Complex Learning Task Essays - Educational Psychology,

Complex Learning Task: The Holistic Approaches The Whole-Task Approach Our textbook, Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (Reiser How does this differ from other design methods? Many instructional design approaches are atomistic, where ?. . . complex contents and tasks are reduced into simpler elements? (p 73). This approach does not naturally lead to transfer of the skill set to the real world. A holistic approach, which takes a whole-task approach to a problem, allows and encourages students to ?. . . learn and transfer professional competences or complex cognitive skills to an increasingly varied set of real-world contexts and settings? (p 73). Scaffolding Learning tasks that connect to a complex task is scaffolding. Without going back to an atomistic approach, students learn tasks, known as constituent skills, over several lessons. All of these constituent skills ?need to be coordinated and controlled by higher-level strategies from the beginning of the training program? (p 76). By creating learning opportunities for each constituent skill, the teacher will provide the learners with: ?. . . all possible conditions that simplify the performance of the task? (p 76). Mathemagenic This approach stresses the ?transfer of learning? (p 76). It allows students to experience a ?variability of practice? as well as a ?random sequencing of learning tasks? (p 77). Also, when using this instructional design approach, common testing methods which have ?test items that correspond to objectives? (p 76) are not important. The Question Considering the definitions discussed above, application question #2 from Chapter 8 asks: ?Identify a complex learning task. Briefly describe how you might use the whole-task approach, scaffolding, and mathemagenic methods to help students learn to perform that task? (p 80). The Complex Task Making Geometry come alive for students is not a problem when they are engaged in my Geometric Cities project. Over a period of six weeks, students worked collaboratively to design, build, decorate, and describe their cities. Created to represent different geometric shapes, the colorful and textured buildings were sited on a plywood base. The buildings were made from geo foam boards or heavy duty cardboard boxes. During the six weeks, students created a blue print of the city and a blue print of their own individual buildings. After the buildings were constructed, a history of the city had to be written. This complex task definitely had many constituent skills that have transfer value to other academic areas and real-world careers. The Project The Geometric Cities project was designed to be a cross-curricular project, using math, science, English, art, and woodworking. Technology was introduced to create the blueprints and research, using AutoCAD and wireless laptops. Prior to beginning the actual project, the class learned about team building skills. They learned about how to work well in a group, including how to handle conflict, respect one another?s opinions, and focus on completing the task. The project was designed to be completed using a group of three students, who have specific roles to fulfill. These roles included leader, secretary, and designer. Depending on what task the class was focusing on, the roles changed weekly, which met the ?variability of practice? (p 77) feature of the mathemagenic approach. The groups were formed based on learning styles, mixing different styles together. It was important to include a visual learner along with the other two students in each group, since the final visual impression of the geometric city was important. To begin the project, the students viewed a video on polygons and how they are used in the real world. Students saw many examples of geometric shapes, such as the Louvre Museum?s new pyramid-shaped entrance and the Golden Gate Bridge. This video represented the knowledge base and the inspiration to approach the task. To determine whether they comprehended this knowledge, they had to design an actual building on paper. After verifying that students understood the nature of designing a building, they could begin constructing their individual buildings. These initial components aligned with scaffolding, since ?learners start their training with the simplest version of the whole task? (p 76). Students were required to find the formulas that related to determining the surface area of their buildings? shapes. Each building could contain more than one shape, necessitating more than one formula.

