NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Educational Practices / Innovations There exist a great number of innovative educational practices that were introduced not so long ago and become more and more popular and widely used by teachers. It is necessary to make a thorough investigation of all aspects of these techniques and assess the validity of their proponents claims. Before implementing this or that teaching practice we should have a deep insight into it, should clearly understand its logic and its main stages, should figure out all its advantages and disadvantages and predict its future viability and topicality. In this research I will try to analyze such popular educational practices as reciprocal teaching and graphical organizers. Reciprocal teaching has become one of the most popular innovations of late years. It was first introduced in 1984 by Anne Marie Palincsar from Michigan State University and Anne Brown from the University of Illinois.
The purpose of this teaching technique is to improve reading comprehension of students by engaging them into a dialogue in which the teacher and students take turns leading a dialogue concerning passages of a text. It should be noted that reciprocal teaching can be used in any grade and applicable to any type of text. According to Palincsar and Brown reciprocal teaching is based on four main strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying and summarization. Before the discussion starts, the teacher demonstrates and explains to the students how to apply the four reading strategies that are essential for making sense of what they read. During the first stage the students make predictions about what the author might discuss in the text.
The students use text clues, background knowledge, picture clues or text structure to frame hypothesis of what is going to happen next in the text. This predicting provides a purpose for reading, stimulates the students to look for evidence to confirm or disapprove their hypothesis. Prediction is followed by questioning. The students ask questions that involve critical thinking and lead to discussion.
The next component in reciprocal teaching involves clarifying. While reading, students make notes of any words, phrases or concepts in the text they do not understand. They try to discuss misleading or complex sections of the text together. During the last stage, summarizing, the students recapitulate the material they have read concentrating on the most important points of the text. Reciprocal teaching due to its well- balanced structure and gradual introduction has proven to be one of the most efficient techniques. It helps students elicit meaning from the text and monitor their comprehension at every stage.
As every student is expected to participate in the discussions, the students turn from mere spectators into active performers. The student / teacher collaboration fosters new relationships not only between the teacher and students, but also between students of different ability levels, making the reading experience more pleasant. Unfortunately, some negative features are also characteristic of this technique. Very often the teacher is not able to control the work of all the students. That may lead to the situation when the students get distracted and start talking on the topics other than the required. Or the students that are more temperamental and talkative may speak all the time, while more shy students may keep silence.
That is why the teacher should play the role of the mentor and should try to monitor the work of all the groups. Only with the help of the teacher and his / her wise supervision the learners will be able to make substantial gains in their comprehension skills. Graphical organizers of various types are widely used by many teachers, because they are very useful instructional tools. Unlike other teaching practices they are multifunctional and can be applicable for various subjects, many types of learners and in all phases of learning from brainstorming ideas to presenting findings. They can be used individually or in large groups. Graphical organizers are particularly useful in activities that require critical thinking skills.
The advantages of such widely-used graphical organizers, as concept mapping, webbing, KWHL and charts are evident. First, they encourage students to think about information in new ways, from different viewpoints. Students who are asked to write a research paper often rewrite information from various sources, but when they are asked to present their research with the help of graphical organizers they concentrate not on the text itself, but on its meaning and present its main concepts. Second, a huge amount of information can be presented on a single picture to provide the overall view of a topic. Third, graphical organizers can be successfully used when there is a necessity to review some material and demonstrate its understanding. In this case graphical organizers help students structure and systematize their knowledge.
Fourth, graphical organizers can be easily edited, revised and expanded. Fifth, they allow students to see contradictions, discrepancies, and gaps in the material (or in their own interpretation of it) more easily, and in this way provide a foundation for questioning, which in turn encourages students creativity and desire to investigate the problem. Finally, they are indispensable for visual thinkers or those that need to practice their visual thinking. One of the most evident disadvantages of graphical analyzers is that they can not be used independently.
They serve only as supporting materials and can not substitute for traditional sources and ways of receiving information. Graphical organizers should be used adequately, because their excessive use may lead to distraction of the students attention from the main points. And of course they can not be used in classes where children with visual problems study. All the factors mentioned above indicate that first of all very high demands should be made to the teachers skills. The teacher should be able to decide which of the techniques is the most efficient and at what stage it should be introduced. References: 1.
Carter, Carolyn J. (1997). Why reciprocal teaching. In Educational Leadership. March 1997, v 54, n 6. 2.
Gordon, C. A. (2002). Methods for Measuring the Influence of Concept Mapping on Student Information Literacy. School Library Media Research, Volume 5. Retrieved 27 Apr. 2004, from web 3. Hartman, H.
J. (1994). From reciprocal teaching to reciprocal education. Journal of Development Education, Vol. 18 (1), 2 - 8, 32. 4. Hartman, H.
J (2001), Developing Students Meta cognitive Knowledge and Skills. In Metacognition in Learning and Instruction, Hartman, HJ (ed), p 33 - 68. 5. Palincsar, A. S. & Brown, A. (1984). Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-Fostering and Comprehension Monitoring Activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1 (2), 117 - 175.
Free research essays on topics related to: h j, reciprocal, organizers, critical thinking, graphical
Research essay sample on Critical Thinking H J
