Weekly Vitamins: Creating a New Recipe with Inquiry Based Instruction

Everyone knows someone that seems to be able to craft the best meal or make the most savory chicken or brew the best coffee. Perhaps that someone is a parent or grandparent or friend. While they may have all of the same supplies and ingredients as the next cook, their dish seems to come out better. You just keep wondering what recipe they follow in order to come with that result.

atmag.net

Inquiry based instruction is similar to that magical recipe. This educational technique allows learners to form their own recipes to discover and learn. They may not get the same exact results as the other groups in their class, but they learn the concept of whatever problem they are trying to solve. This relatively newer idea of inquiry based instruction (IBI) allows students to make their own dish instead of following the recipe the teacher makes them follow. 

IBI vs. Problem Solving Approach

When I first started hearing about IBI and the problem solving approach (PSA) it was difficult for me to differentiate between the two. Both techniques challenge students to solve problems, are student driven, and is facilitated by the teacher. 

batalas.co.uk

However in doing the readings for this week, I was able to pull out some small differences between the two techniques. The main thing was that with IBI, students are trying to solve a problem, but they are making their own procedures and they are evaluating their results with the scientific method (not always, but typically). In the PSA, students are more so just utilizing their resources to solve the problem posed to them. In addition, I think IBI encourages the concept of the topic the students are learning about rather than coming up with an exact answer. PSA doesn't necessarily have a right or wrong answer, but the goal of PSA is to find the best answer. It does still encourage learning the concepts and skills, however. 

Maybe these two techniques aren't separate, though. Perhaps inquiry based instruction is a form of one of the problem solving approach methods. Of that I'm not entirely sure. No matter what category it falls under, I think the main point is that teachers should be encouraging their students to seek the answers and experiment in order to learn; not allowing the teacher to tell them the information all the time. 

Emphasizing the "why"

I think it is so important for students to understand not only why the information that they are learning is important, but why they are learning it the way they are. Traditional learning, as it says in the readings, does not challenge students to find the answers, but lets them absorb the information instead. They have to learn how to learn all over again, essentially. There might be some push back on this, as some of the participants in the Journal of Agricultural Education mentioned, where it took several tries for students to get comfortable with this style of teaching. 

So if I can get my students to understand why I am facilitating in this way, I think that will make it much easier for them to want to learn and not concern themselves with finding the one right answer to pass the class.

cognition.happycog.com

A novice to inquiry based instruction

I feel as though at least one of my teachers in my past has used IBI, but I can't say I clearly remember a lesson where this has taken place. I still have so many questions regarding how it is done, so I fear that I might struggle with it initially until I work out all of the kinks. I believe that if I make it my goal to give students the chance to cook up their own plan and chew on their answers and research for a bit, they will gain much more than I could ever teach by telling them the information alone. 

Leaving Thought

"It's okay to not know, but it's not okay to not try"

--Unknown

Weekly Vitamins: The Colorful Dinner Plate of Differentiated Instruction

Anyone ever say to you that your dinner plate should have a lot of color? They weren't just saying that so it looked pretty. They were trying to get you to realize that fruits and vegetables are food items that come in many different colors, so to make sure your plate is full with many different kinds of healthy foods--not just carrots or blueberries. This is because each fruit and vegetable carries different vitamins and minerals in it that can benefit different things in the human body.

ameessavorydish.com

Just like this is important for your dinner plate, it's also an important visual to keep in mind when implementing differentiated instruction into the classroom.

The three characteristics

Differentiated instruction, as explained by the article for the reading, include readiness, interests, and learning preferences of students. 

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I like that differentiated instruction includes these components because it focuses the attention on the students and not so much standards or mandates or even teacher preferences. Students should be respected and listened to if they are to gain anything from the lesson. As hard as it sounds to have essentially a specific and individualized lesson for each student, there are some ways that the article shares which can make it easier for teachers to implement.

The power of choice

The article mentioned giving students choices but make it manageable. For example, a student can choose their research topic, but must still follow the criteria on the assignment's rubric. This is something that I learned early on.

