Responsible Student Learning
Module Two

Dona Cruikshank - Course Designer
E-Mail:dona@ontarioeast.net

November - Module 2

Feel welcome to address questions or concerns to course designers Dona Cruickshank and/or Don Mesibov.

In October, we asked you to self assess your classroom over a period of one week. Please respond to each of these questions. Be candid. We are not evaluating you. YOU will decide how to react to what your self assessment reveals.

PROBLEM SOLVING or INQUIRY ? What is it? Why use it?

For this month's assignment, you are being asked to challenge your students with a problem. As they solve the problem, you will be teaching them a problem solving process which they can apply in other situations, throughout the year and throughout their lives.

Asking students to problem solve affords the teacher the opportunity to become a facilitator of student learning. It enables the student to take responsibility and to direct his/her own learning, and it allows learning to occur through application of knowledge that otherwise may be memorized but not necessarily understood.

Here is the sequence of what you are about to read:

1. Research citing the benefits of problem solving/inquiry approaches to learning.

2. Criteria for a teacher to apply in designing a good problem.

3. Sample problems from different disciplines, and different grade levels.

4. A problem solving process (note; you may use the one we provide, or may substitute any legitimate problem solving process if there is one you are already using and are comfortable with.)

5. A sequence of steps to take in leading students through a problem solving activity.

6. Your assignment for this month’s module.


RESEARCH CITING THE BENEFITS OF PROBLEM SOLVING/INQUIRY APPROACHES TO LEARNING.

“More than ever, an education that emphasizes general problem solving skills will be important. In a changing world, education is the best preparation for being able to adapt.” - Bill Gates

That "problem solving should be the central focus of the mathematics curriculum" is a basic tenet of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards: "Problem solving is not a distinct topic but a process that should permeate the entire program and provide the context in which concepts and skills can be learned" (NCTM, 1989). Similarly, the National Science Education Standards (NSES) state that inquiry into authentic questions generated from student experiences is the central strategy for teaching science (NSES, 1996) and that engaging students in inquiry helps them develop understanding of scientific concepts. It can also instill in students an appreciation of "how we know what we know" in science. For our students, problem solving or inquiry should be a process that they apply to all curriculum areas when they are required to make meaning from new information and new experiences.

What is inquiry? - a method of learning in which students are encouraged to recognize and state problems, to ask questions about these problems in a manner that allows them to pursue answers and to recognize that these answers are both the final product and the starting point for further discussion.

Inquiry needs a process. Usually students create their own question which they wish to solve or pursue. A good process will allow students to progress to a solution of the question they have posed. According to Horn and Murphy (1983), “A growing body of research indicates that when students are working on goals they themselves have set, they are motivated and efficient, and they achieve more than they do when working on goals that have been set by the teacher.”

From last months’ module reading, we know that people who achieve success in business are those who engage in planning, identifying specific goals, and designing strategies to work toward them (Peters& Waterman, 1982). We also read that in large part, our educational practices have had a tendency to foster dependence, passivity and a "tell me what to do and think" attitude.

In this course we are looking at student self-direction and efficacy which means that “we teach and engage students in specific strategies that offer them opportunities to make decisions and solve problems on their own without being told what to do at all times. It means we provide them with strategies designed to help them process information effectively and to be self?confident, believing that they have the abilities to succeed. And perhaps most important, we help students become more reflective about their thinking and learning processes.”

(John Barell, 1995).

Inquiry and problem-solving activities can:

a. help students see connections between classroom learning and the world outside the classroom;
b. to see the need for new skills;
c. and engage them in constructing meaningful concepts and, eventually, generalizations.


CRITERIA FOR A TEACHER TO APPLY IN DESIGNING A GOOD PROBLEM.
Consider each of the following when developing problems to solve (student or teacher):
The problem

a. allows for open?ended response

Example: “Why do leaves fall from trees?” as opposed to “Which type of tree loses leaves the most rapidly in the fall?”)

b. challenges student interests
c. builds on experiences/concepts which students already have - enables students to make connections between prior knowledge and new knowledge.
d. is authentic (as much as possible).
e. allows students to understand the nature of the problem , even if the solution is not easy.

SAMPLE PROBLEMS FROM DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES, AND DIFFERENT GRADE LEVELS.

Note: As you design a problem for your students (or ask them to design one), here are some examples that may prove helpful:

In the third grade science classroom, inquiry can mean children proposing questions on amphibians, then grouping around a table to observe a live chameleon and make notes on what they see.

Or inquiry can mean a physics class running toy cars on increasingly steeper ramps, plotting angles and times on a graph.

In the fifth grade math classroom, inquiry can mean children designing a statistical study on the average amount of time commercials take during a one-hour broadcast. Or it can mean geometry students looking for a pattern in the areas of the squares on the sides of right?angled triangles.

