Банк заданий ЕГЭ по английскому языку - страница 252
Вопросы
Прочитайте текст и выполните задания 12-18. В каждом задании запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Will online education replace classroom education anytime soon?
Over the last decade, the number of people taking online courses and using technology as a tool to enhance their education has increased dramatically. You can now master a foreign language or complete a whole degree without leaving the comfort of your sofa. You can decide not only when you want to learn but also how you want to learn. Meanwhile, the range of technology used inside the classroom has also boomed, with the rise of smartboards, digital textbooks and, most notably, the tools offered on the Internet. But what does this mean for teachers? While many teachers are excited by technology, others are concerned by its rapid development. They wonder whether they themselves could be replaced.
Technology gives us abundant opportunities. In a geography lesson, we can now transport students to explore another country. In an English class, we can take them back in time to experience Shakespeare’s plays as they were performed during his lifetime. Students are able to watch videos at home that explain how to use algebra, or allow them to see first-hand the life cycle of a plant. Technology doesn’t discriminate based on a student’s ability or skill. It provides an opportunity to engage students using a medium that they recognise. Technology is growing not just within our classrooms but also in our everyday lives, so it is natural that we should increasingly incorporate it into classrooms.
Crucially, the use of technology in the classroom doesn’t lessen the need for great teachers. In fact, it is great teachers who make using technology so significant in students’ education. Whilst technology is able to take on a whole host of tasks, it does have its shortcomings. The most prominent drawback is its inability to interact with humans. Technology can facilitate the learning process. However, it cannot replace the role of the teacher. Computers do not teach children to question, to discriminate among sources of information, to weigh perspectives. They do not explain how to think about consequences, to bring contextual meaning to a situation, to be creative, or to make careful judgments. Without a great teacher, technology merely becomes an automated tool and stops inspiring and engaging students. Ultimately, it isn’t about teachers being replaced by technology but how teachers can adapt to incorporate technology in their lessons.
As much innovation as the iPad may bring to the classroom, it is not going to replace a teacher anytime soon. In fact, the influx of technology like iPads means there is a greater need for teachers. We need teachers who are part early adopter, part integrator, and part mad scientist. The modern teacher must be willing to take chances and able to figure out not just how technology works, but how it works for each student, and where its use is most appropriate.
The question of whether technology will replace teachers is an age-old debate and one that is likely to continue as technology evolves further. In the same way that the calculator didn’t displace maths teachers, technology will continue aiding teachers to educate well-rounded and engaged students. As our Hugo Wernhoff notes, “We’re not only in it to offer flexibility in time and place for students, or lower costs for providers. Our main ambition is instead to deliver better learning.” Technology can only assist in delivering better learning when it is used by a great teacher. Students will always benefit from the guidance and instruction of a teacher at the front of a classroom.
According to the text, online education is becoming more popular because of its…
Discriminate in Paragraph 3 (“Computers do not teach children to question, to discriminate among sources of information ...”) most probably means…
Прочитайте текст и выполните задания 12-18. В каждом задании запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Should children be allowed to retake tests?
My daughter texted me from school, upset that she’d failed a physics test she thought she’d been prepared for. She was worried it would bring down her overall grade at the end of the first marking period. A half-hour later, she texted to say all was good. Her teacher allowed her to make corrections – she got all the problems right this time, and her grade was no longer under threat.
On the one hand, I was pleased that she’d taken the initiative to fix what she viewed as a problem. On the other hand, I wasn’t sure how I felt about this infinite redo approach.
When I heard that my daughter was allowed to go back and correct her mistakes, my mind instantly went to all the professionals in the real world – surgeons, firefighters, death-row case trial lawyers, pilots, paramedics, cops and more – who really, really needed to get their jobs right the first time. With some jobs, “later” isn’t an option. Heck, in the realm of less life-and-death professions, I spent years working as a live TV show producer. There were no second takes there, either.
As with all education research, both pros and cons have been tallied and reported.
Some of the pros include the assertion that letting kids retake tests reduces cheating, makes them responsible for their own grades and helps them better evaluate their own learning.
Cons have been listed as: low motivation; students procrastinating until they’ve fallen too far behind, leading to stress; and teachers needing to teach separate lessons to different class members during the same period.
Then I turned to my focus group of one: my husband, a middle school math and physics teacher who has, for years, allowed his students to redo their homework and in-class work as many times as they wish in order to get to 100% mastery.
I asked him why he believes his technique is beneficial.
He stressed that, “Homework and in-class work is formative assessment, which is the key here. Homework and in-class work is practice. Doing the work correctly over and over again is the only way to improve. Tests are summative assessments. They measure performance after practice. I allow redos only on homework and in-class work. I don’t allow resitting tests, because tests measure what they’ve learned after all that practice. If you are a performing artist, it’s the performance that matters. For athletes, it’s the game. Homework versus tests is the same thing.”
That brings us back to those surgeons, firefighters, death-row case trial lawyers, pilots, paramedics, cops and more who, in real life, I would really like to get their tasks right the first time.
Their jobs can be considered the ultimate in summative assessment. But that assessment didn’t come on the first day of training. It came after many, many years of formative assessments in the form of arguing mock trials, practicing approaches on flight simulators, and conducting rescue drills – not to mention taking paper-and-pencil tests as well.
So much education policy debate these days seems to be driven by a zero-sum game mindset. If we do things one way, we shouldn’t be doing them another. As the late Stephen Sondheim wrote, “Is it always “or?” Is it never “and?”
Just as students benefit from a cross-section of classmates, they should also benefit from a cross-section of opinions on how best to teach. It would better prepare them for living and working with a variety of people for the rest of their lives, and help them figure out how they learn best, so they can adapt accordingly.
That said, I would still prefer that my daughter got her physics equations right the first time.
The feelings of the author after her daughter’s second text are best described as…
