The Gallery

Fun we had!

 

 Comments are welcome.

Leonid Afremov visits the English class

By Paula Andrea Peláez Velasquez

The paintings you sent us in the attached document about Leonid Afremov are quite beautiful.

According to the question you did at the end, I did not find one but many aspects of English I can teach through the art of painting. Actually I have taught ‘people´s description’ and ‘personal information’ about Leonardo Da Vinci with the Mona Lisa painting.

 

1. Creativity and imagination (Natural landscapes, people, cities, colors)

2. Biographies about painters (Personal information about famous painters)

3. People (Describing people, professions)

4. Cities, towns (Comparisons)

5. Weather (holidays)

6. Culture (food, dances, clothes)

7. Auctions (numbers and prices)

8. Field trips (Visit a gallery)

9. Emotions and feelings

10. Personal impressions about the paintings (Adjectives)

Personally, I love art specially music, photography and painting. They have given me a well-being feeling in crucial and difficult moments of my life.

Distance Education

Andres Felipe came up with a smashingly dashing presentation.

Check it out at  Andres Felipe Colorado

The classroom does not matter, the teacher does!

Teacher quality is not that glossy a picture!

Orlando Chaves

Universidad del Valle

 A great deal of current discourse about teacher quality reminds of a ´photoshopped’ picture, so regular in advertising.  Long (and short) lists of desirable values, qualities, and dos and don’ts are a common place when speaking of teachers’ qualities and profiles.  The portrait of what the teachers have to know, do, get, avoid, etc. is rarely done taking into account real teachers in actual teaching environments with particular students with specific learning ways.  We have been pictured a quality educator that is almost perfect regarding his knowledge, his attitudes, his personality, his capabilities.  This view disregards the real side of teaching conditions; it idealizes teachers to the point of de-personalizing them. Such a view is not only one-sided but unrealistic and undesirable.  In any case, a quality teacher can not necessarily be only good.

In Colombia, the legal framework for teaching is constituted by  the Constitución Política (1991), the Ley General de Educación (Ley 115 de 1994), the Ley de Educación Superior (Ley 30 de 1992), the Decreto 0709 (issued 17 April 1996, setting the rules for the programs for teacher education and establishing the conditions for their professional betterment), the Decreto 3012, (issued 19 December 1997, ruling the organization and work of the Escuelas Normales Superiores), and the Decreto 272, (issued 11 February 1998, establishing the requirements for creation and work of the undergraduate and graduate education programs in all colleges, and the titles, among other aspects).  The corresponding teacher profile ascertains that, at the moment of graduating, teachers should master:

·         Education and teaching problems that will be object of their intervention

·         The theories that explain and help teachers understand critically those problems, as well as those theories that allow them comprehend their students and themselves.

·         The knowledge with which they will be educating others and the didactic competences inherent in the education activity.

·         The sources of reality and criteria that contextualize the teaching profession in the local, national and international situation, with a good mastery of history and logic, linked with the comprehension and construction of pedagogic theories, which constitute the knowledge that supports their profession and grants their intellectual identity. 

·         All the criteria and norms that control their profession and their ethic and responsible practice.

The teachers’ profiles for the teachers in all Ibero-American countries (OEI, 2004) go quite  
alike.

According to the NCES

Teacher quality is a complex phenomenon, and there is little consensus on what it is or how to measure it.  For example, definitions range from those that focus on what should be taught and how knowledge should be imparted to the kinds of knowledge and training teachers should possess. There are, however, two broad elements that most observers agree characterize teacher quality: (1) teacher preparation and qualifications, and (2) teaching practices. (2009, p. 3).

