1. What are some challenges to inquiry approaches to learning?
The challenge boils down to how well the teacher can implement this type of learning. If the teacher does not comprehend Problem Based Learning, Project Based Learning, or Learning by Design the learning projects may collapse in the process (Good & Brophy, 1986). Failure can occur at any point in time whether it is in the beginning because the teacher sees this type of learning as unstructured; in the middle because there is no scaffolding processes taking place; or in the end when the teacher cannot determine how to evaluate the projects. All-in-all it looks to me as if the project becomes a jumbled mess. While it is okay for a teacher to learn as they are walking through the steps of inquiry projects, there should be a general idea as to the direction that projects need to be mentored. Afterall, students need guidance to make their learning meaningful. Many students do not know have the background or maturity to "make sense of an inquiry" (Krajcik et al., 1998). This is where the mentorship of a teacher needs to be implemented. Students also need aid in time management; help in working with others; and motivation, especially when a project fails or is taking too long to accomplish (Achillies & Hoover, 1996; Edelson et al., 1999).
In the end, what is needed for successful implementation is the ability to juggle new responsibilities such as classroom management, the lesson should reflect key concepts the students need to learn, scaffolding through modeling, and proper assessment and support feedback.
2. Make connections between project-based learning and three research based strategies (Choose strategies you have not already been assigned to read about). Give a brief explanation of the connections.
Cooperative Learning - A research based strategy that fits well with project-based learning is cooperative grouping. During a PBL students often have to work together to successfully complete the project. Currently in the Biology class I am observing, students have to present their topic such as Human Origins, The Human Genome Project, Genetic Modification, etc... Work required consists of researching the topic, understanding the terms, presenting the materials to the class and creating a product or game that will engage the class in learning the group's topic. The group delegates parts of the assignment to its members. The end product or goal is that the groups become the teacher and it is their responsiblity to teach the class about their topic in an engaging way. Students are graded on their participation and each member is aware that failing to participate could get them expelled from the group. In this instance, cooperative learning is required since the group is interdependent on its members to succeed (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2005).
Reinforcing Effort - According to this research, students' beliefs and attitudes are directly corrilated to how well they do in school. This makes sense if you take in account the student who is doing poorly in school because they cannot learn from traditional methods and how they feel about themselves. At some point, they will believe they are "dumb" or "stupid", afterall their classmates get the material. Traditional methods fail the student, in more than one way, who needs to learn by doing. If that student is able to get out from behind his/her textbook and out of their seat to participate in a project that engages their learning, makes connections between their "funds of knowledge" and the real world, then the student's achievement raises. With the rise in achievement, the attitude and feelings the student possesses begins to rise. The student may not realize their attitude is correlated to their achievement (since this is an abstract concept) but research indicates otherwise. It all boils down to "believing you can often makes it so" (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2005).
Simulations and Games - This strategy allows the students to act out any given situation that relates to the learning material. For instance, a science teacher is trying to teach the Nature of Science content - an area that is darn near hard to describe and definitely abstract. The definition is as follows: The historical aspects of science and idea that science is an ongoing, changing process. So how is this concept taught? Easily - it is simulated. An example would be discovering fossils. Each student become a geologist in this lesson. The teacher gives each group of students an envelope that is full of paper fossils. The teacher tell the students they are going on a 3 day journey to discover fossils that have never been seen before. The teacher then asks the students to write in their journal Day 1 and then randomly pull out 3 fossils. The students then try to recognize the pieces from knowledge they already have such as "Does it look like a vertibrae... a hip bone... jaw... etc?" The students write down their findings and then move on to Day 2. On Day 2 and Day 3 they are alotted so many fossils and repeat the process. The students then make a conclusion as to what they think their animal is and compare their answers with the other groups. Science is a community based subject, thus ideas are shared. Note: The students are never given the answer to what animal or dinosaur the fossils belong too. Why? Nothing in science is ever proven (another Nature of Science tenet) and it takes geologist more than 3 days to figure out what a fossil is.
What do I like about this activity? The student becomes the scientist. Creating a PBL to teach Nature of Science is just about the only way to allow students to understand the concept. Furthermore, teachers are just now beginning to understand the connection between NOS and connecting it to a simulation. In the past NOS has been overlooked (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2005).
Related Source:
"90% of what we typically teach is a waste of time. 90% of what we teach probably constitutes particular skills and particular nuggets of knowledge that those kids will never encounter again in a significant way in their lives. It just doesn't matter." I found this to be very true and it actually reflects the stand up comedy of Father Guido and the 5 minute University. In the traditional teaching students have to shift through the bits and pieces that are going to actually be needed in a real life situation. How many kids do we know that are going to be able to scaffold an education just by what they find important enough to carry on into adult life. They can't! They simply do not know how to do it. So what is the result? Bored kids in a classroom, that don't bother to lift a pencil to record any points during a lecture.
This supports Project Based Learning. This is why students should be learning by doing activities that will reflect real life, whether the project simulates a scientist's job or Shakespeare.
