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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Effective Teaching Aid


Effective Teaching Aids
(taken from "Pemulihan" class SJK Sam Hap Hin, Kuching)

Teaching aids for primary school are things such as classroom decorations, classroom organizers, activity tools, grammar games and pre-made blank books.

Teaching aids are useful to:

z reinforce what you are saying,

z signal what is important/essential,

z enable students to visualise or experience something that is impractical to see or do in real life,

z engage students’ other senses in the learning process,

z facilitate different learning styles.



Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Pocket Charts


1. The picture above is our pocket chart.
2. We are using pocket chart to teach the weather (Rainy, Sunny, Windy, Snowy)to the students.
3. There are 4 different pictures with are related to the weather.
4. We might place the words on each different pocket.
5. The students have to place the pictures on the right pocket which correctly describe the word.
(eg. For "Rainy", the student need to place the picture with a girl wearing raincoat next to the word "Rainy").
6. We might use pocket charts for other teaching materials, like food, fruit, animal, etc.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Diagnostic Test

1. What is the definition of diagnostic testing in education?

Diagnostic testing is individually administered tests designed to identify weaknesses in the learning preocesses. Usually these are administered by trained professionals and are usually prescribed for elementary, sometimes middle school, students.


These are two example of Diagnostic Test by our group.

TEST1
-Matching Objects to their shadows-
________________________________________________
TEST 2
-Define and Calculating Shapes-






"There are 4 types of shapes including rectangle, square, triangle and round in the figure. Calculate the shapes and write down the total of the certain shapes."


________________________________________________
TEST 3



________________________________________________
TEST 4



________________________________________________
TEST 5


Speech Language Therapy

1. What Is Speech-Language Therapy?

Speech-language therapy is the treatment for most kids with speech and/or language disorders. A speech disorder refers to a problem with the actual production of sounds, whereas a language disorder refers to a difficulty understanding or putting words together to communicate ideas.


2. Speech Therapy



When there is an underlying medical condition and a speech disorder, speech therapy may be utilized. Prior to the initiation of speech therapy, a comprehensive evaluation of the patient and his or her speech and language potential is generally required before a full treatment plan is formulated.

Speech therapy services should be individualized to the specific communication needs of the patients. It should be provided one-to-one by a speech-language pathologist educated in the assessment of speech and language development, the treatment of language and speech disorders, and the evaluation of people with swallowing disorders. A speech-language pathologist can offer specific strategies, exercises and activities to regain function communication abilities (Kortte and Palmer, 2002).

Before speech therapy is initiated a complete evaluation by the speech-language pathologist should be performed. As part of the evaluation, standardized assessment tests should be used for evaluations to identify and quantify impairment (Kortte and Palmer, 2002): Tests include the following:

Coverage Policy Number: 0177
• Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale (REEL): infants (birth to three years)
• Test of Language Development (TOLD): school-age children
• Porch Index of Communication Ability (PICA): adults
• Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination: adults
• Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT): for all ages

For the child with speech delay, the speech/language evaluation may demonstrate that the potential exists that, through speech therapy, the child will reach an age-appropriate level of speech. Some situations for which speech therapy may be appropriate in the prelingual child include: following long-term intubation, chronic otitis media, or after cochlear implant or cleft palate surgery.

A hearing test may also be conducted to determine if the child is experiencing mild hearing loss as a result of transient or persistent ear infections or allergies. Should these conditions be identified, then medical management and monitoring should be used to minimize the effects that this could have on future language learning. Comorbid psychiatric disorders, environmental deprivation, pervasive developmental disorders, mental retardation, autism and selective mutism should all be considered in cases of language delay (Johnson, 2005).

Speech therapy is generally not appropriate for use in prelingual children when there is no identified underlying medical condition or there is no possibility of the child reaching an age-appropriate level of speech (e.g., autism, pervasive developmental disorders developmental delay or mental retardation; the inability to construct sentences, stuttering or tongue thrust) (Johnson, 2005; Bressmann, 2005; Kroll, 2005).

