Knowing and Learning
A UTeach Conference Course
Overview
May 21, 2014
Cesar Delgado
cesar_delgado@austin.utexas.edu
STEM Education
University of Texas at Austin
Agenda
z How K&L fits into the UTeach sequence
z How K&L is different than an Ed Psych
learning theories course
z Course goals and key activities
z Logistics and procedures
y Semester flow
y Classroom practices and policies
K&L in the UTeach sequence
Comes after Step 1 and 2
1-credit recruiting courses with field
experience in elementary, middle school
Comes before CI, PBI
Field experiences in high schools
Focus on student ideas, learning
Clinical interview
K&L vs. Learning Theories
course
K&L covers major theories of learning
Skinnerian behaviorism
Piagetian constructivism
Vygotskian socioconstructivism
K&L also pays attention to STEM-specific
research and theories
Conceptual change constructivism, knowledge in
pieces constructivism
Contextualized, situated in STEM, learning
sciences perspective, social aspects, social
justice
Analysis of classroom scenes
1: Dolores Umbridge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMHqxkRYt64)
Not inquiry-based
Dichotomy theory/practice – dangerous
Students may fail in new situations
Piaget wouldn’t like it – not how children learn
– need to change…
Traditional
Emphasis on control
Our current emphasis on high-staked tests
means this kind of classroom “makes sense”
K&L students’ analysis
Behaviorist
Growth mindset: “if you study, you will succeed”
Test-driven class: goal is to pass the OWLs
Focus on remembering, understanding – lower levels on
Bloom’s taxonomy
To do well, memorize what teacher/textbook says
Real-life application: not important
No discussion; student ideas not viewed as important
Analysis of classroom scenes
3: Mad-Eye Moody (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsl5fS7KGZc)
K&L students’ analysis
Mastery, applied knowledge as goal, not just theory
Higher levels on Bloom’s
Engage, then exploration, explanation (5E)
Built on student ideas (Ron’s)
Constructivist
Formative assessment
Maybe the teaching was outside the ZPD
He needs to provide scaffolding.
Conceptual-change constructivist: provokes
disequilibrium in students (spellcasting isn’t always
fun and games)
Course goals and key
activities
1. construct models of knowing and learning to guide classroom practice.
2. use the clinical interview method to make sense of someone's reasoning
about a topic in STEM.
3. articulate various standards for knowing STEM and articulate the
implications of these standards for assessment, especially standardized
assessment.
4. articulate what it means to know and learn in terms of cognitive structures
and describe how what people know changes and develops.
5. describe various paradigms for evaluating STEM understanding.
6. express informed opinions on current issues and tensions in education,
especially as they relate to STEM instruction.
7. explore the affordances offered by various technologies in supporting
knowing and learning in STEM.
8. explore the implications of deficit models of learning on issues of equitable
instruction and learning environments.
1. construct models of knowing and
learning to guide classroom practice.
Inventing learning theories before reading
about them
Analyzed the LTs in the context of
classrooms
Tracking, technology, etc.
Comparing experts and novices
Learning theory 1
What assumptions about knowing and
learning are behind an approach to
education that uses frequent formative
assessment?
i.e., let’s reverse engineer the learning
theory that led to the concept of formative
assessment in the first place
Take 10 minutes at your table of ~4 to
seriously, deeply reverse engineer this.
Learning theory 1
Teachers don’t initially know what Ss are thinking; they need to know
Ss’ thinking to help them learn
Every student is different, Ts need various methods; Ts should be
critical of their own methods
Ss need to learn to self-assess and self-learn
Teaching goes both ways, not just Ss learning from Ts
Assume that people can self-evaluate, know HOW they solve problems
There is variety in achievement, need to address through your teaching
Focus changes from grades to understanding
Frequent formative assessment helps students meet milestones, build
self-esteem.
