Assignment No.

CourseName : Critical Thinking And

Reflective Practices

Course Code : “8611’’

Semester : Autumn,2022 B.Ed(1.5 Yrs)

Name : Farwa Munir

Roll No : CE-614625

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 QUESTION NO. 1

Take an article of your interest and critically analyze that how social,
economic and ethical aspects of that topic has been considered?

Answer
Introduction
All contemporary political communication is in a specific way critical because it consists
of speech acts that normally question political opinions and practices of certain actors. Modern
politics is a highly competitive system, in which elections and warfare are ways of distributing
and redistributing power. This understanding of critique stands in the tradition of Kantian
enlightenment that considered the Enlightenment as an age of criticism. In contrast to Kant’s
general understanding of critique, Karl Marx and the Marxian tradition understands the
categorical imperative as the need to overcome all forms of slavery and degradation and to
unmask alienation. Tis school of thought points out a more specific understanding of being
critical, namely the questioning of power, domination, and exploitation, the political demand
and struggle for a just society. Critical theory is understood as a critique of society. Scholars in
the Marxian inspired tradition employ the term “critical” to stress that not all science is critical,
but that a lot of it has a more administrative character that takes power structures for granted,
does not question them, or helps to legitimate them.
Some define critical theory as the Frankfurt School’s works, a tradition of critical
thinking that originated with the works of scholars like Herbert Marcuse, Max Horkheimer, and
andTeodorW. Adorn. Herbert Marcuse was a philosopher, born in Germany in 1898, who fled
Nazi Germany to the United States in 1934, where he spent the rest of his life. Max Horkheimer
was director of the University of Frankfurt’s Institute for Social Research in the years 1930–
1959.Tis institute was the home of what came to be known as the Frankfurt School. Teodor W.
Adorn was one of the Institute’s directors from 1953 until his death in 1969. Horkheimer and

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Adorno also emigrated, together with the Institute, to the United States, but unlike Marcuse
they returned to Germany after the end of World War II. Critical Theory’s starting point is the
work of Karl Marx.
Jorgen Huber man (1984, 1987) built his approach on the classical Frankfurt School and
at the same time worked out the concept of communicative rationality, by which he went
beyond the classical tradition. He distinguishes between instrumental (nonsocial, success-
oriented), strategic (social, success-oriented), and communicative action (social, oriented on
understanding). For Huberman (1987, p. 375), critical theory questions that so-called steering
media (money, power) attack “the communicative infrastructure of largely rationalized life
worlds.” (Huberman speaks of money and power as “steering media” because he argues that
these are structures that elites use for trying to control and dominate society.) He conceives
instrumental action and communicative action as the two fundamental aspects of social praxis.
What he wants to express is that the human being is both a laboring and a communicating
being. In a way, Huberman retains the classical Marxist distinction between base and
superstructure, but inverts it by putting the stress on communication. Doubts arise if labor can
be so strictly separated from communication in a dualistic way. The 20th and 21st centuries
have seen a rising importance of communicative and cultural work in the economy. But if such
activity takes on value-generating form, then culture and communication must be part of the
economy themselves, base and superstructure become integrated, and labor and
communication cannot be separated.
Communication is one of the crucial foundations of the economy: The latter is not just a
system of the production of use-values, and in class societies of exchange values. It is also a
social system because production in any society takes on complex forms beyond individual self-
sustenance. The only way for organizing the relational dimension of the economy is via
communication, in the form of symbolic interaction and/or anonymous forms of indirect
communication (as for example via money, markets, the price system, etc.). Human thought is a
precondition for human communication and existence. When humans produce in the economy,
they do so with a purpose in mind, which means that they anticipate the form of the object and
how it will be put to use. The economic existence of man requires anticipative thinking just like

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it requires communication. It is in these two specific senses— the importance of
communication and thought— that the economy is always and fundamentally cultural.
Capitalism has had a history of the commodification of culture and communication, especially
since the 20th century. This is not to say that culture and communication necessarily take on
the form of a commodity, but that in capitalism they frequently do so in the form of content
commodities, audience commodities, and cultural labor power as commodity. In this sense
culture has been economized, or, to be more precise commoditized, that is, put under the
influence of the commodity logic. Communication is certainly an important aspect of a
domination-free society. Under capitalism, it is however also a form of interaction, in which
ideology is with the help of the mass media made available to the dominated groups.
Communication is not automatically progressive. For Huberman, the differentiation is between
instrumental/strategic reason and communicative reason, whereas for Horkheimer the
distinction is between instrumental reason and critical reason and, based on that, between
traditional and critical theory. Huberman splits of communication from instrumentality and
thereby neglects to understand that in capitalism the dominant system uses communication
just like technology, the media, ideology, or labor as an instrument to defend its rule.
Structures of domination do not leave communication untouched and pure; they are rather
antagonistically entangled with communication. Hagerman’s stress on communication is not
immune against misuse for instrumental purposes. The concept of communication can be
critical, but is not necessarily critical, whereas the concept of a critique of domination is
necessarily critical.
The six dimensions of a critical theory of society can also be found in Karl Marx’s works.
This circumstance shows the importance of his thought for any critical theory. Critical theory
uses dialectical reasoning as method of analysis: The dialectical method identifies
contradictions. Contradictions are the basic building blocks of all dialectics. Dialectics tries
to show that and how contemporary society and its moments are shaped by contradictions.
Contradictions result in the circumstance that society is dynamic and that capitalism assures the
continuity of domination and exploitation by changing the way these phenomena are
organized. In a contradiction, one pole of the dialectic can only exist by the way of the opposed

