TechGrads - Summary and Research by Rachel Mallory

1. Summary

This week, our team discussed a variety of instructional strategies including:

-Tiering assignments

-Independent learning for G/T students

-Creating opportunities for rigor

-Think Pair Share

-E-Word Walls

-Graphic Organizers

-KWL

-Jigsaw

The second question discussed brought up some interesting points about situations that where implementing these research-based strategies may fail. Often, as educators, we learn a new strategy in professional development and are eager to try it out on our students. As wonderful as they sound in an adult learning environment, they don’t always translate to the classroom, because not every classroom is identical.

2. Research

These thoughts led me to research why instructional strategies may sometimes fail.

1. In this report on failing schools, the author completed a comprehensive study of many different types of schools and the interventions they were trying to implement. He discovered “among the 17 intervention types reviewed, there was no specific strategy that resulted in compelling evidence that it is superior to other interventions in terms of effectiveness” (Brady 2003).

Brady, R. The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, (2003). Can failing schools be fixed?. Retrieved from website: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED498798

2. This article examines “scientifically-based” reading intervention programs and recommends how to spot ineffective ones. She outlines the difference between ineffective reading strategies (such as use of memorization, picture cues, and contextual guessing for teaching word recognition), and the types of methods that mark a successful reading program, such as “support reading comprehension by focusing on a deep understanding of topic and theme rather than just a set of strategies and gimmicks” (Moats, 2007).

Moats, L. (2007). Whole-language high jinks: How to tell when "scientifically-based reading instruction" isn't . Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED498005

3. This article examines Chicago public schools and how strategies that exhibit coherence produce the best and most consistent results. With so many different school improvement strategies in place, educators and decisionmakers want to know what the best methods are. Unfortunately, as we have discovered, there is no magic formula. If there was, there would not be an education crisis in America.

Newmann, F., Smith, B., Allensworth, E., & Bryk, A. Consortium on Chicago School Research, (2001). School instructional program coherence: Benefits and challenges. improving chicago's schools. Retrieved from website: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED451305

3. Recommendation

I recommend scanning the first report, available at http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED498798

The report refers to No Child Left Behind often and the implications of this research on failing schools and interventions. When this report was published, over 4 million children were attending over 8,000 failing public schools in America.

4. Questions to consider

What interventions have you seen work first-hand? Which ones have failed?

What do you think about the importance of consistency in implementation?

Team Education 2.0 Research - Natalie Price

Team education 2.0 Research – Week 3:  Group Discussion:  Research Summary

Questions:

1.  Suggest a minimum of 3 instructional methods which might motivate the learners to learn. 

2.  From your personal experience, share an undesirable incident which good methods (tools) had been applied to the inappropriate situations.  What would you propose to do to redirect the specific situation you mentioned above to make learning easier, quicker, and more enjoyable?

Team Response Summary:

Our team discussed different types of instructional methods which might motivate learners to learn.  Adelina talked about interactive method of teaching where the teacher initiated the discussion and then the students discussed amongst themselves  Omatseys(2007).  She also talked about role play and computer assisted instruction.  Adelina describes an article by Cain and Pitre (2008), about how CAI improves students’ cognitive growth through the use of interactive media.  Katie then talks about how multimedia is used in the design method to enhance cognitive learning.  Katie’s article by Mayer (2003) goes on to tell us about the instructional techniques that injected multimedia showed higher level of comprehension.  Katie’s breakdown of Bloom domains was very interesting.  Katie then breaks down affective learning and physical and motor learning.  How does emotion and feeling play a part in learning?  This concept is about the mindset of a learner.  So a self-learner has the motivation to acquire knowledge.   We agreed with Katie’s article by Darden (1997), where teachers feel that demonstrators have to be an expert or perfect model.  We agree that student can learn and retain knowledge when they physical participate in their learning.  Role play, classroom games and discussions engage the learners.  Nick discusses cooperative groups are great to use in the classroom in a variety of ways.  Everyone believes that students should learn by interacting with each other.  Nick and Adelina talk about giving students choices in facilitating their learning.  Nick also touches on role playing also.

