Creating a Culture of Learning

From: http://i.imgur.com/VpU238j.jpg

Admit it, you've all done this before. I don't just mean using a calculator to do very simple addition. I mean doing things in an easier way just to be sure or to avoid failure.

Since most of us have grown up and learned in traditional schools, we have been assessed on how well we know something with the use of tests, quizzes and projects. From the beginning, we have learned to associate how well we know something with the grade that we have gotten on an assessment associated with that thing. This is so deeply embedded in our lives that if we tend not to do well in a particular subject (e.g Math), we are less likely to want to learn more in that subject or even try in it. Essentially, we get so caught up with our failure that we believe right from the get-go that we can no longer succeed in learning about that thing. This has huge effects on our lives. Children that have trouble with a particular subject early on, will be less likely to want to learn things in that subject as they age.  They can pretty much be turned off of a huge branch of learning. This could have major effects on their career later on in life.

There is no doubt that doctors, surgeons, paramedics and other medical professions have huge effects on people's lives. However, it is often overlooked just how much difference teachers make in people's lives. One teacher could be the reason for someone's choice of career in the future or someone's reason for giving up on a dream. I'm sure that some of you can relate that there has been at least one teacher in your life that has had a positive or negative impact on your life. I personally know some teacher candidates that got into teaching just because they had an amazing teacher or funny enough because they had really terrible teachers and they thought they could do much better. I can also attest to just how much of a difference one teacher can make in our lives as I've had many teachers that have had a huge influence on my life. One teacher in particular completely changed my view on mathematics for the worse.

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I was not born in Canada. In my experience, Canadian education when compared to the rest of the world is behind in mathematics. When I had started my education in Canada, it had taken at least two years for me to learn anything new here that I hadn't already learned in Pakistan. So you can imagine, that I was at least decent in mathematics during my elementary and middle school years. I remember in my grade 8 math class that I was at one point getting over a hundred in the course. This wasn't because I was some math genius or something, this was purely because of a great teacher. This teacher really looked at our interests and catered the curriculum and his teaching to our interests. He taught us math using sports and music and other things we liked rather than stupid questions like "Jimmy has 12 apples, and Jane wants one. How many apples does Jimmy have if he eats one and gives the rest to George?". Yes, I realize that Jane has nothing to do with the answer for that particular problem but this is how many math questions are phrased on actual math tests.

http://www.clemson.edu/ces/phoenix/tutorials/excel/tree.gif

Rather than just give us the question above and make us wonder when in life will I ever need to calculate a trees height, he gave us examples of real life professions that do need to do this. If you're wondering what profession looks at tree heights, one example I can give is conservationists that are monitoring a patch of young forest to see how it will grow. But, I digress. Pretty much the whole point of this story is that this teacher was awesome and he really made everyone understand math and made it into something fun and with actual real life value. Now, fast forward to a year later in Grade 9 where the math teacher was nothing like the previous one. She did not care about her students or try to actually make math fun. She only assessed for the purpose of assessing and not to check how well the students were doing. In her eyes, if a student was not doing well, it was because the student did not try, she did not see the underlying cause of why the student didn't try and just put it off as something that she had no control over. This teacher pretty much killed my passion for learning mathematics and ever since, I have never been quite as comfortable with math as I had been in Grade 8.

It is important that we create a culture of learning from the start. As anyone in EDUC 4P19 can confirm, this class has been frustrating at times because of how much we aren't used to a culture of learning. We've all been playing the game our whole lives just trying to find ways to get good grades. This class has really pushed a culture of learning for the sake of learning and not for the sake of marks. I absolutely love that Professor Drake practices what she preaches. It really helps to bring that passion for learning back into our lives. If we had all been used to a culture of learning from the start, we would never really feel confused in the class and ask her to constantly clarify what she wanted for assignments. Practice makes perfect and neuroscience has proven just that. Bronfman et al. (2014) recently added to growing research that the more we practice something, the better we get at it. Bronfman et al. (2014) also mention that age has an effect on learning and that it is much easier for younger individuals to learn something than older ones. This has to do with synapses in our brain and the fact that as we age, we lose synapses if we don't use them. If we create a culture of learning from the minute students enter the classroom for the first time, our society will benefit greatly as we will have creative individuals that truly have a passion for learning.

