Reflecting on educational reflections

Over the course 0f this semester together as a class we have covered a wide rnge of topics in the field of Psychology and Education ranging from technological advances, differing teaching techniques around the world and their effectiveness, metacognition, gamification of education, bullying, creativity in education, extracurricular activities, social media, manners of increasing students retention of the material, bilingualism, and arteficially enhancing students learning and how this influences their education in positive or negative manners; in addition to potential solutions to contemporary education through alternative methods of education such as homeschooling, steiner, montessori schools and the Khan academy amoung numerous other topics.

In my fist blog I explored the importance of enhancing creativity and some of the ideas that Sir Ken Robinson dealt with in his TED talks about the flaws in our educational system. What appers to be clear over the past few weeks is that our educational system is certainly flawed, and there is numerous evidence supporting this viewpoint and yet what is surprising is how little education has changed over hundreads of years and the on size fits all approach is certianly still in use today as it was hundreads of years ago, but what is lacking are realistic strategies and practical methods that teachers can implement and change education for the better.

This image In my viewpoint sums up my experience of education and how it has made me feel, inadequate and unintelligent. Through taking this module at the final stage of my higher education degree, after 16 years of education I have finally felt what I imagined eduation to be like many years before now, thought provoking, engaging, interactive, integrating techonology and social media such as blogs, facebook groups etc and thereby relevant to our lives.

I hope that in the future education will fulfil as I mentioned in my first blog the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) each child has the right to an education that develops their “personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential’. Having taken this module it is clear how frustrating the current flawed education system can be for students but also educators who have tried to implement innovative strategies in their schools, colleges and Universities and are met with resistance and negative remarks. But as Jesse said in the beginning said we are in a sinking ship at the moment with education and things won’t change until we see the water!

With the worlds population growing at a faster rate than it has ever done with the difference between the 6th billionth child and the 7 billionth child born of just over a decade who knows what out world let alone out education system will look like in a few years but for sure technology and the internet will become more important in our incresingly globalized world to communicate, share ideas and educate!

Thank you everyone for an engagaing, interesting semester of ideas, topics,  blogging, commenting, and presenting!

Accents and Education

Throughout our lives we engage in social interactions regularly and frequently (Clark et al. 1998:ix) language is the key and education is certainly no exception. But language and in particular accents serve so much more than to transfer information back and fourth. They are a form of social identity and set us as belonging to a certain community.

Having established the multiple interconnections of social situations and language choices, we now come on to consider how such choices are socially meaningful to others. In fact, even a single vowel or consonant sound, contrasting with others or with our expectations, can have evaluative repercussions for its utterer. (Giles & Coupland 1991:32). Surveys and investigations, Illustrate that prejudiced towards particular dialects is common (Giles and Coupland 1991:32-33).

But do students in a class form associations with teachers depending on their accents and if so does this effect their attitudes and thereby learning?

Sahlström (2005) carried out a study on Upper Secondary Students’ Assessment of Four Women Speaking Four Different Varieties of English namely Scottish, American English, Australian English, RP (received pronunciation) ie. ‘proper’ English. RP is the variety of English taught in schools and abroad when English is taught as a second language, seen in previous years as being associated with those who are well educated its popularity is decreasing most likely as it has negative connotation linked to it of being superior, posh (Trudgill 2000:194-195) and snobbish (Sharwood-Smith 1999:59-60) and (Sahlstrom, 2005).

Scottish on the other hand has positive connotations with Scottish people being viewed as friendly, hospitable and warm people (Edwards 1982:23).

Sahlström (2005) discovered that American speaker scored highest, in comparison to the other accents, on traits like ‘ambitious, articulate, benevolent, educated, friendly, organized and trustworthy’. But the Scottish accent was rated the lowest on traits such as ‘arrogant, condescending, funny, generous, sociable and wealthy’ (Sahlström, 2005).

The Australian Speaker was rated the lowest on traits such as arrogant and shy and yet she was rated the highest on traits such as Arrogant Articulate, Benevolent, confident and educated (Sahlström, 2005)

The Scottish speaker, was noted as the most experienced (Sahlström, 2005). With participants rating her as ‘confident, experienced and relaxed’ (Sahlström, 2005). But she was rated as less educated in comparison to the other speakers (Sahlström, 2005).

So it is clear from the research outlined above that there are stereotypes and prejudices against particular accents. But going back to the question that I asked previously do different accents affect the student’s learning?

 Gill (1994) examined accent and stereotypes and their effect on perceptions of teachers and lecture comprehension. Gill discovered that students administered more positive ratings to teachers with standard North American accents (Gill, 1994). Interestingly accent variety also influenced comprehension (Gill, 1994). It was found that participants recalled more information from North American teachers in comparison to British or Malaysian teachers (Gill, 1994). Also stereotyping had no impact on impression formation or comprehension (Gill, 1994).

