Question 3: How might you increase students’ understanding of what they learn?

            David Perkins (2009) asserts that we “must teach for understanding” otherwise students do not grasp the value of education. Students need to see connections between subject matter and their personal lives. Robert Sylwester at http://www.newhorizons.org/neuro/sylwester3.htm discusses the importance of emotional connections to learning, “Emotion…is our biological thermostat, and so it is central to cognition and educational practice” (2001).  If students are not emotionally connected to a topic little, if any, understanding will occur. Therefore, purposeful engagement is paramount to the student.  Teenage brains are under construction to coalesce emotional and cognitive behaviors.  As teachers we must be aware of those emotional components that successfully engage students. I agree with Sylwester’s argument that schools should maintain art and play programs. Yes, I believe teenagers should have an opportunity to play during their school day. Presently, my students sit through four, 88 minute blocks with only five minutes of passing time between classes. Gym is not required every year and when taken only meets every other day. I love Sylwester’s supporting statement, “Extended consciousness requires a large cortex, and this creates a birth canal problem (that all mothers understand).” Exploration and play is our natural inclination. We stifle the brain’s emotional development when removing meaningful mind play.

Students also need more of a voice over what happens in the classroom. Too often students feel powerless in the educational process. I must quote Sylwester again (he knows exactly how to express the point), “Misbehavior is to a classroom what pain is to a body—a useful status report that something isn’t working as it should.” It is rare that I have behavior problems in a class. I believe this is due to project based learning modules that I have practiced throughout my career. I am also a strong disciplinarian, but always with fairness. However, I had one class that was particularly difficult. After trying all the ‘tricks I had up my sleeve’ with no success, I had to seek an alternative method. I simply came in one day and told students to sit in a large circle. Then I asked for 3 volunteers. Of course, the most difficult, verbose students volunteered. I took my chances. Each of the three were given an option for how the class would continue: (1) No more projects, instead daily reading and answering questions silently; (2) No more projects, instead lecture, research, quizzes and homework; and (3) Continue project work. After discussion among all members of the class, of course, they chose number 3. In comes the next phase. I told students that they needed to come up with the class rules if they wished to continue project work. I explained that I had not been able to do my job because of so many disruptive behaviors. Therefore, how could both of us do our jobs? I also stated that their proposal would become a contract that all would sign.  After 20 minutes of deliberation they came up with a plan. To my surprise their design revealed more severe consequences with fewer chances to self-correct (options were always given…i.e. Do you need to leave?). The most interesting outcome of this process, besides a better behaved class, was they also held me accountable to enforce the new rules. Teenagers really do want guidance and structure in their lives.

 Richard Garlikov (2009) adds two other attributes for what he terms “meaningful engagement.” One, the opportunity for students to reason and evaluate what they have learned allows them to understand their personal level of knowledge. Two, if students are active with a topic, thinking and applying concepts, chances are they will be more aware of whether or not new information makes sense. I have often found that students will say they understand, but when put to the “test” it is clear there is confusion. Being a high school teacher, having a firmer grasp on how the teenage brain functions gives further credence to Garlikov’s statements.

Feinstein (2004) informs us that the teenage brain still has a long way to go before it has finished developing. In fact, it will continue to change dramatically until around age twenty five. The interesting factor is that it is the frontal lobe that does the most growing. The frontal lobe is responsible for processing planning, thinking, speaking, math, music, writing, analyzing and evaluating. Sousa calls it the “executive control center of the brain”, which also aids in moderating emotional highs and lows. It is no wonder teens need “meaningful engagement” in order to be successful in the classroom.

There are a variety of methodologies available to capture student’s attention and, hopefully, evolve their growing brains. The following is a list of various individuals, their insights and applications. I chose particular ideas based upon what and how much I could implement relative to my ascribed curriculum. Relevant examples of applied techniques are discussed where pertinent. During this journey specific practices were chosen to investigate. It was important to evaluate teacher/student success while exploring various ideas and concepts. Many avenues were already being implemented in the classroom, however many were not.

