To often when students are conducting research, they simply find the information they are looking for and transform it slightly into their own work without truly understanding the information they have been tasked to find. As educators, it is an essential goal that students learn, understand, and retain the class content and curriculum. The coupling of self-regulation, generative strategies, and Think Sheets can help accomplish this goal. "Self-regulation is a cyclical process" ( Morrison & Lowther, 2010) that cycles through the three stages of forethought, performance control, and self-reflection. This process should be conducted within a student-centered inquiry approach to foster an appropriate research environment. " Students may still need help in developing and refining their reading, research, and questioning skills. Self-regulation provides us with a means for helping students develop these skills within the context of their problem." ( Morrison & Lowther, 2010) Generative strategies allow students to become "active learners who seek to relate new and unfamiliar information to what they already know by generating new ideas, concepts, and principles" ( Morrison & Lowther, 2010) through the use of strategies such as recall, integration, organization, and elaboration. Think Sheets require the student to use their inquiry skills to understand the material. "By combining our knowledge of self regulation and generative strategies, we can create a variety of Think Sheets that will help our students develop an understanding of the information they discover through their inquiries." ( Morrison & Lowther, 2010) The use of these three strategies will create active and independent learners who will look to absorb and understand new material by engaging themselves in the process or researching and learning. 2. How can I teach my students to solve problems?
The NTeQ problem-solving process coupled with Bloom's Taxonomy and different levels of learning is a great way to teach students to solve problems. Each step of the model is aligned with a Bloom's Taxonomy level that requires an appropriate student action to fulfill that level. The steps are as follows:
1. Define the problem.
2. Identify what is know about the problem.
3. Identify what needs to be know to solve the problem.4. Identify data that needs to be collected to solve the problem.
5. Determine how the data needs to be manipulated to solve the problem.
6. Generate possible solutions.
7. Determine how to evaluate each solution.
8. Select the best solution.
9. Present the findings.
( Morrison & Lowther, 2010)
Each of the nine steps fulfills one or more of the five highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy of learning objectives from comprehension to evaluation. "Bloom's Taxonomy of learning objectives is used to define how well a skill or competency is learned or mastered." (McNeill) Using these problem solving steps with these learning objectives is an effective and efficient way to solve any problem while fully comprehending the use and knowledge of the content needed to solve that problem.
3. I've never used an inquiry-based approach, much less computers- so how is a teacher supposed to do both of these at one time?
The initial integration of technology into ones lesson plans can be time consuming but once the lessons are integrated, they can later be quickly used again and/or adapted accordingly. The creation of technology integrated lesson plans within a open-ended learning environment does take longer because " problem-based learning involves anticipating learning needs rather than directing learning activities." (Goktas) Problem-based learning, requires a teacher to take a facilitative role, while managing learning activities and supporting self directed learning. Technology resources are the best way to allow teachers to take this role as a facilitator. Students can use the computer or other devices to help define the problem, research the problem, solve and present the problem all while the teacher interjects only pertinent information to facilitate their completion of the required tasks while providing feedback at each step. Problem-based learning, inquiry based learning, and project-based learning are all similar methods used to created an open-ended learning environment and " these three strategies provide a means to integrate computer technology into the classroom through the use of authentic problems that are of interest to your students." ( Morrison & Lowther, 2010) Technology and Inquiry Based Learning Video
Bibliography:
1. Morrison, G., & Lowther, D. (2010). Integrating computer technology into the classroom: skills for the 21st century . (4th Edition ed., p. 30). Pearson.
2. McNeill. (n.d.). Activities at various cognitive levels of learning. Retrieved from http://enpub.fulton.asu.edu/mcneill/blooms.htm
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