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pole, they require and exclude each other at the same time. In a dominative society (such as
capitalism), contradictions cause problems and are to a certain extent also the seeds for
overcoming these problems. They have positive potentials and negative realities at the same
time. Marx analyzed capitalism’s contradictions, for example: the contradictions between no
owners/owners, the poor/the rich, misery/wealth, workers/capitalists, use value/exchange
value, concrete labor/abstract labor, the simple form of value/the relative and expanded form
of value, social relations of humans/relations of things, the fetish of commodities and
money/fetishistic thinking, the circulation of commodities/the circulation of money,
commodities/money, labor power/wages, subject/object, labor process/valorization process,
subject of labor (labor power, worker)/the means of production (object), variable
capital/constant capital, surplus labor/surplus product, necessary labor time/surplus labor time,
single worker/cooperation, single company/industry sector, single capital/competing capitals,
production/consumption, productive forces/relations of production.
Critical theory is connected to struggles for a just and fair society, it is an intellectual
dimension of struggles: Critical theory provides a self-understanding of a society’s self-
understanding, struggles, and wishes. It can “show the world why it actually struggles” and is
“taking sides with actual struggles” (Marx, 1997, p. 214). This means that critical theory can
help to explain the causes, conditions, potentials, and limits of struggles. Critical theory rejects
the argument that academia and science should and can be value-free. It rather argues that all
thought and theories are shaped by political worldviews. Te reasons why a person is interested
in a certain topic, aligns himself/herself with a certain school of thought, develops a particular
theory and not another one, refers to certain authors and not others, are deeply political
because modern society is shaped by conflicts of interests and therefore, for surviving and
asserting themselves, scholars have to make choices, enter strategic alliances, and defend their
positions against others. In conflict-based and antagonistic societies, academic writing and
speaking, scholarship and science are therefore always forms of political communication: They
are not just discovery, knowledge construction, or invention, but besides knowledge creation
also a production and communication of knowledge about knowledge— the political
standpoints of the scholars themselves. Critical theory holds not only that theory is always

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political, but also that it should develop analyses of society and concepts that assist struggle
against interests and ideas that justify domination and exploitation.
References:

 AIOU Course Book 8611 “Critical Thinking And Reflective Practices”

 Brookfield and Smyth, (1995). New Zealand Curriculum .
 www.scribd.com
 www.google.com
 www.wikipedia.com

QUESTION NO. 2

While you were at school/college; were you conscious of social class conflict?
How will you narrate it with reference to your schooling?

Answer
Introduction
Two German theorists, Karl Marx (1818–83) and Max Weber (1864–1920), influenced
the field of sociology, particularly in terms of theories of social class. Both of these theorists
wrote extensively on issues of social class and social inequality, or the unequal status and
access to opportunities that different groups have within a society. Sociologists continue to use
and respond to ideas that Marx and Weber developed.
Marxism, Conflict Theory, and Social Class
Marx defined class as a group of people who have the same relationship to the means
of production—the facilities and resources for producing goods—such as tools, machines, and
factories. Marx wrote extensively of the relationship between the privileged classes—the
"haves," or the bourgeoisie—and the oppressed classes—the "have nots," or the proletariat.

