Saturday, March 12, 2011

Week 1 of CED 525

This week we needed to read Principles of Teaching and Learning and
A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning
and post our reaction to our blog. Here is a summary of what I read.

I really found the principles of teaching and learning article to be motivating. This article really helped me realize where I need to focus my time and energy as an educator. It addressed the roles of both the educator and the student. I found the teaching principles to be quite revealing. This is my fourth year of teaching and I have started to become a little complacent with my curriculum. This article really revealed the steps that I need to take to become a good educator.

I had some trouble really gaining value from the article A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning. It has been awhile since I have read a scientific study and I felt like the message of the article was somewhat lost within the calculations of medians, control groups, and standard deviations. I points listed below were the ideas that I believed to be important:

- Small group learning had more positive effects than individual learning

- Computer-based simulation had a negative effect on student attitudes.

- Technology can change teachers’ pedagogic practices from a teacher-centered or teacher-directed model to a more student-centered classroom

- Computer-based instruction increases students’ time-on-task

- Teaching and learning with technology has a small, positive, significant effect on student outcomes when compared to traditional instruction


I was surprised to see that computer based learning had only a small impact on student outcomes and a negative effect on student attitudes. My assumption is that the results reveal the idea that the use technology does not guarantee an increase in student achievement. The use of technology needs to be integrated into the curriculum in a fashion that allows for student success. The curriculum needs to remain the focus and technology should be used to enhance the learning process. Technology can be used to validate the student learning and allow students to create connections to the material they are learning.

3 comments:

  1. Carl, I agree with you about the second article. It was definitely a struggle for me too! And I was also surprised to see such little impact on learning when technology is used. It makes me consider if I am using technology affectively in my classroom.

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  2. I agree with your summary of the key points of the second article Carl. I was also surprised about the negative effect of simulation, but I think it ties to one of the points we learned in an earlier class. For technology to really help a class it must relate to the students lives and experiences. If the simulations do not apply to the students, they might have a negative effect.

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  3. Carl, I agree with what you said about small group learning having a positive affect on students. I've always thought that kids learn best from each other, especially when they have a dislike for the class or the teacher. It's those small groups that break those students out of their shells and allow them to expand their knowledge.

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