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Thursday, November 29, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Learning Registry Metadata Initiative
Learning Registry and LRMI
Use of Metadata Tagging
Use of Metadata Tagging
Visit http://youtu.be/xKzpGjZ7sdE (click to open in a new window)
Education Metadata
Metadata why do I care?
why do we need a standard?
Recipe- all the different items that are part of the thing
we are creating—standards about describing nutritional information of the
recipe –this is metadata
Data-the book itself
Metadata for books—the title, author, length, readability
LRMI standardization of the metadata and how it is useful
AEP role-
Provides representation and insight on the LRMI TWG, oversee
communication outreach to educational resource community
So what
Existing metadata standards now includes IEE LOM, Dublin
Core Metadata, SCORM, Our own metadata schema
Why another standard—LRMI—to make it easier to find the
resources—accessibility, the availability of curriculum, international
baccalaureate
SCHEMA.org
international-need a standardized, centralized to use metadata to search
beyond education
Leverage this to make the data findable, makes its way
through the internet, need standaraized ways to find it
Need a common set of descriptors, common is not common
Education benefits by not going it alone but leveraging an
existing industry-publishing
Allows conversation between stakeholders
Internet makes it more diffiuclt-various standards meet each
other where they wouldn
‘t have in the past
LRMI—the future of education research
Visit
http://youtu.be/xKzpGjZ7sdE (click to open in a new window)
Find overwhelming results, a million results, frustrating,
takes too long to find what learners need, have to look through things to find what they really want by combing through
results to find what they need
Learners spending too much time searching, not enough time
learning or teaching. To be able to sort
by grade level etc helps all
Focused on making educational and research resources easy to
find
Coled with CC
Standard metadata framework for all educational content
Encompasses most common and often used key terms and filters
If adopted by major search engines, these will appear on the
browser screen when educators and students are searching to help them get the
exact information they need when they are searching
Get less results, but they mean more
Learning Resource Metadata Initiative
Recognize that publishers are helping in the discovery of ed
res and the marketing and awareness and commerce.
LRMI changing the world
Process of describing the resource in terms of the sets of
tags, then publishing that in a number
of formats depending on where it is being used (adopted by google, yahoo,
bing) making it evident where it is,
making it discoverable
TAG ME <FIND Me> LRMI
Open source taggers, open source within own toolsets
LRMI enable better search
Potato salad search-set of metadata that come up in google
without mayo etc. imagine these
happening within education—child ages 10-12, fractions, remediation?
Not for classes necessarily, but personalizable and
individualized
Resources more easily found and more easily used
Enables better search
Fractions search, new version too available now
Learning Media
New Zealand largest ed publisher, print and digital company
is gov owned, one of key clients is ministry of ed in NZ
Also global publisher and developer
Developed and host of largest metadata portal in NZ- hub for
all NZ
Market drivers-deliver profit, deliver future and digital
future, growth,
Teachers need relevant resources, need to find info at the
click of a button
Product perspective-plethora of computer disks in market,
Plethora of competitors, teachers can’t review all of these
that are not relevant
Relevance
Discoverability
Accessibility
Channels and
Teachers and learners need to know searching yields relevant
resources
Metadata—discoverability, relevant and accessible
Changes the way publishers stay relevant and
Bridging gap between publishers and educators
Challenges- search engines not structured for educational
resources
No education schema for metadata, makes it a hit and miss
chance to be hit by search engindes, difficult to clink up and browse
Can now provide structured linking and browsing, resources
better aligned for common core standards, other standards internationally,
better engaged educators who can discover relevant accessible resources easily
With no metadata, many resources are not discoverable within
sear ch engines, when metadata is embedded, more tags come out and the
resources become more discoverable
LRMI embeds more detailed tags in leveling, curriculum and
standards alignment
MICRODATA reveal—a better tool for testing, displays the
metadata in a table for display
LRMI enables: search
tools, integrated search, integration of catalogues of products, individualized
learning, and much more
Imagine a resource that rolls up when other searches are
coming through, can find aggregated materials,
Progressive manner for using LRMI
The Gates foundation has funded the shared learning
collaborative that is based on LRMI and also uses PARADATA which is meta
metadata
SLC
Creates chsared data searches, Makes data speak the same
language, opens the door to creating customizable learning maps and curriculum,
plans for students, turn flood of assessment and formative data into actual
insight and give students what they need in real time
SLC-cloud based data store, standardized metadata tagging
language, open license API for building software applications that actually
work together
More schools, better integration, and more data for everyone
Teachers can be free to teach, developers work SHARING
Making better tools for teachers and learners
Creation and movement toward digital assets—LRMI plays a role
to help developers to represent their resources, and to think differently about
their workflow and products
LRMI and SLC—set of repositories of data, being able to
coals those
Phase 1—
Development of specification, finding the learning objects
within these specificiations by Jan 2012
Final review now
LRMI properties, learning resource or not, 6 directly at
education—intended user, ed use, time required, age ranbe, interactivity, type
of resource, competency and assessment
Common set of recommended values- ~300 developed in this
set, will evolve over times, presentation, type, activity, etc.
