Making It A Reality: Using Standards-Based General Education Science and Math Curriculum To Teach Vocabulary and Language Structures to Students Who Use AAC

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 99-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Caputo Boruta ◽  
Kara Bidstrup

Abstract Students who use AAC to access vocabulary and language typically receive much of their language intervention in a classroom environment. Given this, it is important to teach emerging vocabulary and language concepts as well as academic content when delivering curriculum to students who use AAC. In this article, we will focus on identifying the language level of the student, providing him or her with a linguistically based AAC system, and delivering language intervention within the context of standards-based science and math curriculum. In addition, we will show how a standards-based science and math curriculum can serve as an excellent platform for language instruction. We will also discuss and demonstrate backwards planning as a method to create authentic and meaningful lessons for students who use AAC. The sample lessons will include a national standard, that standard reframed into an appropriate language target, assessment tools, strategies for teaching and learning, and an instructional activity and materials.

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-192
Author(s):  
Nwara Abdulhamid ◽  
Janna Fox

This study examined seven Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) teachers’ accounts of current Portfolio Based Language Assessment (PBLA) practices, elicited through semi-structured interviews, in order to explore washback - the effects of PBLA on teaching and learning. Portfolios are primarily useful as formative assessment tools (i.e., informing teaching and learning) (Fox, 2014; Little, 2007); conversely, when used solely as summative tools (i.e., achievement measures), they can result in portfolio prisons, which undermine teaching and learning (Hargreaves et al., 2002). To investigate the washback effect of PBLA, data were qualitatively analyzed, synthesized, and merged in development of recurring themes (Charmaz, 2006). Findings suggest that PBLA may have had washback on both teaching and learning. However, teachers’ individual classroom situations determined the direction and intensity of reported PBLA washback. The study highlights leverage points (Fox, 2004) where interventions (e.g., additional support, resources) might address negative washback. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 201
Author(s):  
Elida Kurti

This paper aims to reflect an effort to identify the problems associated with the educational learning process, as well as its function to express some inherent considerations to the most effective forms of the classroom management. Mentioned in this discussion are ways of management for various categories of students, not only from an intellectual level, but also by their behavior. Also, in the elaboration of this theme I was considering that in addition to other development directions of the country, an important place is occupied by the education of the younger generation in our school environments and especially in adopting the methods of teaching and learning management with a view to enable this generation to be competitive in the European labor market. This, of course, can be achieved by giving this generation the best values of behavior, cultural level, professional level and ethics one of an European family which we belong to, not just geographically. On such foundations, we have tried to develop this study, always improving the reality of the prolonged transition in the field of children’s education. Likewise, we have considered the factors that have left their mark on the structure, cultural level and general education level of children, such as high demographic turnover associated with migration from rural and urban areas, in the capacity of our educational institutions to cope with new situations etc. In the conclusions of this study is shown that there is required a substantial reform even in the pro-university educational system to ensure a significant improvement in the behavior of children, relations between them and the sound quality of their preparation. Used literature for this purpose has not been lacking, due to the fact that such problems are usually treated by different scholars. Likewise, we found it appropriate to use the ideas and issues discussed by the foreign literature that deals directly with classroom management problems. All the following treatise is intended to reflect the way of an effective classroom management.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adib Rifqi Setiawan

The goal of this work is to describe pre- and in-service science teacher education and science education research in Indonesia in an effort to better inform the global science education community about historical developments and present challenges. We begin by providing an historical overview of the general education system to provide readers with context needed to understand current reform initiatives. Next we describe the current-day process for preparing and certifying science teachers and we describe some of the challenges facing teachers, students, and researchers in Indonesia’s science education context today. We follow this discussion with an introduction to some existing professional organizations for teachers and researchers in Indonesia that are working to develop important channels for disseminating current research on teacher practice, curriculum innovation, and student learning that have the potential to positively influence on teaching and learning in the future. We conclude by highlighting some areas that would benefit from additional research and by inviting more international collaborative research initiatives with colleagues in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Snodgrass

