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Teaching for Reflective Learning

July 7, 2020 by Stu Ervay

Portrait of smart female college student with books and a light bulb above her head as a symbol of bright ideas
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As anyone working in education can attest, a greater emphasis is placed on criterion-referenced high stakes testing than in the past. In response to this reality, including reflective thinking in a teacher’s toolbox of instructional strategies can help students think about their learning and ensure that applications are meaningful and relevant in an increasingly demanding world. Using CLI processes prompts for reflective learning can be written into unit outcomes and components. They can be explicitly addressed in the instructional planning resource in the context of methods, activities, resources, and assessments.  Proficiency scales also allow students to practice reflective learning as well as tracking their learning.

Proficiency

Measuring the quality and extent of reflective learning is more challenging than measuring simple recall. Therefore, the criteria for implementing reflective learning must be more extensive than past approaches.  When such criteria are met, however, the results have intense and long-lasting meaning.

In their reflection on learning, students will:

  • describe their personal strengths and weaknesses in the context of the skills and understandings required,
  • identify and question underlying values and beliefs in the context of the skills and understandings required,
  • acknowledge and challenge possible assumptions on which expressed values and beliefs are based,
  • identify and describe feelings of bias or discrimination, and
  • acknowledge fears and inadequacies in attempting to improve.

The reflection required to meet the above challenges is designed to improve self-awareness, the first step to positive change.  It defines learning as being something more than the cognitive accumulation of facts and processes, placing it within a student’s life in ways that make scholastic growth a part of meeting personal, professional, and vocational goals.  It gives students emotional tools to positively weigh what they do, so they can identify approaches that work well and reinforce good practices over time.

Methods that Encourage Student Engagement in Reflective Practice

Educational researchers, such as Robert Marzano, Benjamin Bloom, Thomas Good, and Jere Brophy, referred to reflection as being a means to stimulate higher-order thinking. Many authors who advocate the use of cooperative teaching and learning, as well as constructivist approaches, also consider individual reflective behaviors to be valid behavioral outcomes. Research suggests that extensive student writing and speaking (based on solid inquiry activities) are the best vehicles for allowing student expression that is reflective of engaged thought, beliefs, and emotions.  A Subject Area Committee (SAC) can write unit outcomes and components that are specific to this type of writing and speaking.  On an Instructional Planning Resource (IPR), or other lesson planning structure, teachers can include such methods as reflective journals and other self-evaluative tools, peer critique, debriefing techniques, and dynamic feedback in group settings.  These can show up in the IPR methods, activities, resources, and assessment blocks. 

Reflective Learning versus the Negative Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

We all know that students who are otherwise engaged in their surroundings reject subjects they “don’t like” or find “too hard.”  Consequently, they either fail those courses or just get by well enough to keep teachers and parents mollified.  For whatever reason, they simply don’t learn the subject well enough to make any kind of personal and lasting difference.  Without the personal connection to learning, assessment with formal exams or application assessments, a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy kicks in and they fail.  They justify performance with “I knew I’d fail because I’ve always hated that subject” or “I knew I’d fail because I’ve never been good in that subject.”  Sound familiar?  However, because reflective learning causes students to acknowledge their fears and inadequacies and to identify their strengths, question beliefs, and challenge assumptions – such negativity can be deflected before it becomes ingrained. 

The CLI Model offers an effective platform for addressing this more substantial and meaningful approach to teaching and student learning.  Both a Curriculum Coordinating Council (CCC) and a SAC can systematically build in processes associated with curriculum content and instructional techniques that make mastery real and student performance valid.

Filed Under: Instruction Tagged With: reflection, reflective learning, student engagement, teaching

Want to Improve Reading Comprehension? Keep Science and Social Studies in the Elementary Schools

October 1, 2019 by cliweb

It is a familiar scenario and solution.  The pressure is felt to improve reading skills to score higher on standardized tests.  Elementary teachers can’t extend the school day, so they borrow time from a content area which doesn’t have a state assessment or one not as often.   Social studies and science take a backseat.   Even though this move seems logical with the best intentions, the results are counterproductive. Since the 1990s, the amount of instructional time in science and social studies has decreased over 90 minutes per week.   It is often the first place teachers look to “pull” students from if they need interventions. Unfortunately, by cutting these courses, the opportunities for developing content vocabulary and knowledge about real life is also reduced. 

Why teach social studies and science?  Social studies classes provide content knowledge, but most importantly, students learn the foundation for why it is necessary to contribute to society as a good citizen.   Science activities are a way to capture the interest of students with fun, hands-on, and minds-on lessons.  Learning activities related to science and social studies help students develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills while connecting concepts to their world. 

Support for the Key Shifts in English/Language Arts Standards  Many states have revised their English/Language Arts Standards in recent years and have outlined key shifts from past standards. Continuing to schedule regular science and social studies classes allows opportunities to teach needed skills. The background knowledge gained from social studies and science provides the context to understand new and complex text for greater comprehension.   Reading about science is no replacement for phenomenon or inquiry, but it can help build the knowledge base for “doing” science.   Plus, citing textual evidence from informational text helps provide pieces necessary for accurate analysis of an investigation.  

Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension English/Language Arts Standards require students to use domain-specific words in their writing and while speaking.  Science and social studies classes provide opportunities for students to learn word meanings, read and hear them applied correctly in context, and use the words for communicating.  Students receiving explicit instruction over the meanings of affixes and root words benefits the current class, but that knowledge is utilized by the students to become stronger readers in all classes.  Vocabulary acquisition improves the comprehension of complex literary and informational text.

Student Engagement  A significant, well-documented reason to keep regularly scheduled science and social studies classes, is that students love the activities these topics provide!  The natural fit for collaboration and project-based learning allows students opportunities for implicit learning, developing good work habits, and applying what they learn to their lives.  Learning while having fun is impactful in many ways!

Teachers are well aware of the importance of reading on grade level by the 3rd grade.  If this doesn’t happen, opportunities to be successful in the future will be more of a challenge.  Capturing every moment available for learning is critical.  If you are interested in utilizing an integrated approach to teach more than one content area at the same time, download CLI’s FREE Civic Education Resource, Life, Liberty, Law.  This resource is aligned to National Standards in Social Studies but also references ELA, Math, Science, Fine Arts, and Social/Emotional Learning Standards.  Get yours at cliweb.org/resources-2. 

Filed Under: Instruction Tagged With: Curriculum, Instruction, science, social studies, teaching

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