Hello, Everyone in EDUC 452- Inquiry III

 

Artwork by Jill Pelto

I am so happy to know and work with you all. Let's study together!!

Note (Jan 7th)

Today we discussed how to interview an expert. Here are some tips:

Professor Gerofsky also recommended 6 short articles relevant to this topic. These tips and 6 articles help us design our interview questions. In the small groups, we discussed how to build trust with the interviewee and how to make our conversation comfortable for both of us. For example, we could adjust our body language and tones to make the conversation more comfortable. Don’t make sound like" aha, en, " to interrupt our interviewee. 

Articles are listed below: 

        Seiter: 6 powerful communications tips from some of the world's best interviewers

1. Klettke: How to interview an expert

2. Nelson: Want to know how to ask questions?

3. Bunting: Six ways to ask better questions in interviews

4. Medium/ Deep Bench: 7 steps for conducting a successful expert interview

        5. Videomaker: 10 top tips to getting great video interviews

Note (2021, Jan 4th)

During today's class, May and I have narrowed our inquiry topic down. To make a positive learning environment one aspect is how to make math class interesting, or in other words, how we can attract our students to mathematics but not turn them away. How can we create a desire and interest in those students who don't like Math or don't have confidence in Math? This is what May and I are going to find out. 

Today May & I and Ivy & Megan formed two critical friends groups. According to the article recommended by Professor, critical friendships must begin through building trust. I think we have already been building trust with each other for several months. I believe we will have a great collaborating experience. 

Some recommendations in the article about how to be a critical friend are as below:

- Be clear about the nature of the relationship, and not use it for evaluation or judgment;

- Listen well, clarifying ideas, encouraging specificity, and taking time to fully understanding what is being presented;

- Offer value judgments only upon request from the learner;

- Respond to the learner's work with integrity; and

- Be an advocate for the success of the work.

Course Reflection

During the past 3 more months, this course helped me grow personally and professionally through various types of learning. This Inquiry (I) course has been very challenging but it is a rewarding learning experience without a doubt. I have learned a lot about myself and teaching as inquiry-based.  I want to thank Professor Gerofsky for sharing so many wonderful resources with us. 

I feel the course is challenging because for some recommended articles it is a little bit hard for me to grasp the full meaning of all valuable points that authors want to reveal. I need to read them several times to dig deeper. My reading speed did not allow me to read several times at that time. So now I am going through all Professor's blogs and checking if I have downloaded all articles and saved all links of the videos and important notes on my blog. I just found that I missed a blog titled " From Ivan: Traditional Indonesian Batik and Math Learning". I will post its information and the link of the video on my blog too. And for some articles I know I will read them again.  For example, I will read and rethink two articles  "Mathematics education for sustainability", " Pedagogical sensitivity". Good books and articles are worth been read multiple times. 

I enjoyed reading "On becoming a reflective teacher" which helps me understand why and how to become a reflective teacher. I enjoyed the online forum seminar. Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer helped us as non-indigenous teachers understand the indigenous culture and the relationship between ecology and indigenous ideology.  We also had an interesting experience of making rope and multi-strand braid. When I saw our Professor braiding while talking on the other side of the screen and all classmates were working on their own handcraft I felt we were a big family. That scene is in my heart forever.  

For Inquiry (II), if we use Blog I will post relevant course notes other than required posts. I will continue to work on my inquiry topic on how to create a positive learning environment in a Math classroom, but this time I will focus on how to make math interesting. There must be many strategies and methods we can use to teach Math, to make students like Math so that the whole atmosphere for learning Math is joyful. While no matter what topic I will choose for the next course, what I learned from this course is being a reflective teacher, which means continuously thinking about how I should teach better and where it needs to be improved.

 

Reflection on Assignment 3:

Our group's topic is "Creating a Positive Healthy Math Classroom Environment." When I was searching on it, I found this topic is broad. It involves many things. I tried to narrow this topic and focused on one or two key points. Although the whole idea of the presentation sounds a bit blur, we tried to focus on the importance of emotions in learning mathematics. I also wanted to involve much good advice from my teachers. In fact, my SA also gave me many great ideas on this topic. She has a well-managed classroom. She emphasizes building a rapport with students and getting to know your students. She showed me how to think from students' perspectives and put ourselves in our students' shoes.

Next time, I want to focus on the topic: How to Make Math Interesting. In order to focus on the main idea of the presentation, this topic wasn't talked about in detail. Making Math Fun is also a curtail aspect to keep a positive learning environment. Teachers could use various ways to teach Math. The way Math is taught could make learning enjoyable and fun or boring and difficult. I think this is also about how we engage students in learning mathematics. 

Through working on this project, I learned many concepts, such as strengths-based approaches, emotional engagement, problem-based learning, etc. I will keep learning on this meaningful topic. 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SeEUc4EGyaD5YlhQP5o3P7lOYeQu2TtF3ho6u4y3PXY/edit#slide=id.p 

Exit Slip (Nov 26)

Today, during the small group discussion, May and I continued to work on our inquiry project. We discussed how to connect our topic with the real world of teaching and learning. Both of us will have conversations with our SA. I actually have already talked with my SA on the topic of classroom management. We both think a well-managed classroom is essential for a positive learning environment. To achieve this goal, teachers should first get to know their students, and then, understand them and respect them. We also need to give students individual attention.