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The bourgeoisie is a class that owns property, including owning and controlling the means of
production. The proletariat is the working class, who own only their own labor. Members of the
proletariat are forced to sell their labor because they have no control over the means of
production. Marx argued that this relationship is exploitive of the working class because the
surplus value derived from work is unfairly appropriated by the bourgeoisie. In Marx's view, the
economic system of capitalism automatically creates social stratification, or class differences, in
which members of different classes are in an adversarial relationship. Sociologists incorporate
Marx's ideas in an approach known as conflict theory. Conflict theorists suggest that social
inequality creates intergroup conflict—such as the rich versus the poor—and that the different
interests will cause them to be at odds as they attempt to secure their interests.
Marxist theory continues to be important in sociology, but many sociologists have
expanded upon Marx's ideas in order to apply them to postindustrial, postmodern societies of
the late 20th and early 21st centuries. American sociologist Erik Olin Wright (b. 1947)
elaborates on Marx's model of class structure. While Marx analyzed society in terms of two
major classes, Wright identifies four classes in the United States: capitalist, managerial, small
business, and working class. He argues that power is connected to the control of the means of
production but also control over work processes and other workers. Wright's model is less
polarized than Marx's but remains focused on questions of which groups dominate a society
and which groups are oppressed. He looks at why some workers might behave or think more
like capitalists (the bourgeoisie) and notes how people can belong to more than one class. His
term contradictory class locations describes how people can occupy more than one class
position, based on what type of control they exercise. For example, an executive assistant at a
large corporation has a relatively high level of control compared to other administrative
workers but is also under the control of a more powerful CEO. The executive assistant may
identify more closely with the upper-class managers at the company, although outside of work
the executive assistant has less social and economic power than managers do. Wright proposes
a larger definition of the working class than Marx did, including those in occupations that
involve what he terms "mental labor" but who do not receive high salaries, such as clerical
workers. He analyzes modern types of work, arguing that levels of control tied to various

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occupations are crucial markers of class in contemporary society. For instance, master
electricians and architects who work at small firms may have similar levels of income, but they
hold different social positions. Their occupations grant them different levels of control. Like
Marx, Wright is concerned with dismantling systems that oppress the working class. However,
he argues that "taming and eroding capitalism are the only viable options." Whereas Marx
envisioned the end of capitalism, Wright considers how the working class might impose reforms
on oppressive state and capitalist structures.
Weber and Social Class
Weber agreed with Marx that economic markers are important, but he advanced the
idea that other factors, such as education and occupational prestige, determine class
hierarchies. Weber described class structure as being based on three major factors: wealth
(income and assets), prestige (status position), and power (ability to achieve goals). Weber saw
ownership of the means of production, including companies, as important, but he also noted
that holding a high position within a company or profession is also a means to acquire social
and economic power. For example, a high-level manager in a corporation does not own the
business but does benefit from the profits that the business generates. Owning property grants
economic power, but it also grants higher levels of prestige. Someone who owns land, for
example, has social prestige. Weber pointed out that prestige can also be gained in other ways
that do not involve ownership of property or the means of production. Gifted athletes or
intellectuals can acquire prestige without owning the sports teams or universities that frame
their work. Both wealth and prestige can give individuals greater power in society. Weber saw
wealth, power, and prestige as intertwined elements of social class. Weber's multidimensional
work led sociologists to use socioeconomic status to understand class.
Influenced by Weber's theory of class, American sociologist Dennis Gilbert (b. 1943)
described six separate classes in the United States: the capitalist class, upper-middle class,
middle class, working class, working poor, and underclass. The capitalist class is defined as the
most elite and powerful group. As the richest one percent of the population, they own most of
the wealth in a society, including the vast majority of stocks and bonds. Their large investments
have an impact on the rest of society, because their investment choices can have a significant

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impact on the overall economy. They mostly interact with one another, remaining separated
from the other classes. The upper-middle class is relatively wealthy and is characterized by high
levels of formal education—a minimum of a college degree and usually a graduate degree.
Members of the upper-middle class work in white-collar, fairly high-income professions. They
may often purchase status symbols, including expensive homes and vehicles that serve to
identify their class status. The lower-middle class is composed of people who earn enough to
afford basic expenses. They generally have at least a high school education and often some
education beyond high school including specialized training, some college, or a college degree.
They typically work in semiskilled professions, for instance as flight attendants or security
guards. The working class has relatively low levels of income and is employed in factories or in
low-paid white-collar professions such as retail sales workers. Members of the working class
sometimes qualify for public assistance programs, such as free or reduced lunch for children at
school. The working poor are people whose incomes are minimal and often not enough to pay
basic living expenses. They often work in service jobs, which include occupations such as food
preparation workers, house cleaners, or lawn and garden maintenance workers. Most members
of the working poor do not hold high school diplomas. They may qualify for public assistance,
such as housing and food assistance programs. The underclass is a social group composed of
individuals stuck in poverty because of high unemployment, low education, or other forms of
marginalization such as homelessness. Multigenerational poverty, or poverty that lasts across
several generations in a family, is also a characteristic of the underclass. Occupations that
involve stigma can also place people in the underclass. For example, impoverished sex workers
are part of the underclass, both because of poverty and because sex workers are marginalized
by society. Gilbert's model of six social classes provides a framework for discussing social
stratification in more precise terms, acknowledging that the lived experiences of members of
these groups can be quite different, although there is some overlap between groups.

