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Course: Critical Thinking and reflective practices (8611)

ASSIGNMENT No. 1

Q.1 Take an article of your interest and critically analyze that how social,
economic and ethical aspects of that topic has been considered?

When a country emits GHGs, its emissions cause harm around the globe. The country itself
suffers only a part of the harm it causes. It is therefore rarely in the interests of a single
country to reduce its own emissions, even though a reduction in global emissions could
benefit every country. That is to say, the problem of climate change is a “tragedy of the
commons” (Hardin, 1968). Effective mitigation of climate change will not be achieved if
each person or country acts independently in its own interest. Consequently, efforts are
continuing to reach effective international agreement on mitigation. They raise an ethical
question that is widely recognized and much debated, namely, ‘burden-sharing’ or ‘effort
sharing’. How should the burden of mitigating climate change be divided among countries?
It raises difficult issues of justice, fairness, and rights, all of which lie within the sphere of
ethics. Burden-sharing is only one of the ethical questions that climate change raises.1
Another is the question of how much overall mitigation should take place. UNFCCC sets the
aim of “avoiding dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”, and
judging what is dangerous is partly a task for ethics (see Box 3.1). Besides justice, fairness,
and rights, a central concern of ethics is value. Judgements of value underlie the question of
what interference with the climate system would be dangerous. Indeed, ethical judgements
of value underlie almost every decision that is connected with climate change, including
decisions made by individuals, public and private organizations, governments, and groupings
of governments. Some of these decisions are deliberately aimed at mitigating climate change
or adapting to it. Many others influence the progress of climate change or its impacts, so they
need to take climate change into account.

Ethics may be broadly divided into two branches: justice and value. Justice is concerned with
ensuring that people get what is due to them. If justice requires that a person should not be
treated in a particular way—uprooted from her home by climate change, for example—then
the person has a right not to be treated that way. Justice and rights are correlative concepts.

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On the other hand, criteria of value are concerned with improving the world: making it a
better place. Synonyms for ‘value’ in this context are ‘good’, ‘goodness’ and ‘benefit’.
Antonyms are ‘bad’, ‘harm’ and ‘cost’.

To see the difference between justice and value, think of a transfer of wealth made by a rich country
to a poor one. This may be an act of restitution. For example, it may be intended to
compensate the poor country for harm that has been done to it by the rich country’s emissions
of GHG. In this case, the transfer is made on grounds of justice. The payment is taken to be
due to the poor country, and to satisfy a right that the poor country has to compensation.
Alternatively, the rich country may make the transfer to support the poor country’s mitigation
effort, because this is beneficial to people in the poor country, the rich country, and
elsewhere. The rich country may not believe the poor country has a right to the support, but
makes the payment simply because it does ‘good’. This transfer is made on grounds of value.
What would be good to do is not necessarily required as a matter of justice. Justice is
concerned with what people are entitled to as a matter of their rights.

The division between justice and value is contested within moral philosophy, and so is the nature
of the interaction between the two. Some authors treat justice as inviolable (Nozick, 1974):
justice sets limits on what we may do and we may promote value only within those limits.
An opposite view—called ‘teleological’ by Rawls (1971)—is that the right decision to make
is always determined by the value of the alternatives, so justice has no role. But despite the
complexity of their relationship and the controversies it raises, the division between justice
and value provides a useful basis for organizing the discussion of ethical concepts and
principles. We have adopted it in this chapter: sections 3.3 and 3.4 cover justice and value,
respectively. One topic appears in both sections because it bridges the divide: this topic is
distributive justice viewed one way and the value of equality viewed the other. Section 3.3.7
on geoengineering is also in an intermediate position because it raises ethical issues of both
sorts. Section 3.6 explains how some ethical values can be measured by economic methods
of valuation. Section 3.5 describes the scope and limitations of these methods. Later sections
develop the concepts and methods of economics in more detail. Practical ways to take
account of different values in policy-making are discussed in Section 3.7.1.

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Justice, fairness, equity, and responsibility are important in international climate negotiations, as
well as in climate-related political decision making within countries and for individuals. In
this section we examine distributive justice, which, for the purpose of this review, is about
outcomes, and procedural justice or the way in which outcomes are brought about. We also
discuss compensation for damage and historic responsibility for harm. In the context of
climate change, considerations of justice, equity, and responsibility concern the relations
between individuals, as well as groups of individuals (e.g., countries), both at a single point
in time and across time. Accordingly, we distinguish intra-generational from
intergenerational justice. The literature has no agreement on a correct answer to the question,
what is just? We indicate where opinions differ.

From the perspective of countries rather than individuals or groups of individuals, historic
emissions can help determine causal responsibility for climate change (den Elzen et al., 2005;
Lamarque et al., 2010; Höhne et al., 2011). Many developed countries are expected to suffer
relatively modest physical damage and some are even expected to realize benefits from future
climate change (see Tol, 2002a; b). On the other hand, some developing countries bear less
causal responsibility, but could suffer significant physical damage from climate change
(IPCC, 2007, WG II AR4 SPM). This asymmetry gives rise to the following questions of
justice and moral responsibility: do considerations of justice provide guidance in determining
the appropriate level of present and future global emissions; the distribution of emissions
among those presently living; and the role of historical emissions in distributing global
obligations? The question also arises of who might be considered morally responsible for
achieving justice, and, thus, a bearer of duties towards others. The question of moral
responsibility is also key to determining whether anyone owes compensation for the damage
caused by emissions.

Q.2 While you were at school/college; were you conscious of social class
conflict? How will you narrate it with reference to your schooling?

THE CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE ON EDUCATION

Conflict Theory

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Conflict theory assumes that the ideas held by a society are the ideas of the ruling class. The ruling
class uses schools, along with the media and other means of communication, to disseminate ideas
that will support its continued rule. Given this assumption, the conflict perspective often focuses
on the role school systems may play in influencing public opinion, or implementing social control.

Social control refers generally to societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate
individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given
society, state, or social group. Schools can further goals of social control by socializing students
into behaving in socially acceptable ways. Some may consider this type of socialization a form of
indoctrination. In any case, the social values that are present in individuals are products of informal
social control. It is exercised by a society without explicitly stating these rules and is expressed
through customs, norms, and mores. Individuals are socialized consciously or subconsciously.

Enforcement

Social control may be enforced using informal sanctions, which may include shame, ridicule,
sarcasm, criticism and disapproval. In extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination
and exclusion. For example, schoolmates may enforce gender norms by ridiculing boys who
undertake actions considered feminine, such as writing poetry or dancing. Informal sanctions can
have a powerful effect; individuals internalize the norm, which becomes an aspect of personality.

Social control may also be enforced using formal sanctions. Formal sanctions may be used in a
large group in which an individual can choose to ignore the sanctions of other individuals. This
form of control usually takes the form of government action. Government and organizations use
law enforcement mechanisms and other formal sanctions, such as fines and imprisonment. In
schools, formal sanctions may include detention, suspension, or other formal punishments.

By means of social control, students are taught the boundaries of acceptable behavior. They carry
these lessons with them into everyday life and, later, into careers. Thus, the social control
lessons learned in school may prepare students, for example, to be a docile proletariat in a
capitalist economy.

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Tracking Systems

Tracking sorts students into different groups depending on academic ability; however, other factors
often influence placement.

From the conflict perspective, schools play a role in screening and allocating people and their
abilities. Advanced capitalist economies require that many students be trained to join the working
class while a few must be trained to join the ruling capitalist class. One way schools may begin to
sort and differently train classes of students is by sorting them into different tracks.

Tracking sorts and separates students by academic ability. In a tracking system, the entire school
population is assigned to classes according to whether the students’ overall achievement is above,
at, or below what is average. Students attend academic classes only with students whose overall
academic achievement is the same as their own. Tracking is one of the predominant organizing
practices of American public schools, and has been an accepted feature in the country’s schools
for nearly a century.

Characteristics

Defined tracks often mirror class divisions in society. Thus, traditionally, students were tracked
into academic, general, and vocational tracks. Academic tracks prepare students for advanced
study and professions such as medicine or law, whereas general and vocational tracks were meant
to prepare students for middle- or working-class life. Students in academically advanced tracks
study higher mathematics, more foreign languages, and literature. Students in less academic tracks
acquire vocational skills such as welding or cosmetology, or business skills, such as typing or
bookkeeping. Students are usually not offered the opportunity to take classes deemed more
appropriate for another track, even if the student has a demonstrated interest and ability in the
subject. Today, few schools use tracking systems that so overtly differentiate upper-, middle-, and
working-class skills. Instead, many secondary schools now base track levels on course difficulty,
with tracks such as basic, honors, or college-prep.

Tracking systems vary widely in their characteristics. Some may extend to the entire school system
so that students follow a track that begins in elementary school and continues until high

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school graduation. Other schools may use tracking only for certain classes or subjects.
Systems may also vary in their flexibility and the opportunities for mobility given to students.
In some cases, placement is based entirely on student preferences. In other cases, test scores
may be used to determine a student’s track. Counselors may also work with students to
choose a particular class that in turn puts them on a given track. Parents and peers may
influence academic choices even more than guidance counselors by encouraging students
with similar backgrounds (academic, vocational, ethnic, religious, or racial) to stay together.
Other times, students are placed into tracks without any knowledge or input into the process.

Advantages

Proponents of tracking say that tracking allows teachers to better direct lessons toward the specific
ability level of the students in each class. Research suggests that tracking produces substantial
gains for gifted students in tracks specially designed for the gifted and talented, meeting the need
for highly gifted students to be with their intellectual peers in order to be appropriately challenged.
However, average and low achieving students may benefit more from being in a mixed ability
classroom.

Since tracking separates students by ability, students’ work is only compared to that of similar-
ability peers. Thus, tracking may have emotional benefits for students: it may prevent damage to
self-esteem that could result from comparisons with the work of higher ability students or inflating
the egos of the high-ability students when compared to low-ability students. Tracking can also
encourage low-ability students to participate in class. Since high self-esteem is correlated with
high academic achievement, tracking should, theoretically, promote academic success. However,
the awareness by the student of being placed into a low track might lower self-esteem,
counteracting this benefit.

Disadvantages

From the conflict perspective, tracking’s primary function is not necessarily to promote learning;
it is the allocation of students into specific areas of the labor market. Although track assignment is
theoretically based on academic ability, other factors often influence placement. When tracking is

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based not on ability but instead on student background, it becomes a form of segregation and
discrimination. Students in lower tracks may receive poorer quality instruction, with less-
experienced teachers being assigned to low-track classes. Lessons taught in low-track classes often
lack the engagement and comprehensiveness of the high-track lessons, putting low-track students
at a disadvantage for college because they do not gain the knowledge and skills of the upper-track
students.

Tracking can also result in a stigmatization of low-track students. This stigmatization can have a
negative impact on students’ academic performance; for example, students placed in low tracks
may lose confidence in their abilities, and their low confidence may be reinforced by teachers’ low
expectations and their stigmatization by peers. Some research suggests that students in lower tracks
are more likely to drop out of school or participate in criminal activities.

The Credential zed Society

Credentialism refers to the common practice of relying on earned credentials when hiring staff or
assigning social status.

Q.3 Critically analyses that how teaching and learning process of 21st century
different from other centuries. Also discuss the impact of technology on the
teaching and learning process.

Changing Role of Teachers in the 21st Century

A nation depends on the activities of the teachers. Identically, they are working to grow the
basement of the students. No matter it is school, college or university, a qualified teacher is
the builder of a student. Even a teacher on the special skills or technical courses is keeping
role responsibilities on the societies. For this reason, the leader of tomorrow is created by a
teacher. At the same time, if a teacher fails to discover the eternal power of a student, the
student fails in his whole life. That means a teacher is the best mentor for a life of the student.

The education system of the 21st century has changed radically with the integration of the
technology in every sector. At the same time, the students are more matured than the previous
time. Now, in the twenty-first-century education depends on Thinking Skills, Interpersonal

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Skills, Information Media, Technological Skills as well as Life Skills. Especially, the
education of the present time emphasis on life and career skills. Now there has no value for
rote learning. In general, it needs to meet the industry need. To clarify, the teaching will be
effective when a student can use the lesson outside of the classroom.

Changing role of teachers in the 21st century

For changing the globalizing world, the role of the teachers is essential to improve the sustainable
education. At the same time, inspiring and guiding the students in increasing employability skills
with the digital tools is the prerequisite for a teacher. Thus, a teacher in the twenty-first century will
be a digital teacher. Teachers are not the facilitator for learning of the students only, and now they
are responsible for training the students for increasing employability skills, expanding the mind,
growing digital citizenships, critical thinking, and creativity as well as sustainable learning. Thus,
the winning of the students is the win of the teachers.
With the passes of time and integration of technology in every sector, the teacher’s role has changed
a lot. They need to enrich some skills to develop their students. Otherwise, the students will
not get the lesson, and it will increase the of educated unemployed in the digital era. Let’s see
the changing role of a teacher in the 21st century.

1. A Planner for 21st Century Careers

This is the most competitive world, and there has the diverse option to choose the next career for a
student. In this case, a teacher needs to become a big planner to support them according to their
psychology. The future of a student will depend on 4C’s (Critical thinking, Communication,
Collaboration, and Creativity). It is the duty of a teacher to introduce them the mentioned terms
very clearly. The students will need to try several multidisciplinary jobs. So the teachers will define
where they will give more importance and which skills are just for adding value or keeping as
optional. Besides, if an educator can provide a proper guideline to build the career in the 21st
century for the students, he will be the all-rounder in his career and life. Do you know the quotes
from the American Philosopher Nancy Kassebaum?

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2. A Resource Provider

In this digital age, the internet is full of supportive resources. When a teacher teaches the students
from a collaborative perspective, the students will learn more deeply if they get the resources. It can
be YouTube Video Tutorial, Digital Content, eBooks or even the printing documents. If the student
receives the supportive materials on how to enrich Critical thinking, Communication skills,
Collaboration, and Creativity, they can lead their own future. A teacher can show the resources
according to their interest. Even a teacher can’t be expert on the topics, albeit he can easily point
the links of the supportive materials. It will ensure better learning environments and the students
will be engaged with the lesson.

3. A digital Instructor for Different Ways of Learning

Effective teachers don’t limit the learning resources for the students. Correspondingly, they are the
best instructor for the students. In contrast, they will create the learning materials entertaining. In
the digital age, you can find a lot of resources who are teaching the course efficiently. The instructor
knows how to make the meaningful learning opportunities for all students. Providing practical
examples in the classroom or collaborating in a class with another teacher can also help them to
learn perfectly. To emphasize, they know mixing the knowledge with an expert collaborator can
make the student motivated.

4. Learning Facilitator

A digital teacher or leader in the teaching profession don’t teach the students only. Also, they help
their colleagues to become the supporter of technology and show them how to find the online
resources and how to stay updated on their subject. They know how to enjoy the work and how to
make the lesson enjoyable. That means they are the facilitator for all the students and teachers.
Remember, if you can share your knowledge, you will learn more deeply. Similarly, the people will
love you.

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5. A Technology Lover for Learning

Now, it is so tough to attract the students without the use of technology. If you don’t teach the right
use of technology and how to find the internet resources, they will get the evil resources. Important
to realize, a teacher needs to learn how to read the psychology and what the students want. With
attention to, if you can’t maintain the online community with the students, you will not be able to
inform the students about the world. Indeed, there has no way of the teachers to deal with the
students without learning the technology and internet world. As a result, when you want to build
the nation, you have to develop yourself first. Must be remembered, you have to know how the
Google Advanced Search process works.

6. A digital Learner for the lifetime

Effective teachers who are the builders of a nation are the lifetime learner. To point out, they keep
knowledge of the latest changes in their subject. Then again, they keep knowledge about which jobs
will be available in the next decade. In addition, they learn the newest technology to help the
students. To put it differently, they know how to combine the technology, pedagogy, and content
which will ensure Real-World Problem Solving and cooperative learning. To summarize, a teacher
needs to follow the quotes from Henry Ford.

7. A genuine predictor

The teachers of the 21st century know the importance of Acquisition-based learning and
Participation-based learning. Similarly, he knows the value of engaging and working in the
community. For bringing innovations in the technology sector, it is necessary to create cooperation
with one another. In this case. The teachers can manage how to ensure the knowledge, skills, and
attitudes.

What things successful educators do differently?

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I have already discussed the changing roles of the teachers in the 21st century. When you go for
practical implementation, you will need more supportive knowledge. At present, you have to work
on how to bring the knowledge in real life. Alongside, the teachers will show the effective online
resources, will give the opportunities for questioning and providing feedback in the real time. At
the same time, teaching the students how to create a theme in their life. Let’s point out the things
successful teachers do differently.

Q.4 If you will have to make a dialogue with your principle, what questioning
strategy will you develop?

QUESTIONING STRATEGIES

Planning questions

Effective questioning sessions in classroom requires advance preparation. While some instructors
may be skilled in extemporaneous questioning, many find that such questions have phrasing
problems, are not organized in a logical sequence, or do not require students to use the desired
thinking skills.

Levels and types of questions

Questioning should be used to achieve well-defined goals. An instructor should ask questions that
will require students to use the thinking skills that he or she is trying to develop. Bloom's
Taxonomy is a hierarchical system for ordering thinking skills from lower to higher, where each
level requires a student's mastery of the skills below it. It is not essential that an instructor be able
to classify each question at a specific level. The taxonomy is introduced as a tool which is helpful
for defining the kinds of thinking skills instructors expect from students and for helping to establish
congruence between the instructor's goals and the questions he or she asks.

• People often refer to "lower-level" and "higher-level" questions or behaviors, rather than
assigning a specific level to those questions or behaviors. Lower-level questions are
typically at the remember, understand, and apply levels of the taxonomy and are evaluating
students' preparation and comprehension

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• diagnosing students' strengths and weaknesses

• reviewing and/or summarizing content

Higher-level questions involve the ability to analyze, evaluate, or create, and are most appropriate
for:

• encouraging students to think more deeply and critically

• problem solving
• encouraging discussions
• stimulating students to seek information on their own

Typically, an instructor would vary the level of questions within a single class period. For

Lower-level Higher-level

Closed What are the stages of Given the medical data before you, would you say this patient is
cell division? intoxicated or suffering from a diabetic reaction?

Open What is an example of What are some ways we might solve the energy c
an adjective?

example, an instructor might ask the higher-level question, "How can style of writing and the
thesis of a given essay be related?" If she gets inadequate or incorrect student response to that
question, she might ask lower-questions to check whether students know and understand the
material. For example, she might then ask, "What is the definition of thesis statement?" or "What
are some characteristics of different writing styles?"

In addition to asking questions at various levels of the taxonomy, an instructor might consider
whether he is asking closed or open questions. A closed question is one for which there are a
limited number of acceptable answers, most of which will usually be anticipated by the instructor.
For example, "What is the definition of an adjective?" An open question is one for which there are
many acceptable answers, most of which will not be anticipated by the instructor. For example,
"What is an example of an adjective?"

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STEPS FOR PLANNING QUESTIONS

• Decide on your goal or purpose for asking questions. Your goal should help you determine
what levels of questions you will ask.
• Select the content for questioning. Choose material which you consider important rather
than trivial. Students will study and learn based on the questions you ask. Do not mislead
them by emphasizing less important material.
• Ask questions that require an extended response or at least a "content" answer. Avoid
questions that can be answered "yes" or "no" unless you are going to follow with more
questions to explore reasoning.
• Until you are quite skilled at classroom questioning you should write your main questions
in advance. This is called "scripting." Arrange your list in some logical sequence (specific
to general, lower level to higher level, a sequence related to content). Should you think of
additional or better questions during the questioning process, you can be flexible and add
those or substitute them for some of your planned questions. However, having a prepared
list of questions will help to assure that you ask questions appropriate for your goals and
representative of the important material.
• Phrase your questions so that the task is clear to students. Questions such as "What about
foreign affairs?" do not often lead to productive answers and discussion. "What did we say
about chemical bonding?" is too general unless you are only seeking a review of any
material the students remember.
• Your questions should not contain the answers. Avoid implied response questions when
you are genuinely seeking an answer from the class. A question such as "Don't we all agree
that the author of the article exaggerated the dangers of agent orange to strengthen his
viewpoint?" will not encourage student response.
• When planning your questions, try to anticipate possible student responses. Anticipating
student responses should help in your planning by forcing you to consider whether the
phrasing is accurate, whether questions focus on the goal you have in mind, and whether
you have enough flexibility to allow students to express ideas in their own words. You
might consider the following:

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o What are some typical misconceptions that might lead students to incorrect
answers?
o Am I asking an open or closed question?
o What type of response do I expect from students, a definition? Example? Solution?
o Will I accept the answer in the students' language or am I expecting the textbooks'
words or my own terms?
o What will my strategy be for handling incorrect answers?
o What will I do if students do not answer?

Q.5 Describe in detail the salient features of Rolfe’s model of professional

development.

Rolfe's Reflective Cycle

Introduction

The Rolfe reflective cycle has the virtue of simplicity and straightforwardness. The model is based
on three key questions, as the diagram below indicates:

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The model was developed initially for nursing and care education, but has become broader in its
subsequent applications, not least because of the clarity of the model and its ease of use.

The three stages of the model ask you to consider, in turn, what happened, the implications of the
occurrence, and the consequences for future conduct. The model is cyclic, indicating a continuity.
The changes in behavior or approach which is generated from the reflective thought can then be
analysed, and either a further revision made, or else the changes made can be found to have been
appropriate.

The Three Steps of the Rolfe Model of Reflection

Rolfe et al. (2010) suggest a series of questions which may spring from the initial three; these may
be used to refine reflective thinking and isolate the key elements of the situation or occurrence so
that they can be understood in more detail:

1. What?
This element of the cycle is concerned with describing the event or occurrence being reflected
upon, and defining one's self-awareness in relation to it. All questions in this section begin with
'what? ‘:.

What:

• Is the issue / problem / reason for being stuck / reason for feeling ill at ease / reason there
is a clash of personalities?
• Was my role in the developing situation being reflected upon?
• Was I trying to achieve?
• Actions were being done towards the achievement?
• Were the responses of other people?
• Were the consequences for the learner/s?
• Were the consequences for me?
• Were the consequences for other people?
• Feelings were provoked in the student/s?
• Feelings were provoked in me?

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• Feelings were provoked in other people?

• Was positive about the experience?
• Was negative about the experience?
• Could be improved?

2. So what?
This aspect of the Rolfe cycle analyses the situation being reflected upon and begins to make
evaluations of the circumstances being addressed. All questions in this section begin with 'so
what?':

So, what:

• Does this tell me about myself and my relationships with learner/s?

• Was my thought process as I acted?
• Did I base my course of action on?
• Other approaches might I have brought to the situation?
• Might I have done differently to have produced a more positive outcome?
• Have I learned because of this situation?
• Contextual issues have been brought to light by this situation?

3. Now what?
This is the element of Rolfe's cycle which is concerned with synthesising information and insight,
as we move from the previous elements to think in more detail about what to do differently in the
future (or perhaps, if it is more appropriate to maintain the previous course of action) and so be
prepared for what might be done if similar situations present themselves again. All questions in
this element start with 'now what?':

Now what:

• Do I need to do make things better?

• Should I ask of others to support me?
• Do I need to avoid in future?

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• Have I learned?
• Will I recognize in advance?
• Have others learned from this?
• Broader issues need to be considered if the new set of actions are to be enacted?
• Wider considerations need to be addressed?

These questions are only suggestions. Not all may be appropriate for all contexts, and thinking of
new ones may be part of the processes of reflection being entered into. One tactic which may be
of use if to use the questions above as a cheat sheet; remembering the three core questions might
be easy, but the follow-up questions can be stored for use as required. Using them as a template
for a form on which to compile written reflection can be a useful strategy, as the writing process
helps to formalize ideas, and the outcomes may be stored away for later reference, or else as
evidence that reflection has been entered into.

Evaluation of Rolfe's Cycle

The core advantages of the Rolfe model relate to its simplicity and clarity. Reflective tools need
to be accessible and useful to the user, and to produce meaningful results. A simple model such as
this can support that. Issues related with the model include the idea that if applied only at the level
of the three core questions, then a full inventory of the situation being reflected upon may not take
place, and the insight produced as a consequence might tend to the simplistic or descriptive.

Rolfe's own writing indicates that is important not only to consider reflection after the event, but
reflection in the moment - as an event is taking place - so that immediate corrective action may be
considered. For Rolfe, though, this model does not fully articulate the position due to its simplicity,
reflection is not only a summary practice, but to be engaged with proactively (Rolfe, 2002).

Course: Critical Thinking and reflective practices (8611)

ASSIGNMENT No. 2

Q.1 How can Gibb’s cycle develop the blocked mental faculties?

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Gibbs’ reflective cycle Gibbs (1988, p.49) created his “structured debriefing” to support
experiential learning. It was designed as a continuous cycle of improvement for a repeated
experience but can also be used to reflect on a standalone experience. One of the key things
about Gibbs is the acknowledgement of the importance of Feelings in reflection. He also
separates out Evaluation - what went well as well as what didn’t. These extra stages make it
a useful model for some practitioner courses but some find them prescriptive.

The 6 stages.

Description

Here you set the scene:

• What happened,

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• When it occurred,

• Who was there,

• What did they do,

• What was the outcome.

It’s important to remember to keep the information provided relevant and to-the-point.

Don’t waffle on about details that aren’t required –if you do this, you’re just using up

valuable words that you’ll get minimal marks for.

Feelings

Discuss your feelings and thoughts about the experience. Consider questions such as:

• How did you feel at the time?

• What did you think at the time?

• What impact did your emotions, beliefs and values have?

• What do you think other people were feeling?

• What did you think about the incident afterwards?

You can discuss your emotions honestly but remember that this is an academic piece of

writing, so avoid ‘chatty’ text and ‘dear diary’.

Evaluation

How did things go? Focus on the positive and negative even if it was primarily one or

the other.

• What was good and what was bad about the experience?

• What went well? What didn’t?

• Were your contributions positive or negative.

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• If you are writing about a difficult incident, did you feel that the situation was

resolved afterwards?

Analysis

This is where you make sense of what happened, using the theory and wider context to

develop understanding.

• Why did things go well? Badly?

• How can the theory explain what happened?

• How does my experience compare to the literature?

• What research/theories/models can help me make sense of this?

• Could I have responded in a different way?

• What might have helped or improved things?

This section is very important, particularly for higher level writing. Many students

receive poor marks for reflective assignments for not bringing the theory and

experience together.

Conclusion

Gibbs actually proposed two conclusions: a general one, which could be transferable

and a specific one, focused your personal situation. These are now normally merged

but the idea may help focus your conclusion.

• What have you learnt? Generally, and specifically

• What can I now do better?

Could/should you have done anything differently?

• What skills would I need to handle this better?

Action plan

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Action plans sum up anything you need to know and do to improve for next time.

• How /where can I use my new knowledge and experience?

• How will I adapt my actions or improve my skills?

• If the same thing happened again, what would I do differently?

Using Gibbs’ reflective model in reflective writing

The following text is an example of a piece of reflective writing, following Gibbs’

model. The task was to write a reflection about an incident which occurred during

the first few weeks of a teaching placement (1000 words). Please note that the

references used are fictional. If you are not a student teacher, use One Search or

your subject resources pages to find resources that explore reflective writing in your

subject discipline.

Q.2 Identify a problem for action research, make it narrow and propose a plan
for the triangulation.

Educational research provides a vast landscape of knowledge on topics related to teaching and
learning, curriculum and assessment, students’ cognitive and affective needs, cultural and
socioeconomic factors of schools, and many other factors considered viable to improving
schools. Educational stakeholders rely on research to make informed decisions that
ultimately affect the quality of schooling for their students. Accordingly, the purpose of
educational research is to engage in disciplined inquiry to generate knowledge on topics
significant to the students, teachers, administrators, schools, and other educational
stakeholders. Just as the topics of educational research vary, so do the approaches to
conducting educational research in the classroom. Your approach to research will be shaped
by your context, your professional identity, and paradigm (set of beliefs and assumptions that
guide your inquiry). These will all be key factors in how you generate knowledge related to
your work as an educator. Action research is an approach to educational research that is
commonly used by educational practitioners and professionals to examine, and ultimately

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improve, their pedagogy and practice. In this way, action research represents an extension of
the reflection and critical self-reflection that an educator employs on a daily basis in their
classroom. When students are actively engaged in learning, the classroom can be dynamic
and uncertain, demanding the constant attention of the educator. Considering these demands,
educators are often only able to engage in reflection that is fleeting, and for the purpose of
accommodation, modification, or formative assessment. Action research offers one path to
more deliberate, substantial, and critical reflection that can be documented and analyzed to
improve an educator’s practice.

Purpose of Action Research As one of many approaches to educational research, it is important to

distinguish the potential purposes of action research in the classroom. This book focuses on
action research as a method to enable and support educators in pursuing effective
pedagogical practices by transforming the quality of teaching decisions and actions, to
subsequently enhance student engagement and learning. Being mindful of this purpose, the
following aspects of action research are important to consider as you contemplate and engage
with action research methodology in your classroom:

In thinking about the purpose of action research, it is helpful to situate action research as a distinct
paradigm of educational research. I like to think about action research as part of the larger
concept of living knowledge. Living knowledge has been characterized as “a quest for life,
to understand life and to create… knowledge which is valid for the people with whom I work
and for myself” (Swantz, in Reason & Bradbury, 2001, pg. 1). Why should educators care
about living knowledge as part of educational research? As mentioned above, action research
is meant “to produce practical knowledge that is useful to people in the everyday conduct of
their lives and to see that action research is about working towards practical outcomes”
(Koshy, 2010, pg. 2). However, it is also about: creating new forms of understanding, since
action without reflection and understanding is blind, just as theory without action is
meaningless. The participatory nature of action research makes it only possible with, for and
by persons and communities, ideally involving all stakeholders both in the questioning and
sense making that informs the research, and in the action, which is its focus. In an effort to
further situate action research as living knowledge, Jean McNiff reminds us that “there is no
such ‘thing’ as ‘action research’” (2013, pg. 24). In other words, action research is not static

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or finished, it defines itself as it proceeds. McNiff’s reminder characterizes action research

as action-oriented, and a process that individuals go through to make their learning public to
explain how it informs their practice. Action research does not derive its meaning from an
abstract idea, or a self-contained discovery – action research’s meaning stems from the way
educators negotiate the problems and successes of living and working in the classroom,
school, and community. While we can debate the idea of action research, there are people
who are action researchers, and they use the idea of action research to develop principles and
theories to guide their practice. Action research, then, refers to an organization of principles
that guide action researchers as they act on shared beliefs, commitments, and expectations in
their inquiry.

