Case Study 2

Case 2

You were a student teacher at a local high school 5 years ago. During this time, Cara went to the same high school although she was never one of your students. Tonight, you are dancing at a local club and Cara asks you to dance. Cara is now 23 and you are less than 5 years older than she is. You and Cara really hit it off and you think you could have a meaningful relationship with her.

I wanted to challenge myself so I decided respond to this case study. The following assumption is made while I answered the question: I assumed that in this scenario, the teacher never had a professional relationship with the student Cara and they never had a personal relationship together until the day they met at the club. My response follows:

Since Cara was never my student and she has now graduated from high school and is 23, the scenario of having a meaningful relationship with her is most likely not illegal. However, the situation might lead to some ethical questioning that might place my respect/authority as a professional teacher in jeopardy. This can be due to others’ possible misunderstanding about my relationship with Cara. Therefore, before I think about contacting Cara again, I would first record the situation in writing and report it to my supervisor at school. Then I would schedule a conference with my supervisor and obtain input/advice from my supervisor. I would only think about proceeding with having a romantic relationship with Cara if I obtain approval and support from my supervisor. I understand that if Cara and I decide to have a romantic relationship together, I will have to explain the situation to possibly my students, their parents, and my colleagues. If I do not obtain support and approval from my supervisor, my only option is to tell Cara that because I love and value my job as an educator, I can’t have a relationship with her.

Chapter 10 QTC

1. (lower-order: remember, understand)

Name and summarize the four conditions necessary for successful modeling (p. 333-334).

2. (higher-order: remember, understand, analyze)

What is self-efficacy? How is self-efficacy related to and different from self-concept and self-esteem?

Barb

Prior to going to Barb’s presentation, I watched Barb’s video on YouTube. I thought she offered some very useful tips for teachers (students with Autism need companionship too) and some of them are what we read and discussed about in special education. I was also very impressive with how well-read Barb is in areas of history, religion, and philosophy.

During Barb’s presentation, we were shown another video in which Barb’s friends took turns reading her writings. Barb writes about how she had begun to make friends in her mid-30s after careful evaluation of her friends’ intentions. I was really moved by how sincere Barb is and how much she values friendship. Barb also notes the difference between being friendly and beings friends. This is true as people often befriend people they can relate to and are similar to. When someone is different than they are and they cannot easily understand, people tend to stay distant and friendly. That friendliness, unfortunately, then becomes the barrier. Barb also talks about distinguishing pity from true friendship. I know from experience how undesirable being pitied can be and I often just build up the barrier of friendliness myself whenever I feel someone is being nice to me because of pity. I think these are all good things to keep in mind when working with all kinds of people—not just students with Autism.

After Barb’s presentation, I went online and read more of Barb’s writings on her web site. I stumbled across the piece “Autistic Sex: For a Terrible Time, Call”. I found myself to be really enjoying Barb’s sense of humor, her writing style, and how bold and sincere she is as a writer. As humans, we all have our primal needs. But most of the time, our society favors denial and suppression when it comes to sex even though we all know it’s a legitimate concern for everyone. I thought it was really bold and refreshing that Barb wrote about this. I can never be that bold, but I thought the least I could do is share how much I loved Barb’s writing.

Chapter 9 QTC

1.      (Lower-level) What are the two important ways that instrumental conditional is different from classical conditioning (p. 292-293)?

2.   (Higher-level) Evaluate the strengths and limitations of extrinsic reinforcements. Based on that, come up with an extrinsic reinforcement system that you will use in your classroom.

Chapter 8 QTC

1. (lower level-remember, understand, apply)

What is critical thinking? What can you do as a teacher to foster critical thinking in your students (see pages 275-280)?

2. (higher level-remember, understand, analyze, evaluate, create)

Reflect upon this class (EP 401). How has the nature/set-up of the class (class activities, homework assignments, exams, exams feedback, etc.) affected the learning strategies you decided to use for EP 401?  Also how did your own epistemic beliefs and motives/goals affect your learning strategies? Evaluate on the “effectiveness” of EP 401 and your own epistemic beliefs/motives in getting you to use effective learning strategies. If you find them ineffective, what suggestions do you have for EP 401? And what course of action can you take to modify your own epistemic beliefs or motives so they promote effective learning?

Chapter 7 QTC

1.  (lower-order thinking skills required) -remember, understand

What are concepts, schemas/scripts, theories, and worldviews? 

2.  (higher-order thinking skills required) -create

Students’ personal or emotional investments in their existing misconceptions can stand in their way of gaining understandings inside the classrooms. What strategies can you use to help these students? Base your answer on one or more of the theories described in the table on page 363.

Chapter 6 QTC

1) (lower-order thinking skills required) 

Describe the three-component model for human memory and elaborate on its values and limitations.

2) (higher-order thinking skills required) 

Reflect on your favorite class during your college or high school career. Evaluate the effectiveness of the class/instructor in helping you learn and register the information in the long-term memory. Justify your response by discussing how the tasks/instructional strategies the instructor assigned/utilized helped (or didn't help) in promoting rote/meaningful learning. Be sure to use professional vocabulary from chapter 6 in your response.

15.2

(15.2) Even though this is not a criterion referenced test, if Ingrid’s grandmother asks you what she could be doing at home to help strengthen Ingrid’s skills, what will you suggest? Provide at least three areas where the grandmother could help Ingrid.

I will suggest that Ingrid’s grandmother try the following three strategies to help Ingrid improve her skills:    

1) Help Ingrid keep a portfolio of her works (homework, quizzes, exams, projects, etc.) in her classes (especially spelling and math classes), which could help Ingrid keep track of her progress.