Phase 2—proof of
concept
Interactivity with the users, as we are tagging, how is it
used, awareness building, collaboration of taggers and search, educator
publisher surveys, encouraging/supporting schema.org adoption—will be turned on
by next summer, then can filter by those attributes
PoC round one participants
PoC round two participants—22 actively pursuing phase 2
700+ resources already submitted for phase 2, 16 new
publishers in phase 2
PoC next steps
Continuing to tag additional resources from publishers
Document best practice tagging steps
Generate recommendations for feature/function requirements
for next gen tagging tools
Create service providers kit with services
Increase number of participating publishers
Shift from doing tagging to support publishers tagging
Goal is to make it easier to use,
References
Schema.org http://schema.org
LRMI http://lrmi.net
Learning Registry http://learningregistry.org
Common Core State Standards
http://corestandards.org
Languages for metadata-localized in the US right now, in
English, will be localized, there is a mapping to grade level, have a shema in
any national organization around those pieces
Will work in standard browsers, google serves up different
browsers geographically
Education LRMI not yet being served, by summer 2013
Content management systems- using to do mapping, can create
an export, html microformat, fairly simple, limited fields
Does not address needs of higher education, only primary and
secondary schools, higher ed use cases are completely different
How will ranking occur?—LRMI will not be part of the
ranking, schema.org allows providers to come together to present, how it is
decided to monetize it or rank it, we can’t use it, LRMI filter should be
bringing better resources to the top
Creative Commons- works with open ed resources, license
models for open ed, how to identify resources on the web and manage those
resources
AEP and CC relationship balances the LRMI
In English now, math and language arts
Later will go into science and then social sciences, broader
group around implementation of LRMI (spec has only been around for less than a
year now)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Belief Mode versus Design Mode
Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia describe differences in the use of knowledge in schools versus the business or working world. They define two types of modes for knowledge use: belief mode and design mode. They highlight the difference in use here:
•Draft of chapter to appear in E. De Corte, L. Verschaffel, N. Entwistle, & J. van
Merriënboer (Eds.), Unravelling basic components and dimensions of powerful learning
environments. EARLI Advances in Learning and Instruction Series.
Revised: 16 February, 2003,
Learning to Work Creatively With Knowledge
Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia
OISE/University of Toronto
•Kolodner, J. L. (2002). Learning by Design™: Interations of design challenges for better
learning of science skills. Cognitive Studies, 9(3), 338-350.
•Marx, R. W., Blumenfeld, P. C., Krajcik, J. S., & Soloway, E. (1997). Enacting projectbased
science. Elementary School Journal, 97, 341-358.
When in belief mode, we are concerned with what we and other people believe orBereiter & Scardamalia believe that good quality educational systems tend to operate and teach students to think in the belief mode only. Students learn to use evidence, gather data, resist progaganda, and can adequately evaluate claims. Bereiter & Scardamalia also believe that inadequate educational systems also teach students to operate in belief mode, but their inadequate teaching of this results in unquestioning students who don't really rely on evidence based claims to make judgements of truth. Their contention is that all traditional educational systems operate in belief mode in the realm of ideas.
ought to believe. Our response to ideas in this mode is to agree or disagree, to present
arguments and evidence for or against, to express and try to resolve doubts. When in
design mode, we are concerned with the usefulness, adequacy, improvability, and
developmental potential of ideas. Switching back and forth between modes is
common. (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 2003)
When ideas are presented for consideration, they
are almost always presented in belief mode. The focus is on whether the idea is true or
warranted. If experiments are conducted, their purpose is to validate, to provide an
empirical basis for accepting the idea. Questions that would be asked in design
mode—questions that would be asked in a real-world knowledge-based organization—
are questions like the following:
What is this idea good for?
What does it do and fail to do?
How could it be improved?.....
Somehow, if the schools are to enculturate students into theBereiter & Scardamalia ennumerate four design-mode approaches in science education: Learning by Design, as developed at Georgia Tech; Project-Based Science, as developed at the University of Michigan; Problem-Based Learning, as developed at Southern Illinois University; and Knowledge Building, as developed at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto.