Rooted in cognitive psychology, NOT behaviorism (stimulus-outputs)
Motivation varies by student; motivation to learn is important
Learning
1
Build theory
from students’
prior
Teachers don’t initially
knowknowledge
what Ss are thinking; they need to know
Ss’ thinking to help them learn
Every student is different, Ts need various methods; Ts should be
critical of their own methods
Ss need to learn to self-assess and self-learn Metacognition
Teaching Collaboratio
goes both ways, not just Ss learning from Ts Active
Assume that
people
solve problems
n can self-evaluate, know HOW they
Conceptual/strategic
construction
There is variety in achievement, need to address through your teaching
Focus changes from grades to understanding
Frequent formative assessment helps students meet milestones, build
Affective dimension
self-esteem.
of learning
Rooted in cognitive psychology, NOT behaviorism
(stimulus-outputs)
Motivation varies by student; motivation to learn is important
Behaviorism
Teaching machines
http://www.ixl.com/math/algebra-1 (free
online)
http://online.carnegielearning.com/
(password protected)
2. articulate various standards for knowing STEM
and discuss the implications of these standards for
assessment, especially standardized assessment.
Reinventing Bloom’s taxonomy
Analzying items from standardized tests,
SAT, ACT,
Exploring cultural bias in tests
Exploring Raven’s, meter-stick drop test
Testing for Spearman’s g
What do you know about the
seasons?
Take 2 minutes to write down what you
know about the seasons
Look at your notes on seasons
Identify types of knowledge about seasons
Is knowing that there are four seasons named
winter, spring, summer, and autumn the same
type of knowledge as knowing what causes
the seasons?
Think about general types of knowledge
individually for 3 minutes (label each bit of
knowledge you wrote)
Types of knowledge
Pair up and arrive at a consensus set of
types of knowledge
Now team up with another pair and create
a master list.
[After this, compared types of knowledge to
Bloom’s Taxonomy (revised) and Adding it up’s
strands of mathematical proficiency]
Another Explore-Explain cycle
Assessment and type of
knowledge tested
Task: classify around 10-20 items
(questions) by cognitive process and
knowledge dimension
You will present one item and justify your
classification
You will present an overview of the types
of knowledge assessed most frequently
Links to tests are posted on BB under
Course Docs
If they are slow opening, let me know
Time to take some tests!
What season goes between spring and
autumn? (From standard Western test.
A=summer)
What season goes between Mirdawarr
and Rarranhdharr? (From Edwards River
community test. A=Dhaarratharramirri)
SEE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Austra
lian_seasons
Even tykes know that one!
Some “culture-free”
“intelligence” tests
Raven’s progressive matrices
Reflexes
SAT: “positive manifold”?
(i.e., positive correlation among many tests)
Math SAT vs. Verbal SAT
800.00
750.00
700.00
650.00
R² = 0.2278
600.00
550.00
500.00
450.00
400.00
400.00
450.00
500.00
550.00
600.00
650.00
700.00
750.00
800.00
3. articulate what it means to know and learn in
terms of cognitive structures and describe how
what people know changes and develops.
Piaget’s mechanisms of assimilation and
accommodation
Behaviorism: observed behavior,
conditioning, reinforcement, S-R
Vygotsky: Interpersonal gets internalized
(intrapersonal); ZPD
Expert-novice: chunking and organization
of knowledge around principles, big ideas
Operant conditioning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt4N9GSBo
MI
Experts and novices
What do you see?
What does this video show us
about learning and the other?
Write down your observations
individually.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibEP4xBdJco
4. describe various paradigms for
evaluating STEM understanding, and trace
their relationships to learning theories.
Developing learning theories from a
stance on formative assessment
Readings on formative assessment
5. use the clinical interview method to
make sense of a learner's reasoning about
a topic in STEM.
Two interviews
For Interview 2, students also researched the STEM
Education research literature to investigate student
ideas about their topic
6. express informed opinions on current issues
and tensions in education, especially as they
relate to STEM instruction.