Aspiring teachers and current teachers should really drive home the fact that marks do not necessarily show how well one knows something and that everyone learns differently. Also, that because people learn differently, they also show how well they've learned something differently. Teachers should teach students to learn things to better understand the world around them, not to get better marks in hopes of just getting a better career. I think if we kill the anxiety in classrooms that only grades matter, we can create a comfortable learning environment and a culture of learning. The concept of assessment for learning, mentioned in Drake et al. (2013), is a great tool to understand where our students are in their learning of topics in the classroom so that we can change our teaching or focus on things that students didn't really understand. It is a great tool to really cater the curriculum towards the students rather than the teacher and a great way to create a culture of learning and move away from the concept of assessment as learning.

In the TEDx Talk below, Douglas Thomas talks about the culture of learning. My favourite quote from this is "And if somebody has a passion for something, trying to stop them from learning, you can't do it. No matter what obstacles you put in the way, they will find the way to learn what they need to know".

Another interesting video about creating a culture of learning in classrooms and how the culture can actually help students get better marks can be found below.

Bronfman, Z. Z., Ginsburg, S., & Jablonka, E. (2014). Shaping the learning curve: epigenetic dynamics in neural plasticity. Frontiers In Integrative Neuroscience, 81. doi:10.3389/fnint.2014.00055

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: engaging the 21st century learner. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.

Why Integrate?

Integrating a curriculum is like putting a puzzle together!

Many teachers are now integrating various disciplines or strands of a discipline together to create a comprehensive curriculum. Integrating a curriculum is very much like completing a jigsaw puzzle. Each discipline or strand in an integrated curriculum is like a puzzle piece that when connected together fits perfectly. There are many ways of integrating a curriculum; some start within their own classrooms, adding small elements of other subjects or strands into the subject they are teaching, while others work with other individuals to come together and create an overarching theme that will be found in each of the participating individuals' respective classes. This theme is usually a pressing real-world issue or event that is broken down into its many components that correspond with the different subjects/disciplines. Thus, students can see the real world connections between the various disciplines and are less likely to ask "Why do I need to learn this? I'm just going to be ____, I won't need it in that!" or "When will I ever use this in real life?". This sense of relevancy is what attracts so many teachers to the concept of an integrated curriculum.

Although I have not had many experiences learning through an integrated curriculum, I have always appreciated learning about various things and how they connect together. In my high school, while I was taking all three sciences, I loved when my teacher in Biology mentioned a concept that I had just learned about in Chemistry. Although, we wouldn't touch on the concept from Chemistry necessarily, the fact that I knew how it worked and how it was connected to another concept in Biology, really did wonders for my understanding of the concept in Biology.

Real world problems are complex and need many people from many specialties to solve. For example, to truly understand and solve a problem like Climate Change, you don't just need environmentalists or biologists in general, it requires scientists from all fields, engineers, historians, librarians, sociologists, politicians,economists, teachers of all kinds, health care physicians, and many other professions. Since many problems affect so many different people, it should make sense that students be prepared to look at problems from many different viewpoints. The integrated curriculum really helps students apply their many different talents into solving or learning about a real world issue. Some possible themes teachers used in their integrated curriculum include the Olympics, Citizenship, Immigration and Assimilation, Building Bridges, Nutrition and Health, the Environment, and Death and Dying. In the integrated curriculum that I am designing currently, we are examining the cause and effects of the Fukishima Disaster.

Drake, Reid & Kolohon (2014) states that students learning in an integrated curriculum are more engaged and enjoy school more, regardless of academic achievement. This definitely makes sense because if all classes seem connected to students, then they are more likely to care more about subjects that they might not enjoy since it might connect back to something in their other classes that they enjoy.

