Reviewed by Ellen Burkhouse July 14, 2007 This volume is a thoughtful, practical exploration of how current research in learning theory might translate into real classroom applications. The Preface of the book provides a concise tracing of the roots of this effort beginning with the report of the Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning in 1999, through the follow-up study examining how this material could best be communicated to practitioners and policy makers, and culminating in the synthesizing volume, How People Learn (National Research Council, 2000) The authors define the purpose of the present work in the following terms: In the present book, the goal is to take the HPL work to the next step: to provide examples of how the principles and findings on learning can be used to guide the teaching of a set of topics that commonly appear in the K-12 curriculum. As was the case in the original work (1999), the book focuses on three subject areas: history, mathematics, and science. Each area is treated at three levels: elementary, middle, and high school. The editors make clear that the examples provided are only that – examples. They represent the types of approaches, activities and sequences most likely to bring the theory to life. Providing specific, concrete illustrations of actual lessons allows the reader to envision opportunities to develop similar lesson designs for other real-world classrooms. The guiding principles for the ensuing lessons are articulated in the Introduction. They are stated, explained and illustrated with remarkable clarity and make compelling reading for anyone involved in teaching at any level. These principles are ones highlighted in the previously mentioned, How People Learn (1999). They are vital for the understanding of the lessons presented. The principles, as stated on p 1, are:
In addition to the principles themselves, four implications drawn from the research base examined in How People Learn are reported and discussed as background for the lessons. These “lenses”, which can help us assess the effectiveness of the teaching/learning experience, follow:Learner- centered classrooms begin with what students know, think, believe, and have experienced; no assumptions can be made here and teachers must learn to truly listen to their students in the fullest sense of the word and to challenge them in a manner informed by the knowledge thus gained. Knowledge-centered classrooms focus on the nature of what is taught – what are the organizing concepts, the essential skills? how will we know when they have been mastered? how can material be presented in a context allowing the student to perceive connections and meaning? Assessment-centered classrooms allow teachers and learners to monitor progress in an ongoing fashion and to reexamine and revise thinking; the student’s development of his or her own ability to assess progress and to develop alternate strategies when needed is highly valued. Community-centered classrooms create an atmosphere in which missteps and errors are seen as a natural and an often fruitful part of learning, where mental risk taking is the norm, and where the teacher moves gradually from modeling to supporting and encouraging student initiatives. After setting the stage with the review of the principles developed in HPL, the balance of this volume is devoted to the aforementioned examples of actual lessons. The editors explain their purpose in these words: The goal is to provide for teachers what we have argued above is critical to effective learning – the application of concepts (about learning) in enough different, concrete contexts to give them deeper meaning. (p. 21) The lessons were contributed by a variety of researchers who had extensive teaching experience of their own or who partnered with experienced teachers. Each deals with teaching a specific topic commonly encountered at the grade level used for the sample lesson. Due to the different authors, style varies greatly. However, the common theme is the illumination of the principles being exemplified. |
The first section, making up Chapters 2 through 4, deals with history. Chapter 2 discusses the principles as they apply to the discipline of history. The complex nature of the study of this subject is thoroughly explored. One of the principles of HPL states that students need both factual knowledge and an understanding of the underlying structure, which gives coherence to those facts. History provides a challenge here, since the “facts” to be dealt with cannot be tested against a fixed, present reality. It investigates the tracks of the past and such trails can be accidentally or deliberately misleading, and can be subject to various human interpretations. The author asserts that students should, and can, learn to question and assess the evidence used to create history. Certain concepts give order and discipline to history. Among them are time, evidence, change, progress, and cause. If students are to truly learn history as opposed to memorizing a list of data fragments with little understanding of their meaning, validity or connectedness, then teachers must develop strategies to scaffold students as they examine information in light of these underlying concepts. Knowledge thus mastered must be organized in such a way that it itself becomes part of the scaffold supporting the understanding of new material.
To this end, Chapter 3 tackles the question of whether or not this approach can be undertaken in an actual classroom, with real students, and topics determined by standards and curriculum designers. The Pilgrim Fathers and Native Americans is set in a sixth grade and The Saint Brendan Voyage Task was designed with fourth grade students in mind. The reader is able to see some of the materials used in the class and to “listen” to some of the conversations between students and teachers. These vignettes are enhanced by explanations of background details and reflections on the events as they relate to the core concepts of history and the principles of How People Learn. This same pattern of lesson study interspersed with analysis is employed in Chapter 4 which presents a lesson for grade 9 on “They Thought the World Was Flat?” This chapter also includes clear, pertinent sections entitled, Where to Begin? Transforming Topics and Objectives into Historical Problems and Designing a “History-Considerate” Learning Environment: Tools for Historical Thinking.
As the reader progresses through this book, the underlying principles become almost second nature because they are explained in varied ways and are illustrated by so many different examples. Some of the contributors chose to give explicit lesson descriptions including materials and dialogues, while others present a more essay-like approach, examining topics and issues within a discipline and how these can be enhanced by implementation of HPL principles. Even in the latter instances, examples are plentiful and meaningful. Thus, the material becomes increasingly accessible despite its weighty nature. This certainly is not a “quick read”, but it has great internal consistency. For this reason, I have chosen to describe the nature of the material in the first section in some detail and let that serve as something of a template for the remaining two sections.
