AIOU Assignment BEd 1.5 Year 8638 General Science in Schools Assignment 1

AIOU Assignment BEd 1.5 Year 8638 General Science in Schools Assignment 1

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Q.1 Enlist 21st century science skills. Why they are important in this era?

Answer:

 To overcome the challenges of the twenty first century in science and technology sector, students need to be equipped with the 21st century skills to ensure their competitiveness in the globalization era. They are expected to master the 21st century skills apart of just being excelled in their academic performance. Therefore, it is crucial to incorporate 21st century skills in science education. 21st century skills comprised of four main domains namely digital age literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication and high productivity. Scientific literacy is one of the skills required in digital age literacy. It means knowledge and understanding of the scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision-making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity. Scientific literacy is important in our modern society since they are many issues related to science and technology. Basic science process skills include observing, classifying, measuring and using numbers, making inferences, predicting, communicating and using the relations of space and time. While the integrated science process skills consist of interpreting data, operational definition, control variables, make hypotheses and experimenting. Science students have been cultivated by scientific literacy and science process skills through science classes. With these two skills, it is hoped that the science students have developed some skills needed in 21st century skills. This paper will further explain about the 21st century skills, scientific literacy and science process skills. It also explains about the intersection of science process skills and 21stcentury skills in science education.

21st Century skills are 12 abilities that today’s students need to succeed in their careers during the Information Age.

21st Century skills are:

1. Critical thinking
2. Creativity
3. Collaboration
4. Communication
5. Information literacy
6. Media literacy
7. Technology literacy
8. Flexibility
9. Leadership
10. Initiative
11. Productivity
12. Social skills

These skills are intended to help students keep up with the lightning-pace of today’s modern markets. Each skill is unique in how it helps students, but they all have one quality in common.

They’re essential in the age of the Internet.

Want a quick graphic reference about 21st Century skills?

Keep this infographic on-hand for any student of any age — even as young as middle school! Let’s start with an overview of the skill categories.

The Three 21st Century Skill Categories

Each 21st Century skill is broken into one of three categories:

1. Learning skills
2. Literacy skills
3. Life skills

Each of these categories pertains to a specific part of the digital curriculum experience.

Learning skills (the four C’s) teaches students about the mental processes required to adapt and improve upon a modern work environment.

Literacy skills (IMT) focuses on how students can discern facts, publishing outlets, and the technology behind them. There’s a strong focus on determining trustworthy sources and factual information to separate it from the misinformation that floods the Internet.

Life skills (FLIPS) take a look at intangible elements of a student’s everyday life. These intangibles focus on both personal and professional qualities.

Altogether, these categories cover all 12 21st Century skills that contribute to a student’s future career. Let’s take a closer look at each category.

Category 1. Learning Skills (The Four C’s)

The four C’s are by far the most popular 21st Century skills. These skills are also called learning skills. More educators know about these skills because they’re universal needs for any career. They also vary in terms of importance, depending on an individual’s career aspirations.

• Critical thinking: Finding solutions to problems
• Creativity: Thinking outside the box
• Collaboration: Working with others
• Communication: Talking to others

Arguably, critical thinking is the most important quality for someone to have in health sciences. In business settings, critical thinking is essential to improvement. It’s the mechanism that weeds out problems and replaces them with fruitful endeavors.

It’s what helps students figure stuff out for themselves when they don’t have a teacher at their disposal. Creativity is equally important as a means of adaptation. This skill empowers students to see concepts in a different light, which leads to innovation.

In any field, innovation is key to the adaptability and overall success of a company.

Learning creativity as a skill requires someone to understand that “the way things have always been done” may have been best 10 years ago — but someday, that has to change.

Collaboration means getting students to work together, achieve compromises, and get the best possible results from solving a problem.

Collaboration may be the most difficult concept in the four C’s. But once it’s mastered, it can bring companies back from the brink of bankruptcy.

The key element of collaboration is willingness. All participants have to be willing to sacrifice parts of their own ideas and adopt others to get results for the company.

That means understanding the idea of a “greater good,” which in this case tends to be company-wide success.

Finally, communication is the glue that brings all of these educational qualities together.

Communication is a requirement for any company to maintain profitability. It’s crucial for students to learn how to effectively convey ideas among different personality types.

That has the potential to eliminate confusion in a workplace, which makes your students valuable parts of their teams, departments, and companies.

Literacy skills are the next category of 21st Century skills.

They’re sometimes called IMT skills, and they’re each concerned with a different element in digital comprehension.

• Information literacy: Understanding facts, figures, statistics, and data
• Media literacy: Understanding the methods and outlets in which information is published
• Technology literacy: Understanding the machines that make the Information Age possible

Information literacy is the foundational skill. It helps students understand facts, especially data points, that they’ll encounter online.

More importantly, it teaches them how to separate fact from fiction.

Media literacy is the practice of identifying publishing methods, outlets, and sources while distinguishing between the ones that are credible and the ones that aren’t. 

Just like the previous skill, media literacy is helpful for finding truth in a world that’s saturated with information.This is how students find trustworthy sources of information in their lives. Without it, anything that looks credible becomes credible.

But with it, they can learn which media outlets or formats to ignore. They also learn which ones to embrace, which is equally important.

Last, technology literacy goes another step further to teach students about the machines involved in the Information Age.

As computers, cloud programming, and mobile devices become more important to the world, the world needs more people to understand those concepts.

Technology literacy gives students the basic information they need to understand what gadgets perform what tasks and why.This understanding removes the intimidating feeling that technology tends to have.

After all, if you don’t understand how technology works, it might as well be magic.

But technology literacy unmasks the high-powered tools that run today’s world.

As a result, students can adapt to the world more effectively. They can play an important role in its evolution.

They might even guide its future.

But to truly round out a student’s 21st Century skills, they need to learn from a third category.

Category 3. Life Skills (FLIPS)

Life skills is the final category. Also called FLIPS, these skills all pertain to someone’s personal life, but they also bleed into professional settings.

• Flexibility: Deviating from plans as needed
• Leadership: Motivating a team to accomplish a goal
• Initiative: Starting projects, strategies, and plans on one’s own
• Productivity: Maintaining efficiency in an age of distractions
• Social skills: Meeting and networking with others for mutual benefit

Flexibility is the expression of someone’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

This is one of the most challenging qualities to learn for students because it’s based on two uncomfortable ideas:

• Your way isn’t always the best way
• You have to know and admit when you’re wrong

That’s a struggle for a lot of students, especially in an age when you can know any bit of information at the drop of a hat.

