text:
Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Multiculturalism/Responsibilities

Teachers are facing new challenges everyday due to an interdependent, technologically advanced, global society that we now live in today. Traditional teaching methods are being challenged to focus more on the needs of students in today’s society. One factor that teachers must learn to adjust to is the more multicultural dynamic that classrooms deal with now. Wikipedia asserts that multiculturalism is, “The idea that modern societies should embrace and include distinct cultural groups with equal social status.” Students are diverse; they come from different backgrounds, families, lifestyles, environments, and locations, and some don’t speak English. The task for teachers today is to adapt their teaching style to encompass all the diversity they may have in the classroom.

School Accountability
Schools are constantly changing and teachers will see students from all walks of life in their classrooms. The problem is that teachers may not be adjusting to the fact that students from a different culture may need an alternative style of teaching to bring them to their full potential. An article in the Journal of Cases in Education Leadership points out that the government has taken steps in the recent past to make schools accountable for achievement among all of their students. In 2002, the government signed the No Child Left Behind Act. This document requires that schools are now measured by “adequate yearly progress” (AYP). This calls for a measurement of five categories, all students, racial/ethnic groups, economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency. This law is important because it holds schools and teachers accountable for how well each category of students does rather than an average of everyone lumped together.

Identifying the Problem: Resistance and Training
Schools that are beginning to attempt a change toward encompassing all students’ needs have the challenge of convincing teachers it is necessary. The Educational Administration Quarterly presents in an article that many teachers believe that minority students or low income students have behavior problems or are slow learners. The problem is that teachers are unwilling to see that they must change their style to help these students realize their full potential. For example, a principal attempting to incorporate school justice found that teachers thought minority or low income students to be a distraction rather than a challenge. He commented on resistance from staff and parents, ‘There was this nostalgic feeling, that “if-we-only-had-those-good-students-again’ mentality, and what that meant was ‘if we had all White middle-class students again the way it used to be’ a lot of resistance to doing things differently to looking at our need to change, to being reflective, to planning together…” With principals like these however, schools are starting to help teachers and parents realize that these kids need the same opportunities to learn as their white counterparts. This attitude is partly not teachers’ fault due to a lack of training in diversity during teacher education. In an article in the Journal of Early Childhood Research the author points out that most teachers feel that they have not been trained to address multiculturalism in the classroom. This is something that must be changed; teachers must be educated in ways to deal with the special needs of their students. Teachers should also interact with the community to get a better understanding of the cultures they are dealing with in the classroom. Once they begin, there can be more progress in this issue.

Advocating Change
Many schools and teachers have gotten the message and have begun to advocate change for students and teachers alike. In the journal Educational Policy, the author researches a program whose purpose is to educate teachers in multiculturalism and help them to change their teaching practices. This article claims that the project’s goal is “to establish more inquiry based, gender-inclusive, and culturally relevant learning environments.” Maxima was a project created to educate teachers in diversity in their classrooms and how to manage it. Teachers were selected in the Southwest border states of the United States. Each summer there was a two week long institute and teachers also met every month where the participants would attend and discuss the curriculum they were using in their classroom to address this issue.

The requirements and ideas that were contributed to these educators’ new style of teaching came from something called Sociotransformative Constructivism (STC). The article defines STC as being, “drawn from multicultural education (a theory of social justice) and social constructivism (a theory of learning).” There are three major guidelines that the project hoped to include into teaching practices. They are "1. Being responsive and theoretically explicit: Professional development experiences that promote multicultural understanding are responsive to teacher needs while explicitly acknowledging the theoretical underpinnings of the facilitators of the experiences. School and university agendas are shared and merged to create meaningful professional development experiences that include the modeling and naming of curricular and pedagogical practices that align with the theoretical orientation of the project, in this case, sociotransformative constructivism (STC).

2. Ongoing and on-site support: Professional development experiences that promote multicultural understanding provide ongoing and on-site professional support including modeling STC activities, making resources and equipment readily available, and supporting STC activities in the teachers’ classrooms.

3. Reflexive approaches to collaboration: Professional development experiences that promote multicultural understanding provide reflexive2 approaches to collaboration, building a community of learners, including teachers, student teachers, university professors, and graduate students, that provides continuous opportunities for professional dialogue across and within school contexts."