Reflection and the Process of Action Research When an individual engages in reflection on their
actions or experiences, it is typically for the purpose of better understanding those
experiences, or the consequences of those actions to improve related action and experiences
in the future. Reflection in this way develops knowledge around these actions and
experiences to help us better regulate those actions in the future. The reflective process
generates new knowledge regularly for classroom teachers and informs their classroom
actions. Unfortunately, the knowledge generated by educators through the reflective process
is not always prioritized among the other sources of knowledge educators are expected to
utilize in the classroom. Educators are expected to draw upon formal types of knowledge,
such as textbooks, content standards, teaching standards, district curriculum and behavioral
programs, etc., to gain new knowledge and make decisions in the classroom. While these
forms of knowledge are important, the reflective knowledge that educators generate through
their pedagogy is the amalgamation of these types of knowledge enacted in the classroom.
Therefore, reflective knowledge is uniquely developed based on the action and
implementation of an educator’s pedagogy in the classroom. Action research offers a way to
formalize the knowledge generated by educators so that it can be utilized and disseminated
throughout the teaching profession. Research is concerned with the generation of knowledge,
and typically creating knowledge related to a concept, idea, phenomenon, or topic. Action
research generates knowledge around inquiry in practical educational contexts. Action
research allows educators to learn through their actions with the purpose of developing
personally or professionally. Due to its participatory nature, the process of action research is

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also distinct in educational research. There are many models for how the action research
process takes shape. I will share a few of those here. Each model utilizes the following
processes to some extent:

Q.3 Critically analyze current syllabus of English being taught at grade four.

Since curriculum development is a cyclical process, it is necessary to analyze it to have a

better perspective whether it would work, not work or dimensions where there may be
possible constraints in a context. This study sets out to analyze Primary (Grade) four English
language syllabus in English-speaking Cameroon. Using Posner’s (2004) framework the
analysis was categorized into four steps: Curriculum Background, Curriculum Proper,
Curriculum Implementation, and Curriculum Critique. Analysis of Primary 1 syllabus
documentation was descriptive and interpretive. Findings indicated that the purpose for
English language syllabus is clearly stated as well as its content; syllabus proper involves
acquisition of academic, and lifelong skills, while for syllabus implementation constraints on
teaching and learning were extrapolated from the content. A critical analysis was made of
frame factors which may be constraints in the classroom. The study ends with a discussion
regarding users or curriculum developers in Cameroon and similar global contexts.

Curriculum is a concept constructed in several ways depending on the angle from which it is
perceived (UNESCO, nd); Flake, 2017; Turan-Özpolat and Bay, 2017). Posner (2004, p.5-
6) illustrates claims that curriculum is the content or objectives students are accountable for,
while others argue that curriculum is the set of instructional strategies that a teacher plans
using in class. Kelly (2000) supports this line of argument by distinguishing different strands
such as educational curriculum, total curriculum, the ‘hidden’ curriculum, the planned
curriculum and the received curriculum, the formal curriculum and the informal curriculum.
Whatever the arguments the major debate seems to be between curriculum as ends and
curriculum as means of education. However, the present study would not take the purview
of an in-depth analysis if some of the common conceptualizations of curriculum are not
outlined. The first common conceptualization of curriculum according to Posner (2004, p. 6)
is a scope and sequence document which lists intended learning outcomes in each class or
grade. The assumption seems to be that there is a difference between educational ends and
means, thereby placing curriculum in a guiding role for both instructional and evaluation

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decisions. This view limits curriculum to educational plans and does not consider actualities
(Posner, 2004). A second group sees curriculum as a syllabus which charts a plan for an
entire course and generally includes the goals and sometimes rationale for the course. Some
syllabi may also includelearning activities, objectives and revision questions. Content
outline is another way curriculum is viewed. Here it is assumed that the content of instruction
is equivalent to a curriculum plan. When education and teaching have divergent purposes
however, the content outline may leave unanswered queries of objectives, and instructional
methods. Textbooks are also perceived as curriculum in some cases. Posner (2004, p.6)
explains that in some instances the textbook may function as a daily guide both as ends and
means of instruction. The more reason why contemporary textbooks are described as
instructional systems. For example, teacher guides, teaching soft and hardware, and
laboratory kits. Unlike traditional texts with little support for the content. Curriculum is
conceptualized by another school of thought as standards. Even though there are arguments
about it being a curriculum standard is more than a content outline and different from a scope
and sequence. It could be described as things students should be able to do towards achieving
the learning outcomes. With standards fundamental ideas in a discipline come first and key
ideas are interconnected as well as covering all the school levels. Curriculum is conceived
by others as course of study. The assumption here is that the curriculum is the series of
courses a student must get through. Finally, curriculum is seen as planned experiences. The
assumption is that curriculum is more than a set of documents (Posner, 2004, pp. 11-12).
This school of thought argues that all the intended and unintended planned experiences by
the school, for example academic, social and sporting, form the curriculum. Joseph (2011,
p.5) supports Eisner’s (1985) explanation that the conception of curricula has been grouped
into three which all schools are to teach, which are explicit (the written curricula), implicit
(the unwritten one), and null (curriculum that is not recognized by the school). Each of these
seven concepts and definitions of the curriculum would have consequences in teaching,
learning and accountability.

As far as typology of curriculum goes Posner (2004) highlights five: the official, the operational,
the hidden, the null, and the extra curriculum. In like manner too Cuban (1993) points four
views of curricula, viz, official, taught, learned, and tested curriculum. The written or official
curriculum is a document that may comprise of scope and sequence charts, syllabi,

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curriculum guides, course outlines, standards, and lists of objectives. Teachers could use an
official curriculum for planning lessons, evaluation, and it may be used employed by
administrators for supervision of instruction or accountability. The operational curriculum,
dubbed taught curriculum by Cuban (1993) is really what is taught and how students know
about its importance. The operational curriculum comprises of two things which include the
content that is emphasized by the teacher in class, and the learning outcomes. However, there
is little curriculum convergence amongst the official, the taught, and the tested curricula of a
school. It is worth stating that the operational curriculum and the official curriculum may be
influenced by variables such as teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes. The hidden
curriculum, Posner (2004) explains, may not feature on the school timetable but could leave
a huge impact on students than either official or operational curriculum. Another type is the
null curriculum that Eisner, 1994) says consists of subject matter not covered by the
curriculum. The next type of curriculum is extra-curriculum which refers to all those planned
experiences outside of the school subjects. This curriculum responds to students’ interests
and is an openly acknowledged dimension of the school experience. Outlining some concepts
and types of curricula, sets the stage to focus on analyzing Primary1 English language
syllabus in Cameroon. Since the curriculum was reformed in 2000, no evaluation study has
been carried out to throw light on dimensions that teachers, supervisors, and even curriculum
developers may be proactive in tackling before English language lessons or prior to
curriculum revision. The present analysis, therefore, is a preliminary one.

Q.4 Chose a most prevailing educational practice which have experienced.

Describe this practice and critically reflect upon how this practice has
influenced your work?

As knowledge regarding human development and learning has grown at a rapid pace, the
opportunity to shape more effective educational practices has also increased. Taking
advantage of these advances, however, requires integrating insights across multiple fields—
from the biological and neurosciences to psychology, sociology, developmental and learning
sciences—and connecting them to knowledge of successful approaches that is emerging in
education. This article seeks to contribute to this process by drawing out the implications for
school and classroom practices of an emerging consensus about the science of learning and

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development (SoLD), outlined in a recent synthesis of the research (Cantor, Osher, Berg,
Steyer, & Rose, 2018; Osher, Cantor, Berg, Steyer, & Rose, 2018).

Using these articles as a foundation, we synthesize evidence from the learning sciences and
several branches of educational research about well-vetted strategies that support the kinds
of relationships and learning opportunities needed to promote children’s well-being, healthy
development, and transferable learning. In addition, we review research regarding practices
that can help educators respond to individual variability, address adversity, and support
resilience, such that schools can enable all children to learn and to find positive pathways to
adulthood.

This work is situated in a relational developmental systems framework that looks at the “mutually
influential relations between individuals and contexts” (Lerner & Callina, 2013, p. 373). This
framework makes it clear how children’s development and learning are shaped by
interactions among the environmental factors, relationships, and learning opportunities they
experience, both in and out of school, along with physical, psychological, cognitive, social,
and emotional processes that influence one another—both biologically and functionally—as
they enable or undermine learning (Fischer & Bidell, 2006; Rose, Rouhani, and
Fischer, 2013). Although our society and our schools often compartmentalize these
developmental processes and treat them as distinct from one another—and treat the child as
distinct from the many contexts she experiences—the sciences of learning and development
demonstrate how tightly interrelated they are and how they jointly produce the outcomes for
which educators are responsible.

Key insights from the science of learning and development are that the brain and the
development of intelligences and capacities are malleable, and the “development of the brain
is an experience-dependent process” (Cantor et al., 2018, p. 5), which activates neural
pathways that permit new kinds of thinking and performance. As a function of experiences,
the brain and human capacities grow over the course of the entire developmental continuum
and across the developmental spectrum (physical, cognitive, affective) in interactive ways.
What happens in one domain influences what happens in others. For example, emotions can
trigger or block learning. Emotions and social contexts shape neural connections which
contribute to attention, concentration, and memory, to knowledge transfer and application.

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Understanding how developmental processes unfold over time and interact in different
contexts can contribute to more supportive designs for learning environments.

Furthermore, general trends in development are modified by interactions between unique aspects
of the child and his/her family, community, and classroom contexts. As a result, children
have individual needs and trajectories that require differentiated instruction and supports to
enable optimal growth in competence, confidence, and motivation.

A central implication for educators is that this integrated and dynamic developmental system is
optimally supported when all aspects of the educational environment support all of the
dimensions of children’s development. This calls for a deeply integrated approach to practice
that supports the whole child in schools and classrooms that function coherently and
consistently to build strong relationships and learning communities; support social,
emotional, and cognitive development; and provide a system of supports as needed for
healthy development, productive relationships, and academic progress. This holistic
approach must necessarily connect with family and community contexts: developing strong,
respectful partnerships to understand and build on children’s experiences and, as needed, to
strengthen any aspects of the developmental system where there are challenges to children’s
health and well-being.

In what follows, we describe the implications for practice of these interrelated systems that address
major developmental needs: the need for strong, supportive relationships that enable students
to take advantage of productive learning opportunities in cognitive, social, and emotional
domains, plus additional supports (physical, social, emotional, and/or academic) needed to
address individual circumstances that need attention at a moment in time to maintain a
positive developmental trajectory. We stress that all of these are interactive and interrelated
and that these aspects of education must be designed to work together in a tightly integrated
fashion.

1. Supportive environmental conditions that foster strong relationships and community.

These include positive sustained relationships that foster attachment and emotional
connections; physical, emotional, and identity safety; and a sense of belonging and
purpose;

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2. Productive instructional strategies that support motivation, competence, and self-

directed learning. These curriculum, teaching, and assessment strategies feature well-
scaffolded instruction and ongoing formative assessment that support conceptual
understanding, take students’ prior knowledge and experiences into account, and
provide the right amount of challenge and support on relevant and engaging learning
tasks;

3. Social and Emotional Learning that fosters skills, habits, and mindsets that enable
academic progress, efficacy, and productive behavior. These include self-regulation,
executive function, intrapersonal awareness and interpersonal skills, a growth
mindset, and a sense of agency that supports resilience and productive action;

4. System of supports that enable healthy development, respond to student needs, and
address learning barriers. These include a multi-tiered system of academic, health, and
social supports that provide personalized resources within and beyond the classroom
to address and prevent developmental detours, including conditions of trauma and
adversity.

Within this framework, we address the following questions: Given what we know about human
development and learning, and what is known from multiple domains of educational research,
what school and classroom practices can create environments that support students in all of the
areas of their development? In what ways can educators help students acquire transferable
knowledge, skills, habits, and mindsets that support ongoing learning? And what kinds of changes
are needed within our education system as a whole to reflect what we know about development,
since our current system was not designed with this knowledge in mind?

We focus primarily on K–12 schools, although the principles we articulate are generally applicable
to early childhood as well. As we answer these questions, we emphasize the whole child within a
whole school and a whole community context. From an ecological systems framework, the school
serves as an immediate context shaping children’s learning and development through instruction,
relationships with teachers and peers, and the school culture. Connections between home and
school are critical to provide aligned supports for children.

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As we describe these components and their implications for educational practice, we both describe
optimal practices for all children in schools and specific interventions that are needed when
children have experienced adversities that require redress and when schools have been structured
in ways that do not yet permit developmentally supportive experiences at all times and in all the
contexts of school life. Where we describe specific programmatic interventions, we do so with the
goal of informing a whole school approach that will eventually incorporate these elements into the
regular features of educational settings.

Q.5 Describe the significance of sharing and publishing. Enlist some forums
for both categories.

As a researcher, you make huge strides in advancing essential knowledge. Your

achievements can save lives, change the way we understand the world and improve

our quality of life. When you’re ready to share your knowledge, the best way to do it

is by publishing your work.

In this booklet, you’ll find simple,

actionable support that will help you

publish and promote your research and

make the biggest impact you can with

your work.

In the first section, we’ll look at getting

published.

The decisions you make about your

publications affect their ultimate impact:

the journal you choose, the type of

article and the way you write about your

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research all contribute to the result.

● When and what to publish

● How to write a great research paper

● Choosing the best journal for your

work

● Your open access options

● Navigating the publishing process

● Getting the most out of peer review

● Publishing ethically

Then it’s time to get your work

noticed…

With your peer-reviewed article

published and available online, there’s

a lot you can do to promote your work

and get it out to a wider audience.

● Sharing your article

● Increasing your visibility

● Writing a lay summary

● The power of social media

● Media coverage

… And finally, track your impact.

This won’t be the only paper you’ll

publish, so it’s useful to build an

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understanding of what works well and

where you could make improvements.

You can do this by tracking your impact.

● Article-level metrics

● Tools you can use

Getting published

Do you have a story to tell?

This is a great question to ask yourself when you’re considering publishing an article. Editors and
reviewers are looking for original and innovative research that adds to their field of study,
sheds new light on previous findings or joins the dots between work in different areas. Your
conclusions must be sound and based on robust data.

Is there an audience for your story?

If your research contributes to knowledge in your field, your peers and researchers in other areas
are likely to be interested in your work. However, your audience could be even broader than
this. The more original and innovative your research, the more people will be interested. And
if it’s clear, understandable and compelling, you could also share your work with the general
public especially if you can explain how, it affects their lives.

How can you tell your story?

Scholarly articles come in a variety of

shapes and sizes, each designed to suit

research published at different stages,

in different fields and to share different

aspects of the work.

1. Full articles contain significant data,

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detail, developments and outcomes.

2. Letters and short communications

are intended for the quick and early

communication of significant or

original advances, without including

too much data or detail.

3. Review papers summarize

developments on a specific topic,

without introducing new data.

4. Research elements articles

complement full research papers

and describe output, such as data,

methods and protocols, software,

code and hardware.

If you’re unsure which type of article

to write, it’s a good idea to discuss

your options with your supervisor or

colleagues. What’s more, remember

that not all journals accept all types of

article…

NB: In this booklet, you’ll find guidance

for writing and publishing a full article.

Take into consideration the type of

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article you’d like to publish (full length,

letter, review, research element, etc.).

● Check the references in your article, to

give an indication of possible journals

of interest.

● Read the journal’s aims and scope on

the journal homepage on elsevier.com.

● Read or download the journal’s guide

for authors.

● Check if the journal is invitation-only;

some journals only accept articles after

inviting the author to submit.

● Check the journal’s performance for

review and publication timelines.

● If you need to publish open access,

remember that most Elsevier journals

explain their open access options on

the journal homepage.

● Submit your paper to only one journal

at a time.

ASSIGNMENT No. 1

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Q.1 Take an article of your interest and critically analyze that how social, economic and ethical aspects
of that topic has been considered?

All contemporary political communication is in a specific way critical because it consists of speech acts
that normally question political opinions and practices of certain actors. Modern politics is a highly
competitive system, in which elections and warfare are ways of distributing and redistributing power.
Tis understanding of critique stands in the tradition of Kantian enlightenment that considered the
Enlightenment as an age of criticism. In contrast to Kant’s general understanding of critique, Karl Marx
and the Marxian tradition understands the categorical imperative as the need to overcome all forms of
slavery and degradation and to unmask alienation. Tis school of thought points out a more specific
understanding of being critical, namely the questioning of power, domination, and exploitation, the
political demand and struggle for a just society. Critical theory is understood as a critique of society.
Scholars in the Marxian inspired tradition employ the term “critical” to stress that not all science is
critical, but that a lot of it has a more administrative character that takes power structures for granted,
does not question them, or helps to legitimate them.

Some define critical theory as the Frankfurt School’s works, a tradition of critical thinking that originated
with the works of scholars like Herbert Marcuse, Max Horkheimer, and andTeodorW. Adorn. Herbert
Marcuse was a philosopher, born in Germany in 1898, who fled Nazi Germany to the United States in
1934, where he spent the rest of his life. Max Horkheimer was director of the University of Frankfurt’s
Institute for Social Research in the years 1930–1959.Tis institute was the home of what came to be
known as the Frankfurt School. Teodor W. Adorn was one of the Institute’s directors from 1953 until his
death in 1969. Horkheimer and Adorno also emigrated, together with the Institute, to the United States,
but unlike Marcuse they returned to Germany after the end of World War II. Critical Theory’s starting
point is the work of Karl Marx.

Jürgen Huberman (1984, 1987) built his approach on the classical Frankfurt School and at the same time
worked out the concept of communicative rationality, by which he went beyond the classical tradition.
He distinguishes between instrumental (nonsocial, success-oriented), strategic (social, success-oriented),
and communicative action (social, oriented on understanding). For Huberman (1987, p. 375), critical
theory questions that so-called steering media (money, power) attack “the communicative
infrastructure of largely rationalized life worlds.” (Huberman speaks of money and power as “steering
media” because he argues that these are structures that elites use for trying to control and dominate
society.) He conceives instrumental action and communicative action as the two fundamental aspects of
social praxis. What he wants to express is that the human being is both a laboring and a communicating
being. In a way, Huberman retains the classical Marxist distinction between base and superstructure,
but inverts it by putting the stress on communication. Doubts arise if labor can be so strictly separated
from communication in a dualistic way. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen a rising importance of
communicative and cultural work in the economy. But if such activity takes on value-generating form,
then culture and communication must be part of the economy themselves, base and superstructure
become integrated, and labor and communication cannot be separated. Communication is one of the
crucial foundations of the economy: The latter is not just a system of the production of use-values, and
in class societies of exchange values. It is also a social system because production in any society takes on

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complex forms beyond individual self-sustenance. The only way for organizing the economy is via
communication, in the form of symbolic interaction and/or anonymous forms of indirect communication
(as for example via money, markets, the price system, etc.). Human thought is a precondition for human
communication and existence. When humans produce in the economy, they do so with a purpose in
mind, which means that they anticipate the form of the object and how it will be put to use. Te
economic existence of man requires anticipative thinking just like it requires communication. It is in
these two specifc senses— the importance of communication and thought— that the economy is always
and fundamentally cultural. Capitalism has had a history of the commodification of culture and
communication, especially since the 20th century. Tis is not to say that culture and communication
necessarily take on the form of a commodity, but that in capitalism they frequently do so in the form of
content commodities, audience commodities, and cultural labor power as commodity. In this sense
culture has been economized, or, to be more precise commoditized, that is, put under the influence of
the commodity logic. Communication is certainly an important aspect of a domination-free society.
Under capitalism, it is however also a form of interaction, in which ideology is with the help of the mass
media made available to the dominated groups. Communication is not automatically progressive. For
Huberman, the differentiation is between instrumental/strategic reason and communicative reason,
whereas for Horkheimer the distinction is between instrumental reason and critical reason and, based
on that, between traditional and critical theory. Huberman splits of communication from instrumentality
and thereby neglects to understand that in capitalism the dominant system uses communication just
like technology, the media, ideology, or labor as an instrument to defend its rule. Structures of
domination do not leave communication untouched and pure, they are rather antagonistically entangled
with communication. Hagerman’s stress on communication is not immune against misuse for
instrumental purposes. The concept of communication can be critical, but is not necessarily critical,
whereas the concept of a critique of domination is necessarily critical.

Te six dimensions of a critical theory of society can also be found in Karl Marx’s works. Tis circumstance
shows the importance of his thought for any critical theory. Critical theory uses dialectical reasoning as
method of analysis: The dialectical method identifies contradictions. Contradictions are the basic
building blocks of all dialectics. Dialectics tries to show that and how contemporary society and its
moments are shaped by contradictions. Contradictions result in the circumstance that society is dynamic
and that capitalism assures the continuity of domination and exploitation by changing the way these
phenomena are organized. In a contradiction, one pole of the dialectic can only exist by the way of the
opposed pole, they require and exclude each other at the same time. In a dominative society (such as
capitalism), contradictions cause problems and are to a certain extent also the seeds for overcoming
these problems. They have positive potentials and negative realities at the same time. Marx analyzed
capitalism’s contradictions, for example: the contradictions between no owners/owners, the poor/the
rich, misery/wealth, workers/capitalists, use value/exchange value, concrete labor/abstract labor, the
simple form of value/the relative and expanded form of value, social relations of humans/relations of
things, the fetish of commodities and money/fetishistic thinking, the circulation of commodities/the
circulation of money, commodities/money, labor power/wages, subject/object, labor
process/valorization process, subject of labor (labor power, worker)/the means of production (object),
variable capital/constant capital, surplus labor/surplus product, necessary labor time/surplus labor time

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single worker/cooperation, single company/industry sector, single capital/competing capitals,

production/consumption, productive forces/relations of production.

Critical theory is connected to struggles for a just and fair society, it is an intellectual dimension of
struggles: Critical theory provides a self-understanding of a society’s self-understanding, struggles, and
wishes. It can “show the world why it actually struggles” and is “taking sides […] with actual struggles”
(Marx, 1997, p. 214). Tis means that critical theory can help to explain the causes, conditions, potentials,
and limits of struggles. Critical theory rejects the argument that academia and science should and can be
value-free. It rather argues that all thought and theories are shaped by political worldviews. Te reasons
why a person is interested in a certain topic, aligns himself/herself with a certain school of thought,
develops a particular theory and not another one, refers to certain authors and not others, are deeply
political because modern society is shaped by conficts of interests and therefore, for surviving and
asserting themselves, scholars have to make choices, enter strategic alliances, and defend their
positions against others. In confict-based and antagonistic societies, academic writing and speaking,
scholarship and science are therefore always forms of political communication: Tey are not just
discovery, knowledge construction, or invention, but besides knowledge creation also a production and
communication of knowledge about knowledge— the political standpoints of the scholars themselves.
Critical theory holds not only that theory is always political, but also that it should develop analyses of
society and concepts that assist struggle against interests and ideas that justify domination and
exploitation.

Q.2 While you were at school/college; were you conscious of social class conflict? How will you narrate
it with reference to your schooling?

Two German theorists, Karl Marx (1818–83) and Max Weber (1864–1920), influenced the field of
sociology, particularly in terms of theories of social class. Both of these theorists wrote extensively on
issues of social class and social inequality, or the unequal status and access to opportunities that
different groups have within a society. Sociologists continue to use and respond to ideas that Marx and
Weber developed.

Marxism, Conflict Theory, and Social Class

Marx defined class as a group of people who have the same relationship to the means of production—
the facilities and resources for producing goods—such as tools, machines, and factories. Marx wrote
extensively of the relationship between the privileged classes—the “haves,” or the bourgeoisie—and the
oppressed classes—the “have nots,” or the proletariat. The bourgeoisie is a class that owns property,
including owning and controlling the means of production. The proletariat is the working class, who own
only their own labor. Members of the proletariat are forced to sell their labor because they have no
control over the means of production. Marx argued that this relationship is exploitive of the working
class because the surplus value derived from work is unfairly appropriated by the bourgeoisie. In Marx’s
view, the economic system of capitalism automatically creates social stratification, or class differences,
in which members of different classes are in an adversarial relationship. Sociologists incorporate Marx’s

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ideas in an approach known as conflict theory. Conflict theorists suggest that social inequality creates
intergroup conflict—such as the rich versus the poor—and that the different interests will cause them to
be at odds as they attempt to secure their interests.

Marxist theory continues to be important in sociology, but many sociologists have expanded upon
Marx’s ideas in order to apply them to postindustrial, postmodern societies of the late 20th and early 21st
centuries. American sociologist Erik Olin Wright (b. 1947) elaborates on Marx’s model of class structure.
While Marx analyzed society in terms of two major classes, Wright identifies four classes in the United
States: capitalist, managerial, small business, and working class. He argues that power is connected to
the control of the means of production but also control over work processes and other workers.
Wright’s model is less polarized than Marx’s but remains focused on questions of which groups
dominate a society and which groups are oppressed. He looks at why some workers might behave or
think more like capitalists (the bourgeoisie) and notes how people can belong to more than one class.
His term contradictory class locations describes how people can occupy more than one class position,
based on what type of control they exercise. For example, an executive assistant at a large corporation
has a relatively high level of control compared to other administrative workers but is also under the
control of a more powerful CEO. The executive assistant may identify more closely with the upper-class
managers at the company, although outside of work the executive assistant has less social and economic
power than managers do. Wright proposes a larger definition of the working class than Marx did,
including those in occupations that involve what he terms “mental labor” but who do not receive high
salaries, such as clerical workers. He analyzes modern types of work, arguing that levels of control tied
to various occupations are crucial markers of class in contemporary society. For instance, master
electricians and architects who work at small firms may have similar levels of income, but they hold
different social positions.Their occupations grant them different levels of control. Like Marx, Wright is
concerned with dismantling systems that oppress the working class. However, he argues that “taming
and eroding capitalism are the only viable options.” Whereas Marx envisioned the end of capitalism,
Wright considers how the working class might impose reforms on oppressive state and capitalist
structures.

Weber and Social Class

Weber agreed with Marx that economic markers are important, but he advanced the idea that other
factors, such as education and occupational prestige, determine class hierarchies. Weber described class
structure as being based on three major factors: wealth (income and assets), prestige (status position),
and power (ability to achieve goals). Weber saw ownership of the means of production, including
companies, as important, but he also noted that holding a high position within a company or profession
is also a means to acquire social and economic power. For example, a high-level manager in a
corporation does not own the business but does benefit from the profits that the business generates.
Owning property grants economic power, but it also grants higher levels of prestige. Someone who
owns land, for example, has social prestige. Weber pointed out that prestige can also be gained in other
ways that do not involve ownership of property or the means of production. Gifted athletes or
intellectuals can acquire prestige without owning the sports teams or universities that frame their work.
Both wealth and prestige can give individuals greater power in society. Weber saw wealth, power, and

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prestige as intertwined elements of social class. Weber’s multidimensional work led sociologists to use
socioeconomic status to understand class.

Influenced by Weber’s theory of class, American sociologist Dennis Gilbert (b. 1943) described six
separate classes in the United States: the capitalist class, upper-middle class, middle class, working class,
working poor, and underclass. The capitalist class is defined as the most elite and powerful group. As the
richest one percent of the population, they own most of the wealth in a society, including the vast
majority of stocks and bonds. Their large investments have an impact on the rest of society, because
their investment choices can have a significant impact on the overall economy. They mostly interact
with one another, remaining separated from the other classes. The upper-middle class is relatively
wealthy and is characterized by high levels of formal education—a minimum of a college degree and
usually a graduate degree. Members of the upper-middle class work in white-collar, fairly high-income
professions. They may often purchase status symbols, including expensive homes and vehicles that
serve to identify their class status. The lower-middle class is composed of people who earn enough to
afford basic expenses. They generally have at least a high school education and often some education
beyond high school including specialized training, some college, or a college degree. They typically work
in semiskilled professions, for instance as flight attendants or security guards. The working class has
relatively low levels of income and is employed in factories or in low-paid white-collar professions such
as retail sales workers. Members of the working class sometimes qualify for public assistance programs,
such as free or reduced lunch for children at school. The working poor are people whose incomes are
minimal and often not enough to pay basic living expenses. They often work in service jobs, which
include occupations such as food preparation workers, house cleaners, or lawn and garden maintenance
workers. Most members of the working poor do not hold high school diplomas. They may qualify for
public assistance, such as housing and food assistance programs. The underclass is a social group
composed of individuals stuck in poverty because of high unemployment, low education, or other forms
of marginalization such as homelessness. Multigenerational poverty, or poverty that lasts across several
generations in a family, is also a characteristic of the underclass. Occupations that involve stigma can
also place people in the underclass. For example, impoverished sex workers are part of the underclass,
both because of poverty and because sex workers are marginalized by society. Gilbert’s model of six
social classes provides a framework for discussing social stratification in more precise terms,
acknowledging that the lived experiences of members of these groups can be quite different, although
there is some overlap between groups.