Flexibility requires them to show humility and accept that they’ll always have a lot to learn — even when they’re experienced.

Still, flexibility is crucial to a student’s long-term success in a career. Knowing when to change, how to change, and how to react to change is a skill that’ll pay dividends for someone’s entire life.

It also plays a big role in the next skill in this category.

Leadership is someone’s penchant for setting goals, walking a team through the steps required, and achieving those goals collaboratively.

Whether someone’s a seasoned entrepreneur or a fresh hire just starting their careers, leadership applies to career.

Entry-level workers need leadership skills for several reasons. The most important is that it helps them understand the decisions that managers and business leaders make.

Then, those entry-level employees can apply their leadership skills when they’re promoted to middle management (or the equivalent). This is where 21st Century skill learners can apply the previous skills they’ve learned.

It’s also where they get the real-world experience they need to lead entire companies.

As they lead individual departments, they can learn the ins and outs of their specific careers. That gives ambitious students the expertise they need to grow professionally and lead whole corporations.

Leadership alone isn’t enough to get ahead though.

True success also requires initiative, requiring students to be self-starters.

Initiative only comes naturally to a handful of people. As a result, students need to learn it to fully succeed. This is one of the hardest skills to learn and practice. Initiative often means working on projects outside of regular working hours.

The rewards for students with extreme initiative vary from person to person. Sometimes they’re good grades. Other times they’re new business ventures.

Sometimes, it’s spending an extra 30 minutes at their jobs wrapping something up before the weekend. Regardless, initiative is an attribute that earns rewards. It’s especially indicative of someone’s character in terms of work ethic and professional progress.

That goes double when initiative is practiced with qualities like flexibility and leadership.

Along with initiative, 21st Century skills require students to learn about productivity. That’s a student’s ability to complete work in an appropriate amount of time.

In business terms, it’s called “efficiency.”

The common goal of any professional — from entry-level employee to CEO — is to get more done in less time.

By understanding productivity strategies at every level, students discover the ways in which they work best while gaining an appreciation for how others work as well.

That equips them with the practical means to carry out the ideas they determine through flexibility, leadership, and initiative.

Still, there’s one last skill that ties all other 21st Century skills together.

Social skills are crucial to the ongoing success of a professional. Business is frequently done through the connections one person makes with others around them.

This concept of networking is more active in some industries than others, but proper social skills are excellent tools for forging long-lasting relationships.

While these may have been implied in past generations, the rise of social media and instant communications have changed the nature of human interaction.

Someone’s ability to enact and / or adapt to change.

This is because any industry is capable of changing at a moment’s notice. Industries are now regularly disrupted with new ideas and methodologies.

Those industries that haven’t been disrupted aren’t immune though. They just haven’t been disrupted yet. With that in mind, the world has entered an era where nothing is guaranteed.

As a result, students need to learn to guide the change that’ll inundate their lives. At the very least, they need to learn how to react to it. Otherwise, they’ll be left behind.

This is especially true as customer demand accelerates in all industries along with expectations for newer features, higher-level capabilities, and lower prices.

In today’s marketplace, falling behind means becoming obsolete.

That’s a familiar concept to all of today’s students as tomorrow’s advancements make today’s miracles quaint or unimpressive.

Today, the only consistency from year to year is change.

With 21st Century skills, your students will have the adaptive qualities they need to keep up with a business environment that’s constantly evolving.

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Q.2 Describe the structure of science curriculum.
Answer:

 The content standards presented in this chapter outline what students should know, understand, and be able to do in natural science. The content standards are a complete set of outcomes for students; they do not prescribe a curriculum. These standards were designed and developed as one component of the comprehensive vision of science education presented in the National Science Education Standards and will be most effective when used in conjunction with all of the standards described in this book. Furthermore, implementation of the content standards cannot be successful if only a subset of the content standards is used (such as implementing only the subject matter standards for physical, life, and earth science). This introduction sets the framework for the content standards by describing the categories of the content standards with a rationale for each category, the form of the standards, the criteria used to select the standards, and some advice for using the science content standards.

Rationale

The eight categories of content standards are

• Unifying concepts and processes in science.
• Science as inquiry.
• Physical science.
• Life science.
• Earth and space science.
• Science and technology.
• Science in personal and social perspectives.
• History and nature of science.

The standard for unifying concepts and processes is presented for grades K-12, because the understanding and abilities associated with major conceptual and procedural schemes need to be developed over an entire education, and the unifying concepts and processes transcend disciplinary boundaries. The next seven categories are clustered for grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Those clusters were selected based on a combination of factors, including cognitive development theory, the classroom experience of teachers, organization of schools, and the frameworks of other disciplinary-based standards. The sequence of the seven grade-level content standards is not arbitrary: Each standard subsumes the knowledge and skills of other standards. Students' understandings and abilities are grounded in the experience of inquiry, and inquiry is the foundation for the development of understandings and abilities of the other content standards. The personal and social aspects of science are emphasized increasingly in the progression from science as inquiry standards to the history and nature of science standards. Students need solid knowledge and understanding in physical, life, and earth and space science if they are to apply science.

Multidisciplinary perspectives also increase from the subject-matter standards to the standard on the history and nature of science, providing many opportunities for integrated approaches to science teaching.

Unifying Concepts and Processes Standard

Conceptual and procedural schemes unify science disciplines and provide students with powerful ideas to help them understand the natural world. Because of the underlying principles embodied in this standard, the understandings and abilities described here are repeated in the other content standards. Unifying concepts and processes include

• Systems, order, and organization.
• Evidence, models, and explanation.
• Change, constancy, and measurement.
• Evolution and equilibrium.
• Form and function.

This standard describes some of the integrative schemes that can bring together students' many experiences in science education across grades K-12. The unifying concepts and processes standard can be the focus of instruction at any grade level but should always be closely linked to outcomes aligned with other content standards. In the early grades, instruction should establish the meaning and use of unifying concepts and processes—for example, what it means to measure and how to use measurement tools. At the upper grades, the standard should facilitate and enhance the learning of scientific concepts and principles by providing students with a big picture of scientific ideas—for example, how measurement is important in all scientific endeavors.