Additionally Kelly (1970)  carried out research on students attitudes to regional Irish accents that indicated that there exists regional differences between teachers and pupils class- room interaction depending on their accent. So potentially pupils attend less well to teachers whose accents they perceive unfavourably on certain dimensions as supported in research by (Edwards, 1977).

Don’t worry be funny :-)

‘’Classrooms in which laughter is welcome help bring learning to life.” (Kristmanson, 2000)

The traditional education system with its often dull methods seems to leave little room for one of human’s most wonderful characteristics, the production and enjoyment of humour. But when one examines the current education system and the benefits of humour there are endless opportunities to harness this tool to enhance, learning, understanding and discussion of material. The positive emotions that are brought to the fore through humour can increase our engagement with a particular subject or topic by altering how academic material is perceived and dealt with, in addition to creating a favourable classroom environment, where students feel relaxed (Powell and Andresen, 1985), (Berk, 1996, 1998) and (Loomax and Moosavi, 1998).

Research has shown that the affective state that one is in can influence ones cognitive processes (Hannula, 2006). One “fundamental principle of human behavior is that emotions energize and organize perception, thinking and action” (Izard, 1991). Additionally from personal experience the teachers who were joyful and willing to look at the humorous side of the particular material we were covering were the teachers that were most liked and the classes in which I did and still do remember the most material from, as supported by (Powell and Andresen 1985), Korobkin (1988) and Stewart and Furse (1986). Bryant, Comisky, Crane, and Zillmann (1980) discovered that there is a positive link between using humour in a classroom and students ‘assessments of their male teachers on levels of favourability and overall successfulness of teaching’. Bryant et al. (1980) also show that a sense of humour is one of the most crucial attributes students desire from their teachers. One manner, in which humour benefits the teachers, is to make them come across as increasingly ‘approachable, down-to-earth, and friendly’. Flowers (2001) also says that utilizing humour in education lessens the disparity between student and teacher and promotes group work.

Kaplan and Pascoe (1977) maintain that appropriate humour to the particular subject material increases the student’s memory of the principles being taught. Edwards and Gibboney (1992) say that humour in the classroom is especially beneficial if it aids the clarification or understanding of a certain area, but the humour utilized must be relevant to the subject matter.

Humour also makes the material or particular course more enjoyable and interesting to students and instructors (Whisonant 1998; Trefts and Blakeslee 2000) and Trefts and Blakeslee (2000) which intern increases attendance as students often only skip the most dull or boring classes. Friedman, Halpern, and Salb (1999) for example used humorous anecdotes in order to liven up and make a statistics course more engaging to the students.

Blumenfeld and Alpern (1985) lay out ten reasons why humour should be used in the classroom, these cover advantages like increasing avenues for communication. Burkhart (1998) and Lundberg and Thurston (1992) also discuss manners in which humour can be implemented in the classroom. Grecu, (2008) has looked into the benefits of using humour in teaching, he found that after integrating more humour into a typical classroom, the atmosphere became significantly more positive. Questions and issues were viewed in a positive light thereby, increasing motivation to learn (Shmakov and Hannula, 2009).

Kristmanson (2000) highlights the importance of fostering a classroom in which pupils feel welcome particularly for second language learning: “In order to take risks, you need a learning environment in which you do not feel threatened or intimidated. In order to speak, you need to feel you will be heard and that what you’re saying is worth hearing. In order to continue your language learning, you need to feel motivated. In order to succeed, you need an atmosphere in which anxiety levels are low and comfort levels are high. Issues of motivation and language anxiety are key to the topic of affect in the second language classroom.” Although Kristmanson (2000) was referring to learning a language this quote and the points that he has made is applicable and crucial for learning any subject.

Utilizing humour in your class also has positive impacts for the teacher and principal too, in addition to the wider classroom and school environment. Woods (1963), examined coping mechanism in a British high school, and found that humour and laughter played a key part in coping strategies of both teachers and students (Burford, 1987). This form of coping is supported by the following quote: ‘Life is tough, and if you have the ability to laugh at it you have the ability to enjoy it’ (Hayek, 2009).

Woods (1983) has shown that humour serves as a  coping mechanism in a number of different domains for instance ‘coping’ through humor allows reacting through ‘constructive and creative ways’. It is a manner of facing ‘contradictory goals’ that the educational system often throws at its teachers, in addition to the problems encountered in classes (Berlak and Berlak, 1981) and the stress produced by the ‘physical, emotional, intellectual’ requirements of the profession.

To conclude humour is a wonderful way for humans to express themselves and it can contribute a huge amount towards enhancing education for teachers and students alike. It allows educators to foster an affective and positive learning environment, reduces anxiety and stress levels in the students, increases engagement and motivation to learn and encourages a positive rapport to build between the teachers and pupils.

Blog 7 Its not left that’s right!?

