What perspectives did the 3 new research articles offer?
How did they inform your study? How does this relate to your driving question? Students growing up in today’s world need a different set of skills than they did years ago. With a constantly changing world students need the skills to be able to adapt and keep up with the changes around them. As teachers, it is important to teach students skills that they can take with them in the future that will help them succeed no matter what comes their way. The idea that most jobs that these students are going to end up with in the future but they do not exist yet can be an overwhelming concept for teachers. What skills do my students need for the future? How can one teacher prepare students for a job that does not exist? One person who has done research on these ideas and on technology use in education is Robert Marzano. He has spent time doing research on the use of technology in classrooms along with different teaching strategies, like using interactive whiteboards. Besides Marzano, there are a few others,Conrad Wolfram and Nancye Blair who have done research on technology use in the classroom: These authors have spent time trying to find the answer on how to use technology effectively in the classroom and how to develop 21st century learners. Digital tools, like interactive whiteboards can be in integral part of a teachers teaching strategies. In his article about Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards, Robert Marzano talks about how the use of interactive whiteboards in classrooms is becoming the new normal. He did a study where he looked at the effects of using a whiteboard vs not using one in a classroom setting. The study results indicated that, in general, using interactive whiteboards was associated with a 16 percentile point gain in student achievement. (Marzano, 2009). But he also found that using an interactive whiteboard in class did not necessarily mean better achievement unless it was paired with good teaching strategies. Teachers needed to purposefully use the whiteboard along with good teaching strategies in order to maximize student achievement. Interactive whiteboards have great potential as a tool to enhance pedagogical practices in the classroom and ultimately improve student achievement. (Marzano, 2009). Technology, as Marzano realized, is an amazing tool to help prepare our students for the future and help them become 21st century learners. The goal of education today is to develop a 21st century learner with the following skills: critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. The new world of fast pace learning demands that students learn these skills if they want to succeed. For student performance to approximate student potential, students need access to a constantly evolving array of technological tools and activities that demand problem-solving, decision-making, teamwork, and innovation. (Blair, 2012). If the goal is for students to maximize their potential they need to be given different learning opportunities that challenge them. In his article, Blair talks about a vision for the future and that districts and schools must make “the needs of the new 21st century learner a priority.” He also talks about empowering teachers and having a shared vision for schools. He says we can do these things by creating “ a team of administrators, technology specialists, educators, parents, and students who can collaborate to create a shared vision for 21st century learning.” Teachers are not alone, it takes a village. Teaching in today’s world is difficult since changes often happen in content and skills needed for the future. Teaching strategies change all the time and the classroom environment also changes. How can teachers create an environment where students learn how to navigate technology? By providing learning opportunities for students to struggle through navigating new technologies we allow students time to grow and learn.
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Key ideas from the C-Content speakers:
John Seeley Brown video- The world is constantly changing and the skills needed to be successful in the future keep changing. Most skills may have a half-life of 5 years. Now learning is social and involves working together. Study groups are more important and Students ability to form study groups will help them in the future to succeed. There is no better way to learn then explain it to someone else- peer to peer learning and teaching. Sir Ken Robinson- "Innovation is hard, because it means doing something that people don't find very easy, for the most part. It means challenging what we take for granted, things that we think are obvious." This was a powerful and important quote. From this video I realized that we need to learn more about our students because learning is organic and not some mechanical process. There is no predicted outcome for each student and their future. We need to teach to the students who are in our classrooms. Daniel Pink video- This video was all about incentives and how reward systems may not always work. What can help students is a desire to do things because they matter, not for a reward.T hey are interesting or students like them, not just because someone will give them something. Also rewards can destroy creativity. Mobley's 6 insights: 1. “First, traditional teaching methodologies like reading, lecturing, testing, and memorization are worse than useless. " - WOW. I think that sums up most people's feelings on this first insight. 2. "Mobley’s second discovery is that becoming creative is an unlearning rather than a learning process." -Being creative requires being uncomfortable at first since it's not what we are used to. This means we have to sort of unlearn what we know in order to allow our creativity to come through. 3. "Third, Mobley realized that we don’t learn to be creative. We must become creative people." 4. "Mobley’s fourth insight is that the fastest way to become creative is to hang around with creative people." -We can learn faster when the environment around us supports that learning. 5. "Fifth, creativity is highly correlated with self-knowledge." 6. "Finally Mobley gave his students permission to be wrong. " - I would have to say this is my favorite insight. I believe that we MUST allow our students to be wrong, possibly even celebrate being wrong. You learn more from being wrong over and over. Background and Need:
Over the years, the way that teachers ran their classroom has changed. Some classrooms used to only have one computer that would be used for the class, which is different than today where every student has a device. People started to see the use of technology in the classroom and how valuable it could be. Today, classrooms are run using technology and most schools across the United States run this way. In California many school districts are focused on teaching students technological skills and 21st century skills to prepare their students for when they graduate. The 21st century learners need to think and solve problems, communicate, collaborate, create and innovate to prepare them for the 21st century workforce. (Sheikh, 2016) Schools try to focus on developing students who can adapt to anything. Students will hopefully leave 12th grade ready to face the world. Every school is different and has a different population of students. The middle school in this study is an International Baccalaureate school. Being at an IB school, there is a focus on teaching different skills, called criteria, through the content. IB is about developing students who are inquirers and caring, open minded and knowledgeable, and helping develop lifelong learners. IB focuses on 10 character traits that we want to see our students have: knowledgeable, open-minded, inquirer, caring, risk taker, reflective, principled, communicator, thinker, and balanced. These character traits embody being a 21st century learner and being a problem solver. Part of being a teacher is being able to meet all the needs of your students which can be difficult. Having a diverse population of students can make this task seem impossible. There are also many factors involved in a student’s life that influences their ability to learn and succeed. Factors such as learning disabilities, language barriers, parent education, a student’s health, the list goes on. Looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, one can see that if a students basic needs are not met then it’s hard to meet their other needs. An educator’s responsibility is to work past all of those factors and be able to give their students a safe learning environment where they feel valued and want to learn. How can teachers meet the needs of every single student? From the student with an IEP to the student who speaks no English, to the smartest student in the room, and the student who doesn’t believe in themselves, how can teachers meet all their needs at the same time? They can begin to help all these students by having a classroom that is based on 21st century skills, a classroom that allows for collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity. Teachers can allow students to demonstrate what they know in a variety of ways, not just taking a test. They can provide students with an opportunity to collaborate with others while they are learning to reinforce ideas that they have about the content. Teachers can give students chances to bring their creativity to the classroom to show what they know and help others learn as well. Finally, they can help students learn how to communicate in a low stress way and problem solve together with other students. All of these things can be taught using technology. Teachers need their students to be ready for the world outside of school which is always changing. To be able to teach effectively for the 21st century, teachers need to be receptive of the changes rapidly occurring around them. (Sheikh, 2016). Teachers must accept the changes and implement strategies to help their students succeed. Blog: Who are the seminal people researching in the area of your driving question? What are they known for? What are the big ideas? Tell us about the state-of-the-art knowledge related to your question.
During my research on my essential question: "How can I bridge the student achievement gap of socioeconomically disadvantaged students using technology?" I have found that there are many people who are involved in researching different parts of that question. If you break down my question it really involves many different parts. First there is the part about bridging the achievement gap, then we add in socioeconomically disadvantaged students and lastly the use of technology is also in there. Each of these areas has different people who have been doing research. One person that most people know is John Hattie. He has done research on the effects of poverty and education and also about socioeconomically disadvantaged students. From an article I was looking at about Hattie and his research, " socioeconomic status has .57 effect on learning, which means it can have a profound impact on learning." This is huge and sad, which is why I decided to make my research about it. Hattie also found that, "the higher the poverty rate, the harder it is to adequately meet the needs of students." I am hoping that with my research in bridging the gap, I can find ways to use technology that will meet the needs of all of my students. Darling-Hammond laid out her policy prescriptions in the closing chapter of Flat World Education. She organized them into five key elements:
1. Meaningful learning goals- Having a learning goal is something that is super important so that students can understand where they are heading during class. When that goal is something that is meaningful and important to students it can change their whole outlook. I think that if we focus on just coming up with a learning goal because its a state standard or for some other reason but forget to make it interesting to the kids then we are setting our lessons up for failure. 2. Intelligent, reciprocal accountability systems- Everyone needs to be held accountable, students and teachers included. It's not to say that no one is to be trusted but having some accountability is important to help keep everyone on track. 3. Equitable and adequate resources- Having enough science resources is something I actually talked about in a previous blog of mine. Sometimes in science we do not have the resources neccessary to do every type of Lab or activity that needs to be done. In that case, technology can bridge that gap. However not everyone is making up for the lack of classroom resources. I think making sure that we have not only adequate resources but equitable as well is very important. 4. Strong Professional Standards and Supports- It's obviously important to have standards that you need to follow and support. 5. Schools organized for student and teacher learning- Student centered activities are some of the best activities I have used in class. Activities that are focused on what the students are doing instead of the teacher talking the whole time. Each of these policy prescriptions are laid out to create change in education. I believe that with focus on these things, and 21st century learning, we can move towards change. |
Krista LoperHarvest Middle School Archives
May 2020
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