Knowledge Age, they must introduce this dynamic of continual idea improvement.
In Learning by Design, as described by Holbrook and Kolodner (2000, p. ),
Science learning is achieved through addressing a major design challenge (such
as building a self-powered car that can go a certain distance over a certain
terrain).... To address a challenge, class members develop designs, build
prototypes, gather performance data and use other resources to provide
Knowledge - justification for refining their designs, and they iteratively investigate, redesign, test, and analyze the results of their ideas. They articulate their understanding of science concepts, first in terms of the concrete artifact which they have designed,
then in transfer to similar artifacts or situations, and finally to abstract principles
of science.
As defined by Marx, Blumenfeld, Krajcik, & Soloway (1997, p. 341),
Project-based science focuses on student-designed inquiry that is organized by
investigations to answer driving questions, includes collaboration among
learners and others, the use of new technology, and the creation of authentic
artifacts that represent student understanding.
As typically employed in medical schools, problem-based work is run according to a
tight schedule and fixed procedures, with only limited opportunity for iterative idea
improvement; but these are not essential features of the approach and are not
mentioned among the minimum requirements for Problem-Based Learning at the
Problem-Based Learning Initiative’s website
(http://www.pbli.org/pbl/generic_pbl.htm). Unlike Project-Based Science, ProblemKnowledge - Based Learning is not focused on a tangible end product. The end product is a problem solution—a purely conceptual artifact. Thus iterative idea improvement is, at least in principle, something that Problem-Based Learning could promote.
“Knowledge Building” may be defined simply as “creative work with ideas thatKnowledge building is a constructivist approach; some of the most salient examples:
really matter to the people doing the work” (Scardamalia & Bereiter, in press). It is not
confined to education but applies to creative knowledge work of all kinds. Whether
they are scientists working on an explanation of cell aging or first-graders working on
an explanation of leaves changing color in the fall, knowledge builders engage in similar
processes with a similar goal. That goal is to advance the frontiers of knowledge as they
perceive them.
- A focus on idea improvement.
- Problems versus questions.
- Knowledge of value to the community.
- Emergent goals and products.
- Constructive use of authoritative sources.
A comprehensive knowledge building environment would provide a means of initiating students into a knowledge-creating culture—to make them feel a part ofReferences
humankind’s long-term effort to understand their world and gain some control over
their destiny. Knowledge would not be seen as something handed down to them from
dead White males. Rather, they would look on those dead White males—and other
intellectual forbears of different race and gender—as fellow workers whose work they
are carrying forward. The Knowledge Society, as it is taking shape today, seems headed
toward a very sharp separation between those who are in it and those who, whether
they live a continent apart or on the same street, are on the outside looking in. A
knowledge building environment should provide all students an opportunity to be on
the inside looking out.
•Draft of chapter to appear in E. De Corte, L. Verschaffel, N. Entwistle, & J. van
Merriënboer (Eds.), Unravelling basic components and dimensions of powerful learning
environments. EARLI Advances in Learning and Instruction Series.
Revised: 16 February, 2003,
Learning to Work Creatively With Knowledge
Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia
OISE/University of Toronto
•Kolodner, J. L. (2002). Learning by Design™: Interations of design challenges for better
learning of science skills. Cognitive Studies, 9(3), 338-350.
•Marx, R. W., Blumenfeld, P. C., Krajcik, J. S., & Soloway, E. (1997). Enacting projectbased
science. Elementary School Journal, 97, 341-358.
Andragogy
Malcolm Knowles is recognized as the "father of adult education" and "andragogy". Andragogy is an “integrated framework of adult learning” (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1998, p.58). Pedagogy specifically refers to the art and science of teaching children. (Greek) Andragogy is based
on the Greek word aner (with the stem andr-), meaning “man”. Andragogy is the art and science of teaching and helping adults to learn.
According to Knowles, Holton, and Swanson (1998), the six principles of andragogy are:
1. The learner’s need to know
2. Self-concept of the learner
3. Prior experience of the learner
4. Readiness to learn
5. Orientation to learning
6. Motivation to learn.
Adult experiences can provide a wider range of individual differences in learners, which are often the basis of the adult's self concept. Knowles (1969) believed adults preferred problem-solving versus subject oriented learning.
Barriers to adult learning include accessibility, affordability, and accountability. Knowles believed the core principles listed above were integral to designing effective educational programs for adults, taking into account the uniqueness of each situation.