Gilbert’s Model of Social Class in the United States

Capitalist class Elite, powerful; richest one percent

Upper-middle class Relatively wealthy; highly educated, work in white-collar professions

Lower-middle class Can afford basic expenses; work in semi-skilled professions

Working class Relatively low income; sometimes qualify for assistance programs

Working poor Not always able to afford basic expenses; work in service professions

Underclass Marginalized members of society; stuck in chronic poverty

Functionalism and Symbolic Interactionism

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Functionalist and symbolic interactionist theories of social class focus on the social functions of class and
stratification, or on class as a factor in social identity.

In addition to conflict theory, two other influential schools of thought in sociology are functionalism and
symbolic interactionism. Functionalists think of society as composed of many parts that work together
as a whole to maintain stability. A functionalist approach to social class might analyze the roles that class
structure and social stratification play in society as a whole. From a functionalist viewpoint, stratification
works to ensure productivity and efficiency, and to ensure that all types of necessary work get done.
Thus a functionalist argument is that social stratification is both necessary and inevitable. Functionalists
point out that some jobs require more skill or training or are more important. Few people have the
ability to become highly skilled and do these important jobs. Furthermore, people have to make
sacrifices, in terms of time, effort, and money, to obtain the education, training, and experience to do
these jobs. The functionalist view is that society attaches significant rewards in the form of prestige and
income to ensure that these important jobs are filled. Doctors, for example, fulfill an important role in
society. To become a doctor, a person must invest a great deal of time, effort, and money in education
and training. Society rewards this by bestowing high levels of prestige to doctors, as well as high
incomes. However, class inequality is only functional as long as it is sustainable. When the working
classes decide that society is not functioning well for them, they might seek social change through
actions such as protests and strikes. Functionalists look at how these acts contribute to balance in a
society. Symbolic interactionism strives to understand macro-level patterns (patterns found in a whole
society) by examining microinteractions (interactions between individuals). An approach using symbolic
interactionism tries to make connections between micro-level interactions and how they can help
explain macro-level patterns. Using this lens, social class and social inequality are seen as factors in how
people understand themselves and present themselves to others. For example, sociologists using
symbolic interactionism note how individual social interactions, such as those between supervisors and
employees, are shaped by people’s understanding of social class in their society. A symbolic
interactionist approach might consider how body language, greetings, personal space, use of slang, and
eye contact are connected to class. Consider the social behavior of workers in a high-end restaurant.
They may use more formal patterns of speech with customers and restaurant managers than with other
workers. This behavior can be understood as a reflection of how the restaurant workers understand
their social position as well as an indication of class divisions of the overall society.

Q.3 Critically analyse that how teaching and learning process of 21st century different from other
centuries. Also discuss the impact of technology on the teaching and learning process.

Cooperative teaching and learning has been a popular area in educational circles for more

Than a decade. This area gained its strength with the emergence of two major schools of thought one is
“Constructivism and the other is “Connectivism”. Researchers and practitioners have found

That students working in small cooperative groups can develop the type of intellect ual exchange that
fosters critical and creative thinkin•p, and productive problem solving. Cooperative teaching is a
successful strateqv in which small teams, each Student.s have always congregated together to perform
and learn. Rat there is a growing recognition that combined with whole group instruction and individual
learning, cooperative learning should be a customary part of the classroom instruction. Student

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communication makes cooperative learning meaningful. To accomplish their group’s task, students must
exchange ideas, make plans, and propose solutions. Thinking through an idea and presenting it
collectively can be very helpful and understood by others in a better way. Such interaction promotes
intellectual growth.

The exchange of different ideas and viewpoints can enhance the growth and inspire broader thinking. It
is the teacher’s job to persuade such exchanges and organize the students’ work so their
communication is on-task and creative. In addition to academic growth, cooperative learning helps in
students’ social development.

Students’ lives are full of interactions with friends and family members and their futures

Will find them in jobs that require cooperation. The skills that are essential for productive

Group work in the classroom are relevant for today and the future. Cooperative learning is a successful
teaching strategy in which small groups, with students of different ability levels, use a variety of learning
activities to improve their understanding. Each member of a team feels responsible

For learning what is being taught and also for helping group fellows thus creating an atmosphere of
achievement.

Cooperative classroom activities result in students striving for mutual uplift so that all group members:

· benefit from each other’s efforts.

· recognize that all group members share a common goal.

· realize that one’s performance is mutually caused by oneself and one’s team members.

· jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for achievement.

Relative to .students taught individually; cooperatively taught students to show higher academic
achievement, determination, better high-level reasoning lower anxiety and stress, greatest motivation,
grgater ability to view .

CRITICAL QUESTION-ANSWE R FORUMS

Articles on the subject of classroom questioning often begin by invoking Socrates. Researchers and other
writers concerned with questioning techniques seem to want to ‘‘ remind us that questioning has a long
and venerable history as an educational strategy.

And indeed, the Socratic method of questions and answers to challenge assumptions, expose
contradictions, and lead to new knowledge and wisdom is an undeniably powerful teaching approach.

In addition to its long history and demonstrated effectiveness, questioning is also of interest to
researchers and practitioners because of its widespread use as a contemporary teaching technique.
Research indicates that questioning is second only to lecturing in popularity as a teaching method and
that classroom teachers spend anywhere from thirty- five to fifty percent of their instructional time
conducting questioning sessions.

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A question is any sentence which has an interrogative form or function. In classroom settings, teacher
questions are defined as instructional cues or stimuli that convey to students the content elements to be
learned and directions for what they are to do and how they are to do it.

The present review focuses on the relationship between teachers’ classroom questioning behaviors and
a variety of student outcomes, including achievement, retention, and level of student participation.

This means that certain other subtopics within the general area of questioning are excluded from the
present analysis. It does not deal, for example, with the effects of textual questions or test questions,
and it is only incidentally concerned with methods used to impart study skills, including questioning
strategies, to students. Questioning plays a critical role in the way instructors structure the class
environment, organize the content of the course and has deep implications in the way that students
assimilate the information that is presented and discussed in class. Given that questioning can be a
tremendously effective way to teach, and recognizing that teachers are willing to engage in the process
of asking questions while instructing.

Numerous researches indicate that teachers largely have been asking the wrong questions.

The focus has been primarily on questions regarding the specific information students

In such an investigation

l) one asks questions to identify the reason or reasons for the investigation

2. questions are asked to direct been discovered the search for information and to synthesize what has

3. The conclusions resulting from investigations are evaluated vs questions.

Q.4 If you will have to make a dialogue with your principle, what questioning strategy will you develop?

Classroom assessment techniques (CAT) are relatively quick and easy formative evaluation methods that
help you check student understanding in “real time”. These formative evaluations provide information
that can be used to modify/improve course content, adjust teaching methods, and, ultimately improve
student learning. Formative evaluations are most effective when they are done frequently and the
information is used to effect immediate adjustments in the day-to-day operations of the course.

Provide day-to-day feedback that can be applied immediately;

Provide useful information about what students have learned without the amount of time required for
preparing tests, reading papers, etc.; allow you to address student misconceptions or lack of
understanding in a timely way;

Help to foster good working relationships with students and encourage them to understand that
teaching and learning are on-going processes that require full participation.

Help develop self-assessment and learning management skills;

Reduce feelings of isolation, especially in large classes;

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Increase understanding and ability to think critically about the course content;

Foster an attitude that values understanding and long-term retention;

Show your interest and support of their success in your classroom.

Course-related knowledge and skills

Student attitudes, values, and self-awareness

Reactions to instruction methods

Following is a chart that indicates what the CAT is intended to evaluate, its name, how each is
conducted, what to do with the information you collect, and an estimate of how much time is required
to complete it.

Techniques for Assessing Course-Related Knowledge & Skills

Assessing Prior Knowledge, Recall, and Understanding

The CATs in this group focus on assessing declarative learning – the content of a particular subject.

Background Knowledge Probe: Short, simple questionnaires prepared by instructors for use at the
beginning of a course or at the start of new units or topics; can serve as a pretest

Focused Listing: Focuses students’ attention on a single important term, name, or concept from a lesson
or class session and directs students to list ideas related to the “focus”

Misconception/Preconception Check: Intended to uncover prior knowledge or beliefs that may hinder
or block new learning; can be designed to uncover incorrect or incomplete knowledge, attitudes, or
values

Empty Outlines: In a limited amount of time students complete an empty or partially completed outline
of an in-class presentation or homework assignment

Memory Matrix: Students complete a table about course content in which row and column headings
are complete but cells are empty

Minute Paper: The most frequently used CAT; students answer 2 questions (What was the most
important thing you learned during this class? What important question remains unanswered?)

Muddiest Point: Considered by many as the simplest CAT; students respond to the question “What was
the most unclear or confusing point in (lecture, homework, discussion)?”

Assessing Skill in Analysis and Critical Thinking

The CATs in this group focus on analysis—the breaking down of information, questions, or problems to
facilitate understanding and problem solving.

Categorizing Grid: Student complete a grid containing 2 or 3 overarching concepts and a variety of
related subordinate elements associated with the larger concepts

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Defining Features Matrix: Students categorize concepts according to the presence or absence of
important defining features

Pro and Con Grid: Students list pros/cons, costs/benefits, advantages/disadvantages of an issue,
question, or value of competing claims

Content, Form, and Function Outlines: In an outline form, students analyze the “what” (content), “how”
(form), and “why” (function) of a particular message (e.g. poem, newspaper story, critical essay); also
called “What, How, & Why Outlines

Analytic Memos: Students write a one- or two-page analysis of a specific problem or issue to help
inform a decision-maker

Assessing Skill in Synthesis and Creative Thinking

The CATs in this group focus on synthesis — stimulating the student to create and allowing the faculty to
assess original intellectual products that result from a synthesis of course content and the students’
intelligence, judgment, knowledge, and skills.

One-Sentence Summary: Students answer the questions “Who does what to whom, when, where, how,
and why?” (WDWWWWHW) about a given topic and then create a single informative, grammatical, and
long summary sentence

Word Journal: Involves a 2 part response; 1st the student summarizes a short text in a single word and
2nd the student writes 1-2 paragraphs explaining the word choice

Approximate Analogies: Students simply complete the 2nd half of an analogy—a is to b as

? is to ?; described as approximate because the rigor of formal logic is not required

Concept Maps: Students draw or diagram the mental connections they make between a major concept
and other concepts they have learned

Invented Dialogues: Students synthesize their knowledge of issues, personalities, and historical periods
into the form of a carefully structured illustrative conversation; students can select and weave quotes
from primary sources or invent reasonable quotes that fit characters and context

Annotated Portfolios: Students assemble a very limited number of examples of creative work and
supplement them with their own commentary on the significance of examples

Assessing Skill in Problem Solving

The CATs in this group focus on problem solving skills — recognizing different types of problems,
determining the principles and techniques to solve them, perceiving similarities of problem features,
and being able to reflect and then alter solution strategies.

Problem Recognition Tasks: Students recognize and identify particular problem types

What’s the Principle?: Students identify the principle or principles to solve problems of various types

Documented Problem Solutions: Students track in a written format the steps they take to solve
problems as if for a “show & tell”

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Audio- and Videotaped Protocols: Students work through a problem solving process and it is captured
to allow instructors to assess metacognition (learner’s awareness of and control of thinking)

The CATs in this group focus on students’ application of conditional knowledge – knowing when and
where to apply what they know and can do.

Directed Paraphrasing: Students paraphrase part of a lesson for a specific audience demonstrating
ability to translate highly specialized information into language the clients or customers can understand

Application Cards: Students generate examples of real-world applications for important principles,
generalizations, theories, or procedures

Student-Generated Test Questions: Students generate test questions and model answers for critical
areas of learning

Human Tableau or Class Modeling: Students transform and apply their learning into doing by physically
modeling a process or representing an image.

Paper or Project Prospectus: Students create a brief plan for a paper or project based on your guiding
questions

II. Techniques for Assessing Learner Attitudes, Values, and Self-Awareness

A. Assessing Students’ Awareness of Their Attitudes and Values

The CATs in this group are designed to assist instructors in developing students’ attitudes, opinions,
values, and self-awareness within the course curriculum.

Classroom Opinion Polls: Students indicate degree of agreement or disagreement with a statement or
prompt

29. Double-entry Journals: Students record and respond to significant passages of text

Profiles of Admiral Individuals: Students write a brief description of the characteristics of a person they
admire in a field related to the course

Everyday Ethical Dilemma: Students respond to a case study that poses a discipline-related ethical
dilemma

Course-related Self-Confidence Surveys: Students complete an anonymous survey indicating their level
of confidence in mastering the course material

Assessing Students’ Self-Awareness as Learners

The CATs in this group help students articulate their goals and self-concepts in order to make
connections between their goals and those of the course.

Focused Autobiographical Sketches: Students write a brief description of a successful learning

experience they had relevant to the course material

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Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklists: Students complete a checklist survey to indicate their knowledge,

skills and interest in various course topics

Goal Ranking and Matching: Students list and prioritize 3 to 5 goals they have for their own learning in
the course

Self-Assessment Ways of Learning: Students compare themselves with several different “learning styles”
profiles to find the most likely match

Assessing Course-Related Learning and Study Skills, Strategies, and Behaviors

The CATs in this group assist students in focusing attention on the behaviors they engage in when trying
to learn.

Productive Study-Time Logs: Students complete a study log to record the quantity and quality of time
spent studying for a specific course

Punctuated Lectures: Students briefly reflect then create a written record of their listening level of a
lecture. Repeat twice in the same lecture and 2- 3 times over 2 to 3 weeks

Process Analysis: Students outline the process they take in completing a specified assignment

Diagnostic Learning Logs: Students write to learn by identifying, diagnosing, and prescribing solutions to
their own learning problems

III. Techniques for Assessing Learner Reactions to Instruction

The CATS in this group are designed to provide context-specific feedback that can improve teaching
within a course.

Chain Notes: On an index card that is distributed in advance, each student responds to an open-ended
prompt about his or her mental activity that is answered in less than a minute

Electronic Survey Feedback: Students respond to a question or short series of questions about the
effectiveness of the course.

Teacher-designed Feedback Forms: Students respond to specific questions through a focused feedback
form about the effectiveness of a particular class session

Group Instructional Feedback Technique: Students respond to three questions related to their learning
in the course (basically, what works, what doesn’t, and how can it be improved)

Classroom Assessment Quality Circles: A group or groups of students provide the instructor with
ongoing assessment of the course through structured interactions

Assessing Learner Reactions to Class Activities, Assignments, and Materials

The CATS in this group are designed to provide instructors with information that will help them improve
their course materials and assignments.

RSQC2 (Recall, Summarize, Question, Connect and Comment): Students write brief statements that
recall, summarize, question, connect and comment on meaningful points from previous class

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Group-Work Evaluation: Students complete a brief survey about how their group is functioning and
make suggestions for improving the group process

Reading Rating Sheets: Students complete a form that rates the effectiveness of the assigned readings

49. Assignment Assessments: Students respond to 2 or 3 open-ended questions about the value of an
assignment to their learning

Exam Evaluations: Students provide feedback about an exam’s learning value and/or format.

Q.5 Describe in detail the salient features of Rolfe’s model of professional development.

A key finding of the report revealed that 30% of the technology budget should be used for teacher
training. The focus up to that point had been mostly on purchasing hardware and software. This report
helped bring the importance of effective professional development for teachers to the forefront. It is
not surprising that during 1995, the Technology Innovation Challenge Grant (TICG) program funded the
first 19 grants, which set the stage for the 91 that followed. From 1995-2000, 100 projects from 46
states and a total of $609.9 million invested have produced some of the most impressive, innovative
education technology products, models and curriculum.

This article will focus on the models of professional development used by a variety of U.S. TICG
programs. You will notice that a large number of 1998 projects are highlighted. This is because for that
year’s competition, grant guidelines specifically mandated professional development by providing
support to consortia that had developed programs, or were adapting or expanding existing programs,
for technology training. The models to be explored are coaching and mentoring, face-to-face, train-the-
trainer, and Web-based training.

Coaching and mentoring is a research-based, highly effective professional development model that has
been used extensively by Project Venture in Ph’enix, which is a diverse consortium consisting of urban,
suburban and rural school districts. At the heart of the districts’ professional development model are 21
Technology Mentor Teachers (TMTs) who work with more than 330 teachers across the consortium.

TMTs are highly trained, certified teachers on assignment who use coaching and modeling techniques to
help teachers effectively integrate technology in their classes. TMTs work one-on-one with teachers who
are chosen through a rigorous application process, and receive five computers and a presentation
system in their classroom. They build important relationships with their teachers that allow for the
planning, modeling and reflecting of technology integration techniques with a focus on core curriculum
and state standards.

This model has built great capacity and created a natural process of sustainability by having a significant
number of highly trained teachers who are becoming technology leaders in their schools. Our project’s
evaluator, Dee Ann Spencer, Ph.D., found that 65.6% of teachers were integrating technology to a great
or seamless extent by the end of the project’s third year (2000).

Distance education poses the problems of professional development in a particularly acute form. These
problems have been defined, broadly speaking, in relation to debates about the relation between theory
and practice:

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Does theory address issues which concern practitioners as they do their job ?

How is theory applied to practice?

What counts as theory: are academic disciplines the only valid basis for the development of theory?

Could there be a theory of practice, developed by practitioners themselves reflecting on their own direct
professional experience?

These issues are confronted in a particularly acute form in the distance education context precisely
because there are so few opportunities for face to face contact and therefore for the participant sharing
which is the life blood of so much staff development.

Multi-media course materials and carefully designed project assessment are just two of the strategies
which can be used to engage students in deep rather than surface learning, and to enable them to relate
course content to their own direct experience. Stainton Rogers for example, reports the success with
which materials can be used in areas where there is very significant emotional content and where some
might argue against any form of distance learning:

Stainton Rogers identifies two major advantages in using a multi-media package of materials: the wider
range of learning experiences which can be documented and portrayed, and the creation of a basis of
common experience through course study which learners can use in their interactions with each other.

Group sessions are thus freed for the process of mutual interaction and engagement with new ideas,
rather than the communication of material by a tutor in order to enable the process to begin. These
issues have been most consistently addressed in relation to teaching within compulsory education.
Stenhouse and his colleagues developed the model of teacher as researcher during the 1970s, at a time
when it might have seemed possible that the profession would develop in a fashion which would allow
time for teachers to engage in problem definition, data collection and analysis as well as teaching.
Research, particularly the action research model, was promoted as an informative and sensitizing
process, aspects of which might be undertaken by practitioners themselves as a means of refining their
awareness of interaction and outcomes in teaching. Others have also focused on the interface between
researcher and practitioner, and the teacher as researcher model is still alive in the projects and
networks created by members of the British Educational Research Association, among others.

The application of these issues to the field of post compulsory education and training has been made
more recently, especially in relation to the in-service development of adult educators. The practical
implications of this debate however, could cover a very wide range of professions. All those who now
have some role in the preparation and continuing education of adults- including therefore professionals
in industrial training, management education, nurse education, youth and community work and the
social services-have an interest in the facilitation of adult learning. This list draws attention to problem
areas particular to the post compulsory sector: the heterogeneity of staff and the differences of culture
and expectations over what constitutes appropriate professional training. Add to this the much less
developed basis for practice, in the form of a theoretical and research based literature, and the scope of
the problem is daunting.

Notwithstanding the difficulties created by these factors, there has been a noticeable growth during the
eighties of postgraduate course provision in the area of post-compulsory education and training, and a

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growth of staff development opportunities in particular technologies for adult learning and
development – open learning, student-centred learning and guidance to name some of the most
popular. The Open University has also moved into this area, with the presentation in the early eighties
of courses in policy and management for the post compulsory sector, and in adult education more
generally.3 In 1988 students could add to these courses by studying quarter credit modules and by
designing their own half credit project, to accumulate two full credits of OU study and thus qualify for
the Diploma in Post Compulsory Education. There are now over 200 students studying for the Diploma,
and the first fifteen were awarded the qualification in 1989.

One of the modules in this diploma, Approaches to Adult Learning (AAL), can be developed as a small
case study illustrating the potential as well as the constraints for distance learning in this context.

The AAL Module is about how adults learn, learning being seen as a social process in which individuals
demonstrate significant differences between each other over a number of dimensions. The Module is
process as well as content oriented, and practitioners are asked to begin with reflection on their own
learning and development prior to the course, and to build on this through activities and self review
exercises. The focus for this student initiated work is the assignment, where students are offered a
choice between a task exercising purely intellectual skills, and two where there is an element of practical
experimentation. The fourth option is to design their own assignment and thus far none has chosen this,
the most challenging of all.

The second point to make concerns the difference between propositional knowledge and active
experimentation. Most students seemed to have identified with the centrality of reflection as a key
process in adult learning, especially learning from experience. However not all were able to transfer
their comprehension of the idea directly to their own practice in using a portfolio. Several needed more
time to develop practical strategies for the portfolio, in the context of discussion with their peers, and
would have valued peer feedback on their entries. This suggests that we cannot take for granted the
learning processes on which the reflective practitioner strategy rests. Reflection is something we engage
in every day, but it is being proposed in this context as a means of achieving specific learning outcomes
– staff development in particular. Its deliberate and strategic use in this way is not an everyday
phenomenon, and the experience reported suggests that non-threatening experimentation and peer
group support are required.

Apart from the underlying epistemological problems of the theory-practice relation, there are also
context specific factors which doubtless operate in the ease of experience reported by Usher et al.
Courses aimed (in part if not completely) at goals of professional development have particular problems
arising from the university context. Active processing can take many forms, but the key processes
reported here are reflection and active experimentation. Students need time within the allotted study
hours of the course to think through (reflect upon) the implications of their study, and to learn from
concrete experience in using new ideas, (preferably in their own professional context) within the bounds
of the course. The learning processes that students need to develop to achieve the outcomes of
professional development however cannot be taken for granted and need explicit discussion and
facilitator and peer group support during the course of learning itself.

ASSIGNMENT No. 1

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Q.1 Take an article of your interest and critically analyze that how social, economic and
ethical aspects of that topic has been considered?
All contemporary political communication is in a specific way critical because it consists of speech
acts that normally question political opinions and practices of certain actors. Modern politics is a
highly competitive system, in which elections and warfare are ways of distributing and
redistributing power. Tis understanding of critique stands in the tradition of Kantian enlightenment
that considered the Enlightenment as an age of criticism. In contrast to Kant’s general
understanding of critique, Karl Marx and the Marxian tradition understands the categorical
imperative as the need to overcome all forms of slavery and degradation and to unmask alienation.
Tis school of thought points out a more specific understanding of being critical, namely the
questioning of power, domination, and exploitation, the political demand and struggle for a just
society. Critical theory is understood as a critique of society. Scholars in the Marxian inspired
tradition employ the term “critical” to stress that not all science is critical, but that a lot of it has a
more administrative character that takes power structures for granted, does not question them, or
helps to legitimate them.
Some define critical theory as the Frankfurt School’s works, a tradition of critical thinking that
originated with the works of scholars like Herbert Marcuse, Max Horkheimer, and andTeodorW.
Adorn. Herbert Marcuse was a philosopher, born in Germany in 1898, who fled Nazi Germany to
the United States in 1934, where he spent the rest of his life. Max Horkheimer was director of the
University of Frankfurt’s Institute for Social Research in the years 1930–1959.Tis institute was
the home of what came to be known as the Frankfurt School. Teodor W. Adorn was one of the
Institute’s directors from 1953 until his death in 1969. Horkheimer and Adorno also emigrated,
together with the Institute, to the United States, but unlike Marcuse they returned to Germany after
the end of World War II. Critical Theory’s starting point is the work of Karl Marx.
Jürgen Huberman (1984, 1987) built his approach on the classical Frankfurt School and at the
same time worked out the concept of communicative rationality, by which he went beyond the
classical tradition. He distinguishes between instrumental (nonsocial, success-oriented), strategic
(social, success-oriented), and communicative action (social, oriented on understanding). For
Huberman (1987, p. 375), critical theory questions that so-called steering media (money, power)
attack “the communicative infrastructure of largely rationalized life worlds.” (Huberman speaks
of money and power as “steering media” because he argues that these are structures that elites use

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for trying to control and dominate society.) He conceives instrumental action and communicative
action as the two fundamental aspects of social praxis. What he wants to express is that the human
being is both a laboring and a communicating being. In a way, Huberman retains the classical
Marxist distinction between base and superstructure, but inverts it by putting the stress on
communication. Doubts arise if labor can be so strictly separated from communication in a
dualistic way. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen a rising importance of communicative and
cultural work in the economy. But if such activity takes on value-generating form, then culture and
communication must be part of the economy themselves, base and superstructure become
integrated, and labor and communication cannot be separated. Communication is one of the crucial
foundations of the economy: The latter is not just a system of the production of use-values, and in
class societies of exchange values. It is also a social system because production in any society
takes on complex forms beyond individual self-sustenance. The only way for organizing the
relational dimension of the economy is via communication, in the form of symbolic interaction
and/or anonymous forms of indirect communication (as for example via money, markets, the price
system, etc.). Human thought is a precondition for human communication and existence. When
humans produce in the economy, they do so with a purpose in mind, which means that they
anticipate the form of the object and how it will be put to use. Te economic existence of man
requires anticipative thinking just like it requires communication. It is in these two specifc
senses— the importance of communication and thought— that the economy is always and
fundamentally cultural. Capitalism has had a history of the commodification of culture and
communication, especially since the 20th century. Tis is not to say that culture and communication
necessarily take on the form of a commodity, but that in capitalism they frequently do so in the
form of content commodities, audience commodities, and cultural labor power as commodity. In
this sense culture has been economized, or, to be more precise commoditized, that is, put under
the influence of the commodity logic. Communication is certainly an important aspect of a
domination-free society. Under capitalism, it is however also a form of interaction, in which
ideology is with the help of the mass media made available to the dominated groups.
Communication is not automatically progressive. For Huberman, the differentiation is between
instrumental/strategic reason and communicative reason, whereas for Horkheimer the distinction
is between instrumental reason and critical reason and, based on that, between traditional and
critical theory. Huberman splits of communication from instrumentality and thereby neglects to

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understand that in capitalism the dominant system uses communication just like technology, the
media, ideology, or labor as an instrument to defend its rule. Structures of domination do not leave
communication untouched and pure, they are rather antagonistically entangled with
communication. Hagerman’s stress on communication is not immune against misuse for
instrumental purposes. The concept of communication can be critical, but is not necessarily
critical, whereas the concept of a critique of domination is necessarily critical.
Te six dimensions of a critical theory of society can also be found in Karl Marx’s works. Tis
circumstance shows the importance of his thought for any critical theory. Critical theory uses
dialectical reasoning as method of analysis: The dialectical method identifies contradictions.
Contradictions are the basic building blocks of all dialectics. Dialectics tries to show that and how
contemporary society and its moments are shaped by contradictions. Contradictions result in the
circumstance that society is dynamic and that capitalism assures the continuity of domination and
exploitation by changing the way these phenomena are organized. In a contradiction, one pole of
the dialectic can only exist by the way of the opposed pole, they require and exclude each other at
the same time. In a dominative society (such as capitalism), contradictions cause problems and are
to a certain extent also the seeds for overcoming these problems. They have positive potentials and
negative realities at the same time. Marx analyzed capitalism’s contradictions, for example: the
contradictions between no owners/owners, the poor/the rich, misery/wealth, workers/capitalists,
use value/exchange value, concrete labor/abstract labor, the simple form of value/the relative and
expanded form of value, social relations of humans/relations of things, the fetish of commodities
and money/fetishistic thinking, the circulation of commodities/the circulation of money,
commodities/money, labor power/wages, subject/object, labor process/valorization process,
subject of labor (labor power, worker)/the means of production (object), variable capital/constant
capital, surplus labor/surplus product, necessary labor time/surplus labor time, single
worker/cooperation, single company/industry sector, single capital/competing capitals,
production/consumption, productive forces/relations of production.
Critical theory is connected to struggles for a just and fair society, it is an intellectual dimension
of struggles: Critical theory provides a self-understanding of a society’s self-understanding,
struggles, and wishes. It can “show the world why it actually struggles” and is “taking sides […]
with actual struggles” (Marx, 1997, p. 214). Tis means that critical theory can help to explain the
causes, conditions, potentials, and limits of struggles. Critical theory rejects the argument that

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academia and science should and can be value-free. It rather argues that all thought and theories
are shaped by political worldviews. Te reasons why a person is interested in a certain topic, aligns
himself/herself with a certain school of thought, develops a particular theory and not another one,
refers to certain authors and not others, are deeply political because modern society is shaped by
conficts of interests and therefore, for surviving and asserting themselves, scholars have to make
choices, enter strategic alliances, and defend their positions against others. In confict-based and
antagonistic societies, academic writing and speaking, scholarship and science are therefore
always forms of political communication: Tey are not just discovery, knowledge construction, or
invention, but besides knowledge creation also a production and communication of knowledge
about knowledge— the political standpoints of the scholars themselves. Critical theory holds not
only that theory is always political, but also that it should develop analyses of society and concepts
that assist struggle against interests and ideas that justify domination and exploitation.
Q.2 While you were at school/college; were you conscious of social class conflict? How will
you narrate it with reference to your schooling?
Two German theorists, Karl Marx (1818–83) and Max Weber (1864–1920), influenced the field
of sociology, particularly in terms of theories of social class. Both of these theorists wrote
extensively on issues of social class and social inequality, or the unequal status and access to
opportunities that different groups have within a society. Sociologists continue to use and respond
to ideas that Marx and Weber developed.
Marxism, Conflict Theory, and Social Class
Marx defined class as a group of people who have the same relationship to the means of
production—the facilities and resources for producing goods—such as tools, machines, and
factories. Marx wrote extensively of the relationship between the privileged classes—the "haves,"
or the bourgeoisie—and the oppressed classes—the "have nots," or the proletariat.
The bourgeoisie is a class that owns property, including owning and controlling the means of
production. The proletariat is the working class, who own only their own labor. Members of the
proletariat are forced to sell their labor because they have no control over the means of production.
Marx argued that this relationship is exploitive of the working class because the surplus value
derived from work is unfairly appropriated by the bourgeoisie. In Marx's view, the economic
system of capitalism automatically creates social stratification, or class differences, in which
members of different classes are in an adversarial relationship. Sociologists incorporate Marx's

