Messages

31

Inspiration Stories / Strategies for Motivating Students

« on: April 02, 2018, 07:07:44 PM »

Strategies for Motivating Students
Following are some research-based strategies for motivating students to learn.

Become a role model for student interest. Deliver your presentations with energy and enthusiasm.  As a display of your motivation, your passion motivates your students. Make the course personal, showing why you are interested in the material.
Get to know your students. You will be able to better tailor your instruction to the students’ concerns and backgrounds, and your personal interest in them will inspire their personal loyalty to you. Display a strong interest in students’ learning and a faith in their abilities.
Use examples freely. Many students want to be shown why a concept or technique is useful before they want to study it further. Inform students about how your course prepares students for future opportunities.
Use a variety of student-active teaching activities. These activities directly engage students in the material and give them opportunities to achieve a level of mastery.
Teach by discovery.  Students find as satisfying as reasoning through a problem and discovering the underlying principle on their own.
Cooperative learning activities are particularly effective as they also provide positive social pressure.
Set realistic performance goals and help students achieve them by encouraging them to set their own reasonable goals. Design assignments that are appropriately challenging in view of the experience and aptitude of the class.
Place appropriate emphasis on testing and grading. Tests should be a means of showing what students have mastered, not what they have not. Avoid grading on the curve and give everyone the opportunity to achieve the highest standard and grades.
Be free with praise and constructive in criticism. Negative comments should pertain to particular performances, not the performer. Offer nonjudgmental feedback on students’ work, stress opportunities to improve, look for ways to stimulate advancement, and avoid dividing students into sheep and goats.
Give students as much control over their own education as possible. Let students choose paper and project topics that interest them. Assess them in a variety of ways (tests, papers, projects, presentations, etc.) to give students more control over how they show their understanding to you. Give students options for how these assignments are weighted.
Sources:

Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 32-42.
Linda Nilson, Teaching At Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, 2nd edition, Anker Publishing, 2003, pages 41-44.
Matt DeLong and Dale Winter, Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, pages 159-168.

32

Inspiration Stories / Effects of Motivation on Learning Styles

« on: April 02, 2018, 07:07:05 PM »

Effects of Motivation on Learning Styles
Deep learners respond well to the challenge of mastering a difficult and complex subject. These are intrinsically motivated students who are often a joy to teach!
Strategic learners are motivated primarily by rewards. They react well to competition and the opportunity to best others. They often make good grades but won’t engage deeply with a subject unless there is a clear reward for doing so. They are sometimes called “bulimic learners,” learning as much as they need to do well on a test or exam and then promptly forgetting the material once the assessment is over.Handle strategic learners by avoiding appeals to competition. Appeal to their intrinsic interest in the subject at hand. Design your assignments (tests, papers, projects, etc.) so that deep engagement with the subject is necessary for success on the assignments. Do so by requiring students to apply, synthesize, or evaluate material instead of merely comprehending or memorizing material.
Surface learners are often motivated by a desire to avoid failure. They typically avoid deep learning because it they see it as inherently risky behavior. They will often do what it takes to pass an exam or course, but they won’t choose to go beyond the minimum required for fear of failure.Handle surface learners by helping them gain confidence in their abilities to learn and perform. “Scaffold” course material and assignments by designing a series of activities or assignments that build on each other over time in complexity and challenge. Encourage these learners often and help them reflect on what they’ve learned and what they’ve accomplished.
Source: Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 40-41.

33

Inspiration Stories / Motivation for professional development

« on: April 02, 2018, 07:06:01 PM »

Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivators include fascination with the subject, a sense of its relevance to life and the world, a sense of accomplishment in mastering it, and a sense of calling to it.

Students who are intrinsically motivated might say things like the following.

“Literature interests me.”
“Learning math enables me to think clearly.”
“I feel good when I succeed in class.”
Advantages: Intrinsic motivation can be long-lasting and self-sustaining.  Efforts to build this kind of motivation are also typically efforts at promoting student learning.  Such efforts often focus on the subject rather than rewards or punishments.

