Techtrovert

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It’s Only A Matter of Time…

Kitchen Stories is about a research project studying men in the kitchen, which becomes interwoven with layers beyond research involving relationships, wider communities, human interactions, cultural backgrounds, and teaching. This movie examines the complexity of human interactions, and demonstrates how conversations are necessary between the researcher and researched in order to fully comprehend what is being studied.

The Reader/Viewer

This movie is based around the centre of many homes: the kitchen. Family kitchens are an important room for human interaction, bringing together people for conversation, eating, stories, and homework. Of all the rooms in the house, the kitchen is arguably the central room for bringing people together. As the reader/watcher, having the main story happen in the kitchen, it was easy to bring my feelings and experiences of this room into my views of the story. I knew immediately that there would be emotional and personal issues involved in the story because that is what the kitchen meant to me growing up. It was the place where I discussed my hopes and dreams of a career with my parents, had hard conversations in my teenage years, and spent lots of time with my brother loading and unloading the dishwasher. As a reader/viewer, it is impossible to remove context, emotion, and conversation out of any research conducted on human behaviour. As I watched Folke crawl up into that high umpire chair in the corner of the kitchen, and sit silently, I knew that the issue of conversation, context, and qualitative research would be a main theme of the movie.

The Researcher

The observer, or researcher, Folke, in the film tries to maintain a sense of neutrality throughout the film. Unbiased, unemotional, and non-judgemental attitudes are critical when conducting quantitative research. You are merely there to collect data based on what you see, and the numbers will reveal the result, not your opinion. The umpire chair reflected this neutrality, as well as refraining from having conversations with Isak regarding his activities in the house. Folke was determined to follow the scientific method of observation, and only collect data based on what he observed from an outside point of view. Folke is directed to collect data based on Isakā€™s movements in the kitchen and is not required to consider Isakā€™s context, history, or circumstances. Folke has been trained in the scientific way and was collecting data as a neutral observer, free from personal bias, opinion, or conversation. He is also directed to restrict his observations only to the kitchen and record only the activities that happen in that room. As the story goes on, Folke finds it increasingly difficult to refrain from satisfying his curiosity of Isakā€™s actions, and struggles to maintain a neutral, unbiased, observer point of view. A turning point from quantitative, unbiased data collection from Folke occurs when he asks Isak why he never answers the phone when it rings. From observation, numerical data collection and quantitative observation, the answer remains a mystery; but from a simple qualitative conversation, he learns the truth behind Isakā€™s friendship and reason for letting the phone continue to ring – it was too expensive to answer. The researcher, Folke, is trained as an observer to maintain a stance of neutrality and objectivity. The researcher is to remain unbiased and separate from the researched. This is the main idea behind scientific research; observe as closely as you can while remaining separate from your subjects.

The Researched

Kitchen Stories revolves around the idea that research can be conducted in a sterile and ā€œhands-offā€ fashionā€¦ or so we think. Folke begins the story as the researcher, but quickly becomes the researched when Isakā€™s curiosity of the man in the umpire chair becomes too much. Each person makes sense of our own world and the experiences of others from the foundation of our own experience. It is impossible to be neutral observers. Scientific research implies that the subjects being researched are not going to be impacted by the act of being observed. This is not the case in the film, as Isak quickly switches his role of observed to observer when he begins to spy on Folke through a hole in the floor. Neutrality and one-sided observations prove to be impossible, as the two men begin to increasingly interact with each other, from sharing food to full on conversations about Isakā€™s past and reasons for not answering the ringing telephone. As the reader/viewer, I felt emotional about the developing relationship between the men.

