chapter 7 learning log

What? At the beginning of class we went to the tutor lab and did a webquest individually. We as students were given the site and expected to come up with answers and some resources on our own. Then we had to design a mini webquest based off of what we had learned. When we finished and came back to class, Dr. Cox told us we had just experienced discovery learning. Discovery learning takes place when students are allowed to explore concepts and come up with definitions and characteristics on their own. We also discussed the big downfall to discovery learning and that is misconceptions. Common misconceptions should be addressed before starting any lesson. The main idea talked about in class was Constructivism. When students come up with definitions, explore concepts, and make connections students increase understanding and construct knowledge. Dr. Cox talked about allowing our students to construct by using authentic activities. Authentic activities are: hands on, require synthesis, use real-life situations, demonstrate cause and effect, involve reporting, and find solutions. In class we learned that using authentic activities is very effective with students, however we also learned that teachers do not often use them. This is because it takes a lot of time to create authentic activities as well as it is hard to make the activity within every student’s zone of proximal development. We also discussed the constructivist lesson plan set up, which is: THE 5 Es Engage- get interest (hook) Explore- student-centered
Explain- work together to analyze (student) Elaborate-student-centered, deepen
Evaluate-check understanding. The father of constructivism was Jerome Bruner and he thought that you should use content as a medium for learning. One other thing we discussed in class was the process of education. This included structure, readiness, spiral curriculum, intuition, and motivation.
So what? Discovery learning should be used in classrooms to teach curriculum. This should be done with scaffolding to increase the student’s chance for understanding. When teachers guide the discovery we can be sure students arrive and knowledge we want them to. Also teacher must be aware of their student’s prior knowledge and zpd levels to create discovery learning tasks and authentic activities. When teachers make the task outside the student’s ZPD the task is not causing them to learn effectively. For every discovery learning task the teacher should make a list of possible misconceptions and address before students begin working. This will promote student growth and understanding. I think that because authentic activities are hard to grade teacher need to make rubrics to make it easier. Rubrics can even be used by the students to self-evaluate making it less time consuming for the teacher. I really like the 5 E idea that is presented by constructivism. It is important to engage the students by allowing them to explore and explain the content they are supposed to be learning. If the students do this they are more likely to remember it long term as well as to apply those skills to other problems they might face.
Now what? As a teacher I want to use Discovery learning in my classroom. I will make it appropriate for my students’ ZPD by grouping students for different assignments if necessary. I will try to make it as individual as possible so the student has to explore and explain at their level. I will use authentic activities in my classroom. This will engage my students and make them want to learn more. One way I plan to do this is to create webquests to go along with my lessons so the students can explore on the web. With the webquests I will have them fill out charts with data so they can analyze the information. I want to not only teach my students the core curriculum but I want to teach them how to learn new things and categorize the information they learn. I think that by doing this I will be using Jerome Bruner’s theory, as well as teaching my student to problem base think and become life long learners.