Getting to Revolution through Evolution?

Getting to Revolution through Evolution? Janet L. Kolodner College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology

Premises • Revolution requires addressing social and systemic issues. • How can the computer help? • Not as a trojan horse, rather as a tool for social and systemic change. • Helping teachers experience deep learning and integrated capabilities and content learning -- themselves and among their students. • Helping teachers form communities. • Doing the same for administrators and parents and politicians. • It’s not straightforward at all. We need to identify a set of “catalysts” and design with those in mind.

Getting to Revolution through Evolution -- a Disclaimer ... • I’m more pessimistic now that I was when I wrote my title and abstract. • I’m not so sure evolution is the answer anymore. • Let me tell you a story...

I had a dream ... • Kids would focus on making knowledge, not just rote learning • Kids would learn how to think, use resources, formulate questions, make informed decisions, make a good argument, explain rigorously, communicate for understanding, read for understanding, ... as a normal course of education -- i.e., skills and capabilities will be as important to learn as content • Depth over breadth; focus on application of what’s being learned (learning for transfer) • Everyone would think of him/herself as a learner and knowledge builder (including the teacher) • Computers playing the roles for kids that it plays for us as professionals -- making everyday activities easier, making some possible

In science, projects ... • Begin with a personally-engaging real-world challenge -- erosion, ecology, vehicle propulsion • Early activities generate issues for investigation; results are applied to addressing the challenge; analysis of solutions in progress; iteration. • Students design investigations and report results, multiple resources used • Public exhibits of solutions, methodologies, what they have learned • Technology integrated to make resource access, visualization, record-keeping, reflection, collaboration, … easier • Focus on processes involved in getting to solutions, not simply on solutions themselves

Learning by Design™ • A project-based inquiry approach to science education for middle school • Students learn science concepts, skills, and practices in the context of attempting to achieve design challenges. • Highly collaborative • A variety of practices and scaffolding tools are embedded in the approach to promote the kinds of experiences and reflection that promote transfer.

LBD™ Units and Challenges • Physical Science • Apollo 13 – introduction to practices of design and science • Vehicles in Motion – motion and forces • Machines that Help – simple machines and mechanical advantage • Earth Science • Digging In -- launcher unit • Managing Erosion – erosion and accretion • Tunneling through Georgia – geology, rocks and minerals, rock formations, underground water

LBD’s Cycles

A typical project cycle • Challenge is presented • Messing about to generate questions for inquiry and discussion around a public whiteboard • Investigation to address questions followed by a poster session • Design planning • Pin-up session • Construction & testing • Gallery walk • Additional investigation, demo, reading, discussion of content, redesign • Iteration over last three steps to solution

LBD in Action

Novel features of LBD • Ritualized classroom activities matched to science practices • Design diary pages matched to activities provide scaffolding for performance and reflection • Software scaffolding matched to activities and presentations promotes summary and interpretation • Orchestration such that students need each others' results • Lots of presentations to promote good kinds of reflection • Highly iterative to promote explanation and iterative refinement of conceptions and skills • Launcher units introduce skills, practices, and culture

Skills and capabilities learning • With “ritualizing” to make skills sets comfortable to carry out • systematizes practices to make them methodical; promotes habits • situates practices in several contexts; promoting adaptability • engages students in public practice as collaborators; affording noticing, asking, discussion, productive reflection • provides framework to help teachers focus and structure their facilitation

Notice ... • It’s fun, students are engaged, it’s learner-centered, collaborative • Activity structures sequence individual, small group, whole class activities • Structured to provide scaffolding for student development and teacher roles (educative) • Computers might or might not be central

We’ve made it work • Over 3000 students, 18 teachers in past 4 years • LBD students learn more content and learn it more deeply • LBD students collaborate better, design experiments better, bring old knowledge to bear better than comparisons • Average LBD students have capabilities similar to comparison honors students

But we can’t sustain it • Teachers drop out after 3 years; they are too tired, and the system doesn’t reward them (There’s tremendous pressure from principals and other teachers to shorten the units and cover more, high-stakes testing adds more pressure.) • Publishers don’t want to publish; they don’t see a market, they want to know that local standards in the biggest states are addressed • And this is without requiring computer integration ...

Integrating software ... • Rigor in presentations goes up; level of discussion in classrooms goes way up • But we can’t sustain that … • Computers aren’t available • Those running school computer systems won’t put our software on their servers • Teachers are worn out, no energy to learn more

Solutions??? • Don’t think computers will be a “trojan horse” for getting new ways of educating into schools -- the system doesn’t support it, and the computers aren’t available • Don’t think better pre-service training (by itself) will help -- the system doesn’t support the teachers once they get into the classrooms

Solutions??? (cont.) • Is there infrastructure for creating evolution? • Not clear, evolution requires the “weak” to die off, but the “weak” choices (the quick fixes) are easiest and most appealing to politicians and policy makers • I’ve seen in the South, by the way, that some state and local governments aren’t sure they want to support public education

What to do??? • We need to look for “catalysts” -- technological and other interventions that can help to change the social and systemic structures in ways that will make small changes propagate • And then we have to keep on doing what we’re doing, and in addition, design learning environments (and perhaps work environments) with those catalysts in mind

Where might the “catalysts” focus? • On helping education policy makers become attuned to their own knowledge building • On helping teachers create community • On helping teachers, students, parents, policy makers get to good resources • On making materials we create easy to integrate and use • On engaging parents better in their children’s education • …

My challenge to you ... • As you listen to everyone’s dreams, think about what the “catalysts” might be that would allow those dreams to come to fruition -- they are all good dreams, but they won’t happen without also creating the social and systemic change that will allow their practices to propagate. • As people present potential catalysts, what redesign would allow them to function that way?

Getting to Revolution through Evolution?