Benefits of Using WebQuest!!

The benefits of using webquests with your students :

• Open Communication- Teachers, parents, and students will write to ask thought provoking questions or give helpful suggestions.
• Wise use of time- Quality resources are provided for students.
• Current Information- Webquests provide users with up-to-date information.
• Stimulating Graphics- The colorful, sometimes animated, graphics found on webquests can create excitement.
• Interactive Sites- Students can use webquests to actively manipulate information.
• Various Reading Levels- Students using webquests can find information at their reading level.
• Multiple Intelligences- Webquests use different mediums to reach all types of learners.
• Safety Issues- Webquests provide teacher previewed sites.
  

The benefits of developing your own webquest to use with your students :

• Solidify Knowledge- Teachers solidify their knowledge on the topic by exploring and developing the webquest.
• Curriculum Tie-Ins- Teachers can create specific tie-ins to their own district's curriculum and the state's frameworks.
• Publishing- When students realize that thousands of people from all over the world have the opportunity to read their work that is published on the webquest, the quality of their work improves.
  

Week 9- Instructional Strategies leading to Problem-Solving and Affective Learning.

Problem-solving is the ability to use previously acquired skills and knowledge in a unique way to solve unfamiliar problems. Problems are either well-structured or ill-structured.
According to the readings, learners must possess and apply 3 kinds of knowledge in order to solve problems, i.e. principles, factual knowledge, and cognitive strategies, all of which are necessary in supporting the components of cognitive processing in problem-solving.
These components are problem representation, solution planning, solution implementation, and solution evaluation.

In problem representation, the learner attempts to identify the nature of the problem. A well-defined problem would have an apparent solution while an ill-defined problem may require skilled strategy to determine what the problem really is. Based on these information, the learner can then proceed to planning for a solution to the problem, implementing the plan, and evaluating it later to confirm whether the solution has managed to solve the problem.

Affective learning is also known as attitude learning. There are 3 components to affective learning, namely the cognitive component (knowing how), the behavioural component (engaging in the behaviour), and the affective component (knowing why). An example to illustrate this would be wanting an individual to have a positive attitude towards reading. The cognitive component is already fulfilled as the individual must know how to read before he or she can practice any attitudes about reading.

The behavioural component requires the individual to apply the attitude, i.e. engage in reading. As for the affective component, the provision of a role model, who demonstrates the desired behaviour, is required for its achievement. In this case, a person the individual respects must demonstrate a positive attitude towards reading.

Week 8- Fact and Concept Learning.

Week 8’s lecture was all about fact and concept learning, and how to differentiate between the two.

Fact learning is of course, all about facts. It involves verbal information and 'knowing that' something is the case. There are 3 kinds of fact learning, namely labels and names (pairing of information by mentally making a connecting link between 2 elements), facts and lists (fact: a statement describing a relationship between or among concepts; list: a group of elements that must be remembered together), and organised discourse (learning through the comprehension of an extensive body of information, which must be tied to existing knowledge).

3 activities common to all fact learning are linking (through the use of mnemonics), organising (chunking sets together and establishing relationships among sets), and elaborating (adding on to new information so that it makes sense and is more easily remembered).Concept learning involves the ability to apply knowledge across a variety of instances or circumstances. There are 2 kinds of concepts, concrete (known by their physical characteristics, i.e. 5 senses) and abstract (not perceivable by their appearance).

Unlike facts, concepts have attributes. These are intrinsic, functional and relational. An intrinsic attribute is simply a constant property and is observable. It makes up the property of the concept. A functional attribute relates to how something works or is used. A relational attribute refers to a quality a concept may possess defined in terms of something else. For example, putting others first may be a quality of the concept love.What then is the difference between fact and concept learning? Well, according to the lecture, if it has a definition, it’s a concept. If not, it’s a fact. What’s important, though, I think, is not to learn a concept just by learning its definition, but to also understand and be able to grasp it in any context.

For example, a child who learns the definition of a durian as green and a fruit with a thorny appearance has not learnt the definition well if he is unable to spot a durian in a fruitstall.

Week 7- Writing Goals and Objectives.

This is the week we apply what was taught the past weeks to write learning objectives. The output from the Needs Assessment Models are goals. Basically, goals are broad statements of learning objectives. After going through the 3 Models, the educator needs to pen down specific behavioural/learning/performance objectives so that he/she knows what skills are required to perform the task and thus need to be taught.

Before we begin to write learning objectives, we first need to understand about 'Fuzzies' so that we don't end up writing fuzzy learning objectives. Learning objectives should only include performance and not abstractions.

There is a single behaviour or class of behaviours i.e. something that you can DO to indicate the presence of the performance (NOTE: Covert performance is also counted because another person can directly infer the nature of what you just did. An example is selection. Although it is not visible because the process of selection occurs in your mind, you could point to what you selected and another person would be able to know you've made a selection.)
That particular behaviour or class of behaviours have to be generally agreeable by a reasonable person i.e. if there is room for debate over the behaviour indicative of the performance, then it is considered a Fuzzy.

