Master of Instruction Portfolio

Specialization: Educational Technology

Posted May 26,1998

As I progressed through the course work of the Master of Instruction program, I found two themes becoming central to my thinking about education. These two themes have influenced and changed how I organize my classroom, plan lessons, decide upon teaching techniques, and assess student learning.  First, the cognitive approach to teaching and learning has helped me move from feeling that I needed to be the source of all information and the center of all control to charging students with some of their own discovery and sharing control at appropriate times. Second, the value of using technology to encourage learning and higher order thinking skills in students has become ever more apparent. The technology that teachers use in the classroom has advanced by leaps and bounds in the past five years, thus, it is easier to create activities and environments that challenge students to become fully involved in their own learning. When this occurs students learn not only the content of the lesson, but problem-solving skills, social skills and thinking skills as well. My teaching has evolved over the past 22 years as I have incorporated these two ideas, which complement each other almost every step of the way.

When I was an undergraduate all of my courses centered on the behavioral approach to teaching. Cognitive theory was rarely mentioned. When I started teaching drama and public speaking at a public high school, I felt confined by the small (in scope) behavioral objectives that I had been taught to write. I started using cognitive principles in my teaching without knowing that there was a theoretical basis for the common sense decisions I was making. In acting and public speaking classes, a student's self efficacy is very important. Along with my students, I developed guidelines for critiquing student performances that helped to build self confidence and a community of learners in the classroom.

In the Psychology of Teaching class, I learned that these ideas are integral to the cognitive movement. When I took Psychology of Teaching I was no longer teaching drama and public speaking.  I was teaching (as I currently am) computer science classes. I had left many of these ideas behind, thinking that since I had students who were sitting in front of computers each working individually, I didn't need those techniques. Psychology of Teaching reinforced the fact that I did. I realized that  students ideas of intelligence, whether they viewed intelligence according to an entity theory (I was born with as much as I'm going to get) or an incremental theory (the more I know the more intelligent I become) can make a real difference in their self efficacy. "Even those who struggle in the classroom can change the way they think about intelligence, which, in turn, may have a positive effect on their classroom achievement." (Bruning, Schraw, Ronning, 1995). Most of the high school classes I teach are semester classes. At the beginning of each semester class I make a point of discussing these different theories of intelligence. Many students can become frustrated when working with computers. I teach programming courses as well as applications courses and when things are not going well I refer back to our discussion about intelligence and reassure my students that the more they know the more intelligent they become. I reinforce the fact that in the Computer field mistakes are necessary. We learn much from fixing our mistakes.

Cognitive theory has also helped my in my efforts to build students' self-efficacy. Bandura (1993) defines self-efficacy as a judgment of one's ability to perform a task with a specific domain. "The student with the higher effecacy will be more inclined to persist and to maintain self-confidence" (Bruning, Schraw, Ronning 1995). In Models of Instruction, I learned techniques to aid in the development of student's self efficacy. Bandura (1986) proposed that cognitive modeling can be effective because students can learn a great deal of about how a skill is performed, how to think through a problem, and can raise expectations that the skill can indeed be learned. Cognitive modeling is a teaching technique that I now use extensively. Meichenbaum (1977) includes the following six steps in cognitive modeling: create a rationale for learning the new skill, model the procedure in its entirety while students observe, model component parts of the task, allow students to practice component parts of the task under teacher guidance, allow student to practice the entire procedure under teacher guidance, have the student engage in self-directed performance of the task. I will model the particular skill I wish students to learn, then usually in small groups students will model the skill to each other. I feel the use of peer models is especially effective and helps to build the community of learners in the classroom.

A community of learners is very important to a student's construction of knowledge. Constructivism is a philosophical and psychological position that holds that what an individual learns and understands is constructed by the individual (Graves & Graves, 1994). Many constructivists also emphasize the role of social interaction as heavily influencing what learners acquire (Bruning,Schraw, Ronning, 1995). One of the most influential constructivists is Vygotsky. He developed the concept of the zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal development can be defined as the difference between the difficulty level of a problem a child can cope with independently and the level that can be accomplished with help. I see the technique of cognitive modeling as a means to keep moving a student's zone of proximal development forward. The social nature of modeling adds to the student's comfort level in freeing the student to ask questions that otherwise the student might feel too insecure to ask. This increase in the comfort level encourages students to attempt problems that are more difficult than they would dare to attempt on their own.

Another model of instruction I have found to be most effective is the use of cooperative groups. Cooperative learning is described as having the following essential features: students work in teams to master academic materials, teams are made up of high, average, and low achievers and are racially and sexually balanced, and reward systems are group-oriented (Arends, 1994). I used a variation of the Group Investigation approach in my Computer Applications class. Students developed a multimedia presentation of the Dewey Decimal System for the school librarian to use with her elementary students. I felt that my students and I had real success in developing this multimedia presentation. I acted as coach and facilitator, students were in charge of setting the plan, implementing their ideas, and analyzing information and evaluating the final product. Click here to see sample screens.

Assessment of cooperative learning activities is often done with a rubric. In Measurement Applications for the Classroom I learned to develop rubrics and performance assessment tools. I use rubrics often to assess the quality of student work done in groups and individually. Click here to see some sample rubrics.