In this attempt, the researchers tried to give teachers the training and development needed to address diversity in their classrooms. They followed up with support and activities that would reinforce these practices so that they could be implemented in the classroom.

Next the researchers interviewed the participants three times a year. They wanted to know how Maxima had helped them, how had it changed their teaching, their classes, and how it affected learning overall. They wanted to know how this experience compared to other professional training and what the teachers believed would improve the project or should be changed. They found that teachers felt like they had support in their endeavor and that they were able to share ideas and see how they work. They also felt that the project helped to raise awareness about multiculturalism in the classroom. The participants thought that they were able to become motivated to address diversity and they were given the right tools to incorporate STC in the classroom. The main element that teachers responded to the most positively was that the project incorporated models of how to apply the STC methods. They found that in training they are rarely shown how to incorporate what they are learning in the classroom rather they were just being taught a method and sent on their way. This way, they can see examples of how to use their new learning in their classrooms.

This project is just one way that teachers and teacher educators are changing their responsibilities in the classroom to address every type of student they may encounter. This is just one step in a direction to help teachers learn to recognize diversity as another goal to achieve in their mission to educate every child as best as possible.

Conclusion
Now that multiculturalism has become a part of every day life and that we are living in a global environment it is imperative for teachers to adapt to a new style of teaching to encompass this factor. Teachers must not only recognize that diverse students will have different needs they must realize that they must change themselves to address it. Higher education must bring in projects and classes devoted to teaching educators how to take the next step and implement a style of teaching that will fulfill the potential of every student.

Multiple Choice Questions
Click to reveal the answer.

Essay Question
Click to reveal sample responses.


text:
Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Knowing/Brain Research

Brain research is an important field dedicated to helping us learn how our brains function. This knowledge will help us better understand how we learn and some important differences between the brains of children and adults. As educators it is crucial that we have an understanding of the biology that is affecting how our students learn.

CAT Scans
Computerized axial tomography (CAT) scans are one imaging technique that is used to create an image of the brain. It consists of multiple X-ray exposures which are combined by a computer to create image slices of the brain. This is particularly useful when looking at interior parts of the brain. CAT scans however pose the same radiation risks as other forms of X-ray and therefore are used less regularly in brain research than for personal diagnoses of abnormal anatomy (Barlow & Durand, 2005).

PET Scans
To measure brain function a positron emission tomography (PET) scan can be used. A tracer substance attached to radioactive isotopes is injected into the blood where it interacts. When parts of the brain become active blood is sent to deliver oxygen which creates spots which are picked up by detectors and used to create a video image of the brain during a particular task (Barlow & Durand, 2005). PET scans are costly and invasive, making their usage limited.

MRI and fMRI
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) are commonly used brain imaging techniques which use echo waves to discriminate between grey, white and cerebral spinal fluid (Giedd, Blumenthal, Jeffries, Castellanos, Liu, Zijdenbos, Paus, Evans & Rapoport, 1999). MRI is noninvasive, poses little health risk and can be used on infants and in utero providing a consistent mode of imaging across the development spectrum (Lenroot & Giedd, 2007). MRI is used to create an image of the brain structure and fMRI, which is really a series of MRIs, measures the functioning of the brain through computer adaptation of many images (Barlow & Durand, 2005).

Structure of the Brain
The brain is composed of over 140 billion nerve cells, called neurons, by the time we reach adulthood. Unique live experiences and biological processing means that individual brains contain the potential to become drastically different. However, the brain is generally organized into several lobes that control categorical parts of life. The brain stem handles most of the essential automatic functions including sleeping, breathing, pumping of the heart and digestion. Parts of the brain stem, the hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus and limbic system are largely involved with controlling behavior and emotions; especially stress responses (Barlow & Durand, 2005).

The cerebral cortex is distinctly human and houses two hemispheres which are responsible for all our cognitive functions. Each hemisphere consists of four separate lobes: temporal, parietal, occipital and frontal. The temporal lobe recognizes various sights and sounds and is responsible for long-term memory storage. The parietal lobe recognizes touch sensations. The occipital integrates and understands visual inputs. The frontal lobe is responsible for our thinking and reasoning abilities as well as memory and is the most interesting for educators because it continues to grow well into adulthood. The hemispheres are connected through a structure called the corpus collasum which allows collaboration between different brain regions housed in opposite brain hemispheres (Barlow & Durand, 2005).

Early Childhood
Although the brain is well organized into lobes there is a great deal of plasticity available. Depending on the person and their environment different parts of the brain may be more or less developed (Slavkin, 2004). Proper development of all brain sections begins in early childhood with an enriched environment composed of proper nutrition and interaction with attentive caregivers. Development of the brain occurs through sensitive periods where exposure is necessary for proper growth. If young children are not adequately exposed to visual, auditory and tactile stimulus they risk underdevelopment. Some of these critical periods include visual development between the 2nd and 8th month of life, motor development between the 5th and 12th month of life, and the limbic system development from birth to the 3rd month of life. The frontal lobe and language skills also have a critical period which is much longer and spans most of early and middle childhood. (Murray, 2007).

Middle Childhood
As development continues into middle childhood there is an increasing amount of specialization in the brain and integration between brain regions. This process is accomplished through the pruning of unnecessary neurons. Specialization is essential for the development of language, reading, numerical computations and higher level reasoning. For example, the development of reading is characterized by orthographic processing in the occipital lobe, phonological and semantic processing in the temporal lobe, syntactic processing in the frontal lobe and integration in the parietal lobe (Booth, 2007). While each part of the brain is responsible for individual functions involved in reading the whole brain must function together to create the result of a child who can read. It is important for educators to realize that young minds are in the process of growing, pruning and strengthening connections.

Adolescence
The adolescent brain continues to build upon the specialization which occurred during childhood. It is focused on increasing myelination of neurons, a process that allows information to travel faster and integrate better in the brain. Analyses of brain images from adolescents indicate that the process begins at the back of the brain in the occipital lobe and moves toward the front, ending in the frontal lobe (Balkemore & Choudhury, 2006). The increasing of myelination is the reason adolescents more closely resemble adults in their cognitive abilities. The frontal lobe, which is the last to receive this myelination processes is responsible for higher level reasoning and impulse control and the immaturity of this region in adolescence contributes to the reputation of reckless behavior during the teen years (Durston, Pol, Casey, Giedd, Buitelaar & Engeland, 2001).

There is also a lateral change in the brain during adolescence. The right and left hemispheres become more connected and are better able to communicate across the corpus callosum. This development means the hemispheres can work more quickly together to process language, math, and spatial problems. This interconnection is also related to increases in long term memory as memories are better coded across different regions and more easily retrieved into a cohesive entity (Durston et al. 2001). One study has found that this maturation of the brain may continue well into a person’s 20s or 30s and that full brain maturity may not be reached until well after puberty (Balkemore & Choudhury, 2006).

The Influence of Stress on Brain Development
In today’s schools children are constantly dealing with outside stressors, influences that affect their ability to pay attention and learn. Stress has been shown to have a profoundly negative effect on the developing brain which results in a lower level of learning. Stress can affect neurophysiology before the child is even born. Monk found that stress hormones crossed the placenta in unborn children and caused a rise in fetal heart rate and cortisol, a stress neurohormone, levels (Monk, Fifer, Myers, Sloan, Trien & Hurtado, 2000). Increased levels of cortisol in infancy, childhood or adolescence have been correlated to a later inability to deal with stress and stunted cognitive development. This is because chronic stress leading to chronic secretion of cortisol may cause neuron death in the hippocampus, which leads to cognitive deficients (Barlow & Durand, 2005). The hippocampus is located in the brain stem, which indicates that children who are using their hippocampus area to regulate stress may not be spending valuable time developing other regions of their brains, those necessary for higher level reasoning and social skills development. These children quickly find themselves falling behind in school which perpetuates the stress cycle.

Conclusion
As educators the more we know about our students the better able we are to adjust our classrooms and create an environment that helps all students to excell. Children through out development are experiencing changes and learning how to use their brains to store and retrieve information. It is important to present information in such a way as to maximize a student's effort. Stress can also affect the amount of information a student can process. By creating classrooms that are safe and secure we can help to improve the brain power of our students. When teachers understand the child's brain better we can be more effective educators.

Multiple Choice Questions
Click to reveal the answer.