The Research

The story of Folke and Isak represents the challenges of conducting purely quantitative data, and also supports the validity and need for qualitative research and data to fully understand the context and depth of the subject being studied. How could data collected on the interactions, behaviours, and activities of humans be purely numerical, when humans themselves are complex creatures with history and personal stories? The movie represented the process of involvement that evolves during qualitative data collection, and the necessity for interaction and conversation between the researcher and researched in order to fully understand the meaning of the topic being studied. Folke accepts that he cannot keep his research to the kitchen alone, and realizes that he needs to ask about Isakā€™s point-of-view, history, and background in order to fully understand his subject and research question. Isak realizes that he is unable to ignore Folke in his large umpire chair and becomes curious about interacting and studying Folke himself. Through their kitchen dialogue, the two men gain deeper understanding of each otherā€™s experiences and lives. As the story of these two men evolves, the viewer becomes aware of the rich layering that is part and parcel of qualitative research.

All Talk, All Action

This blog post stemmed from a conversation with Jeff Hopkins, the founder of the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII).

PSII Homepage

@hopkinsjeff

The Un-Learning Process

“Educational Quote: “Albert Einstein says…”” by Ken Whytock is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Below are my thoughts on the student transition from public school to PSII.

 

PSIIā€™s core values encompass a very learner centred learning area such as Open Inquiry, Emergent Curriculum, Learning Happens Everywhere, Learning vs. Learning About, and Co-Construction of learning.

Questions for Jeff and the students at PSII

During our chat, a few thoughts came up that I would like to ask Jeff, students at PSII, or other teachers at the school.

  1. What made you decide to come to PSII? (this would be for the student)
  2. What are common paths your students take after graduation? Are there any unique paths students have taken as a result of going to PSII?
  3. What challenges do students face switching from the public school system to PSII? Challenges if they switch back to public?
  4. What level of parental support is expected for students? How to do you respond to little or no parental interest in their childā€™s learning?
  5. Is there a limit to tapping into free mentor support and how do you check for reliability of mentor? Does it compromise the value of education and teachers?
  6. Do you have or have you had any First Nations teachers? Students? How do you incorporate or encourage the incorporation of First Nations values / ways of knowing into studentsā€™ projects?
  7. Could a remote access student or teacher attend or teach at PSII?

Ā How to bring inquiry and collaboration into my classroom

Ā PSII values collaboration, cross-curricular, and cross-grade projects and learning; this is why the school limits the number of students each year. A smaller class size allows for more personalized learning and for students to work together in a meaningful way inside and outside of school. Throughout our conversation with Jeff, he stressed that this model isn’t very effective in public schools because of a larger student body.

This got me thinking – if we can’t change the number of students in our schools, could we change our classroom layout to increase student interaction and small group conversation?

Reimagining Classrooms: Teachers as Learners and Students as Leaders | Kayla Delzer | TEDxFargo

Why do some classrooms look the same now as they did 70 years ago? In this passionate talk, second grade teacher Kayla Delzer speaks about her mission to revitalize learning and the classroom environment.

Classroom layout

Your classroom design and layout should have a positive impact on student learning, performance, and collaboration while helping to reduce anxiety of being in a group setting. An ideal classroom should offer private spaces for individual work, and group spaces for conversation and collaboration.Ā 

ā€œThe purpose of a design is to facilitate and enhance the enactment, continuance, and completion of activities appropriate to the setting the design exemplifies…ā€

ā€œClassroom layouts should work towards enhancing the enactment, continuation, and completion of activities to reach specific educational goals.ā€Ā 

(Amedeo, D., 2003) Source

Throughout the years, classroom layouts have changed very little, whereas the office space has been completely redesigned in the past quarter-century. Many offices offer private meeting rooms, hang-out areas with ping pong tables or snacks, and large collaborative space with video conferencing facilities. We have made adaptations for the changing business world, but what changes have we made in our classrooms?Ā 

Classic Classroom Configurations

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Comparison-of-traditional-Thai-classroom-layout-to-the-setup-of-the-learning-incubator_fig3_264817956

The traditional row and column style with all seats facing the front lends itself to ā€˜sit-and-listen teaching.ā€™

Source: https://www.dallasmidwest.com/blog/classroom-arrangement-tips

Clusters work best for group work, where students share tasks and cooperate.

