1.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
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Primary school
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A primary school or elementary school is a school in which children receive primary or elementary education from the age of about five to twelve, coming after preschool and before secondary school. In most parts of the world, primary education is the first stage of education, and is normally available without charge. The term grade school is used in the US though this term may refer to both primary education and secondary education. The term primary school is derived from the French école primaire, primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Elementary school is preferred in some countries, especially in the United States, in the United States, primary school may refer to a school with grades Kindergarten through second grade or third grade. In these municipalities, the school includes grade three through five or grades four to six
3.
Teacher
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A teacher is a person who helps others to acquire knowledge, competences or values. Informally the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone, in some countries, teaching young people of school age may be carried out in an informal setting, such as within the family, rather than in a formal setting such as a school or college. Some other professions may involve a significant amount of teaching, in most countries, formal teaching is usually carried out by paid professional teachers. This article focuses on those who are employed, as their role, to teach others in a formal education context. A teachers role may vary among cultures, Teachers may provide instruction in literacy and numeracy, craftsmanship or vocational training, the arts, religion, civics, community roles, or life skills. Formal teaching tasks include preparing lessons according to agreed curricula, giving lessons, a teachers professional duties may extend beyond formal teaching. In some education systems, teachers may have responsibility for student discipline, Teaching is a highly complex activity. This is in part because teaching is a practice, that takes place in a specific context. Factors that influence what is expected of teachers include history and tradition, social views about the purpose of education, so the competences required by a teacher are affected by the different ways in which the role is understood around the world. Broadly, there seem to be four models, the teacher as manager of instruction, the teacher as caring person, the teacher as expert learner, some evidence-based international discussions have tried to reach such a common understanding. Scholarly consensus is emerging that what is required of teachers can be grouped under three headings, knowledge craft skills and dispositions and it has been found that teachers who showed enthusiasm towards the course materials and students can create a positive learning experience. These teachers do not teach by rote but attempt to find new invigoration for the materials on a daily basis. One of the challenges facing teachers is that they may have covered a curriculum until they begin to feel bored with the subject. Students who had enthusiastic teachers tend to rate them higher than teachers who didnt show much enthusiasm for the course materials, Teachers that exhibit enthusiasm can lead to students who are more likely to be engaged, interested, energetic, and curious about learning the subject matter. Recent research has found a correlation between teacher enthusiasm and students intrinsic motivation to learn and vitality in the classroom, students who experienced a very enthusiastic teacher were more likely to read lecture material outside of the classroom. There are various mechanisms by which teacher enthusiasm may facilitate higher levels of intrinsic motivation, teacher enthusiasm may contribute to a classroom atmosphere of energy and enthusiasm which feeds student interest and excitement in learning the subject matter. Enthusiastic teachers may also lead to becoming more self-determined in their own learning process. The concept of mere exposure indicates that the teachers enthusiasm may contribute to the expectations about intrinsic motivation in the context of learning
4.
New Zealand
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New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that later were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, today, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North, Middle and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu
5.
Silent Way
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The Silent Way is a language-teaching method created by Caleb Gattegno that makes extensive use of silence as a teaching method. Gattegno introduced the method in 1963, in his book Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools, Gattegno was critical of mainstream language education at the time, and he based the method on his general theories of education rather than on existing language pedagogy. The method emphasizes learner autonomy and active student participation, pronunciation is seen as fundamental to the method, with a great deal of time spent on it each lesson. The Silent Way uses a structural syllabus and concentrates on teaching a number of functional. Translation and rote repetition are avoided, and the language is usually practiced in meaningful contexts, evaluation is carried out by observation, and the teacher may never set a formal test. One of the hallmarks of the Silent Way is the use of Cuisenaire rods, while the Silent Way is not widely used in its original form, its ideas have been influential, especially in the teaching of pronunciation. Gattegno was an outsider to language education when Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools was first published in 1963 and he was previously a designer of mathematics and reading programmes, and the use of color charts and colored Cuisenaire rods in the Silent Way grew directly out of this experience. Gattegno was openly sceptical of the role the linguistic theory of his time had in language teaching and he felt that linguistic studies may be a specialization, carry with them a narrow opening of ones sensitivity and perhaps serve very little towards the broad end in mind. The general goal of the Silent Way is to help students gain basic fluency in the target language, with the ultimate aim being near-native language proficiency. An important part of this ability is being able to use the language for self-expression, students should be able to express their thoughts, feelings, in order to help them achieve this, teachers emphasize self-reliance. Students are encouraged to explore the language, and to develop their own inner criteria as to what is linguistically acceptable. The role of the teacher is that of technician or engineer, as Gattegno says, The teacher works with the student, the student works on the language. For example, teachers will give students time to correct their own mistakes before giving them the answer to a question. Teachers also avoid praise or criticism, as it can discourage students from developing self-reliance, in the Silent Way students are seen as bringing a vast amount of experience and knowledge with them to the classroom, namely, their first language. The teacher capitalizes on this knowledge when introducing new material, always building from the known to the unknown, the students begin their study of the language by studying its sound system. The sounds are associated to different colors using a chart that is specific to the language being learned. The teacher first elicits sounds that are present in the students native language. These sound-color associations are later used to help the students with spelling, reading, the Silent Way uses a structural syllabus
6.
