How China is Winning the School Race.
China's education performance - at least in cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong - seems to be as spectacular as the country's breakneck economic expansion, outperforming many more advanced countries.
But what is behind this success?
Eyebrows were raised when the results of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's international maths, science and reading tests - the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests - were published.
Shanghai, taking part for the first time, came top in all three subjects.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong which was performing well in the last decade of British rule, has gone from good to great. In this global ranking, it came fourth in reading, second in maths and third in science.
These two Chinese cities - there was no national ranking for China - had outstripped leading education systems around the world.
The results for Beijing, not yet released, are not quite as spectacular. "But they are still high," says Andreas Schleicher, the OECD's head of education statistics and indicators.
Cheng Kai-Ming, Professor of Education at Hong Kong University, and closely involved in the Hong Kong and Shanghai tests, puts the results down to "a devotion to education not shared by some other cultures".
Competitive Exams
More than 80% of Shanghai's older secondary students attend after-school tutoring. They may spend another three to four hours each day on homework under close parental supervision.
Such diligence also reflects the ferociously competitive university entrance examinations.
"Not all Chinese parents are 'tiger mothers'," insists Prof Cheng. "But certainly they are devoted to their children's education."
Certainly both these open and outward-looking cities set great store by education, willing to adopt the best educational practices from around the world to ensure success. In Hong Kong, education accounts for more than one-fifth of entire government spending every year.
"Shanghai and Hong Kong are small education systems, virtually city states, with a concentration of ideas, manpower and resources for education," says Prof Cheng.
The innovation in these cities is not shared by other parts of China - not even Beijing, he says.
Under the banner "First class city, first class education", Shanghai set about systematically re-equipping classrooms, upgrading schools and revamping the curriculum in the last decade.
It got rid of the "key schools" system which concentrated resources only on top students and elite schools. Instead staff were trained in more interactive teaching methods and computers were brought in.
Showcase Schools
The city's schools are now a showcase for the country. About 80% of Shanghai school leavers go to university compared to an overall average of 24% in China.
Meanwhile, dynamic Hong Kong was forced into educational improvements as its industries moved to cheaper mainland Chinese areas in the 1990s. Its survival as a service and management hub for China depended on upgrading knowledge and skills.
In the last decade Hong Kong has concentrated on raising the bar and closing the gap or "lifting the floor" for all students, says a report by McKinsey management consultants.
The report, How the World's Most Improved School Systems Keep Getting Better, rated Hong Kong's education system among the best in the world.
But Hong Kong schools are undergoing another huge reform, lopping off the final year of secondary school and instead moving towards four-year university degrees from 2012 to align it with China.
Abandoning the old British model is a gamble and no-one knows how it will play out in terms of quality.
Top Teachers
However, Hong Kong believes it has laid solid, unshakeable foundations.
"In the late 1990s we moved to all-graduate [teachers]. If we want to have high achievement, subject expertise is very important for secondary schools," said Catherine KK Chan, deputy secretary for education in the Hong Kong government.
Hong Kong, like Singapore, now recruits teachers from the top 30% of the graduate cohort. By contrast, according to the OECD, the US recruits from the bottom third.
Shanghai recruits teachers more broadly. But it is already a select group.
Shanghai controls who lives and works in the city through China's notorious "houkou" or permanent residency system, allowing only the best and the brightest to become residents with access to jobs and schools.
"For over 50 years Shanghai has been accumulating talent, the cream of the cream in China. That gives it an incredible advantage," says Ruth Heyhoe, former head of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, now at the University of Toronto.
Migrant Children
The OECD's Mr Schleicher believes teacher training has played a part in Shanghai's success, with higher-performing teachers mentoring teachers from lower-performing schools, to raise standards across the board.
"What is striking about Shanghai is that there is quite a large socio-economic variability in the student population, but it does not play out in terms of its Pisa results," said Mr Schleicher.
"Some people have even suggested we did not include Shanghai's fairly large immigration population. Around 5.1% of the population are migrants from rural areas. Their children are definitely included," he said.
Last year Shanghai claimed to be the first Chinese city to provide free schooling for all migrant children. This year migrants outnumbered Shanghai-born children for the first time in state primary schools, making up 54% of the intake.
Prof Cheng agrees the Pisa results reflect a broad cross section. However the majority of migrant children are below 15 - the age at which the tests for international comparisons are taken. It is also the age of transfer to senior secondaries.
"If they were allowed to attend senior secondary schools in the city, the results would be very different," said Prof Cheng.
Even now "to some extent, where people are born largely determines their chances of educational success", said Gu Jun, a professor of sociology at Shanghai university.
Their societies are changing rapidly and for both Shanghai and Hong Kong, being top might prove to be easier than staying there.
Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14812822
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Showing posts with label How. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How. Show all posts
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
How Do We Learn and Remember?
How Do We Learn and Remember?
The mechanisms of learning and memory are at the essence of how the brain works.
One of the most fascinating and mysterious properties of the brain is its capacity to learn, or its ability to change in response to experience and to retain that knowledge throughout an organism’s lifetime. The ability to learn and to establish new memories is fundamental to our very existence; we rely on memory to engage in effective actions, to understand the words we read, to recognize the objects we see, to decode the auditory signals representing speech, and even to provide us with a personal identity and sense of self. Memory plays such as important and ubiquitous role that it is often taken for granted—the only time most people pay attention to their memory is when it fails, as too often happens through brain injury or disease.
Identifying the complex processes underlying learning, memory and brain plasticity is critical for understanding how the brain works, and remains one of the fundamental challenges facing the brain sciences. Although much has been learned about the neural basis of learning and memory over the years, it is becoming increasingly clear that further advances and insights can only be achieved through an interdisciplinary approach to the problem. Brown’s Brain Science Program (BSP) researchers are accomplishing this goal by examining the wide variety of phenomena associated with learning and memory at all levels of complexity, ranging from molecules, synapses, cells, neuronal ensembles, and neural systems, to the behavior of whole animals.
Molecular and Synaptic Mechanisms of Memory
Synapses are the connections between nerve cells, and they are also the major site of information exchange and storage in the brain. We now know that synapses can alter their effectiveness based on their activity, and that this phenomenon, known as synaptic plasticity, may be the fundamental basis of learning and memory. Researchers at Brown, including Professors Barry Connors, Anna Dunaevsky and Justin Fallon, are interested in how synapses are formed and maintained, and how they are modified by experience to store new information. In one major area of research these scientists are asking how ephemeral episodes of neural activity are transformed into long-lasting changes in synaptic strength. To persist, synaptic modifications require the synthesis of new proteins, many of which arise by the translation of mRNAs at synapses. Since synapses are far away from the cell body—where the mRNAs are made—the neuron must have means for sequestering the message at these remote locations and triggering their translation in response to synaptic activity. Professor Fallon and his students, for example, have discovered a novel molecular mechanism, called cytoplasmic polyadenylation, for the regulation of such local translation and are working to understand how this system functions in learning and memory. They are also studying whether this mechanism plays a role in the pathogenesis of Fragile X Syndrome, the most common form of inherited mental retardation. Finally, they are also investigating the molecular basis of synapse formation and elimination using the highly tractable nerve-muscle synapse.
Neural Systems of Memory
Researchers at Brown have long been interested in the intersection between brain functions and behavior, including understanding the neural basis of memory. Much of this research has focused on the structures composing a medial temporal lobe system that has been found to play a critical role in declarative memory functions in both rodents and primates, including humans. This research utilizes multidisciplinary approaches including neuroanatomical and neuronal recording studies. For example, by removing a brain structure in animal models, researchers are characterizing the ensuing defects in learning or memory, and thereby learn more about the region's functions. Such a study can then be advanced by recording neuronal activity in the intact structure in a behaving animal, to examine this area as animals learn new tasks. Professors Mayank Mehta and Rebecca Burwell study how new environments are learned in the hippocampus—a gateway for transforming sensations and thoughts into long-term memories. An understanding of the neural and cognitive substrates underlying memory and learning can be also be acquired through the investigation of memory and language disorders in humans, as Professors Sheila Blumstein, Katherine Demuth, William Heindel do in their labs. More recently, it has become possible to follow these same processes in humans using fMRI methods. This technique makes it possible to image not only the detailed structure of the living human brain, but to visualize changes in the brain’s blood flow that is a marker for brain activity. Professor Jerome Sanes uses this method to explore brain mechanisms that underlie motor skill learning. MRI, electrophysiological (i.e., EEG) and behavioral methods are also used by Professors Michael Tarr, Sheila Blumstein, and William Heindel to investigate the neural substrates underlying perceptual and semantic memory. The Brain Science Program’s MRI Research Facility has state-of-the-art MRI machines that will be expanding to include even more advanced imaging methods within the University’s new Life Sciences Building. The information gained by these studies should contribute to our understanding human memory and cognition, and may hold implications for persons with various memory disorders.
