As I progressed through this course I gained many insights of PBL that I did not have. I learned that PBL is not just a good project given by the teacher to the student. PBL is the student taking over their learning experience. It is also most often done through real-world experiences and impact the local community. PBL is growing in popularity which is a concern for quality, but there are institutions devoted to teaching teachers how to effectively use PBL. The most important aspect to preserve is having students independently choose the topic, research, and work in the community for the project.
I plan on implementing PBL into my classroom through research projects based around real-life situations. For example, my PBL unit is on "The Outsiders" and the students will be researching and analyzing outsiders of society. This is completely from them without any prompting or guidance from me. I am able to have my students do some real-world research such as interviews and observations, but my 7th graders are too young to do any kind of internship. I do also see Inquiry-based-learning being another option to implement in my little projects. I like giving the students choices and the burden of independent decision making. The only obstacles I foresee about PBL in my classroom is the age of my students. They cannot drive, work, and do not have developed maturities. My students really are not able to use PBL in the community as a high school student could. regardless, they are able to do PBL in every subject through projects. I would like to see more PBL in the classrooms at my school.
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The Gold Standard set forth by PBLWorks is a preservation for project based learning. Out of fear that the growing popularity of PBL will lead to improper use, PBLWorks put together PBL fundamentals that need to be present in every project.
"Working Inside the Black Box" (WITBB), by Paul Black, Christine Harrison, Clare Lee, Bethan Marshall, and Dylan Wiliam, is a in-depth research essay focusing on formative assessment and learning. The first topic of formative assessment was that of questioning students. Most educators know what it is like to ask students a questions and the only reply is silence. More often than not, instinct takes over and the teacher either answers the question or asks another. I am guilty of this today. It is difficult to wait. There is an awkwardness of uncertainty as well as the running schedule of a class period. What is the solution? Wait for the students to answer. "Now, after many months of changing my style of questioning, I have noticed that most students will give an answer and an explanation (where necessary) without additional prompting" (Black 2004). The research shows that waiting for an answer will develop greater student interaction. For example, my teaching supervisor gave me an account of his own experience of waiting for an answer. He told me that when he first implemented this method of questioning in his class, he waited an entire forty minute period. After two days of sitting in class doing nothing, the students finally gave in and his class transformed. Waiting is very important and I plan to immediately practice this is my classroom.
Another topic of this article that resonated with me was about "Feedback Through Grading." Instead of focusing on pass or fail and A's or F's, teachers should focus on providing feedback that properly guides the student to improve. If a student under-performs, they receive a bad grade and maybe an explanation of why. The issue is that students ignore the feedback and fester over the grade given. The study done in "WITBB" seems radical to me. It is outside the bounds of traditional teaching. However, it is exactly what education needs to look like. I do not know how a general education system could possibly standardize teaching practice to support feedback and goals over grades, but it is the future. One part of the article that is a new idea to me is the "Peer Assessment and Self-Assessment" section. To give student the ability to set goals, assess their own work, and assess each others work is a far leap for accountability and quality. However, when this is combined with feedback over grades, I can see the possibilities. If students focus on goals and feedback for growth instead of grades, they will be more receptive to peer feedback. In return they will also become more comfortable guiding others. This makes me think back to my human anatomy class in college. I learned that teaching a subject to a classmate was the most effective way of studying for myself. I believe the same principle can be applied to peer feedback done in this study. I found the section "The Formative Use of Summative Tests" to be very interesting. Essentially, students in grade school do not know how to study effectively. They skim over old work and maybe do a study guide from the teacher, but they do not reengage their brains in learning. The teachers in the experiment ended up doing activities that taught students how to study in their individual way. I think this is great because it is normal in college for students to study however they need to because every class means a lot to them, but typically students in grade school do not care as much and never put that level of effort in. "WITBB" has shown me that students can be taught and treated like college students, they just need the proper teaching practices. "How people Learn II" (HPL II) was a very interesting summary. At first when I started reading, my thought was "Oh great, another article explaining how the environment makes people different and how we need to cater to them." Yes, the summary does have an aspect of that but it has much more. For instance, the summary explains that through research they have found that the brain effects learning and learning styles. However, learning and the learning styles that people use shape the brain just as much. I thought this was a great point because it unleashes the complexity of who people are and gave me a new insight. So often I see experts in education classify every student based off of surface level and superficial information. I appreciate that this summary is based upon deeper research.
People have been researching learning for centuries and much progress has been made. One thing that I think is universally known and holds as the most important aspect of learning is the bond of teacher and student. Teachers change lives and it is common to hear another person talk about a great teacher or horrible teacher that changed their life. A strong bond will increase motivation, responsibility, and lower the Affective Filter. One thing the summary did not include is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Both being very important and playing roles in peoples' everyday lives. In fact patterns of these motivations can be found with certain cultures because of their value of education. This information has impacted my own ideas and practices as a teacher. I want to strive towards teaching students how to learn and teach themselves to learn. The most influential Quote to my teaching practice is "Learning changes the brain throughout the life span; at the same time, the brain develops throughout the life span in ways that influence learning and are in turn influenced by the learner’s context and cultural influences" (HPL II, 2018). This quote shows the relationship and ultimate complexity of the brain. It shows me why I must teach students to learn to learn and not just memorize. In the end, individuals have the greatest impact on how their brain develops. I do want to applaud this summary for accomplishing an unbiased approach to educational research. As I stated at the beginning, educational writing is usually telling readers reasons why we have to support people with their issues. This summary did not do that, even though the research they gathered and conclusions they drew could be molded for that purpose. I liked reading through the information they gathered and although it is broad by nature, I can picture the real-life setting of their research. |
AuthorKonner Keefer: teacher ArchivesCategories |