Instructional Strategies for Teaching K12

1. Instructional Strategies for Teaching K12

2. Evolution of Educational TheorySocrates - didacticPlato - innateAristotle – simultaneous and associative learning by similarity/contrastLocke – tabula rasaSkinner – behaviorism, reinforcement, conditioning, overt behaviorGestalt – cognitivism, short-term/long-term memory, prior knowledgePiaget - discovery, experiential, hands-on, active learning Constructivism – Piaget, et al(Information Processing, PBL, Transformative, Informal, Post-modern, Neuroscience, Connectivism, Instructional, Networked & so on... )

3. Constructivism in Science Inquiry • Building knowledge in parts via an iterative process (assimilation and accommodation) • Active learning, hands-on, learner-centered • Collaborative, discovery, experiential • (LdL) Learning by teaching • Teacher as facilitator ('guide on side' vs 'sage on stage') • Higher motivation, testing scores & knowlege retention

4. Memory: Learning is Multi-modal • Learning=memory=retrieval • Short term and long term memory • Short term memory is working memory • Learning takes place when short moves to long-term storage • Neural networks are long-term • Clusters of synapsed neurons • Throughout brain foci • Strong ties to cerebellum (longest) • Triggers

5. Memory: Learning is Multi-modal

6. Memory: Learning is Multi-modal • Implicit long term memory is stored and retrieve unconsciously and help us perform tasks without thinking • Explicit long-term memory (declarative) requires conscious thought • Semantic pathway is newest in human evolution - weakest

7. Memory: Learning is Multi-modal • information moves from working memorythru hippocampusto long term storage areasbuilds on preexisting neural networks through association

8. What's this doing in the presentation?

9. Bloom's Taxonomy • Creating - designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing, devising, making • Evaluating - checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging, testing, detecting, monitoring • Analyzing - comparing, organising, deconstructing, attributing, outlining, finding, structuring, integrating • Applying - implementing, carrying out, using, executing • Understanding - interpreting, summarising, inferring, paraphrasing, classifying, comparing, explaining, exemplifying • Remembering - recognising, listing, describing, identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, finding

10. Instructional Strategies for K12 • Meaningful instruction • Scaffolding • Chunking • Metacognition and reflection • Cooperative learning • Movement • Hands-on and manipulatives • Content mapping

11. Making instruction meaningful • Relevant • here and now to student's world view, concerns, current events, life stage • biofuels, taxol anticancer drug from endophytes, food pathogens, health • Context/pattern • Emotion • According to learning objectives

12. Scaffolding • Beyond introductory • Begins by eliciting student interest (stories, questions, demos, moving location) • Builds by drawing on prior knowledge • Provides a starter “package of information” • Sets the stage for continued knowledge acquisition • Organizes information and enables long term memory formation

13. Chunking • Breaking instruction into smaller parts • Each part with a specific, measurable objective • Younger = shorter/smaller chunks • Moving chunks together into long term memory

14. Chunking

15. Chunking

16. Metacognition and Reflection • Student mastery over their own education – learning how to learn • Ultimate indicator of knowledge transfer – making learning last • Metacognition • Being able to explain how a problem was solved • Recognizing similarity to other problems and choosing solution parts that help • Articulating what is not known in order to solve the problem • Reflection • What was new about what was learned • Predicting what other problems could be solved • Determining other ways to solve the problem • Mushroom exercise: using senses, detecting patterns/modes of sorting and classification, applying to an unknown

17. Movement and Learning • Strong links between cerebellum and memory, decision making, spatial perception, language, attention, nonverbal and emotion • Axons from cerebellum are longest and extend out to all parts of the brain • Starting here enables attention and activates information acquisition pathways to processing centers • Types: • Kinestetics • Hands-on • Manipulatives • Note-taking • Modeling

18. Hands-on & Manipulatives • Learning processes/procedural applications • Demo: PCR amplification • Term “amplification” meaning making more stuff not “louder” • Part of the 'scrapbook lab tour' outreach workshop

19. Cooperative learning • Humans are social • Types • Reciprocal Questioning: students work together to ask and answer questions • Jigsaw Classroom: students become "experts" on one part of a group project and teach it to the others in their group • Structured Controversies: Students work together to research a particular controversy • Group quizzes • Grouping configurations • Not gender • Mixed ability best

20. Sample Lesson: Mitosis & Meiosis Pipe cleaner mitosis/meiosis Checking: Hands-on Collaborative Objective driven Mastery Metacognition and reflection Learning by teaching

21. Assessment • Formative • Informal check for understanding, discussions, hand-raising, observing, homework, checklists, concept maps (see www.Mind42.com) • Helps discern learning strengths and weaknesses of individual learners, whole class and teaching method efficacy Summative • Tests, quizzes, essays, papers, lab process skills tests, lab reports • Appropriate for unit testing, placement, grade assignment, certifying acheivement Alternative • Extra credit topics, special projects, web sites, models, products, journals, presentations, portfolios • Helps check/test for learning through different venues: second language learners, multiple intelligences • Appropriate for outreach, formative and summative assessment

22. Mycology & STEM: a natural • Science – fungal biology, genomics, ecology, medicine • Technology – lab, software • Engineering – agriculture, industrial and medical • Math - bioinformatics

23. Translating Your Research to a Younger Audience and to the General Public • Broader impact statements on grants • Vertical integration and pathfinding to higher ed

24. Translating your research to a younger audience and the general public • Outreach opportunities • lab tours (scrapbooking idea), family nights at local schools • workshops with hands-on activities • science camps, Saturday science • science fair projects and mentoring • citizen scientists and partnering with local government agencies • podcasts, webcams/casts, youtube channels • Writing curriculum – longer view • field testing • using standards and measurable objectives • lesson plan format expected • assessment includes formative and summative

25. Evolving a Teaching Style: Andragogy • Implementing learner centered activities (active) • Offering options to accommodate different learning styles • Considering prior experience and relevant learning experiences • Building a friendly climate that allows risk taking and error making as avenues of learning along with space and time for dialogue and interaction to occur. • Owning their learning process – students take responsibility for their own learning and have a voice in what is studied. • Instructor acts as facilitator rather than knowledge provider and imparts a flexible environment and curriculum that reflect student needs and interests.

26. Getting Started • Your university. Check for UA equivalent of Office of Instruction and Assesment: http://www.ltc.arizona.edu/content/resources - Workshops - Higher Ed Teacher Certification - Find a mentor - Observing other teachers • Suggested Reading • Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers. Marilla Svinicki and Wilbert McKeachie. • Tools for Teaching. Barbara Gross Davis. Both of these contain nice, practical tips for teaching, along with key references to research that back up the efficacy of the techniques. • Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. Thomas Angelo and K. Patricia Cross. This is an awesomely useful handbook of techniques that can be used to probe students in different classroom situations for their understanding. They are rated as to the quality of the information that can be obtained, ease of use, and ease of interpretation. • AAAS in partnership with NSF - Broader Impact & Public Education: http://communicatingscience.aaas.org/Pages/newmain.aspx