A Definition Of Collaborative Learning English Language Essay

A Definition Of Collaborative Learning English Language Essay What is collaborative learning? This article looks at the definitions of collaborative learning and provides the reader with an overview of the definitions of collaborative learning, its various forms, and its goals, uses and scope vis-a-vis the traditional classroom and school system. It was midnight on a school night. I saw the light on in my 16 year olds room and went to tell him to go to sleep. His door was uncharacteristically open and I could hear animated voices from inside his room. I found him on Skype with a couple of friends. They were quizzing each other, working out numericals and clarifying each others concepts for a big physics test next morning. Have you worked on your homework math problems with a friend? Did you ever get together with peers in a group to understand a difficult theory in college? Did you ever brainstorm with other classmates on a school project? Weve all done collaborative learning at some stage of our lives; we just didnt know what to call it. The very dictionary definition of collaboration will tell us what collaborative learning means. The word collaboration brings together the Latin col- meaning with or together with the Latin labor or toil. For educationists, collaborative learning is a comprehensive term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together.1 How can teachers use Collaborative Learning? Collaborative Learning happens when students work together or are made to work together in pairs or groups: to understand or make meaning of a concept or text to create a solution for a problem (given in class or self-discovered) to explore a topic, a question, an area of knowledge to apply the principles learned in their curriculum to conceive of new ways to apply the knowledge they have learned in class to construct a tangible article or a physical object (for example, a report, a term-paper, a model volcano, a recycled-paper bag, a solar panel, an  electric  vehicle) out of the course-learning The above, of course, is an indicative and not a comprehensive list of the ways in which collaborative learning may be used by teachers. Forms of Collaborative Learning Many educators seem to confuse collaborative learning with the more structured approach of cooperative learning. Let us say that cooperative learning is a type of collaborative learning. The developers of cooperative learning models and strategies have laid out several specific components that teachers must control: a small, inter-dependent group determined by the teacher, face to face interaction, carefully structured activity leading to the accomplishment of a predetermined goal, individual accountability of every member of the group and a groups assessment and processing of its own work as a team.2 Other types of collaborative learning that may be used both inside and out of a classroom structure are discussions,  brainstorming  sessions, peer-teaching groups, workshops, team projects, group field-work, study groups, seminars, simulations, role-plays, case-studies etc. Collaborative learning, thus, can be specific, controlled and structured or it can be spontaneous, experiential and totally open-ended. Collaborative Learning in the traditional school system Of course, the traditional school system is at odds with the very spirit of collaborative learning. Schools, as they were conceived and as they are still administered, are essentially authoritarian constructs. Lectures are the preferred method of teaching and the formal physical, emotional and psychological set-up of the traditional classroom is confrontational. Teachers are still equated with discipline and consequences. They are the transmitters of knowledge and the evaluators of the students grasp of the information they have given to the students. They are the regulators of the competition that is encouraged between students through the assessments and recognition and rewards for individual achievement. Conversation is discouraged in traditional classrooms where learning is a solitary pursuit of an individual student faced with the information being given to him from the front of a classroom by a teacher who is the expert instructor. There are definitive syllabi for every subject with course content to be covered in a set period of time; there are lecture plans for every teaching hour and teachers are under pressure to ensure that their students have ingested the carefully planned and delivered information and are capable of regurgitating it as required during formal assessments. Memory is more important than assimilation. In collaborative learning, on the other hand, the process of learning is basically more important than what is learned. Students are taught, by hands-on experience, how to learn and not what to learn. When they learn, assimilation of the material is an absolute requirement as a student must take the material, absorb it, make it his own and then present it or teach it to others. Mere memorizing will not help the collaborative learner. Changing paradigms of an evolving system Collaborative learning, by its very definition, takes the power away from the teacher as guru and distributes that power among the students as self-sustaining, motivated learners who take ownership and responsibility of the entire process of leaning in an interactive, talking-to-each-other and engaged manner. The teacher becomes merely a facilitator, an expert designer of a students intellectual process and a mid-wife of a more emergent learning process.  3 The traditional us versus them power-structure of the traditional school is obviously not conducive to the mutual trust that is required for purely collaborative learning. It is also relevant to point out here that like teachers, students too have to be prepared to take on the challenges and opportunities offered by collaborative learning. I must emphasize that collaborative learning is a tool, just like other teaching methodologies. It is up to the school and the teacher to use this or another tool depending on the objective, the task, the group and the preparedness of the students. A group-discussion may enhance a lecture; it cannot and should not replace it until both teachers and students are ready for the complete shift to another paradigm. As more and more teachers change their classroom strategies and re-orient their relationship to the curriculum from the traditional transmission to transactions that lead to transformations in the personal and social relations of the student to his curriculum,the school system is also slowly evolving and accommodating itself to the more student-centered, process-oriented and non-competitive model that defines collaborative learning. End-Notes 1. Smith, BL and MacGregor, JT, What is Collaborative Learning? in Goodsell, Maher, Tinto, Smith MacGregors  Collaborative Learning: A Sourcebook for Higher Education; National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning and Assessment; Pennsylvania State University: 1992. 2. David, Johnson Holubec.  Circles of Learning: Cooperation in the Classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company 1990 3. Smith and MacGregor op.cit