Some of the usual aspects considered in the usual profiles and literature about teacher quality are: (1) Knowledge: a teacher must know the subject matter he teaches; this knowledge should be updated and deepened to an epistemological level and should include a historical perspective; this knowledge should also include the possibility of inter- and trans-disciplinarity.  As well, a teacher must know how to teach; this includes knowledge about pedagogy, didactics, methods, methodology, use and design of resources and materials.  Besides that, a teacher must know the norms that rule his job. Let’s concede, knowledge is a must for teachers; you cannot teach something you don’t know well.  However, you never know everything about any subject, especially in these ever faster changing times.  The teaching practice as daily in most institutions is hard and it does not leave much time for things like epistemology, no matter how desirable they can be.  (2) Passion, vocation, professionalism, professional identity, positive attitude, whatever the term for the attitudinal component that complements the cognitive or knowledge element.   Of course, it is better if a teacher is engaged; however, you cannot be like that all the time: if you’re sick, tired, disappointed, or simply too busy your attitude will change.  (3) Effectiveness in terms of the students’ learning measured as their success in exams.  We have to admit that the students must learn from the teacher; nevertheless, we must also acknowledge that, first, learning is more up to the student than to the teacher, and, second, learning is not completely the product of teaching alone; it also takes conditions –work, school, teachers’, students’ and parents’ conditions- like salary, time, tools, students’ willingness, family/parents support, institutional support, sound policies… In short, these real teaching-learning conditions are something that those lists of teachers’ quality aspects almost never take into account.  Let’s see some real teachers and let’s consider quality in their cases.

In a Colombian rural school, a primary school teacher, 60, 2 years away from retirement tries hard to teach English as a foreign language.  This normalista, ranked 14 in the ‘escalafón’ after a career of over 30 years, is now short-sighted and suffers from arteriosclerosis, which makes it difficult for her to move around.  She doesn’t speak English, but she has to teach it; it’s in the law.  She was trained to teach all subjects for kids in the primary level.  She is not a ‘licenciada’ in English, but she has had to teach English since recently; it’s the law.  So, she teaches one hour of English per week to her third grade class of 38 girls and boys of strata 1 and 2 in a public school in the ‘laderas’ of Cali.  She teaches lists of words regarding topics like colors, parts of the body, parts of the house, animals, fruits, and the like.  She translates and uses “figurative” pronunciation (writing in parentheses the way the word is pronounced, no phonetic symbols).  She does what she can; quality, however, cannot be adequate enough and she herself is aware of this fact.  That is her practice, driven by law imposition, pedagogical theory aside. In the light of theory, on the one side, many studies have shown the close link between teacher quality and students’ achievement (Hanushek, et al, 1998; Darling-Hammond, 2000; Goe, 2007, 2008).  On the opposite side, other studies establish a weak connection between teacher characteristics and students’ achievement (Goldhaber, et al, 1999; Rivkin, et al, 2005; Buddin & Zammaro, 2009).  In the middle, there are studies like the ones by Goldhaber, et al, (1999) which include other factors altogether with the teacher quality: school level, class size, time of exposure to the target language, didactic aids, among many other.  Teacher quality is a complex thing, hard to be measured.  In the case of the primary teacher portrayed here, it is evident that she cannot offer much to her students due to her own lacks.  However, it is not her fault to be forced by the law to teach something she is not prepared for, especially if the state does not offer conditions to her to adequately comply with the rule that makes it compulsory for her to teach a foreign language she does not master.  Certainly, any of us, teachers, will lack quality if we have to teach a subject we don’t know.   Conditions beyond the reach of the teacher himself can deeply affect his quality. In this particular case, the legal frame happens to be a component of teaching quality.

In a second case, in a Colombian city, an English teacher who is (still) “grammar-translation” centered works in a public secondary school.  He is in his early fifties and has been teaching for over twenty years.  He started teaching almost immediately after graduating at the age of twenty-seven.  He initially taught in private schools and in some language institutes.  He is now a tenure teacher in a public school.  He has been in this high school for more than ten years.  He teaches the “higher” grades (9, 10, and 11) while other colleagues take the “lower” grades (6, 7, and 8).  He has a steady view (that he was taught at college) about what has to be taught: language is grammar-based.  Thus, the central content for him is verbal tenses.  Syllabi roughly go like this: to be and present (affirmative, interrogative and negative) for sixth grade, past and future (affirmative, interrogative and negative) for seventh, continuous tenses (affirmative, interrogative and negative) for eight, perfect tenses (affirmative, interrogative and negative) for ninth, conditional and passive voice for tenth and eleventh.  He is ranked in category 13, the one before the top, and enjoys stability and a good salary.  He climbed the rank (‘escalafon’) ladder with many teacher training courses in areas other than English for the simple reasons that, first, it was not compulsory and, second, English trainers was not common in those times.  He cut contact with his college soon after graduating and that college still has no tracking policies regarding graduated students.  So he just kept the linguistic and teaching perspectives he learnt when he studied at college.  He did not update, right; but it was not only his own fault; there were not many chances to do it.  Quality considered, it might be plainly said that his is not the best for current times.  Quality has also to do with the professional life cycle  (Fessler, 1985; Steffy, 1989, 2001; Huberman, 1989, 2001; Woodward, 2010), with experience (Nye, et al, 2004; Clotfelter, et al, March 2007, October 2007; Harris and Sass, 2007), and with content-area knowledge (Hill, et al, 2005; Harris and Sass, 2007; Goldhaber and Brewer, 1999; Clotfelter, et al, March 2007, October 2007).  It can be said that what is considered appropriate now won’t be so in the future, especially in these ever faster changing times.  In the case of this secondary school English teacher, his teaching and linguistic views have worn outdated, you can say that again, but they have been accepted in all the schools he has worked in and they are accepted in the school he is currently teaching, too!  This tells us that teacher quality must be seen not only as a purely personal issue; institutional factors affect it deeply, as well.

