Nature of Learning Environment

 

Instructional Design versus Learning Design

As educators our ultimate aim is creation of situations that lead to improvement of learning in the learners. For this, we visualize a Learning Environment based on our objectives. This has two parts (a) learning design or the activities that the learners would be doing and (b) instructional design or the instruction strategies chosen by the teacher on which the learning design is mapped. Hence both are two sides of the same coin (Seel et. al., 2007).

When I start planning, I focus on the outcome required for the day and work backwards to design the instruction and learning activities. For me any instruction designs need to integrate skills for math and attitudes of life. Hence, I liberally use cooperative groups (Wilson, n.d.) to learn almost daily in the class in multiple ways.

My Priorities for a Learning Environment.

I work with middle and high school kids, where the emotional levels are very volatile as their brains go through changes at high speed. Hence, for me the most important thing is to have environments that are emotionally appealing while I challenge them mentally via my subject, math. I do this through several best practices centered on gently nudging the users to take charge (Kochar, 2010). Here I am taking four examples based on the type of learning involved:

Developing problem solving skills.

Grade 7 math class needs to be taught word problems in algebra. The challenge is that the students are from multi-lingual background. Some speak only Hindi, while others speak English with a range of expertise. Hence, I decided to move out of the zone of languages and use visual models to teach.

My choice is Bar Model (Clarke, n.d.). I teach them the use of Bar Model to convert a word problem to a visual and then solve using the same. The kids can draw the Bar Model or cut strips of paper and use it. Discussions with peers are allowed for those who may need that. The ones who move ahead have choice to help others or work on harder problems.

The kids who drew the bar model used colours to decorate them and feel good about the art. I was especially attentive to the ones who were using a scissor to ensure safety. They cut strips and used glue to stick them in their notebooks to showcase the bar models used to explain the solutions.

Procedurization of skills.

This is a class of special needs kids, SEN, in grade 6. I finished the topic ‘Reading a Distance-Time graph’ and the kids needs to work on problems following the procedure learnt. Some of them are quite slow at deciphering visuals. I’d like to use collaboration so they can find peer support (Dynarski, 2015) for the same but the furniture in the room is too heavy to move it around.

In India, seating on the ground is considered fine and tentatively I ask the kids if they would be ok grouping themselves on the floor and work together. The freedom that it entails excited them and we all took off our shoes, lined them up neatly outside the class and worked on the floor that day!

The kids worked in groups of 4 to 5 each. Each group had a leader who ensured everyone learnt. They took turns to explain a problem, then asked the group to solve a problem independently and then come back to discuss the solution.

Retention of content

In grade 9, a test is coming up and the kids need time to work on retention of the content learnt. I was going to run a quiz online using the smart class but the challenge is fluctuating network in the area where the school is. The management has invested in smart classes but not having a proper network makes it hard to integrate the same in the teaching. We have no choice but to go back to textbooks.

I take a quick 10 min recap with the students and then organize a think-pair-share (Yulianingsih, 2019) session for them to help each other revise the content for the test. The number of kids is odd and hence I work as a partner with a student to help her retain the concepts.

The kids work in pairs and ask questions based on the content from the textbook. Some take some advanced means of using other books on information from internet on their smart phones. There is a buzz of soft noise in the class as they are intent on learning the content well enough.

Teaching an Advanced Class.

I want to organize group project for the class based on Ratio and Proportion. This is an advanced group in grade 10. The challenge is that the students have multiple interests and in order to create a multi-disciplinary project, it would be hard to choose which discipline to integrate math with.

I turn it into an outdoor project to find height of any object using proportion. Then I use differentiation (Kayser, 2018) of product to enable the kids to find their interest in submission of the project. Outdoor class is a challenge as the kids would spread out all over the field. So I request the head to let me have help from the school security to ensure that the kids are safe. For this one class, I get it.

The kids used multiple ways of turn in the work such as, (a) a flip book of photographs, (b) a video of themselves working, (c) a booklet and (d) a chart paper with sketches.

References

Clarke. (n.d.). Singapore math bar models - youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Z4WikFAf4&t=2s. Retrieved January 31, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Z4WikFAf4

Dynarski, M. (2015, December 10). Using research to improve education under The Every Student Succeeds Act. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/using-research-to-improve-education-under-the-every-student-succeeds-act/

Kayser, J. (2018, April 30). Using technology to differentiate instruction. (15:00) https://youtu.be/siYbepZfmRk

Kochar, M. (2010). User driven learning in mathematics. Academia.edu - Share research. https://www.academia.edu/1563753/User_Driven_Learning_in_Mathematics

Seel, N. M., Lchmann, T., Blumschien, P., & Podolskiy, O. A. (2017). Instructional design for learning: Theoretical foundations, 1 - 17. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Instructional_Design_for_Learning/UmCwDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Wilson, O. L. (n.d). The second principle. Retrieved from http://thesecondprinciple.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/The-Three-domains-of-learning-10-2016.pdf

Yulianingsih, L. (2019, July 19). Think-Pair-Share. Retrieved from https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/tpshare.html