1950s
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The 1950s was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1,1950, and ended on December 31,1959. Clashes between communism and capitalism dominated the decade, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, the conflicts included the Korean War in the beginnings of the decade and the beginning of the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik 1. Along with increased testing of weapons, this created a politically conservative climate. In the United States, the Second Red Scare caused Congressional hearings by both houses in Congress and anti-communism was the sentiment in the United States throughout the decade. The beginning of decolonization in Africa and Asia took place in this decade, when it began, North and South Korea existed as provisional governments competing for control over the Korean peninsula, due to the division of Korea by outside powers. On September 15, General Douglas MacArthur conducted Operation Chromite, a landing at the city of Inchon. The North Korean army collapsed, and within a few days and he then pushed north, capturing Pyongyang in October. Chinese intervention the following month drove UN forces south again, MacArthur then planned for a full-scale invasion of China, but this was against the wishes of President Truman and others who wanted a limited war. He was dismissed and replaced by General Matthew Ridgeway, the war then became a bloody stalemate for the next two and a half years while peace negotiations dragged on. The war left 33,742 American soldiers dead,92,134 wounded, estimates place Korean and Chinese casualties at 1,000, 000–1,400,000 dead or wounded, and 140,000 MIA or POW. The Vietnam War began in 1959, diệm instituted a policy of death penalty against any communist activity in 1956. The Viet Minh began a campaign in early 1957. An article by French scholar Bernard Fall published in July 1958 concluded that a new war had begun, the first official large unit military action was on September 26,1959, when the Viet Cong ambushed two ARVN companies. Arab–Israeli conflict Suez Crisis – The Suez Crisis was a war fought on Egyptian territory in 1956, following the nationalisation of the Suez Canal in 1956 by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the United Kingdom, France and Israel subsequently invaded. The operation was a success, but after the United States and Soviet Union united in opposition to the invasion. The war eventually led to the independence of Algeria from France, cuban Revolution – The 1959 overthrow of Fulgencio Batista by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and other forces resulted in the creation of the first communist government in the Western hemisphere. The Mau Mau began retaliating against the British in Kenya and this led to concentration camps in Kenya, a British military victory, and the election of moderate nationalist Jomo Kenyatta as leader of Kenya. The wind of destruction began in Rwanda in 1959 following the assault of Hutu politician Dominique Mbonyumutwa by Tutsi forces and this was the beginning of decades of ethnic violence in the country, which culminated in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide
7.
Arithmetic
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Arithmetic is a branch of mathematics that consists of the study of numbers, especially the properties of the traditional operations between them—addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Arithmetic is an part of number theory, and number theory is considered to be one of the top-level divisions of modern mathematics, along with algebra, geometry. The terms arithmetic and higher arithmetic were used until the beginning of the 20th century as synonyms for number theory and are still used to refer to a wider part of number theory. The earliest written records indicate the Egyptians and Babylonians used all the elementary arithmetic operations as early as 2000 BC and these artifacts do not always reveal the specific process used for solving problems, but the characteristics of the particular numeral system strongly influence the complexity of the methods. The hieroglyphic system for Egyptian numerals, like the later Roman numerals, in both cases, this origin resulted in values that used a decimal base but did not include positional notation. Complex calculations with Roman numerals required the assistance of a board or the Roman abacus to obtain the results. Early number systems that included positional notation were not decimal, including the system for Babylonian numerals. Because of this concept, the ability to reuse the same digits for different values contributed to simpler. The continuous historical development of modern arithmetic starts with the Hellenistic civilization of ancient Greece, prior to the works of Euclid around 300 BC, Greek studies in mathematics overlapped with philosophical and mystical beliefs. For example, Nicomachus summarized the viewpoint of the earlier Pythagorean approach to numbers, Greek numerals were used by Archimedes, Diophantus and others in a positional notation not very different from ours. Because the ancient Greeks lacked a symbol for zero, they used three separate sets of symbols, one set for the units place, one for the tens place, and one for the hundreds. Then for the place they would reuse the symbols for the units place. Their addition algorithm was identical to ours, and their multiplication algorithm was very slightly different. Their long division algorithm was the same, and the square root algorithm that was taught in school was known to Archimedes. He preferred it to Heros method of successive approximation because, once computed, a digit doesnt change, and the square roots of perfect squares, such as 7485696, terminate immediately as 2736. For numbers with a part, such as 546.934. The ancient Chinese used a positional notation. Because they also lacked a symbol for zero, they had one set of symbols for the place
8.