Disadvantages: On the other hand, efforts at fostering intrinsic motivation can be slow to affect behavior and can require special and lengthy preparation.  Students are individuals, so a variety of approaches may be needed to motivate different students. It is often helpful to know what interests one’s students in order to connect these interests with the subject matter. This requires getting to know one’s students. Also, it helps if the instructor is interested in the subject to begin with!

Source: Matt DeLong and Dale Winter, Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, page 163.

Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivators include parental expectations, expectations of other trusted role models, earning potential of a course of study, and grades (which keep scholarships coming).

Students who are extrinsically motivated might say things like the following.

“I need a B- in statistics to get into business school.”
“If I flunk chemistry, I will lose my scholarship.”
“Our instructor will bring us donuts if we do well on today’s quiz.”
Advantages: Extrinsic motivators more readily produce behavior changes and typically involve relatively little effort or preparation. Also, efforts at applying extrinsic motivators often do not require extensive knowledge of individual students.

Disadvantages: On the other hand, extrinsic motivators can often distract students from learning the subject at hand. It can be challenging to devise appropriate rewards and punishments for student behaviors. Often, one needs to escalate the rewards and punishments over time to maintain a certain effect level. Also, extrinsic motivators typically do not work over the long term. Once the rewards or punishments are removed, students lose their motivation.

Source: Matt DeLong and Dale Winter, Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, page 163.

Furthermore, research indicates that extrinsic rewards can have a negative impact on intrinsic motivation. In one series of experiments, psychologist Edward Deci had two groups of college students play with a puzzle called Soma. One group of students was paid for each puzzle they solved; the other wasn’t. He found that the group that was paid to solve puzzles stopped solving puzzles as soon as the experiment—and the payment—ended. However, the group that wasn’t paid kept solving the puzzles even after the experiment was over. They had found the puzzles intrinsically interesting. Deci argued that the group that had been paid to solve puzzles might have found the puzzles intrinsically interesting as well, but the extrinsic, monetary reward had reduced their intrinsic interest.

Source: Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 32-33.

34

Fashion / New Trend!

« on: April 02, 2018, 01:15:02 PM »

http://trends.newagebd.net/6244/pottery-the-next-big-trend/

35

Fashion / Indulge in holidays ( My write up)

« on: April 02, 2018, 01:14:18 PM »

http://trends.newagebd.net/5802/indulge-in-holidays/

36

English / Potteries! (My write up for Daily New Age)

« on: April 02, 2018, 01:12:42 PM »

You can check the feature. It's about the trend of potteries. Back in 2017, when I used to write for daily New Age newspaper. 

http://trends.newagebd.net/6244/pottery-the-next-big-trend/

37

Teaching & Research Forum / Boost up IP!

« on: April 01, 2018, 06:25:01 PM »

To become a standout success, invest in yourself. The deeper your investment, the more fit you become for sustaining your entrepreneurial journey. You can only grow your career to the extent that you grow yourself. The good news is, time invested into your own personal growth is completely under your control. You will either do it and standout, or not. To follow are some simple ways to expand both your intellectual and emotional intelligence capacities.

1. Expand your horizons.
Expanding your horizons unlocks the world to you by introducing you to possibility. Novel experiences invite the unfamiliar into your life. The unfamiliar gifts you with diverse experiences which vastly increase your knowledge. The brain responds to new things by creating new neural pathways. Each new pathway become stronger with repetition giving us new skills and strengths. For this reason, you should always strive to be just a bit outside your comfort zone. This can be accomplished very easily. You can choose to visit new places, take a different route to the office, or even brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand. The brain isformed around habits. The more rigid and habituated you are the harder it is to cope with change. Whatever is routine in your life actually keeps you from growing in the ways you could if you did just a few things a bit differently on a daily basis. Mix things up to train yourself to thrive in new ways, with new people, and in new environments.

Related: I Started Saying 'No' to These 6 Things. My Life and My Business Got a Lot Better.

