Dealing With Low And High Achievements In Teaching Education Essay

Dealing With Low And High Achievements In Teaching Education Essay Teaching is not a normal job that can be practiced by any person since it is the transmitting knowledge, behavior, and educational programs. The teacher is responsible for instructing others who may belong to different types of human behavior (Smith, 1997). The purpose of educational or learning groups is to acquire new information or skill through a sharing of knowledge. In most small group learning situations all members have something to teach and something to learn in-text citation is required (Smith, 1997). The role of the teacher is to provide a lecture in the classroom which means transmitting knowledge to a group of students. It is the traditional role of the teacher as one of the information provider in the lecture context. Moreover, the teacher plays an important role in increasing the practical skill of the students. Also, teachers are responsible for facilitating the learning process and mentoring the students performance. Furthermore, teachers are planners for the organization of the contents, the educational strategies, and the educational environment (Harden, 2000). The No Child Left Behind law has brought wide changes to education across the nation. It affects what students are taught, the tests they take, the training of their teachers and the way money is spent on education. Therefore, based on this law, teachers must be highly qualified to teach core academic subjects in every classroom. Specifically, an elementary school teacher must have a bachelors degree and pass a t test in core curriculum areas. While middle and high school teachers must show theyre competent in the subjects they teach by passing a test or by completing an academic major, graduate degree or comparable coursework. The qualification of the teacher helps in giving individual assistant on low achiever as well as high achiever. However, some teachers focus on the low achiever leaving the intelligent students or the high achiever behind which decrease their skills and ambitious (Harden, 2000). 1.1 Purpose of the study The purpose of this study is to shed light on the role of the teachers in the classroom regarding the existence of both high achievers as well as low achiever students. The study will investigate the impact of giving individual assistance to a segment of the class on the engagement of high achievers in teaching and learning process. H1: increased attention on low achievers will influence negatively on the achievement of gifted or high achiever students H2: teachers can demotivate the successful students which may lead to their failure or their withdrawal from school. Chapter II Literature Review A serious problem nowadays is faced in schools and education which is Giftedness. The meaning of this word can be summarized by a simple sentence measure of potential. Children vary with their ability to understand and get knowledge. Some students are gifted as named by many authors and need little help by their teachers while others have lower abilities to acquire as fast as those mentioned first. The problem stands that focusing on smart children can cause a big trouble to those who fall behind. In other words, the idea of failing to challenge a gifted mind will lead to low self-esteem and under- achievement to the child who thinks he is in the second place. Lack of training in the classroom is leading teachers to lose the ability on recognizing gifted children. Only half of those gifted students are receiving the care they need because gifted students are misdiagnosed. To have ability, to feel power you are never allowed to use, can become shocking and destroying. Many researchers consider the gifted as the largest group of under-achievers in education. According to the National Association for Gifted Children, there is frustration that leads to physical and psychological pain. 2.1.1Gifted Education There are several signs that show giftedness such as endless questions, curiosity, explore subjects, precision in thinking, and the ability to concentrate on intellectually challenging. Children having these signs may require follow intelligence testing so the childs educational needs can be properly provided. Profoundly high achiever students are unique individuals with different talents and interests. Through the follow up of the educational needs, a challenging educational program should be identified in order to develop the intellectual ability since gifted person need coaching to acheive suitable education at a level appropriate to their abilities. Children are becoming more annoyed and unmotivated because of the unappropriate challenge that they are facing at schools. Thats why Students will dumb-down and hide their intelligence to fit in the class if the teachers give a lot of care to the low achievers. The options that help gifted students start by the early entrance to first grade then they must be introduces to independent, multi-age gifted classes in addition to the increase of grades. However, experts stress that gifted kids are children with  special academic needs, who do not always do well without appropriate instruction.   2.1.1.1 Identifying gifted students Schools gifted programs are the most widely known identifications that occur in schools nowadays. Services that recognize gifted students occur in schools and show the levels of students in it (Bruer, 1997). 2.1.1.2 Characteristics Behavior of Gifted Students Gifted children have better comprehension of the nuances of language in early stages. It is clearly shown that half of the talented and gifted population has learned before entering schools. Moreover the rate of reading with less practice has been considered as one of the most commonly known behaviors of giftedness. Constructing and handling abstractions, picking up and interpreting nonverbal cues, drawing inferences and recognizing large vocabularies are also talent of gifted students. Gifted children are natural learners and have an eye for important details. They often prefer reading books and articles written by people older than their age. Their abilities often set them apart from their age mates. The characteristics of gifted students are as following: they are fluent thinkers, able to generate possibilities, consequences, or related ideas, they are flexible thinkers, able to use many different alternatives and approaches to problem solving.  