SAT redesign
Gender and stereotype threat
Tracking
Single-gender schools in Austin ISD
Teaching for social justice (Tucson MAS)
SCOTUS affirmative action ban
SBOE and evolution, textbooks
7. explore the affordances offered by various technologies in
supporting knowing and learning in STEM, and trace their
relationship to learning theories.
Cognitive tutors = Skinner’s teaching
machines?
Clickers: behaviorist and constructivist
uses (Judson & Sawada paper)
Online tests (Harvard implicit association)
Computer simulations to confront
misconceptions
8. explore the implications of deficit models
of learning on issues of equitable
instruction and learning environments.
Harvard implicit association test
Debate on tracking
Readings on “acting White”
Readings, activities on stereotype threat
K&L should be disequilibrating…
Please fill out survey for class leaders
Happy belated
Valentine’s Day!
“What is love except
another name for the use
of positive reinforcement?
Or vice versa.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden
Two
Assimilation or accommodation?
Traditional instruction: it’s about
experts’ understanding of STEM
How can we get her from
here… to …
here?
KWSK : instruction is about
students’ ideas/learning of STEM
Teacher mediates the rapprochement
Typical Semester Flow
1-5: Knowing, learning
6-8: Assessing what students know
9-10: Intelligence, nature-nurture
11-15: Behaviorism, cognitive constructivism
16: Midterm
17-19: Socioconstructivism
20-22: How People Learn
23: Tracking
24-25: Collaborative learning, influence of peers
26-27: Influence of teachers, parents
28: Social Justice
29: Generative design
30-31: Wrap up
Red: includes segment led by students
Logistics and Classroom Practices
& Policies
Class meetings 3 hours weekly
Outside preparation (7-10 hours, some during
class)
Class Agenda and Activities displayed in
PowerPoint and archived on Blackboard
Course assignments (guidelines, rubrics),
resources posted on Blackboard
Online discussion board for reading
accountability, input to discussion
Midterm format
Part A. Closed book, multiple choice and
short answer, recall and comprehension.
Once you turn it in, you get
Part B. Analysis of video & transcript of
classroom episode
You can use your hard copy notes*
Part A sample questions
Rank these theorists’ views on the nature-nurture
spectrum: Binet, Galton, Piaget, Skinner
1. Mainly nature
2. Both nature and nurture, about the same
3. Mainly nurture
Define formative and summative assessment.
What would a behaviorist think about formative
assessment?
Is accommodation or assimilation inherently harder?
Why?
What is behaviorism’s take on motivation for learning?
Compare and contrast fine-grained and misconceptions
constructivism
Part B description
View 5-min segment of class, then analyze it.
Verbatim transcript, contextualization also
provided
Analyze along these dimensions: curriculum,
instruction, assessment, learning theories,
assimilation and accommodation
Student-led classes (40 mins)
• Meet with instructor or TA 2 days
before class
• Already having read papers
• With a draft plan
• Include activities that will:
• Use/Review main concepts
• Make connections
• Illustrate implications for classroom
Second interview
Guidelines posted under Assignments on BB
Select a middle or high school topic from the
TEKS (not AP-level)
Based on your major
Justify its selection (must be in part conceptual)
Research student ideas for that topic
Peer-reviewed literature (1+ paper)
Other sources possible, in addition: experienced
teachers, college courses, your experience tutoring…
Summarize the paper, use it in your analysis
Cite paper following APA format
Final project
Your teaching philosophy, polished and
uploaded to the UTeach portfolio – 100 pts
Due May 1
See guidelines
athttp://uteach.utexas.edu/Students/Resour
ces/Portfolio%20Requirements
Final presentations
Round table session/jigsaw on student
ideas
Draw from your clinical interviews, the
paper(s) you read for 2nd interview, your
experiences tutoring/teaching, etc.
Guidelines are posted under Assignments
Resources
http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_eglash_on_african
_fractals#t-208970
Gutstein. Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching
social justice by the numbers (2006)
Deborah Ball:
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/65
013
Classroom video various countries:
http://timssvideo.com
Fish is Fish, by Leo Lionni