Computational and Mathematical Models of Memory
One of the distinguishing features of the Brain Sciences Program at Brown University is the unusually close and frequent interaction of brain theorists with bench experimentalists. Although the utility of theoretical arguments is well established in the physical sciences, with a few notable exceptions, the blending of theory and experiment in neuroscience has been challenging. Researchers at Brown have been at the forefront of developing theoretical models that have proved invaluable in elucidating the connections between molecular and cellular events mediating learning and memory. One of these projects, for example, that developed from a collaboration of Nobel Laureate Leon Cooper and Applied Mathematics/Neuroscience Professor Elie Bienenstock has led to a theory of synaptic plasticity (the BCM theory),which applied to a simple model of the visual cortex and the visual environment, explains how experience shapes the development of the visual system and determines its ultimate wiring pattern. The BCM theory has also sparked considerable experimental studies to show how synapses know when to increase or decrease their strength. The theoretical work on learning and memory has served to provide a deeper understanding of the physiology underlying learning and memory. Work in the laboratories of Professors James Anderson and Harel Shouval are examining the theoretical foundations of learning using simulations and models that incorporate artificial intelligence and statistics to develop adaptive machines that can take advantage of observations and examples in order to solve a variety of tasks that are achieved easily by human nervous systems, but poorly by computers.
The combined efforts of theoretical and experimental researchers in the Brain Science Program provide a unique approach to both understanding the nature of human learning and memory and the biological mechanisms that allow us to learn and remember.
Read more at http://brainsciences.brown.edu/research/6questions/how_do_we_learn.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
The mechanisms of learning and memory are at the essence of how the brain works.
One of the most fascinating and mysterious properties of the brain is its capacity to learn, or its ability to change in response to experience and to retain that knowledge throughout an organism’s lifetime. The ability to learn and to establish new memories is fundamental to our very existence; we rely on memory to engage in effective actions, to understand the words we read, to recognize the objects we see, to decode the auditory signals representing speech, and even to provide us with a personal identity and sense of self. Memory plays such as important and ubiquitous role that it is often taken for granted—the only time most people pay attention to their memory is when it fails, as too often happens through brain injury or disease.
Identifying the complex processes underlying learning, memory and brain plasticity is critical for understanding how the brain works, and remains one of the fundamental challenges facing the brain sciences. Although much has been learned about the neural basis of learning and memory over the years, it is becoming increasingly clear that further advances and insights can only be achieved through an interdisciplinary approach to the problem. Brown’s Brain Science Program (BSP) researchers are accomplishing this goal by examining the wide variety of phenomena associated with learning and memory at all levels of complexity, ranging from molecules, synapses, cells, neuronal ensembles, and neural systems, to the behavior of whole animals.
Molecular and Synaptic Mechanisms of Memory
Synapses are the connections between nerve cells, and they are also the major site of information exchange and storage in the brain. We now know that synapses can alter their effectiveness based on their activity, and that this phenomenon, known as synaptic plasticity, may be the fundamental basis of learning and memory. Researchers at Brown, including Professors Barry Connors, Anna Dunaevsky and Justin Fallon, are interested in how synapses are formed and maintained, and how they are modified by experience to store new information. In one major area of research these scientists are asking how ephemeral episodes of neural activity are transformed into long-lasting changes in synaptic strength. To persist, synaptic modifications require the synthesis of new proteins, many of which arise by the translation of mRNAs at synapses. Since synapses are far away from the cell body—where the mRNAs are made—the neuron must have means for sequestering the message at these remote locations and triggering their translation in response to synaptic activity. Professor Fallon and his students, for example, have discovered a novel molecular mechanism, called cytoplasmic polyadenylation, for the regulation of such local translation and are working to understand how this system functions in learning and memory. They are also studying whether this mechanism plays a role in the pathogenesis of Fragile X Syndrome, the most common form of inherited mental retardation. Finally, they are also investigating the molecular basis of synapse formation and elimination using the highly tractable nerve-muscle synapse.
Neural Systems of Memory
Researchers at Brown have long been interested in the intersection between brain functions and behavior, including understanding the neural basis of memory. Much of this research has focused on the structures composing a medial temporal lobe system that has been found to play a critical role in declarative memory functions in both rodents and primates, including humans. This research utilizes multidisciplinary approaches including neuroanatomical and neuronal recording studies. For example, by removing a brain structure in animal models, researchers are characterizing the ensuing defects in learning or memory, and thereby learn more about the region's functions. Such a study can then be advanced by recording neuronal activity in the intact structure in a behaving animal, to examine this area as animals learn new tasks. Professors Mayank Mehta and Rebecca Burwell study how new environments are learned in the hippocampus—a gateway for transforming sensations and thoughts into long-term memories. An understanding of the neural and cognitive substrates underlying memory and learning can be also be acquired through the investigation of memory and language disorders in humans, as Professors Sheila Blumstein, Katherine Demuth, William Heindel do in their labs. More recently, it has become possible to follow these same processes in humans using fMRI methods. This technique makes it possible to image not only the detailed structure of the living human brain, but to visualize changes in the brain’s blood flow that is a marker for brain activity. Professor Jerome Sanes uses this method to explore brain mechanisms that underlie motor skill learning. MRI, electrophysiological (i.e., EEG) and behavioral methods are also used by Professors Michael Tarr, Sheila Blumstein, and William Heindel to investigate the neural substrates underlying perceptual and semantic memory. The Brain Science Program’s MRI Research Facility has state-of-the-art MRI machines that will be expanding to include even more advanced imaging methods within the University’s new Life Sciences Building. The information gained by these studies should contribute to our understanding human memory and cognition, and may hold implications for persons with various memory disorders.
Computational and Mathematical Models of Memory
One of the distinguishing features of the Brain Sciences Program at Brown University is the unusually close and frequent interaction of brain theorists with bench experimentalists. Although the utility of theoretical arguments is well established in the physical sciences, with a few notable exceptions, the blending of theory and experiment in neuroscience has been challenging. Researchers at Brown have been at the forefront of developing theoretical models that have proved invaluable in elucidating the connections between molecular and cellular events mediating learning and memory. One of these projects, for example, that developed from a collaboration of Nobel Laureate Leon Cooper and Applied Mathematics/Neuroscience Professor Elie Bienenstock has led to a theory of synaptic plasticity (the BCM theory),which applied to a simple model of the visual cortex and the visual environment, explains how experience shapes the development of the visual system and determines its ultimate wiring pattern. The BCM theory has also sparked considerable experimental studies to show how synapses know when to increase or decrease their strength. The theoretical work on learning and memory has served to provide a deeper understanding of the physiology underlying learning and memory. Work in the laboratories of Professors James Anderson and Harel Shouval are examining the theoretical foundations of learning using simulations and models that incorporate artificial intelligence and statistics to develop adaptive machines that can take advantage of observations and examples in order to solve a variety of tasks that are achieved easily by human nervous systems, but poorly by computers.
The combined efforts of theoretical and experimental researchers in the Brain Science Program provide a unique approach to both understanding the nature of human learning and memory and the biological mechanisms that allow us to learn and remember.
Read more at http://brainsciences.brown.edu/research/6questions/how_do_we_learn.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Thursday, May 3, 2012
How the Internet Will Change How We Learn
How the Internet Will Change How We Learn.
In the 21st century, online learning will constitute 50% of all learning and education. The rapid rise of learning on the Internet will occur not because it is more convenient, cheaper, or faster, but because cognitive learning on the Internet is better than learning in-person. Of the growing number of experts seeing this development, Gerald Celente, author of the popular book Trends 2000, summarizes it most succinctly: “Interactive, on-line learning will revolutionize education. The education revolution will have as profound and as far-reaching an effect upon the world as the invention of printing. Not only will it affect where we learn; it also will influence how we learn and what we learn" (Celente, 1997, p. 249). Recent research reported in the Washington Post cites studies showing that online learning is equally as effective as learning in-person. And note that we state "cognitive learning," not all learning.
It is still very early in the development of online learning. But the outlines of the potential of online learning are already emerging. The best guide to the next century lies in history, and the in examples of technological transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. The automobile and tractor were the driving forces for the Industrial Age. The tractor eventually was demonstrated to not only cover more acres than a horse drawn plow, but to plow deeper (read: better) and thus increase productivity .
Some sectors of society clung to the horse drawn vehicle, of course. The military still had a cavalry in 1939 to confront Hitler’s tanks before the obvious mismatch was addressed (Davis, 1993). The tractor changed education for the 20th century as well. Prior to the tractor and automobile, one room schoolhouses were placed every six miles so that a child would only have to walk at most three miles to school. The one room schoolhouse necessitated one teacher and multiple grade levels in one room. With the automobile, people moved into towns, and even rural residents could take buses to school, thus causing school consolidation and the eventual all-but-extinction of the one room schoolhouse. In the State of Washington, for example, between 1935 and 1939 almost 20% of rural one room schoolhouses were closed (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1945).
