Category Archives: B. Anchored Instruction Symposium

The Jasper Experiment, popular in the early 1900’s was a video-based learning tool that I would argue was a precursor to many of the educational goals of today.  The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt University (1993) describes the experience of a child being immersed into a video and is asked to identify and create goals and subgoals to ultimately solve a presented problem.  The goal of this learning experience is to “[emphasize] the importance of anchoring or situated instruction in meaningful, problem-solving context” and create classroom activities that are complex, have open-ended problem solving that connect math to other subjects and to the world outside the classroom (475, The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt University, 1993).

Like many research findings, I often question that reliability of the findings as the participants are typically in a central location.  What I found very interesting about the readings this week was the article titled Using video-based anchored instruction to enhance learning: Taiwan’s experience (2000).  They describe a culture that is strict on academics and typically follows the traditional, teacher-centered, memorization educational format.  Using videos inspired by the Jasper series, students in Taiwan were placed into a treatment or control group.  The findings ultimately appeared to be similar to that of American findings.  They found that students felt more positive, interested in and less anxious towards mathematics.  As well, student problem-solving skills improved significantly with anchored instruction.

These findings ultimately had me wondering, what was it about these videos that worked so well?  Although the readings this week discussed some of their explanations for the effectiveness (video formatting, narrative, generative format, embedded data, problem complexity, pairs of adventures and links to curriculum), they were also written over 20 years ago.  What about students today, would they feel the same connection to the videos?  My answer is yes.  As a teacher at an inner city school I am constantly looking for material that is accessible to my students.  Many of my students are reading below grade level and when presented with written instructions become overwhelmed and shut down.  I appreciate the video aspect of this tool as it provides the information in a format that I know each of my students will understand and be drawn to.  Our ultimate goal is to motivate students and make them excited to learn, and I believe a tool like this would do just that.

Finally, I appreciated the discussion of assessment described by The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt University (1992).  They found that student and teacher perceptions of the assessment tools originally associated with the videos was creating a negative impact on the students.  I was also confused myself.  Here is a fantastic tool that has been created to increase student motivation and demonstrate to them the real-world implications of mathematics,  but yet we will require them to use paper-to-pencil summative assessment.  In other words, it would seem that the purpose of the videos was once again to have students ready for another test.  As a way to solve this concern, the researchers piloted a teleconference that had students watching videos and using descriptive, problem-solving answers to identify an expert.  It ultimately had students feeling that they were learning something new and reengaged in the material.

Overall, I believe the Jasper Project is a great example of educational tools and technology that successfully implements content and technology in a way that would engage and motivate our students.

Shayla

The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt University (1992), The Jasper Series as an Example of Anchored Instruction: theory, program, description, and assessment data. Educational Psychologist, 27(3), 291-315.

The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt University (1993), The Jasper Experiment: using video to furnish real-world problem solving. The Arithmetic Teacher 40(8), 474-478.

Shyu, H. (2000), Using video-based anchored instruction to enhance learning: Taiwan’s experience. British Journal of Educational Technology, 31(1), 57-69.

The goal of the Jasper series was to set up a shared context learning environment where students would experience a “realistic problem-rich setting,” understanding procedures, skills and concepts (Cognition & Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1992a). Students were to develop independent critical thinking skills. This TELE was an avenue for exploring STEM, facilitating a shared understanding between educators and learners, developing authentic problem-solving skills.

Though 1992 was a long time ago, the issue of developing real problem solving skills in students is as applicable today as it was then. When we look at the new BC curriculum and understand that as educators we are preparing students for jobs that don’t even exist right now it is incredibly important that we consider our duty to develop and foster critical thinking skills. These skills will be invaluable to whatever career path they choose as it will allow them to adapt.

In Taiwan, a video based series, Encore’s Vacation, was implemented in multiple grade 5 classes. It resulted in increased motivation and academic achievement (Shyu, H., 2000). It was quite similar as it offered visual and audio presentation of authentic problems, with a storyline and the ability to control the speed of the video. This afforded the opportunity of differentiation through extension or simplification if needed. As such, one could definitely consider this anchored instruction. 

