The JASPER Project component is broken into two parts:
Part 1 – Is the perceived issue that I believe the Jasper Project was responding to.
Part 2 – Highlights my initial impressions of the series. what questions this TELE raises for me as an instructor and a potential TELE designer, as well as a commentary of my perspectives after the symposium.
Part 1
What perceived issue or problem are the Jasper materials responding to? Do you agree that this is an issue or problem? What does the current literature that you have read say about this issue? How is this issue addressed in the design of the Jasper materials? In what ways do contemporary videos available for math instruction and their support materials address or not address these issues?
Problem Solving and the New Curriculum
I was extremely intrigued by this week’s focus on the Jasper Project and early Anchored Instruction TELEs.
The perceived issue the Jasper Project was trying to address was the shift in math instruction from traditional teacher-directed content teaching (without context), to problem solving and the meaningful construction and application of knowledge by students to, and within, realistic and complex situations.
I agree with this shift in focus and believe that the Jasper project was on the right track to addressing this issue. Jasper’s engaging videos (though now a bit dated) were an interesting starting point to address this. The videos gave students context and the ability to visualize often times difficult to understand information and actively apply this information within a variety of scenarios. The “Adventures of Jasper Woodbury – Rescue at Boone’s Meadow” (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1992) challenged student to utilize knowledge in science and math and apply this knowledge to plan and execute an eagle rescue. Results from this study and other videodisc-based instruction (Shyu, 2000) have demonstrated a significant improvement in student problem-solving skills, performance, and attitudes toward mathematics.
The new British Columbia curriculum I believe is also addressing this focus; encouraging teachers to look cross-curricular and teach with anchored instruction. Curriculum such as Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies encourage problem-solving, inquiry, and collaboration. Even within Science and Math, an emphasis is placed on real-world context and application. It is no longer acceptable to teach isolated skills or content. “The deep understanding and application of knowledge is at the centre of the new model, as opposed to the memory and recall of facts that previously shaped education around the globe for many decades” (B.C. Ministry of Education, 2017).
While I am not familiar with all of the contemporary videos available for math instruction and support technology, sites such as Khan Academy do not seem to provide anchored instruction like the Jasper Series does. From my recollection, Khan Academy provides tutorials on concepts (how to multiply and divide fractions for example) as opposed to the application of these concepts within complex situations.
Moving forward, I am interested in how current technologies may be utilized to provide anchored instructions in classrooms. What technologies have another teacher’s used? Did you consider them “successful”? (Success as defined by you in your classroom).
Part 2
Reflections and Questions: The Jasper Project and the Anchored Instruction Symposium
My initial impression of the Jasper series was that it was incredibly dated, a terrible thing I know, but that is what struck me. However, after watching several of the problems in the series I could quickly see the value they added to engaging students through real life, and believable, problems. Students were required to use a number of skills, in addition to mathematics, to solve the challenges posed to them. The open-ended nature of the problems was also something that really struck me – it allows for individuals to come up with solutions that don’t necessarily fall into the right/wrong dichotomy. Cognitively, students are reflecting on their skill set and knowledge and making decisions
While anchored instruction should have a collaborative component, I did not see much of this with the Jasper project. If I were to create a series inspired by the Jasper project, which I intend to do, collaboration will be central to the adventure.
From reading my colleagues responses in the Anchored Instruction Symposium I noticed that we shared common thoughts about the Jasper Project.
a) It’s dated – Most agreed that this could be easily remedied by creating something utilizing modern technologies. Finding the time to create this and to teach it would be a factor.
b) Most felt that a series such as Jasper would be motivating to students. This may be due to its novelty and/or the real world problems it is based on.
c) That the series helps students utilize the skills they have (in math/science/etc) and apply them in a meaningful way and in authentic situations. However, it is important that our students have these skills first.
Some questions that arose from watching the video series and reflecting on how I would design a TELE were:
a) What real-life situations/scenarios would I base the project on? Would I choose them myself or would I pose the question to my students to help them construct the challenge?
b) What technology would I use to create the TELE?
c) Assessment – The usual struggle of how to assess individual work in a collaborative environment. Also, taking authentic assessment pieces and then transferring these into standardized report cards.
d) How do I structure the collaborative activities?
e) What is the goal of the TELE?
I look forward to taking the information I have learned from these lessons and applying it to the creation of a Jasper-inspired series in my own school. It is my hope that this would be a cross-curricular unit that encompasses math/science/ADST/English and perhaps social studies. Students would be drawing from their knowledge in all areas to apply to the given scenarios. What an exciting time to be a student!
References
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2017). B.C.’s New Curriculum. Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum-info
Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1992). The Jasper Series as an Example of Anchored Instruction: Theory, Program Description, and Assessment Data, Educational Psychologist, 27(3), 291-215.
Shyu, H.Y.C. (2000). Using video-based anchored instruction to enhance learning: Taiwan’s experience. British Journal of Educational Technology, 31(7), 57-69.