{"id":5758,"date":"2018-03-22T03:58:48","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T10:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/?p=5758"},"modified":"2018-03-22T04:01:01","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T11:01:01","slug":"informal-learning-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/2018\/03\/22\/informal-learning-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Informal Learning Spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u25aa How is knowledge relevant to math or science constructed? How is it possibly generated in these networked communities? Provide examples to illustrate your points.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout this course, we have been discussing how students construct knowledge and understanding. In short, I think we can all agree that the most practical way to teach students is to give them multiple opportunities to explore and collaborate while scaffolding their learning and providing different means for them to express and apply their understanding. Traditional methods of memorization are no longer viewed as best teaching practices. Instead, we want students to build knowledge through concepts so they can\u00a0apply what they have learned in problem-solving contexts. In Erlwanger’s (1973) article he reminds us of the danger of teaching mathematics without ensuring that students have a proper conceptual understanding and that memorizing procedures through rote learning can be ineffective. I can definitely relate to this article as I have seen many examples of when students have memorized how to complete a set of questions but cannot apply what they know in a real life application or when they are given an open-ended problem. Many of my students go to Kumon so they can complete a long series of questions quickly but many have no idea what they are doing. They have simply memorized an algorithm. For instance, I have a student who can complete 20 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication questions in under 3 minutes. But when asked to complete 22 x 4 in his head he cannot. Other students in my class who have no idea what the traditional algorithm for multiplication is, let alone how to use it, could answer this question because they understand what multiplication is. They know that it is adding equal groups and can partition the numbers using mental math and will add 20 groups of 2 to 2 groups of 2. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was very interesting to read about how to use informal spaces to construct knowledge and build conceptual understanding.\u00a0 <\/span>The topic of field trips is something we are continually talking about at school because we want them to enhance learning and help construct conceptual knowledge, but more often then not, they become stand-alone lessons where the students are learning in isolation information that isn\u2019t necessarily connected to the goals we want to achieve. Yoon et. Al (2012)\u00a0 <\/span>examines the potential that these informal spaces can have to increase students conceptual understandings of science. They found that using augmented realities to replace tradition text guides would keep visitors more engaged and therefore \u201cimprove access to information and increase exhibit functionality.\u201d (Yoon et al. 2011). After browsing the Exploratorium Museum’s website that is located in San Francisco, you can see that they have created many galleries and exhibits that would let visits explore concepts using elements of embodies learning. Instead of just viewing and listening to information, visitors have the opportunity to test and create and explore different ideas. This is very similar to the pedagogical model that we want to see in schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think that using informal spaces and going on field trips can be influential in building conceptual understandings. When planned and executed in a meaningful way, it can give students opportunities to apply what they have learned in class in the real world as well as see ideas and gain new perspectives. Just like we have seen with materials like Jaspers, teachers don\u2019t always need to be the ones who are delivering content. Using spaces like museums is another tool that we can utilize to help students inquire into the world around them and construct their own knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n

References: <\/span><\/p>\n

Erlwanger, S. H. (1973). Benny’s conception of rules and answers in IPI mathematics.\u00a0Journal of Children’s Mathematical Behavior, 1<\/i>(2), 7-26.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yoon, S. A., Elinich, K., Wang, J., Steinmeier, C., & Tucker, S. (2012). Using augmented reality and knowledge-building scaffolds to improve learning in a science museum.\u00a0International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning<\/i>,\u00a07<\/i>(4), 519-541.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u25aa How is knowledge relevant to math or science constructed? How is it possibly generated in these networked communities? Provide examples to illustrate your points. Throughout this course, we have been discussing how students construct knowledge and understanding. In short, I think we can all agree that the most practical way to teach students is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51893,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1669399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-knowledge-diffusion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5758","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\/51893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5759,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5758\/revisions\/5759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}