The second section of the book deals with mathematics and encompasses Chapters 5 through 8. Chapter 5 provides the introduction, analyzing the three principles of HPL as they apply to math in general. Common preconceptions in math are examined, as are the types of approaches that can help teachers to recognize these and to create a classroom structure that lends itself to a positive environment. The interdependence between procedural skill and conceptual understanding is addressed, as is the issue of helping students to make their thinking visible so it can be continuously revisited and assessed as learning evolves.
Chapter 6 deals with the topic, Fostering Development of Whole-Number Sense: Teaching Mathematics in the Primary Grades. This broad issue is followed by sections clearly titled: Deciding What Knowledge to Teach, Building on Children’s Current Understandings, Acknowledging Teachers’ Concepts and Partial Understandings, Revisiting Question 2: Defining the Knowledge That Should Be Taught, How Can This Knowledge Be Taught?: The Case of Number Worlds, andWhat Sorts of Learning Does This Approach Make Possible? The salient issues of developing number sense in young children are addressed thoroughly and with great insight. The primary source for this chapter’s examples is the Number Worlds program, a commercial program authored by this chapter’s author. This question of possible conflict at first gave me pause but, in this reviewer’s opinion, deeper examination of the examples and connections offered make it evident that it would be difficult to find a better “fit” between lesson strategies and HPL principles. Chapter 7 moves ahead to fourth, fifth, sixth grade issues and examines how topics commonly encountered at these levels might be approached. The topics addressed are: Pipes, Tubes, and Beakers: New Approaches to Teaching the Rational-Number System, Rational-Number Learning and the Principles of How People Learn, Instruction in Rational Number, and Conclusion: How Students Learn Rational Number. Chapter 8 is titled Teaching and Learning Functions and brings the reader to the high school level. The following issues are included: Addressing the Three Principles, and Teaching Functions for Understanding.
The third section of the book addresses science. The first chapter in this part is Chapter 9, which follows the example of the previous sections with an introduction, Scientific Inquiry and How People Learn. Each of the HPL principles is revisited in light of the nature of this discipline and, again, the discussion is clear and the examples meaningful. Chapter 10 is titled, Teaching to Promote the Development of Scientific Knowledge and Reasoning About Light at the Elementary School Level, with sections entitled: The Study of Light, The Study of Light Through Inquiry, and, Supporting Learning Through Cycles of Investigation, the Role of Subject-Specific Knowledge in Effective Science Instruction. This chapter returns to a more detailed examination of actual lessons employed in a classroom and includes sample materials and discussions with accompanying reflection. Chapter 11 is Guided Inquiry in the Science Classroom and uses a unit on gravity in a middle school classroom to demonstrate the HPL approach, followed by Chapter 12, which does the same in the context of a high school lesson on genetics and evolution.
The book concludes with a revisiting of the principles. Anyone familiar with the thinking of Bruner is not surprised to see his work frequently cited as foundational for many of these ideas. Having been a classroom teacher in the 1960’s and 1970’s when the principles of Inquiry and Process Learning were the subject of many a teacher development session, the echo of these ideas was felt in a very visceral way as I read this book. I had no difficulty connecting Bruner’s emphasis on seeking the organizing ideas within a discipline to Ma’s findings that the Chinese teacher’s identification of core mathematical principles as the backbone of the mathematics curriculum is key to the significant success of that system. The impact of Vygotsky is also evident in the emphasis on the importance of student dialogue and the need to scaffold emerging abilities to grapple with the underlying concepts of disciplines. The fundamentals of constructivism, with its emphasis on the active role of the learner in building understanding, are infused throughout the volume. My own experiences in trying to design and implement social studies and science lessons exemplifying these approaches convinced me of the validity of the theories. More recent training in the 1980’s and 1990’s extended the concepts into the math area of my fifth grade classroom. In many ways the evolving NCTM standards and approaches reinforced this commitment. As the value of these principles became more and more evident, I was increasingly eager to try to find ways to understand and employ them more fully with my elementary students and to endorse the effectiveness of the approach with my pre-service university students. The lesson examples in this book would have been very helpful! There has also, of course, been a great deal of additional research in this area resulting in ever greater insight into the learning process and allowing more strategic implementation of key concepts. The present book gathers and unifies this body of research and extends it in a practical way. This volume offers a thoughtful, thorough, persuasive argument that learning can be made more meaningful and valid. By providing concrete examples it meets the challenge to move beyond the realm of theory and into the real world of the classroom. For any teacher who might have been tempted to make the effort but feared that the goal might be too idealistic, this work offers a helping hand and a good measure of inspiration.
About the Reviewer
Ellen Burkhouse
I am an Assistant Professor in the Education Department at Marywood University in Scranton, PA. Teaching responsibilities have included courses in Educational Psychology as well as Curriculum and Instruction courses in both Social Studies and Mathematics for elementary, early childhood and special education students. Prior to joining the Marywood faculty in my current capacity, I taught fifth grade students in the Scranton School District for over thirty years while serving as adjunct faculty at several area universities. For much of my time in Scranton, I was part of the Educational Research and Dissemination team sponsored by The American Federation of Teachers. In that capacity, I trained as a peer coach, as a mentor teacher and in a series of three courses dealing with research and application of teaching/learning theories as applied to mathematics instruction.
No comments:
Post a Comment