The Historical Thinking Project | Historical Thinking Project Teaching Excellence What can instructors do to support students? Tragic events may take an emotional and cognitive toll on students, disrupt their lives, and interfere with learning for extended periods. Here we have strategies and resources to help instructors support students in the wake of tragedy. Promoting Academic Integrity Carnegie Mellon has recently revised the university policy on academic integrity. We are here to help you design and innovate in this exciting space, including how to: Choose resources and tools that best fit your teaching contextFlip your classroom to maximize student learningInsert hooks to collect data for iterative improvement We have experience working with our faculty colleagues on such projects as: Translating your course onlineDeveloping online testing formatsUsing synchronous and asynchronous tools productively for learning We continue to offer our high-value services, including: We’re here to help you!
This much I know about…overcoming my prejudices to the benefit of my students I have been a teacher for 29 years, a Headteacher for 14 years and, at the age of 53, this much I know about overcoming my prejudices to the benefit of my students Multiple choice questions have always been abhorrent to me. My prejudice against MCQs is both instinctual and ideological, I think. I have forever associated MCQs with a functional approach to education. What use would a liberal like me ever have for the A, B, C or D approach to teaching and learning? The root of my prejudice is, like all prejudices, ignorance. I like listening to experts. The results have been hugely useful. Writing effective MCQs is not easy. Every school needs someone who can help you access the evidence-base. A great brief guide can be found here. ‘A review of multiple choice item-writing for classroom assessment’ is available here. A general guide for teachers on test writing, with a great section on MCQs can be accessed here. Like this: Like Loading... Headteacher in York.
5 Formative Strategies to Improve Student Learning from Dylan Wiliam and NWEA Dylan Wiliam’s book, Embedded Formative Assessment, is filled with a number of insights. The foundation of the book highlights the importance of formative assessment as a tool to improve teacher practice and ultimately improve student learning. In the book, he provides the 5 strategies that he believes are core to successful formative assessment practice in the classroom: 1. 2. Providing feedback that moves learning forward – working with students to provide them the information they need to better understand problems and solutions. 4. 5. At NWEA, we did some reorganization and developed a framework focused on four foundational formative assessment practices: clarifying learning, eliciting evidence, providing feedback, and activating learners. To hear more about our ideas about formative assessment at NWEA, you can access our webinar, Creating a Classroom Culture of Learning: Key Formative Assessment Practices.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project Formative assessment in the classroom and school | Unesco IIEP Learning Portal Teachers and schools need to check for learning throughout the school year, not just wait for final examinations. Formative assessment can improve student outcomes if part of a fair, valid, and reliable process of gathering, interpreting, and using information generated from methods used throughout the student learning process. Formative assessment methods include a combination of the following: student observations, class assignments, projects and presentations, performances, peer reviews, conversations and interviews with students, learning logs, and quizzes and tests. Issues and Discussion Inclusiveness and Equity Policy Examples Canada [PDF] Lesotho [PDF] Tasmania [PDF] United States [PDF]
Using a painting to start an inquiry Over the weekend I read an excellent blog by Harry Fletcher-Wood called, ‘Starting a Lesson With Initial Stimulus Material’. Harry’s blog got me thinking about how I use images with students as a way to generate thinking, grab their interest, and communicate knowledge. This blog is my response. Harry uses three examples of images to illustrate his approach; the second is this one of Henry VII. Harry suggests we could start by asking the students to make inferences: “What can you tell about Henry VII from this painting?” He calls this a ‘classic starter’ but warns of its limitations, “…examples like this can be restrictive, relying, as they do, on students’ guesswork and often limited prior knowledge. I agree with this entirely, however I don’t think the problem is with the stimulus, so much as with the question. This is an open question, asking the students to look rather than guess. For me this inquiry has five parts: Each step has a specific aim:
Formative Assessment and Assessment for Learning | CCEA Formative assessment is often referred to synonymously with Assessment for Learning (AfL). However, AfL refers specifically to the collection of approaches and techniques associated with the practice of formative assessment. AfL involves the feedback loop of teachers gathering evidence about pupils’ learning by: observing; listening; questioning; discussing; and reviewing their work in progress. It’s often immediate and intended to inform changes the teacher can make to the sequence of instruction so that their lessons are more effective. Assessment for Learning takes place during day-to-day classroom practice and while pupils are engaged in learning. Both parties then use the feedback to improve the learning. how the pupils are learning; their progress; the nature of their understanding; and the difficulties they are having. In Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam’s study Inside the Black Box, they explain assessment is only formative when: Assessment for Learning: A Practical Guide Downloads
As communist China turns 70, a 'Great Fracture' emerges with US Mike Pompeo, Wang Yi are posing for a picture: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the United Nations Seventy years after the founding of communist China, once rosy predictions of coexistence with the United States have dissipated with expectations rising instead of a long-term, globe-spanning rivalry. The United Nations General Assembly showcased the harsh new tone between the world's two largest economies, with US President Donald Trump declaring from the rostrum that the age of tolerance for China's "abuses" was over. Representing China at the annual summit of leaders, Foreign Minister Wang Yi vowed that his country -- "with a 5,000-year civilization" -- would never be cowed by threats. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced worries in his own address as he pleaded for international cooperation. "Two decades later, this theory has been tested and proven completely wrong," Trump said in his UN address. - Multiple fronts -
Open University Learning Design Here you will find information about the Open University's approach to Learning Design. Learning Design involves a set of tools, views and principles which help guide the curriculum design process and place the student experience at the heart of curriculum design. The Open University is proud to be recognised for the quality of its learning and teaching and invests staff time and production and presentation costs in developing and maintaining its curriculum to ensure that what is offered to students is fit for purpose and delivers institutional priorities. In order to achieve this, the University has adopted an approach to developing its curriculum called OU Learning Design, which supports a consistent, structured design, specification and review process. It provides a simple set of tools and resources that enable a student-activity based approach that puts the learning journey at the heart of the design process. OU Learning Design is characterised by three principles:
Responsive Teaching: Questioning Feedback and Follow Up I can still see the concern maybe fear in the teacher’s eyes. In days gone by, with me sat observing the lesson; the teaching input has been completed, the hinge point question reveals half the class know the answer and half haven’t a clue. What to do next; where to go? Sadly, more often than not, the teacher would just continue with the lesson as planned leaving half the class clueless about what has happened and with poor foundations on which to build their understanding of the next part of the learning. Each year I have the pleasure of spending a couple of hours working with trainee teachers. Key to the session is stressing the “logical development of knowledge”; what will you teach pupils and in what order and why? When considering how pupils will respond, I tend to promote two key principles behind co-operative learning; namely, there should be individual accountability and simultaneous interaction. This was the question that split the SCITT trainess 50:50; time for discussion
Assessment for Learning So, what is AfL and why is it important? Can it improve students’ results? What does it involve? What is AfL? To understand what AfL is, it is useful to start with what it is not. Traditional approaches to assessment are generally based on assessment of learning. Assessment for learning, on the other hand, occurs at all stages of the learning process. Where did AfL come from and why is it important? AfL originates in the research of UK professors, Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam. formative assessment is at the heart of effective teachingformative assessment has a strong positive effect on achievementimproving formative assessment raises standards. As a result of these and other research findings, AfL is now established as one of the most powerful ways of improving learning and raising standards and current research is adding further evidence in support of this claim. What are the key principles of AfL? Communicate confidence that every learner can improve As teachers we can: Use questioning