Let’s see a third case, that of a tertiary level professor in a foreign languages B.A. / B.Ed. program, also in Colombia.  He graduated to be a foreign languages teacher and he took “extra” language courses after graduating, since he realized he didn’t have the necessary proficiency to be admitted into an elite institution.  However, he couldn’t get into any of them, because they required experience he didn’t have yet.  He attended an Education Ministry’s call (‘concurso’) for public teachers and was appointed in a rural school.  He had to work with “Escuela Nueva” despite not having been trained to teach in the primary level.  After a couple of years, his petition of being appointed to an urban school was accepted.  He worked for a few years in the public school until the Secretary of Education tried to move him back to the rural area in order to accommodate in his place a friend of his, a philosophy teacher.  Well, it was a small town and corrupt politics is also well rooted in local education administration…  So, he quit in protest.  He founded a private institute and worked in it for several years.  During these years he also taught as a part time teacher in several universities.  Eventually, he became a tenure teacher in one of them.  He has taught not only English as a foreign language but also course of Applied Linguistics, Didactics, Pedagogy, Research, Linguistics, Practicum, and some other subjects of the trade.  Of course, he learnt a lot from every course he taught.  He pursued graduate studies in his area, as well.  Clearly, this is the story of a teacher of whom you can predicate good quality, which can be certified by his publications, research and teaching career.  Unlike the primary and secondary teachers mentioned above, this teacher has moved from tough situations opposing his development to a context that clearly favors and fosters his professional growth.  It might be said that adversity played some role in taking the best out of him.  The fact is he brags of having a sound picture of the whole scholastic system, due to his experience in all the education levels both in rural and urban areas, in the private and public sectors (which is true).  He evolved from a grammar-translation method to TPR to whole language to a functional-communicative approach with an eclectic methodology of tasks-projects and collaborative and autonomous learning with meta-cognitive components…   The fact is also that he is in a professional milieu in which quality is a daily parameter, a must.

In conclusion, when speaking of teacher quality, just picturing beautiful images of what we should be is not adequate or fair.  Even the highly-qualified teacher rules have generally been criticized for having few effects overall on teacher practices (Keller, 2007).  A sound comprehension of the real teaching and learning conditions in real schools with real students is necessary to establish a sensible and fair theory of what teacher quality means and what should and can be done to really improve it.  The three illustrative cases depicted above describe real teachers in genuine situations like teacher qualifications,, experience, tenure, legal framework, school climate, students demographics, class size, among others that constitute actual factors affecting teacher, and teaching quality.  Idealism and romanticism in theory about teacher quality should be toned down with a good dosage of realism if we are to really understand teachers´ beliefs and practices and further intervene in them.

References

Buddin, R. & Zamarro, G. (2009). Teacher Qualifications and Student Achievement in Urban Elementary Schools. Journal of Urban Economics, 66, 103-115.