Documentation of the proposed treatment should include all of the following:
• findings of the speech evaluation, including motor and expressive results
• short- and long-term measurable goals, with expectations for progress
• specific treatment techniques and/or exercises to be used during this treatment
• determination of how the goals will be measured and reported every two weeks
• expected duration of therapy for goals to be met
• documented strategy to transition this supervised therapy to a patient-administered or caregiver-directed maintenance program


Before continuing speech/language services, the results of these patient-specific measures should demonstrate that the individual is consistently improving and that a plateau (i.e., where no additional meaningful improvements are being measured or are expected to occur) has not been reached. Once the individual has reached their goals or a therapeutic plateau has been reached, then ongoing therapy becomes maintenance in nature.


The use of group therapy is not one-on-one, individualized to the specific patient needs. Services that are provided by speech therapists and occupational therapists may overlap (Michaud, et al., 2004). Speech therapy that is being provided as part of an occupational training program is considered duplicative in nature.

Flashcards

Introduction

1. A picture flashcard represents a particular vocabulary item that you want to introduce.
2. It can be an object, an animal, an adjective, a character, a place, an action, etc.
3. We can represent anything on a flashcard, provided there’s no ambiguity in what is represented !
4. Uses of Flashcards:
a. To teach vocabulary
b. to practise vocabulary
c. for reading and writing practice


Now, we will be discussing the uses of flashcards into more detail.


A. TO TEACH VOCABULARY

A flashcard is meant to be seen by the whole class and will be held up by the teacher. If necessary, in larger groups, the teacher may have to walk around the room to show the flashcard to the pupils.

To present vocabulary, hold up a flashcard, saying the word clearly with and without the indefinite article :

« Look. A pencil.
Pencil.
A pencil. »


Say the word clearly two or three times while the pupils listen.

They then repeat the word several times after you : use words and gesture to get them to repeat the word. Then, ask individual pupils to say it.

Teacher :Now say it after me.
A balloon.
Class : a pencil.
Teacher : Again
Class : a pencil
Teacher : Robin
Joseph : a pencil




B. TO PRACTISE VOCABULARY

All these activities can be done to practise vocabulary you’ve just taught or to reinforce it . We’re just giving some here, you can obviously devise many more !

1. Hold the flashcard asking « what is this ? » or « is this a ball ? », expecting « a balloon », « No. It’s a balloon ».

2. Hold up the flashcard and get pupils to say the word without saying anything yourself. The pupil who says the word first wins the card.

3. Hold up the flashcard but let pupils see only part of the picture and ask them to guess what it is as you remove the covering sheet little by little.

4. Put the flashcards on the board and ask pupils to point to the picture of the word you say.

5. Put the flashcards on the board and say the words for all the cards in the set except one. The pupil who says the word first wins the card.

6. The teacher names a flashcard. Pupils must do a simple mime or gesture to represent the item on the flashcard.

7. Give some cards to the pupils, and ask them to hold up their picture when they hear the right word.

8. Pupils stand in a line. Give one card to the last pupil in the line. Pupils, starting from this last one, must whisper the word up the line to the first person, who says it.


C. FOR READING AND WRITING PRACTICE

We can have word flashcards matching the picture flashcards, thus allowing you to teach the whole word and develop reading and writing skills.

Word flashcards should never be used to introduce a word for the first time. Always use the picture flashcards first and revise the vocabulary orally.



*************************************************************************************
You can devise your own set of flashcards, or use the sets provided by some publishers. If you make your own set, make sure:
· the drawings are clear and unambiguous
· the cards are drawn on cardboard paper, and can’t be torn
· they are sorted out (for instance in colour groups) to be easily found : you can group them in topics (toys, animals, food,…) or code them according to your teaching sequences, or any other classification you may find suitable and useful.
*************************************************************************************

Thursday, July 9, 2009

My Hero

MissQ says : 

Michael Jackson is an inspiration to many people, to this day. His music inspires people to dance, and sing. He’s an amazing dancer, and has incredible vocal cords. With all this in mind, his music teaches everyone to smile, and his music isn’t just random words, it all means something. For example, his ‘Black or white’, it is about promoting racial unity. Even through his diseases and rumors about it, he’s determined to please the crowds. This is why, Michael Jackson, is my hero. =)