Media Influences

When we as individuals have the desire to learn more about current events and the condition of the world it is only natural that we turn our focus towards the mediums that broadcast the information in which we are seeking. These information sources can be televisions, newspapers, magazines, and/or the most recent technological phenomenon, known as the internet. As of late, devices such as the television have been proven to be much more than just an amusement for many Americans.With awareness of the power that television possesses, it has arguably become a given that the content broadcasted through a television also possesses great influence. The media is becoming an ever more powerful force in shaping the world's perception of itself. An individual's struggle to develop, and maintain a unique identity and self-understanding apart from media's influence is steadily becoming increasingly difficult for the youths of today.When the people of the world absorb the many manifestations of th e media they believe they are simply viewing reality, but in actuality, the media often proves itself it to be the sole instigator of stereotypes, as well as the creator of adverse social problems that often plague our society. Personally, I believe in order to eliminate the stereotypes that the media generates the public must have a heightened awareness of both the existence of as well as the potential damage caused by these unrealistic and/or stereotypical images and messages we are bombarded with daily.Unfortunately, and just as it was discussed in the ‘Killing Us Softly’ video, these detrimental messages are difficult to fight and to even identify effectively because of the ways in which they are â€Å"wholesomely† or â€Å"harmlessly† presented via advertising. Overwhelming amounts of time and money are devoted to raising a small, specially selected portion of the population as models of physical perfection – and ‘Killing Us Softlyâ€℠¢ creator Jean Kilbourne exclaims, â€Å"These body types practically do not exist! For the most part, the types of people we see in the media are television and movie celebrities, fashion models, and sports figures. It is one thing to be acknowledged for one’s achievements, but the issue lies in that the glamorous ways in which these occupations are portrayed by the media are seemingly impossible to separate from the physical appearance of the people who hold them.The glamour that surrounds the media presentation of the lives and careers of these individuals extends, not surprisingly, to the clothes that they wear and the way that they look. One example solidifying this would be the fact that many celebrities, like Jennifer Lopez and Paris Hilton, create their own clothing and perfume merchandise lines, and both are prospering due to the constant bombardment of self improvement that television urges teenagers to make.In fact, so much attention is given to celebrity appearan ces that entire television programs are devoted to little else but visual exploitation of celebrity clothing, and their tangible products of their latest fad workouts – so we too, as common folk can also aspire to be the dangerously skinny, 6’2’’, 97 pound beauty with the flawless skin and natural stage presence†¦achieving such characteristics is no sweat, right?The media presentation of the celebrity body has a single unifying image, regardless of the specific job title of a given celebrity. It can be argued that, because the media portrays celebrities' bodies as attractive, desirable, and â€Å"good,† they become national symbols of these characteristics. On the contrary, bodies that do not meet this lofty goal frequently are, consciously or unconsciously, regarded as â€Å"bad† or ugly. Consider the ‘successfully’ popular advertising campaign used by Subway, the national fast food sandwich chain. Jared,† the  "star† of the recent number of television commercials, supposedly lost hundreds of pounds while on a diet consisting mainly of the chain's sandwiches. Jared's â€Å"before† pictures show him considerably larger than his current size, but they also show him alone, with no friends or family. In stark contrast, however, his â€Å"after† action shots consistently show him not only thinner, but also constantly in the presence of a beautiful woman. Although this is not always the case,) the advertising message here is clear and simple: being fat/not part of the 1% of the population that most models’ bodies fall into is considered to be the equivalent and/or predictor of one’s life being bad, ugly, unhappy and lonely; while being thin/having no source of natural body fat leaves one happy and with attractive partner. Through these commercials, Jared has assumed celebrity status, solely on the basis that his body has changed to approximate more closely to th e current standard of what the media considers to be attractive.In truth, there is a huge difference between the male and female body types glorified in the media and those of the public at large. For women, â€Å"desirable† physical characteristics (as they are portrayed in the media) include being thin, long-legged, slim-hipped, and large-breasted. In addition, the media-portrayed â€Å"desirable† physical characteristics for men include being muscular and possessing a full head of hair. While this has been the normal projection of a â€Å"desirable† man for decades, in some cases this desirable form has also been altered to an extreme (much like the unrealistic physical expectations of women. Just like the counterpart Barbie dolls, G. I Joe has evolved into a highly influential and popular action figure that displays levels of muscularity far exceeding the outer limits of actual human attainment. Thus, the unrealistic evolution of both Barbie and G. I Joe may seem insignificant, but in truth it reflects an ever changing and demanding projection of the human body that has been fabricated by none other than, the mass media.In the gap between what is absolutely beautiful in the eyes of the media and the physical reality of the popular majority, it seems as though nearly everyone, at some point in his or her life attempts to alter him- or herself in a physical way, in order to conform more closely to the marketed â€Å"norm† of attractiveness and desirability. Television, magazines, and newspapers are filled with advertisements promoting self-loathing attitudes, while offering â€Å"miracle,† and body-altering â€Å"cures. The body that does not conform to a sexy, sleek stereotype becomes a thing to be hated, improved upon, and generally tortured into submission. Again, in the video we watched, media activist Jean Kilbourne concludes that, â€Å"Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our weight. † Ultimately, the unachievable presentation of the human body in the media leads to many outlets that can harm/distort the average human being’s perception of themselves.The changes a person must make in order to become what the media considers to be beautiful leads to many problems such as: disordered eating, including anorexia, bulimia, over-exercising, excessive dieting, and over-anxiety over food (just to name a few. ) While most of the population recovering from disordered eating is still predominately composed of women, the number of men with disordered and dangerous eating habits as well as distorted body images is reportedly on the rise.In addition to inevitable physical damage, intangible psychological harm results from body image problems to which the media contributes greatly and regularly. The perception that a single, narrow range of body types is acceptable and healthy for men an d women is not only in error, but contributes to widespread social discontent. Instead of celebrating the diversity and beauty of the human form, the media stifles our desire to feel comfortable with ourselves.