In Right Angle, one of the Jasper Woodbury videodisc series, middle school students use their knowledge of angles and learn elements of topography and orientation skills to locate a missing person and direct the rescue squad to the location.

The Realization Technology series, developed for upper elementary and middle school students, contains open?ended technology puzzles that help students develop their general problem-solving skills, measurement skills, and logical thinking. One item from the series, The Cat on the Chimney, engages students in designing a rescue device to get a frightened cat down from a chimney. Big books provide the scenario and describe tools students can use to solve the problem.

High School Regents Biology teacher Mark Manske, Brasher Falls, posed the question for his students: “What is the water quality of the St. Lawrence River?” and then allowed his students ten weeks to design and answer their own questions in their quest to answer the broader question he had posed.

An English teacher (or grade school teacher) can challenge students to identify the questions an author must answer in order to give depth and consistency to a character.

An English teacher can ask students “What questions must we ask in order to assess the quality of a novel?” Once the students have brainstormed a list of questions, the teacher can divide the class into groups, ask each group to choose a question and pursue the answer.

In the Venture program in Carthage, high school science students decided to investigate “What is the quality of the environment surrounding the high school?” There research was to conclude with a presentation to the board of education.

Another class of students in the Venture program devoted two weeks to an analysis of “What is the impact on runners of different track surfaces?”


A PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS

(Note: You may use the one we provide, or may substitute any legitimate problem solving process if there is one you are already using and comfortable with.)

Step One: Make sure you understand the problem.

a. Read it.
b. Talk it over with someone else.
c. Write it out in your own words and check it over with a partner.
e. Take out irrelevant information.


Step Two: Make a start and don’t be afraid of making a mistake. Try one or more of these strategies:


Guess and check
Draw a picture, diagram, or chart
Make a list
Work backwards
Look for a pattern
Use logical reasoning ? what makes sense?
Start with the easy parts or make the problem simpler

Step Three: Check your answers or solutions with other students, the teacher, an authoritative source or someone you trust.

Step Four: Share or publish your solutions.

Step Five: Reflect.

What did I do that helped?
What could I have done differently?
What strategies did I use that helped me solve the problem?

A SEQUENCE OF STEPS TO TAKE IN LEADING STUDENTS THROUGH A PROBLEM SOLVING ACTIVITY.

a. Challenge your students with a problem that meets the criteria cited above (see #2). Choose material you would usually teach from the text book or a teacher-directed lesson.

b. Share the problem solving process (#4, above) with students and ask them to utilize it in solving the problem.

c. Allow class time for students in pairs or small groups to work on the problem. Be available for coaching.

d. Have students share results - report out from a representative of each group, or use a jig saw.

e. Have students share responses to these questions (either in writing, or verbally):

What did I do that helped?
What could I have done differently?
What strategies did I use that helped me solve the problem?

ASSIGNMENT FOR THIS MODULE

Your assignment will be to utilize class time to have students learn something in the curriculum through a problem solving approach. Hopefully, you will select course content that, in the past, you would have taught through more traditional strategies.

You will be asked at the beginning of the next module to reflect on the same three questions that you answered at the start of this lesson. Keep student material, your notes and other records in your portfolio that support your reflections.

Try the problem solving process above to design your problem solving lesson for your students.

Please don’t forget to check with the course facilitators or the internet course experts at any time for clarification and/or feedback.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

You may wish to refer to the following resources for related information on problem-solving.

Planning for Problem Solving Instruction ...Integrated and Developmental

Additional Resources

provided by: Tara A. Demers - "4" Project

Brooks, J. G., & Brooks, M. G. (1993). Considering the possibilities. In search of understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms (15-22). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

McCaslin, M., & Good, T. L. (1993). Classroom management and motivated student learning. In Tomlinson, T. M., Motivating students to learn: Overcoming barriers to high achievement (pp. 245-261). Berkeley, CA: McCutchan Publishing Corporation.

Treffinger, D. (1978). Guidelines for encouraging independence and self-direction among gifted students. Journal of Creative Behavior, 12(1), 14-20.

Understanding Learning Styles / Multiple Intelligences

Gardner, H. (1997). Reflections on multiple intelligences: Myths and messages. Phi Delta Kappan, 78(5), 200-207.

Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). What is a differentiated classroom?. The Differentiated Classroom (pp. 1-8). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). Elements of differentiation. The Differentiated Classroom (pp. 9-16). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). Rethinking how we do school-and for whom. The Differentiated Classroom (pp. 17-24). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). Learning environments that support differentiated instruction. The Differentiated Classroom (pp. 25-35). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Wolffe, R., Robinson, H., & Grant, J. M. (1998). Creating multiple procedures from multiple intelligences. Catalyst for Change, 28(1), 15-16.