I’ve often wondered if all of the segmented learning objectives in Standards Based Grading results in too much reductionism and micro-managing of learning, where the forest gets lost in all of the trees. In response to this, I’ve been reading “Understanding By Design” by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, with hopes of clarifying the learning intentions with my students. Certainly my students should be aware of individual skills or required knowledge, but how these pieces fit into a bigger picture is more important.
One of my biggest goals for this year (if I have a job) is to continue down the path of less notes and more inquiry. While I was pretty happy with how things went last year in my first full year of teaching, it was easy to identify areas for improvement. In particular, I thought that in Physics 12 we spent too much time doing notes. Physics 11 was more collaborative but perhaps too de-contextualized.
I have been reflecting on how I taught Physics 12 last year, and I’m not super happy with how much lecturing I did. In the big picture it probably wasn’t too bad and I didn’t give a lot of notes (which is a good thing). I used peer instruction from time to time, and I liked how that turned out. In contrast to this, Physics 11 is much more inquiry based course, which is great.
This week we had our final exams, and I have all of my Physics 11 and 12 marks in. Overall the exam marks were extremely disappointing. The Physics 11 exam was 50 questions and my class average was 61%. For Physics 12, the multiple choice section was even worse with 51% average, while the written portion was much higher at around 85%.
It is difficult for me to understand exactly what happened with the exams.
Last week I had my first try at implementing Problem Based Learning (PBL) in physics. We were about to study Heat Energy and it seemed like a natural fit for presenting an authentic problem. I chose to make a scenario that was based on my previous work as a mechanical engineer. Have a look below…
PBL - Heat Energy
From what I understand, PBL should be based on authentic situations where the solution is non-obvious such that the students need to engage their meta-cognition.
Our class time at school has been pretty messed up in the past week or two. Job action restricted class hours and then last week we missed three days due to the strike. This was followed by two days of classes, but they were compromised because of the upcoming 2 week spring break (which we’re in right now). Many students were absent and it’s difficult to start a new topic at this time, which is exactly what I’ve wanted to do for the past 2 weeks.
Last week in Physics 12 we finished mechanics. From here on in it will be electricity, electricity, electricity. Shocking, I know….
To finish off mechanics, I gave my students a mechanics baseline test for the second time. The first time was during the 2nd week of school, back in September. The results are in, and I suppose that in some ways these results are a measure of:
time spent on the topics teacher effectiveness student engagement tutor effectiveness (many of my students have tutors) student aptitude in the time frame and conditions given For 51 students, the overall average in September was 40%.
Yesterday I had a pretty good night of viewing with my 6" newtonian telescope. I managed to see many galaxies including M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), M101, M106, M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy) and a cool look at the pair of M81 and M82. The Ring Nebula (M57) wasn’t very clear but the Dumbbell Nebula (M27) was decent. M13, the fantastic globular cluster in Hercules was easy to find in the NW, and I think the highlight of the night was the double cluster NGC869 and NGC884.
One of the most intriguing aspects of using technology in the classroom is the concept of blended learning. Blended learning, loosely stated, is a model where students are involved in a mix of distance/remote instruction combined with face-to-face (f2f) instruction. I think in many ways blended learning epitomizes some of the ideas behind 21st Century Learning. Obviously the infusion of technology is one area, but I consider the technology angle to be more of an enablement of the other concepts in 21st Century Learning.
As part of a research proposal I am putting together for my ETEC 500 course, over the past week or so I have read a lot of papers that deal with the topic of conceptual change in science students. Although not all articles showed the same causal effect of addressing common misconceptions of students, the evidence from these papers makes it very compelling for teachers to implement some type of conceptual change model.
