Krstovic's Thoughts on Education

A few days ago I talked to my Grade 12 students about the quantum model of an atom. Anyone who has studied the quantum model will tell you that this stuff is very abstract. How do we visualize atoms and the subatomic particles? What is an electron and how does it really behave? How do we account for electron’s wave and particle-like behaviors? How do students’ make sense of this abstractness?

After going over the quantum numbers and having the kids assign quantum numbers to electrons in an atom, I asked myself this question: “Is this even worth knowing at this point in kids’ lives?”  To soothe my curiosity, I asked the students to brainstorm in groups a list of 10 things that are worth knowing in life.

One student said: “This is hard!”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“ Do you mean any 10 things?” asked the student again.

“Yes, any 10 things that you would consider worth knowing in life!” I said.

Students took about 5 minutes to brainstorm their list, and then, I asked a member of each group to write their list on the blackboard. Here are the things that a class of Grade 12 students thinks are worth knowing:

• Your name (identity)/ Self (X2)
• People skills
• Reading
• Defend yourself / How to take care of ourselves
• Make food
• Basic knowledge of survival (X3)
• After life? (X3)
• Truth about religion / God’s existence? (X2)
• Knowledge about your future
• How people first developed theories
• The Big Bang Theory / Beginning of existence (X2)
• Why are there geniuses and regular people?
• Extraterrestrial life, does it exist? (X2)
• Unified theory
• Finding out our roles in society
• Communication (X2)
• Language
• Distinguish between myth and reality
• Morality (X2)
• History
• Technology
• News around the world
• Point of life

This is certainly an interesting list. The numbers in the brackets represent the number of times that the common answer or theme appeared. As you might imagine, this list served as a platform for an extremely rich conversation.

One student wrote to me after class stating: “By the way, the discussion during the latter half of the period was refreshing. Glad we had it.”

I had to ask him to be more specific and tell me what stood out for him and what made this a refreshing discussion.

He replied with: “I just found how some students found it more necessary that certain questions that haunt society are more important than the everyday activities we indulge in to sustain ourselves. I remember a couple questions being around the ideas of higher beings and extraterrestrial life forms and through the discussion it sort of amazed me that students take this approach.  I interpreted the question to be based around our necessities and not around these questions and so I found the discussion sort of refreshing to see that there are different perspectives and different answers to every question.”

Insightful reply from a Grade 12 student! Thanks S.F.!

I will end it here. Feel free to comment! What do you think of this list? What does it tell us about students’ perception of the 10 things worth knowing?
Image credits: http://theraffaellas.bandcamp.com/

My students felt that they were learning more ‘things’ that would make them ‘street-smart’ rather than ‘book-smart’ while learning about activism and developing actions on issues that affect the wellbeing of individuals, societies and environments. This was concluded after a group of five student volunteers agreed to be interviewed by Prof Larry Bencze (from OISE) as part of the  study of the  implementation of the STEPWISE framework in my Grade 10 Academic Science.

Excerpt from October 17, 2011 Journal Entry – Inspiring Activism and Allowing Time for Students to Work on Research and Planning their Actions!

“Today I showed the photos and videos of my visit to St. James Park in Toronto during the Occupy Toronto event. Many students did not know about Occupy Toronto or other related movements around the globe. We discussed some of the images that I was showing and I related them as much as I could to student action projects. My ‘take action’ pep-rally lasted 20 minutes and after this I took the students to the computer room, where they had an hour and a half to work on their research.”

[Reflection: When look back I realize that this lesson on October 17^th was motivating and it supported the idea of activism. I modeled this to students by going to Occupy Toronto event. In terms of the streetsmarts, the images and videos that I was showing to kids were real and current! I talked about the sings that the protesters made and the information they included on their posters. I stressed the idea that masses should to be educated for a protest or a movement, like Occupy Toronto, to make sense. We talked about violent protests and what is and  what isn’t accomplished during such public upheavals. All of these conversations fed into the idea of streetsmarts more so that just booksmarts.]

