Posts Tagged ‘21st century skills’
The Educator as a Maker Educator: the eBook
I compiled all of my blog posts about Maker Education into an ebook that I published via Amazon Kindle. The price is $3.99. It can be accessed at http://www.amazon.com/Educator-as-Maker-ebook/dp/B016Z5NZ6O/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
The pieces include theoretical ideas, informal research-observations, ideas related to the educator as a maker educator, the maker education process, suggestions for implementation, and reflecting on the making process. Graphics and infographics created to support the chapter content are included.
The Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- The Perfect Storm for Maker Education
- Is It Project-Based Learning, Maker Education or Just Projects?
- Maker Education and Experiential Education
- MAKE STEAM: Giving Maker Education Some Context
- The Intersection of Growth Mindsets and Maker Education
- Becoming a Lifelong Maker: Start Young
- Making and Innovation: Balancing Skills-Development, Scaffolding, and Free Play
- Let Children’s Play (with Technology) Be Their Work in Education
- Tinkering and Technological Imagination in Educational Technology
- Educator as a Maker Educator
- Educator as Lead Learner
- Promises to My Learners as a Maker Educator
- The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture for Tinkering and Maker Education
- Maker Education: Inclusive, Engaging, Self-Differentiating
- Team Building Activities That Support Maker Education, STEM, and STEAM
- Stages of Being a Maker Learner
- Making MAKEing More Inclusive
- Example Lesson: Maker Education Meets the Writers’ Workshop
- Reflecting on the Making Process
Reflecting on the Making Process
My background is in experiential education. One of the strategies used in experiential education is debriefing or reflecting on the experience. In other words, learning from direct experience is not left to chance. The educator becomes proactive in debriefing or processing the experiences to increase the chances that learning occurs. This is in line with John Dewey’s ideas:
‘We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience.’
A recent research study published via Harvard Business Review concluded that:
- Learning from direct experience can be more effective if coupled with reflection-that is, the intentional attempt to synthesize, abstract, and articulate the key lessons taught by experience.
- Reflecting on what has been learned makes experience more productive.
- Reflection builds one’s confidence in the ability to achieve a goal (i.e., self-efficacy), which in turn translates into higher rates of learning. (http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7498.html)
In line with reflecting on experiences, I developed a list of questions and a board game (I love using board games in my classrooms of all ages from elementary to graduate level!) to help with reflecting on the maker process following the completion of maker projects. The purpose of these tools is to increase the possible learning and insights that learners extract from their maker projects.
A Maker Reflection: The Game
Show Learners the Possibilities . . . And Then Get Out of the Way
We are living in an age of advanced user-driven technologies, information abundance, and networked, participatory learning. It should logically follow, then, that education should take advantage of these amazing developments. As many of us in education know, it has not. This theme has permeated many of my blog posts:
Moving from Education 1.0 Through Education 2.0 Towards Education 3.0
The evolution of the web from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and now to Web 3.0 can be used a metaphor of how education should also be moving, developing, and evolving from Education 1.0 towards that of an Education 3.0. The Internet has become an integral thread of the tapestries of most societies throughout the globe. The web influences people’s way of thinking, doing and being; and people influence the development and content of the web. The Internet of today has become a huge picture window and portal into human perceptions, thinking, and behavior. Logically, then, we would expect that schools would follow suit in matching what is happening via the Internet to assist children and youth to function, learn, work, and play in a healthy, interactive, and pro-social manner in their societies-at-large. This, sadly, is more often than not the case. Many educators are doing Education 1.0; talking about doing Education 2.0; when they should be planning and implementing Education 3.0
Learner Agency, Technology, and Emotional Intelligence
The notion of agency as contributing to cognitive processes involved in learning comes primarily from the Piagetian notion of constructivism where knowledge is seen as “constructed” through a process of taking actions in one’s environment and making adjustments to existing knowledge structures based on the outcome of those actions. The implication is that the most transformative learning experiences will be those that are directed by the learner’s own endeavors and curiosities. (Lindgren & McDaniel, 2012)
All of this is fresh in my mind as I just completed four weeks of summer camp teaching maker education and photo-video apps to 5 to 10 year olds. This teaching experience reinforced for me that educators can be tour guides of learning possibilities; showing learners the possibilities, then getting out of the way.
