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Today's educators are bombarded with information from all sides about the latest and greatest research-based instructional techniques in teaching. With all these crazes about instructional methods and the confusion about which one really works and which one is a dud, no wonder our teachers are so exhausted! As charming and inspirational as all these latest claims and success stories seem to be, educators need to be careful when choosing and implementing a new or old "miracle" instruction method. There are things a teacher needs to do before making any big changes to their curriculum and instruction.

First things first, what supporting evidence is there? Educators need to use their resources wisely and take all initial information with skepticism. Before actually outright backing the "amazing" new research supporting a particular method, whether it be Indirect Instruction, Cooperative learning, etc..., educators must do their research. Talk to colleagues, look the strategy up online, check out education magazines and journals, and any other resource material available. Find out what evidence there is out there to support the research-based strategy. Furthermore, make sure the sources you are calling upon for information are reliable. Reliable sources offer reliable evidence, so seek out unbiased, professional resources. Weigh pros and cons, consistencies and inconsistencies, before making a decision on the strategy at hand.

After thorough research has been done, the next important question is: "How should the research-based program be implemented?" And "What methods does the research show to be most advantageous?" These questions' answers would most probably appear in your research since it was suppose to be incredibly thorough. If not, you'll want to look it up. Many teachers forget this step, and as Grassen states in the article "What Does It Mean To Be a Research-Based Profession" teachers simply aren't properly implementing research-based strategies are thus losing out on potential benefits of the programs. "Cooperative learning was designed to complement teacher-directed instruction by providing further opportunity for students to work together using what they have learned. In most schools today, cooperative learning is used to replace teacher-directed instruction and students are expected to construct their own knowledge working in groups." (N.d). Clearly, teachers need to put a great deal of thought into this step as improper implementation of the program can have catastrophic consequences on learners.

Read up on each research-based method, decide what sorts of lessons would benefit from their use, and which wouldn't. Talk to colleagues about what methods they use in the classroom, why, and how they implement them. Most of all, be aware of comparisons being drawn between different research-based strategies. Look for comparative studies as opposed to non-comparative studies. Comparative studies are more likely to give you accuracy in research. Educators need to look at the whole picture. How is class A using strategy A performing compared to class B using strategy B? How do these same classes perform after trading strategies? How is school A using strategy A performing compared to school B using strategy B? And so on...

Lastly, before implementing any research-based strategy, an educator should ask themselves "Am I biased?" Be sure to be honest with yourself. Try to go into deliberation with an open and unbiased mind. Take into account all reliable sources whether they are in-line with your initial beliefs or opinions on the strategy or not. Remain unbiased until the end. Your openness and willingness to learn can determine the accuracy of your research.

There are a great many research-based programs out there and being implemented everyday. Many of them just don't have the proper supporting research for an educator, especially a new and inexperienced one, to simply throw their weight behind. Don't ask your students to do homework without doing your own. Research your methods before putting them into practice. Find out what's behind them, what's supporting them, and how they should be used to the biggest advantage in the classroom. Without such information your newest instructional plan could be a huge failure. Don't follow fads and trends, look for rock solid evidence and implementation methods before making that big leap of bringing it into your classroom.

Reference:

Grossen, B. (n.d). What Does It Mean To Be a Research-Based Profession? Retrieved March 8, 2007, from University of Oregon, Eugene Website: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu

Northwest Regional Education Laboratory. (2005). Research-Based Strategies. Retrieved March 5, 2007 from, Focus on Effectiveness Web site: http://www.netc.org/focus/strategies/




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research in motion

Boundaries
In every era of rapid human development, boundaries that previously were thought to be sacred, have been breached. Embryonic stem cell research is no different. The controversy arises because there is experimentation on living tissue, and some would claim that this brings pain to tissue that already has human life.

Debate
This debate rages between those that claim that the good of some cannot be gained by the pain of others. So, currently, the financial resources needed for research are limited because it is a hot issue. To think debate whether government should pay for it, is a delicate topic! It’s not good for election results.

Taxes
Traditionally, taxes are paid to a government with the intent that the it makes decisions for the group, ensure the safety and wellbeing of the group and spend the accrued money on anything that the people cannot provide for themselves individually. While some would argue that this safety and wellbeing only encompasses the invasion of other countries (war), others would argue that it includes a broad spectrum of services that enhance and contribute to human beings. Ergo, embryonic stem cell research, which would provide healing for many with conditions such as Alzheimer's, 68 different cancers, auto-immune disease and healing the heart muscle, should seriously be considered as a candidate for government funding. Research, currently, is limited as a result of a short supply of. Much needs to be done and the sooner it is done, the more grief and pain will be prevented.

