Using WebQuests & STELLA with Pre-Service Teachers

1. Using WebQuests & STELLA with Pre-Service Teachers • Richard Langheim, Ed.D. • Associate Professor of Education • Ramapo College of New Jersey

2. Purpose • Engage in a conversation with educators about developing effective techniques for learning and using systems thinking and dynamic modeling

3. Outline • Review some literature which supports aspects of the effort • Draw some conclusions & reactions • Explain one effort at Ramapo College of New Jersey [RCNJ] to foster systems thinking

4. RCNJ Audience • Pre-service teacher education [TE]students • No background in modeling • Varied background in math • Varied background in using technology • No background in using technology to enhance learning & teaching

5. RCNJ Audience • Undergraduates or Post-Baccalaureates • No certified teachers • Elementary & Secondary candidates • Wide variety of disciplinary majors • No unsupervised classroom teaching

6. Pre-service TE Students - Kay • Evaluating Strategies Used to Incorporate Technology into Pre-service Education: a Review of the Literature • Robin Kay • Journal of Research on Technology in Education - Vol. 38 No.4

7. Pre-service TE Students - Kay • Review of 68 referred journal articles • “…only a handful of studies have carefully and rigorously pursued the evaluation process.”

8. Pre-service TE Students - Kay • “Given the potential problems, it should come as no surprise that pre-service teachers are perceived as unprepared to use technology.”

9. Pre-service TE Students - Kay • Kay Model • Multiple Strategies - integration with content, workshops, single course, multimedia • Authentic tasks & modeling the use of technology by faculty and teacher-mentors • Attitude & ability

10. Pre-service TE Students - Kay • A rigorous research-based framework for developing the effective use of technology does not yet exist.

11. Bathtub Dynamics - Booth Sweeney & Sterman • Bathtub dynamics: initial results of a systems thinking inventory • Linda Booth Sweeney, John D. Sterman • System Dynamics Review - Vol. 16 No. 4

12. Bathtub Dynamics - Booth Sweeney & Sterman • Surprisingly low level of performance by numerous groups of students • Systems thinking is not intuitive nor easily developed

13. Modeling - Penner • Cognition, Computers, and Synthetic Science: Building Knowledge and meaning Through Modeling • David Penner • Review of Research in Education, 2000-2001

14. Modeling - Penner • Carey - weak conceptual change or weak restructuring • Enrichment process - develops new relationships between concepts for problem solving

15. Modeling - Penner • Carey - strong conceptual change or strong restructuring • “… holds that people’s intuitive conceptions of the natural world are often at odds with current scientific understanding of phenomenon.” • “… a key goal in science education should be to help students restructure or replace their conceptions of the world.”

16. Modeling - Penner • “In order to use STELLA, students must conceptualize a phenomenon in terms of four types of icons available, regardless of their current understanding and ways of thinking of the phenomenon under investigation.” • Advocates use of ‘programmable media’ to model phenomenon

17. Instructional Practice - Rakes • The Influence of Teachers’ Technology Use on Instructional Practices • Glenda Rakes, Valerie S. Fields & Karee E. Cox • Journal of Research on Technology in Education Vol. 38 No.4

18. Instructional Practice - Rakes • Study of the relationship between the level of technology implementation [LoTi] and personal computer use by teachers [PCU] on (constructivist) current instructional practices of teachers [CIP]

19. Instructional Practice - Rakes • 186 total 4th and 8th grade teachers with 123 voluntary participants • 11 school districts • Rural, southern schools with 20% or more below the poverty line

20. Instructional Practice - Rakes • “…teachers who scored higher on the LoTi and the PCU have higher levels on the CPI.” • Confirms Moersch 1999 study - “…appropriate use of technology can reinforce higher cognitive skill development and complex thinking skills as promoted through the use of constructivist teaching practices.”

21. Technology Integration - Wright • From Preservice to Inservice Teaching: A Study of Technology integration • Vivian H. Wright & Elizabeth K. Wilson • Journal of Computing in Teacher Education vol. 22 No. 2

22. Technology Integration - Wright • Preservice social studies teachers • Methods block - pre & post survey of perceptions of technology [22] • Student teaching - survey [11] & interview and observations [3] • First year teaching - interview one in teaching position and two in graduate school

23. Technology Integration - Wright • “Overall, participants were more likely to emulate what ‘they were taught’ than to apply individually their own creative technology integration plans.”