Jordan says:

"Jackson donated and raised more than 300 million dollars for beneficial causes through his Heal the World Foundation, charity singles, and support of 39 charities." 
Michael Jackson had done a lot of charity works in order to help people. Do you think most of the rich artist could do so? But MJ did it. He wanted his money to help people in need. I admire MJ not because of his fantastic songs and dances, but also his kindness. So, are you all ready to do what MJ had done to the society???

Ann Ling says:

Michael Jackson has always been a very good and great musician of all times and I think that people are really and truly like and love his and his family’s music that he and his brothers have made together and what his sister Janet made too. And he will be missed forever but never forgotten and he will always be in people heart and prayers forever.

Alison says:

Michael's death was a sudden shock for me. He's part of my childhood and became almost a fictionnal character. Michael Jackson----one of the great singer and dancer of the century. A great showman. His music always been an inspiration to everyone. Well...he did make a lot of money but he spent them a lot in donation. And now he had left us...may God bless his good soul..






Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Christina Aguilera - The Voice Within





Young girl don't cry
I'll be right here when your world starts to fall
Young girl it's alright
Your tears will dry, you'll soon be free to fly

When you're safe inside your room you tend to dream
Of a place where nothing's harder than it seems
No one ever wants or bothers to explain
Of the heartache life can bring and what it means

Chorus:
When there's no one else, look inside yourself
Like your oldest friend just trust the voice within
Then you'll find the strength that will guide your way
You'll learn to begin to trust the voice within
Young girl don't hide
You'll never change if you just run away
Young girl just hold tight
Soon you're gonna see your brighter day
Now in a world where innocence is quickly claimed
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
It's so hard to stand your ground when you're so afraid
No one reaches out a hand for you to hold
When you look outside look inside to your soul

Chorus
Life is a journey
It can take you anywhere you choose to go
As long as you're learning
You'll find all you'll ever need to know

(be strong)
You'll break it

(hold on)
You'll make it

Just don't forsake it because
No one can tell you what you can't do
No one can stop you, you know that
I'm talking to you

Chorus
Young girl don't cry I'll be right
here when your world starts to fall

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Inclusive Education

>1.o

Introduction

What is inclusive education?



Inclusive education differs from previously held notions of ‘integration’ and ‘mainstreaming’, which tended to be concerned principally with disability and ‘special educational needs’ and implied learners changing or becoming ‘ready for’ accommodation by the mainstream. By contrast, inclusion is about the child’s right to participate and the school’s duty to accept. It is about …

a. rejecting segregation or exclusion of learners for whatever reason – ability, gender, language, care status, family income, disability, sexuality, colour, religion or ethnic origin;

b. maximising the participation of all learners in the community schools of their choice;

c. making learning more meaningful and relevant for all, particularly those learners most vulnerable to exclusionary pressures;

d. rethinking and restructuring policies, curricula, cultures and practices in schools and learning environments so that diverse learning needs can be met, whatever the origin or nature of those needs.

2.0 Principles

- Every student has an inherent right to education on basis of equality of opportunity.


- No student is excluded from, or discriminated within education on grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, disability, birth, poverty or other status.
- All students can learn and benefit from education.
- Schools adapt to the needs of students, rather than students adapting to the needs of the school.
- The student’s views are listened to and taken seriously.
Individual differences between students are a source of richness and diversity, and not a problem.
- The diversity of needs and pace of development of students are addressed through a wide and flexible range of responses.


3.0 Practice

The practice of developing inclusive schools involves:
- Understanding inclusion as a continuing process, not a one-time event.
- Strengthening and sustaining the participation of all students, teachers, parents and community members in the work of the school.
- Restructuring the cultures, policies and practices in schools to respond to the diversity of pupils within their locality. Inclusive settings focus on identifying and then reducing the barriers to learning and participation, rather than on what is "special" about the individual student or group of students, and targeting services to address the "problem".
- Providing an accessible curriculum, appropriate training programs for teachers, and for all students, the provision of fully accessible information, environments and support.
- Identifying and providing support for staff as well as students.