Many innovative approaches to teaching are being used around the country, and there is an exciting energy about the scholarship of teaching and learning. But what is happening in the most effective music theory and aural skills classrooms? Based on 3 years of field study spanning 17 states, coupled with reflections from the author’s own teaching strategies, Teaching Music Theory: New Voices and Approaches highlights teaching approaches with substantial real-life examples from instructors across the country. The main premise of the text focuses on the question of “why.” Why do we assess in a particular way? Why are our curricula designed in a certain manner? Why should students master aural skills for their career as a performer, music educator, or music therapist? It is through the experiences shared in the text that many of these questions of “why” are answered. Along with answering some of the important questions of “why,” the book emphasizes topics such as classroom environment, undergraduate research and mentoring, assessment, and approaches to curriculum development. Teaching Music Theory: New Voices and Approaches is written in a conversational tone to provide a starting point of dialogue for students, new faculty members, and seasoned educators on any level. The pedagogical trends presented in this book provide a greater appreciation of outstanding teaching and thus an understanding of successful approaches in the classroom.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Prem Prasad Poudel ◽  
Madan Prasad Baral

Abstract In recent years, in Nepal, while some languages of the nation are on the verge of extinction, some foreign languages (such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese) are emerging as new attractions among the youths and adults and are widely taught in the marketplaces through the private sector initiative. Against this backdrop, in this article, we have examined the current foreign language teaching and learning situation drawing on qualitative empirical data obtained from the institutes involved in foreign language instruction in a city in Gandaki Province of Nepal. The data were collected from a survey in forty institutes, ten individual interviews and five focus group discussions. Drawing on the data, an ecological model was adopted, which focused on dynamic interaction, co-existence, and competition among languages, and findings were discussed in line with these aspects of ecological understanding. Findings revealed that learning foreign languages has been established as a conduit towards economic gains and opportunities for employment and education, which has largely been contributory towards reshaping the ecological relationship among the foreign languages in Nepal.


2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Dalton-Puffer ◽  
Renate Faistauer ◽  
Eva Vetter

This overview of six years of research on language learning and teaching in Austria covers a period of dynamic development in the field. While all the studies reviewed here illustrate research driven by a combination of local and global concerns and theoretical frameworks, some specific clusters of research interest emerge. The first of these focuses on issues connected with multilingualism in present-day society in terms of language policy, theory development and, importantly, the critical scrutiny of dominant discursive practices in connection with minority and migrant languages. In combination with this focus, there is a concern with German as a second or foreign language in a number of contexts. A second cluster concerns the area of language testing and assessment, which has gained political import due to changes in national education policy and the introduction of standardized tests. Finally, a third cluster of research concerns the diverse types of specialized language instruction, including the introduction of foreign language instruction from age six onwards, the rise of academic writing instruction, English-medium education and, as a final more general issue, the role of English as a dominant language in the canon of all foreign and second languages in Austria.


2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Kathryn Strom ◽  
Jason Margolis ◽  
Nihat Polat

Background/Context Despite noted difficulties with defining and assessing teacher dispositions, U.S. state education departments and national accreditation agencies have included dispositions in mandates and standards both for determining teacher quality and for assessing the quality of the teacher preparation programs that certify them. Thus, there remains a significant impetus to specify dispositions to assess, identify what “good” dispositions look like in practice, and determine the best way to measure them. Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we aim to problematize the construct of “teacher dispositions” through a critical synthesis of literature and a discussion of a rhizomatic perspective to generate a (re)conceptualization that is more closely aligned with the immensely complex nature of teaching and learning. Second, we draw on samples of university-generated teacher disposition assessment tools to provide concrete examples that “put to work” this complex perspective on dispositions. Research Design To apply ideas introduced in our rhizomatic framework focused on multiple, dynamic assemblages, we conducted a qualitative textual analysis of a sample of 16 widely available assessment tools used by university-based teacher preparation programs to measure teachers’ professional dispositions. Findings and Conclusions Overall, the vast majority of disposition criteria included in the tools reviewed were temporal and relational, seeking to assess the interactions of the teacher candidate amidst a variety of potential circumstances as well as material and discursive factors. This reveals a paradox, however, since, despite their more contextual phrasing, these criteria ultimately seek to assess an individual and are high-stakes only for that teacher. Yet, we suggest that the results of this review may be an indication that the field is moving toward a more multifaceted vision of teaching that can better take into account the dynamic, situated, and relational nature of teaching activity. We also suggest the language accounting for some of the complexity of teaching in the disposition assessment tools we reviewed may be an entry point into a more dynamic, vital materialist vision of the profession.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document