Engaging Pupils in Their Learning - Essay Example

DEVELOPING AS A TEACHER TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 2. ROOM CONTEXTUAL FACTORS 3. PUPIL'S LEARNING AND CONSTRUCTIVISM 4. MOTIVATING PUPILS TO LEARN ACTIVELY 5. IMPROVING LEARNING THROUGH LEARNING STRATEGIES IN CLASSROOM 6. STIMULATING LEARNING IN A DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY CLASSROOM 7. REFERENCES INTRODUCTION In contemporary education, learning involves not only cognition but, also affect, attitude, interest, and strategy use as well as quality of instruction (Alsop, Bencze, & Pedretti, 2005). Affect and attitude describe a pupil's emotion, feeling, and mood toward a fact or state and interest is a feeling that causes special attention to something. As a result of many pupil's negative attitude towards learning, they have low motivation and weak learning strategies in elementary schools that, in turn, result in weak comprehension of educational concepts, naive views as well as poor academic performance. In regard to motivation, pupils who are interested and active in school tend to have higher goal orientations and higher self-efficacy, which has been shown to be positively related to self-regulatory strategies such as planning, monitoring, and regulation resulting in increased pupil performance (Alsop, Bencze, & Pedretti, 2005). According to Pinar (2004), educating pupils requires teaching academic knowledge, but configured around faculty and pupil interests, aligned with pressing social concerns. As Osborne, Simon and Collins (2003) state, "attitudes are enduring while knowledge often has an ephemeral quality (and) the price of ignoring this simple fact and its implications is the potential alienation of our youth phenomenon that many countries are now experiencing" (p. 1074). Through the learning environment, teachers should motivate their pupils; teachers should convince their pupils to see the relevance of education and learning to their lives; should give their pupils the strategies, skills, and abilities to be successful in the classroom as well as out in the "real world." Therefore, the problem to be addressed in this paper is how teachers can help their pupils to actively engage in their own learning. CLASSROOM CONTEXTUAL FACTORS Pintrich, Marx, and Boyle (1993) describe classroom contextual factors as six structures that define a leaning environment. These structures are: task structures, authority structures, evaluation structures, classroom management, teacher modeling and teacher scaffolding. Task structures deal with providing pupils with authentic, challenging and meaningful tasks in the classroom (Hamilton, 2007). Authority structures address the issues of providing pupils with optimal choice, optimal control and optimal challenge in the classroom. Evaluation structures (or assessment) address the issue of allowing pupil work to be improvement based and mistakes are seen as positive (Hamilton, 2007) and as an opportunity for mastery learning. Classroom management concerns the use of time and norms for engagement in the classroom. Teacher modeling directs the efforts and attention of scientific thinking and scientific dispositions as engaged by the teacher in the classroom. Teacher scaffolding addresses the issues of cognition and motivation. In many secondary classrooms, pupils are often cognitively, emotionally, and socially dependent on their teachers who formulate the learning goals, determine the type of interaction allowed, and generally require pupils to adjust to the learning environment they have created (Boekaerts, 2002). However, classroom contextual factors such as authentic tasks or projects "without one right answer" that allow longer periods of time for completion may drive off closure and facilitate more cognitive activity and conceptual change" and may serve to actively motivate learners as well (Pintrich quoted in Alsop, Bencze, & Pedretti, 2005). Pupils who adopt a goal orientation approach (motivation) do engage in more selfregulated learning than those who do not (Pintrich, 2000). Self-regulated learning (learning strategy) is an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behaviour, guided and constrained by these goals and the contextual features in the environment (Pintrich, 2000, p.453). Classroom contextual factors can define constructivist teaching and learning practices in a learning environment. Constructivism is a cognitive position holding that all mental acts, both perceptual and cognitive, are acts of construction... that no mental act is a mere copy or external imposed response (Noddings, 2005, p. 153). Classroom contextual factors determine the type of classroom learning environment in which pupils are working and classroom learning environments influence pupils' goal orientations (Alsop, Bencze, & Pedretti, 2005). Practically, secondary school teachers can control and manage these structures to provide the optimal learning environment promoting cognition as well as motivational models of pupil learning. One of the most important classroom contextual structures relevant to the problem discussion within this paper is teacher scaffolding. Teacher scaffolding addresses the constructs of pupil cognition and pupil motivation. In scaffolding, the teacher supplies external support that helps children to be successful with the various learning tasks (Carin, Bass, & Contant, 2005). Scaffolding allows the learner to take part in intellectual activities that otherwise would be unwelcoming, activities that he or she does to completely understand. Practically, pupils respond positively to being intellectually challenged. According to