One big takeaway I got from the readings was the emphasis on engaging in the challenging of information and the need to reflect as they learn. All this must be done while accessing and applying their pre-existing knowledge when confronted with alternate points of view (1992a). The Jasper series of videos can be considered anchored instruction because it is situated learning, emphasizing learning within context and giving students the opportunity to engage in the same types of content and knowledge that the experts in the video did.

When comparing to what may be considered contemporary versions of the Jasper series ( ex. Khan Academy, Academic Earth, BBC Learn etc.) it should be pointed out that the absence of cooperative learning in these programs distinguishes them. Active engagement is missing somewhat from these online platforms, while groups of students collaborated in the Jasper videos.

Though the Jasper series is anchored instruction the reality is that technology has advanced a great deal since this study. Certainly when bringing this into the context of today the basic quality of the platform (video and audio) need to be addressed. Furthermore, if I were to update video instruction to make it more relevant for today it seems logical to add updated forms of online communication such as backchannel programs or social media.

Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1992a). The Jasper experiment: An exploration of issues in learning and instructional design. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 40(1), 65-80.

Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1992b). The Jasper series as an example of anchored instruction: Theory, program, description, and assessment data. Educational Psychologist, 27(3), 291-315.

Shyu, H. Y. C. (2000). Using video‐based anchored instruction to enhance learning: Taiwan’s experience. British Journal of Educational Technology, 31(1), 57-69.

What evidence exists regarding anchored instruction? What are some important nuances of the research that are pertinent to your practice? What further inquiries or questions does the research reported in the articles raise for you (e.g. regarding evaluation, professional development, disabilities and/or the content area you teach or would like to promote etc)? Finally, in what ways might a current technology for math (Eg. Mathletics, CTC Math, IXL, Dragonbox, or others) address in part this question?

I might be dating myself, but I was the teacher who consistently rolled the TV and VCR into the classroom to set it up before my students came into the class. It was not uncommon for students to give a fist pump and a cheer when they saw the TV was on with the words pause on the bottom of the screen.  Walking into a classroom today, most elementary lessons, have an anticipatory set that includes some form of digital video to introduce or support a concept. Which could be from  YouTube, Discovery Education, Vimeo, other streaming application.  Barron, L., et al. (1993) suggests the use of video technology has the potential to reinforce context and facilitates active learning (p. 475). Moreover, video can be as good as an instructor in communicating facts or demonstrating procedures to assist in mastery learning where a student can view complex clinical or mechanical procedures as many times as they need to. Furthermore, the interactive features of modern web-based media players can be used to promote ‘active viewing’ approaches with students (Galbraith, 2004).

According to Alberta Mathematics Program of Studies (Alberta Education.2016). “Students learn by attaching meaning to what they do, and they need to construct their own meaning of mathematics. This meaning is best developed when learners encounter mathematical experiences that proceed from the simple to the complex and from the concrete to the abstract… At all levels, students benefit from working with a variety of materials, tools and contexts when constructing meaning about new mathematical ideas. Meaningful student discussions provide essential links among concrete, pictorial and symbolic representations of mathematical concepts” (p. 1). With class sizes reaching 25 or more at the elementary level, it is especially difficult to make an impact for those students with learning difficulties.  Hasselbring, T. S., Lott, A. C., & Zydney, J. M. (2005) suggested anchored instruction for all students to support the transfer of knowledge to a variety of math problems. The problem lies in differentiating these instructional videos to best meet the ability levels for each individual learner.

In my opinion, such technological applications like Mathletics has the capability to provide individualized instruction, simplified exemplars and informative videos to enhance math achievement. More importantly, the learning is contextualized through their engaging realistic instruction to reinforce the learning process.

References:

Alberta Education.(2016). Mathematics (K–9)2007 (Updated 2016)[Program of Studies]. [Edmonton], Canada.

Barron, L., Bransford, J., Goin, L., Goldman, E., Goldman, S., Hasselbring, T., … & Vye, N. (1993). The Jasper experiment: using video to furnish real-world problem-solving contexts. Arithmetic Teacher, 40(8), 474-479.