4.0 Teaching/programming



It is general practice that students in an inclusive classroom are with their chronological age-mates. Also, to encourage a sense of belonging, emphasis is placed on the value of friendships. Teachers often nurture a relationship between a student with special needs and a peer without need. Another common practice is the assignment of a buddy to accompany a student with special needs at all times (for example in the cafeteria, on the playground, on the bus and so on).[citation needed]

In principle, several factors can determine the success of inclusive classrooms:
- Family-school partnerships
- Collaboration between general and special educators
- Well-constructed Individualized Education Program plans
- Team planning and communication
- Integrated service delivery
- Ongoing training and staff development

Teachers use a number of techniques to help build classroom communities:
a. Games designed to build community
b. Involving students in solving problems
c. Songs and books that teach community
d. Openly dealing with individual differences
e. Assigning classroom jobs that build community
f. Teaching students to look for ways to help each other
g. Utilizing physical therapy equipment such as standing frames, so students who typically use wheelchairs can stand when the other students are standing and more actively participate in activities

5.o Benefits



Inclusive education is claimed by its advocates to have many benefits for the students. Instructional time with peers without need helps the learners to learn strategies taught by the teacher. Teachers bring in different ways to teach a lesson for special needs students and peers without need. All of the students in the classroom benefit from this. The students can now learn from the lesson how to help each other. Socialization in the school allows the students to learn communication skills and interaction skills from each other. Students can build friendships from these interactions.

The students can also learn about hobbies from each other. A friendship in school is important for the development of learning. When a student has a friend the student can relate to a member of the classroom. Students’ being able to relate to each other gives them a better learning environment.

Involving peers without need with special needs peers gives the students a positive attitude towards each other. The students are the next generation to be in the workforce; the time in the classroom with the special needs and peers without need will allow them to communicate in the real world someday. Special needs students are included in all aspects of school-life. For example, homeroom, specials such as art and gym, lunch, recess, assemblies, and electives. Special needs students involved in these classrooms will give them the time they need to participate in activities with their peers without need. Awareness should be taught to students that will be in the classroom with the special needs peers.

The teacher can do a puppet show, show a movie, or have the student talk to the class. The teacher could also read a book to help the student describe his or her special need. The class can ask questions about what they learned and what they want to know. This will help when the students are together in the classroom. Positive modeling is important for the students in the classroom. Positive modeling is the teacher showing a good example towards both special needs and peers without need this will help the students to get along more






Questions on inclusive education

1. How does inclusive education promote successful learning?


Efforts to expand enrolment must be accompanied by policies to enhance educational quality at all levels, in formal and in non-formal settings. We have to work on an 'access to success' continuum by promoting policies to ensure that excluded children get into school coupled with programmes and practices that ensure they succeed there. It is a process that involves addressing and responding to the diverse needs of learners. This has implications for teaching, the curriculum, ways of interacting and relations between the schools and the community.

2. What are the principles of inclusion?


The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely ratified human rights treaty, spells out the right of children not to be discriminated against. It also expresses commitments about the aims of education, recognizing that the learner is at the centre of the learning experience. This affects content and pedagogy, and - more broadly - how schools are managed.

3. The notion of inclusion is still often associated with children who have special needs. Why?


Too often programmes targeting various marginalized and excluded groups have functioned outside the mainstream – special programmes, specialized institutions and specialist educators. Too often the result has been exclusion – second-rate educational opportunities that do not guarantee the possibility to continue studying. In developed countries, the move towards more inclusive approaches is often complicated by the legacy of segregated or exclusive education for groups identified as “difficult” or “different”. But there is increasing recognition that it is better for children with special needs to attend regular schools, albeit with various forms of special support. Studies in both OECD and non-OECD countries indicate that students with disabilities achieve better school results in inclusive settings.

