miércoles, 30 de septiembre de 2015
sábado, 26 de septiembre de 2015
What's ADHD (and What's Not) in the Classroom
Signs that a child might have the disorder, and other problems that may be confused with ADHD
by Caroline Miller. Editorial Director, Child Mind Institute
Many children with ADHD show signs of the disorder before they reach school age. But it's in school, when they are having trouble meeting expectations for kids in their grade, that most are referred for diagnosis.
ADHD is one of the first things that's suspected when a child's behavior in class, or performance on schoolwork, is problematic. A child who can't seem to sit still, who blurts out answers in class without raising his hand, who doesn't finish his homework, who seems to be daydreaming when the teacher gives instructions—these are well-known symptoms of ADHD.
But these are also behaviors that can be a result of other factors, from anxiety to trauma to just being younger than most of the kids in the class, and hence a little less mature.
That's why it's important for teachers and parents both to be aware of what ADHD looks like in the classroom, and how it might be confused with other things that could be influencing a child's behavior. Observing kids carefully is especially important when kids are too young to be able to articulate what they are feeling. And referring struggling kids for diagnosis and appropriate support can help them succeed in school and other parts of their lives, too.
ADHD symptoms
There are three kinds of behavior involved in ADHD: inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Of course all young children occasionally have trouble paying attention to teachers and parents, staying in their seats, and waiting their turn. Kids should only be diagnosed with ADHD if their behavior is much more extreme in these areas than other kids their age.
These symptoms of ADHD are divided into two groups—inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive. Some children exhibit mostly inattentive behaviors and others predominantly hyperactive-impulsive. But the majority of those with ADHD have a combination of both, which may make it very difficult for them to function in school.
Here are behaviors you might observe in school in those two categories.
Inattentive symptoms of ADHD:
- Makes careless mistakes in school work, overlooks details
- Is easily distracted or sidetracked
- Has difficulty following instructions
- Doesn't seem to be listening when spoken to directly
- Has trouble organizing tasks and possessions
- Often fails to finish work in school or chores in the classroom
- Often avoids or resists tasks that require sustained mental effort, including doing homework
- Often loses homework assignments, books, jackets, backpacks, sports equipment
- Often fidgets or squirms
- Has trouble staying in his seat
- Runs and climbs where it's inappropriate
- Has trouble playing quietly
- Is extremely impatient, can't wait for his turn
- Always seems to be "on the go" or "driven by a motor"
- Talks excessively
- Blurts out answers before a question is completed
- Interrupts or intrudes on others conversations, activities, possessions
It's important to keep in mind that not every high-energy or impulsive child has ADHD. Children are diagnosed with ADHD only if they demonstrate these symptoms so often that they are causing real difficulty in at least two settings—ie at school and at home. And the pattern that's causing them serious impairment must persist for at least 6 months.
Age matters
It's also important, when considering a child's behavior, to compare it to other children the same age—not to the range of kids in his class or grade. Within any given grade, kids' ages can differ by almost a year, and a year can make a big difference in a child's ability to self-regulate.
Two studies in the last few years, concluded that kids who are youngest in their class are disproportionately diagnosed with ADHD. A Michigan study found that kindergarteners who are the youngest in their grade are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than the oldest in their grade. And it doesn't affect just kindergarteners: a North Carolina study found that in fifth and eighth grade, the youngest children were almost twice as likely as the oldest to be prescribed medication for ADHD.
Other causes
When children exhibit behaviors that we associate with ADHD, it's important to keep in mind that they could be caused by other underlying factors. A child who is inattentive could be distracted by chronic anxiety, by a worrisome or painful situation at home, or because she's being bullied in the playground. These are all things a child might be embarrassed by and go to some lengths to keep secret.
Another thing children often hide is undiagnosed learning disorders. If a child is fidgeting when she's supposed to be reading, it may be that dyslexia is causing her great frustration. And if she bolts from her chair, it could be because she is ashamed that she doesn't seem to be able to do what the other kids can do, and intent on covering that fact up.
Girls are different
The stereotype of ADHD is boys disrupting the classroom by jumping up from their seats, getting in other kids' business, or blurting out answers without raising their hands. But girls get ADHD too, and they tend to be diagnosed much later because their symptoms are more subtle. More of them have the only inattentive symptoms of ADHD, and they get written off as dreamy or ditzy. If they have the hyperactive-impulsive symptoms they are more likely to be seen as pushy, hyper-talkative, or overemotional. Impulsive girls may have trouble being socially appropriate and struggle to make and keep Friends.
