Group items tagged

"we found that they still had many of the well-known conceptual difficulties with basic mechanics, and there was little correlation between the number of problems solved and conceptual understanding. This result suggests that traditional problem solving has a limited effect on conceptual understanding."

Very long talk by Eric Mazur on the merits of teaching for understanding.

Overview and stage 1 of UbD (Wiggins/McTighe)

"Edutopia.org's Director of Video Programming, Zachary Fink, interviews UC Berkeley professor Dor Abrahamson about how to increase students' understanding of math."

Valuable reading, as understanding how these cycles reinforce learning leads to better planning for blended learning. The Pedagogy and Technology Workshop employs a cycle much like the first few diagrams. 

The 800-lb gorilla of online math learning. Carnegie Learning's Cognitive Tutor is an adaptive, differentiated learning system in which student understanding is assessed and individually addressed as part of the learning process. It's truly an amazing system, but it's not modular -- in other words, you won't get the best use of it pulling out items for use in your curriculum, because the system's curriculum is intended to be used in full. But it might be worth considering -- results show huge results from this system. See http://www.carnegielearning.com/research/reports/

"Questioning enables teachers to check learners' understanding.... These questions are often arranged according to their level of complexity; this is called taxonomy. Bloom's Taxonomy is one approach that can be used to help plan and formulate higher order questions."

A wonderful authentic learning scenario in which 3rd graders create a multimedia documentation of their community. They team with high school kids who help with the use of technology, and with local experts to gain knowledge; then the students create a lasting document of their understanding. Just great stuff, and totally relevant across many age levels. "Third graders become historians, writers, and videographers as they explore the geography and geology of their community."

"Although hundreds of studies have shown that clearly communicating instructional objectives has a positive effect on student achievement, not all techniques for doing so have the same beneficial effects. In a series of studies we conducted at Marzano Research Laboratory, we found that some approaches had no effect on student achievement and that others actually produced negative results-that is, students would have been better off if the teacher had not provided an objective."

Great resources for teaching and learning.  "We strive to empower instructors by helping them develop a deep understanding of how students learn, so that they can effectively apply and adapt teaching strategies to meet their own goals and their students' needs.  The purpose of the following materials is to present current research and theory on student learning in a way that can inform and guide effective teaching practices."

Recently, Christine Wiser T&L's Managing Editor, asked the Tech Advisors the following question: What do you think are the top three most important issues facing K-12 edtech this year? 1. Mobile device adoption. Especially bring your own device program implementation. 2. Getting people to really understand what is meant by 21st century teaching and learning. 3. Anytime, anywhere learning.

RCS Professional Development Day 2012 presentation by Sean Dagony-Clark and Don Ostrow on the creation of the Pedagogy and Technology Workshop.

Metaphor for successful PD? 

I say "alleged" since I haven't read through it yet...

"What is an essential question? An essential question is - well, essential: important, vital, at the heart of the matter - the essence of the issue."