And when online learning is combined with a more interactive and facilitative in-person learning, it will easily out perform today’s outmoded one-size-fits-all traditional lecture delivery system. "Digital media and Internet communications will transform learning practices," notes Peter J. Denning of George Mason University in his How We Will Learn (1996, page 2).
Here are a few of the effects of online learning that will occur in just a few years:
* The average class size for an online course will be 1,000 participants;
* The average cost of an online course will plummet to below $100 a course;
* There will be hundreds of thousands of topics from which learners can choose.
But perhaps the most devastating and revolutionary change will be how the Internet will change how we learn. Because as we enter the Information Age, the era of lifelong learning, the era of online learning, distance has nothing to do with "distance education." By this I mean that even when the teacher is in close proximity to the learners, the quality of the cognitive learning and teaching will be higher when the cognitive part of the learning is conducted over the Internet. Keoko University in Japan, for example, is already establishing online learning for its on-campus students (Eisenstodt, 1997).
In this article I will outline what we already know and can forecast about how the Internet and online learning will change how we learn. We know, for example, that the economic force driving life in the 21st century will be the microchip and the Internet, just as the automobile was the economic force for change in the 20th century. And we know that business will need its workers to learn more, more quickly, and at a lower cost, to remain competitive. We will show that these market forces will create the need and desirability for online learning.
How We Learn Today
For most of history the standard educational setting has been an instructor (or teacher, leader, presenter, or speaker) standing in front of a group of people. This is the most common learning design in society, whether it be for college credit classes, noncredit courses, training in business and industry, high school instruction, or even a Sunday School class.
Basically, 90% of all education has been "information transfer," the process of transferring information and knowledge from the teacher’s head into the heads of the learners. To do that, teachers have had to talk most of the time. And right up until today that mode of delivery has been the most effective, most efficient, most desirable way to learn.
But as educators we know that the traditional lecture is not the only way to learn. We as learners learn in many different ways, at different times, and from a variety of sources (Knowles, 1973). We also know that learning is not purely a cognitive process, but that it also involves the emotions and even the spirit (Apps, 1991).
The Internet is destroying the traditional educational delivery system of an instructor speaking, lecturing or teaching in front of one or more learners.
The whole discipline of self-directed learning, variously called adult learning or adult education, has shown that the traditional delivery system is only one way to learn. The Internet represents the biggest technological aid helping people to learn in 500 years, according to many educators (Thieme, 1996).
What the Internet is doing is to explode the traditional method of teaching into two parts-- cognitive learning, which can be accomplished better with online learning; and affective learning, which can be accomplished better in a small group discussion setting.
Why cognitive learning can be done better on the Internet
Cognitive learning includes facts, data, knowledge, mental skills-- what you can test. And information transfer and cognitive learning can be achieved faster, cheaper and better online.
There are several ways that online learning can be better than classroom learning, such as:
* A learner can learn during her or his peak learning time. My peak learning time is from 10 am to noon. My step-son’s peak learning time is between midnight and 3 am. He recently signed up for an Internet course and is looking for a couple more, because as he put it, "I have a lot of free time between midnight and 3 am." With traditional in-person classes, only some learners will be involved during their peak learning time. The rest will not fully benefit.
* A learner can learn at her or his own speed. With traditional classes, a learner has one chance to hear a concept, technique or piece of knowledge. With online learning, a learner can replay a portion of audio, reread a unit, review a video, and retest him or herself.
* A learner can focus on specific content areas. With traditional classes, each content area is covered and given the relative amount of emphasis and time that the teacher deems appropriate. But in a ten unit course, a given learner will not need to focus on each unit equally. For each of us, there will be some units we know already and some where we have little knowledge. With online learning, we as learners can focus more time, attention and energy on those units, modules or sections of the course where we need the most help and learning.
* A learner can test himself daily. With online learning, a learner can take quizzes and tests easily, instantly receiving the results and finding out how well she or he is doing in a course.
* A learner can interact more with the teacher. Contrary to common opinion today, online learning is more personal and more interactive than traditional classroom courses. In an online course, the instructor only has to create the information transfer part of the course-- lectures, graphics, text, video-- once. Once the course units or modules have been developed, there is need only for revisions later on. The instructor is then free to interact with participants in the course.
Learners will acquire the data and facts faster using the Internet. Officials at University Online Publishing, which has been involved in online learning more than most organizations, say that a typical 16-week college course, for example, can be cut to 8 weeks because students learn more quickly online.
Finally, technology has consistently proven to drive down costs. Recent reports indicate that education costs are growing at over 5% for 1998, well above the 3% average for all other sectors of the economy. With education costs in the traditional system soaring, technological innovations promise the ability to deliver an education more cheaply.
Downward pressure is already being exerted on prices by online courses. Officials at Regents College in Albany, NY, which collects data on 8,000 distance learning courses, say that prices are dropping already. One community college in Arizona, for example, offers online courses at just $32/credit hour for in-state residents, and $67/credit hour for out-of-state learners.
More Interaction Occurs with Online Learning
The heart and soul of an online course will not be the lecture, the delivery, the audio or video. Rather, it will be the interaction between the participants and the teacher, as well as the interaction among the participants themselves. This daily interaction among participants, for example, will form what John Hagel, author of Net Gain (1997), calls a "Virtual Community."
The next time you are in a class, count the number of questions asked of the teacher during a one-hour time period. Because of the instructor’s need to convey information, the time able to be devoted to questions is very short. In an online course, everyone can ask questions, as many questions as each learner wants or needs.
There is more discussion. In an online course, there is more discussion. If there is a group discussion with thirty people and six to eight people make comments, that is a successful discussion that will take up almost a whole hour. And almost everyone in the group will agree it was a lively. Now if you go into an asynchronous discussion forum on the Internet, and thirty people are there, and six to eight are making comments, you will conclude that the discussion is lagging.
The same number of comments on the Internet do not appear to be as lively a discussion as when delivered in person because the capability and capacity of the Internet is that every person can make comments—at the same time. A transcript of a typical online discussion would take hours to give verbally. Online, we can participate in discussions easily, absorbing more information in a much shorter time and engaging in more interaction, not less.
How the Internet Will Change In-person Learning
Because the Internet can deliver information more quickly, at a lower cost, whenever a learner wants, as often as a learner wants, and with more interaction and dialogue, the Internet will replace the traditional in-person classroom delivery system as the dominant mode of delivery for education and delivery. But the Internet will not replace in-person learning.
While we will spend 50% of our time learning online, we will spend the other 50% of our time learning in person. But in-person learning will also be radically different from what is most common today.
There will be almost no need for the traditional lecture. However, there will be a tremendous need for teachers to become facilitators of learning, understanding how we learn, and able to work with learners as individuals. "The sage on the stage will become the guide on the side" has already been coined.
Though part of learning is centered around content, we as educators know that more of learning is dependent on the learner as an individual, a person. Learning is not just cognitive; it also involves the emotions and the spirit. It involves "unlearning." It involves what educator Jerold Apps calls "grieving the loss of old ideas."
The likely format for this kind of learning will be chairs in a circle, with a facilitator leading discussions, dialogues, role plays and more. And it is this kind of teaching and learning that we actually know very little about, because we as instructors have had so little time to engage in it.
The Internet certainly did not create facilitative learning. This kind of learning has been around for a long time and its value well established. But it’s use will grow exponentially because the Internet allows the cognitive information to be delivered faster, cheaper, better, thus allowing more time and resources to be devoted to facilitative in-person learning.
For now, the elementary school teacher comes closest to being the model for this new kind of in-person teaching. As a parent, I have experienced my son’s teachers being able to sit down and talk with me for thirty minutes or more about my son as a learner. Not about the class, not about content, but about my son’s learning. This is where the focus of in-person learning will be very shortly.
As online courses grow and change how we learn, some courses will involve almost all in-person learning and teaching. And some courses will involve almost all online learning. And probably the majority of courses will involve both online learning and in-person learning.
What an Online Course Will Look Like
A typical online course, or the online portion of course, will look like this.
* There will be hundreds of thousands of topics from which to choose. You will be able to take a course on "Mango trees," or "Adlai Stevenson (Democratic candidate for US President in 1952 and 1956)."
* Your online teacher will probably be the foremost authority and expert in the subject in the world.
* Because the foremost authority in the world is teaching the subject online, and because courses will be offered twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, there will be learners from all around the world.
* There will be an average of 1,000 learners in a course. This will occur for a number of reasons:
* There are one thousand people in the world who want to learn any given topic at any given time, even mango trees or Adlai Stevenson.
* Because people will want to learn from the foremost authority, there will be only 2-3 online courses for each topic.
* The cost of an online course will be extremely low, probably under $100, even for credit classes. This will occur because educational institutions can make more money on high volume and low prices than they can on low volume and high prices. It will occur also because the only way an educational institution can lose its market-share for a given course is because the course is priced higher than an alternative course.
