Monday, March 15, 2010

Article Published in The News


English Language Teaching: Need to Think Outside the Box


Following traditional methods of English language teaching for decades has not yielded adequate benefits for the students as well as for the policy makers in the Ministry of Education. Contrarily, student participation and the two way flow of ideas between teacher and students is discouraged and suppressed unfairly in the traditional face-to-face classroom interaction where teachers do not stop from being authority figures for their students. Teachers usually ask students to read out loud and respond and to single-answer information questions about course texts. The constant quelling over a period of time surely had negative repercussions. It spoiled the faculties of critical thinking and autonomy in students, and promoted rote learning, passivity and lack of creativity and confidence.

A much-heralded alternative is to change the focus of the classroom from teacher dominated to student-centered using a constructivist approach. Constructivist approach to learning describes learning as a constructive process in which the learning builds an internal representation and interpretation of knowledge by internalizing and transforming new information. Based on this underlying theory, pedagogical approaches in second language teaching and learning have also shifted emphasis from acquiring skills or learning content (product-based process) to interaction of the learners with the content and with the environment (process-based approaches).

Constructivism's perspectives on the role of the individual, on the importance of meaning-making, and on the active role of the learner are the very elements that make the theory appealing to educators. Teachers are typically acutely aware of the role of prior knowledge in students' learning, recognizing that students are not blank slates or empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge. Instead, students bring with them a rich array of prior experiences, knowledge, and beliefs that they use in constructing new understandings. These preconceived structures are either valid, invalid or incomplete. The learner will reformulate his/her existing structures only if new information or experiences are connected to knowledge already in memory. Inferences, elaborations and relationships between old perceptions and new ideas must be personally drawn by the student in order for the new idea to become an integrated, useful part of his/her memory. Memorized facts or information that has not been connected with the learner's prior experiences will be quickly forgotten. Teachers should assist the students in developing new insights and connecting them with their previous learning. Ideas are presented holistically as broad concepts and then broken down into parts.

Learning is a social activity: our learning is intimately associated with our connection with other human beings, our teachers, our peers, our family as well as casual acquaintances, including the people before us or next to us at the exhibit. We are more likely to be successful in our efforts to educate if we recognize this principle rather than try to avoid it. Much of traditional education, as Dewey pointed out, is directed towards isolating the learner from all social interaction, and towards seeing education as a one-on-one relationship between the learner and the objective material to be learned. In contrast, progressive education recognizes the social aspect of learning and uses conversation, interaction with others, and the application of knowledge as an integral aspect of learning.

Social constructivist applications can easily be implemented in our schools through the widespread use of cooperative and collaborative teaching strategies such as: Teams-Games-Tournament, Student Teams Achievement Division, Jigsaw, Numbered Heads Together, and Peer-Peer Tutoring. One of the most obvious places where the impact of social constructivist theories can be seen is in the design and organization of classrooms. Gone are the individual study carrells that appeared with behaviorism. Teachers should recognize the power of peer-peer interactions and the greater classroom community in learning. Many elitist classrooms can accommodate spaces for small group work, as well as for whole class discussions. Elementary classrooms may often include small group reading areas, mathematics centers, and science stations. Middle and high schools should move away from unmovable desks to seating arrangements that are flexible and allow for small group work.

These principles of language instruction based on a constructivist approach can then be integrated with principles of synchronous computer-mediated communication in which meaning can be negotiated in written text. The interactions among learners, as well as the interaction of the learner with authentic material in the Web environment, enhance the ‘learning-as-knowledge-construction’ process.

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The writer is MA English from Pakistan and MA TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from the University of Leeds (UK). He teaches MA (ELTL) in University of the Punjab, Lahore, as visiting faculty, conducts teacher training workshops for Punjab Education Foundation and is a permanent faculty member in Beaconhouse National University, School of Education, Lahore.


(ALI AHMAD ABIDI)
aliahmadabidi@yahoo.com
Lahore.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Teaching Writing Strategies

I recommend a four-step instructional process for teaching writing strategies.

The steps are these:

1. Identify a strategy worth teaching

Identifying strategies worth teaching means looking for strategies that will be genuinely helpful. In the case of struggling writers, strategies worth teaching are the ones which will help them overcome their writing difficulties. Research suggests that the best way to identify such strategies is by talking with struggling writers, asking them about how they write, what they think about while writing, and what they see as difficulties. Additional insight can be gained by studying student papers to infer where writers are having difficulty and by observing writers at work.

2. Introduce the strategy by modeling it

Introducing strategies by modeling them generally means some form of composing out loud in front of students. Many of the teachers in research studies prefer to do this for groups or whole classes by writing at an overhead projector. They speak their thoughts while writing, calling particular attention to the strategy they are recommending for students. Sometimes they ask students to contribute to the writing the teacher is doing, to copy the writing for themselves, or to compose a similar piece of writing in connection with the writing the teacher is doing. Teachers also frequently model writing strategies during individual conferences with students.
3. Scaffold students' learning of the strategy
Scaffolding the learning of a writing strategy means helping students to try the strategy with teacher assistance. This is best done in a writing workshop. The workshop setting is ideal for giving varying degrees of assistance according to individual needs. It is also ideal for conferring with individuals and for setting up partnerships and peer groups so that students can assist each other in the learning of strategies. Even when a writing workshop is not used, some amount of in-class writing with teacher assistance is necessary to make sure that writers practice using the strategy being taught.

4. Repeated practice and reinforcement

Helping students to work toward independent mastery of the strategy through repeated practice and reinforcement means giving them opportunities to use the strategy many times with decreasing amounts of assistance each time. The idea here is that it is better to teach a few key writing strategies well than it is to teach many of them insufficiently. Students value and master the things we have them do repeatedly. In a way, this gets back to identifying strategies worth teaching -- look for ones that are crucial to writing processes, such as strategies for planning particular types of writing, or for structuring texts certain ways. Then model, practice and repeat.

Teaching Writing

The tasks of teacher in writing

Teachers have a number of crucial tasks to perform, especially when students are doing 'writing-for-writing' activities, where they may be reluctant to express themselves or have difficulty finding ways and means of expressing themselves to their satisfaction. Among the tasks which teachers have to perform before, during, and after student writing are the following:

• Demonstrating – Since students need to be aware of writing conventions and genre constraints in specific types of writing, teachers have to be able to draw these features to their attention. For example, lay out issues or the language used to perform certain written functions.

• Motivating and provoking - student writers often find themselves 'lost for words', especially in creative writing tasks. This is where the teacher can help, provoking the students into having ideas, enthusing them with the value of the task, and persuading them what fun it can be. Sometimes teachers can give them the words they need to start a writing task as a way of getting them going.

• Supporting. Students need a lot of help and reassurance once they get going, both with ideas and with the means to carry them out

• Responding - the way we react to students' written work can be divided
into two main categories, that of responding and that of evaluating.
When responding, we react to the content and construction of a piece
supportively and often (but not always) make suggestions for its
improvement.

For example, when students write journals, we may respond by reacting to what they have said (e.g. 'your holiday sounds very interesting, Raza. I liked the bit about running out of petrol but I didn't understand exactly who went and got some petrol. Could you possibly write and tell me in your next journal entry?') rather than filling their journal entry full of correction symbols. Comments about their use of language and suggest ways of improving it (e.g. 'be careful with your past tenses, Hassan. Look at the verbs I've underlined and see if you can write them correctly.')
• Evaluating - We do want to evaluate students' work and know what standard we have reached (in the case of a progress/achievement test). We may also award grades.
Building the writing habit

1. Building confidence and enthusiasm

The unwillingness to write in English may derive from anxieties students have about their handwriting, their spelling, or their ability to construct sentences and paragraphs.

The students’ reluctance to write can also be because they rarely write even in their own language, and so the activity feels alien.

Another powerful disincentive is the fear that they have ‘nothing to say’.
Finally, writing just does not interest some students.

With such students, we need to spend some time building the writing habit – that is, making students feel comfortable as writers in English and gaining their willing participation in more creative or extended activities. This will involve:

1. Choosing the right kinds of activities
2. Providing them with enough language and information to allow them to complete writing tasks.

2. Choosing writing tasks and activities

It is important to choose writing activities that have a chance for appealing to our students and also have some relevance for them. For example, writing fairy tales might appeal children but could fail to inspire a group of university students.

We need to have a good idea of not only what students are likely to be doing in English in the future, but also what kind of subject and tasks they will enjoy – or have enjoyed in the past.

Teaching the Conventions of Writing

General Tips

1. Post the mini-lesson you will conduct a week in advance. Expect children to experiment with these in advance of the lesson.
2. Keep the tone of each mini-lesson as one of discovery, rather than of preoccupation with accurate use of the convention.
3. Talk about conventions: So the first thing you'll do in this mini-lesson is help children to see what they already know about conventions.

