#AEE412 Weekly Investment: The Problem Solving Approach

Can someone say autonomy and purpose???

When I read about Project Based Learning and the Problem Solving Approach this week, the first thing that came to mind was the book I read over the summer - Drive by Daniel Pink. Problem solving is a perfect instructional method to foster autonomy and purpose in your classroom. Students find purpose in solving a real-world problem - especially one that is relevant to their lives. This is another area where SAE projects come in real handy and provide you with a bank of real-life problems! Problem Solving and Project Based Learning are very student centered methods of instruction, so it's important for teachers to structure them as such! In addition to students determining what they need to know to be able to solve the problem, they should also be able to choose how they present their findings, for example.

Don't forget Reflection!

Larmer &  Mergendoller (2010) states that Project Based Learning includes processes for feedback, revision, and reflection. You can have a super interesting problem based lesson, but without reflection/feedback, students will have a harder time retaining what they learned. Not only should the teacher provide feedback, but I think it is important for students to provide feedback to their peers as well. Providing feedback to a peer in your group can be anxiety-inducing (at least from my experience in high school) so make sure students can provide feedback anonymously. Promoting student reflection is also important. How will they learn to apply their new skills/knowledge in other situations if they don't reflect on what they did in class? This reflection could be in the form of a notebook, blog, etc. Reflecting will also be more beneficial if it is done a various stages throughout the problem solving process (could be in the form of a ticket out).

Phipps et al. (2008), states that if teachers are going to be successful using the problem solving approach they must philosophically believe that problem solving is an effective teaching method, and then goes on to say that planning and practice are necessary to mastering this teaching method. Well, I believe in this method philosophically, so I guess it's time to practice.

References:

Phipps, L.J., Osborn, E.W., Dyer, J.E., & Ball, A.L. (2008) Handbook on agricultural education in public schools, 1st Edition. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Kirkley, J. (2003). Principles for teaching problem solving. Retrieved from
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.117.8503&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Larmer, J. & Mergendoller, J.R. (2010). The main course, not dessert: How are students reaching 21st century goals? With 21stcentury project based learning. Retrieved from http://bie.org/object/document/main_course_not_dessert

Larmer, J. & Mergendoller, J.R. (2010). 8 essentials for project-based learning. Retrieved from http://www.sbcss.k12.ca.us/attachments/article/1058/8_Essentials_article_small_file_size_Oct2012version.pdf

#AEE412 Weekly Investment 3

Objectives are CRUCIAL.

Objectives (along with assessments) are the guiding force of instruction. Newcomb et al. states, "in writing instructional objectives, teachers make definite decisions about the content of the problem area. The force themselves to establish parameters that in turn help define and limit the scope and content of the problem area. ... they provide a basis for evaluation" (pg. 91). We learned this week that your objectives and your unit assessments should influence each other. This makes sense because like I said in last week's blog post - begin with the end in mind and everything needs to connect. I found it interesting to learn about the three domains of learning that objectives can fall into.

1. Cognitive - objectives that deal with the acquisition of facts, knowledge, information, or concepts.
2. Psychomotor - objectives that deal with using the mind in combination with motor skills.
3. Affective - objectives that have to do with attitudes, values, aesthetics, and appreciation.

I had never heard of affective objectives before, and found it to be a very interesting concept. My methods book (Newcomb et al., 2004) stated that the most difficult area of objectives to include are affective. I believe this, but after reading some examples and learning what they are I would argue that they, too, are very important to include. I think one of the main purposes of education is to grow up leaders and people with good morals and values, so including affective objectives is one way to work on this. I can definitely see myself including some affective objectives into the Biotechnology & Food Science class that I get to teach in the spring!

Interest Approach - Say What?!

Before this fall, I was always confused about what an interest approach was and why they were important. Over the past couple of weeks I've begun to get a better sense about what interest approaches are all about. Newcomb et al. discusses a variety of ways to go about creating a desire in students to know more about a topic. I think that developing interest approaches based on students' SAE projects is a neat idea. If students can personally connect with the interest approach the WHY of the lesson will be so much clearer.

However, in a research article I found concerning interest approaches in Agricultural Education, the researchers found that the use of an interest approach at the beginning of a lesson had no effect on the students knowledge/learning or student attitudes. But, the data did show that student engagement increased with the use of an interest approach. They did state that more data needs to be collected to further analyze the results of the study. I would be interested to hear what other ag teachers think about interest approaches!

References:

Johnston, T. L., Roberts, T. G. (2011). The Effect of an Interest Approach on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Engagement of High School Agricultural Science Students. Journal of Agricultural Education, 52(1), 143-154. Retrieved from http://www.jae-online.org/attachments/article/1537/52.1.143.Johnston.pdf 

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of Teaching Agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

  

#AEE412 Weekly Investment 2: Designing and Planning Instruction

Maximizing learning and planning instruction. Planning instruction was (and still kind of is) daunting to think about. But, after gaining some new insight through the readings this week, I think I'm beginning to get a better understanding of how these unit plans, assessments, and lesson plans are supposed to fit together. Here are some major takeaways!

You have to know where you want to end up if you want to develop an effective plan to get there. I believe this thought is essential to effectively planning instruction. This ensures that everything you are teaching in your class aligns together and thus promotes deeper learning for students. So before you start planning your first Soil Science class you need to stop and think, "What do I want my students to be able to do by the end of this class/unit?" Realizing this was very helpful because the other day I was staring at my computer at a loss of how to begin writing my first lesson plan for student teaching. According to the framework by Mctighe et al., first start by identifying desired results, then determine assessment evidence, and finally plan learning experiences and instruction. I really appreciated that the framework takes the time to discuss different types of assessment - performance tasks and other evidence such as traditional tests and quizzes. While I think there is a time and a place for both types, the most important thing is to make sure that everything aligns and nothing is slipping through the cracks. Now, I'm quite excited to try out what I've learned on the unit/lesson plans I'll be writing in the coming weeks!

I know I briefly mentioned this above, but this was a really important area of discussion in all of our readings for this week. When I was in high school, I never really took much thought into why we learned things in the order in which we learned them. All I knew is when I was learning and when I was completely lost/bored. But now as I'm working on writing unit plans, lesson plans, and assessments for my student teaching experience, my mind is a little overwhelmed. There are so many ways we must look for alignment and connection. Whether it's making sure the scaffolding is actually building up towards a specific skill to making sure the assessment is evaluating what we actually taught. But as Reardon et al. state in Strategies for Great Teaching, "Learning happens when brains are connecting in meaningful ways with the subject matter. It occurs when learners make patterns based on existing schema as they seek to understand new content".

References:

Fink, L.D. (2003) A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Retrieved from http://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

Mctighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (2012). Understanding by design framework. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Reardon, M. & Derner, S. (2004) Strategies for great teaching. Chicago, Illinois: Zephyr Press

West Virginia University, (2010.). Bloom’s taxonomy. Retrieved from http://community.wvu.edu/~lsmong/Articulate%20Blooms%20Wheel/blooms_wheel.html