Learning is improved when

Dear my friend teachers.... please read this.

Learning is improved when

• teachers pay close attention to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that students bring into the classroom

"Cultural differences can affect students' comfort level in working collaboratively instead of individually. Students' conceptions of what it means to be intelligent can affect their performance."

• teachers are attentive to each student's individual progress and develop appropriate tasks which further facilitate deeper understanding of the material.

• "They present students with challenging material that they can manage; that is,
  the problems are demanding enough to maintain engagement, but not so difficult as to lead to discouragement."
• learning is tied in with understanding (i.e., it supports the transfer of knowledge to different situations).

"These environments also recognize that there are important differences
between tasks and projects that "encourage hands-on doing and those that encourage doing with understanding"

• teachers conduct ongoing formative assessments

Equally important, they permit teachers to: (1) grasp their students' preconceptions, (2) understand where each student is along the continuum from informal to formal thinking, and (3) design curriculum and instruction accordingly.

• teachers pay attention to the context (i.e.community) in which the learning takes place

"teachers must design classroom activities and help students to promote the kind of intellectual camaraderie and attitudes toward learning that build a sense of community. These activities may take the form of students solving problems together by building on each other's knowledge, asking questions to clarify explanations, and suggesting differing solutions"

" community-centered schools develop new ways to link classroom learning to other aspects of students' lives."