Source: www.betterlesson.com

In a Socratic Seminar, students help one another understand the ideas, issues, and values reflected in a text through a group discussion format.

A Dynamic Classroom for All Types of Learning

The ideal classroom gives space for all types of learning. There should be group space to collaborate, private areas for individual work, large workspaces for projects and hands-on learning, and an array of seating, lighting, and spaces for students to work. It is important for each teacher to think about who they are teaching, what they are teaching, and how to arrange their classroom to meets their teaching needs.

This may may sound like a large list of requirements, but below I have designed a classroom layout which fits all of these needs.

There are group tables for collaboration, an area with computers, and lots of seating for individual work. Rugs, beanbag chairs, tables, chairs, desks, the floor, or in a cubby in the bookshelf are all work spaces the students can choose. A large kidney shaped table is ideal for hands-on activities as well as tables which can be rearranged for larger workspaces. A projector and TV allow for video conferencing between students and other people in the global community, as well as enough computers for each student. Lots of natural light and direct access to the outdoors helps students feel connected to their natural environment as well.

The Ideal Classroom Layout (CC: Hayley Atkins, 2019)

It is useful to think about how we would design our ideal classrooms, and how to best arrange each classroom to meet the needs of students and teachers.Ā 

ā€˜The teacherā€™s educational philosophy will be reflected in the layout of the classroom. The teacher should be able to justify the arrangement of desks and chairs on the basis of certain educational goals. There is no ideal classroom layout for all activities.’Ā  (Sommer, 1977)

Questions to ponder…

When was the last time you looked at your classroom layout from a student perspective?

Do you regularly check if everyone can see and hear properly?

Does the learning activity dictate the seating arrangement in your classroom? Do you change your layout according to different activities or at different times of the year?

Can you justify your choice of classroom seating arrangement on the basis of educational goals?

Here are the main factors you should consider in your classroom in terms of layout:

  • Seating
  • Place(s) of instructionĀ 
  • Technology
  • Storage
  • Decor/Displays
  • FlexibilityĀ 
  • Size

In reality, teachers face issues of:

  • Budget
  • Custodial AgreementĀ 
  • Sharing room(s) with other teachersĀ 
  • SafetyĀ 
  • Individual student needs

Resources related to classroom layout and active learning

mathandmovement.com

#activemath on Twitter

Interesting EdChat conversation about classroom layouts

Mr. Meyer’s Interactive Math Lessons

The top 10 benefits of a flexible classroom

The Chair Free Classroom

The Flexible Classroom

21st Century Classrooms May Remind you of Starbucks

Action Based Learning Research

 

Lost in Translation

A large part of my teaching pedagogy involves incorporating First Nations views into my lesson plans, activities, and learning outcomes.

When I was in my PDPP education program, we had an Indigenous Education course that included history, curriculum, and current practices of First Nations ways of knowing. Overall, it is a wholistic view that knowledge should come from people, places, and things and can be from a historical, current, natural, supernatural, spiritual, or scientific background. An example of this is using myths and origin stories to explain natural phenomena such as earthquakes and mountain formations. This knowledge and knowledge keeping is embedded with the notion that information and history is best remembered in a story form, with meaning, emotion, and context.

Western science and knowledge is routed in facts, hypothesis, tests, and data which can be collected in experiments, recorded in textbooks, and studied by anyone who has access to these papers and texts. This data is studied out of written textbooks and papers, which can be compared to the First Nations knowledge which is largely verbal and passed down through sharing circles, ceremony, and conversations between people and communities.

There has been a large push from First Nations researchers to have the validity of their science and ways of knowing acknowledged by the Western World, in order for progress to be made in understanding the world today. It is common for Western Science to dominate our field, with quantitative research, structured experiments, and widely distributed papers; it is no wonder that Western Science is seen as the more valid, and right, way of knowing.

