Welcome! This is the Final Reading Journal for Knowing & Learning

Here you will find the assignments, reflections, and prompts for the course. Here I gave personal reflection on our weekly discussions, answered the reading questions and analysis on what it means to learn and what methods are effective, and reviewed videos provided through mostly Ted Talks and educational scholars. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

W08 Reading Assignments

• What's the one thing that everyone needs to know about learning?

Not only does everyone learn differently, but the environment in which they learn greatly impacts how they think for the rest of their lives. It's important now more than ever to change our ways as teachers to assist students in developing the skills of learning, rather than just drilling concepts and formulas. Learning is unique, but can effectively be brought to every student with enough effort.

• How do Dr. Dweck's ideas relate to everything that we've investigated so far? What big connection is there to be made?

The study from Dweck proved that students want to discover things. Our investigations point towards the fact that not only is it effective, but beneficial in the long run for students to develop these skills early on. Making errors and providing feedback is an important step to the learning process, and we must do our best to facilitate this.

• How do these ideas relate to the perspectives on STEM learning (e.g., conceptual change, models & modeling, social cognitive, situated learning)?

The ideas relate to our previously learned perspectives, especially social cognitive learning. Students can capitalize on other students' mistakes to better their own thinking process. And at the same time, the students making the mistake then learn from it and do better next time. The whole situated learning process is best for this type of learning, as it accepts methods of all types to provide students with the best materials.

• How do the examples in this video illustrate a growth mindset?

The growth mindset is exemplified by the various success stories and how each of those people got to that point. They didn't get a head start over their peers, they growed slowly over time; developing the skills necessary to grow faster and more efficiently. You do that by making mistakes and correcting them, knowing how to adjust in the future.

• How do we translate this into straight-forward, applicable policies and practices for STEM?

STEM is a subject best learned through your own understanding at your own pace. Success isn't measured by how much people like you, or how much you make, it's how many personal goals you have accomplished. It's how well you can look back and see your growth. And that applies to STEM year by year, with each new growing science field you learn about new things that build upon your old things and you grow and become more successful. 

W04 Discussion for Dan Meyer

• What does this video mean to you?

It's honestly quite a shame that so many educators have this misconception or give in to giving students shortcuts that lead to misunderstanding. There is a problem when the kids aren't retaining information as well as they should, and they're not being challenged to become thinkers. The video definitely shined light on ways I can improve my curriculum by introducing mass media to get students interested.

W03 Discussion for Harvard Students

• In the responses of these students, what struck you as interesting or important?

I was shocked at how incorrect they were about the reason for the season, and the lunar phases. These common misconceptions are fascinating, that somehow even wrong information is presented outside the classroom and is affecting the student's ability to think of reasons why certain things happen on their own.

• In each of the cases, how might what the students say make (at least) some sense?

Well, in the case of the seasons, the earth does move in an elliptical orbit, so it is closer and farther from the sun at different parts of the sun, so that is an interesting thought. For the moon's phases, it is very complicated in terms of 3D geometry why the moon would appear the way it is, and not being exposed to the big picture is not a good start to understanding how it works. 

• Why, for example, would they say that seasons are caused by the closeness to the sun?

They probably heard from somewhere that the earth moves in an elliptical orbit, from media or TV, but do not hear about the tilt of the earth as much. It also doesn't help that they probably, at that time, would not have had much exposure to southern hemisphere nations, who experience the opposite season.

• Where might the students have acquired the idea about the clouds and the phases of the moon?

The clouds and phases were probably uniquely made misconceptions about the phase because they had no prior knowledge of it to begin with. It's hard to understand why it would appear different shapes unless one understood the motion of the satellites

• What does it mean to know and/or learn?

To know something is to be able to apply a thinking practice to build upon that knowledge in a different way. To learn is to develop skills to think as a process, rather than rely on remembering.

• What does it mean to be a competent mathematics or science student?

You are able to use what you learn in the classroom and apply it to problems you have never seen before. For example solving a linear equation to find the percentage on an item, or using the understanding of acceleration and gravity to predict motion as you play catch in the yard.

• What does learning mean? How is learning different from or similar to understanding?

Learning is only a process to get to understanding. Learning requires a student to develop skills and think in a way that will lead them to the same correct answers in the future. By learning the proper skills, understanding material becomes much easier.

• How can you get at what students are thinking? How can you assess knowing and learning?

.Taking small assessments and hosting discussions are a great way to understand where misconceptions come from, who has them, and how you can remedy it.

W03 Reflection for Leo Lionni's Fish

• From your history and personal experiences, what does it mean to think mathematically/scientifically?

Thinking mathematically or scientifically does not necessarily mean you apply super difficult techniques to every day life as you are solving a problem. It means that you have the drive to discover things on your own, that everything has a meaning and a process, and the puzzle is finding out how that process works. Thinking scientifically, for me, means hearing one thing and not just thinking "yeah that seems right" but artfully understanding why it is right. If a problem is presented to me I want to understand it, it bothers me if I don't. And it's that drive that keeps me going as a STEM educator.

• What lessons might we draw from the Fish is Fish story in relation to human learning?

The learning process is reflected in Fish is Fish because of how they interact. The fish at first has a misconception that the tadpole was a fish like him and he did not understand why one day the frog was swimming with him, but the other he had legs. The frog seemed to have more knowledge, especially after exploring the world and seeing different types of animals. In the end the frog wants to explain the best he can what those things were to the fish, but the fish can simply not imagine anything other than fish because it's all he's ever known. It's very similar to the allegory of the cave, where men who have never known sunlight before will not know what to do if they were to escape the cave.

W02 Psychological Perspectives Table

W02 Reflection for Allison Glopnik

• Having viewed the video with Dr. Alison Gopnik, what ideas do you have about how her work with babies and play relates to your interests in teaching and learning STEM?

It's quite strange to see a study about babies. It's amazing how much we can learn from using the same techniques we use on older students, but applied in simpler ways for toddlers. It goes to show how important it is that we capitalize on all of the things that makes students so receptive to material. Learning how we learn and what makes it effective is the secret to being a successful teacher, and of course we can learn a lot from learning from Gopnik's work with babies.