Random thoughts of a Monty Python fan

Chapter 14: Standardized Testing

It is nearing the end of school and the 9th grade achievement test results are finally in. The parents’ report form went home last Friday, and Monday morning you get a call from the principal during your planning period. The parents of one of your math students are in the office and have asked to speak with you and the principal immediately. The father is a prominent businessman and the mother is a lawyer.

Their daughter received a grade-equivalent score of 11.8 on her standardized math test. Her percentile rank was 98th. The girl has been making B’s and C’s in your class – she seldom completes homework and has trouble with your conceptual approach to math. She just wants to know the “steps” to solve the problems so she can finish. You have tried several times to get the parents to come in to talk about ways to support the girl’s learning, but they have seemed to have had the time – until today.

You smile as you enter the principal’s office, but the parents are not smiling. As soon as you sit down, the father says, “Well, you can see from our daughter’s scores that you have been totally wrong in the grades you have given her this year. We thought she was just weak in math, but now it is clear you have something against her! Or maybe you just don’t know how to teach math to bright girls.”

The mother chimes in, “Yes, we expect you to reconsider her final grades for the year in light of her clear abilities. In fact,” she glances at the principal and then glares at you again, “we believe she should get credit for the 10th grade class you teach as well, because she obviously knows the material already.”

a) What would you say to the parents?

I would tell the parents that I wished that they had come to me sooner in the year to address any concerns that they had about their daughter’s grades.  Since this is at the end of the year they have had ample time to conference me about their daughter (not to parents, but a note to self).  I would mention that her grades are based, not only on test results but, on class participation, mastery of mathematical concepts, and homework. 

I would tell them that although I attempted to teach their daughter a conceptual approach to math, she was only interested in learning the steps to solve the problems.  Without knowing why an approach was chosen, she was missing out on an important part of mathematics.  I would state that, if she would try to understand the conceptual approach to problems and complete her homework on time that she would do much better in math.

I would explain to the parents exactly what their daughter’s scores meant.  That although she had received a score of 11.8 that it was based on a 9^th grade level and not on a 10^th grade level.  This number simply meant that she had good step solving skills for the 9^th grade.  I would go on to say that the students in the 9^th grade were given grade appropriate problems which were less advanced than those of the 10^th grade. (p. 523).

As for her ranking of 98^th, I would explain that this number represented the percentage of students that had scored at or below her score.  That this number was not representative of the number of correct answers their daughter gave, or was it necessarily based on 100 questions.  It simply meant that 98% of the students scored at or below her score.

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b) What do you need to know about tests to deal with this situation?

First I must know what group the test is based upon.  Is it just my class, the whole 9^th grade, statewide, or nationwide?  Second, I must have a firm understanding of norm-referenced testing so that I can understand and explain exactly what a student’s score means.  I must understand that “the results a norm-referenced test do not tell (you) whether students are ready to move on to more advanced material” (p. 523). 

Knowledge of percentile ranking scores is also a must.  It is important to know that the percentage means the number of students who score at or below that particular student.  It has nothing to do with the number of correct answers or the number of questions on the test (p. 527).  It is also important to be able to explain the results to parents in a manner that they understand.

c) How will you approach working with this student?

I would talk with her privately to explain in more detail why she was getting B’s and C’s.  We would come up with a plan for her to follow for the rest of the year and the next.  Her plan would be a checklist of things she could do to bring up her grades.  The list would include: turn homework in on time,  go the extra mile to understand the concepts behind what she was learning, asking her parents to become more involved in her education, and asking for help when she needed it.

I would also try and find out areas of her personal life where knowing the concept behind the activity would be important.  Most of all, I would let her know that she was important to me and that I have a vested interest in her education.

d) How will these issues affect the grade levels you will teach?

I will make sure to stay in contact with parents over the course of the year.  I will contact those parents who haven’t made any conferences.  I will be sure to call each parent once a week to give a student update on their child and to say something positive about their child.  I will send newsletters home, before testing, explaining how the tests are scored and what the results mean.  I will be sure to include examples and my number and email for any questions they may have.  If most of the parents are confused about the scoring, I will try to arrange a group meeting where I will go into more detail about the scoring of the tests.

