How Animation Can Teach Children History Dissertation

Introduction

Teachers are always on the look out for new and better ways to educate the students. When children enjoy it, they have a propensity to learn better. Well-designed animations may enhance the learning process of students making it faster and easier. They are also an excellent aid to teachers in case of monotonous and sometimes boring subjects like history. With the aid of computer animations, the drudgery of both learning and teaching can be reduced to a very great extent.

The insertion of animation offers more variety in the instruction technique and thus promotes various kinds of learning not only in the discipline of history but also others which are included in the educational curriculum. To achieve this goal, moving pictures, and in this case Animation, must be used effectively as a teaching tool in the school system. The development of interest in the subject will be greatly enhanced if there is a close partnership between the animators and teachers in designing the desired syllabus with the acquaintance of the tools of animation.

Pictures used in animation are not only an artistic way of expression but have also transcended the barriers of communication and have become an international language. The language of pictures has become a necessary tool in order to develop the ability to read and understand and thus cope with the historical world of the past.

Since children and especially students spend most of their day in the company of moving pictures, education through this interesting medium has the potential of becoming their main source of information, entertainment and identity. The language of pictures can be equally effective for academically weaker students because this language will enhance their potential to comprehend better than before and thereby providing them with an alternative way of expression.

Teachers in schools must inculcate the practices of using animation to teach and should get acquainted with moving pictures by means of a training program.

For the past 20 years, the technical conditions for including animation and moving pictures as a technique of instruction, in the European school system have been present and the growing technological progress is constantly making it easier.

The cause why animation still does not play a major part in teaching can be attributed to the lack of computer education and training of the teachers. Teachers should be equipped with the basic knowledge of animation so that they feel comfortable and secure when using it a tool for teaching.

Educational animations

Educational animations are animations created for the explicit purpose of nurturing learning. The recognition of employing animations to facilitate learners to comprehend and retain information has significantly augmented since the arrival of powerful graphics oriented computers. This technology enables animations to be fashioned more effortlessly and economically than in earlier years. Formerly, conventional animation necessitated specialized labor intensive methods that were prolonged and expensive. In comparison, software which is currently available makes it possible for individual teachers to create their animations individually without the necessity of special experts. Teachers no longer have to rely on motionless graphics but can readily adapt them into enlightening animatronics.

The use of Animation in teaching has many advantages

Animation is highly popular among children. The teaching of history through animation can be harnessed simply with the computer as a main device which does not require much space and finance.

The use of animated pictures makes it possible for history students to easily see and comprehend the subject matter as both, audio as well as visual senses are at work.

With the help of an animation production teachers can easily assimilate the literary study world and the virtual world making it a great sight for the students, liberating them from the drudgery of the didactic world of history.

The aim of the use of animation is to transform the traditional boring methods of teaching history into novel innovative and interesting ways of instruction.

For individuals who work to instruct history, visual aids are a foundation for historical education. With the immense development of technology, learning has been given a tremendous boost thanks to educational animation. The advent of Computers has made it possible for visual aids to illustrate various themes explicitly with the help of animation and subsequently the effective combination of text and animation greatly enhances the comprehension of any discipline.

Educational animation is a tool that can work tremendously well in History learning programs where timelines and mythological figures are a prerequisite. There are many programs that enable teachers to create these animations in order to facilitate the learning of specific themes in history which would otherwise be enormously difficult to study. The visual and mental stimulus of animation is what greatly promotes the effortless comprehension of difficult historical dates in students.

The use of animation in history education is known to endorse learning by the affective and cognitive functions. In effective functions, animation employs the student both educationally as well as enjoyably. The process of learning takes place without the student actually realizing it. In cognitive purpose, the use of information and data primarily help in focusing the student’s attention to specific themes in their course of study. It has been noted that the simpler the animation, the better a student is able to take in and recall the material. Earlier, animation was a complicated and expensive practice. Today it is not so. By and large most students appreciate the practice of education through animation and find it an exceptionally supportive means.