Essay Question
Click to reveal sample responses.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Knowing/Learning

Everyone is familiar with the saying “You learn something new every day”. This is absolutely true, you probably just learned something a few minutes ago, but HOW did you learn it? There are many theories behind how humans learn. This article will touch briefly on Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning, Piaget’s theory of mental mapping, and basic learning styles. Gail Bush defines learning as “the process by which novices become experts. Learners are viewed as those who acquire, assemble, store, and retrieve material and in the process make meaning transforming the information into knowledge”.

Pavlov
Most psychologists are familiar with Pavlov’s classical conditioning. The premise behind this is that if a human or animal (Pavlov did his experiments with dogs) is presented with a stimuli and then a result he will become conditioned to associate the result with the stimuli. For example, if you were to give a child a treat when he turned a light off, after enough times the child would turn the light off just to receive the treat. Pavlov’s experiment involved ringing a bell and feeding the dogs. They eventually began to associate the bell with food and would start to salivate when the bell rang. This process is called classical conditioning and we have all gone through it. When you get rewarded for doing all your homework you become conditioned to do so etc. It is essentially a reward or punishment system. It can be a punishment system because you can associate negative things with a stimuli. For example, if a child is sent to her room every time she punches her sister she will learn that a bad thing happens when she punches her sister and she will learn to stop doing it. Essentially Pavlov shows how we learn the consequences of things and learn to do rewarding things and avoid negative things.

Piaget
Jean Piaget has a completely different model for learning, one that perhaps applies more to education and not behavior. He holds that children have mental maps or webs and when something happens, or when they are given information, they place these tidbits into these maps. He also holds that when children are very young they have less complex maps than as they grow and develop (Funderstanding – Piaget). This is demonstrated in how we teach. Look at the process a child goes through to learn to read. First they learn to recognize the letters and the sounds that they make. This builds on the mental map that children already have of the sounds of language. They then slowly learn to put letters together to form more complicated sounds, such as the letter combination ‘th’ not sounding the way that either of those letters do alone, this adjusts their mental map. Then words are slowly formed, such as the word ‘the’. From there a child can build on to get “then or there”. Teachers do not jump in and teach a child that the letter combination that looks like this “then” makes a certain sound or has a certain meaning. A child would not be able to understand this concept without the background of the individual letters and sounds. Because of this Piaget’s theory is very influential in curriculum development. Teachers are also taught to “help learners build connections to prior knowledge” which stems from Piaget’s theory (Bush). Piaget’s entire theory is based on repeatedly calling on and strengthening the memories and concepts that form these mental maps. Piaget’s theory is also called constructivism because “learning is a process in which the learner actively constructs or builds new ideas or concepts based upon current and past knowledge” (wikipedia.com). One of the major premises for this theory is that learning takes place in context, “without an appropriate context, comprehension and learning are difficult and unlikely to succeed very well. Keep in mind, however, that learners will attempt to make sense of anything unfamiliar. When they do so, they draw upon prior understandings and experience, but the meanings they construct may be quite different from what was intended if they cannot activate an appropriate context for learning” (Driscoll). In other words if teachers taught a subject without background context, the students would still try to find a map to fit it into, although chances are it would be an incorrect one. Because of the individual nature of each unique person’s experiences constructivism holds to the theory that no two people learn the same way.

Dual Theory
There are several proponents of a dual theory that combines both of these theories. They describe these theories as: “Conditioning being the process whereby emotional learning takes place” whereas “Problem-solving [Piaget’s theory] being equated with effective learning” (Ernest). This seems to be the most logical way to think about learning, because neither of these theories fully address the entirety of learning in all situations. Pavlov relates more to behavioral learning whereas Piaget tends to relate more toward academic learning, so the two theories combined to a much more thorough job of explaining how people learn.

Learning Styles
There are four main types of learning styles. These styles explain ways that certain people use to build on their mental maps. The first is a concrete perceiver, this is the person that needs to actually do something to understand it. This is the student that needs to actually count money to understand how to make change. The second is an abstract perceiver, the person that can understand a concept just by thinking about it. This is the student that is lost in thought about a topic, trying to make observations and analyses. Third is an active processor, who needs to use the information immediately to understand it or it is lost. The last is the reflective processor, this is the student who needs to reflect on information learned and is similar to the abstract perceiver (Funderstanding - Learning Styles). Chances are you will encounter all four of these learning styles in your classroom and you should build lessons that will touch as many styles as possible, and vary your lessons to appeal to each of your students.