Except from October 21, 2011 Journal Entry – Students’ Presentations of their Actions!

“I learned that students have tremendous potential to be creative and innovative as I watched their STSE action presentations. They like this project since it was customizable allowing them the freedom to do what they wanted as far the issues they decided to study and the kinds of actions they pursued….”

 [Reflection: One of the words that stands out to me is ‘customizable.’ Nowadays teenagers want most things around them to be ‘customizable.’ Classroom experiences are still traditional, for the most part. They are not very customizable by the students. Students should be able to ‘customize’ their learning experiences by tailoring them to their interests. The STSE action projects allowed students to do exactly this – to ‘customize’ their learning  by choosing their own topic, forming same interest groups and deciding on what actions to take. The concept of ‘customizable education’ relates more to street-smarts rather than booksmart since it has more in common with kids' everyday life experiences.]

 These are just two short and recent reflections of many more reflections to come (not necessarily on this blog), but as part of my effort to try to understand the factors or events that have made the students feel that they were learning street smarts over book smarts in my Grade 10 Science class.

Please feel free to share your thoughts about the value of street smarts in education and what kind of teaching would promote street smarts over book smarts.

Image Credits:  http://www.themichelpage.com/Humor_StreetSmarts.htm

It was an exciting moment in class today when one of my Grade 10 students took an incredible photo of the celery cells that were stained with a blue dye. He said: “Sir, look! It looks like an image from Avatar movie!” Then Randy (not his real name) zoomed further into the photo of a bunch of rectangular looking, methylene blue-stained celery cells and surely one could see even more detail in the cells. “Amazing”, I thought to myself!

As soon as the other kids saw that Randy took a great photo of the cells all of them who had a smart phone positioned their phones over the ocular lens of the microscope and snapped photos of their own.

Why was this such a great and exciting moment for me and the kids?

Two reasons: i)it was another great technology moment where kids discovered how to use their mobile learning devices to document their learning in real time; and ii) since kids had to produce biological drawings of the celery cells they no longer had to keep looking back and forth through the microscope while producing a drawing. It was right there on the screen of their smart phone.

The image is the original photographed by my student Randy.

 Please share some of your experiences if you have any with the use of smart phones in your classroom!

This semester I have been working on implementing the STEPWISE framework in my Grade 10 Science. In light of this innovation, I’d like to review several stages of staff concern about an innovation based on the Concern-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) by Hall, Wallace and Dosset (1973). Here they are:

• Awareness. The science staff becomes aware that the innovation exists (ie. that someone is implementing something different). Details of the innovation are lacking. Colleagues may see evidence of some of the work in the school hallways or in the classroom.
• Information. The individuals who are interested want more information. They begin to wonder if the innovation can help them. They may actively seek out new information, both explicit and tacit, to gain greater awareness of the innovation.
• Personal. What will the demands of innovation do to my time? My energy? Colleagues who are interested in implementing an innovation have personal concerns over how the innovation will impact them personally.
• Management. The focus is on the process of implementing the innovation in the classroom and various tasks that are part of the process of implementation. Colleagues may have curriculum concerns and how will they manage the innovation so that certain parts of the curriculum are not compromised.
• Consequences. These are also called impact concerns. The focus is on the impact of innovation on students and others involved in the implementation of the innovation.
• Collaboration. This stage of concern refers to coordination and efficiency with which the innovation is implemented.
• Refocusing. This last stage is focusing on exploration of more powerful alternatives.

The above stages suggest that interventions and professional development should address the specific expressed concerns of the teachers. Research indicates that expressed concerns permit the identification of acceptance or adoption of the innovation on the part of teachers. Teachers must first have their concerns reduced in the Awareness, Information, Personal and Management stages, before the three adopter stages: Consequences, Collaboration and Refocusing (For more thorough research visit: http://www.ucalgary.ca/iejll/vaughan)

Reference:

Hall, G. E., Wallace, R. C., & Dossett, W. A. (1973). A developmental conceptualization of the adoption process within educational institutions (Rep. No. 3006). Austin, Texas: The University of Texas at Austin, The Research and Development Center for Teacher Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction No. ED 095 126).