Methods of teaching children, History

Teaching of History in School. (A glimpse into history)

Current research has revealed that the historical knowledge of young Americans is less than most teachers and citizens would wish for. Students’ acquaintance of history has suffered because of inexperienced teachers, condensed course requirements, and textbook materials that are featureless and tacit and aimed more in the direction of insignificant reporting of information than to the richness required to bring vivacity and integrity to events of the past (Sewall 1987; Cheney 1987).

History is virtually lacking from the syllabus of grades K-3 in most elementary schools. It is generally taught in amalgamation with the social sciences in grades 4-6 (Ravitch 1987). A noteworthy exception to national curriculum patterns is the innovative introduction of History in India, in the primary section in standard 3, through an interesting illustrative content with colorful pictorial demonstrations.

Ability of Children to Learn History

Research substantiation congregated over the precedent twenty-five years specifies that children are incompetent of thinking appropriately about history. This research, performed under the ‘developmental theory’ of Jean Piaget (Hallam 1970 and Kennedy 1983), demonstrates that even the oldest elementary learners are incapable of dealing with the conceptual ideas, long time frames, extensive generalization, and difficult fundamental implications which typify the discipline of history. This resolutely recognized conclusion does not however specify that young children are not capable to learn historical facts or develop proficiency in learning, thinking, and conversing. It plainly implies that teachers have got to monitor the recognized boundaries of their students in an attempt to teach history.

Zaccaria (1978) hypothesized that a limited ability to deal with time might be a cause for student difficulty in learning to “think historically.” He reviewed the psychological literature on children’s time perception and found that the first-grade pupil’s time span for thinking about events is only a week. The span widens by the third grade to nearly a month, and by the sixth grade it is close to a year. It is not until adolescence, however, that most students become capable of dealing with the periods of time typically used in a chronological account of United States history.

Levstik, (1986) notes the lack of research about the teaching and learning of history in schools. She concludes that little is known about what historical content should be taught and the best methods for teaching it. There is no evidence that pupils can learn to “think historically”.

Kieran Egan (1982) attacks aspects of Piaget’s developmental theory advocates a literary or narrative-based approach to history instruction. Egan and his followers contend that the narrative approach works better than traditional textbook instruction because it activates emotional links to reflective thinking and places the student much closer to the participant’s view of history. From this perspective, historical understanding is based on such hallmarks of literary understanding as empathizing with others and sensing causality as it operates within the unfolding events.

According to Levstik (1986), research on the teaching of history in schools suggests that textbook-based teaching practices are unsuccessful in developing historical understanding as defined by either the developmental or narrative-based models. She states that social studies educators should apply the techniques of “response to literature research” to history learning and explore the power of narrative in history. Renewed research on children’s history learning ability based on schema theory, new trends in Piaget’s developmental theory, the narrative approach, or other paradigms may soon start to provide the knowledge needed to refine and improve our teaching practices.

Practical Purposes of Education in History in School

The teaching and learning of history in the elementary school is less focused on building definitive knowledge or formal thinking ability than it is aimed at more immediate and attainable ends. For young students, an important purpose of education in history is to make the past seem real instead of remaining an untouchable abstraction held only in adult memories or hollow textbook passages. As improved history teaching begins to make this possible, students may achieve a second purpose of building insights into their own lives and contemporary events; the past can be used to illuminate the present.

Other achievable purposes of history in the elementary school are to develop knowledge of the American heritage, recognize and place in historical context important persons of the past, and introduce and gradually build understanding of time and chronology. Of course, these purposes should be addressed carefully in terms of the cognitive limitations of elementary school students. History instruction will help children recognize their own relationship to history, realizing that their actions and lives are a potential part of yet-to-be-written histories.

Holding these as the purposes of history in the elementary school will help students develop a love and respect for history and a realistic view of its limitations. Only then will students be receptive to more complex and formal history lessons of the secondary schools.

