Week 2: I Love TED

READINGS:

Situated Learning and Education:

The main focus of this article is situated learning: This was defined as “Situated learning emphasizes the idea that much of what is learned is specific to the situation in which it is learned.” Basically this assumption was that something learned in one circumstance does not apply to another circumstance. In this article they give various claims to support this statement; most of which I agree with completely.

The first claim in this article was that “Action is grounded in the concrete situation in which it occurs.”:  An example of this was that homemakers who did very well at making best-buy calculations did much worse on arithmetically equivalent school-like paper-and-pencil mathematics problems. This experiment shows the discrepancies that appear between “real life math” and “school math.” In the article, this theory was illustrated again in how students who memorize a “base ten” system cannot simply transfer this knowledge to another “base x” system of counting. It is my belief that there first there needs to be a technique taught of how to transfer the “base ten system” to “base x” system. My question to the reader is this: Why are we not teaching a “bridge” from “base algebra and statistics” to “Real life budgeting, investing, and personal financing”?

The second claim made in this article was that, “Knowledge does not transfer between tasks.” At first, I disagreed with this claim as I have experienced knowledge that DOES transfer between tasks first hand. This is most prominent with my experience with snowboarding, long boarding, wake boarding, surfing, rip-sticking, and any other type of boarding out there! I started off snowboarding and that knowledge made it EXTREMELY easy to pick up the necessary skills to excel at the other sports. Even though the skills required weren’t identical, the previous snowboarding knowledge bridged over and made the other sports much easier to perform. At the conclusion of this section the authors wrote that “Depending upon the experimental situation and the relation of the material originally learned to the transfer material there can be either large amounts of transfer, modest amounts of transfer, no transfer at all, or even negative transfer. I completely agree with this statement and was very happy that they didn’t stick with the headline of “Knowledge does not transfer between tasks.”

The other two claims were that “Training by the abstract is of little use” and “Instruction needs to be done in complex social environments.” I feel like I went into extenuating detail on the other two points so I’ll be rather brief on these two: I agree! There needs to be specific examples taught alongside abstract ideas, and instruction doesn’t need to be done strictly in a classroom on a blackboard. I believe that the best type of learning is done in hands-on settings with social interaction. This is how tradition, language, and social behavior is learned and I believe most classroom activities should be accompanied in being taught the same way!

Teaching for conceptual change:

Different types of change:

1.     Over hall/Complete change: Ex: The old has gone, the new has come

2.     Swap: Ex: A change in position, title, or occupation

3.     An Increase or decrease in something: Ex: “Addition/Subtracting”

One of the key factors in the article that was pointed out is that the student needs to decide that he/she wants to change his/her viewpoint or understanding. Without the self-acceptance for a need to change a thought process, there will be no true change occurring. Simple repetition of information that the teacher wants to hear is not true learning at all!

After reading through the rest of this article I found this resource online: http://www.mindresearch.net/about/

It’s called the MIND research institute and is all about changing the way teachers approach teaching math concepts to kids. Instead of trying to change the students view, this program is attempting to help teachers change the way they teach! Making math concepts fun and engaging for students through interactive math games seems like an excellent way to get students excited about learning! What do my readers think? As an aspiring future math teacher I would love to use this resource!

How people learn:

This week of class, we were instructed to read over chapter 4-6 in How People Learn. These three chapters showed a lot of the psychology and science that has been done to determine how students and young children learn. This material was extremely fascinating to me and I loved reading through all of the experiments that have been done throughout the years. My favorite chapter, chapter 4, discussed a lot of the experiments that were done on younger children that determined how their thought process developed at a very young age (6-13 months).

Through the videos I have watched, my own person readings, and my own personal experiences, I have come up with the following question in regards to a summary of week 2: What is the best method of teaching? Science experiments, testing, and classroom theory all have different results with different methods working in different situations. Therefore, how can we as teachers decide which method to pick? My answer is that this is actually one of the main jobs of the teacher: deciding what method of instruction is right for an individual student for that particular subject at that particular time is one of the necessary skills required to be an outstanding teacher! The BEST teacher is the teacher who continues to improve on their own lessons, not being complacent in their ways.