On the first day of your orientation for your new position, you are handed a long list of competencies and topics that could be covered on the proficiency test required by the No Child Left Behind Act that the students will take in the spring.  You learn that your new school is on a state list of districts being monitored because they have not made adequate yearly progress for the past two years.  You agree that many of the topics on the test list are important, but your school seems to have no plan for teaching other than drill and practice on facts and skills that might be on the test.

a)      How will you arouse students’ curiosity and interests about the topics and skills that will be tested?

I would make a chart for the class of all of the things we would learn that year.  I would leave spaces under each topic and ask the students to brainstorm ways to learn each topic.  I would suggest virtual fieldtrips, movies, group activities, etc. 

Once the classroom had become more of a community, I would set the students up in groups.  I would try to keep the groups on the same level of learning ability.  By dividing them this way I would hopefully avoid having one student do all of the work while the others felt too embarrassed to contribute.

I would keep portfolios for each student with both their work and a sheet containing the pertinent information from that lesson.  They would be given these portfolios to study in class several weeks before the testing took place.  I would let them know that although the test is important, it is more a about how well I have taught them the material than it is a reflection on them.  It’s true, and will hopefully take some stress away from the testing.

b)     How will you establish the value of learning this material?

I would try and relate the subject to something that held importance in the students’ lives.  For instance, when teaching life cycles, we could bring in both caterpillars and tadpoles.  They are something most students have seen, and living things often hold their interest.  We could go on a virtual trip to a pet shop and observe the lifecycle of mice, rats, etc.  We could go to the eagle watch site and keep track of the eagles’ eggs and their development.  The eagles are an endangered species and could lead to talks about the environment and the need to protect the earth.  This lesson could spill over to math where the class could do research about endangered species and graph the past numbers of animals compared to the present.  From there, we could go into social studies and talk about the importance of recycling.  All of these topics relate to the lives of the students in a major way, thus being valuable to them.

c)      How will you get students engaged in real learning about the topics?

I would use the constructivist approach, where planning is shared between the teacher and the students, (Woolfolk, p. 483).  They would have some say in what was taught, and what approaches and technology could be used.  “The teacher spends less time planning specific presentation and assignments and more time gathering a variety of resources and facilitating students’ learning.  The focus is not so much on students’ products as on the processes of learning and the thinking behind the products”, (Woolfolk,p.485).

I could put the students in groups of two.  Each student would assess the other student’s work.  They would then talk amongst themselves about how they came up with their answers.  They would not grade each other’s work, but try to come to an understanding regarding each other’s answers.  They would also collaborate on mini group lessons and assignments. 

I would use technology to my advantage.  Today’s students are technologically savvy and need to use that knowledge to their advantage.  I would use Smart boards, videos, games, and the internet (WebQuests) to keep them engaged in their learning process.

d)     What more do you need to know to prepare your students for this big test?

I would spend some time getting to know my students.  If I had time before I started, I would pull the students’ files to see what their previous teachers learned about them.  Hopefully, I would get a better idea of their learning styles and abilities.

I would need to know which personal approach to take with each student.  Having a diverse class means adjusting the way I talk to and work with each student.  Some students need a softer approach.  Some need to have more restrictions to keep them focused.  Some will learn more slowly than others.  It’s important to know which students will need more repetition in order to make the lesson stick.

I would need to have a good understanding of the topics I taught.  The more I know, the more I can pass along to my students.  Having a previous copy of the test would also help me hone my lessons towards what was deemed most important.  I would also need to know how my grade team was going to teach for the test.  By working with them, I could tweak my teaching style to be more affective.

How can/does Web evaluation tie into the concepts of Social Processes, Cooperation, and Classroom Community?