Teaching Practices for Helping Young Students Develop Knowledge and Interest in History

A great deal has been written over the years about the inadequacies of textbook bound social studies education. Perceptive teachers are conscious of the learning and motivational difficulties entailed by over dependence on a single textbook, in spite of how good it is. However, even when the textbook is the predominate source of instruction; it is still possible to help most students enjoy and benefit from their daily lessons. Teachers who are successful with this approach take steps to accommodate the varied reading abilities However, even when the textbook is the preponderate resource of instruction, it is still possible to facilitate most students take pleasure in and benefit from their daily lessons.

Teachers who are triumphant with this approach take steps to accommodate the diverse reading abilities of their students and make sure that vocabulary, theoretical, and experimental fundamentals are laid prior to reading. Accordingly they alter their reading assignments and routines to help break the boredom of unnecessary recurrence.

History instruction can be significantly enhanced by the use of animation. There is a generous supply of historical fiction, biographies, and special purpose reference works connected to history. Teachers ought to work with their media center and public library to categorize the titles of books which may be used to explore the past. Such books should be displayed appealingly, used often, and discussed as a part of the customary classroom schedule.

Instruction about the past is aided by the sounds and imagery of videotapes, films, and filmstrips. Although over dependence on these kinds of resources is not suggested, cautious selection and significant assimilation with ongoing teaching can do much to increase students’ knowledge of the past. Extraordinary experiences propel verve into children’s history learning. Such experiences go beyond the “staples” of the classroom teaching.

Examples of such experiences incorporate field excursions to museums and historical sites, replication, craft and model-building practice, individualized and comprehensive National History Day assignments, and verbal history projects. When students are appropriately equipped for such experiences, the intensity of perception they fabricate more than validates the additional effort they demand.

Field trips to museums and historical sites, for instance, work greatest after substantial learning and grounding. The more students know prior to entering the experience, the better they will be able to observe, comprehend, and retain. Possibly the best type of museum to trip, is a “living” one where volunteers, clad in attire of the era, execute the tasks and practice the crafts of the earlier period. Despite of whether the museum is of the “living” or conventional variety, it is imperative to make prior reservations and work intimately with the resident manager, museum instructor, or tour guide.

Concluding, history should be a fundamental part of the social studies curriculum. It has much to proffer students, who are motivated to discover about their world and develop a sense of ‘being’ in it. Accomplished teachers can use the strategies discussed here to help their students learn history and love it.

(In)-Effective Teaching in History

The majority of students have had related experiences with history courses. They learned the particulars and dates that the teacher and the text considered significant. This vision of history is fundamentally dissimilar from the way that historians perceive their work. Learners who think that history is concerning facts and dates ignore thrilling chances to appreciate how history is a discipline that is steered by exacting rules of substantiation and how meticulous logical expertise can be developed in the course of unfolding it(see Ravitch and Finn, 1987). Sadly, most tutors do not present an exhilarating approach to history, possibly because they, too, were instructed in the similar lackluster style.

Different Pedagogical Views of History

Different teachers teach history in different ways. For skilled history teachers, their acquaintance of the discipline and viewpoint concerning its structure, intermingle with their instruction approach. In contrast to simply updating the students to sets of syllabic facts, experienced teachers help students to recognize the challenging nature of historical elucidation and analysis, and encourage the appreciation of the significance of history in everyday life. An exemplar of marvelous history instruction appears from the classroom of Bob Bain, a public school teacher in Beechwood, Ohio. Historians, he comments, are cursed with a profusion of data.

The traces of the earlier periods threaten to overpower them unless they find some way of sorting out what is significant from what is nonessential. The suppositions that historians hold about importance, outlines how they write down their histories, the information they select, and the narrative they compile, as well as the larger designs they bring, to categorize and periodize the history. Frequently these suppositions about historical importance remain silent in the classroom. This contributes to students’ viewpoint that their textbooks are the history rather than a history.