Bogan, McKenzie & Bentwini (2012) mention that in today's global economy there is great emphasis on the development and exchange of knowledge and information. Individuals that are fluent in several disciplines and can look at problems comfortably from different perspectives are valued and prosper. "Creativity, adaptability, critical reasoning, and collaboration are highly skilled values" (Bogan et al, 2012). An integrated curriculum is an extremely effective approach for fostering these skills in our students. It can help students develop and understand the important interrelationships between disciplines in the real world.

Integrated studies are the future. I think that they are the best way to meet the needs of the 21st Century classroom and hold many benefits over traditional teaching models. I hope you will add integrated studies to your classrooms! :)

The following are great videos on Integrated curriculums:
 


                                                                    Works Cited

Bogan, B. L., McKenzie, E. K., & Bantwini, B. D. (2012). Integrating Reading, Science, and Social Studies: Using the Bogan Differentiated Instruction Model. US-China Education Review A, 12, 1053-1060.

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: engaging the 21st century learner. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.

Inquiry based learning - My experiences!

Inquiry based learning (IBL) is a wonderful model of teaching. It promotes students' natural curiosity about the world around them and gives them a chance to find answers to questions they have about the world and their environment. It works naturally for the sciences as it promotes the very foundation of science: the Scientific Method. For anyone that doesn't know what is, the Scientific Method consists of a question about something (anything!), that going through the method, the person is trying to solve. Once you have a question, you can make a prediction about the answer and design an experiment that could prove whether your prediction is true or not. If true, great! you now know the answer. If not, then you can go back and change your prediction again & again until you find the answer.

Cincera (2014) states that even though Czech students do well in international testing of scientific knowledge, they do not perform well in applying this knowledge in the real world. For this reason, the non-profit "Sdruzeni TEREZA" designed and coordinated an Inquiry based learning program called GLOBE in the Czech Republic. Cincera (2014) found that both teachers and students enjoyed the IBL program and both felt that the lessons were not demanding for the pupils however teachers felt that the preparation for their lessons was quite demanding. Overall this study found that the IBL program increased the understanding of the "research cycle" (Scientific Method) and how scientists work. In essence, they learned it better by doing. It was none other than, John Dewey, who felt that this is the way that learning should happen.

I can definitely see why this program worked in the Czech Republic. I have found in my own education that I have often learned best by doing or by teaching the idea to someone else. Actually, just yesterday, I had a midterm for a class I'm taking called "Stream Ecology". This is an interesting class as it has a field component in it where the class went out to a stream near the university and we learned actual techniques that scientists employ in their research with streams. We did various water chemistry tests, caught and sorted through benthic invertebrates and measured wetted perimeteres and bankfull heights etc. Usually in the sciences, when we have a field component or a lab component in a lab, there is usually some sort of a write up associated with it that must be handed in for marks. For this class, there was no write up, the professor simply wanted us to learn the techniques so that we could apply them later in our lives as scientists. The funny thing is that while I was writing the midterm for that class yesterday, I found that answers to questions about things that we did in the field came naturally to me, whereas questions about things we had to learn about through lecture, I wasn't 100% sure about and had to think about again before answering. I think usually in the sciences, even with field and lab components, because of the write up and marks associated with the activity, students are too busy trying not to mess up and lose marks that it becomes harder to learn about the very thing they are doing. They focus on marks too much and lose sight of the important stuff.

In my experience, Inquiry based learning is an amazing way to learn. I have taken a few field courses in university and I think I have learned (deep/transformative learning) so much more out in the field than while sitting in lecture trying to write down notes. One of these field courses was in Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains, at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory or RMBL (check out their website) for short.

Some pictures of my classroom.

