DESIGN PRINCIPLE 4: THE LEARNING PRINCIPLE

In reflecting after last week’s class activities, I feel compelled to say more on the articles as I now have an even deeper understanding of how they support the design process to foster student learning.  It all begins by using Knowledge of Structure, Process, and Discourse with Content as a Vehicle, SPD.   I grasp and wholeheartedly agree that we need to ignite a sense of urgency in educators to design learning opportunities by teaching the structures and processes related to disciplinary knowledge so students will be able to use their understandings to make meaning of them and apply them to their lives and the world in which they live.  As we worked in pairs to examine the fifth grade weather standards and design a lesson, I saw firsthand how “content can serve as the vehicle by which students learn about structure and process”.  First we identified the structures and processes needed by students within the weather standards as we browsed the different websites and online resources (both examples of software skills from AeCTS).  This was fairly straightforward, but the exercise of actually doing it reinforced the importance of having our students do it.  Emphasizing the role of structure over content in teaching disciplinary knowledge does make it more understandable. As I skimmed over the articles and my notes once again, I was reminded by two other claims that can be made for doing it this way: “If content knowledge is related in some way to the structural elements of a discipline, it will be more effectively remembered,” and “knowledge organized around the structure of a discipline facilitates transfer of learning.”  [NOTE to self: I need to share these articles with my administrators, teachers, and our building’s instructional coach.]  Then it was time to examine the discourse- a little harder for my partner and I. Thinking of weather experts in the real world, what are some of the jobs that they have and what do they need to be able to do?  Sharing amongst the groups really helped facilitate my meaningful understanding of this!  When we worked on brainstorming authentic activities- asking ourselves, “What are the things that meteorologists or weather forecasters who use the tools do?”-  It clicked for me.  We are teaching students modes of thought like deductive reasoning, analytical thinking, (the ability to identify relevant information), cause and effect reasoning, and sequential reasoning- discourse.  And it comes full circle- We must design opportunities for students to engage in the kinds of activities that support and shape their ability to think and problem solve.   According to “The ABCs of Activity” article, “these activities should help students become competent with at least four categories of cognition: memory, information extending processes, information rearranging processes, and cognition.”  As my partner and I created the list of authentic activities, the overlap with discourse was evident.  We continued to brainstorm ideas of background building activities and constructing activities.  Doing this led us to the possibilities of the clear outcome/product that would be part of the actual designing of our lesson and the thinking skills/processes that the students would need to utilize as part of AeCTS.  We asked ourselves, “What are we going to have the students produce to demonstrate their knowledge.”  Once we had figured out a clear outcome for the students to produce, we could begin analyzing what thinking skills/processes the students would need by asking, “What do they have to be able to do in order to do this?” We also thought about software skills.  Questions to ponder are, “What tools do we need to scaffold?  What mechanical skills are needed to use a tool?”  The most challenging part was getting the wording of the authentic problem down as we had phrased it as a question.  Asking an “essential question” as part of every lesson plan has been branded into my brain the past two years since becoming a librarian and teaching again.  Once we had the wording of our authentic problem polished, we devised an exit strategy (experience). Regarding implications for my practice, this is a lengthy design process that I am  embracing. I look forward to providing my students with more relevant and meaningful  learning experiences- Ones that truly foster 21st century skills/processes and will better  prepare them for the world.  (More details to come…)  Perhaps it’s time to have grade  levels “unpack the SOLs” again to truly understand the underlying structures and  processes related to the content in each one, not just the essential knowledge  necessary for mastery. Now on to Vygotsky.  I thought the reading might not be as difficult as it actually was,  because I had prior knowledge of his findings and the zone of proximal development  from my undergraduate studies in psychology and early childhood education. I was truly amazed at how succinctly Pricilla summarized the entire book, and I only needed to  write a page and a half of notes!!! Especially knowing that I had taken about 14 pages of  nonsense notes, before giving up after realizing that my notes really did not clarify what  I had just read.  So I just concentrated on reading more closely, rereading often, highlighting important parts of the text, and stopping ever so often to reflect, summarize,  and jot down key vocabulary.  Symbols are the tools that engage us in activities, not just children.  Adult learners, alike, go through this process when encountering something  new to them.  A symbol, or tool, initially narrows your attention.  Then it starts shaping one’s perception. When tools begin coming into use, one starts remembering or building  memory. Put to use, it becomes abstract thought.  When one begins to use all of those  tools and shape one’s understanding, one internalizes them.  The more one internalizes tools, the less they become noticeable.  When we have collected a set of tools and have  internalized them, we have begun higher psychological function.  How is this done?  The mechanism through which all of this happens is PLAY.  Play is learning versus  work, which is the application of what has been learned.  Play is purposeful and important.  Students need to engage in meaningful, play to allow them to interact with the concepts being taught.  As teachers design lessons, one should keep the zone of  proximal development, ZPD, in mind.  What this means is knowing what a child can do with help until he can do it on his own, and this completely depends on social  interaction.  ZPD is similar to the concept of a cognitive apprentice that was mentioned  in the Situated Cognition article.  It is here, in the zone of proximal development, that  teachers must take on the role of modeling, coaching, and fading progression.  Through socialization, a student uses the symbolic tools in this guided practice with the teacher  being the “guide on the side.”  Here, he/she begins to internalize the tools, and then can  start to use and understand the tools independently.  When using an acquired set of tools, the student has reached higher psychological processes. To put all of this together, we first read the book as a background building activity.   Doing the “Poetry as Discourse” activity in class was an example of a constructing  activity.  Here, the expository discourse activity stretched our analytical reasoning to  perceive how concepts are broken into parts.  Then we created the “Vygotsky Mind  Map” to comprehend the manner in which the parts are organized to explain the whole. Thank goodness for Priscilla’s careful course design, so I have success with constructing meaning and with my higher psychological processes.  Next up, to begin brainstorming the future use of all of this knowledge into my own lesson design. Design Principle 4 states, “Good learning designs engage students in “playful” activities at the edge of their knowledge and understanding using symbolic tools to develop and internalize meaningful thought.”