I have always been a question asker. When I am unsure of something, or don’t understand, I have never been afraid to be the first to raise my hand. I always wondered if this was a bad thing. Does this mean I’m not understanding things the way others are? Why are others “getting it” and I am left feeling unclear? After reading the book A More Beautiful Questionby Warren Berger, I am actually starting to feel the opposite. Why aren’t others questioning as much as I am? When I am presented with some kind of problem at work or a situation where I need to make a decision, it typically must be done quickly. I usually don’t have the time to run through the methods that Berger presents in his book. After reading it though, I realize the importance of stepping back from a problem, and running through the why’s, what if’s and how’s. My days run quick and some decisions/solutions will simply have to be made just as fast but, ideally, I’d like to apply it as much as possible. There are a lot of advantages to asking “Why?” to a problem and it’s important that it is done first. It helps me understand the problem in a different way and can even help me see from another person’s point of view. It’s also a bit liberating to allow yourself to ask the why questions without judgement or the pressure of having to come up with an answer. An example of an ill-structured problem that I face in my classroom that I can ask “Why?” to is behavior and discipline issues. Like most teachers, I have certain students that are chronically more difficult behavior wise. Instead of jumping to conclusions or some kind of consequence as a solution, it would be much more beneficial to ask “Why?”. There are so many possibilities as to why a student is making poor decisions and there is a chance I will never fully know. But, asking why and considering the child’s viewpoint will at least lead me to some insight on who they are as a person and their needs as a learner in the classroom environment. In their book, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, Bransford, Cocking and Brown highlight the importance of learner centered classrooms where the teachers “pay close attention to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that learners bring into the classroom” (pg. 23). Taking the time to ask why demonstrates the fact that, as an educator, I care so much about that individual that I want to understand more. The “What if…?” stage also does not require a solution to the problem just yet but rather possibilities of what can be done. This stage helps my thinking move forward. Let’s consider the same example given above. Remember, we are talking about a student that persistently misbehaves. After asking “Why?” questions about this student, the “What if…?” create many different options. Considering as many options as possible is extremely important in this situation. Think, for example, if I skipped this stage. I decided on the first consequence that came to mind. I may regret that decision, it most likely isn’t the best choice for the student’s actual learning needs, and the poor behavior will most likely continue. In this case, the “What if…?” stage is meant to avoid those circumstances. Lastly, the “How?” stage will lead me to the best, well thought out solution possible for my problem. I think if I actually apply this whole process to the next difficult problem I come across, it would make me proud of the solution I come up with. There is a lot of time, effort and sometimes research that goes into it. It has definitely helped me become a better questioner and even look at difficult situations more optimistically because I have a great tool to guide me through. One big takeaway that I plan on incorporating into my own classroom is the “Question Formulation Technique” (p.65) designed by Rothstein and Santana and presented in the book A More Beautiful Question.I love how kid-friendly it is and the fact that it levels the playing field for all of my students because the point isn’t to know the answer – it’s to come up with a great question. References
Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.), How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368 Berger, W. (2016). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York: Bloomsbury.
