ED 2135 Intro To Teaching Skills Exam Sem 1 2007

Friday, June 15, 2007

Question 1

Describe how you would go about selecting and applying a range of instructional strategies and resources to a lesson in your main teaching area.

The instructional strategies I choose for lessons in mathematics vary depending on the students needs and the topic.

The context for my teaching is this: "The world is an amazing place, we are all students of it together".

My goal is for students to gain the deepest and most profound knowledge possible for where they are at. More specifically I aim for students to move in their understanding as high as possible through Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive outcomes. Students should be able to remember basic mathematical formulas and methods, They should be able to understand how to use them, they should be able to apply them to a range of problems.

The higher levels are more of a challenge. Ultimately students should be able to creatively analyse and work with mathematics in a way that goes beyond the discipline. One angle on this is starting to see the 'Meta' rules of mathematics - rules about rules. Another angle is to see the application of mathematics to the whole world, and to integrate mathematics into understanding of physical processes, biology, history, politics and society.

But I also must consider where students are at and what learning styles they have:

In the middle school students are hopefully transitioned or about to transition from concrete operational to formal operational thinking in the development of their Piagetian scheme of knowledge.

To assist with this transition I include content which challenges the concrete operational mind and creates some dissonance. Students should ultimately be comfortable with more abstract descriptions of the world and able to work with them. The application of algebra to geometry, trigonometry, indices, growth and other areas is a signpost to 'we can generalise - the abstract is more powerful than the concrete'.

Instructional Strategies?

Intro to the lesson: Build Motivation, settle the class, set the scene:

stories from the real world - engineering/science/nature eg: development of the International Space Station, size of dinosaurs, life span of stars. (Glasser: Fun/learning)
Contradicting sets of information
Challenges: Here is a problem... can we solve it?
Quiz or mini test of previous work
Advance Organisers - overview/expository/graphic/mindmap (Ausubel)

Body of the lesson: Ask key question(s), Introduce new content, Get students thinking, talking and practicing:

Demonstration of techniques on the board
Group activity to solve a problem
Sample problems
Work sheet (not too many of these - once a fortnight)
Problems from the Text - working in pairs
Reverse problems - here is the answer - work out the question
Practical activity - solve problems with paper, scissors, tape, timber etc

Conclusion of lesson: Revisit key points or key question

Student summary
Groups report back
Revisit introduction

The resources required apart from the obvious ones of a well set out classroom that has heart and soul, are determined by the desired activities. For example a lesson exploring surface area of three dimensional shapes could include an exercise to build a whole range of prisms out of paper and sticky tape, and then calculate the areas of each part.

The selection of instructional strategies depends also on what the class is capable of, or is familiar with. The use of Jigsaw excercises would not suit my year 9 classes at present, as they have not been trained up in how to use them.

My choice of instructional strategies reflects my belief in constructivist education. It also reflects my desire to move towards a democratic/choice therapy discipline model with the teacher as leader and co-learner. Learning should be fun, challenging, interesting and students should be motivated to get involved.

Question 2

Explain the principles that are basic to assessing, measuring and evaluating student progress in an area of development in your main teaching area.

My current assessment process for class 8 and 9 maths is to do weekly assignments (three per topic) and a topic test. I also observe students as I assist them during class. This gives me a good overall feel of where students are at and informs how I continue to teach with any given topic.

My intent with assessment is this:

provide immediate quality feedback to students - they are hungry for this
diagnose problems individual students may be having with the content
motivate students, build self confidence
check that students have learned something - ie that I have taught well
give them practice at doing exams (for the inevitable HSC exams) in a safe and supported way
provides some accountability to parents

But what are the basic principles of assessment?

The article 'Principles for Assessment and Reporting in NSW Government Schools is here:
http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/learning/k-6assessments/principles.php
This document declares that to be effective and informative assessment and reporting should:

Have clear, direct links with outcomes
Be integral to teaching and learning (the learning and assessment should be closely linked)
Be balanced, comprehensive and varied (multiple different opportunities makes for more reliable assessment)
Be valid (must reflect the actual intention of the learning activities)
Be fair (equal opportunity for all independant of age, gender, disability, culture, language etc)
Engage the learner (students should have some input, choices and power over how they are assessed
Value teacher judgement (should enhance and improve teachers ability to identify learning)
Be time efficient and manageable (find the balance between assessment and work)
Recognise individual achievement and progress (personalised, and encouraging)
Involve a whole school approach (consistant and meeting school standards)
Actively involve parents (they are of course very interested in how their child is going...)
Convey meaningful and useful information (should be useful not only to myself as the teacher, but to the students, parents, other teachers, gaurdians, other schools, employers etc)

My own principles are these:

Number one is to be clear about who the assessment is for:

Students - feedback, motivation, diagnosis
Teachers - how effective is/was the lesson?
Parents - how is their child going, absolute and relative measures
Employers/Higher education entrance requirements (not that relevant to class 8/9)

My position is that student feedback, motivation and diagnosis is the most important role of assessment. The feedback needs to happen from the start and during the topic to be of the best value for the student. This is the 'Diagnostic/Formative' approach as opposed to the 'Summative'. The summative method attempts to capture information about students at the end of a topic or course.

