Scenario for supporting Question-Driven Learning with digital mind mapping. 1. Prototype III. 2014- 2015. Harry Stokhof, Bregje de Vries. Rob Martens Theo ...
Scenario for supporting Question-Driven Learning with digital mind mapping 1.
Prototype III 2014- 2015 Harry Stokhof, Bregje de Vries Rob Martens Theo Bastiaens HAN University- Open University 1
Contents Introduction to the scenario.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 0: Preparation .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 6 2a: Inventory of collective prior knowledge ........................................................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. 2b: Inventory of individual prior knowledge ................................................................................................................................................................. 10 2c: Structuring prior knowledge................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 2d: Orientation on prior knowledge ............................................................................................................................................................................ 14 3a: Generating phase: question brainstorm.................................................................................................................................................................. 16 3b: Generating phase: question evaluation .................................................................................................................................................................. 18 3c: Generating phase: linking question input................................................................................................................................................................ 20 3d: Generating phase: question selection..................................................................................................................................................................... 22 3e: Generating phase: question "adoption".................................................................................................................................................................. 24 4a: Guiding questions: preparing for inquiry................................................................................................................................................................. 26 4b: Guiding questions: inquiry ‘in action’ ..................................................................................................................................................................... 28 4c: Guiding questions: answering ................................................................................................................................................................................ 30 5a: Building Knowledge: visualize knowledge construction............................................................................................................................................ 32 5b: Building Knowledge: progressive inquiry ................................................................................................................................................................ 34 6a: Evaluation phase: individual knowledge ................................................................................................................................................................. 36 6b: Evaluation phase: collective knowledge.................................................................................................................................................................. 38 6c: Evaluation phase: metacognitive development ....................................................................................................................................................... 40 Appendix 1: mind map instruction............................................................................................................................................................................ 42 Appendix 2: Questions to coach question behavior ................................................................................................................................................... 43 Appendix 3: question work sheet (prototype I) ......................................................................................................................................................... 44
2
Introduction to the scenario In Question-Driven Learning (QDL) students generate, formulate and investigate their own questions in order to develop new knowledge and understanding. Students construct collective knowledge by sharing learning outcomes of individual questions with their class mates by means of a Classroom Mind Map. This scenario was designed to support teachers in designing, guiding and evaluating Question-Driven Learning. Digital mind mapping is used in this scenario whenever relevant and functional in preparing, executing and evaluating QDL. The scenario consists of 5 phases. Each phase contains several steps, which are described in chronological order. For each step an illustration and a compact description of its characteristics are given. To scaffold each step some practical advice for the teachers is also added. In the appendix additional materials are included.
3
0: Preparation
Elaboration
Key concepts
Domain specific preparation and setting goals 4
Characteristics of: preparation Core concepts about the subject and their mutual relations are set as goals and are visualized in the Teacher Mind Map. In the Teacher Mind Map a distinction is made between the core curriculum (consisting of key concepts) and elaboration. Constructing a Teacher Mind Map in the preparation phase is a necessary step to distinguish the core curriculum and helps teachers to anticipate constructing a Classroom Mind Map which will consist of students’ prior knowledge.
Tip: First, prepare an individual Mind Map and then collaborate with colleagues to construct a collective Teachers’ Mind Map. The advantage of this approach is that you are better prepared to discuss what are possible key concepts and which concepts are minor concepts or examples, furthermore this also prepares you for the discussion about the place of concepts in the mind map.
5
1: Introduction
Aim is to interest and motivate students for the topic
6
Characteristics of: introduction The aim of the introduction is to raise attention for the subject, to stimulate an investigative stance and to activate prior knowledge. The chosen introduction therefore needs to address the most import aspects of the subject and has to induce curiosity.
Tips: Check if all important key concepts in the mind map are addressed in the introduction. The introduction is the key to activating the appropriate prior knowledge. The introduction should be short and powerful. The most powerful introductions evoke a sense of wonder and cognitive conflict in the students and will raise both prior knowledge as well as their curiosity about the key concepts.