the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996): Good teachers of science create environments in which they and their pupils work together as active learners (emphasis is mine). They have continually expanding theoretical and practical knowledge about science, learning, and science teaching. They use assessments of pupils and of their own teaching to plan and conduct their teaching. They build strong, sustained relationships with pupils that are grounded in their knowledge of pupils' similarities and differences (p.4). According to Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2000), scaffolding will motivate the pupil's interest related to the task, make task more manageable and achievable, provide direction and focus, reduce frustration and risk, and model and define expectations. Therefore, teacher supported scaffolding can create a learning environment that provides opportunity for active learning and encourage diversity which will supply the foundation for pupil cognition and pupil motivation. PUPIL'S LEARNING AND CONSTRUCTIVISM Piaget's theory of cognitive development provides the framework for constructivist teaching and learning. As Huitt and Hummel (2003) explain: Discovery learning and supporting the developing interests of the child are two primary instructional techniques. It is recommended that parents and teachers challenge the child's abilities, but NOT present material or information that is too far beyond the child's level. It is also recommended that teachers use a wide variety of concrete experiences to help the child learn (e.g., use of manipulatives, working in groups to get experience seeing from another's perspective, field trips, etc). Constructivist teaching is a form of instruction in which learners are guided to construct their own understandings and applications of the concepts and materials they are studying (Dhindsa & Anderson, 2004). This allows the pupils to gain a sense of ownership of their knowledge. Constructivist teaching is a process of helping pupils mobilise their prior understandings and reorganise them in light of current experience (Dhindsa & Anderson, 2004). Constructivist learning calls on pupils to develop their own understanding of the concepts being studied by actually exploring the material under examination (Morshead, 1995) as their teachers have the pupils involved in a "hands-on/minds-on" curriculum. Pupils do not merely adopt other people's thoughts and understandings but create their own by comparing new experiences with their own previous experiences and understandings (Morshead, 1995) through active engagement in their learning process and progress, as demonstrated in Hamilton's case studies (Hamilton, 2007). An active construction of new knowledge may involve small-group discussions to foster contrasting ideas, encourage reflection on experimental data, and motivate a reevaluation of prior ideas in relation to emerging evidence (Hamilton, 2007; Dhindsa & Anderson, 2004). Pupils are given an opportunity to connect the information and ideas they have just learned to other information and ideas outside of the classroom (Morshead, 1995) as the constructivist classroom allows the pupils to transfer what they are learning in the classroom to the "real world" outside of the classroom. According to Carin et al (2007), in constructing new knowledge, learners: (1) Select specific aspects of incoming information to consider; (2) Organise the selected information in various ways such as by sequencing, classifying, connecting, and relating to form new factual and conceptual knowledge; (3) Integrate new knowledge with prior knowledge, thus expanding the knowledge base (p.70). The social constructivist model of learning encompasses the pupil's ability to be an active co-constructor of knowledge within a community of learners, into a community of practice (Vygotsky, 1962). The social constructivist model of teaching requires the educator to develop a learning environment that will provide opportunities for the pupils to actively engage with phenomena, use and apply their newly gained knowledge, allow for multiple representations of concepts, use of learning communities, as well as valuing the role of authentic tasks. As explained by Chen (2008): All classrooms in which instructional strategies compatible with Vygotsky's social constructivist approach are used don't necessarily look alike. The activities and the format can vary considerably. However, later Chen (2008) indicates that there are four principles that are applied in any four principles are applied in any Vygotskian classroom: (1) Learning and development constitute a social, collaborative activity; (2) The Zone of Proximal Development can serve as a guide for curricular and lesson planning; (3) School learning should occur in a meaningful context and not be separated from learning and knowledge children develop in the "real world"; (4) Out-of-school experiences should be related to the pupil's school experience. As vividly articulated by Boekaerts et al. (2006), principles of social constructivism and about community of learners clarify that being a responsible pupil involves performing well on a task as well as having motivation, volition strategies, understanding rules and regulations, and having access to a productive social support network (p. 33). MOTIVATING PUPILS TO LEARN ACTIVELY Academic achievement for a secondary school pupil involves many facets. Motivation is one critical facet of a secondary school pupil's education. Motivation is defined as an intervening process or an internal state of an organism that impels of drives it to action (Reber, 2004). Choice of a task, level of engagement or activity