Clotfelter, C.T., Ladd, H.F., Vigdor, J.L. (2007).  How and Why Do Teacher Credentials Matter for Student Achievement? NBER Working Papers 12828, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

Clotfelter, C.T., Ladd, H.F., & Vigdor, J.L. (2007). Teacher Credentials and Student Achievement in High School: A Cross-Subject Analysis with Student Fixed Effects. Calder Center. NBER Working Papers, 13617, National Bureau of Economic Research Inc. Published: Clotfelter, Charles T. & Ladd, Helen F. & Vigdor, Jacob L., 2007. "Teacher credentials and student achievement: Longitudinal analysis with student fixed effects," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 673-682, December. Available at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12828

Darling-Hammond, L. (2000).  Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: A Review of State Policy Evidence. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 8 (1), 2-44. Retrieved from: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/392/515

Goe, L. (2007). The link between teacher quality and student outcomes: A research synthesis. Washington, DC: National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. Retrieved from: http://www.tqsource.org/publications/LinkBetweenTQandStudentOutcomes.pdf

Goe, L. & Stickler, L.M. (2008). Teacher quality and student achievement: making the most of recent research. Washington: National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. Retrieved from: http://www.tqsource.org/publications/March2008Brief.pdf

Goldhaber, D., & Brewer, D. (1999). Teacher Licensing and Student Achievement. In Marci Kanstoroom and Chester E. Finn, Jr. (Eds.) Better teachers, better schools. Washington:  Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

Hanushek, E.A., Kain, J.F., and Rivkin, S.G., (1998). Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement, NBER Working Paper No. 6691. Published: Steven G. Rivkin & Eric A. Hanushek & John F. Kain. (2005). Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement. Econometrica, Jounal of the Econometric Society, 73(2), March. pp. 417-458.

Harris, D. N., & Sass, T. R. (2007). The effects of NBPTS-certified teachers on student achievement. Retrieved from: http://www.nbpts.org/UserFiles/File/Harris_Sass_Final_2007.pdf

Harris, D.N., Sass, T.R., (2006). Teacher Training, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement. Calder Center, March 9 2006. Retrieved from: https://www.stcloudstate.edu/tpi/initiative/documents/preparation/teacher%20training,%20teacher%20quality%20and%20student%20achievement.pdf 

Keller, B. NCLB Rules on ‘Quality’ Fall Short. Education Week, May 16, 2007.

Nye, B., Konstantopoulo, S., & Hedges, L.V. (2004). How Large Are Teacher Effects. Retrieved from: http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/uploads/002/834/127%20-%20Nye%20B%20%20Hedges%20L%20%20V%20%20%20Konstantopoulos%20S%20%20(2004).pdf

Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura. (2004). Organización y Estructura de la Formación Docente en Iberoamérica.  Documento de Trabajo elaborado por el Observatorio de la Educación Iberoamericana a partir de los Informes de los Sistemas Educativos Nacionales de la OEI y las aportaciones de los miembros de la Red Iberoamericana de Formación Docente. Retrieved from: http://www.oei.es/linea6/informe.PDF

Rivkin, S.G., Hanushek, E.A. & Kain, J.F. (2005). Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement. Econometrica, Jounal of the Econometric Society, 73(2). pp. 417-458.

U.S. Department of Education. Office of Educational Research and Improvement. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Teacher quality: a report on the preparation and qualifications of public school teachers. Statistical Analysis Report, January 1999-080.

Controversial and innovative position of the week

Drinking Beer in Moderation Improves the Learning of New Information in Teenagers 
by Lina Marcela Sanchez Rios

For many years, researchers around the world have found nutrients – proteins, vitamins and minerals - in different foods that help teenagers with their learning ability and memory, in other words, something to improve and accelerate their learning process. Different foods such as vegetables and fruits have been used to make several products which increase teenager’s intellect, for example: RIQALL and GINGKO (memory and mental alertness capsules).

However, researchers also have found an alcoholic product which contributes to enhance intellect. It is beer - the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. But, is this alcoholic drink bad for teenagers and their learning process? On the contrary, a beer is healthy! This is what recent studies have shown: drinking in moderation - about one drink a day - is associated with improved mental capacity, reduced stress and simply being healthy.