Facilitating the Process
The following section describes some of the conditions in the learning environment that support the educator as being the tour guide of learning possibilities and then handing over the responsibility for learning to the learners. Educators still take on a very active role in the learning environment, but learning is driven by the actions of the learners not those of the educator.
Expectations for Self-Directed Learning
In a learning environment that stresses self-directed learning, the educator conveys the attitude that learners are capable of being masters of their own learning.
In its broadest meaning, ’self-directed learning’ describes a process by which individuals take the initiative, with or without the assistance of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identify human and material resources for learning, choosing and implement appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes.” (Knowles, 1975, p. 18)
In line with showing learners the possibilities and getting out of the way, the educator needs to take a back seat role in the learning process. Learners may not, often will not, do things the way the educator might, but the educator respects and supports this process in a self-determined learning environment.
Educator as an Observer
If educators want to know how learners learn, then they need to observe them learning under their on terms, with tools and techniques they use naturally. Too often adults assume they know how children and young people learn, and too often they do not especially in this new age of learning. The educator in the role of tour guide of learning possibilities first, observes to discover each learner’s unique way of interacting with the world, and second, based on these observations, suggests or offers resources and strategies to further each learner’s self-directed learning process.
Educator as a Resource
The educator as a resource means that the educator becomes a coach or a mentor. Educators are the adult experts in the room. Learners will often go to the educator for assistance especially when stuck on a problem or to get feedback.
The best coaches encourage young people to work hard, keep going when it would be easier to stop, risk making potentially painful errors, try again when they stumble, and learn to love [their learning] (One to Grow On / Every Teacher a Coach).
The educator as a resource implies that the s/he has multiple skill sets: expertise in the process of learning and expertise in how to navigate online environments along with the ability to mentor learners using these skill sets.
Educator as a Demonstrator of Technologies
A subtitle of this section is It Really Is About the Technology . . . Sort of. In order for learner agency and self-directed learning to occur, educators need to keep abreast of current and emerging technologies. There is an assumption that young people are digitally savvy and know how to use emerging technology.
The widely-held assumption that all young people are digitally literate and able to navigate the internet meaningfully is inaccurate. This is something we urgently need to address if we are to support young people to cope with – and contribute to – a complex, global and digital society (New report challenges the assumption that all young people are digitally savvy).
“If educators are serious about preparing learners for their real lives – current and future, then it becomes an ethical imperative to bring relevant, current, and emerging technologies into the learning environment (It really is about the technology and . . .). This translates into showing learners the possibilities of technology and internet use for learning so the learners can then bring this knowledge into their own learning journeys.
Learning is Viewed as Natural, Fun, Playful, and Joyful
It has been said that learning is painful. I take issue with that phrase. When learning occurs in settings and with processes selected by the learner, it is natural, fun, playful, and joyful. Sure, there are struggles as new learning develops, but it becomes a natural, accepted part of the process.
The highest-level executive thinking, making connections, and “aha” moments of insight and creative innovation are more likely to occur in an atmosphere of what Alfie Kohn calls exuberant discovery, where students of all ages retain that kindergarten enthusiasm of embracing each day with the joy of learning. Joy and enthusiasm are absolutely essential for learning to happen — literally, scientifically, as a matter of fact and research (The Neuroscience Behind Stress and Learning).
Climate of Free Range and Constructivist Learning
The learning environment in a setting embracing self-directed learning takes on the characteristics of free range learning resulting in learners constructing their own meanings from their learning endeavors.
Free Range Learning is learning by living. It is learning by following our passions, exploring our world, living inquisitive lives and thinking freely. It is a lifestyle based on trust of a child’s natural desire to learn about the world around them. Every person’s learning journey will develop based upon their interests, experiences and choices (What is Free Range Learning?).
Free range learning is often associated with unschooling or homeschooling but it is intimately related to self-directed learning; and its tenets can be brought into in a more formal learning environment. The result is an honoring of contructivist learning “which holds that learners ultimately construct their own knowledge that then resides within them, so that each person’s knowledge is as unique as they are” (Learning Theories and Transfer of Learning).
