Papers by KANNANAYAKAL RAJAN
Review of literature is an integral part of any research. However, the scope and purpose of revi... more Review of literature is an integral part of any research. However, the scope and purpose of review of literature vary with the context. The most common contexts in which review of literature is demanded are - - (1) A course assignment, (2) A short review for a research article, (3) A review for research proposal, (4) A stand alone review article and (5) A chapter-length review for thesis/dissertation. There are seven important steps in the task of review of literature. They are - - (1) How to search for studies? (2) How to select studies? (3) How to analyze studies? (4) Which scheme is appropriate for analysis? (5) How to compose/organize review of literature? (6) Scheme of presentation of review and (7) Conclusion.
Teacher is the backbone of any formal education system. Also, secret of quality education lies i... more Teacher is the backbone of any formal education system. Also, secret of quality education lies in the quality of teachers. To ensure quality of teachers, considerable effort and attention has been directed to in the preparation of teachers to discharge the instructional roles of teachers. However, less emphasis has been placed on the knowledge and skills required for the management and discipline for effective classroom transaction. A positive environment is a pre-requisite for effective classroom transaction. Effective classroom management is the key factor contributing to a positive classroom environment. The role of an effective classroom manager is to create a climate that welcomes, supports, and rewards innovative thinking and problem solving of students. When classroom-management strategies are executed effectively, teachers minimize the behaviors that impede learning for both individual students and groups of students, while maximizing the behaviors that facilitate or enhance learning. Lack of effective classroom management can mean that learning is reduced in the classroom. Traditional interpretation of effective classroom management focuses largely on compliance, viz., rules and strategies that teachers may use to make sure students are sitting in their seats, following directions and listening attentively. This framework mainly comes from an orientation that promotes direct teaching. A more encompassing view of classroom management extends to everything that teachers may do to facilitate or improve students’ active learning. This will include factors such as behavior of teachers, environment of the classroom, teacher expectations, materials and activities that teachers design to engage students. The time allocation and engaged time are all important components of effective classroom management. Disciplinary interventions are also important to elicit or compel changes in the behavior of students. The actions taken to compel positive behavior are very crucial in the light of new rules and regulations such as RTE. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize what research tells about classroom management and offer a perspective on its implications for teacher education.
Constructivism is a broad term used by philosophers, curriculum designers, psychologists, educato... more Constructivism is a broad term used by philosophers, curriculum designers, psychologists, educators, and others to emphasize the active role of the learner in making sense of information through individual and social activity. Constructivism focuses on different aspects such as construction of knowledge, processing of existing structures, connecting new ideas sometimes through their own thinking and sometimes in collaboration with others. Constructivism can also be conceived as a revolt against the traditional objectivism. Educationists and researchers have focused on various types of constructivism such as - - (1) Cognitive constructivism, (2) Social constructivism, (3) Radical constructivism, (4) Critical constructivism, (5) Personal constructivism and (6) Emancipatory constructivism. This paper details the pedagogical aspects of cognitive and social constructivism and the elements such as theory of knowledge, learning process, learner, teacher and classroom transaction.
Experimental research is an area where investigators have to make a decision regarding the use of... more Experimental research is an area where investigators have to make a decision regarding the use of one-tailed or two-tailed tests in hypothesis testing. Statistical hypothesis starts with the negation of the alternative hypothesis. Type I and type II errors are involved in the testing of hypothesis. The choice of one-tail or two-tail test is neither simply mechanical nor mathematical statistics but primarily a matter of experimental logic and human judgment. The investigator is more interested in reducing the Type I error, so, a two-tailed test must be preferred over a one-tailed test. It is true that the one-tailed test is more powerful but it should be used sparingly in the experimental research.
Phenomenological primitives play a vital role in learning science. Phenomenological primitives ar... more Phenomenological primitives play a vital role in learning science. Phenomenological primitives are primitive notions which stand without significant explanatory substructure or justification. Phenomenology makes a distinction between appearance and essence. Phenomenology is the study of essence. Phenomenology deals with question of what is the nature or meaning of something. This is different from naïve conceptions and prior knowledge. Naïve conceptions develop before students experience formal study of science. Prior knowledge is a combination of both knowledge and skills accumulated from previous experiences. However, phenomenological primitives may facilitate, interact or obstruct new learning. The aim of the present study was to shed some light on the phenomenological primitives of 11-year old students, more specifically on the concepts related to light, electricity, mass, weight and solutions. A 10-item two-tier multiple choice test was developed and administered to 414 sixth grade students of twelve schools. These schools included government, aided and unaided schools located in rural and urban areas. A few selected students were interviewed to understand their explanations of the reasoning. The results indicated that sixth grade students among several other p-prims hold that energy is associated with moving objects only. Since children's existing ideas have a major influence on learning, it is necessary that the teacher should be sensitive to his or her pupil's ideas. If teachers are aware of some possible views held by children at various age levels, then they can device appropriate methods to deal with different views held by their pupils.