Science as Inquiry Standards

. Engaging students in inquiry helps students develop

• Understanding of scientific concepts.
• An appreciation of "how we know" what we know in science.
• Understanding of the nature of science.
• Skills necessary to become independent inquirers about the natural world.
• The dispositions to use the skills, abilities, and attitudes associated with science.

Science as inquiry is basic to science education and a controlling principle in the ultimate organization and selection of students' activities. The standards on inquiry highlight the ability to conduct inquiry and develop understanding about scientific inquiry. Students at all grade levels and in every domain of science should have the opportunity to use scientific inquiry and develop the ability to think and act in ways associated with inquiry, including asking questions, planning and conducting investigations, using appropriate tools and techniques to gather data, thinking critically and logically about relationships between evidence and explanations, constructing and analyzing alternative explanations, and communicating scientific arguments. The science as inquiry standards are described in terms of activities resulting in student development of certain abilities and in terms of student understanding of inquiry. 

Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth and Space Science Standards 

The standards for physical science, life science, and earth and space science describe the subject matter of science using three widely accepted divisions of the domain of science. Science subject matter focuses on the science facts, concepts, principles, theories, and models that are important for all students to know, understand, and use.

Science and Technology Standards:

They are not standards for technology education; rather, these standards emphasize abilities associated with the process of design and fundamental understandings about the enterprise of science and its various linkages with technology. As a complement to the abilities developed in the science as inquiry standards, these standards call for students to develop abilities to identify and state a problem, design a solution— including a cost and risk-and-benefit analysis—implement a solution, and evaluate the solution. Science as inquiry is parallel to technology as design. Both standards emphasize student development of abilities and understanding.

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives Standards 

An important purpose of science education is to give students a means to understand and act on personal and social issues. The science in personal and social perspectives. 

History and Nature of Science Standards

In learning science, students need to understand that science reflects its history and is an ongoing, changing enterprise. The standards for the history and nature of science recommend the use of history in school science programs to clarify different aspects of scientific inquiry, the human aspects of science, and the role that science has played in the development of various cultures. Table 6.7 provides an overview of this standard. 

Form of the Content Standards

Below is an example of a content standard. Each content standard states that, as the result of activities provided for all students in the grade level discussed, the content of the standard is to be understood or the abilities are to be developed.

Physical Science (Example)

CONTENT STANDARD B: As a result of the activities in grades K-4, all students should develop an understanding of

1. Properties of objects and materials

2. Position and motion of objects

3. Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism

After each content standard is a section entitled, Developing Student Understanding (or abilities and understanding, when appropriate), which elaborates upon issues associated with opportunities to learn the content. This section describes linkages among student learning, teaching, and classroom situations. This discussion on developing student understanding, including the remarks on the selection of content for grade levels, is based in part on educational research. It also incorporates the experiences of many thoughtful people, including teachers, teacher educators, curriculum developers, and educational researchers. (Some references to research on student understanding and abilities are located at the end of the chapter.)

The next section of each standard is a Guide to the Content Standard, which describes the fundamental idea that underlie the standard. Content is fundamental if it

4. Represents a central event or phenomenon in the natural world.

5. Represents a central scientific idea and organizing principle.

6. Has rich explanatory power.

7. Guides fruitful investigations.

8. Applies to situations and contexts common to everyday experiences.

9. Can be linked to meaningful learning experiences.

10. Is developmentally appropriate for students at the grade level specified.

Criteria for the Content Standards 

Three criteria influence the selection of science content. The first is an obligation to the domain of science. The subject matter in the physical, life, and earth and space science standards is central to science education and must be accurate. The presentation in national standards also must accommodate the needs of many individuals who will implement the standards in school science programs. The standards represent science content accurately and appropriately at all grades, with increasing precision and more scientific nomenclature from kindergarten to grade 12. The second criterion is an obligation to develop content standards that appropriately represent the developmental and learning abilities of students. Organizing principles were selected that express meaningful links to direct student observations of the natural world. The content is aligned with students' ages and stages of development. This criterion includes increasing emphasis on abstract and conceptual understandings as students progress from kindergarten to grade 12. 

The third criterion is an obligation to present standards in a usable form for those who must implement the standards, e.g., curriculum developers, science supervisors, teachers, and other school personnel. The standards need to provide enough breadth of content to define the domains of science, and they need to provide enough depth of content to direct the design of science curricula. The descriptions also need to be understandable by school personnel and to accommodate the structures of elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as the grade levels used in national standards for other disciplines. 

UNIFYING SCIENCE AS INQUIRY PHYSICAL SCIENCE LIFE SCIENCE CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES

EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE AND SCIENCE IN PERSONAL AND HISTORY AND NATURE SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES OF SCIENCE

Private communication of student ideas and Public communication of student ideas and work to classmates conclusions to teacher Content Standard: K—12 EVIDENCE, MODELS, AND EXPLANATION Evidence consists of observations and data on which to base scientific explanations. Using evidence to understand interactions allows individuals to predict changes in natural and designed systems. Models are tentative schemes or structures that correspond to real objects, events, or classes of events, and that have explanatory power. Models help scientists and engineers understand how things work. Models take many forms, including physical objects, plans, mental constructs, mathematical equations, and computer simulations. Scientific explanations incorporate existing scientific knowledge and new evidence As students develop and . . . understand more science concepts and processes, their explanations should become more sophisticated . . . frequently include a rich scientific knowledge base, evidence of logic, higher levels of analysis, greater tolerance of criticism and uncertainty. from observations, experiments, or models into internally consistent, logical statements. Different terms, such as "hypothesis," "model," "law," "principle," ''theory," and "paradigm" are used to describe various types of scientific explanations. As students develop and as they understand more science concepts and processes, their explanations should become more sophisticated. That is, their scientific explanations should more frequently include a rich scientific knowledge base, evidence of logic, higher levels of analysis, greater tolerance of criticism and uncertainty, and a clearer demonstration of the relationship between logic, evidence, and current knowledge. CONSTANCY, CHANGE, AND MEASUREMENT Although most things are in the process of becoming different—changing—some properties of objects and processes are characterized by constancy, including the speed of light, the charge of an electron, and the total mass plus energy in the universe. Changes might occur, for example, in properties of materials, position of objects, motion, and form and function of systems. Interactions within and among systems result in change. Changes vary in rate, scale, and pattern, including trends and cycles. Energy can be transferred and matter can be changed. Nevertheless, when measured, the sum of energy and matter in systems, and by extension in the universe, remains the same. Changes in systems can be quantified. Evidence for interactions and subsequent change and the formulation of scientific explanations are often clarified through quantitative distinctions—measurement. Mathematics is essential for accurately measuring change. Different systems of measurement are used for different purposes. Scientists usually use the metric system. An important part of measurement is knowing when to use which system. For example, a meteorologist might use degrees Fahrenheit when reporting the weather to the public, but in writing scientific reports, the meteorologist would use degrees Celsius. Scale includes understanding that different characteristics, properties, or relationships within a system might change as its dimensions are increased or decreased. Rate involves comparing one measured quantity with another measured quantity, for example, 60 meters per second. Rate is also a measure of change for a part relative to the whole, for example, change in birth rate as part of population growth. EVOLUTION AND EQUILIBRIUM Evolution is a series of changes, some gradual and some sporadic, that accounts for the present form and function of objects, organisms, and natural and designed systems. The general idea of evolution is that the present arises from materials and forms of the past. Although evolution is most commonly associated with the biological theory explaining the process of descent with modification of organisms from common ancestors, evolution also describes changes in the universe.