Leinhardt and Greeno (1991, 1994) exhausted two years observing a highly proficient teacher of history in an urban high school in Pittsburgh. The teacher, Ms. Sterling, an expert of over twenty years, began her school year by having her students contemplate the meaning of the statement, “Every true history is contemporary history.” In the first week of the semester, Sterling propelled her students into the kinds of epistemological concerns that one may find in a graduate class: “What is history?” “How do we know the past?” “What is the difference between someone who sits down to ‘write history’ and the artifacts that are produced as part of ordinary experience?” The goal of this comprehensive exercise is to help students appreciate history as an evidentiary form of knowledge, not as huddles of set names and dates.

One might question about the suitability of spending five days “defining history” in a syllabus with so much to cover. But it is specifically Sterling’s structure of area under discussion, her great perception of the discipline as a whole that authorizes students’ access into the sophisticated world of historical investigation. By the conclusion of the lessons, students stimulated from being submissive audience of the past, to enfranchised representatives who could contribute in the structures of thoughts, analysis, and engagement that are hallmarks of accomplished historical cognition.

These illustrations provide useful insight of exceptional instruction in the discipline of history.

• Investigate the appropriate essentials of an educational animation.
• Find out the advantages and disadvantages of educating children with animation

With the mounting consistency of the 21st century’s “IT revolution”, IT has proven an untapped resource for the classroom. As the contemporary student becomes more epitomize with an enthusiasm for the interactivity of the computer keyboard and mouse, it has become necessary that our classrooms present an engaging technique of education. Regardless of the brilliance of motivated instructors and a variety of textbooks, the connected precise theories and expression make it a monotonous scholastic difficulty for many average students. Even more complex is the process involved in developing a student’s analytical historical philosophy and visualization competence. Through the discharge of IT technology, theories can be illustrated by means of a virtual setting with the help of multimedia, animation, virtual walk-through, and manipulated image visualization.

Learning Theories that Support Multiage Education

The learning theories taught in college along help in defining philosophies to teachers. An experienced educationalist will revisit the learning theories which are the bases of the profession of teaching.

Cognitive-Development Theory

This theory gives us the background for appropriate practice essential for mental development. The proposal that children’s philosophy is qualitatively different from adults comes from Piaget. His theory illustrates us that children need to construct or reconstruct knowledge in order to learn and that they also need rich opportunities to interact with the physical world and with their peers.

About Learning

12 different theories on how people learn:

1. Constructivism
2. Behaviorism
3. Piaget’s Developmental Theory
4. Neuroscience
5. Brain-Based Learning
6. Learning Styles
7. Multiple Intelligences
8. Right Brain/Left Brain Thinking
9. Communities of Practice
10. Control Theory
11. Observational Learning
12. Vygotsky and Social Cognition.

Constructivism

Definition

Constructivism is a philosophy of learning, founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own “rules” and “mental models,” which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences. There are several guiding principles of constructivism.

1. Learning is a search for meaning. Therefore, learning must start with the issues around which students are actively trying to construct meaning.
2. Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts. And parts must be understood in the context of wholes. Therefore, the learning process focuses on primary concepts, not isolated facts.
3. In order to teach well, we must understand the mental models that students use to perceive the world and the assumptions they make to support those models.
4. The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning, not just memorize the “right” answers and regurgitate someone else’s meaning. Since education is inherently interdisciplinary, the only valuable way to measure learning is to make the assessment part of the learning process, ensuring it provides students with information on the quality of their learning.

How Constructivism Impacts Learning

Curriculum–Constructivism calls for the elimination of a standardized curriculum. Also, it emphasizes hands-on problem solving. Instruction–Under the theory of constructivism, educators focus on making connections between facts and fostering new understanding in students. Instructors tailor their teaching strategies to student responses and encourage students to analyze, interpret, and predict information. Teachers also rely heavily on open-ended questions and promote extensive dialogue among students. Assessment–Constructivism calls for the elimination of grades and standardized testing. Instead, assessment becomes part of the learning process so that students play a larger role in judging their own progress.