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ideas in an approach known as conflict theory. Conflict theorists suggest that social inequality
creates intergroup conflict—such as the rich versus the poor—and that the different interests will
cause them to be at odds as they attempt to secure their interests.
Marxist theory continues to be important in sociology, but many sociologists have expanded upon
Marx's ideas in order to apply them to postindustrial, postmodern societies of the late 20th and
early 21st centuries. American sociologist Erik Olin Wright (b. 1947) elaborates on Marx's model
of class structure. While Marx analyzed society in terms of two major classes, Wright identifies
four classes in the United States: capitalist, managerial, small business, and working class. He
argues that power is connected to the control of the means of production but also control over work
processes and other workers. Wright's model is less polarized than Marx's but remains focused on
questions of which groups dominate a society and which groups are oppressed. He looks at why
some workers might behave or think more like capitalists (the bourgeoisie) and notes how people
can belong to more than one class. His term contradictory class locations describes how people
can occupy more than one class position, based on what type of control they exercise. For example,
an executive assistant at a large corporation has a relatively high level of control compared to other
administrative workers but is also under the control of a more powerful CEO. The executive
assistant may identify more closely with the upper-class managers at the company, although
outside of work the executive assistant has less social and economic power than managers do.
Wright proposes a larger definition of the working class than Marx did, including those in
occupations that involve what he terms "mental labor" but who do not receive high salaries, such
as clerical workers. He analyzes modern types of work, arguing that levels of control tied to various
occupations are crucial markers of class in contemporary society. For instance, master electricians
and architects who work at small firms may have similar levels of income, but they hold different
social positions. Their occupations grant them different levels of control. Like Marx, Wright is
concerned with dismantling systems that oppress the working class. However, he argues that
"taming and eroding capitalism are the only viable options." Whereas Marx envisioned the end of
capitalism, Wright considers how the working class might impose reforms on oppressive state and
capitalist structures.
Weber and Social Class
Weber agreed with Marx that economic markers are important, but he advanced the idea that other
factors, such as education and occupational prestige, determine class hierarchies. Weber described

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class structure as being based on three major factors: wealth (income and assets), prestige (status
position), and power (ability to achieve goals). Weber saw ownership of the means of production,
including companies, as important, but he also noted that holding a high position within a company
or profession is also a means to acquire social and economic power. For example, a high-level
manager in a corporation does not own the business but does benefit from the profits that the
business generates. Owning property grants economic power, but it also grants higher levels of
prestige. Someone who owns land, for example, has social prestige. Weber pointed out that
prestige can also be gained in other ways that do not involve ownership of property or the means
of production. Gifted athletes or intellectuals can acquire prestige without owning the sports teams
or universities that frame their work. Both wealth and prestige can give individuals greater power
in society. Weber saw wealth, power, and prestige as intertwined elements of social class. Weber's
multidimensional work led sociologists to use socioeconomic status to understand class.
Influenced by Weber's theory of class, American sociologist Dennis Gilbert (b. 1943) described
six separate classes in the United States: the capitalist class, upper-middle class, middle class,
working class, working poor, and underclass. The capitalist class is defined as the most elite and
powerful group. As the richest one percent of the population, they own most of the wealth in a
society, including the vast majority of stocks and bonds. Their large investments have an impact
on the rest of society, because their investment choices can have a significant impact on the overall
economy. They mostly interact with one another, remaining separated from the other classes. The
upper-middle class is relatively wealthy and is characterized by high levels of formal education—
a minimum of a college degree and usually a graduate degree. Members of the upper-middle class
work in white-collar, fairly high-income professions. They may often purchase status symbols,
including expensive homes and vehicles that serve to identify their class status. The lower-middle
class is composed of people who earn enough to afford basic expenses. They generally have at
least a high school education and often some education beyond high school including specialized
training, some college, or a college degree. They typically work in semiskilled professions, for
instance as flight attendants or security guards. The working class has relatively low levels of
income and is employed in factories or in low-paid white-collar professions such as retail sales
workers. Members of the working class sometimes qualify for public assistance programs, such as
free or reduced lunch for children at school. The working poor are people whose incomes are
minimal and often not enough to pay basic living expenses. They often work in service jobs, which

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include occupations such as food preparation workers, house cleaners, or lawn and garden
maintenance workers. Most members of the working poor do not hold high school diplomas. They
may qualify for public assistance, such as housing and food assistance programs. The underclass
is a social group composed of individuals stuck in poverty because of high unemployment, low
education, or other forms of marginalization such as homelessness. Multigenerational poverty, or
poverty that lasts across several generations in a family, is also a characteristic of the underclass.
Occupations that involve stigma can also place people in the underclass. For example,
impoverished sex workers are part of the underclass, both because of poverty and because sex
workers are marginalized by society. Gilbert's model of six social classes provides a framework
for discussing social stratification in more precise terms, acknowledging that the lived experiences
of members of these groups can be quite different, although there is some overlap between groups.
Gilbert’s Model of Social Class in the United States
Capitalist class Elite, powerful; richest one percent
Upper-middle class Relatively wealthy; highly educated, work in white-collar professions
Lower-middle class Can afford basic expenses; work in semi-skilled professions
Working class Relatively low income; sometimes qualify for assistance programs
Working poor Not always able to afford basic expenses; work in service professions
Underclass Marginalized members of society; stuck in chronic poverty
Functionalism and Symbolic Interactionism
Functionalist and symbolic interactionist theories of social class focus on the social functions of
class and stratification, or on class as a factor in social identity.
In addition to conflict theory, two other influential schools of thought in sociology
are functionalism and symbolic interactionism. Functionalists think of society as composed of
many parts that work together as a whole to maintain stability. A functionalist approach to social
class might analyze the roles that class structure and social stratification play in society as a whole.
From a functionalist viewpoint, stratification works to ensure productivity and efficiency, and to
ensure that all types of necessary work get done. Thus a functionalist argument is that social
stratification is both necessary and inevitable. Functionalists point out that some jobs require more
skill or training or are more important. Few people have the ability to become highly skilled and
do these important jobs. Furthermore, people have to make sacrifices, in terms of time, effort, and
money, to obtain the education, training, and experience to do these jobs. The functionalist view

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is that society attaches significant rewards in the form of prestige and income to ensure that these
important jobs are filled. Doctors, for example, fulfill an important role in society. To become a
doctor, a person must invest a great deal of time, effort, and money in education and training.
Society rewards this by bestowing high levels of prestige to doctors, as well as high incomes.
However, class inequality is only functional as long as it is sustainable. When the working classes
decide that society is not functioning well for them, they might seek social change through actions
such as protests and strikes. Functionalists look at how these acts contribute to balance in a society.
Symbolic interactionism strives to understand macro-level patterns (patterns found in a whole
society) by examining microinteractions (interactions between individuals). An approach using
symbolic interactionism tries to make connections between micro-level interactions and how they
can help explain macro-level patterns. Using this lens, social class and social inequality are seen
as factors in how people understand themselves and present themselves to others. For example,
sociologists using symbolic interactionism note how individual social interactions, such as those
between supervisors and employees, are shaped by people's understanding of social class in their
society. A symbolic interactionist approach might consider how body language, greetings,
personal space, use of slang, and eye contact are connected to class. Consider the social behavior
of workers in a high-end restaurant. They may use more formal patterns of speech with customers
and restaurant managers than with other workers. This behavior can be understood as a reflection
of how the restaurant workers understand their social position as well as an indication of class
divisions of the overall society.
Q.3 Critically analyse that how teaching and learning process of 21st century different from
other centuries. Also discuss the impact of technology on the teaching and learning
process.
Cooperative teaching and learning has been a popular area in educational circles for more
than a decade. This area gained its strength with the emergence of two major schools of thought
one is “Constructivism and the other is “Connectivism”. Researchers and practitioners have found
that students working in small cooperative groups can develop the type of intellect ual exchange
that fosters critical and creative thinkin•p, and productive problem solving. Cooperative teaching
is a successful strateqv in which small teams, each Student.s have always congregated together to
perform and learn. Rat there is a growing recognition that combined with whole group instruction
and individual learning, cooperative learning should be a customary part of the classroom

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instruction. Student communication makes cooperative learning meaningful. To accomplish their

group’s task, students must exchange ideas, make plans, and propose solutions. Thinking through
an idea and presenting it collectively can be very helpful and understood by others in a better way.
Such interaction promotes intellectual growth.
The exchange of different ideas and viewpoints can enhance the growth and inspire broader
thinking. It is the teacher’s job to persuade such exchanges and organize the students’ work so
their communication is on-task and creative. In addition to academic growth, cooperative learning
helps in students’ social development.
Students’ lives are full of interactions with friends and family members and their futures
will find them in jobs that require cooperation. The skills that are essential for productive
group work in the classroom are relevant for today and the future. Cooperative learning is a
successful teaching strategy in which small groups, with students of different ability levels, use a
variety of learning activities to improve their understanding. Each member of a team feels
responsible
for learning what is being taught and also for helping group fellows thus creating an atmosphere
of achievement.
Cooperative classroom activities result in students striving for mutual uplift so that all group
members:

1. · benefit from each other's efforts.

2. · recognize that all group members share a common goal.
3. · realize that one's performance is mutually caused by oneself and one's team members.
4. · jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for achievement.
Relative to .students taught individually; cooperatively taught students to show higher academic
achievement, determination, better high-level reasoning lower anxiety and stress, greatest
motivation, grgater ability to view .

CRITICAL QUESTION-ANSWE R FORUMS

Articles on the subject of classroom questioning often begin by invoking Socrates. Researchers
and other writers concerned with questioning techniques seem to want to '‘ remind us that
questioning has a long and venerable history as an educational strategy.

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And indeed, the Socratic method of questions and answers to challenge assumptions, expose
contradictions, and lead to new knowledge and wisdom is an undeniably powerful teaching
approach.
In addition to its long history and demonstrated effectiveness, questioning is also of interest to
researchers and practitioners because of its widespread use as a contemporary teaching technique.
Research indicates that questioning is second only to lecturing in popularity as a teaching method
and that classroom teachers spend anywhere from thirty- five to fifty percent of their instructional
time conducting questioning sessions.
A question is any sentence which has an interrogative form or function. In classroom settings,
teacher questions are defined as instructional cues or stimuli that convey to students the content
elements to be learned and directions for what they are to do and how they are to do it.
The present review focuses on the relationship between teachers' classroom questioning behaviors
and a variety of student outcomes, including achievement, retention, and level of student
participation.
This means that certain other subtopics within the general area of questioning are excluded from
the present analysis. It does not deal, for example, with the effects of textual questions or test
questions, and it is only incidentally concerned with methods used to impart study skills, including
questioning strategies, to students. Questioning plays a critical role in the way instructors structure
the class environment, organize the content of the course and has deep implications in the way that
students assimilate the information that is presented and discussed in class. Given that questioning
can be a tremendously effective way to teach, and recognizing that teachers are willing to engage
in the process of asking questions while instructing.
Numerous researches indicate that teachers largely have been asking the wrong questions.
The focus has been primarily on questions regarding the specific information students
In such an investigation
l) one asks questions to identify the reason or reasons for the investigation
2. questions are asked to direct been discovered the search for information and to synthesize what
has
3. The conclusions resulting from investigations are evaluated vs questions.
Q.4 If you will have to make a dialogue with your principle, what questioning strategy will
you develop?

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Classroom assessment techniques (CAT) are relatively quick and easy formative evaluation
methods that help you check student understanding in “real time”. These formative evaluations
provide information that can be used to modify/improve course content, adjust teaching methods,
and, ultimately improve student learning. Formative evaluations are most effective when they are
done frequently and the information is used to effect immediate adjustments in the day-to-day
operations of the course.
• provide day-to-day feedback that can be applied immediately;
• provide useful information about what students have learned without the amount of time
required for preparing tests, reading papers, etc.; allow you to address student
misconceptions or lack of understanding in a timely way;
• help to foster good working relationships with students and encourage them to understand
that teaching and learning are on-going processes that require full participation.
• help develop self-assessment and learning management skills;
• reduce feelings of isolation, especially in large classes;
• increase understanding and ability to think critically about the course content;
• foster an attitude that values understanding and long-term retention;
• show your interest and support of their success in your classroom.
• Course-related knowledge and skills
• student attitudes, values, and self-awareness
• Reactions to instruction methods
Following is a chart that indicates what the CAT is intended to evaluate, its name, how each is
conducted, what to do with the information you collect, and an estimate of how much time is
required to complete it.
I. Techniques for Assessing Course-Related Knowledge & Skills
A. Assessing Prior Knowledge, Recall, and Understanding
The CATs in this group focus on assessing declarative learning – the content of a particular subject.
Background Knowledge Probe: Short, simple questionnaires prepared by instructors for use at the
beginning of a course or at the start of new units or topics; can serve as a pretest
Focused Listing: Focuses students’ attention on a single important term, name, or concept from a
lesson or class session and directs students to list ideas related to the “focus”

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Misconception/Preconception Check: Intended to uncover prior knowledge or beliefs that may

hinder or block new learning; can be designed to uncover incorrect or incomplete knowledge,
attitudes, or values
Empty Outlines: In a limited amount of time students complete an empty or partially completed
outline of an in-class presentation or homework assignment
Memory Matrix: Students complete a table about course content in which row and column
headings are complete but cells are empty
Minute Paper: The most frequently used CAT; students answer 2 questions (What was the most
important thing you learned during this class? What important question remains unanswered?)
Muddiest Point: Considered by many as the simplest CAT; students respond to the question "What
was the most unclear or confusing point in (lecture, homework, discussion)?"
B. Assessing Skill in Analysis and Critical Thinking
The CATs in this group focus on analysis—the breaking down of information, questions, or
problems to facilitate understanding and problem solving.
Categorizing Grid: Student complete a grid containing 2 or 3 overarching concepts and a variety
of related subordinate elements associated with the larger concepts
Defining Features Matrix: Students categorize concepts according to the presence or absence of
important defining features
Pro and Con Grid: Students list pros/cons, costs/benefits, advantages/disadvantages of an issue,
question, or value of competing claims
Content, Form, and Function Outlines: In an outline form, students analyze the “what” (content),
“how” (form), and “why” (function) of a particular message (e.g. poem, newspaper story, critical
essay); also called “What, How, & Why Outlines
Analytic Memos: Students write a one- or two-page analysis of a specific problem or issue to help
inform a decision-maker
C. Assessing Skill in Synthesis and Creative Thinking
The CATs in this group focus on synthesis — stimulating the student to create and allowing the
faculty to assess original intellectual products that result from a synthesis of course content and
the students’ intelligence, judgment, knowledge, and skills.

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One-Sentence Summary: Students answer the questions “Who does what to whom, when, where,
how, and why?” (WDWWWWHW) about a given topic and then create a single informative,
grammatical, and long summary sentence
Word Journal: Involves a 2 part response; 1st the student summarizes a short text in a single word
and 2nd the student writes 1-2 paragraphs explaining the word choice
Approximate Analogies: Students simply complete the 2nd half of an analogy—a is to b as
? is to ?; described as approximate because the rigor of formal logic is not required
Concept Maps: Students draw or diagram the mental connections they make between a major
concept and other concepts they have learned
Invented Dialogues: Students synthesize their knowledge of issues, personalities, and historical
periods into the form of a carefully structured illustrative conversation; students can select and
weave quotes from primary sources or invent reasonable quotes that fit characters and context
Annotated Portfolios: Students assemble a very limited number of examples of creative work and
supplement them with their own commentary on the significance of examples
D. Assessing Skill in Problem Solving
The CATs in this group focus on problem solving skills — recognizing different types of problems,
determining the principles and techniques to solve them, perceiving similarities of problem
features, and being able to reflect and then alter solution strategies.
Problem Recognition Tasks: Students recognize and identify particular problem types
What’s the Principle?: Students identify the principle or principles to solve problems of various
types
Documented Problem Solutions: Students track in a written format the steps they take to solve
problems as if for a “show & tell”
Audio- and Videotaped Protocols: Students work through a problem solving process and it is
captured to allow instructors to assess metacognition (learner’s awareness of and control of
thinking)
E. Assessing Skill in Application and Performance
The CATs in this group focus on students’ application of conditional knowledge – knowing when
and where to apply what they know and can do.

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Directed Paraphrasing: Students paraphrase part of a lesson for a specific audience demonstrating
ability to translate highly specialized information into language the clients or customers can
understand
Application Cards: Students generate examples of real-world applications for important
principles, generalizations, theories, or procedures
Student-Generated Test Questions: Students generate test questions and model answers for critical
areas of learning
Human Tableau or Class Modeling: Students transform and apply their learning into doing by
physically modeling a process or representing an image.
Paper or Project Prospectus: Students create a brief plan for a paper or project based on your
guiding questions
II. Techniques for Assessing Learner Attitudes, Values, and Self-Awareness
A. Assessing Students’ Awareness of Their Attitudes and Values
The CATs in this group are designed to assist instructors in developing students’ attitudes,
opinions, values, and self-awareness within the course curriculum.
28. Classroom Opinion Polls: Students indicate degree of agreement or disagreement with a
statement or prompt
29. Double-entry Journals: Students record and respond to significant passages of text
30. Profiles of Admiral Individuals: Students write a brief description of the characteristics of a
person they admire in a field related to the course
31. Everyday Ethical Dilemma: Students respond to a case study that poses a discipline-related
ethical dilemma
32. Course-related Self-Confidence Surveys: Students complete an anonymous survey indicating
their level of confidence in mastering the course material
B. Assessing Students’ Self-Awareness as Learners
The CATs in this group help students articulate their goals and self-concepts in order to make
connections between their goals and those of the course.
33. Focused Autobiographical Sketches: Students write a brief description of a successful learning
experience they had relevant to the course material
34. Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklists: Students complete a checklist survey to indicate their
knowledge, skills and interest in various course topics

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35. Goal Ranking and Matching: Students list and prioritize 3 to 5 goals they have for their own
learning in the course
36. Self-Assessment Ways of Learning: Students compare themselves with several different
“learning styles” profiles to find the most likely match
C. Assessing Course-Related Learning and Study Skills, Strategies, and Behaviors
The CATs in this group assist students in focusing attention on the behaviors they engage in when
trying to learn.
37. Productive Study-Time Logs: Students complete a study log to record the quantity and quality
of time spent studying for a specific course
38. Punctuated Lectures: Students briefly reflect then create a written record of their listening level
of a lecture. Repeat twice in the same lecture and 2- 3 times over 2 to 3 weeks
39. Process Analysis: Students outline the process they take in completing a specified assignment
40. Diagnostic Learning Logs: Students write to learn by identifying, diagnosing, and prescribing
solutions to their own learning problems
III. Techniques for Assessing Learner Reactions to Instruction
A. Assessing Learner Reactions to Teachers and Teaching
The CATS in this group are designed to provide context-specific feedback that can improve
teaching within a course.
41. Chain Notes: On an index card that is distributed in advance, each student responds to an open-
ended prompt about his or her mental activity that is answered in less than a minute
42. Electronic Survey Feedback: Students respond to a question or short series of questions about
the effectiveness of the course.
43. Teacher-designed Feedback Forms: Students respond to specific questions through a focused
feedback form about the effectiveness of a particular class session
44. Group Instructional Feedback Technique: Students respond to three questions related to their
learning in the course (basically, what works, what doesn't, and how can it be improved)
45. Classroom Assessment Quality Circles: A group or groups of students provide the instructor
with ongoing assessment of the course through structured interactions
B. Assessing Learner Reactions to Class Activities, Assignments, and Materials
The CATS in this group are designed to provide instructors with information that will help them
improve their course materials and assignments.

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46. RSQC2 (Recall, Summarize, Question, Connect and Comment): Students write brief
statements that recall, summarize, question, connect and comment on meaningful points from
previous class
47. Group-Work Evaluation: Students complete a brief survey about how their group is functioning
and make suggestions for improving the group process
48. Reading Rating Sheets: Students complete a form that rates the effectiveness of the assigned
readings
49. Assignment Assessments: Students respond to 2 or 3 open-ended questions about the value of
an assignment to their learning
50. Exam Evaluations: Students provide feedback about an exam’s learning value and/or format
Q.5 Describe in detail the salient features of Rolfe’s model of professional development.
A key finding of the report revealed that 30% of the technology budget should be used for teacher training.
The focus up to that point had been mostly on purchasing hardware and software. This report helped bring
the importance of effective professional development for teachers to the forefront. It is not surprising that
during 1995, the Technology Innovation Challenge Grant (TICG) program funded the first 19 grants, which
set the stage for the 91 that followed. From 1995-2000, 100 projects from 46 states and a total of $609.9
million invested have produced some of the most impressive, innovative education technology products,
models and curriculum.
This article will focus on the models of professional development used by a variety of U.S. TICG programs.
You will notice that a large number of 1998 projects are highlighted. This is because for that year's
competition, grant guidelines specifically mandated professional development by providing support to
consortia that had developed programs, or were adapting or expanding existing programs, for technology
training. The models to be explored are coaching and mentoring, face-to-face, train-the-trainer, and Web-
based training.
Coaching and mentoring is a research-based, highly effective professional development model that has
been used extensively by Project Venture in Ph'enix, which is a diverse consortium consisting of urban,
suburban and rural school districts. At the heart of the districts' professional development model are 21
Technology Mentor Teachers (TMTs) who work with more than 330 teachers across the consortium.
TMTs are highly trained, certified teachers on assignment who use coaching and modeling techniques to
help teachers effectively integrate technology in their classes. TMTs work one-on-one with teachers who
are chosen through a rigorous application process, and receive five computers and a presentation system in

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their classroom. They build important relationships with their teachers that allow for the planning, modeling
and reflecting of technology integration techniques with a focus on core curriculum and state standards.
This model has built great capacity and created a natural process of sustainability by having a significant
number of highly trained teachers who are becoming technology leaders in their schools. Our project's
evaluator, Dee Ann Spencer, Ph.D., found that 65.6% of teachers were integrating technology to a great or
seamless extent by the end of the project's third year (2000).
Distance education poses the problems of professional development in a particularly acute form.
These problems have been defined, broadly speaking, in relation to debates about the relation
between theory and practice:
• does theory address issues which concern practitioners as they do their job ?
• how is theory applied to practice?
• what counts as theory: are academic disciplines the only valid basis for the development of
theory?
• could there be a theory of practice, developed by practitioners themselves reflecting on
their own direct professional experience?
These issues are confronted in a particularly acute form in the distance education context precisely
because there are so few opportunities for face to face contact and therefore for the participant
sharing which is the life blood of so much staff development.
Multi-media course materials and carefully designed project assessment are just two of the
strategies which can be used to engage students in deep rather than surface learning, and to enable
them to relate course content to their own direct experience. Stainton Rogers for example, reports
the success with which materials can be used in areas where there is very significant emotional
content and where some might argue against any form of distance learning:
Stainton Rogers identifies two major advantages in using a multi-media package of materials: the
wider range of learning experiences which can be documented and portrayed, and the creation of
a basis of common experience through course study which learners can use in their interactions
with each other.
Group sessions are thus freed for the process of mutual interaction and engagement with new ideas,
rather than the communication of material by a tutor in order to enable the process to begin. These
issues have been most consistently addressed in relation to teaching within compulsory education.
Stenhouse and his colleagues developed the model of teacher as researcher during the 1970s, at a

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time when it might have seemed possible that the profession would develop in a fashion which
would allow time for teachers to engage in problem definition, data collection and analysis as well
as teaching. Research, particularly the action research model, was promoted as an informative and
sensitizing process, aspects of which might be undertaken by practitioners themselves as a means
of refining their awareness of interaction and outcomes in teaching. Others have also focused on
the interface between researcher and practitioner, and the teacher as researcher model is still alive
in the projects and networks created by members of the British Educational Research Association,
among others.
The application of these issues to the field of post compulsory education and training has been
made more recently, especially in relation to the in-service development of adult educators. The
practical implications of this debate however, could cover a very wide range of professions. All
those who now have some role in the preparation and continuing education of adults- including
therefore professionals in industrial training, management education, nurse education, youth and
community work and the social services-have an interest in the facilitation of adult learning. This
list draws attention to problem areas particular to the post compulsory sector: the heterogeneity of
staff and the differences of culture and expectations over what constitutes appropriate professional
training. Add to this the much less developed basis for practice, in the form of a theoretical and
research based literature, and the scope of the problem is daunting.
Notwithstanding the difficulties created by these factors, there has been a noticeable growth during
the eighties of postgraduate course provision in the area of post-compulsory education and
training, and a growth of staff development opportunities in particular technologies for adult
learning and development - open learning, student-centred learning and guidance to name some of
the most popular. The Open University has also moved into this area, with the presentation in the
early eighties of courses in policy and management for the post compulsory sector, and in adult
education more generally.3 In 1988 students could add to these courses by studying quarter credit
modules and by designing their own half credit project, to accumulate two full credits of OU study
and thus qualify for the Diploma in Post Compulsory Education. There are now over 200 students
studying for the Diploma, and the first fifteen were awarded the qualification in 1989.
One of the modules in this diploma, Approaches to Adult Learning (AAL), can be developed as a
small case study illustrating the potential as well as the constraints for distance learning in this
context.

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The AAL Module is about how adults learn, learning being seen as a social process in which
individuals demonstrate significant differences between each other over a number of dimensions.
The Module is process as well as content oriented, and practitioners are asked to begin with
reflection on their own learning and development prior to the course, and to build on this through
activities and self review exercises. The focus for this student initiated work is the assignment,
where students are offered a choice between a task exercising purely intellectual skills, and two
where there is an element of practical experimentation. The fourth option is to design their own
assignment and thus far none has chosen this, the most challenging of all.
The second point to make concerns the difference between propositional knowledge and active
experimentation. Most students seemed to have identified with the centrality of reflection as a key
process in adult learning, especially learning from experience. However not all were able to
transfer their comprehension of the idea directly to their own practice in using a portfolio. Several
needed more time to develop practical strategies for the portfolio, in the context of discussion with
their peers, and would have valued peer feedback on their entries. This suggests that we cannot
take for granted the learning processes on which the reflective practitioner strategy rests.
Reflection is something we engage in every day, but it is being proposed in this context as a means
of achieving specific learning outcomes - staff development in particular. Its deliberate and
strategic use in this way is not an everyday phenomenon, and the experience reported suggests that
non-threatening experimentation and peer group support are required.
Apart from the underlying epistemological problems of the theory-practice relation, there are also
context specific factors which doubtless operate in the ease of experience reported by Usher et al.
Courses aimed (in part if not completely) at goals of professional development have particular
problems arising from the university context. Active processing can take many forms, but the key
processes reported here are reflection and active experimentation. Students need time within the
allotted study hours of the course to think through (reflect upon) the implications of their study,
and to learn from concrete experience in using new ideas, (preferably in their own professional
context) within the bounds of the course. The learning processes that students need to develop to
achieve the outcomes of professional development however cannot be taken for granted and need
explicit discussion and facilitator and peer group support during the course of learning itself.