Experimental research is an area where investigators have to make a decision regarding the use of... more Experimental research is an area where investigators have to make a decision regarding the use of one-tailed or two-tailed tests in hypothesis testing. Statistical hypothesis starts with the negation of the alternative hypothesis. Type I and type II errors are involved in the testing of hypothesis. The choice of one-tail or two-tail test is neither simply mechanical nor mathematical statistics but primarily a matter of experimental logic and human judgment. The investigator is more interested in reducing the Type I error, so, a two-tailed test must be preferred over a one-tailed test. It is true that the one-tailed test is more powerful but it should be used sparingly in the experimental research.
The teacher education programs aim at grooming teachers for the future. In any teacher education ... more The teacher education programs aim at grooming teachers for the future. In any teacher education program, planning of lesson is an important activity. Planning of lesson serves many purposes and stems from different perspectives. These perspectives are grouped into four, viz., (1) General Approach, (2) Focussing on Objectives of Instruction, (3) Grounded in Psychosocial Theories and (4) Comprehensive Models of Lesson Planning. These perspectives are not mutually exclusive and are not claimed to be exhaustive. How to plan a lesson remains a problematic but crucial topic for teacher education. But there are dominant model of lesson planning at institutional and university levels. There are various reasons why a definite model in the lesson planning is popularised at institutional and university levels. The ideas presented in this paper are intended to encourage teacher educators to refrain from imposing a linear structure on the planning of lesson which is against the principle of flexibility. Also, teachertrainees should be exposed to a wide range of possibilities to develop a lesson so to enable them to personalise their own lesson plan.
Constructivism involves learner's activation of several cognitive processes such as paying attent... more Constructivism involves learner's activation of several cognitive processes such as paying attention and selecting relevant information, organizing information and integrating incoming information with existing knowledge. Cognitive constructivism is a system of exploration of how learners, as individuals, adapt and refine knowledge. In contrast to cognitive constructivism, social constructivism views knowledge as primarily a cultural product. Cognitive constructivism focuses on the internal structure of concepts, whereas social constructivism focuses on the context of their acquisition. Constructivist learning pose four dilemmas (1) Conceptual, (2) Pedagogical, (3) Cultural and (4) Political. There is another fundamental issue relavent in constructivism that the understanding of students emerging from constructivist instruction is not compatible with the evaluation system in place. However, Goodlad reported an extraordinary sameness of learning environment that is prevalent in most of the schools. Thus, the constructivist classroom transactions and evaluation procedures are far more complicated than proposed by educationists.
Curriculum is the totality of all experiences that learners receive inside and outside the classr... more Curriculum is the totality of all experiences that learners receive inside and outside the classroom. These experiences are devised to achieve certain objectives. Teacher education curriculum is intended to equip teachers with necessary skills in view of the changing needs of the society in general and that of students in particular. What professional skills would strengthen the budding teachers to meet the challenges of the different aspects of curriculum? Development of curriculum operates at four levels --ideological, societal, institutional and instructional. These dimensions in any curriculum development need ample consideration. There are two fundamental practices in any planning, that is, top-down planning and bottom-up planning. Although bottom-up planning is more scientific, the top-down planning is most popular when it comes to curriculum development. This paper deals with only the change necessitated due to the recent understanding about the teaching-learning processes. The new understanding about the teaching-learning processes such as cognitive and social constructivism necessitates a new approach in classroom transaction. However, there is a mismatch between pre-service training and requirements of present day classrooms. There seems to be two dimension to the mismatch --(1) What is dealt in theory is not finding proper application in classrooms and (2) What is practiced in pre-service programme is different from what is required in regular classrooms. There are very strong observations about the inadequacy of teacher education curriculum in the Kerala Curriculum Framework (2007). However, curriculum development process may magnify and exaggerate certain features (elements) of curriculum and throw others out of focus.
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Papers by KANNANAYAKAL RAJAN