Hello again, and welcome to Alex's Education Blog, where we continue to look at new innovations and ideas for 21st century education! This post will look into the world of "Student Profiles" and their significance in the classroom. As a future educator, I believe it is crucial to connect with your students, because education should not be a top-down style of distributing knowledge, but rather a shared process of information and growth from both students and educators. Through a look into the world of student profiles, we will be able to build towards better educational experiences that allows for a greater connection between students and their teachers!
This idea of a student profile may seem very new and unusual to many who have not experienced it before. Throughout my educational experience, until attending Brock University, I had not ever created, or even heard of the idea of a student profile. My Brock University profile however is very different from the one I am going to describe so I will not use it as a comparative basis. The idea of the student profile however, is not overly complex, but is a very powerful tool to help build a stronger relationship and understanding between students and teachers in the classroom. Most people in the education system, including myself, have experienced being in a classroom with over 30 students, and in schools with sometimes over 1000 students, so it easy to see how it can at times be tough for teachers to build connections with their students, and furthermore, truly understand the individual needs of each student. Using Spearman rho correlation coefficient, Yetunde Ijaiya discovers, a weak positive correlation was found between the opinion of teachers and students on the most serious effects of over-crowded classroom (Ijaiya). A student learner profile can help this process, as teachers can refer to the profile of a specific student to help further understand their needs, and connect with them.
Now you may be wondering, what is the criteria for a student profile. As each student is unique, their profiles can outline what makes them unique, and important things for the teacher to know. Some of the criteria can include: their interests/hobbies, their favourite subjects, the type of learner they are, favourite movies or books, personal information about them like their birthday, and anything else they would like to include about their personal self, or educational information. The profile however, can also include educational information about what subjects they have difficulties in, goals they would like to set and achieve, and what skills they would like to improve and develop. These pieces of information are all important as they not only help teachers learn about their students more in depth, but helps provide them with areas that they specifically need more help in and would like to develop. For more information on building a successful Learner Profile you may want to check out Developing Learner Profiles, created by the Alberta Government.
In the Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment textbook, a student profile is described as a "living document that travels with a student through his or her school career and is updated frequently" (Drake, Reid, Kolohon). This concept is crucial for the profile to be a successful educational component. The profile should be developed for and by a student at the beginning of their educational journey, and be constantly accessible for revision and updates. By doing this, students can track their process and build upon skills that at one point was a challenge, but through constant progress may no longer be an issue. It also allows teachers to know their changing hobbies or interest as they grow as students and ultimately as people.
The Student Learner Profile is an excellent 21st century education tool that can be used to help build a stronger connection amongst teachers and students, and allow students, parents and teachers to track progress of their students and understand their educational and personal interests, strengths and weaknesses. Educational consultant John McCarthy states that, we can start using learning profiles when we know the various ways that each of our students makes sense of content. The more we understand our students, the more efficient we can ensure their learning successes (McCarthy). For more information on John McCarthy you can click here to check out his education blog! I will once again leave you with this example video from Epiphany Learning, and how they help many students and teachers build profiles to help better their educational experiences!
Cheers for now,
Alex Graham
Sources:
Drake, S., Reid, J., & Kolohon, W. (2014). The Twenty-First Century Teacher. In Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st-Century Learner (p. 54). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford.
Ijaiya, Y. (1999). Effects of Over-Crowded Classrooms on Teacher-Student Interactions. Department of Educational Management, University of Ilorin.
McCarthy, J. (2014). How Learning Profiles Can Strengthen Your Teaching. Edutopia.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post! It’s organized structure and excellent flow (i.e. word choice) made it very easy to read. This is something I will keep in mind when posting on my own blog. I really appreciate how you welcomed back your readers. I thought this was an excellent personal touch. Corresponding with this, I like how you incorporated your own personal view on “student learner profiles.” I was also unfamiliar with this concept until attending Brock University. As future educators, it is extremely important we find ways to connect with our students. Connecting and building positive relationships with students is a topic I have recently begun to give great consideration. I want to mention your notable improvement on the use of hyperlinks and incorporating these in a visually appealing manner. The only constructive criticism I can offer is providing an overall summary or short quick message after your video. In doing so, you can leave your readers with something to critically think about. I want to you leave you with this question: how might educators have to consider student learner profiles in various contexts (a Physical education class versus an English class)?
Excellent Work!
Rachelle
Alex,
ReplyDeleteThis is a well done second blog post, it is visually appealing and interesting. I particularly liked your opening in which you welcomed readers to your blog, and used phrasing that made it clear that the post was intended for a wider audience than just the class. One issue that I found with your text was that you did not explain what a Student Learner profile until almost halfway through the post, this was very confusing for me as they are not a concept that I was familiar with. That being said, I found that you did an excellent job of explaining them once you got to it, but it would have been preferable if this was done in the first paragraph. I also found that your paragraphs could have been broken up more effectively, and you could have positioned your images to better separate paragraphs, and give readers a break from looking at solid text. However, your images and video were well chosen and incorporated, I particularly like the cartoon. I also noticed a real improvement in your use of formatting options offered by the website, such as hyperlink text, and page breaks. Again, this is a good follow up to your first post.
Well done,
Duff
Alex,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post, and I thought this was a great continuation of your blog. Your post this week shows a lot of growth, and you really did a good job of expanding your audience and writing for a wide audience, while keeping a personal touch with your blog post. Before reading your post I was really not familiar with the idea of student profiles, and I found your blog very informative. Your personal experiences with large classes were relatable, and really captured the need for ways to expand personal connections to teachers. You provided a very good summary and analysis of the features and benefits of student profiles, but I would have liked to see a few more ideas of how you would personally use these profiles in your own class. Your visuals and formatting were much improved this week, and your images were well incorporated. However, I would also recommend that you really try to avoid any awkward phrases or run-on sentences. Your blog is informative, but taking the time to work on your writing style would make it clearer, more professional, and really take it to the next level. Overall, a very interesting post this week Alex!