4. Let children share the conventions they are using. Ask questions like: Did anyone use a new form of punctuation? Did anyone use quotation marks today? If you ask children to keep track of the conventions they use, they'll have much to share.

5. Post the names of children who effectively use certain conventions and can serve as helpers to other students.

STRATEGIES TO MASTER BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS

Our lives are marked by beginnings and endings. In the things we do every day, we look for starting and ending points. We hold those images — their sight, smell, taste, and feel close. It's no wonder, then, that writers take such care to develop strong introductions and conclusions — introductions that grab readers and conclusions that leave them feeling satisfied. The best leads and endings don't just happen; they are crafted. This can be a painstaking process that, as any experienced writer knows, becomes somewhat easier with practice.

1. CONDUCT READ-ALOUDS FROM FAVORITE BOOKS

Explore examples of leads and conclusions. Have students read the first sentence or paragraph to the whole class. As a group, discuss whether this opening makes you want to keep reading and why. Then read the whole story, paying special attention to the ending. How does it make students feel?

2. SHARE YOUR OWN WORK

Show three rough starts or finishes that you have written. Have the class decide which ones work best, and then talk about how you made your choices.

3. HAVE STUDENTS CHOOSE A FIRST DRAFT

Make sure students understand that the time to write best beginnings is after they've completed their first drafts. At that stage they can return to their original beginning and be merciless, hacking off as much as necessary to find a good lead. Tell them that even the most accomplished writers have to dig through a few bad sentences and paragraphs before they get to the good stuff.
There can be three kinds of beginnings that work well. Teaching these leads alleviates some of the anguish of making cuts, and puts students on the road to well-crafted writing.
1. The circular lead/close: Once a first draft is completed, a circular lead/close is easy to create. I have students look at their endings and ask them if they can begin with those closing words as well. This type of lead is a favorite of many students.

2. The dialogue lead: Indeed, dialogue can be the stuff of sweet beginnings. Teach students to scan their writing until they reach the first quote, and then consider moving it to the start of the piece. If the first quote doesn't lend itself to a strong lead, encourage students to look for others that might.

3. The climactic lead: It's a good idea to pick up your readers by the scruff of their necks and drop them into the heart of a conflict. Every piece of writing has a climax, which doesn't always come at the very end. Students can be asked to find the point of greatest tension in their writing, and then to move those words to the beginning. Putting the climax of the story first gives the lead immediate energy.

4. Take a look at endings that don't work

There are three kinds of horrible endings that raise their heads again and again in writing. If you teach students to recognize these blunders in their writing, they are more likely to avoid them and craft more original closings.
• Unnecessary repetition: The student repeats his main point over and over again not knowing or trusting that he has made that point earlier. Students who have this tendency often just need to be reassured that they've done a good job in conveying their ideas earlier in the piece.
• Uninspired chronology: Students also make the error of reverting to chronology, often ending their writing with the characters dying or falling asleep. If you ask students never to end their pieces with phrases such as "...and they all went to bed," you'll eliminate lots of abrupt conclusions.

• The "Dallas Syndrome": This catchall ending is used when the writing is implausible, or contains loose ends that the writer can't tie up. In these instances, it's typical for students to conclude with passages such as, "It was all just a dream," or anything that provides an easy return from fantasy to reality. ("Dallas Syndrome" is a nickname inspired by the night-time soap opera).

5. Encourage kids to use one others leads and conclusions

Have each student give a classmate just the first line of something he or she has been working on. The recipient has to write something starting or ending with that line. If the student likes what she writes, she deletes her classmate's line, and replaces it with something original. This activity reduces the struggle of finding leads or endings, or of being overly invested in them in the first draft.

6. Are your students ready to revise?


Fostering an awareness of good beginnings and endings may be developmentally more realistic, and therefore more effective, than demanding revision from primary students. Students generally cannot spot good leads, as well as extraneous words in their endings; they even oppose revising their work to bring them out. You can have students underline or put a star around strong potential leads and endings in their writing using bright colored markers.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Writing: Considering Structure & Organization

ORGANIZING YOUR THOUGHTS

Making sense out of your observations about a text is a difficult task. Even once you've figured out what it is that you want to say, you are left with the problem of how to say it. With which idea should you begin? Should you address the opinions of other thinkers? As to that stubborn contradiction you've uncovered in your own thinking: what do you do with that?

Writing papers in college requires that you come up with sophisticated, complex, and even creative ways of structuring your ideas. Accordingly, there are no simple formulae that we can offer you that will work for every paper, every time. We can, however, give you some things to think about that will help you as you consider how to structure your paper.

Let Your Thesis Direct You

Begin by listening to your thesis. If it is well-written, it will tell you which way to go with your paper. Suppose, for example, that in responding to Richard Pipes' book, The Russian Revolution, you have written a thesis that says:
The purpose of the Russian Revolution was not only to revise Russia's class system, but to create a new world, and within that world, a new kind of human being.
This thesis provides the writer (and the reader) with several clues about how best to structure the paper. First, the thesis promises the reader that it will argue that the Russian Revolution was not simply a matter of class. The paper will therefore begin by saying that although the destruction of the Russian class system was important to the heart of this revolution, it was not its final goal. The rest of the paper will be broken into two parts: the revolution's vision of world communism, and (even more important) its vision of the new homo sovieticus - or soviet human being.

I say that this idea of the homo sovieticus is more important than the idea of a new world order not because the Russian revolutionaries thought so, but because the writer seems to say so in her thesis. Read the thesis sentence again. Note how the emphasis falls on the last phrase: "A new kind of human being." The emphasis in this sentence dictates the emphasis of the entire paper. We expect, as readers, that the other issues taken up in this paper - the destruction of class, the invention of a new world order - will be discussed in terms of creating a new kind of human being. In other words, we won't be given simply a description of how this revolution intended to affect world economy; we will be given a description of how this revolution intended to manipulate economic conditions so that they would be more favorable to the evolution of the new Soviet person.

SKETCHING YOUR ARGUMENT

While your thesis will provide you with your paper's general direction, it will not necessarily provide you with a plan for how to organize all of your points, large and small. Here it might be helpful to make a diagram or a sketch of your argument.
In sketching your argument your goal is to fill the page with your ideas. Begin by writing your thesis. Put it where your instincts tell you to: at the top of the page, in the center, at the bottom. Around the thesis, cluster the points you want to make. Under each of these points, note the observations you've made and the evidence you'll use. Don't get nervous when your sketch starts to look like a mess. Use arrows. Draw circles. Take up colored pens. Any of these methods can help you to find connections between your ideas that otherwise might go unseen. Working from your sketch, try to see the line of reasoning that is evolving.

Sketching is an important step in the writing process because it allows you to explore visually the connections between your ideas. If you outline a paper too early in the writing process, you risk missing these connections. You line up your argument - A. B. C. - without fully understanding why. Sketching your argument helps you to see, for example, that points A and C really overlap and need to be thought through more carefully.

OUTLINING YOUR ARGUMENT

When you've finished your sketch, you're ready to make an outline. The task of your outline is to find your paper's "best structure." By "best structure," we mean the structure that best supports the argument that you intend to make.

When you are outlining a paper, you'll have many options for your organization. Understand, however, that each choice you make eliminates dozens of other options. Your goal is to come up with an outline in which all your choices support your thesis. In other words, your goal is to find the "best structure" for your argument.
Treat the outline as if it were a puzzle that you are trying to put together. In a puzzle, each piece has only one appropriate place. The same should be true of your paper. If it's easy to shift around your ideas - if paragraph five and paragraph nine could be switched around and no one would be the wiser - then you haven't yet found the best structure for your paper. Keep working until your outline fits your idea like a glove.

When you think you have an outline that works, challenge it. I've found when I write that the first outline never holds up to a good interrogation. When you start asking questions of your outline, you will begin to see where the plan holds, and where it falls apart.

Here are some questions that you might ask:
• Does my thesis control the direction of my outline?
• Are all of my main points relevant to my thesis?
• Can any of these points be moved around without changing something important about my thesis?
• Does the outline seem logical?
• Does my argument progress, or does it stall?
• If my argument seems to take a turn, mid-stream, does my thesis anticipate that turn?
• Do I have sufficient support for each of my points?
• Have I made room in my outline for other points of view about my topic?
• Does this outline reflect a thorough, thoughtful argument? Have I covered the ground?

Modes of Arrangement: Patterns for Structuring Your Paper

We've told you that there are no formulae for structuring your paper. We've put you through the very difficult task of finding a structure that works for you. Having done all of this, we are now ready to say that there indeed exist some general models for arranging information within a paper. These models are called "modes of arrangement." They describe different ways that information might be arranged within a text.

