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Learner Analysis: Three Crucial Goals for Instructional Design Learners come into the classroom with varied experiences, values, qualities, moods, and motivation. Although Brown and Green (2016) classify learners into two broad categories of and of captive audience (extrinsically motivated) and willing volunteers (intrinsically motivated) learners, they also highlight the myriad sub characteristics within each group. There is no one correct way to perform learner analysis (LA) but the existence of several theories can enable instructors to perform relatively effective LAs and use them as a guide to design instruction (Brown & Green, 2016). LA is important because it helps identify best ways of reaching the target audience so that teaching, learning and instruction can be maximized (Siemens, 2002). Siemens (2002) holds that in conducting an LA, three types of characteristics must be considered: situation, decision, and learner-characteristics. The situation determines who the targe...
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  Valda Kaikai June 2021 Inclusive, Decolonized and Diverse Schools and Classrooms: An Architectural Model      Inclusive, decolonized and diverse schools are the ideal being touted by numerous researchers as a result of increasing global travel and diversity in once almost homogenous societies. Indeed, one only has to lookup photos of classrooms twenty years ago versus classrooms today to see evidence of this assertion. With racial and social issues coming to the forefront of the Trump presidency, I believe there is little doubt in education circles today that diversity and inclusion are critical for schools to address, if they are serious about producing the kind of global citizen that will succeed in this 21 st century work and life environment. Hockings (in Hanesworth, 2015) describes inclusivity as “the ways in which pedagogy, curricula and assessment are designed and delivered to engage students in learning that is meaningful, relevant and accessible ...
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Summary of Articles September 2021 Blakemore S.J., & Choudhury, S. (2006). Development of the adolescent brain: Implications for executive function and social cognition.  Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 47 .  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01611.x From this article, the biggest takeaway I got is that even though adolescents act like adults many times and they seem to have high levels of cognitive functioning, they are still developing in the areas of brain capacity, behavior and cognition (Blake more and Choudhury, 2006). In other words , they are not yet fully capable of using cognition and brain capacity to regulate behaviour in the way adults can. Additionally, adolescents are dealing with massive levels of hormone secretions that affect their mood and physical development while their prefrontal cortex is increasingly able to fire at higher speeds through the process of myelination (ibid). The prefrontal cortex a...