4. How does education need to change to accommodate everyone?


The overall goal is to ensure that school is a place where all children participate and are treated equally. This involves a change in how we think about education. Inclusive education is an approach that looks into how to transform education systems in order to respond to the diversity of learners. It means enhancing the quality of education by improving the effectiveness of teachers, promoting learning-centred methodologies, developing appropriate textbooks and learning materials and ensuring that schools are safe and healthy for all children. Strengthening links with the community is also vital: relationship between teachers, students, parents and society at large are crucial for developing inclusive learning environments.

5. How do curricula need to change to improve learning and encourage the inclusion of all pupils?


An inclusive curriculum addresses the child’s cognitive, emotional and creative development. It is based on the four pillars of education for the 21st century - learning to know, to do, to be and to live together. This starts in the classroom. The curriculum has an instrumental role to play in fostering tolerance and promoting human rights and is a powerful tool for transcending cultural, religious and other differences. An inclusive curriculum takes gender, cultural identity and language background into consideration. It involves breaking gender stereotypes not only in textbooks but in teachers’ attitudes and expectations. Multilingual approaches in education, in which language is recognized as an integral part of a student’s cultural identity, can act as a source of inclusion. Furthermore, mother tongue instruction in the initial years of school has a positive impact on learning outcomes.

6. Teachers have a foremost influence on learning. Yet their status and working conditions in many countries make it difficult to promote inclusion. What can be done to improve their lot?



The way teachers teach is of critical importance in any reform designed to improve quality. A child-centred curriculum is characterized by a move away from rote learning and towards greater emphasis on hands-on, experience-based, active and cooperative learning. Introducing inclusion as a guiding principle has implications for teachers’ practices and attitudes – be it towards girls, slow learners, children with special needs or those from different backgrounds. Adequate pre-service and in-service teacher training is essential to improve learning. Lack of adequately trained teachers. This shortage has unfortunate consequences for the quality of learning. A new curriculum cannot be introduced without familiarizing teachers with its aims and contents. Assessment can help teachers to measure student performance and to diagnose difficulties. But teachers need to understand the value of good assessment practices and learn skills to develop their own tests.


7. Does inclusive quality education lead to more inclusive societies?

Exclusion starts very early in life. A holistic vision of education is imperative. Comprehensive early childhood care and education programmes improve children’s well being, prepare them for primary school and give them a better chance of succeeding once they are in school. All evidence shows that the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children benefit most from such programmes. Ensuring that adults, particularly mothers, are literate has an impact on whether their children, and especially their daughters attend school. Linking inclusion to broader development goals will contribute to the reform of education systems, to poverty alleviation and to the achievement of all the Millennium Development Goals. An inclusive system benefits all learners without any discrimination towards any individual or group. It is founded on values of democracy, tolerance and respect for difference.




Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Behaviorism

1.o Introduction

Behaviorism or Behaviourism, also called the learning perspective, is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things which organisms do — including acting, thinking and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors. The school of psychology maintains that behaviors as such can be described scientifically without recourse either to internal physiological events or to hypothetical constructs such as the mind. Behaviorism comprises the position that all theories should have observational correlates but that there are no philosophical differences between publicly observable processes (such as actions) and privately observable processes (such as thinking and feeling).

From early psychology in the 19th century, the behaviorist school of thought ran concurrently and shared commonalities with the psychoanalytic and Gestalt movements in psychology into the 20th century; but also differed from the mental philosophy of the Gestalt psychologists in critical ways.[citation needed] Its main influences were Ivan Pavlov, who investigated classical conditioning, Edward Lee Thorndike, John B. Watson who rejected introspective methods and sought to restrict psychology to experimental methods, and B.F. Skinner who conducted research on operant conditioning.  In the second half of the twentieth century, behaviorism was largely eclipsed as a result of the cognitive revolution.

2.0 B.F. Skinner and radical behaviorism

Skinner, who carried out experimental work mainly in comparative psychology from the 1930s to the 1950s, but remained behaviorism's best known theorist and exponent virtually until his death in 1990, developed a distinct kind of behaviorist philosophy, which came to be called radical behaviorism. He is credited with having founded a new version of psychological science, which has come to be called behavior analysis or the experimental analysis of behavior after variations on the subtitle to his 1938 work The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis Of Behavior.