The other day in the maclab while daydreaming my mind wandered off and began to think about potential topics for my blog, scanning my eyes around the room I could’t help to notice how pretty much everyone was right handed. It got me thinking about the potential differences between left and right handers cognitively in addition to their academic performance. It is estimated that 85 percent of individuals are right-handed with the remainder being left handed. In schools left handed pupils are often discriminated  against in particular during the ’70s and ’80s, parents often forced their left-handed children to use their right hands. But from looking into the definition of left handed globally it has negative connotations, also lefties often feel out of place in right handed world so often become ambidextrous in order to adapt

Cross culturally the meaning of left is certainly seen as negative. The Latin meaning for left is sinister. In French an individual seen as unskillful is called “gauche” meaning left. In German someone is given the name ‘linkisch’ (meaning ‘leftish’) if they are either weird, odd or even nasty in an antisocial sense. Right, in Dutch is recht but it also means straight, privilege (as in human rights),Link means left, stupid, awkward, but also keen, skilled. The Gaelic (Irish) word for lefthanded is “Ciotach”. It has two imports as well 1) lefthanded and 2) Awkward or difficult. In Welsh left is ‘chwith’, which also implies being strange.

But research suggests that left handedness may not be as negative as the definition suggests. Left-handed individuals are quicker at processing multiple stimuli than righties for example tasks like talking and driving simultaneously. Left handed individuals are more bicerebral. They become faster at tasks because they have to use both sides of the brain more.” Through adapting to a right handed world.

Another area of specialization in left handed people is that of sensory-data processing: Typically, information received on the right side of the body (the right eye, or the right ear, for example.) goes to the left hemisphere for processing, and information received on the left side goes to the right hemisphere. Eventually, the brain combines the processing results from both hemispheres to form what we consciously perceive visually and through our audition.

There is a distinct link between handedness, brain lateralization and anatomy. Lateralization of speech is related to handedness. 95% of righthanders have speech lateralized in the left hemisphere, with only 2% of left-handers exhibiting this (Hellige, 1990). Additionally, Driesen and Raz (1995) established that the corpus callosum was bigger and better connected in left-handers.

Experts also theorize that left-handed people could perform better mentally as they become elderly and general brain processing starts to decrease in speed: with an enhanced ability for one brain hemisphere to quickly back up the tasks of the other, left-handed seniors could retain mental quickness for an extended period of time in comparison to their right-handed counterparts.

Regarding cognitive skills in left handed individuals, the research is mixed. (Eglinton and Annett, 1994) discovered a “small but reliable increase” of dyslexia among left handed individuals (Eglinton and Annett, 1994). Certain studies have discovered average performance in high school is lower for left-handed students (for example, Williams, 1987), while additional studies have discovered conflicting evidence for example Faurie, Vianey-Liaud, and Raymond (2006) found handedness to be positively correlated with school achievement and leadership skills for boys, while the correlation was negative for girls. Typically, studies show discrepancies in cognitive skills that are in favour of right-handed individuals (Hardyck and Petrinovich, 1977; Porac and Coren, 1981). But again there is research to prove otherwise Benbow (1986) established that gifted youths were two times as likely to be left-handed than individuals in the control group. Geschwind and Galaburda (1987, p. 98) determined that “non-righthanded populations are over-represented in all populations with high talent” (McManus and Bryden, 1991).

In addition it has been put forward that discrepancies may be due to cognitive styles rather than cognitive abilities. Coren (1995) approximates that the link between handedness and two forms of thinking- convergent (“a fairly focused application of existing knowledge and rules to the task of isolating a single correct answer”) and divergent (“moves outward from conventional knowledge into unexplored association”). Divergent thinking is proved to be positively associated with the extent of left-handedness, but just for males.

Lastly left handed individuals may not only fair better cognitively but once they have received their education or relevant qualification they may earn more. A noteworthy increase in earnings for left-handed men with high levels of education was discovered. This positive wage effect is strongest among those who have lower than average earnings relative to those of similar high education. Coren (1995) discovered that “divergent thinking” is more customary with male left-handed individuals. If it is this differential cognitive style that is the source of higher earnings for University educated left-handed men, it would justify why it is not found in women.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/brain.html    http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/refs1.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/5963820/Domestic-cats-can-be-left-or-right-handed-scientists-find.html

http://www.iched.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=iched&item_id=lefthand_righthand

http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/parts/left-handed.htm

http://www.humanforsale.com/left-vs-right.asp

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Left-handed-people-think-faster-than-left-handed-people-42445.shtml

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-causes-some-people-t

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100128101901.htm

http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/lspeak2.html#educators

1 http://dspace.lafayette.edu/bitstream/handle/10385/669/Ruebeck.Laterality-vol12-no2-2007.pdf?sequence=1

2 http://0-www.tandfonline.com.unicat.bangor.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1080/713754398

Click to access 214.1.full.pdf

http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-TIRE200702001.htm

http://0-www.tandfonline.com.unicat.bangor.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1080/713754398

Click to access fulltext.pdf

 

The King or Queen of the class Extroverts or Introverts?