Equilibrium is a physical state in which forces and changes occur in opposite and off-setting directions: for example, opposite forces are of the same magnitude, or off-setting changes occur at equal rates. Steady state, balance, and homeostasis also describe equilibrium states. Interacting units of matter tend toward equilibrium states in which the energy is distributed as randomly and uniformly as possible. FORM AND FUNCTION Form and function are complementary aspects of objects, organisms, and systems in the natural and designed world. The form or shape of an object or system is frequently related to use, operation, or function. Function frequently relies on form. Understanding of form and function applies to different levels of organization. Students should be able to explain function by referring to form and explain form by referring to function.

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Q.3 Define action research. Discuss how this type of research is crucial for solution of problems of every day classroom.

Answer:

 Action research is inquiry or research in the context of focused efforts to improve the quality of an organization and its performance. It typically is designed and conducted by practitioners who analyze the data to improve their own practice. Action research can be done by individuals or by teams of colleagues. The team approach is called collaborative inquiry." What Is Action Research? 

There are many ways to conduct research. Each of these ways is used in various professional fields, including psychology, sociology, social work, medicine, nursing, education and so on. However, the field of education often uses action research, an interactive method of collecting information that's used to explore topics of teaching, curriculum development and student behavior in the classroom.

Action research is very popular in the field of education because there is always room for improvement when it comes to teaching and educating others. Sure, there are all types of methods of teaching in the classroom, but action research works very well because the cycle offers opportunity for continued reflection. In all professional fields, the goal of action research is to improve processes. Action research is also beneficial in areas of teaching practice that need to be explored or settings in which continued improvement is the focus.

Let's take a closer look at the cycle of action research. As you can see, the process first starts with identifying a problem. Then, you must devise a plan and implement the plan. This is the part of the process where the action is taking place. After you implement the plan, you will observe how the process is working or not working. After you've had time to observe the situation, the entire process of action research is reflected upon. Perhaps the whole process will start over again! This is action research!

Methods of Action Research

There are many methods to conducting action research. Some of the methods include:

• Observing individuals or groups
• Using audio and video tape recording
• Using structured or semi-structured interviews
• Taking field notes
• Using analytic memoing
• Using or taking photography
• Distributing surveys or questionnaire.

The desire of teachers to use approaches that ‘fit’ their particular students is not dissimilar to a doctor’s concern that the specific medicine being prescribed be the correct one for the individual patient. The ability of the action research process to satisfy an educator’s need for ‘fit’ may be its most powerful attribute.” –Richard Sagor

Every learning environment is a gold mine of useful data. Each day a student attends a course, he may be engaged or distracted, interact productively with peers or experience difficulties in social situations, complete assignments proficiently or poorly, and express enthusiasm or disinterest for the material being covered. As educators, we notice these small bites of data, and even record them in our grade books from time to time, but how often do we systematically collect this data in order to assess our own methods?

“Evidence has shown that teachers who elect to integrate the use of data into their work start exhibiting the compulsive behaviour of fitness enthusiasts who regularly weigh themselves, check their heart rate, and graph data on their improving physical development,”says Richard Sagor, author of Guiding School Improvement with Action Research, in a piece for ASCD. “For both teachers and athletes, the continuous presence of compelling data that their hard work is paying off becomes, in itself, a vitally energising force.”

Energising forces are hard to come by these days. Teaching has always been a challenging profession, but now we’re seeing more complex problems related to student behaviour, parental and societal expectations, financial constraints, and professional development.

“Worse still,” Sagor says, “the respect that society had traditionally placed upon teachers is eroding, as teacher bashing and attacks on the very value of a public education are becoming a regular part of the political landscape. Consequently, teacher burnout has become the plague of the modern schoolhouse.”

Many teachers now ask, “Am I making any difference?” “How do I know I’m succeeding without credible evidence?” “Is there a way to track my own progress that doesn’t involve nerve-wracking evaluations and high-stakes tests?”

That’s where action research comes in. 

What is it, you ask? Only one of the most promising problem-solving strategies of the century– but also one of the most neglected.

The Living Educational Theory

Kurt Lewin, a professor at MIT, first coined the term “action research” in 1944. His rather dense definition described it as “comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action and research leading to social action that uses a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action.” No wonder the concept has had so much trouble catching on in education circles.

More succintly, Sagor says it’s “a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action,” the primary reason for which is to improve and refine your own actions. It was first used in the social sciences as an alternative to the traditional research model, which involved a bunch of outside experts sampling variables and reflecting on theoretical situations. Action research offered a more active, moment-to-moment process of theorising, data collecting, and inquiry occurring not in the lab but in the field. Through this method, knowledge and insight were gained “through action and for action.” In other words, experts stopped trying to imagine how to act in various situations and began actually putting themselves in those situations. Social science research became a series of hands-on experiments, emphasising real-time data collection, reflection, and action.

