The LfU principles of learning resonate to me and constitute another apparatus to anchor instructions. I particularly like the description of the three-steps process of the LfU model, that is motivation, knowledge construction, and knowledge refinement. I used these to create focus points of interest to designing an activity in math.<\/p>\n
To foster motivation, the LfU approaches in creating demand and eliciting curiosity are interesting. My strategy at this step is that the activity should build upon students\u2019 existent knowledge, and be just challenging enough to help the students to develop new knowledge by building on those that has already been established. Making sure to stay in the zone of proximal development (ZPD) as defined by Lev Vygotsky. The students will most likely remain motivated if the information in the activity is within their ZPD and represents the next logical step in their knowledge construction. Also, the activity should be constituted of authentic tasks that would create a natural demand of the knowledge to be used.<\/p>\n
To foster knowledge construction, the LfU model that is observation through firsthand experience, and reception through communication with others once again resonates with Vygotsky\u2019s approach of ZDP. My strategy here will be to design experience through which the students would collect relevant data for concept formation, identifying what they know, what they don\u2019t and\/or need to know. Also, open-ended discussions and research should guide the students in constructing and consolidating new knowledge. Open-ended because students have their unique experience to world. Some constructivist may argue that there could be no ultimate, shared reality (Duffy & Jonassen, 1992) and only has best \u201cdescription\u201d. And the best description is developed through collaboration and communication (Vygotsky, 1978). So, the objectives of the activity should not be predetermined and contents bounded.<\/p>\n
To foster knowledge refinement, the students should reflect upon the inquiry process that contributed to their knowledge construction. During the activity, the students should acquire new knowledge, interact with their peers and face with ideas, explanations and information that are inconsistent with, or contradict, their prior knowledge and beliefs. Designing an activity that would confront these inconsistencies and contradictions will challenge students\u2019 current cognition and reorganize their knowledge structure.<\/p>\n
I would like to design such activity for each learning objective I teach in mathematics, but I don\u2019t think that this is realistic. This brings me to the open issue \u201cAlthough horserace comparative evaluation of instructional approaches is difficult in education, it is important to engage in summary evaluation that can start to quantify the effectiveness of LfU activities at achieving content and process objectives in terms of the time and resources used.\u201d (Edelson, 2000). When I compare the mathematical contents I need to cover in one academic year for each Grade level, I personally don\u2019t think that it possible to cover all contents in classroom with the allocated time. Technology could potentially help to do so if the students work off of class time. I am thinking of the pedagogical approaches of flipped learning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
References:<\/p>\n
Edelson, D. C. (2001). Learning\u2010for\u2010use: A framework for the design of technology\u2010supported inquiry activities.\u00a0Journal of Research in Science teaching<\/em>,\u00a038<\/em>(3), 355-385.<\/p>\n Sparks, K. E., & Simonson, M. (1999). Proceedings of Selected Research and Development Papers Presented at the National Convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology [AECT](21st, Houston, Texas, February 10-14, 1999).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The LfU principles of learning resonate to me and constitute another apparatus to anchor instructions. I particularly like the description of the three-steps process of the LfU model, that is motivation, knowledge construction, and knowledge refinement. I used these to create focus points of interest to designing an activity in math. To foster motivation, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53876,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1669391],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-lfu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5269,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5268\/revisions\/5269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}