I have been writing about STSE (Science, Technology, Society and Environment) action projects and my attempt to implement the STEPWISE framework in the last several posts. As a reminder, the STEPWISE framework is designed to help students explore various socio-scientific issues by carrying out secondary and primary research and to use their research to inform activism in science. I have implemented the framework in three stages:

i) students carry out secondary research on a choice of one of the four STSE issues presented to them in the chemistry unit and devise an action plan to address the issue (see the sample video below that was developed by one group of students)

ii) students engage in both secondary and primary (correlational studies) research on STSE issues in the climate change unit and devise an action plan to address the issue- this is still teacher guided, but open-ended

iii) students perform student-lead, open-ended STSE action projects in the biology unit – a list of STSE issues is given to students, but the choice of what secondary and primary research to do is left up to students

So far I have had a lot of success with the STEPWISE framework. Students are more engaged on average. My weaker students (ie. those who generally do poorly on knowledge-based tests) have done a lot better in class with the STEPWISE. Students like discussing socio-scientific issues and being empowered to act and make a difference in our society. Students’ inquiry projects (experiments and correlational studies) have more meaning since they are contextualized.

I’m attaching a sample of an educational activist video that was developed by three girls in my class. I thought that they did a very good job on their first STSE action project.

About a year ago I wrote a post on Critical Thinking and Student Engagement. In that post, I reviewed some data on student engagement. I don’t know the author of that study (I’ll try to find out), but this is what’s suggested:

• Students in arts and tech classes were more engaged than students in ‘academic’ classes
• Students were more engaged in science than math
• Students were more engaged in math than history

This suggests the following about engagement (which is nothing new to us): For students to be engaged the following three criteria need to be met:

1)      Interactivity

2)      Concentration

3)      Relevance

Interactivity: students need to be doing something hands-on and they should have an opportunity to interact with other students in class

Concentration: it is not enough that students are doing in hands-on activities; their minds must also be engaged.

Relevance: if it is not directly relevant to students’ lives, the chances of students staying engage are lower.

So, this may now explain, why students are least engaged in history classes. Traditionally, we students ‘stuff’ and then we invite them to think. However, it should be the other way around. Students should be first invited to think – the driver needs to be thinking –  other ‘stuff’ can be added along the way. In science, this ‘stuff’ is usually theories, laws and basic knowledge and understanding, which so many teachers stress over more important things like applications of this ‘stuff’ to everyday lives.

This semester at OISE/UofT I am taking a class that deals with collaborative cultures in inclusive schools. I am writing this blog mainly to help me learn steps is negotiating, and along the way, to inform any interested readers.

1. Opening the negotiation:

The key in opening a negotiation is to uncover the other party’s interests and to ask them why they are interested. Also, you should state your interests and identify the problem that is common to both parties involved in the negotiation. As a final part of opening the negotiation, you should ask what the other party is prepared to offer, as well as to state what you are willing to offer.

2. Look for Options:

In this part of negotiation you want to bring in standards or some external criteria. This will depend on the nature of your conflict over which you are negotiating. By looking for options, you are expanding the possibilities and thinking outside of the box. One might also apply external criteria, such as policies, rules, agreements and/or prior decisions.

3. Perceptions:

The important thing to remember is to try to take the other party’s point of view. Try to understand them by paraphrasing what they are saying. This acknowledges their position. Also, do not make assumptions about how they feel. Instead, ask them how they feel and tell them how you feel. It may be sometimes a good idea to ask them for advice and to look for a win-win.

4. Emotions:

Recognize different emotions when you see them and be ready to name them. Address the other party’s concerns and/or fears. When negotiating, make sure that the other party feels safe, secure and you should ask them how they feel about the discussion.