This week I cast my mind back to when I was on a weeks work experience in my former primary school and it got me thinking about the students individual responses and reactions when the teacher asked them a question, some jumping off their seats arms waving eagerly, others remaining very quiet indeed.

Eysenck and Rachmans (1965) and Fouts (1975) define Introverted children as ‘nonsocial that is, they prefer being alone, have few friends, and tend to be generally introspective and inhibited’ . Extroverted children on the other hand are characterized as ‘social’ that is, they like to be with others, have many friends, and are impulsive’ (Eysenck and Rachmans, 1965) and (Fouts, 1975). Although as with most things in life the majority of people are somewhere along the spectrum between an introvert and an extrovert.

But why genuinely fairs best in a school setting extroverts or  introverts?  From looking into the research it is often provides conflicting evidence.

Eysenck (1967) argued that Extraversion and Neuroticism are theoretically and empirically linked with aptitude, predominantly as a consequence of likenesses in mental speed (i.e., high Extraversion, low Neuroticism, and high intelligence are all related to high mental speed). Also, it has been proved that stable, as opposed to neurotic, individuals tend to score higher on ability tests—possibly due to the fact that they are generally less influenced by anxiety (Furnham & Mitchell, 1991; Zeidner, 1995; Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham  (2003); Zeidner & Matthews, 2000) and perform better in university classes (Cattell & Kline, 1977; Goh & Moore, 1978; Lathey, 1991; Sanchez-Marin, Rejano-Infante, & Rodriguez-Troyano, 2001; Savage, 1962).

In addition, Rolfhus and Ackerman (1999) discovered a negative relationships between Extraversion and many knowledge tests, and put forward that these connections may be linked, there may be discrepancies in knowledge acquisition time, between introverts (spend more time studying) and extraverts (spend more time socializing).

However, Furnham, Forde, and Cotter (1998a, 1998b) showed  that extraverts significantly outperformed introverts on a test of logical reasoning.  Thereby it is challenging to reveal a consistent pattern for the link between intelligence and Extraversion, which is either weaker or more context/task specific than Neuroticism. A number of the ambiguities may be clarified by Eysencks  (1967) and Furnham et al.s (1998a, 1998b), suggestion that the relationship between Extraversion and intellectual ability depends on the intelligence test used:  extraverts perform better at timed tests, while longer and non-timed test are performed better by introverts.

Research into the relationship between Extraversion and academic performance,  (Child, 1964; Entwistle & Entwistle, 1970; Savage, 1962) reveals that introverts perform better than extroverts—because of a greater ability to consolidate learning and better study habits (Entwistle & Entwistle, 1970). Yet, many researchers (Kline & Gale, 1971) have been unable to replicate these results.

Although stable introverts  generally  have the most positive attitudes toward studying, their examination results were similar to those of neurotic extraverts (Cowell and Entwistle, 1971). Furnham and Medhurst (1995) repeated these results, but found extraverts to be rated more positively in seminar classes than introverts.

On the other hand Sanchez-Marin et al. (2001) discovered that extraverts were inclined to fail their courses to a greater degree than introverts, no doubt due to their distractibility, sociability, and impulsiveness. A reasoning behind the ambiguity of results was put forward by Anthony (1973), who said that extraverts generally do better than introverts in primary school, while the opposite occurs in higher levels of education. This would be due to higher education involving more analytical, formal and complex tasks compared with lower education.

In terms of purely personality traits influences on academic performance, two longitudinal studies were carried out in University samples. The results indicated that, the Big Five personality factors (Costa & McCrae, 1992)—especially Neuroticism and Conscientiousness—predicted overall final exam marks more than  academic predictors, accounting for more than 10% of unique variance in overall exam marks. Neuroticism has been shown to impair academic performance, while Conscientiousness may lead to higher academic achievement. Eysenck , 1985 showed that personality measures were the most powerful indications of academic performance, accounting for nearly 17% of unique variance in overall exam results. It is demonstrated that (similar to Neuroctisim) Psychoticism could also have a negative impact on academic success.

On a side note I discovered research by Thompson, and Hunnicutt (1944) that showed ‘that repeated praise increased the work output of introverts much more than that of introverts who were blamed or extroverts who were praised’.’ Repeated blame increased the work output of extroverts more than that of extroverts who were praised or introverts who were blamed’.

So possibly the fact that extraversion falls along a spectrum is very positive as it means that individuals may benefit from the positives of either extraverts or an introverts without having too many of the drawbacks associated with either. But from looking into the research there is certainly as mentioned above conflicting evidence that needs to be clarified and then applied to the school setting to benefit subtly different learners.

Blog 5: Teacher knows best?

As I have mentioned in a previous comment from taking a TEFL module last semester and through analysis of some of the methodologies, in addition to Amy’s comment, have got me thinking about the positives of EFL ideologies and methodologies and how they can be applied to improve mainstream schooling.