Behaviorism

Definition

Behaviorism is a theory of animal and human learning that only focuses on objectively observable behaviors and discounts mental activities. Behavior theorists define learning as nothing more than the acquisition of new behavior. Experiments by behaviorists identify conditioning as a universal learning process. There are two different types of conditioning, each yielding a different behavioral pattern: Classic conditioning occurs when a natural reflex responds to a stimulus.

Behavioral or operant conditioning occurs when a response to a stimulus is reinforced. Basically, operant conditioning is a simple feedback system: If a reward or reinforcement follows the response to a stimulus, then the response becomes more probable in the future.

There have been many criticisms of behaviorism, including the following: Behaviorism does not account for all kinds of learning, since it disregards the activities of the mind.

How Behaviorism Impacts Learning

This theory is relatively simple to understand because it relies only on observable behavior and describes several universal laws of behavior. Behaviorism often is used by teachers, who reward or punish student behaviors.

Piaget

Definition

Swiss biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is renowned for constructing a highly influential model of child development and learning. Piaget’s theory is based on the idea that the developing child builds cognitive structures–in other words, mental “maps,” schemes, or networked concepts for understanding and responding to physical experiences within his or her environment. Piaget’s theory identifies four developmental stages and the processes by which children progress through them. The four stages are:

1. Sensory-motor stage (birth – 2 years old)–The child, through physical interaction with his or her environment, builds a set of concepts about reality and how it works. This is the stage where a child does not know that physical objects remain in existence even when out of sight (object permanence).
2. Preoperational stage (ages 2-7)–The child is not yet able to conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations.
3. Concrete operations (ages 7-11)–As physical experience accumulates, the child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her physical experiences. Abstract problem solving is also possible at this stage. The knowledge of history and the experiences of how people got out of difficult situations are highly visible in this stage.
4. Formal operations (beginning at ages 11-15)–By this point, the child’s cognitive structures are like those of an adult and include conceptual reasoning.

How Piaget’s Theory Impacts Learning

Curriculum–Educators must plan a developmentally appropriate curriculum that enhances their students’ logical and conceptual growth by stating popular examples from history and their timely decisions have proved beneficial to society in general. Instruction–Teachers must emphasize the critical role that experiences–or interactions with the surrounding environment—use of animation in learning history.

Neuroscience

Definition

Neuroscience is the study of the human nervous system, the brain, and the biological basis of consciousness, perception, memory, and learning. The nervous system and the brain are the physical foundation of the human learning process. Neuroscience links our observations about cognitive behavior with the actual physical processes that support such behavior. This theory is still “young” and is undergoing rapid, controversial development. Some of the key findings of neuroscience are:

The brain has a triad structure- Our brain actually contains three brains: the lower or reptilian brain that controls basic sensory motor functions; the mammalian or limbic brain that controls emotions, memory, and biorhythms; and the neo-cortex or thinking brain that controls cognition, reasoning, language, and higher intelligence. The brain is not a computer. The structure of the brain’s neuron connections is loose, flexible, “webbed,” overlapping, and redundant. It’s impossible for such a system to function like a linear or parallel-processing computer. Instead, the brain is better described as a self-organizing system.

The brain changes with use, throughout our lifetime. Mental concentration and effort alters the physical structure of the brain. Our nerve cells (neurons) are connected by branches called dendrites. There are about 10 billion neurons in the brain and about 1,000 trillion connections. The possible combinations of connections are about ten to the one-millionth power. As we use the brain, we strengthen certain patterns of connection, making each connection easier to create next time. This is how memory develops.

How Neuroscience Impacts Education

When educators take neuroscience into account, they organize a curriculum around real experiences and integrated, “whole” ideas. Plus, they focus on instruction that promotes complex thinking and the “growth” of the brain. Neuroscience proponents advocate continued learning and intellectual development throughout adulthood.

