Blog Post 11
Last week in class, we had our one-shot workshops. The workshops centered around ethics and our team focused on privacy and access to information, looking at a case study of learning analytics and one from corporations. In all of the workshops, I felt like I heard many different voices and was glad they were discussed based. The groups did a good job managing time and used smaller discussion groups to distribute work while bringing it back together at the end, something our team could have improved.
How People Learn, Chapter 7, provides insights into what makes some teachers truly outstanding and the research that contributes to these teaching strategies. Specifically, the authors give examples from history, mathematics, and science classrooms. Behind these successful teachers are curriculums, philosophies, and situations that create positive learning experiences. Teachers in these examples have an underlying belief that learning goes beyond memorization and calculations into understanding and applying. Curriculum flexibility allows teachers to understand and include student needs. Classroom projects, interactions, and discussions for understanding and applying, creating a learning community.
In one history class, a teacher classroom-sources a list of criteria for historical significance and in a math class, the teacher asks for examples of basic calculations and a story around this. She constructs a procedure for answering the questions to illustrate the story. These stories are incredibly refreshing and dig deep into the classrooms of experienced and outstanding teachers. The research behind the examples shows the importance of a knowledge of the domain, the use of tools to provide guidance, and designing classrooms as communities of learners.
Finally, we end this week with a video of a webinar. I chose to watch one on how to be a good moderator during user interviews. The webinar was clear and a didn’t feel rushed. Although the host was clear verbally, the slides lacked visual appeal. It was nice to be refreshed on basic skills learned in SI 501 and is always good to be reminded of proper behaviors during interviews. Often I find myself slipping and being able to keep major points in the back of my mind during the interviews will be important to the success of the research projects.
I also found the anecdotes in the reading about teachers going beyond the usual instructional techniques quite refreshing. I wasn't sure if some of these techniques were a little too unstructured, however. I feel like most teachers wouldn't be able to pull this off, which I guess was one of the points of the reading, that only teachers who have both excellent domain knowledge and pedagogical knowledge (and interaction between these two kinds of knowledge) make excellent teachers in these subjects. I always like hearing about teachers using unconventional methods, but I feel like the subjects discussed in the reading, history, math, and science, are still taught pretty conservatively, so it would be interesting to see the effects of these different instructional techniques described in the reading.
ReplyDeleteYes, seeing the results or effects of different instruction would be interesting. For many reasons, including the specialized knowledge teachers need, this might be difficult however. Right now, these examples help to show how some of the theory can be applied and it's a great step to take. Hearing these stories will hopefully inspire others to learn about the theory and how others use techniques to apply them. Next up is to actually test them in classroom settings through experimentation, which is another challenge.
DeleteI really liked the point you made about curricula flexibility from the reading. I was so busy focusing on the cool stuff the educators were doing, that I missed how they were adjusting and changing to the needs of the classroom. I suppose that is why we covered assessment before reading this chapter, because keeping track of what is actually going on in the classroom should influence how information is taught, not just what information is taught.
ReplyDeleteGood to know that the things we learned in 501 are being put to good use! :) Interviews are always challenging, both as an interviewer and interviewee. I'm curious to know what tips you learned about how to be an effective moderator during interviews. Care to share?
ReplyDeleteLike Kelly, I was also drawn to your statement about flexibility in the curriculum being critical to teachers' abilities to help students move beyond memorization and into a deeper understanding. Do you think that the current Common Core Standards prevent teachers from doing this? Or do you think they help because they provide guidelines for teachers who then have the ability to maneuver around the goals?
ReplyDeleteThe webinar you watched sounds really interesting! What was one of your main takeaways from the experience? I'm also curious if the lack of visual appeal prevented you from learning more? Was it distracting and/or confusing because of the slides? Or did it just make the experience more bland?