EFL methodology encourages moving away from traditional methodologies for example the ‘chalk and talk/ jug and mug method’ and encouraging interactions.

“Chalk and talk” means that the teacher uses a lot of the class time utilising the black board/white board/interactive white board to give the students explanations.

Another traditional teaching methodology is known as the “jug and mug” method of teaching. Through this method students are viewed as empty mugs and the teacher is the jug who fills the empty mugs by pouring their knowledge onto them (Harmer, 2007).

What the teacher is doing is transmitting information to the class. They take questions from the students and answer them. The teacher does most of the talking and is the most active person in the room. The students have a more passive role as participants. This role is usually fulfilled by the students taking notes. This is the dominant method of education in educational cultures in many countries. This is also the expected role of a teacher and the students have a passive role.

Here is a video about a topic I I touched on in my blog last week on the importance of e-learning and how it can replace ‘chalk and talk ineffective methods of learning. In the ‘chalk and talk method’ there are gaps in students learning as they are not engaging hands on with the academic material, either mentally or physically. 

Certainly if I look back at my own schooling Primary and Secondary school as well as University it has fallen into the traditional ‘chalk and talk method/ jug and mug method’ of teaching. It is just assumed that by sitting passively in a class and taking notes that you will absorb information like a sponge but largely this is not the case.

Have many of you been exposed to these traditional methods of teaching if so what did you think of them?

In my opinion learning cannot be simply about just filling a student with information there must be more personal interpretation and understanding going on. Scrivener (2005, p.19) says that the “chalk and talk” (traditional) methodology of teaching just does not work; in fact he contends that a teaching style that relies heavily upon this methodology is “inappropriate”.Students need to be able to communicate, they need to do a number of different language tasks or whatever task is appropriate to the subject, they also need feedback on their performance and possibly further explanations.

So why is this methodology still used? 

Sadly a teacher who breaks away from this methodology may be criticised, not only by the students, but also by their parents, other teachers and management within the school/college/language school.

Is it ever appropriate?

This methodology may be suitable for large classes or lectures where it isn’t possible to have more practical lessons with the students. I found a video on the advantages of the chalk and talk methodology in mathematics. But even in this domain there still has to be a certain amount of practical trial and error of mathematics problems.

Scrivener (2005) contends that the methodology which you choose as a teacher should be governed by what you as a teacher view to be the best methodology for your students so if it is appropriate in the particular learning environment and the students are benefiting from it, it should be utilized.

But in my viewpoint we only need to look at the quantity of students zoning out in lecture theatres and classrooms to realize that this method can only usually maintain student’s concentration for 15 to 20 minutes at a time.

Surely there has to be a wind of change at some stage? 

 

‘I hear and I forget. I see and I believe. I do and I understand’ – Confucius

 

 

 

References

Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English Language Teaching. Pearson
Longman. London.

Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning Teaching: A guidebook for English Language teachers. Macmillan. London.

Siriopoulos, Costas and Pomonis, Gerasimos A., Alternatives to ‘Chalk and Talk’: Active Vs. Passive Learning – A Literature Review of the Debate (May 2006). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=977283 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.977283

TEFL your ticket to the world!

TEFL stands for teaching English as a foreign language. TEFL is most commonly used when speaking about teaching English to learners who live outside a native English speaking country. TEFL is sometimes used in place of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) or TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language)

Teachers of English are increasingly sought after particularly in our globalized world whereby success in a language that has millions of speakers is crucial. English is spoken by more than 300 million native speakers, and between 400 and 800 million foreign users. There are estimated to be around 1 billion people learning English throughout the world. It is the official language of air transport and shipping; the prominent language of science, technology, computers, and commerce; and a large medium of education, publishing, and international negotiation. All these factors make English very desirable to learn. Hence scholars commonly refer to its latest phase as ‘ World English’. 

Additionally as Declan pointed out in his week one blog, encouraging bilingualism in our education system is very important.  Learning languages increases mobility, communication and employability (Language, Linguistics and Area Studies, 2005). As Declan rightly said the more languages you speak the more job markets are open to you. Sandra also highlighted some of the benefits of Bilingualism in her week two blog.

Influential research by Pearl and Lambert (1962) has advanced the area of the advantages of bilingualism and shown how it can improve ones intellect by giving one ‘superiority in concept formation, and a more diversified set of mental abilities’ (Pearl and Lambert, 1962, p.20). Specifically bilingualism can improved ones metalinguistic knowledge, theory of mind and pronunciation L2 (Myers-Scotton, 2006). Flege et al. (2002) among other factors.

Pearl and Lamberts positive findings have been mirrored in many other studies into bilingualism ever since especially in Western Ontario and areas of Canada (Liedtke and Nelson 1986; Bain, 1974; Cummins and Gulutsan, 1974), Switzerland (Balkan, 1970), Israel (Ben-Zeev, 1977a), South Africa (Ianco-Worrall, 1972), and the United States (Ben-Zeev, 1977b; Duncan and De Avila, 1979).