The Forces Driving Online Learning
There are several forces that will turn this scenario for online learning into reality, and turn it into reality very quickly. They include:
Business. Business will be the biggest force. Business now understands that in order to remain competitive and profitable, it will need employees who are learning constantly. The only cost effective way for this to happen is with online learning.
So business will require its people to learn online, and it will look to recruit college graduates who can learn online. Colleges and universities will quickly adopt online learning because business will demand that capability from their graduates.
Youth. My children have never taken a computer course. And they never will. Because they are not just computer literate, they grew up in a digital culture. Young people want to learn online. They understand the future, because it is the world in which they must work and compete. Young students will choose online learning.
Competition. Just one college offering online courses at a low cost and recruiting high volume will force other educational institutions to do the same. In fact, many colleges are involved in online learning, and the cost of courses is declining steadily, according to an official at Regents College, which keeps a database of over 8,000 distance learning courses.
Conclusion
Online learning is rapidly becoming recognized as a valid learning delivery system. The number of part time students in higher education, to name just one educational system, now outnumbers full time students. The number of colleges offering online courses last year soared to over 1,000, and the number is growing. Online graduate programs and certificate programs have doubled over one year ago. Online learning has grown exponentially in the business sector, according to Elliot Masie of Saratoga Springs, NY, one of the foremost experts on online training in the workforce. Surveys by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) see online training replacing much of on-site training in the near future.
Online learning will do for society what the tractor did for food. A century ago food was expensive, in limited supply, and with very little variety. Today food is relatively cheap, in great supply in our society, and with tremendous variety. The Internet will do the same for education. More people will be able to learn more, for much less cost, and with a tremendous variety in choice of topics and subjects. It is something that societies of the past could only dream about. And it will come true for us in a very short time.
Read more at http://www.williamdraves.com/works/internet_change_report.htm
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
In the 21st century, online learning will constitute 50% of all learning and education. The rapid rise of learning on the Internet will occur not because it is more convenient, cheaper, or faster, but because cognitive learning on the Internet is better than learning in-person. Of the growing number of experts seeing this development, Gerald Celente, author of the popular book Trends 2000, summarizes it most succinctly: “Interactive, on-line learning will revolutionize education. The education revolution will have as profound and as far-reaching an effect upon the world as the invention of printing. Not only will it affect where we learn; it also will influence how we learn and what we learn" (Celente, 1997, p. 249). Recent research reported in the Washington Post cites studies showing that online learning is equally as effective as learning in-person. And note that we state "cognitive learning," not all learning.
It is still very early in the development of online learning. But the outlines of the potential of online learning are already emerging. The best guide to the next century lies in history, and the in examples of technological transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. The automobile and tractor were the driving forces for the Industrial Age. The tractor eventually was demonstrated to not only cover more acres than a horse drawn plow, but to plow deeper (read: better) and thus increase productivity .
Some sectors of society clung to the horse drawn vehicle, of course. The military still had a cavalry in 1939 to confront Hitler’s tanks before the obvious mismatch was addressed (Davis, 1993). The tractor changed education for the 20th century as well. Prior to the tractor and automobile, one room schoolhouses were placed every six miles so that a child would only have to walk at most three miles to school. The one room schoolhouse necessitated one teacher and multiple grade levels in one room. With the automobile, people moved into towns, and even rural residents could take buses to school, thus causing school consolidation and the eventual all-but-extinction of the one room schoolhouse. In the State of Washington, for example, between 1935 and 1939 almost 20% of rural one room schoolhouses were closed (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1945).
And when online learning is combined with a more interactive and facilitative in-person learning, it will easily out perform today’s outmoded one-size-fits-all traditional lecture delivery system. "Digital media and Internet communications will transform learning practices," notes Peter J. Denning of George Mason University in his How We Will Learn (1996, page 2).
Here are a few of the effects of online learning that will occur in just a few years:
* The average class size for an online course will be 1,000 participants;
* The average cost of an online course will plummet to below $100 a course;
* There will be hundreds of thousands of topics from which learners can choose.
But perhaps the most devastating and revolutionary change will be how the Internet will change how we learn. Because as we enter the Information Age, the era of lifelong learning, the era of online learning, distance has nothing to do with "distance education." By this I mean that even when the teacher is in close proximity to the learners, the quality of the cognitive learning and teaching will be higher when the cognitive part of the learning is conducted over the Internet. Keoko University in Japan, for example, is already establishing online learning for its on-campus students (Eisenstodt, 1997).
In this article I will outline what we already know and can forecast about how the Internet and online learning will change how we learn. We know, for example, that the economic force driving life in the 21st century will be the microchip and the Internet, just as the automobile was the economic force for change in the 20th century. And we know that business will need its workers to learn more, more quickly, and at a lower cost, to remain competitive. We will show that these market forces will create the need and desirability for online learning.
How We Learn Today
For most of history the standard educational setting has been an instructor (or teacher, leader, presenter, or speaker) standing in front of a group of people. This is the most common learning design in society, whether it be for college credit classes, noncredit courses, training in business and industry, high school instruction, or even a Sunday School class.
Basically, 90% of all education has been "information transfer," the process of transferring information and knowledge from the teacher’s head into the heads of the learners. To do that, teachers have had to talk most of the time. And right up until today that mode of delivery has been the most effective, most efficient, most desirable way to learn.
But as educators we know that the traditional lecture is not the only way to learn. We as learners learn in many different ways, at different times, and from a variety of sources (Knowles, 1973). We also know that learning is not purely a cognitive process, but that it also involves the emotions and even the spirit (Apps, 1991).
The Internet is destroying the traditional educational delivery system of an instructor speaking, lecturing or teaching in front of one or more learners.
The whole discipline of self-directed learning, variously called adult learning or adult education, has shown that the traditional delivery system is only one way to learn. The Internet represents the biggest technological aid helping people to learn in 500 years, according to many educators (Thieme, 1996).
What the Internet is doing is to explode the traditional method of teaching into two parts-- cognitive learning, which can be accomplished better with online learning; and affective learning, which can be accomplished better in a small group discussion setting.
Why cognitive learning can be done better on the Internet
Cognitive learning includes facts, data, knowledge, mental skills-- what you can test. And information transfer and cognitive learning can be achieved faster, cheaper and better online.
There are several ways that online learning can be better than classroom learning, such as:
* A learner can learn during her or his peak learning time. My peak learning time is from 10 am to noon. My step-son’s peak learning time is between midnight and 3 am. He recently signed up for an Internet course and is looking for a couple more, because as he put it, "I have a lot of free time between midnight and 3 am." With traditional in-person classes, only some learners will be involved during their peak learning time. The rest will not fully benefit.
* A learner can learn at her or his own speed. With traditional classes, a learner has one chance to hear a concept, technique or piece of knowledge. With online learning, a learner can replay a portion of audio, reread a unit, review a video, and retest him or herself.
* A learner can focus on specific content areas. With traditional classes, each content area is covered and given the relative amount of emphasis and time that the teacher deems appropriate. But in a ten unit course, a given learner will not need to focus on each unit equally. For each of us, there will be some units we know already and some where we have little knowledge. With online learning, we as learners can focus more time, attention and energy on those units, modules or sections of the course where we need the most help and learning.
* A learner can test himself daily. With online learning, a learner can take quizzes and tests easily, instantly receiving the results and finding out how well she or he is doing in a course.
* A learner can interact more with the teacher. Contrary to common opinion today, online learning is more personal and more interactive than traditional classroom courses. In an online course, the instructor only has to create the information transfer part of the course-- lectures, graphics, text, video-- once. Once the course units or modules have been developed, there is need only for revisions later on. The instructor is then free to interact with participants in the course.
Learners will acquire the data and facts faster using the Internet. Officials at University Online Publishing, which has been involved in online learning more than most organizations, say that a typical 16-week college course, for example, can be cut to 8 weeks because students learn more quickly online.
Finally, technology has consistently proven to drive down costs. Recent reports indicate that education costs are growing at over 5% for 1998, well above the 3% average for all other sectors of the economy. With education costs in the traditional system soaring, technological innovations promise the ability to deliver an education more cheaply.
Downward pressure is already being exerted on prices by online courses. Officials at Regents College in Albany, NY, which collects data on 8,000 distance learning courses, say that prices are dropping already. One community college in Arizona, for example, offers online courses at just $32/credit hour for in-state residents, and $67/credit hour for out-of-state learners.
More Interaction Occurs with Online Learning
The heart and soul of an online course will not be the lecture, the delivery, the audio or video. Rather, it will be the interaction between the participants and the teacher, as well as the interaction among the participants themselves. This daily interaction among participants, for example, will form what John Hagel, author of Net Gain (1997), calls a "Virtual Community."