Galbraith, J., ( 2004), ‘Active viewing: and oxymoron in video-based instruction?’, Society for Applied Learning Technologies Conference, designer.50g.com/docs/Salt_2004.pdf

Hasselbring, T. S., Lott, A. C., & Zydney, J. M. (2005). Technology-supported math instruction for students with disabilities: Two decades of research and development. Retrieved December, 12, 2013 from Google Scholar as a pdf.

The Jasper series of videos this week reminded me of the three-act math tasks my staff have begun using with our students. They work especially well in my context (primary French Immersion) because they are wordless films that allow students to do more of the cognitive work in problem solving than with traditional textbooks or worksheets. Both the Jasper videos and the three-act-task videos are underpinned by a constructivist framework; students must view the films and determine what problem they are trying to solve and what information they still need to solve it. These videos, however, require a lot of teacher guidance in order to make sense of them, which I think works well in the immersion environment where students need time to also practice their language skills along with their math skills. Hobbs notes that there is a disconnect between what students find engaging and what students live in math class (p1290), which just isn’t interesting. The Jasper series demonstrated open-ended science and problems are significantly different from the “stories” students often read in text books where they are looking for numbers and question words that provide computational practice but not problem solving; instead, they provide students with complex, open-ended problems that require technology to solve and are interesting to the learners. I think anchored instruction demonstrates that learning in math, like any other subject, is situational and what is learned is related to where it is learned and who it is learned with.

The problem that I see with this is that technology does change so quickly that the videos soon appear to be out of date. Watching the Jasper series videos, I couldn’t help but think that students would be distracted from the concepts presented by the video quality. I think this can be countered in part by a solution found in the three-act-math tasks because the videos are kept extremely simple… no music, effects, titles, etc. to become dated.

The key to anchored instruction being effective for learners is the element of feedback for learners while they are working through the problems. This is why I think discussion and conferencing over problems can be an effective method of teaching mathematics. My adjustment to using video to anchor instruction might be to add an element of digital interaction where students might respond to the questions using a padlet or flipgrid.

Hobbs, L., & Davis, R. (2013). Narrative pedagogies in science, mathematics and technology. Research in Science Education, 43(3), 1289-1305.

Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1992b). The Jasper series as an example of anchored instruction: Theory, program, description, and assessment data. Educational Psychologist, 27(3), 291-315.

The Jasper series responded to the assumption that students were simply developing their mathematical and scientific skills conceptually and in preparation for testing, without applying skills more deeply. The framework focuses on the idea of developing independent thinkers who can apply skills in the context of meaningful problem-solving situations. Of high importance is the idea that students should not simply respond to ideas that have been posed to them but instead, they must learn to identify the issues and problem on their own (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbelt, 1992).

I agree that students learning competent skills but lacking the ability to apply them in a new, real life situation remains a relevant issue, still 25 years after the Jasper series was developed. Further, I believe that current examination and testing techniques is a significant contributor to this. In the UK, the students in my class have to take an exam to identify which secondary school they will attend. I find myself teaching mathematical topics in depth at the beginning of the year, trying to relate it to real life and really encouraging problem solving. However, by the time the exam comes around, I have been guilty of just teaching the children the quickest method, even if they don’t understand why and I know that they will not be able to apply the concept in a new or more in depth problem solving situation. This is because I feel pressure from parents and admin to achieve certain results. It’s not a great cycle and something I’m trying to find a balance with in my classroom.

Hsin-Yih Cindy Shyu’s (2000) work on using situated learning in Taiwan really interested me. The article describes the high value that both parents and students place on education in Taiwan even claiming that “education is the ladder to success” (p. 59). The idea that many students rely on mastery made me think that perhaps the Encore’s Vacation –a resource with many similarities to the Jasper Project – would be out of place in a culture that uses rote memorization. The study demonstrated a positive change in the students’ attitudes towards mathematics. Further, the study demonstrated that “…anchored instruction obviously contributes to the students’ problem solving abilities” (p. 67). This made me think about my own assumptions of examination pressures and learning.