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Gilbert’s Model of Social Class in the United States
Capitalist class Elite, powerful; richest one percent
Upper-middle class Relatively wealthy; highly educated, work in white-collar
professions
Lower-middle class Can afford basic expenses; work in semi-skilled professions
Working class Relatively low income; sometimes qualify for assistance programs
Working poor Not always able to afford basic expenses; work in service
professions
Underclass Marginalized members of society; stuck in chronic poverty

Functionalism and Symbolic Interaction:

Functionalist and symbolic interactionist theories of social class focus on the social functions of
class and stratification, or on class as a factor in social identity.
In addition to conflict theory, two other influential schools of thought in sociology
are functionalism and symbolic interactionism. Functionalists think of society as composed of
many parts that work together as a whole to maintain stability. A functionalist approach to
social class might analyze the roles that class structure and social stratification play in society as
a whole. From a functionalist viewpoint, stratification works to ensure productivity and
efficiency, and to ensure that all types of necessary work get done. Thus a functionalist
argument is that social stratification is both necessary and inevitable. Functionalists point out
that some jobs require more skill or training or are more important. Few people have the ability
to become highly skilled and do these important jobs. Furthermore, people have to make
sacrifices, in terms of time, effort, and money, to obtain the education, training, and experience
to do these jobs. The functionalist view is that society attaches significant rewards in the form
of prestige and income to ensure that these important jobs are filled. Doctors, for example,
fulfill an important role in society. To become a doctor, a person must invest a great deal of
time, effort, and money in education and training. Society rewards this by bestowing high levels
of prestige to doctors, as well as high incomes. However, class inequality is only functional as
long as it is sustainable. When the working classes decide that society is not functioning well for

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them, they might seek social change through actions such as protests and strikes. Functionalists
look at how these acts contribute to balance in a society. Symbolic interactionism strives to
understand macro-level patterns (patterns found in a whole society) by examining micro
interactions (interactions between individuals). An approach using symbolic interactionism tries
to make connections between micro-level interactions and how they can help explain macro-
level patterns. Using this lens, social class and social inequality are seen as factors in how
people understand themselves and present themselves to others. For example, sociologists
using symbolic interactionism note how individual social interactions, such as those between
supervisors and employees, are shaped by people's understanding of social class in their
society. A symbolic interactionist approach might consider how body language, greetings,
personal space, use of slang, and eye contact are connected to class. Consider the social
behavior of workers in a high-end restaurant. They may use more formal patterns of speech
with customers and restaurant managers than with other workers. This behavior can be
understood as a reflection of how the restaurant workers understand their social position as
well as an indication of class divisions of the overall society.

References:

 AIOU Course book code 8611 “Critical Thinking and Reflective Practices” .
 Freire, Paulo, 1985, The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation.
Greenwood Publishing Group.
 Shor, Ira, 1992, Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change. Chicago
University Press
 www.google.com
 Brookfield and Smyth, (1995). New Zealand Curriculum .
 www.scribd.com
 www.google.com

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 QUESTION NO.3
Critically analyse that how teaching and learning process of 21st century different
from other centuries. Also discuss the impact of technology on the teaching and
learning process.

Answer
Introduction
Cooperative teaching and learning has been a popular area in educational circles for
more than a decade. This area gained its strength with the emergence of two major schools of
thought one is “Constructivism and the other is “Connectivism”. Researchers and practitioners
have found that students working in small cooperative groups can develop the type of
intellectual exchange that fosters critical and creative thinking, and productive problem solving.
Cooperative teaching is a successful strategy in which small teams, each students have always
congregated together to perform and learn. Rat there is a growing recognition that combined
with whole group instruction and individual learning, cooperative learning should be a
customary part of the classroom instruction. Student communication makes cooperative
learning meaningful. To accomplish their group’s task, students must exchange ideas, make
plans, and propose solutions. Thinking through an idea and presenting it collectively can be very
helpful and understood by others in a better way. Such interaction promotes intellectual
growth.
The exchange of different ideas and viewpoints can enhance the growth and inspire
broader thinking. It is the teacher’s job to persuade such exchanges and organize the students’
work so their communication is on-task and creative. In addition to academic growth,
cooperative learning helps in students’ social development.
Students’ lives are full of interactions with friends and family members and their futures
will find them in jobs that require cooperation. The skills that are essential for productive
group work in the classroom are relevant for today and the future. Cooperative learning is a
successful teaching strategy in which small groups, with students of different ability levels, use
a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding. Each member of a team feels
responsible for learning what is being taught and also for helping group fellows thus creating an

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atmosphere of achievement. Cooperative classroom activities result in students striving for
mutual uplift so that all group members:

1. Benefit from each other's efforts.

2. Recognize that all group members share a common goal.
3. Realize that one's performance is mutually caused by oneself and one's team members.
4. Jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for achievement.
Relative to students taught individually; cooperatively taught students to show higher
academic achievement, determination, better high-level reasoning lower anxiety and stress,
greatest motivation, greater ability to view.