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ASSIGNMENT No. 1
Q.1 Take an article of your interest and critically analyze that how social, economic and
ethical aspects of that topic has been considered?
All contemporary political communication is in a specific way critical because it consists of speech
acts that normally question political opinions and practices of certain actors. Modern politics is a
highly competitive system, in which elections and warfare are ways of distributing and
redistributing power. Tis understanding of critique stands in the tradition of Kantian enlightenment
that considered the Enlightenment as an age of criticism. In contrast to Kant’s general
understanding of critique, Karl Marx and the Marxian tradition understands the categorical
imperative as the need to overcome all forms of slavery and degradation and to unmask alienation.
Tis school of thought points out a more specific understanding of being critical, namely the
questioning of power, domination, and exploitation, the political demand and struggle for a just
society. Critical theory is understood as a critique of society. Scholars in the Marxian inspired
tradition employ the term “critical” to stress that not all science is critical, but that a lot of it has a
more administrative character that takes power structures for granted, does not question them, or
helps to legitimate them.
Some define critical theory as the Frankfurt School’s works, a tradition of critical thinking that
originated with the works of scholars like Herbert Marcuse, Max Horkheimer, and andTeodorW.
Adorn. Herbert Marcuse was a philosopher, born in Germany in 1898, who fled Nazi Germany to
the United States in 1934, where he spent the rest of his life. Max Horkheimer was director of the
University of Frankfurt’s Institute for Social Research in the years 1930–1959.Tis institute was
the home of what came to be known as the Frankfurt School. Teodor W. Adorn was one of the
Institute’s directors from 1953 until his death in 1969. Horkheimer and Adorno also emigrated,
together with the Institute, to the United States, but unlike Marcuse they returned to Germany after
the end of World War II. Critical Theory’s starting point is the work of Karl Marx.
Jürgen Huberman (1984, 1987) built his approach on the classical Frankfurt School and at the
same time worked out the concept of communicative rationality, by which he went beyond the
classical tradition. He distinguishes between instrumental (nonsocial, success-oriented), strategic
(social, success-oriented), and communicative action (social, oriented on understanding). For
Huberman (1987, p. 375), critical theory questions that so-called steering media (money, power)
attack “the communicative infrastructure of largely rationalized life worlds.” (Huberman speaks

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of money and power as “steering media” because he argues that these are structures that elites use
for trying to control and dominate society.) He conceives instrumental action and communicative
action as the two fundamental aspects of social praxis. What he wants to express is that the human
being is both a laboring and a communicating being. In a way, Huberman retains the classical
Marxist distinction between base and superstructure, but inverts it by putting the stress on
communication. Doubts arise if labor can be so strictly separated from communication in a
dualistic way. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen a rising importance of communicative and
cultural work in the economy. But if such activity takes on value-generating form, then culture and
communication must be part of the economy themselves, base and superstructure become
integrated, and labor and communication cannot be separated. Communication is one of the crucial
foundations of the economy: The latter is not just a system of the production of use-values, and in
class societies of exchange values. It is also a social system because production in any society
takes on complex forms beyond individual self-sustenance. The only way for organizing the
relational dimension of the economy is via communication, in the form of symbolic interaction
and/or anonymous forms of indirect communication (as for example via money, markets, the price
system, etc.). Human thought is a precondition for human communication and existence. When
humans produce in the economy, they do so with a purpose in mind, which means that they
anticipate the form of the object and how it will be put to use. Te economic existence of man
requires anticipative thinking just like it requires communication. It is in these two specifc
senses— the importance of communication and thought— that the economy is always and
fundamentally cultural. Capitalism has had a history of the commodification of culture and
communication, especially since the 20th century. Tis is not to say that culture and communication
necessarily take on the form of a commodity, but that in capitalism they frequently do so in the
form of content commodities, audience commodities, and cultural labor power as commodity. In
this sense culture has been economized, or, to be more precise commoditized, that is, put under
the influence of the commodity logic. Communication is certainly an important aspect of a
domination-free society. Under capitalism, it is however also a form of interaction, in which
ideology is with the help of the mass media made available to the dominated groups.
Communication is not automatically progressive. For Huberman, the differentiation is between
instrumental/strategic reason and communicative reason, whereas for Horkheimer the distinction
is between instrumental reason and critical reason and, based on that, between traditional and

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critical theory. Huberman splits of communication from instrumentality and thereby neglects to
understand that in capitalism the dominant system uses communication just like technology, the
media, ideology, or labor as an instrument to defend its rule. Structures of domination do not leave
communication untouched and pure, they are rather antagonistically entangled with
communication. Hagerman’s stress on communication is not immune against misuse for
instrumental purposes. The concept of communication can be critical, but is not necessarily
critical, whereas the concept of a critique of domination is necessarily critical.
Te six dimensions of a critical theory of society can also be found in Karl Marx’s works. Tis
circumstance shows the importance of his thought for any critical theory. Critical theory uses
dialectical reasoning as method of analysis: The dialectical method identifies contradictions.
Contradictions are the basic building blocks of all dialectics. Dialectics tries to show that and how
contemporary society and its moments are shaped by contradictions. Contradictions result in the
circumstance that society is dynamic and that capitalism assures the continuity of domination and
exploitation by changing the way these phenomena are organized. In a contradiction, one pole of
the dialectic can only exist by the way of the opposed pole, they require and exclude each other at
the same time. In a dominative society (such as capitalism), contradictions cause problems and are
to a certain extent also the seeds for overcoming these problems. They have positive potentials and
negative realities at the same time. Marx analyzed capitalism’s contradictions, for example: the
contradictions between no owners/owners, the poor/the rich, misery/wealth, workers/capitalists,
use value/exchange value, concrete labor/abstract labor, the simple form of value/the relative and
expanded form of value, social relations of humans/relations of things, the fetish of commodities
and money/fetishistic thinking, the circulation of commodities/the circulation of money,
commodities/money, labor power/wages, subject/object, labor process/valorization process,
subject of labor (labor power, worker)/the means of production (object), variable capital/constant
capital, surplus labor/surplus product, necessary labor time/surplus labor time, single
worker/cooperation, single company/industry sector, single capital/competing capitals,
production/consumption, productive forces/relations of production.
Critical theory is connected to struggles for a just and fair society, it is an intellectual dimension
of struggles: Critical theory provides a self-understanding of a society’s self-understanding,
struggles, and wishes. It can “show the world why it actually struggles” and is “taking sides […]
with actual struggles” (Marx, 1997, p. 214). Tis means that critical theory can help to explain the

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causes, conditions, potentials, and limits of struggles. Critical theory rejects the argument that
academia and science should and can be value-free. It rather argues that all thought and theories
are shaped by political worldviews. Te reasons why a person is interested in a certain topic, aligns
himself/herself with a certain school of thought, develops a particular theory and not another one,
refers to certain authors and not others, are deeply political because modern society is shaped by
conficts of interests and therefore, for surviving and asserting themselves, scholars have to make
choices, enter strategic alliances, and defend their positions against others. In confict-based and
antagonistic societies, academic writing and speaking, scholarship and science are therefore
always forms of political communication: Tey are not just discovery, knowledge construction, or
invention, but besides knowledge creation also a production and communication of knowledge
about knowledge— the political standpoints of the scholars themselves. Critical theory holds not
only that theory is always political, but also that it should develop analyses of society and concepts
that assist struggle against interests and ideas that justify domination and exploitation.
Q.2 While you were at school/college; were you conscious of social class conflict? How will
you narrate it with reference to your schooling?
Two German theorists, Karl Marx (1818–83) and Max Weber (1864–1920), influenced the field
of sociology, particularly in terms of theories of social class. Both of these theorists wrote
extensively on issues of social class and social inequality, or the unequal status and access to
opportunities that different groups have within a society. Sociologists continue to use and respond
to ideas that Marx and Weber developed.
Marxism, Conflict Theory, and Social Class
Marx defined class as a group of people who have the same relationship to the means of
production—the facilities and resources for producing goods—such as tools, machines, and
factories. Marx wrote extensively of the relationship between the privileged classes—the "haves,"
or the bourgeoisie—and the oppressed classes—the "have nots," or the proletariat.
The bourgeoisie is a class that owns property, including owning and controlling the means of
production. The proletariat is the working class, who own only their own labor. Members of the
proletariat are forced to sell their labor because they have no control over the means of production.
Marx argued that this relationship is exploitive of the working class because the surplus value
derived from work is unfairly appropriated by the bourgeoisie. In Marx's view, the economic
system of capitalism automatically creates social stratification, or class differences, in which

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members of different classes are in an adversarial relationship. Sociologists incorporate Marx's

ideas in an approach known as conflict theory. Conflict theorists suggest that social inequality
creates intergroup conflict—such as the rich versus the poor—and that the different interests will
cause them to be at odds as they attempt to secure their interests.
Marxist theory continues to be important in sociology, but many sociologists have expanded upon
Marx's ideas in order to apply them to postindustrial, postmodern societies of the late 20th and
early 21st centuries. American sociologist Erik Olin Wright (b. 1947) elaborates on Marx's model
of class structure. While Marx analyzed society in terms of two major classes, Wright identifies
four classes in the United States: capitalist, managerial, small business, and working class. He
argues that power is connected to the control of the means of production but also control over work
processes and other workers. Wright's model is less polarized than Marx's but remains focused on
questions of which groups dominate a society and which groups are oppressed. He looks at why
some workers might behave or think more like capitalists (the bourgeoisie) and notes how people
can belong to more than one class. His term contradictory class locations describes how people
can occupy more than one class position, based on what type of control they exercise. For example,
an executive assistant at a large corporation has a relatively high level of control compared to other
administrative workers but is also under the control of a more powerful CEO. The executive
assistant may identify more closely with the upper-class managers at the company, although
outside of work the executive assistant has less social and economic power than managers do.
Wright proposes a larger definition of the working class than Marx did, including those in
occupations that involve what he terms "mental labor" but who do not receive high salaries, such
as clerical workers. He analyzes modern types of work, arguing that levels of control tied to various
occupations are crucial markers of class in contemporary society. For instance, master electricians
and architects who work at small firms may have similar levels of income, but they hold different
social positions. Their occupations grant them different levels of control. Like Marx, Wright is
concerned with dismantling systems that oppress the working class. However, he argues that
"taming and eroding capitalism are the only viable options." Whereas Marx envisioned the end of
capitalism, Wright considers how the working class might impose reforms on oppressive state and
capitalist structures.

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Weber and Social Class

Weber agreed with Marx that economic markers are important, but he advanced the idea that other
factors, such as education and occupational prestige, determine class hierarchies. Weber described
class structure as being based on three major factors: wealth (income and assets), prestige (status
position), and power (ability to achieve goals). Weber saw ownership of the means of production,
including companies, as important, but he also noted that holding a high position within a company
or profession is also a means to acquire social and economic power. For example, a high-level
manager in a corporation does not own the business but does benefit from the profits that the
business generates. Owning property grants economic power, but it also grants higher levels of
prestige. Someone who owns land, for example, has social prestige. Weber pointed out that
prestige can also be gained in other ways that do not involve ownership of property or the means
of production. Gifted athletes or intellectuals can acquire prestige without owning the sports teams
or universities that frame their work. Both wealth and prestige can give individuals greater power
in society. Weber saw wealth, power, and prestige as intertwined elements of social class. Weber's
multidimensional work led sociologists to use socioeconomic status to understand class.
Influenced by Weber's theory of class, American sociologist Dennis Gilbert (b. 1943) described
six separate classes in the United States: the capitalist class, upper-middle class, middle class,
working class, working poor, and underclass. The capitalist class is defined as the most elite and
powerful group. As the richest one percent of the population, they own most of the wealth in a
society, including the vast majority of stocks and bonds. Their large investments have an impact
on the rest of society, because their investment choices can have a significant impact on the overall
economy. They mostly interact with one another, remaining separated from the other classes. The
upper-middle class is relatively wealthy and is characterized by high levels of formal education—
a minimum of a college degree and usually a graduate degree. Members of the upper-middle class
work in white-collar, fairly high-income professions. They may often purchase status symbols,
including expensive homes and vehicles that serve to identify their class status. The lower-middle
class is composed of people who earn enough to afford basic expenses. They generally have at
least a high school education and often some education beyond high school including specialized
training, some college, or a college degree. They typically work in semiskilled professions, for
instance as flight attendants or security guards. The working class has relatively low levels of
income and is employed in factories or in low-paid white-collar professions such as retail sales

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workers. Members of the working class sometimes qualify for public assistance programs, such as
free or reduced lunch for children at school. The working poor are people whose incomes are
minimal and often not enough to pay basic living expenses. They often work in service jobs, which
include occupations such as food preparation workers, house cleaners, or lawn and garden
maintenance workers. Most members of the working poor do not hold high school diplomas. They
may qualify for public assistance, such as housing and food assistance programs. The underclass
is a social group composed of individuals stuck in poverty because of high unemployment, low
education, or other forms of marginalization such as homelessness. Multigenerational poverty, or
poverty that lasts across several generations in a family, is also a characteristic of the underclass.
Occupations that involve stigma can also place people in the underclass. For example,
impoverished sex workers are part of the underclass, both because of poverty and because sex
workers are marginalized by society. Gilbert's model of six social classes provides a framework
for discussing social stratification in more precise terms, acknowledging that the lived experiences
of members of these groups can be quite different, although there is some overlap between groups.
Gilbert’s Model of Social Class in the United States
Capitalist class Elite, powerful; richest one percent
Upper-middle class Relatively wealthy; highly educated, work in white-collar professions
Lower-middle class Can afford basic expenses; work in semi-skilled professions
Working class Relatively low income; sometimes qualify for assistance programs
Working poor Not always able to afford basic expenses; work in service professions
Underclass Marginalized members of society; stuck in chronic poverty
Functionalism and Symbolic Interactionism
Functionalist and symbolic interactionist theories of social class focus on the social functions of
class and stratification, or on class as a factor in social identity.
In addition to conflict theory, two other influential schools of thought in sociology
are functionalism and symbolic interactionism. Functionalists think of society as composed of
many parts that work together as a whole to maintain stability. A functionalist approach to social
class might analyze the roles that class structure and social stratification play in society as a whole.
From a functionalist viewpoint, stratification works to ensure productivity and efficiency, and to
ensure that all types of necessary work get done. Thus a functionalist argument is that social
stratification is both necessary and inevitable. Functionalists point out that some jobs require more

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skill or training or are more important. Few people have the ability to become highly skilled and
do these important jobs. Furthermore, people have to make sacrifices, in terms of time, effort, and
money, to obtain the education, training, and experience to do these jobs. The functionalist view
is that society attaches significant rewards in the form of prestige and income to ensure that these
important jobs are filled. Doctors, for example, fulfill an important role in society. To become a
doctor, a person must invest a great deal of time, effort, and money in education and training.
Society rewards this by bestowing high levels of prestige to doctors, as well as high incomes.
However, class inequality is only functional as long as it is sustainable. When the working classes
decide that society is not functioning well for them, they might seek social change through actions
such as protests and strikes. Functionalists look at how these acts contribute to balance in a society.
Symbolic interactionism strives to understand macro-level patterns (patterns found in a whole
society) by examining microinteractions (interactions between individuals). An approach using
symbolic interactionism tries to make connections between micro-level interactions and how they
can help explain macro-level patterns. Using this lens, social class and social inequality are seen
as factors in how people understand themselves and present themselves to others. For example,
sociologists using symbolic interactionism note how individual social interactions, such as those
between supervisors and employees, are shaped by people's understanding of social class in their
society. A symbolic interactionist approach might consider how body language, greetings,
personal space, use of slang, and eye contact are connected to class. Consider the social behavior
of workers in a high-end restaurant. They may use more formal patterns of speech with customers
and restaurant managers than with other workers. This behavior can be understood as a reflection
of how the restaurant workers understand their social position as well as an indication of class
divisions of the overall society.
Q.3 Critically analyse that how teaching and learning process of 21st century different from
other centuries. Also discuss the impact of technology on the teaching and learning
process.
Cooperative teaching and learning has been a popular area in educational circles for more
than a decade. This area gained its strength with the emergence of two major schools of thought
one is “Constructivism and the other is “Connectivism”. Researchers and practitioners have found
that students working in small cooperative groups can develop the type of intellect ual exchange
that fosters critical and creative thinkin•p, and productive problem solving. Cooperative teaching

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is a successful strateqv in which small teams, each Student.s have always congregated together to
perform and learn. Rat there is a growing recognition that combined with whole group instruction
and individual learning, cooperative learning should be a customary part of the classroom
instruction. Student communication makes cooperative learning meaningful. To accomplish their
group’s task, students must exchange ideas, make plans, and propose solutions. Thinking through
an idea and presenting it collectively can be very helpful and understood by others in a better way.
Such interaction promotes intellectual growth.
The exchange of different ideas and viewpoints can enhance the growth and inspire broader
thinking. It is the teacher’s job to persuade such exchanges and organize the students’ work so
their communication is on-task and creative. In addition to academic growth, cooperative learning
helps in students’ social development.
Students’ lives are full of interactions with friends and family members and their futures
will find them in jobs that require cooperation. The skills that are essential for productive
group work in the classroom are relevant for today and the future. Cooperative learning is a
successful teaching strategy in which small groups, with students of different ability levels, use a
variety of learning activities to improve their understanding. Each member of a team feels
responsible
for learning what is being taught and also for helping group fellows thus creating an atmosphere
of achievement.
Cooperative classroom activities result in students striving for mutual uplift so that all group
members:

5. · benefit from each other's efforts.

6. · recognize that all group members share a common goal.
7. · realize that one's performance is mutually caused by oneself and one's team members.
8. · jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for achievement.
Relative to .students taught individually; cooperatively taught students to show higher academic
achievement, determination, better high-level reasoning lower anxiety and stress, greatest
motivation, grgater ability to view .

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CRITICAL QUESTION-ANSWE R FORUMS

Articles on the subject of classroom questioning often begin by invoking Socrates. Researchers
and other writers concerned with questioning techniques seem to want to '‘ remind us that
questioning has a long and venerable history as an educational strategy.
And indeed, the Socratic method of questions and answers to challenge assumptions, expose
contradictions, and lead to new knowledge and wisdom is an undeniably powerful teaching
approach.
In addition to its long history and demonstrated effectiveness, questioning is also of interest to
researchers and practitioners because of its widespread use as a contemporary teaching technique.
Research indicates that questioning is second only to lecturing in popularity as a teaching method
and that classroom teachers spend anywhere from thirty- five to fifty percent of their instructional
time conducting questioning sessions.
A question is any sentence which has an interrogative form or function. In classroom settings,
teacher questions are defined as instructional cues or stimuli that convey to students the content
elements to be learned and directions for what they are to do and how they are to do it.
The present review focuses on the relationship between teachers' classroom questioning behaviors
and a variety of student outcomes, including achievement, retention, and level of student
participation.
This means that certain other subtopics within the general area of questioning are excluded from
the present analysis. It does not deal, for example, with the effects of textual questions or test
questions, and it is only incidentally concerned with methods used to impart study skills, including
questioning strategies, to students. Questioning plays a critical role in the way instructors structure
the class environment, organize the content of the course and has deep implications in the way that
students assimilate the information that is presented and discussed in class. Given that questioning
can be a tremendously effective way to teach, and recognizing that teachers are willing to engage
in the process of asking questions while instructing.
Numerous researches indicate that teachers largely have been asking the wrong questions.
The focus has been primarily on questions regarding the specific information students
In such an investigation
l) one asks questions to identify the reason or reasons for the investigation
2. questions are asked to direct been discovered the search for information and to synthesize what

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has
3. The conclusions resulting from investigations are evaluated vs questions.
Q.4 If you will have to make a dialogue with your principle, what questioning strategy will
you develop?
Classroom assessment techniques (CAT) are relatively quick and easy formative evaluation
methods that help you check student understanding in “real time”. These formative evaluations
provide information that can be used to modify/improve course content, adjust teaching methods,
and, ultimately improve student learning. Formative evaluations are most effective when they are
done frequently and the information is used to effect immediate adjustments in the day-to-day
operations of the course.
• provide day-to-day feedback that can be applied immediately;
• provide useful information about what students have learned without the amount of time
required for preparing tests, reading papers, etc.; allow you to address student
misconceptions or lack of understanding in a timely way;
• help to foster good working relationships with students and encourage them to understand
that teaching and learning are on-going processes that require full participation.
• help develop self-assessment and learning management skills;
• reduce feelings of isolation, especially in large classes;
• increase understanding and ability to think critically about the course content;
• foster an attitude that values understanding and long-term retention;
• show your interest and support of their success in your classroom.
• Course-related knowledge and skills
• student attitudes, values, and self-awareness
• Reactions to instruction methods
Following is a chart that indicates what the CAT is intended to evaluate, its name, how each is
conducted, what to do with the information you collect, and an estimate of how much time is
required to complete it.
I. Techniques for Assessing Course-Related Knowledge & Skills
A. Assessing Prior Knowledge, Recall, and Understanding
The CATs in this group focus on assessing declarative learning – the content of a particular subject.

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Background Knowledge Probe: Short, simple questionnaires prepared by instructors for use at the
beginning of a course or at the start of new units or topics; can serve as a pretest
Focused Listing: Focuses students’ attention on a single important term, name, or concept from a
lesson or class session and directs students to list ideas related to the “focus”
Misconception/Preconception Check: Intended to uncover prior knowledge or beliefs that may
hinder or block new learning; can be designed to uncover incorrect or incomplete knowledge,
attitudes, or values
Empty Outlines: In a limited amount of time students complete an empty or partially completed
outline of an in-class presentation or homework assignment
Memory Matrix: Students complete a table about course content in which row and column
headings are complete but cells are empty
Minute Paper: The most frequently used CAT; students answer 2 questions (What was the most
important thing you learned during this class? What important question remains unanswered?)
Muddiest Point: Considered by many as the simplest CAT; students respond to the question "What
was the most unclear or confusing point in (lecture, homework, discussion)?"
B. Assessing Skill in Analysis and Critical Thinking
The CATs in this group focus on analysis—the breaking down of information, questions, or
problems to facilitate understanding and problem solving.
Categorizing Grid: Student complete a grid containing 2 or 3 overarching concepts and a variety
of related subordinate elements associated with the larger concepts
Defining Features Matrix: Students categorize concepts according to the presence or absence of
important defining features
Pro and Con Grid: Students list pros/cons, costs/benefits, advantages/disadvantages of an issue,
question, or value of competing claims
Content, Form, and Function Outlines: In an outline form, students analyze the “what” (content),
“how” (form), and “why” (function) of a particular message (e.g. poem, newspaper story, critical
essay); also called “What, How, & Why Outlines
Analytic Memos: Students write a one- or two-page analysis of a specific problem or issue to help
inform a decision-maker
C. Assessing Skill in Synthesis and Creative Thinking

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The CATs in this group focus on synthesis — stimulating the student to create and allowing the
faculty to assess original intellectual products that result from a synthesis of course content and
the students’ intelligence, judgment, knowledge, and skills.
One-Sentence Summary: Students answer the questions “Who does what to whom, when, where,
how, and why?” (WDWWWWHW) about a given topic and then create a single informative,
grammatical, and long summary sentence
Word Journal: Involves a 2 part response; 1st the student summarizes a short text in a single word
and 2nd the student writes 1-2 paragraphs explaining the word choice
Approximate Analogies: Students simply complete the 2nd half of an analogy—a is to b as
? is to ?; described as approximate because the rigor of formal logic is not required
Concept Maps: Students draw or diagram the mental connections they make between a major
concept and other concepts they have learned
Invented Dialogues: Students synthesize their knowledge of issues, personalities, and historical
periods into the form of a carefully structured illustrative conversation; students can select and
weave quotes from primary sources or invent reasonable quotes that fit characters and context
Annotated Portfolios: Students assemble a very limited number of examples of creative work and
supplement them with their own commentary on the significance of examples
D. Assessing Skill in Problem Solving
The CATs in this group focus on problem solving skills — recognizing different types of problems,
determining the principles and techniques to solve them, perceiving similarities of problem
features, and being able to reflect and then alter solution strategies.
Problem Recognition Tasks: Students recognize and identify particular problem types
What’s the Principle?: Students identify the principle or principles to solve problems of various
types
Documented Problem Solutions: Students track in a written format the steps they take to solve
problems as if for a “show & tell”
Audio- and Videotaped Protocols: Students work through a problem solving process and it is
captured to allow instructors to assess metacognition (learner’s awareness of and control of
thinking)
E. Assessing Skill in Application and Performance

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The CATs in this group focus on students’ application of conditional knowledge – knowing when
and where to apply what they know and can do.
Directed Paraphrasing: Students paraphrase part of a lesson for a specific audience demonstrating
ability to translate highly specialized information into language the clients or customers can
understand
Application Cards: Students generate examples of real-world applications for important
principles, generalizations, theories, or procedures
Student-Generated Test Questions: Students generate test questions and model answers for critical
areas of learning
Human Tableau or Class Modeling: Students transform and apply their learning into doing by
physically modeling a process or representing an image.
Paper or Project Prospectus: Students create a brief plan for a paper or project based on your
guiding questions
II. Techniques for Assessing Learner Attitudes, Values, and Self-Awareness
A. Assessing Students’ Awareness of Their Attitudes and Values
The CATs in this group are designed to assist instructors in developing students’ attitudes,
opinions, values, and self-awareness within the course curriculum.
28. Classroom Opinion Polls: Students indicate degree of agreement or disagreement with a
statement or prompt
29. Double-entry Journals: Students record and respond to significant passages of text
30. Profiles of Admiral Individuals: Students write a brief description of the characteristics of a
person they admire in a field related to the course
31. Everyday Ethical Dilemma: Students respond to a case study that poses a discipline-related
ethical dilemma
32. Course-related Self-Confidence Surveys: Students complete an anonymous survey indicating
their level of confidence in mastering the course material
B. Assessing Students’ Self-Awareness as Learners
The CATs in this group help students articulate their goals and self-concepts in order to make
connections between their goals and those of the course.
33. Focused Autobiographical Sketches: Students write a brief description of a successful learning
experience they had relevant to the course material

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34. Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklists: Students complete a checklist survey to indicate their

knowledge, skills and interest in various course topics
35. Goal Ranking and Matching: Students list and prioritize 3 to 5 goals they have for their own
learning in the course
36. Self-Assessment Ways of Learning: Students compare themselves with several different
“learning styles” profiles to find the most likely match
C. Assessing Course-Related Learning and Study Skills, Strategies, and Behaviors
The CATs in this group assist students in focusing attention on the behaviors they engage in when
trying to learn.
37. Productive Study-Time Logs: Students complete a study log to record the quantity and quality
of time spent studying for a specific course
38. Punctuated Lectures: Students briefly reflect then create a written record of their listening level
of a lecture. Repeat twice in the same lecture and 2- 3 times over 2 to 3 weeks
39. Process Analysis: Students outline the process they take in completing a specified assignment
40. Diagnostic Learning Logs: Students write to learn by identifying, diagnosing, and prescribing
solutions to their own learning problems
III. Techniques for Assessing Learner Reactions to Instruction
A. Assessing Learner Reactions to Teachers and Teaching
The CATS in this group are designed to provide context-specific feedback that can improve
teaching within a course.
41. Chain Notes: On an index card that is distributed in advance, each student responds to an open-
ended prompt about his or her mental activity that is answered in less than a minute
42. Electronic Survey Feedback: Students respond to a question or short series of questions about
the effectiveness of the course.
43. Teacher-designed Feedback Forms: Students respond to specific questions through a focused
feedback form about the effectiveness of a particular class session
44. Group Instructional Feedback Technique: Students respond to three questions related to their
learning in the course (basically, what works, what doesn't, and how can it be improved)
45. Classroom Assessment Quality Circles: A group or groups of students provide the instructor
with ongoing assessment of the course through structured interactions
B. Assessing Learner Reactions to Class Activities, Assignments, and Materials

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The CATS in this group are designed to provide instructors with information that will help them
improve their course materials and assignments.
46. RSQC2 (Recall, Summarize, Question, Connect and Comment): Students write brief
statements that recall, summarize, question, connect and comment on meaningful points from
previous class
47. Group-Work Evaluation: Students complete a brief survey about how their group is functioning
and make suggestions for improving the group process
48. Reading Rating Sheets: Students complete a form that rates the effectiveness of the assigned
readings
49. Assignment Assessments: Students respond to 2 or 3 open-ended questions about the value of
an assignment to their learning
50. Exam Evaluations: Students provide feedback about an exam’s learning value and/or format
Q.5 Describe in detail the salient features of Rolfe’s model of professional development.
A key finding of the report revealed that 30% of the technology budget should be used for teacher training.
The focus up to that point had been mostly on purchasing hardware and software. This report helped bring
the importance of effective professional development for teachers to the forefront. It is not surprising that
during 1995, the Technology Innovation Challenge Grant (TICG) program funded the first 19 grants, which
set the stage for the 91 that followed. From 1995-2000, 100 projects from 46 states and a total of $609.9
million invested have produced some of the most impressive, innovative education technology products,
models and curriculum.
This article will focus on the models of professional development used by a variety of U.S. TICG programs.
You will notice that a large number of 1998 projects are highlighted. This is because for that year's
competition, grant guidelines specifically mandated professional development by providing support to
consortia that had developed programs, or were adapting or expanding existing programs, for technology
training. The models to be explored are coaching and mentoring, face-to-face, train-the-trainer, and Web-
based training.
Coaching and mentoring is a research-based, highly effective professional development model that has
been used extensively by Project Venture in Ph'enix, which is a diverse consortium consisting of urban,
suburban and rural school districts. At the heart of the districts' professional development model are 21
Technology Mentor Teachers (TMTs) who work with more than 330 teachers across the consortium.

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TMTs are highly trained, certified teachers on assignment who use coaching and modeling techniques to
help teachers effectively integrate technology in their classes. TMTs work one-on-one with teachers who
are chosen through a rigorous application process, and receive five computers and a presentation system in
their classroom. They build important relationships with their teachers that allow for the planning, modeling
and reflecting of technology integration techniques with a focus on core curriculum and state standards.
This model has built great capacity and created a natural process of sustainability by having a significant
number of highly trained teachers who are becoming technology leaders in their schools. Our project's
evaluator, Dee Ann Spencer, Ph.D., found that 65.6% of teachers were integrating technology to a great or
seamless extent by the end of the project's third year (2000).
Distance education poses the problems of professional development in a particularly acute form.
These problems have been defined, broadly speaking, in relation to debates about the relation
between theory and practice:
• does theory address issues which concern practitioners as they do their job ?
• how is theory applied to practice?
• what counts as theory: are academic disciplines the only valid basis for the development of
theory?
• could there be a theory of practice, developed by practitioners themselves reflecting on
their own direct professional experience?
These issues are confronted in a particularly acute form in the distance education context precisely
because there are so few opportunities for face to face contact and therefore for the participant
sharing which is the life blood of so much staff development.
Multi-media course materials and carefully designed project assessment are just two of the
strategies which can be used to engage students in deep rather than surface learning, and to enable
them to relate course content to their own direct experience. Stainton Rogers for example, reports
the success with which materials can be used in areas where there is very significant emotional
content and where some might argue against any form of distance learning:
Stainton Rogers identifies two major advantages in using a multi-media package of materials: the
wider range of learning experiences which can be documented and portrayed, and the creation of
a basis of common experience through course study which learners can use in their interactions
with each other.