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Kirby Ferguson created a 4-part series of videos called “Everything is a Remix”. In this series, Ferguson describes remixing as the process of “collecting material, combining it and transforming it” (2015). As an artist and as an educator, this string of videos really caught my interest. When beginning a new art piece, I am staring at a blank canvas. What should I draw? What colors should I incorporate? How can I make the background interesting? Then, my thumbs go to work… on my phone, looking up ideas on Google images, pictures of masterpieces, inspiration off Instagram, Pinterest and so on. This is not to say that I go online to find projects and photos to copy completely. I use the internet for bits of inspiration. Things that really stick out to me go into in my sketchbook. Then, when the time comes to create on a larger scale, I usually pull all of my ideas together to create something that I would consider my own. But is it really mine? In Ferguson’s point of view, it’s a remix. I would identify my process of creation the same way Ferguson defined it in his video: a collection of different material, combined or rearranged and transformed. I relate this process to my own teaching, too. I have worked for two different schools as an art educator: 3 years at a high school and 2 years at an elementary. Both times, when I got hired, I had a very short amount of time to move in, get my classroom ready and become accustomed to the new everything (schedule, students, coworkers, administration, building, etc.). At that point, some of the things that I wish could be higher up on my to-do list, like lesson planning, were pushed down. Before you know it, school was starting, and you better believe I hopped online and looked up ideas of what other art teachers were doing in a high school or elementary art class. Although I did make changes to projects and remix them sometimes, there were other times I completely took someone else’s idea and used it in my class. Even though these teachers had their lessons up on their website for the public to freely see and take, I still felt bad for doing it. Like really bad. I felt like I was failing as a teacher because I wasn’t doing my job of making something up from scratch. I was comparing myself to these expert teachers who had years of experience. Looking back on it all, I now know I was doing what I had to do to survive that first or second year at a new school. Now that I am going into my third year at the elementary level and my sixth year of teaching overall, I notice myself becoming more comfortable, learning what works for me and what doesn’t. I’m transferring the skills that I had learned from experts and creating my own projects. I am realizing that, as a brand-new teacher, I just needed a place to start and to grow into my own from. Ferguson mentions this in Part 3, when he talks about copying; “Put simply, copying is how we learn. We can’t introduce anything new until we are fluent in the language of our domain” (2015). This made me feel a whole lot better about copying other’s ideas in those first years. I was simply learning. In both cases explained above, when I taught at the high school and elementary school, I had never been in either of those positions before. Sure, I did an internship and had a degree but it was still way different. I had never had a classroom that was completely my own. I didn’t realize this back then, when I felt bad, but when I was copying off of other teachers, I was building a base of knowledge and understanding of how to teach each specific grade level art. Now that I have this knowledge, things are evolving in my own way and I’m excited to see where it goes from here. Ferguson’s ideas are also supported by the concept of transfer. In their book How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, Bransford, Cocking and Brown state that transfer is “defined as the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts” (Pg. 51, n.d.). They also maintain two key characteristics of learning and transfer: 1. “All new learning involves transfer based on previous learning” (Pg. 53) and 2. “Initial learning is necessary for transfer” (Pg. 53). If both of these key characteristics are true, then it is essentially necessary for a novice (like me as a beginner teacher) to copy an expert (like the ones who have been teaching for years) before they will be able to transfer any knowledge to create something new of their own. You can buy Kirby Ferguson's merch, too! Click on the picture above if you're interested. References:
Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.), How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368 Ferguson, K.(Producer). (2015, Sep. 12), Everything is a Remix Remastered (2015 HD) [Video file]. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/139094998. Accessed 5 Aug. 2019. The achievement gap is something that I have personally seen happening in my own school. The statistic I’m about to give is completely based off memory and I don’t have the proof that my principal gave me anymore but nonetheless, it has stuck in my memory and has left me feeling disturbed. In a staff meeting, I found out that, according to the MSTEP standardized testing done for 3rd-5th grade in our school, that 0% of the African Americans in our school had been rated efficient in mathematics. Zero percent. That hit hard. Until that point, as an art educator, I had never seen statistics like these. Administration has presented on school wide statistics but not on individual races, genders, etc. Truly, this was a turning point in my career. Although I have over 500 students, I connect closely with each of them and when I found out about that statistic, it was heartbreaking to know these students who were struggling so much in their core subjects. On a side note, that must be extremely difficult for the general education teachers who see this statistic and probably consider it a failure on their part. Which is awful because there really are so many factors contributing to the situation, and it is definitely not fair to simply put blame on the teachers. Which is being done anyway but that’s for another blog.