2. Be imaginative.
All success begins as imagined outcomes, opportunities and possibilities. The more imaginative you allow yourself to be, the more open you are to creating innovative and effective problem-solving techniques, brainstorming skills and networking skills. The more visionary, the more well-known you become for ability to draw inspiration from all areas of life whenever the need presents itself. This type of creativity gives you a confidence that helps you tremendously whether you're in your daily life or when this skill becomes useful in your business life. People will know that you are the person to go to when new and inventive ideas are necessary to get things moving in a new and better direction. Creativity is the key trait you need to be an intelligent innovator. There is no such thing as "not creative." You all have it, and not only does a little creativity increase the passion you have for what you do, but it can also make the most tedious work a bit more entertaining.

3. Pleasure reading.
Success is not only important to strive for, but is the main priority for Entrepreneurs, so much so, that many of you forget to have fun, to relax and decompress. Personal growth doesn't always mean you have your nose in some sort of a textbook. Reading in general, regardless of the content, is fabulous for your brain. Whether it's a murder mystery, fiction, your favorite poetry or a sports magazine, reading stimulates your imaginative process. Without your conscious effort your brain is translating the words into images that play like a movie in your mind. Reading gives you a break, puts you into another world and creates an emotional connection between yourself and the words on the paper. You all need some time to escape. If you can't vacation, reading a book is a great substitute. Further, reading increases your vocabulary, provides your brain with examples of correct grammar and helps you become not only a better reader and writer, but more importantly a more other-centered communicator.

Related: 10 Simple Daily Practices That Will Make You Happier

4. Train your brain.
There are numerous easy-to-get-ahold-of techniques to keep your mind sharp. There are many word puzzle apps and other apps like Luminosity that are free on your smartphone that provide games and problem-solving techniques designed to increase the neuroplasticity of your brain. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to form new neural connections enabling you to function at a higher level. The more neuroplasticity your brain has the faster it makes new connections and the quicker and more effectively you process information. Achieving great success comes down to decision-making, and yet so few train their brain for this on a daily basis.

5. Consistently learn.
There is always something to still learn. Never be above education. Be passionate for acquiring and developing new skills and information. To become a successful Entrepreneur, you must always be searching for what is new and what is not yet fully understood on the cutting edges of your industry. When you continue your education, it is humbling to grasp how much there still is to know. The more you learn the more prepared you become for excellent strategizing. The more knowledge you acquire the more information you have available to you when making critical decisions. Learning is what grows your confidence. It is what increases your skill base and adds to your talent. It is also what allows you to work smarter not just harder. Always assume there is more you need to learn and you will experience a direct and obvious increase in your ability to achieve.

Related: You Can Motivate Yourself to Start Again After a Business Failure

6. Physical activity.
Physical activity not only gets you in better shape, but it gives you a higher functioning brain. The brain responds best when it is full of oxygen. When you give your brain the oxygen-boost it needs from exercise, it improves your memory, boosts your ability to focus, and prevents cognitive decline. Without exercise your brain cannot take in new information or generate the development of new cells. The quickest and most efficient way to become smarter, less stressed, less depressed and more energetic is to get your body moving.

Related: 12 Scientifically Proven Ways to Reinvent Yourself

7. Get enough sleep.
Research has proven that when you put yourself into sleep deprivation, not only does it put your performance in jeopardy but it impacts everyone else around you that depends upon you to perform at your peak. Copious studies have proven that sleep deprivation is the antithesis of intellectual management. Working around the clock makes you as dangerous to yourself and others as someone who is intoxicated. Getting enough sleep determines your ability to sustain attention and maintain intellectual excellence. It is such a simple thing to do, and yet so few discipline themselves to take care of what is directly under their control that can make a huge difference in their life and success. Don't let this be you.

