Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Out-Of-School Learning

How can teachers use ideas from research on out-of-school learning to improve their instruction? Here are a few suggestions from research pulled from several articles (identified by author) from Module 6 of CEP 800.

Museums excel at presenting examples, allowing learners to connect concepts with real life. Brown, Collins & Duguid compared the method of teaching children vocabulary out of a dictionary vs. the way vocabulary is normally learned outside school. Just like words, a lot of content that is taught in schools is content-dependant. Teachers should be responsible for teaching students how to apply what they’re learning (through examples and activities in the classroom) to real life.

As Crowley & Jacobs state in their article, much of learning is highly planned and intentional but much of it can be driven by opportunistic “noticing” on the part of the learner. Although Crowley & Jacobs focus on this type of learning occurring at home between children and parents, the same type of “noticing” can occur through problems solving with the application on concepts to real life examples in the classroom.

According to Semper, the learning experience that occurs in museums often occurs within a social context. Social construction occurs when there is a great deal of nurturing interaction with other human begins. “Peer interaction in learning can be an important support for education, and it is one that formal schooling often mitigates against.” (pg. 3) Perhaps, based on the learning success that occurs within museums, teachers will follow the lead of allowing more interaction.

Resnick also emphasizes the importance of collaboration in learning. The dominant form of school learning and performance is individual, students are ultimately judged on what they can do by themselves. However, much activity outside school is socially shared. Each person’s ability to function successfully depends on how their mental and physical performances mesh with others. Even just these three articles, we see a good amount of professional work that encourages problem solving through application of content in example work among students learning in schools.

Other lessons to be learned from the Semper article would be to incorporate intrinsic factors into lesson plans & content that will strike curiosity. Curriculum should also address different learning styles. “Exhibits often use interesting kinetic experiences, play on words, spatial relationships and interesting sounds as well as text and images. Because of this richness, museums and exhibits have the opportunity to connect with many different learning modes that people use.” (pg. 5)

We can also draw a quick piece of advice from something that Frank Oppenheimer (founding director of the Exploratorium) once said, “No one ever flunked a museum.” Museum goers don’t take tests or receive grades. Not to say we should throw away the grade books, but we can piece this with what we learned in Module 2 on behaviorism and reinforcements. Success generates more success. Accomplishment itself functions as effective reinforcement, where on the other hand, failure generates more failure. By keeping tasks at the correct level of difficulty, success is more likely to occur and will generate more success.

Sources:

1) "Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning," by John Seely Brown, Allan Collins & Paul Duguid

2) "Building Islands of Expertise in Everyday Family Activity," by Kevin Crowley & Melanie Jacobs

3) "Science Museums as Environments for Learning," by Robert J. Semper

4) "Learning In School and Out," by Lauren B. Resnick

K. Reedal - Piaget Theory Article Review

“Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory in Mathematics Education” is a paper written by Kristin E. Reedal of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Ripon College. She gives a thorough introduction to Piaget, his theory and it’s stages. She also applies Piaget’s theory to the learning in mathematics and questions his theory based on some criticisms.

She gives weaknesses of his theory based on the opinions of critics that feel his contributions rely on observations without scientific support. They also say Piaget has failed to offer a complete description of a child’s stages and why. He just labels each stage with an age group only which indicates that the stages could be misapplied. She questions based on these criticisms whether we are pushing students in our educational system through this developmental process too quickly.

Reedal leaves out many criticisms of Piaget’s theory that could be helpful to her question and how students actually fit into the developmental process. Piaget studied only his three children and a small sample of children of well-educated professionals of high socio-economic status, so his finding don’t properly represent an entire population, which may or may not include the development of the math students that Reedal is discussing. Piaget also argues that children will automatically move to the next stage of development as they mature. Reedal does mention that Piaget believed that the amount of time each child spends in each stage of development will vary based on the individual but neither take into account or discuss developmental factors such as environmental factors or capital or cultural class. So while Piaget may have oversimplified the developmental process, Reedal doesn’t go into much depth on it either.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Student Understanding Podcast


How do factors like perspective and experience affect student understanding? Let's find out by asking two high school alumni who sit on opposite sides of the fence what justice means to them.

Listen to the podcast here.



