I've observed, first-hand, how students grow exponentially in their acquisition of content knowledge, 21st century skills, and social-emotional development through the use of strategies incorporated into Challenge Based Learning. For several years, I've participated in the World Savvy program in which my students have used "design thinking" to analyze world issues that they're interested in, connect to local issues, and propose a local solution to help address the issue at hand. This has been one of my favorite parts of teaching through the years.
Through this work, as well as various conferences, I've even been able to visit with teachers from Mill Valley that have worked with April Tucker and have been taught in person by Ramsey Musallem. I am so familiar with variations of Flipped Learning and Challenge Based Learning that I've been excited to write about them here. Yet, as I reflect on how, over the last 12 years, I've implemented different versions of Project-Based Learning (Buck Institute, New Tech Network, Rigorous PBL) as well as Art Integration, I find myself in a conundrum. How on earth can we, as teachers, consolidate and sustain our efforts in implementing pedagogy such as this in ways that our students continue to grow over time? I'm 27 days away from closing my classroom door for the final time... as I turn over my key to room 5, where, for 12 of 22 years in teaching, my students and I have learned so much. When my students meet me in January, we will have a new address, a bright and shiny classroom, and so much excitement. It's been bittersweet to take down the physical evidence of their deep learning - the artwork, the presentation props for World Savvy, my first attempt at my own Art Integration example, etc. As I look forward with excitement to new beginnings, I find myself a bit teary-eyed writing this post... as I try to consolidate "what matters" to take forward with me. I know that it is the deeper learning that my current and future students will experience that matters most. My photos and files will have to suffice as reminders of the multitude of Challenges we've faced and grown through. Ok, so I will sneak a couple of projects into the boxes to be moved... shh! My challenge now, with my fellow teachers, is to answer these questions:
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Being passionate about the "social sciences," I love seeing what people (especially my students) have to say about what they learn. I enjoy comparing numbers to see important details, but I am mostly intrigued by how people describe their learning. As part of my teaching practice, I regularly have students reflect at the end of each of their projects.
Therefore, my data collection will mostly be from surveys where my students can reflect on their learning as well as provide answers for my research questions. My first data collection was actually from the end of September, when my students finished their first round of research - about identifying and explaining the Five Themes of Geography in different continents/regions. I have since compiled their answers in order to see clear patterns as well as obtain percentages that will help quantitatively as I further my instruction and action research. Additionally, I have been recording field notes and journal entries for me to reflect on what is and isn't going well throughout my students' current research project about Medieval Europe. When my students reflect through a survey in the middle and at the end of their current research, I will include a Likert Scale to quantitatively see what is and isn't working well. I hope the above combination of qualitative and quantitative data will work well in giving me a picture of how to best support my students in their own research, therefore helping me answer my Driving Question: "How can I guide my middle school students in finding reliable sources while conducting their research?" Zaretta Hammond's approach to Culturally Responsive Teaching is inspiring. I appreciate how she outlines the differences in clear terms between Multicultural Education, Social Justice Education, and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. As with every other topic we've studied in our Innovative Learning program, it's about the mindset, mostly of teachers first. If we want to truly improve our students' learning, we need to not just mention challenging issues or try to include everyone. We need to dig deeper to where we are "reducing the predictability" of who struggles in our classes (National Equity Project).
It's difficult to improve our students' growth mindsets to help them through the Learning Pit (James Nottingham, 2010) without understanding their cultural backgrounds. Much of the world comes from collectivist cultures, as opposed to individualistic cultures. As we leverage this knowledge, we can help our students "become leaders of their own learning" (Hammond, 2014). I'm curious, now, about how I can incorporate this learning with some of my students who are beginning to "slip through the cracks." We have a great rapport and I know I currently can push their learning, but now I have much to think about in planning for this upcoming week. So What? Who Cares? If students are to understand what they’re learning, they need to make sense of the information for themselves. Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956) challenges educators to support students’ understanding, where students are able to “analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information and situations independently” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). More recently the Common Core State Standards Initiative states that students “need to conduct research… is embedded into every aspect of today’s curriculum” (2010). Yet, when students are faced with research, they often get frustrated with the process, distracted by the inordinate amount of information on the internet, and therefore derailed in their own endeavors. When students are guided in their learning, they are supported in the process and are less likely to be overwhelmed (Maniotes & Kuhlthau, 2014). There are many parts of research processes where students can get derailed, but one of the first places is in finding reliable sources to answer their questions. Even when teachers create a list of sources for a unit of study, students look elsewhere, often not finding their own reliable sources (those that have relevant content, are in their reading levels, and are from trustworthy authors). Methodology While leading an inquiry-based class, I want to first know if my students are able to find reliable sources for their middle school research projects. This information will answer my two sub-questions: "Where do reliable sources come from?" and "How do students know once they’ve got them?" There are various reasons for my students struggling to find reliable sources, including their current skill levels, their patience and frustration levels, and whether or not sources are immediately available to them. I don’t have much direct influence over these first two reasons, but I can definitely guide my students to find reliable sources, those with relevant content, in their reading levels, and from trustworthy authors. Secondly, I want to know if the sources I’m guiding my students toward are truly helping them find answers to support their own inquiries. I will focus on the Gather Stage of the Guided Inquiry Design Framework (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, & Caspari, 2012) to narrow the focus of my research. To gather qualitative data, I will use questionnaires at multiple times within my students’ research cycle in which they will indicate which sources they’ve used, which have been most and least helpful, as well as their frustration levels at the different times. I will also write field notes of what I patterns observe during class and follow these notes up with journaling to note the positive and negative impacts of my guidance to reliable sources. The questionnaires, field notes, and journaling will all help with developing my hypotheses and in leading my future action research cycles. References:
I've been studying about Guided Inquiry and the processes behind Understanding (Wiggins, McTighe, Dewey, Pink, etc.). As I reviewed other teachers' work over the last several years, it is clear that there are multiple reasons why teachers are CHOOSING not to use inquiry methods and are choosing more traditional, teacher-led methodologies instead. The largest reason I've found is the complexity and challenge involved for teachers in managing the students' various inquiries simultaneously. Typically, teachers have not been trained in how to teach research methods.
There are many structures to support teachers in guiding students through the inquiry process. I'm going to focus on how the "Guided Inquiry Design" (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, Caspari, 2012) can inform my classroom practices. I'm deep in the research about Information Literacy - and have discovered that the Library Sciences tend to have more of the answers than I anticipated. I'm feeling challenged yet excited about where my research is currently taking me. |
Megan BurtonInnovative Learning Archives
June 2020
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