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research

Jan 12 2015

What We Can Learn about Preschool

An article from 16 March 2011 by Dr. Alison Gopnik examined the rationale for re-thinking recent changes in preschool education. The findings she shared within the article, not to mention her conclusions, really are food for thought for all of preK-12 education. The conclusions she draws, based on two studies with young students?

Direct instruction really can limit young children’s learning. …it also makes children less likely to discover unexpected information and to draw unexpected conclusions.

Put another way, from the article:

While learning from a teacher may help children get to a specific answer more quickly, it also makes them less likely to discover new information about a problem and to create a new and unexpected solution.

Gopnik cites a discovery by a computer learning expert who has suggested that before we can learn from teachers, we learn something about teachers. We understand they have authority with information, and they are very likely to tell us what we need to know. That assumption about the teacher’s role shuts down our motivation for the discovery of new information.

student-centered

Gopnik is not anti-teacher, as she says “it’s more important than ever to give children’s remarkable, spontaneous learning abilities free reign.” The teacher’s role remains important, as “affectionate, supportive grown-ups” who can provide “lots of opportunities for exploration and play.” In words I have echoed, it sounds like she is calling for inquiry and support for engagement from teachers, or a “student-centered” classroom.

By John Hendron • General News • • Tags: learning, research

Dec 13 2010

What I’ve Been Learning Lately…

Are American Students Average?

Another round of the PISA tests put U.S. students at “average” for reading, “average” in science, and “slightly below average” in math. Leading the world are students in South Korea, Finland, Singapore, and Shanghai, China.

Some findings from the report offer some interesting points:

Students from low socio-economic backgrounds score a year behind their more affluent classmates. However, poorer students who are integrated with their more affluent classmates score strikingly higher. The difference is worth more than a year’s education.

Also,

Schools that have autonomy over curriculum, finances and assessment score higher.

And,

Students that attended pre-school score higher, even after more than 10 years.

Read more via the Washington Post. Read the report in PDF.

Rate My Teacher!

In another article (this one from the NY Times), the question is asked about how effective it is that students give feedback on their teachers, as a form of evaluation.

One notable early finding, Ms. Phillips said, is that teachers who incessantly drill their students to prepare for standardized tests tend to have lower value-added learning gains than those who simply work their way methodically through the key concepts of literacy and mathematics.

The study mentioned in this article, funded by the Gates Foundation, found that “drill and kill” tactics for standardized tests isn’t helpful. This echoes earlier research from last year that said student use of technology that simply drilled facts had a negative impact on student achievement.

iBand!

Our friends in Rockingham County schools have found a video online of several iOS musicians known as the North Point iBand.

It’s an interesting presentation, with each musician playing a different app using iPads and iPhone!

By John Hendron • General News • • Tags: drill, iOS, pisa, research

Apr 28 2009

Evaluating Web Sites

More than ever, we need to turn a critical eye to what we find online. The UCBerkeley system has some information that might help.

I always think back to hearing James Surowiecki speak at a NECC conference about his research for his book, the Wisdom of Crowds. There’s “intelligence” in looking at what the “hive mind” comes up with. That works towards our advantage when going online.

Websites that take multiple opinions are great because they put this power to work. The best advice I have for those who conduct online research (and who doesn’t?) is to look wide for your answers. When you find multiple sources pointing at the same or similiar answers, that’s a good sign. The question is: how many is enough?

By John Hendron • Resource of Interest • • Tags: research

Nov 3 2008

Research 2.0 for High School

In an effort to help high school teachers re-enforce good research habits using computers, I’ve produced a high school version of our “Research 2.0″ component of G21 in a video for students.

            <br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/2142611?pg=embed&amp;sec=2142611">Search, Collect, Evaluate</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user300738?pg=embed&amp;sec=2142611">John Hendron</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com?pg=embed&amp;sec=2142611">Vimeo</a>.

You can watch the video using Vimeo (filter override required) or download the video for playback off your laptop.

By John Hendron • Learning for Teachers • • Tags: g21, research, video

Oct 29 2008

Search, Collect, Evaluate

Today in our TechTimes Live Podcast, I published a new 5.5 minute video designed for budding middle school researchers. It could also be used in grades 5 and likely in high school, too. I plan, however, on making variations of this video for both younger and older students.

I will be placing a copy of this video on our internal server for Promethean flipchart sharing so that GMS teachers can copy this video and use it in the classroom before assigning a  research project with students.

While GCPS owns the copyright of this work, we’re making it publicly available to other schools who may find it useful. If there is great demand, I will host it on Vimeo instead of our own server.

By John Hendron • Learning for Teachers • • Tags: g21, podcast, research

Oct 17 2008

How We Research

eSchool news recently came out with an article about initial investigations on how folks “conduct research” online.

Although the study notes that horizontal searching and “power browsing” aren’t confined to young internet users, its findings–and general observations about students’ internet behavior–have led to some serious reflection on the part of educators.

They identify a number of different “ways” or “techniques” people use, but so many of them rely upon a “horizontal” look instead of a deeper, or “vertical” look. The report suggests too many students skim over the breadth of information. In thinking about myself, I probably do some of the same, because there’s so much content online!

I think it’s important to focus on both “directions,” and as educators, we probably need to spend some time in the vertical orientation of what we find… when we cover research online with our students.

By John Hendron • Learning for Teachers • • Tags: research

Sep 30 2008

Research 2.0

A twenty-first century skill identified often in G21 plans I’ve been working on with teachers is one we’re calling “Research 2.0.” I wanted to take the time to specifically outline what this is.

First, it’s a recognition that we today have a variety of digital and non-digital resources available from sources that are both traditionally “viable” or “trustworthy” and those from other authorities. Specifically, today we’re talking about 1:1 communication with experts and friends, read/write sources (blogs, wikis), prosumer media sharing (YouTube), and “invisible” web sources (subscription databases). Never before have students had access to this amount of information, both in depth and breadth.

Second, it’s a model for searching, summarizing, and verifying content. Information found must be verified and cited. And as students approach research projects in high school, they ought to be verifying their sources by looking at who is publishing or owns the content they find online.

Third, it’s a technique for collecting information through copy-paste, summarizing, tagging, and citing digital content. This can be done electronically, or even better, using read/write tools. Keeping information students “mine” through research online can be aided through the use of a blog, a collaborative document, bookmarking sites such as Diigo, or within a course management system such as Moodle.

Lastly, Research 2.0 is focused on building infoseeking fluency. Through the practice of this system, students build their skills at choosing better keywords to begin searches. We believe to be successful in this day and beyond, not only is finding information important, but also what we make of it. This is why time management, problem-solving, and collaborative skills are important yet related twenty-first century skills.

Update: Thanks go out to my mom who read this blog post last night. She took me to task on my diagram, which I have now updated to reflect her criticism. Mrs. Hendron was a former librarian, with experience in research libraries and more recently in a public library. I redirected the now dotted lines in the diagram above to reflect an optional phase where students may re-formulate their search to include new keywords after their initial search.

By John Hendron • Learning for Teachers, Resource of Interest • • Tags: g21, research

About this blog…

This is the blog of John Hendron, Ed.D., director of innovation & strategy for Goochland County Public Schools. Through this blog I share information for teachers, administrators and families dealing with learning and teaching with technology.

You can contact me via e-mail! I look forward to hearing from you.

John Hendron Goochland Schools

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