Psychtechtrend

Reading Aloud to Children By Leah Davies, M.Ed.     Listening comprehension is vitally important if students are to achieve reading comprehension. Children who come from homes with minimal language enrichment need to hear new words if they are to become proficient readers. Reading aloud to children, even if only for a short time each day, enhances their language skills, as well as their love of literature and learning. In 1983 the Commission on Reading was created and funded by the U. S. Department of Education to study the best way to increase knowledge and reading in children. The commission evaluated ten thousand research studies over the course of two years and reported their results in Becoming a Nation of Readers. Among the findings: “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.” The study supported reading aloud in classrooms throughout all grades.* Experts agree that the way ...

Managing Change Effectively Using Kotter’s ‘Theory of Change’ We need to embrace change in order to develop and grow — successful organisations regularly take the time to reflect on their goals, make adjustments and set new targets. Over the last few years, schools across the country have undergone significant programmes of change and development as a result of government initiatives — all of which have had to be implemented and managed by each school’s leadership team. There’s not much we can do to halt the progress of government policy, even if we wished to do so, but we can push for successful outcomes by planning for change and ensuring a smooth transition to a new working practices. Good communication Good communication is at the heart of a successful transition. A leader’s skills are paramount in identifying the scope of the project, and in communicating its parameters with clarity. Studies on leading change reveal that around 30 per cent of organisational chang...

Engineering Metacognition in Students What is metacognition? Very simply, metacognition is the process of thinking about one’s thinking. Metacognition and the classroom? Metacognition has long been associated with philosophical thinking. However, the idea that metacognition is something we should engineer in our students is relatively new. This is because metacognition was never required for the traditional system of education, i.e. teacher directed, top-down, teaching-by-telling. Traditionally, therefore, there has been little opportunity or need for students to be thinking about their thinking. One might argue that compared with what is possible there has, over recent centuries, been little thinking going on at all outside students' requirements to learn facts, rules and routines. However, with the push towards quality teaching and learning the need for metacognition, and the explicit instruction of such, has arrived. Quality teaching and learning? The sort of qu...

Critical Understanding of ICT Overview Every day we hear about the names of various technologies in the present scientific and technological age, such as sugar technology, paper technology, cloth technology and glass technology. In the educational field too, the term 'Educational Technology' is being used with great interest. Scholars believe that with the proper use of science and technology in the field of education, desirable results can be achieved in teaching, learning and testing spheres as tremendous progress is taking place in the various fields of agriculture, health, and industry. Communication is very important in human life. It creates a link or bond between two individuals, groups, organizations in order to understand each other. It creates one to one too many interactions, reciprocation, knows- how, which facilitates the relationships and benefits each other. Without communication, life becomes meaningless, difficult to connect between any two individuals,...

Educator`s Guide to Active Listening By Leah Davies, M.Ed. (http://www.kellybear.com/TeacherArticles/TeacherTip57.html) Active listening focuses attention on the speaker and includes listening and restating what was heard. This form of listening helps students feel valued and connected to the adults in their school and enhances mutual understanding. Studies demonstrate that when children sense that they are an accepted part of a school community, they are more motivated to learn. Active listening can be used in short encounters to defuse a situation. For example, if a child says,”I hate Justin…” the teacher might respond, “You're really angry.” The child may say, “Yes, I am. He hit me for no reason!” Then the teacher might state, “Would you like to write down what happened?” or “Would you like to tell Justin how you feel?” The teacher could then encourage the student to use the “When you ______, I feel__________, because _________” statement. For example, the child c...