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Researchers. Doug Franks- Math Education Barb Olmsted- Health and Physical Education Joel Yan- Statistics Canada Mike McCabe - Math Education Health and Physical Education. FITTING ROUND PEGS INTO SQUARE HOLES (PLEASE PARDON THE BEGGED CONFUSED METAPHOR).
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Researchers Doug Franks- Math Education Barb Olmsted- Health and Physical Education Joel Yan- Statistics Canada Mike McCabe - Math Education Health and Physical Education
FITTING ROUND PEGS INTO SQUARE HOLES (PLEASE PARDON THE BEGGED CONFUSED METAPHOR)
Website: Strengths and Recommendations Teaching: Strengths and Recommendations Issues Related to Junior/Intermediate Student Teachers Learning and Teaching Using StatCan Websites Assignment: Strengths and Recommendations Technology: Strengths and Recommendations
Our Purposes Today Preliminary report on: • Progress/findings/recommendations thus far in the research • Description of Nipissing’s Faculty of Education ITeach Laptop program and partnership • Social Studies • Primary/Junior mathematics • Express interest in continuing the partnership • Seeking feedback… please
TIMELINE • Initial meeting with the ‘group’ – June ’05 • Laptop orientation including Statcan-Aug’ 05 • Assignment introduction- September ’05 • Questionnaire- November ’05 • Focus group interviews- Mar ’06 • Initial analysis of transcripts and data- Apr ’06 • Writing team meetings- May to July ’06
Products of Research • Ontario Association of Math Educators annual conference (OAME)- May ’06 (London) • Ministry of Education/Faculties of Education Forum- May ’06 (Toronto) • Ontario Physical and Health Education Association annual conference (OPHEA) October ‘06 (Alliston)
Products of Research (cont’d) Journal Submissions: • CAHPERD Journal on Healthy Schools • Journal of Pre-Service Teacher Education • OAME journal- Gazette Writing Completion- Targeted date of July- Aug ‘06
THE ASSIGNMENT Project Aim: To explore the utility of E-Stat (Statistics Canada Website) as a teaching and learning tool in the Junior-Intermediate grades, and to gain practical experience with inter-disciplinary learning. (Course syllabus)
Timeline • Week 1- Overview of Health curriculum- choose health expectation from topic list • Week 2- Mathematics- Intro to use of e-stat and graphing (2 hours) • Week 3- Health- Analyze expectation data from e-stat (1 hour) • Week 4- Project due
THE ASSIGNMENT TOPICS • Physical Activity levels in school-aged children • Media use in school-aged children • Eating Habits of school-aged children • Personal injuries in school-aged children • Personal safety practices of school-aged children • Tobacco smoking in school-aged children • Asthma/second-hand smoke in school-aged children • Alcohol use in school-aged children • Marijuana use in school-aged children • Other drug use in school-aged children • Prescription drugs versus over-the-counter drugs • Sexual intercourse in school-aged children • Contraceptive use in school-aged children • Personal relationships in school-aged children • Family structure for school-aged children • Body image in school-aged children • Dieting/eating disorders in school-aged children • Bullying in school-aged children • Fighting/conflict resolution in school-aged children • Peer pressure in school-aged children
THE PRODUCT A PowerPoint presentation consisting of: • Introduction • Specific expectations from Math and Health Curriculum • E-stat or Excel graphic representation of the data • Three questions regarding interpretation of the graphs (directed to children) • http://www.nipissingu.ca/education/barbo/E-Stat.htm
Nipissing Website • Assignment • Student work: • Exemplary PowerPoints • Sample Lesson Plans for health • Links to: StatCan E-STAT and course assignments page • Links to Nipissing site from: • StatCan Course assignments page • E-STAT External activities page
Participants • 240 Junior/Intermediate pre-service teachers with a variety of ‘teachable’ subject areas • 154 female • 86 male • 7 sections (classes) of PJ completed Census at School survey
Methodology From Questionnaire: • Frequency Tables/Graphs (SPSS) From Focus Group Interviews (3 groups x 6 student teachers) : • Emerging Themes
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Website: Strengths and Recommendations Teaching: Strengths and Recommendations Issues Related to Junior/Intermediate Student Teachers Learning and Teaching Using StatCan Websites Assignment: Strengths and Recommendations Technology: Strengths and Recommendations
Technological Strengths and Recommendations • Teachers’ self-proclaimed level of expertise with PowerPoint, Excel • Teachers’ self-proclaimed lack of ability/experience with PowerPoint, Excel • Teachers’ concerns with technological capacities, logistics while teaching in schools
Website Strengths and Recommendations • “I would say the strength is the concept behind E-Stat, I think it is a good concept for our students to understand. The concept is the idea of coming up with statistical database that is accessible for students.” • “To be honest I didn’t know they [Statcan] had all that data.” • “It is so amazing to me that there are people who’ve taken the time to put together the data and the resource, I think it’s phenomenal. I’m grateful.”
Website Strengths and Recommendations • “The stats you get are still really number heavy, which obviously it’s supposed to be because it is a statistical website, but if you are trying to draw kids in and make it more accessible and its too heavy because there are not any pictures. It’s just these hardcore stats that are everywhere.”
Website Strengths and Recommendations • “The weakness, absolutely if you are trying to find information or trying to decipher what was what, it could take hours… • Trying it out, does it work, you know, so some way of funneling the decision making that would really help. Keywords or something. Ideas, pictures, concepts, I don’t know- something. Kids often just search around but they are getting stuff that’s on the perimeter of what they’re thinking, so just ideas, I mean getting it to zero in on a topic.”
E-STAT Website Strengths and Recommendations • “We just assumed to have free access or a license to get in [to E-STAT] and we could just log on [at Nip. U]. At the [school] computer lab I had to get a special password. If I had not done that the day before I would have had a lesson and no access.”
TeachingStrengths and Recommendations • “I told my AT that I did this assignment and explored E-Stat, and he thought it was a great idea…. I incorporated the … math unit all in one lesson (in a Phys Ed body image unit)” • “I went on [E-Stat website] and took a lesson plan then adapted it to my classroom, and to what we were doing [in Phys Ed]. We had a prediction section part to the lesson then we went to the computer lab and then I made them an instruction sheet and they actually went in and used the graphs and did the … stats themselves” • “I had a really good experience using it, I would definitely use it again in my classroom, I’m doing grade 6. I will see if I can somehow incorporate it in some way, I think the kids really enjoyed it and it was something different for them.”
Teaching Strengths and Recommendations • “I would say that time [to prepare and to navigate the site] would be a big issue.” • “It’s left me thinking that if you do a lesson and focus on one of the subject (health) expectations and only loosely cover the other ones (math), is it really meeting both?”
Prepared me enough to try E-STAT in my own class (Part II- Q4)
Still to Come… • Data analysis for questions- Part III • Experience practice teaching using statcan resources • Continuation of partnership… • Ideas for website and teaching