Resources:
Barron, D. B., & Darling-Hammond, D. L. (2008). Teaching for meaningful learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. (2005). Integrating technology into research-based strategies. Retrieved from http://www.netc.org/focus/
Newell, P. (Director) (2010). Interview with david perkins, professor, harvard graduate school of education [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7UnupF-uJk
The challenge boils down to how well the teacher can implement this type of learning. If the teacher does not comprehend Problem Based Learning, Project Based Learning, or Learning by Design the learning projects may collapse in the process (Good & Brophy, 1986). Failure can occur at any point in time whether it is in the beginning because the teacher sees this type of learning as unstructured; in the middle because there is no scaffolding processes taking place; or in the end when the teacher cannot determine how to evaluate the projects. All-in-all it looks to me as if the project becomes a jumbled mess. While it is okay for a teacher to learn as they are walking through the steps of inquiry projects, there should be a general idea as to the direction that projects need to be mentored. Afterall, students need guidance to make their learning meaningful. Many students do not know have the background or maturity to "make sense of an inquiry" (Krajcik et al., 1998). This is where the mentorship of a teacher needs to be implemented. Students also need aid in time management; help in working with others; and motivation, especially when a project fails or is taking too long to accomplish (Achillies & Hoover, 1996; Edelson et al., 1999).
In the end, what is needed for successful implementation is the ability to juggle new responsibilities such as classroom management, the lesson should reflect key concepts the students need to learn, scaffolding through modeling, and proper assessment and support feedback.
2. Make connections between project-based learning and three research based strategies (Choose strategies you have not already been assigned to read about). Give a brief explanation of the connections.
Cooperative Learning - A research based strategy that fits well with project-based learning is cooperative grouping. During a PBL students often have to work together to successfully complete the project. Currently in the Biology class I am observing, students have to present their topic such as Human Origins, The Human Genome Project, Genetic Modification, etc... Work required consists of researching the topic, understanding the terms, presenting the materials to the class and creating a product or game that will engage the class in learning the group's topic. The group delegates parts of the assignment to its members. The end product or goal is that the groups become the teacher and it is their responsiblity to teach the class about their topic in an engaging way. Students are graded on their participation and each member is aware that failing to participate could get them expelled from the group. In this instance, cooperative learning is required since the group is interdependent on its members to succeed (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2005).
Reinforcing Effort - According to this research, students' beliefs and attitudes are directly corrilated to how well they do in school. This makes sense if you take in account the student who is doing poorly in school because they cannot learn from traditional methods and how they feel about themselves. At some point, they will believe they are "dumb" or "stupid", afterall their classmates get the material. Traditional methods fail the student, in more than one way, who needs to learn by doing. If that student is able to get out from behind his/her textbook and out of their seat to participate in a project that engages their learning, makes connections between their "funds of knowledge" and the real world, then the student's achievement raises. With the rise in achievement, the attitude and feelings the student possesses begins to rise. The student may not realize their attitude is correlated to their achievement (since this is an abstract concept) but research indicates otherwise. It all boils down to "believing you can often makes it so" (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2005).
Simulations and Games - This strategy allows the students to act out any given situation that relates to the learning material. For instance, a science teacher is trying to teach the Nature of Science content - an area that is darn near hard to describe and definitely abstract. The definition is as follows: The historical aspects of science and idea that science is an ongoing, changing process. So how is this concept taught? Easily - it is simulated. An example would be discovering fossils. Each student become a geologist in this lesson. The teacher gives each group of students an envelope that is full of paper fossils. The teacher tell the students they are going on a 3 day journey to discover fossils that have never been seen before. The teacher then asks the students to write in their journal Day 1 and then randomly pull out 3 fossils. The students then try to recognize the pieces from knowledge they already have such as "Does it look like a vertibrae... a hip bone... jaw... etc?" The students write down their findings and then move on to Day 2. On Day 2 and Day 3 they are alotted so many fossils and repeat the process. The students then make a conclusion as to what they think their animal is and compare their answers with the other groups. Science is a community based subject, thus ideas are shared. Note: The students are never given the answer to what animal or dinosaur the fossils belong too. Why? Nothing in science is ever proven (another Nature of Science tenet) and it takes geologist more than 3 days to figure out what a fossil is.
What do I like about this activity? The student becomes the scientist. Creating a PBL to teach Nature of Science is just about the only way to allow students to understand the concept. Furthermore, teachers are just now beginning to understand the connection between NOS and connecting it to a simulation. In the past NOS has been overlooked (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2005).
Related Source:
(Newell, 2010)
"90% of what we typically teach is a waste of time. 90% of what we teach probably constitutes particular skills and particular nuggets of knowledge that those kids will never encounter again in a significant way in their lives. It just doesn't matter." I found this to be very true and it actually reflects the stand up comedy of Father Guido and the 5 minute University. In the traditional teaching students have to shift through the bits and pieces that are going to actually be needed in a real life situation. How many kids do we know that are going to be able to scaffold an education just by what they find important enough to carry on into adult life. They can't! They simply do not know how to do it. So what is the result? Bored kids in a classroom, that don't bother to lift a pencil to record any points during a lecture.
This supports Project Based Learning. This is why students should be learning by doing activities that will reflect real life, whether the project simulates a scientist's job or Shakespeare.
Resources:
Barron, D. B., & Darling-Hammond, D. L. (2008). Teaching for meaningful learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. (2005). Integrating technology into research-based strategies. Retrieved from http://www.netc.org/focus/
Newell, P. (Director) (2010). Interview with david perkins, professor, harvard graduate school of education [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7UnupF-uJk
1 comment:
Excellent discussion of the challenges to PBL implementation in the classroom!
Great connections to Research-based strategies!
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