The modes of arrangement include:
• Narration: telling a story
• Description: relating what you see, hear, taste, feel, and smell
• Process: describing a sequence of steps necessary to a process
• Definition: illustrating the meaning of certain words or ideas
• Division and Classification: grouping ideas, objects, or events into categories
• Compare and Contrast: finding similarities and/or differences between topics
• Analogy: making a comparison between two topics that initially seem unrelated
• Cause and Effect: explaining why something happened, or the influence of one event upon another

Your entire paper might be a compare and contrast paper, or you might begin a paper by describing a process, and then explore the effect of that process on something else. Try to be aware of what your purpose is at any given point of your paper, and be sure that this purpose is arranged appropriately. It confuses the reader, after all, if you muddle together your description of a process with its effects.
CONSTRUCTING PARAGRAPHS
Imagine that you've written your thesis. You've interrogated your outline. You know which modes of arrangement you intend to use. You've settled on a plan that you think will work.

Now you have to go about the serious business of constructing your paragraphs.
You were probably told in high school that paragraphs are the workhorses of your paper. Indeed, they are. If a single paragraph is incoherent or weak, the entire argument might fail. It's important that you consider carefully the "job" of each paragraph. Know what it is you want that paragraph to do. Don't allow it to go off loafing.

What is a paragraph?

A paragraph is generally understood as a single "unit" of a paper. What your reader expects when he enters a new paragraph is that he is going to hear you declare a point and then offer support for that point. If you violate this expectation - if your paragraphs wander aimlessly among a half dozen points, or if they declare points without offering any evidence to support them - then the reader becomes confused or irritated by your argument. He won't want to read any further.
What should a paragraph do?

At the risk of being silly, consider this. What you look for in a partner, a reader looks for in a paragraph. You want a partner who is supportive, strong, and considerate to others. Similarly, a good paragraph will:

1. Be Supportive.
Even in the most trying of times a good paragraph will find a way to support the thesis. It will declare its relationship to the thesis clearly, so that the whole world knows what the paragraph intends to do. In other words, a supportive paragraph's main idea clearly develops the argument of the thesis.

2. Be Strong.
A good paragraph isn't bloated with irrelevant evidence or redundant sentences. Nor is it a scrawny thing, begging to be fed. It's strong and buffed. You know that it's been worked on. In other words, a strong paragraph develops its main idea, using sufficient evidence.

3. Be Considerate.
Good paragraphs consider their relationship to other paragraphs. A good paragraph never interrupts its fellow paragraphs to babble on about its own, irrelevant problems. A good paragraph waits its turn. It shows up when and
where it's supposed to. It doesn't make a mess for other paragraphs to clean up. In other words, a considerate paragraph is a coherent paragraph. It makes sense within the text as a whole.

WRITING THE TOPIC SENTENCE

Just as every paper requires a thesis to assert and control its argument, so does every paragraph require a topic sentence to assert and control its main idea. Without a topic sentence, your paragraphs will seem jumbled, aimless. Your reader will find himself confused.

Because the topic sentence plays an important role in your paragraph, it must be crafted with care. When you've written a topic sentence, ask yourself the following questions:
• Does the topic sentence declare a single point of my argument? Because the reader expects that a paragraph will explore ONE idea in your paper, it's important that your topic sentence isn't too ambitious. If your topic sentence points to two or three ideas, perhaps you need to consider developing more paragraphs.
• Does the topic sentence further my argument? Give your topic sentences the same "so what?" test that you gave your thesis sentence. If your topic sentence isn't interesting, your paragraph probably won't serve to further the argument. Your paper could stall.
• Is the topic sentence relevant to my thesis? It might seem so to you, but the relevance may not be so clear to your reader. If you find that your topic sentence is taking you into new ground, stop writing and consider your options. You'll either have to rewrite your thesis to accommodate this new direction, or you will have to edit this paragraph from your final paper.
• Is there a clear relationship between this topic sentence and the paragraph that came before? It's important to make sure that you haven't left out any steps in the process of composing your argument. If you make a sudden turn in your reasoning, signify that turn to the reader by using the proper transitional phrase - on the other hand, however, etc.
• Does the topic sentence control my paragraph? If your paragraph seems to unravel, take a second look. It might be that your topic sentence isn't adequately controlling your paragraph and needs to be re-written. Or it might be that your paragraph is moving on to a new idea that needs to be sorted out.
• Where have I placed my topic sentence? Most of the time a topic sentence comes at the beginning of a paragraph. A reader expects to see it there, so if you are going to place it elsewhere, you'll need to have a good reason and a bit of skill. You might justify putting the topic sentence in the middle of the paragraph, for example, if you have information that needs to precede it. You might also justify putting the topic sentence at the end of the paragraph, if you want the reader to consider your line of reasoning before you declare your main point.

DEVELOPING YOUR ARGUMENT: EVIDENCE

Students often ask how long a paragraph ought to be. Our response: "As long as it takes."
It's possible to make a point quickly. Sometimes it's desirable to keep it short. Notice the above paragraph, for example. We might have hemmed and hawed, talked about short paragraphs and long paragraphs. We might have said that the average paragraph is one-half to two-thirds of a page in length. We might have spent time explaining why the too-short paragraph is too short, and the too-long paragraph too long. Instead, we cut to the chase. After huffing and puffing through this paragraph (which is getting longer and longer all the time) we'll give you the same advice: a good paragraph is as long as it needs to be in order to illustrate, explore, and/or prove its main idea.

But length isn't all that matters in paragraph development. What's important is that a paragraph develops its idea fully, and in a manner that a reader can follow with ease.

Let's consider these two issues carefully. First: how do we know when an idea is fully developed? If your topic sentence is well-written, it should tell you what your paragraph needs to do. If my topic sentence declares, for example, that there are two conflicting impulses at work in a particular fictional character, then my reader will expect that I will define and illustrate these two impulses. I might take two paragraphs to do this; I might take one. My decision will depend on how important this matter is to my discussion. If the point is an important one, I take my time. I also (more likely than not) use at least two paragraphs. In this case, a topic sentence might be understood as controlling not only a paragraph, but an entire section of text.

When you've written a paragraph, ask yourself these questions:
• Do I have enough evidence to support this paragraph's idea?
• Do I have too much evidence? (In other words, will the reader be lost in a morass of details, unable to see the argument as a whole?)
• Does this evidence clearly support the assertion I am making in this paragraph, or am I stretching it?
• If I am stretching it, what can I do to persuade the reader that this stretch is worth making?
• Am I repeating myself in this paragraph?
• Have I defined all of the paragraph's important terms?
• Can I say, in a nutshell, what the purpose of this paragraph is?
• Has the paragraph fulfilled that purpose?

DEVELOPING YOUR ARGUMENT: ARRANGEMENT

Equally important to the idea of a paragraph's development is the matter of the paragraph's arrangement. Paragraphs are arranged differently for different purposes. For example, if you are writing a history paper and wish to summarize a sequence of events, you of course will arrange your information chronologically. If you are writing a paper for an art history course in which you want to describe a painting or a building, then you will perhaps choose to arrange your information spatially. If you are writing a paper for a sociology course in which you have been asked to observe the behaviors of shoppers at a supermarket, you might want to arrange your ideas by working from the specific to the general. And so on.

You will also want to consider your method of reasoning when you construct your paragraph. Are you using inductive logic, working from clues towards your conclusion? If so, your paragraph will reflect this way of thinking: your evidence will come early on in the paragraph, and the topic sentence will appear at the end. If, on the other hand, you are using deductive logic, your paragraph will very likely be arranged like a syllogism. (For more information about constructing logical paragraphs, see Logic and Argument.)

Finally, remember that the modes of discourse that we outlined earlier can also serve as models for arranging information within a paragraph. If the purpose of a particular paragraph is to make a comparison, for example, your paragraph would be structured to assert that "A is like B in these three ways." And so on.

COHERENCE

OK, so you've gotten this far: you have your thesis, your topic sentences, and truckloads of evidence to support the whole lot. You've spent three days writing your paragraphs, making sure that each paragraph argues one point and that this point is well supported with textual evidence. But when you read this essay back to yourself, you feel a profound sense of disappointment. Though you've followed your outline and everything is "in there," the essay just doesn't seem to hold together. It could be that you have a problem with coherence.

A lack of coherence is easy to diagnose, but not so easy to cure. An incoherent essay doesn't seem to flow. Its arguments are hard to understand. The reader has to double back again and again in order to follow the gist of the argument. Something has gone wrong. What?

Look for these problems in your paper:

1. Make sure that the grammatical subject of your sentences reflects the real subject of your paragraph. Go through your paragraph and underline the subjects of all your sentences. Do these subjects match your paragraph's subject in most cases? Or have you stuck the paragraph's subject into some other, less important part of the sentence? Remember: the reader understands an idea's importance according to where you place it. If your main idea is hidden as an object of a preposition in a subordinate clause, do you really think that your reader is going to follow what you are trying to say?

2. Make sure that your grammatical subjects are consistent. Again, look at the grammatical subjects of all your sentences. How many different subjects do you find? If you have too many different sentence subjects, your paragraph will be hard to follow. (Note: For the fun of it, underline the sentence subjects in paragraph one. You'll find three, more or less: you, the subject, and the reader. The relationship between the three is what this paragraph is all about. Accordingly, the paragraph is coherent.)

