Feedback Strategies from a Student's Perspective
This classroom research project examines the effectiveness of formative feedback strategies in discussion classes. Formative feedback is a form of feedback where students identify their language problem and are given a chance to practice their weakness (Tuttle and Tuttle, 2012). In other words, formative feedback quickly “fixes” behaviors. The aim of this project was to understand student’s perceptions after receiving formative feedback. Students responded to a questionnaire that asked them to evaluate the feedback they had received and whether they could use the feedback in future activities. While over 90% of the students stated that formative feedback was helpful, less than 60% of the students reported that it was the most helpful activity
Goal-Oriented Self-Checklists : Principles, Practice & Evaluation
This paper is focused on the expanded use of self-checklists as a classroom activity in English Discussion Class (EDC). The aim is to illustrate how self-checklists can be extended beyond basic monitoring to be used in a more goal-oriented way. It examines learner autonomy and intrinsic motivation as the core instructional principles behind the activity then provides an outline of the course and classroom context in which goal-oriented self-checklists promote both principles. Details of the materials needed, preparation required and procedure to be followed to complete the activity are provided to aid instructors that wish to replicate and use the activity in their classrooms. This is followed by an outline of how the activity could be adapted for variation or to meet the needs of higher and lower ability level learners. Finally, the activity is evaluated based on instructor observation and students’ written responses to several activity-related open-ended questions.
Educating the Educators: Rethinking Subject Matter and Methods
gate? In addition to general requirements in their professional education such as psychological and social foundations and student teaching, what specifically do social studies teachers need to know and be able to do? What, in particular, do they need to study in the subject matters of the social sciences (defined here, for purposes of brevity, to include history and geography), and what should they learn about its effective direction to desired results, that is, method? Usually answers to the first question require reference to the liberal arts component of teacher education and the second to methods in the professional education component. As we shall see, this separation of subject matter and method in the education of social studies teachers, although conventional, poses problems.