I am discussing problem-based learning in this edition of my blog. I will again be referring to the Egbert text Support Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice, 2009, published by Pearson Education.
Problem-based learning presents the student-explorers with real-world problems to investigate which will combine critical thinking and problem-solving skills with inquiry. The use of problem-based learning provides much opportunity for students to think critically about a topic and discover or invent potential solutions. This delivery model is excellent for the teacher who wishes students to be the driving force and the center of learning.
PBL situations need to be well designed to avoid too many problems at the same time. The teacher must also insure that scaffolding is present for those students who may lack the prior knowledge necessary to be successful. Without this scaffolding, students may become frustrated and less successful.
Egbert lists numerous characteristics for incorporating technology into the PBL task. Among them are: giving students control of their learning, fun and interesting topics for investigation, and the emphasis placed on process and content. She also discusses the problem-solving process and the development of PBL tasks.
Potential benefits to the students who are involved in PBL are great. For me, one of the biggest benefits to PBL is that students learn to become responsible for their learning and to exercise a level of autonomy in their work. Depth of knowledge and understanding is also enhanced in PBL.
I hope that you will undertake a task using the PBL methods described in Egbert's book.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Sunday, March 9, 2014
This week I will discuss critical thinking and problem-solving. Both are important aspects of a student's education and can be easily overlooked or put aside by teachers.
The ability to think critically is essential for everyday mankind; the path to critical thinking has many components. I many use different components than you and both of us can be critically thinking about the same issue. As a classroom teacher, teaching critical thinking to 7th grade students appears to be a lesson in herding cats. Sometimes I hit a home run, sometimes a grounder and reach on an error, but I am always thinking about how I can phrase my questions to require answers that are more than rote memory or regurgitation of facts.
Egbert, in Supporting Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice (2009), implores teachers to model critical thinking for students. She gives five ways that teachers can model for students: overtly and explicitly explain what they do and why they do it, encourage student to think for themselves, be willing to admit and correct their own mistakes, be sensitive to students' feelings, abilities, and goals and to what motivates them, and allow students to participate in democratic processes in the classroom.
When I do a demonstration during math class, I think aloud. My students hear the type of questions I ask myself as I am working through the problem. They see me encounter a roadblock, backtrack my steps, and then forge ahead. They see mistakes and are encouraged to correct my mistakes, many purposefully made. When I think of it, I give the student who reports the mistake a Pez (a tiny candy). Remember, it is scary for students to report an error made by the teacher. They must feel safe and confident of the reaction of their teacher. This is a learned activity.
The internet research is a perfect arena for teaching critical thinking. Analyzing the research, thinking about who wrote the article or website and their motivation in the writing of the same increases a student's own critical thinking ability and media literacy.
Learning to think critically will not happen overnight! Much practice is required of the fledgling critical thinker. I say to my fellow teacher -- don't give up on your students! Encourage, prompt, and help them develop this skill.
This blog has become lengthy and so I will leave a discussion of problem solving for another time. Perhaps I will get back here during the week, but grades are due this week and that is always a busy time for me.
The ability to think critically is essential for everyday mankind; the path to critical thinking has many components. I many use different components than you and both of us can be critically thinking about the same issue. As a classroom teacher, teaching critical thinking to 7th grade students appears to be a lesson in herding cats. Sometimes I hit a home run, sometimes a grounder and reach on an error, but I am always thinking about how I can phrase my questions to require answers that are more than rote memory or regurgitation of facts.
Egbert, in Supporting Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice (2009), implores teachers to model critical thinking for students. She gives five ways that teachers can model for students: overtly and explicitly explain what they do and why they do it, encourage student to think for themselves, be willing to admit and correct their own mistakes, be sensitive to students' feelings, abilities, and goals and to what motivates them, and allow students to participate in democratic processes in the classroom.
When I do a demonstration during math class, I think aloud. My students hear the type of questions I ask myself as I am working through the problem. They see me encounter a roadblock, backtrack my steps, and then forge ahead. They see mistakes and are encouraged to correct my mistakes, many purposefully made. When I think of it, I give the student who reports the mistake a Pez (a tiny candy). Remember, it is scary for students to report an error made by the teacher. They must feel safe and confident of the reaction of their teacher. This is a learned activity.
The internet research is a perfect arena for teaching critical thinking. Analyzing the research, thinking about who wrote the article or website and their motivation in the writing of the same increases a student's own critical thinking ability and media literacy.
Learning to think critically will not happen overnight! Much practice is required of the fledgling critical thinker. I say to my fellow teacher -- don't give up on your students! Encourage, prompt, and help them develop this skill.
This blog has become lengthy and so I will leave a discussion of problem solving for another time. Perhaps I will get back here during the week, but grades are due this week and that is always a busy time for me.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Things to consider in Planning an Online Class
The development of my hybrid or blended Social Studies class for 7th grade students is still a work in progress. I am certainly glad that I am planning this course for use next year. I will have the time to prefect the videos which I am making and locate additional supplemental materials. I also will be able to create graphic organizers to offer support to my students as they watching content-high videos.
Content-high tasks are common in face-to-face instruction and require little of the student. In Supporting Learning with Technology: Essential Classroom Practice, Egbert states that content-high tasks offer little support and are often left incomplete. Process-high tasks are another story. With process-high tasks require more of the student but still lacks the interpersonal qualities of a f2f meeting with the nonverbal feedback and cues. Egbert stress that eLearning tasks must be designed to incorporate opportunities for interaction.
I also found that the benefits from eLearning which Egbert delineates confirm mine, the novice.
I have always believed that when students have some control over their work they are more motivated to complete the task. Egbert takes the idea of control and adds the element of flexibility to it. So, not only do students have control of the task, but also of the pace and time they choose to complete the tasks.
Additional responsibility or the demonstration of responsibility is also greater in an online environment. Often during regular ff2f classroom instruction students are comfortable with allowing the teacher to assume responsibility for seeing that assignments are turned in a timely manner, often encouraging and cajoling students to do what is required; eLearning requires the student to be an active learner, not a passive receptacle.
Other areas Egbert discussed were exposure, interaction, anonymity/equity, and convenience. All had brief descriptions and were worthy of my consideration as I work through the preparation of my class.
This particular chapter is worth more than a once read and done! I will return to study, in more depth, Egbert's discussion of the portfolio as an assessment tool.
Content-high tasks are common in face-to-face instruction and require little of the student. In Supporting Learning with Technology: Essential Classroom Practice, Egbert states that content-high tasks offer little support and are often left incomplete. Process-high tasks are another story. With process-high tasks require more of the student but still lacks the interpersonal qualities of a f2f meeting with the nonverbal feedback and cues. Egbert stress that eLearning tasks must be designed to incorporate opportunities for interaction.
I also found that the benefits from eLearning which Egbert delineates confirm mine, the novice.
I have always believed that when students have some control over their work they are more motivated to complete the task. Egbert takes the idea of control and adds the element of flexibility to it. So, not only do students have control of the task, but also of the pace and time they choose to complete the tasks.
Additional responsibility or the demonstration of responsibility is also greater in an online environment. Often during regular ff2f classroom instruction students are comfortable with allowing the teacher to assume responsibility for seeing that assignments are turned in a timely manner, often encouraging and cajoling students to do what is required; eLearning requires the student to be an active learner, not a passive receptacle.
Other areas Egbert discussed were exposure, interaction, anonymity/equity, and convenience. All had brief descriptions and were worthy of my consideration as I work through the preparation of my class.
This particular chapter is worth more than a once read and done! I will return to study, in more depth, Egbert's discussion of the portfolio as an assessment tool.
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