Effective Word 7.0 [antikvár]

¦^reface We wrote the Effective Series because we wanted a computer application textbook to help us teach. At the time, most computer applications texts were written like cookbooks. Do this, do that, follow these steps. There was little or no explanation about why you should carry out specific tasks. Most books simply described a series of elaborate keystrokes. While these types of textbooks work fine as a personal reference, they did not help us to teach or our students to learn. These types of texts certainly did not help our students master computer applications with a high degree of understanding. Unfortunately, the trend continues where too many authors follow this cookbook approach. One of the primary reasons so many applications books fail as instructional tools is that most current computer applications texts are not written by people like us, people who teach in the classroom. Unlike our Effective Series, most applications texts were, and stUl are, written by professional writers—people who have not been in the classroom in recent years or who have never taught. Their books are not guided, or revised, on the basis of teaching experience, experience working with students on a day-to-day basis, or on an ongoing educational pedagogy. Our goal was to take our ongoing classroom experience and classroom pedagogy and use it to guide us in the development of a computer text that would serve as a true instructional and learning tool. The outcome of this effort is a pedagogical model we call Success-Based Learning. SUCCESS-BASED LEARNING Success breeds success. You may have heard this simple statement before. As simple or as trite as this statement may sound, it Is at the basis of our thoughtfully plarmed instructional pedagogy. We base our Success-Based Learning pedagogy on one primary assumption—the most successful teachers are those who have a strong desire for all students to leam. This desire serves as a threshold in the sense that teachers who want their students to learn, and who hold high expectations for student learning, have students who are successful in the classroom. Putting high expectations into practice is the foimdation for the five principles in our Success-Based Learning model. By combining five separate elements, students leam the material quicker, have a better understanding of how software operates, and retain and recall the material easier. It also makes it easier to teach. Most of our principles are based on social psychological theories that have been around for a long time. They are not new, nor are they exclusively ours. What is different here is that we have taken principles we use to teach in