Open to Emergent Learning and Learning Possibilities
Emergent learning is unpredictable but retrospectively coherent, we cannot determine in advance what will happen, but we can make sense of it after the event. It’s not disordered; the order is just not predictable (Emergent Learning and Learning Ecologies in Web 2.0).
Ambiguity is accepted. The educator lets go of what types of learning and products should result. By letting go of expectations “what should be”, there is an opening up to all kinds of emergent learning possibilities.
With an openness to emergent learning and learning possibilities, there is an acceptance that learning is messy:
Learning is often a messy business. “Messy” learning is part trial and error, part waiting and waiting for something to happen, part excitement in discovery, part trying things in a very controlled, very step by step fashion, part trying anything you can think of no matter how preposterous it might seem, part excruciating frustration and part the most fun you’ll ever have. Time can seem to stand still – or seem to go by in a flash. It is not unusual at all for messy learning to be …um …messy! But the best part of messy learning is that besides staining your clothes, or the carpet, or the classroom sink in ways that are very difficult to get out … it is also difficult to get out of your memory! (http://learningismessy.com/)
. . . and a trusting of the process and embracing the journey:
I have learned that if you give freedom and trust to students, they will find their own way to the learning that matters the most. Playing it safe is not going to yield the opportunities that will make a difference. Off-script is when you don’t quite know where you are going, but you have the courage to commit to the journey knowing that it is the process itself that will hold the worth (Speculative Design for Emergent Learning: Taking Risks).
Use of Open Technology and Resources
In this age of information and technology abundance, free online technologies and resources are just ripe for the picking. An advantage of open educational resources is “expanded access to learning. Students anywhere in the world can access OERs at any time, and they can access the material repeatedly” (Pros and Cons of Using OERs for Instruction). These resources leverage the playing field. They are available to all learners regardless of geographic location and SES level (although access to the Internet is required). This translates in the availability of high quality tools and resources outside of the more formal educational setting. Learners can access them in informal learning environments such as at home or local coffee shops and/or via their mobile devices in order to continue and extend their self-directed learning.
How the Learners’ Benefit
I often say that all learning activities should have multiple and layered benefits – addressing cross-curricular, cross-interdisciplinary areas as well as developing life skills. Here are some of the benefits along with example learner self-statements associated with those benefits that I have observed as a tour guide of learning possibilities:
- Technology Skills: I can use technology to help me learn.
- Creativity and Inventiveness: I can create new & worthwhile ideas & things.
- Risk-Taking: I am willing to try new things when I am learning.
- Academic Mindset: I am a good and powerful learner.
- Communication: I can communicate clearly both verbally & in writing.
- Curiosity and a Sense of Wonder: I wonder about the world around me.
- Connected Learning: I can network with others to help with my learning.
- Self-Directed Learning: I know how to learn new things on my own.
- Self-Motivation: I can motivate myself to learn new things.
Learning About Young Makers
I am a huge proponent of using hands-on, interactive learning activities to explore ill-defined problems as a way of teaching for all age groups. Given the spontaneity and uncertainty of these types of active learning environments, I believe educators should observe, reflect on, and analyze how learners interact with the materials, the content, the educator, and the other learners. This practice is in line with the teacher as ethnographer.
In my role as a teacher as ethnographer, I made some initial observations during my first two weeks of teaching maker education for elementary age students. With half the kids under 7, I learned a bunch about young makers.
- Young makers are more capable than what people typically believe.
- Young makers need to be given more time, resources, strategies to learn how to solve more ambiguous and ill-defined problems (i.e., ones that don’t have THE correct answer). Too many don’t know how to approach such problems.
- If a project doesn’t “work” during the first trial, they way too often say “I can’t do this.” They have a low tolerance for frustration; for not getting the answer quickly.
- Young makers often celebrate loudly and with extreme joy when making something work.
- Young makers like to work together but lack skills or desire to peer tutor one another.
- Young makers usually like to stand while working.