Fears
One of the great fears of the general populace that would discourage the government from funding stem cell research is the fear of cloning, that it would increase the difference that already exists between the haves and have-nots. If this fear can be overcome, and the benefits of stem cell research can be sold more positively. Resistance to it might fade. I have found that reasoning attributed to religious strong points often fade in the face of obvious benefits (with no accompanying negatives).

The Big Question
The greatest reason why the government should fund it is that governments were created to act as leaders for the group and to bring to the group those services which individuals cannot provide as a result of lack of sufficient individual resources.

In this instance, however, the question is whether business or government should provide the finance. Perhaps, there’s more than one solution. Perhaps, the government can provide some financial input in return for a portion of the profits. Perhaps, when research is complete, the research company would donate a certain percentage of its new technology to those that live ‘beneath the breadline’.

Conclusion
While, in many instances, health is a personal responsibility, it is unfortunate that few human beings have the capacity to live the way that optimal life styles demand. Illness is, therefore, always a probability or possibility. If governments were created to look after the wellbeing of the people, government should seriously consider investing in research that brings healing to humanity.






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All Webboard Topic

research chemicals

The similarities between scientific research and criminal investigation are the search for the conclusion or a cause of the effect. Both scientists and criminal investigators are specially trained in their field of practice. They tend to use similar methods of research and investigation the cause. Scientists as well as investigators both observe the surroundings, the facts, the areas involved in the research or investigations. They classify the data into categories this can be as simple as determining if it is valid or not valid. There is the use of logic, the formation of a hypothesis or a theory as to why and what has occurred. Both sides must link information together to prove their hypothesis or conclusions. Both scientists and criminal investigators work in a systemic method which seeks accurate answers, not general conclusions.

So how can you tell which is which? It's not really that difficult once you understand the basic principles. Scientific research is a type of investigation which is systemic and basis its research on scientific methods which have been used in the past, and in relation to the scientific field. This type of research can be described as well organized, methodical, and precise. Scientists begin with an idea, a theory or a hypothesis. Scientists begin with an observation or description about what they intend to study/research. From these observations they form a hypothesis to explain their subject. They use the hypothesis to predict what may happen in the course of the research. The scientist begins to experiment or run tests based on their predictions about the hypothesis. They may also collect data about their observations to show that the hypothesis is either valid or not.
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Criminal investigations begin with gathering documents and information. They begin to evaluate the facts about the events, or the crime. They use a systemic method to observe the details of the crime, as in who what where when why and how. They begin to piece things together, by assembling the facts and determining if the evidence gathered is useful or not. The hypothesis begins to form at this point which helps to link all the information gathered to the crime. The hypothesis in this sense is used to create a theory as to what happened, and the ability to define what has occurred. The hypothesis is an important part of the criminal investigation. The reason is that the investigator must prove or disprove the theory/hypothesis. Even more important for the investigator is to find the missing pieces, that are not ready available at the time. The investigator must be able to draw conclusions about the events but they must also be able to prove that the events did in fact occur.




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What is a Niche Blog?

Note: This is designed for WordPress 2.9. The general idea will work for previous versions of WordPress, the exact line number might be different.

There might be a time when you want to post an entry with double hyphens. However, WordPress wants to show items containing more than one hyphen in a row as a solid line. This is not the desired affect you are after. Thank goodness there is a way to disable this from happening blog wide.

Perhaps you want to display the tag as I did in the post on using it to only show a selected excerpt on your blogs main page. To allow for this types of situations to take place, we will look at the file where the replacement takes place.

wp-includes/formatting.php

Line 56 - $static_characters = array_merge(array('---', ' -- ', '--', ' - ', 'xn--', '...', '"', ''s', ''", ' ™'), $cockney);

Line 57 - $static_replacements = array_merge(array('—', ' — ', '-', ' - ', 'xn--', '...', $opening_quote, ''s', $closing_quote, ' ™'), $cockneyreplace);

The first part of the lines above contain the items that are to be converted. We are interested in the first three items. Remove them and the result will be:

$static_characters = array_merge(array('xn-', '...', '"', ''s', ''", ' ™'), $cockney);

$static_characters = array_merge(array(' - ', 'xn--', '...', '"', ''s', ''", ' ™'), $cockney);
$static_replacements = array_merge(array(' - ', 'xn--', '...', $opening_quote, ''s', $closing_quote, ' ™'), $cockneyreplace);

Save the file and re-upload it to your blog. Now when you enter more than one hyphen in a row in a blog post, they will be display correctly.



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