There are seven subtypes of learning styles. As stated above the more you know about different styles of learning the better you can accommodate your students. These seven subtypes elaborate the four main types of learning in more depth. They also relate how important the human brain is involved with the learning process. Each subtype also describes what area of the brain helps aid the function of learning.

 * Visual (spatial): Pictures and images help to increase understanding. The occipital lobes at the back of the brain manage the visual sense.  Examples : maps or posters in the classroom.
 * Aural (auditory-musical): Learning by sound and music. The right lobe of the brain is especially important for music. Examples : catchy tunes to help you learn the ABCs, months of the year or important dates.
 * Verbal (linguistic): Words help you learn such as in writing and speech. The temporal and frontal lobes (Broca's and Wernicke's) specialize in this area located in the left hemisphere. Examples : Lecturing or open discussion in class.
 * Physical (kinesthetic): Use of your body, hands and sense of touch help aid in learning. The back area of the frontal lobe, the cerebellum and the motor cortex, enable our physical movements.  Examples : Dancing to songs mentioned above.
 * Logical (mathematical): Logic, reasoning and systems help you learn. The left side of the parietal lobes help us think logically. Examples : Working out problems using the blackboard, where there is always an answer.
 * Social (interpersonal): Learning in groups or with other people. The frontal and temporal lobes handle our social activities.  The limbic system which deals with our emotions, moods, and aggression also influences this style. Examples : Group work and activities involving more than one student.
 * Solitary (intrapersonal): Working alone is your style of choice. The same frontal and temporal lobes as above handle this function, as well as the limbic system.  Examples : Study halls or independent study.

Teachers should design their instruction strategies with all learning styles in mind. This requires using various arrangements of experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentations (Learning Styles). According to Penn State University there are a few major principles of human learning that educators should follow for all students regardless of their learning style. Students cannot recall and apply knowledge unless they practice retrieval and use of some form, better learning occurs when we vary the conditions of learning, and when learners integrate knowledge from both verbal and visual examples, they can recall it and apply it with greater ease. In learning, less is more. For instance, trying to cover large amounts of material and information in a short time period will reduce the amount of information the students understand and remember. In order to avoid this, teachers should focus their efforts toward teaching in-depth understanding of principles (Penn 2003).

Conclusion
There are many theories of how we learn, but two of the most widely accepted are Pavlov’s classical conditioning, dealing with behavior and Piaget’s constructivism encompassing mental maps. These two theories are not mutually exclusive. In fact several people argue that a dual theory combining the two would be more accurate. Constructivism is somewhat individual lending itself to understand the four major learning styles. Overall, a teacher needs to understand how children learn so they can understand how to teach them and must try to have a varied set of plans to appeal to all types of learning.

Multiple Choice Questions
Click to reveal the answer.

Essay Question
Click to reveal a sample response.


text:
A-level Chemistry/AQA/Module 2/Equilibria

An equilibrium reaction is one in which the reactants, say A + B, collide successfully and react together to form the products, C + D. The 'reverse' also occurs simultaneously, in which C + D react to form A + B once again. When this system reaches a point in which the concentrations of A, B, C & D are constant, the reaction is said to be in Dynamic Equilibrium. At this point, the reaction appears to have stopped, but both the forward and backward reactions are still occurring at equal rates. However, it is very rare for this equilibrium position to be at the half-way point.

The above equilibrium reaction can be represented by the equation:

A + B \leftrightarrow C + D $$

Le Chatelier's Principle
Le Chatelier's principle can be used to predict the changes that will occur if the conditions are changed in a chemical equilibrium reaction. His principle states that:

"If a system at equilibrium is subject to a change in either pressure, temperature or concentration, then the system will move to oppose that change."

Using this principle is relatively straightforward; whatever you change in the reaction conditions, the system will move in the opposite direction to try and restore the equilibrium condition.

For example, let us consider the reaction in which Nitrogen Dioxide forms Dinitrogen Tetroxide

2NO2 ↔  N2O4    ΔG = 45.53 kJ/mol

Temperature: It can be seen that the reaction here is endothermic (takes in heat from the surroundings). If the reaction conditions are changed, such that the temperature is increased, the equilibrium will attempt to oppose the change by decreasing the temperature and thereby shifting in the endothermic direction, to the RIGHT. Conversely, if the temperature is decreased, then the equilibrium will oppose the change by moving in the exothermic direction to raise the temperature once again, and hence the system will move to the LEFT.