Extra materials:

Five layered question: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover

I absolutely loved this video about teaching math with patient problem solving. Everyday practical math is something that comes natural to me so I often don’t think about having to explain it to someone else. Dan Meyer nails the tail on the Donkey during this video when he quoted Einstein. The problem is definitely more important than the solution! I dread working with the textbooks that are out there today as most of the problems are cookie-cutter jargon that has little to no learning capacity other than formula memorization!

I also thought something was interesting when he demonstrated the snowboarding/steepness question. For some reason it struck a chord very similar to the 5E lesson plans, but within a single question instead.

His five steps were

1.     Visual (Engagement)

2.     Question (Exploration)

3.     Structure (Explanation)

4.     Steps (Elaboration)

5.     Resolution (Evaluation)

The steps don’t match up exactly, but I thought it was interesting how eerily similar these two processes were.

Excel sheet over different types of learning and environments: 

	Conceptual Change	Situated Learning	Social Constructivist	Models & Modeling
Learner-Centered Environment	The learner is interested in the material Possible previous knowledge   Is open to the idea Recognizes that learning is a choice The student is looking for information by themselves	Teacher designs an environment for the student to learn on their own  Examples: Labs, hands on activities, use of technology Responsibility of learning information is placed on the students	Students give opinions on social/environmental/political issues Have debate/questioning throughout the class.  Is build upon prior knowledge like a pyramid Encourages students to pursue something they are passionate about
Knowledge-Centered Environment	Students express ideas through prior knowledge Students explain new information obtained How has the student's view changed? Focuses on the hows and why questions	Student's use their own knowledge to get to their own conclusions Teacher gives brief demonstration/instruction Similar to an apprenticeship/internship Students research the material for themselves or pick from a list of materials	Use of logic and reason to fix a social issue Instructor leads a discussion with probing questions about the subject at hand Inter-relates many subject pools that students can pull knowledge from
Assessment-Centered Environment	Shows how far students have understood the information presented.  Concepts are demonstrate ability through presentations/reports on how their views have changed Assessments based on skills acquired instead of "memorizing facts."	Open ended questions Lab reports Real world applications Do the students know how to apply the information they know to the real world?	Students debate and discuss topics within one another, searching for the truth. Have students learned new information that affects something personal to them? What is it? Self Assessment: What have I learned?
Community-Centered Environment	Students participate with each other.  Teachers and students have an equal say Freedom of speech in the classroom A classroom "community" instead of a "dictatorship."	Group projects/problems: Possible a challenge day with a problem question.  Teacher brings students together to work as a team effort, but lets the students learn how to cooperate among themselves.	The community within the classroom must be devoted to learning and loving what they are learning about: (Is this possible in the common classroom?) Information learned is used outside of the classroom in the community: This can be seen with community projects, community service, jobs, ect...  Technology is used to communicate information with other students

Week 1: When frogs grow legs

Journal entry #1

·       From your history and personal experiences, what does it mean to think mathematically/scientifically?

I have personally been told that I am a “numbers” guy by multiple people, which I can raise my right hand and solemnly swear that I am up to agreement. My mother tells me stories of how I would play “square roots” at the age of four, and loved punching in the buttons on the times tables just to memorize the numbers. I also remember walking through the airport bathroom on one fateful family vacation when I noticed there were 11 holes in the bathroom sink and 9 sinks in the men’s bathroom. I figured there were 99 total holes in the sinks in the men’s bathroom and 99 in the women’s as well. Therefore there were 198 in every pair of bathrooms in the airport. Then I wanted to know how many bathrooms were in the airport so I could calculate how many holes were in all the sinks in all the bathrooms altogether. Sadly I was not given this information and had to estimate that there were 20 pairs of bathrooms, creating a total of 4960 holes in all the sinks in all the bathrooms in the airport. How do you remember all of these numbers you ask? Well it’s simple, I think mathematically.

Fish and frog video: http://vimeo.com/39374062

·      What lessons might we draw from the Fish is Fish story in relation to human learning?