They are original thinkers, seeking new, unusual, or unconventional associations and combinations among items of information. They are sensitive to beauty and are attracted to aesthetic values (Riley, 1999). 2.1.1.3 The needs of High Achievers Understanding of the gifted social and emotional needs is an essential requirement for successful teachers because they believe that not all academic angels and stellar scholars that people assume are gifted. Gifted childrens needs do not differ from others. Intellectual and personality attributes characterize gifted children and should be noted at the outset. The Strengths of gifted students is shown by the ability to retain information quickly while the possible problem is the impatient with others (August Hakuta, 1998). High achiever needs to be engaged in the class even in the implementation to the no child left behind act. 2.2.1 Less Skilled Teachers The solutions to the problem of low achievement are retaining them in grade, placing them in transition rooms, enrolling them in remedial or special education classrooms, or placing them in the bottom track. However these solutions increase low achievement and wont allow students to improve or either graduate from high schools. Low achievement students often receive a reading curriculum that is limited and indicates low expectations for their performance (Knapp Needels, 1990). Appropriate professional development and readily-available technical assistance is needed in order to become highly successful with all students since lack of professional training in dealing with diversity is being recognized and lead to poor training (Phillips Crowell, 1994). It is important that teachers have skills to help students to be more successful as mentioned by August and Hakuta (1998). Underachievement can change over time as said by Delisle and Berger (1990). the best intervention for remediation of any learning difficulty, and teachers who believe that these students can become high achievers even if the behavior did not change (Riley, 1999). Generally, having below average is noticed on children who are low achievers. (100) IQ and resist in the classroom to keep up with general academic requirements (Gresham, MacMillan Bocian, 1996). 2.3.1 Risk Factors for Low Achievement Low achievers face a lot of difficulties. Focusing on the effort of preventing learning difficulties is more important that trying to remediate them (Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, 1998). A close monitor on the progress of all children is essential in addition to the changes made to instructions. 2.3.1.1 General Risk Factors growing up in poverty with physical deficits, who attend schools with chronic school failure, whose culture varies from that of the schools, and who arrive at school speaking languages other than English are considered problems that face certain groups of gifted children. Having poor basic skills, low academic self-concepts, poor auditory memory, and less than average school attendance rates as mentioned by Delisile and Berger (1990) are characteristics of underachievers. Some children risk of dropping out of school if they live in single-parent households, have parents or siblings who did not complete high school, or are home alone more than three hours a day (Dynarski and Gleason, 1999). More than half of the Schools in Urban areas scored chronic failure. The reasons behind this is that they have young and less qualified teachers and high teacher turnover, lack resources, such as well-stocked libraries and up-to-date technology. Moreover, the connections with parents are often non-existent or aggressive and absenteeism of students is high. In addition to these reasons related to the schools system itself, there are reasons related to the students such as enroll high percentages of students who live in poverty, the majority fail to reach even the basic level on national tests (National Education Summit, 1999). 2.3.1.2 Poor skills Schools that provide effective reading instruction and reading practice causes the opportunities to learn letters and to recognize the internal structure of spoken words. Children who have normal or above language skills acquire reading skills that advance motivation and expose children to have literacy. If a child lacks any of the above factors, he has increased possibilities of delayed or impeded reading (National Research Council, 1998). On the other hand, some children lack reading readiness from home and suffer from discouragement in the classroom. There are low literacy expectations, limited resources, and differential instructional practices for these children (Riley, 1999). 2.4.1Effective Instruction Experienced and caring teachers who are able to establish close personal relationships with students, other staff members, and parents must formulate the most important competencies of a successful school. The staff and students succeed when the skills and positive atmosphere meet. It is surprising that many of the new school reform models are reverting to a teacher as factory worker mindset (French, 2000) instead of teacher as a caring expert. Good teachers overcome the obstacles that they face in order to make children stay away from failure. They improve their skills throughout their careers (Snow, Burns, and Griffin, 1998). Moreover, a successful teacher takes time into consideration. They allow more time for discussion and questions and they allow students to participate more and engage in the classes atmosphere (Breaking Ranks, 1996). If a teacher believes that each student has special capabilities and can improve their skills and achieve more, she let her students feel comfortable and encourage them and show them that she cares. 2.5 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD The attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a neurobehavioral disorder which is related to high or low achievement. Student who are hyperactive or irresponsible behave in a way that lead to problems. This problem is a genetic problem that creates lack of focus. Lack of concentration represent one of the symptomf of ADHD. Some students may switch from one thing to another that may cause them to forget the lesson explained even if they are high achievers. This problem allow students to move slowly and become easily confused by any distraction.