Young makers are more capable than what people (adults) typically believe.
During our maker education summer camp, the young makers made LED projects, circuit crafts, and simple robotics. Looking at the instructions for similar activities, the recommended ages were usually 8 and above. Yet, my group of 14 kids contained half under that age. The kids of all ages struggled a bit – as is common with making type activities but all were successful to some degree with all of the activities.
I believe that children are way too often limited by our (adults’) expectations of what they can and cannot do rather than what they actually can understand and do.
I think we often talk down to children and we think they’re not capable of deeper understanding, and I think that’s false. So we treat them like they’re capable human beings and we use scientific terms and talk to them in a way that they can gain knowledge from those things (Young Learners STEAM Ahead).
If a project doesn’t “work” during the first trial, they way too often say “I can’t do this.” They have a low tolerance for frustration; for not getting the answer quickly.
The nature of maker education is that makers engage in activities that require experimentation, trial and error, and multiple attempts. This is not the norm for kids in mainstream education environments. The curricular activities, worksheets, and tests of our current education system most often include single attempts and then assessments on degree of correctness. Multiple attempts and mastery learning of individual learning activities are not the norm. Life is not filled with getting single correct answers yet we are giving kids an education that there are.
During our maker education weeks, if a project didn’t work on the first attempt, many of the young makers would exclaim, “I can’t do this.”
One young maker, a 3rd grader, was obviously intelligent and easily jumped into the maker activities. For each of the learning activities, he would try it and more often than not, that activity wouldn’t work correctly the first trial. He would then quickly find me and tell me that activity didn’t work. I asked him if he was used to things working the first time and he responded that they did work for him the first time. Instead of helping him solve the problem, I told him to go work it out for himself. He looked at me with a frustrating and somewhat angry look but each time he went back to that activity and would make that activity work.
The maker education activities help learners discover that perseverance pays off but the educator must let the learners struggle giving them the message that effort often produces positive results. This supports a growth mindset.
In the following video, Carol Dweck talks about making challenge the norm when working with our learners.
Young makers need to be given more time, resources, strategies to learn how to solve more ambiguous and ill-defined problems (i.e., ones that don’t have THE correct answer).
Related to the “I can’t do it”, many of the young makers struggled with the strategies needed to solve more ambiguous and ill-defined problems. For example when a circuit or a robotic component didn’t work, they looked to me to resolve the problem for them. Although, I was tempted to go solve it for them, I knew that wasn’t in their best interest. I would say things like, “Give it another try,” ” Try something different,” and “Ask another learner for help.”
Problem-solving is, and should be, a very real part of the curriculum. It presupposes that students can take on some of the responsibility for their own learning and can take personal action to solve problems, resolve conflicts, discuss alternatives, and focus on thinking as a vital element of the curriculum. It provides students with opportunities to use their newly acquired knowledge in meaningful, real-life activities and assists them in working at higher levels of thinking (Problem Solving).
Young makers often celebrate loudly and with extreme joy when making something work.
There is nothing in the world as magically as watching a young person’s face light up when s/he understands a new concept, gets something to work that hadn’t at first, or discovers something new and exciting. It is those light bulb moments. There were lots of exclaims of “I did it” during the maker activities. These exclamations were especially joyful given that they often struggled in making their projects work (as previously discussed). The joy in their voices and in their faces during those moments cannot be matched and maker education provides lots of opportunities for those moments.
Giving students time to figure things out for themselves without being instructed, is very powerful learning. They will remember it for the rest of their lives. Students need that kind of lightbulb learning – that Eureka! moment when they suddenly realize something new for the first time (Lightbulb Moments)
Young makers like to work together but lack skills or desire to naturally tutor one another.
As is characteristic of maker activities, some of the kids completed the activities faster than the other kids. One of my themes during the maker education weeks was that if you understood and finished your project quicker than those around you, that you should help them. They would happily help whenever I asked them to but it never came naturally. I had to continue to ask throughout the weeks. Then, at times, they would help for a minute or two and then stop.
I understand that part of the reason is the developmental nature of younger kids who tend to be more egocentric but I also believe that it is because they aren’t being given the message and opportunities to help fellow students in the more formal classroom.
