Mohammed Alshamisi

Abstract

Effective learning among the individuals of different levels entails application of diverse media that will ultimately enhance their understanding capacity. Moreover, competency in learning not only entails the application of diverse multimedia but also incorporates the demands and the needs of the individuals who is the benefactor in the learning environment. Designing of the instructional units will help the instructor especially to know the achievement required and to ensure that the benefactor, the student, gets the best that is required of them. The fact that all students possess different understanding capacities that require integration of different approaches, the need for use of these methods is vital to ensure maximum delivery among the instructors. This unit will deal with instructional programs that will assist the children   in attaining the optimum level of educational development.

Young students at this stage require special learning styles that will ensure that they are consistently guided through from inflicted practice and guidance to discovery learning. It is for this reason that the instructional unit will create a good environment for the learner as well as offer proper planning and preparedness by the instructor. By first determining the outcomes of the project, the instructor can make an application of different elements such as visual aids, audio or concurrent use of these elements for maximum benefits. The applied multimedia elements should be harmonized by the instructor. Failure to apply the right mechanisms usually compromises the required outcomes.

Instructors are normally required to apply possible techniques that will ensure that the learner gets the optimum benefit from the project. For instance, the education might require development of values among the individuals. The tutors are likely to distort the meaning in this kind of education if they use drill and practice techniques (Patty Shank 2004). On the other hand, the tutor might be competent in knowledge construction which has a diverse scope. In this case the learner might experience mental fatigue or even be frustrated especially when they are young.

Teachers of toddlers are expected to be highly effective. The children are still growing both in the cognitive as well as the social dimension. The skills applied by the tutor should ensure maximum flexibility. They should follow the instructional rules but at times it calls for change of techniques when it calls for. Although multimedia offers diverse avenues of making learning effective and meaningful, Alessi, S. M., & Trollip, S. R. (2001), provides guidelines on the factors that are to be considered in instructional production.

Instructional Goals / Learning Goals

According to NCTM 2012 standards, Instructional programs from pre-kindergarten through grade 12 should enable all students to: Understand, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems, Understand of operations and how they relate to one another, Compute and make reasonable estimates.

Understand numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems.

Pre-K–2 Expectations: In pre-K through grade 2 all students should   Count with understanding and recognize "how many" in sets of objects; Use multiple models to develop initial understandings of place value and the base-ten number system; Develop understanding of the relative position and magnitude of whole numbers and of ordinal and cardinal numbers and their connections; Develop a sense of whole numbers and represent and use them in flexible ways, including relating, composing, and decomposing numbers; Connect number words and numerals to the quantities they represent, using various physical models and representations; Understand and represent commonly used fractions, such as 1/4, 1/3, and 1/2. (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2012, April 25-28, Philadelphia P.A Principles and Standards for School Mathematics).

From the above standards the following goals can be formulated: Through the use of modeling and imitation, the learner will be exposed to understand and recognize while counting the number of objects in a set. This will be a milestone in assisting the learner to understand more than half of the numbers. In addition, Use of multiple models in developing initial understanding of the place value and base-ten number system. The tutor will also apply drill and practice technique to ensure the learner will be able to understand the relative positions and the magnitude of the whole numbers and of ordinal and cardinal numbers and their relationships. Administering of simple questions and correcting them will greatly assist them to understand. Learner’s efforts should account to more than 80% for effective learning.

Use of objects that the children play with will greatly assist the instructor to help the children to relate the numbers and write them in the most flexible way possible. Tutors can also administer basic questions concerning the numbers in a haphazard way to ensure that the children internalize the numbers. This ensures more than 60% of the understanding is achieved. Physical models and representations can be used to enhance the understanding of how number words and numerals are connected to the quantities they represent. The instructors can use representative diagrams, available objects and the children themselves to explain fractions such as 1/3,1/2,1/5,3/4.6/8 and critically lead them to understand how the fractions come about.

Instructional Material

Learning does not only encompass the transfer of knowledge from one person to another but to a greater extent learning encompasses the use of diverse media in order to cater for the diverse categories of the audiences.( ISD ).Elements required for the critical and effective learning should be applied to enhance meaningful interaction and ability to learn overtime. Learning requires the use of integration of elements that will ultimately engage the learner in making sense of the information given to them. This view sees learning as struggling to understand how new information relates with existing knowledge and how it can be integrated together to give an individual both complex skills and abilities to solve problems. Knowledge is not just isolated facts or procedures. (Patty Shank 2004).

