Standard 2.2 Research-Based Learner-Centered Strategies
Candidates model and facilitate the use of research-based, learner-centered strategies addressing the diversity of all students. (PSC 2.2/ISTE 2b)
Artifacts: Engaged Learning Project
Reflection:
The artifact that I have chosen to best illustrate standard 2.2 research-based learner centered strategies is the Engaged Learning Project from ITEC 7400. I created this project with a peer teacher for an International Baccalaureate class in the new IB Career Pathway Diploma program at Marietta High School. In this project, students were learning about ethics and decision making as it applies to them personally, professionally, culturally, and globally. The culminating project for this diploma program is a paper and or project in which the student addresses an ethical dilemma in his or her career pathway. This webquest prepares them for this final project.
This engaged learning project was created as a webquest on Weebly. The engaged learning project we created contained videos, news articles, interactive games and journal articles demonstrating personal, professional, cultural, and global ethical decision making. This webquest format gave the students the opportunity to direct their learning and engage in activities that required them to make real-world decisions. Students were required to complete reflective blogs and engage in active discussions with their peers and teachers online and in class along the way. The end result was twofold: first to give them the knowledge they needed to approach their career pathway ethical dilemma from the real world and apply their learning from the webquest; and second for them to present their new learning to the class in a digital format of their choosing before moving on to their career pathway ethical dilemma project.
This artifact demonstrates researched-based, learner-centered strategies and the diversity of all students present in this class in several ways. The researched-based strategies evident are as follows: the project was introduced with a short introduction that summarized what we have talked about before concerning ethics, the material in the webquest is presented in small easy to digest steps on each of the pages, there are practice activities along the way that support the learning, and the webquest is a scaffold that builds into more difficult tasks.
This artifact uses several learner-centered strategies as well. Students while using the webquest are creating their own learning viewing videos, playing games, reading, and blogging. They are actively involved in constructing new knowledge by gathering and synthesizing information that they find in the webquest. The teacher’s role is not as the primary information giver or primary evaluator. The teacher only facilitates the lesson. She learns and evaluates alongside the students. The evaluations for the blogs, editorial cartoon, and ethics presentation are included in the webquest in the form of rubrics, but during the students work time with the webquests and its variety of media the teacher moves around the room engaging the students in conversation about the sections they are on and tries to help them make connections with all components of the webquest.
Diversity can be seen in the different types of media we used to illustrate ethics and also in the various types of activities required. It is important that students see themselves represented in their classwork and when creating this lesson this was an important goal. As noted before this lesson was created for an IB class and the IB mission reads as follows:
The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
Diversity and intercultural understanding and respect is the foundation of IB and as instructors in this program we constantly strive to teach and model this.
Many lessons were learned from this artifact, but I feel that the most important one was that student centered learning is awesome! The students who completed this webquests and these presentations were enthusiastic about their learning and their work displayed this. If I could change anything to improve the quality, I would make the webquest instructions more clear and I would encourage students to deviate from the webquest to create more learning opportunities for them as individuals.
This artifact had a big impact on student learning in this class. There was a great deal of depth about the topic of ethics included in this webquest and by illustrating all the areas we wanted in various formats, I feel that the students were able to learn the content thoroughly. The students are now working on their final ethical dilemma papers and projects, the learning created during these activities in the webquest will be displayed in those papers.
The artifact that I have chosen to best illustrate standard 2.2 research-based learner centered strategies is the Engaged Learning Project from ITEC 7400. I created this project with a peer teacher for an International Baccalaureate class in the new IB Career Pathway Diploma program at Marietta High School. In this project, students were learning about ethics and decision making as it applies to them personally, professionally, culturally, and globally. The culminating project for this diploma program is a paper and or project in which the student addresses an ethical dilemma in his or her career pathway. This webquest prepares them for this final project.
This engaged learning project was created as a webquest on Weebly. The engaged learning project we created contained videos, news articles, interactive games and journal articles demonstrating personal, professional, cultural, and global ethical decision making. This webquest format gave the students the opportunity to direct their learning and engage in activities that required them to make real-world decisions. Students were required to complete reflective blogs and engage in active discussions with their peers and teachers online and in class along the way. The end result was twofold: first to give them the knowledge they needed to approach their career pathway ethical dilemma from the real world and apply their learning from the webquest; and second for them to present their new learning to the class in a digital format of their choosing before moving on to their career pathway ethical dilemma project.
This artifact demonstrates researched-based, learner-centered strategies and the diversity of all students present in this class in several ways. The researched-based strategies evident are as follows: the project was introduced with a short introduction that summarized what we have talked about before concerning ethics, the material in the webquest is presented in small easy to digest steps on each of the pages, there are practice activities along the way that support the learning, and the webquest is a scaffold that builds into more difficult tasks.
This artifact uses several learner-centered strategies as well. Students while using the webquest are creating their own learning viewing videos, playing games, reading, and blogging. They are actively involved in constructing new knowledge by gathering and synthesizing information that they find in the webquest. The teacher’s role is not as the primary information giver or primary evaluator. The teacher only facilitates the lesson. She learns and evaluates alongside the students. The evaluations for the blogs, editorial cartoon, and ethics presentation are included in the webquest in the form of rubrics, but during the students work time with the webquests and its variety of media the teacher moves around the room engaging the students in conversation about the sections they are on and tries to help them make connections with all components of the webquest.
Diversity can be seen in the different types of media we used to illustrate ethics and also in the various types of activities required. It is important that students see themselves represented in their classwork and when creating this lesson this was an important goal. As noted before this lesson was created for an IB class and the IB mission reads as follows:
The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
Diversity and intercultural understanding and respect is the foundation of IB and as instructors in this program we constantly strive to teach and model this.
Many lessons were learned from this artifact, but I feel that the most important one was that student centered learning is awesome! The students who completed this webquests and these presentations were enthusiastic about their learning and their work displayed this. If I could change anything to improve the quality, I would make the webquest instructions more clear and I would encourage students to deviate from the webquest to create more learning opportunities for them as individuals.
This artifact had a big impact on student learning in this class. There was a great deal of depth about the topic of ethics included in this webquest and by illustrating all the areas we wanted in various formats, I feel that the students were able to learn the content thoroughly. The students are now working on their final ethical dilemma papers and projects, the learning created during these activities in the webquest will be displayed in those papers.