2)  Encourage Ingrid to reflect periodically on her academic strengths and weaknesses and come up with related short-term goals. Reward Ingrid when she achieves these short-term goals.

3) Go over effective test taking and study strategies (effective study strategies in each subject, self-regulation skills, time management strategies during test, doing easy problems first before tackling challenging ones, relaxation strategies, getting a full night’s sleep before the test, and eating a good breakfast before the test) with Ingrid, but not overemphasize test taking strategies since content mastery is more important than the performance goal of doing well on standardized tests.

15.1

(15.1) Turn to p. 559 in Ormrod’s text.  Now, imagine that you are meeting with Ingrid’s grandmother today to explain her scores on the recent standardized achievement test pictured at the bottom of p. 559.  What will you tell her about Ingrid’s performance? her strengths? her weaknesses?

Prior to the meeting with Ingrid’s grandmother, I will make sure to look into how Ingrid’s doing in all these subjects and try to see if her standardized achievement scores accurately reflect her strengths and weaknesses. Especially, I will try to talk to her spelling and math teachers and see if she’s actually struggling in these subjects.

During the meeting, I will start by telling Ingrid’s grandmother that the standardized achievement tests Ingrid took is norm-referenced, or that they compare Ingrid’s raw scores with that of the students at her grade level. The ultimate purpose of the standardized achievement tests is to help all students improve academically by assessing how much they’ve learned in selected subject areas. We, as teachers, hope to use this information to help improve our instructional strategies accordingly. However, standardized achievement tests provide only a rough idea of what students know and can do.

I will then go over the computer printout with Ingrid’s grandmother by first explaining the concepts of percentile (that percentile reflects the percentage of students at Ingrid’s grade that scored less than or equal to Ingrid), stanine (have a mean of 5 and a standard deviation of 2), and confidence intervals (the amount of error due to imperfect reliability of the test, or how Ingrid’s performances in the same subject area ranges) on the score report.

I will then tell Ingrid’s grandmother that Ingrid’s strengths are her well-above-average achievement in reading, comprehension, science, and social studies. Ingrid also scored average to above-average in math concepts. As suggested by the standardized achievement tests, Ingrid had more than average difficulty in spelling and math computations. Thus, according to the standardized achievement tests, spelling and math computations are areas that we might need to work more on in the next couple of years. Finally, this is the time I will also talk about how Ingrid’s actually doing in her classes and whether the scores actually reflect her performances in school.

14.1

(14.1) Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area. Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning.

Consider a lesson plan for teaching absolute values and solving algebraic equations involving absolute values. The teacher will introduce the lesson by giving the students the definition of absolute value (both orally and visually) and demonstrating the concept as the distance from zero using a number line. While introducing the concept of absolute value, the teacher will survey the room for any confused looks and signs of student engagement (or lack of) as an informal assessment. Any confused looks would call for a slower pace, different presentation method, and/or encouragements for student questions. Any lack of engagement would call for some motivation strategies or even a faster pace when the students are already familiar with the definition.

After a brief introduction, the teacher will then present a sample algebra problem involving absolute values. The teacher will present the method to solving equations with absolute values and demonstrate the method using the sample problem. Afterwards, the teacher will summarize the method orally and visually (writing on the blackboard). As a possible informal assessment, the teacher will ask the students for any questions or comments.

After the demonstration, the teacher will then present another algebra problem on the board. Then, the teacher will ask the students for volunteers to identify and carry out the first step of the method in solving the problem. Then, the teacher will ask volunteers for the second step and so on until the problem is successfully solved. This process is another opportunity for informal assessments.

Then, the teacher will pass out a worksheet with equations involving absolute values and ask the students to try the first one. The teacher will then walk around the room to observe students and assist them (informal assessment opportunities). For any students that are done early, the teacher will announce that they can try more problems on the worksheet.

Finally, the teacher will assign homework (finishing the rest of the worksheet). The homework will help the students in assessing their own learning. At the end of the lesson, the teacher will announce that a quiz (formal assessment) on this material is scheduled two classes from today’s class. The teacher will also assure the class that any questions regarding today’s material and homework will be addressed in the next class.

14.2

(14.2) Consider norm referenced assessment and criterion referenced assessment. Are there advantages to both? Are there disadvantages?

By ranking test takers based on comparing their performances to that of their peers, norm referenced assessments such as IQ and developmental screening tests can help educators and families detect possible special needs in students. Other norm referenced assessments such as SAT, ACT, GRE help colleges make admission/scholarship decisions. Another advantage of norm referenced assessment is its practicality, or that it’s relatively easy for teachers/programs to give (one test for everyone). A disadvantage of norm referenced assessment, when applied as a grading system inside a classroom, is that it could potentially discourage students from helping one another (group study/peer tutoring, etc.) since others’ doing poorly is an advantage for one student under the norm referenced grading system. It might also discourage high achieving students from trying their best when their minimal efforts generate high rankings/grades. Similarly, it might be frustrating for low achieving students and discourage them from achieving their full potentials when their best efforts generate low rankings/grades.

Criterion referenced assessments report the students’ performances strictly based on whether they correctly answered a set of questions or not. They are helpful when educators need to find out whether or not the students have learned a particular knowledge or skill in a curriculum. The teacher can then go back to teaching the knowledge or skill when the students didn’t ace the test or move on to teaching a new knowledge or skill when the students aced the test. Another advantage of criterion referenced assessment is that it can be tailored to meet the student’s special needs (assessments based on IEP goals), thus helping the student in achieving his/her fullest potential. A disadvantage of criterion referenced assessments is that they usually cannot be generalized beyond any specific program or class. Another disadvantage is that criterion referenced assessments that all students can succeed in could potentially be difficult and time-consuming to develop (low practicality).