Associated Press
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The Associated Press is an American multinational nonprofit news agency headquartered in New York City that operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. The AP is owned by its contributing newspapers and radio and television stations in the United States, all of which stories to the AP. Most of the AP staff are members and are represented by the Newspaper Guild, which operates under the Communications Workers of America. As of 2007, news collected by the AP was published and republished by more than 1,700 newspapers, in addition to more than 5,000 television, the photograph library of the AP consists of over 10 million images. The AP operates 243 news bureaus in 120 countries and it also operates the AP Radio Network, which provides newscasts twice hourly for broadcast and satellite radio and television stations. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, as part of their cooperative agreement with the AP, most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the AP to distribute their local news reports. The AP employs the inverted pyramid formula for writing that enables the news outlets to edit a story to fit its available publication area without losing the storys essentials. Cutbacks at rival United Press International in 1993 left the AP as the United States primary news service, although UPI still produces and distributes stories and photos daily. Other English-language news services, such as the BBC, Reuters, some historians believe that the Tribune joined at this time, documents show it was a member in 1849. The New York Times became a member shortly after its founding in September 1851, initially known as the New York Associated Press, the organization faced competition from the Western Associated Press, which criticized its monopolistic news gathering and price setting practices. The revelations led to the demise of the NYAP and in December 1892, when the AP was founded, news became a salable commodity. The invention of the press allowed the New York Tribune in the 1870s to print 18,000 papers per hour. During the Civil War and Spanish–American War, there was a new incentive to print vivid, Melville Stone, who had founded the Chicago Daily News in 1875, served as AP General Manager from 1893 to 1921. He embraced the standards of accuracy, impartiality, and integrity, the cooperative grew rapidly under the leadership of Kent Cooper, who built up bureau staff in South America, Europe and, the Middle East. He introduced the telegraph typewriter or teletypewriter into newsrooms in 1914, in 1935, AP launched the Wirephoto network, which allowed transmission of news photographs over leased private telephone lines on the day they were taken. This gave AP a major advantage over other media outlets. While the first network was only between New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, eventually AP had its network across the whole United States, in 1945, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Associated Press v. The decision facilitated the growth of its main rival United Press International, AP entered the broadcast field in 1941 when it began distributing news to radio stations, it created its own radio network in 1974
9.
Maria Montessori
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Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. Her educational method is in use today in public and private schools throughout the world. Montessori was born on August 31,1870 in Chiaravalle, Italy and her father, Alessandro Montessori,33 years old at the time, was an official of the Ministry of Finance working in the local state-run tobacco factory. Her mother, Renilde Stoppani,25 years old, was educated for the times and was the great-niece of Italian geologist and paleontologist Antonio Stoppani. While she did not have any particular mentor, she was close to her mother who readily encouraged her. She also had a relationship with her father, although he disagreed with her choice to continue her education. The Montessori family moved to Florence in 1873 and then to Rome in 1875 because of her fathers work, Montessori entered a public elementary school at the age of 6 in 1876. Her early school record was not particularly noteworthy, although she was awarded certificates for good behavior in the 1st grade and for lavori donneschi, or womens work and she graduated in 1886 with good grades and examination results. She did well in the sciences and especially in mathematics and she initially intended to pursue the study of engineering upon graduation, an unusual aspiration for a woman in her time and place. Montessori moved forward with her intention to study medicine and she appealed to Guido Baccelli, the professor of clinical medicine at the University of Rome, but was strongly discouraged. This degree, along with studies in Italian and Latin. She was met with hostility and harassment from some medical students, because her attendance of classes with men in the presence of a naked body was deemed inappropriate, she was required to perform her dissections of cadavers alone, after hours. She resorted to smoking tobacco to mask the odor of formaldehyde. Montessori won a prize in her first year, and in 1895 secured a position as a hospital assistant. In her last two years she studied pediatrics and psychiatry, and worked in the consulting room and emergency service. Montessori graduated from the University of Rome in 1896 as a doctor of medicine and her thesis was published in 1897 in the journal Policlinico. She found employment as an assistant at the University hospital and started a private practice. )From 1896 to 1901, Montessori worked with and researched so-called phrenasthenic children—in modern terms, children experiencing some form of mental retardation, illness, or disability. She also began to travel, study, speak, and publish nationally and internationally, coming to prominence as an advocate for womens rights, on 31 March 1898, her only child – a son named Mario Montessori was born
10.