Dr William Barry was one of the first social scientists to envision the potential action research could have on educational practice. He popularised a particular approach called Living Educational Theory (LET), which he described as “a critical and transformational approach to action research.” Using this approach, teachers would be forced to challenge the status quo of their educational practice and to answer the question, “How can I improve that I’m doing?”

According to Barry, “Researchers who use this approach must be willing to recognise and assume responsibility for being a ‘living contradictions’ in their professional practice, thinking one way and acting in another.” The mission of a teacher using LET, then, would be to overcome workplace norms and behaviour which contradicted their values and beliefs. Doing so would allow them to “wake up,” so to speak, and improve the learning of their students. But, most critically, these improvements could only be measured as such if there was clear evidence of workplace reform, improved student learning, and transformational growth of the teacher themself.

Living educational theory as defined and created by Professor Barry is part of the curriculum of multiple courses at Notre Dame de Namur University in Silicon Valley, California in their credentialing program for teacher education. When student teachers use this approach, they undergo a six-step process of action and reflection:

1. Recognise the problem: “My values and beliefs as an educator are oppressed by my passive acceptance of the status quo and the use of oppressive power to change my identity.”

2. Accept responsibility: “I describe my contribution in promoting the status quo and my role in using oppressive power against othersO to illuminate my living contradictions.”

3. Develop a solution: “I develop a solution to transform and improve myself, influence the transformation and improvement of the fellow human beings with whom I interact and the social and work places I share with people.”

4. Work toward that solution: “I enact praxis in the direction of the solution I developed from a critical theory perspective.”

5. Evaluate your progress: “I evaluate the pragmatic outcomes of the solutionO and the implications.”

6. Change and repeat: “I modify my use of power, pedagogy, valid and reliable assessment, and leadership to maximise social justice, ethical processes and results, and improve performance and knowledge as a result of my emerging living educational theory (LET). As an iterative process, I start the cycle again within reasonable time constraints.”

Fortunately, Sagor’s break-down is far less dense, and makes it easier to see how we can apply the theory to our every-day practices. First, let’s look at how he envisions action research benefitting education.

The Three Purposes of Action Research

According to Sagor, action research can be adopted by an individual teacher, a collaborative group of colleagues sharing a common concern, or an institution’s entire faculty. These three different approaches to organising for research serve three compatible, yet distinct, purposes: creating reflective teachers; building professional cultures; and making progress on institutional priorities.

1. Creating Reflective Teachers

“When individual teachers make a personal commitment to systematically collect data on their work, they are embarking on a process that will foster continuous growth and development,” Sagor writes. “When each lesson is looked on as an empirical investigation into factors affecting teaching and learning and when reflections on the findings from each day’s work inform the next day’s instruction, teachers can’t help but develop greater mastery of the art and science of teaching. In this way, the individual teachers conducting action research are making continuous progress in developing their strengths as reflective practitioners.”

2. Building Professional Cultures

“Often an entire faculty will share a commitment to student development, yet the group finds itself unable to adopt a single common focus for action research. This should not be viewed as indicative of a problem. Just as the medical practitioners working at a ‘quality’ medical centre will hold a shared vision of a healthy adult, it is common for all the faculty members at a school to share a similar perspective on what constitutes a well-educated student. However, like the doctors at the medical center, the teachers in a ‘quality’ institution may well differ on which specific aspects of the shared vision they are most motivated to pursue at any point in time. Institutions whose faculties cannot agree on a single research focus can still use action research as a tool to help transform themselves into a learning organisation.

“When the teachers in an [institution] begin conducting action research, their workplace begins to take on more of the flavour of the workplaces of other professionals. The wisdom that informs practice starts coming from those doing the work, not from supervisors who oftentimes are less in touch with and less sensitive to the issues of teaching and learning than the teachers doing the work. Furthermore, when teachers begin engaging their colleagues in discussions of issues, the multiple perspectives that emerge and thus frame the dialogue tend to produce wiser professional decisions.”

3. Making Progress on Institutional Priorities 

“Increasingly, institutions are focusing on strengthening themselves and their programs through the development of common focuses and a strong sense of esprit de corps. When a faculty shares a commitment to achieving excellence with a specific focus– for example, the development of higherorder thinking, positive social behaviour, or higher standardised test scores– then collaboratively studying their practice will not only contribute to the achievement of the shared goal but would have a powerful impact on team building and program development. Focusing the combined time, energy, and creativity of a group of committed professionals on a single pedagogical issue will inevitably lead to program improvements, as well as to the institution becoming a ‘center of excellence.’ As a result, when a faculty chooses to focus on one issue and all the teachers elect to enthusiastically participate in action research on that issue, significant progress on [institutional] priorities cannot help but occur.”

Specific Uses for Instruction

More specifically, action research can be used to do things like meet the needs of a diverse student body or achieve success in a standards-based system.

“The days are gone when it was possible to believe that all a teacher had to do was master and deliver the grade-level curriculum. It is now imperative that teachers have strong content background in each of the subjects they teach, be familiar with the range of student differences in their [course], and be capable of diagnosing and prescribing appropriate instructional modifications based upon a knowledge of each child’s uniqueness.”

To make things more difficult, standards-driven accountability systems have become the norm in most jurisdictions. “The stakes in the standards movement are high. Students face consequences regarding promotion and graduation. Teachers and [institutions] face ridicule and loss of funding if they fail to meet community expectations.”

Action research can help. If we encourage experimentation, inquiry, and dialogue in meeting these challenges, and conduct our own research on best teaching practices, then we’ll be well on our way to addressing these problems.

“Crafting solutions to these dynamic and ever changingO issues can be an exciting undertaking, especially when one acknowledges that newer and better answers are evolving all the time,” says Sagor. “Great personal satisfaction comes from playing a role in creating successful solutions to continually changing puzzles.”

Now that we know a few of the ways action research can serve education, how exactly do we use it to improve our teaching? Below are Sagor’s seven steps.

The Seven Steps of Action Research

“Practitioners who engage in action research inevitably find it to be an empowering experience. Action research helps educators be more effective at what they care most about– their teaching and the development of their students. Seeing students grow is probably the greatest joy educators can experience. When teachers have convincing evidence that their work has made a real difference in their students’ lives, the countless hours and endless efforts of teaching seem worthwhile.” — Richard Sagor

Step 1: Select a Focus

The action research process begins with serious reflection directed toward identifying a topic or topics worthy of a busy teacher’s time. Considering the incredible demands on today’s classroom teachers, no activity is worth doing unless it promises to make the central part of a teacher’s work more successful and satisfying. Thus, selecting a focus, the first step in the process, is vitally important. Selecting a focus begins with the teacher researcher or the team of action researchers asking:

What element(s) of our practice or what aspect of student learning do we wish to investigate?