At http://www.garlikov.com/Interpretation.html  Garlikov (2009) advocates students have a true understanding of material not just the ability to regurgitate memorized information. I certainly agree simply from my own experience as a student. It wasn’t until I took Chemistry as a graduate student that I truly understood the subject matter. My professor, thankfully, insisted on a “whole body” approach to learning. Hence, I strive to give students as much of a “whole body” experience as possible. Unfortunately, and many agree, teachers find themselves being forced to teach to the many tests imposed on students today,  not truly looking for  understanding of material. However, there are still applications to be considered. Garlikov promotes the following:

• Involve students in active learning whereby they are deciphering information versus being told. I engaged this process in a DNA extraction lab with my Biology students. After bringing them through the process of extracting DNA from strawberries I gave them the challenge of figuring out how to do the same with their own human cells. The challenge was on, all were engaged, all were thinking about how and where to get their cells. After much deliberation among group members four out of five groups accomplished the task. The most interesting aspect of this lesson was that no two groups used the same techniques.
• Students need to have different avenues to learn material, since not all learn the same way. This promotes understanding for the student when they can unfold knowledge in a manner that has meaning for them. Again, in my Biology class, I began by having all students develop picture books around a chapter’s topic. We then moved to making flash cards, then stories. At the beginning of our last unit I had students choose which method they found to be the most helpful for learning subject matter. All of the above methods are being indulged; only two students have gone back to taking notes. And…test scores have improved.

For students to understand new information, according to Perkins (2009), they need to “think through concepts and situations, rather that memorize and give back on a test.”  Perkins argues that the ability to truly understand a topic involves several criteria: being able to “explain, muster evidence, find examples, generalize, apply concepts, analogize” and express material in a different way. And, most importantly, subject matter must be relevant to student lives. Without this vital connection students will not be engaged in the learning process. Perkins offers six criteria:

• Learning needs to take place over time and students need to be involved in the doing.  I absolutely agree with Perkins. One of my grade 10 Health Class nutrition projects (my example for the following criteria) takes them almost three to four weeks to complete. Students get into groups, choose a country and research the culture, government, geography…and food.  They choose foods to make and serve, develop a menu to include nutritional information and create a booth to illustrate their knowledge. This activity culminates in what has become known as A Taste Of Quabbin. The community is invited, tickets are sold to sample all “the goodies”, and proceeds are donated to a local charity. In all the years that I have engaged the above activity I have never had a student fail or do poorly on the project. In fact, it is a time that most students shine in ways that they never did before.
• Students need to be assessed on a regular basis through out a long term project. It is important for students to get feedback. Some students are highly independent workers, others need more guidance and others need someone looking over their shoulder to push them into their success. In the above example several aspects of student work is due throughout the project. Just prior to the “Taste” event students have to give a pre-presentation to myself and outside evaluators. Any group that is not adequately prepared will not be allowed to attend the event, thereby, losing that part of their grade. In the past several years only one group of students didn’t make it to the “Taste”. I attribute this success to the ongoing assessments and reflections that allowed students to continually improve their work. To insure student success they were required to produce several works during project development: (1) A preplan with names and responsibilities to be approved. (2) An outline from each individual within two class periods of their specific contributions. (3) An updated plan halfway through the project. Other requirements followed. One reason students are committed and do so well is because if they don’t they receive 0’s for all project associated assignments. They are given a choice at the beginning of project work to either participate or get an alternative assignment. If “you choose to stay it is expected that whatever you tell your team you are going to do you will, in fact, do.” I have only had to fire students twice in over 15 years of project based work.
• Give well designed examples. As students engage in the above activity they are shown examples of previous student’s work along with professional materials from outside sources. I have collected menus, posters and video tapes from previous students. I have also been fortunate to have community professionals willing to help students. It was a “real life” experience for the organizing, advertising group to work with a marketing specialist in order to facilitate success.
• Have high expectations. Research clearly shows that students are far more capable than we have been previously taught. I believe that students have a great deal to offer. One of the criteria for allowing their intelligence to unfold is giving them the freedom to explore their potentials. Several years ago I was given the freedom to stage a Health Fair that would take place during school hours. All students and faculty were invited. Students were put into groups and given the choice to pursue any topic related to health. They were expected to develop a presentation, provided activities for an audience and procure a community source to help them with their project.  More than 20 different booths were created. Participants engaged in martial arts, meditation, blood pressure screenings, massage (yes, one group was able to get a massage therapist to come), eating vegetarian foods (a local restaurant owner came and cooked) and, of course many others. Along with high expectations teachers must “let go” of the power and allow students to engage the project. Students must know that they are trusted to perform. This is often the difficulty, how to navigate freedom and yet insure productivity.
• Engage students in such a way as to provoke raising their consciousness. This can be a difficult task given the teenage brain, since their frontal lobes are under construction and not fully developed. However, I believe that some of the integrated lessons pursued in my classes have met this criterion. As teachers we are not necessarily aware of all a student has assimilated. But, if the lesson has a variety of components that allow students to contemplate, question and critique they will be inclined to pursue higher level thinking. Success for me is when students not just complete their projects; they also enjoyed doing the work and were clearly proud of their accomplishment. Another level of gratification, one example: Two students from the orphanage project are now living in Russia and continue to work with these children and local hospitals.
• Students must be able to transpose their learning from past to present in order to gain true understanding. This, of course, relates to associated memory patterns discussed earlier and the consequent forming of new patterns within the brain. Students can then build new neural nets which will frame other ways of thinking and understanding. When students can stand in front of a classroom and deliver an articulate, well organized, creative presentation that provokes questions from the audience I know my methods have been successful. When students revisit with their stories of success in life, due to what they learned in my Health class it is also notable; however, there are far too few. Too many students do not make all the connections I desire for them. Knowing how the brain truly learns and functions in my teenagers will and is definitely affecting changes within my curriculum. In a recent Biology lesson students watched a movie on genetics. Normally the movie is stopped at intervals and questions are posed for understanding. This time questions were given before the video. Then students were asked to compose at least three “thought provoking” questions concerning the information presented. After sharing questions each student had to choose one of their questions and research the answer. It proved to be an enlightening adventure for me, as well.