Is Brass a Solution

Is brass a solution or just a mixture? Here is a look at brass and other alloys in terms of chemicals solutions and mixtures. What Is Brass? Brass is an alloy made primarily of copper, usually with zinc. Alloys in general may be solid solutions or they simply be mixtures. Whether brass or another alloy is a mixture depends on the size and homogeneity of the crystals in the solid. Usually you can think of brass as a solid solution consisting of zinc and other metals (solutes) dissolved in copper (solvent). Some brasses are homogeneous and consist of a single phase (such as alpha brasses), so the brass meets all of the criteria of a solution. In other types of brass, the elements may crystallize in the brass, giving you an alloy that meets the criteria of a mixture.

Conflict Diamonds - 1098 Words

Attempt Any Two Of the following ( 60 Marks - 30 Marks each ) | | Case 1 | Conflict Diamonds | | | During the late 1990s South African diamond product De Beers and other companies on the diamond industry discovered that some of the diamonds they were buying or selling came from groups who used the proceeds to finance brutal civil wars. In Sierra Leone, rebels took control of diamond mines by systematically chopping off the arms and hands of as many as 20,000 children, women and men until the diamond operations were turned over to them. Similarly events took place at diamond mines in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. About 4 million civilians have died in the civil wars financed by the diamonds. Anxious to avoid a†¦show more content†¦All other shoe makers ( Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Fila, Saucony) moved their plants overseas where labor is cheaper. With 10 percent of the market and revenues of $1.2 billion New Balance is committed to hiring US workers and keeping its five US factories going by using technology tight team work, fast delivery and close communication to keep costs near the level of the cheap Asian factories that make all its competitors shoes . Although it too has factories in Asia and Mexico, New Balance has continued expanding its US workforce. But in the 1990s the Federal Trace Commission (FTC) which regulates advertising clamped down on New Balance saying the â€Å"Made in USA† label cannot be used unless all or virtually all (98 percent) of the components and labor are of US origin. New Balance shoes contain rubber ( 25 percent of shoe) not of US origin because rubber is not grown in the United States. When New Balance complained that its shoes were the only ones still 100 percent assembled in the United State by the US workers out of all US parts except for rubber, which is impossible to source in the United States the FTC backed down, ruling that â€Å"Made in the USA† meant at-least 75 percent US parts an d labor. But labor unions, consumer groups and 150 members of congress attacked the ruling saying it made the label deceptive because it should mean 100 percent US content. DarleneShow MoreRelatedThe Diamond And Conflict Diamond1482 Words   |  6 Pages Introduction Blood Diamond or Conflict Diamond another term used to describe the illegal trade of diamond in Africa. The Blood Diamond is been used to finance conflicts, wars and humans rights violations. The Conflict exists for many years, profits have been made from the illegal trade of diamonds, Rebels and warlords use the diamonds to buy arms. 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