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The Influence of Baggio, Clark, and Dervin on Thinking and Addressing Driving Question, New Driving Question, and New "Need-to-Knows"
A well-known fact—the 21st century has certainly changed the world including the educational system and the roles of its educators. Technology has afforded us many new possibilities for teaching and learning and it is up to us as educators to effectively utilize these tools to design quality instruction and learning environments. This is much easier said than done. In order to reach our audience—students, we need to understand some key information. Our students all come to us from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds; they bring with them their own unique perceptions, personality, dispositions and conation (natural habits); their natural cognitive capabilities too vary as do the colors of the rainbow. Baggio, Clark, and Dervin have given me plenty of instructional design ideas to think on and have influenced my own ideas on how to address my driving question. In regards to my research study, there were several key elements from each author that were significant to my thinking on my next steps. Clark discussed using an Instructional Systems Design (ISD) as a systematic process to develop one’s training which “guarantee” learning outcomes while Dervin emphasized sense-making as a framework for designing interview questions that provide meaningful data on behavior. One of the aims of my research study was to determine how I could implement a systematic way to teach critical thinking skills (metacognitive thinking skills) rather than haphazardly incorporating metacognitive strategies. The systematic model would aid in thinking through the instructional design of my study, reminding me to analyze the needs and tasks, define my objective, develop an assessment that fits the objective as well as provide meaningful data and overall, help me be more intentional about what I do, how I do it, and why I do it (interestingly enough, regulate my thinking and be more metacogntive which is what I was asking my own students to do in my research). Another aspect that I wanted to address in my study was to determine whether critical thinking skills had a positive impact on procedural fluency. The test measure I used was from the official CAASPP website and the questions required varying levels of critical thinking skills but because I did not initially think about the fact that I wanted to measure procedural fluency (knowledge transfer to new contexts), the multiple choice and short answer format did not provide me meaningful data and because the pre- and post-test were identical, it did not measure the students ability to transfer their skills to new contexts. Clark’s systematic process would really help address this issue. I also used a self-assessment survey to measure students’ disposition and confidence level before and after the treatment but again I felt that it did not produce the level of data I desired so using one of Dervin’s sense-making survey models might provide more helpful information in my study. It would me qualitative data which is more time consuming to analyze but it would provide me with better data (truly quality over quantity in this case). Furthermore, a larger portion of the learning was done synchronously and face-to-face within a very limited time frame. Taking Baggio’s idea of utilizing the advancement of technology such as social networks and other digital tools to facilitate online collaboration, it would be great solution to addressing some of the issues with time and additionally, maybe even make some of the lessons flipped so that class time can be reserved for other learning activities and discussions that require teacher facilitation (feedback and guidance). I would definitely apply Baggio’s suggestion for effective visual images which includes taking various aspects of the target population into account (internal and external sense of vision: attention, perception, visualization, and imagination). Prior knowledge, context, and expectations as well as the “Trilogy of the Mind” (affective, cognitive, and conative) should also be accounted for when designing an online learning environment. My new driving question would explore how metacognition specifically affects procedural fluency and my new “need-to-knows” would be to determine in what ways metacognition affects procedural fluency. I would need to know what types of strategies and approaches support procedural fluency and how to assess procedural fluency in the mathematics content area. I would also need to know if there are any digital tools that could be used to develop and support procedural fluency. Detailed Summary of Baggio’s Chapters 1-5 Dr. Bobbe Baggio’s The Visual Connection was a very interesting and enlightening read. She puts simply, we can only learn or think for ourselves and only we can construct our own thoughts (literally) and no one else. She goes on to discuss a widely accepted learning theory—the constructivist theory. When we think of constructivism, two central figures come to mind—Piaget and Vygotsky. Both theorists position the learner in a zone that increases the opportunity for learning as active learners rather than passive learners and puts the teacher in the facilitator role. Baggio asserts that the constructivist learning theory lends itself well to new technology and online learning (social networking applications)—synchronous and asynchronous learning—because of its collaborative nature and emphasis on environment. The implication for teachers is that our new role shifts from the expert who disseminates knowledge to a designer of instruction and learning environments that best support the construction of knowledge. Baggio then discusses the research that shows that humans are becoming more and more visual (85% visual learners) and how powerful well-designed visual images are imperative for learning. Baggio claims that people are not good listeners but rather astute observers. So why are visuals so important? Visuals have the power to attract and keep a learner’s attention which is the initial and key step in learning according to both Robert Gagne’s “Nine Events of Instruction” and John Keller’s ARCS learning theory for adult learner motivation. Images have a powerful impact on consciousness because the brain responds both cognitively and emotionally to visual stimuli. Visual stimuli also play a role in how memory is stored and retrieved from the hippocampus in our brain’s cortex. Visuals can actually improve the learning process and quicken one’s ability to make connections or meaning because it can help create strong schemas that become internalized (stored in long term memory) for quick access and retrieval. Thus, if 85% are visual learners and research has shown the benefits of visual stimuli, teachers need to make use of this information to create a better learning experience for their students. For teachers to really make use of this information, they need to understand how to construct effective visuals. This leads to the question, what knowledge is needed to create effective visual for learning? The answer is that we as educators need to learn about our students and how they process information in order to construct meaningful information or information systems as Dervin puts it to meet their needs. Visual learners process information through their internal or external sense of vision which includes four components: attention, perception, visualization, and imagination. First without attention, information goes in one ear and out the other meaning that with no motivation or interest in the learning, the likelihood that the information gets learned and stored in one’s long term memory further decreases. Like Dervin’s idea of the discontinuous world and chaotic individual, Baggio states that the individual is complex and the world fragmented which leads to the second point that one’s perception and cognitive processes are unique, influenced by various unpredictable factors such as mood/emotions, culture, and expectations. Perception is constructed by the individual, inseparable from behavior and by nature subjective. Third, visualization plays a key role in learning. Visualization includes both physical and mental images that we see and has been shown to have common properties with perception. Studies have shown that visualization can even assist in shifting attitudes and believes as well as abilities and skills meaning visualization can expand human potential. Last, imagination is unique to the individual and is what we use to create new or revised ideas, invent, and make discoveries that belong only to us. Baggio’s own theory on how people learn is called “Trilogy of the Mind.” It involves utilizing three domains of the mind: affective, cognitive, and conative. The affective mind is what makes us feel, the cognitive is what makes us think, and the conative is what we naturally and instinctively are inclined to do. We need to consider all three domains of our learners if we are to design any instruction (visual image) that is effective. Let us visit how learning is constructed. Learning is impacted by three things: prior knowledge, context, and expectations. Prior knowledge helps us interpret new visual images and information and make meaning from it using old neuro-associative pathways (NAPS) or past experiences to create new NAPS. The brain works in patterns and prior knowledge aids in bridging gaps when we come across discontinuity. I look at it like the context clues we use to figure out an unfamiliar word in a sentence. Context provides relevance to the learner’s life creating motivation for the learner to invest in the learning. Context is not merely synonymous with authenticity, but more specifically authenticity for the learner—real or imagined. Context allows for the establishment of meaning and importance of new information through associations of new information to familiar situations and events. Expectation is the anticipation of the outcome. It dictates what we see and focus on based on our beliefs. |