Pressure: To determine the way an equilibrium reaction will shift when the overall pressure is changed, one must look at the number of moles of each species present in the reaction. In the above reaction concerning Nitrogen Dioxide it can be seen from the equation that the side with the greatest number of moles is the left. Therefore, increasing the pressure on this reaction will cause the equilibrium to move right, as this is the side with fewer moles of gas, which thereby reduces the pressure once again.

Concentration: If the concentration of one of the chemicals in an equilibrium reaction is changed, then the system will oppose the change by moving to either increase or decrease the concentration, depending on what change was made. Consider the following reaction:

H2 + I2 ↔ 2HI

If you were to add lots of Hydrogen Iodide to the above equilibrium, the system will move left to remove the excess HI concentration added. Likewise, if a large excess of Iodine was added, then the system would move to the right to reduce the concentration.

Equilibria & Industry
Ammonia

For many reactions, a compromise in reaction conditions must be met in order to achieve the best yield of product. Although, for example, a reaction may yield the greatest amount of product at extremely high temperatures, it is not feasible to generate such high temperatures in industry.

Consider the Haber Process, in which Hydrogen & Nitrogen react to form Ammonia:

3H2 + N2 ↔ 2NH3                    ΔG = -92.4 kJ/mol

The forward reaction is exothermic, and therefore the reaction is favoured by low temperatures. Even though this is the case, having temperatures that are too low will leave the reactant molecules with very little kinetic energy, and therefore collisions between the Hydrogen & Nitrogen will be very feeble and reaction will not occur, thus resulting in no Ammonia formation. It is therefore necessary for a compromise temperature of approx 450 °C to be made, resulting in a mere 10-20% yield of Ammonia.

The Haber Process is also favoured by high pressures, since there are less moles of gas on the right of the equilibrium equation. Generating pressures that are extremely high is a difficult and costly process, since the energy required to generate such pressures can be high, as can the cost of the vessel used to withstand such high pressures. The compromise pressure here is 250atm.

Methanol

Methanol is used mainly as a chemical feedstock, that is, as a starting material for making other chemicals particularly used in manufacturing methanal. Methanal is used in turn to make plastics e.g. Bakelite.

Indycars in the US are fueled by methanol which have an advantage over petrol fueled cars as methanol fires can be put out with water.

Every year 33 million tonnes of methanol are made worldwide mostly from the following reaction.

CO + 3H2 ↔ CH3OH                              ΔH = -91kJ mol−1

The starting mixture is called systhesis gas and is made by reacting methane or propane with steam. Le Chatelier's principle tells us that the methanol sysnthesis reaction will give us the highest yield at a low temperature and high pressure. But compromise conditions are used in this case a temperature of 500K and a pressure of 10,000 kPa produces around 5-10% yield.

Ethanol

This is the alcohol in alcoholic drinks and therefore is unsurprising that it has been made for thousands of years by fermentation of sugars such as glucose while using the enzymes in yeast as a catalyst.

C6H12O6 → 2C2H5OH + 2CO2

Ethanol is also used in drugs, cosmetics, detergents and inks and at present the main source of ethanol is ethene made from crude oil obtained by fractional ditilation then cracking.

Ethanol is made by the reversible reaction of hydration (adding of water) to ethene and is speeded up by the catalyst of phosphoric acid absorbed on silica.

H2C=CH2 + H2O ↔ CH3CH2OH ΔH = -46kJ mol−1

The products and reactants are all gaseous at the temperature used. Applying Le Chatelier's principle to this equilibrium predicts that the maximum yield will be produced with a high pressure forcing the equilibrium to move to the right with fewer gas molecules, a low temperature forcing the equilibrium to the right to give out heat and exces steam to force equilibrium to the right again to reduce the steam concentration. However the practical problems include; the low temperature will reduce the reaction rate and thus how quickly the equilibrium is reached, the high pressure tends to cause ethene to polymerise (to polyethene) also the high pressure increases costs of building the plant and energy cost to run it and too much steam will simply dilute the catalyst.

In practice conditions of about 570K and 6500 kPa pressure are used obtaining a yield of ethanol at around 5%. The unreacted ethene is separated from the reaction mixture and recycled over the catalyst again until a 95% conversion is obtained.

