? It reveals a regular problem for teachers when they are trying to teach content deeply and effectively. At the same time, this book contains advices oriented to identify what do teachers have to consider as valuable contents for students. However, this idea is absolutely relative and depends on the students’ capacities or teachers’ qualities in the real scenario. Most of the author’ s suggestions are part of an analysis which gives some logical and regular steps which does not mean that they have been used effectively by teachers, on the contrary, topics in this book are what teachers ought to follow to improve the quality of their classes and as a consequence, the quality of students’ learning process. Maybe, this book will help old and new teachers to be proactive or to be reactive if the process has been weak, because all the ideas that this book contains are practical methods to create a powerful, dynamic and effective class.
Language IX
Crystal Hickerson
8th May, 2009.
Helping Teachers in the Learning Process
Woodward, Tessa. “Planning Lessons and Courses”. Designing sequences of work for the language classroom. UK: Ed.Cambridge University Press, 2001.1-108.
A vivid analysis of teachers’ work oriented to how to improve their performances using practical steps and advices, it is what the author proposes in this book. Defining a planning, a good or a bad lesson is a reflexive exercise to help teachers in the process of learning, where there are many difficulties, problems and experiences they have to face. Knowing students is fundamental according to Woodward, who believes that teachers need to be committed not only in contents but also on students as central elements to plan classes. As a common mistake, the amount of time that teachers spend doing classes appears as another point to solve in the process. How long is the lesson? It reveals a regular problem for teachers when they are trying to teach content deeply and effectively. At the same time, this book contains advices oriented to identify what do teachers have to consider as valuable contents for students. However, this idea is absolutely relative and depends on the students’ capacities or teachers’ qualities in the real scenario. Most of the author’ s suggestions are part of an analysis which gives some logical and regular steps which does not mean that they have been used effectively by teachers, on the contrary, topics in this book are what teachers ought to follow to improve the quality of their classes and as a consequence, the quality of students’ learning process. Maybe, this book will help old and new teachers to be proactive or to be reactive if the process has been weak, because all the ideas that this book contains are practical methods to create a powerful, dynamic and effective class.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Annotated Bibliography
Improving Test scores. What teachers can do?
Burns, David J. “Will do as well on the final exam as I expect? An examination of students`expectations.” Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 8. 3 (2008): 1-19. The relation between students` expectations and final results is the leitmotiv of this analysis in which David J. Burns tries to support that there are internal and external factors that would impede success at the end of the road. The researcher assumes that students are more affected by mental factors and their abilities are connected to their actions which have nothing to do with final scores. Higher or lower results are more than a demonstration of the amount of knowledge that students manage. However, there are not clear evidences about the positive effects of high expectations in students’ minds. In fact, those constructions are part of the environment which promotes diffuse theories without any support and less evidence that affects the learning process and the possibility of teaching in a clean and proactive scenario.
Burns, David J. “Will do as well on the final exam as I expect? An examination of students`expectations.” Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 8. 3 (2008): 1-19. The relation between students` expectations and final results is the leitmotiv of this analysis in which David J. Burns tries to support that there are internal and external factors that would impede success at the end of the road. The researcher assumes that students are more affected by mental factors and their abilities are connected to their actions which have nothing to do with final scores. Higher or lower results are more than a demonstration of the amount of knowledge that students manage. However, there are not clear evidences about the positive effects of high expectations in students’ minds. In fact, those constructions are part of the environment which promotes diffuse theories without any support and less evidence that affects the learning process and the possibility of teaching in a clean and proactive scenario.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Sources for Research in Education
Databases
1-EBSCO HOST
It is a well ordered and complete database that gives to the researcher a simple and guided orientation to have access in educational topics. It has full texts and a wide variety of topics.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search?vid=1&hid=116&sid=414748fd-4eda-4025-8e66-28aba7187c5c%40sessionmgr103
2-International bureau of education
This database is connected with UNESCO, which is the most important organization that promotes equality and equity in the whole world. It has many links to journals in education which are totally free and useful for researchers.
http://www.ibe.unesco.org/en/services/links/databases-on-education-systems.html
3-Trinity College.