3. Make sure that your sentences look backward as well as forward. In order for a paragraph to be coherent, each sentence should begin by linking itself firmly to the sentence that came before. If the link between sentences does not seem firm, use an introductory clause or phrase to connect one idea to the other.

4. Follow the principle of moving from old to new. If you put the old information at the beginning of the sentence, and the new information at the end, you accomplish two things. First, you ensure that your reader is on solid ground: she moves from the familiar to the unknown. Second, because we tend to give emphasis to what comes at the end of a sentence, the reader rightfully perceives that the new information is more important than the old.

5. Use repetition to create a sense of unity. Repeating key words and phrases at appropriate moments will give your reader a sense of coherence in your work. Don't overdo it, however. You'll risk sounding redundant.

6. Use transition markers wisely. Sometimes you'll need to announce to your reader some turn in your argument. Or you'll want to emphasize one of your points. Or you'll want to make clear some relationship in time. In all these cases you'll want to use transition markers.

Here are some examples:
• To show place - above, below, here, there, etc.
• To show time - after, before, currently, during, earlier, later, etc.
• To give an example - for example, for instance, etc.
• To show addition - additionally, also, and, furthermore, moreover, equally important, etc.
• To show similarity - also, likewise, in the same way, similarly, etc.
• To show an exception - but, however, nevertheless, on the other hand, on the contrary, yet, etc.
• To show a sequence - first, second, third, next, then, etc.
• To emphasize - indeed, in fact, of course, etc.
• To show cause and effect - accordingly, consequently, therefore, thus, etc.
• To conclude or repeat - finally, in conclusion, on the whole, in the end, etc.

INTRODUCTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Introductions and conclusions are among the most challenging of all paragraphs. Why? Because introductions and conclusions must do more than simply state a topic sentence and offer support. Introductions and conclusions must synthesize and provide context for your entire argument, and they must also make the proper impression on your reader.

Introductions

Your introduction is your chance to get your reader interested in your subject. Accordingly, the tone of the paragraph has to be just right. You want to inform, but not to the point of being dull; you want to intrigue, but not to the point of being vague; you want to take a strong stance, but not to the point of alienating your reader. Pay attention to the nuances of your tone. Seek out a second reader if you're not sure that you've managed to get the tone the way you want it.
Equally important to the tone of the introduction is that your introduction needs to "place" your argument into some larger context. Some strategies follow:

1. Announce your topic broadly, then declare your particular take.

For example, if you are interested in talking about the narrator in Virginia Woolf's novels, you might 1) begin by saying that Woolf's narrator has posed a problem for many of her critics; 2) provide a quick definition of the problem, as others have defined it; and 3) declare your thesis (which states your own position on the matter).

2. Provide any background material important to your argument.

If you are interested in exploring how turn of the century Viennese morality influenced the work of Sigmund Freud, you will in your introduction want to provide the reader, in broad strokes, a description of Vienna circa 1900. Don't
include irrelevant details in your description; instead, emphasize those aspects of Viennese society (such as sexual mores) that might have most influenced Freud.

3. Define key terms, as you intend to make use of them in your argument.

If, for example, you are writing a philosophy paper on the nature of reality, it is absolutely essential that you define the term for your reader. How do you understand the term "reality," in the context of this paper? Empirically? Rationally? Begin with a definition of terms, and from there work towards the declaration of your argument.

4. Use an anecdote or quotation.

Sometimes you will find a terrific story or quotation that seems to reflect the main point of your paper. Don't be afraid to begin with it. Be sure, however, that you tie that story or quotation clearly and immediately to the main
argument of your paper.

5. Acknowledge your opponents.

When you are writing a paper about a matter that is controversial, you might wish to begin by summarizing the point of view of your adversaries. Then state your own position in opposition to theirs. In this way you place yourself clearly in the ongoing conversation. Be careful, though: you don't want to make too convincing a case for the other side.

Remember: your introduction is the first impression your argument will make on your reader. Take special care with your sentences so that they will be interesting. Also, take the time to consider who your readers are and what background they will bring with them to their reading. If your readers are very knowledgeable about the subject, you will not need to provide a lot of background information. If your readers are less knowledgeable, you will need to be more careful about defining your terms.

Finally, you might want to consider writing your introduction AFTER you've written the rest of your paper. Many writers find that they have a better grip on their subject once they've done their first draft. This "better grip" helps them to craft an introduction that is sure-footed, persuasive, interesting, and clear. (Note: Any changes that you make to an introduction and/or thesis statement will affect the paper that follows. Simply adding the new introductory paragraph will not produce a "completed" paper.)

Conclusions

Conclusions are also difficult to write. How do you manage to make the reader feel persuaded by what you've said? Even if the points of your paper are strong, the overall effect of your argument might fall to pieces if the paper as a whole is badly concluded.

Many students end their papers by simply summarizing what has come before. A summary of what the reader has just read is important to the conclusion - particularly if your argument has been complicated or has covered a lot of ground. But a good conclusion will do more. Just as the introduction sought to place the paper in the larger, ongoing conversation about the topic, so should the conclusion insist on returning the reader to that ongoing conversation, but with the feeling that they have learned something more. You don't want your reader to finish your paper and say, "So what?" Admittedly, writing a conclusion isn't easy to do.
Many of the strategies we've listed for improving your introductions can help you to improve your conclusions as well. In your conclusion you might:

1. Return to the ongoing conversation, emphasizing the importance of your own contribution to it.
2. Consider again the background information with which you began, and illustrate how your argument has shed new light on that information.
3. Return to the key terms and point out how your essay has added some new dimension to their meanings.
4. Use an anecdote or quotation that summarizes or reflects your main idea.
5. Acknowledge your opponents - if only to emphasize that you've beaten them.
6. Remember: language is especially important to a conclusion. Your goal in your final sentences is to leave your ideas resounding in your reader's mind. Give her something to think about. Make your language ring.

Writing skills: Thinking about writing

This lesson looks at a few techniques for ‘thinking’ about writing

There are 3 tasks but you do not need to do all 3.

Time: Approx. 40 minutes (but this depends on how many of the tasks you want to do in one lesson).

Materials

None – the materials will be dependent on your class/students. However, you may wish to use the examples below the first time you try these techniques.
If possible it would be useful to bring in examples of different types of ‘long’ writing (i.e. letters, articles, reports, essays etc). These do not necessarily have to be ‘real’ examples (although those can be useful) but could be from coursebooks, the Internet, or even from other students (clearly these would need to be ‘good’ models).
Explanation
We often spend time on the nuts and bolts of writing such as sentence or paragraph structure, cohesion, appropriate language and style etc, but often neglect the pieces we want to bolt together. This lesson aims to address this ‘problem’.

Instructions

Task 1 – Brainstorming

• Usually brainstorming is done in two ways: either students are put into small groups, given the topic and a time limit and told to write their ideas down – then all the groups ideas are collated; or the brainstorming is done as a whole class activity with students shouting out their ideas and the teacher writing these ideas on the board.
• For this task we would like you to try a different technique for brainstorming. Start by writing the topic (or question) on the board. Sit your students in a circle (if possible) and tell them you will give each student 4 seconds to give you an answer. Start at the left of the circle and if the student gives you a response write it on the board and move on to the next student. If a student doesn’t say something within 4 seconds ask the student to move their chair slightly back and move on. Go round the whole class and then start again and repeat the process. On the third round any student who didn’t say anything (in any round) is ‘out’.
• This brainstorming technique ensures that a) most students participate, and b) that the pace remains high.
• Although the first time you use this brainstorming technique you may get little response once the students are used to it (and its rules) you will find that it is quite productive.

Task 2 – Speed writing

Note: For this activity students do the actual writing individually.
• Make certain that all the students can see the ‘brainstorming’ board.
• Tell the students you are going to give them only 15 minutes (you could give as little as 10 minutes but don’t give more than 20) to write.
• They should concentrate on ideas, not on language, grammar or punctuation.
• They write as quickly as possible and should not stop.
• They cannot cross anything out or correct mistakes during this time.
• If they cannot think of a word or a phrase they should leave a blank space or write it in their own language.
• Once the time is up, shout ‘stop’.
• Students should now work in pairs or small groups and read out what they have written.
• At this stage all the students should just listen.
• Next, as a group (or pair) the students should work through the text correcting mistakes, changing punctuation, translating words or phrases into English, or fill in the blanks.