Step 2: Clarify Your Theories 

The second step involves identifying the values, beliefs, and theoretical perspectives that you hold about your chosen focus. For example, if you are concerned about increasing responsible student behaviour, it will be helpful for you to begin by clarifying which approach– whether using punishments and rewards, allowing students to experience the natural consequences of their behaviours, or some other strategy– you feel will work best in helping students acquire those desirable habits.

Step 3: Identify Research Questions

Once a focus area has been selected and your perspectives and beliefs about that focus have been clarified, the next step is to generate a set of personally meaningful research questions to guide the inquiry.

Step 4: Collect Data

“For the harried and overworked teacher, ‘data collection’ can appear to be the most intimidating aspect of the entire seven-step action research process,” Sagor says. “The question I am repeatedly asked, ‘Where will I find the time and expertise to develop valid and reliable instruments for data collection?’ gives voice to a realistic fear regarding time management.” But it doesn’t have to be this way.

“Professional educators always want their instructional decisions to be based on the best possible data. Action researchers can accomplish this by making sure that the data used to justify their actions are valid (meaning the information represents what the researchers say it does) and reliable (meaning the researchers are confident about the accuracy of their data). Lastly, before data are used to make teaching decisions, teachers must be confident that the lessons drawn from the data align with any unique characteristics of their [institution].”

Step 5: Analyse Your Data

“Although data analysis often brings to mind the use of complex statistical calculations, this is rarely the case for the action researcher. A number of relatively user-friendly procedures can help a practitioner identify the trends and patterns in action research data. During this portion of the sevenstep process, teacher researchers will methodically sort, sift, rank, and examine their data to answer two generic questions:

What is the story told by these data?

Why did the story play itself out this way?

By answering these two questions, the teacher-researcher can acquire a better understanding of the phenomenon under investigation and as a result can end up producing grounded theory regarding what might be done to improve the situation.”

Step 6: Report Your Results

“The reporting of action research most often occurs in informal settings that are far less intimidating than the venues where scholarly research has traditionally been shared. Faculty meetings, brown bag lunch seminars, and teacher conferences are among the most common venues for sharing action research with peers. However, each year more and more teacher researchers are writing up their work for publication or to help fulfill requirements in graduate programs. Regardless of which venue or technique educators select for reporting on research, the simple knowledge that they are making a contribution to a collective knowledge base regarding teaching and learning frequently proves to be among the most rewarding aspects of this work.”

Step 7: Take Informed Action

“Taking informed action, or ‘action planning,’ the last step in the action research process, is very familiar to most teachers. When teachers write lesson plans or develop academic programs, they are engaged in the action planning process. What makes action planning particularly satisfying for the teacher researcher is that with each piece of data uncovered about teaching or student learning, the educator will feel greater confidence in the wisdom of the next steps. Although all teaching can be classified as trial and error, action researchers find that the research process liberates them from continuously repeating their past mistakes. More important, with each refinement of practice, action researchers gain valid and reliable data on their developing virtuosity.”

“The time is right for action research,” Sagor says. “The teachersO that seize this opportunity and begin investing in the power of inquiry will find that they are re-creating the professional practice of education in their locale as a meaningful and rewarding pursuit.” Those who don’t enter the 21st century willing to invest in the “wisdom of practice,” he warns, will find it increasingly difficult to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

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Q.4 Elaborate teachers as reflective practitioner. How reflective journal is an effective tool for reflective thinking?
Answer:

 Becoming a master teacher takes continuous effort. To avoid the loss of enthusiasm or static practice, teachers need to focus on their own professional development. Notably, the single most significant indicator of student success is an excellent teacher; nevertheless, no one can be professionally developed without his or her consent. To remain vitalized, teachers need to spend time outside the classroom with other dedicated individuals. The educational mandates from state, federal and local legislators are not targeted at improving teaching and learning. Although many are well-intentioned initiatives to assist school success, they are not sufficient for improving teaching excellence throughout an entire professional career.

The Need for Mentors

Over the course of a lifetime, master teachers are continuously improving their craft, listening to their students, re-tailoring lessons and finding the gaps in instructional practices. The myth that some people are born teachers is simply not true. They may begin teaching with the high motive of generosity toward their students, their colleagues and themselves, but maintaining this over many years is a challenge. Without contemplation and retreat, teaching can become simply a series of lucky habits rather than a profession through which one can grow.

Think of great athletes. Many show extreme promise early in their careers; however, they depend upon other great athletes and coaches to improve their performance over time. If they find themselves at a plateau in their performance, they look for mentors to push them beyond it.

But in teaching, a promising young professional can fulfill that expectation without sufficient coaching for years. Of course, there is always teacher evaluation designed for that purpose; still, how often does it truly improve anything to do with the classroom? Even dedicated supervisors have precious little time to devote to the continuing development of teacher excellence. Teachers can be deceived by what is appealing, habitual and popular with students. Effective teaching is an acquired talent.

Professional retreats offer teachers the opportunity to dedicate time to those qualitative steps that result in ongoing development. The six steps to becoming a master teacher include:

1) Understand Your Reasons for Teaching

Identifying those who influenced you to become a teacher is a fundamental exercise in continued excellence. Almost everyone can name two or three teachers who changed the course of his or her life. Some found elementary school teachers who discovered their talent and promise. Others discovered their confidence through recognition of their potential in a specific subject. By discussing and defining the qualities of those exemplary teachers when they were students, professionals begin to define the roots of their own teaching.

2) Cultivate Ethical Behavior in Your Students and Yourself

Although many schools of discipline exist, a teacher can achieve harmony in the classroom, but the real focus of student management lies in instilling ethical behavior. Authentic responses to classroom interactions as well as logical consequences for transgressions can be improved through collegial dialogue. These cannot be found in a manual; but rather, can be cultivated in seminars and observance of other master teachers.

3) Pool Both Patience and Perseverance

Stamina and endurance are needed for the long haul of teaching. This means finding ways to remain healthy and able-minded through the stressful days. By connecting with others who have discovered methods of physical and mental renewal, teachers have a better chance of staying enthused about teaching despite the many inevitable setbacks during the school year.