Human Cost of an Illiterate So essays

Human Cost of an Illiterate So essays The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society I agree slightly with Kozol, that widespread illiteracy may undermine democracy in the United States. Kozol says that illiteracy undermines democracy in the US since most illiterates do not vote. He claims that even when they do vote, illiterates are almost certain to vote not by ideology or political platform, but for whomever they can remember from a street sign or television ad. Kozol also claims that since 60 million people in the US are illiterate, about one third of the population at the time of his publication, that our own US government is neither of, nor for, nor by, the people, which is the very basis of American democracy (p. 207). Illiteracy works hard here to undermine our political democracy. There are many things that I think can be done to lessen the problems of illiteracy. We should push harder in primary schooling to be sure that everyone who attends is able to read. If someone is able to slip through there, then there should be other social programs that teach reading. A number of reading courses could be set up through community centers, non-profits, churches, etc. to help those who cant read get help. I think that anyone who knows that they cant read would obviously take whatever assistance they could get if they only knew it existed. Kozol describes many challenges that the average illiterate would have to face on an almost daily basis. I think that Kozol does a good job in describing how illiteracy can impact someones life so relentlessly, but at times I felt that Kozol might have been exaggerating exactly how much illiteracy would have caused problems. Kozol may have several motives for exaggerating. I think he was attempting to evoke sympathy by showing what the extremist illiterate must face. He shows what the most acute problems could be for an illiterate. He does this so that people may realize t ...

Investment Analysis and Stock Valuation on REDBOX company Term Paper

Investment Analysis and Stock Valuation on REDBOX company - Term Paper Example They are situated across the United States at various grocery stores, supermarkets, discount stores, pharmacies, fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s etc. The company wants to bolster its way into the hearts and minds of movie and game renters. As mentioned previously, Redbox is a futurist and so the fast-growing firm, which brags around 33,000 kiosk nationwide, plans to proffer web or internet streaming by the end of 2011 and also feels that it can double the current number of rental outlets considering its bullish trend and prospective growth opportunities (Brad Tuttle, 2011). II. Stream of Expected Returns (Cash Flows) a. Form of returns: Due to non-availability of Redbox’s financial statements, its parent company, Coinstar Inc.’s financial data is being considered. Examining the years ended December 31, 2008, 2009 and 2010, the cash flows from operating activities reduced by 35.42% to $123.89 million in 2009 and escalated by a massive 154.76% mainly due t o increase in liabilities. The cash flows from investing activities were negative in all three years analyzed; however, there was an increase of $37.13 million and $5.02 million in 2009 and 2010. Due to heavy repayment of borrowings and purchase of stock in 2010, the financing activities came about again as a negative figure (-$122.046 million) after a meager one in 2008 (-$602,000). b. Time pattern and growth rate of returns: As mentioned in the previous part, a yearly time pattern has been considered. The growth rate of return is known as the Sustainable Growth Rate and is computed as follows: g = RR (Retention Ratio) * ROE (Return on Equity). As there are no dividend streams being paid by the company, RR will be equal to 100% and as ROE = 22.47% (according to Yahoo Finance, Coinstar Inc.... Form of returns: Due to non-availability of Redbox’s financial statements, its parent company, Coinstar Inc.’s financial data is being considered. Examining the years ended December 31, 2008, 2009 and 2010, the cash flows from operating activities reduced by 35.42% to $123.89 million in 2009 and escalated by a massive 154.76% mainly due to increase in liabilities. The cash flows from investing activities were negative in all three years analyzed; however, there was an increase of $37.13 million and $5.02 million in 2009 and 2010. Due to heavy repayment of borrowings and purchase of stock in 2010, the financing activities came about again as a negative figure (-$122.046 million) after a meager one in 2008 (-$602,000).b. Time pattern and growth rate of returns: As mentioned in the previous part, a yearly time pattern has been considered. The growth rate of return is known as the Sustainable Growth Rate and is computed as follows: g = RR (Retention Ratio) * ROE (Return on Equity). As there are no dividend streams being paid by the company, RR will be equal to 100% and as ROE = 22.47% (according to Yahoo Finance, Coinstar Inc. Key Financials as of December 31, 2010), the growth rate will also come about to be 22.47%.III. Investment Decision Process: A comparison of Estimated Values and Market PricesTo consider investment decisions in a particular stock, its estimated or fair value and market price comparison should be carried out. This will tell investors whether the stock is undervalued or overvalued.