Task 3 – Loop writing

• Loop writing is a way of ensuring paragraphs link together forming a coherent text.
• In another writing lesson in this section Writing an essay on cause and effect the aim of the lesson was developing coherence and cohesion. This task is a continuation of that theme but builds upon the brainstorming and speed writing tasks (stages) in this lesson.
• During the speed writing you will find that students have generated lots of ideas, but that most of these will be at a sentence level or possibly paragraph level. This means that these ideas now need to be structured into a complete text.
• The task can be done either individually or in small groups (3 or 4)
• In groups ask the students to choose 1 piece of writing.
• Now ask them to read through it and link ideas together that have a similar sub-topic.
• Now they should decide which idea (or sentence) will start the piece of writing.
• Using this idea (and the ones that go with it in the same paragraph) they should write the first paragraph.
• Next, they should summarise the first paragraph in one sentence. This sentence is then used to start the second paragraph. Follow the steps used to create the first paragraph and then summarise the second paragraph.
• Use the sentence that summarises the second paragraph as the start of the third paragraph. Continue with these steps until you have completed the writing.
• Read through again and check as a ‘whole’ text.
• If the task is done individually the same steps are followed but there is no discussion between students about what should go where.

ICT in the Classroom

Strategies for implementing ICT in the Classroom

Martin Pluss
m.pluss@staff.tara.nsw.edu.au

INTRODUCTION

In School Innovation: Pathway to the Knowledge Society there is an unequivocal statement of what teachers have to do:

“The integration of I.C.T. into all major social institutions and organisations means that the necessity to equip young people with the capacity to understand and utilise the potential of such environments is no longer an option, but is now an imperative.” (Cuttance, 2001:73)

This issue has been increasingly addressed by schools through out school in Australia. For a number of years schools have been approaching the integration of ICT with a commendable investment in hardware and software. In more recent years it seems some schools have moved to another level with the investment in staff to facilitate ICT integration in schools. This integration has taken a number of forms. Some teachers in schools have taken the initiative and use ICT in the classroom to enthuse their departmental members. This often filters through then school. Sometimes their effort is acknowledged and a time allocation is sometimes given to help out other teachers. Gradually the school sees the benefit of this good work a greater allocation is given and the person becomes an ICT Integrator within the school. Other schools soon realise that they have to do something to facilitate the use of ICT in teaching and learning. In some schools, for what ever reason, there does not seem to be any or little momentum with ICT integration and the school decides to bring in outside experts to discuss strategies which lead to an appointment of someone to shape the direction of ICT with in the school.

Now the question becomes what can these integrators do to help teachers and students? The first thing is to give ideas on how to use the facilities that you may have. Secondly, then some ideas on what traditional and emerging learning technologies can be use and how to use them in the classroom are two sold starting points.


HOW TO USE THE TECHNOLOGY YOU HAVE

When I started using ICT in the classroom I was almost the only one who would book the computer room or library computers. Since then it is now harder to get into ICT rooms and a more strategic approach to the integration of ICT needs to be considered. At my school we have a two week cycle and it is much harder to get access to the computer facilities. In the past you could book rooms a term ahead now we have only a 2 week corridor to book. This is fair enough as we have to share the resources around and it is good that more and more teachers are using the resources.

I set aside one period a cycle for my classes in an ICT type room. I have tried a few approaches to using the room with the students.

1. Integration of ICT– long term project approach. This took the form of a long term project or activity. In this case I set a long term activity which is loosely related to the work we are doing in the term. The advantage is that you can separate the classroom work from the ICT work and if you miss a lesson due to an excursion or “incursion” (an in school activity that cuts into your lesson times) you a catch up the following week. From a student’s learning viewpoint this approach sometimes creates difficulty for the students as two weeks is a long time between activities and often only think about the lesson as they come to it. In addition it sometimes proved difficult to integrate into the classroom work going on at the same time.

So I started to think through a second approach.

2. Integration of ICT directly related to class work. In this approach I still had the lesson each fortnight and designed activities directly related to what we were doing in the classroom. I had to be a little more adaptable and flexible in my approach depending where I was up to with the class. This gets trickier when you have two classes in the same year group of different abilities or have been affected by incursions. Students who are well organise can cope with this well while others sometimes don’t bring together the products of the ICT activities with their classroom work.

This linking of ICT activities to class work I thought could be brought together though an ICT activity related to the syllabus

3. Integration of ICT linked to the syllabus work. I came across this third approach to help Year 10 students understand syllabus speak for the School Certificate. Here I have developed a set of activities which guide the students through the Syllabus Statement linked to the class work and the overall unit of work. Once the students have worked on the syllabus then, thorough activities, the class work is linked to the syllabus statements. I don’t think teachers overtly link their work to the Syllabus for their students. By doing this find they know the syllabus terms and are less confused when they have to link what they have learnt to external examinations with questions in syllabus language.


THE TYPE OF TECHNOLOGIES TO USE

Much depends on the skill level of the teacher and the students. One thing for certain is that when you compare the skills of students over the years the skill level increases down the age groups as each year goes by. It is not unusually for students to be able to develop web pages in the junior school while students in Year 12 are unable to perform a similar ask. This makes it difficult to develop a whole school scope and sequence for the development of ICT skills. In addition, a school strategy needs to take into account when the syllabuses have difference requirements at different Stages. What follows are some generic activities which can be used and applied into your schools situation. I have broken the activities into Traditional Learning Technologies (TLT) and Emerging Learning Technologies (ELT).

The use of Traditional Learning Technologies (TLT)
1. Basic computer software
The use of word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook and the Apple equilivant can all be implemented to enhance the learning of the content covered in class. A simple task of providing word documents on your intranet or network with questions for the students to download. The ICT skills they would learn with this simple activity would numerous such as being able to logon to their profile, navigate the network or use a username and password to access the file, save a document to their profile or home directory. In addition they have answered questions relevant to the unit of work they are studying.

2. Subject specific software
The specific subject software such as Data Logging for Science, Mathematics software games, GIS for Geography, image manipulation software for Visual Art, special programs for Languages to name a few. For example the ICT skills learnt by using image manipulation software will teach the students a lot about manipulating the size of images for which the network manager will be eternally grateful. In the process of doing this the will learn where to locate original files, create photo galleries, thumbnails and perhaps integrate them into web pages.

3. Web browsing software
Students know how to use different browsers but do they use all of the functions? Browsing software is a very powerful instrument. Knowledge management aside the management of bookmarks should be the first thing taught to students. This way they can learn to navigate to where they need to be quickly and efficiently. Once the have done this they can learn to make use of functions on the internet that can collate their needed data and store information they have and interacting by using for example My Space.


The use of Emerging Learning Technologies (ELT)

It is difficult to work out when a technology is mainstream and no longer emerging. As a working definitions if people on your staff have not heard of the term (s), if they have heard of it and don’t know what it is it is and if they don’t know how to use it t then it is an emerging technology for your school – even if it is mainstream elsewhere. This is unlikely to be the case if you keep up-to-date. There are a few ELTs to consider using.

1. Blogging
Blogs are like online journals with posts that date based, archived and enable a degree of interaction though the use of comments, pingbacks and trackbacks. You can either use blogs to search information using blog search engines and manage the updates using software such as Bloglines. There can be individual blogs and group blogs and the content is determined by the writer. Accordingly they can be official blogs of organizations or be developed and used for the teaching and learning of certain topics in a variety of subject areas. They are in the public domain and for their use in schools they can be developed internally through the school’s network protected by the firewall. It is up to you if you ant to create your own blog,

2. Integrated learning modules
Open source software has enabled the development of Learning Management Systems (LMS) and content management systems such a Moodle which have to capacity for forums, instant messaging, and online submission of work and the marking of such work. There is a lot of potential to assist teachers with the management of their own work by using such a system. These will require a greater involvement of the technical support of your school such as the network manager in order to get such a system operational and stream lined for teaching and learning.

3. Wikis
A lot of people have heard of Wikipedia and increasingly students and teachers are aware that you can create you own and use them for teaching and learning. A wiki can be set up where groups of students can add information on a topic and different students writing their own chapter. Here is a capacity for everyone to edit and add to other students work with different levels of permissions. There is wiki software that you get your network manager to install or you can make use of numerous public wikis such as wikispaces.com.

4. Podcasting
The use of audio files is not new but with the development of digital recorders, ipods and mp3 players it has become easier to create, stream and listen to audio files. Podcasts are actually the broadcasting of audio files using software supported by RSS feeds. When the audios have been made they are broadcasted by RSS feeds. Often a web page is associated with the podcasts and you can get them manually. Students can use these audio files for revision, part of project work and integrated into units of work. There is some more technical work to do to convert the Wave files from digital recorder to mp3 and get them to a suitable size to use them on the internet.

5. Online photo galleries
These galleries are often used if you want to integrate all your blog online. Photos on blogs need to be on the internet as well. You can have private or public galleries in internet based storage such as Flickr. With the addition of automatically generated scrip you can also have a little gallery on our webpage or blog. His would be very useful for adding an extra dimension to web pages constructed by students. Also galleries can be use to share photos.