Our team talked about undesirable incidents in the classroom and good methods that might help.  Both Nick and Adelina talked about giving students choices in the classroom.  Adelina talked about letting students choose who would be in their group to complete an assignment. This method was not good for this situation because you may not get the balance results of learning.  This is a situation where the teachers has to help facilitate the choosing of who is in a group to get a balance for discussions and production of work.   In Nick’s situation a giving students a choice may be a great idea because as Hammel (2003) says to give students choices to increase their enjoyment and success.  Some students may not take very good and may need another way to get the information.  Katie talks about assessment vs funding.  We teach students how to pass test because of the funding attached.

Additional Research:

Our group discussed different instructional methods and some of them had the same methods, just stated differently.  As I researched I found a couple of different articles about instructional methods.  I think the follow webpage shows us different methods to use with different types of learners and different learning scenarios:  http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods/resource/5810.html. 

In my research I found this article,  MODELING SECONDARY INSTRUCTIONAL

STRATEGIES IN A TEACHER EDUCATION CLASS, Watson (2009), they do not just list instructional methods, it also gives some scenarios and it deal with diverse learning situations.  I believe this can help us improve some of our use of instructional methods and some of the problems we may have.

References:

Cain, D. L., & Pitre, P. E. (2008). The Effect of Computer Mediated Conferencing and Computer Assisted Instruction on Student Learning Outcomes. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 12(3-4), 31-52.

Darden , G. F. (1997). Demonstrating motor skills - rethinking that expert demonstration. The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 68(6), 31-35.

Hammel, A. M. (2003, October/November). Using Multi-Modal Techniques to Motivate Intuitive and Non-Intuitive Students. American Music Teacher, 53, 33+. Retrieved February 14, 2012, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002555514

Mayer, R. E. (2003). The promise of multimedia learning: using the same instructional design methods across different media. Learning and instruction, 13, 125-139. doi: 10.1016/S0959-4752(02)00016-6.

Watson, S. (2009).  MODELING SECONDARY INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES IN A TEACHER EDUCATION CLASS.  Education, Fall2009, Vol. 130 Issue 1, p3-15, 13p.

Omatseye, Bridget O. J.(2007). The Discussion Teaching Method: An Interactive Strategy In Tertiary Learning.

 :  http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods/resource/5810.html

My questions for the team:

1.  Would you use same instructional methods for ALL of your students?

2.  What are other ways teachers can learn to use instructional methods?

Tech Minds - Becky Navarro (Summary & Research)

1.       Summary

Our team was able to identify many instructional methods.  Kimber pointed out direct, indirect, computer-assisted, interactive, and differentiated instruction as methods that can help learners.  Merriam focused on instructional delivery, learning styles, and explicit and systematic instruction, visual representations, and peer tutoring as techniques to help our student learn easier.  When delivering instructions it is important to pay close attention to pacing, providing adequate time to process information, give feedback, and observe students’ responses. Lauren was able to compile a list of hands-on, differentiated, and dramatic play activities.  From small group discussions to spelling contests, varieties of methods were provided to motivate learners. 

My team members described situations where they believed they had applied the proper instructional methods and had not gotten the result they were expecting.  What they all agreed was that most of the times teaching is a trial and error experience in which instruction needs to be modified based on students learning styles and capabilities, environment, teacher, and other components that might lead to distractions or lack of enthusiasm.

After reading module 1 material and my peer’s input, it made me wonder if learning styles have a connection with different subjects.  For example, if visual learners are better dealing with numbers (math) and maybe auditory learners are better in reading.

2.       Articles

Authors of this article conducted research among 105 community college students to show if there is a connection between academic performance and student’s learning style preferences.  Results demonstrate students achieve academic goals when instructional methods match learning styles, however, it was found that students are able to adapt or change their learning styles based on subjects.  For example, students prefer to learn science using an experimentation instructional method.  For this reason, it is important for student to recognize their learning preferences.

