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How to be a Curious Teacher and Not the Furious with Students

9/13/2016

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Rebecca Albert in her article "Getting Curious (Not Furious) with Students" states that even though she is not an expert in trauma relating to children, her experience has helped her "recognize stress and trauma-related behaviors."As a High School teacher, she desired to help students who struggled with their emotions. She advises teachers that when their students behave badly, the teacher has to get curious and not furious; she must not take it personally and react on the basis of anger rather she must respond to the needs of the student.
The teacher must realize that such bad behavior on the part of the students has its roots in "neglect, abuse and violence." She further reveals that traumatic stress can result in " withdrawal or self-injury."
 
She further explains that modern Neuroscience has found that under constant stress or distress the mind shuts down and the student is unable to perform higher tasks such as "problem-solving and design thinking." The trauma may appear as "defiance or anger", but the teacher should realize that this is not the student's personal choice to act in such a manner.
 
The National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children has found through its research the following advantages of emphasizing trauma-informed education:
 
Firstly, there is an improvement in academic performance,
Secondly, the there are fewer absences, detentions and suspensions,
Thirdly, it has been found that it reduced stress among teachers and students and there were fewer instances of bullying and harassment,
Fourthly, the teachers experienced better job satisfaction and safety.
 
She advocates the maxim "Curious-not-Furious" to novice teachers. A teacher who is curious about the reason behind the student's acting out will ask herself the following questions:
What makes the student behave so badly?
What are the factors causing such a behavior pattern?
Is the behavior a result of fear and insecurity?
Is the student lonely, hungry, scared or tired?
 
Instead of resorting to the traditional disciplinary measures such as detention, rushing to the principal's office or time-out, the teacher should first politely ask the child:
"How are you?"
"Are you okay today?"
"How can I help?"
"Is there anything you would like to talk about?"
 
 It is crucial that we create "classrooms of care". Rebecca states that a classroom should no longer appear "sterile, regimental or threatening." This according to her transforms  classrooms into "communities of care, discovery, and learning," for both students and teachers. Instead of reacting to the students' bad behavior, the teacher must respond to the needs of the student, taking an initiative to help the child and reduce her stress. One could have a talk after class, or meet the student counselor. When teachers care for their students, they are rewarded with higher attendance, better grades and more enthusiasm and interest in attending class and the school.
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Sequential visual delights encourage e-learners

9/21/2015

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According to an adage, ‘Learning is a funny thing’. This holds true in today’s time as learning has become a fun process with the advent of e-learning. It is a visual delight to look at the screen and see pictures of what you are reading that gives you an endless fun and instills a curiosity to learn more. 

In general, real learning isn’t a one-time event (as like many e-learning courses) where it’s just a matter of getting new information. E-learning courses have added up more value to the natural learning process.

It can act as a boon with good planning. Also, it’s a welcome intrusion as we can cut time and create cost-effective and repeatable learning events.  In an e-learning course, one can have a room and equipment that is always available. Even if someone fails or needs more time, they can have it. That’s one of the good things about elearning. A great learning experience can be crafted of this situation.

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How e-learning adds visual delight

Here are some things that elaborate how elearning is a visual delight for new-age learners:
  • It sets clear expectations and objectives.  People like to get oriented and know what’s expected of them. So, firstly, they should know why they’re taking the course and what they should be learning. As the elearning course sets objective, it sets the focus right. 
  • It makes sure that adult learners don’t fail: The elearning course makes it clear when the adult students are being tested and when they aren’t. So chances of failure reduce.
  • It creates an environment where learners have freedom: elearning creates an environment where the workers can click around and explore.  They can have grasp of the information, and they can also enjoy the exercises so they can demonstrate their understanding in a real way.
  • It creates a visual design that is friendly and inviting:  This initiative helps with the initial engagement and also sets the tone of the course.  These courses are designed to make sure that they are visually inviting. 
  • Elearning gives a multimedia experience so it makes sense to leverage as much of the multimedia as you can (in context though).  You don’t want to add multimedia for the sake of it, but you do want to use all of your resources to create the best course possible.
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3 E-learning Techniques that Promote the Most Advantageous Learning

8/13/2013

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E-learning is all about retaining attention as well as interest of the learner in such a way that she or he accomplishes the objectives of going through the course. In order to ensure this, many learning techniques are out so that the learners can learn in the best possible manner. Although it is true that learning is at its best when the learner sets the goals, the learning strategies play an effective role in helping the learners to get the most out of the course. Therefore, implementing the most effective strategy for maximum learning is an indispensable responsibility of an instructional designer.

One of the most common but highly effective learning strategies is progressive revealing information in a visual manner. For example, you can show a procedure as sequential visuals and highlight each one as you explain. You can highlight the first visual and talk about it while fading out the others. This gives enough time to the learners to remember and recall information about that particular visual. Even the experts are of the opinion that this instructional strategy is powerful in storing the information in the long-term memory. Overloading the memory with all information at once increases the chance of the learner to forget it. However, splitting the information into different pieces and concentrating only on one piece at a time makes it easier to understand and digest.

Another great way to initiate learning with interest is a role-based simulation, a learner-centred strategy. With the help of relevant roles, you can convert your learners into role models or active participants. Such a dynamic technique has a great impact on the learners, as they are encouraged to take their own actions in a particular scenario. Moreover, they are able to understand and store more information quickly. Such a technique can also help the learners to identify and rectify the mistakes happening in the same situation in real world. You can implement such a technique via a myriad of ways, such as modelling and observation. For example, you can animate an interactive scenario wherein the learner is a business manager who wishes to learn how to prepare a project plan.

Even mind maps are useful, as they aid the learners to think on a broader basis but creatively. A mind map is much more than including some words and lines; it is actually a tool to generate, restructure and classify. It aids in dealing with overloaded information by understanding via links and relations, all trapped in a single panorama. 
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    Mike Cornell and Emma Jones are behind the success of Elearning Blog, a blog solely focused on providing free resources and tips for e-learning. 

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