Personally, I had never done research on the achievement gap before and I really only knew very basic facts. Once I was finally exposed to hard truths occurring right in my own school (and thanks to the wicked problem unit with MAET), I felt a strong desire to understand more about it. In a TED talk titled Solving the Achievement Gap Through Equity, Not Equality, Dr. Lindsey Ott states the achievement gap occurs when “one group of students scores higher than another when they’re grouped by gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status.” (2017). If all of the students in our school – no matter what race, gender, status – were receiving the same education, standards, rules, - why were some achieving lower than others? And what can I personally do to help close the achievement gap at my school? According to another short video I watched titled How to Close the Academic Achievement Gap That’s Hurting America, there are numerous factors that (positively or negatively) impact the achievement gap but can be basically grouped into three categories: quality of education, environment at home and overall health. This is further supported in online article published by the news organization, Education Week, where these resources are referred to as “opportunity gaps” (2019) between poor vs wealthy children. The video also provides a solution to closing the achievement gap by basically stating that this could be solved by family friendly policies that ensure each child has 1. the opportunity for a good education with quality teachers 2. parents that support children’s schooling at home, have a decent income and live in a safe, diverse neighborhood 3. Good overall health and nutrition with access to healthcare. Obviously, we cannot promise all of these opportunities to every child in our country unless we seriously invested a lot of money. So, again I ask, what can we do? What can I do? Another screenshot from How to Close the Academic Achievement Gap That's Hurting America that visually represents the resources that all students need in order to be successful in school and help to close the achievement gap. This brings me back to Dr. Lindsey Ott. In her TED talk (2017), she argues that equality and equity are not the same thing. For example, equality is giving everyone a size medium uniform to wear to school, even if that simply will not fit some students. It is given to them anyway and they must deal with it. Equity is giving everyone the same uniform but in the size that fits the individual. Then the playing field is fair. I can translate this idea into my teaching by providing assignments and projects that are not a one size fits all but rather, tailor each to individual students. This is an incredible amount of work and a daunting task – I already mentioned that I have over 500 students. But the beauty of art, in my opinion, is that it can be much more easily personalized than say a math class. I also feel that as long as I am aware of the achievement gap within my own school, keep myself informed and do what I can to help close it, then I at least am doing my part.
References: Ansell, Susan. “Achievement Gap.” Education Week, 21 Feb. 2019, www.edweek.org/ew/issues/achievement-gap/index.html. Talks, TEDx. “Solving the Achievement Gap Through Equity, Not Equality | Lindsey Ott | TEDxYouth@Columbia.” YouTube, YouTube, 5 Dec. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQbu_3M0_Q. seeprogress. “How to Close the Academic Achievement Gap That's Hurting America.” YouTube, YouTube, 12 Mar. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJtMlS8Gk_I. When creating a lesson plan, I consider what my students will experience. I think about timing, the flow of the lesson, how students will participate, visuals, technologies, music, chants, hands-on components, and more. However, I'm not so lucky when it comes to the layout and general floor plan of my current art room. I don't really have much control over it other than moving the furniture that I have and decorating the walls. The room is one of the smaller rooms in the building, making it hard for me to rearrange desks/furniture. The furniture I have is old, used and some is falling apart. Now, this is not to say that it is in an awful state or that I am ungrateful for the things that I have. Rather, that if it were my choice from the beginning, I would have done things a lot differently, now that I can look at my classroom environment through MAET lenses. I have created a concept of what a more ideal classroom would look like for my situation. I started with a list of things I knew I wanted before I even began designing. The list includes: a larger room, more space, a lot of counter space, many sinks, a gallery wall, natural lighting, various seating, movable furniture, semi-private area for choice time and lightly colored walls. All of these things have been included. Bird's-eye view of the classroom from above The classroom from another angle. The small empty room would be for a kiln room and the larger empty room would be for supply storage and office space. ** In my floor plan, I did include an office space and a storage space (seen above). Although these spaces are absolutely essential for an art room, I chose not to furnish them because the focus of this project was on the learning space. So, let's take a closer look at those spaces. Looking at the photo above, you can see I have a group learning space on the blue and yellow rug where students can sit for lectures, demonstrations and