References
Knowles, M.S., Holton, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (1998). The adult learner: The definitive classic
in adult education and human resource development (5th ed.). Houston, TX: Gulf.
Knowles, M. S. (1962). The adult education movement in the United States. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston Inc.
Knowles, M.S. (1969). Higher education in the United States: The current picture, trends, and
issues. Washington D.C.: American Council on Education.
Knowles, M.S. (1970). The modern practice of adult education; Andragogy versus pedagogy.
New York: Association Press.
Knox, A. B. (1993). Strengthening adult and continuing education: A global perspective on
synergistic leadership. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
on the Greek word aner (with the stem andr-), meaning “man”. Andragogy is the art and science of teaching and helping adults to learn.
According to Knowles, Holton, and Swanson (1998), the six principles of andragogy are:
1. The learner’s need to know
2. Self-concept of the learner
3. Prior experience of the learner
4. Readiness to learn
5. Orientation to learning
6. Motivation to learn.
Adult experiences can provide a wider range of individual differences in learners, which are often the basis of the adult's self concept. Knowles (1969) believed adults preferred problem-solving versus subject oriented learning.
Barriers to adult learning include accessibility, affordability, and accountability. Knowles believed the core principles listed above were integral to designing effective educational programs for adults, taking into account the uniqueness of each situation.
References
Knowles, M.S., Holton, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (1998). The adult learner: The definitive classic
in adult education and human resource development (5th ed.). Houston, TX: Gulf.
Knowles, M. S. (1962). The adult education movement in the United States. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston Inc.
Knowles, M.S. (1969). Higher education in the United States: The current picture, trends, and
issues. Washington D.C.: American Council on Education.
Knowles, M.S. (1970). The modern practice of adult education; Andragogy versus pedagogy.
New York: Association Press.
Knox, A. B. (1993). Strengthening adult and continuing education: A global perspective on
synergistic leadership. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
References: Research Papers on Microworlds
(also posted in my DNLE class)
Instead of citing all of the literature, I’m supplying a
list of references to papers written on different microworlds.
References
•Rieber, L. P. (1996). Seriously considering play: Designing
interactive learning environments based on the blending of microworlds,
simulations, and games. Educational Technology Research & Development,
44(2), 43-58
• Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers, and
powerful ideas. New York: BasicBooks.
•Galas, C., and Freudenberg, R., "Learning with
Etoys", presented at Constructionism 2010 conference, Paris, France,
August 2010.
•Galas, C., "Classroom Squeaking", Squeak News,
Volume 1, Issue 4, October 2001. Squeakland Japan, Squeakland US,
PDF
•Galas, C., "Changing the Classroom Paradigm",
Learning and Leading with Technology, ISTE, April 1999. PDF
•Galas, C., "The Never Ending Story, Questioning
Strategies for the Information Age", Learning and Leading with Technology,
ISTE, April 1999. ISTE,
PDF
•Galas, C., Rosenthal, L., Weishaupt, L., "Project
Based Learning in the Elementary Classroom", Connections, Bridging
Research and Practice, Urban Education Studies, UCLA, Fall 1999. PDF
•Galas, C., "From Presentation to Programming: Doing
Something Different, Not the Same Thing Differently", Learning and Leading
with Technology, ISTE, December/January 1997-98. PDF
•Galas, C., "From Presentation to Programming: Doing
Something Different, Not the Same Thing Differently", Online Supplement, Learning
and Leading with Technology, ISTE, December/January 1997-98. Microworlds, PDF
•Weishaupt, L., "Cyberspace Learning--Bringing it Down
to Earth", UES Bridge, Vol.2, Issue 7, Spring 1997. HTML.
•Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking and
Learning in a Digital World-96 edition, edited by Kafai, Y., and M. Resnick.
• Kafai, Y. B., Franke, M., Ching, C., & Shih, J.
(1998). Game design as an interactive learning environment fostering students’
and teachers’ mathematical inquiry. International Journal of Computers for
Mathematical Learning, 3(2), 149–184. PDF.
• Kafai, Y. B., & Ching, C. C. (2001). Affordances of
collaborative software design planning for elementary students’ science talk.
The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 10(3), 323–363. PDF.
•Ching, C. C., Kafai, Y. B., & Marshall, S. (2000).
Spaces for change: Gender and technology access in collaborative software
design. Journal for Science Education and Technology, 9(1), 67-78. PDF.
• Resnick, M., and Ocko, S. (1991). LEGO/Logo:
Learning Through and About Design. In Constructionism, edited by I.
Harel & S. Papert. Ablex Publishing.
