Category Archives: 3.1 Teaching & Learning

Concept Cartoons

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Concept Cartoons

  • Investigate & research concept cartoons
  • What are they?
  • How do they help you teach science?
  • Make links between these and the constructivist theory of teaching

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Concept cartoons are pictorial aids to help with learning, in this case the learning of science. They allow children to consider different scientific concepts and make informed hypotheses and choices. This should lead to greater understanding, as children are able to think for themselves without as  much teacher input to over-guide their thinking. It will stimulate them to make mistakes and then be able to investigate why they thought they were right, and why they might be wrong, which should lead to greater understanding of the concepts as opposed to simply knowing the answer.

Constructivism in the classroom calls for children to learn through active problem- solving, and the use of a concept cartoon could fit perfectly into this model. If I were to use one in through a constructivist approach, I would show the cartoon to start with and ask the children to hypothesise the answer, and then have them conduct an experiment to find out the correct answer. I believe this would help them to understand the science behind the experiment.

For example, one could use the concept cartoon on the left to test the stated hypotheses. When suitable weather conditions became available one could ask the children what they thing, or which of the children the agree with, and then go outside and build two snowmen and put a coat on one and have them monitor which melts faster or if they melt at similar speeds, which would allow children to learn about insulation and the melting process in an active way which should consolidate their understanding. With older children, one could do a similar experiment and allow them to make their own concept cartoon. Or give them some resources and allow them to create their own experiment and a concept cartoon to be completed by peers.

http://www.pstt.org.uk/ext/cpd/dips/concept-cartoons.htm

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/

Do Schools Kill Creativity

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Before watching the above clip, I would have said that I could understand the arguments that schools do stifle creativity, through making them wear uniforms, and learn uncreative subjects like mathematics and providing them with a structured day. But I would also have said that many schools do provide what I would deem adequate facilities for children to express their creativity, through the compulsory inclusion of the expressive arts.

Having listened to the ideas of Sir Ken Robinson, I find the concept of ‘compulsory expressive arts’. This seems ironic now, as we are attempting to structure our children’s creativity. I now agree that we probably do educate children out of their creative capacities, as we move through the education system, less and less emphasis is placed upon the expressive arts subjects, unless one has a specific talent in it, at which point we again attempt to structure their work, while we have the other children learn ‘more useful’ subjects.

I also accept his point that children begin to lose the ability to have a go and make mistakes, I see it all the time at university. I myself do not volunteer to answer questions or otherwise contribute incase I am wrong or look daft in front of other students. I think that children are almost conditioned to think that mistakes are bad as they go through school, and I hate to think that the children I will work with will have this worry.

I remember sayings like “Don’t do music, you won’t be an musician” and “Don’t do art, you won’t be an artist”. And while I did not have a specific interest myself, I have friends who did and I am sure would have done well, but they had parents who did not think that there was a lot of value in it, though on the other hand, I also had friends who received scholarships to school in music and have now left school and gone on to pursue their talent.

I think that there are some children who have to ‘move to think’, though I was not one myself, preferring to sit and listen. I think that there is probably more that schools could do to help these children to learn effectively, though I would have to do some more research to give any examples. I think that an increase in the amount of time spent on the expressive arts may be a good place to start.

Productive Failure: A Recipe for Success!

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Productive Failure, it sounds strange, basically it is a teaching strategy by which children are set up to fail. They are set a mathematics task that they have not learned yet: standard deviation; parabolas; algebra, and they have to try to do the problem by working through it. The method was first coined by Dr Manu Kapur, who is the head of the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education of Singapore. His website – see above – is well worth a read of to see more of his work.

I have been thinking a lot about this method of teaching. Essentially children are being asked to complete problems that they do not know how to complete, it is completely beyond their abilities at this point. Initially I wondered how this could possibly be helpful, we all know the dangers of setting work at a level that is too difficult for the child to complete, with their self-esteem and confidence especially in a subject such as mathematics as it is the cause of much anxiety in and of itself.

But then I though more about it and it struck me that there were strong links with Productive Failure and Vygotski’s Zone of Proximal Development.

zpd-graphic

Essentially, Productive Failure asks children to work within the red section of the Zone of Proximal Development, as they are asked to complete problems that they cannot do. Now that I can see this, I realise that Productive Failure could be a highly useful classroom tool if used in the right way. I think that the method would have to be talked through first, so that children understand fully that it is not to catch them out, it’s not a test, and that it is a chance for them to see what they will be learning and look for possible links to topics they have done before. I also think that it would have to be a collaborative activity where children could work in small groups or pairs to work on a problem to bits of it work out. It would very much be about scaffolding and building up knowledge.

I think that this is a concept that I would like to use, possibly on my 3rd or 4th year placement to see if it works well in practice, and whether it is easily adapted to different ages and stages and even subjects, perhaps for beginning new topics or learning spelling words.