collaborations like pairs and shares. There is a whiteboard/projector and a computer nearby for convenience. Inspired by The Third Teacher+ and Edutopia (2013), I also have included a gallery wall which is that trifold poster board. Here, I can hang student work, exemplars and "facilitate visual listening" (2013). Furthermore, the rug serves as a spot where the class comes together as a group - almost like a team huddle. This is where I see their faces and hear their voices and opinions (keep in mind, as an art educator, I typically see them about once a week). This is like our pow-wow before conquering our art for the day. In their book, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School, Bransford, Brown and Cocking (n.d.) argue the importance of learner-centered classrooms. This area is meant to nurture that concept. Another thing I'd like to point out from the photo above is that I have created a large, open-concept room, save for one area. That one area is called the Choice Time Area (see photo below). This is where early finishers come to explore different creative options with their free time. The Choice Time Area I wanted the Choice Time Area to be semi-private - like a little nook - so I put a bookshelf there that has no backing so I can still have eyes on students. I incorporated some bean bag chairs to make it a little cozier. The book shelf would hold artist and drawing books, building blocks, modeling clay, free draw paper, spirographs, symmetry blocks, and more. This is my small maker space. It is meant to encourage invention, creativity, self-discovery, problem solving and to empower learners. As Halverson and Sheridan argue in the Harvard Educational Review, "If we believe that making activities and maker identities are crucial for empowerment, then it is, in part, our job to set up situations whereby all learners have the opportunity to engage" (Pg. 500, 2014). Close up of the work space. The only way I'd be able to test this space out to see if it works and if my ideas follow through would be to run a class in it. Unfortunately, that isn't possible. Even if I tried to move furniture around in my current classroom to imitate what I have created, I simply do not have the same amount of space and resources in real life. I can, however, improvise and I could create a "gallery wall" off of the poster board I do have in my current room. I could also create a space to sit on the floor as our group "pow-wow". My point is that there are things that I can and cannot change. I cannot change the fact that my current classroom was built with an "old school" mentality and I may not be able to change the furniture I have. But I can begin to, as the George Lucas Educational Foundation would put it, "integrate tools and tactics for creative thinking" (2013) into my classroom with a little bit of hard work and thinking outside of the box. References
Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.), How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368 Halverson, E.R. & Sheridan, K. (2014). The Maker Movement in Education. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), 495-465. “Remake Your Class: Building a Collaborative Learning Environment (Video Playlist).” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 6 Aug. 2013, www.edutopia.org/video/remake-your-class-building-collaborative-learning-environment-video-playlist.
I fell down a deep, dark rabbit hole of what is Agbogbloshie. I'll get back to that in a minute. First I'd like to explain what I was looking for originally. I found myself drawn to the article "The Global Cost of Electronic Waste" by S. F. Ahmed (2016) and wanted to write on e-waste. I was intrigued by constant consumer demand specifically for newer, more advanced products when most people are already in possession of products that work completely fine and are not in need of replacing! For example, their phone is a generation older than the new one that just came out. I also was interested in finding some statistics on who the biggest e-waste generators are and consider different ways to reduce the waste. However, in the start of my research, I found Agbogbloshie. Agbogbloshie is a neighborhood in Ghana's capital of Accra. There is a large slum and "living area" there and a scrapyard. But not just any scrapyard - one of the biggest contamination sites in the world.
I ended up watching two different YouTube videos; one was a documentary called "ToxiCity: life at Agbogbloshie, the world's largest e-dump in Ghana" (2016) and a Ted Talk called "What a scrapyard in Ghana can teach us about innovation - DK Osseo-Asare" (2018) which are both linked below. A lot of what I discuss in this blog post is a reflection of what I saw along with some research that followed up because of it.
Watching the ToxiCity documentary was like looking at a different world. I was thinking in my head "There's no way this is actually happening somewhere." But it is.. and it looks really bad. My research helped me understand that Agbogbloshie is commonly mistaken as a dump but it actually is a scrap site. (TED, 2018). In fact, most sources online do call it a dumpsite probably because that is exactly what it looks like but it is more than that which will be explained below. There is most definitely tons of e-waste there but, according to Van der Velden and Oteng-Ababio (n.d.) it is not the largest e-waste dump site in the world. A site in China is that actually specializes it. Agbogbloshie is top three though, along with China and India.