The Jasper series addresses the above problems by creating instructional videos which are situated in realistic setting with multi-dimensional problems for the students to identify and solve. It uses a cross-curricular approach and has extension activities to further challenge learners. As far as I know, I haven’t discovered any videos similar to the Jasper series. I have used the Khan academy videos for reinforcement and to help bridge the gap for students who had some conceptual holes in certain areas but they do not encourage students to identify and solve the problem in a real life situation.

Has anyone found any video resources, similar to the Jasper Project, that they have used to encourage problem solving in math or science at the elementary level? I’m interested to know what’s out there!

References

Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1992). The Jasper experiment: An exploration of issues in learning and instructional design. Educational Technology Research and Development, 40(1), 65-80.

Hickey, D.T., Moore, A. L. & Pellegrin, J.W. (2001). The motivational and academic consequences of elementary mathematics environments: Do constructivist innovations and reforms make a difference? American Educational Research Journal, 38(3), 611-652

Shyu, H. (2000). Using video-based anchored instruction to enhance learning: Taiwan’s experience. British Journal Of Educational Technology, 31(1), 57-69.

Anchored instruction by nature is meaningful problem solving, in a relevant environment (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt 1992). The evidence that exists suggests that it improves students’ cognitive ability to solve multi-layered problems. In general, “Jasper students showed less anxiety toward mathematics, were more likely to see mathematics as relevant to everyday life, more likely to see it as useful, and more likely to appreciate complex challenges” (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt 1992). So anchored instruction gave positive results with regards to its approach (both in integrating technology, and with its pedagogical practice), with exception: assessments.

Assessments aside, because those concerns were addressed to a certain extent in the articles, my primary concern is balance (especially with the younger students in creating a strong foundation of number sense), and the amount of time dedicated towards explicit instruction of skills in mathematics in addition to skills for exploratory problem solving. I do believe strongly that the anchored instruction the Jasper program facilitates is valuable. The article by Biswas, Schwartz, and Bransford mentions that students “…learn to work smart by inventing tools like graphs, charts, and spreadsheets that help them solve these problems at a glance” (Biswas, Schwartz, & Bransford, 2001). No doubt this is the kind of math students should be learning, and creating time for, but the organization of this knowledge amongst other new skills needs to be explicitly taught, which requires time, scaffolding, and opportunities to build on each others’ learning. Time being the resource most teachers are concerned with.

Because of its global context, Jasper is a closer connection to STEM than many other approaches to teaching mathematics, and its context for real world problems is engaging. Additionally, the ability to switch between different variables (what if we were measuring the speed and distance of a boat instead of an Ultralight, what if the tank was larger etc.) makes it easier to differentiate, and makes the students more fluent in seeing connections between themes, instead of focusing on a particular operation because that’s the unit they’re working on and those are the numbers and variables given, or what the Cognition Group at Vanderbilt call “computational selection” (1992).

In thinking about other resources that are available online for the age group that I teach, I can’t help but think of Mathletics and think that there is a lot within that program that helps for practicing calculation and computation, but not a ton on problem solving. It doesn’t have much to do with an anchored approach to learning, but it does provide lots in terms of differentiation, novelty, and friendly competition to motivate students to feel more comfortable with math. In the same vein as the Jasper model, I tend to gravitate more to resources like NRICH maths, which is designed as group work and explorative math/logical thinking activities. The learning doesn’t have as much of a narrative built in as the Jasper model, but it does have multi-step exercises (based on the age group you’re focusing on). With less video prompts than the Jasper episodes, NRICH starts with minimal technology in their activities (citing classic examples such as the ‘Tower of Hanoi’ mathematical problem), and builds their integration and aides around good practice, much like the Jasper study that focused on “… start[ing] with stone age designs (SAD) environments and to add sophistication and complexity only as necessary to achieve our instructional goals” (Biswas, Schwartz, & Bransford, 2001).  It is inquiry-based, focused on using group work, exploring, and noticing patterns, but not anchored instruction- it uses anecdotal tasks but not involved contexts to solve problems like Jasper. For the sake of extended questions within the learning, I would consider looking at NRICH from the perspective of anchored learning as exemplified in the Jasper model, and use problems that allow me to extend variables across many lessons, in addition to identifying and teaching through themes as opposed to specific situations (i.e. idea of calculating speed of that car, boat, train vs. the speed of one specific vehicle) to inform my future practice.

References:

Biswas, G. Schwartz, D. Bransford, J. & The Teachable Agent Group at Vanderbilt (TAG-V) (2001). Technology support for complex problem solving: From SAD environments to AI. In K.D. Forbus and P.J. Feltovich (Eds.)Smart Machines in Education: The Coming Revolution in Education Technology. AAAI/MIT Press, Menlo, Park, CA.

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), 291-315.

The philosophy behind the anchored instruction is to contextualize instruction, creating an environment where learning happens through experiences, ones that connect and embed any information to a problem solving procedure. So that, students would remember the information when they encounter similar problems. The argument is that, when students learn new information to solve problems that are contextual and meaningful to them, they assimilate the information to the tools for problem solving rather than facts for problem solving. Dewey (1993) on the importance of viewing knowledge as tools, noted that when people learn about a tool, they learn what it is and when and how to use it. This analysis on cognition is new to me. The major goal of anchoring instruction is to facilitate a spontaneous recall of knowledge in a problem-solving context. Aside from remembering the information as tools to solve a problem, I wonder if  students could also effectively use these tools to solve newly identified problems. Although, two problems can be contextually similar in mathematics, the approach and information needed to solve them could be slightly different. Therefore, the problem solving techniques would be different, though the same tools could be considered when solving the problems.

Whitehead (1929) argued that there is a knowledge that can usually be recalled when people are explicitly asked to do so but is not used spontaneously in problem solving even though it is relevant. He called this inert knowledge. This has made me reflect on some mathematics I sometimes teach and that are mainly mechanical and lack contextual inputs. As teacher and learner, I recognise myself in Sherwood, Kinzer, Hasselbring, and Bransford’s (1987) illustration of inert knowledge. When asked questions related to their knowledge of logarithms and their understanding of the use of logarithms, entering college students responded that they remembered learning them in school but they thought of them only as math exercises performed to find answers to logarithm problems. Unfortunately, I still have some topics in math that I teach the mechanics only. I guess if the same question was asked of my students in college, they would probably have a similar answer.

Contemporary research on education shows that learning that is contextual and meaningful to a student can develop his or her critical thinking skills and increase his or her capacity of retention. The principles of anchored instruction will be helpful in designing an instruction that fosters students’ engagement through contextual and meaningful concepts. Recently, I experienced the positive impact that a video can have on my students’ learning experience. For the purpose of elaborating on possible features embedded in videos that would contribute in anchoring instruction, I will use the video I posted last week on ‘Design a TELE’.

This video helps to introduce the concept of exponential functions. I wanted my students to recognise the importance of rate factors such as growth and decay factors of exponential functions in real life situations. I wanted them to be able to describe something really important and contextual about exponential functions. I wanted them to be able to interpret the information given in the video for themselves without having to be told how to make the connection between exponential function features and the situation described in the video. I must admit that the outcome of my students’ learning experience from this video went beyond my expectations. I believe the reason for this is that the situation described in the video was part of my students’ everyday experience. The information in the video made sense to them and it was easily connected to a daily experience. Experiences that are lived through different perceptions have different connotation and interpretation. Because of this, the students explored the same video from multiple perspectives. I think without intending to do so, I designed an activity where the students learned to think mathematically without using a textbook’s guidelines or questions. This was an authentic activity through which the students developed knowledge and understanding over an everyday reality in their culture.

A reflection on mathematical cognition in everyday settings leads to think that an apprenticeship developing consistent critical thinking over problems that present an evolving level of challenge has the chance to significantly help students’ reflection on the types of skills and concepts necessary to deal with everyday problems. Digital videos that elaborate on authentic tasks with evolving levels of difficulty can have a positive impact on students’ knowledge and skills, and learning experience in mathematics. However, though digital videos coupled with anchored instruction facilitate retention, I don’t think it always facilitate learning transfer. Remembering tools to solve a mathematical problem do not mean that we can solve any problem involving similar mathematical concepts. It takes hours of practices and experience in a field to becoming expert. Digital videos that emphasis on analyzing similarities and differences among mathematical problems and on bridging new areas of math application will facilitate the degree to which transfer occurs. But The students do not have that much time to spend on a particular topic in order to build similar problem solving skills as experts.

Reference:

SITUATED, I. R. T. (2000). ANCHORED INSTRUCTION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO SITUATED COGNITION. Psychology of Education: Pupils and learning, 1(5), 231.

Barron, B., & Kantor, R. J. (1993). Tools to enhance math education: the Jasper series. Communications of the ACM, 36(5), 52-54.

Bransford, J. D., Sherwood, R. D., Hasselbring, T. S., Kinzer, C. K., & Williams, S. M. (1990). Anchored instruction: Why we need it and how technology can help. Cognition, education, and multimedia: Exploring ideas in high technology, 12, 1.

Shyu, H. Y. C. (2000). Using video‐based anchored instruction to enhance learning: Taiwan’s experience. British Journal of Educational Technology, 31(1), 57-69.

Allowing students to construct their own understanding of concepts in a manner that does not lead to the formation of misconceptions can be very difficult. The Jasper materials are aimed at taking students beyond being able to produce facts and show competency in a set of prescribed skills; the focus is on helping students to use facts and skills to solve problems.

I strongly believe students only learn that which they have constructed for themselves. Mathematics and scientific disciplines, that require a greater amount of application of knowledge, prove to be more challenging to students who lack conceptual understanding because they must go further than simply regurgitating information. The other issue is that misconceptions tend to be more commonplace and harder to correct when students have not properly constructed the concepts for themselves. Solving these issues can only be tackled by using methods that show students how to go about constructing understanding for themselves; it is a skill that has to be learnt.

A problem-solving approach to tackling the issues discussed has been debated in the literature. There are those who agree that approach builds on constructivist principles (Tandogan & Orhan, 2007) and will therefore help students to develop a conceptual understanding that is less prone to misconceptions. On the other-hand some researchers argue that a problem-solving approach does not provide enough guided instruction and can even setback students especially if do not possess sufficient knowledge base to approach the problem (Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006). However, as Hmelo-Silver, Duncan, & Chinn (2007) have shown the problem-solving approach is not minimal guided instruction but it requires that students are scaffolded properly with appropriate guidance.

The Jasper materials use videos to provide students with information that they will use to solve stated problems. The approach requires students to derive a method for solving the problem and then to find the information required by searching through the videos. The process requires students to take a generative learning approach and they are encouraged to do so working in cooperative groups (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1992). Students have to create their own structure of the problem and what variables they need to know solve it. As the researchers of the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt have pointed out, the process because it requires reasoning and reflection is better at tackling misconceptions. The cooperative learning aspect helps students to be focused on the issue at hand and not to go too far down a wrong path.

In what ways do contemporary videos available for math instruction and their support materials
The contemporary videos that don’t necessarily offer a problem-solving approach to the teaching of the concepts. The videos are engaging, and they also tend break-down concepts so that they are more easily grasped but they don’t require students to develop their own schematic approach to solving the problems. The primary method for assessing our students is the use of tests that are aimed at assessing their ability to master curriculum-driven content and skills. The videos are therefore designed to meet those needs.

References
Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1992). The Jasper experiment: An exploration of issues
in learning and instructional design. Educational Technology Research and Development, 40, 65-80.

Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Duncan, R. G., & Chinn, C. A. (2007). Scaffolding and achievement in problem-based
and inquiry learning: A response to Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark. Educational Psychologist,
42(2), 99-107.

Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not
work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and
inquiry-based teaching. Educational psychologist, 41(2), 75-86.

Niess, M. L. (2005). Preparing teachers to teach science and mathematics with technology: Developing a
technology pedagogical content knowledge. Teaching and teacher education, 21(5), 509-523.

Tandogan, R. O., & Orhan, A. (2007). The effects of problem-based active learning in science education
on students’ academic achievement, attitude and concept learning. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics,
Science & Technology Education, 3(1), 71-81.