"Do we HAVE to think?" or "Can’t you just tell me the answer?"
These are two examples of those dumb questions that DO exist!!! Even though educators tell students “the only dumb question is the one not asked”, dumb questions DO exist, and these are two examples! Why would any teacher or person accept that type of lazy defeatist attitude? Anyone that does is definitely not operating under a constructivist theory.
Orey(2001) states that America's producing underachieving students that focus on memorizing facts and processes to get the "test" correct. We are creating a lazy group of children that do not know how to think! This is sad … and unfortunately dumb questions, comments or attitudes similar to those above are the culprit. It is too time consuming to allow the child time to think or resources to make conclusions instead teachers tell students the answers or outcomes without allowing any thought or exploration.
According to Piaget and constructionism (Orey, 2001), learning takes place when pupils are actively engaged and/or constructing. They are creating ideas and drawing conclusions and assimilating or accommodating for the information just observed. This requires thought and time to question, which is what makes the strategy of generating and testing hypotheses (Pitler, Hubbel, Kuhn,& Malenoski, 2007) so vital to a constructionist’s classroom. The students are not just provided the answer and then told how to think about it. They are given models or scenarios and must make observations and analyzations so they can draw a conclusion and/or work on a plan if necessary. An example provided in our text Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler etal., 2007), required students to look at a financial situation where they had to decide how much money to invest and at what rate. The teacher provided the students with technology to do all the math calculations for them. This was a valuable time saver and enabled the teacher to then focus on the goal of the lesson. The computer did the time consuming work that would have required students use so much energy and effort and time that when they needed to look at the data, their systems were exhausted.
However, having that spreadsheet to make that information readily available provided the students with real time data that they could discuss, manipulate and make conclusions about. By doing this the students can play with many different situations and find the answer to the question instead of having the teacher simply state how they would do better and why.
Having technology do the intensive part of the project allows the teacher to have the time and willingness to attempt project based learning. I think of this much like the simple calculator in a mathematics class. Once it has been established the child knows the basic facts teachers can allow children to use calculators to do the computations so the student can use the brain power and energy to follow and find certain processes required. That is what technology can do in many situations particularly in many situations that have to do with collecting and displaying data.
Often times analyzing data is the standard that our students struggle with school wide yet almost every child can make any type of graph in any type of situation, they just do not know how to understand what the display is saying. The children have just routinely memorized the process of making a graph, they have become lazy and do not and can not think critically (Orey, 2001) of what that information says. Build this skill by insisting that the technology do the computations, collections and displaying so the child’s brain can be left to analyze and connect with the data. It is only through allowing these types of situations to occur that we will ensure a future of thinkers!
The television game show, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader shows us all what these trivial facts do for us. NOTHING! A rocket scientist, (easily considered one of the most intellectual careers around) could not get past the first round on a fist grade level question. This genius was unable to spit back this trivia, and he is a genius doing remarkable things, this should prove that we do not need to know every little thing instead we need to focus on learning how to learn. My very wise brother has always told me the smartest people do not know all the answers but they know where to look to find them. That is my goal for my students, let them think about where to find the answer and ways to get there to learn the answer and eventually they might end up knowing many of the answers and without a teacher ever telling them one answer!
Good luck to all of us in trying to achieve this. It is a lot easier said than done especially when politics enters the real world of education but hopefully the few will prevail and teachers can begin to make a difference one student at a time! Perhaps even begin to create Americans that are not “underachieving memorizers” (Orey, 2001) but rather critical thinkers ready to conquer the world!
LORI POWERS
Resources:
Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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As I was reading your blog, I thought these are wonderful ideas, yes teachers should teach that way! Let’s just change how we teach and the world’s problems would be solved! Our students could think, parents would be happy, teachers would be happy, but would administrators and would state testing expectations be met? The reason I question the latter is, when constructing knowledge initially students have to go from regurgitating facts to discovering facts which could be something new. Students will need to “rewire” their brain and use new capabilities; this muscle has not been used in this manner possibly for years. In the mean time, the state expects students to score well on standardized tests, if not “heads will roll”. Do educators have to find a middle ground of meeting student’s needs and state testing expectations?