6. Enhancements for Browsers
Increasingly web browsers are adding functionality for their users. Del.icio.us is a programme which enables you to store your Favourites online and then access them from what ever computer rather than having them stored on a dedicated computer. The value of this is in students being about to move around different computers and have access to their Bookmarks/Favourites. Then there are all the additional Plug Ins that add functionality to your browser

CONCLUSION
There is accelerating natural evolution of ICT technologies by the students that we teach. Meanwhile, educational authorities are starting to prescribe minimum skills that students and by implication teachers should develop. Some schools are adopting a probable future approach and letting the integration of ITC evolved as being prescribes to them. Others schools are adopting a preferred future approach and making use of innovative teachers who model the use of emerging learning technologies. These teachers are to be supported in kind or time as they provide the basis for schools to move forward and may even lead t the appointment of ICT Integrators who help shape and evolve a school’s approach to using traditional and emerging learning technologies by providing ideas on how best to use the technologies your school has and provide ideas on how to use such technologies in teaching and learning.


REFERENCES

Cuttance, P (2001) “Information and Communication Technologies” School Innovation: Pathway to the Knowledge Society, Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs pp.73-100.

Teacher Education

Transforming Teacher Education: Visions and Strategies

Peggy Ertmer

In 1997, the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) suggested that in order to achieve effective use of computers in schools, a ratio of four to five students per computer was needed. Now, just a few years later, this ratio has been attained. According to recent reports from Market Data Retrieval (MDR, 2002), the student-instructional computer ratio in U.S. schools has dropped to an all time low of 3.8 to 1, with a favorable ratio of 4.9 students to each Internet-connected computer. We have achieved an unprecedented level of access. Today, 98% of schools and 77% of classrooms in the United States are connected to the Internet (MDR, 2002). Despite this increased access, or perhaps because of it, concern has been raised about the level of preparedness of new and future teachers to use technology in their teaching. According to the 2000 report of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), only 44% of new teachers (three or fewer years in the classroom) feel well prepared to use technology in their teaching. Although this percentage has increased since the 1999 NCES (NCES) report, much work remains to be done. Assuming that this lack of preparedness is rooted in, or at least linked to, current teacher preparation programs, the United States government initiated the PT3 program, Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology, in 1999 (U.S. Department of Education, 2002). As stated in the overview of the program (http://www.ed.gov/teachtech/about.html): “Profound changes in the way future teachers are taught are necessary if we are to meet the demand for teachers prepared to educate 21st century learners.”

Based on the vision of Tom Carroll (U.S. Department of Education, 2002), the founding
director, PT3 applicants were challenged to be bold in their proposed solutions to issues of technology, learning, and education. Recipients were asked to do more than simply “bolt” new technologies onto existing practices. Thus, this was not so much a program designed to provide greater access to technology as one designed to “transform teacher preparation programs into 21st century learning environments” (http://www.pt3.org/technology/ 21century_learners.htlm). As noted on the PT3 Web site: “The PT3 program is based on the understanding that it is not enough to ensure that preservice teachers understand how to use a computer or access the Internet; they must understand how to create and deliver high-quality technology-infused lessons that engage their students and improve learning.” Given this overall vision of the PT3 program, I was pleased to see the extent to which the five projects described in this special issue of Educational Technology Research and Development are attacking the issue of change in their teacher education programs. Project directors and participants at Arizona State University (ASU); Iowa State University (ISU); University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV); University of Pittsburgh; and Vanderbilt are employing a range of approaches to transform their teacher preparation programs, including specialized faculty development, intense field experience mentoring, and innovative course restructuring. The efforts of these project teams are inspiring; I’m honored to review and discuss these projects.

Effecting School Change

As we all know, “Any organization that adopts a new technology without significant organizational change is doomed to failure” (Schlechty, cited in Carroll, 2000, p. 130). Even small changes to a complex dynamic system, such as a K– 12 school or a teacher education program, can have far-reaching and unforeseen effects. If new technologies are going to successfully transform education, significant changes will be needed not just in terms of roles, rules, and relationships (as noted by Schlechty), but also in terms of the very purpose of the entire educational enterprise. Still, significant changes cannot occur
overnight; rather, small, incremental modifications must be made if true transformation is to be achieved and sustained. Organizations will experience learning curves just as individuals do, and a great deal of scaffolding will be needed to support them as they climb the upward slope of the curve. For the most part, the projects described here are still on that upward slope. A variety of support structures have been put in place and the
learning process has begun. However, as noted in the article by Thompson, Schmidt, and Davis: “Teacher education faculty can be certain that learning how to use and integrate technology will take time, as it will probably be several years before they are comfortable using these technologies with students in their courses” (p. 75). Furthermore, taking faculty to the point where they are comfortable using technology does not, unfortunately, equate to taking them to the point where they can use technology in innovative or “transformed” ways, as advocated by the PT3 founder. A number of researchers have documented the stages that inservice teachers typically progress through as they become accomplished technology users (e.g., Sandholtz, Ringstaff, & Dwyer, 1997) and the “transformation” stage is always near, or at, the end of the process. Moreover, according to Becker (1994), it often takes K–12 teachers more than five years to get to this level. Assuming that teacher education faculty are likely to experience a similar process, is it reasonable to expect them to begin using technology in transformational ways if they are only now becoming aware of how they might use computers in their teaching, and at a more basic level, just now gaining some of the fundamental skills? Without a doubt, these PT3 project directors have their work cut out for them! But there is more. Although skills training and follow-up support are necessary to start current and future teachers along the road to transformational technology use, project directors also recognize that teachers’ ability and willingness to achieve higher levels of integration are affected by other important factors. These in- clude the amounts and kinds of collaborative structures that are available to support their efforts, opportunities for observing and interacting with peer and exemplary models, and opportunities to reflect on current practices and beliefs (their own and others) about teaching and learning. Although skills training may initiate changes in teachers’ uses of technology, these additional scaffolds will be needed to support and sustain the types of meaningful changes being promoted.

Scaffolding Teachers’ Change Efforts

Whereas four of the five projects presented here have focused a great deal of their early efforts on providing skills training and technical support for faculty, they have all embedded these efforts within comprehensive programs that provide additional scaffolds related to three components:
(a) collaboration, (b) modeling, and (c) reflection. In the next few sections, I discuss how these projects address these key components.

Building collaborative structures.

An emphasis on collaboration is, perhaps, the strongest commonality among these programs. Not surprisingly, this collaboration takes many facilitative forms:

• Between technology mentors and teacher education faculty,
• Between technology mentors and inservice teachers,
• Among pre- and inservice teachers,
• Among teacher education faculty and subject- area faculty,
• Among faculty and pre- and in-service teachers, as well as
• Among teacher education faculty members themselves.

Furthermore, in many instances, pre-service teachers are engaging in their own collaborative efforts, made possible by attending classes in cohort groups (ISU, ASU), participating in online discussions about fundamental issues of teaching and learning (Vanderbilt), and working as teams to create technology-infused lessons for K–12 students (ASU). Together, these collaboration strategies allow participants to assume and
share responsibility for the changes they are expected to make. In almost all cases, relationships are reciprocal; members provide varying degrees of technical, pedagogical, and moral support for each other.

Modeling effective technology use

In true learning communities, participants serve as both teachers and learners, drawing on each other’s expertise as they work to solve authentic problems. Because all of the projects highlighted in this special issue established some form of learning community as part of their change efforts, modeling activities developed almost implicitly within their community-based efforts. That is, as faculty, in-service, and pre-service teachers worked together to create technology infused lessons, the modeling of technology occurred naturally, with more expert users modeling effective uses for more novice users.
Still, in at least one instance (ASU), modeling was used in a very explicit manner to help
Pre-service teachers understand what a technology- infused lesson might look like before creating and implementing such lessons themselves. Models can provide important information about how to complete a complex task, as well as increase the confidence of those who observe them. Given the complexity involved in creating and implementing technology-rich lessons, it is likely that teachers (at all levels) will benefit from observing varying degrees of expert performance as they move toward more advanced levels of technology use themselves.

Reflecting on current practices and beliefs

Reflection among participants is believed to be a critical component of any innovation effort; the projects described here have incorporated participant reflection in a variety of direct and indirect ways. For example, the Vanderbilt project is designed specifically to “make visible” the thinking of pre-service teachers. Thus, it anchors student learning in reflective, inquiry-based activities. Pittsburgh’s participants kept reflective journals as one way to help them “extract from the experience the knowledge that leads to improved
practice” (p. 97). Similarly, ASU students were required to write post-unit reflections and to participate in whole group debriefing sessions after implementing technology-based lessons. At both ISU and UNLV, participants engaged in reflective activities as part of the data-gathering process, usually through participation in interviews or focus groups. These activities provided participants with the opportunity to reflect on their learning progress and to consider how their practices and beliefs were changing. At ISU, these interviews were described as being generative (inspiring new ideas and strategies) and cathartic (enabling project leaders to express frustrations, reflect on past successes, and anticipate future needs). As these PT3 projects near completion, it may be expected that the need for reflective activities will increase as the various stakeholders come together to consider the overall success of the project and to determine critical next steps. It is important to point out that while all project participants engaged in some type of reflection, they did not all reflect on the same things. Whereas Vanderbilt students reflected on the principles of how people learn (i.e., focused on beliefs), students at ASU reflected on their personal implementation of a technology-based lesson (i.e, focused on practice). In somewhat of a combined approach, the Pittsburgh participants appear to have reflected on new practices in order to facilitate changes in beliefs. What is not at all clear at this point, however, is whether one of these approaches is more beneficial than the others in terms of facilitating meaningful uses of technology in the future. It would be useful to follow these participants for a few years to examine how beliefs and practice do
change, if at all. Will a change in practice lead to changes in beliefs, or is a change in beliefs necessary to facilitate a change in practice? The answers to these questions may help us determine how best to focus our students’ reflective inquiry.