Metalinguistic knowledge and the mental flexibility linked with this form of knowledge is also enhanced in bilinguals (Myers-Scotton, 2006). Research is emerging to indicate that bilingual children who experience two languages from birth demonstrate superior performance on TOM false belief tasks  in comparison to their monolingual equivalents (Goetz, 2003; Kovacs, 2009).

Also bilinguals are at an advantage when it comes to finding the alternative meaning of stimuli in particular at reversing ambiguous figures. Bilingual children were more successful than monolinguals in seeing the other meaning in the images (Bialystok and Shaper, 2005). 

There are places throughout the UK to get qualified and if not courses can be taken online. One can get qualified with i-to-i that carry out courses throughout the UK and online and there is also the British council that adminsiters standardized qualifications. Many of the official institutions that administer TEFL certificates also provide information on finding a job and a list of current vacancies.

The RSA/Cambridge CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) and the Trinity TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificates are the most widely known and respected qualifications. Both involve a four-week training programme. A lot of entry-level teaching positions ask for one out of two of these qualifications. If you don’t have them you will usually earn less or, in certain countries, it may be challenging to find a teaching position.  

International House (IH) in particular is a well-respected, world-wide organisation that provides CELTA teacher training in centres in countries around the world.

If you are flexible about the money you earn and want to work in a beautiful country Thailand, Ecuador, or Indonesia are good places to teach. But if you require more income Eastern Europe, Turkey, or Taiwan are good options. Teaching English in South Korea or Japan is also good for earning money. But if you are looking for the cream of the crop in terms of income and are ok with a very hot climate, the absolute best-paying jobs are mostly found in the Middle East. But obviously how much you earn within these countries varies greatly depending on the institution you are working at. Generally Universities and private educational institutions will pay better than independent smaller schools. But a lot of TEFL teachers supplement what they earn by giving private tuitoring.

So……the world is your oyster!

 

 

 References:

Bain, B. (1974). Bilingualism and cognition: Toward a general theory. In Bilingualism, biculturalism, and education: Proceedings from the conference at College Universitaire Saint Jean, ed. S. T. Carey. Edmonton: University of Alberta Printing Department.

Balkan, L. (1970). Les effets du bilinguisme francais-anglais sur les aptitudes intellectuelles. Bruxelles: Aimav.

Ben Zeev, S. (1977a). Mechanisms by which child-hood bilingualism affects understanding of language and cognitive structures. In P. A. Hornby (Ed.), Bilingualism: Psychological, social, and educational implications (pp. 29-55). New York: Academic Press.

Cummins, J., and M. Gulutsan. (1974). Bilingual education and cognition. Alberta Journal of Educational Research 20: 259-69.

Duncan, S. E., and E. A. De Avila. (1979). Bilingualism and cognition: Some recent findings. NABE Journal 4: 15-50.

Flege, J. E., Mackay, I. R., and Piske, T. (2002). Assessing bilingual dominance. Applied Psycholinguistics 23: 567-98.

Goetz, P. J. (2003). The effects of bilingualism on Theory of Mind development. Bilingualism: Language and Congition, 6, 1-15.

Ianco-Worrall, A. (1972). Bilingualism and cognitive development. Child Development. 43: 1390-1400

 Kovacs, A. M. (2009). Early bilingualism enhances mechanisms of false belief reasoning. Developmental Science, 12, 48-54

Liedtke, W. W., and  Nelson., L. D. (1986). Concept formation and bilingualism. Alberta Journal of Educational Research 14: 225-32.

Myers-Scotton, C. (2006). Multiple Voices An Introduction to Bilingualism. Blackwell Publishing Australia. 

Pearl, E., & Lambert, W. E. (1962). The relation of bilingualism to intelligence. Psychological Monographs, 76, 1-23.

 

http://www.britishcouncil.org/teacherrecruitment-tefl-qualifications.htm

http://www.onlinetefl.com/

http://www.tefl.com/

http://www.teflworldwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

http://www.i-to-i.com/tefl/

http://www.eslcafe.com/

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/cooljobs/a/efl.htm

 

A BA in………Facebook studies

Students spend nearly 25 percent of their internet time on social networking websites (Jacobsen, & Forste, 2011). It is estimated that Facebook alone is responsible for one is seven minutes users spend online. Its one of the most popular sites, estimated to be worth between $75 billion and $100 billion. With one billion users 50% of which log on every day, or one in seven of the words total population, Facebook without a doubt is big business. But with 96% of students using facebook, is there really such a thing as the ‘facebook effect’ and if so does this have a positive or negative effect on a students education?