The next time you are in a class, count the number of questions asked of the teacher during a one-hour time period. Because of the instructor’s need to convey information, the time able to be devoted to questions is very short. In an online course, everyone can ask questions, as many questions as each learner wants or needs.
There is more discussion. In an online course, there is more discussion. If there is a group discussion with thirty people and six to eight people make comments, that is a successful discussion that will take up almost a whole hour. And almost everyone in the group will agree it was a lively. Now if you go into an asynchronous discussion forum on the Internet, and thirty people are there, and six to eight are making comments, you will conclude that the discussion is lagging.
The same number of comments on the Internet do not appear to be as lively a discussion as when delivered in person because the capability and capacity of the Internet is that every person can make comments—at the same time. A transcript of a typical online discussion would take hours to give verbally. Online, we can participate in discussions easily, absorbing more information in a much shorter time and engaging in more interaction, not less.
How the Internet Will Change In-person Learning
Because the Internet can deliver information more quickly, at a lower cost, whenever a learner wants, as often as a learner wants, and with more interaction and dialogue, the Internet will replace the traditional in-person classroom delivery system as the dominant mode of delivery for education and delivery. But the Internet will not replace in-person learning.
While we will spend 50% of our time learning online, we will spend the other 50% of our time learning in person. But in-person learning will also be radically different from what is most common today.
There will be almost no need for the traditional lecture. However, there will be a tremendous need for teachers to become facilitators of learning, understanding how we learn, and able to work with learners as individuals. "The sage on the stage will become the guide on the side" has already been coined.
Though part of learning is centered around content, we as educators know that more of learning is dependent on the learner as an individual, a person. Learning is not just cognitive; it also involves the emotions and the spirit. It involves "unlearning." It involves what educator Jerold Apps calls "grieving the loss of old ideas."
The likely format for this kind of learning will be chairs in a circle, with a facilitator leading discussions, dialogues, role plays and more. And it is this kind of teaching and learning that we actually know very little about, because we as instructors have had so little time to engage in it.
The Internet certainly did not create facilitative learning. This kind of learning has been around for a long time and its value well established. But it’s use will grow exponentially because the Internet allows the cognitive information to be delivered faster, cheaper, better, thus allowing more time and resources to be devoted to facilitative in-person learning.
For now, the elementary school teacher comes closest to being the model for this new kind of in-person teaching. As a parent, I have experienced my son’s teachers being able to sit down and talk with me for thirty minutes or more about my son as a learner. Not about the class, not about content, but about my son’s learning. This is where the focus of in-person learning will be very shortly.
As online courses grow and change how we learn, some courses will involve almost all in-person learning and teaching. And some courses will involve almost all online learning. And probably the majority of courses will involve both online learning and in-person learning.
What an Online Course Will Look Like
A typical online course, or the online portion of course, will look like this.
* There will be hundreds of thousands of topics from which to choose. You will be able to take a course on "Mango trees," or "Adlai Stevenson (Democratic candidate for US President in 1952 and 1956)."
* Your online teacher will probably be the foremost authority and expert in the subject in the world.
* Because the foremost authority in the world is teaching the subject online, and because courses will be offered twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, there will be learners from all around the world.
* There will be an average of 1,000 learners in a course. This will occur for a number of reasons:
* There are one thousand people in the world who want to learn any given topic at any given time, even mango trees or Adlai Stevenson.
* Because people will want to learn from the foremost authority, there will be only 2-3 online courses for each topic.
* The cost of an online course will be extremely low, probably under $100, even for credit classes. This will occur because educational institutions can make more money on high volume and low prices than they can on low volume and high prices. It will occur also because the only way an educational institution can lose its market-share for a given course is because the course is priced higher than an alternative course.
The Forces Driving Online Learning
There are several forces that will turn this scenario for online learning into reality, and turn it into reality very quickly. They include:
Business. Business will be the biggest force. Business now understands that in order to remain competitive and profitable, it will need employees who are learning constantly. The only cost effective way for this to happen is with online learning.
So business will require its people to learn online, and it will look to recruit college graduates who can learn online. Colleges and universities will quickly adopt online learning because business will demand that capability from their graduates.
Youth. My children have never taken a computer course. And they never will. Because they are not just computer literate, they grew up in a digital culture. Young people want to learn online. They understand the future, because it is the world in which they must work and compete. Young students will choose online learning.
Competition. Just one college offering online courses at a low cost and recruiting high volume will force other educational institutions to do the same. In fact, many colleges are involved in online learning, and the cost of courses is declining steadily, according to an official at Regents College, which keeps a database of over 8,000 distance learning courses.
Conclusion
Online learning is rapidly becoming recognized as a valid learning delivery system. The number of part time students in higher education, to name just one educational system, now outnumbers full time students. The number of colleges offering online courses last year soared to over 1,000, and the number is growing. Online graduate programs and certificate programs have doubled over one year ago. Online learning has grown exponentially in the business sector, according to Elliot Masie of Saratoga Springs, NY, one of the foremost experts on online training in the workforce. Surveys by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) see online training replacing much of on-site training in the near future.
Online learning will do for society what the tractor did for food. A century ago food was expensive, in limited supply, and with very little variety. Today food is relatively cheap, in great supply in our society, and with tremendous variety. The Internet will do the same for education. More people will be able to learn more, for much less cost, and with a tremendous variety in choice of topics and subjects. It is something that societies of the past could only dream about. And it will come true for us in a very short time.
Read more at http://www.williamdraves.com/works/internet_change_report.htm
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Three Myths About How We Learn
Three Myths About How We Learn.
If you were to stroll back into your old elementary school today, you’d probably find that the classrooms look pretty similar to the ones you studied in, and the kids are still learning to read and write the same way you did. Schools change a lot more slowly than other industries. So do we still think about learning the same way we did back when we were in grade school?
Absolutely not, Wired‘s Geek Dad column reported recently. In the piece, Garth Sundem spoke with Robert Bjork, a professor of psychology and the director of UCLA’s Learning and Forgetting Lab, and discovered that scientists are full of new insights into how our brains absorb and retain information. And while the Geek Dad column is more concerned with children’s education (surprise, surprise), it still offers some lessons for us grown-ups, too.
A few common misconceptions about how we learn:
You should study one thing at a time. School is traditionally arranged into single-subject blocks of study, leading many of us to conclude we should devote our learning time to one specific topic, whether than be algebra or literature or Microsoft Access. Wrong move, according to Bjork, who recommends something called “interleaving,” which he explains with an example from tennis:
Instead of spending an hour working on your tennis serve, you mix in a range of skills like backhands, volleys, overhead smashes, and footwork. “This creates a sense of difficulty,” Bjork said. “And people tend not to notice the immediate effects of learning.” Instead of making an appreciable leap forward with your serving ability after a session of focused practice, interleaving forces you to make nearly imperceptible steps forward with many skills. But over time, the sum of these small steps is much greater than the sum of the leaps you would have taken if you’d spent the same amount of time mastering each skill in its turn.
Interleaving works, according to Bjork, because it allows you to better understand how different skills interrelate with each other.
You should have a single classroom or study location. You probably learned chemistry or composition day after day in the same room. Perhaps you train people in the same place day after day. Your materials are handy. Everyone knows where to come. But that’s all wrong, Bjork tells Sundem, who writes, “Studying in only one location is great as long as you’ll only be required to recall the information in the same location. If you want information to be accessible outside your dorm room, or office, or nook on the second floor of the library, Bjork recommends varying your study location.”
You should reinforce learning with steady, consecutive teaching. It turns out it’s best to study a subject, take a long break, and then study it again. And if you think you’ll just forget everything while you’re away from it, then you don’t understand how learning really works, Bjork says. “Forget about forgetting. People tend to think that learning is building up something in your memory and that forgetting is losing the things you built,” he says. “But in some respects the opposite is true.” While you might not be able to recall everything you once committed to memory after not recalling for a while, that doesn’t mean it’s totally lost. Studies show it’s just buried somewhere in your mind, and you’ll recall something you once learned much faster than fresh material.
“You should space your study sessions so that the information you learned in the first session remains just barely retrievable. Then, the more you have to work to pull it from the soup of your mind, the more this second study session will reinforce your learning,” concludes Sundem.
Read more at http://www.mindflash.com/blog/2012/02/three-myth-about-how-we-learn/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
If you were to stroll back into your old elementary school today, you’d probably find that the classrooms look pretty similar to the ones you studied in, and the kids are still learning to read and write the same way you did. Schools change a lot more slowly than other industries. So do we still think about learning the same way we did back when we were in grade school?
Absolutely not, Wired‘s Geek Dad column reported recently. In the piece, Garth Sundem spoke with Robert Bjork, a professor of psychology and the director of UCLA’s Learning and Forgetting Lab, and discovered that scientists are full of new insights into how our brains absorb and retain information. And while the Geek Dad column is more concerned with children’s education (surprise, surprise), it still offers some lessons for us grown-ups, too.