Giving students the opportunity to practice prosocial behavior is one of the most effective ways to promote it. For example, when having them work in cooperative learning groups—an instructional technique that allows small groups of students to work together on a task—inform students that part of their responsibility as members of the group is to help one another. Scientists have found that students who engage more in cooperative learning are more likely to treat each other with kindness. (Four Ways to Encourage Kindness in Students)
Young makers often stand while working.
Throughout my weeks with the young makers, they always had a chair available to sit to work. Choosing to sit or stand while working was not an option that was overtly stated. Many, though, chose to stand.
The reason this is being mentioned as part of this post is that sitting quietly in one’s chair is the expectation of most schools. Why? It is often not learner’s first choice and sitting at a desk all day may be physically and mentally detrimental. The idea of standing in the classroom was recently addressed in several articles, Should Your Kids’ School Have Standing Desks? and How Standing Desks Can Help Students Focus in the Classroom.
Conclusion
Even though these weeks were considered a maker education summer camp, there was an expectation from the school and parents that the learning activities incorporated the expectations and rigors of a classroom environment. I could easily identify cross-curricular state and common core standards even though I never taught to THE standards. Never during the sessions were the young learners formally testing, asked to be quiet or sit still, or asked to finish quickly so we can move on. Yet, I believe each of the kids would say that they learned lots . . . . and had fun doing so.
Instead, the making learning activities were structured to honor natural ways of learning along with developmentally appropriate practices. Sadly, it appears that some of these natural ways of learning were “conditioned” out of the young learners through more formalized education as I identified in my observations. Incorporating making into a learning environment teaches lifelong learning skills such of perseverance, love of learning, working with others, and embracing challenges.
Questions to Ask Oneself While Designing Learning Activities
I absolutely love planning lessons from scratch. I just got a job teaching technology units for a summer camp for elementary age students. I can design and teach whatever I want – planning for a different theme each week. Some of the themes I am planning are: Expanding and Showing Your Personal Interests Through Blogging, Photos, and Videos; Coding and Creating Online Games; Tinkering and Making – Simple Robotics; Hacking Your Notebook; and Creating Online Comics, Newspapers, and Magazines. I have begun the process of planning these classes through reflecting on what the lessons will look like. Here are some questions I ask myself as I go through this process:
- Will the learning activities provide learners with opportunities to tap into their own personal interests and passions?
- Will the learning activities offer the learners the chance to put them “selves” into their work?
- Will the learning activities provide learners with opportunities to express themselves using their own authentic voices?
- Will the learners find the learning activities engaging? interesting? relevant? useful?
- What “cool” technologies can be used to help meet both the instructional and the learners’ goals?
- Will the learning activities provide learners with opportunities to have fun and to play?
- Will learners be able to do at least some of the work independently?
- Will the learning activities give all of the learners opportunities to shine?
- Will the learners get the chance to share their work with other learners, with a more global audience?
The Other 21st Century Skills: Educator Self-Assessment
I’ve posted about The Other 21st Skills and Attributes. This post provides links and resources about these skills as well as an educator self-assessment. This assessment contains questions to assist the educator in evaluating if and how s/he is facilitating these skills and attributes in the learning environment. 
Related Resources:
- The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/the-other-21st-century-skills/
- Tony Wagner’s Seven Survival Skills: http://www.tonywagner.com/7-survival-skills
- Teaching and Facilitating Entrepreneurship in the School Setting: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/teaching-and-facilitating-entrepreneurship-in-the-school-setting/
- Resilience: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/resilience-the-other-21st-century-skills/
- Hope and Optimism: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/hope-and-optimism-the-other-21st-century-skills/
- Empathy and Global Stewardship: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/empathy-and-global-stewardship-the-other-21st-century-skills/
- Self-Regulation: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/self-regulation-the-other-21st-century-skills/
- Vision for the Future: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/vision-for-the-future-the-other-21st-century-skills/
- Grit: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/grit-the-other-21st-century-skills/
How Educators Can Assist Learners in Developing a Growth Mindset
I have written, described, and presented about the growth mindset in education settings, see
- The Educator and the Growth Mindset
- The Educator with a Growth Mindset: A Staff Workshop
- Growth Mindset: Personal Accountability and Reflection
This post delves a little deeper, and hopefully provides some additional ideas for how educators can assist their learners in developing a growth mindset.