Determining Project and Program Effectiveness

Given all the changes that have occurred in these teacher education programs, is it safe, then, to assume that the PT3 projects, and therefore the PT3 program, are a success? If we were to base our answer on the results reported in these papers, then surely we would give a resounding yes. Although most projects report a few lessons learned, or include a sampling of unfavorable responses from participants, the overwhelming tone is one of optimism. As well it should be: Changes are occurring; progress is being made. However, if we measured success in terms of the original program goals (i.e., to transform teacher education programs), then we still have a ways to go. What is needed, at least from this reader’s viewpoint, is a better description of the types of lessons being delivered, as well as the manner in which technology is being used to support the lessons. Without this, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the extent to which teachers truly are transforming their traditional approaches to teaching and learning. Nonetheless, it is clear to me that the initial project efforts described in these papers were absolutely essential to getting existing faculty and teachers over the technology hump. According to the PT3 Web site (http//www.ed.gov/teachtech/ about.htm), the PT3 program “is creating a
movement that aims to break the cycle that leaves new teachers unprepared to use modern learning technologies because their education professors weren’t modeling appropriate technology use.” Once the cycle is broken, then, it is expected that the movement will perpetuate itself because the culture will have finally changed; pre-service students will be taught in innovative ways that model the types of teaching and learning
we expect them to implement in our K–12 schools. Given this point of view, then, these
projects can be seen as recreating their existing cultures; clearly this is a slow and complex task that cannot be rushed.

Future Efforts

The PT3 projects included in this issue represent only 1% of the total number of PT3 projects being implemented nationwide. Although each project has a unique approach, a number of common themes unite them. However, because we really don’t know which of these many approaches is best, in terms of long-range impact, it will be important to collect longitudinal data that enable us to compare students from these various programs. For example, what are the differences, if any, between students who are enrolled in belief-focused programs such as Vanderbilt versus those who work in the field as at ASU versus those immersed in technology-rich programs as at UNLV, Pittsburgh, or ISU? And more importantly, will the differences translate into real differences in classroom uses of technology and student learning? When will we see the real impact? How many years will it take before the NCES report finally indicates that more than 50% (75%? 100%?) of our teachers feel prepared to use technology in the classroom?

Undoubtedly there is a need for more data, particularly impact data that demonstrate effects on K–12 student learning. As Strudler and his colleagues point out, “Since the ultimate proving ground for these efforts is in K–12 classrooms, an increased emphasis needs to be placed on documenting the impact on teacher candidate outcomes in student teaching and beyond” (p. 55). As PT3 projects enter their final years of funding, I urge project directors to consider gathering more detailed and descriptive data, not only about the types of lessons being implemented, but about the impact these lessons are having on K–12 student thinking and problem- solving skills.

Given the 1999 status of teacher education programs in terms of their ability to prepare 21st century learners (U.S. Department of Education, 2002), the initial goal of the PT3 program may have been a bit optimistic. Yet, this program, more than any other recent effort, has revitalized teacher education programs in ways that have been recommended for years. According to the PT3 Web site, this program “comes at a time of opportunity; a teacher shortage has created a need to recruit, train, and retain two million new teachers in the next decade. Transforming teacher preparation programs now will ensure that the mass of graduates coming through the pipeline will be trained appropriately and will enter tomorrow’s classrooms skillfully prepared to teach using technology-infused methods” (http://www.pt3 .org/technology/21century_ learners.htlm). Still, it’s up to us to transform this opportunity into reality. By incorporating the critical elements of collaboration, modeling, and reflection into their organizational change efforts, I believe that the projects described here offer a very promising start.

Peggy Ertmer is Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Criteria of Good Needs Analysis Questionnaire

15 criteria of a good needs analysis

An effective and popular needs analysis:

1. Looks at their needs in many different ways

E.g. analyses the language they need by function (complaining, making polite requests etc.), skill (e.g. more emailing than speaking), genre (minutes, reports, job interviews etc), and formality, and analyses other factors such as the nationality they will be speaking to and their preferred and most hated ways of studying languages.

2. Has a clear purpose

For example, because you have explained before you start needs analysis what you will do with the results or they have been sent an email explaining the process even before that point.

3. Is culturally appropriate

Some examples- the needs analysis: does not make it appear that you are shunning responsibility in cultures where teachers sharing the decision making process could be taken that way; does not ask students to talk about taboo topics; starts with some knowledge of the previous language studies they are likely to have gone through; does not ask them to say things that could seem like boasting if their culture is particularly sensitive to that; takes false modesty or boasting to save face into account when interpreting their answers; allows an easy answer to those who might lose face by saying nothing; or provides lots of language help (e.g. the questions for the interviewer in pair work needs analysis questionnaires for students who might expect it or will be unhappy making language errors).

4. Fits in with the restrictions you are under

For example, if you have to stick to a syllabus or textbook it is counterproductive to find out that they only want 30% of that stuff, but it might be worth finding out what they want to tackle first and what their preferred learning styles are.

5. Discusses and gives hints for self-study skills

For example, finish the needs analysis with discussion of their previous language studies, what they thought about the methods used and what they think the best ways of learning language are. You can then move onto a general discussion of what methods they can use inside and outside the classroom during the course.

6. Includes a mix of skills

Probably including lots of speaking (e.g. interviewing each other in pairs to find what their use of English and previous experiences have in common), but also listening (e.g. listen to a description of one of the students and try to guess who it is), reading (e.g. decide which of these language learning methods sounds best) and writing (e.g. write up what you have just learnt about the needs of the class as a business report).

7. Is interactive/ fun

Having a variety of skills can help for this, as can having lots of different interactions (pairs, whole class, mingle activities, teams etc). Also make sure that students ask as well as answer questions. You can also add competition (e.g. points for the best questions or most entries on a needs analysis form) or a game element (e.g. find someone who… can speak Spanish/ has read the Financial Times etc as quickly as possible).

8. Can’t crash and burn

For example, the needs analysis activity works even if students are pre-experience, don’t know their needs or have no clear needs. For example, you can allow students to make up some of their answers and have the person who was interviewing them guess which answers were made up at the end of the activity.

9. Links to a language point

Preferably one that they are likely to need, comes up in the syllabus, doesn’t challenge them too much (especially if it is a lesson early in the course, which is usually so for needs analysis) and can be dealt with fairly quickly if the needs analysis and discussion of the syllabus and self-study tips goes on longer than expected. The language point could be grammar (e.g. Present Perfect to talk about your language learning and language use experience), vocabulary (names of different jobs, common collocations with the word “English” etc) or functions (e.g. asking indirect and polite questions or talking about obligations). Choosing which language you want to come up in the needs analysis and whether you want to present it before or after can also help you make sure that you have graded the activity correctly for your students.

10. Works with mixed levels

For example, some students can interview each other with the interview form with minimal prompts (e.g. “Language Learning Experience” and “Present Use of English”), while others can refer to the list of questions on the back of the sheet (e.g. “Have you ever given a presentation in English?”, “How often do you use English in your work or studies?” etc.)

11. Leaves a written record

As one major advantage of doing a needs analysis is that it helps you to plan the rest of the course (another being that they will think about their own needs), you will need to have something written down at the end of the class. If they are interviewing each other in pairs, get them to write what they find out in note form. If the whole class is working together in a syllabus negotiation, pyramid ranking debate etc put it up on the board and make sure you copy it down before wipe it off (or take a photo of it), or write it directly on a poster or an OHP sheet to be referred to in class later in the course.

12. Includes functional language

“It’s your turn to ask me some questions”, “Let’s move onto the next section”, “I’d like to give a presentation about…”, “I’d like to introduce you all to…” etc. The easiest way of getting them to use such language is to put it at the top of whatever worksheets they are using.

13. Is also a level check and diagnostic test

For example, plan the questions so that they have to talk about the past, present and future of their English use and studies to test the grammar of both the person asking the questions and the person answering, or give them some common but difficult business vocabulary like “minutes” and “agenda” to ask each other needs analysis questions about, e.g. “Have you ever received the minutes of a meeting in English?” How well they cope with that language and what mistakes they make can then be put together with the needs analysis results to plan the course.