A few common misconceptions about how we learn:
You should study one thing at a time. School is traditionally arranged into single-subject blocks of study, leading many of us to conclude we should devote our learning time to one specific topic, whether than be algebra or literature or Microsoft Access. Wrong move, according to Bjork, who recommends something called “interleaving,” which he explains with an example from tennis:
Instead of spending an hour working on your tennis serve, you mix in a range of skills like backhands, volleys, overhead smashes, and footwork. “This creates a sense of difficulty,” Bjork said. “And people tend not to notice the immediate effects of learning.” Instead of making an appreciable leap forward with your serving ability after a session of focused practice, interleaving forces you to make nearly imperceptible steps forward with many skills. But over time, the sum of these small steps is much greater than the sum of the leaps you would have taken if you’d spent the same amount of time mastering each skill in its turn.
Interleaving works, according to Bjork, because it allows you to better understand how different skills interrelate with each other.
You should have a single classroom or study location. You probably learned chemistry or composition day after day in the same room. Perhaps you train people in the same place day after day. Your materials are handy. Everyone knows where to come. But that’s all wrong, Bjork tells Sundem, who writes, “Studying in only one location is great as long as you’ll only be required to recall the information in the same location. If you want information to be accessible outside your dorm room, or office, or nook on the second floor of the library, Bjork recommends varying your study location.”
You should reinforce learning with steady, consecutive teaching. It turns out it’s best to study a subject, take a long break, and then study it again. And if you think you’ll just forget everything while you’re away from it, then you don’t understand how learning really works, Bjork says. “Forget about forgetting. People tend to think that learning is building up something in your memory and that forgetting is losing the things you built,” he says. “But in some respects the opposite is true.” While you might not be able to recall everything you once committed to memory after not recalling for a while, that doesn’t mean it’s totally lost. Studies show it’s just buried somewhere in your mind, and you’ll recall something you once learned much faster than fresh material.
“You should space your study sessions so that the information you learned in the first session remains just barely retrievable. Then, the more you have to work to pull it from the soup of your mind, the more this second study session will reinforce your learning,” concludes Sundem.
Read more at http://www.mindflash.com/blog/2012/02/three-myth-about-how-we-learn/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Monday, April 23, 2012
How We Learn a Skill - The Journey from Novice to Master
How We Learn a Skill: The Journey from Novice to Master.
Whether you’re an educator or a student, manager or new employee, knowledge of the four stages of skill mastery can help you know where you are in your craft, and how far you’ve got to go
It’s decided, this year’s the year. You’re going to learn to play an instrument. After all, haven’t you always wanted to be the one with the guitar around the campfire–jamming out Stairway to Heaven in front of a crowd of wide-eyed campers? Or maybe you’ve always liked the idea of playing the piano, and occasionally visualize yourself as that rambunctious cowboy banging away at the keys in a smoky saloon.
Whatever skill you hope to develop, learning something new takes practice, practice. And yes, more practice. And whether it’s learning to play the guitar, the piano or how to manage people, there are four stages one must journey through in skill development–The final being “The Master”–someone who’s unconsciously competent. That is, their craft comes naturally to them. They don’t have to think about. Snap. It just happens.
The Novice
But, as we all know (and wish were not true sometimes), mastering a craft doesn’t happen overnight. Look at “overnight successes” for example. Upon closer examination there are typically year’s and year’s worth of hard work, mistakes, and failures lurking behind the scenes of their so-called success. Indeed, before learning any skill, we must begin naïve. This is called The Novice stage. As can be seen on the graph, a learner in this stage is both low on consciousness and low on competency. Having never been exposed to something before, he or she is “unconsciously incompetent.” Essentially, they don’t know what they don’t know. It is a stage of ignorance. With little or no knowledge of the skill as well as the awareness of the requirements for mastery, if you’re here, you’re not aware of what you’re required to do and you don’t know how to do it. As a teacher or a trainer, these students can be spotted immediately. They are enthusiastic and eager to learn.
The Apprentice
As you’re exposed to new concepts and skills, you start to realize your personal limitations. Sure you’ve picked a few things up, but you’re still all thumbs. You’re committed though, and you stick with it, and in doing so progress into The Apprentice stage. At this point you’re starting to admit your own incompetence and are becoming “consciously incompetent.” You’ve got a little more respect now for Axl Rose’s guitar solo in November Rain. On the graph, you can see that while your competence is still low, your consciousness is increasing. And while you still don’t quite know what you’re doing, you at least know what you don’t know. An experienced mentor may see the student frustrated at this stage though. The student may wonder if they will ever ‘get it.’ Directed learning is paramount here. And flexible training plans are a must. Tips, tricks and success stories should be shared as well, and one-on-ones, encouragement and emotional support should be in abundance.
The Journeyman
It is in the stage of The Journeyman where the real work begins. In this stage: ‘Practice (most definitely) makes perfect.’ This stage is all about perspiration–the physical and mental struggle on the road to mastery. The profound concentration and focus will cause mental and physical exhaustion. So while it a time of great practice, it is requires great patience. Also known as “good days and bad days,” a cyclical pattern of ‘failure’ and ‘success’ may emerge. But progress is being made. And you are beginning to see the fruits of your labor. On the graph, one can see that both consciousness and competency is rising. From a teacher’s perspective, it’s best if learning sessions are fun in this stage. And practice schedules should have variety built in.
The Master
With any skill, technique or craft, the ultimate goal is to achieve a point where you are “unconsciously competent.” A natural. One could say a “genius.” In essence: it is the stage of The Master. You can spot ‘Masters’ right away. They pick up the guitar and it’s automatic. And not only is it effortless, often there’s no thought to it at all. Seen on the graph, this person is both high in consciousness and high on competence. They get it. Ask this person to play blindfolded, they can. Dare them to play on one foot, they will. When you’ve reached this stage in skill development, you’re a bona fide virtuoso. But it takes time. And while some skills in academic or business contexts can takes a few months, or weeks even, pure mastery of a complex skill can take much longer.
10,000 Hours
How long does it actually take to become a master or genius at something? Author Malcolm Gladwell, in his book “Outliers: The Story of Success,” cites work from expertise researchers on this matter and shows that there’s a consistent number every time. Whether its non-fiction writing, or wakeboarding, according to these researchers, you need to have practiced for 10,000 hours, or roughly ten years, to become a genius at something. Gladwell writes that every great composer practiced for at least 10 years before they wrote their master work. And he shows that while Mozart was composing at 11, his work wasn’t all that good at that age. He actually didn’t produce anything truly ‘masterful’ until he was about 23-years-old–approximately 10 years after beginning.
In many ways, this law of 10,000 hours is appealing. It means ‘success’ isn’t necessarily genetic, socioeconomic or generational. In addition, it’s not necessarily where you came from or who know. But quite simply how many hours you’ve logged in your craft. It’s reminiscent of the story of a woman who approached a famous violinist after he had performed one of his many magnificent concerts. Upon making her way to the violinist, the woman said, “Sir, I would give my life to play like you play.” The violinist replied, “Ma’am. I did.”
Van Gogh’s and Emerson’s
As we’re all aware, there’s a difference between theory and direct experience. Reading a book on engines and working underneath the hood of a car in your uncle’s garage for a week are different experiences. That’s why apprenticeships exist today. In fact, Vincent Van Gogh apprenticed with an art dealer before he became an artist. Plato was Socrates’ student. And Ralph Waldo Emerson took Thoreau under his wing early on. It’s highly likely that if you’ve mastered something, you’ve spent time with someone who had already done so. Vocational schools are coming back into vogue now for this very reason. We’ve been so academically driven for so long. But the reality is: do we really need to be able to understand calculus in order to repair an auto engine?
The Road to Mastery
So if you’re a Master, are you one for life? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Once you’ve reached mastery, you’ve got to keep practicing to stay sharp. Without regular practice, the slip from Master to Journeyman is all too easy. Teachers would be wise to prevent slippage by providing refreshers. Fundamentally, it’s important to remember that we all learn by doing. A famous quote by Confucius, says, “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Research agrees, and shows that we retain in memory “10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we hear and see, 70% of what we say, 90% of what we say and do.” So, go ahead and dust off that guitar. Sign up for a piano lesson. Mastery awaits.
Read more at http://crivereureka.com/journey-from-novice-to-master/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Whether you’re an educator or a student, manager or new employee, knowledge of the four stages of skill mastery can help you know where you are in your craft, and how far you’ve got to go
It’s decided, this year’s the year. You’re going to learn to play an instrument. After all, haven’t you always wanted to be the one with the guitar around the campfire–jamming out Stairway to Heaven in front of a crowd of wide-eyed campers? Or maybe you’ve always liked the idea of playing the piano, and occasionally visualize yourself as that rambunctious cowboy banging away at the keys in a smoky saloon.