4) Design Curriculum That Works

All good teaching requires excellent design and redesign, beginning with a strong curriculum that outlines the most essential ideas. Without a forum for the continuous re-tailoring of their curriculum, teachers are often left to work from a textbook or on-the-fly lesson plans. Spending time in retreat with other professionals allows teachers to lay a strong foundation for each course they teach.

5) Perfect Instructional Practices and Assessment Skills

The ongoing development of instructional methods and feedback skills are critical to excellence in teaching. Only through the careful examination of activities and assessment can a teacher guide all students to succeed. Teachers need time with their colleagues outside the classroom; the temporary success of "fun" activities can be a hindrance to the development of a master teacher. By crafting performance tasks and assessing them with their peers and mentors, teachers can refine their teaching.

6) Connect Positively to the Whole-School Culture

Over time, the master teacher has the capacity to improve the whole-school culture through excellence in teaching. Because master teaching has as its foundation the generous impulse to assist students and colleagues, the teacher is able to fundamentally influence others without generating resentment. The master teacher is consistently working to benefit the school, so he or she is not in competition with colleagues or administration.

In the end, only way to stay the course throughout one's teaching career is by discussion with great teachers who motivate, inspire and remain connected to the classroom. In the company of others, teachers can uncover the best work being done in our schools. Dedicated to their own professional development, they are capable of improving teaching and learning despite the many other mandates. This is critical to their continued enthusiasm.

Through the retreats and professional learning communities, colleagues enhance their own teaching and further the practice of others. In this way, they sustain and improve instructional practices, passing the torch of inspired teaching to others.

Part b: As a practicum student at McGill’s Teaching and Learning Services, I have been examining the role of reflective journals in post-secondary classrooms. Throughout the course of my research, it has come to my attention that, while they are used frequently in the instruction of disciplines like English and Theatre, reflective journals can actually be a helpful learning tool for a much wider range of subjects (Fenwick & Parsons, 2000; Stevens & Cooper, 2009). In fact, they are becoming more popular in law schools, and even in science classrooms (Fenwick & Parsons, 2000; Ogilvy, 1996). Skeptics insist that journal writing is nothing more than busy work for students and a lot of unnecessary extra effort for instructors. However, those who view journals as constructive have demonstrated that, when properly implemented, engaging students in the exercise of journal writing can be beneficial to both students and their instructors. Journal writing can allow students to reflect on new knowledge learned in class, solidify their learning experience by recording their evolving thought process as they progress further in the course, learn new material, and form new conclusions (Stevens & Cooper, 2009, p. 3). It can also teach them to formulate new opinions and perspectives, and gives them a risk free venue to explore, think, and practice skills learned in class (Stevens & Cooper, 2009, p. 9; Fenwick & Parsons, 2000, p. 155). Students who write regularly in a journal consistently see improvements in their writing skills, as well as their creative and reflective thinking (Stevens & Cooper, 2009, p. 15-16, 33).

When students write journals for class, it not only helps them, but their instructors as well. Instructors who assign journal writing to their students often see an increase in participation from their students: having to respond to class material in writing encourages students to do the readings, as well as participate more in class discussions (Stevens & Cooper, 2009, p. 11). In addition, from reading journal entries, instructors can see which concepts were understood by their students, and which ones may need revisiting (Mills, 2008). Finally, through the use of assigned journal writing topics, instructors can guide and focus their students’ learning, emphasize important concepts from the lectures, and challenge students to employ their critical thinking skills (Mills, 2008).

While such potential benefits can be appealing, it is not always clear how to go about developing and implementing a reflective journal assignment. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when introducing journal writing to a class:

• Be clear about the journal’s purpose

Whether it be to voice personal feelings and responses, develop and apply critical thinking skills, or some combination of these, communication of the journal’s purpose to students is essential. This purpose should also be reflected in the journal’s evaluation, as well as the type of writing involved (Fenwick & Parsons, 2000).

• Offer personal examples to help students understand what is expected of them

One of the best ways to communicate to students what is expected of them is to provide an example. Having a concrete idea of what their instructor is looking for gives students more confidence that they are capable of creating an acceptable product, and takes some of the ambiguity away from journal writing (Fenwick & Parsons, 2000).

• Evaluate only journal content, not form, spelling, or grammar

Insisting that students revise, rewrite, or edit their journal entries may effectively defeat the purpose of writing them in the first place. It could cause students to be afraid of making mistakes, thus restricting their creativity, curiosity, and honesty. This could in turn have a negative effect on the development of reflective writing skills. Errors made in a journal setting occur because the journal is doing its job of encouraging students to try new things (Fenwick & Parsons, 2000; Marsh, 1998).

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Q.5 What is difference between rote memorization and meaningful learning? Describe scope of meaningful learning in science education.
Answer:

 ROTE LEARNING VS. MEANINGFUL LEARNING

Experts emphasize the importance of deep understanding over the recalling of facts. Students who learn with meaningful learning are able to problem solve better than those who learn by rote.

Meaningful learning teaches students important cognitive skills they will use throughout their life. Cognitive skills are what students use to evaluate, analyze, remember and make comparisons. In the long run, meaningful learning is the most effective way for students to engage in learning

Rote Learning Vs Meaningful Learning

Rote learning can be defined as a memorization technique based on repeating the material again and again until you get through with it and begin to memorize. The idea behind the rote learning is that one will be able to quickly recall the meaning of the material the more one repeats it. Some of the alternatives to rote learning include meaningful learning, associative learning, and active learning. Rote learning is generally based on only repeating the topics and not the clear understanding of the topics. Rote learning methods are generally used when quick memorization is required, such as learning one's lines in a play or memorizing a telephone number, also some students opt for rote learning instead of meaningful learning method with the clear understanding of the subject. Rote learning is widely used in the mastery of foundational knowledge.

Meaningful learning, on the other hand, refers to the concept of learning the subject or topic with the clear understanding of all the related facts. When learned by meaningfully, the learned knowledge is fully understood by the individual and he also knows well how that specific fact relates to other stored facts in his brain. For understanding this concept, it is good to contrast meaningful learning with the much less desirable, rote learning. Rote learning is the method where you memorize something without full understanding and you don't know how the new information relates to your other stored knowledge.