2.1 Definition

B.F. Skinner was influential in defining radical behaviorism, a philosophy codifying the basis of his school of research (named the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, or EAB.) While EAB differs from other approaches to behavioral research on numerous methodological and theoretical points, radical behaviorism departs from methodological behaviorism most notably in accepting treatment of feelings, states of mind and introspection as existent and scientifically treatable. This is done by identifying them as something non-dualistic, and here Skinner takes a divide-and-conquer approach, with some instances being identified with bodily conditions or behavior, and others getting a more extended 'analysis' in terms of behavior. However, radical behaviorism stops short of identifying feelings as causes of behavior.Among other points of difference were a rejection of the reflex as a model of all behavior and a defense of a science of behavior complementary to but independent of physiology. Radical behaviorism has considerable overlap with other western philosophical positions such as American pragmatism


2.2 Experimental and conceptual innovations

This essentially philosophical position gained strength from the success of Skinner's early experimental work with rats and pigeons, summarized in his books The Behavior of Organismsand Schedules of Reinforcement. Of particular importance was his concept of the operant response, of which the canonical example was the rat's lever-press. In contrast with the idea of a physiological or reflex response, an operant is a class of structurally distinct but functionally equivalent responses. For example, while a rat might press a lever with its left paw or its right paw or its tail, all of these responses operate on the world in the same way and have a common consequence. Operants are often thought of as species of responses, where the individuals differ but the class coheres in its function—shared consequences with operants and reproductive success with species. This is a clear distinction between Skinner's theory and S-R theory.

Skinner's empirical work expanded on earlier research on trial-and-error learning by researchers such as Thorndike and Guthrie with both conceptual reformulations – Thorndike's notion of a stimulus-response 'association' or 'connection' was abandoned – and methodological ones – the use of the 'free operant', so called because the animal was now permitted to respond at its own rate rather than in a series of trials determined by the experimenter procedures. With this method, Skinner carried out substantial experimental work on the effects of different schedules and rates of reinforcement on the rates of operant responses made by rats and pigeons. He achieved remarkable success in training animals to perform unexpected responses, and to emit large numbers of responses, and to demonstrate many empirical regularities at the purely behavioral level. This lent some credibility to his conceptual analysis. It is largely his conceptual analysis that made his work much more rigorous than his peers, a point which can be seen clearly in his seminal work Are Theories of Learning Necessary? in which he criticizes what he viewed to be theoretical weaknesses then common in the study of psychology. An important descendant of the experimental analysis of behavior is the Society for Quantitative Analysis of Behavior.


2.3 Relation to language

As Skinner turned from experimental work to concentrate on the philosophical underpinnings of a science of behavior, his attention turned to human language with Verbal Behavior[8] and other language-related publications;[9] Verbal Behavior laid out a vocabulary and theory for functional analysis of verbal behavior, and was strongly criticized in a review by Noam Chomsky. Skinner did not respond in detail but claimed that Chomsky failed to understand his ideas, and the disagreements between the two and the theories involved have been further discussed.

What was important for a behaviorist's analysis of human behavior was not language acquisition so much as the interaction between language and overt behavior. In an essay republished in his 1969 book Contingencies of Reinforcement,Skinner took the view that humans could construct linguistic stimuli that would then acquire control over their behavior in the same way that external stimuli could. The possibility of such "instructional control" over behavior meant that contingencies of reinforcement would not always produce the same effects on human behavior as they reliably do in other animals. The focus of a radical behaviorist analysis of human behavior therefore shifted to an attempt to understand the interaction between instructional control and contingency control, and also to understand the behavioral processes that determine what instructions are constructed and what control they acquire over behavior.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Hi~

This is Jordan Yii Hii Ping, Kiew Jia Ying, ALison Liaw and Sii Ann Ling's blogspot. We gonna update it from time to time. Do enjoy it~