Jones, C., Reichard, C., & Mokhtari, K. (2003).  Are students’ learning styles discipline specific?  Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 27: 363–375.  Retrieved from http://metawiki-onlinelearning-brockport.pbworks.com/f/jonesetal.pdf

This article describes the learning styles objectives as a way to improve teaching and learning experience.  Three challenges are also uncovered – 1) the confusion of many definitions used when identifying learning styles concept, 2) weak consideration of results, and 3) the lack of identification of characteristics of such learning styles.

Curry, L. (1990). A critique of the research on learning styles.  Educational Leadership, 50-56.  Retrieved from http://12.4.125.3/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_199010_curry.pdf.

This paper is a summary of “Language Learning Styles and Strategies” book that describes two variables as styles (approaches) and strategies (behaviors) used by learners when they are trying to learn a language.   Learning styles represent student’s sensory preferences, personalities, and biological capabilities.  Strategies are defined as the steps or techniques students take to increase learning.    When students are able to choose strategies fitting their styles they will gain the best learning outcome.  Four aspects of learning style are discussed.  Effective strategies are those that are relevant to the task, fit the student’s learning style, and the students know how to utilize strategy and maybe combine with other good strategies.  It is why it is important for teachers to educate students about styles and strategies. 

Oxford, R. L. (2003).  Language learning styles and strategies: an overview.  Retrieved from http://web.ntpu.edu.tw/~language/workshop/read2.pdf

3.      Recommendation

I recommend “Are students’ learning styles discipline specific?” because it describes Kolb learning styles model.   This model is a four stage learning cycle which follows a learning process through experience (feeling), reflective observation (watching), think, and then act (doing).  Interesting results demonstrate that students least prefer to use experimentation method when learning English and social studies, but do prefer this method when learning science.  This article gives readers an understanding of how learning styles will determine what strategies to use.

 http://metawiki-onlinelearning-brockport.pbworks.com/f/jonesetal.pdf

4.     Questions

Do you take time to identify your students learning styles initially when the semester or school year starts?  If you do, do you normally follow a survey type assessment or what type of assessment do you conduct to get to know your student’s learning style?  Do you believe it is our responsibility as educators to train our students “how to learn”?

Education 2.0 - Nick Goodson - Week 3

1. Suggest a minimum of 3 instructional methods which might motivate the learners to learn. Use references to support your statement.

"Students who participate in cooperative, multi-modal experiences can form new bonds of friendship and learn more about relative strengths of peers and teachers." (Hammel, 2003)  Students should work together in a variety of ways to learn.  Cooperative group work is a can improve successful learning in the classroom.  Also, you can offer students choice when it comes to how they learn.  Offer an activity that can be done in a variety of ways and allow students the ability to choose how they accomplish the task  (Hammel, 2003).  "Active Learning Physical movement can be an effective cognitive motivation strategy to strengthen learning, improve memory retrieval, and enhance learners' confidence" (Hileman, 2006).  Plan activities that involve students moving.  Perhaps having students divide themselves into groups and move to different stations around the rooms.  Another method might be to allow students to act out or role play scenes to show what you're talking about in class. 

 

2. From your personal experience, share an undesirable incident which the good methods (tools) had been applied to the inappropriate situations (No references are required). What would you propose to do to redirect the specific situation you mentioned above to make learning easier, quicker, and more enjoyable? Please provide references to support your statement.

I teach History so my students take notes in class about important events.  I have students who will sometimes refuse to do those notes.  Hammel (2003) said to give students choice to increase their enjoyment and their success.  What I could do is offer students a number of ways to get the information.  Perhaps creating a wiki about an event or designing their own graphic organizer. 

Hammel, A. M. (2003, October/November). Using Multi-Modal Techniques to Motivate Intuitive and Non-Intuitive Students. American Music Teacher, 53, 33+. Retrieved February 14, 2012, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002555514

Hileman, S. (2006). Motivating Students Using Brain-based Teaching Strategies. The Agricultural Education Magazine, 78(4), 18+. Retrieved February 14, 2012, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5044801110

Team Education 2.0 (Week3) Kinds of Learning

1. Suggest a minimum of 3 instructional methods which might motivate the learners to learn. Use references to support your statement.

a) Interactive Method of Teaching.