Taking target audience characteristics, number of trainees, and environmental requirements into account, decisions are made about how to deliver the training to meet instructional objectives. One of these decisions is media selection, the course designers' choice of appropriate instructional media for a course. Media selection requires a close look at the strengths and weaknesses of each medium based on the type of student, what he or she needs to learn, and how to teach it.

Choices may change from goal to goal and lesson to lesson to get the best training results from the available media. Many electronic media now provide delivery of training or partial training without trainees ever entering a traditional classroom--we call this distance learning. (Instructional Systems Development, ISD).

Children at an early age can be taught using toys that they play with that can help the young mind to develop cognitive and tactile skills. They can also be guided to make shapes using simple materials available in their environment and those that attract a lot of concern to the children. They can name the numbers represented by the different shapes or they be helped to count the number of objects at their disposal.

In the book, Count on Math: Activities for Small Hands and Lively Minds, Pam Schiller and Lynne Peterson define numeration to be the discovering and understanding the “manyness” of numbers. There are many activities that a child can be engaged in to help them learn numbers. For example, the use of number cards. The instructor writes numbers on cards the cards are mixed and the child is exposed to arrange the cards according to their positions. When the child becomes used to, he/she may be exposed to arrange them in descending order to enhance more understanding of the positions of the numbers.

Another tool that can be used to assist the child internalize numbers is by the use of songs. The rhythm from the song normally is attractive to the child. As they sing the songs they are able to comprehend the numbers more.

Assessment Plan

The assessment plan is aimed at achieving different goals. First the instructor can be able to test his/her competency and accountability. The child can also be tested on his/her comprehension as well as developmental capacity. Assessment can either be done in a formal or informal way. During the assessment, the instructor should put more emphasis on the attainment of the goals. For instance, teachers can engage in self –evaluation. Ronald Berk (2005) pg 4 holds the view that an individual is not likely to give a distorted picture of him/her. Therefore it is difficult to be impartial about our own performances.

Another way of assessing the teachers is by use of rubrics. Rubrics are a way to assess a teacher's performance in a variety of areas. Rubrics show to what level a teacher shows evidence of specific skills within the classroom setting. This type of assessment contains some type of point scale that reflects levels of performance. Administrators can use rubrics while observing teachers to evaluate areas such as classroom management, addressing multiple learning styles and engaging the learners. For example a very good performance can be rated at 5, a good performance at 4, an average one at three and below average at two. This method allows the investigators to be able to understand the extent to which the  needs and the demands of the children are met .

However assessment especially of children at a tender age poses a lot of challenge when it comes to designing of assessment techniques. This is because of the unique needs presented by the young children. This calls for the instructors to uniquely design assessment methods that meet the needs and demands of the young children.

The student-centered evaluation is the main concern in the education sector. The teacher should ensure that the students are performing as expected. For instance in this case, the teacher should assess the children on different areas.first; they should be assessed on their comprehensive capacity. In this case, the instructor can give the child different cards which are numbered and then ask them to arrange them both in ascending or descending manner. This ensures that the student does not only understand the existence of such numbers but understands their place value.secondly; the teacher can evaluate the child by giving them standardized tests aimed at testing the child’s  reflective thinking. This normally helps the teacher to test the student on their concentration level. The instructor can be able to understand the student well.

Although there are many claims that it might be unfair to administer standardized tests to the young children, at times it might be useful. It might assist in screening the students for disabilities which can be corrected earlier in advance. Common standardized tests given to preschool students include the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist and the Battelle test. These exams are usually only administered by teachers or psychologists who have been trained to administer them.

Social learning skills are also supposed to be tested .the children can be put into groups and asked to recite numbers. This assists the social learners. In a nutshell, evaluation on whether the goals of the project are met can be done in a number of ways.

Summary

Due to different capabilities by different people, diverse approaches need to be discovered to cater for the different types of learners. This makes sure that all the individuals’ needs are catered for .At an early age; the children are normally expected to be guided especially by instructors who are with them most of the time. Mathematical ability also differs for the different children which call for application of diverse methods of teaching to accommodate the visual, tactile, special and other types of learners. Learning among the young children can be perceived as a complex process demanding a lot of expertise as well as commitment by the instructors. Different factors account for the diverse instructional designs. The category of people involved  means that the instructor will use unique designs which may differ from others.

Different methods of learning are available for the children especially with respect to comprehending the numbers. These include use of songs, modeling, and use of graphics among others. It is worth mentioning that the instructors ought to evaluate the success of the education to ensure that it meets the goals of the project. Different evaluation dimensions are used and include self evaluation and student-centered evaluation.