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Group sessions are thus freed for the process of mutual interaction and engagement with new ideas,
rather than the communication of material by a tutor in order to enable the process to begin. These
issues have been most consistently addressed in relation to teaching within compulsory education.
Stenhouse and his colleagues developed the model of teacher as researcher during the 1970s, at a
time when it might have seemed possible that the profession would develop in a fashion which
would allow time for teachers to engage in problem definition, data collection and analysis as well
as teaching. Research, particularly the action research model, was promoted as an informative and
sensitizing process, aspects of which might be undertaken by practitioners themselves as a means
of refining their awareness of interaction and outcomes in teaching. Others have also focused on
the interface between researcher and practitioner, and the teacher as researcher model is still alive
in the projects and networks created by members of the British Educational Research Association,
among others.
The application of these issues to the field of post compulsory education and training has been
made more recently, especially in relation to the in-service development of adult educators. The
practical implications of this debate however, could cover a very wide range of professions. All
those who now have some role in the preparation and continuing education of adults- including
therefore professionals in industrial training, management education, nurse education, youth and
community work and the social services-have an interest in the facilitation of adult learning. This
list draws attention to problem areas particular to the post compulsory sector: the heterogeneity of
staff and the differences of culture and expectations over what constitutes appropriate professional
training. Add to this the much less developed basis for practice, in the form of a theoretical and
research based literature, and the scope of the problem is daunting.
Notwithstanding the difficulties created by these factors, there has been a noticeable growth during
the eighties of postgraduate course provision in the area of post-compulsory education and
training, and a growth of staff development opportunities in particular technologies for adult
learning and development - open learning, student-centred learning and guidance to name some of
the most popular. The Open University has also moved into this area, with the presentation in the
early eighties of courses in policy and management for the post compulsory sector, and in adult
education more generally.3 In 1988 students could add to these courses by studying quarter credit
modules and by designing their own half credit project, to accumulate two full credits of OU study

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and thus qualify for the Diploma in Post Compulsory Education. There are now over 200 students
studying for the Diploma, and the first fifteen were awarded the qualification in 1989.
One of the modules in this diploma, Approaches to Adult Learning (AAL), can be developed as a
small case study illustrating the potential as well as the constraints for distance learning in this
context.
The AAL Module is about how adults learn, learning being seen as a social process in which
individuals demonstrate significant differences between each other over a number of dimensions.
The Module is process as well as content oriented, and practitioners are asked to begin with
reflection on their own learning and development prior to the course, and to build on this through
activities and self review exercises. The focus for this student initiated work is the assignment,
where students are offered a choice between a task exercising purely intellectual skills, and two
where there is an element of practical experimentation. The fourth option is to design their own
assignment and thus far none has chosen this, the most challenging of all.
The second point to make concerns the difference between propositional knowledge and active
experimentation. Most students seemed to have identified with the centrality of reflection as a key
process in adult learning, especially learning from experience. However not all were able to
transfer their comprehension of the idea directly to their own practice in using a portfolio. Several
needed more time to develop practical strategies for the portfolio, in the context of discussion with
their peers, and would have valued peer feedback on their entries. This suggests that we cannot
take for granted the learning processes on which the reflective practitioner strategy rests.
Reflection is something we engage in every day, but it is being proposed in this context as a means
of achieving specific learning outcomes - staff development in particular. Its deliberate and
strategic use in this way is not an everyday phenomenon, and the experience reported suggests that
non-threatening experimentation and peer group support are required.
Apart from the underlying epistemological problems of the theory-practice relation, there are also
context specific factors which doubtless operate in the ease of experience reported by Usher et al.
Courses aimed (in part if not completely) at goals of professional development have particular
problems arising from the university context. Active processing can take many forms, but the key
processes reported here are reflection and active experimentation. Students need time within the
allotted study hours of the course to think through (reflect upon) the implications of their study,
and to learn from concrete experience in using new ideas, (preferably in their own professional

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context) within the bounds of the course. The learning processes that students need to develop to
achieve the outcomes of professional development however cannot be taken for granted and need
explicit discussion and facilitator and peer group support during the course of learning itself.

ASSIGNMENT No. 2
Q.1 How can Gibb’s cycle develop the blocked mental faculties?
Gibbs' Reflective Cycle was developed by Graham Gibbs in 1988 to give structure to learning
from experiences. It offers a framework for examining experiences, and given its cyclic nature
lends itself particularly well to repeated experiences, allowing you to learn and plan from things
that either went well or didn’t go well. It covers 6 stages:
Description of the experience
Feelings and thoughts about the experience
Evaluation of the experience, both good and bad
Analysis to make sense of the situation
Conclusion about what you learned and what you could have done differently
Action plan for how you would deal with similar situations in the future, or general changes you
might find appropriate.
Below is further information on:
The model – each stage is given a fuller description, guiding questions to ask yourself and an
example of how this might look in a reflection
Different depths of reflection – an example of reflecting more briefly using this model
This is just one model of reflection. Test it out and see how it works for you. If you find that only
a few of the questions are helpful for you, focus on those. However, by thinking about each stage
you are more likely to engage critically with your learning experience.

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This model is a good way to work through an experience. This can be either a stand-alone
experience or a situation you go through frequently, for example meetings with a team you have
to collaborate with. Gibbs originally advocated its use in repeated situations, but the stages and
principles apply equally well for single experiences too. If done with a stand-alone experience, the
action plan may become more general and look at how you can apply your conclusions in the
future.
For each of the stages of the model a number of helpful questions are outlined below. You don’t
have to answer all of them but they can guide you about what sort of things make sense to include
in that stage. You might have other prompts that work better for you.

Group work assignment

For an assessed written group-work assignment, my group (3 others from my course) and I decided to divide
the different sections between us so that we only had to research one element each. We expected we could
just piece the assignment together in the afternoon the day before the deadline, meaning that we didn’t have
to schedule time to sit and write it together. However, when we sat down it was clear the sections weren’t
written in the same writing style. We therefore had to rewrite most of the assignment to make it a coherent
piece of work. We had given ourselves enough time before the deadline to individually write our own
sections, however we did not plan a great deal of time to rewrite if something were to go wrong. Therefore,

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two members of the group had to drop their plans that evening so the assignment would be finished in time
for the deadline.

Feelings
Here you can explore any feelings or thoughts that you had during the experience and how they
may have impacted the experience.
Helpful questions:
What were you feeling during the situation?
What were you feeling before and after the situation?
What do you think other people were feeling about the situation?
What do you think other people feel about the situation now?
What were you thinking during the situation?
What do you think about the situation now?
Example of 'Feelings'

Group work assignment

Before we came together and realised we still had a lot of work to do, I was quite happy and thought we had
been smart when we divided the work between us. When we realised we couldn’t hand in the assignment
like it was, I got quite frustrated. I was certain it was going to work, and therefore I had little motivation to
actually do the rewriting. Given that a couple of people from the group had to cancel their plans I ended up
feeling quite guilty, which actually helped me to work harder in the evening and get the work done faster.
Looking back, I’m feeling satisfied that we decided to put in the work.

Evaluation
Here you have a chance to evaluate what worked and what didn’t work in the situation. Try to be
as objective and honest as possible. To get the most out of your reflection focus on both the positive
and the negative aspects of the situation, even if it was primarily one or the other.
Helpful questions:

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What was good and bad about the experience?

What went well?
What didn’t go so well?
What did you and other people contribute to the situation (positively or negatively)?
Example of 'Evaluation'

Group work assignment

The things that were good and worked well was the fact that each group member produced good quality work
for the agreed deadline. Moreover, the fact that two people from the group cancelled plans motivated us to
work harder in the evening. That contributed positively to the group’s work ethic. The things that clearly didn’t
work was that we assumed we wrote in the same way, and therefore the overall time plan of the group failed.

Analysis
The analysis step is where you have a chance to make sense of what happened. Up until now you
have focused on details around what happened in the situation. Now you have a chance to extract
meaning from it. You want to target the different aspects that went well or poorly and ask yourself
why. If you are looking to include academic literature, this is the natural place to include it.
Helpful questions:
Why did things go well?
Why didn’t it go well?
What sense can I make of the situation?
What knowledge – my own or others (for example academic literature) can help me understand
the situation?
Example of 'Analysis'

Group work assignment

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I think the reason that our initial division of work went well was because each person had a say in what part
of the assignment they wanted to work on, and we divided according to people’s self-identified strengths. I
have experienced working this way before and discovered when I’m working by myself I enjoy working in
areas that match my strengths. It seems natural to me that this is also the case in groups.
I think we thought that this approach would save us time when piecing together the sections in the end, and
therefore we didn’t think it through. In reality, it ended up costing us far more time than expected and we also
had to stress and rush through the rewrite. I think the fact we hadn’t planned how we were writing and
structuring the sections led us to this situation.
I searched through some literature on group work and found two things that help me understand the situation.
Belbin’s (e.g. 2010) team roles suggests that each person has certain strengths and weaknesses they bring to
a group. While we didn’t think about our team members in the same way Belbin does, effective team work
and work delegation seems to come from using people’s different strengths, which we did.
Another theory that might help explain why we didn’t predict the plan wouldn’t work is ‘Groupthink’ (e.g.
Janis, 1991). Groupthink is where people in a group won’t raise different opinions to a dominant opinion or
decision, because they don’t want to seem like an outsider. I think if we had challenged our assumptions about
our plan - by actually being critical, we would probably have foreseen that it wouldn’t work. Some
characteristics of groupthink that were in our group were: ‘collective rationalisation’ – we kept telling each
other that it would work; and probably ‘illusion of invulnerability’ – we are all good students, so of course
we couldn’t do anything wrong.
I think being aware of groupthink in the future will be helpful in group work, when trying to make decisions.

In this section you can make conclusions about what happened. This is where you summarise your
learning and highlight what changes to your actions could improve the outcome in the future. It
should be a natural response to the previous sections.
Helpful questions:
What did I learn from this situation?
How could this have been a more positive situation for everyone involved?
What skills do I need to develop for me to handle a situation like this better?
What else could I have done?
Example of a 'Conclusion'

Group work assignment

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I learned that when a group wants to divide work, we must plan how we want each section to look and feel
– having done this would likely have made it possible to put the sections together and submit without much
or any rewriting. Moreover, I will continue to have people self-identify their strengths and possibly even
suggest using the ‘Belbin team roles’-framework with longer projects. Lastly, I learned that we sometimes
have to challenge the decisions we seem to agree on in the group to ensure that we are not agreeing just
because of groupthink.

Action plan
At this step you plan for what you would do differently in a similar or related situation in the future.
It can also be extremely helpful to think about how you will help yourself to act differently – such
that you don’t only plan what you will do differently, but also how you will make sure it happens.
Sometimes just the realisation is enough, but other times reminders might be helpful.
Helpful questions:
If I had to do the same thing again, what would I do differently?
How will I develop the required skills I need?
How can I make sure that I can act differently next time?
Example of 'Action Plan'

Group work assignment

When I’m working with a group next time, I will talk to them about what strengths they have. This is easy
to do and remember in a first meeting, and also potentially works as an ice-breaker if we don’t know each
other well. Next, if we decide to divide work, I will insist that we plan out what we expect from it beforehand.
Potentially I would suggest writing the introduction or first section together first, so that we have a reference
for when we are writing our own parts. I’m confident this current experience will be enough to remind me
to suggest this if anyone says we should divide up the work in the future. Lastly, I will ask if we can challenge
our initial decisions so that we are confident we are making informed decisions to avoid groupthink. If I have
any concerns, I will tell the group. I think by remembering I want the best result possible will make me be
able to disagree even when it feels uncomfortable.

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Different depths of reflection

Depending on the context you are doing the reflection in, you might want use different levels of
details. Here is the same scenario, which was used in the example above, however it is presented
much more briefly.

Short example of Gibbs’ reflective cycle:

Describe:
In a group work assignment, we divided sections according to people’s strengths. When we tried to piece
the assignment together it was written in different styles and therefore we had to spend time rewriting it.

Feelings:
I thought our plan would work and felt good about it. When we had to rewrite it, I felt frustrated.

Evaluation:
The process of dividing sections went well. However, it didn’t work not having foreseen/planned rewriting
the sections for coherence and writing styles.

Analysis:
Dividing work according to individual strengths is useful. Belbin’s team roles (2010) would suggest
something similar. I have done it before and it seems to work well.
The reason piecing work together didn’t work was we had no plan for what it needed to look like. We were
so focused on finishing quickly that no one would raise a concern. The last part can be explained by
‘groupthink’ (e.g. Jarvis, 1991), where members of a group make a suboptimal decision because individuals
are afraid of challenging the consensus.

Conclusion:
I learned that using people’s strengths is efficient. Moreover, planning how we want the work to look, before
we go off on our own is helpful. Lastly, I will remember the dangers of groupthink, and what the theory
suggests to look out for.

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Action plan:
I will use Belbin’s team roles to divide group work in the future. Moreover, I will suggest writing one section
together before we do our own work, so we can mirror that in our own writing. Finally, I will speak my mind
when I have concerns, by remembering it can benefit the outcome.

Q.2 Identify a problem for action research, make it narrow and propose a plan for the
triangulation.
Teacher research can be a powerful form of professional development that can change a teacher's
practice. But what is it exactly and what does it involve?
Teacher research is practical, action-based research. It enables educators to follow their interests
and their needs as they investigate what they and their students do. Teachers who practice teacher
research find that it expands and enriches their teaching skills and puts them in collaborative
contact with peers that have a like interest in classroom research. Some researchers call this type
of research "action research." By definition (Mills, 2002):
Action research is any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher-researchers, principals, school
counselors, or other stakeholders in the teaching/learning environment to gather information about
how their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students learn. This
information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting
positive changes in the school environment (and on educational practices in general), and
improving student outcomes and the lives of those involved.
1. Teacher-researchers simultaneously act as participants and observers as they conduct
research in their own classrooms. With these dual roles, they complete the following tasks:
2. Develop research questions based on their own curiosity about teaching and learning in
their classrooms.
3. Systematically collect data and research various methods of conducting research.
4. Analyze and interpret the data and the research methodology.
5. Write about their own research.
6. Share findings with students, colleagues, and members of the educational community.
7. Discuss with colleagues relationships among practice, theory, and their own research.
8. Examine their underlying assumptions about teaching and learning.
9. Assume responsibility for their own professional growth.

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10. Teacher research can change a teacher's practice, but it can also have a profound effect on
the development of priorities for schoolwide planning and assessment efforts as well as
contribute to the profession's body of knowledge about teaching and learning.
11. Teacher-research projects often yield findings and implications that result in:
12. Increased sharing and collaboration across departments, disciplines, and grade levels.
13. Increased dialogue about instructional issues and student learning.
14. Enhanced communication between teachers and students.
15. Improved performance of students.
16. Revision of practice based on new knowledge about teaching and learning.
17. Teacher-designed and teacher-initiated staff development.
18. Development of priorities for schoolwide planning and assessment efforts.
Contributions to the profession's body of knowledge about teaching and learning. For teachers to
become involved in teacher research, they need additional time and resources to conduct, evaluate,
and share their findings in meaningful ways. Fortunately in my school district, Fairfax County
Public Schools, we have a number of resources available for teachers wishing to become involved
in teacher research.
The Office of Staff Development and Planning (a division of Instructional Services) supports a
network of teacher-researchers within our school system. The Office provides staff development
funds to teams of teacher-researchers to meet periodically during the school year as they support
one another in their research. Each spring, the Office holds an annual conference where teacher-
researchers share their projects with members of the broad educational community in round table
presentations and panel discussions. Workshops are also available on topics such as grant writing
to support research and tips for publishing projects. Marion S. MacLean and Marian M. Mohr
provide actual teacher research project reports by Fairfax County teachers in their book, Teacher-
Researchers at Work (1999).
Q.3 Critically analyze current syllabus of English being taught at grade four.
List four class criteria that shape the traditional view of a profession: remuneration, social status,
autonomous or authoritative power, and service. Perpetually, a list of characteristics is typical of
occupations that have been traditionally regarded as professions, especially law and medicine.
These characteristics include: professional autonomy; a clearly defined, highly developed,
specialized, and theoretical knowledge base; control of training, certification, and licensing of new

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entrants; self-governing and self-policing authority, especially with regard to professional ethics;
and a commitment to public service. The presence of a collegium among the essential
characteristics of a modern profession. Eight characteristics common to most professions are
having an esoteric service; pre service study; registration and regulation by the profession itself;
peer appraisal and review; professional code of conduct; earned status; the ideal of public service
and client concern. The fundamental aspects of a profession as specific body of knowledge, ideal
of service, ethical codes, autonomy and distinctive culture.
The selected seven characteristics of a profession are: essential service to society, motivated by
call to serve, special knowledge and skills, specialized advanced university training, public trust
and status, code of ethics and performance standards, and professional organization.
Professional teachers should develop as lifelong learners, reflective thinkers, and ethical leaders
exemplifying the ideals of literacy, scholarship, and social justice in a diverse and ever-changing
world. National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education has defined dispositions of a
teacher as the values, commitments and professional ethics that influence behavior towards
students, families, colleagues, and communities, and affect student learning, motivation, and
development as well as the educator’s own professional growth.
The dispositions or the characteristics of the educator thus have a direct impact on all with whom
he connects. A number of studies have been done in demarcating the characteristics of an educator.
Historically, research studies have yielded copious lists of attributes and attitudes exhibited by
effective teachers. The Purdue studies for all identified specific characteristics that were associated
with effective teachers. These characteristics were gathered from a variety of perspectives
including student opinions, observation and teacher self-reporting.
Didactic and pedagogical skills are not only understood as familiarization with techniques that are
then used mechanically, but also as the acquisition of routines which, without a doubt, every
teacher needs in order to save time and energy for the more significant aspects of his work; at the
same time, they refer to a set of theoretical principles and research data that lead to a variety of
techniques and strategies which a teacher chooses and shapes, depending on the circumstances (for
the discussion on teacher skills as an element of professional competency).
A plethora of related studies shows specific actions by teachers which can be considered factors
for their effectiveness. With regard to the teaching approach, it seems that the more effective
teachers: set realistic objectives, try and give incentives to students for learning, apply various

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teaching methods, select participative forms of teaching, test and create didactic material, present
information in a clear manner, combine words with pictures, use various teaching aids, maximize
teaching time through systematic measures (e.g. planning, reduced disturbances in the classroom),
assign work that will stir the interests of the students, monitor and evaluate the progress of students,
set evaluation criteria for students and inform the students about them, and provide feedback to
the students. Another decisive factor in effectiveness is a teacher’s ability to recognize the diversity
of students, to choose the best method possible for each student, and to create incentives for
students.
First, to account for sorting of students to schools and teachers, I exploit in observation scores
within schools, across adjacent grades and years. Specifically, I specify models that include school
fixed effects and instructional quality scores averaged to the school-grade-year level. This
approach assumes that student and teacher assignments are random within schools and across
grades or years, which I explore in detail below. Second, to isolate the independent contribution
of instructional practices to student achievement, I condition on a uniquely rich set of teacher
characteristics, skills, and practices. I expect that there likely are additional factors that are difficult
to observe and, thus, are excluded from my data. Therefore, to explore the possible degree of bias
in my estimates.
I test the sensitivity of results to models that include different sets of covariates. Further, I interpret
findings in light of limitations associated with this approach. Results point to a positive
relationship between ambitious or inquiry-oriented mathematics instruction and performance on a
low-stakes test of students’ math knowledge of roughly 0.10 standard deviations. I also find
suggestive evidence for a negative relationship between mathematical errors and student
achievement, though estimates are sensitive to the specific set of teacher characteristics included
in the model.
I provide main results and threats to internal and external validity. I conclude by discussing the
implications of my findings for ongoing research and policy on teacher and teaching quality.
Although improving the quality of the teacher workforce is seen as an economic imperative, long-
standing traditions that reward education and training or offer financial incentives based on student
achievement have been met with limited success. Almost three decades ago is the “nature of
teachers’ work”. They argued that the “imprecise nature of the activity” makes it difficult to
describe why some teachers are good and what other teachers can do to improve. Recent

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investigations have sought to test this theory by comparing subjective and objective (i.e., “value-
added”) measures of teacher performance. Principals were able to distinguish between teachers in
the tails of the achievement distribution but not in the middle.
Correlations between principal ratings of teacher effectiveness and value added were weak to
moderate: 0.25 and 0.18 in math and reading, respectively (0.32 and 0.29 when adjusted for
measurement error). Further, while subjective ratings were a statistically significantly predictor of
future student achievement, they performed worse than objective measures. Including both in the
same regression model, estimates for principal ratings were 0.08 standard deviations (SD) in math
and 0.05 SD in reading; comparatively, estimates for value-added scores were 0.18 SD in math
and 0.10 SD in reading. This evidence led the authors to conclude that “good teaching is, at least
to some extent, observable by those close to the education process even though it may not be easily
captured in those variables commonly available to the econometrician”.
Q.4 Chose a most prevailing educational practice which have experienced. Describe this
practice and critically reflect upon how this practice has influenced your work?
As knowledge regarding human development and learning has grown at a rapid pace, the
opportunity to shape more effective educational practices has also increased. Taking advantage of
these advances, however, requires integrating insights across multiple fields—from the biological
and neurosciences to psychology, sociology, developmental and learning sciences—and
connecting them to knowledge of successful approaches that is emerging in education. This article
seeks to contribute to this process by drawing out the implications for school and classroom
practices of an emerging consensus about the science of learning and development (SoLD),
outlined in a recent synthesis of the research.
Using these articles as a foundation, we synthesize evidence from the learning sciences and several
branches of educational research about well-vetted strategies that support the kinds of relationships
and learning opportunities needed to promote children’s well-being, healthy development, and
transferable learning. In addition, we review research regarding practices that can help educators
respond to individual variability, address adversity, and support resilience, such that schools can
enable all children to learn and to find positive pathways to adulthood.
This work is situated in a relational developmental systems framework that looks at the “mutually
influential relations between individuals and contexts”. This framework makes it clear how
children’s development and learning are shaped by interactions among the environmental factors,

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relationships, and learning opportunities they experience, both in and out of school, along with
physical, psychological, cognitive, social, and emotional processes that influence one another—
both biologically and functionally—as they enable or undermine learning. Although our society
and our schools often compartmentalize these developmental processes and treat them as distinct
from one another—and treat the child as distinct from the many contexts she experiences—the
sciences of learning and development demonstate how tightly interrelated they are and how they
jointly produce the outcomes for which educators are responsible.
Key insights from the science of learning and development are that the brain and the development
of intelligences and capacities are malleable, and the “development of the brain is an experience-
dependent process”, which activates neural pathways that permit new kinds of thinking and
performance. As a function of experiences, the brain and human capacities grow over the course
of the entire developmental continuum and across the developmental spectrum (physical,
cognitive, affective) in interactive ways. What happens in one domain influences what happens in
others? For example, emotions can trigger or block learning. Emotions and social contexts shape
neural connections which contribute to attention, concentration, and memory, to knowledge
transfer and application. Understanding how developmental processes unfold over time and
interact in different contexts can contribute to more supportive designs for learning environments.
Furthermore, general trends in development are modified by interactions between unique aspects
of the child and his/her family, community, and classroom contexts. As a result, children have
individual needs and trajectories that require differentiated instruction and supports to enable
optimal growth in competence, confidence, and motivation.
A central implication for educators is that this integrated and dynamic developmental system is
optimally supported when all aspects of the educational environment support all of the dimensions
of children’s development. This calls for a deeply integrated approach to practice that supports the
whole child in schools and classrooms that function coherently and consistently to build strong
relationships and learning communities; support social, emotional, and cognitive development;
and provide a system of supports as needed for healthy development, productive relationships, and
academic progress. This holistic approach must necessarily connect with family and community
contexts: developing strong, respectful partnerships to understand and build on children’s
experiences and, as needed, to strengthen any aspects of the developmental system where there are
challenges to children’s health and well-being.

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In what follows, we describe the implications for practice of these interrelated systems that address
major developmental needs: the need for strong, supportive relationships that enable students to
take advantage of productive learning opportunities in cognitive, social, and emotional domains,
plus additional supports (physical, social, emotional, and/or academic) needed to address
individual circumstances that need attention at a moment in time to maintain a positive
developmental trajectory. We stress that all of these are interactive and interrelated and that these
aspects of education must be designed to work together in a tightly integrated
fashion. Figure illustrates the four areas that structure the remainder of this review:

1. Supportive environmental conditions that foster strong relationships and community.

These include positive sustained relationships that foster attachment and emotional
connections; physical, emotional, and identity safety; and a sense of belonging and
purpose;

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2. Productive instructional strategies that support motivation, competence, and self-directed

learning. These curriculum, teaching, and assessment strategies feature well-scaffolded
instruction and ongoing formative assessment that support conceptual understanding, take
students’ prior knowledge and experiences into account, and provide the right amount of
challenge and support on relevant and engaging learning tasks;
3. Social and Emotional Learning that fosters skills, habits, and mindsets that enable
academic progress, efficacy, and productive behavior. These include self-regulation,
executive function, intrapersonal awareness and interpersonal skills, a growth mindset,
and a sense of agency that supports resilience and productive action;
4. System of supports that enable healthy development, respond to student needs, and
address learning barriers. These include a multi-tiered system of academic, health, and
social supports that provide personalized resources within and beyond the classroom to
address and prevent developmental detours, including conditions of trauma and adversity.
Q.5 Describe the significance of sharing and publishing. Enlist some forums for both
categories.
haring and promoting your article form an important part of research, in terms of fostering the
exchange of scientific information in your field and allowing your paper to contribute to wider
scientific progress.
In addition, bringing your research and accomplishments to the attention of a broader audience
also makes you more visible in your field. This helps you to get more citations, enabling you to
cultivate a stronger reputation, promote your research and move forward in your career. This page
describes how you can share your article responsibly and offers advice to help you promote it
widely.
One of the cornerstones of academia is archival journal publication. Publishing provides a
communication channel for researchers within a field, a repository of important research efforts,
and a recognition mechanism for researchers and institutions alike. However, despite its ubiquitous
presence, the publication process remains both daunting and confusing to some doctoral students
and newer faculty members. The junior academic knows that not meeting archival journal
publication standards in quality and quantity may result in her or his career being severely hindered
or even truncated. Other than this threatening consequence, new engineering faculty members have
been offered little in the way of structured advice regarding a successful publication career.

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This CD ROM attempts to explain the process generically and simply. It gives tricks of the trade,
best practices and definitions. It also provides advice and motivation on why and how to publish.
But the best way to achieve mastery of this subject is by doing - write the paper, send it for review
and deal with the reviews, revisions and rejections that follow.
Learn how to search abstracts, check your citations, analyze the impact factors of the journals in
which publish.
Get involved with a journal - volunteer to review a paper, nominate yourself or get nominated to
join the editorial board as an associate editor.
This process is our process - it is organized and implemented by fellow academics. It is only as
good as the care, effort and thought that each of us puts into it!
There are several key benefits to publishing research in journals:
DISCOVERABILITY
• Publishing in journals can give your work visibility among other researchers in your field,
outside of your immediate circle of contacts and colleagues.
• Journals can makes your work more discoverable, as they are already being read by circles
of interested readers.
• Journals often have sophisticated distribution networks, placing work into libraries,
organisations and institutes, and through letterboxes of readers around the world.
CONTRIBUTING TO THE RECORDS OF RESEARCH IN THE FIELD
• Journal publication helps to preserve your work in the permanent records of research in the
field.
• Adding your work to this record involves you in the active research community for a topic,
helping to expand your professional network, increasing potential for collaboration and
interaction with peers.
• Publishing your work through visible sources helps others to learn. By adding your
experiences to the literature of the field, it helps to build the corpus of knowledge in your
subject area.
THE BENEFITS OF PEER REVIEW
• The peer review process helps improve the presentation and communication of research.
The feedback can help you to frame your arguments in the most effective ways, and may
even present valuable new insights into your own work. In addition, the peer review

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process can also help you reach peers and senior members of the research community by
having journal editors, editorial boards and reviewers read your work.
DISSEMINATION AND IMPACT
• Selecting the appropriate journals can help add information to the public discussion of
contemporary topics, beyond academic circles.
• You may be required by funding agencies to publish your work in certain journals, as open
access, or meeting other criteria stipulated in your grant award.
• As well as the publication itself, particular journals may help you to engage with audiences,
and meet requirements to achieve or provide certain impact metrics, evidence of
engagement and interaction with your work.
CAREER ADVANCEMENT
• Publishing in particular journals can be an essential component to advance your career, by
meeting necessary assessment criteria and output performance targets.
PREVENTING DUPLICATION OF EFFORT
• And last but by no means least, publishing your work can prevent waste and increase
efficiencies, by enabling others to build on your achievements or avoid unnecessary
duplication of efforts.

ASSIGNMENT No. 2
Q.1 How can Gibb’s cycle develop the blocked mental faculties?
Gibbs' Reflective Cycle was developed by Graham Gibbs in 1988 to give structure to learning
from experiences. It offers a framework for examining experiences, and given its cyclic nature
lends itself particularly well to repeated experiences, allowing you to learn and plan from things
that either went well or didn’t go well. It covers 6 stages:
Description of the experience
Feelings and thoughts about the experience
Evaluation of the experience, both good and bad
Analysis to make sense of the situation
Conclusion about what you learned and what you could have done differently
Action plan for how you would deal with similar situations in the future, or general changes you
might find appropriate.

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Below is further information on:

The model – each stage is given a fuller description, guiding questions to ask yourself and an
example of how this might look in a reflection
Different depths of reflection – an example of reflecting more briefly using this model
This is just one model of reflection. Test it out and see how it works for you. If you find that only
a few of the questions are helpful for you, focus on those. However, by thinking about each stage
you are more likely to engage critically with your learning experience.

This model is a good way to work through an experience. This can be either a stand-alone
experience or a situation you go through frequently, for example meetings with a team you have
to collaborate with. Gibbs originally advocated its use in repeated situations, but the stages and
principles apply equally well for single experiences too. If done with a stand-alone experience, the
action plan may become more general and look at how you can apply your conclusions in the
future.
For each of the stages of the model a number of helpful questions are outlined below. You don’t
have to answer all of them but they can guide you about what sort of things make sense to include
in that stage. You might have other prompts that work better for you.

Group work assignment

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For an assessed written group-work assignment, my group (3 others from my course) and I decided to divide
the different sections between us so that we only had to research one element each. We expected we could
just piece the assignment together in the afternoon the day before the deadline, meaning that we didn’t have
to schedule time to sit and write it together. However, when we sat down it was clear the sections weren’t
written in the same writing style. We therefore had to rewrite most of the assignment to make it a coherent
piece of work. We had given ourselves enough time before the deadline to individually write our own
sections, however we did not plan a great deal of time to rewrite if something were to go wrong. Therefore,
two members of the group had to drop their plans that evening so the assignment would be finished in time
for the deadline.

