from blog.beliefnet.com

A recent .news story (which, honestly, I heard from a secondary source and haven’t yet found the primary, yet . .. ) talks about the budget crisis in New York State.  Recently a Corrections Officer came up with a potential way to save a large amount of money.

Replace prisoners’ hot dog and hamburger rolls with sliced bread. (I don’t know if it’s white bread or whole wheat!:)  In any event, this apparent switch will save the state of New York over $3,000,000 per year!  Unbelievable.

I am looking forward to heading to the supermarket to verify the cost-savings and how many hot dogs and hamburgers we are talking about . . .

from plimoth.org

However, this gets me to thinking about teaching, learning, and creativity.  We certainly have a problem finding/problem solving situation here.  But I think what I see that is important is that it is situated.  If the person wasn’t working in the prison environment, this would have probably been a non-existent thought.  It was necessary and critical that this individual had practical, real experience with the environment so he developed an expertise to recognize that there was a potential money-saving option.

I think there is a lot here that I am not yet seeing, but wanted to be sure to document this idea for further thought and analysis.

The trustworthiness of a qualitative study can be increased by maintaining high credibility and objectivity. A research definition of trustworthiness might be: “Demonstration that the evidence for the results reported is sound and when the argument made based on the results is strong.” In order to maintain high trustworthiness in a qualitative study, Krefting (1991) suggested four criteria to ensure valid interpretation of data: truth value, applicability, consistency, and neutrality. In the qualitative approach, truth value is measured by credibility: having an adequate engagement in the research setting so recurrent patterns in data can be properly identified and verified. Applicability is established with transferability: allowing readers to be able to apply the findings of the study to their own situations. Since a qualitative researcher’s perspective is naturally biased due to his or her close association with the data, sources, and methods, various audit strategies can be used to confirm findings (Bowen, 2009; Miller, 1997). Therefore, trustworthiness of (a) interpretations, and (b) findings are dependent on being able to demonstrate how they were reached (Mauthner & Doucet, 2003).

I saw the following comic strip and thought that it was worthy to share from the qualitative paradigm philosophy. Confirmability (confirming the thoughts/biases/results) is critical in qualitative research. Let it go and the findings are suspect at best.

Maggie reads to the class

Today I had the opportunity to visit my daughter’s school for her Kindergarten Author’s Tea.  I LOVE when teachers give their students the opportunity to present their work in an authentic setting.  It doesn’t matter what grade, K-12 – giving students the opportunity to share their work with the community increases the value and quality for the child.  I’ve included a few pictures and embedded a video of her reading the story.  Be sure to leave a comment for Maggie below!

Maggie shows us her book

Maggie is joined by her sister Anna

I recently viewed an interesting TED video by math teacher Dan Meyer.  He had a very interesting  perspective on problem solving.  I am going to summarize my learning in the form of questions:

Are the problems we give students to solve worth solving?  If we present problems in a way where everything is there, we create impatient problem solving.  If all of the information is provided in advance and there is no filtering necessary, are we really providing a compelling questions?  Or rather, are we just “smoothing it out” to make it easy for students?  When we really problem solve don’t we usually have insufficient information or an abundance of information that needs to be sifted and sorted?  Don’t we have to go to multiple, reliable sources to gather the necessary data?   Do we scaffold too much for students, instead of teaching them the skills of developing their own collaborative scaffolding skills?

Watch the video.  It will certainly give you something to think about . . . .

I am currently attending the American Educational Research Association in Denver, Colorado to present some of my research on reflexivity as well as to learn more about current and emerging trends in science and environmental education.

Perusing the program, I noticed a session on digital media, and to my surprise, saw that Howard Gardner of Harvard University, and the famed multiple intelligences construct was presenting.  Below are some of the ideas presented as well as some of my impressions from the session.  My impressions, interpretations and elaborations are noted in parethesis.