CRITICAL QUESTION-ANSWER FORUMS

Articles on the subject of classroom questioning often begin by invoking Socrates.
Researchers and other writers concerned with questioning techniques seem to want to remind
us that questioning has a long and venerable history as an educational strategy.
And indeed, the Socratic method of questions and answers to challenge assumptions, expose
contradictions, and lead to new knowledge and wisdom is an undeniably powerful teaching
approach.
In addition to its long history and demonstrated effectiveness, questioning is also of
interest to researchers and practitioners because of its widespread use as a contemporary
teaching technique. Research indicates that questioning is second only to lecturing in popularity
as a teaching method and that classroom teachers spend anywhere from thirty- five to fifty
percent of their instructional time conducting questioning sessions.
A question is any sentence which has an interrogative form or function. In classroom
settings, teacher questions are defined as instructional cues or stimuli that convey to students
the content elements to be learned and directions for what they are to do and how they are to
do it.
The present review focuses on the relationship between teachers' classroom
questioning behaviors and a variety of student outcomes, including achievement, retention,

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and level of student participation.
This means that certain other subtopics within the general area of questioning are
excluded from the present analysis. It does not deal, for example, with the effects of textual
questions or test questions, and it is only incidentally concerned with methods used to impart
study skills, including questioning strategies, to students. Questioning plays a critical role in the
way instructors structure the class environment, organize the content of the course and has
deep implications in the way that students assimilate the information that is presented and
discussed in class. Given that questioning can be a tremendously effective way to teach, and
recognizing that teachers are willing to engage in the process of asking questions while
instructing.
Numerous researches indicate that teachers largely have been asking the wrong
questions. The focus has been primarily on questions regarding the specific information
students. In such an investigation.
1. One asks questions to identify the reason or reasons for the investigation.
2. Questions are asked to direct been discovered the search for information.
3. The conclusions resulting from investigations are evaluated vs questions.
References:

 AIOU Course book code 8611 “Critical Thinking and Reflective Practices” .
 www.tonybuzan.com
 www.google.com
 Thornbury, S. (1999). How to Teach Grammar. Pearson.

QUESTION NO.4

If you will have to make a dialogue with your principle, what questioning
strategy will you develop?

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 Answer
Introduction
Classroom assessment techniques (CAT) are relatively quick and easy formative
evaluation methods that help you check student understanding in “real time”. These formative
evaluations provide information that can be used to modify/improve course content, adjust
teaching methods, and, ultimately improve student learning. Formative evaluations are most
effective when they are done frequently and the information is used to effect immediate
adjustments in the day-to-day operations of the course.
 Provide day-to-day feedback that can be applied immediately;
 Provide useful information about what students have learned without the amount of
time required for preparing tests, reading papers, etc.; allow you to address student
misconceptions or lack of understanding in a timely way;
 Help to foster good working relationships with students and encourage them to
understand that teaching and learning are on-going processes that require full
participation.
 Help develop self-assessment and learning management skills;
 Reduce feelings of isolation, especially in large classes;
 Increase understanding and ability to think critically about the course content;
 Faster an attitude that values understanding and long-term retention;
 Show your interest and support of their success in your classroom.
 Course-related knowledge and skills
 Student attitudes, values, and self-awareness
 Reactions to instruction methods
Following is a chart that indicates what the CAT is intended to evaluate, its name, how
each is conducted, what to do with the information you collect, and an estimate of how much
time is required to complete it.
I. Techniques for Assessing Course-Related Knowledge & Skills
A. Assessing Prior Knowledge, Recall, and Understanding

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The CATs in this group focus on assessing declarative learning – the content of a particular
subject.
Background Knowledge Probe:  Short, simple questionnaires prepared by instructors for
use at the beginning of a course or at the start of new units or topics; can serve as a pretest
Focused Listing:  Focuses students’ attention on a single important term, name, or concept from
a lesson or class session and directs students to list ideas related to the “focus”
Misconception/Preconception Check:  Intended to uncover prior knowledge or beliefs that may
hinder or block new learning; can be designed to uncover incorrect or incomplete knowledge,
attitudes, or values
Empty Outlines:  In a limited amount of time students complete an empty or partially
completed outline of an in-class presentation or homework assignment
Memory Matrix:  Students complete a table about course content in which row and column
headings are complete but cells are empty
Minute Paper: The most frequently used CAT; students answer 2 questions (What was the most
important thing you learned during this class? What important question remains unanswered?)
Muddiest Point:  Considered by many as the simplest CAT; students respond to the question
"What was the most unclear or confusing point in (lecture, homework, discussion)?"
B. Assessing Skill in Analysis and Critical Thinking
The CATs in this group focus on analysis—the breaking down of information, questions, or
problems to facilitate understanding and problem solving. 
Categorizing Grid:  Student complete a grid containing 2 or 3 overarching concepts and a variety
of related subordinate elements associated with the larger concepts
Defining Features Matrix:  Students categorize concepts according to the presence or absence
of important defining features
Pro and Con Grid:  Students list pros/cons, costs/benefits, advantages/disadvantages of an
issue, question, or value of competing claims
Content, Form, and Function Outlines:  In an outline form, students analyze the “what”
(content), “how” (form), and “why” (function) of a particular message (e.g. poem, newspaper
story, critical essay); also called “What, How, & Why Outlines

