Effective PLCs

Effective PLCs are the cornerstone of any

school culture.

PLCs must be effective in order to facilitate

team-driven, student learning.
PLCs must incorporate effective lessonplanning

Effective Lesson Plans

Must be data driven
Must be engaging in order to benefit
student learning.
Must be relative to student needs
Most importantly, students must feel that
content is necessary and meaningful.

Expected Value Theory

People make decisions based on expected return on
an investment.
People weigh risk against possible returns.
People are risk averse.
It implies that all people are rational and will reach
the same decisions in any scenario by the same
process.
Assumption: People are all rational with a priority on
logic.

Expected Value Theory

Example: Someone is faced with the choice of
receiving $100 with no risk (100% chance of a gain)
vs. receiving $150 with a 50% chance of a gain.

Expected Value Theory

Value of the investment=Risk x Return
The better choice will always be the $100
investment.
$100x1=$100 vs. $150 x .5=$75
All rational people will choose the $100
because it is safer.

Expected Value Theory

Since all people are assumed to be rational
thinkers, they cannot ignore logic and will make
the more sensible choice every time.
All people will make choices by the same process
because they realize the same expected value.
People are assumed to be homogeneous as
decision makers.

Expected Utility Theory

Enhances lesson planning

Enables teachers to understand what motivates

human behavior.
Also assumes that people are risk averse.
Unlike Expected Value Theory, people make
different choices.

Expected Utility Theory

Mirrors reality (Contrasts Expected Value Theory)
More practical approach to understanding decisionmaking
Given identical circumstances, people will make
different decisions based on individual utility.
People simply want what they want regardless of
logic.

Implications for Teachers

Lesson planning must reflect the perceptions of the
students.
Logic appeals only to rational thinkers who will
correlate a quality education with a better quality of
life.

Different students may display drastically differing

degrees of motivation towards learning.

Factors That Impact

Individual Perceptions and
Effective Lesson-Planning

Poverty
Household income correlates with achievement.
Lower standardized test scores
Education is a lower priority because parents are
often uneducated.
Diminished vocabulary-less words are spoken in the
home

Poverty
Students are often more focused on survival than on
academic achievement.
Teachers must make a particular effort to create
meaningful instruction that is relative to the needs of
disadvantaged students.

Teachers must make every effort to overcome

misperceptions.

Gender Inequality
In early years, girls surpass boys in intellectual
development.
At the middle school level and especially high
school, girls exhibit a profoundly lower sense of
self esteem compared to boys.

Gender Inequality
Factors impacting self image

Underrepresentation in text books

Emphasis on unrealistic expectations of
beauty in media

Gender Inequality
Teachers unknowingly place a greater emphasis on male
students.
Girls portray a more subdued manner.
Boys engage in attention-seeking behavior, resulting in
greater recognition and confidence.
For girls, academic success is correlated with good
behavior and following rules.

Gender Inequality
Lesson planning must provide instruction that instills
the girls with confidence, by encouraging
communication and participation.

Cultural Perceptions
The United States is characterized by a unique spirit of
individualism.
Happiness is defined through individual achievement.

Cultural Perceptions
Other nations that focus on individualism
Australia
Hungary
South Africa
Italy

Denmark
Finland
Norway
Austria

Cultural Perceptions
Many citizens of the US come from collectivist nations.

Personal happiness results from fulfilling duties and

obligations within respective societies or groups
Individual achievement is not a priority.

Cultural Perceptions
The worlds most collectivist nations
China
North
Korea
Peru

Colombia
Indonesia
Pakistan
Ghana

Cultural Perceptions
Western cultures hold that knowledge can exist
separately from human experience
Americans see the world as being comprised of
discrete categories of objects.
Everything is defined by applying a series of rules.

Cultural Perceptions
Japanese and Chinese students portray a particularly
holistic view of the world.
All things are interdependent.

The world is seen as a series of collections or systems.

Nothing is a stand-alone entity.
People are all interrelated

Cultural Perspectives
Eastern philosophies are rooted in the teachings of
Confucius who lived from 551-479 BCE.
People from eastern societies have a heightened sense
of social responsibility.
The needs of the higher organization or group
supersede the needs of the individual.

Cultural Perceptions
Two social experiments illustrate the
differences in cultural perspective.

Cultural Perceptions
Experiment One
Two equal groups of American and Japanese students were
shown various scenes of aquatic life. The students were then
asked to describe what they saw.
The Japanese students described the scenery in its entirety as
a pond.

American students described the details of individual

fish, neglecting the pond itself.

Cultural Perceptions
Experiment Two
Two equal groups of Chinese and American students were
shown three pictures: a cow, grass, and a chicken. The students
were asked to pair the two pictures with the closest relationship.
Chinese students paired the cow and the grass together
because cows eat grass and rely on it for food, indicating
interdependence.
American students paired the cow and the chicken because
they are both animals, showing individuality.

Cultural Perspectives
Teachers should make every effort to understand the
cultural viewpoints of students from nations that
promote the collective world view in order to include
them in class discussions in order to promote
learning.

Lesson planning should include group work as much

as possible to employ their viewpoints.

Special Populations
Special populations include
Special Education Students
Section 504 Students

English Language Learners

Special Populations
Teachers must carefully follow all aspects of the
Individual Education Plan for all Special Needs and 504
Students.
Teachers must understand that this is not only
conducive for learning, but legally required as well.

Special Populations
English Language Learners simply will be learning at
different rates than other students, not because of
intelligence, but because of language/communication
barriers.

Special Populations
All three of these groups will experience learning difficulties in the classrooms.

Students may display varying degrees of learning challenges and learn at

different rates, with varying degrees of comprehension.
Teachers must take a fully inclusive approach in order to ensure that the
learning needs for each individual student are preserved. Content must be
presented at a slower pace, and universal methods of communication, such as
maps with no writing, must be utilized whenever possible. Communication
with parents and counselors is also key to successful learning for students in
these subgroups.

The Constructivist Approach

Modern classrooms are more diverse now than at any
other point in history.
Because of the multicultural profile of todays
classrooms, it is extremely important for all educators
to realize that there is no single learning model that
applies to all students.

The Constructivist Approach

Learning is a process based upon the experiences of the
individual student.
Learning is active not passive.
Learning is achieved through the activation of prior
knowledge.

The Constructivist Approach

Teachers serve as facilitators of learning.
Classrooms are conversational rather than quiet.
Differences are embraced and are used to promote
higher learning objectives.

Students Construct new ideas that take them beyond

previous knowledge.

The Constructivist Approach

Recommended Instructional Techniques

Discovery learning
Inquiry-based learning
Case-based learning
Problem-based learning
Project-based learning

The Result
When educators make every effort to fully
understand the academic and cultural needs of their
students, true, positive change will occur. Lesson plans
that are data-based and student-centered will drive
team PLCs in a new and powerful direction. Campus
cultures will be transformed into dynamic environments
of learning. It is only this transcendent level that will
provide students with the educational memories
sufficient enough to inspire them towards lifelong
learning.

References
Elby, Alan. (2000). What students learning of representations tells us about constructivism.
Journal of Mathematical Behavior 19(4):481-502.
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (2015). Professional Learning Communities:
What are They and Why are They Important?. Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org
Spring, J. (2013). American Education (16th ed.). U.S.: McGraw-Hill.
University of Oregon (2014). TRADING OFF PROBABILITES AND PAYOFFS: Expected value and
expected utility theory. Retrieved from http://www.uoregon.edu