The Life and Death of Ernest Hemingway :: Biography Biographies Essays

The Life and Death of Hemingway In novels or other literary works many authors write about things they dream about. Many write about what stories they have heard from fellow companions. None have written about such vivid, yet traumatic experiences as the twentieth century writer, Ernest Hemingway. That is why Hemingway's tend to concur to his real life experiences. To start, consider that he was raised in an extremely strict household. He was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois. He had an equitably happy, upper middle class childhood. As he grew older he started having feelings of bitterness towards his parents, mainly his mother who was seen as selfish and magisterial by Hemingway. When he was in his teens he became interested in literature. He wrote stories for his high school newspaper and subscribed poems and stories to the school magazine. When he graduated in 1917 he took a junior reporter position on the "Kansas City Star", writing feature stories. In his journalism he began to show interest in powerful yet objective writings of violence, despair, and emotional disturbance, which dominated his writings. He also participated in World War I, which greatly impacted his writing, as a Red Cross ambulance driver in Italy. He was wounded in both legs by a shrapnel explosion. He fell in love with the nurse that was caring for him, who left him not long after for an older man. He returned to Oak Park, and also upper Michigan to write about his childhood, teenage, and wartime years. In 1921 he married Hadley Richardson, divorced March 10, 1927, he moved to Paris to further his writing career. Here he quit journalism as a result of his maturing as a distinguished writer. From the maturity he had accomplished he was able to write over twenty-five books. He eventually returned to journalism to support himself. He was recognized as a major force in literature when he wrote A Farewell to Arms, One of the first novels in Hemingway's literary career. His first publication was Three Stories and Ten Poems, which didn't turn out to be a big success. But his most acclaimed novella, The Old Man and the Sea, which won him the Pulitzer Prize, tends to stand out overall.