7
2a: inventory of collective prior knowledge activating introduction
motivate & arouse interest
"slow thinking" students make private notes of associations
10 min. What do you know already?
exchange
writing keywords on IWB in field of words
classroom discussion
What were your notes?
trade
monk
koning
swords
Castle
City
slavery
nobel Middle
cloister
prayer
Ages
peasant siege
schildknaap maid
knight tower farm
Church
war
horses famine
crusade
outcome collective prior knowledge = field of words 8
Characteristics of: inventory of collective prior knowledge By making inventory of collective prior knowledge it is made visible to all students what is already known about the subject. It is more effective to make inventory about the specific key concepts than about the subject as a whole By the exchange of ideas in class passive knowledge might be activated in students: “O yes, I have seen or heard this before…” This inventory is the basis for the construction of the Classroom Mind Map. Tips: Allow the students time to think individually and ask them to note their ideas and associations before having the classroom discussion. This fosters the students’ engagement and the quality of their input. In the classroom discussion any input is welcome, as long as students can clarify how their input is connected to the key concepts. This often leads to the discovery of remarkable points of view. If any of the expected key concepts are missing, give hints to the students: “What is a man called, wearing a suit of iron, riding a horse?” 9
2b: Inventory of individual prior knowledge individual prior knowledge test
Students structure prior knowledge in mind map 10
Characteristics of: inventory of individual prior knowledge Students construct an individual mind map as a pre-test to make individual pre- knowledge visible explore possible topics for questioning to assess possible learning outcomes afterwards. Tips: Make sure the conditions in pre- and posttest are identical, in order to be able to make proper comparison possible. Allow students about 30-45 minutes to make the mind map and make sure the field of words is no longer visible. Insist on individual work without consultation. Assure your students: This mind map is not a examination for a grade, but simply an inventory of what you now know about this subject. Stimulate students first to draw the branches and write down the concepts. When students are no longer able to add new branches and concepts, they can add illustrations. 11
2c: Structuring prior knowledge
Classroom mind map becomes central scaffold 12
Characteristics of: structuring prior knowledge Teachers help students to structure prior knowledge into a Classroom Mind Map, while keeping the key concepts and structure of the Teacher Mind Map in the back of their minds. First, the Field of Words is organized into Word Clusters and then a more detailed structure is established in the Classroom Mind Map. The Classroom Mind Map visualizes the present state of understanding and offers a visible structure of the subject to which individual questions can be linked. Tips: Involve students in the construction of Word Cluster and Classroom Mind Map Ask, while clustering, which concepts are related. Pay attention to differences and similarities between concepts. Ask students how to name the clusters. Use group work to transform clusters into branches of the mind map. 13
2d: Orientation on prior knowledge Classroom Mind Map Did you know? Did you know?
Student explore the concepts in the mind map using various resources
Concepts in the Classroom Mind Map are explored 14
Characteristics of: structuring prior knowledge Student have the opportunity to explore the (key) concepts which are imbedded in the Classroom Mind Map in various resources: books, internet, atlas, dictionaries etc. Students add remarkable facts or observations about the concepts as notes to the digital Class Room Mind Map: ‘Did you know that…?’ Tips: Provide students with ample suitable resources about the topic, such as informative books or a selection of websites. Ask students which remarkable facts or ideas about the concepts they have encountered in the resources and which information they want to share in class. Collect these petty facts and visualize them as notes to the Classroom Mind Map or on a ‘Wall of facts’. Each fact should be clearly connected to a concept in the CMM. 15
3a: Generating phase: question brainstorm
Question brainstorm in small group setting
16
Characteristics of: question brainstorm Provide a trigger to the students (object, image, statement) which arouses wonderment or cognitive conflict about one of the key concepts. Request students to continuously ask questions in small groups. All questions are written down. During the exercise students are not allowed to answer or to react to the questions, because this might disturb the flow of questioning. The exercise might take about 7 till 10 minutes. Afterwards the students can process the questions in several ways, but recommended is to ask each small group to select their most interesting questions. Tips: The choice for the trigger is crucial. The trigger should be related to one of the key concepts and should arouse wonderment or cognitive conflict. Modelling the questioning before the whole group is advisory when doing this exercise for the first time. Do not stop the exercise when the questioning seems to come to a hold. Often, when the most apparent questions are ‘finished’, the more creative questioning comes about. 17
3b: Generating phase: question evaluation
Why?
How?
Feasibility
Relevance
? Groups exchange question-selection Value each others questions Give suggestions for improvement
What?
Learning Potential
Collective effort to improve question quality
18
Characteristics of: question evaluation Students pass their selection of questions to another small group. Within the small groups the questions are discussed: ‘Is the question relevant to the topic? What will we learn from this question as a classroom community? How might we improve the learning potential? Is the question investigable within given time, and resources? How could we make this question more investigable?’ The questions are peer reviewed on the basis of these criteria. Each group formulates at least one suggestion for improvement. Tips: Make students aware of the goals of questioning: explore new subjects, follow curiosity to elaborate knowledge, check assumptions. Explain that all questions together will contribute to building collective knowledge. The fundamental assumption in evaluating questions is: ‘Every question has potential for learning’. Emphasize that all questions are welcome and might lead to learning but sometimes questions need to be clarified and specified to increase the learning potential: finding the right question is a process. 19
3c: Generating phase: linking question input ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Inventory of possible interesting questions
20
Characteristics of: linking question input All generated questions, which were evaluated and valued as suitable in the small groups, are linked to the Classroom Mind Map. Then the question input is evaluated in the learning community: These are our questions. Are we content with these questions? Are all our questions clear, or should some be clarified or specified? Are we missing out on some aspects in the CMM? Tips: Order the questions according to the main branches in the mind map and specify for each question which concept is addressed. Emphasize that these are the questions that will contribute to building collective knowledge.