But a big reason that many girls aren't diagnosed is that they knock themselves out to compensate for their weaknesses and hide their embarrassment about falling behind, losing things, feeling clueless. The growing awareness, as they get older, that they have to work much harder than their peers without ADHD to accomplish the same thing is very damaging to their self-esteem. Girls who are chronically hard on themselves about their lapses may be struggling with thoughts that they're stupid or broken.
Since they don't fit the stereotype, they often go undiagnosed, at great cost both emotionally and academically. Keeping a keen eye on kids' behavior in the classroom is important not just because it affects their learning—and potentially the ability of other kids in the class to learn—but also because it's a window into their social and emotional development. When kids are failing or struggling in school for an extended period of time, or acting out in frustration, without getting help, it can lead to a pattern of dysfunctional behavior that gets harder and harder to break.
That's why it's important for parents to get a good diagnosis from a mental health professional who takes the time to carefully consider the pattern of a child's behavior and what it might (and might not) indicate. Being not only caring but precise about defining and treating a child's problems when he is young pays off many times over in the long run.
Published: March 10, 2015
viernes, 25 de septiembre de 2015
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miércoles, 23 de septiembre de 2015
Techniques for Creative Teaching
Techniques for Creative Teaching
Creative teaching
In order to teach creativity, one must teach creatively;
that is, it will take a great deal of creative effort to bring out the most
creative thinking in your classes. Of course, creativity is not the only
required element for creative instructors. They must also know their fields and
know how to create an appropriate learning environment. When will it be most
important for you to offer direct instruction? When is discovery most
important? What are your expectations and how can you best communicate them?
Because answers to these questions are so diverse — even for
individual instructors teaching different courses or at various times of the
semester — no one technique will fit all needs. Here are several approaches or
techniques for teaching creatively, both general and specific to certain
fields. More examples of field-specific
approaches or techniques appear in the Creative teachers section.
General Techniques:
These creative thinking techniques were culled from the
Internet and summarized by Yao Lu, a graduate student in AESHM (Apparel,
Educational Studies, and hospitality Management). Some of the techniques listed
below are used in business training or in K-12 settings but can easily be
adapted for college students.
Assumption Busting
What: An assumption is an unquestioned, assumed truth.
Assumption busting is particularly effective when one is stuck in current
thinking paradigms or has run out of ideas.
Benefits: Everyone makes assumptions about how the world
around us, which in creative situations, can prevent seeing or generating
possibilities. Deliberately seeking out and addressing previously unquestioned
assumptions stimulates creative thinking.
How: List assumptions associated with a task or problem, for
example, that a solution is impossible
due to time and cost constraints; something works because certain rules or
conditions; and people believe, need or think of certain things. Then ask under
what conditions these assumptions are not true, continue the process of
examination as old assumptions are challenged and new ones are created. An
alternative way of proceeding is to find ways to force assumptions to be true.
This is the opposite of challenging assumptions in the previous step.
Brainstorming
What: Brainstorming, a useful tool to develop creative
solutions to a problem, is a lateral thinking process by which students are
asked to develop ideas or thoughts that may seem crazy or shocking at first.
Participants can then change and improve them into original and useful ideas.
Brainstorming can help define an issue, diagnose a problem, or possible
solutions and resistance to proposed solutions.
How: Define the
problem clearly lay out any criteria to be met. Keep the session focused on the
problem, but be sure that no one criticizes or evaluates ideas during the
session, even if they are clearly impractical. Criticism dampens creativity in
the initial stages of a brainstorming session. Ideas should be listed, rather
than developed deeply on the spot; the idea is to generate possibilities.
Accordingly, participants should be encouraged to pick up on ideas offered to
create new ones. One person should be appointed as note-taker, and ideas should
be studied and evaluated after the session.
Negative (or Reverse) Brainstorming
What: Negative brainstorming involves analyzing a short list
of existing ideas, rather than the initial massing of ideas as in conventional
brainstorming. Examining potential failures is relevant when an idea is new or
complex or when there is little margin for error. Negative brainstorming raises
such questions as: “What could go wrong with this project?”
Benefits: Reverse brain-storming is valuable when it is
difficult to identify direct solutions to a problem.
How: After clearly defining
a problem or challenge, ask “How could I cause this problem?” or “How could I
make things worse?” As with brainstorming, allow ideas to flow freely without
rejecting any. Evaluating these negative ideas can lead to possible positive
solutions. See also Negative Brainstorming.
