THE NATIONAL TEACHERS COLLEGE

Quiapo, Manila
Graduate Program, School of Teacher Education

NAME: MARK PAULO Y. TANJENTE

SUBJECT: The Teaching of English
DATE: FEBRUARY 22, 2020

1. Learner Centeredness
Everything starts with the learner
Learner-centered education is about an entirely new way of seeing, thinking about, and acting on
education. It focuses on 3 key aspects about the learner. First, each learner is seen as being unique in
meaningful ways. They have unique backgrounds, circumstances, and starting points with unique
strengths, challenges, interests, and aspirations. All of these unique attributes call for unique responses
from their learning system. Second, each learner is seen as having unbounded potential—potential that
will unfold at its own pace and in its own way. Every single learner is a wonder to behold. And, finally,
each learner is seen as having an innate desire to learn. The job of the education system is to unleash that
desire.
2. Interactive Classroom Collaboration
Collaborative learning (CL) can be defined as a set of teaching and learning strategies promoting student
collaboration in small groups (two to five students) in order to optimise their own and each other’s
learning. To achieve this purpose, teachers have tried to organise different types of collaborative activities
in their classroom teaching. In this paper, we report on teacher and student perceived features of
collaborative activities that teachers have implemented to foster student collaboration. Over the last
decades, research has demonstrated that CL can promote academic and social educational outcomes
(Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 2007Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Smith, K. (2007). The state of
cooperative learning in postsecondary and professional settings. Educational Psychology Review,19, 15–
29. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]; Slavin, 1996Slavin, R. E. (1996). Research on
cooperative learning and achievement: What we know, what we need to know. Contemporary
Educational Psychology,21, 43–69. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]). However,
research also shows that the implementation of CL is not always adequate in daily classroom practice. For
example, even though teachers organise different types of student groupings (e.g. heterogeneous or
homogeneous according to ability or gender), they do not always structure these group interactions to
foster effective collaboration (Baker & Clark, 2010Baker, T., & Clark, J. (2010). Cooperative learning – a
double-edged sword: A cooperative learning model for use with diverse student groups. When examining
the effectiveness of CL, researchers have noted challenges that students experience such as unequal
individual participation in group tasks (e.g. Freeman & Greenacre, 2010Freeman, L., & Greenacre, L.
(2010). An examination of socially destructive behaviors in group work.
3. Project-Based Technique
Project-based learning is an instructional approach designed to give students the opportunity to develop
knowledge and skills through engaging projects set around challenges and problems they may face in the
real world.
In essence, the PBL model consists of these seven characteristics:
 Focuses the student on a big open-ended question, challenge, or problem to research and respond
to and/or solve.
 Brings what students should academically know, understand, and be able to do into the equation.
 Is inquiry-based.
 Uses 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity,
among others.
 Builds student choice into the process.
 Provides opportunities for feedback and revision of the plan and the project.
 Requires students to present their problems, research process, methods, and results.
 Following fifteen years of literature review and distilled educational experience, the Buck
Institute for Education also identified seven essential elements for PBL but focused them on
project design. Collectively these elements are called Gold Standard PBL.
 4. Embedding Questions
Student trust is mandatory; student fear is preventable.  Growing a classroom culture of
acceptance is a necessity. Students don't want to feel like amateurs in front of their peers.
Increasing the next generation of problem solvers will advance our industrialized world, and that
self-driven, inquiring mentality is how the future will be formed.
 Use strategies like "wait time," "think-pair/group-share," and "one-minute
journals." Students THINK and WRITE their answers before sharing them. They
will have more confidence and take better ownership of their ideas.
 Scaffold your questions. Build the question level, from easy to difficult.  Ask
questions about their ideas; connect questions to experiences to encourage further
discussion.
 Your initial reactions to their responses can make all the difference. Be patient,
polite, encouraging, and have a sense of humor, even when you receive an
incorrect response. Question back to their responses, and they learn to provide the
WHY!
 Model HOW a proper question sounds/reads. Ask "open" questions which
require individualized answers. Pose "divergent" questions which have multiple
responses.
 Use reflective procedures like exit cards, Survey Monkey, and Google.Forms
to assess learning. Let students ask questions on these tools. The next day, use
these reflections to create your anticipatory lesson. Students LOVE to see teachers
using their questions (without names), especially if you explain to the class WHY
the question was terrific. Gauging strengths, weaknesses, and understanding, prior
to the next lesson, brings about corrective action before student embarrassment
occurs.
 Design a flipped classroom lesson. From your lesson, students create questions
for class discussion. One idea: Play "Pass-it." Their questions are written
anonymously on index cards and passed quickly around the room. Call STOP.
Randomly, choose  students to read the question passed to them, and let the
conversation begin. Facilitate the dialogue, while gently teaching the rules of
discussion, but let students slowly take control. Sooner or later, they become
experts at collaborative exchanges. Learn more about flipped learning here and
here.
 Use a Popcorn strategy. No hand-raising! Let them use the rules of discussion,
and without your input, allow them to discuss and ask their own questions. Place a
rubric on their desks to show expectations. Afterwards, have them "grade"
themselves, offer future improvement ideas, and prove where they did their best
questioning/discussing. Keep and distribute those reflections next time.
 Provide students with advanced question stems. Have students collaboratively
create questions for other groups using the stems but requiring that the higher-level
stems be used. Switch questions among groups, and let the answering begin. Or,
create a game from their questions/answers. Students love contests, and it's this
competitive spirit that promotes the best questions from students. Find question
stems here and here.
 Manage a blog. To alleviate embarrassing moments, have students use anonymous
screen-names until the end of the assignment. Ask multiple, higher-level discussion
questions about a reading/video. Let students CHOOSE which question(s) they feel
they can answer best. But, have them also ask an intelligent question of their own.
In the next round, require students to answer a peer's question and include the
WHY.
 Complex, collaborative research is "real world." Jigsaw, a cooperative learning
technique, encourages questioning. Using graphic organizers, which require
students to develop their own questions (along with guided questions, if needed),
encourages students to work together to generate answers.
  As your class becomes more comfortable, a Pinwheel Chat, a debate, and a
Socratic Seminar are terrific student-led discussion/questioning ideas to use.
They can be modified for the lower grades.
Many students fear answering/asking questions, but it is needed to become self-
driven learners. As we encourage this type of learning, students will follow their
curiosity until they find the creative answers to the burning questions of our unknown
future. Albert Einstein said it best. "It's not that I'm so smart. It is that I stay with the
questions longer. The important thing is not to stop questioning."

