Visualize, Visualize, Visualize

Assignment One

Chen, P., & McGrath, D. (2004). Visualize, Visualize, Visualize: Designing projects for higher order thinking. Learning & Leading with Technology, 32(4), 54-57.

Based on your experiences, what are some ways in which you might apply ideas presented by the authors in this article

In a fourth grade class I observed, students were reading about the Titanic and their assignment was to write their life story and create timelines. First, students wrote their ideas in journals, just a quick write of events to include from birth to fourth grade.  Students brainstormed using bubble maps, much like the Inspiration 8 concept, to help organize their thoughts and create a well organized life story. Timeline posters are great visuals for students when they presented their life story to the class. The timeline posters were displayed in the classroom for students to review and see what they have in common with each other. The timeline posters were displayed for Back To School Night so the parents could see their child's artwork and what they felt was important milestones made it to their timeline. 

 

Inspiration Image Source: www.Inspiration.com

 What is project-based learning and how does it affect the classroom and the way you will teach?

“Project-based learning (PBL) provides a way of learning that seems to be particularly attractive to students who are struggling with conventional school assignments.” (Chen, P., & McGrath, D. (2004))  PBL affects the classroom and the way I would teach because at-risk students became active learners that are willing to engage in cognitively challenging tasks when a PBL opportunity is available. Students who have a hard time staying on task (aka: easily distracted type) do better in group activities because they are engaged with others to help them stay on task. Independent class work style learning can be a struggle, almost learning disability, and PBL provides a way for them to stay engaged in the class assignment / lesson. 

What is an example of higher-order thinking?

High-order thinking is after engaging students in hands-on learning projects, you increase the complexity of the projects to include specific cognitive and meta cognitive learning goals. An example of higher-order thinking would be a creating a model of the different layers of the earth’s surface. The three main layers are the core, the mantle and the crust. 

Locate at least two more articles or resources that either support project based learning or for double credit try to find an author who argues against project based learning. List these in APA format and summarize their key points.

In the article, “Motivating Project Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the Learner”, the authors discuss why project and problem based types of learning often meet with success, outline how to properly plan and implement such activities, observe potential problems that teachers may face when implementing such types of instruction, and indicate how technology can be integrated in such a way that student interest and motivation is maintained throughout the duration of the project.

Blumenfeld, Phyllis, Soloway, Elliot. Marx, R.A., et al. "Motivating Project Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the Learner." Educational Psychologist, v. 26, n.3-4, 369-398, 1991.

In the article, Project-Based Learning: Building Communities of Reflective Practitioners, the authors, Karen Ayas and Nick Zeniuk, discuss the potential learning capacity in project-based organizations from conclusions drawn from research and field experience. Ayas and Zeniuk propose project-based learning as a means to deal with the challenge of sustainable growth of learning capacity,

Ayas, Karen, Zeniuk, Nick, (200) Project-Based Learning: Building Communities of Reflective Practitioners. Management Learning, Vol. 32, No. 1, 61-76