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Reflective Journal on Classroom Activities
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Traditionally education plays an important role in the life
of every individual and whole society. It is not a secret
that nowadays classroom activities may vary dramatically depending
not only on the subject or a teacher, as it used to be in
the past, but what is more important on students. Obviously,
the basic goal of teaching is not simply to provide students
with some information but it is much more significant and
may be defined as the teaching of students to search information
and produce knowledge independently in the course of their
life. However, it is a global goal which cannot be achieved
without a profound knowledge of all nuances of the teaching
process and classrooms activities. This is why it is very
important to analyze classroom activities which basically
include three interdependent components input, processing
and output. The latter is obviously the target component.
Consequently, it is necessary to find out the extent to which
it may be affected by input and processing and what other
factors influence output.
Speaking about classroom activities, it should be said that
their high efficiency and positive results may be achieved
only on the basis of practical implementation of theoretically
supported knowledge concerning the process of education, psychology,
and even physiology. Traditionally, the aim of any theory
concerning education is to increase the efficiency of the
learning process.
The contemporary education system applies educational theories
are widely. At the same time, it should be pointed out that
basically all theories target at three basic constituent elements
of the educational system which are as follows: input, processing
and output. Unquestionably all these elements are extremely
important and closely interlinked. However, before analyzing
their interrelation, it is primarily necessary to briefly
dwell upon each of them in order to properly understand their
role and significance for the educational system at large
and classroom activities.
First of all, inputs are traditionally referred to the ingredients
of learning. To put it in simple words, inputs are what teachers
are trying to teach students, learning materials and ways
of teaching. At the same time, inputs may be also defined
as conditions of learning. For instance, it may be the educational
level achieved by students, their social and cultural background,
or more trivial ones such as atmosphere in the classroom,
textbooks used in the classroom, etc. it should be pointed
out that theoretically the level of inputs is unlimited but
still, it is necessary to take into consideration such important
factors as the age of students, their level of development,
psychological state, the situation in the family and many
others but it is obvious that when people have no input to
follow then there will be no outputs.
Unlike inputs, outputs may be defined as goals, or what students
actually learning for as well as it is students’ learning
itself. In fact, in the hierarchy of the educational system
outputs occupy probably the top place though they cannot be
achieved without two other elements of the educational system,
i.e. inputs and processing.
As for the processing, it is not less, if not to say more
important than inputs and traditionally it is defined as the
teaching of material to students. In other words, it is the
learning process in which learning material is delivered and
taught to students.
At the same item, there are different factors that affect
educational process, including inputs, processing, and, naturally,
outputs. Among such factors, socio-economic status of a child
is extremely important and should be taken into consideration
as one of the most significant components of input. In fact,
socio-economic status, to a significant extent, defines the
education of a child. What is meant here is the fact that
traditionally, low socio-economic status of a child affects
negatively his/her learning because often such children are
simply deprived of a possibility to receive a good education,
or to continue their education in colleges after finishing
school. In this respect, it is worthy of note that lower socio-economic
status often leads to poor academic performance and this trend
is particularly strong among African-American students which
in the vast majority represent lower classes.
Furthermore, cultural background of students should be also
taken into consideration. Basically in a mono-cultural class
the pacing would easier since the class mentality would be
quite homogeneous, while in a culturally diverse class, along
with certain psychological peculiarities of each student,
it is also necessary to pay a lot of attention to their culture
and mentality.
In stark contrast, in culturally diverse classroom it is necessary
to take into consideration cultural peculiarities and mentality
of each student representing different ethnic or socio-cultural
group.
In such a situation, classroom serves a stimulus and response
factor to the needs of every student. In this respect, it
is worthy of note that the classroom as a stimulus is a form
of input, while the final goal of education, such as getting
a job after learning is a form of output. In such a way, the
correlation between input and output is obvious and it is
realized by means of processing.
Practically, it means that it is possible to apply the concept
of rational choice here. For instance, it is possible to define
some educative goal than choose the most efficient way of
realization of this goal in the process of education, and
finally achieve this goal as an output of learning.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible
to conclude that there are different factors that affect efficiency
of learning in the classroom. In this respect, inputs, processing
and outputs are of a paramount importance and cannot exist
separately. This is why the inputs and processing define outputs
along with such factors as socio-economic status of students
and their cultural background. In such a way, it is obvious
that in order to achieve positive results in education there
should exist a strong link between inputs, processing and
outputs, while socio-economic and cultural differences should
not play the defining role in the learning process.
Bibliography:
1. Hofmeister, A. and M. Lubke. Research Into Practice: Implementing
Effective Teaching Strategies. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999.
2. Using the Let Me Learn Process: To Recognize and Support
Diversity in Learning. Retrieved May 13, 2006 from <http://online.usc.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_7550_1>
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