Brain-based Learning

Definition

This learning theory is based on the structure and function of the brain. As long as the brain is not prohibited from fulfilling its normal processes, learning will occur. People often say that everyone can learn. Yet the reality is that everyone does learn. Every person is born with a brain that functions as an immensely powerful processor. Traditional schooling, however, often inhibits learning by discouraging, ignoring, or punishing the brain’s natural learning processes. The core principles of brain-based learning state that: The brain is a parallel processor, meaning it can perform several activities at once, like tasting and smelling. Learning engages the whole physiology.

The search for meaning is innate. The search for meaning comes through patterning. Emotions are critical to patterning. The brain processes wholes and parts simultaneously. Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception. Learning involves both conscious and unconscious processes. We have two types of memory: spatial and rote. We understand best when facts are embedded in natural, spatial memory. Learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat. Each brain is unique.

The three instructional techniques associated with brain-based learning are:

• Orchestrated immersion–Creating learning environments that fully immerse students in an educational experience.
• Relaxed alertness–Trying to eliminate fear in learners, while maintaining a highly challenging environment.
• Active processing–Allowing the learner to consolidate and internalize information by actively processing it.

How Brain-Based Learning Impacts Education

Curriculum–Teachers must design learning around student interests and make learning contextual. Instruction–Educators let students learn in teams and use peripheral learning. Teachers structure learning around real problems, such as the facts stated in history lessons, encouraging students to also learn in settings outside the classroom and the school building.

Assessment–Since all students are learning, their assessment should allow them to understand their own learning styles and preferences. Foe example, which Historical Leader of the past they admire the most and why. This way, students monitor and enhance their own learning process.

What Brain-Based Learning Suggests

How the brain works has a significant impact on what kinds of learning activities are most effective. Educators need to help students have appropriate experiences and capitalize on those experiences. As Renate Caine illustrates on p. 113 of her book Making Connections, three interactive elements are essential to this process: Teachers must immerse learners in complex, interactive experiences that are both rich and real. One excellent example is immersing students in a Historical culture to teach them a lesson, by using animation in class to bring the events of the past to ‘life’. Educators must take advantage of the brain’s ability to parallel process. In order for a student to gain insight about a problem, there must be intensive analysis of the different ways to approach it, and about learning in general. This is what’s known as the “active processing of experience.”

Designers of educational tools must be artistic in their creation of brain-friendly environments. Instructors need to realize that the best way to learn is not through lecture, but by participation in realistic environments with the tools of computer animations that let learners learn new things more realistically.

Learning Styles

Definition

This approach to learning emphasizes the fact that individuals perceive and process information in very different ways. The learning styles theory implies that how much individuals learn has more to do with whether the educational experience is geared toward their particular style of learning than whether or not they are “smart.” In fact, educators should not ask, “Is this student smart?” but rather “How is this student smart?”

The concept of learning styles is rooted in the classification of psychological types. The learning styles theory is based on research demonstrating that, as the result of heredity, upbringing, and current environmental demands, different individuals have a tendency to both perceive and process information differently. The different ways of doing so are generally classified as:

• Concrete and abstract perceivers–Concrete perceivers absorb information through direct experience, by doing, acting, sensing, and feeling. Abstract perceivers, however, take in information through analysis, observation, and thinking.
• Active and reflective processors–Active processors make sense of an experience by immediately using the new information. Reflective processors make sense of an experience by reflecting on and thinking about it.

Traditional schooling tends to favor abstract perceiving and reflective processing. Other kinds of learning aren’t rewarded and reflected in curriculum, instruction, and assessment nearly as much.

How the Learning Styles Theory Impacts Education

Curriculum— Educators must place emphasis on intuition, feeling, sensing, and imagination, in addition to the traditional skills of analysis, reason, and sequential problem solving. Instruction— Teachers should design their instruction methods to connect with all four learning styles, using various combinations of experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation. Instructors can introduce a wide variety of experiential elements into the classroom, such as sound, music, visuals, movement, experience, and even talking. Assessment— Teachers should employ a variety of assessment techniques, focusing on the development of “whole brain” capacity and each of the different learning styles.