in the task, and willingness to persist at the task are the three traditional behavioural indicators of motivation (Pintrich et al., 2001). Without motivation and the movement into action (as evidenced by the three behavioural indicators), it is argued that one may not process information at a deep level. Secondary school pupils who want to learn and enjoy the process of learning are often more successful at understanding and applying new information. Pupils who are motivated to learn the material (and not just get good grades) and believe that their schoolwork is interesting and important are more cognitively engaged in trying to learn and comprehend the material. This paper includes the discussion of three motivating factors; expectancy, value and affect. Expectancy constitutes pupils' self-efficacy and their control of learning beliefs. Self-efficacy is a critical facet of a secondary school pupils' education. Self-efficacy is the belief in one's capabilities to organise and execute the sources of action required to manage prospective situations, a selfappraisal of one's ability to master a task and one's personal beliefs about having the means to learn or perform effectively (Bandura & Locke, 2003). Secondary school pupils who believe that they are capable of achieving, often set higher goals and work harder to attain those goals than pupils who do not feel that they have the ability to achieve as efficacy beliefs contribute significantly to the level of motivation and performance (Bandura & Locke, 2003). From the critical perspective, self-efficacy beliefs are assumed to be relatively situation-specific, not global personality traits or general self-concepts (Pintrich et al., 2001). Therefore, a teacher can consistently work to foster an academic environment (situation-specific) that will enable his/her pupils to possess positive self-efficacy. People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided (Bandura & Locke, 2003). As Zimmerman (2000) explains, self-regulated learners feel self-efficacious in part because they have adopted hierarchical process goals for themselves. Consequently, self-efficacy plays an important and critical role in a secondary school pupils' motivation and self-regulation process. When learners have progressive mastery, they are provided with continual satisfaction as they progress through a complex activity rather than needing to wait for success until a final outcome or goal is attained. Self-regulatory skills are of little value if a person is not motivated to use them. In the context of motivation discussion, value constitutes a pupil's achievement goal orientation and her views of the importance of a tasks or task value. Achievement goal orientation refers to the pupil's perception of the reasons why she is engaging in a learning task (Pintrich et al.,1993). There are two achievement goal orientations: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic goal orientation concerns the degree to which pupils perceive themselves to be participating in a task for reasons such as challenge, curiosity, and mastery. Having an intrinsic goal orientation towards an academic task indicates that the pupil's participation in the task is an end all to itself, rather than participation being a means to an end (Pintrich et al., 2001). Intrinsic goal orientations can be defined in two ways, approach mastery and avoid mastery. Approach mastery goals describe when pupils are focused on approaching the goal of learning and understanding (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002); in which one's goal is to master the task: greater understanding or acquisition of new skills is considered an end in itself. The pupil wants to learn a task for the sake of learning it; a personal desire to learn and not for external reasons. The research clearly suggests that approach mastery goals are related to very adaptive patterns of cognition, motivation, and behaviour (Pintrich, 2000). Thus, a pupil thinks on a deeper level when working to master a task. Pupils who adopt or endorse an approach mastery goal orientation do engage in more self-regulated learning than those who do not (Pintrich, 2000). Therefore, the quality and depth of self-regulation is much higher when a pupil's goal is to master a task and not just to outperform others. Pupils high in intrinsic value are more likely to use cognitive strategies and higher levels of intrinsic value are associated with higher levels of pupil achievement (Pintrich, 2000). Avoid mastery goals describe when pupils are concerned with not being perfect, not fully understanding the material, or falling short of their own self-set standards for mastery (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002). Extrinsic goal orientation complements intrinsic goal orientation, and concerns the degree to which the pupil perceives herself to be participating in a task for reasons such as grades, rewards, performance, evaluation by others and competition (Pintrich et al., 1993). Extrinsic goal orientation can be defined in two ways, approach performance and avoid performance. Approach performance goals describe when pupils are focused on outperforming others using comparative standards (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002). Because of this, a secondary school pupil with performance-oriented goals may not be as concerned with learning the material for the long term. Performance goals result in poorer recall at deeper levels of processing. Therefore, secondary school pupils may not think on a deep level when they are concerned with performance-oriented goals. Pupils focused on besting others may be less likely to exert the