Friday, November 21, 2008

Project Based Learning


Why do project-based learning?
Project-based learning (PBL) is a model for classroom activity that shifts away from the classroom practices of short, isolated, teacher-centered lessons and instead emphasizes learning activities that are long-term, interdisciplinary, student-centered, and integrated with real world issues and practices.
One immediate benefit of practicing PBL is the unique way that it can motivate students by engaging them in their own learning. PBL provides opportunities for students to pursue their own interests and questions and make decisions about how they will find answers and solve problems.
PBL also provides opportunities for interdisciplinary learning. Students apply and integrate the content of different subject areas at authentic moments in the production process, instead of in isolation or in an artificial setting.
PBL helps make learning relevant and useful to students by establishing connections to life outside the classroom, addressing real world concerns, and developing real world skills. Many of the skills learned through PBL are those desired by today's employer, including the ability to work well with others, make thoughtful decisions, take initiative, and solve complex problems.
In the classroom, PBL provides many unique opportunities for teachers to build relationships with students. Teachers may fill the varied roles of coach, facilitator, and co-learner. Finished products, plans, drafts, and prototypes all make excellent "conversation pieces" around which teachers and students can discuss the learning that is taking place.

In the school and beyond, PBL also provides opportunities for teachers to build relationships with each other and with those in the larger community. Student work-which includes documentation of the learning process as well as the students' final projects-can be shared with other teachers, parents, mentors, and the business community who all have a stake in the students' education.

further info in www.pbl-online.org

Thursday, November 20, 2008

What are the types of Multiple Intelligence?


What are the types of Multiple Intelligence?
* Visual/Spatial Intelligence
ability to perceive the visual. These learners tend to think in pictures and need to create vivid mental images to retain information. They enjoy looking at maps, charts, pictures, videos, and movies.
Their skills include:
puzzle building, reading, writing, understanding charts and graphs, a good sense of direction, sketching, painting, creating visual metaphors and analogies (perhaps through the visual arts), manipulating images, constructing, fixing, designing practical objects, interpreting visual images.
Possible career interests:
navigators, sculptors, visual artists, inventors, architects, interior designers, mechanics, engineers
* Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence
ability to use words and language. These learners have highly developed auditory skills and are generally elegant speakers. They think in words rather than pictures.
Their skills include:
listening, speaking, writing, story telling, explaining, teaching, using humor, understanding the syntax and meaning of words, remembering information, convincing someone of their point of view, analyzing language usage.
Possible career interests:
Poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, translator
* Logical/Mathematical Intelligence
ability to use reason, logic and numbers. These learners think conceptually in logical and numerical patterns making connections between pieces of information. Always curious about the world around them, these learner ask lots of questions and like to do experiments.
Their skills include:
problem solving, classifying and categorizing information, working with abstract concepts to figure out the relationship of each to the other, handling long chains of reason to make local progressions, doing controlled experiments, questioning and wondering about natural events, performing complex mathematical calculations, working with geometric shapes
Possible career paths:
Scientists, engineers, computer programmers, researchers, accountants, mathematicians
* Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence
ability to control body movements and handle objects skillfully. These learners express themselves through movement. They have a good sense of balance and eye-hand co-ordination. (e.g. ball play, balancing beams). Through interacting with the space around them, they are able to remember and process information.
Their skills include:
dancing, physical co-ordination, sports, hands on experimentation, using body language, crafts, acting, miming, using their hands to create or build, expressing emotions through the body
Possible career paths:

Athletes, physical education teachers, dancers, actors, firefighters, artisans

* Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence

ability to produce and appreciate music. These musically inclined learners think in sounds, rhythms and patterns. They immediately respond to music either appreciating or criticizing what they hear. Many of these learners are extremely sensitive to environmental sounds (e.g. crickets, bells, dripping taps).
Their skills include:
singing, whistling, playing musical instruments, recognizing tonal patterns, composing music, remembering melodies, understanding the structure and rhythm of music
Possible career paths:
musician, disc jockey, singer, composer
* Interpersonal Intelligence
ability to relate and understand others. These learners try to see things from other people's point of view in order to understand how they think and feel. They often have an uncanny ability to sense feelings, intentions and motivations. They are great organizers, although they sometimes resort to manipulation. Generally they try to maintain peace in group settings and encourage co-operation.They use both verbal (e.g. speaking) and non-verbal language (e.g. eye contact, body language) to open communication channels with others.
Their skills include:
seeing things from other perspectives (dual-perspective), listening, using empathy, understanding other people's moods and feelings, counseling, co-operating with groups, noticing people's moods, motivations and intentions, communicating both verbally and non-verbally, building trust, peaceful conflict resolution, establishing positive relations with other people.
Possible Career Paths:
Counselor, salesperson, politician, business person
* Intrapersonal Intelligence
ability to self-reflect and be aware of one's inner state of being. These learners try to understand their inner feelings, dreams, relationships with others, and strengths and weaknesses.
Their Skills include:
Recognizing their own strengths and weaknesses, reflecting and analyzing themselves, awareness of their inner feelings, desires and dreams, evaluating their thinking patterns, reasoning with themselves, understanding their role in relationship to others

What are learning styles?


Learning styles are simply different approaches or ways of learning.
What are the types of learning styles?
* Visual Learners:
learn through seeing... .
These learners need to see the teacher's body language and facial expression to fully understand the content of a lesson. They tend to prefer sitting at the front of the classroom to avoid visual obstructions (e.g. people's heads). They may think in pictures and learn best from visual displays including: diagrams, illustrated text books, overhead transparencies, videos, flipcharts and hand-outs. During a lecture or classroom discussion, visual learners often prefer to take detailed notes to absorb the information. 
* Auditory Learners:
learn through listening... 
They learn best through verbal lectures, discussions, talking things through and listening to what others have to say. Auditory learners interpret the underlying meanings of speech through listening to tone of voice, pitch, speed and other nuances. Written information may have little meaning until it is heard. These learners often benefit from reading text aloud and using a tape recorder.
* Tactile/Kinesthetic Learners:
learn through , moving, doing and touching...   
Tactile/Kinesthetic persons learn best through a hands-on approach, actively exploring the physical world around them. They may find it hard to sit still for long periods and may become distracted by their need for activity and exploration. 

Monday, November 17, 2008

Renungan - Minggu SPDS


Hemmmm, tak terasa sudah hampir satu tahun saya menjejakkan kaki di Jakarta dan Ikut menghiasi kemacetan yang ada di DKI Jakarta. Alhamdulilah, masih diberi kesempatan oleh Sang pencipta untuk ikut merasakan rejeki yang ada di tanah Batavia (jakarta bagi orang VOC.red). Jujur, setiap detik dan menit yang ada di depan saya ibarat meja hijau apakah saya akan tetap bertahan dan meneguk air kehidupan jakarta yang bergelimang material duniawi. Minggu ini, minggu ke 3 bulan November adalah minggu SPDS (seperti DP3 kalo di PNS). semua karyawan harus menulis dan akhirnya mengumpulkan semua yang telah mereka kerjakan dalam waktu satu tahun ini. Semoga di bagian menentukan(diskusi bareng ama Boss) bisa berjalan lancar tidak terjadi halangan satu apapun.