An Educational Adventure in Prague

After our amazing weekend in beautiful weekend in Cesky Krumlov and my upcoming travels to Italy, I am noticing how fast my time here in Europe is slipping away very quickly.  At the end of this experience I have shared a lot with my peers, but we have also been going through some different things.  We have different interests and are enrolled in different types of classes.
This week in ELM350, we have been discussing the use of constructed-response assessments in comparisons to selected-response assessments.  The main difference between the two types of exercises is obvious: selected-response items allows students to select an answer out of number of choices, whereas in constructed-response items, students are required to answer it without any choices, ergo they have to construct the answer.  Examples of these types include multiple choice, true-false, matching (selected-response) and oral testing, written essays, short answers, and fill in the blank (constructed-response) assessments. The use of these two types of items in an assessments both serve different purposes, each having both advantages and disadvantages.  In one aspect, selected-response items can cover a wider range of material whereas, constructed-response items allow a student to cover an individual item much more in depth.
If I were required to reflect on my experience here thus far, I feel like a constructed-response format would be needed. All of my classmates and friends here have differently experienced Prague and other countries in Europe.  It would be insufficient to complete a selected-response type of assessment if its objective was to discover the significance and meaning of this study abroad experience.  I feel a constructed-response type of item would allow for more freedom and not be too restrictive.  An essay type of response item would also offer me the opportunity to really express the diverse things I have experienced in a more interconnected way.  This blog in itself is an example of this.  Every week I seem to have new adventures that I have been able relate to my education classes here in my writing in the form of this post (essay).

     This past weekend we traveled to Cesky Krumlov, a medieval town in the Czech Republic. This was a wonderful opportunity to visit another part of the Czech Republic and have a change of scenery. This was also my favorite weekend since I have been here. We toured the Budweiser brewery and went rafting on a river that ran through Cesky Krumlov. While it was chilly and we got rained on, our raft had a blast. We sang in the rain and just made the best of the experience. It was nice being outside and being away from the city for the weekend. When we made it to the end we were soaking wet, freezing cold, and very tired. The trip, however, was one I will always remember and one that I wouldn’t trade for any other.  

APPLICATION TO EDP:

     This week in educational psychology we are learning about cognitive processes and learning itself. One topic that we discussed was the use of mnemonics to remember things when you don’t have a prior knowledge base. This is especially relevent for those of us studying abroad right now in the Czech Republic. The Czech language is one that can’t be related to any other bit of knowledge I have, and while I really want to learn it, I am having a hard time doing so. Dr. Pop gave us an assignment to use mnemonics, or memory aids, to remember 25 Czech words/sentences. This is something that I have been trying to do on my own, especially with Metro Stops and grocery store items. For example, our metro stop is Jirihoho Z Podebrad, or JZP. When I first got here to remember that I just made the rhyme “JZP is home to me.” This week I am going to challenge myself to remember more words in Czech through these mnemonic devices.

APPLICATION TO ELM:

This week in Assessment we talked about essay questions, short answer response, and performance assessment. This trip abroad and these study abroad classes have held little essay questions and fewer short answer questions, but I can honestly say the trip has been one huge authentic performance assessment. While our professors not been grading us on every thing we do, like our attitudes when the rain came during rafting or our ability to find our way back to the pension when lost in the city, these are all assessments of previous learning experiences in our lives. This trip has offered the opportunity to learn and apply what has been learned over and over again, and this life assessment truly helps me measure where I have come since I have been in Prague, as well as how much more I have to learn.

We just got back from our exciting weekend excursion to Cesky Krumlov.  Our group was split in half, which meant twenty of us took a four-hour bus ride through the countryside of the Czech Republic and made it to our destination- Hostel Merlin.  While there we ate dinner in a medieval restaurant, toured a castle, and my personal favorite- went rafting in the middle of a thunderstorm.  This weekend was also filled with learning important Czech words and phrases.  Most of these included, prosim, naschledanou, dobry den, zvlásť, and dekuji- which give us the important translations for please, goodbye, hello, separate (checks), and thank you.  We also use the Czech language when we refer to various stations on the Metro. A few popular ones are Namesti miru, I.P. Pavlova, Mustek, Muzeum, and Jiřího z Poděbrad. My knowledge of these phrases and names come from simple repitition of the words (rehearsal).  Especially when using the public transportation, I listen to the voice-over announcing the upcoming stations and I attempt to imitate her pronunciation of the stops.  However, for some words or phrases, I have failed to pronounce correctly even though I have practiced numerous times.
Using mnemonics is a helpful way to learn something when you have no prior knowledge of the material.  In my next assignment for Educational Psychology, we are assigned to come up with examples of mnemonics as a way to remember important Czech phrases and words.  For example, Jiřího z Poděbrad is the name of the station we get off at to walk to our pension.  So whenever I refer to this stop with my friends I say ‘JZP’ instead of Jirio z Podebrad. This is an example of using superimposed meaningful structure as away to remember the needed information.  We also used a type of verbal mediator when we kept referring to Cesky Krumlov as Krispy Kreamlov- making a connection between the city and Krispy Kream doughnuts.  While the two ideas are pretty random and unrelated to each other, I think I will always be able to remember the name of the city because of the unique relationship we made between the two.

It’s hard to believe this is only the second week here in Prague. I am beginning to develop a routine and find daily tasks much easier. I have realized that it is a good idea to go eat dinner before you are actually hungry because you may wait an eternity to get your food. Also, trying to get coffee has been surprisingly difficult, espresso is more common here and if you order a coffee you get espresso with milk. I have found that I can get my normal tall coffee at Starbucks, unfortunately I had to succumb to the corporate coffee world even in Prague.
I joined a gym today to keep my typical workout schedule. That was something very difficult to give up, so after a week I decided to join the local gym with some other students. The gym is basically the same as an American gym except no one speaks English, they call it aerobic and are obsessed with cycling. I really like the fact that you have to walk to get to the gym, at least 10 minutues, or to get to anywhere else you want to go. I wish we walked more like this in America, but most of our cities are not set up that way.
I’m looking forward to traveling this weekend, and learning about another new city and culture. I’ll post more about my traveling experience when I return..

We just got back from a busy weekend at Cesky Krumlov, which we quickly named Krispy Kremelov. This was by far the best weekend of the trip. The town and the views of the surrounding areas were beautiful. Our hostel was very clean, I actually preferred it to the pension in Prague, sorry but true. Saturday was an adventure to say the least… We went rafting on the Vltava River which was amazing, however half way through the 4 hour journey a torrential rain, not to mention lightening, storm started. Even though it was only about 50 degrees we still had a fabulous time rowing down the Vltava singing 90’s tunes in the pouring rain. The last day we visited the castle and explored the town a little more before leaving, mainly we wanted ice cream, which was amazing. I was glad to be “home” in Prague but enjoyed my time in Krispy Kremelov and would love to visit again some day and go rafting on the river in preferably 76 degree weather.

Relating to Edu Psych…

We related the name of Krispy Kreme to Cesky Krumlov from previous experience and knowledge. Since Krispy Kreme is prevalent in NC, we have that name enstilled in long term memory and when hearing words, or a place that sounds similar we can connect the words: Cesky – Krispy, Krum – Kreme. Although this was a silly name, it actually shows how we are relating stored and familiar information to new ideas and places.

This week in Prague was filled with quite a few activities that made the study abroad classroom a very different experience. First of all, we took a field trip to the Jewish Quarter and we used information gathered here to make our first assessment. We also had the chance to visit a local elementary school this week. This school was very different from schools in the United States. When we walked in there were students running through the halls, something that would not be acceptable int he United States. Then a bell rang and the students ran into their respectable classrooms and sat in their seats, ready to learn. The teacher lead them in a song and an individual activity. They then switched papers and graded eachothers work, but grades weren’t actually taken. Next, the students got into groups of three and played a game.  They rolled a letter die and had to come up with a person’s name, animal, and object that began with that letter. The kids really enjoyed this competition and everyone participated. This is not the class we will get to teach, but it was fun observing this first grade classroom and seeing both the similarities and differences between American schools and Czech schools.

APPLICATION TO ELM:

This week in assessment we learned about Bloom’s Taxonomy and the six hierarchical categories an objective can be classified into based on comlexity. While many inexperienced test writers write test questions in the lowest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, knowledge, where facts are simply memorized, questions should vary in their levels of complexity. In the classroom we visited in Prague, the teacher used higher levels of Bloom’s than pure knowledge. While she wasn’t formally assessing her students, she was still informally assessing the students knowledge of letters. Instead of giving the students a word and asking them what letter it starts with (assessing knowledge,) she gave them a letter and categories and asked them to apply their knowledge about letters and sounds so as to make words (application being a higher level of Blooms.) Such assessme are more difficult for the teacher to up with, but they better test the students understanding of the subject area.

APPLICATION TO EDP:

In Educational Psychology this week one topic that was covered was Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. Gardner states that there are 8 (or 9) different abilities that manifest themselves in different people. While this theory is controversial in education, teachers can still incorperate the different intelligences into the classroom so as to capture the attention of the students. The classroom we visited on Wednesday did just this, using multiple methods of teaching to engage each student and help him or her learn. Within the short time we were in the classroom, the teacher incorperated linguistic, spatial, and musical intelligence. When we first arrived the teacher lead her students in a song using musical. Then they did an activity where they had to find the word on the right that was not on the left, using both spatial and linguistic. Finally, the students had the word competition as described above, involving linguistic intelligence. The use of multiple intelligence, whether one agrees with the concept/term intelligence, is a good tool for keeping students engaged and making sure they are well rounded students. The teacher did a great job of doing this during our time their, and I really enjoyed watching her engage her students.

This week in class was an especially exciting time since we were able to observe a Czech elementary school classroom.  Once entering the school, right away I noticed crowds of rambunctious students running and playing games in the hallway.  Initially I was a little surprised at the activity inside and I become a little overwhelmed. However, once sat in the classroom and the teacher began class, the students immediately sat down and were ready to learn. This is very different from what I am used to back in the States; at home elementary schools have lines and hall monitors for every activity in the hallways in comparison to here where children seemed like they were just let loose. However, this less controlling method seems to work because the students get their energy out and when the song plays, the children are ready for instruction. The teacher first played a song and the students sang along.  Following, the teacher introduced an activity that focused on recall, spelling, and cursive writing. This activity pretty much dominated the rest of the class. A student would roll a dice showing a letter of the alphabet. Then the groups of students had to come up with a name, animal, and object starting with that selected letter. They had to spell the word correctly and write in acceptable cursive manuscript.
In class this week we talked about different levels of instruction and assessment through the lens of Bloom’s taxonomy. There are six different levels, increasing in level of difficulty.  In this situation, I feel like the teacher’s “word-activity” mainly stayed within the first level of cognitive domain, knowledge.  In this first level, the instruction or assessment is demanding rote memory and learning facts from the students.  In the teacher’s exercise, students were required to remember a word and how to spell it. The students then had to practice writing the word in cursive.  All of these tasks fall into Bloom’s “knowledge” level.
This experience was valuable to see because it was my first time really applying theories and knowledge into the field (the classroom).  I was able to see how significant the activity was and what it actually demanded from the students. I learned that in most elementary school instruction, most assessment and activities will fall into the first couple levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy since the students are not necessarily advanced yet at this young of age.

So far this week I have visited the Jewish Quarter and a couple other museums. I actually went back to the Jewish Quarter a second time because there was so much to see, I needed an additional visit to see everything! I also made my first trip to the Laundromat and of course did a few errands at the grocery store.  My class (Kayla, Sarah, and myself) was also given the opportunity to visit a local elementary school classroom! I really enjoyed this experience because I was especially interested to see any differences that I might be able to notice between instructional methods used here versus in the states.
In class this week we focused on group differences, where culture comprises a major aspect of this topic.  We discussed how in any single classroom there would be evidence of cultural and ethnic diversity and that individuals of this nature may not behave in the same manner that we are familiar with.  For example, in some cultures it may be disrespectful to make eye contact with a superior, but in the United States eye contact reflects attentiveness and engagement. Also, some cultures have different perceptions of what level of personal space is appropriate. I have experienced this last example frequently in my time here so far.  On the metro or tram I have noticed that even if there is room to spread out, people will most often sit or stand right up against you.  At first I found this uncomfortable, but I soon realized that the locals here are used to being in big crowds, since they live in the city, so this closeness is appropriate to them.
I think my study abroad experience will prove to be very valuable when I create my own classroom environment because this time has forced me to become aware of cultural and ethnic diversity. It is one thing to read about it in class, but completely different learned knowledge when I have actually experienced it.

During this week my ELM class has focused on the reliability and validity of assessments, emphasizing the significance of such results. Reliability refers to the consistency of results, whereas validity refers to the extent at which the assessment actually measures what it is intended to measure. In class this week we worked with these concepts during an activity in which Kayla and I were asked to design a grading rubric to rate how beautiful statues were around the city. We were attempting to create a rubric that would prove to be reliable and show consistency.  This task was much harder than we initially anticipated. While designing the questions we tried to eliminate any questions that would involve subjective judgement.  For instance, how can you create a question rating beauty if the definition of beauty is not the same thing to every individual.  After designing the questions, the three of us went into the city and rated five statues. At the end of class we analyzed the results and compared them to one another. Surprisingly, we found that our scores were pretty reliable (we rated statues similarly), however, we found a new problem with out rubric.  While it did show reliability, the test did not prove to be very valid.  We found that are questions did not necessarily reflect the issue of identifying beauty.  Therefore, we concluded that are test was not a good one as it did not actually test what it stated (beauty).
From this activity, I learned that test design is actually a very difficult task to successfully complete. It made me aware that you need consider the material being tested and its possibility for subjective interpretation (especially with inter-rater/intra-rater).  My study here in Prague thus far has made a strong impression on me that really fortifies these concepts. I realized that while I may be used to people thinking similarly to me at home (reliability) and that I should not be so quick to assume that my way of thinking is the norm. In Prague, the difference in culture has proven to be very beneficial to me.  I will remember that as a teacher I need to appreciate the differences in ethnic groups and individuals.  Becoming aware of these differences will help me be a better teacher as I will need to pay attention to my methods of teaching and designing objective assessments.