• Resnick, M. (1991). MultiLogo:
A Study of Children and Concurrent Programming. Interactive Learning
Environments, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 153-170.
•
Resnick, M., and Silverman, B. (1996). Exploring
Emergence. An "active essay" on the Web.
*Resnick, M. (1995). New
Paradigms for Computing, New Paradigms for Thinking. Computers and
Exploratory Learning, A. diSessa, C. Hoyles, & R. Noss (eds.), pp.
31-43. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
*Bruckman, A., and Resnick, M. (1995). The MediaMOO
Project: Constructionism and Professional Community. Convergence,
vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 94-109.
*Resnick, M., Martin, F., Sargent, R.,
and Silverman, B. (1996). Programmable
Bricks: Toys to Think With. IBM Systems Journal, vol. 35, no. 3-4,
pp. 443-452.
*Resnick, M., and Wilensky, U. (1997). Diving into
Complexity: Developing Probabilistic Decentralized Thinking through
Role-Playing Activities. Journal of the Learning Sciences, vol. 7,
no. 2, pp. 153-172.
Resnick, M. (2002). Rethinking
Learning in the Digital Age. In The Global Information Technology
Report: Readiness for the Networked World, edited by G. Kirkman. Oxford
University Press.
Resnick, M., and Silverman, B. (2005). Some Reflections on
Designing Construction Kits for Kids. Proceedings of Interaction Design
and Children conference, Boulder, CO.
Resnick, M. (2007). Learning
from Scratch, Microsoft Faculty Connection, June 2007.
Resnick, M. (2007). All I Really
Need to Know (About Creative Thinking) I Learned (By Studying How Children
Learn) in Kindergarten. ACM Creativity & Cognition conference,
Washington DC, June 2007.
Maloney, J., Peppler, K., Kafai, Y.,
Resnick, M., & Rusk, N. (2008). Programming by
Choice: Urban Youth Learning Programming with Scratch. SIGCSE conference,
Portland, March 2008.
Maloney, J., Resnick, M., Rusk, N.,
Silverman, B., & Eastmond, E. (2010). The
Scratch Programming Language and Environment. ACM Transactions on
Computing Education (TOCE), vol. 10, no. 4 (November 2010).
Resnick, M. (2012). Reviving
Papert's Dream. Educational Technology, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 42-46.
Microworlds
(Also posted in my DNLE class)
About Microworlds
The idea of a computer-based microworld is the
constructivist design model of Seymour Papert. The computer-based microworld
exists as a sandbox simplest case beginning.
The child needs no introduction or training to begin to use it; it is
simplest case and it matches the user.
Microworld designers are assumed to be self-regulated learners who can
monitor and regulate their own learning.
Papert, a constructivist and constructionist computer
pioneer greatly influenced by the work of Jean Piaget, developed the LOGO
programming language at MIT. LOGO is the
first case of computer Microworlds. Yasmin Kafai, Mitchell Resnick, Idit Harel
Caperton and Uri Wilensky were all students of Papert’s who have continued
research on microworlds.
There are many different microworlds that offer the
affordances of simplest case and matching the user’s ability. My experience is with LOGO, Squeak Etoys, and
Scratch. LOGO was first created in 1967
for constructivist teaching, and the first turtle robot was created in
1969. The turtle is an on screen cursor
that the user uses to program using turtle geometry. Similar to x,y in Cartesian geometry, the
turtle uses the x,y coordinates relative to its own position. Wikipedia reports that as of March 2009,
there were 197 different implementations of LOGO. [1]
Squeak Etoys was designed by Alan Kay and built by Dan
Ingalls in 1996. Etoys design was
inspired by Alan Kay’s interest in constructionism and Papert’s work with
LOGO. Etoys is a media-rich authoring
environment, which includes turtle geometry, 2D and 3D graphics, images, text,
particles, presentation, sound and MIDI, and the ability to share in real-time
over the internet. [2] Squeak Etoys was inspired by Papert’s philosophy and
LOGO work. Alan’s vision was that Etoys
had no ceiling, in other words, children could continue to explore programming
at deeper levels and interface with the powerful Squeak languageSqueak Etoys
has been pre-installed on the OLPC XO-1
computer since 2006, and continues to be used around the world in formal and
informal education. Here, Etoys
intersects with another learning technology to improve learning. This post is not about that, but you can read
more about OLPC at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Laptop_per_Child.
I was fortunate to have met Alan Kay and help his group
pilot Squeak Etoys in school classrooms.
I was invited to Alan’s yearly or semi-yearly “Learning Labs”, held at a
music camp in New Hampshire every year before the traditional school year
began, or at a university in March or April.