Critical Thinking and Perception

Prepare a 700-1000 words essay on ‘Critical thinking and Perception. ’ Perception is Reality. Identify an instance in your life where your perception of the reality situation was different from actual reality. What did you think was going on? What was actually going on? Why was there such a difference? What did you learn and how has your thinking changed because of this? Critical Thinking Critical thinking is the purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or what to do in response to our observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguements.It involves determining the meaning and significance of what is observed or expressed, concerning a given inference or argument, determining whether there is adequate justification to accept the conclusion as true. Fisher & Scriven define critical thinking as â€Å"Skilled, active, interpretation and evaluation of observations, communications, information, and argumentation. † Parker & Moore defin e it more naturally as† the careful, deliberate determination of whether one should accept, reject, or suspend judgment about a claim and the degree of confidence with which one accepts or rejects it. In simpler terms, Critical thinking is disciplined logical thinking governed by clear intellectual standards. Critical thinkers must always seek truth and reality. It employs not only logic but broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance and fairness. While thinking critically we must give due consideration to the evidence, the context of judgment, the relevant criteria for making the judgment correctly, the applicable methods or techniques for forming the judgment, and the applicable theoretical constructs for understanding the problem and the question at hand.Critical Thinking and Perception Perception is an extremely common word used to define our own thinking and beliefs about certain situations and fa cts. The word â€Å"perception† comes from the Latin words perceptio, percipio, and means â€Å"receiving, collecting, action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses. † It is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information. The classic question, â€Å"Is the glass half empty or half full? † serves to demonstrate the way an object can be perceived in different ways. People with different mindsets and different experiences in life will perceive it differently.Optimistic people and individuals with a positive outlook towards life will perceive it a glass half full. Whereas pessimistic people will view it as a glass half empty. Thus it can be maintained that Perception is unique to every individual and is simply one's interpretation of reality. When we view something with a preconceived concept about it, we tend to take those concepts and see them whether or not they are there. This problem of perception stems from the f act that humans are unable to understand new information, without the inherent base of their previous knowledge.Thus we always tend to perceive things based on their past experiences, previous knowledge, point of views and our socio cultural environment. Critical Thinking does not recognize perception as the correct reasoning technique and calls for evident, logical and accurate facts. It seeks to achieve and establish reality and truth as it is without any distortions. It also maintains that perceptions are not always coincidental with reality. Life Instance and ‘My Perception’ (What did I think was going on? ) Since childhood I had been quite an opinionated girl.Most of the times I strongly maintained my own point of view but I was never rigid. As all people I also had my own perceptions based on whatever I saw, read or heard about, experienced personally and experiences of people close to me. I grew up in a cozy and protected environment where I had very limited inte ractions with people from a socio cultural background different than mine. As a result I had my own pre-conceived notions about people from different religion especially about Muslims and their beliefs and lifestyle. As a child studying in a Convent school, I never had Muslim friends.The only interaction or limited exposure I had about Muslims been limited to bits of information passed on by my dad about his workers and the news channels. As a result of this I was wary of making friends. Somehow I had a weird theory in my mind where I perceived all Muslims to be an absolute different type of people with a very different lifestyle. I imagined Muslim men to be huge giantly men with strange beards dressed in white kurtas with keffiyah on their shoulders. I had also thought them to be mostly uneducated, orthodox and backward people.On my brief trips to old Delhi I had always seen Muslim women clad in burqas. I thought those women would feel restricted and oppressed all their lives since their contact with outside world is so limited. No body could see their beautiful clothes and accessories. I also thought of Islam as a rigid religion with strict rules forcing people to read Namaaz five times a day. In my ignorance, I perceived it to be an unfair social system for women as polygamy is acceptable. It is quite obvious that my perceptions were far from reality and were just those – narrow-minded perceptions.Rendezvous with ‘Reality’ (What was actually going on? ) My perception about the religion changed drastically changed with my growing up years and especially when I joined college. My graduation college (a leading fashion design college in Delhi) was truly cosmopolitan in nature. It was a melting pot of various cultures and lifestyles. It had students from all walks of life and varied socio cultural backgrounds. As a class all of us were supposed to interact with maximum number of people and work together as a team. There I met many new friends and made some for lifetime.One of them was Aslam- a lanky but a super stylish Muslim boy. He was an absolute contrast to my ill-conceived perceptions about Muslims. He did not wear ill fitted kurtas and had done his schooling from a leading school of Delhi. He belonged to a very educated family. I