Omatseys(2007), described interactive method of teaching as teaching style where the teacher communicates the information or initiate a discussion and then, the information or idea is shared amongst students through discussion. Interactive instruction provides students with the opportunity to connect with the curriculum and an opportunity for open discussion. Interactive method of teaching stimulates students’ imagination ability, help students with conceptual thinking, allow students to give logic reasons during discussion, improve students social skills and increase students participation in class.

b) Role Play 

Role play; is a method of teaching where students briefly act out a problem or situation to identify with the characters involved in lesson, topic, or a material. This method is commonly used in Language Arts class and Social Studies. Role play can also be used with students from Pre-K-12 and even at higher educational institutions. Clapper (2007), states that, ”one way to stimulate student to be engulfed in the teaching and learning process  is the use of role play”.

Students construct their own learning. Role play enhances critical thinking skills, students are actively involve in the lesson giving them an opportunity to interact with peers which intend improve on their social skills. Role play provides students with appropriate developmental skills that would be needed in future through incorporating realistic or real world problems.

c) Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI)

Computer assisted instruction is a teaching method where computer is used as a medium to present instruction or teaching or where learning is computer based. According to Cain and Pitre (2008), CAI improves on students cognitive growth through the use of interactive media. They continued to say that, CAI increases students’ cognitive domain as well as higher order thinking skills. Research also shows that, when students use computers for word processing, searching information on the internet, and analyze quantitative information, it results is significant gains in writing thinking skills.

d) Peer Tutoring 

This is an instructional strategy where by students are paired to learn or perform an academic task. Students can be paired based on same ability or difference in ability, same age or different ages and gender. Smith (2007) sees some benefits of peer tutoring as; nurturing students social interaction, building their social skills, allowing for flexibility and also for the teacher, focusing on curricular areas.

Peer tutoring brings into light the leadership qualities in students.

Reference

Cain, D. L., & Pitre, P. E. (2008). The Effect of Computer Mediated Conferencing and Computer Assisted Instruction on Student Learning Outcomes. Journal Of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 12(3-4), 31-52.

Clapper, T. C. (2010). Role Play and Simulation. Education Digest, 75(8), 39-43.

Omatseye, Bridget O. J.(2007). The Discussion Teaching Method: An Interactive 

Strategy In Tertiary Learning.

Smith, B. (2007). Inspiring Students with Peer Tutoring. Learning & Leading With 

Technology, 34(4), 18-19,.

1. From your personal experience, share an undesirable incident which the good methods (tools) had been applied to the inappropriate situations (No references are required).

 I used flexible grouping to assign a project to my students to “create a timeline demonstrating different historical eras in U.S History”. The mistake I made was to ask  students to form their own groups. The product of the projects clearly revealed the difference in abilities in the class.

1. What would you propose to do to redirect the specific situation you mentioned above to make learning easier, quicker, and more enjoyable? Please provide references to support your statement.

The situation would be redirected by making use of heterogeneous grouping. Hartman, Sikes and Strahan (2002) confirms that, “heterogeneous grouping in the classroom provide students with low-abilities greater learning opportunities without being detrimental to higher performing students”.

Reference

Hartman, K. Sikes, S. & Strahan, D. (2002). North Carolina Middle School Association Research Bulletin, Heterogeneous Grouping

http://www.ncmsa.net/heterogr.htm

TechGrads - Stephanie Godare

1. 

A.Tiering Assignments - Instead of every student starting out the assignment on the same level, this type of differentiated instruction encourages each student to start from a level that will be most engaging. For example, a basic recall assignment might be changing enough for one student, but might be boring to a gifted student. A teacher could tier the assignment where the gifted student could start with the critical thinking/problem solving skills instead of focusing on the recall of how to use fractions. 

B. Independent Learning - Students enjoy lessons and assignments that draw from their interests. A student can chose a topic within the theme that they wish to explore. When they have free time in between assignments, students can work on their independent activity using the classroom computers. This is a great way to "provide enrichment activities to the gifted students" (Winebrenner 2001).