14. Is an example of the kind of lesson you will be giving them

For example, if pairwork is a major part of your teaching methodology make sure you include it in the first lesson, and if possible during the needs analysis stage.

15. Is flexible

For example, the questions can be changed depending on the students, such as “How important is English for your work/ studies/ daily life/ future?”

Source: Alex Case, 2008

Alex Case is author of the popular blog TEFLtastic.

Determining Goals, Objectives and Needs Analysis

Task 1 Determining Goals and Objectives

What are the purposes and the intended outcomes of the course? What will my students need to do or learn to achieve these goals?


The relationship between goals and objectives

Goals are generally statements of the overall, long-term purposes of the course.

Objectives express the specific ways in which the goals will be achieved.

Goals of a course represent the destination; the objectives, the various points that chart the course towards the destination.

Example: Pat Fisher’s social studies course for seventh-grade ESOL students.
Fisher’s goal: To orient her students to the particular skills, vocabulary, and rhetorical styles.

Fisher’s objectives: Students should be able to read maps, graphs, and charts with demonstrated understanding and to know the geographic, topical, and climatic features of the major regions of the Eastern Hemisphere.


Different types of objectives:

Different types of objectives can be distinguished between which no division is made by the syllabus itself, there are a range of structural, functional, and skills based objectives, and some objectives to which none of these headings can be attributed clearly are included as well, for instance in year 1:

Structural:
- to be able to handle the active and passive vocabulary and structural content of the course book


Functional:
- to participate actively in a simple conversation, to ask and answer questions or to signal non-understanding

Skills based:
- to extract essential information from a simple spoken text

Unclear:
- to become acquainted with culture and lifestyle in Anglo-Saxon areas


Saphier and Gower (1987) list five kinds of objectives, all interrelated. The first three concern what students will do; the last two, what they will have mastered.

1. Coverage objectives articulate what will be covered. Example: we will cover the first five units of the course book.

2. Activity objectives articulate what the students will do. Example: students will write six different kinds of paragraphs. Students will do paragraph development exercises.

3. Involvement objectives articulate how to maximise student involvement and interest. Example: student will engage in discussions about which paragraphs they like best. Student will brainstorm lists of interesting topics to write about.

4. Mastery objectives articulate what students will be able to do as a result of their time in class. Example: Student will be able to write an interesting paragraph that contains a topic sentence and supporting details.

5. Critical thinking objectives articulate which learning skills students will develop. Example: Student will be able to determine characteristics of a good paragraph and say why they think a paragraph is good.


Why set goals and objectives?

• Provides a sense of direction
• Provides a coherent framework for teachers in planning the course


Breaking goals down into objectives is very much like making a map of the territory to be explored. It is a way for the teacher to conceptualise her course in terms of teachable chunks. Clear goals and objectives give the teacher a basis for determining which content and activities are appropriate for her course. They also provide a framework for evaluation of the effectiveness or worth of an activity: Did it help students achieve or make progress towards the goals and objectives?
(Graves, 1996: 17)



Intended learner group

Aim:

• To examine how information about learner’s needs can be used to inform decision-making and design of curriculum and syllabi

Task 1 The Munby approach

One of the earliest proponents of needs analysis was Munby (1978). He collected information about learners under a number of headings. Here are two examples of different students. Read the information and discuss the following questions with a partner.


Could these two students share part of a language programme?
Do you think there are some important things we don’t know about these students?
What kind of syllabus content do you think this list of learner needs would probably produce?


Student A
Participant. Thirty-five-year-old Spanish-speaking male. Present command of English very elementary. Very elementary command of German.

Purposive domain. Occupational – to facilitate duties as head waiter and relief receptionist in hotel.

Setting. Restaurant and reception area in Spanish tourist hotel. Non-intellectual, semi-aesthetic public psycho-social setting.

Interaction. Principally with customers, hotel residents, reservation seekers.

Instrumentality. Spoken and written, productive and receptive language. Face-to-face and telephone encounters.

Dialect. Understand and produce standard English; understand Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American.

Communicative event. Head waiter attending to customers in restaurant; receptionist dealing with residents’/customers’ enquiries/reservations, answering correspondence on room reservations.

Communicative key. Official to member of the public, server to customer. Formal, courteous.


Student B
Participant. Twenty-year-old Venezuelan male. Elementary command of target language. No other languages.

Purposive domain. Educational – to study agriculture and cattle breeding.

Setting. Educational institution in Venezuela. Intellectual, quasi-professional, psycho-social setting.

Interaction. Principally with teachers and other students.

Instrumentality. Spoken and written, receptive and productive. Face-to-face and print channels.

Dialect. Understands and produce Standard English dialect, understands General American and RP accent.

Communicative event. Studying reference material in English, reading current literature, taking English lessons to develop ability to understand agricultural science material.

Communicative key. Learner to instructor.


Task 2 Needs analysis/assessment

What are my students’ needs?
How can I assess them so that I can address them?
Why does a teacher undertake it?

Needs assessment involves finding out what the learners know and can do and what they need to learn or do so that the course can bridge the gap. Thus, needs assessment involves seeking and interpreting information about one’s students’ needs so that the course will address them effectively.

Different types of Learner needs

One way of conceptualizing needs is to distinguish between “subjective” needs and “objective” needs (Richterich, 1980).

Brindley (1989: 70) defines,

Objective needs as “derivable from different kinds of factual information about learners, their use of language proficiency and language difficulties”.
Examples:
• Age
• Gender
• Nationality
• Mother tongue
• Other language
• Length of time exposed to native speakers of English language
• Level of education
• Interests/hobbies
• Employment
• Family details

Subjective needs as “the cognitive and affective needs of the learners in the learning situation, derivable from information about affective and cognitive factors such as:
• Personality
• Confidence
• Attitude
• Learners’ wants and expectations (with regard to the learning of English and their own individual style and learning strategies)/ Preferred learning activities
• Preferred role of teacher
• Reason why student is learning English
• Life goals




Look at the examples 1 – 6 (Nunan D, (1988). The Learner centred curriculum) of the kinds of questions which can be asked in needs analysis questioners. Identify which ask about objectives needs. Also decide which particular aspects of those needs the questions address.


It’s just as well to bear the follow in quotation in mind, when considering this area of learner needs – it can be a very fuzzy area!!!

‘… the possibility describing needs with any desired degree of clarity is not so self-evident ……needs may remain unexpressed … the change in the course of learning, and … in any event the very concept of ‘need’ is still ambiguous … needs (are not the same as) situations ,or motivations or objectives, are expectations, or demands, or host of other things with they are confused. But are they? No answer can be given’ (Richterich 1983:11)


Limitations of Needs Analysis

The process of needs analysis at the present stage of its development has some obvious limitations:

(1) In many circumstances it is difficult to predict with any degree of accuracy just what learners’ needs will be in the future.

(2) Most learners are taught in groups, and groups are not always homogeneous. So the needs of the learners in a group may not be identical and in many cases may differ quite considerably one from another.

(3) There is no foolproof method of analysing needs. Much depends on individual subjective judgment.

(4) Some of the information necessary for carrying out the analysis may be inaccurate or missing.

(5) A needs analysis may come up with a range of functions and concepts which, when turned into language forms, cannot be organised into a coherent teaching sequence.

On the other hand needs analysis has had the beneficial effect of reminding teachers and syllabus designers that the final objective in language teaching is to enable the learner to communicate. Needs analysis has also helped to emphasise the range and variety of uses to which the language is put. Generally, the outcome has been a greater sensitivity to students’ needs seen in terms of a profile consisting of a number of variable and interrelated features including stylistic appropriateness, level of attainment, receptive/productive abilities, medium (speech/writing), units of meaning and forms of English.



Discuss – What kinds of problems might be associated with needs analysis???




Task 4 Writing your own needs analysis

Write a needs analysis questionnaire for your on situation, bearing in mind some things you would really like to find out about your learners in order to make your teaching their learning more effectives .You might find it useful to refer back to the handout for types of question you can asks. Start off with a brief description of your learners, giving the following information:

Situation
Kind of educational institution
Type of programme
Learners
Materials in use
Reason for conducting needs analysis



Then write your questionnaire (you could also design question for an interview instead). Give it to partner who will fill it in for you and hand it back. What changes would you make to your syllabus on the basis of the replies?


In a group, discuss your answer to the following questions:

1. What was the learning situation and what for the learners like?

2. What were the weaknesses of Uvin’s first approach to needs analysis?

3. What changes did he make the second time around?

4. What can we learn from Uvin’s experience about the benefits and limitations of needs analysis?


Learner Needs Task

Based on learner profile (age, level, interests, reasons for learning) Do a needs analysis. This can range from a full blown formal multiple choice computer test and oral interview to an informal chat at the beginning of the course where you ask the class what their needs are.