Right Brain vs. Left Brain

Definition

This theory of the structure and functions of the mind suggests that the two different sides of the brain control two different “modes” of thinking. It also suggests that each of us prefers one mode over the other. Experimentation has shown that the two different sides, or hemispheres, of the brain are responsible for different manners of thinking. The following table illustrates the differences between left-brain and right-brain thinking:

Most individuals have a distinct preference for one of these styles of thinking. Some, however, are more whole-brained and equally adept at both modes. In general, schools tend to favor left-brain modes of thinking, while downplaying the right-brain ones. Left-brain scholastic subjects focus on logical thinking, analysis, and accuracy. Right-brained subjects, on the other hand, focus on aesthetics, feeling, and creativity.

How Right-Brain vs. Left-Brain Thinking Impacts Learning

Curriculum–In order to be more “whole-brained” in their orientation, schools need to give equal weight to the arts, creativity, and the skills of imagination and synthesis. Instruction–To foster a more whole-brained scholastic experience, teachers should use instruction techniques that connect with both sides of the brain. They can increase their classroom’s right-brain learning activities by incorporating more patterning, metaphors, analogies, role playing, visuals, and movement into their reading, calculation, and analytical activities. Assessment–For a more accurate whole-brained evaluation of student learning, educators must develop new forms of assessment that honor right-brained talents and skills.

Communities of Practice

Definition

This approach views learning as an act of membership in a “community of practice.” The theory seeks to understand both the structure of communities and how learning occurs in them.

Basic Elements

The communities of practice concept was pioneered by the Institute for Research on Learning, a spin-off of the Xerox Corporation in Palo Alto, CA. The Institute pursues a cross-disciplinary approach to learning research, involving cognitive scientists, organizational anthropologists, and traditional educators. Communities of practice is based on the following assumptions: Learning is fundamentally a social phenomenon. People organize their learning around the social communities to which they belong. Therefore, schools are only powerful learning environments for students whose social communities coincide with that school.

Knowledge is integrated in the life of communities that share values, beliefs, languages, and ways of doing things. These are called communities of practice. Real knowledge is integrated in the doing, social relations, and expertise of these communities. The processes of learning and membership in a community of practice are inseparable. Because learning is intertwined with community membership, it is what lets us belong to and adjust our status in the group. As we change our learning, our identity and our relationship to the group changes. Knowledge is inseparable from practice. It is not possible to know without doing. By doing, we learn.

Empowerment–or the ability to contribute to a community–creates the potential for learning. Circumstances, in which we engage in real action that have consequences, for both us and our community, create the most powerful learning environments.

How Communities of Practice Impacts Education

This approach to learning suggests teachers understand their students’ communities of practice and acknowledge the learning students do in such communities. The communities of practice theory also suggests educators structure learning opportunities that embed knowledge in both work practices and social relations–for example, apprenticeships, school-based learning, service learning, and so on. Plus, educators should create opportunities for students to solve real problems with adults, in real learning situations.

Control Theory

Definition

This theory of motivation proposed by William Glasser contends that behavior is never caused by a response to an outside stimulus. Instead, the control theory states that behavior is inspired by what a person wants most at any given time: survival, love, power, freedom, or any other basic human need. Responding to complaints that today’s students are “unmotivated,” Glasser attests that all living creatures “control” their behavior to maximize their need satisfaction. According to Glasser, if students are not motivated to do their schoolwork, it’s because they view schoolwork as irrelevant to their basic human needs.

Boss teachers use rewards and punishment to coerce students to comply with rules and complete required assignments. Glasser calls this “leaning on your shovel” work. He shows how high percentages of students recognize that the work they do–even when their teachers praise them–is such low-level work. Lead teachers, on the other hand, avoid coercion completely. Instead, they make the intrinsic rewards of doing the work clear to their students, correlating any proposed assignments to the students’ basic needs. Plus, they only use grades as temporary indicators of what has and hasn’t been learned, rather than a reward. Lead teachers will “fight to protect” highly engaged, deeply motivated students who are doing quality work from having to fulfill meaningless requirements.

