Teaching Learning Situations

Analysis of three teaching-learning situations


I watched and read about three different teaching techniques:

In the project based learning video Roller Coaster Physics, a 5th/6th grade teacher developed a physics class by having students design a model roller coaster that must be both safe and fun. The teacher incorporates science, technology, engineering and math in the roller coaster project. The project has students learning and applying physics concepts like potential energy, kinetic energy and Newton’s three laws of motion. The roller coaster physics project is detailed and requires students to learn and perform at a high academic level.

The teacher has a clear and concise outline for the project that she follows from the lesson plan in Glog. The outline shows the project objectives, specific terminology students are to use, concepts to be learned and demonstrated, an action plan for the project with past examples, rubric and participation rules. For a project based learning activity to be successful strong and comprehensive outline is necessary.

The Roller Coaster Physics project begins with the class being grouped into teams of four to five. Small groups allow students to build and improve their collaboration and communication skills. The entire group participates in the building and designing of the roller coaster but each student has a specific role or job they are responsible for. These roles include group organizer, measurer, treasurer, record keeper. The teacher sets a budget for the project and has additional materials the groups can purchase. The idea of a set budget helps the students apply the learning to real life and ties the math into the physics part of the project.

A technique called chiming was used where students gathered at a table and a representative from each group discussed issues with their group’s project. Students would then provide suggestions and brainstorm about how to solve each issue encountered building on communication skills, while using specific physics terminology as required by the teacher for a high level of learning and communicating. The idea of chiming builds students’ knowledge of how to solve a problem based on the physics and allows the teacher to assess each student individually and each group.  

The project continues to build on the high academic expectations when each group chose who will sketch the project to be used in a computer simulator. Another student in the group is responsible for marking and labeling the sketch, for example the rise and run of the initial loop, to be entered into the simulator. The results allow students to make adjustments and improve on the model design. This project based learning has hands on combined with technical learning to push students to learn on a higher level and making learning fun and exciting.

The Roller Coaster Physics project is so engaging and fun for the students that excellent student behavior is expected. As students are having fun while learning there should be no negative behaviors and as students are working with their peers a healthy and happy atmosphere should dominate a productive and engaging classroom. Norms and procedures were not discussed in the video, but from how the project was conducted the students had an awareness of what was expected. I felt that the norms and procedures for the class was understood by all the students prior to the project base learning or there would have been more challenges for the teacher to deal with.



In the video 3rd Grade Chinese Math Class, the teacher uses repetition in the form of song or with a rhythmic pattern to teach the third graders by memorization. The teacher used the white board after the class finished with the song and demonstrated a problem. In the video students raised their hands to solve the problem. This is what I could understand from the video as the language was Chinese and no subscripts were provided.

The article “What makes Chinese math lessons so good?” explains that repetition is the main way to efficient and effective learning. “The goal of math education in China is to develop conceptual and procedural knowledge through rigid practice” according to the article (2014). I remember learning my math facts in elementary school in a similar methodology. High academic expectations are achieved by the students through the method of repetition and practice. The students are engaged as a whole when repeating the song and communicating as a group and focused on the teacher.  

Behavior expectations are strict in the Chinese culture and students must be quiet and raise their hands to participate in the call. Norms and procedures are based on the customs of the culture and not discussed in the video (to my knowledge) or in the article. The overall class, in my opinion, is rigid and militant compared to the project based learning class but statistics show that this method of teaching develops a strong base for the concepts of mathematics.


Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) is a technique that uses hand gestures, call and response, and fun sounds to teach lessons to students. The video of a 9th grade geography class used these techniques for the lesson. The WBT technique had the whole class, including the teacher, waiving their hands, shaking their heads and acting in a bizarre but the class in completely engaged and responding to the direction of the teacher. In the video the teacher makes hand gestures to teach a lesson about longitude and latitude and location. The students mimic the hand motions. The class is structured around the WBT and in terms of norms and procedures the students are responding to specific calls and hand motions from the teacher. The rules would seem to be in the form of the specific gesture the teacher initiates.   

The behavior expectations are that every student is participating in the motions and sounds. I would expect to have this kind of participation that much time was invested in the norms and procedures and expectations of the students. The video continues to demonstrate how students learn to speed read. The students where in pairs and making motions and reading to each other. This activity is useful to develop reading and vocabulary practicing the hundred most common phonic words in the English language. I feel the Whole Brain Teaching technique would be a technique that requires a lot of practice and patient.  

After watching and analyzing these three techniques the project based learning technique would be my choice to implement. As a secondary mathematics teacher the Whole Brain Teaching technique would be difficult to implement. I feel the WBT would be a technique used primary education due to the hand motions, calls and responses – something I do not envision high school aged students participating in. I feel I could use the Chinese method of repetition by song or rhyme in a classroom of Algebra to Calculus students, but only for a small portion. Currently a song for the quadratic formula is used to help students memorize the formula they need to use in solving quadratic equations. The project based learning technique would require a great deal of planning and cooperation from the whole mathematics department. I feel that the project based learning technique would be most engaging for the age group I work with. Working in teams and applying mathematics to real world situations and creating a learning environment with high expectations where the students are collaborating and communicating is the ideal class that I would want to provide for my students.



References

The Teaching Channel. (2012). Roller Coaster Physics STEM in Action. Retrieved  https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-stem-strategies

Chen, C. (2011). Third Grade Chinese Math Class. Retrieved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7LseF6Db5g

Glogster EDU. (2012). Roller Coaster Physics. Retrieved http://edu.glogster.com/glog/roller-coaster-lab/1gku0vrn4cn

Wei, C. (2014). The Conversation Explainer. What Makes Chinese Math Lessons So Good? Retrieved http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-makes-chinese-maths-lessons-so-good-24380

Mackens, R. (2011). Whole Brain Teaching-Richwood High-The Basics. Retrieved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iXTtR7lfWU&feature=youtu.be