Over the past 6 weeks, we have looked at a lot of ways to enhance the ability of our students to gain and retain new information. In many ways, I was re-introduced to ideas that I have been exposed to prior to this class. The main difference is that with this class, I was able to understand how to apply many of these technologies for our students. In past workshops and graduate level classes, I have been told to use advanced organizers to enhance learning. However, without being able to understand how to use them, I was where I started. But, thanks to my classmates and professor, now I have been able to start using some of these organizers to help my students put their thoughts about new topics in order to be able to better understand these topics. I am eagerly anticipating using the Cornell Note Taking Method for my students to learn more while we have a guest speaker who is going to be presenting his rock and mineral collection to the class. I am hoping that using this note taking technique will add to my students overall knowledge base.
I'll sign off for this class using one of my literary hero's Douglas Adams, "So long and thanks for all the fish."
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Identifying Similarities and Differences, Homework and Practice, and Generating and Testing Hypotheses
This week, we discussed how students learning can be impacted by: Identifying Similarities and Differences, Homework and Practice, as well as Generating and Testing Hypotheses. The effects of these ideas can usually be witnessed in the classroom setting. In many cases, depending on how each of these ideas is implemented, each can be a positive or negative influence on a students education.
Identifying Similarities and Differences
Students have been proven to learn better when they are able to connect new information with prior information. This can be useful even if students do not have prior knowledge. If parallels can be drawn from the similarities and differences of the new material and related to the similarities and differences of things that students already do know their ability to learn new material is still enhanced.
Homework and Practice
Homework and practice can enhance the ability of students to learn new material. However, if homework and/or practice is done without students knowing exactly what is supposed to be learned or practiced and why they should learn it, most of the possible positive effects of homework and practice can be lost.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
This is something that happens in my science classroom on a daily basis. Science is all about attempting to explain the world around us. To do this, my students need to be able to research a topic, and then use the background knowledge they gained to make their best guess at explaining why things are the way they are. We then use experimentation of some sort in order to then test to see if their hypotheses are supported or not supported by the data they collect from their experimentation. People generate and test their hypotheses every day. This can be seen in the morning when someone sleepily hypothesizes that they are able to hit the snooze button "just one more time" and still get to work or school on time. If they are able to get to where they need to go, they have proven their hypothesis. If not, they have disproven it. The fact that people hypothesize all the time, and do not realize it, makes the process of teaching how to hypothesize relatively easy if the connection is made to prior experiences of the students.
One of the last things that we have had to do in CEDO 525 was to apply some of the learning strategies that we have been learning about to an online lesson. I chose to use the online lesson from Learner.org's Interactives regarding the Dynamic Earth. My full thoughts can be found using this link. However, I found that overall, this is a useful site that would allow students to be able to get nonverbal instruction in the composition of the Earth and some of the major geological systems. When I get to the geology section in my class, I am planning on using this as part of the review of the materials.
Identifying Similarities and Differences
Students have been proven to learn better when they are able to connect new information with prior information. This can be useful even if students do not have prior knowledge. If parallels can be drawn from the similarities and differences of the new material and related to the similarities and differences of things that students already do know their ability to learn new material is still enhanced.
Homework and Practice
Homework and practice can enhance the ability of students to learn new material. However, if homework and/or practice is done without students knowing exactly what is supposed to be learned or practiced and why they should learn it, most of the possible positive effects of homework and practice can be lost.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
This is something that happens in my science classroom on a daily basis. Science is all about attempting to explain the world around us. To do this, my students need to be able to research a topic, and then use the background knowledge they gained to make their best guess at explaining why things are the way they are. We then use experimentation of some sort in order to then test to see if their hypotheses are supported or not supported by the data they collect from their experimentation. People generate and test their hypotheses every day. This can be seen in the morning when someone sleepily hypothesizes that they are able to hit the snooze button "just one more time" and still get to work or school on time. If they are able to get to where they need to go, they have proven their hypothesis. If not, they have disproven it. The fact that people hypothesize all the time, and do not realize it, makes the process of teaching how to hypothesize relatively easy if the connection is made to prior experiences of the students.
One of the last things that we have had to do in CEDO 525 was to apply some of the learning strategies that we have been learning about to an online lesson. I chose to use the online lesson from Learner.org's Interactives regarding the Dynamic Earth. My full thoughts can be found using this link. However, I found that overall, this is a useful site that would allow students to be able to get nonverbal instruction in the composition of the Earth and some of the major geological systems. When I get to the geology section in my class, I am planning on using this as part of the review of the materials.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Cooperation and Collaboration
One of the videos we needed to watch this week was a talk by Clay Shirky at a TED event about how the "cognitive surplus will change the world". I am somewhat inclined to agree with the speaker. Overall, I believe that people want to help each other when it is feasible. Mr. Shirky's premise is that through technology, people are much more able to help others with their resources. Before the communication paradigm changed within the last 10 years, people were only able to help with what they knew about. This meant that either they needed to be connected to an event though people in their lives, or needed to be made aware of a situation due to the traditional media. This did not lead to many areas of need being addressed or an area of need being superficially addressed due to the attention of the media being redirected to something more "newsworthy" or just more "up to the minute". If the earthquake in Haiti had happened fifteen years ago before this communication paradigm shift, I do not believe that the global resources that are still being directed towards rebuilding that country would have been sent. This would have led to a longer rebuilding period with many more deaths due to disease and/or civil unrest. The country of Haiti is still recovering, but is much further along than it would be without communications platforms such as Ushahidi which communicates where help is needed. This is just one example of how the world is changed by the "cognitive surplus" (the human impulse to help and the technological ability to do so).