From what I've understood in my research, electronic "leftovers" (I call them that because a lot of what is considered e-waste isn't even waste; it is still working and is just an older model that people are discarding for something newer) and e-waste are being illegally bought and brought into Ghana and the buyers/owners of the scrapyard are making loads of money (Documentary. 2016). The workers, however, are not. This scrapyard ends up being a major hub for jobs and since there is not much work in other areas of Ghana, people as young as children are forced to go there to make money - but not much. Furthermore, while they are there, they are surrounded by poison (Documentary, 2016). These workers are breathing in pollutants, growing food in contaminated soil, eating from markets across the street from one of the largest contamination sites in the world and living in absolute filth. On the flip side, there are also jobs being produced where workers can make a decent living refurbishing second-hand electronics. So overall, all of this e-waste and leftover technology is generating jobs but at the expense of what? Hygiene, fresh air, a clean environment, children's education and human life? Doesn't sound like a good gig. Luckily, great things are being done! The Ted Talk (2018) that is linked below brings up the fact that there are maker spaces being created in areas of Ghana and collaborations being formed between the workers from the scrapyard - who are essentially self-taught techies - and students and professionals in STEM fields from around the world. These collaborations are both physical and digital. For the projects mentioned in the Ted Talk, all parts of the projects that were being made came strictly from Ghana. Which is incredible because there are so many resources there that are still completely functional and operational. It would only be a waste if these objects weren't used. As an MAET student, it is absolutely incredible to see what the maker movement is doing globally, how it is applying to real life situations and positively impacting the world. References Ahmed, S. F. (2016, September 29). The Global Cost of Electronic Waste. Retrieved July 18, 2019, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/the-global-cost-of-electronic-waste/502019/ Documentary, RT. (2016, June 01). ToxiCity: Life at Agbobloshie, the world's largest e-waste dump in Ghana. [YouTube video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mleQVO1Vd1I TED. (2018, August 30). What a scrapyard in Ghana can teach us about innovation | DK Osseo-Asare. [YouTube video]. Retrieved July 18, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_wtaoHCw3k Van der Velden, M., & Oteng-Ababio, M. (n.d.). Six myths about electronic waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Retrieved July 19, 2019, from https://africasacountry.com/2019/03/six-myths-about-electronic-waste-in-agbogbloshie-ghana Click here to check out our Innovative Learning Project site! For our innovative Learning Project, each of the team members were asked to create a lesson plan that was inspired by innovative technologies and the Maker Movement and then, as a group, to combine all of our plans onto one website. Creating the site ran smoothly for multiple reasons. Firstly, my teammates were extremely easy to collaborate with. Each team member did their part quickly and even helped answer questions I had while creating the website. Secondly, I had already used this website making platform before so I had some preexisting knowledge on the layout of the site and how to use the tools. And lastly, the feedback from the year 2 students was informative and stimulating. I applied quite a few of their ideas to my website and incorporated them within the project itself. Here is a sneak peek of the website I created. Click here to visit it! The main purpose of the activity “This is not a cup” is to challenge students to quickly think outside of the box without much direction or many rules. The significance of this is that students are allowed to create, explore, make and build and are encouraged to let go of the fear of “messing up”. Although this is a low tech project, it still has an innovative and unique approach that makes it valuable. To further defend this point, I bring up Koehler and Mishra's article Too Cool for School? No way! Learning and Leading with Technology where they argue that "almost everything that is artificial... is technology, whether low tech or high tech" (Pg. 15). So, we take something as simple as a Styrofoam cup – which does not originally have an educational purpose at all – and repurpose it by turning it into an amazing three-dimensional sculpture! Although this activity could probably be applied to most subject matter, in my art room, the main objective of the project is for students to demonstrate their understanding of our two vocabulary concepts – void and in-the-round with their final sculpture. A "before and after" photo. The planning stage of this whole project was the toughest and most intimidating part. I had no idea what to do at first. It actually kept me up at night because I was racking my brain with what technology to use. Originally, I felt like I had to use some kind of high-tech tool or advanced technology. Because of this, I felt limited in resources and I knew I didn’t want to spend much