ReplyDeleteLori,
ReplyDeleteI read with great interest the situation in the book where the teacher provided the calculators do to all the math calculations for them to leave time for the goal itself. Do you think perhaps teachers let the students rely too much on the use of calculators when doing their work? Does this help the student in the long run? Yes, they know how to find the answer to a problem using the calculator but they can't think it through on their own. Do your peers let the student rely to much on the calculators? We teach the students find where to go to get the answers but is this always the true answer to the situation?
Kathy
Lori, how long will it take for the educational leaders to realize that too may students today do not know how to think for themselves. You really touched upon a fact that is seen in too many places. The lack of critical thinking and problem solving skills. Maybe the fast paced, "I need it now" technological society that we live in, has let down some people. In the rush to get things quickly we have lost sight of the journey to that special place called the solution or the answer. We still need to make sure that the basics are learned, then the technology can help to reduce the tedious work instead doing the work that is not understood.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts.
Luis
Lori and Kathy,
ReplyDeleteAfter rereading Lori's blog and Kathy's response, I think Kathy brought up very valid points about the use of letting students rely on calculators. If students are allowed to use calculators for simple math facts, will they dismiss this knowledge from their brains. I was recently in a Walmart, I paid but the cashier did not put the amount I paid into the cash register,so she had no idea how to give me my change, the manager had to be called to solve the problem, since she would not believe I could do it in my head. If students use calculators in class will the above incident occur everywhere?
Jennifer Hardy
Kathy and Teachontheedge,
ReplyDeleteA definite balance is what we all need in life in every aspect! Yes teachers need to walk on the line between facts and process and this becomes difficult when they are too concerned with testing results and regulations. There has to be a happy medium, only to find the answer that everyone can agree on! That is the difficulty.
As far as calculators, tehre is a definite need for calculators depending on the level. Calculators SHOULD NOT be used when teaching how to calculate, specifically with division which happens all too often. However, once the process and concept of computations is achieved a calculator provides the ease and speed to focus on the rest of the problem.
Now this becomes another issue when you have the super performing graphing calculators, however, in my opinion, some of the steps you have to learn in order for the calculator to do its work is more dificult than actually doing the problem on paper!
Again this is a controversial topic but one I feel strongly about and discuss often. My colleagues and I use calculators in 6th grade pre algebra for solving unknowns in ratios, we require the problem to be outlined and then the students can use the calculators to "DO THE MATH" and we allow calculators for surface area, volume and area, simply because the calculator allows the time to focus on the dimensions and formulas and not so much the calculations.
My 6th grade on grade level math students learning fractions, decimals and percentspretty much the whole year are not allowed to touch calculators because they are focussing on calculating and manipulations to calculate that using a calculator would not benefit them at all!
Thanks so much for you input! LORI POWERS
Jennifer ,
ReplyDeleteVery valid point but that situation has not as much to do with the history of using a calculator as the ability of the cashier. For every one student that you see working in a Walmart you would see a student making major calculations in his head in an engineering class.
Not that I am knocking a store cashier as a profession, I did the same thing working through high school, however, that position is not a fair representation of students coming out of school. Yet it is the common one the public uses to complain about the educational system and the children graduating high school. The business world is often complaining about the ability of the students coming out of high school, understandably so many times, but these are the students that are not choosing to continue on with school. Education is not a must for these children and their families and that makes you consider the effort and attitude towards their education through high school.
To make educational decisions based on the people you run into in positions that require little if any education or training is hasty and perhaps not very fair to educators that have been trying to follow best practice and engaging strategies to keep these same children in school long enough to get a high school diploma.
If used correctly calculators are an invaluable tool that promotes learning not handcaps it!
Just my thoughts! LORI POWERS