As the Reader

While reading the paper Understanding and Describing Quantitative Data, I focused my reader lens on how this type of research could be transferred to First Nations knowledge and science. Is quantitative information on First Nations knowledge restricted because of the method that information is shared? Respect, conversation, oral sharing, and reciprocity are values carried through when sharing knowledge in First Nations communities. Sharing ideas in exchange for hearing someone else’s is common, and is how culture is maintained in First Nations groups. It is difficult to collect quantitative data when their knowledge is spoken, passed on through song, told through stories, not written in books, or recorded on a numerical scale. As the reader, when most scientific papers focus on quantitative data, and believe it to be the best way of recording findings and information, I can’t help but think about all of the other information that will be lost or unexplored when the qualitative lens or First Nations oral tradition is excluded. How can these interviews, stories, and songs be converted into quantitative information without the value of the ideas and thoughts being compromised? It is similar to taking a photograph on film, copying it to your computer, transferring it onto a hard drive, and then posting it to Facebook or Instagram. While it is relatively the same photograph, the quality of the photo has been lost. If we continue to favour converting our findings to quantitative data, then First Nations knowledge and its quality will be diminished over time. It is important, as the reader, to recognize the prevalent bias in our Western society that Western Science, and research methodologies, are seen as “better” and more credible than other ways of knowing.

The Researcher

Cathy Lewin, the author of this paper, has research and education that includes education technology, digital pedagogy, and innovation. Most of their (I am using the term “their” not in the plural sense, but more as a gender neutral term) articles are centred around including more technology in schools, innovations in education with tech, and explore education from a European perspective. Her thorough, straightforward, universal outline for conducting quantitative research plays very well into the structure of Western Science. As a researcher with a deep sense and recognition of Western Science, I believe they are in strong favour of quantitative methodology being the most sound approach for research, compared to qualitative or First Nations ways of knowing. With her research being based in the UK, out of the Manchester Metropolitan University, it would be easy to access information supporting quantitative research, and Western Science, because First Nations culture and communities are not common in their region.

The Research

The research provides a clear framework for conducting, analyzing, and reporting on an area of study and collecting data that is quantitative, easily documented, and clearly measured. When conducting a study where you would like to analyze your results correctly, it would be tempting to use this quantitative method because it provides a clear guideline and methods to analyze the validity of your findings. The quality of your data and research can be numerically measured through statistics including P-values, lines of best fit, and probability. If the data that is being collected is numerical, and quantifiable, then this method is desirable. If your research involves emotion, differing opinions, conversations, and unwritten historical data, then there can be errors which occur when this information is translated into numbers and quantities.

The Researched

The research and quantitative methods model was used in a UK study to gather information on topics such as shoe size and cigarette consumption. This data is easy to gather, measure, and record using numbers. These numbers can be then inserted into statistical programming to display commonalities, trends, and other information about the UK population. The paper did not go into detail on how to collect non-numerical and qualitative information such as opinions, interviews, or emotional connectedness. The examples used to describe the quantitative process were unemotional, required only one type of numerical information, and was easily translated and statistically analyzed. This method and scaffolding is very useful for individuals collected quantitative information.

What Next?

In BC, First Nations knowledge and ways of knowing are gaining respect and validity in the lens of science and research. I can see that there is a change in perspective, and that Western Science is soon going to meld with other ways of knowing. I am curious to explore effective ways of translating interviews, stories, songs, and other qualitative information into quantitative data without losing the quality and perspective that information has.

Cellphones: Here to Stay.Ā 

This blog post stems from our discussion of Digital Literacy in the 21st Century with Jessie Miller of Mediated Reality.