 Learning involves a change in attitude or behavior. For example, children learn to identify objects at an early age; adults learn to solve complex problems and teenagers learn to improve study habits. Accordingly, if we change a habit or add a new one in teenagers between 15 and 18 years old, it will reduce learning disabilities. Of course, one of these habits can be drinking a small amount of alcohol: a beer! A 2010 study of 70,000 teenagers – to be precise, ages from 13 and 18 – conducted by researchers at Italy’s Fondazion di Ricerca e Cura found that: “Moderate beer drinkers are less likely to develop mental problems than teenagers who do not drink a beer.” It has a positive effect on short-term memory, reasoning capacity and concentration.

Taking advantage of this study and knowing that the most popular drink among teenagers is beer, they might be encouraged to drink one beer per day in order to improve their mental capacity and their learning process. Doing this, they will be more active, enthusiastic and participative in class. On the other hand, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that 85 percent of students reported feeling stressed because of academic concerns such as school work and grades, expressed anxiety, were exhausted or felt overwhelmed by all they had to do at school. However, another Harvard 2010 study showed that beer drinkers had 40% lower levels of stress than non-beer-drinkers.

So a beer promotes relaxation, lowers stress levels and improves sleeping which permit to do many activities easily. In this way, teenagers can work in class without feeling pressure or fatigue, but the best part is that teachers will no longer hear complaining remarks about class tasks! Drinking Beer in Moderation Improves the Learning of New Information in Teenagers.

Talking about sleeping, quality and the quantity have a huge influence on learning and memory. Sleep plays several vital roles in the ability to learn new things and the consolidation of memory which require synchronization and performance and are essential for an optimal learning process. Nevertheless, teenagers - between 15 and 18 – waste their time mostly in the evenings, losing valuable sleep time. They are not conscious about the problems that affect the brain’s ability to analyze, receive and process new tasks. For that reason, it is recommended to drink a beer per day because it produces sleep. Furthermore, profits associated to their learning process will surely appear.

 Nowadays, people should realize the benefits of beer. Medical experts are demonstrating it every day. For instance, a woman called Ellison, a specialist in researching in the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and chronic diseases, says: “Beer is rich in many vitamins and minerals which have been found to be good for the heart, kidneys, and bones - among others…” That is a lot of benefits! Definitely, teenagers would be healthier drinking a beer per day than before; and not only teenagers but also people in general will benefit from the benefits of beer. Besides, it will be a good way to avoid truancy generated because of an illness, laziness and inactivity.

To sum up, beer has been an important part of the development of the human race, and it is still very important for us today taking into account all the benefits that it has brought about in our body. In other words, beer has its merits but only if teenagers – and human beings in general - understand that moderation is key to reaching these benefits. They should realize the effects of alcohol on their health will depend on how much they drink. It means if teenagers want to be excellent students, they will not drink too much. Consuming with caution is vital and really helps!

The science of learning

On  Dr Itiel Dror's practical suggestions about how people learn based on  the latest neuroscience findings. 

