I really enjoyed watching Case #1 and #2 as they both pertain to my role as a senior math, calculus and physics teacher. I found Case #1 particularly interesting as I had collaborated with this teacher on two different ETEC projects in the past year. I had always found this STEM program quite interesting and inspiring and enjoyed gaining an appreciation for his workspace and watching how his students engage with the program. Below are some themes that stuck out with me:
Relevance:
My years of experience teaching math and physics onboard a sailing high school have reinforced my belief that students learn best when they recognize the relevance and applications of what they are learning. In this case, students are working through problems and then testing their conclusions in real life. Awesome!
Guide on the Side:
Furthermore, much of the knowledge the students were acquiring did not come from the teacher; it was the product of self-directed inquiry and discussing with more-knowledgeable peers. The role of the teacher here is to provide enough information for the teams to get started and then offer direction and support while holding each group accountable to their learning when necessary.
Quality vs Quantity
As opposed to my rather traditional classroom where we might solve a dozen or so questions in a class, these students were solving one big question over the course of a long period of time.
Resources
Students had access to superb materials, resources, and tools. In one video, we see the teacher showcase the material testing equipment suitable for testing the limits of various materials. We also notice students are using computers and other electronics to develop code. I appreciated how digital technology was connected with hands-on materials.
This case definitely left me with a few questions concerning management and accountability of learning.
- How does the teacher manage, support and direct so many teams while holding each student accountable to the course objectives (particularly with less motivated students)?
- How are the mechanics of physics/math assessed? Or are mechanics less important?
I recall the teacher once saying during one of our conversations that he does struggle with class control at times. Not that students are often misbehaving, but more struggling to know where each team is at. In a traditional classroom, the teacher is able to manage learning expectations and the pacing of course content fairly easily. Here, the teacher really needs to trust that the students are intrinsically motivated to solve problems using the tools available to them. For this program to be successful, the teacher needs to understand what the students are able to accomplish, understand the tools and resources available and build a class culture that supports inquiry and curiosity.
The use of digital technologies and hands-on material definitely ameliorate conceptual challenges in understanding physics and material design. Students can feel what happens to the strength of the materials when they modified or rearranged. Learning needs to grow from prior knowledge and experience and what better way than have students constantly test their most intimate form of knowledge, their intuition.
Hey Bryn, great post!
You asked “How does the teacher manage, support and direct so many teams while holding each student accountable to the course objectives (particularly with less motivated students)?”
I would imagine that the time saved by no longer acting as a Sage on Stage would be redistributed to help support students as they work through their projects/problems. Ideally, the students would have had input into the project and so would have some level of buy-in, leading to greater engagement… at least for the more motivated students. In other words, the keeners are probably not gonna need so much guidance because they’ll be busy doing their own thing. As for the less motivated students, well, perhaps the teacher has more time to focus on them by the nature of the activity chosen and the “keeners” taking care of themselves.
If it were me I’d likely help students create roles in their teams and have at least one student accountable for relaying important info and progress back to me, and perhaps have this role rotate through the members as the course unfolds to ensure no student can totally slack off. On another note, in this day and age I’d likely add them all to a Google Classroom (or similar) and have them provide updates, almost like meting minutes, on what they’ve been working on. Heck, maybe I’d have them keep track of everything in Classroom since they’d be using it. Then I could do two things: 1) survey the scene in-class and provide in-the-moment feedback and support and 2) provide constructive comments on their work in Google Docs that could keep them on track without being too overbearing.
As for how exactly this teacher in the case managed these things… I’m not entirely sure… maybe if we were given their names we could email them!! 😀
Thanks for getting me thinking,
Scott