Web evaluation in the classroom has a lot to do with the concepts of social processes, cooperation and classroom community.  Peers and peer pressure can lead students into safe websites or make using explicit websites the “fashion”.  Parents and teachers can lead their children/students by helping them learn how to evaluate websites for proper content by teaching by example.  Once the student learns how to evaluate a website, they can spread the technique to their peers.  These cooperative groups of students get together and discuss whether a website is appropriate.  Since all of the members are different, the students need to take into account each other’s differences (collaboration).  The cycle can then start over again with the students using positive peer pressure to teach other students the evaluation technique.

www.thekingcenter.com

The King Center website was interesting, if a bit biased.  It was started by Martin Luther King, Jr’s wife Corretta Scott King ( she was the founder of the foundation).  His son, Mr. Dexter Scott King is the Chairman of the foundation and the current president is Isaac Newton Farris, Jr.

The mission of The King Center is as follows:

I found this site interesting and it did have what I perceive as accurate information.  I think that teachers could gain the information from the site and pass it on to their students but, I think it would seem a bit dull to students.  There is a store where you can purchase items regarding Dr. King.

www.martinlutherking.org

“White Pride, World Wide” just about says it all.  This site looks to be an informational website about Dr. King but is, in fact, a website started by the “White Pride” movement to bash Dr. King.  This site even has flyers that people can handout with false information about Dr. King.  Personally, I was truly offended by this site. 

http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/

This was my favorite site.  It was informative without being too biased.  It had tons of good information and was easy to navigate.  I feel this site would be good for the upper grades as it didn’t have “pretty” graphics, but, was instead, loaded with information.

I think it is vitally important for teachers to take a critical and thorough look at every website they intend to use in the classroom.  It would be better if the grade team each spent time with the website and then met to see what each teacher thought of the site.

The problems that teachers can have when using websites are:

• Finding age appropriate material.
• Keeping the students focused on the one site when working alone in groups.
• Finding updated material to work with in class.

There are benefits to using computers on websites in classrooms:

• Students are now computer savvy and it keeps there interest.
• Technology now allows for the entire class to enjoy a website on the classroom TV.
• Schools can save money by going on virtual fieldtrips.
• The teacher can model how to evaluate a website on their own.
• Files can be created to place pictures, etc. in a public place for sharing.
• The classroom can set up its own website.
• The teachers can create WebQuests for the students to follow.
• The classroom can communicate with schools all over the globe.

For my website evaluation I stuck with the Martin Luther King, Jr. topic.  I found the following website:

https://www.msu.edu/~drummo21/WebQuest/home.htm

The name of the site was clear: Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The page loaded quickly, but there was only a small photo of Dr. King.

The print was large and easy to read and it was easy to go back and forth along the WebQuest’s pages.  It has links that led to authentic sites where the information was accurate.  The author and date were clearly visible and there was even a presentation in cartoon fashion about the life of Dr. King.

There were links back to the http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/ site that I previously evaluated.

The WebQuest was fun, easy to follow, and informative.  I believe that this site would be perfect for its target audience, the student (2nd) grade.

Assume you are in class on a Tuesday in the winter.  It is late morning and you have just gone to lunch when you hear that a few students at a nearby high school have taken some teachers and other students hostage.  Rumors are flying about whether the students have guns, what they want, who is involved, how many hostages there are, and when the incident began.  Some students and teachers in your school have friends and relatives in this neighboring district.  Several students are very upset- many in tears.

a)      What is your immediate response?

Since my students are in the lunch room, I would stop by the counselor’s office on my way to go and get them.  She would help me bring my students back into the classroom where we could talk about the incident.  She would help me calm the students down.  When I felt that the class was under control, I would call the principal for an update and get the real story about the rumors that were circulating.  My principal would call a grade level information meeting with the students and their teachers.  She would call by grade level so that she could tailor the information to the age of the students.  At the meeting I would sit with the students who were most upset to help them feel more secure. 

After the meeting I would take my students back to the classroom to talk about what has happened and answer any questions they have about the incident.  I would make sure to put up a question box in the room so that the students who wouldn’t speak in class could still get their questions answered.

b)     How would you handle a student who is very upset and crying?

I would call the school counselor to come and talk to the student.  I would have the other students write about how they felt about the incident.  I would take that time to call the student’s parents so that they could talk to their child and offer some comfort.  If they wanted to pick up their child, I would make sure that I got her things together and have the office call the counselor’s office to pick her up.  I would then call the counselor’s office to inform her that the student’s parents were coming to pick her up.

c)      What will you do over the next few weeks and months to respond to the students’ concerns and fears about such frightening events?

For the next couple of weeks I would expect the topic to be brought up during the day.  When it did, we would take some time to talk about it.  I would integrate what had happened into lesson plans.  We could talk about Martin Luther King, Jr. and how he battled segregation peacefully instead of using violence to get his point across. 

The students and I would talk about how the hostage situation could have been avoided.  We would talk about how to prevent that incident from happening.  We would start by talking about how to end a disagreement without violence.  After the lesson we would act out a disagreement between two students.  As they students “argued” I would occasionally have them stop so I could ask the other students what they could have done to stop the argument before someone got hurt.  We would continue these prevention plays every week, using different students and different situations.

I would post the four step process for handling a conflict in a different manner.  I would also tell the students that if they heard about someone talking about hurting themselves or others, that they needed to talk to an adult.  It would not be tattling and it meant that the school could get help for that person.

Conflict Resolution Rules

1.    Tell the person what you didn’t like.

2.     Tell the person how it makes you feel.

3.     Tell the person what you want in the future.

I would talk to an upper grade teacher about using some of her students as peer mediators (Woolfolk, 2007).  By using someone other than a classmate, I would avoid sides being taken by the other students.

I could ask the principal to invite guest speakers to talk about violence and how it can be avoided.  The school could have the DARE officer visit the classrooms and talk about how the rarity of hostage situations in schools.

I would stay in close contact with the students’ parents to make sure that they weren’t experiencing any residual effects from the incident.  If they were concerned about their child, I would refer them to the school counselor who could refer them to a professional. 

I would do my best to assure my students that I care about their feelings and respect them for the individuals they are.  I would tell them that they could come to me any time to talk about anything that was bothering them or, they could put a note in our “Talk Box” and I could address the whole class with them staying anonymous.

I am an experienced teacher and have been asked by the principal to help a new teacher.  The class is uninvolved with the lessons and, several students are getting into trouble.  She’s working hard, but is experiencing trouble motivating the class to learn.

My first thought is, “Where is her mentor?”  Every new teacher should have one.  I guess I’m it. 

It sounds to me like the class is in control and not the teacher.  That issue must be resolved before anything else can take place.  My first suggestion is to involve the class in setting some rules for the classroom.  There should be no more than five and, the students should have definite input as to what rules are put to paper.  By collaborating with the students, the teacher is giving each student ownership of the class.  They are now a team of students and, not just random people in the room.  Each student has been motivated to make sure that their classmates abide by the rules.

My next move will be meet with the teacher during lunch or planning time to discuss the layout of the classroom.  Does she have the chatty students sitting together or apart?  Are the students that are acting up in the front or back of the classroom.  Is there too much on the walls directing focus away from the teacher?  How are the desks arranged.  In aisles or groups or in a semi-circle.  The layout of a classroom can work for you or against you. 

Our next step is to learn a little more about each student by talking to their previous year’s teacher.  How did she motivate that particular student to learn?  Were they eager to learn, or did they require something extra to give them that push?  Was the student intrinsically motivated (“the natural tendency to seek our and conquer challenges as we pursue personal interests and exercise capabilities”) (Woolfolk, 2007)?  Was the student extrinsically motivated (to do something that has little to do with the task itself) (Woolfolk)?  If, in the previous year, the teacher motivated her students with candy treats it’s no wonder the new teacher is having difficulties.  The students are used to working for a reward.

