EDU 6250 article 2

Powell, W. & Kusuma-Powell, O. (2015). Overcoming resistance to new ideas. Phi Delta Kappan, 96 (8) 66-69. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=9&sid=5e0ea98f-c262-45f0-89fd-d88dae804bda%40sessionmgr115&hid=101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=102291250

The article I read dealt with the resistance to change many teachers may face when implementing new strategies in the classroom.  Technology is often a new idea for the classroom, and is constantly changing, but this article covered a wider concern than just technology.  The article begins by discussing how during a staff survey about differentiated instruction, many teachers had negative feelings toward the validity or viability of implementing differentiated instruction.  Many teachers either saw no reason for the change, because they felt their students were succeeding with the current model, or thought there is simply not enough time and resources to complete the adaptation.  The article discusses how this negative feedback is a result of underlying beliefs and attitudes that many teachers have that cause them to cling to the status quo for their classroom.  In many cases, the teacher may not even be aware of the fact that they have an underlying belief that causes them to be so resistant.  The author notes that these teachers who had these adaptive challenges were generally considered good instructors, and had their student’s best interest in mind. 

The proposed idea to combat this resistance was to create opportunities for deep reflection and cooperative learning.  The article mentioned how important it was to create an environment where the instructors did not feel threatened, as many teachers strive to "protect our self-esteem, our reputation with colleagues, our perception of past success, and even our feelings of professional fulfillment" (p. 67).  The study was conducted by grouping the resistant teachers together, and giving them an opportunity to explore their underlying beliefs by answering open ended questions.  These questions dealt with feelings of success in the classroom, strategies for helping struggling students, and what student success really means to them.  These questions provided an opportunity for the teachers to reflect and discuss their ideas about how their classroom is structured.  After the discussion, teachers were asked to identify one goal they had for their classroom that involved adaptive change, and then they were set up in groups to help them co-plan, co-teach, and co-reflect on the process.  This process was continued over an extended period of time, as the changes in the classroom are often not made overnight, but rather through a gradual process. 

The outcome of this study was that by introducing this reflective method to a small group of teachers, the method spread throughout the school.  The teachers in the study used to the same reflective process within their team and department meetings.  The teachers saw the benefit to working collaboratively and using the reflective process to overcome obstacles in making changes in their classrooms.

This article I believe really hits at the heart of the resistance to technology.  Many teachers become comfortable with the status quo, and perhaps without even realizing it, develop underlying beliefs that cause negative reactions to implementing new strategies / technologies.  The study suggests several good ideas for overcoming these issues, however in my experience for the college level, it is much easier for instructors to resist the team approach.  The cooperative exploration may help many teachers at the college level, but there are those teachers who will choose to omit themselves.  There is not much an associate dean can do to force participation by individual instructors.  In a public school system, it would seem much easier to require this type of training.  This isolation only becomes an issue if new technology requirements need to be approved by an entire department, which often is not the case.  Thus I think using this cooperative strategy, which my college are encourages, is a great way to overcome obstacles in continually updating a teacher’s current style. 

EDU 6250 Article Review # 1

Reference:

Joanne, C.S.M, & Lateef, F. (2014). The flipped classroom: Viewpoints in Asian universities. Education in Medicine Journal 6,(4), 20-26. Retrieved from

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.cod.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=5f9bb4d6-b3d8-4bf0-8ced-d52ad1af6200%40sessionmgr113&hid=101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=101593180

This article discusses the viewpoint of the flipped classroom in Asian cultures.  The flipped classroom is an idea where students complete a lesson at home on their own, and then perform homework problems in the classroom.  The purpose of the flipped classroom is to try to increase engagement in education.  Having the students work on problems in a classroom, perhaps collaboratively with other students, can possibly create an engaging learning environment which may increase overall learning.  In order for the flipped classroom to be successful, there is a certain amount of technology that a student must have access to at home.  As many people can probably relate, reading a school textbook is not terribly invigorating, and could cause issue for students completing assignments at home.  Thus various technologies: videos, websites, interactive media, etc., is very important in the possible success of the flipped classroom.  

The article takes the assumption that western culture lends itself to students who like to work in groups to learn, and are more interested in being involved in their learner when compared to Asian learners.  The article describes Asian learners as passive and shy.  The article further discusses the role of the teacher in the classroom for western and Asian learners.  In Asian cultures, the teacher “received utmost reverence by society, alongside parents and the emperor” (p. 21).  The study itself was conducted between 2013 and 2014.  There were 9 Asian countries involved in the student totaling 12 case studies.  The participants in the study were university students, and the case studies ranged from as few as 24 to 344 students.  Students in the case studies were taught a class in a flipped classroom style, and then feedback was collected. 

When receiving feedback, a large percentage of students wrote favorable comments about their experience in the flipped classroom.  They liked the extra time for discussion with their teacher.  Quantitative data was also collected regarded performance in the flipped classroom when compared to a traditional classroom.  There was no significant difference between the traditional class and flipped classroom.  Thus it seems likely that the flipped classroom does not cause students to do worse on exams, but it may not provide much additional benefit in regards to learning content.  One aspect that seemed to be consistent for learners in all case studies was the positive feedback about the learning environment.  Student satisfaction was significantly high for students in the flipped classroom model.  The article also discussed how instructors in Asia appeared to be willing to test out the new model.  In general the instructors cared most about the success of the students, and so introducing a flipped model into Asian schools may not present a problem of dispelling the “sage on the stage” which has dominated education previously. 
 

Overall the article is interesting because Asian countries consistently score higher in math than students in Western countries, and so to examine how Asian students respond to a flipped classroom could be valuable information for our school systems.  The article focused a lot on student enjoyment.  When deciding which learning technique to use, I am not always sure that the student satisfaction should be of utmost importance.  It is difficult to say for Asian schools, but my experience teaching at the college level tells me a majority of students would be happy simply to be passed along in the school system, regardless of what they may have actually learned.  If a student is happy to simply receive an A without any actual learning, than this is not a good model to adapt.  However students in Asian societies may put more weight on their education, and thus their satisfaction may be pure in a sense that they actually felt that they were learning more, and in a more profound way.  However student satisfaction is certainly a benefit I see based on the results of this study.  There are however some potential issues that I could see with the flipped classroom that this article did not discuss.  The flipped classroom requires a strong self-motivated student.  If a student is not self-motivated, they will not complete the lessons on their own at home, and then the class time will be wasted relearning material the student should already know.  What should a teacher do with a student who is not prepared for the day’s work? Also there is a large deal of technology involved in the flipped classroom model.  As mentioned before, students must be able to access the lessons, which are often videos or interactive programs.  Not all students have access to these necessities, and thus these students could be left behind.   The flipped classroom may create a bigger gap between students within the same classroom than a traditional model.  Having a variety of abilities in a classroom is always a challenge that a teacher must face, but the flipped classroom may expand this issue.  Overall, it does not seem that the flipped classroom is an educational idea restricted to one culture.  Perhaps there are benefits of the flipped classroom for all students, but pinpointing exactly how successfully this model can be is yet to be seen.  More time is needed to examine the outcomes of student who progress through a flipped classroom model. 

               

EDU 6215 Article 3

Reference:

Schreyer-Bennethum, L., & Albright, L. (2011). Evaluating the incorporation of technology and application projects in the higher education mathematics classroom. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 42(1), 53-63. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=7767de4e-aab3-4fec-907b-5fc048c3df56%40sessionmgr111&hid=102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=56448447

The article I read was particularly interesting to me because it dealt specifically with college level courses.  Even better was the fact that it dealt with high level mathematics courses, such as Calculus one, two, and three.  The study conducted was in regards to how students compared when placed in a course that used Interdisciplinary Lively Application Projects (ILAPs) or a course that did not use a project based technology learning approach.  The article further discusses how the courses were evaluated for a positive or negative overall learning experience.  The article wanted to explore whether taking class time away from lecture to do ILAPs was beneficial for the students.  There were two studies summarized in the article.

                The first study involved students in multivariable calculus classes.   The students were broken into two equal size groups, with no significant difference between their GPA or perquisite courses.  Both groups attended the same class lectures, in which the lecture had no emphasis on ILAPs.  Each group then attended different 2 hour per week tutorial sessions required by the course.  The control group went to a conventional tutorial session, where ILAPs were not emphasized or implemented.  The experimental group when to 1 hour of a conventional tutorial session, but then also 1 hour of an application tutorial.  This continued throughout the semester.  The purpose of this study was to determine if students in the experimental group achieved better scores in the course than the control group. 

                The results of the first study indicated that the application tutorial was successful in increasing student learning.  Students in the experimental group has a significantly higher midterm and final exam score.  The control group had a mean of 57.2 on the midterm, while the experimental group had a mean of 66.1.  In addition, on student evaluations, students in the experimental gave a higher rating for their understanding of calculus concepts and interest in calculus.  This seems to indicate that the application tutorial not only increased scores, but allowed student to feel more comfortable with the course material.

                The second study involved an algebra applications course.  This course was made to be interdisciplinary, connected with the science curriculum, and taught using technology and ILAPs.  Students in these interdisciplinary courses were compared to students in a traditional algebra course.  The study lasted two semester with a total of 8 courses used for evaluation.  Four sections were interdisciplinary, and four sections were the traditional algebra course. 

                The results did not show any significant difference in problem-solving skills between the two groups, however students in the interdisciplinary courses had larger gains in their critical thinking skills. Additionally, students in the algebra applications course gave higher marks on their course evaluations in regards to their enjoyment and interest in the course.  This outcome will be discussed further in the implications section of my review. 

                Both of these studies used ILAPs to enhance their teaching and learning.  The ILAPs encompassed real world applications in which there could be many correct answers.  Students usually worked in groups to complete the project.  An example of an ILAP is a pendulum project, in which students use an actual pendulum to fit a curve to determine displacement.  Students then would use this model to derive Newton’s second law.  Most of the projects were interdisciplinary like this one, in which both physics and math skills were utilized.  One important aspect about these studies conducted was that instructors were offered professional development opportunities to enhance their skills in developing ILAPs and implementing technologies.  The authors of the studied noted that it was very difficult to get instructors to use these experimental models without providing ample opportunity to explore the material themselves first.  One result for the students also mentioned that a large part of how the students felt about the ILAPs was dependent on the instructor’s attitude toward the changed curriculum.  In classes where instructors felt comfortable with the technology and were positive about the new style of learning, students generally were more receptive to the ILAP projects. 

                In conclusion, when looking at the effectiveness of technology and ILAPs in the classroom, it is important to look at more than just the grade outcomes.  Another important benefit of technology may be that students enjoy class more than a traditional style lecture.  This can be very beneficial for the student’s learning and understand, because if the student enjoys the course, they may be more likely to go on to the next course in the sequence.  The student otherwise may have lost interest and not continued in the subject area.  Thus the time it takes to implement the technology and ILAP may be worth it in regards to sparking curiosity and interest in the student population.  I believe there needs to be a good balance between technology, ILAPs, and lecture.  Lecture cannot be completely replaced, which is was not in either study, but lecture can be supplemented with technology to aide in achieving student learning outcomes.