5. Active Learning
Whether you’re facing a lecture hall filled with 300 students or a seminar table with 15 students, one of
your primary goals for the class should be to actively engage students with the material. Students learn
more when they participate in the process of learning, whether it’s through discussion, practice, review, or
application (Grunert, 1997). This is in stark contrast to traditional styles of teaching, where students are
expected to sit for hours, listening and, theoretically, absorbing information presented by the instructor.
Incorporate active learning strategies into every component of your course design. For example,
encouraging short partner discussions during lectures (i.e., think-pair-share), adding problem- or case-
based research projects to the curriculum, and incorporating time for small-group critical analysis
exercises during seminars are all great ways to actively engage students in learning.
Because it can take time and creativity to develop active learning exercises, we provide many examples
on the Teaching Commons website, particularly in Teaching Strategies. Keep reading for some sample
strategies to help get you started.
Facilitate independent, critical, and creative thinking
Ask students to analyze, synthesize, or apply material, both during lectures and in assignments. Some
examples include:
Case-based problem solving exercises – these types of exercises help students develop analytical skills
and learn how to apply academic theories to real-world problems. Use case studies in a lecture and have
students work out their solutions independently or in small groups, or use case studies as the basis for
major projects or exams.
Debate – this is another active learning technique that helps develop critical thinking and logical
reasoning skills. Present competing viewpoints in lecture and assign students to defend one, or both, of
the viewpoints in a short (five-minute) written exercise or classroom debate. 
Encourage effective collaboration
Collaborative group work can be an extremely useful addition to a large class. Some examples include:
Small-group discussions– there are many benefits to taking short think-pair-share breaks during a lecture.
These small-group discussions help students understand and retain material, while also serving the
broader goals of developing their communication skills and increasing their awareness of their classmates
as learning resources.
Peer instruction exercises– one minute paper reflections or speed problem solving questions, paired with
peer to peer discussion, can be a very effective teaching strategy. Upon completion of the question and at
least one iteration, tally the answers.  Once the results are in, explain the correct answer and demonstrate
why the other options are misleading (Mazur, 1997). 
Research from cognitive psychology has shown that one of the best ways to improve understanding is to
teach material to a peer (Topping and Stewart, 1998). Build this exercise into your classes through
presentations, study groups, and quick, breakout “teaching” sessions, such as the one described above.
Increase student investment, motivation, and performance
When you invite students to actively participate in the learning environment, they take more
responsibility for their performance in the course. Similarly, when they have an opportunity to make
decisions about what they learn and how they use that knowledge, students see a course as more valuable
and more directly related to their goals. For example:
Brainstorm learning objectives – if you involve students in the development of classroom activities,
e.g., allow them to choose the topic of a short discussion or generate ideas about how a concept could be
applied to a problem that interests them, it automatically increases engagement levels. Involving students
in classroom activities also requires them to assess their understanding and skill and rather than allowing
them to rest comfortably with a surface knowledge, it forces them to develop a deeper understanding of
the material.