Student-centred learning
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Student-centered learning, also known as learner-centered education, broadly encompasses methods of teaching that shift the focus of instruction from the teacher to the student. In original usage, student-centered learning aims to develop learner autonomy, student-centered instruction focuses on skills and practices that enable lifelong learning and independent problem-solving. Student-centered learning puts students interests first, acknowledging student voice as central to the learning experience, in a student-centered learning space, students choose what they will learn, how they will learn, and how they will assess their own learning. This is in contrast to education, also dubbed teacher-centered learning. In a teacher-centered classroom, teachers choose what the students learn, how the students will learn. In contrast, student-centered learning requires students to be active, responsible participants in their own learning, usage of the term student-centered learning may also simply refer to educational mindsets or instructional methods that recognize individual differences in learners. Theorists like John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and Lev Vygotsky, carl Rogers ideas about the formation of the individual also contributed to student-centered learning. Rogers wrote that the only learning which significantly influences behavior is self discovered, maria Montessori was also a forerunner of student-centered learning, where preschool children learn through independent self-directed interaction with previously presented activities. Self-determination theory focuses on the degree to which a behavior is self-motivated and self-determined. When students are given the opportunity to gauge their learning, learning becomes an incentive, student-centered learning means inverting the traditional teacher-centered understanding of the learning process and putting students at the centre of the learning process. In the teacher-centered classroom, teachers are the source for knowledge. On the other hand, in student-centered classrooms, active learning is strongly encouraged, armstrong claimed that traditional education ignores or suppresses learner responsibility. A further distinction from a classroom to that of a student-centered classroom is when the teacher acts as a facilitator. Through peer-to-peer interaction, collaborative thinking can lead to an abundance of knowledge, in placing a teacher closer to a peer level, knowledge and learning is enhanced, benefitting the student and classroom overall. According to Lev Vygotskys theory of the zone of proximal development, scaffolding is important when fostering independent thinking skills. Vygotsky proclaims, Learning which is oriented toward developmental levels that have already been reached is ineffective from the viewpoint of the overall development. It does not aim for a new stage of the developmental process, one of the most critical differences between student-centered learning and teacher-centered learning is in assessment. Student-centered learning typically involves more formative assessment and less summative assessment than teacher-centered learning, in student-centered learning, students participate in the evaluation of their learning
11.
Michael Parekowhai
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Michael Te Rakato Parekowhai is a New Zealand sculptor and a professor at University of Aucklands Elam School of Fine Arts. He is of Ngā Ariki Kaiputahi, Ngāti Whakarongo and Pākehā descent, Parekowhai was awarded an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award in 2001. In 2011 he represented New Zealand at the Venice Biennale and he spent his childhood and attended school in Aucklands North Shore suburbs. After leaving high school, Parekowhai worked as an assistant before commencing his BFA at University of Aucklands Elam School of Fine Arts. He trained as an art teacher, before returning to Elam to complete his MFA. With the diligence of a cultural props person, he appropriates the already appropriated in a manner that is often humorous, despite the range of Parekowhais output, his practice is linked throughout, both stylistically – a characteristic gloss of high production value – and thematically. Curator Justin Paton writes of Parekowhai, They have a way of sneaking up on you, pick-up sticks swollen to the size of spears. A photograph of a rabbit who has you in his sights. A silky bouquet that rustles with politics, seemingly serene beneath their gleaming, factory-finished surfaces, Michael Parekowhais sculptures and photographs are in fact supremely artful objects. Artful not just because theyre beautifully made. but also because they manage, with a combination of slyness, charm and audacity, the World Turns – a life-sized bronze elephant tipped on its head and eye-to-eye with a kuril, commissioned by the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. He Kōrero Pūrākau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu, story of a New Zealand river – an original Steinway grand piano covered in glossy red carvings. The piano is played at each of the exhibitions that it features in, for example in the 2012 Te Papa exhibition with works from Colin McCahon and Jim Allen. 2013 The Past in the Present, Michael Lett at the Auckland Art Fair, Auckland 2012 On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, also at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 2011 54th Venice Biennale New Zealand Pavilion. Also at Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton,1994 A Capella, Greg Flint Gallery, Auckland 1990 Choice. Premier of Queensland Sculpture Commission, Queensland, Australia,2011, nga Toa Whahaihuwaka, Māori of the Year for Arts,2011. Barfoot & Thompson, 90th Anniversary Gift to Auckland City, Waterfront Commission,2013. ‘Top 50 Public Art Project’ awarded by Americans for the Arts, Public Art Network,2013 Year in Review, for Blue Stratus, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Arizona, Parekowhais work is held in most New Zealand public gallery collections and a number of international museums. Michael Parekowhai, the land, Brisbane, Queensland Art Gallery,2015