21
3d: Generating phase: question selection
? ? ?
? ? ?
? ?
? ?
?
? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ?
?
?
? ?
? ? ? ? ?
Most interesting questions are selected en connected to the Classroom Mind Map 22 .
Characteristics of: question selection Students and teacher discuss which questions are important and have priority for inquiry and which questions might be suitable in a later stage. The selected questions are made visible in the Classroom Mind Map as by adding notes to the relevant concepts. Tip: When selecting questions think of the adagio: Less is more. When starting to work with the scenario you might prefer being successful in guiding 6-10 questions to an appropriate answer, than trying to guide 25-30 questions and loosing track. In time you can increase the number of questions you allow your students to investigate. The number of questions suitable might also depend on the inquiry skills of your students. You could start with younger students (Grade 1-2) by exploring one question in each branch of the Classroom Mind Map, and gradually extend the number in higher grades. 23
3e: Generating phase: question "adoption" ?
?
? ?
?
? ?
? ?
? Students choose a question to inquire 24
Characteristics of: question adoption When is established which questions are selected by the learning community, students can choose which question they might like to work on. Students can choose their own questions, but also can choose a question posed by a classmate. Students are asked to assume responsibility for a question. Students can adopt a question individually, but can also operate in dyads or in small groups. The whole classroom community shares the responsibility for the questions. This allows students to adopt a question of their choice but also means students have the obligation to put in an effort to come to an answer and share the answer with the whole class Tip: When students make a top -3 list of questions of their choice, the teacher can group students on the basis of their interests.
25
4a: Guiding questions: preparing for inquiry
?
? ?
?
? ?
? ?
?
?
?
Students prepare for inquiry using work-sheet
26
Characteristics of: preparing for inquiry Before starting inquiry students record their adopted question on a worksheet and specify which concept is addressed in the CMM. Students also try to predict a possible answer, for this can be helpful in activating prior knowledge. Finally, the intended research strategy is written down, so the teacher can evaluate if the student is ready to start the inquiry. Tip: Predicting a possible answer is difficult for most students and scaffolding might be necessary. Start by explaining the rationale for predicting and do not accept ‘I don’t know’ for an answer, but rather model how to make an educated guess. Students might also need some scaffolding in their search strategy. Show all available resources (not only ‘google’), stress the need for intelligent searching (using keywords) and model alternative strategies (such as ‘asking an expert’, or setting up an experiment)
27
4b: Guiding questions: inquiry ‘in action’
Student investigate their chosen questions 28
Characteristics of: inquiry in action Student investigate their chosen questions individually or in small groups. Dependent on the type of question the inquiry might be characterized as ‘retrieval’ (exploring ‘existing’ knowledge) or ‘experimental’ (when ‘new’ knowledge can be produced). Tips: The availability of suitable resources is the key to the success of retrieval inquiry. Teachers can organize easy access to selected resources by lending books or collecting suitable websites. During the process students should be stimulated to exchange suitable resources for example by adding links to the Classroom Mind Map In experimental inquiry it is important that students ask ‘operational questions’ which are suitable for ‘hands-on’ inquiry. To evoke this type of questions, specific question stems can be used, such as: ‘What if…….?’ ‘When I will do X, what will happen to Y..?´ etc.
29
4c: Guiding questions: answering ?
? ?
?
? ?
?
?
? ?
?