How The Brain Works, by David Sousa (2006), is a rich source of research and schemas for the instructor to understand teaching from a brain based perspective. Outlined and thoroughly explained are several of the methods already discussed to increase student understanding in the classroom. However, Sousa includes a few others, also important.

• Emotions are integral to all phases of learning. Emotional related learning applies to both the classroom environment and content being presented. Sousa, explains how both impact a student’s learning. Implicit learning is associated with the classroom environment, which can elicit both positive and negative outcomes. Factors that connect students to subject matter develop explicit memory. “Students are much more likely to remember curriculum content in which they have made an emotional investment.” Finding that “emotional investment” for students is difficult. My recent journey into multiple media and technical learning tools has abated some of the resistance I usually have with students. This is their world; therefore, it is important to their learning process.
• Students do not learn much from lecturing. This form of passive learning does not involve the student to create, evaluate, or analyze, which are some of the necessary ingredients for them to understand content. Lecture must be utilized to introduce, give overview, or explain how (math computations, genetic problems). In small doses I find lecture to be effective, but it must be accompanied with an activity.  Sousa suggests cooperative learning, games and demonstrations along with Socratic questioning. Projects, as discussed above, are certainly not lecture oriented. However, the method of Socratic questioning needs more attention in my classroom. I can absolutely see its value. This topic will be addressed in Question 4.
• The brain has limited storage ability. Sousa supports several research studies that delineate the best retention times for student learning. If students cannot retain ideas or concepts they will not be able to synthesize or analyze material, thereby, understanding what they are learning. It is interesting to note how much actual down time, non-retention or inattentiveness, occurs during a class. I have come to realize, through more awareness of brain based learning and teaching that I, too, have “down time” as the teacher in front of the classroom. Incorporating more brain based strategies in my classroom affects my teaching ability just as much as it affects my students learning. In order to increase student understanding I must be aware that every 10 minutes I’m losing their brain power.  Biology lessons have changed dramatically with this understanding, and grades have definitely improved. Students illustrate ideas, quiz their neighbor and take mini quizzes throughout a day’s lesson. Included, in most lessons, is what I call IM (Intelligent Moving). This is where students form concentric circles. Outside partners quiz inside partners until I say stop, then students must move a designated number of places, switch rolls and begin again, while music is playing. The rule: I must be able to hear their voices above the music.

            It is far more important for students to understand what they are learning versus memorizing a set amount of knowledge. Students cannot derive meaning from a set curriculum, without being able to build and develop interrelated concepts from the material.  Teachers must take the time to explore ideas for this to occur. Kickbusch asserts that teachers must have mastery of their subject matter and comprehensive knowledge of cognitive development in order to effectively teach for student understanding, also know as constructivism (1996). He addresses several principles derived from research.