Catalysts
Some reactions require the use of a catalyst in order to reach equilibrium in a feasible, efficient time. A catalyst does not affect the position of an equilibrium; it speeds up both the forward and backward reactions equally and therefore only increases the rate at which equilibrium is reached!

Catalysts work by providing an alternate reaction pathway of lower activation energy for both the reactants and products in an equilibrium reaction, and the activation energy remains unchanged.


text:
Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Knowing/Feedback

The whole world engages in all degrees and forms of communication. Within this cycle is feedback, and it is necessary for the evaluation, modification, and betterment of a given situation. Focused learning is based on knowing what you know and don't know. To benefit from classes, students (and teachers!) need appropriate feedback on performance. We all need help in assessing existing knowledge and competence when we’re getting started and this is where feedback plays a crucial role. Frequent opportunities are needed to perform and accept suggestions in order to improve in a subject. While in school, and later in life, students need the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned, what they still need to know, and how to assess themselves. Feedback in the educational system is absolutely vital, as it serves to better the level of effectiveness of students, teachers, school systems, and eventually the communities themselves (Keil, 2005).

Teacher Feedback
Teachers might immediately relate feedback to the results of student assessment, which is the traditional connection. How can students gauge knowledge gained in class if they are not assessed? Many educators feel that students focus too much only on the test score. However, more focus should be on the content and how well the material was learned, which is where feedback can make a difference. In order for the assessment to be something other than “just another grade,” immediate and relevant feedback from the teacher is vital to the student. Students need the immediate response in order to correct misconceptions, incorrect learning, and encourage long-term memory retention. According to the U.S. Department of Education (www.ed.gov), there are two distinct forms of feedback, evaluative and descriptive. The evaluative form is used strictly for assessment, without providing detailed information. Descriptive," however, provides “opportunities for the learner to make adjustments and improvements toward mastery of a specified standard” (www.ed.gov). This form of feedback is specific, relates directly to the learning, provides comparison to models and samples, and relates to performance. Frequent feedback to students during learning, as opposed to after learning, should be "specific, timely and frequent” (Wormeli, 2006).

Student Feedback
After assessing students is another perfect opening to seek feedback as the teacher can ask detailed questions, which should lead to revision and modification of lessons. Such questions might include:

 * 1) Is the material presented in an understandable manner?
 * 2) Are the objectives and goals clear?
 * 3) What strategies help the student understand and retain certain materials?
 * 4) Is there a particular aid that supplements the main material, such as worksheets, note-taking, web quests, PowerPoint, or graphic map?
 * 5) Do the various activities enhance the main concept or do they detract?

After receiving this information from students the teacher should then reflect on the feedback and determine if there are modifications that can be made. If so, the modifications should be planned and implemented as quickly as possible. Again, as mentioned previously, specific, timely, and frequent.

In the same vein, teachers’ performance is enhanced when they are provided with feedback on student assessment. For example, in the Fuchs et al. (1994) study, it was found that students’ performance was increased when teachers were provided with assessment feedback and specific instructional recommendations to facilitate change. Another aspect of this view is the interaction and feedback of peers, which is one of the most effective tools. When teachers regularly provide feedback and assistance to one another, the opportunity to refine and improve methods or strategies is enhanced (Mallette, Maheady, & Harper, 1999). Teachers can receive strong feedback about their own instructional practices and common student misconceptions by engaging in the design and use of assessments, states Charlotte Danielson, an independent, Princeton based, consultant. “When this is done by teachers working together,” she says, “the entire intellectual capital of the school is enhanced.” (Olsen, 2005) Teachers are instrumental in identifying outmoded methods or even new methods that do not work. After all, they are “on the front line” and can evaluate how well students respond to new approaches. This also extends beyond instructional modifications and assessments, whether the issue is a school policy or scheduling problem. Providing the school administration with thorough, reflective, and useful feedback is important to the overall effectiveness of all schools.

Peer-to-Peer Feedback
One of the most beneficial tools for a new teacher is the peer to peer evaluation. As teachers it is important to be able to know what you are doing and how you could improve on that. If you could utilize different teachers, you would be able to have multiple views and ideas.