Related: 5 Powerful Ways to Become Your Best Self

8. How you dress.
What you wear has been proven to have a direct impact on enhancing your intelligence. The "Stroop Test" showed that people who wore lab jackets performed better on mental performance tests than those in the control group who did not wear the lab coat. There is power in a uniform. Embrace how important it is to dress for the professional role you play. For one, how you dress makes a direct statement to you about who you are and what your success-potential is. When you dress for you role, you perform for your role. Secondly, how you dress has an immediate impact on how others perceive you and your intellectual capacity. The more you dress for the occasion, the more valuable you will feel and the more seriously you will be taken. The brain responds not to just to knowledge but also to mood. When you dress better you feel better. The more you elevate your mood, the more open, flexible and intelligent you feel and are experienced by others when negotiating, interacting with colleagues or when presenting yourself to a group of people. For this reason, dress to impress

38

English / Learn to learn!

« on: April 01, 2018, 06:20:11 PM »

If you ask teachers and parents, and even some older students, for tips on how best to learn, you will get lots of advice. Some based on their personal experience  - what worked for them - some on what they have seen work for students and some derived from research.

In his book "How We Learn – The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why it Happens”, Benedict Carey includes some tips based on scientific research. Of the nine tips below, the first eight come from Carey’s book and I have added a ninth: Increase Your Brain’s Capacity to Learn.

Here are the tips:
Vary your learning routine, locations and material.

Many students have a fixed time and place to study. However research has shown that varying your study location – at home in a different room, at school, in a library- can improve learning. In a similar way occasionally changing the time of day you study and the materials you use - laptop, pen and paper, speaking into a voice recorder - also boost learning.

Get a good night’s sleep.

But vary your sleep time depending on what you are learning.

If you are trying to learn facts like names, formulas and dates, go to bed early and get the deep sleep of the early evening. Then get up early and review what you had been learning the day before.

The sleep that best consolidates creative thinking and motor skills happens in the morning before awakening. So to learn these skills you may find it best to go to bed a little later than normal and sleep in a bit.
Space your study time.

It's better to do two one-hour study sessions than a single unbroken two-hour session. You will remember more if you do an hour today, then another hour tomorrow, especially if you get the right sleep during the night (see tip 2).

"Cramming" for an exam can work…. for your exam results.

This is a last resort tactic and is proven to work short term, so you will probably do better in the exam. But you won't remember much long term.

Your brain makes long-term memories only after some forgetting has happened. This is similar to a muscle that needs exercise to break it down a little so that it can become stronger.

Use self testing.

This is a strong, proven learning technique. You can test yourself by trying to remember what you were learning, or explaining it aloud to yourself or to someone who is prepared to listen. You can get friends to quiz you. One of the benefits is that is that you can get immediate feedback whether you are right or wrong.

Take notes in class and review them.

But don't be passive. Don’t take notes verbatim and just look over them, or review highlighted text. This won't be much help for your learning.

Be an active note taker. Try to make notes from the important points of the class then rewrite them without looking at the notes. This works your memory harder and immediately shows you what you don't know.

Don't worry about short breaks or distractions while you're studying.

Learning scientists know that a short break while you are trying to solve a problem you're stuck on is one of the best ways to succeed. When you take a break, your brain will continue to work on the problem subconsciously, without the imposition of preconceived ideas you may have had.

Create learning sessions where you mix knowledge areas or skills.

When you focus on learning one thing at a time, it is the fastest way to acquire the learning but it can put a limit on the extent of the learning.

Mixing the knowledge areas in a learning session – for example working on maths, then history, then building a PowerPoint presentation about astronomy in a single learning session will sharpen your grasp on all of them better than if you used the session for one knowledge area alone.

Increase your brain’s capacity to learn.

The first eight tips are really about how to get the best result from your brain’s current “learning capacity”. By “learning capacity” I mean the  physical structure of your brain, including all the neural networks that determine how well you can think (your memory, attention, speed of processing and ability to sequence ideas).

Imagine if you could increase your brain’s ability to do those things better. Thanks to recent neuroscience research and the conversion of that into a range of brain training programs we all now have the ability to improve our learning capacity.

39

English / Re: Conference at TU

« on: April 01, 2018, 06:19:12 PM »

Thanks a lot ma'am.