Feelings
Here you can explore any feelings or thoughts that you had during the experience and how they
may have impacted the experience.
Helpful questions:
What were you feeling during the situation?
What were you feeling before and after the situation?
What do you think other people were feeling about the situation?
What do you think other people feel about the situation now?
What were you thinking during the situation?
What do you think about the situation now?
Example of 'Feelings'

Group work assignment

Before we came together and realised we still had a lot of work to do, I was quite happy and thought we had
been smart when we divided the work between us. When we realised we couldn’t hand in the assignment
like it was, I got quite frustrated. I was certain it was going to work, and therefore I had little motivation to
actually do the rewriting. Given that a couple of people from the group had to cancel their plans I ended up
feeling quite guilty, which actually helped me to work harder in the evening and get the work done faster.
Looking back, I’m feeling satisfied that we decided to put in the work.

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Evaluation
Here you have a chance to evaluate what worked and what didn’t work in the situation. Try to be
as objective and honest as possible. To get the most out of your reflection focus on both the positive
and the negative aspects of the situation, even if it was primarily one or the other.
Helpful questions:
What was good and bad about the experience?
What went well?
What didn’t go so well?
What did you and other people contribute to the situation (positively or negatively)?
Example of 'Evaluation'

Group work assignment

The things that were good and worked well was the fact that each group member produced good quality work
for the agreed deadline. Moreover, the fact that two people from the group cancelled plans motivated us to
work harder in the evening. That contributed positively to the group’s work ethic. The things that clearly didn’t
work was that we assumed we wrote in the same way, and therefore the overall time plan of the group failed.

Analysis
The analysis step is where you have a chance to make sense of what happened. Up until now you
have focused on details around what happened in the situation. Now you have a chance to extract
meaning from it. You want to target the different aspects that went well or poorly and ask yourself
why. If you are looking to include academic literature, this is the natural place to include it.
Helpful questions:
Why did things go well?
Why didn’t it go well?
What sense can I make of the situation?
What knowledge – my own or others (for example academic literature) can help me understand
the situation?
Example of 'Analysis'

Group work assignment

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I think the reason that our initial division of work went well was because each person had a say in what part
of the assignment they wanted to work on, and we divided according to people’s self-identified strengths. I
have experienced working this way before and discovered when I’m working by myself I enjoy working in
areas that match my strengths. It seems natural to me that this is also the case in groups.
I think we thought that this approach would save us time when piecing together the sections in the end, and
therefore we didn’t think it through. In reality, it ended up costing us far more time than expected and we also
had to stress and rush through the rewrite. I think the fact we hadn’t planned how we were writing and
structuring the sections led us to this situation.
I searched through some literature on group work and found two things that help me understand the situation.
Belbin’s (e.g. 2010) team roles suggests that each person has certain strengths and weaknesses they bring to
a group. While we didn’t think about our team members in the same way Belbin does, effective team work
and work delegation seems to come from using people’s different strengths, which we did.
Another theory that might help explain why we didn’t predict the plan wouldn’t work is ‘Groupthink’ (e.g.
Janis, 1991). Groupthink is where people in a group won’t raise different opinions to a dominant opinion or
decision, because they don’t want to seem like an outsider. I think if we had challenged our assumptions about
our plan - by actually being critical, we would probably have foreseen that it wouldn’t work. Some
characteristics of groupthink that were in our group were: ‘collective rationalisation’ – we kept telling each
other that it would work; and probably ‘illusion of invulnerability’ – we are all good students, so of course
we couldn’t do anything wrong.
I think being aware of groupthink in the future will be helpful in group work, when trying to make decisions.

In this section you can make conclusions about what happened. This is where you summarise your
learning and highlight what changes to your actions could improve the outcome in the future. It
should be a natural response to the previous sections.
Helpful questions:
What did I learn from this situation?
How could this have been a more positive situation for everyone involved?
What skills do I need to develop for me to handle a situation like this better?
What else could I have done?
Example of a 'Conclusion'

Group work assignment

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I learned that when a group wants to divide work, we must plan how we want each section to look and feel
– having done this would likely have made it possible to put the sections together and submit without much
or any rewriting. Moreover, I will continue to have people self-identify their strengths and possibly even
suggest using the ‘Belbin team roles’-framework with longer projects. Lastly, I learned that we sometimes
have to challenge the decisions we seem to agree on in the group to ensure that we are not agreeing just
because of groupthink.

Action plan
At this step you plan for what you would do differently in a similar or related situation in the future.
It can also be extremely helpful to think about how you will help yourself to act differently – such
that you don’t only plan what you will do differently, but also how you will make sure it happens.
Sometimes just the realisation is enough, but other times reminders might be helpful.
Helpful questions:
If I had to do the same thing again, what would I do differently?
How will I develop the required skills I need?
How can I make sure that I can act differently next time?
Example of 'Action Plan'

Group work assignment

When I’m working with a group next time, I will talk to them about what strengths they have. This is easy
to do and remember in a first meeting, and also potentially works as an ice-breaker if we don’t know each
other well. Next, if we decide to divide work, I will insist that we plan out what we expect from it beforehand.
Potentially I would suggest writing the introduction or first section together first, so that we have a reference
for when we are writing our own parts. I’m confident this current experience will be enough to remind me
to suggest this if anyone says we should divide up the work in the future. Lastly, I will ask if we can challenge
our initial decisions so that we are confident we are making informed decisions to avoid groupthink. If I have
any concerns, I will tell the group. I think by remembering I want the best result possible will make me be
able to disagree even when it feels uncomfortable.

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Different depths of reflection

Depending on the context you are doing the reflection in, you might want use different levels of
details. Here is the same scenario, which was used in the example above, however it is presented
much more briefly.

Short example of Gibbs’ reflective cycle:

Describe:
In a group work assignment, we divided sections according to people’s strengths. When we tried to piece
the assignment together it was written in different styles and therefore we had to spend time rewriting it.

Feelings:
I thought our plan would work and felt good about it. When we had to rewrite it, I felt frustrated.

Evaluation:
The process of dividing sections went well. However, it didn’t work not having foreseen/planned rewriting
the sections for coherence and writing styles.

Analysis:
Dividing work according to individual strengths is useful. Belbin’s team roles (2010) would suggest
something similar. I have done it before and it seems to work well.
The reason piecing work together didn’t work was we had no plan for what it needed to look like. We were
so focused on finishing quickly that no one would raise a concern. The last part can be explained by
‘groupthink’ (e.g. Jarvis, 1991), where members of a group make a suboptimal decision because individuals
are afraid of challenging the consensus.

Conclusion:
I learned that using people’s strengths is efficient. Moreover, planning how we want the work to look, before
we go off on our own is helpful. Lastly, I will remember the dangers of groupthink, and what the theory
suggests to look out for.

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Action plan:
I will use Belbin’s team roles to divide group work in the future. Moreover, I will suggest writing one section
together before we do our own work, so we can mirror that in our own writing. Finally, I will speak my mind
when I have concerns, by remembering it can benefit the outcome.

Q.2 Identify a problem for action research, make it narrow and propose a plan for the
triangulation.
Teacher research can be a powerful form of professional development that can change a teacher's
practice. But what is it exactly and what does it involve?
Teacher research is practical, action-based research. It enables educators to follow their interests
and their needs as they investigate what they and their students do. Teachers who practice teacher
research find that it expands and enriches their teaching skills and puts them in collaborative
contact with peers that have a like interest in classroom research. Some researchers call this type
of research "action research." By definition (Mills, 2002):
Action research is any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher-researchers, principals, school
counselors, or other stakeholders in the teaching/learning environment to gather information about
how their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students learn. This
information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting
positive changes in the school environment (and on educational practices in general), and
improving student outcomes and the lives of those involved.
19. Teacher-researchers simultaneously act as participants and observers as they conduct
research in their own classrooms. With these dual roles, they complete the following tasks:
20. Develop research questions based on their own curiosity about teaching and learning in
their classrooms.
21. Systematically collect data and research various methods of conducting research.
22. Analyze and interpret the data and the research methodology.
23. Write about their own research.
24. Share findings with students, colleagues, and members of the educational community.
25. Discuss with colleagues relationships among practice, theory, and their own research.
26. Examine their underlying assumptions about teaching and learning.
27. Assume responsibility for their own professional growth.

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28. Teacher research can change a teacher's practice, but it can also have a profound effect on
the development of priorities for schoolwide planning and assessment efforts as well as
contribute to the profession's body of knowledge about teaching and learning.
29. Teacher-research projects often yield findings and implications that result in:
30. Increased sharing and collaboration across departments, disciplines, and grade levels.
31. Increased dialogue about instructional issues and student learning.
32. Enhanced communication between teachers and students.
33. Improved performance of students.
34. Revision of practice based on new knowledge about teaching and learning.
35. Teacher-designed and teacher-initiated staff development.
36. Development of priorities for schoolwide planning and assessment efforts.
Contributions to the profession's body of knowledge about teaching and learning. For teachers to
become involved in teacher research, they need additional time and resources to conduct, evaluate,
and share their findings in meaningful ways. Fortunately in my school district, Fairfax County
Public Schools, we have a number of resources available for teachers wishing to become involved
in teacher research.
The Office of Staff Development and Planning (a division of Instructional Services) supports a
network of teacher-researchers within our school system. The Office provides staff development
funds to teams of teacher-researchers to meet periodically during the school year as they support
one another in their research. Each spring, the Office holds an annual conference where teacher-
researchers share their projects with members of the broad educational community in round table
presentations and panel discussions. Workshops are also available on topics such as grant writing
to support research and tips for publishing projects. Marion S. MacLean and Marian M. Mohr
provide actual teacher research project reports by Fairfax County teachers in their book, Teacher-
Researchers at Work (1999).
Q.3 Critically analyze current syllabus of English being taught at grade four.
List four class criteria that shape the traditional view of a profession: remuneration, social status,
autonomous or authoritative power, and service. Perpetually, a list of characteristics is typical of
occupations that have been traditionally regarded as professions, especially law and medicine.
These characteristics include: professional autonomy; a clearly defined, highly developed,
specialized, and theoretical knowledge base; control of training, certification, and licensing of new

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entrants; self-governing and self-policing authority, especially with regard to professional ethics;
and a commitment to public service. The presence of a collegium among the essential
characteristics of a modern profession. Eight characteristics common to most professions are
having an esoteric service; pre service study; registration and regulation by the profession itself;
peer appraisal and review; professional code of conduct; earned status; the ideal of public service
and client concern. The fundamental aspects of a profession as specific body of knowledge, ideal
of service, ethical codes, autonomy and distinctive culture.
The selected seven characteristics of a profession are: essential service to society, motivated by
call to serve, special knowledge and skills, specialized advanced university training, public trust
and status, code of ethics and performance standards, and professional organization.
Professional teachers should develop as lifelong learners, reflective thinkers, and ethical leaders
exemplifying the ideals of literacy, scholarship, and social justice in a diverse and ever-changing
world. National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education has defined dispositions of a
teacher as the values, commitments and professional ethics that influence behavior towards
students, families, colleagues, and communities, and affect student learning, motivation, and
development as well as the educator’s own professional growth.
The dispositions or the characteristics of the educator thus have a direct impact on all with whom
he connects. A number of studies have been done in demarcating the characteristics of an educator.
Historically, research studies have yielded copious lists of attributes and attitudes exhibited by
effective teachers. The Purdue studies for all identified specific characteristics that were associated
with effective teachers. These characteristics were gathered from a variety of perspectives
including student opinions, observation and teacher self-reporting.
Didactic and pedagogical skills are not only understood as familiarization with techniques that are
then used mechanically, but also as the acquisition of routines which, without a doubt, every
teacher needs in order to save time and energy for the more significant aspects of his work; at the
same time, they refer to a set of theoretical principles and research data that lead to a variety of
techniques and strategies which a teacher chooses and shapes, depending on the circumstances (for
the discussion on teacher skills as an element of professional competency).
A plethora of related studies shows specific actions by teachers which can be considered factors
for their effectiveness. With regard to the teaching approach, it seems that the more effective
teachers: set realistic objectives, try and give incentives to students for learning, apply various

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teaching methods, select participative forms of teaching, test and create didactic material, present
information in a clear manner, combine words with pictures, use various teaching aids, maximize
teaching time through systematic measures (e.g. planning, reduced disturbances in the classroom),
assign work that will stir the interests of the students, monitor and evaluate the progress of students,
set evaluation criteria for students and inform the students about them, and provide feedback to
the students. Another decisive factor in effectiveness is a teacher’s ability to recognize the diversity
of students, to choose the best method possible for each student, and to create incentives for
students.
First, to account for sorting of students to schools and teachers, I exploit in observation scores
within schools, across adjacent grades and years. Specifically, I specify models that include school
fixed effects and instructional quality scores averaged to the school-grade-year level. This
approach assumes that student and teacher assignments are random within schools and across
grades or years, which I explore in detail below. Second, to isolate the independent contribution
of instructional practices to student achievement, I condition on a uniquely rich set of teacher
characteristics, skills, and practices. I expect that there likely are additional factors that are difficult
to observe and, thus, are excluded from my data. Therefore, to explore the possible degree of bias
in my estimates.
I test the sensitivity of results to models that include different sets of covariates. Further, I interpret
findings in light of limitations associated with this approach. Results point to a positive
relationship between ambitious or inquiry-oriented mathematics instruction and performance on a
low-stakes test of students’ math knowledge of roughly 0.10 standard deviations. I also find
suggestive evidence for a negative relationship between mathematical errors and student
achievement, though estimates are sensitive to the specific set of teacher characteristics included
in the model.
I provide main results and threats to internal and external validity. I conclude by discussing the
implications of my findings for ongoing research and policy on teacher and teaching quality.
Although improving the quality of the teacher workforce is seen as an economic imperative, long-
standing traditions that reward education and training or offer financial incentives based on student
achievement have been met with limited success. Almost three decades ago is the “nature of
teachers’ work”. They argued that the “imprecise nature of the activity” makes it difficult to
describe why some teachers are good and what other teachers can do to improve. Recent

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investigations have sought to test this theory by comparing subjective and objective (i.e., “value-
added”) measures of teacher performance. Principals were able to distinguish between teachers in
the tails of the achievement distribution but not in the middle.
Correlations between principal ratings of teacher effectiveness and value added were weak to
moderate: 0.25 and 0.18 in math and reading, respectively (0.32 and 0.29 when adjusted for
measurement error). Further, while subjective ratings were a statistically significantly predictor of
future student achievement, they performed worse than objective measures. Including both in the
same regression model, estimates for principal ratings were 0.08 standard deviations (SD) in math
and 0.05 SD in reading; comparatively, estimates for value-added scores were 0.18 SD in math
and 0.10 SD in reading. This evidence led the authors to conclude that “good teaching is, at least
to some extent, observable by those close to the education process even though it may not be easily
captured in those variables commonly available to the econometrician”.
Q.4 Chose a most prevailing educational practice which have experienced. Describe this
practice and critically reflect upon how this practice has influenced your work?
As knowledge regarding human development and learning has grown at a rapid pace, the
opportunity to shape more effective educational practices has also increased. Taking advantage of
these advances, however, requires integrating insights across multiple fields—from the biological
and neurosciences to psychology, sociology, developmental and learning sciences—and
connecting them to knowledge of successful approaches that is emerging in education. This article
seeks to contribute to this process by drawing out the implications for school and classroom
practices of an emerging consensus about the science of learning and development (SoLD),
outlined in a recent synthesis of the research.
Using these articles as a foundation, we synthesize evidence from the learning sciences and several
branches of educational research about well-vetted strategies that support the kinds of relationships
and learning opportunities needed to promote children’s well-being, healthy development, and
transferable learning. In addition, we review research regarding practices that can help educators
respond to individual variability, address adversity, and support resilience, such that schools can
enable all children to learn and to find positive pathways to adulthood.
This work is situated in a relational developmental systems framework that looks at the “mutually
influential relations between individuals and contexts”. This framework makes it clear how
children’s development and learning are shaped by interactions among the environmental factors,

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relationships, and learning opportunities they experience, both in and out of school, along with
physical, psychological, cognitive, social, and emotional processes that influence one another—
both biologically and functionally—as they enable or undermine learning. Although our society
and our schools often compartmentalize these developmental processes and treat them as distinct
from one another—and treat the child as distinct from the many contexts she experiences—the
sciences of learning and development demonstate how tightly interrelated they are and how they
jointly produce the outcomes for which educators are responsible.
Key insights from the science of learning and development are that the brain and the development
of intelligences and capacities are malleable, and the “development of the brain is an experience-
dependent process”, which activates neural pathways that permit new kinds of thinking and
performance. As a function of experiences, the brain and human capacities grow over the course
of the entire developmental continuum and across the developmental spectrum (physical,
cognitive, affective) in interactive ways. What happens in one domain influences what happens in
others? For example, emotions can trigger or block learning. Emotions and social contexts shape
neural connections which contribute to attention, concentration, and memory, to knowledge
transfer and application. Understanding how developmental processes unfold over time and
interact in different contexts can contribute to more supportive designs for learning environments.
Furthermore, general trends in development are modified by interactions between unique aspects
of the child and his/her family, community, and classroom contexts. As a result, children have
individual needs and trajectories that require differentiated instruction and supports to enable
optimal growth in competence, confidence, and motivation.
A central implication for educators is that this integrated and dynamic developmental system is
optimally supported when all aspects of the educational environment support all of the dimensions
of children’s development. This calls for a deeply integrated approach to practice that supports the
whole child in schools and classrooms that function coherently and consistently to build strong
relationships and learning communities; support social, emotional, and cognitive development;
and provide a system of supports as needed for healthy development, productive relationships, and
academic progress. This holistic approach must necessarily connect with family and community
contexts: developing strong, respectful partnerships to understand and build on children’s
experiences and, as needed, to strengthen any aspects of the developmental system where there are
challenges to children’s health and well-being.

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In what follows, we describe the implications for practice of these interrelated systems that address
major developmental needs: the need for strong, supportive relationships that enable students to
take advantage of productive learning opportunities in cognitive, social, and emotional domains,
plus additional supports (physical, social, emotional, and/or academic) needed to address
individual circumstances that need attention at a moment in time to maintain a positive
developmental trajectory. We stress that all of these are interactive and interrelated and that these
aspects of education must be designed to work together in a tightly integrated
fashion. Figure illustrates the four areas that structure the remainder of this review:

5. Supportive environmental conditions that foster strong relationships and community.

These include positive sustained relationships that foster attachment and emotional
connections; physical, emotional, and identity safety; and a sense of belonging and
purpose;

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6. Productive instructional strategies that support motivation, competence, and self-directed

learning. These curriculum, teaching, and assessment strategies feature well-scaffolded
instruction and ongoing formative assessment that support conceptual understanding, take
students’ prior knowledge and experiences into account, and provide the right amount of
challenge and support on relevant and engaging learning tasks;
7. Social and Emotional Learning that fosters skills, habits, and mindsets that enable
academic progress, efficacy, and productive behavior. These include self-regulation,
executive function, intrapersonal awareness and interpersonal skills, a growth mindset,
and a sense of agency that supports resilience and productive action;
8. System of supports that enable healthy development, respond to student needs, and
address learning barriers. These include a multi-tiered system of academic, health, and
social supports that provide personalized resources within and beyond the classroom to
address and prevent developmental detours, including conditions of trauma and adversity.
Q.5 Describe the significance of sharing and publishing. Enlist some forums for both
categories.
haring and promoting your article form an important part of research, in terms of fostering the
exchange of scientific information in your field and allowing your paper to contribute to wider
scientific progress.
In addition, bringing your research and accomplishments to the attention of a broader audience
also makes you more visible in your field. This helps you to get more citations, enabling you to
cultivate a stronger reputation, promote your research and move forward in your career. This page
describes how you can share your article responsibly and offers advice to help you promote it
widely.
One of the cornerstones of academia is archival journal publication. Publishing provides a
communication channel for researchers within a field, a repository of important research efforts,
and a recognition mechanism for researchers and institutions alike. However, despite its ubiquitous
presence, the publication process remains both daunting and confusing to some doctoral students
and newer faculty members. The junior academic knows that not meeting archival journal
publication standards in quality and quantity may result in her or his career being severely hindered
or even truncated. Other than this threatening consequence, new engineering faculty members have
been offered little in the way of structured advice regarding a successful publication career.

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This CD ROM attempts to explain the process generically and simply. It gives tricks of the trade,
best practices and definitions. It also provides advice and motivation on why and how to publish.
But the best way to achieve mastery of this subject is by doing - write the paper, send it for review
and deal with the reviews, revisions and rejections that follow.
Learn how to search abstracts, check your citations, analyze the impact factors of the journals in
which publish.
Get involved with a journal - volunteer to review a paper, nominate yourself or get nominated to
join the editorial board as an associate editor.
This process is our process - it is organized and implemented by fellow academics. It is only as
good as the care, effort and thought that each of us puts into it!
There are several key benefits to publishing research in journals:
DISCOVERABILITY
• Publishing in journals can give your work visibility among other researchers in your field,
outside of your immediate circle of contacts and colleagues.
• Journals can makes your work more discoverable, as they are already being read by circles
of interested readers.
• Journals often have sophisticated distribution networks, placing work into libraries,
organisations and institutes, and through letterboxes of readers around the world.
CONTRIBUTING TO THE RECORDS OF RESEARCH IN THE FIELD
• Journal publication helps to preserve your work in the permanent records of research in the
field.
• Adding your work to this record involves you in the active research community for a topic,
helping to expand your professional network, increasing potential for collaboration and
interaction with peers.
• Publishing your work through visible sources helps others to learn. By adding your
experiences to the literature of the field, it helps to build the corpus of knowledge in your
subject area.
THE BENEFITS OF PEER REVIEW
• The peer review process helps improve the presentation and communication of research.
The feedback can help you to frame your arguments in the most effective ways, and may
even present valuable new insights into your own work. In addition, the peer review

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process can also help you reach peers and senior members of the research community by
having journal editors, editorial boards and reviewers read your work.
DISSEMINATION AND IMPACT
• Selecting the appropriate journals can help add information to the public discussion of
contemporary topics, beyond academic circles.
• You may be required by funding agencies to publish your work in certain journals, as open
access, or meeting other criteria stipulated in your grant award.
• As well as the publication itself, particular journals may help you to engage with audiences,
and meet requirements to achieve or provide certain impact metrics, evidence of
engagement and interaction with your work.
CAREER ADVANCEMENT
• Publishing in particular journals can be an essential component to advance your career, by
meeting necessary assessment criteria and output performance targets.
PREVENTING DUPLICATION OF EFFORT
• And last but by no means least, publishing your work can prevent waste and increase
efficiencies, by enabling others to build on your achievements or avoid unnecessary
duplication of efforts.

Assignment 1
Question:1
Take an article of your interest and critically analyze that how social,
economic and ethical aspects of that topic has been considered?
Problems of education in Pakistan:
Education is the road to national development. It creates sense of responsibility among the people.
On the basis of education people not only realize their duties but also know how to achieve their national,
societal and individual rights. One of the goals of education is to enable the people by enhancing their
general consciousness regarding their national and international position as global citizens. This
realization creates an atmosphere of trust and cooperation in the society. Education promotes economic
development and consequently people become prosperous and play their respective roles in the overall
national development. Pakistan is a developing country. Its economy is weak. There is lack of political
stability in the country. Besides, the country is in the deep grip of increasing political turmoil, expanding
terrorism, incessant sectarian violence, social instability, and economic degeneration. All these problems
are directly or indirectly the offshoot of a weak, polarized and non-unified education system.
Today Pakistan is faced with many problems such as poverty, insecurity, sectarianism and terrorism. The

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reasons for these problems are lack of tolerance, lack of general awareness and illiteracy promoted
by an ineffective education system. The vital role of education has been neglected in Pakistan which has
led to low development in all fields of life. Education has been treated like a step child. The lowest budget
has been awarded to the system of education since the establishment of Pakistan which has weakened the
foundation of the quality in the education system. The education system, hence, has failed to raise the
nation economically, politically and socially. After lapse of half a century years and adoption of more
than 25 educational polices, still the education system has badly failed to take the nation out of the
increasing
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION
The education system of Pakistan despite of towering claims and plans faces the following problems
which are critically analyzed below;
1. Lack of uniformity
The system of education in Pakistan according to Iqbal (1981) is not based on uniform principles.
Different systems of education are simultaneously working in the country. The curriculum is also not
uniformed which has given birth to different schools of thoughts. For example there is a world of
difference between the attitudes of students coming out from the public educational institutions, Deeni
Madaris and the few private elite institutions. This trend has accelerated the pace of polarization in the
society. According to Zaki (1989) this is the result of divisive Pakistani education system [1]. This system
has created a huge gap among the nation and even has deeply penetrated into the cultural veins of the
nation. The recent wave of terrorism and the increasing sectarian division are the logical consequences of
this divided system of education. As a result of this current polarized system of education there has
occurred a great social division in the society on political, social and economic grounds rather than unity
among the people which is cutting knee deep the ideological and social foundation of the nation leading
towards further divisions on linguistic and regional grounds which can poetentailly damage the social
cohesion and fabric of the society .
2. Education without direction
A sound education system is essential for every nation of the world [8]. Every nation develops its
generation on the basis of vigorous training and education on social, political, economic and ideological
grounds. Pakistani education system due being directionless and weak has not been able to develop and
guide its people on sound political and social grounds. There is lack of cohesion in the system and it is
more prone towards general education which does not bring any skilled manpower to the market.
Resulting there is increasing unemployment. This situation may promote sense of deprivation among the
masses. Due to this there is cultural and political unrest in the society. Besides, there is lack of
educational opportunities for science and technology. In this way the development of thinking, reasoning
and creativity of students is not being polished.
3. Outdated curricula
Curriculum is the tool through which the goals of education are achieved. The curriculum of
education in Pakistan does not meet the demands of the current times. It is an old and traditional
curriculum
Critical Analysis of The Problems of Education in Pakistan:
Possible Solutions
which compels the learners to memorize certain facts and figures without taking into consideration the
reality that education is the holistic development of an individual. It places much emphasis on the
psychology of the learner as well which cannot be negated in the process of teaching and learning. The

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objectives of education must be developed the psychological, philosophical and sociological foundations
of education. The present educational curriculum of Pakistan does not meet these modern standards of
education and research. Hence this curriculum is not promoting the interest of the learner for practical
work, research, scientific knowledge and reflective observation, rather, it emphasizes on memory and
theory.
4. Lack of professional development of teachers
Training is essential for quality performance. Teaching is a challenging job. There is lack of training
opportunities for teachers in Pakistan. Although there various teacher training institutes in the country.
These
institutes are either not well resourced or being poor run due to lack of fund and trained human resource
such
trainers and administrators. There are no proper training standards in the available training institutes
around
the country. Most of the training institutes have been closed down due to lack of funds. The courses being
run in the teacher education intuitions are outdated and very traditional which does not enhance the skills,
motivation and quality of teachers [1].
5. Alarming dropouts
Due to lack of effective management of schools there is lack of discipline in schools and other
educational institutions which leads to high scale dropouts of students. This trend has increased to such an
extent that there are now 40 lac students out of school due to drop out in Pakistan. This trend according to
Hayes (1989) is due to partly the punishment in schools, poor motivating or unattractive school
environment and partly due to weak parenting on the part of parents. Child labour and poverty is also one
of the reasons for dropouts form schools. An estimated 30 percent of children enrolled in primary
education reach tothe matric level. This trend in Pakistan has added to the low literacy rate as well .
6. System of examination
Examination is the evaluation of student’s learning. It should be based on qualitative and
quantitative techniques to comprehensively evaluate the performance of students. The standards must
ensure validity and reliability of the procedures used in the assessment process. The basic aim of
assessment is to evaluate the performance of students. The examination system of Pakistan is not only
outdated but it also does not have the quality to evaluate the performance of learners comprehensively.
The examination system of Pakistan tests only the memory of students. It does not evaluate them in all
aspects of learning. Moreover, the examinations are influenced by external and internal forces which have
encouragedthe trend of illegal practices such as unfair means. As a result of this the examination system
promotes rote learning and cramming which negates the role of high intellectual power of learners in the
education process such as critical thinking, reflection, analytical skills and so on. It does not measure the
actual achievements and performance of students.
7. Poor supervisory standards
The role of supervision is to explore weaknesses or faults of teachers and showing a harsh treatment
in form of transfers to remote areas or even termination from services .Supervision is the monitoring of
teaching and learning. Through effective supervision techniques the process of teaching and learning
could beimproved. The system of school supervision is aimless. There is not only lack of supervisory
activities in schools but the process of supervision itself does not bring any positive results for teachers
and students.economic, political and social quagmire Supervision system is concerned with controlling
and harassing the teachers rather than providing help and guidance for improvement of performance .
8. Internal and external influences
Education system in Pakistan is not free from external and internal influences. Externally the system

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has been made hostage to political interference and internally it is plagued by the bureaucratic
manipulations There is a greater favoritism and nepotism in matters of transfers, appointments and
promotions. Due to this the basic infrastructure of the education system in Pakistan has affected.
9. Lack of resources
Education resources such as books, libraries and physical facilities are important for smooth running
of educational process. There are despairingly no facilities of books, libraries and reading materials in all
educational institutions of the country. Besides, there are overcrowded classrooms, inadequate teachers
and ill-equipped laboratories. This entire grim situation has resulted in a despair and low standard
education system .