Then I was reading the article " Modelling Teachers’ Promotion of Powerful Positive Affect in the Primary Mathematics Classroom." I was trying to understand how student-teacher interactions attend to the affective aspects of mathematical learning. I wanted to find out what the teachers' affect is and what the students' affect is. I also noticed the positive affect. I think this could be an important part of our presentation. 

Our professor joined our group and discussed with us how to handle the situation when a student makes a mistake.  What should teachers do to make students feel safe instead of embarrassed or ashamed to make mistakes? Our professor was leading us to dig deeper into this topic. We also think it is an important issue to be discussed. A safe and positive learning environment must be a place where students feel safe to make mistakes.

Bibliography:

1.

Shaileigh, P. (2015) Modelling Teachers’ Promotion of Powerful Positive Affect in the Primary Mathematics Classroom. Transforming the future of learning with educational research,(51-78),Information Science Reference

This chapter describes and analyses teachers’ promotion of powerful positive affect in primary mathematics classrooms. The author uses a conceptual model to summarize the factors influencing teachers’ work in this area. We want to

2. 

Quist, M.E. (2015)Exploring positive learning experiences in the community college mathematics classroom in a midwestern state: a qualitative study,ProQuest LLC

This book focuses on the motivational and other positive learning elements present within optimum moments of college mathematics learning. Data were collected through small group and individual interviews. The findings demonstrated that moments of exceptional learning motivation and experience in college-level mathematics courses may be associated with perceived instructor accessibility and interest. Although this study focuses on college-level mathematics, we think we still can find some valuable general points for high school Math education

3. 

Hue, M.T., Li, W.S. (2008) Classroom management: creating a positive learning environment, Hong Kong University Press

This book is principally about the management of student conduct in the classrooms. The chapters include discussions and real-life cases with specific reference to the influences of Chinese culture into Hong Kong classrooms. Numerous examples are provided to illustrate how positive learning environments can be created and maintained in the classroom. 

4. 

Kiener, M., Green, P., Ahuna, K., (2014) Using the Comfortability-in-Learning Scale to Enhance Positive Classroom Learning Environments, Park University

The authors in this study examine the role “comfortability” plays in advancing learning. This article suggests the importance of the classroom environment in the learning process and supports the need for faculty to consider “non-academic” factors in addition to course content. 

5. 

Creating Autonomy-Supportive Learning Environment | Jon Stolk | TEDxSMU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxlFzrfdqa4&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

In this talk, Dr. Jonathan Stolk talked about the conditions that enable learners to make choices and feel control. He explained what situations could lead to that sense of freedom and shared many useful tips for creating an autonomy-supportive learning environment. 

6. 

5 Ways to Share Math With Kids | Dan Finkel | TEDxRainier

https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_finkel_5_ways_to_share_math_with_kids?language=en

In this inspiring talk, Dan Finkel offers teachers and parents alike a five-step guide to sharing the beauty and playfulness of mathematical thinking with children. We choose this video because a positive learning environment in a math classroom also depends on if teachers could help students get comfortable with math concepts.  

7. Tantillo Philibert, C. (2017). Everyday SEL in high school. Routledge.

This book talks about how to integrate SEL learning in high school classes. We could use these ideas in our own future practices to promote a positive and supportive learning environment. 

8.Sungur, S., 2020. Investigating the science attitudes of students from low socioeconomic status families: The impact of problem-based learning. Biochemistry and molecular biology education.

This study is about the effect of the problem‐based learning (PBL) on science attitudes of middle school students from low socio‐economic status families. It would be helpful to introduce problem-based learning if it is indeed useful for encouraging the students from low socio‐economic status families. It also links to our topic of how the external factors affect learning and how we should deal with a diverse classroom. 

9.Sulkowski, M. and Lazarus, P., 2016. Creating Safe And Supportive Schools And Fostering Students' Mental Health. New York: Routledge.

This book talks about creating a safe and supportive school environment in order to foster student’s mental health. This is definitely related to our topic and we could pick ideas from the book to enhance our own practices aimed at a healthy classroom environment. 

10. Reeve, J., 2013. How students create motivationally supportive learning environments for themselves: The concept of agentic engagement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(3), pp.579-595.

Agentic engagement is a new and constructive aspect of student engagement that allows educators to more fully appreciate how students actually engage themselves in learning activities, as they not only try to learn and develop skill, but they also try to create a more motivationally supportive learning environment for themselves.

I think it would be useful to know about how the students engage themselves in the learning activities and how we could assist them in this process. 

11. Sira, P., 2012. What Makes Students Engaged in Learning? A Time-Use Study of Within- and Between-Individual Predictors of Emotional Engagement in Low-Performing High Schools. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41(3), pp.390-401.

Adolescents' emotional engagement plays a critical role in promoting their academic performance as well as overall psychological well being. As a part of a 3-year longitudinal study, this study drew upon self-determination theory to examine three psychological predictors of emotional engagement within specific learning contexts. 

These psychological reasons / predictors could be used in our model of creating a positive/engaging learning environment.

12. Hartas, D., 2011. Famili es' social backgrounds matter: socio-economic factors, home learning and young children's language, literacy and social outcomes. British Educational Research Journal, 37(6), pp.893-914.

This journal talks about how the socio-economic factors and level of family support affect learning, which relates to our topic of how external factors affect student learning.