Gardner discussed the ethical implications of youth involvement with social media.  He felt there were five issues that were involved for youth (followed by my interpretation and elaboration on some of his ideas):

• Sense of identity (Who am I? What is my role? Am I a different person online?)
• Privacy (Do I recognize that anything I post has the potential to be viewed by anyone?)
• Ownership and authorship (Do I recognize that I am responsible for the things I say?)
• Trustworthiness and credibility (Am I perceived as an honest, trustworthy person)
• Participating in a community (Where am I a member?)

Participating in a community underlies and connects all of the other issues.  The way children think about their membership in a community is important.  Their behaviors have consequences, both positive and negative.  However, the way they think and the way they behave while using social media varies greatly.  Gardner suggested three ways of thinking:

• Consequential thinking (what happens if I  . . . this is where most high school students are)
• Moral thinking (I belong to a “community.” If I violate the rules of my community, I am likely to get into trouble)
• Ethical thinking (What does it mean to be a member or a citizen? What are my rights and my responsibilities in this society?)

 So, as educators where do we go?  One of Gardner’s most significant points is that teens don’t have digital ethical role models.  How true!  They are often so much more inculcated into the digital society than adult leaders.  So what is the role for the role models?  Gardner summarized with the 5 “E”s.  My ideas below are “need-“ I know that’s a bit preachy, but these are really more food-for-thought ideas of where the teaching profession can evolve.

• Excellence (Educators need to know what we are doing well in digital social environments.  We need to be members of the community of practice.)
• Engaged (We need to participate in social media, but then develop effective ways of using social media to promote learning, both cognitive, and social-behavioral)
• Ethical (We need to be responsible for our actions, but we also need to communicate how to be responsible.  i.e., students can have discourse, but they should “respectfully disagree,” not assault and bully)
• Empathy (Compassion at any level is important, it’s a societal responsibility – teach it and live it!)
• Equity (We need to be fair-mindedness)

Note: This article is cross-posted in the CSSA Newsletter.  Be a part of the discussion, join my personal learning network, and leave a comment on its contents here.

n March 13, 2010, the Obama Administration released its strategy for revising the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as No Child Left Behind.  The blueprint, in part, focuses on the development of effective teachers and leaders.  The plan requires states to define an effective teacher, effective principal, highly effective teacher, and highly effective principal. Definitions are to be developed in collaboration with teachers and leaders, based in significant part on student growth and other measures such as classroom observations of practice.

he ESEA contains expectations that district level evaluation systems

• meaningfully differentiate teachers and principals by effectiveness across at least three performance levels
• are consistent with their state’s definition of effective teacher and highly effective teacher and principal 
• provide meaningful feedback to teachers and principals to improve their practice and inform professional development
• are developed in collaboration with teachers, principals, and other education stakeholders

ow do we, as science education leaders operationalize these broad statements and translate them into meaningful methods to assist in teacher growth and improvement?  I think at times, it is necessary to step back and examine how we can compartmentalize the instructional process for the purpose of identifying an area to focus efforts to help teachers improve.  Certainly instruction is a very holistic process, but targeting specific teaching skills in the instructional toolbag can give teachers meaningful feedback to improve their craft.  My focus here is on effective oral questioning. 

uestioning in the classroom is vital to help students develop problem solving and critical thinking skills.  To frame this discussion, it is important to consider the different types of questions that a science teacher might ask students (or students might ask teachers).  I would classify them into three major categories:

Factual questions are just that:  checking facts.  Factual questions are composed of isolated information that stands alone and is generally much lower on Bloom’s Taxonomy (knowledge/comprehension).  Conceptual and analytical questions, though, would fall under higher order thinking skills questions.  Conceptual questions are ill-defined, allowing students to connect ideas together and draw on knowledge to formulate an answer, while analytical are well-defined, challenging students to interpret information or data, and make calculations. Both are more inquiry-based but a conceptual question can have multiple possibilities (i.e., the BEST answer), where a well-defined analytical question has one right answer (i.e., the CORRECT answer).  Of course, all types of questions are necessary, especially to scaffold student learning, but are a variety used effectively and judiciously?

s I observe teaching and learning, I often find myself asking many of the following questions: Who (teacher/students) are asking the questions?  Are a variety of students participating?  Does the teacher answer student questions or does the teacher turn them back to the class for a response?  Is appropriate wait time utilized?  If a HOTS question is too difficult to answer, does the teacher rephrase or scaffold to provide a structure for student success?  What types, in what frequency, and in what proportion are questions being asked by students and teachers?