Wang, Chen, and Liang, (2011)  looked into the effect of social media for example Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, Twitter, MySpace or Linkedln (Martin, 2008) on college students and found mainly negative results.  Social media sites promote negative behaviors in teenage students for example procrastination, additionally they found that these students were more prone to getting involved with alcohol and drugs (Schill, 2011). 

Research shows quantity of social media use has a negative effect on grades. Approximately two-thirds of students said they use electronic media during class, studying, or while completing homework (Jacobsen, & Forste, 2011).”This multitasking likely increases distraction, something prior research has shown to be detrimental to student performance’’. As social media sites, for example become more popular, they are ever more harmful manners of procrastination when students should be studying. Of a survey conducted on 102 students, 57% said that social media had resulted in them being less productive. 

Another study has looked at the effects of social media on grades shows students who use Facebook set aside less time to study and receive lower marks compared with students who don’t use these social networking sites (Kalpidou, Costin, & Morris, 2011). Also, college students who are part of the 500 million member social network receive much lower grade-point averages (GPAs) than those who don’t  (Karpinski and Duberstein, 2010).

Social media is also extremely addictive. University of Maryland students who were deprived of social media for 24 hours felt feeling of craving and withdrawal symptoms similar to alcohol or drug addiction.  Facebook addiction was said to be 350 times more addictive than cigarette addiction. So maybe its too late we have a population of addicts and social media has to either be pushed away and denied or be accepted and utilized in positive ways to benefit education.

Nevertheless other studies do not support such negative corellations between social media activity and students’ academic performance. Social media technologies have attracted the interest of individuals from higher education who require ‘manners of engaging and motivating their students to be more active learners’ (Hughes 2009). There is an interest in combining certain social media tools (such as blogs, microblogs, video-sharing sites, and social networking) with the learning process (Grosseck & Holotescu 2009; Rankin 2009; Ebner et al. 2010; Schroeder et al. 2010), particularly by faculty members with a plan of using the latest technology in education (Crook 2008).

 Another interesting ability of social media is to increase individuals cognitive flexibility. For example when people are updating their facebook status, instant-messaging friends, or answering text messages and emails, while they’re doing something else. Dr. Kuhl (2009) ‘said this multitasking, where people are stimulating new patterns of sequential processing, could reap the same benefits as bilingualism’. If this is not the case— then networking online is to some extent ‘acting as a brain innovator, promoting new paths of discovery and interactivity in the brain’.

Already we can see education seeping onto facebook and other form of social media, as without a doubt it is an invaluable way to reach students. For example this module has certainly motivated me personally to read more papers and engage with academic material, as we are being assessed on our blogs and receive comments from our peers and Jesse, which is just another form of social media. In my opinion knowing that my work is being published for all the online community to see (if they so care) motivates me to better myself through my work ever week. This in itself can certainly be one positive aspect of social media on education.

I came across a wonderful idea on TED created by Neha Gupta that harnesses social media for example Facebook and the fact that many people waste many hours on these sites to create something positive, to link them with students who want to be taught through skype. In my viewpoint as with many things in life social media can be both harmful and beneficial it all depends how you harness it. Without a doubt social media has great potential to enhance education by engaging, motivating and making students members of a global learning community.

 

 

 

Cock- a-doodle do or do not!?

Throughout primary and secondary school I was constantly told to stop doodling during classes as ‘I was not focusing on the lesson’! But the creative process of doodling has a potentially valuable place in education to aid our concentration, motivation and our process of understanding .

The word doodle first appeared in the early 17th century to mean ‘fool or simpleton’ supposedly taken from the low German ‘dudeltopf’ that meant fool. This led to the formation of the verb ‘to doodle’ that was used in the beginning of the 1800s that means “to make a fool of, to cheat or swindle”. The Oxford English dictionary defines doodling as scribbling or drawing idly or a meaningless scrawl. Or to dawdle or waist time.

So in spite of its negative connotations if teachers are constantly giving out to us for doodling why do we often feel the urge to carry on and does doodling have a role to play in aiding our learning, or is it really as the teachers believe directing our attention away from the task at hand?

Doodling  can be seen as a way for our minds to concentrate on the present moment when we begin to feel ourselves getting bored by a particular stimulus, or in intense information environments, so it grounds us in the present moment which prevents us from daydreaming. It allows our brain to work through understanding novel material in a different way. It also engages all four learning modalities at the same time visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and reading and writing along with the potential for an emotional experience required for  processing and comprehending material.

According to a recent study the act of doodling caused better concentration improved retrieval of past memories and  it focused the mind on the present task at hand. ‘The doodling group performed better on the monitoring task and recalled 29% more information on a surprise memory test. Unlike many dual task situations, doodling while working can be beneficial’ (Andrade,  2009).

Another study has looked at the effectiveness of doodling in helping novice computer programmers to understand the material they are learning, there results are in line with previous studies on the usefulness of ‘external memory aids’ on students remembering and understanding complex information (Davies, 1993, 1996, Hegarty and Steinhoff 1997).

 An article in “Science” highlighted the usefulness of drawing in science education as it’s inclusive to different individuals learning styles and inspired students to connect and investigate the material in a more consequential manner. Additionally learners did not just benefit from an improved understanding of ideas by drawing, but it allowed opportunities for innovative and divergent ways of thinking.

In terms of implementing and encouraging doodling in a classroom setting I found an interesting link to a site that shows how doodling can be used as an innovative strategy alongside classroom activities, to engage students in subjects such as mathemetics  Vi Hart’s Math Doodling. There are various videos that students can follow for example Binary Trees, Snakes + Graphs, and Infinity Elephants. These videos allow students to engage with the sometimes monotonous content of images and words in a syllabus in a novel way by allowing them to engage their visual thought processes to understand a particular concept.

Personally I do not believe that doodling should replace learning the core content of a particular subject and traditional forms of teaching for example writing, talking and reading, but implementing these strategies from time to time would be beneficial. Doodling can liven up the classroom setting and complement what students are learning. Allowing them to test their knowledge by engaging them with the content in a different way, and without a doubt encouraging improvement of students engagement, motivation, retention and understanding of the material can only be a good thing.

One size cannot fit all

The fascinating talks by Sir Ken Robinson (2006), in particular his  talk on ‘how schools kill creativity’, has got me thinking about education in terms of a ‘one size fits all’ set up.  Whereby education disregards the creative minded and results in them being tossed aside to feel they are just not clever simply because they do not fit into this narrow system. I really liked his comment on how children as they are growing are taught increasingly from the waist up,  with an emphasis on their heads and then slightly to one side (Robinson, 2006). Also his comment on how disconnected we have become from our own bodies and their wonderful creative capacity, for example as he points out is the case in many university lecturers (Robinson, 2006). Of course it is these very lecturers or teachers who are the primary source of knowledge in a University or school that believes in an information scarcity view of education.

When I think back to my experiences of being educated in Ireland it is interesting to apply this viewpoint. During my time studying I had a peer who was an A star student, she flew through school as she had the ability to regurgitate information and tick the boxes in terms of what the examiners wanted to see. But to be perfectly honest she was not a particularly good communicator and she was disinterested in any form of creativity. Another peer I knew on the other hand was a wonderful communicator, a very bubbly person who thoroughly enjoyed the arts, but she struggled throughout her education in the core subjects for example Irish and Maths. But through working very hard she completed all her exams. The first peer got accepted into a top teacher training school in Ireland the second did not purely based on her weakness in terms of the ‘core’ subjects. After finishing school she had a general feeling of failure, although sadly it was the system that had failed her not the other way around. Firstly surely an individual who has struggled throughout school but come out on top in the end would be more sympathetic  and better able to communicate effectively with the students than a teacher who has flown through school with no trouble at all. Surely what it boils down to is what Mr Robinson mentioned about the belief that there are two types of thinkers in the world creative and academic (Robinson, 2006). In this case as is often the case in a ‘one size fits all’ education system the Academic minded came out on top.

My question is, do you feel it’s right for these individuals who are the winners of a broken system to be ruling the majority of our education system and educating many of our children in the western world?

Additionally how is it fair as Sir Ken Robinson touched on for individuals to feel that ‘maths, and Irish’ should be the core subjects. One would have thought we have learnt enough about the multiple areas of intelligence and how it branches across many disciplines to appreciate the importance of other subject areas too. How intelligent an individual feels they are at school boils down to whether their type of intelligence fits in with the narrow box of what is being considered and assessed within that education system. Research by Dr. Howard Gardner (1999) proposed the theory of multiple intelligence which highlighted that peoples intelligence is far more complex than anything that can be measured by a simple IQ test. Dr Gardner indicated that there are eight different types of intelligence, logical mathematical, bodily kinaesthetic, visual-spatial, interpersonal (or emotional), intrapersonal, musical, verbal-linguistic and naturalist intelligence, Gardner (1999).

Clearly as Sir Robinsons (2006) talk and Gardeners (1999) evidence shows, it is time to utilize and embrace our creative capacities and multiple intelligences allowing them to flourish instead of being suppressed, as in the majority of children as they go through their education. Sir Robinson gave a good example of this by highlighting a study conducted on children’s ability to think of uses of a paper clip, whereby success rates decreased with increasing age Robinson (2006).

According to the The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) each child has the right to an education that develops their “personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential’. But surely by implementing the ‘one size fits all’  education system this fundamental right is not being taken on board?

 

 

American Psychological Association (1996). Resolution on school dropout prevention. Washington, DC: Author.

Gardner, H. (1999). The disciplined mind: What all students should understand. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster

Robinson, K. (TED talks). (2006). Schools kill creativity. Available from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Convention on the rights of children (1989). U.N. General Assembly Document A/RES/44/25 (12 December 1989) with Annex Retrieved from http://www.hrweb.org/legal/child.html