At this wonderful Learning Lab, many exciting people were invited,
including programmers, education leaders, musicians, and artists. Mitch Resnick from MIT was always there, and
brought many of his students each year.
I don’t have the space to write how wonderful my collaboration and
relationship has been with Alan.
Instead, I’ll give you Mitch Resnick, former Papert student, developer
of StarLogo and Scratch and head of the Lifelong Kindergarten in the Media Lab
at MIT. Here is what Mitch says about
the Learning Labs: http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/life-as-a-learning-lab-449.php.
John Maloney, who had been with the original Squeak and
Etoys development team, went to work at MIT with Mitch to develop the new
iteration of Scratch. [3] Scratch was initially targeted at
after-school clubhouses all over the world.
I also worked briefly with some of the students from the LA clubhouse,
hosting them to visit UCLA and working with some of their UCLA grad student
mentors. The Scratch website was
launched in 2007, and is an example of a learner-centered, vibrant community that
also includes an educator community.
Scratch was built to be a beginner-intermediate programming
microworld, so it didn't access more powerful programming tools. Many years ago at a Squeakers meeting in
Potsdam, Jens Moenig was demonstrating his new BYOB, Build your own Blocks
which added new tools and procedures to Scratch. Jens has since partnered with Brian Harvey at
UC Berkeley. Brian and Jens have
continued the work on BYOB, now referred to as SNAP, and Brian uses the
advanced Scratch environment to teach beginning programming to accolades at
Berkeley. [4]
Mitch wanted Scratch to have a ceiling, so constructing
one’s
The concept of powerful ideas is an important one for
designing educational environments.
Looking closely at WHAT the expected LEARNING will be is a concept
sometimes lost in looking at the glitz of new technologies. Building on sound pedagogy is
imperative. I think collaboration of
different kinds of people on these projects cross-pollinates the ideas in a
helpful fashion. Having educators,
researchers, programmers, all working on design and construction of new
environments is probably the best formula.
Some of you in this class may be all of the above!
Citations
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Why is Science Education Important?
Technology has changed the way we all work, play, learn, and live. People use social media such as Facebook to keep in touch with friends and relatives, and make new connections. Business makes use of technologies to communicate, to work in teams, to create new products and services. Individuals shop online and make use of technology tools that seamlessly allow them to manage information. World economies are, or are becoming information based, and moving away from industrial based systems.
We are living in a time where information (doubles) find numbers , and world societies must face problems of poverty, food shortages, water supplies, climate change, disease and medical issues, and environmental problems. To respond to these issues, world citizens must be equipped tomake informed decisions on the basis of real information, not just superstition or word of mouth.
We are living in a time where information (doubles) find numbers , and world societies must face problems of poverty, food shortages, water supplies, climate change, disease and medical issues, and environmental problems. To respond to these issues, world citizens must be equipped tomake informed decisions on the basis of real information, not just superstition or word of mouth.
Science Education in California 2012
Although California is the home of worldwide technological
innovation with Silicon Valley companies like Apple, Intel, and Adobe, the
public school system is not investing time, money or teacher training to teach
science.
Needs to change school culture, scheduling time, planning
time, using data including student data, designs for professional learning,
facilitating collaborative professional learning teams, evaluating learning,
both formative and summative assessment, roles of central office
administrators, the principal and the coaches for effective learning. The Center for the Future of Teaching and
Learning at WestEd the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC
Berkeley, and SRI International reported that 10% of elementary students
received regular hands-on science, and only one third of elementary teachers
felt they were prepared to teach science.
85% of these teachers also reported they’ve had no professional
development in the last three years. The
report, Untapped Potential, released in March 2012, states that:
The
research shows that:
- nearly 40 percent of teachers view students' lack of interest as a major or moderate challenge to science instruction.
- nearly half (47%) of principals report students' lack of preparation as a major or moderate challenge.
- nearly one-quarter of middle school teachers may not have an adequate background or preparation for teaching the subject.
- nearly 60 percent of surveyed teachers identified insufficient professional development as a barrier to high-quality science instruction.
- just 14 percent of middle school teachers provide a pattern of classroom practices that support regular engagement of students in the practices of science.
California is due to implement the new Common Core State
Standards in 2014-15. These were
developed by an initiative of the National Governors Association and the Council
of Chief State School Officers.