There are two forms of peer feedback, sometimes also referred to as peer observation. The first is “formative,” which is especially important to the new teacher. (www.ed.gov) This involves faculty members observing and assisting in the classroom to enhance the teaching skills of a novice teacher. All teachers should have the opportunity to participate, as well as mentor coaches or in-house mentors. An ideal situation would be to have all of these resources provided to new teachers. There is a need for better “formative assessments” that are given regularly in the classroom and provide quick information that lets teachers and students adjust what’s happening to promote learning. The second medium is the summative observation and is used for promotion and other merit decisions. This is more likely to be the formal administrator-teacher observation and feedback, which makes most teachers nervous. What is the efficacy of a formal observation if appropriate feedback is not provided? Change to desirable teacher behaviors is more likely through feedback by “…increasing use of praise, direct instruction teaching behaviors, effective use of time, and responding to incidents.” (Scheeler, Ruhl, & McAfee, 2004)  Feedback from supervisors is instrumental in revising, changing, and adapting new methods and strategies and should not be dismissed or regarded as critical. Perceptions need to change in this format as well, as it can provide valuable information to teachers and a different perspective. For more information on these and other forms of feedback, please view the University of Texas website through this link:.

Formative reviews are one of the most realistic yet easiest to sit through. In formative review, you are being reviewed by your own colleagues instead of by an administrator. Formative reviews could be carried out by inviting your own colleagues into your room to watch. Also you your self could watch another teacher’s room in hopes of learning new ways of teaching.

All of the many ways to be reviewed is to have qualified, educated, and fair reviewers. If you are able to have the same level of education, then your reviews will also be equal and reliable.

Parent Feedback
Parents of students are another area of focus for feedback. Success in the classroom can be greatly affected by the relationship with parents and this is an area of concern for all in education. Parents and schools should communicate regarding school activities, discipline codes, learning objectives, and the child’s progress. (Barrera, Warner, 2006) Reaching out to parents by keeping them up-to-date on topics and activities in the classroom can establish a viable venue for feedback. A parent who relays that their child shared an activity or lesson that was of particular interest can be invaluable. By the same token, if the parent relays that their child seemed uncertain or frustrated during a lesson, the teacher is provided with an opening for re-evaluation and change. Another area of feedback not to be dismissed is that of the principal. Through the use of feedback, the principal can determine whether the communication avenue has missed or met an objective. The willingness to listen and change, if necessary, is only possible if multiple ways to assess communication are established. (Keil, 2005) Many families consider feedback from teachers and the principal to be imperative. Feedback between the community and school administrators is very important in the level of overall health and effectiveness of student education.

Other Types of Effective Feedback
Physical education teachers have the opportunity to use different types of feedback methods that might not be as practical in a typical classroom setting. For example, when teaching motor skills, video feedback is a great way to improve body movements effectively. This type of augmented feedback allows teachers to break down each motion and improve it as it relates to the outcome of the skill. In an article by Button and Pepping, they discuss a study on different types of feedback administered while teaching throwing with the non-dominant hand. The study was broken into four groups. The first group was given video feedback every five trials, the second group was given video feedback as they wanted it, the third group was given video feedback when the second group received it, and the fourth group was not given any video feedback at all. The study found that the groups who received video feedback were able to perform the skill more effectively and efficiently than the group who received no video feedback. Additionally, the study found that of the three groups who were able to watch the video, the group who was allowed to choose when they watched the feedback was able to perform the skill at a higher level. With the information, it was concurred that the learner benefits from being in control of feedback and when it is administered. However, video feedback alone is not enough in motor learning; it is believed that “video feedback is most effective when supplemented with additional, attention-directing augmented information” (Schmidt & Lee, 1999). In addition, too much feedback can be detrimental to the learning process as it can possibly take the learner’s attention away from the actual goal of the movement or skill. This raises the issue of external versus internal attentional focus which should be studied in conjunction with effective types of feedback.

Conclusion
The communication cycle of feedback is of vital importance in all aspects of education and affects everyone involved. Teachers are not the only ones accountable in the feedback cycle, however they are at the core, with students. The entire education community must be willing to constantly assess, review, revise, modify, and be positive in this constant cycle of feedback.

Multiple Choice Questions
Click to reveal the answer.

Essay Question
When evaluating the peer-to-peer feedback, what are the essential components and how do they apply?