Concept Mapping
What: Concept maps represent knowledge graphic form.
Networks consist of nods, which represent concepts, and links, which represent
relationships between concepts.
Benefits: Concept maps can aid in generating ideas,
designing complex structures, or communicating complex ideas. Because they make
explicit the integration of old and new knowledge concept maps can help
instructors assess students’ understanding.
How: Create a focus question specifying the problem or issue
the map should help resolve. List the key concepts (roughly 20-25) that apply
to the area of knowledge. Put the most general, inclusive concepts at the top
of the list, and most specific at the bottom.
Build a hierarchical organization of the concepts, using
post-its on a wall or whiteboard, large sheets of paper, etc. Revision is a key
element in concept mapping, so participants need to be able to move concepts
and reconstruct the map. Seek cross links between concepts, adding linking
words to the lines between concepts.
Role-playing
What: In most role-playing exercises, each student takes the
role of a person affected by an issue and studies an issue or events from the
perspective of that person.
How: Role plays
should give the students an opportunity to practice what they have learned and
should interest the students. Provide concrete information and clear role
descriptions so that students can play their roles with confidence. Once the
role play is finished, spend some time on debriefing.
Storyboarding
What: Story-boarding can be compared to spreading students’
thoughts out on a wall as they work on a project or solve a problem. Story
boards can help with planning, ideas, communications and organization.
Benefits: This method allows students to see the
interconnections, how one idea relates to another, and how pieces come
together. Once the ideas flow, students become immersed in the problem and
hitch-hike other ideas.
How: Use a cork board or similar surface to pin up index
cards or use Post-it notes on a whiteboard. Begin with a set of topic cards,
and under each place header cards for general points, categories, etc. Under
these, place sub-heading cards that will be contain ideas and details generated
that support the headers.
During a story board session, consider all ideas relevant,
no matter how impractical they appear.
DO IT
What: DO IT stands for Define problems, be Open to many
possible solutions, Identify the best solution and then Transform it into
effective action. Ten catalysts or prompts are designed to help students with
each of these steps.
Benefits: DO IT accelerates and strengthens one’s natural
creative problem-solving ability and to stimulate a large number of good,
diverse ideas. When time allows, students can take advantage of incubation
(unconscious thinking) and research processes (find out what ideas have already
been tried).
Random Input
What: Random input, a lateral thinking tool, is useful for
generating fresh ideas or new perspectives during problem solving.
Benefits: It offers new perspectives on a problem, fosters
creative leaps, and permits escape from restrictive thinking patterns.
How: Select a random noun, whether from a prepared set, from
the dictionary, or one’s own list of 60 words. It is helpful to get new insight
by selecting a word from outside the field being studied. List the word’s
attributions or associations, then apply each to the problem at hand. With
persistence, at least one of these may catalyze a creative leap.
Example: Students thinking about reducing car pollution have
so far considered all the conventional solutions, e.g. catalytic conversion and
clean fuels. Selecting a random noun from the titles of books in a bookcase, a
student may see “Plants.” Brainstorming from this, the class could generate a
number of new ideas, such as planting trees on the side of roads or passing
exhaust gases through a soup of algae, to reduce carbon dioxide.
Decision Tree
What: A decision tree is a visual and analytical decision
support tool, often taught to undergraduate students in schools of business,
health economics, and public health.
Benefits: They are simple to understand and interpret, have
value even in the absence of hard data, and can be combined with other decision
techniques.
Example: A decision tree used in a finance class for
deciding the better investment strategy.
Questioning activity
What: In this exercise in questioning, students create a
list of 100 questions. There are no directions regarding what questions to ask
and no judgments or criticism of questions.
Benefits: Students
will ask a wide range of questions, increasing student productivity and
motivation. As students focus on what they want to discover and generate their
own questions, they pursue answers without prodding. Questions can be general
or based on a particular topic or reading; instructors can give several
examples from their own lists.
Slip writing
What: This method can gather ideas from large groups,
numbering from the dozens to the hundreds. Participants are given slips of paper
and asked to write down ideas which are discussed or evaluated.
Benefits: This method collects a large number of ideas
swiftly and creates a sense of participation or ownership at the same time.
How: Each student is given a stack or note-pad of at least
25 small slips of paper. The pads can contain idea-jogging graphics or be
designed so that ideas can be sorted and separated easily. A question or
problem is read to the group (e.g., “How do we?” or “What would it take to?”).