The story of the fish and the frog brings about some interesting points about teaching. Even though the Frog talked endlessly about the world outside of the water, the fish still had a skewed vision of what the world above looked like. In particular, he pictured every animal as some sort of fish-oid. The “cow” had fins and swam about and the “humans” were merely walking fish! One of the major points that I observed from this is that as humans learn sometimes we are limited in our thinking according to what we already know. If we do not broaden our minds and think outside of our comfort zone it can become impossible to get a full understand of the truth. Something else that I thought was interesting is how the frog described the utters of a cow as “pink bags that hold milk.” This was such an abstract way of describing the utters, but it apparently it worked perfectly for the fish because he pictured utters exactly how they are. This can be seen as how sometimes using an out of the box example can help someone understand a concept much easier.  

How would you answer the following questions:

·       What causes the seasons?

I believe that the tilt of the earth upon it’s axis and its relative position in relation to the sun create the various seasons. Because of the different exposures to the sun for different amounts of time, the earth becomes cooler and hotter at different points in time. Because this warming and cooling of the earth is cyclical—following a specific pattern—they are called seasons and occur during a given time period every year.

·       What causes the phases of the moon?

The phases of the moon are caused by it’s location in reference to the positions of the sun and it’s orbit around the earth. The reason for this is because when the location of the sun, moon, and earth are different during their respective orbits the moon reflects a certain portion of the sun’s light in a different manner. This changing of the amount of light reflected affects the phases of the moon and is how we get a full moon, new moon, half moon, and so forth. Additionally, the moon’s gravitational pull affects another asset of weather: the tides. Without the moon our oceans would be relatively dormant and the ocean would turn into a giant lake!

Harvard Grad responses to why the seasons are what they are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0wk4qG2mIg

·       In the responses of these students, I thought the following was interesting: 

I thought it was interesting how all three of the graduates had the exact same answer. Also all of them seemed to think the question was incredibly easy and below their knowledge level. The students extremely confident of themselves and almost seemed offended that they were being asked such a “simple” question.

·        The responses made some sense, but were not fully correct: 

Even though the students were partially correct in how the position of the earth in relation to the sun affects the weather, they were incorrect in stating that it is due to how far the earth is from the sun. The position of the earth combined with the tilt of the earth creates the change in the seasons. I also thought it was interesting that none of the graduates talked about or even took into consideration the tilt of the earth upon its “axis.”

·       Why did some of the students say that the seasons were caused by the closeness of the earth to the sun?

This was apparently a misconception that all of the students have held since grade school. My educated guess is that none of the students were STEM majors and focused the majority of their collegiate studies in a humanities degree. The reason I say this is that if the students were STEM majors then they would have had more recent in-depth studying of the science and would be more likely to have correct viewpoints on the reasons for the seasons.

Some Questions to Ponder:

·       What does it mean to know and/or learn?

Knowing and learning are really two different topics. The Webster online dictionary defines knowing as: showing that you have special knowledge or having knowledge, information, or intelligence. To me this is a fairly accurate description of knowing something. However, I believe that there are several different types of knowledge and/or knowing. For instance I could know that the sun “rises” in the east and “sets” in the west, but it is another whole topic to understand why the sun “rises” in the east and “sets” in the west.

Additionally, Webster online dictionary defines learning as: the activity or process of gaining knowledge or skill by studying, practicing, being taught, or experiencing something. Again, I agree with Webster. Learning does not necessarily have to take place in a classroom, but can be experienced through a practical lifestyle. For instance: How did early generation American farmers pass on the family business to their children without a schoolroom in their backyard? Well, they simple learned through experience, which I believe is one of the best ways to learn any topic.

·       What does it mean to be a competent mathematics or science student?

Honestly I believe that in order to be a competent mathematics student, one should be able to perform almost any calculation (within the knowledge the student accumulated) without a calculator. This is not necessarily the most practical way to approach a lot of problems—as using a calculator can solve a problem much easier and much faster—but in order to fully comprehend what one is computing, solving without a calculator is the true test. This is not to say that every problem should be a “calculator off” problem, but it is a great way to test some serious math skills.