Whatever skill you hope to develop, learning something new takes practice, practice. And yes, more practice. And whether it’s learning to play the guitar, the piano or how to manage people, there are four stages one must journey through in skill development–The final being “The Master”–someone who’s unconsciously competent. That is, their craft comes naturally to them. They don’t have to think about. Snap. It just happens.
The Novice
But, as we all know (and wish were not true sometimes), mastering a craft doesn’t happen overnight. Look at “overnight successes” for example. Upon closer examination there are typically year’s and year’s worth of hard work, mistakes, and failures lurking behind the scenes of their so-called success. Indeed, before learning any skill, we must begin naïve. This is called The Novice stage. As can be seen on the graph, a learner in this stage is both low on consciousness and low on competency. Having never been exposed to something before, he or she is “unconsciously incompetent.” Essentially, they don’t know what they don’t know. It is a stage of ignorance. With little or no knowledge of the skill as well as the awareness of the requirements for mastery, if you’re here, you’re not aware of what you’re required to do and you don’t know how to do it. As a teacher or a trainer, these students can be spotted immediately. They are enthusiastic and eager to learn.
The Apprentice
As you’re exposed to new concepts and skills, you start to realize your personal limitations. Sure you’ve picked a few things up, but you’re still all thumbs. You’re committed though, and you stick with it, and in doing so progress into The Apprentice stage. At this point you’re starting to admit your own incompetence and are becoming “consciously incompetent.” You’ve got a little more respect now for Axl Rose’s guitar solo in November Rain. On the graph, you can see that while your competence is still low, your consciousness is increasing. And while you still don’t quite know what you’re doing, you at least know what you don’t know. An experienced mentor may see the student frustrated at this stage though. The student may wonder if they will ever ‘get it.’ Directed learning is paramount here. And flexible training plans are a must. Tips, tricks and success stories should be shared as well, and one-on-ones, encouragement and emotional support should be in abundance.
The Journeyman
It is in the stage of The Journeyman where the real work begins. In this stage: ‘Practice (most definitely) makes perfect.’ This stage is all about perspiration–the physical and mental struggle on the road to mastery. The profound concentration and focus will cause mental and physical exhaustion. So while it a time of great practice, it is requires great patience. Also known as “good days and bad days,” a cyclical pattern of ‘failure’ and ‘success’ may emerge. But progress is being made. And you are beginning to see the fruits of your labor. On the graph, one can see that both consciousness and competency is rising. From a teacher’s perspective, it’s best if learning sessions are fun in this stage. And practice schedules should have variety built in.
The Master
With any skill, technique or craft, the ultimate goal is to achieve a point where you are “unconsciously competent.” A natural. One could say a “genius.” In essence: it is the stage of The Master. You can spot ‘Masters’ right away. They pick up the guitar and it’s automatic. And not only is it effortless, often there’s no thought to it at all. Seen on the graph, this person is both high in consciousness and high on competence. They get it. Ask this person to play blindfolded, they can. Dare them to play on one foot, they will. When you’ve reached this stage in skill development, you’re a bona fide virtuoso. But it takes time. And while some skills in academic or business contexts can takes a few months, or weeks even, pure mastery of a complex skill can take much longer.
10,000 Hours
How long does it actually take to become a master or genius at something? Author Malcolm Gladwell, in his book “Outliers: The Story of Success,” cites work from expertise researchers on this matter and shows that there’s a consistent number every time. Whether its non-fiction writing, or wakeboarding, according to these researchers, you need to have practiced for 10,000 hours, or roughly ten years, to become a genius at something. Gladwell writes that every great composer practiced for at least 10 years before they wrote their master work. And he shows that while Mozart was composing at 11, his work wasn’t all that good at that age. He actually didn’t produce anything truly ‘masterful’ until he was about 23-years-old–approximately 10 years after beginning.
In many ways, this law of 10,000 hours is appealing. It means ‘success’ isn’t necessarily genetic, socioeconomic or generational. In addition, it’s not necessarily where you came from or who know. But quite simply how many hours you’ve logged in your craft. It’s reminiscent of the story of a woman who approached a famous violinist after he had performed one of his many magnificent concerts. Upon making her way to the violinist, the woman said, “Sir, I would give my life to play like you play.” The violinist replied, “Ma’am. I did.”
Van Gogh’s and Emerson’s
As we’re all aware, there’s a difference between theory and direct experience. Reading a book on engines and working underneath the hood of a car in your uncle’s garage for a week are different experiences. That’s why apprenticeships exist today. In fact, Vincent Van Gogh apprenticed with an art dealer before he became an artist. Plato was Socrates’ student. And Ralph Waldo Emerson took Thoreau under his wing early on. It’s highly likely that if you’ve mastered something, you’ve spent time with someone who had already done so. Vocational schools are coming back into vogue now for this very reason. We’ve been so academically driven for so long. But the reality is: do we really need to be able to understand calculus in order to repair an auto engine?
The Road to Mastery
So if you’re a Master, are you one for life? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Once you’ve reached mastery, you’ve got to keep practicing to stay sharp. Without regular practice, the slip from Master to Journeyman is all too easy. Teachers would be wise to prevent slippage by providing refreshers. Fundamentally, it’s important to remember that we all learn by doing. A famous quote by Confucius, says, “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Research agrees, and shows that we retain in memory “10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we hear and see, 70% of what we say, 90% of what we say and do.” So, go ahead and dust off that guitar. Sign up for a piano lesson. Mastery awaits.
Read more at http://crivereureka.com/journey-from-novice-to-master/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Project Idea: How Does Intrusive Volcanism Change the Shape of the Earth's Crust?
Project Idea: How Does Intrusive Volcanism Change the Shape of the Earth's Crust?
PROBLEM
How does intrusive volcanism (movement beneath the earth's surface) change the shape of the earth's crust?
Material
* knife (to be used only by an adult)
* clear plastic drinking glass
* scissors
* large tube of toothpaste (remove the cap)
* 1/2 cup (125 ml) of soil <>adult helper
Procedure
1) Ask an adult to use a knife to cut a hole in the bottom of the glass from the inside, then use scissors to make the hole as large as the mouth of the toothpaste tube.
2)Hold your finger over the hole in the bottom while you pour the soil into the glass.
3) Insert the mouth of the toothpaste tube into the hole.
4) Ask your helper to hold the glass while you press against the tube to force the toothpaste into the glass.
5)Observe the contents of the glass as the toothpaste enters. Pay special attention to the surface of the soil.
Results
As the toothpaste rises in the glass, the soil is pushed upward, forming a dome-shaped rise in the soil's surface.
Why?
Liquid rock beneath the earth's surface is called magma. Pressure on pools of magma deep within the earth forces the molten rock toward the surface. This movement of magma within the earth is referred to as intrusive volcanism. Intrusive volcanism is responsible for different types of intrusions (flows of magma that cool and harden before they reach the surface). Intrusions have many shapes because magma hardens in many positions as it cools. The hardened or solidified magma forms igneous rock. A dome-like intrusion is called a laccolith. A laccolith is formed when magma pushes overlying rock upward. The toothpaste simulates the formation of a laccolith. The mushroom-shaped paste pushes the overlying contents of the glass upward, producing a mound on the soil's surface.
LET'S EXPLORE
What would happen if rock layers restricted the upward movement of the magma? Repeat the experiment, adding rocks to the soil mixture and standing a second plastic glass inside the glass of soil. Ask your helper to push down on this glass to restrict the movement of soil as you force toothpaste into the glass. Science Fair Hint: Use the description in SHOW TIME! to identify the type of intrusion formed. Label and display the glass from this and the original experiment.
SHOW TIME!
1) Bodies of intrusive igneous rock are classified according to their shape and relationship to surrounding rock. Use the description of each type of rock structure and the diagram to build a clay model showing the rock structures formed by intrusive activities. This model can be used as part of a project display.
* Batholiths—large intrusions below the earth's surface.
* Dikes—narrow, vertical intrusions that rise and break through horizontal rock layers.
* laccoliths—mushroom- or domeshaped intrusions that push up the overlaying rock layer.
* Sills—thin, horizontal intrusions sandwiched between other rock layers.
* Stocks—intrusions below the earth's surface; smaller than batholith bodies.
2) Granite is the most common type of intrusive igneous rock. The composition of granite can vary depending on the kinds and proportions of minerals present in the magma that formed it. Different samples of granite can be purchased at a rock shop, or collect your own samples. Use these as part of a display showing the different shapes of intrusions and their composition.
CHECK IT OUT!
Domed mountains, such as the Henry Mountains of southern Utah or the Black Hills of South Dakota, are broad, circular mountains formed when layers of rock are lifted. Find out more about the surface landforms created by intrusions. What is the surface like in areas where the different intrusions are exposed when rocks around them are worn away by erosion? Examples of exposed batholiths are the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Identify other exposed intrusion areas.
Read more at http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/lifter1/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
PROBLEM
How does intrusive volcanism (movement beneath the earth's surface) change the shape of the earth's crust?