Students write down one idea per sheet, in any order. When writing begins to
slow down, collect pads from students and offer quick feedback in the form of
examples. If the group is very large,
present examples from a limited sample of booklets. After the early feedback,
analysis and evaluation can continue at a steadier pace to identify the most
useful ideas and develop them into practicable proposals.
Laddering
What: Laddering or the “why method” involves toggling
between two abstractions to create ideas. Laddering techniques involve the
creation, reviewing and modification of hierarchical knowledge. In a ladder
containing abstract ideas or concepts, the items lower down are members or
sub-sets of the ones higher up, so one moves between the abstract and concrete.
Benefits: Laddering can help students understand how an
expert categorizes concepts into classes, and can help clarify concepts and
their relationships.
How: Beginning with an existing idea, “ladder up” by asking,
of what wider category is this an example? “Ladder down” by finding more
examples. Then “ladder up” again by seeking an even wider category from the new
examples obtained from step 2.
Generally, “laddering up” toward the general allows
expansion into new areas while “laddering down” focuses on specific aspects of
these areas. Why questions are ladders up; so-what questions are ladders down.
Exaggeration
What: Exaggeration includes the two forms of magnify (or
“stretch”) and minimize (or “compress”), part of the SCAMPER heuristic.
Benefits: This method helps in building ideas for solutions.
It is useful to illustrate a problem, by testing unspoken assumptions about its
scale. It helps one think about what would be appropriate if the problem were
of a different order of magnitude.
How: After defining a problem to be addressed or idea to
develop, list all the component parts of the idea or if a problem, its
objectives and constraints. Choosing one component, develop ways of
exaggerating it and note them on a separate sheet.
Brain-sketching
What: To solve a specific problem, students make sketches
and then pass evolving sketches to their neighbors.
How: Students sit in a group of 6-8 around a table or in a
circle. Questions or problems should be well explained and understood by each
student. Each participant privately makes one or more sketches and passes the
sketch to the person on the right when it is finished or when a brief set time
has passed. Participants develop or annotate the sketches passed to them, or
use them to inspire new sketches which are also passed in turn. For effective
learning, sketches could be posted are discussed by students.
Reversal
What: The reversal method takes a given situation and turns
it around, inside out, backwards, or upside down. Any situation can be
“reversed” in several ways.
Benefits: Looking at a familiar problem or situation in a
fresh way can suggest new solutions or approaches. It doesn’t matter whether
the reversal makes sense or not.
Example: In a marketing class, instead of asking “how can
management improve the store?” reversal questions can ask: How can the store
improve management? How can the store improve itself? How can management make
the store worse?
Fishbone
What: The fishbone technique uses a visual organizer to
identify the possible causes of a problem.
Benefits: This technique discourages partial or premature
solutions and demonstrates the relative importance of, and interactions
between different parts of a problem.
How: On a broad sheet of paper, draw a long arrow
horizontally across the middle of the page pointing to the right. Label the
arrowhead with the title of the issue to be explained. This is the “backbone”
of the “fish.” Draw “spurs” from this “backbone” at about 45 degrees, one for
every likely cause of the problem that the group can think of; and label each.
Sub-spurs can represent subsidiary causes. The group considers each
spur/sub-spur, taking the simplest first, partly for clarity but also because a
simple explanation may make more complex ones unnecessary. Ideally, the
fishbone is redrawn so that position along the backbone reflects the relative
importance of the different parts of the problema with the most important at
the head.
The Mystery Spot
What: Instructors set up a mystery story (videos,
animations) that evolves a key concept such as DNA. Students try to solve the
mystery by applying their knowledge. Meanwhile, the story evolves as students
investigate on the problem, allowing the instructor to incorporate different
knowledge/concepts, and different knowledge depths.
Benefits: The mystery integrates science learning within an
exciting narrative. The narratives have wide appeal and involve students in
learning. It is also a very flexible tool with which instructors can invent
stories based on their lesson purposes/ targeted key points.
Example: The Blackout Syndrome
In this exercise, students are medical investigators. And as
a blackout paralyzes the city, they are called in to investigate outbreak of a
new disease. They need to take steps to identify how it’s transmitted,
characterize it, and figure out how to treat it.
The mystery tests literacy, problem solving skills and
deductive reasoning. Students investigate why people have fallen ill, do lab
tests in order to decide what kind of pathogen is involved, and work on
solutions and how to best counter the disease. A conclusion offers further
research readings.
lunes, 21 de septiembre de 2015
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