The next meeting should discuss how the teacher is presenting the curriculum.  Is she just standing at the front of the room spewing information?  Does she move around the classroom and make eye contact with every student?  Is she speaking in a monotone or using her voice to her advantage.  I might ask her to treat me as one of her students and teach me something.  That way I could gauge where the problem lies.  If she isn’t using technology and experimentation to her advantage she is missing two of the great motivators of all time.  Smart boards make the students interract with the lesson.  It requires that students get up out of their seats.  Short movies on the lessons help keep the students motivated.  With TV in just about everyone’s home, it is a sure fire way to grab the students’ attentions.  Creating lessons that require hands on participation can be a strong motivator of students.  Getting outside to teach a lesson can be a great way to get students to participate and, it gets them some much needed fresh air.  The teacher could do a lesson on pressure or volcanoes and put Mentos into a Coke bottle.  Seeing Coke erupt out of a two liter bottle will grab anyone’s attention.  The goal is to keep the students totally involved in whatever the teacher is talking about.  Let them get up and move around as much as possible.  Find out which way each student learns best.  Some learn best by reading, some by doing, and some by computer.  There is no rule that says the students should be sitting constantly in their chairs and listening to you lecture.  She should make if fun. Once she finds what motivates the students to learn, she’ll have made great strides in becoming an experienced teacher.

Discipline problems come from two different angles.  One is if the student already knows the material and is bored.  The other is if the student has no idea what you’re talking about.  It is the teachers’s responsibility to find out which it is and, to do her best to correct the situation.  The student who is bored because he knows the material can be made to feel important by asking him to help out in some way.  If he feels that he has a job to do helping other students, the bad behavior may fade away quickly.  The other student just needs a little extra hand holding.  The teacher should have him try different methods of learning.  Perhaps he’s trying to learn by a method that won’t work for him.  If he’s trying and failing he needs a little more confidence.  During centers, the teacher should pull him aside and work with him one on one.  It’ll go a long way to build his confidence and, he’ll know that she cares about him as a person.  Once the students know she cares about each and every one of them as individuals, some of the classroom management problems will disappear.

1.    What are two main issues under discussion in this case?

The first issue is that Mr. Smith decided to try an innovative technique with absolutely no modeling for the students.  They were just expected to understand how to proceed.  Although the students had background knowledge of the topic, they were not given the opportunity to demonstrate that knowledge, (Woolfolk). 

The second issue to come about is that Mr. Smith didn’t have any open instructional conversations with the students.  The reasoning behind his new technique was never approached with his students.  The students’ questions about the course were never answered and, hostile retorts were given when they asked for clarification.  Communication was at a standstill, (Woolfolk).

2.    Why were these issues important?

Without the modeling of the new technique and communication about what was expected, the students were bound for failure.  Even if given another chance, without communication and modeling the result would have been the same.

3.    How is each issue being played out in this case?  Explain.

1-     Mr. Smith’s assumption that the students would “fall in line” with his new technique was naïve at best.  It may have suited him to go out of the norm but, his students had no idea about how to follow his lead.  He neither modeled nor communicated affectively his desire to try something different.  The students had no communication from Mr. Smith as to why he had made the change.  His new testing style was not discussed and, had nothing to do with the topic they had researched.  Actually it had nothing to do with the standard teachings of history at all.  The students felt lost and sabotaged when they took the first test.

4.    What are the variables that would need to be considered in deciding a course of action?  Variables should represent multiple interpretations of the issue, such as pros and cons or two alternative interpretations, etc.

The students should be taken into account.  They have studied this topic before in a very different manner.  Their self-efficacy is high due to their previous success in this topic.  Mr. Smith’s idea isn’t a bad one; it just shouldn’t be the bulk of the lesson.  Perhaps making it a group project would have been a better idea.  Mike should also model and communicate much more than he has so far this semester.

5.    How would you respond to this situation and why?

I would ask Mike to explain his reasoning behind the change in his teaching style.  Was it the students he was thinking of, or was he bored with teaching the same way?  If that was the case, I would ask someone to meet with him to discuss new ways to teach the material.  I would let him know that the students were feeling that his communication was lacking and that they felt lost without his modeling.  I would tell him that the exam change had them frustrated and confused about what they were meant to learn.

6.    Anticipate possible consequences to your responses.

Mike could get defensive and angry at my questioning of his teaching method.  He would either come to realize that it’s about the students and work with me, or he could stay angry and quit.  He might change the curriculum to be in a more traditional style and, drop the score of the first test.  He might agree to work with someone on a different lesson plan that includes the old plan as a project.

