Communicating Ocean Sciences Session 5: Constructing Knowledge, Building Understanding

1. Communicating Ocean SciencesSession 5: Constructing Knowledge, Building Understanding

2. Session 5 objectives • Determine what is “building understanding” and “constructing knowledge” • Discuss strategies facilitators use to help learners build understanding • Discuss the basic premise of constructivist approach to learning and teaching • Discuss the role of prior knowledge in building understanding • Engage participants in a learning experience and a reflection on how your prior knowledge, the use of a model, conversations with peers, and facilitation by the instructor influenced that experience • Discuss the major research perspectives regarding constructing understandings and building on prior knowledge

3. Quick Write • Address Roschelle’s assertion that “considering prior knowledge forces a shift to thinking of learning as ‘conceptual change.’” How does this affect how you plan to implement your classroom lessons? Please give a specific example.

4. Learning Blank slates • Learner as a tabula rasa, blank slate, or empty vessel. • Learning is filling the learner with information. • Teaching is transmission of knowledge, i.e. teaching as telling. Clever minds • Learner as clever minds, full of preconceived ideas & private explanations. • Learning is adding to, connecting to, & changing learner’s ideas & explanations. • Teaching is guiding learners through the learning process.

5. Basic ideas about constructivism • All learners arrive at any learning situation with their own often quite elaborate ideas, explanations & theories. They are far from “blank slates”. • Learning is an active process of engaging & manipulating objects, experiences, & conversations. • Learners “construct” their own understanding of the world based on their experiences, motivations, & cultural and social interactions with peers and others.

6. Terms for learner’s thinking • Misconception • Preconception • Alternate conception Learner’s thinking & ideas, conceptions, and understanding

7. Phases of the Moon

8. Think-Pair-Share • Think about the times you looked at the Moon. • What did it look like? • Did you see it last night? • What shape was it? • The different shapes and look of the moon is referred to as the phases of the moon. • What do you think causes the phases of the Moon?

9. Thinking about Thinking • How was prior knowledge elicited and used in the activity? • What did you do to make sense of what causes the phases of the moon?

10. Strategies for learning & teaching • Hands on, manipulation of the model • Listening to & talking with peers • Thinking on your own • Listening & talking with the instructor in the whole group • Overhearing other peers • Discussing and testing out ideas that agree or disagree with your own understanding • Asking new questions • Explaining your ideas to peers or instructor • Accessing and making connections to prior knowledge & experiences

11. Ponder this • What makes experiences important for learning? • What makes social interactions important for learning? • What affect did your prior knowledge have on your learning experiences?

12. A constructivist process for learning • Complex ideas develop over a long period of time. • Learners must encounter multiple learning experiences that encourage them to • question their assumptions • engage in discussion about their ideas • make connections to and build on their prior knowledge • apply their new understandings in different contexts.

13. Ideas from research • Read each finding aloud in your small group & then together choose two or more of the statements & discuss the following questions: • What are your experiences, impressions, and/or opinion of the ideas? • Which statements would you like to discuss more fully & what about each one leads you to want to discuss it further? • How might you facilitate an activity in a learning environment (even your own learning) to take the research on learning into account?

14. Ponder this • How do you know what prior knowledge your learners are bringing with them to the experience?

15. Metacognition • Metacognitive abilities are critical to learning. • Metacognition is “thought about thought”, and refers to a broad range of processes, including monitoring, detecting incongruities or anomalies, self-correcting, planning and selecting goals, & even reflecting on the structure of one’s knowledge & thinking. • Metacognitive abilities enable learners to detect inconsistencies in their thinking.

16. Tides Interactive Science Presentation

17. Lesson Planning and Prep

18. Reflection: Quick Write • How can these ideas about learning, prior knowledge and metacognition be useful and relevant to you? • When you teach, how might you help your learners to make sense of the science? • What challenges might face you when applying these ideas in designing and engaging in learning experiences in an informal environment?

19. Homework • Reading • National Research Council. (2007). Chapter 6: Understanding how scientific knowledge is constructed. • Michaels, S., Shouse, A.W., & Schweingruber, H.A. (2008). Chapter 5: Making thinking visible: Talk and argument. • Moon phases readings: • http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question3.html • http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970103b.html • http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon/