Reflection on a 1:1 Environment

Video Transcription

Welcome to tutorial on reflection on constructivist theory in a one-on-one environment. In today's tutorial, we will discuss why is it important to plan lessons around Marzano's design question, what will I do to help students generate and test hypotheses about new knowledge? And also the question, what does it look like to reflect on a constructivist lesson for one-on-one learning environments?

Let's start with a brief recap on one-on-one problem based learning AND constructivist teaching and learning methods. One-to-one is a teaching method where there is one device per student. Sometimes the schools are responsible for these devices in providing them and sometimes the student's parents. These devices are generally able to be taken home with the students, but sometimes stay in the classroom.

Constructivism is where students construct and create their own meaning. It's a very teacher-facilitated and student-led, inquiry-based type of classroom. Problem-based learning is where students go through an extended process of learning in response to a complex question, problem, or challenge. So they take question, problem, or challenge and they direct their learning. Communication and collaboration are key in this type of environment.

Let's take a look at our updated lesson plan. Remember the topic is natural resources and waste reduction. Students will discuss the scenario: Natural systems and resources are being threatened by negative impacts a development, pollution, and over-consumption. We'll ask students what can you do to make a difference? They will make a plan and create a presentation to present in a community forum.

In groups, students will research the natural resources and their threats and generate a plan of action. In groups, they will also create a multimedia presentation using Prezi, where they will choose and define roles within the group. Presentations will be shared at a community forum and students will field questions on their ideas as a group.

Remember this is a one-to-one environment for this classroom and this lesson, so each student in the classroom will have their own device. The groups will use these devices to do research as a group and maybe some collaboration on forums and websites that allow for discussion boards. They will also use these devices to create their multimedia presentations as a group.

So let's look how we can use Marzano's ideas for reflection. And when we designed this lesson and updated to a constructivist or a BPO teaching method, we took Marzano's lesson design question number four, what will I do to help students generate and test hypotheses about new knowledge? And we specifically looked element 21, organizing students for cognitively complex tasks, element 22, engaging students in cognitively complex tasks involving hypothesis generation and testing, and the element 23, providing resources and guidance.

So one thing we will want to do as teachers is reflect on how well we incorporated this lesson design question and its elements into our lesson. So when we take Marzano's lesson design question number four, what will I do to help students generate and test hypotheses about new knowledge, we'll reflect on the elements 21, 22, and 23.

First let's start with element 21, organizing student for cognitively complex tasks. And when we think about our updated lesson, we do include some class discussion with guided questions and some group work opportunities. And we will have students present and field questions. So all of these are areas where we organize students for these complex tasks.

Element 22, engaging students in cognitively complex tasks involving hypothesis generation and testing. This is a problem-based learning lesson, so we're asking students to solve a problem and do some problem solving. They're generating a plan of action. Students are in groups, so there's a lot of collaboration and communication going on as well. One thing that we might do is have students do some goal setting so that they are recording all of their hypothesis generation and testing together as a group.

Element 23, providing resources and guidance. We are the teacher and we are walking around to support our students. There's also some collaboration going on. So what we need to think about is that we as a teacher are allowing for collaboration but also guiding the communication and the discussions. We will also think about the plus minus delta model for reflection. Which is plus: what worked well, minus: what did not work well, and delta: strategies for improving what did not work well.

So let's take a look here at the plus minus delta of this lesson in particular. The plus might be that students in groups were actively engaged and levels of communication and collaboration were high through this activity. A minus might be that students that were absent for parts of this activity fell behind quickly. And the delta for this minus would be, before this lesson, use goal setting and planning methods with groups. Have the groups brainstorm possible challenges for their group and create solutions.

As a teacher, we might think about using some guiding questions like, what will you do if students are not here each day and have groups brainstorm their own solutions for handling this. So this is a very important tool for us, these goal setting and planning methods. Let's apply these ideas by reflecting on the questions, which elements of reflection might work well for you as a teacher? What are the advantages to planning intentionally and reflecting? Let's talk about what we learned today.

In today's tutorial, we've discussed the questions, why is it important to plan lessons around Marzano's design question? What will I do to help students generate and test hypotheses about new knowledge? We also looked at the question, what does it look like to reflect on a constructivist lesson for one-to-one learning environments?

And in today's tutorial, I walked you through how to reflect on lessons using Marzano's design question number four with elements 21, 22, and 23. We also talked about the plus minus delta model for reflection. Thanks for joining me today as we talked about reflection on a constructivist theory in a one-to-one environment. I hope you're able to use these ideas in your own teaching.

Now it's your turn to apply what you've learned in this video. The additional resources section will be super helpful. This section is designed to help you discover useful ways to apply what you've learned here. Each link includes a brief description so you can easily target the resources you want.