24. Technology in Schools - Wenglinsky • Using Technology Wisely: The Keys to Success in Schools • Harold Wenglinsky • 2005

25. Technology in Schools - Wenglinsky • Focuses upon student achievement - NAEP results from 1996, 1998 and 2000 • 4th, 8th and 12th graders • Technology use across disciplines

26. Technology in Schools - Wenglinsky • “The effective use of educational technology is enmeshed in the kind of pedagogy employed.” • “Constructivist uses of technology help students learn better than they would otherwise,..” • “…whereas didactic uses of technology make the technology useless or even damaging.”

27. Technology in Schools - Wenglinsky • “The date indicate that, of the nontechnological instructional practices of teachers, it is primarily the constructivist ones that are associated with high student performance.”

28. Technology in Schools - Wenglinsky • “In math and science, computer use is positively associated with student performance when computers are used in a constructivist fashion, and is either unassociated or negatively associated with student performance when computers are used in a didactic fashion.”

29. Technology in Schools - Wenglinsky • “In reading, inferences are somewhat more difficult to make but suggest that when students use computers for word processing for meta-analytic purposes, student perform better, and when they are used for spellchecking or reading stories, students perform worse.”

30. The Challenge • Introduce students to systems thinking & dynamic modeling • Develop student use of technology as a tool to enhance learning through webquests • Foster a constructivist approach to teaching and technology

31. A Proposal - WebQuests & ST • Preservice teacher education students • Build instructional WebQuests • Involve using & building models • Explain phenomenon, model(s) and instructional foundation of webquest to peers, faculty and teachers

32. WebQuests - Dodge • Introduction • Tasks • Process • Evaluation • Conclusion • Teacher Resources

33. WebQuests - Dodge • “The task focuses learners on what they are going to do - specifically, the culminatingperformance or product that drives all of the learning activities.”

34. WebQuests - Dodge • Process “outlines how the learners will accomplish the task. Scaffolding includes clear steps, resources, and tools for organizing information.”

35. WebQuests - Dodge • Evaluation “describes the … criteria needed to meet performance and content standards.”

36. Examples • Student samples from Systems Thinking at RCNJ

37. An Example • Meadowlands WebQuest • Sequential structured series of model using and building activities embedded in a webquest about the New Jersey Meadowlands • Evaluation of teachers during staff development and student achievement after classroom use

38. Thank you

39. Using WebQuests & STELLA with Pre-Service Teachers • Richard Langheim, Ed.D. • Associate Professor of Education • Ramapo College of New Jersey

40. References • Dodge, B. Building Blocks of a WebQuest. Accessed on 5 June 2006, http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/buildingblocks/p-index.htm • Goodman, M. (2005). Systems thinking as a language. Accessed on 5 June 2006, http://www.thesystemsthinker.com/tstlang.html.

41. References • Heinbokel, J., & Potash, J. (2006). Curricular Innovation Accessed on 5 June 2006, http://www.ciesd.org/influence/curricula.shtml. • Kay, R., (2006). Evaluating strategies used to incorporate technology into pre-service education: a review of the literature. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 38(4), 383-402.

42. References • Lou, Y., Abrami, P.C., & d’Apollonia, S. (2001). Small group and individual learning with technology: a meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 71(3), 449-521. • Mason, C., Berson, M., Diem, R., Hicks, D., Lee, J., & Dralle, T. (2000).Guidelines for using technology to prepare social studies teachers. Contemporary Issues in Technology & Teacher Education [Electronic Version], 1(1).

43. References • Penner, D.E. (2000-2001). Cognition, computers, and synthetic science: building knowledge and meaning through modeling. Review of Research in Education, 25, 1-37. • Rakes, G.C., Fields, V.S., & Cox, K.E., (2006). The influence of teachers’ technology use on instructional practice. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 38(4), 409-424.

44. References • Richmond, B., (2001). An Introduction to Systems Thinking. Hanover, NH: High Performance Systems. • Rakes, G.C., Fields, V.S., & Cox, K.E., (2006). The influence of teachers’ technology use on instructional practice. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 38(4), 409-424.

45. References • Booth Sweeney, L. & Sterman, J.D.(2000). Bathtub dynamics: initial results of a systems thinking inventory. System Dynamics Review, 16(4), 249-286. • Wright, V.H. & Wilson, E.K. (2005-2006).From pre-service to inservice teaching: A study of technology integration. Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 22(2), 49-55. • Wenglinsky, H. (2005). Using technology wisely: The Keys to Success in Schools. New York: Teachers College Press.