Part of facilitating a growth mindset within learners involves changing some preconceptions of the role of teacher. One such change is in viewing one of the roles as being that of a coach. As Kirsten Olson discusses in Teacher As Coach: Transforming Teaching With the A Coaching Mindset:
Coaches operate with an underlying assumption that giving advice to others undermines the confidence and self-worth of others. Others don’t need to be fixed. In teaching we need to move to exactly this stance in order to foster creativity in our students–to allow our students the choice, control, novelty and challenge that builds their creativity. Without the assumption that our students are already competent, imaginative, and ready to burst forth with regular exhibitions of novel and valuable ideas and products, we are limiting their creative capacities before they’ve even had a chance to discover them.
The educator, as a growth mindset facilitator and coach, has a different, often unique, set of beliefs about students learning and growth. The following infographic shows (1) the common beliefs of an educator who promotes a growth mindset, and (2) some reflection questions about instructional practices that reinforce the growth mindset:
Self-Regulation: The Other 21st Century Skills
Due to the interest of my post The Other 21st Skills, I decided to individually discuss each of the skills or dispositions I proposed that are in addition to the seven survival skills as identified by Tony Wagner. This post focuses on self-regulation.
Self-regulated learning is the conscious planning, monitoring, evaluation, and ultimately control of one’s learning in order to maximize it. It’s an ordered process that experts and seasoned learners like us practice automatically. It means being mindful, intentional, reflective, introspective, self-aware, self-controlled, and self-disciplined about learning, and it leads to becoming self-directed (The Secret of Self-Regulated Learning).
Self-regulation is a cyclical process. Students who are motivated to reach a certain goal will engage in self-regulatory activities they feel will help them achieve that goal. The self-regulation promotes learning, which leads to a perception of greater competence, which sustains motivation toward the goal and to future goals. (The Role of Motivation in Self-Regulated Learning)
Self-regulation is not only an essential part of healthy emotional development, it is also vital for academic success. Many studies, like the 2010 research conducted by the University of Virginia’s Claire Cameron Ponitz and Oregon State University’s Megan McClelland, show that children with high levels of self-regulation do better on tests when compared to children with low levels of self-regulation. Some researchers even see the inability to self-regulate as the root cause of the economic achievement gap. (Supporting Self-Regulation in the Classroom)
Some of the characteristics of self-regulation include:
- Uses metacognitive processes
- Self-monitors frequently and adequately
- Regulates and controls emotional and cognitive processes.
- Possesses unique and situational problem-solving abilities
- Manages time for one’s own benefit
- Self-motivates
- Self-evaluates
- Self-consequates
Helping Learners Develop Self-Regulation Skills
Educators can play a key role in assisting learners in building upon and expanding their self-regulation skills. Strategies include using metacognitive reflection questions both prior to and after learning tasks to assist students through a process of guided inquiry:
- What is the best way to go about this task?
- How well are my learning strategies working? What changes should I make, if any?
- What am I still having trouble understanding?
- What can I recall and what should I review?
- How does this material relate to other things I’ve learned or experienced? Supporting Self-Regulation in the Classroom)
Self-regulated learning has meta-emotional and environmental dimensions, which involve asking oneself questions like these:
- How motivated am I to do the learning task, and how can I increase my motivation if I need to?
- If my confidence in my ability to learn this material sags, how can I increase it without becoming overconfident?
- Am I resisting material that is challenging my preconceptions?
- How am I reacting to my evaluation of my learning?
- How can I create the best, most distraction-free physical environment for the task? (The Secret of Self-Regulated Learning).
In order to effectively “teach” or demonstrate these questions, educators can practice and model using these questions him or herself. S/he can verbalize these questions and responses while modeling a learning task. In other words, the learners can benefit from observing the educator engage in this metacognitive process.