California is one of the 45 adopting states of these standards
representing a significant shift in teaching and learning of science
literacy. A series of focus groups
representing six subgroups of teachers, elementary (one group
consisted of teachers with more than 10 years of experience, and another
consisted of teachers with less than 10 years of experience1); middle and high school mathematics;
middle and high school science; middle and high school history/social studies;
and middle and high school English language arts, was commissioned by WestEd's
Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning in October 2011. The key finding reported was that teachers
did not feel prepared for the transition.
The Center recommended:
that
districts and schools take immediate action on the following:
- Educate teachers about the standards: how they were developed and teachers' role in that process; the goals and structure of the standards; and the expectations for how the standards will influence teachers' practice. Teachers must be assured that the CCSS will replace existing standards and that they will not be required to teach to both sets of standards simultaneously.
- Engage representative teachers in planning how the district will implement the new standards. Educate all teachers about the implementation process, including how it was planned (especially, teacher involvement), the implementation role of the individual teacher, and timelines.
- Create a climate in which it is acceptable for teachers to begin transitioning to the new standards without fear of being punished under current accountability measures. Districts will need to allay teachers' concerns that they may have to prepare students for the California Standards Tests at the same time they begin teaching to the CCSS.
- Provide intensive, ongoing professional development about the differences between current standards and the CCSS regarding content and pedagogy. Districts must explicitly unpack the two sets of standards, illuminating the gap between them and articulating the expectations under the new standards. If there is to be a successful transition to the new standards, teachers must have appropriate materials and resources, whether they are provided by the district or whether, with the district's blessing, they are identified or developed by the teachers themselves.
- Explain how new assessments will be linked to the CCSS
standards. There is a great deal of apprehension among teachers about how
the changes in standards will be assessed adequately, particularly how
critical thinking skills can be assessed in a standardized test. As soon
as they are made available, provide transparency about what the tests are
going to look like so that teachers can understand how each individual
standard is represented in the tests. In addition, once decisions about
the accountability system have been made, explain the role of the tests
within that system (e.g., the weighting of subject areas, grade levels
tested, other factors beyond tests that may be included). (CenterView: Willing but Not Yet Ready: A
glimpse of California teachers’ preparedness for the Common Core State
Standards
– Release Date: Feb 22, 2012)
Results on NAEP science tests show
California trails the nation in students’ scientific literacy. At the same
time, public opinion research finds that Californians strongly support
increased time and resources devoted to science education. ªCenterView: Scientific Literacy: The
Missing Ingredient
– Release Date: Feb 04, 2011)
– Release Date: Feb 04, 2011)
Teacher preparation programs will need to
help future teachers envision and enact new
strategies to foster deeper learning. (P21Webinar,
Developing Transferable Knowledge and skills, 2012)
ATC21S
recognizes that assessment is only one piece of the holistic
education-transformation approach. To make lasting change, educational systems
need to develop new curricula and provide teachers with professional
development to teach 21st century skills effectively in an information and
communications technology-rich environment.
http://atc21s.org/index.php/about/faqs/
References
•California
teachers lack the resources and time to teach science, LA Times, October
31, 2011
•Math and Science Teacher
Initiative, CSU
•Teach California
•The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd
•Teach California
•The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd
•http://www.cftl.org/index_sci.php
•Untapped Potential: The status of
Middle School Science Education in California, March 22, 2012, accessed October
3, 2012 from http://www.cftl.org/Whats__New.htm.
•CenterView: Willing but Not Yet Ready: A glimpse of California teachers’
preparedness for the Common Core State Standards
– Release Date: Feb 22, 2012 accessed October 5, 2012 from http://www.cftl.org/CenterView.htm.
– Release Date: Feb 22, 2012 accessed October 5, 2012 from http://www.cftl.org/CenterView.htm.
•CenterView: Scientific Literacy: The Missing Ingredient
– Release Date: Feb 04, 2011accessed October 7, 2012 from http://www.cftl.org/CenterView.htm.
– Release Date: Feb 04, 2011accessed October 7, 2012 from http://www.cftl.org/CenterView.htm.
• http://atc21s.org/index.php/about/ ATCS21S Research Project
• P21Webinar, Developing Transferable Knowledge and skills,
2012 http://www.youtube.com/user/ptumarkin?feature=watch
•Why is Science Important? Vimeo
Why is Science Important?
Link between science and technology – in a
technological world, tech problems requiring tech solutions, citizens of the
world need the ability to evaluate and make decisions about possible solutions
Science is establishing the true nature of
the world around us.