This student focus means that Informal observations are just as valid as Formal testing if they lead to genuine information about how to meet students needs.

A Second principle is whether to use Normative or Standardised assessments. Normative assessments compare students with others in a group and can be scaled or adjusted to allow for differences in culture or socio-economic status. Standardised Reference assessments compare scores to an absolute measure, and tend to be used more for outcome based education. My take on this issue is that neither Normative or Standardised assessment is relevant to my assessment of year 8/9 maths. I wish to avoid competition or comparison between students because I believe this limits many student's self achievement beliefs. There is no need for either students or their parents to know how their child went relative to others at this level. All they need to know is that learning took place, and that a good amount of effort was exerted by the student to that end.

A third principle is making assessment clear and transparent to students. This means showing them clearly what they have to do to achieve good results. Effectively this means that students need to learn how to effectively do each assessment or type of assessment. One way to do this is to provide a 'Rubric' which outlines examples and standards of work for each level of grading. The Rubric can be arranged in a matrx to allow for multiple criteria to be matched with different levels of student performance.

A fourth principle is differentiating between 'competency' based assessment and 'performance' based assessment. Competency assessment sets out in advance the range of knowledge and skills that a student should have at the end of a unit of work - the student then does a 'summative' assessment where they demonstrate that they can remember/apply/do each of the things required, and then they are graded as 'competent' or 'not competent' for that unit as a result. Performance based assessment looks at not just whether some skill has been learned, but also how many a student can achieve in a given time frame - this leads to a graded assessment like 'A, B, D, E, F', and is a much more competitive or comparison based assessment. My own preference is for a less competitive competency based assessment, but we are required by the BOS to use a performance grading.

Question 3

Provide an analysis of how you would provide for the diversity of learning styles and ensure that deep learning occurs in all students when teaching a lesson.

Students have many styles of learning, and a good teacher will provide different styles of instruction to ensure that most (or ideally all) students will get something that inspires them from every lesson.

The depth of student learning will vary depending on how engaged they are and whether the content is accessible to their learning style.

The teachers ability to provide diverse teaching will therefore help more students to achieve a deeper level of learning.

Older style 'formal' teaching methods do not address diversity because they present content in a very rigid textual way - 'one size fits all', with set exercises and progression of learning.

The opposite to the 'formal' approach is individualised learning. In the ideal world each student would be able to work one on one with their teacher so that the teaching is customised to suit the temperament, learning style and prior knowledge of that student.

In the ultimate individualised teaching a perfect balance could be struck so the student is excited, their curiosity is sparked, they want to explore, they are working just on the edge of what they are comfortable with, they have sufficient prior learning to continue, they are working in the 'style' that suits their primary intelligences, they have the time, space and resources to do real interactive, hands on work, and the resources available would include other knowledgeable peers and mentors.

This 'Gold' standard for learning fits the ideas of the constructivists - that knowledge is not fixed, but is rather re-built, or constructed by each student as they learn.

Piaget - knowledge is a scheme - we modify our scheme throughout our lives

Vygotsky tells us that the learning is social, and occurs as students talk to each other about the work and are supported by knowledgeable mentors (The ZPD).

Gardner tells us that our very brains are 'wired' (but still flexible) to experience the world differently. Each student has a unique mix of 'intelligences', with strengths in some areas and weaknesses in others. The implication is that teaching which works with some students will not necessarily work with all - and it is therefore good to teach in as many 'modes' as is practical.

http://www.studentretentioncenter.ucla.edu/sfiles/multipleintelligences.htm

Bloom tells us that we need to attend to the quality of the students learning. A student knowing some information about a subject is a poor substitute for a student who is able to analyse the subject and creatively work with it.

Unfortunately the opportunity of doing one on one instruction is rarely available in the real world due to financial and resource limitations. We teachers therefore have to somehow cater for diversity so we can facilitate deep learning within the restraints of larger groups with time and resource limitations.

How would I provide for diversity and deep learning in my teaching area?

Within a Mathematics context it is challenging!

I need to provide instruction that appeals to not only the mathematical/logical intelligence, but also the kinesthetic, musical, visual, emotional, interpersonal, and linguistitc intelligences.