Material
* knife (to be used only by an adult)
* clear plastic drinking glass
* scissors
* large tube of toothpaste (remove the cap)
* 1/2 cup (125 ml) of soil <>adult helper
Procedure
1) Ask an adult to use a knife to cut a hole in the bottom of the glass from the inside, then use scissors to make the hole as large as the mouth of the toothpaste tube.
2)Hold your finger over the hole in the bottom while you pour the soil into the glass.
3) Insert the mouth of the toothpaste tube into the hole.
4) Ask your helper to hold the glass while you press against the tube to force the toothpaste into the glass.
5)Observe the contents of the glass as the toothpaste enters. Pay special attention to the surface of the soil.
Results
As the toothpaste rises in the glass, the soil is pushed upward, forming a dome-shaped rise in the soil's surface.
Why?
Liquid rock beneath the earth's surface is called magma. Pressure on pools of magma deep within the earth forces the molten rock toward the surface. This movement of magma within the earth is referred to as intrusive volcanism. Intrusive volcanism is responsible for different types of intrusions (flows of magma that cool and harden before they reach the surface). Intrusions have many shapes because magma hardens in many positions as it cools. The hardened or solidified magma forms igneous rock. A dome-like intrusion is called a laccolith. A laccolith is formed when magma pushes overlying rock upward. The toothpaste simulates the formation of a laccolith. The mushroom-shaped paste pushes the overlying contents of the glass upward, producing a mound on the soil's surface.
LET'S EXPLORE
What would happen if rock layers restricted the upward movement of the magma? Repeat the experiment, adding rocks to the soil mixture and standing a second plastic glass inside the glass of soil. Ask your helper to push down on this glass to restrict the movement of soil as you force toothpaste into the glass. Science Fair Hint: Use the description in SHOW TIME! to identify the type of intrusion formed. Label and display the glass from this and the original experiment.
SHOW TIME!
1) Bodies of intrusive igneous rock are classified according to their shape and relationship to surrounding rock. Use the description of each type of rock structure and the diagram to build a clay model showing the rock structures formed by intrusive activities. This model can be used as part of a project display.
* Batholiths—large intrusions below the earth's surface.
* Dikes—narrow, vertical intrusions that rise and break through horizontal rock layers.
* laccoliths—mushroom- or domeshaped intrusions that push up the overlaying rock layer.
* Sills—thin, horizontal intrusions sandwiched between other rock layers.
* Stocks—intrusions below the earth's surface; smaller than batholith bodies.
2) Granite is the most common type of intrusive igneous rock. The composition of granite can vary depending on the kinds and proportions of minerals present in the magma that formed it. Different samples of granite can be purchased at a rock shop, or collect your own samples. Use these as part of a display showing the different shapes of intrusions and their composition.
CHECK IT OUT!
Domed mountains, such as the Henry Mountains of southern Utah or the Black Hills of South Dakota, are broad, circular mountains formed when layers of rock are lifted. Find out more about the surface landforms created by intrusions. What is the surface like in areas where the different intrusions are exposed when rocks around them are worn away by erosion? Examples of exposed batholiths are the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Identify other exposed intrusion areas.
Read more at http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/lifter1/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
You want to travel. You need experience. Here’s how you get both!
You want to travel. You need experience. Here’s how you get both!
LanguageCorps Asia Programs around the globe empower our Teachers to thrive as professionals abroad, living in fascinating locations while gaining valuable experience teaching English.
Programs are available in 5 countries:
* Asia (Cambodia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan)
* Intensive, 140-hour, four-week TEFL/TESOL training and certification course
* Assistance finding a paid teaching position that is right for you, with a reputable school
Some programs feature local language and cultural training, pre-arranged job placement, medical insurance, excursions, and other support services. No prior teaching or local language experience is necessary! Costs vary by country and program. A BA degree is required for all programs and countries.
Read more at http://languagecorps.bizbuzzweekly.com/2010/08/16/you-want-to-travel-you-need-experience-heres-how-you-get-both/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
LanguageCorps Asia Programs around the globe empower our Teachers to thrive as professionals abroad, living in fascinating locations while gaining valuable experience teaching English.
Programs are available in 5 countries:
* Asia (Cambodia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan)
* Intensive, 140-hour, four-week TEFL/TESOL training and certification course
* Assistance finding a paid teaching position that is right for you, with a reputable school
Some programs feature local language and cultural training, pre-arranged job placement, medical insurance, excursions, and other support services. No prior teaching or local language experience is necessary! Costs vary by country and program. A BA degree is required for all programs and countries.
Read more at http://languagecorps.bizbuzzweekly.com/2010/08/16/you-want-to-travel-you-need-experience-heres-how-you-get-both/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Monday, January 2, 2012
How My Global Perspective and Life Changed When Teaching English Abroad in Asia
How My Global Perspective and Life Changed When Teaching English Abroad in Asia.
Students have fun in an ESL classHow Teaching English Abroad Has Changed My Perspective
Many people fantasize about traveling the world. We think about dropping it all and doing something like teaching English in Asia, or studying Italian in Florence. But for so many, traveling the world, or teaching English abroad remains just that; a fantasy. Bills, jobs, relationships and a general fear of the unknown pervade, and we put traveling off until some magical time in the future, when it will somehow become easy.
But I quickly learned that the timing will never be perfect. Traveling will always be, at least a little bit stressful.
But the truth is, I don’t regret a second of it. Sure, it was a ton of work, but teaching English in Cambodia through LanguageCorps Asia...
Read more at http://www.languagecorps.com/blog/how-teaching-english-abroad-has-changed-my-global-perspective/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Students have fun in an ESL classHow Teaching English Abroad Has Changed My Perspective
Many people fantasize about traveling the world. We think about dropping it all and doing something like teaching English in Asia, or studying Italian in Florence. But for so many, traveling the world, or teaching English abroad remains just that; a fantasy. Bills, jobs, relationships and a general fear of the unknown pervade, and we put traveling off until some magical time in the future, when it will somehow become easy.
But I quickly learned that the timing will never be perfect. Traveling will always be, at least a little bit stressful.
But the truth is, I don’t regret a second of it. Sure, it was a ton of work, but teaching English in Cambodia through LanguageCorps Asia...
Read more at http://www.languagecorps.com/blog/how-teaching-english-abroad-has-changed-my-global-perspective/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
How China is Winning the School Race
How China is winning the school race.
China's education performance - at least in cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong - seems to be as spectacular as the country's breakneck economic expansion, outperforming many more advanced countries.
But what is behind this success?
Eyebrows were raised when the results of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's international maths, science and reading tests - the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests - were published.
Shanghai, taking part for the first time, came top in all three subjects.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong which was performing well in the last decade of British rule, has gone from good to great. In this global ranking, it came fourth in reading, second in maths and third in science.
These two Chinese cities - there was no national ranking for China - had outstripped leading education systems...
Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14812822
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
China's education performance - at least in cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong - seems to be as spectacular as the country's breakneck economic expansion, outperforming many more advanced countries.
But what is behind this success?
Eyebrows were raised when the results of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's international maths, science and reading tests - the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests - were published.
Shanghai, taking part for the first time, came top in all three subjects.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong which was performing well in the last decade of British rule, has gone from good to great. In this global ranking, it came fourth in reading, second in maths and third in science.
These two Chinese cities - there was no national ranking for China - had outstripped leading education systems...
Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14812822
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Teacher Leader Sample Case: How Hard Do I Push?
Teacher Leader Sample Case: How Hard Do I Push?
What a relief! Another strong finish to the school year! Again our kids’ test scores climbed. Yes, lesson study work IS continuing to make a positive difference in student achievement. The administration once again will be pleased. We have cross-grade-level professional discussions happening. People are getting along better than ever.
“Oh my, is that Angie asking Valerie for feedback on a geometry lesson? I never thought that would happen!” Don and Terry are looking over each other’s student work from the recent lesson they worked on together. What a great conversation they are having. Staff members really seem to feel valued and respected by each other and by the principal. Nothing could be better!
Read more at http://www.seenmagazine.us/articles/article-detail/articleid/1692/teacher-leader-sample-case-how-hard-do-i-push.aspx
By Debra Rose Howell
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
What a relief! Another strong finish to the school year! Again our kids’ test scores climbed. Yes, lesson study work IS continuing to make a positive difference in student achievement. The administration once again will be pleased. We have cross-grade-level professional discussions happening. People are getting along better than ever.
“Oh my, is that Angie asking Valerie for feedback on a geometry lesson? I never thought that would happen!” Don and Terry are looking over each other’s student work from the recent lesson they worked on together. What a great conversation they are having. Staff members really seem to feel valued and respected by each other and by the principal. Nothing could be better!
Read more at http://www.seenmagazine.us/articles/article-detail/articleid/1692/teacher-leader-sample-case-how-hard-do-i-push.aspx
By Debra Rose Howell
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
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