What is Rote Learning?

Rote learning as discussed earlier involves verbatim memorization. Remembering a particular phone number, dates and names are examples of rote learning. Repeating material, again and again, helps a learner recall it exactly as it was presented. Stuff that doesn't relate to anything else is learned by rote learning method. Meaningful learning, on the other hand, is tied and related and integrated to previous learning. Needless to say, meaningful learning is generally more powerful and interesting. Rote learning does not give you any meaningful learning experience and you are not sure of utilizing that information for some practical use. Rote learning is like singing along with a song playing on your I-pod or radio and after a couple of times, you start to pick up interesting lines and slowly you realize that you have learned the whole song. Some other examples of rote learning may include:

• School topics where rote learning is frequently used include phonics in reading and especially cramming at the time of the test.
• The periodic table in chemistry, you cannot have a reason for every element placement in the table, hence most of the time students end up cramming the position of elements in the periodic table.
• Multiplication tables in mathematics, that most of the students learn by rote methodology.
• Anatomy in medicine, there is no reason for the general human anatomy and you cannot find any other memorization technique for the anatomy. Hence only technique left is by the rote method.
• Cases or statutes in law,

You cannot find a reason for every small formula that you have to use in a subject. For example, a simple formula for momentum is p=mv which has a long two-page derivation. If a student goes on learning all these derivations he would not be in a state to learn anything else for his examination.

Rote learning eschews comprehension, so by itself, it is an ineffective tool in mastering any complex subject at an advanced level. Though, it may be a good tool for just memorizing something or the other, but not if you need to utilize that information for some practical purpose. For instance, one illustration of Rote learning can be observed in preparing quickly for exams, a technique which may be colloquially referred to as "cramming". Cramming may sometimes help you score decent grades sometimes but not every time. Also, it is a fact that cramming won’t help you out in long run. Every topic that is being taught has its bigger significance somewhere in the future, and at that time you end up with no information left in your brain.

Talking about studies, rote learning finds some usefulness by students in math and science. Rote methods are often used, for example, to memorize formulas or tables. There is greater understanding if students commit a formula to memory through exercises that use the formula rather than through rote repetition of the formula. But most of the students find it quite useful to just cram the periodic table position, formula or tables in mathematics as an understanding of these topics may involve a lot of explanation and derivation work, that may become really complex and cumbersome for a student. Standards always recommend that students derive formulas themselves to achieve the best understanding and utilization. Nothing can faster than rote learning if a formula is to be learned quickly for an important test and rote methods can be helpful for committing an understood fact to memory.

However, it is often observed that students who learn with understanding are really clear with all the facts and are conveniently able to transfer their knowledge to tasks requiring problem-solving with greater success than those who learn only by rote.

What is Meaningful Learning?

Meaningful learning is very important to form the student point of view. Meaningful learning in today's competitive world holds the key to success. These days it is not just your grades that matter to be successful; it is something more than that. These days in the interview you are tested on your practical skills and practical knowledge before looking at your result cards. Once you clear your interview level based on knowledge and facts, then only you are asked about your grades and qualifications. Hence proper knowledge is a must for anyone to be successful these days. Developing a capability of 'learning to learn' and higher-level thinking skills is a life-long practice and must be honed on a continual basis.

Meaningful learning helps us a lot, in fact, our brain is designed for meaningful learning only. Our brain works in an associative way and our memory serves us in a chained structure. Existing knowledge acts as a mental block for new learning to occur. Once we learned something by the meaningful method with full clarity, we are able to relate that knowledge with every relevant piece of information about that topic in our brain and possess a confidence of utilizing that information properly in our profession also. People displaying memory deftness often contend that by establishing a visual relationship between seemingly disconnected or unrelated objects or numerals, their retention is enhanced. Hence it would not be wrong to say that we do learn a lot by the process of watching something happen in practical rather than just cramming it theoretically. Some suggestions on how to ensure meaningful learning:

• Make sure what you learn is in your proximal zone.
• Emphasise more on the application rather than just learning.
• Make sure you have a proper reason for everything that you are learning. If there is any doubt, ask your teacher how some new knowledge is related to other course material.
• Have a study partner ask you questions that require the recall of related material.
• Try to make some effective memorisation points to remember the things that you have learned.
• Strictly avoid cramming as far as possible, even for some basic formulas that you may find easy to just cram.
• Make a figure that illustrates what you should know about a specific topic and its related material.
• Do not mix up the things by picking up multiple topics at the same time. You may be good at multitasking but that won’t work in the case of learning.

Differences Between Rote Learning and Meaningful Learning

Educational theorists suggest a distinction between meaningful learning and rote learning. Rote learning is most commonly emphasized in primary and secondary educational settings, and consists of simple memorization of information or the topics, without concern for relationships among concepts, and the basic idea is just to get decent grades in the exams. However, in contrast, meaningful learning results from linking new information to relevant, pre-existing concepts that were learned either in previous lecture, class or year. The most important factor for learning is what the learners already know, and how effectively he can relate the new information with the pre-existing information about the same topic.

Rote learning involves learning by repetition and meaningful learning involves a review of the facts with clarification. Both repetition and review are important to the teaching and learning process. But it is the duty of the teacher to make sure to use the method that is most appropriate for particular material otherwise they will be fooling themselves and their students. It is a fact that something’s does need in cramming but there should be a proper limit. Do not go on cramming all the topics, otherwise, this may lead to a lot of confusion and students may sometimes end up blank at the time of examination.

WHAT IS MEANINGFUL LEARNING?

Meaningful learning involves understanding how all the pieces of an entire concept fit together. The knowledge gained through meaningful learning applies to new learning situations. This type of learning stays with students for life.

Meaningful learning is active, constructive, and long-lasting, but most importantly, it allows students to be fully engaged in the learning process.

Two important goals of all types of learning include retention and transfer. “Retention” is the ability to remember the material at a later time. “Transfer” is the ability to use prior knowledge to solve new problems. Students achieve meaningful learning when both of these goals are fulfilled.

ADVANTAGES OF MEANINGFUL LEARNING

Meaningful learning helps students achieve success in the classroom by:

• Encouraging understanding, not memorization
• Encouraging active learning techniques
• Focusing on the outcome of the learning process 
• Relating new information to prior knowledge

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