Reference

Reference: Woolfolk,A. , (2007). Educational Psychology (10^th ed.) Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

1.      What are the elements of social cognitive theory?

Social cognitive theory is concerned with both and internal and external factors.  Several elements (environmental, personal, and behaviors) are involved in learning through there interactions with each other.  Social cognitive theory is based upon Bandura’s reciprocal determinism.  Reciprocal determinism states that forces of personal factors (beliefs, expectations, etc.), physical and social environments (consequences of actions, etc.), and behavior influence by interacting with each other, (p. 330).  Personal factors can affect social influences, which in turn can affect behaviors.  These factors can affect each other in any combination (figure 9.1, p. 330).

“Albert Bandura suggests that predictions about possible outcomes of behavior are critical for learning because they affect motivation, (p. 332).  External (other people) and internal comparisons influences a person’s self-concept.  “self-efficacy focuses on your ability to successfully accomplish a particular task with no need for comparisons, (p. 332).  It is a person’s perception of how they will succeed at a task without considering if someone else would be successful.  Their thoughts about whether they will be successful, can affect their behavior.  Beliefs about personal capabilities are at the center of self-efficacy.

2.      In what situations might a teacher use modeling?

Woolfolk states that modeling is “changes in behavior, thinking, or emotions that happen through observing another person – a model,” (p. 333).  Modeling can be used to play out situations for resolving differences.  The teacher would have another student help demonstrate the proper way to diffuse and argument.  A teacher can also model by being respectful of the students and staff of the school.  Modeling can be used to help students break down how to write a paragraph, or the steps to solving a mathematical problem.

3.      What are the three constructivist perspectives on learning?

-          Psychological/Individual Constructivism – “Psychological constructivists are concerned with how individuals build up certain elements of their cognitive or emotional apparatus, (p. 345).  Sometimes called individual constructivists, they are concerned with an individual’s knowledge, beliefs, self-concepts, and identity (p. 345).  Piaget’s take on constructivism had to do with how an individual built meaning.  A person’s thoughts determined how meaning was developed.  Piaget’s constructivism is also known as “first wave constructivism,” (p. 345).  The extremists of individual constructivism believe that an individuals perceptions and beliefs about the world are the only meaning constructed by an individual because he has no way of knowing the meaning another individual has developed.

-          Vygotsky’s social constructivism – Second wave constructivism is concerned with social learning.  For example, a child in Mexico is taught Spanish by his parents, while a child in France is taught French.  “One way of integrating individual and social constructivism is to think of knowledge as individually constructed and socially mediated,” (p. 346).  Using primates as another example, a chimpanzee learns to use a stick as a tool for collecting ants out of an ant hole.  That chimpanzee models the technique for others and, soon the entire family is using the stick technique. 

-          Constructivism – “Social constructivists do not focus on individual learning.  Their concern is how public knowledge in disciplines such as science, math, economics, or history is constructed,” (p.346).  Collaboration and the challenging of viewpoints and traditions are encouraged in order to create new cultures.

4.      How could you incorporate inquiry, problem-based learning, instructional conversations, and cognitive apprenticeships in your teaching?

-          The scientific method is the best example of inquiry learning.  The students present a hypothesis, perform an experiment, gather results, and see if their hypothesis is true.  Another example would be a KWL chart.  The students put down what they know about a topic, what they want to know, and what they have learned.  Some assumptions about what the students know could be wrong, (p.351).

-          Problem-base learning is concerned with developing knowledge that is flexible to many situations and may or may not have a right answer.  A teacher presents a problem about how to stop global warming.  The teacher then helps the students organize ways in which to research the topic.  The students, with the guidance of the teacher, then proceed to gather information about the topic.  The students then give presentations, reports, etc. about the topic after which a discussion ensues about what was discovered, (p.352).

-          Instructional conversations have nothing to do with the standard form of instruction.  Instead the teacher and students talk through the learning process.  Questions and answers are a perfect way to participate.  Instructional conversations should keep the entire class engaged.  The ultimate goal is to have the students converse more among themselves, and less with the teacher.  I would use this technique when discussing current events, (p. 356).

-          Cognitive apprenticeships enable the teacher to model a particular task so that the students will assimilate the behavior after practice.  By doing, the students become adept at the task.  I could use apprenticeships when showing students how to solve word problems.