The elective courses I took gave me the technology tools and ideas to structure cognitive modeling and cooperative learning activities for my students. For example, after learning to use the multimedia authoring language, Podium, I taught students to use it through cognitive modeling and then directed them in cooperative groups to design a multimedia presentation of their own. We took a Group Investigation approach. The students' assignment was to teach a concept. Students decided on concepts, researched information, gathered materials, analyzed approaches and put the presentations together. The students then presented their material to the rest of the class.Click here to see samples of students' work.  At another time, after I learned to write pages in HTML for the World Wide Web I taught students this skill. Then they designed home pages for famous people, Susan B. Anthony, Michael Jordan, Leonardo DaVinci, and Thomas Jefferson to name a few.

This use of technology brings me to the second theme I wish to develop, that of using technology to encourage student learning especially the development of higher order thinking skills. Many studies done that support the claim that the use of technology can encourage learning and the development of higher order thinking skills. The Apple study below is but one example.
 

"The Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) project began in 1986 with the donation of equipment to the schools and homes of teachers and students. 'Two years into the project, about 20 teachers and several hundred students had spent more time teaching and learning with technology than probably anyone on the face of the planet' (Dwyer, 1994). The Apple team worked closely with participants and after nearly eight years of studying the computer's effects on classrooms, ACOT researchers have observed profound changes in the nature of instruction, learning, assessment, and the school culture itself.

At one of the ACOT sites, computers were used successfully in a deliberate attempt to raise student test scores in vocabulary, reading comprehension, language mechanics, math computation, and math concept/application. Increases in test scores were not the real objective of the project, and observations showing increases in how students employed inquiry, collaborative, technological, and problem-solving skills were considered to be the most important findings. The technology was described as a 'conceptual environment' in which students acquired, explored and expressed ideas." (Welburn, 1996).

The coursework in Educational Databases, Using the Internet for Curriculum Development, Teaching for Better Thinking, Communication Principles in Multimedia Presentations,and  Internet Literacy, in conjunction with the educational theory I had learned helped me to design learning activities that use technology in an integral way to allow students to create and share with others. The Dewey Decimal System project and the WWW pages about famous people discussed earlier are examples of projects that I have designed. As a Computer Technology teacher, I have found it a challenge to design activities because the content that I am teaching is the use of the technology rather than a specific content area. Some activities that I have implemented in using technology to help students learn and think follow.
 

• In order to encourage students to think about what we have learned and discussed in class I have them keep an electronic journal. Each week they are expected to summarize and express their opinions about what we have learned in class that week. They use a word processor to record each week's entry. Click here to see sample journal entries.

• When teaching presentation software, I have students create a presentation called "A Name Book" as an initial activity. In their name books,  students develop slides that tie the letters in their name to activities they like or various aspects of their personality. Click here to see sample screens.

• When teaching programming (C++), I have students write an essay that details how they would go about solving a particular programming problem. They must share how they think about the problem, what steps they would use to solve the problem, what data they would use to test their solution, and what they have learned from the process. Click here to see sample essays.

• When teaching the use of spreadsheets and graphing I have groups of students  develop a survey question. Students gather responses, enter the data and formulas into the spreadsheet, and develop an appropriate graph of the responses. The questions and graphs are then hung in the hallway to share with the student body.

• When teaching the use of the Internet for research, I have groups students learn to do basic and advanced searches, compare search engines, and evaluate specific sites as viable sources for a research paper.

• To focus on current trends in technology, I have students read an article that discusses a current trend,  the virtual office.  Students write about the article in their electronic journal, and I facilitate a focused discussion on the topic.Click here to see sample journal entries.

• During the last presidential election, our Social Studies department wanted to allow students in grades five through twelve to vote at school and then compare how our students voted with the nations. At that time I was teaching Pascal programming.In cooperative learning groups, the students designed the program that would allow all students to use the computers in our lab to vote. They also designed the module to take the voting data and produce the results. It was a very successful experience for all concerned. My students were very involved in the planning, design, production and testing of the program, as well as participating in important discussions of security, data integrity, and ethics as related to computer programming.

• Our school sponsors a Career Day for all students in grades nine through twelve. My students have written programs to help interpret survey results for interest in various career fields and  developed the data base to schedule students for specific presenters, recording presenter information, and a mail merge to send thank you letters to all presenters after the event. Click here to see sample documents.

• Our school has recently (April, 1998) posted a home page on the World Wide Web ( http://www.caravel.org ). As the designer and webmaster of the site, I look forward to being able to develop additional authentic activities for my students now that we have the ability to publish them on our site. We also now have e-mail capabilities. E-mail  is another wonderful technology tool that can motivate students to become fully involved in their own learning. For Communication Principals in Multimedia Presentations I wrote a paper that detailed the various benefits of using e-mail in the classroom. It can be accessed at: http://copland.udel.edu/~jconway/email.htm.

Arends, R. (1994). Learning to teach. (3^rd ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill, Inc (ch.11).

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Rsychologist, 28, 117-148.

Bruning, R, Schraw, G., and Ronning (1995). Cognitive psychology and instruction. Second Edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Dwyer, D. (1994), Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow: What we've learned, Educational Leadership, Vol. 51.

Graves, M. & Graves, B. (1994). Scaffolding reading experiences: Designs for student success. Norwood, NA: Christopher-Gordon.

Meichenbaum, D. (1977). Cognitive behavior modification: An integrative approach. New York: Plenum.

US CONGRESS, OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT (1995)
Teachers and Technology : Making the Connection. Washington, D.C. : Government Printing Office. IX et 292 p. See chapters I & II.

Wellburn, Elizabeth (1996). The Status of Technology in the Education System: A Literature Review, available online: http://www.cln.org/lists/nuggets/EdTech_report.html, accessed 06-Mar-98