For this two week field course, we would hike to various places around the biological laboratory while learning various techniques and information about the flora and fauna of the area. In the last few days of the course, we got to design, and implement our own research study. Mountains provide quite a unique opportunity for learning about the effects of Climate Change and so a good chunk of the course was also about learning just that. This is because mountains provide a good place for latitudinal studies that can be conducted in a small place, as the height increase simulates latitude very well. This field course allowed me to design and implement my own study and gave me a chance to answer a question I always had as well as learn things through experience. It also helped that there were leading experts from across the United States of America and Canada present at this laboratory. Many times we were learning techniques from them and could have our questions answered by some of the most knowledgeable people for that topic.

Bumblebee sampling

A marmot!

Marmot sampling- we caught a baby marmot!

A good comparative to my experiences in found is Dr. Susan Drake's book, "Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment" (2014), in chapter 4 when she mentions the Mountain Project. This is a disciplinary inquiry project that a Grade 11 science class was involved in where students designed testable research questions based on their observations and carried them out. The teachers reported that in this project, the students had been engaged, took risks and asked thoughtful questions; all things required for transformative learning!

I think when we make learning engaging, hands on, and for the purpose of learning (not assessment), we can really get students to start making connections and start applying the things they have already learned and are learning to their lives and to the world. I believe the inquiry based learning model is a great way to do this.

Sort of a side note, but while hiking in the rocky mountains, I discovered my favourite animal: the Pika. You can learn more about these amazing creatures in this short clip (starring none other than Sir David Attenborough) :

Cincera, J. (2014). To Think Like a Scientist : an Experience from the Czech Primary School Inquiry-Based Learning Programme. New Educational Review, 36(2), 118-130.

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: engaging the 21st century learner. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.

Breaking The Ice

BUSU Ice Breakers logo (a group I have been involved with for the past two years)

     I think as teachers we all realize that it is important for us to know our students. For many teachers, this means learning about their students before they even enter the classroom. By that I don't mean creeping their social media profiles, but rather checking their student files to see if they have a learning disability or have had behavioral problems in the past. It is also important to know if any of them are new to the country or have recently moved into the region and whether English is their second language. Having this information greatly enhances how well a teacher can teach a curriculum to a class. But what effect does your students knowing you have on their learning?

    Going through high school, I got involved in the Outdoor Education Club which took students hiking, and backpacking and taught us survival skills. As the events were often long, with the last two being 3 and 5 day long events in the Bruce Peninsula and New Hampshire, I got to know the teachers running it very well over the years. To this day, I can walk into the Science department at my school and all the teachers will remember me and ask specific things about how my life is now. This greatly added to my interest in the sciences, specifically Biology and Chemistry (hence them being my two teachables now). I got to know two teachers in particular so well that even now, many years after graduating, we still meet up once a year over coffee to chat about our lives. One of these teachers has been a huge influence in my decision to become a teacher. I think it's important for teachers to share information about themselves as well. Now, I understand that there are clear boundaries when talking to students about your personal life and clearly you do not want to be going over those boundaries. However, by sharing random personal stories, it shows students that teachers are not just robots and that we too have lives. By making connections with your students, you gain the respect of your students and it actually motivates them to do better in your class. In grade 12, I was put into a classroom that was being taught by one of the two teachers that I had talked about earlier. As it was my final year, I had gotten to spend quite a lot of time with her over my years in secondary school. I remember her telling me on the first day that she was excited to finally have me in her classroom and frankly, i was also very excited to have her as a teacher. Having known this teacher for such a long time definitely contributed to how well I did in her class, not to call her assessment biased. I realized about a quarter way through the semester that suddenly I had put Biology at the top of my priority lists, I always did my readings and always finished assignments a few days before they were due (with some exceptions). I realized that I really did not want to disappoint this teacher because I knew her so well. Her outstanding level of understanding for when assignments were late really didn't help either, they just motivated me more to not disappoint her. Because she knew all the things I was involved in within the school, on days where there were many events or important meetings going on, she would understand if I were to hand in things late. This connection that the two of us had greatly contributed to my decision of applying to Brock for the Concurrent Education program and to finally decide to be in it as well although I had many other options for post secondary programs.