5. Communications:

A negotiation is a search for a joint objective. Remember to listen carefully. Do not interrupt and when you speak, speak to be understood. Part of good communication is building trust and authenticity.

6. Language use

This is a very important element of negotiations! Watch your language! Instead of making negative statements, make enabling statements, such as: “Maybe you can help me to see…” or “I’m at a loss to know..”. Also, don’t reject by using statements like, “Yes/no, but…”It’s better to say, “Yes/no, and…”

7. Non-verbal communication

Perhaps we don’t pay as much attention to this part of communication as we should. When you stand/sit, hold open arms, not crossed. Sit back; don’t lean forward. Use a low key voice and smile. You can engage them with the use of your eye contact.

8. Closing negotiation

In this last stage, you want to summarize what has been agreed and who has agreed to do what. Both parties should have an idea of what success looks like. Finally, you should ask the party how they feel about the process and the decisions taken.

Over the last two weeks I have been training my students to take action on various socio-scientific issues. They had a choice of what issue to choose – acid rain, dangers of household chemicals, oil spills or smoking. The goal of the project is to first learn a bit about the issue and why it poses a threat to the wellbeing of individuals, societies and the environment. Then, the students would learn different ways of lessening the negative impact of their selected socioscientific issue. Finally, they would raise awareness of the issue by taking action! And, this ACTION piece is the final product of this assignment!

In order to motivate my students to take actions, I attended Occupy Toronto event on October 16, 2011. In addition to supporting this global movement, I wanted to model to my students what it means to be an activist and show them the different ways in which people go about taking actions on issues that matter to them.  

On Monday morning, I showed my students photos and videos that I took during the Occupy Toronto general assembly at St. James Park. The students reacted positively to my photos and many were completely unaware of this global occurrence. Immediately after I had spoken to them a bout what activism means, they were excited and eager to continue working on their issues and preparation for their own actions!

On Friday, October 20, 2011 my apprentices of activism will have a chance to present their actions to the whole class. I am excited to see what the outcome of this will be. For most students, if not all, this is their first time that they take act on a socio-scientific issue that affects the well-being of individuals, societies and the environment.

Today I introduced my Grade 10 students to their Chemistry application assignment which focuses on several socioscientific issues. The students have a choice of which issue to explore: household chemicals, smoking, acid rain or oil spills. For this project I stressed the importance of ACTIVISM! I want my students to learn about their selected issue, and then take action to address this issue!

There are many ways in which students can take an active stand and learn to become activists. I share the belief that more of our youth need to take an active role when it comes to various socioscientific issues in the 21^st century. It’s all great if we engage the students in class discussions about issues that relate science to technology, society and the environment, but it is way more powerful if we encourage students to take an active stand on an issue by making a video, teaching a junior class, fundraising for a cause, creating posters or informative brochures, participating in science fairs, and a variety of other activities!

Before anything, students need to be taught what it means to be an activist and how to go about taking an active stand. They need to first become apprentices, before becoming activists! Showing them videos of what other students have done to address some issues is one way of facilitating their transition into student-lead STSE action projects!

Here is one such video that is an excellent exemplar of student-lead activism:

This past week my Grade 11 Chemistry students raised $202.20 for the Terry Fox Foundation in just three days. The whole school participated in the fundraiser, and the class that raises the most money will win a pizza party. We still don’t know if we won a pizza party for our class, but I am sure that we are one of the top, if not the top class in terms of the amount of money raised! But winning a pizza party is not what is important here – it’s about positive classroom community!

I am tremendously proud of my Grade 11 students who showed their generosity through charity. I feel that this fundraiser brought us closer together as a community and I have no doubt that this will spill over and have a positive effect on students’ achievement. The more the students feel that they are part of a community, where everyone feels like they belong, the safer the learning environment will become and the better their performance will be in my class.

I want to congratulate all my Grade 11 students for being such a wonderful group of teenagers. I want to encourage each and every one of them to continue to look for opportunities where they can collectively make a difference in this world. Together everyone can achieve more in life!