The other thoughts that were expressed in the reading talked about reflection. Instead of asking the students if they enjoyed the assignment (and #KIR, some students who dislike school may be likely to immediately answer no anyway) ask the students what about the assignment helped them learn or what could in the future help them learn. Not only will that help the teacher reflect but it will also get the student thinking about their choices, and make them feel they are heard. 

I may have brought up this topic in previous blogs, but in my summer reading book, Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students by Their Brains, Johnson talks about how students need to know that they have the power to choose and that instruction is specialized to them and their needs. It is then that they begin to feel comfortable. 

theodysseyonline.com

Something else relating to choice that she talks about is how teachers also have this underlying job of teaching students how to make choices or how to perform tasks. What she means is that we need to teach students how to work in groups or how to take on challenges. When I read that at first, I thought it was silly. What do you mean, teach them how to work in groups? You just get into a group, divide the work, have a discussion and present the findings. Who doesn't know how to do this? But she made the point that yeah, on the surface, group work sounds easy. But there is probably a point in my life where the teacher taught us what it meant for everyone to have a task and for everyone to do their fair share of the work, and to be held accountable.

Even in some of my college course I see students that fail at group work, and the whole group feels that weak link. Reading this article and hearing Johnson's thoughts now really makes me wonder if I'm taking for granted the skills I learned in group work or the skills I learned in taking risks.

Focus on Individualized Instruction

The idea of differentiated instruction focuses on individual instruction based on needs of the students. My above scenario of group work was just an example of individual skills I learned on how to be an effective group member. But the core of that idea is that I needed to learn my own individual traits and qualities in order to be that effective group member. 

Differentiated instruction is the teacher's ability to see those traits (as outlined by the ideas of readiness, interests, and learning preferences) and adapt that to the main instruction. 

The Methods of Teaching Agriculture textbook describes some ways teachers can implement this including student workbooks, supervised study, skill sheets, and more. Each of these allow students to express their skills and work in the most efficient way applicable to their needs. 

An empty plate; a full belly

medicaldaily.com

Trying to find the balance between equality and inclusion in the classroom on one side, and differentiation and diversity on the other side can be pretty challenging. I think there will be a lot of trial and error as I work my way through teaching, but I'm hopeful that I will be able to find the right balance between the two to maximize my students' learning. So even though my head may be full of thoughts, ideas, questions, and concerns, (or in this case, my stomach!) I know that I've been able to take a little serving of each food group and can hopefully serve up the right mixture in my classroom.

Leaving Thought

"Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow" --Plato

Weekly Vitamins: Assessments and Evaluations

This week, we did our readings on grading and assessing students. These readings touch on some questions I've had about fair assessments and appropriate questions for the content students have learned. 

Assessing exceptional learners

An issue from Educational Leadership talks about the topic of grading exceptional learners. As I reflect on what I've been taught about students with disabilities, teachers walk a fine line between being inclusive and equal to all students, and yet, having to make adaptations for those students who need it. The biggest thing I've heard is to be fair, and that fairness doesn't always mean equal. I think this is important for me to remember in anything, but especially with grading.

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The article mentioned there being a big difference in accommodations and modifications. Accommodations are those adjustments to the process in order for the student to complete the objective. Modifications are adjustments to the objective itself so that the student can meet similar objectives to that of their peers. When the grades are all totaled, students with modified objectives/assessments would have this indicated on their report cards.

However I think that article addresses only the surface of that issue. My question is what do you do when a student with a modified objective gets a 100% and a student with the actual objective also gets 100%. Sure, they're both representative of their individual objectives, but at the end of the day, they are both receiving the same grade for the same class despite doing different things. Does marking the grade as modified on the report card change the weight of that 100%? Or are their grades considered fair? How does that play into class rank and honor roll as they mentioned in the article?

Rubrics for evaluation

Another topic we read about was the use of rubrics to help evaluate student performance. Rubrics are a simple way to not only organize grading for the teacher, but to allow the students to see exactly how they are going to be evaluated. They can look at the rubric before handing in an assignment so they know all of the components on the project, presentation, or as participation.