40

Library of DIU / How can we learn to learn

« on: April 01, 2018, 06:17:07 PM »

If you ask teachers and parents, and even some older students, for tips on how best to learn, you will get lots of advice. Some based on their personal experience  - what worked for them - some on what they have seen work for students and some derived from research.

In his book "How We Learn – The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why it Happens”, Benedict Carey includes some tips based on scientific research. Of the nine tips below, the first eight come from Carey’s book and I have added a ninth: Increase Your Brain’s Capacity to Learn.

Here are the tips:
Vary your learning routine, locations and material.

Many students have a fixed time and place to study. However research has shown that varying your study location – at home in a different room, at school, in a library- can improve learning. In a similar way occasionally changing the time of day you study and the materials you use - laptop, pen and paper, speaking into a voice recorder - also boost learning.

Get a good night’s sleep.

But vary your sleep time depending on what you are learning.

If you are trying to learn facts like names, formulas and dates, go to bed early and get the deep sleep of the early evening. Then get up early and review what you had been learning the day before.

The sleep that best consolidates creative thinking and motor skills happens in the morning before awakening. So to learn these skills you may find it best to go to bed a little later than normal and sleep in a bit.
Space your study time.

It's better to do two one-hour study sessions than a single unbroken two-hour session. You will remember more if you do an hour today, then another hour tomorrow, especially if you get the right sleep during the night (see tip 2).

"Cramming" for an exam can work…. for your exam results.

This is a last resort tactic and is proven to work short term, so you will probably do better in the exam. But you won't remember much long term.

Your brain makes long-term memories only after some forgetting has happened. This is similar to a muscle that needs exercise to break it down a little so that it can become stronger.

Use self testing.

This is a strong, proven learning technique. You can test yourself by trying to remember what you were learning, or explaining it aloud to yourself or to someone who is prepared to listen. You can get friends to quiz you. One of the benefits is that is that you can get immediate feedback whether you are right or wrong.

Take notes in class and review them.

But don't be passive. Don’t take notes verbatim and just look over them, or review highlighted text. This won't be much help for your learning.

Be an active note taker. Try to make notes from the important points of the class then rewrite them without looking at the notes. This works your memory harder and immediately shows you what you don't know.

Don't worry about short breaks or distractions while you're studying.

Learning scientists know that a short break while you are trying to solve a problem you're stuck on is one of the best ways to succeed. When you take a break, your brain will continue to work on the problem subconsciously, without the imposition of preconceived ideas you may have had.

Create learning sessions where you mix knowledge areas or skills.

When you focus on learning one thing at a time, it is the fastest way to acquire the learning but it can put a limit on the extent of the learning.

Mixing the knowledge areas in a learning session – for example working on maths, then history, then building a PowerPoint presentation about astronomy in a single learning session will sharpen your grasp on all of them better than if you used the session for one knowledge area alone.

Increase your brain’s capacity to learn.

The first eight tips are really about how to get the best result from your brain’s current “learning capacity”. By “learning capacity” I mean the  physical structure of your brain, including all the neural networks that determine how well you can think (your memory, attention, speed of processing and ability to sequence ideas).

Imagine if you could increase your brain’s ability to do those things better. Thanks to recent neuroscience research and the conversion of that into a range of brain training programs we all now have the ability to improve our learning capacity.

41

English / Conference at TU

« on: March 29, 2018, 08:12:41 PM »

It was really an overwhelming experience for me to attend the First annual conference on ELT and Applied Linguistics which was held at Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Thanks all for your support. The photos of the conference are attached here

42

English / Re: Pre-reading activities part 9

« on: March 29, 2018, 08:02:03 PM »

woderful! It really works.

43

English / Motivation: Food for thought

« on: March 29, 2018, 08:01:25 PM »

44

Teaching & Research Forum / The 5 principles of highly effective teachers: A must watch

« on: March 29, 2018, 07:58:54 PM »

45

Use of Forum / Re: Daffodil International University Forum (User Guideline)

« on: September 10, 2017, 11:20:10 PM »

Thanks for your instructions and I found all of these information really helpful (as I am new here in this forum).
Thanks once again.