Class Discussion that was Cut Short!

Designs for Problem Solving

• This chapter touched on a lot of issues we began to discuss last class period, such as the failure of primary and secondary schools in producing the kind of thinkers that can be successful in the business world

• It opens with a brief comment about Descarte and the “Ghost in the machine” gives a brief history of how we have previously thought about thinking and where we have come to today

• 3 important thinking strategies that need to be developed:
• memory,
• information extending processes (inductive encoding, combination and comparison ((access and excel)),
• and information arranging processes (deductive most used in learning things unfamiliar)

• learning in a non-linear way…..

• memory: as muscle (FLL and math), as canvas, as library; good memorizing means that you can acquire, retain and achieve…..

• memory as a series of networks between concepts in our brains

• concept maps are a tangible activity that is a physical representation of the way in which we remember---think about main ideas, build relationships b/t these ideas, then related to previous concepts and build on it; how many of use concept maps and how do you use them?

• rather than teacher or learn center, education should be problem center

• good problem solving allows students to make a test prediction, inexpensive equipment, complex to elicit multiple problem solving, and benefits them

• bad problem solving doesn’t do those things, when there is no absolutely right way or fixed formula for solving the problem

• isn’t this the best kind? Isn’t this real problem solving? Isn’t there always more than one answer, and isn’t better to reason through the outcomes of the multiple paths or to be able to present something in three different ways rather than just in one

• Activities should be authentic, should build knowledge, constructing activities ask students to make/produce something (observable understanding of knowledge), and sharing
• I’ve definitely seen a huge shift in foreign language learning in using authentic materials/activities in the classrooms, where have you seen shifts?

• being smart in the world of info tech has less to do with knowing something and more to do with knowing how to find information, being able to synthesize the information and teach yourself and/or others, and being able to apply that knowledge in a meaningful/relevant way

• for me the smartest people that I’ve met are the people who can make the connections b/t the concepts and can extend their thoughts throughout history and relevance in a way that is transcending and also like stream of consciousness

Questions:

What is more important activities or problem-solving?

Is too much problem-solving a bad thing?

How can we design more constructed means of evaluation/assessment i.e. in terms of visible learning?

How can teachers become better problem solvers themselves? Should there be more demands on continuing education be placed?

Should we give our students more power in terms of designing their own activities?

How much technology is too much?

Blog Comments:

How can incorporate spreadsheets/access/problem solving in humanities, such as foreign language

learning or reading? Julia in your blog you said “What this course has started to do in my own thinking is reevaluate my use (or lack) of technology in the classroom as a method for designing disciplinary (history) knowledge.”

Marc said “I have found an increased resistance in students' willingness to deal with things that are de-contextualized. Perhaps it's because the internet has brought the realities of the world to students' minds on an unprecedented scale.” What are we loosing with students no longer being able to de-contexutalize? Isn’t this an inherent part of problem-solving?

“This point, I think, bears particular relevance to today's world of constant texting, Tiwttering, and status-updating. To withhold social communication in most project-based activities is in many cases pointless.” Will we ever by able to incorporate this social tools inside the classroom or should they be left outsides?

Tei says “Our life consists of continuous choices, and the choices bring about problems.” I like how Tei focuses on the choices rather than problem solving as those are a huge part of solving ill-designed problems.

Hanwool says “According to revised Bloom’s taxonomy (2001:
“Before we can understand a concept we have to remember it,
Before we can apply the concept we must understand it

Before we analyse it we must be able to apply it

Before we can evaluate its impact we must have analysed it

Before we can create we must have remembered, understood, applied, analysed, and evaluated”.” I think the learning can start with any skill among them or sometimes integrated skills. According to problems and choice of the individual, we should adjust our thinking skills flexibly. How can we teach students to do this?

Yu-Ting Yang says “For instance, in the first class, the teacher asks students to introduce themselves as if they were in a job interview. After listening to each other’s self-introduction, students can share what are their impressions to others. If other students’ impression is not the image the target student wishes to convey (there might be some misunderstanding in the communication), he can ask them why they think so (what he has said or what he has done that lead to this impression) and he can also think of another way (with different attitudes, tones, or wording) to present himself, which might lead to another impression. The final goal is to help students present themselves to create an impression that they desire in a job interview. The purpose of this class is to improve students’ communicative skills when they encounter misunderstanding in the conversation. I thought this was a great idea relevant to the working world!

Jasmine says “First teachers introduced related vocabulary of school life, such as semester, credit, drop, register, and dormitory. Then students surfed the websites, made some research of assigned schools, and used spreadsheets to list the characteristics under each aspect. Next each group had to figure out ten questions about each school which they would ask the representatives in the educational fair. Third, teachers guided student to learn communicative skills in American culture, such as how to greet, break the ice, change the topic, and end the conversation. Since students had to talk to the representatives who were native speakers of English, they felt the need to learn how to talk appropriately and politely. The next step was to go to the educational fair and have interview with the representatives. After the fair, students chose one of the five assigned schools and made power point to introduce it to other classmates. Finally all the students voted and decided on the best school for studying tour. This activity took several weeks and worked very well. By means of real interaction with native speakers, students in outer circle had opportunities to not only practice speaking but also applied what they had learned to real-life context, which made learning become more meaningful.”