An example lesson about calculating the surface area of three dimensional shapes might include: An excercise where students cut out and assemble shapes from paper or cardboard and then calculate the area of the paper used would engage the kinesthetic/spatial/body intelligence. A setup of bottles or drums with different volumes used to make different notes could appeal to the musical/auditory intelligence. An exercise to consider how different shaped buildings look 'friendly' or 'threatening' could address the emotional, interpersonal or linguistic intelligences.

Students who achieve success in excercises which match their own strengths may find that it is easier to attempt excercises that use intelligences at which they are less strong.

Here is a grid that maps teaching activities to Gardner's multiple intelligences and Bloom's coginitive outcomes for a mathematics lesson on the surface area of three dimensional shapes:

	Remember	Understand	Apply	Analyse	Evaluate	Create
Linguistic	Create rhymes or poems to remember formulas for different shapes					Write a syntax document for area formulas
Logical-Mathematical	Practice basic formulas for component shapes.	Choose the correct formula for different shapes	Attempt excercises to calculate surface areas of different shapes	Work on rules for shapes based on the number of faces and vertices		Create derivative area formulas for complex shapes
Naturalist		Find occurances of shapes in nature			Explain the occurance of shapes in nature (eg honeycomb)
Spatial		Draw three dimensional representations of shapes		Work on shapes with maximum and minimum surface areas	Compare surface area to volume for large and small creatures (eg mice versus elephants) And discuss with regards to energy retention
Bodily Kinesthetic	Step out large spaces within the school and calculate their areas
Musical		Use drums with different surface areas		Corelate surface are of drum to sound
Interpersonal	Make up personalities for basic shapes, and see what happens when they are added...
Intrapersonal

Some of these combinations are a bit forced! Still it is possible with a bit of work to come up with different lessons or activities to match the different learning styles, while moving towards deeper learning.

Question 4

The Board of Studies provides materials to guide you in your teaching. Detail carefully what they have available for your teaching area, how you go about locating it, how it is used for programming and how you use these resources for preparing a series of lessons.

The Board of Studies has a large number of resources available on their web site which is located here: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/

Part of the responsibility of working within this current education system is that of ensuring that Board of Studies outcomes are met in the course of teaching. As a beginning teacher I have found the process of addressing the BOS outcomes a good one, as it gives a certain structure to lesson planning and helps ensure that key points are not forgotten.

As well as maintaining the relevant Syllabuses the BOS also has other documents that are useful and important:

BOS notices - keep up with changes to syllabuses: http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/official-notices.cfm
BOS manuals and articles are here: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/manuals/
HSC - test yourself - exam papers: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/hsc_exams/
Respect & Responsibilities: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/respect/
Special education needs: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/special_ed/
Aboriginal Education Contexts: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/weblinks/#abedcontexts
Performance Descriptors

5.1.1 Identifies, assesses and manages the risks and OHS issues associated with the use of a range of materials, hand tools, machine tools equipment and processes

5.4.1 Selects, applies and interprets a range of suitable communication techniques in the development, planning, production and presentation of ideas and projects

5.5.1 Applies and transfers acquired knowledge and skills to subsequent learning experiences in a variety of contexts and projects

5.6.1 Evaluates products in terms of functional, economic, aesthetic and environmental qualities and quality of construction

These focus outcomes are then addressed. For example with outcome 5.4.1which is about communication techniques the program is written to specify what is done in the class, and how we can get some evidence that learning took place.

Students Learn About: Workplace Communication Skills - Working drawings

Students Learn To: Interpret and produce engineering and pictorial drawings related to the development and production of practical projects

Teaching and Assessment Activities: ASSESSMENT 5.4.1 (DF #4.1) Students complete two different drawings of the project – orthogonal and cross section in their design folio.

The program for this unit also includes space for a register and evaluation so that as lessons are completed they are recorded, and there is space for reflection on how well they worked.

This program is then translated into specific lesson plans which capture the logical progression of learning as well as putting the flesh on the programming outcomes.

In the case above there would be a series of lessons about what an orthogonal and cross sectional view is, when and why you would use them and how to draw and dimension them. This would culminate in a lesson where the students create the drawings in their design folio as a prelude to actually constructing the project. This would create a strong link between designing on paper (or with CAD) and actually making things.

My observation is that there is a lot of latitude within the current BOS setup for lessons to be created with individual style and focus, while still meeting the broad outcomes specified by BOS.

To summarise: The BOS resources are available on the net. These include a wide range of documents, guides and advice, as well as the syllabuses. The outcomes prescribed need to be written into programs for units of work. These programs from the basis for the series of lesson plans that connect the outcomes to the logical progression of learning on a day to day basis.