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Analytic Memos:  Students write a one- or two-page analysis of a specific problem or issue to
help inform a decision-maker
C. Assessing Skill in Synthesis and Creative Thinking
The CATs in this group focus on synthesis — stimulating the student to create and allowing the
faculty to assess original intellectual products that result from a synthesis of course content and
the students’ intelligence, judgment, knowledge, and skills.
One-Sentence Summary:  Students answer the questions “Who does what to whom, when,
where, how, and why?” (WDWWWWHW) about a given topic and then create a single
informative, grammatical, and long summary sentence
Word Journal:  Involves a 2 part response; 1st the student summarizes a short text in a single
word and 2nd the student writes 1-2 paragraphs explaining the word choice
Approximate Analogies:  Students simply complete the 2nd half of an analogy—a is to b as
is to ; described as approximate because the rigor of formal logic is not required
Concept Maps:  Students draw or diagram the mental connections they make between a major
concept and other concepts they have learned
Invented Dialogues:  Students synthesize their knowledge of issues, personalities, and historical
periods into the form of a carefully structured illustrative conversation; students can select and
weave quotes from primary sources or invent reasonable quotes that fit characters and context
Annotated Portfolios:  Students assemble a very limited number of examples of creative work
and supplement them with their own commentary on the significance of examples
D. Assessing Skill in Problem Solving
The CATs in this group focus on problem solving skills — recognizing different types of
problems, determining the principles and techniques to solve them, perceiving similarities of
problem features, and being able to reflect and then alter solution strategies.
Problem Recognition Tasks:  Students recognize and identify particular problem types
What’s the Principle?:  Students identify the principle or principles to solve problems of various
types
Documented Problem Solutions:  Students track in a written format the steps they take to
solve problems as if for a “show & tell”

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Audio and Videotaped Protocols:  Students work through a problem solving process and it is
captured to allow instructors to assess metacognition (learner’s awareness of and control of
thinking)
E. Assessing Skill in Application and Performance
The CATs in this group focus on students’ application of conditional knowledge – knowing when
and where to apply what they know and can do.
Directed Paraphrasing:  Students paraphrase part of a lesson for a specific audience
demonstrating ability to translate highly specialized information into language the clients or
customers can understand
Application Cards:  Students generate examples of real-world applications for important
principles, generalizations, theories, or procedures
Student-Generated Test Questions:  Students generate test questions and model answers for
critical areas of learning
Human Tableau or Class Modeling:  Students transform and apply their learning into doing by
physically modeling a process or representing an image.
Paper or Project Prospectus:  Students create a brief plan for a paper or project based on your
guiding questions

II. Techniques for Assessing Learner Attitudes, Values, and Self-Awareness

A.Assessing Students’ Awareness of Their Attitudes and Values
The CATs in this group are designed to assist instructors in developing students’ attitudes,
opinions, values, and self-awareness within the course curriculum.
 Classroom Opinion Polls: Students indicate degree of agreement or disagreement with
a statement or prompt
 Double-entry Journals: Students record and respond to significant passages of text
  Profiles of Admiral Individuals: Students write a brief description of the characteristics
of a person they admire in a field related to the course
 Everyday Ethical Dilemma: Students respond to a case study that poses a discipline-
related ethical dilemma

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  Course-related Self-Confidence Surveys: Students complete an anonymous survey
indicating their level of confidence in mastering the course material
B. Assessing Students’ Self-Awareness as Learners
The CATs in this group help students articulate their goals and self-concepts in order to make
connections between their goals and those of the course.
 Focused Autobiographical Sketches: Students write a brief description of a successful
learning experience they had relevant to the course material
 Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklists: Students complete a checklist survey to indicate
their knowledge, skills and interest in various course topics
 Goal Ranking and Matching: Students list and prioritize 3 to 5 goals they have for their
own learning in the course
 Self-Assessment Ways of Learning: Students compare themselves with several different
“learning styles” profiles to find the most likely match
C. Assessing Course-Related Learning and Study Skills, Strategies, and Behaviors
The CATs in this group assist students in focusing attention on the behaviors they engage in
when trying to learn.
 Productive Study-Time Logs: Students complete a study log to record the quantity and
quality of time spent studying for a specific course
 Punctuated Lectures: Students briefly reflect then create a written record of their
listening level of a lecture. Repeat twice in the same lecture and 2- 3 times over 2 to 3
weeks
 Process Analysis: Students outline the process they take in completing a specified
assignment
 40. Diagnostic Learning Logs: Students write to learn by identifying, diagnosing, and
prescribing solutions to their own learning problems
III. Techniques for Assessing Learner Reactions to Instruction
A. Assessing Learner Reactions to Teachers and Teaching
The CATS in this group are designed to provide context-specific feedback that can improve
teaching within a course.