As for a competent science student, I am a little less fluent in this area and don’t have quite a solid of a personal definition. However, to be proficient in any subject one should be able to carry on a conversation about certain subject matter and be knowledgeable about the subject’s vocabulary. Because science is an extremely large field, it is hard to say exactly what this is. For instance, in chemistry it is important to know what a “Mole” of a substance is. In physics the units for a “Newton” would be something quite useful, and in astronomy, being able to recognize certain constellations by their star formations would be very pertinent information.

·       What does learning mean? How is learning different from or similar to understanding?

This question is a simple understanding of the order of operations. At first a student is introduced to a subject, then they are taught or experience the subject, which is known as learning. Then, the student—hopefully—understands the subject after spending some time learning the subject.  Simply put, first a student learns about the subject, and then after they determine the clockwork behind the subject they have been taught, they understand the topic.

·       How can you get at what students are thinking? How can you assess knowing and learning?

There are several different methods to understand how students learn information and how well they have retained the information they have learned. Our readings during the first week on teaching for successful intelligence showed us that there is more to teaching then simple memorization. In order to make successful students the teacher must first pick a method that will be successful with that student. Sometimes the student excels better through the theoretical explanation of a subject, while others will benefit from the practical or realistic version of a subject. It all depends on the student’s own learning style. By using different methods and different forms of questions, teachers can better help their students grasp an appreciation and understanding of the material, which is the end goal after all!

EXTEND:

Look at the following videos: 

http://vimeo.com/28368014

http://vimeo.com/28368092

·      What does it mean to be an expert?

Through watching the videos and doing some self reflection I have come the conclusion that being an expert in a field means that you have a profound knowledge base and passion for what you do.  For example, in the interview about the dinosaurs the boy sometimes had the exact same answer as the “expert” but he wasn’t completely sure on his answers.  You could truly see how the “expert” enjoyed what he did. There was even a blurb about how he had been excited about dinosaurs since before Jurassic Park came out, and loved them ever since he was a child! Not only did he love what he did, but he devoted his entire education to learning about the great reptiles of old.

This isn’t to say that you have to get a doctorate in a subject to be an expert. I believe in the law of 10,000 hours. This basically states that after doing, working, experiencing, or trying something for 10,000 hours, you will become an expert at it. This works for athletes, doctors, lawyers, hair-dressers, educators, and almost anything else you can think of. If you are truly passionate about something you will spend a whole lot of your time—10,000 hours for instance—on that subject, which will give you a profound knowledge about that subject. The passion will breed the knowledge, and the knowledge will feed the passion.

TEACHING FOR SUCCESSFUL INTELLIGENCE: 
Read the full article here: 
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15430421tip4304_5#.U3u6WK1dXEU

·      Observations and reflection

Overall I really enjoyed reading this article. Although I have a very good memory as it is slightly photographic (I can remember exactly where something is on a page and what was around it, but not necessarily what was said—I connect with this article as I love learning through experience and out of the box type of questions rather than strictly plug and chug questions. The article states that teaching for successful intelligence requires a way that “balances learning for memory, analytical, creative, and practical thinking.” By implementing all three of these teaching methods in various nation-wide experiments the students were able to outperform other students who were taught using traditional methods. The authors summarized this process of thinking with my favorite sentence in the article,  “When students think to learn, they also learn to think.”

I additionally liked how the article stated that there was no one definition of intelligence. Instead, they proclaimed that people “are successfully intelligent by virtue of recognizing their strengths and making the most of them at the same time they recognize their weaknesses and find ways to correct them.” This stood out to me because I hate the way most schools evaluate a student. To me it is comparable to asking a monkey, a turtle, and a whale to climb a tree. Obviously, some will succeed while others will fail, with no chance of being able to compete with the others!

I really enjoyed reading about how to teach for successful intelligence instead of teaching for block memory. The methods described in this article and the experiments performed fully support the fact that triarchic learning has shaped students into excellent learners. Teachers (including my future self) should seriously consider using these methods in their lesson plans and implement them on a day-to-day basis.

Not sure what all this blog will entail, but I do hope you all enjoy reading about my marvelous journey into my newfound knowledge about STEM related subjects. I do hope that my posts don't bore you half to death and hopefully you will enjoy replying to them! Cheers to a great semester.

JD (Jacob Dixon)