Sometimes, you get statements like: "Says favourable things about others." and you might dismiss it as a Fuzzy because 'favourable' might appear fuzzy. But in this case, the statement is actually considered a performance because of the word 'say'. You can tell if someone is 'saying' something so it is considered a performance. "Favourable things" is indeed ambiguous but it is a matter of a criterion for acceptable performance and does not negate the fact that 'say' is indeed a performance, according to the readings.

Next, let's talk about the second reading on Task Analysis. Basically, a Job is a collection of Tasks, which is a series of Steps. When writing the Task Analysis, we should use a flowchart of rectangles and diamonds instead of a list. The rationale for doing so is that there will be steps in the list that require decisions and "it is somewhat awkward to show in a list just how the actions resulting from those decisions should be handled." Using a flowchart is better at dealing with the decision points i.e. the diamonds and to depict to the learner/employee the alternatives that he/she can take and what to do subsequently.

The procedure for Task Analysis is straightforward, however, questions like this will be raised "Why do we need to cross out the duplicates when we list the skills required to perform a step?". This is so that we don't have to teach the skill twice since "it makes no sense to teach the same skill once it's learned."

Moving on to the Curricular Map, the important things to note are that the performance objective right at the top is the terminal objective and the ones below it are the enabling objectives i.e. those that are pre-requisite and lead to the attaining of the terminal objective. If a horizontal line is drawn across anywhere in the curricular map, it means that those objectives below the line are assumed to be prior knowledge and so don't have to be taught.

One last point to note is that in writing learning objectives, we should follow the A-B-C-D format: Audience (the learners), Behaviour (what the learners are supposed to DO), Condition (a scenario or context) and Degree (measurement). While the first 3 are essential, Degree can be added only where applicable. This format will help guide us as we write these objectives and hopefully, we can evade being fuzzy with these goal statements!!!!!!!

Cheers!!

Week 6- Domains of Learning.

So, we learnt the 3 domains of learning in Lecture.

1. Cognitive. Cognitive, as the term implies, refers to the knowing and thinking components of learning. It seeks to increase learners’ knowledge through learning concepts and facts, remembering and understanding these knowledge and applying them when required.For example, students are taught the mathematical formulae of finding the areas of a square and rectangle. To solve a mathematical problem on finding the area of a solid made up of a reactangle and square, the student has to combine both the formulae for the square and rectangle to correctly solve the problem.

2. Affective.Affective learning focuses on the learner’s attitudes and feelings. It concentrates on changing the learners’ attitudes.For example, the Singapore government tried to get the local population to understand that Global Warming is a serious problem and that every Singaporean has to do his or her best to save the Earth. There was a campaign and advertisements on television showing people how they could do their part by saving electricity and avoiding usage of plastic bags.Supermarkets too jumped the bandwagon and started charging for plastic bags.All these were efforts made to change Singaporeans' mindset and attitudes. By making Singaporeans participate in such efforts,the government hopes to change the mindset of the population. This is called Affective Learning.

3. Psychomotor.
Psychomotor implies the doing component of learning. It refers to building up the learners’ physical skills.For example, cheerleaders in a team will have to go through hours and hours of practice in order to perfect their steps and ensure that every single step is immaculate and coordinated.

Needs Assessment - Week 5

As we have understood by now, the purpose of a needs assessment is to determine whether there is a need for instruction to be developed.There are 3 circumstances in which needs assessment are to be used.

1. There is a problem. For example, there are a rising number of graduates in Singapore who are experiencing unemployment

.2. There is or may be something new that learners need to learn. For instance, the LTA introduced the must-give-way zones on some roads in which drivers / motorists are to give way to buses from bus bays. This means that drivers need to learn about the new rules.

3. No problem is apparent, but the organization wishes to or is required to engage in evaluation of its learning / training program to see if the goals and reality are congruent.

There are 3 faces of the needs assessment, and they are (A) Problem model, (B) Innovation model and (C) Discrepancy model.

Discrepancy model is used when the cause of problem is related to learning and instructions were given. To quote an example, regular fire drills were conducted for foreign workers to prepare them to evacuate their domitories should there be a situation where there is a fire. However, some of the foreign workers were still unable to follow the instructions given by the employers after repeated number of trials. Discrepancy model may then be used to assess the problem.

Innovation model is used when the cause of problem is related to learning but no instructions were given. For example, e – learning was incorporated into schools located in the rural villages with the aim of improving the learning performances of the students.Students were provided with computers and CD-ROMS that they could utilise.However, as the students did not have prior training on how to use these foreign technologies, their results did not improve.Hence, the innovation model is useful in this case to assess the learning problem.

Lastly, when the cause of the problem is not related to learning or instruction, but past instructions were given, we should then adopt other solutions. For example, there is an increase in the number of children in singapore who are supposed to be in primary one but are not schooling, although there is a rule that makes it mandatory for children to go to school. Reasons could be that the parents of these children are unaware of the law, the children are unable to go to school as they are helping to supplement their family's income or their parents are simply to poor to send them to school. Thus, other solutions may then be required to solve the problem.