(Twitter: @MediatedReality) (Website: https://www.mediatedreality.com/)

All or Nothing

In September 2018, Central Middle School banned the use of cellphones on school property. Students were asked to leave their devices at home, and if they brought their cellphones to school the devices would be confiscated. During my teaching program, we visited Central Middle School, and I was delighted to see how progressive and tech-forward this school was; I couldn’t wait to apply for a practicum there with the hopes of working there once I graduated. To me, this was a forward thinking, tech-embracing, 3D printing, laptop-using middle school who was ahead of the curve for progressive education. Which is why, when this announcement was made about the cellphone ban, I was shocked. What could be so bad about cellphones that they aren’t even allowed on school property?

The principal of Central expressed that the staff felt there was very little – if not any – educational benefit of students having cell phones in their hands at school.

Central Middle School’s Cell Phone Ban Article

This ban led to me to think about the pros and cons of cellphone use in the classroom. This can’t be a black and white issue. Surely, we can find a way to embrace these devices and incorporate their uses into our lessons and teaching practice?

While many parents allow children free rein of the internet at home, itā€™s a common debate in education circles on howā€”andĀ ifā€”digital devices should be allowed at school. Supporters of technology in the classroom say that using laptops, tablets, and cellphones in the classroom can keep students engaged. Technology is what they know. Most students today donā€™t even remember a time without the internet. But critics say itā€™s yet anotherĀ distraction in the classroom. From social media to texting, allowing digital devices could hinder a studentā€™s performance in the classroom.

Mobile devices in education, from the students perspective.

Pros of Cellphones in the Classroom

Cons of Cellphones in the Classroom

Negative health impacts of screen time in adolescents article mentioned in the recording above.

Check out this TedTalk about the negative effects that screen time, at any age, can have on our overall happiness:

Communication is Key

In my classroom, I struggle to keep students off of their cellphones. I use techniques like giving them “the look”, standing next to them while they are texting, or blatantly calling them out in class for using their phones. Usually, they respond with an eye roll, a sassy remark, but then put it back into their pocket or facedown on their desk. My classroom policy for cellphones is that the students are allowed to have their phones facedown on their desk, with their music on shuffle. If theyĀ  need to look at their phones, it is only to change music quickly. They know that if they are waiting for a text or call from their parent/guardian, their best bet to avoid having their phone taken away is to let me know why they need their phone that day. Open communication is key for me – if there is something going on in your life that you need your phone for, let me know and I am happy to let you keep an eye out for those messages.

No cellphone jails in my classroom! (Hayley Atkins, 2019)

Jails, Boxes, Shoe Racks…

I have seen other classrooms and schools create cellphone jails, boxes of shame, cellphone cubbies, or even just a tub where phones are to be dumped before class starts. You can check some of them out in the link below:

Cell Phone Jail and Other Classroom Tips

I would not want to be responsible for all of these expensive devices, use class time to collect all of the phones, or have to communicate with parents/guardians who may disagree with this “cellphone jail”. For me, building relationships, trust, and communication with the students around my expectations for cellphones is how I manage cellphone use in my class.

Twitter: @ddmeyer

Cell-utions?

Cellphones are here to stay, and the more schools try to fight it, the more difficult it will be to get students off of their screens and back into the classroom. There is a place in school for cellphones, but if digital devices are permitted, there should be guidelines and rules in place.

Digital literacy and digital citizenship should become part of the new BC curriculum. Right now, the only place I see where it can fit is into Computer Science, Career Education, and ADST? I would be curious to start an EdChat on Twitter regarding where these issues could fit…

There are lots of resources for teaching the concepts of digital literacy / citizenship. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has comprehensive standards for students to be successful in the digital world. A resource I would recommend trying in your class is a digital citizenship game developed by ISTE and Google called Interland. This games shows kids how to manage their digital footprint and avoid hackers, phishers, oversharers, and bullies online!

If the students are going to become digitally aware and literate, it is important that the administration and staff become tech-literate as well. In order to incorporate digital literacy/citizenship in the classroom, teachers need proper support in training, professional development, and curriculum implementation. I believe most teachers want their students to be safer online, but are quite busy with the other demands in their classroom to really follow through with developing their own lessons around this topic. For busy teachers, like myself, a great place to start for curriculum and Pro-D resources is Common Sense Media. To effectively use the resources on this website, it is important that teachers take the time to collaborate, plan, and create a meaningful lesson about digital devices in their classroom – this would be a great Pro-D day topic!

