Information literacy is something that I think could be a very important aspect to being an educator. I think this is the case because for a lot of people in this world, when they pour their heart into something(especially something like teaching someone something) they want what they are doing to be done at a high level, and they want it to be done the right way. This is where things can get difficult because what is “the right way”? Well, that is constantly debated, I think with everything in life, but I believe that’s a good thing.
As stated in the “CEE Position Statement” provided as one of our class readings, they state, “The ultimate goal is to enable teachers, teacher educators, and institutions to make sound decisions about educational activities and experiences that will best serve students”. This sentence pretty much sums up what the goal should be in linking research and teaching. Will this be easy? Not always. It may take time and effort.
The reason this will take time and effort is because if you have a question about your something having to do with your teaching-lets say you question a philosophy in your own classroom, and want to try and figure out if you believe it is a valid philosophy, you will need to put in extra time and effort to finding a credible, trustworthy source, who’s experimental studies match the same question in which you are trying to decipher for classroom. CEE adds, “It is important to note that the extent to which a study may be judged to be trust worthy depends not on the theoretical orientation of the study but the extent to which the methods are used are appropriate to the question asked and the extent to which the chosen methods are rigorously applied.”
If an educator takes it upon themselves to answer their own questions and put the time in to research valid information from other studies, they will have a greater confidence in their teaching method. If a teacher is able to have more confidence in their own teaching, then they can be more elaborate and colorful with that confidence, which in turn sparks interest with students, allowing them to learn better. In the end, that is our goal as educators, isn’t it?
The beauty of it all is that when educators take all of these concepts they have found to be reliable for their own philosophy, if their teaching methods were to be studied by someone else, they have now just become part of the same system that helped create their own.
I think that this video perfectly shows the importance of Information Literacy and shows it in a sense of looking at real scenarios. Since information literacy was not taken into account in these examples, the repercussions were serious and not good for the employee involved, and also their companies.
As for the post to parents from Mrs. Brandy Young, I personally like the idea, but I don’t think homework should be completely abolished. I would think that if she wanted to lessen the amount she could, but not to completely disregard it. I believe that, even though homework is not always fun, it can get students to be able to think and problem solve on their own. Also, it’s not always fun for the student, or easy to do, which can put stress on them, but it’s bettering them for the future. In her article “Meanings for homework and Implication of Practice” Pamela Coutts mentions how students are more focused on the now and wanting to spend time doing things other than homework, where as their parents are focused on preparing them for their future, which homework does this by giving them tasks that are mentally challenging and require the students to be able to manage their time well.
I know one big problem without having homework assigned would lead to not as much reading. Unless Mrs. Brandy Young will set aside decent blocks of time for the students to read, I don’t see this happening as much as it should. Fischer & Frey’s article “Homework and the Gradual Release of Responsibility: Making “Responsibility” Possible“, they state, “Current neuroscience research suggests readers must develop fluency, or automaticity, with decoding, site words, word recognition, comprehension strategies, and the like so they can free up working memory for making meaning”(2008). I know with myself, sometimes it is more difficult to concentrate on reading with a room full of students. I like to read in a quiet area by myself. This would definitely not be an easy task for someone with ADHD. Students need time by themselves to think in a different mindset, and homework allows this.
Sometimes I believe that its not the fact that homework is given out, it’s the instruction for the homework that lacks in direction or motivation. We need to try new ways to get students ready to accomplish their homework. IN Lewis Newby’s article, “can research provide a vehicle for learning science lessons?” students aged 13-18 did a new way of research homework for multiple weeks and then gradually incorporated the AFL(Assessment For Learning) technique, and it turned out to be very beneficial to student learning. Students evaluated their own work and were able to compare it to certain standards and were able to see how their work changed after the multiple weeks, in which in was very much improved
In Fischer and Frey’s article, “Homework and the Gradual Release of Responsibility”, they too talk a lot about how the problem with homework not being successful is because the teaching does not follow through with the homework in efficient way and/or the homework itself is not allowing the students to reflect in an appropriate fashion.
-I’m really sorry this was way passed the word amount!