Jonesieblog

I have seen a number of articles/videos over the last wee while that have really helped to clarify my thinking about the difference between how learners feel about their learning experiences and how effectively they are actually learning.

Interleaved Practice

Research seems to suggest that if you ask learners to do a mixture of problems after a teaching episode rather than doing lots of practice of the type of problem they have been taught about, they feel more confused and perform worse on the day, but when they are given a test a week later they drastically outperform those who stuck to the one type of problem during the original lesson (The Effects of Interleaved Practice, Taylor and Rohrer 2009).

Facing Misconceptions

Derek Miller showed learners a video about gravity and motion.  Learners judged the video to be clear and easy to understand, but the video completely failed to correct their misconceptions, and their performance in a post-video test was virtually the same as in the pre-video test..  Another group of learners were shown a video which went on to state common misconceptions, and explain why they were false.  The learners described this video as confusing, but they went on to improve by 100% their performance in the test on the topic. You can watch his description of the experiment here on YouTube.

Effective Presentations

I can’t find a link to the last bit of research, alas, so I am paraphrasing from memory.  An American who spent decades researching effective use of Powerpoint performed the following experiment.  He presented the same set of information to 2 groups using Powerpoint.  One group saw a bland, bare presentation, whilst the second group saw a flashy presentation with lots of animation and colour.  The second group enjoyed their presentation much more than the first, and felt more confident about the topic than the first.  But when tested the first group outperformed the second group significantly.

And so…

How often do you take the phrase “I’m confused” in your classroom as a negative sign?  And how often do you use learner satisfaction or ability to perform on the day as barometers of the effectiveness of your lessons?  It appears that you shouldn’t be doing either without some deeper assessment of the quality of the learning that is going on.

Stumble it!

[disclaimer]This is a ramble, full of internal inconsistencies, born of a weary mind.  I post it into the ether like fresh meat thrown to a pack of wolves – go ahead and tear it to shreds![/disclaimer]

I guess you all know about Khan Academy.  If not: it’s one man’s collection of 2100 video lectures on maths, science, finance and more – all freely available.  In maths, it purports to provide a full progression from the basics of counting and place value up to some areas of university maths.

Bill Gates has endorsed it, whilst many educators are throwing their hands up in horror.

A heretical thought that popped into my head today.    What if young people decide one day that they want to spend all of the limited amount of time they devote to maths actually learning how to do maths instead of learning how to collaborate effectively, design bridges, play Mario Kart, be good time-keepers, produce presentations or whatever latest thing might be? And what if they then start using Khan Academy in large numbers to fulfil their needs? And what if they find that Khan Academy is actually much more useful to them than their school maths lessons in providing them with the exam passes that will open the doors to employment and/or further education?

How relevant will school maths look then?

As I look back over my 20 years of teaching, I can’t think of that many youngsters who have been motivated enough to spend time at home on maths beyond homework assignments, so it’s probably just a crazy, passing thought.

The broader purposes that we pursue as educators these days (under the banner of “A Curriculum for Excellence” in Scotland) are very noble – more than that, they address the real needs of young people growing up into a world of accelerating change.  But how good are we are getting buy-in to these broader purposes from parents, employers and the learners themselves?  Without that buy-in the project runs the risk of becoming irrelevant despite it’s worthiness – because our customers can now get what they think they need elsewhere.

Stumble it!

New National 4/5 Maths Qualifications with Mr Topping

• no more NABs!  Items will be on NAR and we’ll have to assemble them into unit assessments
• Nat 5 will not be Int 2.  Carving off of apps into Lifeskills Maths means that the harder stuff can permeate all 3 units better

Other random stuff that occurred to me or was said to me through the day:

• make textbook work richer by having pairs take it in turns to answer questions, explaining their thinking to their partner as they go
• use local carry-out menus for money work
• use a google docs form to perform something like a diagnostic interview with a whole class at once (pupils logged into GAE)

Quite a lot of ideas for one day.  I guess it made the early start on a Saturday morning worthwhile!

Stumble it!

I recently watched “The Big Silence” on BBC IPlayer.  It’s a documentary about the experiences of four people who volunteered to attend an eight day silent retreat at a Christian centre in North Wales.

Having been on several week long silent meditation retreats at Buddhist retreat centres myself, I was fascinated by the similarities between my experiences and those of the volunteers, and by the differences in emphasis from the two traditions.

The most compelling message I took from the programme was a confirmation of a long-held belief of mine:  that the human experience at the heart of Christian contemplation and prayer is exactly the same human experience which Buddhists meet in meditation.  Buddhists may talk about Jhanas whilst Christians talk about Grace, but it is the same experience.

I was particularly struck by something a monk said to one of the volunteers, who had experienced something very profound, but was unwilling to describe it as an experience of God: “The God you don’t believe in doesn’t exist”  That sentence has been spinning around my head ever since.  It is easy to set up a simplistic image of God then pour scorn upon those “simpletons” who believe in that image.  Much harder to open oneself up to reality and see what is actually there.

A monk talked about the pain faced by those on retreat when they realise that they are not as “pure of heart” as they might have imagined.  That certainly rings bells!

Something  one of the volunteers said resonated deeply with my experience of meditation.  She said “It’s like we are being asked to jump off a cliff, and God will catch us. But what if he doesn’t?”

The paths only diverged when it came to “special experiences”.  The mentors at the Christian retreat seemed to encourage the vounteers to dwell upon their seemingly supernatural experiences as potential experiences of God.  In the Buddhist tradition, the usual response to announcements of “special experiences” at retreats is a friendly pat on the shoulder and a “So what?  Enjoy the experience, but be vigilant that you do not become attached to it.  Remain mindful. This is not the great prize.”  I guess  that this is probably closer to the actual message given to the volunteers, and that TV simply went for the more sensational aspects of the experience.

Stumble it!

This morning we had 2 minutes silence across the school.  It was at the start of my lesson with 10 S1 pupils.  After the silence ended, I told my class about the silent meditation retreats I had attended, and about the school on Vancouver Island which has a silent morning for the whole school [I can't find a link to this - anyone help?].

One of the pupils said “Oh – can we do that this lesson!”  The rest of the class was up for it, so we did the entire hour lesson in silence.  It was a lovely experience, and the pupils were very positive in their learning logs.

Stumble it!