    Another teacher that had a great influence in myself becoming a teacher was my Chemistry teacher. She was also in the Outdoor Education Club although she was not as heavily involved. However, having her as my Chemistry teacher twice greatly added to how well I knew her and thus also really motivated me to do well in her class. This particular teacher would actually bribe us with her stories. The deal was that if we were good in class and didn't disrupt her while she was teaching, on Fridays, she would read us one of her personal adventures that she had written in her journal. Most of these adventures were from her crazy days of travelling after going to University and she was very good at story telling. This greatly contributed to her students thinking of her as more of a person than just some robot that comes every day to school to throw information at them.

     Last year, I was given the opportunity to go back to my secondary school and evaluate the teaching of some of my old teachers for an assignment. One of the teachers I had the pleasure of evaluating was my Chemistry teacher. What I had found at the end of the assignment was that the teacher used many of the great teaching techniques I had learned in school. I also noticed that the teachers exhibited very similar teaching philosophies than the ones I had developed over the last couple years in Concurrent Education.

These are just some of my personal experiences with how connecting with your students can motivate them to achieve success and do well overall in school as well. I think it's very important that teachers try to build connections with their students. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead, break the ice!

I wanted to attach a different clip that I had thought of while writing this blog, however I have been unable to find it so I will leave you all with a similar one instead. Who said teaching can't be fun? Enjoy!

Stayin' Alive

" Students do not learn in order to be evaluated:they are evaluated so that they can learn more effectively..." (Quebec Ministry of Education, 2003)

     In the world of teaching, among the pressure of standardized tests, and other assessments, many teacher forget this very important thing. We get so caught up in making sure our students are ready for those EQAO and other standardized tests that we forget the most important thing; whether our students are actually learning or not. I came to Canada at the young age of 9 from Pakistan. In my culture, schooling is usually taken very seriously by elders and family members. Schools give out tons of homework (we're talking notebooks upon notebooks!) during the summer breaks and families place a lot of effort on schooling and making sure that their kids are doing well in school. It's so important in the culture that it is actually abnormal for a child to not be going to a tutor to learn. It is a common thing for elders to ask kids whether they've actually learned something or just memorized it (most kids just memorize things). Keep in mind that public schools in Pakistan usually teach by the Victorian era, traditional, old story model. Students are expected to memorize their multiplication tables pretty early on compared to Western schools, and there is not much if any constructivist style of teaching.

     Bringing this back to Canada, in my experiences as a student, a student leader and as a teacher, I've noticed that schools sort of brainwash us into only caring about marks and not really caring about actually learning. As soon as an assignment is handed out, students immediately question exactly how the teacher would like it to be. We actively try to cater our own work to fit the ideas of our teachers and our leaders. If teachers ever give an open ended assignment with free roam to do what we want with it, usually the next 10 minutes are chaos. People usually ask where the rubric is or why it doesn't exist. There is suddenly a lot of anxiety generated about the assignment. Trust me, I know. I do the exact same thing when it happens to me. Over the span of public schooling, we create this strict model of telling students exactly what we expect from them. It doesn't help that our marks determine our future, especially in the last couple of grades in high school. It is a ridiculously scary experience. We put so much emphasis on getting good grades so that we can go to good universities, or get scholarships that often times, we aren't learning anything, we're just spewing out information that has been cashed in, in our heads by our teachers. Now obviously all this is just my experience and doesn't apply to all schools/teachers in Canada or even in Ontario.

     It is a wonderful feeling when you find passion for something and it's an even better feeling when you can help someone else find it. When we (teachers) concentrate too much on the assessments, we forget what many of us actually started teaching for; helping students find their passion for learning.

Welcome!

Aloha! I will be updating this (as the name suggests) bi-weekly, rambling on about my opinions on the education system and all things related to education. This will be my first blog so you all get to join me on a new journey!