1. The brain is a machine with limited resources for processing the enormous quantity of information received by the senses. As a result, attention is extremely selective and the brain must rely on all sorts of shortcuts if it is to cope effectively.
2. Teachers/designers can adopt two strategies to reduce the risk of learners experiencing cognitive overload: provide less information (quantitative approach) or take much more care about how this information is communicated (qualitative approach).
3. It is easier for a person to focus their attention on the desired point if there is minimal noise (other information) surrounding it. Reducing noise also reduces context, so a balance needs to be struck.
4. Overload can be reduced by grouping items/steps (what Itiel calls 'chunking'). Grouping can be accomplished by placing people/objects/events into categories, or by compressing a number of procedural steps into one, automatic action. Visually you meay separate items by space, size or colour. Learners will naturally employ grouping as a strategy, although they may do this inappropriately and the process requires effort. Better for the designer/teacher to present material ready grouped.
5. A side effect of grouping is that once the action is completely familiar (that old 'unconscious competence' phase), the individual finds it hard to explain how they do it; they lose control over the process because it has become automatic (so old hands may not always be the best teachers?). Grouping is essential to our functioning, but there are obvious dangers, i.e. unhelpful stereotyping.
6. Individuals use top-down processing to reduce overload. This draws automatically on their past experience of the particular context, existing knowledge and intelligence and avoids them having to evaluate all new information from the bottom up. An example would be how people can easily read a sentence in which the letters in each word are jumbled up.
7. Designers/teachers need to take account of the way in which the information is likely to be encoded and processed - it's not 'what you teach' but 'what is learned'.
8. Different parts of the brain specialise in different tasks. Individuals can engage in more than one task at the same time, as long as each uses a different part of the brain.
9. It's a myth that we only use 5-10% of the brain - we use it all.
10. The brain continues to change throughout our lives, even though we stop adding new brain cells in our early 20s. Some parts of the brain are relatively hard-wired (through nature or nurture), some very plastic. It makes sense to concentrate in recruitment on finding those people with hard wiring which suits the job, because no amount of training will sort the problem out later. 
11. As you grow older the hard-wired capabilities persist - the most learnable capabilities go first.
12. Language is more than just a means for expressing thought - in many ways it is thought. If a person is not exposed to any language in early years, then by the age of seven they are incapable of learning it.
13. The two sides of the brain really do have different functions. The left brain concentrates on language and analytical skills; the right has the spacial abilities. The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa. The left and right sides of the brain do not interact physically.
14. The size of a person's brain is not an indicator of intelligence.
15. 20% of your blood is in the brain.
16. You never lose anything from long-term memory, just the ability to retrieve it. Retrieval is a function of how you encode memories / the number of links you provide.
17. Working memory consists of 7+/-2 items.
18. To reduce cognitive overload, take out every word or picture that is not necessary or relevant to your learning goals. Even then, don't deliver more than the learner can handle (presumably by modularising the learning).
19. Provide the learning when it is needed, not before.
20. Be consistent in the manner of your presentation, e.g. the interface.
21. Be consistent in the level of your presentation, i.e. not too complex, not too simple. Try to work with homogeneous groups; better still personalise the learning.
22. Engage the learner by grabbing their attention, allowing them to determine their progress, providing constructive feedback, introducing an element of excitement/surprise.
23. Be careful of allowing the learner too much control over the learning process if they don't have the metacognitive skills, i.e. they don't know what they know and what they don't know, nor how best to bridge the gap. Ideally help learners to increase their metacognitive skills, i.e. learning how to learn.
24. Providing the learner with control over pace and allowing them to go back and repeat any step is important.
25. The learning benefits by being challenging. Performance targets, rewards and competition can increase the degree of challenge, perhaps through the use of games.
    

    Itiel E. Dror
    Itiel Dror (Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London) holds a doctorate in psychology from Harvard University and specializes in visual cognition, human performance, expertise and decision making. Dr. Dror's interest and experience is in taking scientific knowledge and theoretical models about the human brain and mind, and translating them into practical ways to improve and affect human performance and decision making in the workplace. His applied research and consultancy has taken place in a variety of countries and has included governmental bodies (such as the UK Passport and Identity Services; the US Air Force; and Police Forces in the UK, the US, the Netherlands and Israel) and commercial companies (such as Deutsche Bank, PWC, and IBM), as well as providing expert reports and testimonies in court cases (such as in the Levi Bellfield case in the High Criminal Court at the Old Bailey in London). Dr. Dror has published more than 75 peer reviewed articles, including a number of leading articles in the forensic science domain, and he has conducted empirical studies on bias in fingerprinting and other forensic domains. He is an associate editor of the journal Pragmatics and Cognition, and is presently a member of the NIJ/NIST expert working group in human factors in latent fingerprint examination. More information is available at: www.CognitiveConsultantsInternational.com.

The Science of Learning and the Learning of Science

 Introducing Desirable Difficulties

By Robert A. Bjork and Marcia C. Linn

Students' performance during instruction is commonly viewed as a measure of learning and a basis for evaluating and selecting instructional practices. Laboratory findings question that view: Conditions of practice that appear optimal during instruction can fail to support long-term retention and transfer of knowledge and, remarkably, conditions that introduce difficulties for the learner — and appear to slow the rate of the learning — can enhance long-term retention and transfer. Such "desirable difficulties" (Bjork, 1994) include: spacing rather than massing study sessions; interleaving rather than blocking practice on separate topics; varying how to-be-learned material is presented; reducing feedback; and using tests as learning events.