Educators can also directly teach learners the phases of self-regulation:
- Phase 1. Forethought/pre-action—This phase precedes the actual performance; sets the stage for action; maps out the tasks to minimize the unknown; sets realistic expectations and helps to develop a positive mindset
- Phase 2. Performance control—This phase involves processes during learning and the active attempt to utilize specific strategies to help the learner become more successful.
- Phase 3. Self-reflection—This phase involves reflection after the performance, a self-evaluation of outcomes compared to goals.
This material was taken from an excellent online self-regulation teaching module developed for-by the UConn Gifted Program – http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/siegle/selfregulation/section0.html
Building self-regulation skills is an ongoing process. Educators can use the 5 R’s to provide this continual support:
- Regularity – Schedule time to practice daily
- Repetition – Builds neural pathways that become habits
- Reflection – Noticing sensations strengthens neural pathways
- Research – Support kids in becoming prescriptive with which tools work best for them
- Reach Out to Families – Share tools with parents/ care-givers to use at home (Supporting Self-Regulation in the Classroom)
Self-Regulation as a 21st Century Skill
Creativity and in-disciplined learning requires balancing the forces of order and chaos. Learning environments need to provide students a flexible structure within which students can experiment, collaborate, and problem solve. These are contexts that allow students to learn from both success and failure. Such open-ended environments, however, can be challenging to learners as well. They can appear chaotic and offer little guidance to students on how to navigate them. (Creativity, Self-Directed Learning and the Architecture of Technology Rich Environments)
Self-regulation has always been an important skill for learners to master, but changes in the learning landscape due to technological advances and open access to information have increased the necessity for this skill.
Learning Activities for Young People
Here are some activities for students to learn more about self-regulation:
- Self-Regulation Personal Questionnaires-
- Curriculum for Teaching Emotional Self-Regulation Skills
- Learning Activity: Questions in the Shadows
Self-regulated learning also has meta-emotional and environmental dimensions, which involve asking oneself questions like these:
- How motivated am I to do the learning task, and how can I increase my motivation if I need to?
- If my confidence in my ability to learn this material sags, how can I increase it without becoming overconfident?
- Am I resisting material that is challenging my preconceptions?
- How am I reacting to my evaluation of my learning?
- How can I create the best, most distraction-free physical environment for the task?
Metacognitive questions include these:
- What is the best way to go about this task?
- How well are my learning strategies working? What changes should I make, if any?
- What am I still having trouble understanding?
- What can I recall and what should I review?
- How does this material relate to other things I’ve learned or experienced?
The Educator and the Growth Mindset
I am facilitating an in-service on Growth Mindsets for Educators. I created an infographic, Thinglink, and Slide Presentation of resources that I am sharing below:
Thinglink that contains links to Growth Mindset Resources http://www.thinglink.com/scene/549674394805338114
Google Presentation
MAKE STEAM: Giving Maker Education Some Context
As an experiential educator who has fully embraced technology as a means for allowing and facilitating learner voice, creativity, innovation, inventiveness, the Maker Education movement fits into my vision about what a good education entails. I have been blogging and presenting about Maker Education – see https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/tag/maker-education/. But recent discussions with other educators and administrators made me realize that the idea of maker education is often vague and seems unrealistic in terms of regular classroom instruction. As such, in the future, I am going to associate and discuss Maker Education in the context S.T.E.A.M. – science, technology, engineering, arts (including language arts), math, hopefully, encouraging regular classroom teachers to integrate maker education projects into their classrooms.
What follows are some resources and articles I compiled to provide educators as part of this discussion.
Link to Thinglink that contains links to the following resources – http://www.thinglink.com/scene/530497733706907648
Pivot Point: At the Crossroads of STEM, STEAM and Arts Integration from Edutopia,
retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/pivot-point-stem-steam-arts-integration-susan-riley.
STEAM is an approach which uses STEM and the arts to foster learning that is both skill- and process-based. STEAM brings together the critical components of how and what, and laces them together with why. Think of STEAM as teaching through integrated network hubs where information is curated, shared, explored and molded into new ways of seeing and being through collaborative risk taking and creativity. This means that students are using the skills and processes learned in science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics to think deeply, ask non-Googleable questions and solve problems.
