of Learning and Instruction
1. Use mastery learning as the major framework for helping your children study. The key factors in accomplishing this are to see to it that the child identifies the key objectives of a unit of instruction, have the child set aside time to study to meet those objectives, test the child regarding mastery of those objectives, and then see to it that the child uses whatever time is necessary to repeat this process until the objectives are successfully met.2. Be aware that there are nine events of instruction - not just one. Telling a child to study hard and then praising or rebuking at report card time covers only two of the nine events. Because parents differ from one another in their backgrounds, they will vary considerably in how much they can contribute to each event of instruction. The following is a list of the events of instruction and possible ways in which parents might help.
2.1. Gaining attention. (Parents can usually play a major role)
a. Remind the child to do his or her homework.b. Eliminate distractions.
c. Help the child maintain a medium level of arousal while studying (chapter 5).
2.2. Activate motivation. (Parents can often play a major role)
a. Make sure the child sees the purpose in the activity.b. If necessary, add another purpose. (Use principles of behavior modification.)
c. Employ principles of motivation (chapter 5).
2.3. Stimulating recall of prerequisite learning. (Parents can usually not play a major role.)
a. Ask the child what he/she already knows about the subject.b. If necessary, ask the teacher what prior knowledge would be helpful.
c. Help the child review previous relevant information, especially if this doesn't happen in the textbook or in class.
2.4. Presenting stimulus material. (Parents can usually not play a major role.)
a. Strategies for presenting lessons are covered in chapter 15.2.5. Providing learning guidance. (Most parents can usually play only a small role during this event.)
a. Strategies for guiding thinking and learning are discussed in this chapter and in chapters 7 and 12.2.6. Eliciting the performance. (Parents can often play at least a moderate role.)
a. Ask questions about homework or what's going on in school.b. Allow the child to make up questions for you to answer (e.g., Jeopardy games).
c. Let the child make practical applications of school information when it is appropriate to do so.
d. Use the questions that come with the textbook to review with the child.
2.7. Providing feedback. (Parents can often play at least a moderate role.)
a. Go over tests and quizzes with the child and make sure he/she understands the nature of mistakes and how to correct them.b. Use principles of behavior modification to make feedback reinforcing. Make reinforcement as natural as possible.
c. Encourage child to make effort attributions (chapter 5) based on realistic goals and feedback.
2.8. Assessing the learner's performance.
a. Construct or obtain practice tests and administer them to the child.b. Keep assessment in perspective. For example, encourage the child to compare his/her performance to his/her previous performance rather than to that of peers.
2.9. Promoting retention and transfer.
a. Look for real-life applications of what the child has studied and point these out even after the child has "completed" studying that topic in class.b. When the child is reviewing for tests, encourage distributed rather than massed practice. That is, if a child has four hours to review over the weekend, it is usually not best to spend one hour on each of four topics. It is usually better to spend fifteen minutes out of each hour on each topic.
c. Encourage the child to avoid cramming. It is far better to study a topic for fifteen minutes each week for eight weeks than for two hours the night before the exam.
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