was surprised and I started changing my thinking. After some time when we became close friends I realized Islam is not a rigid religion and does not force people to read Namaaz five times a day. It is in fact the most misinterpreted religion, which only suggested that men could remarry to support helpless women in times of distress and war etc.I realized all the burqa-clad women I always saw in Old Delhi were not the only Islamic lifestyle. My friend’s mother is a businesswoman and his sisters lived their lives in a manner quite similar to mine. The biggest revelation was that he is a vegetarian by choice and very secular in nature. He also faced same late teenage issues as mine an d held similar political and social beliefs. In short his life was very similar to anyone else’s life of our age. The only difference lied in the gods we prayed to and the way we prayed. It was an eye opener as well as a heart-warming experience for me.And today he is one of my dearest friends whose friendship I will always cherish. His friendship has enriched me as a person in many ways. A Changed Me (What did I learn and how has my thinking changed because of this instance? ) My friendship with Aslam over a period of 4 years has changed me and made me a changed person today. I now realize my perceptions about Islam and Muslims were absolutely baseless and wrong. All my childhood years I was not thinking critically or correctly and I had fallen prey to unwarranted assumptions about Muslims, which were not based on any proofs or conclusive evidence.Based on my little and incorrect knowledge, I had mistakenly perceived and stereo typed a huge group of diverse people into an un educated, unaware and rigid community. I drew a wrong conclusion about a large group of people from an extremely small sample of very few Muslims I indirectly came across my brief Old Delhi trips and my father’s conversations. I learnt that one must not formulate their own theories and view point about people, situations and facts without confirming the logic behind it. Every individual is different and one must never stereotype a large group based on inaccurate information or perceptive theories.But since we are human beings and we are bound to perceive, it always helps to be a little flexible about our opinions and welcome rightful changes. The experience of getting to know someone from a completely different religion has changed my perspective towards people. Today I am not that narrow-minded girl anymore but a better individual with a broader thinking capacity and a deeper understanding of our Indian multi lingual religious and cultural social fabric. I am now open and me ntally well prepared to make friends from different backgrounds.This experience has also helped me to cope up with social life in MBA College where students belong to varied nationalities and milieu. As a matter of fact I now look forward to interact with new and different people and make as many friends as possible irrespective of their religion, nationality, ethnical backdrops etc. (*** PS : This is just to explain how I have changed as a person and not to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments. I am very glad I came across this experience as it has changed my wrong perceptions and opened my eyes to a new world full of new and good

What Are Chemical Equations

A chemical equation is something you will encounter every day in chemistry. Its a written representation, using numbers and symbols, of the process that occurs during a chemical reaction. How to Write a Chemical Equation A chemical equation is written with the reactants on the left side of an arrow and the products of the chemical reaction on the right. The head of the arrow typically points toward the right or the product side of the equation, although some equations may indicate equilibrium with the reaction proceeding in both directions simultaneously. The elements in an equation are denoted using their symbols. Coefficients next to the symbols indicate the stoichiometric numbers. Subscripts are used to indicate the number of atoms of an element present in a chemical species. An example of a chemical equation may be seen in the combustion of methane: CH4 2 O2 → CO2 2 H2O Participants in the Chemical Reaction: Element Symbols Youll need to know the symbols for the elements to understand what is taking place in a chemical reaction. In this reaction, C is carbon, H is hydrogen, and O is oxygen. Left Side of the Equation: Reactants The reactants in this chemical reaction are methane and oxygen: CH4 and O2. Right Side of the Equation: Products The products of this reaction are carbon dioxide and water: CO2 and H2O. Direction of Reaction: Arrow It is the convention to place the reactants on the left side of a chemical equation and the products on the right side. The arrow between the reactants and products should point from left to right or if the reaction is proceeding both ways, point in both directions (this is common). If your arrow points from right to left, its a good idea to re-write the equation the conventional way. Balancing Mass and Charge Chemical equations may be either unbalanced or balanced. An unbalanced equation lists the reactants and products, but not the ratio between them. A balanced chemical equation has the same number and types of atoms on both sides of the arrow. If ions are present, the sum of the positive and negative charges on both sides of the arrow is also the same. Indicating States of Matter Its common to indicate the state of matter in a chemical equation by including parentheses and an abbreviation right after a chemical formula. This can be seen in the following equation: 2 H2(g) O2(g) → 2  H2O(l) Hydrogen and oxygen are indicated by (g), which means they are gases. Water is marked (l), which means it is a liquid. Another symbol you may see is (aq), which means the chemical species is in water — or an aqueous solution. The (aq) symbol is a sort of shorthand notation for aqueous solutions so that water doesnt have to ​be  included in the equation. Its particularly common when ions are present in a solution.