Digital devices are great learning tools to embrace our ever changing, increasingly online world. In the classroom, devices are utilized best when there are specific goals for their use, focusing on student online safety, digital citizenship, and critical thinking.

I would like to explore the comparison between cellphone use in gym / sports and in the typical classroom. Would changing your classroom layout and activities reduce screen time and temptation? Is there a place for Movement Based Learning in the math classroom? Also a great #BCEdChat topic..

5 Useful Blogs, #s, and @s

Twitter – It’s a big expansive place, with lots of resources, but who has the time to sort through it all?

Here are a few useful #s, @s, and blogs to help you get started.

5 #s:

#blendedlearning

#mathchat

#scichat

#whatitaughttoday

#asechat

What’s missing? I am still on the hunt for a First Nations Education Chat…Ā 

5 @s:

@ScienceWorldTR

@tweetsomemoore

@TeachingSTEM

@primarystemchatĀ ā€

@WOCinSTEMChatĀ ā€

5 Blogs:

thestemlaboratory.com/blog

https://blogs.sd41.bc.ca/math/curriculum/aboriginal-education/

Resources for new CS Teachers

https://mathforlove.com/blog/Ā 

https://blogsomemoore.com/Ā 

 

The New Value of Education

Admittance: At What Cost?

When it comes to student access, High Tech High took a stand and opened their doors to those students who are classified as being the lowest on the education and economic scale. A school that looks like a top of the line, ā€œGoogle-esqā€ establishment, is actually a free public school. The school’s selected students are those who come from rough backgrounds and low-income areas. This helps to reduce the barrier of attending progressive ā€œtechā€ schools which would normally only be attended by wealthy students from upper class neighbourhoods and backgrounds.

Google Office… or High Tech High Classroom? “” by Marcin Wichary is licensed under CC BY 2.0

As the reader/viewer of this video, I raise a few issues of selecting students only based on their parentsā€™ income:
  • Why should it be based on the salary of parents, when these children who may benefit from attending High Tech high are now not able to attend because they come from a higher income family? Reducing a barrier for those of lower income actually creates a barrier for others.
  • It is common for those higher income families to want their child to be successful in school, no matter what cost. Some wealthy parents are willing to pay for whatever tutoring, laptops, or learning aids their child may need so that they can achieve As and be accepted into their alma matter. While their grades may reflect success, many of these students may not have learned very much because of this sheltered system. What they show in book smarts, they lack in street smarts and perseverance. I wonder who would deliver more grit? A student who has only known how to use the support of others, or the student who has never been able to afford a tutor? It would be interesting to compare the success of each type of student at High Tech High.

As a teacher, we need to think critically and holistically about who our students are and what their backgrounds are. We canā€™t assume that the students who come from wealthy families are going to be inherently successful. While in the same thought, we canā€™t assume that the students who come from less-wealthy families will come with grit and determination. I understand that economic status is a common and efficient way to categorize people, but I would be curious if there is another way to assess which students would truly benefit from attending High Tech High.

As the researcher/creator of High Tech High, the main issues this school aims to address are those of social inequality and social differentiation. Social inequality is the unequal distribution of resources within a society. Social differentiation is the idea that people can be categorized based on characteristics including race, income, education and geography. Social differentiation is a key for fuelling social inequality; who you are and where you are from can have a large impact on the privileges that you have. High Tech High is focussing on limiting the social inequality that income and wealth can have on the accessibility to fair and open education, and ultimately lifelong success.

Influence for this analysis came from: https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology2ndedition/chapter/chapter-9-social-inequality-in-canada/

Power Privilege and Oppression – Graduate School of Social Work -DU Licensed under CC

Does Sacrifice Equal Dedication?

