Afrodita Fuentes
SED 600
05/09/07
Metacognition - Review #5
Ch. 13 Pulling Threads in the book How Students Learn: Science in the Classroom
(Instructions from syllabus: Examination of information in reference to my own research and how will my
research is influenced by this information in presentations?)
This book suggests that students come with preconceptions to the classroom and it is very
important to address those misconceptions for productive learning to occur. The strategies used for
such purpose are grouped into three approaches. First, is tapping into students’ prior knowledge
and experiences acquired inside and outside of the classroom? One goal is conceptual change
meaning that any misconception must be changed before new learning can occur. For this to
happen in the minds of students, many and repeated opportunities need to be available for students
to strengthen the new conception so that it becomes dominant. Second, students need to
experience many opportunities to experience events that would not normally occur in everyday life.
This is very important when studying topics such as gravity and force in physics, and variation and
natural selection in biology. Third, students need to be exposed to narrative accounts or stories of
the discovery of knowledge or the development of tools. In other words, present students with the
scientists’ real experiences, thoughts, and feeling of discovering or developing new things. This
might be considered out of the scope of the standards, but it can make the material more engaging
and meaning, thus leading to more efficiency in learning the content standards.
Prior knowledge is very important to me in the classroom and use it to show my students
how much they know about biology already and how our lives and bodies are all about biology.
This adds value to what they already know and what they bring to the classroom, such as they
culture. For example every year, at the end of our Molecules of Life unit (first month into the
semester), we have a food feast for the purpose of connecting the chemistry of life to the big picture
and celebrating our culture. In this day, students bring their favorite cultural dish to share with the
class. Students identify the major food groups in their dishes and begin to think of healthy eating.
They explain the history of their dishes and the recipes. They build community which what will
drive our motivation and level of comfort with each other for the next three months of the
semester. In other words, all these activities help create a student-centered environment which
supports student achievement, one of the topics of my action research.
Organizing knowledge around core concepts requires knowing how to recognize which
concepts are “core,” according to this book. There are two types of core concepts. These are
concepts about the nature of the discipline (what it means to do science, math, and history) and
concepts that are central to the understanding of the subject matter (exploration). It seems that core
concepts are easily recognizable only by experts, perhaps the teacher. I wonder then, how can we
help students recognize the core concepts. I believe this has to be through direct instruction by the
teacher and later on the students catch on and learn how to do it themselves. This book also warns
us about experts cannot be explicit with learners about the basic principles that allow for
understanding of the core concepts because they are too comfortable with their subject. In this
case, peer teaching is very helpful because a student who has just learned the concept can teach it
better to someone else who does not understand it. I totally agree with this. I always admire those
teachers who have taught for years and still understand where our students are coming from, I am
afraid I will not be that kind of teacher ten years from now. I will try to by keeping up with the
literature of who students learn and reflections on classroom activities that involve student feedback.
How Students Learn also emphasizes the importance of group work and discussion to support
metacognition. Here students reflect on what they learn and how they learn. The idea is that the
more students observe and question, they become better at monitoring and questioning their own
thinking. It is very difficult to teach students to become metacognitive of their own learning. When
students are discussing, they are forced to search in their minds for connections to their past
knowledge to explain and support their claims. The teacher needs to guide these discussions
through ideal questions, which can be a challenging instructional task. Another danger of group
work is the possibility that one group member dominates the discussion and that is why I hesitated
to implement group work. One approach to avoiding this is to have student rate their won effort in
their product and group dynamics. My question is, “how is this done?” Another approach is to
have each student write a 1-2 minute reflection on the discussion.
I feel the challenge of coming up with the right questions when my students work in groups
to prepare presentations. Sometimes they do not know where to start, but when I provide them
with questions they immediately start working. Coming up with the right questions takes a lot of
thought, time, planning, and skill, but it is wonderful when the conversations keep going because
students themselves are asking a variety of questions they generate. It is even more successful when
students feel comfortable to challenge themselves and find the tools for questioning themselves (this
usually happens the second month into the semester in my classroom). I am eager about continuing
group work and reciprocal teaching next year (in July) because I know students have a lot of fun and
actually learn. I did a little bit of it this past semester and a couple questions I asked at the end of
the semester were, “What activity did you and enjoy the most? What activity did you learn from the
most and why?” Probably 95% of my students said presentations for both questions, although
dissections was very popular, presentations seemed to be what helped them learn the most. Some of
their comment include “I was forced to learn the material and it was nice because I knew how to
answer in the test,” “I lost my shyness to speak in front of many people,” “I knew how to explain,”
and “I was curious to see how others would present,” among others. I also enjoyed seeing my
students being interested in how much they improved with each presentation and how well they
took the feedback they received from me and even their peers. I will definitely refine my methods
of student presentations (group work and reciprocal teaching), ideal questioning, and assessment of
those presentations in the next two months so that I can be ready by July.
In conclusion, effective learning and teaching seem to occur in a student-centered classroom
where students have the tools to construct and organize knowledge based on their past experiences.
Effective learning and teaching take place when students have opportunities to experience real
science. Students learn best when they have opportunities to collaborate and discuss with each
other about their thoughts, misconceptions and difficulties in understanding. So in my future action
research, I will create a student-centered environment by valuing my students’ prior knowledge,
skills, and desires, and by providing them opportunities for discussion through reciprocal teaching.
Reference
National Research Council (2005). How Students Learn Science in the Classroom.
Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.