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Another thing I like about students having rubrics is that they can self-evaluate. Whether a teacher requires them to self-grade or not, students can automatically know they are going to lose points if they fall into a specific category. Knowing this, it's a no-brainer to them to go back and revise their work to meet that criteria. If they don't do this, they at least can accept the grade they get because they were aware of the criteria before hand. 

Students can also evaluate one another with rubrics. I think this is especially useful for oral presentations or when students are peer evaluating drafts of a paper. Peer feedback can be beneficial for students by recognizing that their results are not just the opinions of the teacher, but rather a general consensus.

Leaving Thought

"Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo"--Jon Sinclair

Sources

Cornell University Center for Teaching Excellence. (2015). Assessing student learning. Retrieved from http://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/assessing-student-learning/index.html

Jung, L.A. & Guskey, T.R. (2010). Grading exceptional learners. Educational Leadership, 67(5). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-

leadership/feb10/vol67/num05/Grading-Exceptional-Learners.aspx

Lab Trial #3: Problem Based Learning

Question or Problem

How can I use a problem based learning approach in my classroom so that the students can think critically and solve real problems?

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...reading about problem solving approaches... hypothesizing that students will be engaged and thinking critically...

Testing the experiment

The lesson was on integrated pest management. Students haven't learned about IPM yet, but they have learned about pests and pesticide use. This lesson was to give them a feel of IPM and then have them reflect on what they did and how that aligns with the main steps of IPM. 

Soybean pest example

I told my students about a friend of mine that had a pest problem with her soybeans (not a real story). I showed them pictures of the situation and gave them a few resources. Ideally, there would be books and Agronomy guides, and computers at their finger tips that they could look at. I at least wanted to give them a list of potential answers so that they weren't overwhelmed with the possibilities. The students were to narrow down their search and figure out the potential pest. 

Analysis and results of data

I was super nervous for this lab. I don't think many teachers had given me liberty to solve problems in my lifetime, so it was not only new to me, but now I had to teach using it! Once the lab was done, however, I felt much better. My peers mentioned some tweaks, but for the most part their feedback was positive. 

One suggestion was to have some sort of a worksheet to guide their thoughts and notes. It would also have the question or situation they are trying to solve. I think that is a great idea for those visual learners. It probably would have clarified things a lot more.

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Another suggestion was just making sure the situation I was presenting was logical. I tried to do my research as I was preparing for this lab, but I am by no means an expert on pests or soybeans so it was challenging. I tried to think of as many questions as possible and find those answers beforehand, but it was hard to know what they were going to ask. That was part of my fear in going into this lesson. However, I think I handled those moments of uncertainty very well. 

Another thing that was interesting was as I was trying to play along with the story (pretending that I didn't know the answer when I knew full well what the answer was for the sake of the mystery), one of the students made the comment about how if I don't know the answer, how could they trust me? How could they figure it out? I tried to turn it back to them and say that with my knowledge and their help, we can figure it out together. I wonder if there is a better way to respond to this. How do I maintain my credibility, but go along with the story. Should I tell them that I know, but I want to see if they could figure it out? I feel if I did that, they would give up when it got hard, and just wait for me to tell them the answer. 

Conclusion

I think with much more practice, I could become good at PBL. I certainly see the benefit, and I think that's how more classrooms should be. I just need to get myself into that mindset and turn the reigns over to my students every once in a while. 

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Leaving Thought

"Vulnerability is strength"--Cheryl Strayed

Weekly Vitamins: A Dose of Problem Based Learning

This week, we read all about Problem Based Learning (PBL). The readings were great materials to prepare us for our lab on PBL. Hearing about PBL initially sounds scary... letting students basically research and find the answers, sometimes based off of little prior knowledge. What if it takes some students longer than others to figure it out? What if they begin asking questions about things that I don't know about? How do you prepare information about a topic/lesson when the students are the ones driving the class? How do you make objectives and prepare assessments when you don't know what exactly the students will discover?