6. Social Learning
Social learning is based on the behavior modeling theory where people learn new things by observing
others. ... So assign pre-work, often online e-learning modules that include knowledge check questions
that you can track or not, but that the facilitator uses to gauge the level of knowledge.

7. Flipped Classroom
The Definition Of The Flipped Classroom
As one of the most popular trends in education in recent memory, you’ve undoubtedly heard
of the flipped classroom. But what is it about a classroom that’s been flipped that makes it
unique?
A flipped classroom is a type of blended learning where students are introduced to content
at home and practice working through it at school. This is the reverse of the more common
practice of introducing new content at school, then assigning homework and projects to
complete by the students independently at home.
In this blended learning approach, face-to-face interaction is mixed with independent study–
usually via technology. In a common Flipped Classroom scenario, students might watch pre-
recorded videos at home, then come to school to do the homework armed with questions and
at least some background knowledge.
What Students Might Do At School In A Flipped Classroom
Skill practice (guided or unguided by teacher)
In-person, face-to-face discussion with peers
 Debate
 Presentations
 Station learning
 Lab experiments
 Peer assessment and review
This doubles student access to teachers–once with the videos at home, and again in the
classroom, increasing the opportunity for personalization and more precise guiding of learning.
In the flipped classroom model, students practice under the guidance of the teacher, while
accessing content on their own.
A side benefit is that teachers can record lectures that emphasize critical ideas, power standards,
and even the pace of a given curriculum map. It also has the side benefit of allowing students to
pause, rewind, Google terms, rewatch, etc., as well as creating a ready-made library for student
review, make-up work, etc.

How does technology help the learner to engage in classroom?

Technology may be one of the keys to increasing the number of engaged students in America’s
classrooms. In our multi-phase Teaching in a Digital Age study, we are working with many
partners to research digital teaching strategies and how they positively affect student learning.
One of these positive effects reported by educators is the increased intensity of student
engagement that occurs when technology is integrated into the classroom.
Technology as a tool helps teachers create and present content and instruction that is interesting
and relevant to students. When learning is relevant to students, then they become engaged, active
learners.
With increased access to learning resources, tools and information, students are drawn deeper
into a topic than ever before. They can even direct their own learning.  In fact, when done well,
students don’t just learn with technology- they create. One educator noted:
“When students have this technology, they can create things. They can innovate things…. When
they have Photoshop in front of them and I say do this, this, and this, what they can create is
always going to be completely, uniquely different. And, they become artists with that or they
become filmmakers, or they become web designers.  Like they can take on a lot of really
advanced roles, and I think that’s something that technology does uniquely provide, because you
can’t be a web designer without that technology.  You can’t create a film without that
technology. And, I feel like that’s really different than a textbook…let me let you take your
creativity, and using this technology, create something I would have never made.”
And, with increased student engagement, comes increased learning. There is a strong research
base that describes how technology strengthens student engagement and learning. For example,
active learning is associated with improved student academic performance (Hake, 1998; Knight
& Wood, 2005; Michael, 2006; Freeman, et al., 2007; Chaplin, 2009), and increased student
engagement, critical thinking, and better attitudes toward learning (O’Dowd & Aguilar-Roca,
2009). Read more in my paper.
If technology supports teachers’ efforts to focus on effective practices that engage students, then
we have another tool to engage that half of US students who aren’t currently engaged.

THE NATIONAL TEACHERS COLLEGE

Quiapo, Manila
Graduate Program, School of Teacher Education

NAME: MARK PAULO Y. TANJENTE

SUBJECT: The Teaching of English

1. What does this slide say about Communicative Competence?