Teachers at High Tech High are hired based on subject need and specialization; their contracts expire each year and they are paid less than the average American teacher. As a reader/watcher of this video, I applaud these teachers and have respect for their passion as educators. They are willing to sacrifice their job stability and have a lower wage because they are committed to the work that High Tech High is aiming to accomplish. The teachers see themselves as part of the greater good, rather than how they are being treated individually. As a reader/watcher, I can admit to myself that I would not be comfortable with this uncertainty ā€“ but does this mean that I am not as dedicated a teacher? The research does acknowledge this feeling of uncertainty these teachers feel, but its main objective of creating a project-based-learning and needs based school justifies this feeling of professional insecurity.

Behind the Scenes

High Tech High uses a completely self-directed, unstructured approach to learning, which enables full student autonomy. There are no standardized tests, and projects are used to ā€œgradeā€ and assess student learning.

From the researchers point of view, this is a progressive new model focusing on the shortcomings of the traditional way of learning and testing. The researcher highlights how standardized tests can be inaccurate, cater towards one style of learner, and do not reflect a learner’s overall profile. This researcher’s view would correlate strongly with the reading ā€œTeaching for Meaningful Learning,ā€ where Dr. Barron and Darling-Hammond argue that the focus of learning and education should be about knowledge growth for the individual and collective group. From a reader/watcherā€™s point of view, High Tech Highā€™s unstructured learning approach emphasizes engagement and collaboration to develop collective knowledge. What I noticed is that the content and background knowledge on robotics, woodworking, or other skills needed for these projects, was not included in this film or part of the ā€œresearchedā€ content. This challenged my belief and comfort level of a teacher that students need to have the core skills and content to be able to take this project based learning into their own hands and apply these skills to larger ideas and into a broader context. An example of this from High Tech High, is how did the students know how to physically build the large cog wheel, if the teacher did not explicitly show them how to in a traditional way? Was there direct instruction happening between the students and teacher behind the scenes? I wonder if the researcher decided to not focus on the traditional note-taking or direct instruction that may happen at points throughout the day, and instead emphasize the project based learning that happens after those instructions.

Social Butterfly vs. Wallflower

Walking through the hallways of High Tech High, it is easy to get carried away looking at the artwork, robots, and other visually intriguing projects that fill the halls. It was fascinating to watch the students painstakingly piece together the intricate cog, or set up the best lighting system to showcase their play, but is this just an illusion of the success of project based learning? It is no wonder that project based learning gets showcased in social media more, because it is a more interesting process of learning to the audience/reader. People are more interested in watching a class build a robot battle arena then watch them master complex algebraic equations – but which group is learning more? Is the flashier learning more valuable than the intrinsic problem solving?

A “Boring” Perspective of Learning “Home Work” by Sam & Sophie Images is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

P1030079

Flashy, “Social Media” worthy learning! “P1030079” by __andrew is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

In my own classroom, I am hesitant to post on Facebook the “boring” photos of students completing math worksheets, or solving word problems, because I fear I will be labelled the “boring” math teacher. I know that these worksheets are building foundational skills of fractions, long division and algebraic equations so that we can then work on projects dealing with slope and velocity of racecar tracks. Why am I only showcasing the flashy work at the end rather than celebrating the internal process that happens before those projects can even develop?

These thoughts about flashy vs. unflashy lessons and work lead me to want to explore the perception of Project Based Learning from the teachers point of view when it comes to the amount of lesson planning and effort it takes to teach in this way…Ā  Can Project Based Learning Lead to Lazy Teaching? Another blog post to come!

This blog post explores the documentary, Most Likely to Succeed and related readings, Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching by Paul A. Kirschner, John Sweller Ā & Richard E. Clark (2010), Teaching for Meaningful Learning by Dr. Barron & Darling-Hammond, StanfordU, and https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology2ndedition/chapter/chapter-9-social-inequality-in-canada/Ā 
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