money putting something together. Finally, after discussing different possibilities with my team and instructor, a lightbulb went off; whatever I used did not have to be expensive or comprised of electronics. It could be something as simple as a Styrofoam cup but as open-ended as repurposing it. Once I had the idea of what the project would be, everything seemed to be smooth sailing from there. The process of planning the website was easy because of the reasons mentioned above. One major takeaway was learning how to do the RQI technique – the Right Question Institute - which is a presented by Warren Berger in his book, A More Beautiful Question (Berger, 2016, Pg. 65). This is something I plan on using in my own classroom. I see a lot of value in the maker movement because it is essentially what art education has been doing for hundreds if not thousands of years. There may not be electronics typically involved in art but the basic ideas are similar. Both require a hands-on approach and creative problem solving. As Halverson and Sheridan (2014) argue in their book, The maker movement in education, "artists and art educators have long histories of supporting learning in the making across a variety of art forms and media" (Pg. 498). Regardless of my role as an art educator, I believe that any type of educator should include making in their lessons - it's just that using artistic creativity can make it even more successful!
However, I do see the argument that Halverson and Sheridan (2014) made about how makerspaces are more organic and unless there are at least a few guidelines set up – like in my example, students demonstrated the understanding of sculpture concepts through the maker activity – or some kind of end result expected, "learning is not guaranteed; nor is it regulated" (Pg. 502). The most important takeaway that I experienced with this project is that a teacher can create a successful innovative project with low tech equipment. Take for example, how Mishra describes a myth about technology and creativity in education in Rethinking Tehcnology and Creativity in the 21st Century, “The technology tools we have today should drive how we conceptualize teaching and learning...” (Pg.13). This relates to how, at the beginning of the project, I was so wrapped up in the fact that I had to find some kind of high-tech tool or advanced technology to use in order to create a successful lesson. I was so focused on the tech driving the lesson. With some careful thought, I realized that this did not have to be the case. A simple list of ingredients was all that was needed. If I were to give advice to someone else about this process, I would say be creative and use resources that are available to you or are inexpensive. Educational technology and the Maker Movement certainly can include electronics and high-tech tools but don’t necessarily have to. Consider repurposing something. That in itself is innovative and is considered educational technology. Look around you.. could you use anything in the room you’re in for something other than it’s original or sole purpose? For example, the tip of a cap of a Crayola marker could be dipped into paint and stamped onto paper to create an abstract painting. If you’re interested in creating a resource website yourself, consider pairing up with colleagues from different content areas. This will help make your website more accessible and attractive to an even wider group of people. The website should be easy to navigate. I recommend writing the lesson plan in a way that is clear, concise, and includes pictures or visuals to enhance viewer understanding. I suggest considering whether or not you’d like to publish you actual whole lesson plan or just bits and pieces so as to not give your whole lesson away. Again, you can click here to check out our Innovative Learning Project site or click here to see my personal lesson that I taught. References Berger, W. (2016). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York: Bloomsbury. Halverson, E.R. & Sheridan, K. (2014). The maker movement in education. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), 495-465. Koehler, M.J., & Mishra, P. (2009). Too cool for school? No way! Learning and leading with technology. Link to article: “Too Cool for School” Mishra, P., & The Deep-Play Research Group (2012). Rethinking technology and creativity in the 21st century: Crayons are the future. TechTrends, 56(5), 13-16. Learning, Understanding and Conceptual Change
There are two main definitions of the word "Learn" from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary: 1. To gain knowledge or understanding of or skill in by study, instruction or experience. 