Essay - The Impact of Cscl Tool the Impact of the Cscl...

the impact of cscl tool

THE IMPACT OF THE CSCL TOOL IN THE CLASSROOM

CHAPTER ONE-

Problem Statement - History education in schools

***** is a subject that when presented ***** the traditional manner of classroom lectures may appear to ***** learner ***** be a dry and uninteresting subject. History teachers have acknowledged that something must ***** done to enhance the interest of students to the subject of history (Sperry, 2006). Studies were also conducted to investigate ***** fac*****rs related to the issues ***** history as a subject ***** does not get much ***** from the ***** and from other individuals or organizations ***** time progresses (citations). These research studies ***** the common goal of determining why ***** gradual fall in the interest of history has taken place among people particularly among students. The thought ***** been very alarming among historians as well as teachers ***** history in secondary schools ***** universities. Among several factors, teach*****g of history in schools is considered one of ***** contributing factors (Barcan, 1999). There is a conflict with regard to what should really be taught in ***** and how it should ***** taught ***** students. Various *****, such ***** the ones made by Barton (1996), Cuban (1991), Grant (2001), Levstik (1996), Smith & Niemi (2001) and VanSledright (1995), provided evidence that ***** "drill ***** kill" approach is still prevalent in history **********, *****ten requir*****g students to read voluminous textbooks. This makes learning of history class a very laborious task for the students especially nowadays that ***** are already exposed to various in*****mation provided by the media. There are even instances when they could retain more the ideas that *****y get from entertainment programs shown on television than their lessons in his*****ry or ***** ***** classes (citations to support this claim).

Collingwood (as cited in Paul, 1992) lamented ***** the dominant mode of instruction in historical education put emphasis on the replication of isolated bits ***** information such as names, dates or places where students need to memorize and remember all *****se information. Students are not taught on how to think critically ***** evaluating ***** *****sessing the validity of information pertaining to issues, events or activities of hist*****ical *****. Likewise, Wiggins (1993) claimed that didactic ***** ***** actually harm ***** *****. He suggested that students should be able to apply knowledge and information in highly contextualized manner by exercising constant judgment in adapting knowledge. Therefore, the ***** should be on the ha***** ***** minds in doing his*****ry, ra*****r than acquisition of facts. Paul (*****) attributed the problem to students seeing only the finished products ***** the historians and not the problem or data behind it. He believes that when students ***** like a historian these problems or ***** may be used as reference in facing present problems. Newmann (1990) concludes that this mode of teaching hist*****y ***** result in student passiveness in dealing ***** information that might be highly questionable in nature. He believes that students should be ***** ***** to cr*****ically exam*****e and evaluate