How the Control Theory Impacts Learning

Curriculum–Teachers must negotiate both content and method with students. Students’ basic needs literally help shape how and what they are taught. Instruction–Teachers rely on cooperative, active learning techniques that enhance the power of the learners. Lead teachers make sure that all assignments meet some degree of their students’ need satisfaction. This secures student loyalty, which carries the class through whatever relatively meaningless tasks might be necessary to satisfy official requirements. Assessment–Instructors only give “good grades”–those that certify quality work–to satisfy students’ need for power. Courses for which a student doesn’t earn a “good grade” are not recorded on that student’s transcript. Teachers grade students using an absolute standard, rather than a relative “curve.”

Mastery Learning

Definition

Mastery learning proposes that all children can learn when provided with the appropriate learning conditions in the classroom.

Discussion

The application of mastery learning is based on Benjamin Bloom’s Learning for Mastery model, with refinements made by Block. Mastery learning is predominantly a group-based, teacher-paced instructional approach, in which students learn by cooperating with their classmates. However, some mastery learning strategies require students to work independently, rather than with classmates.

How Mastery Learning Affects Education

Curriculum–Mastery learning does not focus on content, but on the process of mastering it. This type of learning works best with the traditional content-focused curriculum, one based on well-defined learning objectives organized into smaller, sequentially organized units. Instruction–This strategy captures many of the elements of successful tutoring and the independent functionality seen in high-end students.

In a mastery learning environment, the teacher directs a variety of group-based instructional techniques. The teacher also provides frequent and specific feedback by using diagnostic, formative tests, as well as regularly correcting mistakes students make along their learning path. Assessment–Teachers evaluate students with criterion-referenced tests rather then norm-referenced tests. Mastery learning ensures numerous feedback loops, based on small units of well-defined, appropriately sequenced outcomes.

Instructional Technology

Definition

Instructional technology is just what it sounds like: using computers, CD-ROMs, interactive media, modems, satellites, teleconferencing, and other technological means to support learning. Some educators believe the use of interactive, computer-based technology is crucial to improving classroom learning. These educators contend that advanced technology will fundamentally change the learning process and structure. Other educators believe technology is merely a tool that has minimal impact on the quality of learning.

How Instructional Technology Affects Learning

• Curriculum–Advanced technology has the potential to significantly expand the breadth and depth of the curriculum. With the Internet, for example, students can access information far beyond the scope of their traditional textbooks. Curricula can be individualized and adapted to students’ specific learning styles. Instructional technology has the power to enhance overall knowledge accumulation, instead of just focusing on content mastery.
• Instruction–Advanced technology could significantly affect the role of teachers, as well as the structure of schools and classrooms. The use of instructional technology changes the teacher’s role from expert to facilitator or coach. Plus, instruction is no longer limited to the school building or classroom. For example, students can take courses from a global satellite feed or on the Internet. Learning can take place at home, at work, or anywhere else that has the capacity for a television, phone, or computer.
• Assessment–Instructional technology will focus more and more on building feedback loops directly into the learning process. Students can obtain frequent and accurate feedback, make corrections to their work, and structure learning experiences around their individual needs. Assessment can be monitored by offsite instructors, plus it can be ongoing and cumulative.

Conclusion

Education Reform

It’s time we modernize the way we teach our children history. Every revolution commences with an initiative. And throughout history, we have seen many innovative dreams from one discipline influence even revolutionize an entirely different discipline.

The benefits of enhancing the learning of history with animation are limitless. The more knowledge you gain through history, the better equipped you are to sort the overload of problems of today’s world. In today’s computer culture, it’s achievable for students to access thousands of different historical topics in a matter of minutes. However our contemporary education system is a throwback to the technique of instruction developed during the Industrial Revolution. In many cases, the techniques our teachers use to interact with and impart knowledge to our students are pathetically outdated. It’s no ambiguity that our education system is in dire necessity of a face lift.

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