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  Chain Notes: On an index card that is distributed in advance, each student responds to
an open-ended prompt about his or her mental activity that is answered in less than a
minute
 Electronic Survey Feedback:  Students respond to a question or short series of
questions about the effectiveness of the course.
 Teacher-designed Feedback Forms:  Students respond to specific questions through a
focused feedback form about the effectiveness of a particular class session
 Group Instructional Feedback Technique: Students respond to three questions related
to their learning in the course (basically, what works, what doesn't, and how can it be
improved)
 Classroom Assessment Quality Circles: A group or groups of students provide the
instructor with ongoing assessment of the course through structured interactions
B. Assessing Learner Reactions to Class Activities, Assignments, and Materials
The CATS in this group are designed to provide instructors with information that will help them
improve their course materials and assignments.
 RSQC2 (Recall, Summarize, Question, Connect and Comment): Students write brief
statements that recall, summarize, question, connect and comment on meaningful
points from previous class
 Group-Work Evaluation: Students complete a brief survey about how their group is
functioning and make suggestions for improving the group process
 Reading Rating Sheets: Students complete a form that rates the effectiveness of the
assigned readings
 Assignment Assessments: Students respond to 2 or 3 open-ended questions about the
value of an assignment to their learning
 Exam Evaluations: Students provide feedback about an exam’s learning value and/or
format
References:
 AIOU Course book code 8611 “Critical Thinking and Reflective Practices” .
 Schon DA. Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco, A: Jossey-Bass Inc;
 Barton, David and Tusting, Karin (2005) Beyond communities of practice: language,

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 power, and social context. Cambridge University Press
 www.wikipedia.com

QUESTION NO.5

Describe in detail the salient features of Rolfe’s model of professional

development.
Answer
Introduction
www.kaganonline.comA key finding of the report revealed that 30% of the technology budget
should be used for teacher
training. The focus up to that point had been mostly on purchasing hardware and software. This report
helped bring the importance of effective professional development for teachers to the forefront. It is
not surprising that during 1995, the Technology Innovation Challenge Grant (TICG) program funded
the
first 19 grants, which set the stage for the 91 that followed. From 1995-2000, 100 projects from 46
states and a total of $609.9 million invested have produced some of the most impressive, innovative
education technology products, models and curriculum.
This article will focus on the models of professional development used by a variety of U.S. TICG
programs. You will notice that a large number of 1998 projects are highlighted. This is because for that
year's competition, grant guidelines specifically mandated professional development by providing
support to consortia that had developed programs, or were adapting or expanding existing programs,
for technology training. The models to be explored are coaching and mentoring, face-to-face, train-the-
trainer, and Web-based training.
Coaching and mentoring is a research-based, highly effective professional development model
that has been used extensively by Project Venture in Phoenix, which is a diverse consortium consisting
of urban, suburban and rural school districts. At the heart of the districts' professional development

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model are 21 Technology Mentor Teachers (TMTs) who work with more than 330 teachers across the
consortium.
TMTs are highly trained, certified teachers on assignment who use coaching and modeling
techniques to help teachers effectively integrate technology in their classes. TMTs work one-on-one
with teachers who are chosen through a rigorous application process, and receive five computers and a
presentation system in their classroom. They build important relationships with their teachers that
allow for the planning, modeling and reflecting of technology integration techniques with a focus on
core curriculum and state standards.
This model has built great capacity and created a natural process of sustainability by having a
significant number of highly trained teachers who are becoming technology leaders in their schools. Our
project's evaluator, Dee Ann Spencer, Ph.D., found that 65.6% of teachers were integrating technology
to a great or seamless extent by the end of the project's third year (2000).
Distance education poses the problems of professional development in a particularly acute
form. These problems have been defined, broadly speaking, in relation to debates about the
relation between theory and practice:
 Does theory address issues which concern practitioners as they do their job ?
 How is theory applied to practice?
 What counts as theory: are academic disciplines the only valid basis for the
development of theory?
 Could there be a theory of practice, developed by practitioners themselves reflecting on
their own direct professional experience?
These issues are confronted in a particularly acute form in the distance education
context precisely because there are so few opportunities for face to face contact and therefore
for the participant sharing which is the life blood of so much staff development.
Multi-media course materials and carefully designed project assessment are just two of
the strategies which can be used to engage students in deep rather than surface learning, and
to enable them to relate course content to their own direct experience. Stanton Rogers for
example, reports the success with which materials can be used in areas where there is very