 

https://getyourheadaroundit.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/zpd-graphic.gif

http://qz.com/535443/the-best-way-to-understand-math-is-learning-how-to-fail-productively/

http://ideas.time.com/2012/04/25/why-floundering-is-good/

To Comma Or Not to Comma? Or is it: To Comma, or Not to Comma? Let’s find out…

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Ordinarily, I would say that I am quite good in my grasp of English language, but I have an Achilles heel, in that I am rubbish with commas! I don’t know what it is, but for some reason I cannot get them right. I have identified it previously in my OLA as a weakness, but I have never made much of an effort to tackle the problem, until now that is!

I took to the internet and found a video on Youtube:

The video goes through the 3 main types of comma: listing commas, joining commas and bracketing commas. It explained what each is and how and when to use them.

Around 4 1/2 minutes in, you are asked to look at 4 sentences and pick the ones with incorrect use of commas. I originally thought there was a trick, as all looked correct to me. I think my problem is with the joining comma. I find that I use commas too often, and in place of other punctuation, such as full stops and semi-colons which would be more grammatically correct.

I also looked up a video about the Oxford comma. Which is a comma which comes after the word ‘and’.

The Oxford comma was something I had heard of, but not ever learned to use. The video explains that it is neither correct or incorrect and can avoid ambiguity. The problem is that a text will be consistent, either using it or not using it. I wonder if I have been using it when the OLA will not recognise it and mark it as wrong.

I looked through one of my essays to find an example of my own use of commas:

‘On placement I observed a classroom which utilised space effectively in this way, all small resources – pens, crayons and show-me boards – were kept in labelled trays at the front, meaning pupils knew exactly where to find them and where to return them, so the gathering of resources was kept to a minimum and did not affect learning and teaching time.’

This is all one sentence, and it is clear that it could be broken down and does not need anywhere  near as many commas as I have used. This is a good example of what I do regularly and therefore what I need to teach myself out of. I am going to resit the OLA and try to improve the points I get specifically around the comma questions. I’ll update when I have done so…

Maths Anxiety: What is it and how can we deal with it?

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Maths Anxiety

Maths anxiety is about the way we feel when faced with everyday mathematical problems, for example adding up shopping; splitting the bill in a restaurant; or working out how much flour to put in a cake recipe. It’s not about ability in mathematics, one could be highly competent but struggle with the most basic mathematics. David Robson, writing for bbc Future is a good example of this, he says:

“I have a university degree … in mathematics. Yet somehow, advanced calculus in the privacy of my own room was a breeze compared to simple arithmetic under the gaze of others – or even remembering my building’s security code.”

You could not possible claim that he is ‘bad’ at maths, but he struggles with very basic mathematics, why? Maths anxiety was researched in Stanford University, where was shown that then people with maths anxiety are exposed to mathematics, their brains react in the same way as a person who had a phobia would react to seeing their phobia. We should take from this that maths anxiety is not about ability, it’s not a label for people who struggle academically. It goes deeper than that, just as you would not chase an arachnophobic person with a spider to cure them, you cannot throw mathematics in a high-pressure situation at a person with maths anxiety as it will not help.

Something that we should also be aware of is that girls may be more likely to occur in girls, especially if their teacher is also female. Even in my own experience, women are more likely to shy away from mathematics, however the Department of Empirical Educational Research, University of Konstanz found in a study that girls did have more maths anxiety than the boys, but that both had similar abilities when tested.

What can we do about maths anxiety? One suggested method is to have pupils with maths anxiety write about their fears, the idea being that they can see their feelings about it written down and not see them as insurmountable. It is also thought that pupils should be taught to approach mathematics in a completely different way. David Robson suggests looking at maths more as a challenge than a problem, to try to do it and not be put off because its maths.

As a teacher, we should remember that children will pick up on the way that we feel about maths. If we act as if we are nervous or scared by maths, then children will think that there is something to be scared of, which there is not. They also may not fully trust us to teach them properly and they may not get as much out of the lesson as they should. I think that teaching style may be important here, making sure to spot any pupils who may have maths anxiety and giving them the necessary support, allowing them to work through mathematics, without any need to be anxious.

I decided that I would find out for myself if I have maths anxiety, the test I used gave 10 questions and I had to rate how much I agreed on a scale of 1-5. The results suggested that I am ‘fearful’ about maths but not that I have maths anxiety. This is useful to be aware of, as I would hate to pass such fear on, and it is part of the reason I am taking this module. I think that

Goetz T, Bieg M, Lüdtke O, Pekrun R, Hall NC(2013) Do girls really experience more anxiety in mathematics?. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23985576 (Accessed: 14 October 2015)

Robson, D (2015) Do you have ‘maths anxiety’?. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150619-do-you-have-maths-anxiety (Accessed: 14 October 2015)

Freedman, E (2006) Do You Have Math Anxiety? A Self Test. Available at: http://www.pearsoncustom.com/mdc_algebra/math_anxiety_material.pdf (Accessed: 14 October 2015)

www.theguardian.com/education/2012/apr/30/maths-anxiety-school-supportBrian, K (2012) Maths anxiety: the numbers are mounting. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/apr/30/maths-anxiety-school-support (Accessed: 14 October 2015)