What are the characteristics of a good lesson for teaching a key concept in your subject area?

     You should use examples and non-examples.  Examples should be of a wide variety that includes many possibilities for inclusion.  These possibilities should include irrelevant attributes in the category.  A discussion of why an iguana is not a fish, even though is swims, (non-example) will help the students define the boundary of what defines a fish (p 288).

     Relevant and irrelevant attributes should be used.  Swimming is not a relevant attribute when classifying fish.  Many animals swim and are not fish (humans, dogs, iguanas, etc.).  Swimming is one attribute of fish, but others would have to be considered to help narrow down what makes a fish, a fish (p 288).

     The topic should be labeled to enhance the understanding of the concept.  The understanding of a concept is not necessary, but the label should be something that is used by the student.  An example is that many students use the term mammal, but are not aware that a platypus (which lays an egg), is a mammal (p 288).

     A good definition, with general and defining attributes, is key for a student to understand a concept.  An example is that a whale is a mammal (general category) that bears live young, is warm-blooded, has hair/fur, and nurses its young (defining attributes).

     I use visuals as often as possible.  I also use movement to help students grasp a concept.  My favorite technique is to show students my plastic butterfly lifecycle and then teach them the butterfly dance which goes through all the stages.

What are the steps in solving complex problems and what are the roles of problem representation, algorithms, and heuristics in problem solving?

     The steps to solving complex problems can be remembered as IDEAL (Identify the problem, Define and represent the problem, exploring possible strategies, and looking back and evaluating how your strategies worked) (p 295). 

     The role of representation allows the student to focus on what is relevant in the problem and ignoring the irrelevant.  Representation also requires that the student understand the words in the problem.  This can involve repeating back to the teacher what was said, to make sure that the student understands the problem.  Using the schema to understand the problem is also necessary(p. 296). 

     While seaching for an appropriate strategy for the solution to the problem the student may use either algorithms or heuristics.  Algorithms are a “step-by-step prescription for achieving a goal”, (p. 298).  It is usually domain-specific (related to a certain subject area).  When used correctly the right answer is guaranteed.  If not applied in a step-by-step fashion, the student may arrive at the right answer but have no idea how they got it.  If the problem is ill-defined, then a heuristic approach can be used.  This is a more general strategy that mayor may not lead to the correct answer.  The problem is broken into subgoals.  Each subgoal’s solution is figured out.  Some examples of heurisitc are working-backward stratey and analogical thinking.  In working-backward strategy the student starts at the intended goal and works backwards toward the “initial unsolved problem,” (p. 299).  When the student limits his search by limiting “solutions to situations that have something in commomn with the one (he) faces,” (p. 300).  The problem solving using this technique can be incorrect also.

How could you apply new learning strategies and tactics to prepare for tests and assignments in your current courses?

     Learning strategies are the plans the student takes to accomplish his learning goals.  The plan is made up of specific learning tactics.  There are several learning tactics that may work for individuals.  Focusing on headings, bold words, etc. can give the student an idea of what the passage is about.  Reading a section and then summarizing what was important about that passage, or underlining what was the main idea can be used.  Taking notes can help the student focus on the task at hand.  Using reading strategies such as READ (review, examine, ask, do it, and summarize) and CAPS (characters, aim, problem, and solved) can be effective.  KWL charts are a favorite of mine because you get a feel for how much information the class knows as a whole.  Using their bodies while learning can also help students learn and maintain knowledge.

What are three ways a teacher might encourage positive transfer of learning?

     The teacher needs to keep the students involved in their learning process.  The classroom should be an aid in the learning process.  The teacher should be helping the students in learning self-regulation so that she may gradually give the students more responsibility in their learning process.  The students should have the opportunity for interaction and collaboration with each other.  The learning process should involve topics that have personal meaning for the students.  Cognitive and motivational processes should be developed through the encouragement of the classroom culture, (p. 321).

I’ve decided that voice thread hates me.  I got on once and tried to post and then everything went haywire from there.  It kept freezing up my computer or said internet explorer couldn’t find the site.  I’ll send it through email.  Sorry Dr. Coffman.