C. Create a base of rigorous learning opportunities - "When teachers connect the real world to the classroom, students are more interested in the lesson" (Tomlinson & Javius 2012). It also helps the student understand their own lives. Teachers can connect the topic to different cultures helping the students become aware of how different cultures perceive different ideas.


Tomlinson, C. & Javius, E. L. (2012). Teach Up for Excellence. Educational Leadership. (69)5, 28-33.


Winebrenner. S (2001). Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Press.

2. I work at a very cultural diverse school containing over 60% of refugees from numerous countries across the world. Sometimes, teachers forget that it is a big adjustment for these students and they might not know typical American customs or culture. I have learned that you must do a pre-lesson on some ideas. For example, when planning a lesson on the three branches of the American Government, it is important to explain why such a government was created. What are the ideals behind it? What does the 1st Amendment really mean? Most refugees find it odd that we as Americans can petition our government. You must explain the ideals behind it in order for these students to really understand the topic. 

Teachers must "understand that students come to the classroom with varied points of entry." (Tomlinson, C. & Javius, E. L. 2012). Discussing topics in small groups can help students feel less culturally isolated in the classroom. When students are able to share their personal experience with each other, students tend to understand each other perspectives in route to understanding the lesson as a whole. 

Tomlinson, C. & Javius, E. L. (2012). Teach Up for Excellence. Educational Leadership. (69)5, 28-33.

Tech Grads - Christa Tucker

1.     Suggest a minimum of 3 instructional methods, which might motivate the learners to learn. Use references to support your statement.

Photo from Upcycled Education

Think, Pair, Share - The Think, Pair, Share strategy is a cooperative learning technique that encourages interaction and individual participation, and it’s applicable across all grade levels and class sizes. Students think through questions using three distinct steps:

• Think—The instructor poses a challenging or open-ended question and gives approximately one minute for everyone to think about the question on his or her own.

• Pair—Students are grouped in pairs to discuss their thoughts. This step allows students to articulate their ideas and to consider those of other.

•  Share—Student pairs share their ideas with a larger group, such as the whole class or another small group. Often, students are more comfortable presenting ideas to a group with the support of a partner. In addition, students' ideas have become more refined through this three-step process.

E-Word Wall - Created in PowerPoint (or wallwisher.com) , E-Word Wall provides the option of creating individualized, portable, engaging, manageable, and multi-sensory word study for students and provides for greater individualization for those struggling with reading, spelling, and writing (Narkon, 2011).

Graphic organizers are powerful tools that provide students with a visual representation of just about any concept they are learning (Sidelnick, 2000).  Graphic organizers illustrate processes, cause and effect, sequence of events, hierarchical relationships, and comparisons to name a few.  Graphic organizers can also be used as matrices to aid in decision making/thinking processes.

2.     From your personal experience, share an undesirable incident, which the good methods (tools) had been applied to the inappropriate situations (No references are required). What would you propose to do to redirect the specific situation you mentioned above to make learning easier, quicker, and more enjoyable? Please provide references to support your statement.

A primary disadvantage to using graphic organizers discovered from research is once students see the advantage and opportunity of using graphic organizers, then there is the possibility of less note - taking, which leads to totally relying on them as a written reference. The end result is incomplete notes on learner’s part and missed information. I believe students still need textual information as well as organizers. Textual information is a reference guide. Graphic organizers are used as a tool for the comprehension of text, but not to replace text. Learners or students still need to be able to source information from written text, to have more than one way to retain information cognitively and to obtain it physically from text resources.

Works Cited

Narkon, D. E., Wells, J. C., & Segal, L. S. (2011). E-Word Wall. Teaching Exceptional Children , 43 (4), 38-45.

Ngozi ibe, H. (2009). Metacognitive Strategies on Classroom Participation and Student Achievement in Senior Secondary School Science Classrooms. Science

Education International , 20 (1/2), 25-31.

Sidelnick, M. A., & Svoboda, S. L. (2000). The Bridge between Drawing and Writing : Hannah’s Story. Reading Teacher , 54 (2), 174-184.