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significant emotional content and where some might argue against any form of distance
learning:
Stanton Rogers identifies two major advantages in using a multi-media package of
materials: the wider range of learning experiences which can be documented and portrayed,
and the creation of a basis of common experience through course study which learners can use
in their interactions with each other.
Group sessions are thus freed for the process of mutual interaction and engagement
with new ideas, rather than the communication of material by a tutor in order to enable the
process to begin. These issues have been most consistently addressed in relation to teaching
within compulsory education. Stenhouse and his colleagues developed the model of teacher as
researcher during the 1970s, at a time when it might have seemed possible that the profession
would develop in a fashion which would allow time for teachers to engage in problem
definition, data collection and analysis as well as teaching. Research, particularly the action
research model, was promoted as an informative and sensitizing process, aspects of which
might be undertaken by practitioners themselves as a means of refining their awareness of
interaction and outcomes in teaching. Others have also focused on the interface between
researcher and practitioner, and the teacher as researcher model is still alive in the projects and
networks created by members of the British Educational Research Association, among others.
The application of these issues to the field of post compulsory education and training
has been made more recently, especially in relation to the in-service development of adult
educators. The practical implications of this debate however, could cover a very wide range of
professions. All those who now have some role in the preparation and continuing education of
adults- including therefore professionals in industrial training, management education, nurse
education, youth and community work and the social services-have an interest in the
facilitation of adult learning. This list draws attention to problem areas particular to the post
compulsory sector: the heterogeneity of staff and the differences of culture and expectations
over what constitute appropriate professional training. Add to this the much less developed
basis for practice, in the form of a theoretical and research based literature, and the scope of
the problem is daunting.

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 Not with standing the difficulties created by these factors, there has been a noticeable
growth during the eighties of postgraduate course provision in the area of post-compulsory
education and training, and a growth of staff development opportunities in particular
technologies for adult learning and development - open learning, student-centred learning and
guidance to name some of the most popular. The Open University has also moved into this
area, with the presentation in the early eighties of courses in policy and management for the
post compulsory sector, and in adult education more generally. 3 In 1988 students could add to
these courses by studying quarter credit modules and by designing their own half credit project,
to accumulate two full credits of OU study and thus qualify for the Diploma in Post Compulsory
Education:
There are now over 200 students studying for the Diploma, and the first fifteen were
awarded the qualification in 1989.
One of the modules in this diploma, Approaches to Adult Learning (AAL), can be
developed as a small case study illustrating the potential as well as the constraints for distance
learning in this context.
The AAL Module is about how adults learn, learning being seen as a social process in
which individuals demonstrate significant differences between each other over a number of
dimensions. The Module is process as well as content oriented, and practitioners are asked to
begin with reflection on their own learning and development prior to the course, and to build
on this through activities and self review exercises. The focus for this student initiated work is
the assignment, where students are offered a choice between a task exercising purely
intellectual skills, and two where there is an element of practical experimentation. The fourth
option is to design their own assignment and thus far none has chosen this, the most
challenging of all.
The second point to make concerns the difference between propositional knowledge
and active experimentation. Most students seemed to have identified with the centrality of
reflection as a key process in adult learning, especially learning from experience. However not
all were able to transfer their comprehension of the idea directly to their own practice in using
a portfolio. Several needed more time to develop practical strategies for the portfolio, in the

24
context of discussion with their peers, and would have valued peer feedback on their entries.
This suggests that we cannot take for granted the learning processes on which the reflective
practitioner strategy rests. Reflection is something we engage in every day, but it is being
proposed in this context as a means of achieving specific learning outcomes - staff development
in particular. Its deliberate and strategic use in this way is not an everyday phenomenon, and
the experience reported suggests that non-threatening experimentation and peer group
support are required.
Apart from the underlying epistemological problems of the theory-practice relation,
there are also context specific factors which doubtless operate in the ease of experience
reported by Usher et al. Courses aimed (in part if not completely) at goals of professional
development have particular problems arising from the university context. Active processing
can take many forms, but the key processes reported here are reflection and active
experimentation. Students need time within the allotted study hours of the course to think
through (reflect upon) the implications of their study, and to learn from concrete experience in
using new ideas, (preferably in their own professional context) within the bounds of the course.
The learning processes that students need to develop to achieve the outcomes of professional
development however cannot be taken for granted and need explicit discussion and facilitator
and peer group support during the course of learning itself.

References:

 AIOU Course book code 8611 “Critical Thinking and Reflective Practices” .
 Freire, Paulo, 2007, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum
 www.kaganonline.com
 www.scribd.com

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