time and effort needed to use deeper processing strategies (Pintrich, 2000). This suggests that a secondary school pupil can be motivated but not self-regulated. Avoid performance goals describe when pupils are focused on trying to avoid looking stupid or incompetent using comparative standards (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002). In summary, performance-oriented goals are when one's primary goal is to demonstrate high ability relative to others or to conceal low ability. Task value describes the pupils feelings in regard to how they view the worth, utility or importance of an assignment. Task value differs from goal orientation in that task value refers to the pupil's evaluation of the how interesting, how important, and how useful the task is ("What do I think of this task") (Pintrich et al., 1993). Task value refers to pupils' perceptions of the course material in terms of interest, importance, and utility (Pintrich et al., 2001). IMPROVING LEARNING THROUGH LEARNING STRATEGIES IN CLASSROOM From the critical perspective, learning strategies constitute a plan of conduct or action, a consciously arrived-at set of operations for solving some problem or achieving some goal and, occasionally, an unconscious program of operation (Reber, 2004). This paper differentiates between cognitive learning strategies, meta-cognitive strategies and resource management. Cognitive strategies are the strategies a pupil uses to process information. The purpose of cognitive strategies is to provide a structure for learning that actively promotes the comprehension and retention of knowledge through the use of engaging strategies that acknowledge the brain's limitations of capacity and processing (Holcombe, 2010). It is composed of four categories: rehearsal, elaboration, organisation and critical thinking. Basic rehearsal strategies involve reciting or naming items from a list to be learned (Pintrich et al., 1991). Rehearsal is when a pupil repeatedly practices recounting information learned. Rehearsal takes place "when people do something again in similar but not identical ways to reinforce what they have learned while adding something new" (Lowery, 1998, p. 28)...children not only practice what they have already encountered.. .but add something new to it (Carin et al., 2005). Elaboration strategies help pupils store information into long-term memory by building internal connections between items to be learned (Pintrich et al., 1991). Elaboration allows a pupil to work out new information in detail. Organisation strategies help the pupil to select appropriate information and also construct connections among the information to be learned (Pintrich et al., 1991). Examples of organising strategies are clustering, outlining, and selecting the main idea in reading passages. Critical thinking in classroom setting is about making good judgments and refers to the degree to which pupils report applying previous knowledge to new situations. The National Science Education Standards (1996) emphasise pupil inquiry in the science classroom (that) encompasses a range of activities (that) encourage the critical analysis of secondary sources (p. 33)that encourage pupils to think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanations (p. 145). Meta-cognitive strategies, comprised of awareness, knowledge, and control of cognition, describe the knowledge a pupil has about the conditions of effective and ineffective strategy use to control cognition. Meta-cognitive strategies are composed of three components; planning and setting goals, monitoring of one's comprehension and regulating reading speed. If a secondary school pupil has a clear understanding of effective strategy use, the pupil can then apply those strategies to help improve academic achievement. Meta-cognitive strategies make pupils better understand, monitor and critically examine conceptual knowledge related to a subject area (Boekaerts, 2002). Practically, these skills will enable pupils to progress academically. However, virtually all secondary school pupils will not be able to devise and use their own coordinated set of learning strategies. Therefore, teachers can teach these skills to their pupils and allow for their pupils to practice and use them. From theoretical perspective, resource management is composed of four categories; time management and study environment, effort/self-regulation, and peer learning. Time management involves scheduling, planning, and managing one's study time and includes not only setting aside blocks of time to study, but the effective use of that study time, and setting realistic goals. According to Pintrich et al. (1991), study environment management refers to the setting where the pupil does her class work. Ideally, learning environment should be organised, quiet, and relatively free of visual and auditory distractions (Pintrich et al., 1991). Self-regulation includes pupils' ability to control their effort and attention in the face of distractions and uninteresting tasks (Pintrich et al. 1991); how the pupil regulates their own effort. Self-regulation is an active, constructive process whereby pupils establish objectives for their learning and then aim to monitor, adjust, and control their cognition, motivation, and behaviour (Pintrich, 2000). It is a total process that encompasses all aspects of the process in order for the behaviour to be considered self-regulatory. Self-regulation refers to self-generated thoughts, feelings, and actions that are planned and cyclically adapted to the attainment of personal goals (Zimmerman, 2000). This is a critical skill that secondary school pupils can actively engage in for academic