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.

Exit Slip (Nov 20)--The Plan for the Inquiry Project

In today's class, May and I discussed and listed 10 aspects of our Inquiry topic: how to create a positive and effective classroom. We will sort out the priority of these points and narrow down a little bit.  We also found a few books for these points. Both of us will read and summarize for the annotated bibliography. In order to make connections of our inquiry project to real-world teaching and learning, both of us will speak to some teachers in our practicum schools. We will also think about how our topic is related to teaching and learning mathematics. For the interactive activity, we are thinking to design a Yes-No question game to play with the audience. Since we are going to present on Zoom, we will use hand signals to play. 

Exit slip ( Nov 12)

Today, during our class, class members discussed how we ‘trust science’ and use rigorous scientific methods to check facts and theories. Some great comments are " never underestimate the value of a fresh perspective" and " try to explore students' suggestions, even if it was not expected." 

As a teacher,  we need to be open-minded and encourage students to ask questions.  Questioning is critical to learning. In the classroom, I think brainstorming is a useful tool to motivate students to freely express their thoughts and ideas on a topic. There is no right or wrong answer. Everyone could make contributions. 

In this fast-changing world, teachers should be co-learner with students. We do not know the answer to everything, but we could strive to support students in their endeavors to find the answers.

Entrance Slip ( Nov 12) --- Permitting Creativity in Science (Janet Bavelas)

1. "Notvery unexpected finding is a discovery, the big discoveries will always be unexpected findings." (Bavelas, 1987, p.312)

Yes, many great scientific discoveries received hostile reception before they were accepted. For example, when Bruno stated they were not at the center of the universe, no one believed in that idea. For another example, an intense debate on the safety of Genetically Modified (GM) foods is taking place in China. Many people choose not to eat GM food because they don't know who's idea is true. They don't know who's right because they don't understand what those scientists are talking about. Genetic engineering is too new and people are not ready to understand it.     

I agree that we should not rush to reject novel ideas, even though they seem wrong and unexpected at the beginning. But a failure to accept does not mean that we reject it. We just need more time to be ready to understand it. 

2. " the 'ugly duckling' could not be seen as a swan because no one knew what swans were; therefore, ugly or not, he must be a duckling."

In this section, the author reveals the disadvantage of categorizing new observations before knowing more about it. Rushing to put a new idea into a category may hinder our imagination and lead us to make a false judgment. The "ugly duckling" could not be seen as a swan not because no one knew what swans were, but because their imagination was limited by thinking he must be a duckling. There is an experiment about mindset. If we put several bees in an open-ended bottle and lay the bottle on its side with the base toward a bright light, we will find that the bees will keep on flying to the bottom of the bottle towards the light till they die of exhaustion or hunger. If we put flies in that bottle, all of them will find their way out no matter which directions the bottom of the bottle towards. That is because bees keep locating the light source, they never think to fly toward the darker side. If we categorize a new idea at the very beginning, we are already expecting some outcome from it. But how could we expect an outcome if we don't even know it?

3.  In terms of Jennifer's example of an awkward interpersonal situation, I encountered several times, but I never felt awkward. Most of the time, I was trying to be a good listener,  and I would express my agreement if I heard some good points. The interesting thing was that once I expressed my agreement to the third person ( whom I don't know), I would be suddenly engaged in their conversation. I found people can chat with each other without knowing each other's names. Everyone is unique. We should not expect others can fully understand and share our own feelings, but we all can recognize one important signal ---smile, it means " you are welcome. " No one will refuse it. However, I still totally agree with Bavelas that we should greet and introduce each other initially.