2. Memorizing (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). There is a great difference between those two. Learning is a process that has been, is and will always be studied in order to be improved. However, the study and science of learning has progressed rapidly over the past three or four decades. In the past, learning meant simply memorizing facts and repeating information. Remember. Repeat. More recently, largely due to advances in technology, different learning theories and studies have evolved the study of learning. Although knowing facts is still important, today's learners are being asked to dig deeper than simply memorizing. Within the past thirty years, cognitive studies have become more relevant to learning theories. The importance of having knowledge on a subject has switched from being able to remember and repeat to finding information and applying, using or transferring it. As Bransford, Cocking and Brown argue, "these aspects of high literacy are required of almost everyone in order to successfully negotiate the complexities of contemporary life." (2000, p. 4). As the authors point out in their book, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School, educators and researchers nowadays understand that there are different components to learning like cognitive, behavioral, understanding, reasoning, and more. In order for students to be successful in the twenty-first century, it is necessary that they learn with understanding and have some ability to transfer; not just simply memorize. One topic that is being researched to help further our understanding of how people learn is the study of the difference between how an expert learns and how a novice learns. Bransford, Cocking and Brown (2000) describe many differences in depth between the two. While experts are learning something new, they have a superior base of information to draw from while novices have informal ideas about areas of study. Experts notice patterns, plan tasks, and generate reasonable arguments and explanations as opposed to novices who tend to use memorization or manipulation to get answers. Experts can more quickly access relevant knowledge compared to novices and can transfer that knowledge into different situations and concepts. Experts organize previously learned knowledge in a meaningful way - around important ideas and concepts. Unlike novices, experts exhibit the use of metacognition, which is "the ability to monitor one’s current level of understanding and decide when it is not adequate." (p. 47). Additionally, experts will have inner dialogue that helps them analyze information and draw analogies to advance understanding. There are many tools, techniques and approaches in teaching that support student learning and understanding. It is important for an educator to get to know their students and what they already know. For example, pretesting students to learn more about preconceived notions and knowledge is a great method to find out what students know about a topic prior to teaching. Using frequent formative assessment is another way to check for understanding on a daily basis. Another technique that is brought to our attention in the book How People Learn is to provide students with in-depth coverage of fewer concepts as opposed to skimming the surface of many topics (Bransford, 2000, p. 20). Teachers should also be sure to give students time to play with and process new information (p. 58). If done correctly and in a timely manner, feedback will promote a deeper understanding and help students monitor their own progress. One last method is that teachers could model metacognitive thinking during demonstrations to help students see how it works. Hearing how an expert thinks can promote those same thoughts while students work independently. Although it is not an easy thing to teach, if students can have a metacognitive approach to learning, they can take control of their own learning goals and monitor their own progress. This, in the end, is the goal of education; " to prepare students for flexible adaptation to new problems and settings" (p. 77) and to generate self-sustaining, lifelong learners. As an educator, I believe that it is necessary for me to have as many tools in my toolbox as possible so that I am able to accommodate student needs, personalize learning and improve my instruction. For me, that means I must keep myself up to date and well-researched on past, present and future learning theories and pedagogy. The art of teaching and learning is constantly evolving - now more than ever due to huge advances in technology. Education reform needs to happen to match how much different our society is now than it was when our current educational system was developed. Halverson and Sheridan (2014, pg. 500) argue that if we, as a society, believe that technology empowers our students and prepares them for their future, then we need to do our part and provide them with technological opportunities in school. Teachers must embrace technology and learn how to safely and appropriately incorporate it into lesson plans. Koehler and Mishra (2009, pg. 15) confirm this argument by pointing out the importance of teachers understanding the tech tools they are using before applying them into the classroom. Technology is one more tool that I can integrate into my classroom to not only help me achieve my goals as an educator but more importantly, to help my students become successful learners and contributors in society in the twenty-first century. Reference Bransford, J. D., Cocking, R. R., & Brown, A. L. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Expanded Edition. National Academies Press. Halverson, E.R. & Sheridan, K. (2014). The Maker Movement in Education. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), 495-465. Koehler, M.J., & Mishra, P. (2009). Too cool for school? No way! Learning and leading with technology. Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/learn. |
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