• Curriculum must provide students with knowledge and skills that will enable success in and out of school. Having come from a business background into teaching it was always important to develop lessons that integrated those skills.  It has been far easier to evolve Health versus Biology lessons due to the amount of content coverage necessary for state testing mandates. Clearly, the fund raising activities discussed earlier developed and nourished many skills. For Biology I have had to get more creative, a result of this research. Some skill/value has been explored, but I feel too little practice undermines my efforts. Be that as it may, some is better than none. A recent adventure involved telling the class that they were a company I just hired to develop a simulation. I wanted to see the process of protein synthesis acted out and if they could act out this process to my satisfaction all would receive an A. First, students needed to choose a president and vice president who would then appoint groups according to their expertise that would develop a specific part of the protein synthesis process. Then each group needed a manager to oversee the details of project development. Outsiders would have seen much confusion and chaos the first day. But, by the end of the second day all models were built correctly and students were ready to perform. With camera in hand I told them they had 30 seconds to unfold the process. After several takes (all students had to participate in all rolls) we had total success.
• Developing student’s ability to understand and apply knowledge is more important than covering a set amount of content.  I agree with Kickbusch. However, present restrictions interfere with my desire, as a teacher, to pursue higher level skill development to the degree I would like. Teachers are tied to content/test output due to mandated stated tests. Ironically, many test questions expect students to apply knowledge they have learned.
• Content needs to be mobilized around specific, meaningful ideas. I envision a class where I facilitate this grand discussion on issues surrounding genetically modified foods or the ethics of cloning, yet there is no time for such grand adventure. I must cover A, B, C and D before X. It is not only the student that would benefit from this constructivist point of view.
• Coupled with content presentation teachers need to develop strategies that support student learning.  Where Kickbusch summarizes the fundamentals of teaching for understanding, Kathleen Fisher at http://www.learner.org/workshops/math/teach.html, details a course of action in lesson development. (1) Organize lessons to build upon bigger ideas over time. (2) Develop lessons that provide surprise or prompt more questions by students. (3) Have students summarize previous knowledge, whereby, the teacher can then relate the new idea from the present lesson. (4) Before engaging a new lesson find out what students already know. (5) Have students ascertain what will happen, how, when, where, why and what before unfolding the lessons. Students will be more invested in the lesson having made important connections (associative memory patterns). (6) Group work is important since it encourages collaborative effort, learning from each other. (7) Lessons center on student assessment of ideas being taught. (8) Questions are developed that need more in depth explanation as a lesson progresses. (9) Regardless of group work each student is responsible for ascertaining their own knowledge. (10) Lessons culminate by summarizing group data and results, which allows for students to observe various opinions and note that they may have arrived at a similar understanding, although via a different route. (11) For science classes it may be helpful to evaluate data for experimental purposes. (12) Students need to appraise what they have learned and question the impact of new knowledge on their lives. (13) It is important for students to equate their new knowledge with the real world. (14) Along with being immersed in a lesson’s activity students should spend equal time pondering its relevance. (15) Create an environment in which all members, students and teacher(s) alike are respected and honored for their opinions, knowledge and creativity. (16) Students knowledge needs to be assessed after each segment of a lesson and changed accordingly if there is confusion. (17) Assessment needs to evaluate a student’s knowledge of content and ability to reason what they have learned. ***This multi-step approach to teaching for understanding requires a great deal of thought and preparation. As an educator I applaud its value, as a teacher I struggle with its time constraints. Several of the elements have been incorporated into some lessons as discussed above; however, I have never unfolded a lesson covering all 17 ideals.
• A student’s responsibility is to forge meaning and develop appreciation for content presented. Encouraging students to be responsible for their own learning often appears to be a difficult task. Important ingredients to foster this behavior include, relevancy of material, real life connections and personal empowerment for learning. The most successful outcomes, in my experience, have been those involving long term multifaceted projects. In all honesty, ‘hanging state mandated tests over a students head’ does not promote a love of learning. I am not against testing to insure students have gained appropriate knowledge.  Schools are being driven by this protocol, however, leaving behind mind opening adventures into learning and creativity. For students to cultivate more responsibility and desire to learn they must be given opportunities that are intrinsic to personal growth.
• Learning tasks need to be convincing and involve problem solving or critical thinking, not secure rote memorization. Most of us can foster an ability to memorize any material. Understanding, being able to apply and synthesize knowledge certainly involves greater skill. Our present and future world requires us to solve many problems. Creativity, insight and problem solving skills are not just the need of the future; they are in high demand in the present.

Part of my evolving, as a teacher, has been related to becoming more technologically savvy. I’m sorry to report that I am a long way from that goal. My students, on the other hand, are savvy. They have come to my aid and support on many occasions. Even if it is a “toy” they have not seen before they are eager to figure out the problem if I have difficulty. My point here is that students are eager to problem solve and become involved in their learning. We, as teachers, need to be more aware and accepting of their world. There is so much that these young people know and I truly believe they hunger to unfold who they are, if we would only give them the opportunity. Standards for my Biology class are molecularly based. This leaves out the whole of life, yet, that is exactly where my student’ interest lies.