Answers are processed and linked to the Classroom Mind Map. 30
Characteristics of: answering Learning outcomes of the adopted questions are both recorded on the individual worksheets as well as linked to the Classroom Mind Map. Ask students to record how they have come up with an answer, in order to reflect on the feasibility of the question and their inquiry strategies. Learning outcomes can be exchanged in the learning community in various forms, for example: textual (poster, report, blog) creative (maquette, construction), communicative (discussion, debate) of expressive (drama, dance, mime). The other students might evaluate the clarity and appropriateness of the outcomes for answering the question. Tips: Provide student with clear guidelines concerning the criteria for the exchange of learning outcomes. Dependent of topic, question or student, teachers could choose or freedom of choice or one or more obligatory forms for exchanging learning outcomes. 31
5a: Building Knowledge: visualize knowledge construction
Classroom Mind Map week 1
Classroom Mind Map week 2
Classroom Mind Map week 6
Development of collective knowledge made visible by extending and reconstructing Classroom Mind Map 32
Characteristics of: visualize knowledge construction The outcomes of the individual questions are the building blocks for the construction of collective knowledge. Students in a community of learners share responsibility for collective knowledge construction. The outcomes of learning can be made visible in the Classroom Mind Map. By saving a version of the CMM every time it has been elaborated upon or changed, it becomes possible to track its development. Regular classroom discussions about the development of collective knowledge in the CMM contributes to attaining the curriculum. Tips: Pay attention regularly to the relation between questions and the key concepts in de CMM and point out connections between different questions and answers. Stimulate the exchange of ideas and sources of information while investigating the questions
33
5b: Building Knowledge: progressive inquiry
? ? ? ? ? ?
?
?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Answers lead to new questions
Both ‘fact-seeking’ as well as ‘hands-on’ questioning facilitate knowledge building
34
Characteristics of: progressive inquiry Asking and investigating questions is an ongoing process. Answers might lead to new questions. Stimulate students to ask follow-up questions to explore a subject in depth. Stimulate not only basic information questions, which can be answered studying books or the internet, but try also stimulate students to construct their own knowledge by experiments and exploration of the physical and social reality they live in.
Tips: The digital Classroom Mind Map can be used as a data repository by using links to notes, documents, websites or interesting YouTube clips on specific branches. Students can also record their findings in a sub mind map and link this to the specific branch in the Classroom Mind Map. 35
6a: Evaluation phase: individual knowledge Compare prior knowledge with constructed knowledge in individual mindmap
prior knowledge test
knowledge test
Reflection on personal cognitive development 36
Characteristics of: evaluating individual knowledge After finishing the scenario all students construct an individual mindmap as posttest. By comparing pretest with the posttest aspects of the cognitive development become apparent. Tips: Reassure the students about this test: ‘This is just a method to show to yourself what you have learned.’ Establish similar conditions for the posttest as for the pretest. Allow for some 30- 45 minutes, and make sure no information about the subject is visible in class. By letting students compare pretest with posttest themselves, they may become more aware of their learning process: ‘Can you see what you have learned?’
37
6b: Evaluation phase: collective knowledge Compare prior knowledge with constructed knowledge in the CMM
Classroom Mind Map (Nr 1)
Classroom Mind Map (nr10)
Reflection on collective knowledge development
38
Characteristics of: evaluating collective knowledge Teachers can evaluate if the goals they have set in the Teachers Mind Map were attained by comparing it with the Classroom Mind Map. Students can evaluate the collective knowledge construction by comparing the first with last version of the Classroom Mind Map. Tips: Discuss differences between the original goals and the final version of the CMM Are some key concepts missing and or changed the focus on the subject? Which key concepts were used by the students in the posttest mind maps? Which new knowledge is apparent in the posttest mind maps? Is the choice of key concepts in the Teacher Mind Map still appropriate? What should to be taken into account for the next time?
39
6c: Evaluation phase: metacognitive development Contribution of questions to development of Classroom Mind Map
? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? Students’ questions
Classroom Mind Map(nr10)
Reflection on metacognitive development
40
Characteristics of: evaluating metacognitive development Students and teacher can evaluate together: ‘What was the significance of the questions for individual and/or collective knowledge development?’ Tips: Discuss with students what they have learned about formulating and inquiring into the questions? ‘Was the expected relevance, feasibility and learning potential realized?’ ‘Which questions contributed to significant changes in the CMM?’ ‘Did progressive inquiry come about, if so how?’ ‘What turned out to be productive strategies for inquiry?’
41
Appendix 1: mind map instruction
42
Appendix 2: Questions to coach question behavior Why? (relevance)- is your question relevant? Why do you want to know this? What do you already know? How can we connect your question to the mind map? How is your question connected to this concept? How? (feasibility)- can your question be investigated ? How do you want to investigate your question? Who or what do you need? With who or what in the mind map could you collaborate? Where can you find information? How can you organize and plan your investigation? What? (learning potential)- what will you and your classmates learn from this questions? What would you like to learn? Will the question in this from help you? What do you expect the answer to be?- make a prediction How will present the learning outcomes (in the mind map?) How will we learn from your question?
43
Appendix 3: question work sheet (prototype III) My name is:
I am in grade: My teacher is:
This is my question: This is the key concept in my question: My prediction: I hope to find the answer by: This is my answer: How did I find an answer: Tips /Tops?: My new question is:
44