 If  inquiry is learning by questioning and investigation, then effective oral questioning in a science class is critical to the development of student inquiry skills.  Helping teachers develop their classroom questioning skills is a necessary and important part of professional mentoring for growth and development. 

from: kidsaccident.psy.uq.edu.au

As some might notice, I had a friend design a new header for my blog.  Mark maintains his consulting business at www.mokturtle.net.  He designed the header (which is similar to my homepage labanca.net), sent me some files, and then I had to figure out how to upload them and get them working on my WordPress blog.  I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how to get it all to work. My problem solving involved several different techniques and cognitive mechanisms (from Wikipedia): 

• Brainstorming:
• suggesting a large number of solutions or ideas and combining and developing them until an optimum is found.
• Lateral thinking: approaching solutions indirectly and creatively.
• Means-ends analysis: choosing an action at each step to move closer to the goal.
• Morphological analysis: assessing the output and interactions of an entire system.
• Research: employing existing ideas or adapting existing solutions to similar problems.
• Trial-and-error: testing possible solutions until the right one is found.

Often, when some think of problem solving, especially from an educational standpoint it comes down to: 

• Hypothesis testing: assuming a possible explanation to the problem and trying to prove (or, in some contexts, disprove) the assumption.

Two students and I received a request to appear on Phil Mikan’s Corner Radio Show.  Phil’s show broadcasts from Middletown, CT and is heard on WLIS and WMRD. 

Phil asked us to join him to talk about our successes at the Connecticut Science Fair.  Both of my students were finalists and won some significant awards.

One of the most interesting comments about the experience came after we left when one student said, “Boy, I never knew all fo the things I would get to see because I did a science fair project.” 

How true.  Authentic experiences breed other authentic experiences.  I wrote about those unique experiences last year as well.  There is something magical about doing real work (in this case, science research that has an authentic audience), because “real” people want to hear about it.

Listen to the show here:

Vygotsky said that learning occurs when individuals socially construct their knowledge.  The collaborative process is critical to learning.  I recently generated an assignment for my biology students on genetic disorders.  Described simply, the students were to conduct research, write a short summary, and make an audio or video podcast.  These products would then be posted to a class blog.  Each student then evaluates other students’ work, providing feedback, and learning about the specific disorder selected.

I am using a WordPress blog as the medium for posting.  I generated an “author” account for each student, so he or she could have control and access for their postings.  I purposefully did not spend a great deal of time explaining the platform, as I am curious to see how these students work in an authentic environment. 

Products for my honors students are here.

Products for my academic students are here.

Exposure is key to a child’s development.  When children have the opportunity to experience the natural world authentically, we allow greater capacity for the growth of their minds:  we expand their ability to problem find, problem solve, by being creative, critical thinkers.  Stemming from the monsoon-like nor’easter rain we experienced this past weekend, my daughters and I made a short detour home to go check out the Pootatuck River.  We experienced the shear strength of the flowing water over two of the constructed waterfalls that used to provide hydroelectric power to a some factories.  We documented our experience with photo, writing, drawing, and sound.  Our products?  Below:

The girls at the waterfall

The second waterfall

Anna's (7) drawing of the waterfall

Anna writes about the waterfall

Maggie's (5) drawing of the waterfall. What monsters are living below the surface?

Maggie writes about the waterfall

We also did a short audio recording of the amazing sound of the waterfall.  My voice recorder didn’t intially capture the deep, grand sound of the water, so I used audacity to modify the file.  Click on the icon to hear it: