Getting to Revolution through Evolution?

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Getting to Revolution through Evolution?

• Janet L. Kolodner
• College of Computing
• Georgia Institute of Technology

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Premises

• Revolution requires addressing social and
  systemic issues.
• How can the computer help?
• Not as a trojan horse, rather as a tool for
  social and systemic change.
• Helping teachers experience deep learning and
  integrated capabilities and content learning --
  themselves and among their students.
• Helping teachers form communities.
• Doing the same for administrators and parents and
  politicians.
• Its not straightforward at all. We need to
  identify a set of catalysts and design with
  those in mind.

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Getting to Revolution through Evolution -- a
Disclaimer ...

• Im more pessimistic now that I was when I wrote
  my title and abstract.
• Im not so sure evolution is the answer anymore.
• Let me tell you a story...

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I had a dream ...

• Kids would focus on making knowledge, not just
  rote learning
• Kids would learn how to think, use resources,
  formulate questions, make informed decisions,
  make a good argument, explain rigorously,
  communicate for understanding, read for
  understanding, ... as a normal course of
  education -- i.e., skills and capabilities will
  be as important to learn as content
• Depth over breadth focus on application of
  whats being learned (learning for transfer)
• Everyone would think of him/herself as a learner
  and knowledge builder (including the teacher)
• Computers playing the roles for kids that it
  plays for us as professionals -- making everyday
  activities easier, making some possible

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In science, projects ...

• Begin with a personally-engaging real-world
  challenge -- erosion, ecology, vehicle propulsion
• Early activities generate issues for
  investigation results are applied to addressing
  the challenge analysis of solutions in progress
  iteration.
• Students design investigations and report
  results, multiple resources used
• Public exhibits of solutions, methodologies, what
  they have learned
• Technology integrated to make resource access,
  visualization, record-keeping, reflection,
  collaboration, easier
• Focus on processes involved in getting to
  solutions, not simply on solutions themselves

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Learning by Design

• A project-based inquiry approach to science
  education for middle school
• Students learn science concepts, skills, and
  practices in the context of attempting to achieve
  design challenges.
• Highly collaborative
• A variety of practices and scaffolding tools are
  embedded in the approach to promote the kinds of
  experiences and reflection that promote transfer.

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LBD Units and Challenges

• Physical Science
• Apollo 13 introduction to practices of design
  and science
• Vehicles in Motion motion and forces
• Machines that Help simple machines and
  mechanical advantage
• Earth Science
• Digging In -- launcher unit
• Managing Erosion erosion and accretion
• Tunneling through Georgia geology, rocks and
  minerals, rock formations, underground water

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LBDs Cycles
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A typical project cycle

• Challenge is presented
• Messing about to generate questions for inquiry
  and discussion around a public whiteboard
• Investigation to address questions followed by a
  poster session
• Design planning
• Pin-up session
• Construction testing
• Gallery walk
• Additional investigation, demo, reading,
  discussion of content, redesign
• Iteration over last three steps to solution

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LBD in Action
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Novel features of LBD

• Ritualized classroom activities matched to
  science practices
• Design diary pages matched to activities provide
  scaffolding for performance and reflection
• Software scaffolding matched to activities and
  presentations promotes summary and interpretation
• Orchestration such that students need each
  others' results
• Lots of presentations to promote good kinds of
  reflection
• Highly iterative to promote explanation and
  iterative refinement of conceptions and skills
• Launcher units introduce skills, practices, and
  culture

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Skills and capabilities learning

• With ritualizing to make skills sets
  comfortable to carry out
• systematizes practices to make them methodical
  promotes habits
• situates practices in several contexts promoting
  adaptability
• engages students in public practice as
  collaborators affording noticing, asking,
  discussion, productive reflection
• provides framework to help teachers focus and
  structure their facilitation

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Notice ...

• Its fun, students are engaged, its
  learner-centered, collaborative
• Activity structures sequence individual, small
  group, whole class activities
• Structured to provide scaffolding for student
  development and teacher roles (educative)
• Computers might or might not be central

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Weve made it work

• Over 3000 students, 18 teachers in past 4 years
• LBD students learn more content and learn it more
  deeply
• LBD students collaborate better, design
  experiments better, bring old knowledge to bear
  better than comparisons
• Average LBD students have capabilities similar to
  comparison honors students

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But we cant sustain it

• Teachers drop out after 3 years they are too
  tired, and the system doesnt reward them
  (Theres tremendous pressure from principals and
  other teachers to shorten the units and cover
  more, high-stakes testing adds more pressure.)
• Publishers dont want to publish they dont see
  a market, they want to know that local standards
  in the biggest states are addressed
• And this is without requiring computer
  integration ...

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Integrating software ...

• Rigor in presentations goes up level of
  discussion in classrooms goes way up
• But we cant sustain that
• Computers arent available
• Those running school computer systems wont put
  our software on their servers
• Teachers are worn out, no energy to learn more

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Solutions???

• Dont think computers will be a trojan horse
  for getting new ways of educating into schools --
  the system doesnt support it, and the computers
  arent available
• Dont think better pre-service training (by
  itself) will help -- the system doesnt support
  the teachers once they get into the classrooms

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Solutions??? (cont.)

• Is there infrastructure for creating evolution?
• Not clear, evolution requires the weak to die
  off, but the weak choices (the quick fixes) are
  easiest and most appealing to politicians and
  policy makers
• Ive seen in the South, by the way, that some
  state and local governments arent sure they want
  to support public education

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What to do???

• We need to look for catalysts -- technological
  and other interventions that can help to change
  the social and systemic structures in ways that
  will make small changes propagate
• And then we have to keep on doing what were
  doing, and in addition, design learning
  environments (and perhaps work environments) with
  those catalysts in mind

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Where might the catalysts focus?

• On helping education policy makers become attuned
  to their own knowledge building
• On helping teachers create community
• On helping teachers, students, parents, policy
  makers get to good resources
• On making materials we create easy to integrate
  and use
• On engaging parents better in their childrens
  education

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My challenge to you ...

• As you listen to everyones dreams, think about
  what the catalysts might be that would allow
  those dreams to come to fruition -- they are all
  good dreams, but they wont happen without also
  creating the social and systemic change that will
  allow their practices to propagate.
• As people present potential catalysts, what
  redesign would allow them to function that way?