Question:2
While you were at school/college; were you conscious of social class conflict?
How will you narrate it with reference to your schooling?
Social Control
The conflict theory perspective towards education focuses on the role school systems may play in
implementing social control.
Conflict Theory
Conflict theory assumes that the ideas held by a society are the ideas of the ruling class. The ruling class
uses schools, along with the media and other means of communication, to disseminate ideas that will
support its continued rule. Given this assumption, the conflict perspective often focuses on the role school
systems may play in influencing public opinion, or implementing social control.
Social control refers generally to societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate individual
and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social
group. Schools can further goals of social control by socializing students into behaving in socially
acceptable ways. Some may consider this type of socialization a form of indoctrination. In any case, the
social values that are present in individuals are products of informal social control. It is exercised by a
society without explicitly stating these rules and is expressed through customs, norms, and mores.
Individuals are socialized consciously or subconsciously.
Enforcement
Social control may be enforced using informal sanctions, which may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm,
criticism and disapproval. In extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion.
For example, schoolmates may enforce gender norms by ridiculing boys who undertake actions
considered feminine, such as writing poetry or dancing. Informal sanctions can have a powerful effect;
individuals internalize the norm, which becomes an aspect of personality.
Social control may also be enforced using formal sanctions. Formal sanctions may be used in a large
group in which an individual can choose to ignore the sanctions of other individuals. This form of control
usually takes the form of government action. Government and organizations use law enforcement
mechanisms and other formal sanctions, such as fines and imprisonment. In schools, formal sanctions
may include detention, suspension, or other formal punishments.

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By means of social control, students are taught the boundaries of acceptable behavior. They carry these
lessons with them into everyday life and, later, into careers. Thus, the social control lessons learned in
school may prepare students, for example, to be a docile proletariat in a capitalist economy.
Characteristics
Defined tracks often mirror class divisions in society. Thus, traditionally, students were tracked into
academic, general, and vocational tracks. Academic tracks prepare students for advanced study and
professions such as medicine or law, whereas general and vocational tracks were meant to prepare
students for middle or working class life. Students in academically advanced tracks study higher
mathematics, more foreign languages, and literature. Students in less academic tracks acquire vocational
skills such as welding or cosmetology, or business skills, such as typing or bookkeeping. Students are
usually not offered the opportunity to take classes deemed more appropriate for another track, even if the
student has a demonstrated interest and ability in the subject. Today, few schools use tracking systems
that so overtly differentiate upper, middle, and working class skills. Instead, many secondary schools now
base track levels on course difficulty, with tracks such as basic, honors, or college-prep.
Tracking systems vary widely in their characteristics. Some may extend to the entire school system so
that students follow a track that begins in elementary school and continues until high school graduation.
Other schools may use tracking only for certain classes or subjects. Systems may also vary in their
flexibility and the opportunities for mobility given to students. In some cases, placement is based entirely
on student preferences. In other cases, test scores may be used to determine a student’s track. Counselors
may also work with students to choose a particular class that in turn puts them on a given track. Parents
and peers may influence academic choices even more than guidance counselors by encouraging students
with similar backgrounds (academic, vocational, ethnic, religious, or racial) to stay together. Other times,
students are placed into tracks without any knowledge or input into the process.
Advantages
Proponents of tracking say that tracking allows teachers to better direct lessons toward the specific ability
level of the students in each class. Research suggests that tracking produces substantial gains for gifted
students in tracks specially designed for the gifted and talented, meeting the need for highly gifted
students to be with their intellectual peers in order to be appropriately challenged. However, average and
low achieving students may benefit more from being in a mixed ability classroom.
Since tracking separates students by ability, students’ work is only compared to that of similar-ability
peers. Thus, tracking may have emotional benefits for students: it may prevent damage to self-esteem that
could result from comparisons with the work of higher ability students or inflating the egos of the high-
ability students when compared to low-ability students. Tracking can also encourage low-ability students
to participate in class. Since high self-esteem is correlated with high academic achievement, tracking
should, theoretically, promote academic success. However, the awareness by the student of being placed
into a low track might lower self-esteem, counteracting this benefit.
Disadvantages
From the conflict perspective, tracking’s primary function is not necessarily to promote learning; it is the
allocation of students into specific areas of the labor market. Although track assignment is theoretically
based on academic ability, other factors often influence placement. When tracking is based not on ability
but instead on student background, it becomes a form of segregation and discrimination. Students in
lower tracks may receive poorer quality instruction, with less-experienced teachers being assigned to low-

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track classes. Lessons taught in low-track classes often lack the engagement and comprehensiveness of
the high-track lessons, putting low-track students at a disadvantage for college because they do not gain
the knowledge and skills of the upper-track students.
Tracking can also result in a stigmatization of low-track students. This stigmatization can have a negative
impact on students’ academic performance; for example, students placed in low tracks may lose
confidence in their abilities, and their low confidence may be reinforced by teachers’ low expectations
and their stigmatization by peers. Some research suggests that students in lower tracks are more likely to
drop out of school or participate in criminal activities.
Credential Inflation
Over time, credentials may lose value, especially as more and more people earn that credential. This
process is referred to as credential inflation. When credentials are inflated, they give individuals less
advantage on the job market. A good example of credential inflation is the decline in the value of the U.S.
high school diploma since the beginning of the twentieth century, when it was held by less than 10% of
the population. At the time, high school diplomas attested to middle- class respectability, and for many
years even provided access to managerial level jobs. More recently, however, the high school diploma
barely qualifies the graduate for manual or menial service work.
Another indicator of credential inflation is the relative decline in the wage differential between those with
college degrees and those with only high school diplomas. Jobs that were open to high school graduates a
century ago now routinely require not just a bachelor’s degree, but a master’s degree as well—without an
appreciable change in required skills.
The Credential Society
According to sociologist Randall Collins, understanding credentialism can help explain class-based
differences in educational attainment. In his 1979 book The Credential Society, Collins argued that public
schools are socializing institutions that teach and reward middle class values of competition and
achievement. In this system, Anglo-Protestant elites are selectively separated from other students and
placed into prestigious schools and colleges, where they are trained to hold positions of power. By
teaching middle class culture through the public education system, the elite class ensures a monopoly over
positions of power, while others acquire the credentials to compete in a subordinate job market and
economy. In this way, schools of medicine, law, and elite institutions have remained closed to members
of lower classes.
Question:3
Critically analyse that how teaching and learning process of 21st century different from other
centuries. Also discuss the impact of technology on the teaching and learning process.

The dominant approach to compulsory education in much of the world is still the “transmission” model,
through which teachers transmit factual knowledge to students through lectures and textbooks. In the U.S.
context, for example, the standards and accountability movement that began in the early 1990s led to the
development of standards that have been taught predominantly through the transmission model and tested
through recall-based assessments. Even among many national board certified-U.S. teachers, the
transmission model dominates. Though many countries are shifting the focus of their educational systems
away from this model, it often prevails for two primary reasons—because educational systems are hard to
change and because the transmission model demands less disciplinary and pedagogical expertise from
teachers than does the contrasting “constructivist” model through which students actively—rather than

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passively—gain skills and knowledge. Through the transmission model, students have the opportunity to
learn information, but typically do not have much practice applying the knowledge to new contexts,
communicating it in complex ways, using it to solve problems, or using it as a platform to develop
creativity. Therefore, it is not the most effective way to teach 21st century skills.
The Science of Learning
Hong Kong and Shanghai, two of the highest-performing systems in the world, moved away from the
transmission model a decade ago. In both systems, reforms address students as holistic learners, mobilize
widespread social support and appropriately balanced centralized versus decentralized control. How did
they do it?
It started with decades of empirical research on how individuals learn critical lessons. Read the full report
and research notes, but for the purposes of this article, we will refer to it as the science of learning.
The science of learning can be distilled into nine points, all of which are about how students learn 21st
century skills and how pedagogy can address new learning needs. Many of the lessons—particularly
transfer, metacognition, teamwork, technology, and creativity—are also 21st century skills in themselves.
Use them as points of advice that other education systems can apply.
1. Make it relevant
To be effective, any curriculum must be relevant to students’ lives. Transmission and rote memorization
of factual knowledge can make any subject matter seem irrelevant. Irrelevance leads to lack of
motivation, which in turn leads to decreased learning.
To make curriculum relevant, teachers need to begin with generative topics, ones that have an important
place in the disciplinary or interdisciplinary study at hand and resonate with learners and teachers.
Choosing a generative topic is the first stage of the well-known Teaching for Understanding framework,
developed through a five-year project by Project Zero researchers and used by teachers worldwide.
Both teachers and students benefit from the use of generative topics and reinforcement of relevance.
Teachers like this method because it allows for the freedom to teach creatively. Students like it because it
makes learning feel more interesting and engaging, and they find that understanding is something they
can use, rather than simply possess.
2. Teach through the disciplines
Learning through disciplines entails learning not only the knowledge of the discipline but also the skills
associated with the production of knowledge within the discipline. Through disciplinary curriculum and
instruction students should learn why the discipline is important, how experts create new knowledge, and
how they communicate about it.
Continued learning in any discipline requires that the student—or expert—become deeply familiar with a
knowledge base, know how to use that knowledge base, articulate a problem, creatively address the
problem, and communicate findings in sophisticated ways. Therefore, mastering a discipline means using
many 21st century skills.
3. Simultaneously develop lower and higher order thinking skills
Lower-order exercises are fairly common in existing curricula, while higher-order thinking activities are
much less common. Higher-level thinking tends to be difficult for students because it requires them not

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only to understand the relationship between different variables (lower-order thinking) but also how to
apply—or transfer—that understanding to a new, uncharted context (higher-order thinking).
Transfer (which we will discuss in more detail below), tends to be very difficult for most people.
However, applying new understandings to a new, uncharted context is also exactly what students need to
do to successfully negotiate the demands of the 21st century.
Higher-level thinking skills take time to develop, and teaching them generally requires a tradeoff of
breadth for depth.
4. Encourage transfer of learning
Students must apply the skills and knowledge they gain in one discipline to another. They must also apply
what they learn in school to other areas of their lives. This application—or transfer—can be challenging
for students (and for adults as well).
There are a number of specific ways that teachers can encourage low- and high-road transfer.46 To
encourage low-road transfer, teachers can use methods like the following:
• Design learning experiences that are similar to situations where the students might need to apply
the knowledge and skills
• Set expectations, by telling students that they will need to structure their historical argument
homework essay in the same way that they are practicing in class
• Ask students to practice debating a topic privately in pairs before holding a large-scale debate in
front of the class
• Organize mock trials, mock congressional deliberations, or other role-playing exercises as a way
for students to practice civic engagement
• Talk through solving a particular mathematics problem so that students understand the thinking
process they might apply to a similar problem
• Practice finding and using historical evidence from a primary source and then askstudents to do
the same with a different primary source
The purpose of each of these activities is to develop students’ familiarity and comfort with a learning
situation that is very similar to a new learning situation to which they will need to transfer their skills,
concepts, etc.
Teachers can use other methods to encourage high-road transfer. For example teachers can ask students
to:
• brainstorm about ways in which they might apply a particular skill, attitude, concept, etc. to
another situation
• generalize broad principles from a specific piece of information, such as a law of science or a
political action
• make analogies between a topic and something different, like between ecosystems and financial
markets

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• study the same problem at home and at school, to practice drawing parallels between contextual
similarities and differences
Shanghai education experts believe that training students to transfer their knowledge and skills to real
problems contributed to their success on the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment
(PISA). The importance of transfer brings us back to the fundamental rationale for learning 21st century
skills in the first place—so that students can transfer them to the economic, civic and global 21st century
contexts that demand them.
5. Teach students to learn how to learn
There is a limit to the skills, attitudes, and dispositions that students can learn through formal schooling.
Therefore, educating them for the 21st century requires teaching them how to learn on their own. To do
so, students need to be aware of how they learn.
Teachers can develop students’ metacognitive capacity by encouraging them to explicitly examine how
they think. it is also important for students to develop positive mental models about how we learn, the
limits of our learning, and indications of failure. Students benefit from believing that intelligence and
capacity increase with effort (known as the “incremental” model of intelligence) and that mistakes and
failures are opportunities for self-inquiry and growth rather than indictments of worth or ability.
6. Address misunderstandings directly
Another well-documented science-of-learning theory is that learners have many misunderstandings about
how the world really works, and they hold onto these misconceptions until they have the opportunity to
build alternative explanations based on experience. To overcome misconceptions, learners of any age
need to actively construct new understandings.
There are several ways to counter misunderstandings, including teaching generative topics deeply,
encouraging students to model concepts, and providing explicit instruction about misunderstandings.
7. Promote teamwork as a process and outcome
Students learn better with peers. There are many ways in which teachers can design instruction to
promote learning with others.
Students can discuss concepts in pairs or groups and share what they understand with the rest of the class.
They can develop arguments and debate them. They can role-play. They can divide up materials about a
given topic and then teach others about their piece. Together, students and the teacher can use a studio
format in which several students work through a given issue, talking through their thinking process while
the others comment.
8. Make full use of technology to support learning
Technology offers the potential to provide students with new ways to develop their problem solving,
critical thinking, and communication skills, transfer them to different contexts, reflect on their thinking
and that of their peers, practice addressing their misunderstandings, and collaborate with peers—all on
topics relevant to their lives and using engaging tools.
There are also many other examples of web-based forums through which students and their peers from
around the world can interact, share, debate, and learn from each other.

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The nature of the Internet’s countless sources, many of which provide inconsistent information and
contribute substantive source bias, provide students with the opportunity to learn to assess sources for
their reliability and validity. It gives them an opportunity to practice filtering out information from
unreliable sources and synthesizing information from legitimate ones.
9. Foster students’ creativity
A common definition of creativity is “the cognitive ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.”
Creativity is prized in the economic, civic, and global spheres because it sparks innovations that can
create jobs, address challenges, and motivate social and individual progress. Like intelligence and
learning capacity, creativity is not a fixed characteristic that people either have or do not have. Rather, it
is incremental, such that students can learn to be more creative. In contrast to the common misconception
that the way to develop creativity is through uncontrolled, let-the kids-run-wild techniques—or only
through the arts—creative development requires structure and intentionality from both teachers and
students and can be learned through the disciplines.
Technology affords better access to resources
With an Internet connection, we have access to information at our fingertips 24 hours a day. We can find
almost anything online, in its most up-to-date version. For students, this means access to everything from
research materials and educational apps to interactive edutainment and open resources from prestigious
universities around the world. (Students may, however, need instruction on how to find credible resources
and direction on providing proper attribution when they use them.)
Students can also supplement their learning by connecting with online groups and virtual communities in
real time, or by collaborating on group projects using tools such as wikis and cloud-based apps. And
instructors can provide access to course material (and additional resources) by setting up portals through
learning management systems or providing access to course-specific software for each learner. For
budget-conscious educators, open educational resources may provide useful course materials their
students can access throughout a course.
What are open educational resources?
Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, research and learning resources that explicitly allow
others to use, keep and distribute them. OER are teaching resources that have an open copyright license
(such as Creative Commons), or they are part of the public domain and have no copyright. Depending on
the license, OER can be freely accessed, used, re-mixed, improved, and shared. OER is one way of
engaging students more deeply in the learning process, moving beyond lectures and static textbook
chapters. By blending technology and education, open educational resources also give instructors the
tools to involve students in the creation of learning materials.
Technology can improve student engagement
Technology can help students by making learning more engaging and collaborative. Rather than
memorizing facts, students learn by doing and through critical thinking. This could be as simple as taking
an interactive quiz in class or participating in tech-enabled group discussions. Or it could be as involved
as playing educational games, practicing in science experiments in a virtual lab or taking a virtual field
trip.

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To make learning truly engaging, it must be truly interactive. Doing math on a computer isn’t any
different than doing math with a pencil and pad of paper. But using augmented reality to animate math
challenges is a whole different ball game. Ultimately, interactivity and technology enhance learning.
For educators, the role of technology in education is endless: from using simulation tools to demonstrate
how a hurricane develops, to using virtual reality to practice medical procedures. “As a growing number
of medical schools bring virtual reality into the classroom, students are finding it an effective way to learn
complex subject matter, such as anatomy, that’s often easier to understand with hands-on practice,” writes
Chris Hayhurst for EdTech Magazine. Blended learning is a great way to ensure you’re using technology
to engage your students both in and out of your class.
What is blended learning?
Blended learning is an educational approach in which students learn online as well as through traditional
face-to-face teaching. Sometimes referred to as hybrid learning, blended learning is a combination of
traditional in-classroom and online education with multimedia components, such as interactive
discussions and polls, embedded videos and live chats. Individually, both have their advantages.
Together, blended learning can offer a more engaging learning experience for students by providing them
with opportunities to work both independently and with their peers and instructor to reinforce learning
and achieve subject mastery.
Blended learning is more than just using technology to supplement the classroom experience. Rather,
blended learning requires that a significant portion of course material is delivered through online
instruction using digital technology, combined with some face-to-face components. For example, students
may complete lectures and homework assignments online but have in-person lab meetings. This way,
students complete certain parts of the course according to their own schedule and can revisit the material
as needed. The rest of student time is then spent in a classroom, lecture hall or lab, with supervised
instruction.
Technology can expand classroom boundaries
Thanks to technology, the classroom no longer has walls. The learning environment no longer has
boundaries. And instruction can be provided by any number of subject matter experts in the real world—
in addition to the person teaching the course through the use of technology.
“Students in a classroom in the rural U.S., for example, can learn about the Arctic by following the
expedition of a team of scientists in the region, read scientists’ blog posting, view photos, e-mail
questions to the scientists, and even talk live with the scientists via a videoconference. Students can share
what they are learning with students in other classrooms in other states who are tracking the same
expedition,” according to an article on technology in education by Purdue University. Ultimately,
technology allows students to expand their horizons by extending learning beyond textbooks and lectures
and connecting it to the real world.
Technology can encourage self-paced learning
In a traditional classroom, students who were struggling to learn new concepts would quickly fall behind
their peers. With self-paced learning components, however, students can advance at their own pace as part
of the learning process. Those who need more time or extra help can practice outside of class with guided
exercises or additional coursework. So, too, can learners who want more of a challenge.

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Thanks to the always-on nature of technology, students can access online learning resources whenever
they need to. These resources also have the ability to provide instructors with a sense of which students
might need extra help.
The exercise of self-paced learning with these new technologies allows students to learn digital literacy
and 21st-century skills, which will have a positive impact when they enter the workforce. One such way
to accomplish this goal is 1:1 computing, which provides students with the technology they need to
engage in coursework.
What is 1:1 computing?
One-to-one computing (often abbreviated as “1:1”) is an educational practice where academic institutions
provide every student with a laptop or tablet, allowing students to access the Internet, as well as preloaded
course materials and textbooks. One-to-one computing uses the impact of technology to create an
equitable classroom environment in which students have easy and equal access to information. It also
boosts career readiness, since the skills 1:1 computing imparts are increasingly expected both on campus
and in the office.
Technology can promote innovative teaching techniques
Technology changes the way we access information, and also how we’re taught that information. The
instructor becomes less of a ‘sage on a stage’ and more of a ‘guide on the side.’ From accessing real-
world case studies online to watching video-recorded lectures to listening to podcasts, technology opens
up the possibility for teaching innovation (including collaborative group work and flipped and hybrid
classrooms). Instructors can also use classroom response systems to assess students’ understanding of
course material, adjust the paces needed in real time and build on students’ problem-solving skills.
Moreover, digital materials can enhance the learning experience by making it more flexible, more
engaging and better able to accommodate student needs.
How are digital materials used in the classroom?
Digital materials in the higher education classroom provoke student curiosity. These interactive textbooks
or readings can also boost student engagement and lead to better learning and comprehension by offering
multimedia components, discussion threads and embedded assessments. In order to foster deeper and
more collaborative learning, many educators share their digital materials through chat forums, discussion
threads and comprehension-testing questions to assess student learning. There are also a number of online
learning materials, tools and platforms that educators can use to conduct tests, quizzes and exams.
How does technology impact student learning? A summary
While technology is sometimes seen as a threat—and it does have its limits—integrating it into your
teaching practice offers a new way for students to interact and engage with course material. And this is
especially essential after students have become used to learning with technology during the COVID-19
pandemic. Thanks to technology tools, education is no longer confined to the walls of your classroom.
YouTube videos and social media don’t have to be a distraction; they can be part of your lesson plans.
The math is easy: it adds up to better learning outcomes.

Question:4
If you will have to make a dialogue with your principle, what questioning
strategy will you develop?

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Dialogue Defined
The principle of dialogue in organizing, engagement, and equity work refers to intentional forms of
conversation that are used to improve mutual understanding, appreciation, and respect among individuals
and groups, often for the purpose of facilitating a collaboration or decision-making process. While
dialogue techniques may be used in informal social interactions, the term is most commonly applied to
small-group or large-group conversations that are purposefully designed and facilitated to achieve specific
goals, such as helping people work together to solve a problem, develop a plan, execute a project, or
resolve a conflict.
In practice, dialogue can take a wide variety of forms in schools and communities. For example, dialogue
may be used to solicit feedback on a proposed school policy, involve the public in district decisions,
initiate a strategic-planning process, reflect on the progress or shortcomings of an initiative, improve
workplace relationships, establish a collaborative partnership between two or more organizations, respond
to a pressing crisis, or reduce cross-cultural tensions and misunderstanding in a community.
A dialogue may occur over multiple hours on a single day, or it may unfold as a series of conversations
that take place over several weeks or months—although the duration of a dialogue should be sufficient
enough to allow participants to engage in sustained, in-depth discussions of the given topic. While many
forms of dialogue occur in-person and through “face-to-face” interactions, telecommunication
technologies have created opportunities for online platforms and mobile applications to mediate dialogue
among individuals and groups who may be located anywhere in the world.
Discussion: Dialogue vs. Deliberation
It is important to note that there is no universally accepted definition of dialogue, and the term may be
used in more or less precise ways in different contexts. That said, scholars and practitioners have
developed a variety of specific technical definitions of the concept and practice, and they typically
distinguish dialogue from other forms of conversation. For example, dialogue is often contrasted with
discussion (informal and unstructured social conversations that are not intended to achieve specific
outcomes) or debate (argumentation in which two or more opposing sides on an issue make a case for
their position).

In fact, dialogue is often used as an antidote to social, cultural, and civic problems that arise when casual
discussion or debate are the only forms of conversation taking place in an organization or community. For
example, dialogue can help to address difficult problems—such as racial stereotyping or political
polarization—that tend to occur when people either avoid discussing these uncomfortable topics or only
discuss them to argue for a particular viewpoint. Dialogue has also been a central feature in conflict-
resolution movements across the globe, including the “truth and reconciliation commissions” conducted
in post-apartheid South Africa and other countries recovering from civil war or violent conflict.

While the terms dialogue and deliberation are often used interchangeably, the National Coalition for
Dialogue and Deliberation, along with many scholars and practitioners, makes a useful distinction
between the two concepts. The organization defines dialogue as “a process that allows people, usually in
small groups, to share their perspectives and experiences with one another about difficult issues we tend
to just debate about or avoid entirely,” while deliberation “emphasizes the importance of examining
options and trade-offs to make better decisions,” particularly “decisions about important public issues like
health care and immigration [that] are too often made through the use of power or coercion rather than a
sound decision-making process that involves all parties and explores all options.”

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Although dialogue strategies can—and often are—used in a group decision-making process, dialogues do
not necessarily have to result in a specific outcome or action—they can simply be a collective act of
sharing and listening. Deliberation, on the other hand, is generally used to make decisions. In a
“deliberative dialogue” process, participants may consider competing ideas and options, discuss the pros
and cons of different approaches, and work toward a decision, proposal, plan, or outcome that everyone
has contributed to, understands, accepts, and supports.
While dialogue is a nuanced concept that can take many different forms in practice, the following
descriptions illustrate a few common characteristics of dialogue:
• Storytelling: In a dialogue, participants are often encouraged to talk about their personal
experiences and histories. When participants share personal stories, it helps other participants
develop a stronger understanding and appreciation of how those experiences shaped their values,
priorities, or perspectives, particularly when participants come from different racial, cultural, or
socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Discovery: Dialogues allow participants to explore and discover new insights, ideas, or
perspectives. Rather than predetermining outcomes, a dialogue process typically starts with
unanswered questions, unresolved problems, or decisions that need to be made. While a dialogue
is typically designed to achieve specific objectives—such as the development of a plan or the
resolution of a conflict, for example—a dialogue only provides the structure for participants to
discuss, deliberate, decide, or collaborate. Participants typically determine the outcomes of a
dialogue, not the organizers and facilitators.
• Inquiry: Dialogues help participants consider different viewpoints, weigh competing options,
examine unfamiliar information, understand complex issues, and reflect on their own beliefs,
opinions, values, or biases. In a dialogue, participants develop new insights, perspectives, and
knowledge that they did not have at the outset of the process, which can generate better ideas,
proposals, or solutions, including surprising or counterintuitive ideas that were not being
considered before the dialogue occurred.
• Civility: In a dialogue, participants are generally required to speak and act in ways that are
respectful to other participants, and to listen and ask questions rather than argue a particular point
of view. Respectful discussions and interactions can help participants dispel the misperceptions,
assumptions, stereotypes, or labeling that often make it difficult for diverse groups of people to
converse or collaborate productively. Dialogues allow participants to disagree in respectful and
constructive ways, which helps diverse groups avoid the contentiousness, conflicts, and biased
outcomes that often result from argumentation and debate. However, civility does not mean that
free speech is suppressed or that certain viewpoints are silenced—participants are encouraged to
express their honest opinions, but to do so in ways that are not disrespectful, intimidating, hostile,
or shaming to other participants or groups. Facilitators generally help dialogue groups to maintain
civil conversations using shared agreements, polite reminders, and other strategies. For example,
facilitators may ask participants to speak only for themselves and not for others.
• Empathy: Dialogues provide opportunities for participants to hear viewpoints that are different
from their own, ask questions, and reflect on their own experiences, values, or opinions from a
new perspective. The act of listening, questioning, and reflecting can help build greater
compassion, appreciation, and mutual respect among participants, particularly between
individuals and groups who have different beliefs or come from different cultural backgrounds,
which can then increase trust and strengthen relationships.

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• Non-Consensus: In a deliberative dialogue process, group consensus may not be achieved. In

fact, universal consensus is rarely attained at the end of a deliberative process—and it shouldn’t
be the desired goal. Because group decisions typically require some form of compromise or trade-
off, it is more important that participants understand why a decision was made, that they feel their
viewpoints were heard and considered, that they perceive the process to have been fair and
unbiased, and that they accept and support the outcome even if they still disagree or feel
disappointment.

Question:5
Describe in detail the salient features of Rolfe’s model of professional
development.
The Rolfe reflective cycle has the virtue of simplicity and straightforwardness. The model is based on
three key questions. The model was developed initially for nursing and care education, but has become
more broad in its subsequent applications, not least because of the clarity of the model and its ease of use.
The three stages of the model ask you to consider, in turn, what happened, the implications of the
occurrence, and the consequences for future conduct. The model is cyclic, indicating a continuity. The
changes in behaviour or approach which is generated from the reflective thought can then be analysed,
and either a further revision made, or else the changes made can be found to have been appropriate.
The Three Steps of the Rolfe Model of Reflection
Rolfe et al. (2010) suggest a series of questions which may spring from the initial three; these may be
used to refine reflective thinking and isolate the key elements of the situation or occurrence so that they
can be understood in more detail:
1. What?
This element of the cycle is concerned with describing the event or occurrence being reflected upon, and
defining one's self-awareness in relation to it. All questions in this section begin with 'what?':.
What:
• Is the issue / problem / reason for being stuck / reason for feeling ill at ease / reason there is a
clash of personalities?
• Was my role in the developing situation being reflected upon?
• Was I trying to achieve?
• Actions were being done towards the achievement?
• Were the responses of other people?
• Were the consequences for the learner/s?
• Were the consequences for me?
• Were the consequences for other people?
• Feelings were provoked in the student/s?

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• Feelings were provoked in me?

• Feelings were provoked in other people?
• Was positive about the experience?
• Was negative about the experience?
• Could be improved?
2. So what?
This aspect of the Rolfe cycle analyses the situation being reflected upon and begins to make evaluations
of the circumstances being addressed. All questions in this section begin with 'so what?':
So what:
• Does this tell me about myself and my relationships with learner/s?
• Was my thought process as I acted?
• Did I base my course of action on?
• Other approaches might I have brought to the situation?
• Might I have done differently to have produced a more positive outcome?
• Have I learned because of this situation?
• Contextual issues have been brought to light by this situation?
3. Now what?
This is the element of Rolfe's cycle which is concerned with synthesising information and insight, as we
move from the previous elements to think in more detail about what to do differently in the future (or
perhaps, if it is more appropriate to maintain the previous course of action) and so be prepared for what
might be done if similar situations present themselves again. All questions in this element start with 'now
what?':
Now what:
• Do I need to do make things better?
• Should I ask of others to support me?
• Do I need to avoid in future?
• Have I learned?
• Will I recognise in advance?
• Have others learned from this?
• Broader issues need to be considered if the new set of actions are to be enacted?
• Wider considerations need to be addressed?

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These questions are only suggestions. Not all may be appropriate for all contexts, and thinking of new
ones may be part of the processes of reflection being entered into. One tactic which may be of use if to
use the questions above as a cheat sheet; remembering the three core questions might be easy, but the
follow-up questions can be stored for use as required. Using them as a template for a form on which to
compile written reflection can be a useful strategy, as the writing process helps to formalise ideas, and the
outcomes may be stored away for later reference, or else as evidence that reflection has been entered into.
Evaluation of Rolfe's Cycle
The core advantages of the Rolfe model relate to its simplicity and clarity. Reflective tools need to be
accessible and useful to the user, and to produce meaningful results. A simple model such as this can
support that. Issues related with the model include the idea that if applied only at the level of the three
core questions, then a full inventory of the situation being reflected upon may not take place, and the
insight produced as a consequence might tend to the simplistic or descriptive.
Rolfe's own writing indicates that is important not only to consider reflection after the event, but
reflection in the moment - as an event is taking place - so that immediate corrective action may be
considered. For Rolfe, though, this model does not fully articulate the position due to its simplicity,
reflection is not only a summary practice, but to be engaged with proactively (Rolfe, 2002).

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