Source: Image of light bulb, Public Domain, http://pixabay.com/en/the-light-bulb-light-bulb-lighting-349400/
Welcome to a tutorial on Reflection on Constructivist Theory in a BYOD Environment. In today's tutorial, we will discuss the following 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? And what does it look like to reflect on a constructivist lesson for a BYOD learning environment?
Let's start with a review of BYOD, PBL, and constructivist teaching and learning. Remember, BYOD, or bring your own device, is an environment where students bring in their own devices, like smartphones, laptops, or iPads into the classroom.
Constructivism is when students construct and create their own meaning in lessons and activities. And the teacher is the facilitator not the director. It's a very inquiry based student-led type of learning.
PBL, or problem based learning, is when students go through an extended process of learning in response to a complex question, problem, or challenge. So we're giving them a guided question or a problem and having them use constructivist theories, essentially, to work through this problem. It's also a very student-led environment where the teacher is facilitating the students' learning. Communication and collaboration are key in this type of learning environment.
Let's take a look at our updated lesson plan. And remember, the topic is natural resources and waste reduction. Students will discuss this scenario, natural systems and resources are being threatened by negative impacts of 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.
So let's look at how we can use Marzano's ideas for reflection. And when we designed this lesson and updated it to a constructivist or a PBL 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 at element 21, organizing students for cognitively complex tasks, element 22, engaging students in cognitively complex tasks involving hypothesis generation and testing, and 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. It's important to use Marzano's lesson design question four, what will I do to help students generate and test hypotheses about new knowledge, in this lesson being that it is a constructivist lesson, and specifically, a problem based learning lesson.
So let's look at element 21 and what we are doing well to meet this element. We do use class discussion in our lesson as well as group work opportunities. And these two are essential for the problem based learning and constructivist learning methods. We ask our students to present and field questions.
For element 22, engaging students in cognitively complex tasks involving hypothesis generation testing, again, this is a problem based learning lesson, so we're asking students to solve a problem and generate a plan. They are working together and problem solving and collaborating with each other. One thing to keep in mind, because this is a BYOD learning environment, is the fact that each student will have their own device. So reflecting on this, we would want to make sure that students were able to use all of the resources and tools given on their specific device.
Element 23, providing resources and guidance, as a teacher we are walking around and supporting throughout this lesson. It's a teacher facilitated, student directed lesson and activity where students are collaborating together and working together to create a project. We could address this element better by setting up conferences for each of the groups, or maybe one-on-one students just to be sure that each student was having their needs met throughout this entire lesson.
We also want to use the plus minus delta model for reflection. Plus would be what worked well. Minus, what did not work well. And delta, strategies for improving what did not work well.
So let's look at our plus minus delta for this specific lesson. Our plus might be that students were familiar with their devices and various programs and applications that were beneficial to this activity. Our minus might be that students were absent for parts of this activity, or students did not have access to technology and they fell behind quickly. Our delta would be that before this lesson we might use goal setting and planning methods with our groups having the groups brainstorm possible challenges, including the possibility of limited access to technology and student absence. And we'd have them think about these ideas with their group together and brainstorm and create solutions for these. As a teacher, we would walk around and make sure that we were giving ideas as needed and helping groups make a realistic plan of action for these scenarios.
Let's reflect and apply these ideas. Which elements of reflection might work well for you as a teacher? What do you think the advantages to doing this are?
Let's think about what we learned today. In today's tutorial, we talked about 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? As well as what does it look like to reflect on a constructivist lesson for a BYOD learning environment?
We talked about both the plus minus delta-- the plus, what worked well. Minus, what did not. And delta, strategies for improving what did not-- as well as reflecting on those design questions of Marzano's, including the design question, what will I do to help students generate and test hypotheses about new knowledge. We talked about the elements, specifically 21, 22, and 23.
Thanks for joining me today as we talked about reflection on constructivist theory in a BYOD environment. I hope you're able to use these ideas in your teaching. To dive a little deeper and learn how to play this information be sure to check out the Additional Resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material.
Montgomery County Public Schools: 10 Basic Quality Tools for the Classroom
Scroll down to see an overview of and resources for using plus and minus deltas to reflect on teaching and learning. This tool helps you reflect on what is working well, what needs to be changed, and ideas on how to change those instructional practices.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/baldrige/staff/qualitytools.shtm
Reflections on the BYOD Classroom and Digital Citizenship
In this blog post, teacher Paul Aniceto reflects on teaching in a BYOD classroom. He offers responses to questions on why and how teachers should consider moving to BYOD.
https://chalkboardinquiries.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/reflections-on-digital-citizenship-and-the-byod-classroom/