While reading Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning, I felt my head stirring with connections and understanding. Breaking apart the aspects of learning and defining each part was mind boggling. All of the terms in the article are terms I have heard before, yet somehow they all seem so now! Information, knowledge, understanding, meaning, and cognition are all very closely related. As a teacher it is important to understand the difference between these words in order to figure out what we actually want our students to learn. Do we want them to just know information or be able to apply meaning to their information?
Meaning is developed under the influence of culture. Culture includes language, beliefs, norms, etc. All of these pieces come together to create a deeper meaning for each piece of knowledge. It is important to enculturate our students into different cultures and apprenticeships. Things that they have learned previously take on a new meaning by being used in different cultures. Teachers need to model, coach, and fade instruction in order for students to utilize their tools in many different settings.
After having discussions in class, I think SPDs and ABCS are EXTREMELY important! The structure and process are the knowledge of the domain and the discourse is the way people communicate outside of the classroom. Often teachers keep their thinking very much inside the classroom, which is easy to do! The ABCS give me a new outlook on the progression of what authentic learning can look like. I may need to build background knowledge in my students on a particular job or culture, however, then students should be able to apply background knowledge to a project they can share with others in order to bridge the gap between the outside world and school. I most definitely struggle in the “AUTHENTIC” area. How am I supposed to make it real? How do I make sure they are learning what I need them to? I frequently have my students do activities that relate to the real world, however, I am not immersing them in the culture of that activity. I am always open to ideas and suggestions from other educators….any takers??
I think for me in my world of teaching I might not focus too much on the structure and process - but as the librarian I am a big advocate of building background knowledge. I think that might be part of my role with teachers to help find resources and information to build on. I too struggle with the authentic problem. I think for me in the library is that I see the classes for only a snapshot of their day. My authentic problem can only last 30 minutes and then I won't see the again for 2 weeks. When I am able to collaborate with teachers and we work as a team I think the result is not only more productive for us as teachers but for the students. Although third grade has some pretty fun units with simple machines, ancient cultures, and research it can be difficult to come up with a truly authentic activity. I did try something new with 3rd grade students these past two years when studying Egypt. It is still a work in progress but I turn the library into a "dig" site and place artifacts they must go and find all over the library. They make a sketch and some notes. They group has certain items to find. They take their artifacts to create a poster of a museum exhibit. I also bought these "safari" (so they look like archaeologists) hats online and they are SO fun and the kids go crazy with their hats and clipboards. I have a pattern to make a stuffed doll that has mummy parts so they can mummify the doll but I am not there yet:)
ReplyDeleteHi Jordyn,
ReplyDeleteI am right there with you when you state that each part of the article is mind-boggling. We want students to learn an be able to apply what they learn to the real world. In my classroom I have many ELL students who are eager to learn but struggle with the English language. While reading Vygotsky, I noticed he didn't do studies on students who had English as their second language. I wonder if using real life examples in the classroom would be different from their culture and they could share what would be a real life example in their community.I try to find books to read which includes their culture and have their parents come to school to share, too. These students definitely need more pictures and real world examples to look at in order to understand the concepts being taught in the classroom. I have been using pictures, symbols, and tools to help my ELL students with their understanding. Modeling is also important for ELL students but I have found what works for them, works for all students. In class last week when we wrote the five different types of poems it helped me to understand Vygotsky's psychological process. My biggest take away last week was classrooms need to be a safe place for children to learn. When children feel comfortable and save in their environment we can help them share and construct knowledge.
I also liked working collaboratively on the poetry because it made me think more about what I read. If I was stuck, my partner guided me in my thinking. The students in my class really like working in small groups or with a partner.
I think math is difficult to make authentic lessons for our students. We have been learning about even, odd, ordinal numbers, and patterns with second graders. For the even and odd numbers I had them do a foot parade of animals. The lesson was already done for me but to make it authentic I could have the students research how many feet animals have and then create their own foot parade with another student. They had to count by the number of feet each animal had, for example if it was a bird then they counted by twos. They made a poster to share their thinking with the class. I definitely think being creative is part of the authentic task.
You talk about immersing your students into the culture of an activity or profession. This is also what I find so hard to do because it is implying that teachers then are knowledgeable about all different types of cultures and the skills/actions/language of those cultures. How can we possibly know these things? How do we find the experts, especially on the time table n which we need them and their knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI'm doing a PBL having students act as graphic designers for promoting a geographic region of the US. I turned to the internet for videos that show graphic designers in action and their characteristics and work habits. I'm doing the best I can by having them mimic the concepts/culture in the videos. I feel that's the best I can do at the moment. I have turned to my art instructors at my school as well. They have created powerpoints for me to use with my students regarding art concepts that graphic designers use. We can only do what we can do in the time we have. My goal is to improve on one or two PBL's each year. I think that is respectable and still professional.
I have an anecdote that's not a total solution but one I think is illuminating--I had a colleague who taught her middle school history students by doing full on immersion of the students in short, memorable bursts. For instance, she'd have students learning about immigration to Ellis Island squeeze into a "boat" (taped rectangle on the floor) and pass around a few slices of bread to imagine what the conditions were like for the 3rd class passengers, and then asked them what she thought could motivate somebody to endure those conditions for a new life. When studying the conditions of factories, she'd have students form an "assembly line" of drawings, where they were left to work collaboratively to divide up the work and churn them out as quickly as possible, then asked students to consider what life was like for those factory workers. The students were enthralled and to me, the key seemed to be about immersing yourself in a perspective that's different than your own in a way that's exciting.
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