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Perhaps I have so much apprehension and concern about PBL because I haven't been forced to do it much in my years of school. I've been handed the information, books, articles, texts to learn. I've been given instructions and haven't been given much liberty to think on my own or truly grasp the impact my thoughts and research can play into learning and education. I know there has to be an effective way to get to answer my questions--I suppose I just have to do a little problem solving on my own to figure that out. 

Using knowledge to guide

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In the article Principles of Teaching Problem Solving, they talked a little about the knowledge of the learner. They mentioned declarative knowledge which is the facts, concepts, and principles students learn. Procedural knowledge deals with problem-solving and structure of the learning. Teaching both at the same time or crossing back and forth can be extremely effective. 

I think this starts to ease some of my worries as I wrap my head around PBL. I thought that teachers had to first teach the declarative knowledge and then do the procedural, or that they might introduce a subject with the procedural knowledge and then they would fill in the rest of the information with the declarative knowledge. While there may be some cases where this might be most effective, knowing that it can also be done together is also really helpful. Maybe the teacher introduces a few key terms and then has students work. When a student encounters a question or even specific information, the teacher might then give more declarative knowledge and send the students on their way to discovering more. 

Impact of situation in students' lives

If the students don't see the connect to their own lives or reality, they won't see the need to learn. That, or they will only learn "for the test". PBL, I think, really helps them see that understanding the situation and solutions can be important for their lives and careers. They can also apply and practice what they are learning instead of always regurgitating the information. 

In the article, 8 Essentials for Problem Based Learning, it gives some tips about using it most effectively in the classroom. 

socialimpact.wharton.upenn.edu

Having a captivating interest approach, and identifying an essential question that they are to solve are two main ways to begin the process. Essential questions or driving questions should be open-ended, complex, and linked to the core problem. The author compared it to a thesis in a research paper. Without it, there wouldn't be much direction.

Student choice is also important. Students shouldn't have full control of the reigns, but should be given options what and how. Let them decide how to present the information. Let them ask the questions, and don't heavily place criteria on them. As long as it relates to the goal of the driving question and the teacher can see that the student is understanding the content, the other portions of the assignment(s) are secondary.

Additional readings

I found some sources that organize the process of PBL. Worth reading! I think it helped facilitate the process in an organized manner. It pulls in a lot of the ideas from the reading, but has some other nice tips.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/problem-based-learning-tips-ideas.shtml

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/problem-based-learning-real-world.shtml

Leaving Thought

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together" -- Vincent van Gogh

My Unit Plan Evaluation

We just finished our Model Unit Plan assignment and I am now looking over all of the feedback from the assignment. Overall, I think I had a pretty good start, however there are a few areas I need to revise.

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Peer Feedback

I did not have too much specific feedback from my peers, however they noted that my unit assessments section could be revised to make it into percentages (I originally had them as just point values). Another suggestion was to be more descriptive in some areas such as the FFA and SAE integration areas.

Professional Feedback

Some of the big things I needed to work on were objectives. I need to add in the criteria part for the objectives. Some have the criteria, but others I struggled to put a quantitative value or a specific learning indicator on it. I suppose I feel that some lessons or activities can't always be evaluated. And I feel that sometimes students need a day or two of learning about that same topic before that objective is truly completed. I still need practice with objectives, but I think not every activity or lesson fits perfectly in the "box" of objectives, if you can imagine such a thing.

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Other than that, I just needed to be even more specific about certain sections. I already felt I was pretty specific, so I think I'm going to have reevaluate and add more details as per the suggestions. 

Reflective thoughts

I thought this assignment was hard! We had just learned about understanding by design, and working with the end in mind, but making a whole unit without knowing some of the specific details was hard. For example, knowing the realia when I didn't even know what I was doing for my lessons was challenging. I like the idea of starting with most sections of the unit plan and keeping the unknown parts a work in progress. I would then start my lesson plans. That way I can add realia or standards as I encounter them with my lesson plan into my unit plan. Establishing goals and having a general timeline for the unit is essential to the "end in mind" idea, however, so I definitely see the value in that.