STEAM Blends Science and the Arts in Public Education from The Wall Street Journal, retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304747004579224003721262792.
The technology kids have now is the worst technology they’re ever going to have in their hands so we need to give them opportunities to take things apart and put them back together in connection to solving problems in the world.
STEAM Ahead: Merging Arts and Science Education from the PBS Newshour, retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/the-movement-to-put-arts-into-stem-education/.
If we think historically about how that has always been a part of learning, why would we stop it? Why would we deny our children that which will allow them to really contribute significantly in the future? It’s not only learning from root, it’s really understanding through their bodies, through their thinking, creativity and how they apply the knowledge.
Arts education helps Americans compete in the global economy. Part of what the arts certainly provides is the creativity and innovation, which is really fundamental in how many other countries are looking at success. Actually in the U.S., how we want to measure success is in terms of how to be creative, how to be innovative.
Gaining STEAM: Teaching Science Through Art from U.S. News, retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2014/02/13/gaining-steam-teaching-science-though-art.
Across the country, teachers and administrators are coming to a similar conclusion: art informs science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and vice versa. Consequently, they are pioneering new methods of teaching that combine disciplines which have been isolated from one another under traditional educational models. The way we get an innovative workforce is to make sure that we have creative and critical thinkers coming through our schools. Incorporating art into STEM disciplines is a way to cultivate the minds needed for the knowledge economy.
STEAM: Adding art to STEM education from The District Administrator, retrieved from http://www.districtadministration.com/article/steam-adding-art-stem-education.
STEAM enables schools to instill a collaborative culture, with lessons and courses that recognize individual course content often complements multiple areas of study. Students encounter this overlapping content often without recognizing the connections. Educators are realizing that STEAM learning—throughout K20—is increasingly important in educating the student population to be ready for whatever college or career might bring.
STEM to STEAM: Art in K-12 is Key to Building a Strong Economy from Edutopia, retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/stem-to-steam-strengthens-economy-john-maeda.
With global competition rising, America is at a critical juncture in defining its economic future. I believe that art and design are poised to transform our economy in the 21st century in the same way that science and technology did in the last century, and the STEAM movement is an opportunity for America to sustain its role as innovator of the world.
Kids Unite Art and Science and Create a World of Wonder from the Imagination Foundation, retrieved from http://imagination.is/storybook/kids-unite-art-and-science-and-create-a-world-of-wonder/.
STEAM connects the different subjects together in the way they would relate to the business world and to each other.
What is the Maker Movement and why all the recent buzz in Education? from Little Bits, retrieved from https://littlebits.cc/what-is-the-maker-movement-and-why-all-the-recent-buzz-in-education.
For many educators, Making locates its familiar counterpoint in the block area of the early childhood classroom, the hot pot on the classroom desk where Stone Soup is being heated and stirred, the woodworking bench with its array of familiar tools, art class, computer class, backstage where the high school crew is building the set for the school play—Making happens any time students use technology to make something. The Maker Movement of the 21st C is all about modern invention and innovation, and it combines new technologies into the mix to include open hardware (like littleBits,) computing platforms and programming tools (like Arduino,) and tools like laser cutters and 3D printers alongside say—a sewing machine.
Engaging Students in the STEM Classroom Through “Making” from Edutopia, retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/stem-engagement-maker-movement-annmarie-thomas.
At a time when many people are asking how we can get more students interested in STEM fields, we are hearing from teachers who have found making to be a great way to get students excited and engaged in their classrooms. We are seeing making occurring in subject classes such as math or science — in classes specifically listed as maker classes — and in a variety of less formal settings such as clubs and study halls. Many of these projects incorporate a variety of STEM topics. Students working on designing and building furniture for their classroom use algebra and geometry to figure out the dimensions. E-textiles and soft circuitry, in which circuits are sewn using conductive thread or fabric, have shown to be an engaging way to teach electronics and programming, especially for young women. The possibilities for ways to incorporate making into the school day are endless, and it is exciting to see what teachers have been developing and sharing.
Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D.