Defining didactics

Noun didactics Extensive Definition distinguish didacticism A didactic method (Greek: didáskein = to teach; lore of teaching) is a teaching method that follows a consistent scientific approach or educational style to engage the student’s mind. The didactic method of instruction is often contrasted with dialectics and the Socratic method; the term can also be used to refer to a specific didactic method, as for instance constructivist didactics. Didactics is the theory of teaching and, in a wider sense, the theory and practical application of teaching and learning. In demarcation from mathetics, as the science of learning, didactics refers only to the science of teaching.

Mathetics is the science of learning. The term was coined by John Amos Comenius (1592–1670) in his work Spicilegium didacticum, published in 1680. He understood Mathetics as the opposite of Didactics, the science of teaching. Mathetics considers and uses findings of current interest from pedagogical psychology, neurophysiology and information technology.

didactics in Czech: Didaktika didactics in German: Didaktik didactics in Spanish: Didáctica didactics in Croatian: Didaktika didactics in Polish: Dydaktyka didactics in Finnish: Didaktiikka Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words catechization, coaching, direction, edification, education, enlightenment, guidance, illumination, information, instruction, pedagogics, pedagogy, private teaching, programmed instruction, reeducation, schooling, self-instruction, self-teaching, spoon-feeding, teaching, tuition, tutelage, tutorage, tutoring, tutorship http://didactics.askdefine.com/

Introductory course Timetable

Universidad de Caldas Maestria en Didactica del Inglés

Saturday July 14, 1)Teacher Quality. How could you become a highly qualified teacher through this Master’s programme. 2) The future of Second Language Learning 3)Argumentative essay writing 4) Round Table Friday July 28, Study Skills a. Flexible reading b. Improving concentration c. Managing time d. Preparing to study e. Procrastination f. Setting goals g. Study groups h. Round table Saturday, July 29 1) APA Style 2) Preparing Presentations 3) Critical Reading 4) Research Using the Internet Critically 5) Principles of effective on-line teaching 6) Round table Instructor: Ph.D. Carlos Man Ospina Nova

INTRODUCTORY COURSE DESCRIPTION

Instructor: Carlos Man Ospina Nova Day /Time: July 14, 28,29 2012 Location: University of Caldas email: cminnova@yahoo.com INTRODUCTORY COURSE DESCRIPTION Studying for a master’s degree is a demanding but gratifying experience. This is the opportunity to study a specific topic in depth in order to pursue an advanced level, to access skilled teaching and to acquire research support. This course provides participants with a broad overview of the main aspects to be considered in a master’s degree in the field of second language teaching. It will help participants to recognize their own needs and styles in order to organize ideas and reflect on the way they learn and the demands of studying a master’s degree. This module will address the following topics: 1) Teacher Quality. How could you become a highly-qualified teacher through this Master’s program. 2) Study Skills a. Flexible reading b. Improving concentration c. Managing time d. Preparing to study e. Procrastination f. Setting goals g. Study groups 3) APA Style 4) Preparing Presentations 5) Critical Reading 6) Research Using the Internet Critically 7) Writing argumentative essays COURSE OBJECTIVES: • Introduce, from the very beginning, a comfortable study environment. • Prepare participants face the demands of the master´s Program. • Help participants recognize the importance of some aspects while studying a master´s degree. • Improve the way that teachers research, read and write in order for them not to have difficulties carrying out assignments in other courses . • Provide participants with a space to reflect upon their practice MODULE REQUIREMENTS: • Read assigned articles for due date.

• Do homework and submit it on time. • Attend classes regularly and arrive on time. • Make regular and relevant contributions in class. MODULE ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES 1. Essay - 50% 2. Round Table – 50% MODULE SCHEDULE: Session 1 July 14 - 7:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (1 hour break) July 27 - 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. July 28 – 7:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. ( 1 hour break) Methodology: Presentations by the instructor, reading discussions and round tables. Bibliography: BROWN, H. Douglas (2007) Teaching by Principles an Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, Pearson Longman REINER VILLEGAS (2003) , Eleonora. Teacher Professional Development. International Institute for Educational Planning. (E-book) MCGUINNESS, Marc. Time Management for Creative People. www.businessdesignonline.com (E-book) TOMAS, JON. 10 Tips and Techniques for More Effective Presentations www.presentationadvisors.com Apa style: http://www.slideshare.net/rchoquel/normas-apa-1430826 http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/basics-tutorial.aspx