success. Depending on a secondary school pupil's achievement goal, mastery or performance, pupils may self-regulate in a different manner. There is converging evidence on the positive influence of mastery on the different components of self-regulated learning (Pintrich, 2000). In order to master a task, a pupil will monitor, regulate and control their information processing. Given general cognitive models that assume an active learner who selectively attends to information, activates prior conceptual knowledge, and monitors comprehension, cognitive engagement in academic tasks may be a good representative of motivated behaviour (Pintrich et al., 2000). A secondary school pupil may not work on deep information processing if he or she did not have a goal to work toward. Finally, peer learning describes the interaction among the pupils when construction new knowledge. Collaborating with one's peers has been found to have positive effects on achievement (Pintrich et al., 1991). Group discussions encourage argumentation and active learning, they enable structuring of knowledge and understanding; peer interaction promotes learning (Alsop, Bencze, & Pedretti, 2005). Talking with peers about science experiences helps pupils develop meaning and understanding, their conversations clarify the concepts and processes of learning, helping them make sense of the content of subject (NRC, 1996). Dialogue with peers can assist a pupil in clarifying of a classroom material and obtain insights one may have missed. STIMULATING LEARNING IN A DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY CLASSROOM The following chaper attempts to reflect and incorporate personal experience on motivation and enhancement of learning in a design and technology subject area. From the personal standpoint, in teaching the design and technology classes a teacher gains an appreciation of the level of instruction required by the pupils and their instrinsic motivation. For the majority of pupils to independently apply a technological tool, it must understand its value and be provided with additional expanded details so pupils can utilise tool immediately and not wait for teachers to provide further information. Pupils regularly request examples to facilitate their understanding of design or technology topics, and therefore practical examples are not only desirable but mandatory for an effective teaching process. From the critical perspective, contemporary classrooms on design and technology should exhibit an approach to facilitating learning, which is different from usual conventional approaches. Practically, pupils can be assigned to one of a range of project based on their interests and skills, and therefore may, for the first time, face the challenging of working in a team of peers. This approach forms new and challenging objectives and simultaneously stimulates peer learning and teamwork, which constitute important part of effective and active learning. Moreover, it is also the first practical opportunity for the pupil to become the technical domain expert (within the project scope) while a teacher provides mainly a supporting and organizational role. From the perspective of this approach, pupils, working in groups, are assigned to "real" projects, the majority of which are coming from the community (school, neighbourhood, parents) and vary in scope and complexity. Furthermore, the clients for these projects range from school instructors to parents and relatives to citizens within the community. The interdependencies of the numerous requirements and constraints that must be considered for these projects require students to modify their approach to problem solving. Instead of compartmentalizing problems and seeking solutions from a single source, to be successful, they now must review, balance and utilise information from a number of sources. These sources may include clients, that in most cases, are not technology and design experts and likely not technically oriented, which presents an even further challenge in the area of communication. Whereas the "client" that needed to be satisfied was the classroom teacher, there are now external clients, often more than one in quantity and type, whose expectations must be met. Thus, pupils are faced with many new and complex challenges. This pedagogical model used in delivering the design and technology learning shares some characteristics with the methodologies used in craft learning. In those models, the pupil is provided with a basic set of tools that are applied in the first instance to a basic but real-life and practical task at hand. The results of this work are then reviewed by a teacher, "a master craftsman" who provides guidance and coaching aimed at refining the application and understanding of knowledge and the process of crafting. REFERENCES Alsop, S., Bencze, L., & Pedretti, E. (Eds.). 2005. Analyzing exemplary science teaching. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education: Open University Press. Bandura, A., & Locke, E. (2003). Negative self-efficacy and goal effects revisited. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(1), 87-99. Boekaerts, M. (2002). Bringing about change in the classroom: strengths and weaknesses of the self-regulated learning approach - EARLI Presidential Address, 2001. Learning and Instruction, 12, 589-604. Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, and experience & school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Carin, A. A., Bass, J. E., & Contant, T. L. (2005). Methods for teaching science as inquiry. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Chen, I. 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