Saturday, March 6, 2010

TechQuest Project Evaluation

E2020 was an appropriate solution for credit remediation but it doesn't directly address summer learning loss. Next time, I'd like to focus on a tool that addresses the specific problem mentioned as directly as possible. And because I am outside of the classroom, it may be wise to focus on a problem that I can actually address. For instance, look into school programs outside of a school district (ex. the Boys & Girls Clubs) that are open to help in research and in bettering what they offer to students and youth. It was a challenge to examine how effective the tool works when I could not witness it being implemented first hand.

Researching technology tools that can be applied to educational problems is a great way to come up with new solutions to existing problems. It is also just a great way for educators to discover new technologies. Anyone interested in bettering our educational system would benefit not only from finding solutions to problems but also by expanding their own knowledge of what is available for help.

In consideration of low income students and communities, I wanted to focus on free software but instead went with advice to research E2020. E2020 does not offer free access and may limit equal opportunities among school districts. There are also system requirements that may be limiting to those with outdated equipment.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Project Implementation



Summer learning loss is the loss of academic skills and knowledge over summer vacation. Studies show specific amounts of loss (usually measured in months of achievement) in specific grade levels and content areas.

Information that should be retained over summer vacation is vital prerequisite material to future courses. When it occurs, summer learning loss becomes a contributing factor to course failure.

As a solution, school are implementing Education 2020 as an opportunity for credit recovery.

Education 2020 case studies show that a significant number of schools utilizing Education 2020 as the core curriculum have solidly outperformed other schools.

Sources:

Monday, February 15, 2010

Internet Research for TechQuest Project

This TechQuest project will implement either E2020 (Education 2020) or Plato as a solution to summer learning loss.

E2020 is a provider of online instruction for students in grades 6 - 12. It provides 24/7 access from anywhere with an internet connection, allowing students to work with course materials over the summer. E2020's main focus is to help students graduate from high school, where summer learning loss occurs (in elementary and secondary institutions.)

At Summit High School, in Mason, MI, many students are behind in credits and Education 2020 is helping the catch up. The main goal here is to help students graduate on time & there is an 83% passing rate at Summit High School for e2020, which is very successful.

I wanted to find a source that examines the impact that summer learning loss has on the likelihood of a student's chance at graduation. This would make it easier to link the focus of e2020 (increase graduation rates) to summer learning loss. I found a website that explores how early and sustained summer learning opportunities lead to higher graduation rates at Reading Rocket's website.

When I searched summer learning loss and high school graduation rates, I found that Los Lunas School District published a success story of the impact that e2020 had on it's students. The article states "As Los Lunas Schools continues to expand it's use of Education 2020, the stories of the achievements of its students will continue to grow as will the potential for their future success." Hopefully e2020 would have the same impact when implemented for my TechQuest project.

In Warren, MI, Warren Consolidated School District has included e2020 in it's technology plan under the goal of developing 'State of the Art' curriculum and instructional programs and practices that will ensure all students become successful, involved, and contributing citizens. I would like to look further into the implementation of e2020 within Warren Consolidated School District and other local school districts.

When searching on www.mel.org's Educators Reference Complete - both terms e2020 and Education 2020 brought back 6 news articles on donepezil hydrochloride (also refered to as e2020) and only 2 articles on licensing of the educational program in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties 2001. Because E2020 is also the name os a drug, it makes research difficult in that many sources that come back are not Education 2020.

For that reason, I've also looked briefly into Plato. Plato is an online learning tool that offers solutions to wider groups including elementary, secondary, district and post-secondary.

Sources for E2020

Sources for Plato

Monday, January 25, 2010

Ideas for TechQuest

Summer learning loss is the loss of academic skills and knowledge over summer vacation. Studies show specific amount of loss (usually measures in months of achievement) in specific grade levels and content areas with contributing factors such as income.

For that reason, I also wish to incorporate the emerging technology gap which focuses on the advantages/disadvantages of students who do/do not have regular access to digital tools and the Web at home. Therefore, I would ideally like my tool to be low cost and accessible by all students.

Affordable online games can be used in the homes of K-12 students over summer vacation to help obtain the knowledge and skills that they work with during the school year. This way, there are less drops in standardized test scores and teachers are required to spend less time playing "catch up" at the beginning of each school year.

During this course (CEP 812 - Spring 2010) I will research and determine the best tools and implementation strategies that will make for an effective remedy for summer learning loss and this project will be testing/implemented in K-12 homes during the summer vacation following the 2009-2010 school year.