Reflctions from readings (June 11 2009)

Chapter 5. Designs for problem solving

Our life consists of continuous choices, and the choices bring about problems. So, whether teaching students problem-solving process affects not only students’ school record but also students’ entire life after graduation. One of the examples in chapter 5 raises awareness for designing problem solving. Participating teachers in the example hoped to find job opportunities for their students. They look like Korean teachers who only cherish results I mentioned in chapter 4. But, the participating teachers should have realized that their students would not survive if the students do not have ability to deal with various technology softwares to solve problems. So, teachers also must learn how to use the technology tools and design their lesson plans for problem solving using the tools.

Last semester, some TESOL students and I had to prepare important presentations about international students’ challenges in the States for Ethnography Form and Penn TESOL East. We found that we should use several technology softwares such as Power Point, Photoshop, and some video editing program to give audience best presentation. But, nobody was available for video editing program although we really needed to edit the video clips including interviews with international students. Fortunately, Aness Cho (Hyon-Sook) who took the course, Technology for Educators, last year, taught us how to use Window Movie Maker that is the most accessible and easiest to use for video editing in Teaching Circle, which is a series of discussion sessions for TESOL students who want to learn how their classmates connect theories introduced in their courses to practical teaching situation. That was a valuable experience to help me realize that using electronic technologies plays a pivotal role in developing knowledge of disciplines and solving problems.

Reflctions from readings (June 11 2009)

Chapter 4. Designs for Knowledge

The ultimate goal of education is not that teachers make each student a scientist, historian, and professor. Instead, teachers should aim to make the learners into disciplinary thinkers who can have ability to translate from information into wisdom. Thus, the author emphasizes that educators have to design lesson plans focusing on disciplinary learning including knowledge of structures and processes. One of examples about emphasizing the role of structure in this chapter is Mr. McCannon’s history class. He tried to identify seven structures to help his students. Moreover, in Mrs. Suedkamp’s class, students learn process knowledge by doing a role play activity.

The author puts great emphasis on teaching the disciplines as “ways to think” about experience in school education. This is because, I believe, many people who crammed for exams forget knowledge they learned in school after graduation. For example, I do not remember a table of trigonometrical function. The math teacher who taught me in a high school forced students to quickly memorize the table. I still remember the teachers’ goal was to increase the number of students who earn high score in Korean SAT and make them enter prestigious colleges in Korea. Since that kind of knowledge is impermanent and almost useless after graduation, it is important to teach students how to think. From perspective of lifelong learning, people will face a lot of challenges they must overcome themselves and they need to learn the disciplines as “ways to think.”

Reflctions from readings (June 9 2009)

Chapter 2. Designing opportunities for learning
As technology develops, educational strategies for designing learning experiences for students should be changed. By inventing the printing press in the fifteen century, print era started. Inventing the internet in the twenty century is also the turning point from analog to digital. So, teachers should have new approaches to learning in this new ear. Unfortunately, some teachers still behave as transmitters who just teach their students without deep consideration about how they should teach. But, constructivist concepts of learning are totally different from traditional views of learning. Each learner should build their own understandings of the world where they live. Teachers should be facilitators to help the learners to be constructivists, considering these several questions: What do today’s students need? In other words, what do teachers have to teach in the Internet era? Which activities and tools encourage students to actively participate in learning through construction? What system of assessment might teachers design for their students’ learning?

Chapter 3. The FACTS of design.
Chapter 3 consists of careful explanations and answers about questions related to FACTS that stands for Foundations, Activities, Contents, Tools, and Systems of assessment. Those are all about how teachers help learners to be constructivists who can have ability to solve their problem by themselves. So, activities should be based on a problem-centered curriculum that helps find the solution to a real world problem of interest. Teachers are able to use a variety of tools such as multimedia programs to create the activities. Since young generations are very familiar with using technology in their life, using the computer and Internet in the class might be more effective than only using textbook. Therefore, teachers should choose encouraging tools to help learners’ intellectual challenges.