Strategies Discussed
The educational strategies that were discussed in class this week were: Cooperative Learning and Reinforcing Effort. Many examples were cited and many possible problems were posed. I have attempted to use both in my classes and have had mixed results.
Using cooperative learning can be a useful tool where students are able to add their strengths to a group assignment. In many cases, this is where "shoulder partners" are used in professional development situations. In the classroom, there needs to be a level of trust built up between the students who are expected to cooperate in their learning processes. So, in many cases, having students rely on "shoulder partners" that may change often (when ever the seating chart changes), is not the best idea. When assigning students to work in groups, I usually attempt to have students strengths and weaknesses complement the weakness and strengths of the others in the group. If I did not attempt to do this, the ability of the group, or at least individuals in the group, will be severely limited in the ability to enhance the learning of the group as well as the quality of the product that is made by the group. Also, if strengths and weaknesses are not considered in creating a group, one of the major problems of group work usually creeps to the fore. This problem is that not all group members contribute to the product made by the group. If this happens, not only is the learning of all the group members compromised, but there usually are hard feelings on all sides due to the level of effort not being "equal".
Reinforcing effort is also something that can have mixed results (and has) in a classroom. There is a very fine line between reinforcing a good level of effort and reinforcing an inadequate level of effort. I have seen this in many cases with regards to my special needs students. Some of my students feel that as long as they are not a disruptive force in the classroom, they are owed a good grade for a class. While this might be the case for severe cases of emotionally and/or behaviorally disabled individuals, it should not be considered appropriate for students who have specific learning disabilities. In the case for these students, they need to be pushed to achieve as much as they can in all areas, even in the areas of their academic challenges. This is something that is very frustrating for the teacher who is doing this, and usually met with resistance by the student who has been given standards that are not as high as could be due to their limitations. I am the father of two girls. One is in the Special Education program due to having such ear and sinus infections that she was effectively deaf for the two years before starting school. My other daughter is precocious and into everything. My wife is also worried about ADHD for both of them. However, when I get to see my kids after I get home from work, I ask them the same question every night. It is, "Did you do your best in school today?" Even though one daughter might have some delays, this does not mean that she should be able to give less effort at learning what is being taught in the school. To me, if she has a problem with learning something (in this case reading), then more effort should be expended to get her to where she is expected to be. This means that I as her father sit with her and help her with her homework and make sure she logs onto Raz-Kids in order to try to get her caught up to where she is expected to be for a "normal kid". My "precocious" daughter is not allowed to relax on the fact that reading comes more easily for her though. She is expected to do her best, and her mother, her grandparents or I work with her every night after she comes home from school. Maybe I am more of a parent like the "Tiger Mom" that has been in the news, but I truly believe that I need to teach my kids that they should strive to do the best that they can do when they do something. I don't go as far as making them study until they go to sleep, we do go to movies as a family and play games, but if they need to get some work done, that is expected to come first, regardless if they "don't want to" or not.
Strategies Discussed
The educational strategies that were discussed in class this week were: Cooperative Learning and Reinforcing Effort. Many examples were cited and many possible problems were posed. I have attempted to use both in my classes and have had mixed results.
Using cooperative learning can be a useful tool where students are able to add their strengths to a group assignment. In many cases, this is where "shoulder partners" are used in professional development situations. In the classroom, there needs to be a level of trust built up between the students who are expected to cooperate in their learning processes. So, in many cases, having students rely on "shoulder partners" that may change often (when ever the seating chart changes), is not the best idea. When assigning students to work in groups, I usually attempt to have students strengths and weaknesses complement the weakness and strengths of the others in the group. If I did not attempt to do this, the ability of the group, or at least individuals in the group, will be severely limited in the ability to enhance the learning of the group as well as the quality of the product that is made by the group. Also, if strengths and weaknesses are not considered in creating a group, one of the major problems of group work usually creeps to the fore. This problem is that not all group members contribute to the product made by the group. If this happens, not only is the learning of all the group members compromised, but there usually are hard feelings on all sides due to the level of effort not being "equal".
Reinforcing effort is also something that can have mixed results (and has) in a classroom. There is a very fine line between reinforcing a good level of effort and reinforcing an inadequate level of effort. I have seen this in many cases with regards to my special needs students. Some of my students feel that as long as they are not a disruptive force in the classroom, they are owed a good grade for a class. While this might be the case for severe cases of emotionally and/or behaviorally disabled individuals, it should not be considered appropriate for students who have specific learning disabilities. In the case for these students, they need to be pushed to achieve as much as they can in all areas, even in the areas of their academic challenges. This is something that is very frustrating for the teacher who is doing this, and usually met with resistance by the student who has been given standards that are not as high as could be due to their limitations. I am the father of two girls. One is in the Special Education program due to having such ear and sinus infections that she was effectively deaf for the two years before starting school. My other daughter is precocious and into everything. My wife is also worried about ADHD for both of them. However, when I get to see my kids after I get home from work, I ask them the same question every night. It is, "Did you do your best in school today?" Even though one daughter might have some delays, this does not mean that she should be able to give less effort at learning what is being taught in the school. To me, if she has a problem with learning something (in this case reading), then more effort should be expended to get her to where she is expected to be. This means that I as her father sit with her and help her with her homework and make sure she logs onto Raz-Kids in order to try to get her caught up to where she is expected to be for a "normal kid". My "precocious" daughter is not allowed to relax on the fact that reading comes more easily for her though. She is expected to do her best, and her mother, her grandparents or I work with her every night after she comes home from school. Maybe I am more of a parent like the "Tiger Mom" that has been in the news, but I truly believe that I need to teach my kids that they should strive to do the best that they can do when they do something. I don't go as far as making them study until they go to sleep, we do go to movies as a family and play games, but if they need to get some work done, that is expected to come first, regardless if they "don't want to" or not.
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