In the past tech could happen by trial and
error, not today
Technology seems like a good first answer
This approach is too simple—need to stand
back and ask do we need more tech, or do we need to address what poorer
countries need, see what benefits they bring to the world, can improve the
quality of our lives and can contribute to nuclear destruction, tech is an
outcome of science
Robing Bell “science is crucial to the long
term survival of our species”
Climate change—ice core techs, understand
Recreate the process that keeps the sun
shining-nuclear fusion JET, with science you can change the future, make the
world better, science against the climate change problem, science uncovered
threat to climate change by discovering hole in the ozone layer, it is science
that lets us know there is a problem in the first place, we can understand
deeply how things work through science
Scientists who discovered that germs caused
disease, reason to separate drinking water from sewage, and for building
vaccines against disease and antibiotics, science must pervade medicine Sanger Institute near Cambridge, human
genome, peer review to see whether scientists agree or disagree, basic
understanding of cancer, science tells us whether a treatment works or not,
Science is not a panacea—0through politics
the fruits of science can change our world.
It is vital that politicians understand science, imp for scientists to
communicate their work to others, public understanding of science, we live in a
scientific age, society must understand the science to make decisions, kids and
geeks to understand, really important is the audience that is turned off by
science and government, who is deciding the funding for science including stem
cell research
People’s understanding and appreciation of
science begins in the classroom.
Teachers express concerns about the ways science is treated in the
classroom. Addresses the individual as a
consumer rather than a producer of science, science is one of last vestiges
that gives capacity to go beyond what is taught, problems occur when curriculum
should fill every minute, with accountability thrust upon them, we start to
look at children as currency, where we teach science with enthusiasm and rigor,
we will get the, what is the best way to deliver science education, let them
know why important and how it can enrich their lives must understand our universe and develop our
understanding and grasping the ideas that we can understand our selves—we want
to understand—without it we are not fulfilling our potential as human beings, the basic desire to answer the big questions of
the universe for example, astronomy—astronomy puts us in contact with the grand
scale of the universe, bring us to our place in the universe-what is our
origin, what is our destiny, chemical elements in the universe, we come from stardust, doesn’t matter what
your profession, but to understand where you come from, part of the universe,
just knowing about how the world works , science as a way of obtaining
knowledge-science is disciplined inquiry- a way that submits to review, open
minded, may not arrive at answers, new questions, scientific mindset prepared
to live with open endedness
Science teacher wants students to think for
themselves, question things, Victorians believed that public access to the knowledge
within the natural history museum would make them better people. A method in which reliable testable knowledge
could be arrived at—a remarkable way of thinking-what an amazing accomplishment
the body of scientific knowledge is, an ongoing human endeavor, without
science, students handicapped to be all they can be, science lets us see
superstition, only method to satisfy our curiosity and let us reach for the stars.
References
•Why is Science Important? Vimeo
•California
teachers lack the resources and time to teach science, LA Times, October
31, 2011
•Math and Science Teacher
Initiative, CSU
•Teach California
•The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd
•Teach California
•The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd
•http://www.cftl.org/index_sci.php
Why do we need 21st century skills?
New learning for the most transformative and
generative time in history
Traditional first-world education systems
are industrial-based and not meeting the needs of students who live and will
live and work in an information society.
Our twenty-first century global economy is no longer based on industrial
systems, rather, it is a knowledge-based economy. Reading, writing, mathematics, and science
are important, but broad digital literacy, deeper rather than superficial
learning, collaboration, problem-solving and research must be built in to
prepare students for their future. (http://atc21s.org/index.php/about/) In this ever-transforming digital world, learning
to collaborate and connect though technology are basic skills. Collaborative problem-solving, critical
thinking and decision making skills, learning to work with technology tools and
adapt to new tools (information literacy), and understanding and communicating
and collaborating effectively with others are hallmarks of skills needed in the
twenty-first century.
Transferable learning, which includes
content knowledge and procedural knowledge allowing generalizable problem-solving,
is the product of deeper learning.
Twenty-first century competencies include both the skills and the
knowledge needed to succeed in the global digital world.
Deeper learning cognitive competencies
include critical thinking and the ability to construct and appropriately evaluate
evidence-based arguments. Understanding
general principles of factual and conceptual knowledge, problem-solving
strategies, and ability to apply appropriate procedures, skills and strategies
to new situations supports learning transfer.
(P21Webinar, Developing Transferable Knowledge and skills, 2012)
21st century learning has now
become a global movement involved in expanding learning skills to meet student
needs in a technological society. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_Century_Skills)
References
• http://atc21s.org/index.php/about/ ATCS21S Research Project
• P21Webinar, Developing Transferable Knowledge and skills,
2012 http://www.youtube.com/user/ptumarkin?feature=watch
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