It is a complete database that contatins many journals related to education in Australia and Canada. Both are countries that have a different and valid point of view in education.
http://www.trinity.wa.edu.au/plduffyrc/subjects/english/media/edjournals.htm
Journals
1-Journal of Education for International Development (JEID)
A Professional Online Journal for Practitioners
1-EBSCO HOST
It is a well ordered and complete database that gives to the researcher a simple and guided orientation to have access in educational topics. It has full texts and a wide variety of topics.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search?vid=1&hid=116&sid=414748fd-4eda-4025-8e66-28aba7187c5c%40sessionmgr103
2-International bureau of education
This database is connected with UNESCO, which is the most important organization that promotes equality and equity in the whole world. It has many links to journals in education which are totally free and useful for researchers.
http://www.ibe.unesco.org/en/services/links/databases-on-education-systems.html
3-Trinity College.
It is a complete database that contatins many journals related to education in Australia and Canada. Both are countries that have a different and valid point of view in education.
http://www.trinity.wa.edu.au/plduffyrc/subjects/english/media/edjournals.htm
Journals
1-Journal of Education for International Development (JEID)
A Professional Online Journal for Practitioners
This is a different journal that contains information about supportive education for fragile contexts. It contains different articles about how to teach in problematic areas and how to assume and overcome that situations in a positive way. Besides this journal has a wide variety of material to face this environments in a posstive way.
http://www.equip123.net/JEID/current.htm
2-Educational Sciences Journal Educational Sciences R&D Unit of the University of Lisbon
This is a portuguese journal that contains information that helps the researcher to find many topics and ideas about education and its fields.It is a clear and well structered journal that promotes different topics and alternatives to help teachers in the classroom.
http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt/search.php
3-Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
This is an australian journal that has many topics and short news about education. It is more precise in terms of searching. Besides it is clean of advertisement and distractors in its pages. Moreover, it contains a variety of publications ordered by date.
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/news/edtimes/onlineeditions.htm
4-Journal of Techonology Education. Virginia Tech.
In this journal teh researcher can a find adifferent perspective about eduaction. It contains information about technology in eduacation which is very useful to acquire this area in the classroom. Technology has a important rol in our society and education has to assume its part to be updated in this challenging society.
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/
5-Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology
This source has many information related to education, but also it is very useful because of its articles which are available in PDF format. It has academic and practitioners research which is very useful because promotes a dual poitn of view for researchers.
http://investigacion-psicopedagogica.org/revista/new/english/index.php
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Religion v/s Spirituality
The film Religulous is a representation of how people has used religion as way of thinking their lives from an extreme point of view. Religion has been a controversial and dynamic topic since humanity`s foundation. It is a good example of how human beings have evolutioned or involutioned throughout history. Religion has changed into different practices from catholicism to scientology, adapting or mutating its own origin to cover human`s needs. The idea of being part of a religious circle confers people more mechanisms to survive in this world. Uncertainty has been the main object to take part of a common group that is living without any hopes, "unless you take part of it". Religion has been adapted to create a common social framework, represented by a variety of religions or interpretations of that social framework. The idea of God has been determined restrictively. The majority of churches believe they have the truth, as a unique object, which promotes differences and conflicts which will affect in political and social areas. For instance, the historical struggle between Israel and Palestina is for territory but at the same time, it is potentialized by religion. Bill Maher, one of the brains of Religulous, argues that religion has done way more harm than good in the world(1-2). In this case religion has a negative connotation which minimize the idea that religion is the best path to live a better life where peace and equality could be their goals more than wars and conflicts. A spiritual leader called Stephen Knapp states that we need a common spirituality to congregates us in a positive and non-defined kind of religion(1-7). Universality is the concept that contains a general view to generate a global movement to reduce intelectual and physical battles.
Religion provoques different reactions depending on how passion someone puts on his/her dogma. In classes, students are a complex representation of different religions, for that reason, teachers need to be informed and objective when this topic takes part of the class, because it would be a good way of integrating reflection or the other way around, a complete chaos if the topic is not well guided. Religion as politics, represent big challenges when teaching is in charge of explaining them in an open and respectful environment.
Bibliography:
Gross, Terry."Bill Maher and Larry Charles, Getting Religulous". Interview with Larry Charles and Bill Maher. Fresh Air. NPR. 30 September 2008. 2 October 2008.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story/.php?storyId=95210724&ft=1&f=1008
Knapp, Stephen. " Spitirituality Beyond Religion". Stephen Knapp And His Books on Spirituality, Vedic Culture and Eastern Philosophy. 10 February 2006. 28 March 2009.
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/spirituality_beyond_religion.htm
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