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VASHON INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECT FOR EDUCATION REFORM
A Partnership for Implementing the Naturalistic Education Theory
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VASHON INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECT FOR EDUCATION REFORM
A Partnership for Implementing the Naturalistic Education Theory
Introduction
Objectives
The objectives of the VIPER project are to:
1. Discard the traditional strategies and subject sequencing currently used in teaching 9th grade science and replace them with the Naturalistic Education Theory and its pragmatic propositions as derived from its theoretical postulates.
2. Establish a subject matter scope based on the St. Louis Public School curriculum, the Missouri Show-Me knowledge and performance standards and the National Science Education Standards of the National Academy of Science.
3. Incorporate interdisciplinary, collaborative teaching teams from the school faculty and the faculty of the University of Missouri-St. Louis in science and language arts.
4. Develop a comprehensive curriculum involving experience-based lessons in a learning cycle format with teacher's guides that will allow transfer of instructional materials to other sites.
5. Write a series of pre- and post-test instruments to assess student learning and to evaluate the overall project effectiveness.
Project Narrative
The National Science Education Standards developed by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Science and the Missouri Show-Me Knowledge and Performance Standards have provided the framework to reform science education in K-12 schools. In line with these standards, an interdisciplinary science-based curriculum for students at Vashon High School has been developed that provides a sound cognitive structure through enhancement of psychomotor skills and behavioral and academic understandings, and the processes of acquiring and expressing those skills and understandings.
Utilizing the philosophy and axioms of the Naturalistic Education Theory (NET) a year long curriculum that explores the concepts associated with living systems through direct physical, mental and emotional interaction is the process of being developed and implemented for students exhibiting concrete or transitional levels of thought.
Subject content is delineated by the Missouri Show-Me Knowledge Standards, and compatible with the Science Curriculum Guide of the St. Louis Public Schools. Since NET is a historical-based, natural sequencing theory, subject matter topics are stranded utilizing the chronology of the discovery of the concepts. That is the topics are presented in the order in which they were originally discovered, disregarding artificial categorization by traditional academic disciplines. This allows the students to systematically develop their own cognitive structures in the same way that society as a whole developed our accumulated body of knowledge.
The major instructional strategy involves a series of learning cycles throughout the academic year that interlock, forming an interdisciplinary learning spiral. The lessons developed include learner-centered hands-on experiences, focus on real life experiences that involve health, technology and societal issues, foster collaborative learning and require substantial reflection and journalizing. Each unit will culminate in a topical essay and structured controversy, e.g. a debate on a related controversial topic.
By including structured controversy, critical argumentation and reflection into the science curriculum, awareness of relevance and need to know will be enhanced for each particular topic. Students learn how to structure a persuasive argument, how to speak effectively, how to think on their feet, how to work as a team, and how to develop critical thinking skills that will be effective in learning science concepts and skills and transferring their understanding to other problem solving situations.
Optimum instructional effectiveness in a particular subject area is obtained through the use of the processes of oral and written communication. For example when studying the chapter on cells, genetics, or living organisms a debate on the cloning issue would be relevant. Or when studying the environment and ecosystems, an essay or panel discussion on the topic of how best to dispose of nuclear waste is an appropriate form of reflection and concept formation.
The writing of the case to be presented in the affirmative and negative, is used as an interdisciplinary English assignment, thus, increasing the student's writing skills. The use of the library and Internet as research tools is also taught and this increases the student's knowledge of the availability of reference materials and where to seek them.
A tournament or performance that is judged by the students' peers and/or adults will be held at least once a semester. A student assembly with students as peer judges is an appropriate culmination activity. Evening performance for the parents and the community would add a degree of realism for the students, involve the parents and demonstrate community interest and support.
Assessment involves measuring student skills in problem solving and communicating problem analysis and resolution, both orally and in writing. In addition advancement in subject content and change in attitude toward science will be assessed.
Implementation Strategy
The Vashon Interdisciplinary Project for Education Reform (VIPER) is philosophically based on the Naturalistic Education Theory (NET). The corresponding curriculum is engineered under the learning spiral framework and delivered through the learning cycle, inquiry strategy. Authentic assessment is used as a natural and integral part of the application phase of each student experience.
The NET approach eliminates the hit or miss traditional, backward, hodgepodge of concepts outlined by many curricula. Most textbooks start out with chemistry or cells, concepts that require formal thought and were not discovered by the human mind until late in the 20th century. An underlying principle of the VIPER system is that novice students should not be initially confronted with these formal concepts without a solid base of the concrete precursor information that was originally used by the early scientists to arrive at these recent, more sophisticated concepts. Each concept is presented to the student in the same chronological order in which it was discovered. This produces a logical, systematic concept map and develops a natural framework with which a meaningful cognitive structure can be built individually by the student. In order to assure this approach, a constructivist attitude must be employed and measures taken to assay the cognitive state of the students to whom the new concepts are to be introduced. A detailed reference to this naturalistic approached is outlined in a series of articles by Charles Granger in the Missouri Science News, Vol 35, No. 1 p. 14; Vol. 35, No. 2 p. 14; Vol. 36, No. 1 p. 9 and Vol. 38, No. 6 p. 5. A detailed account can be found in the Journal of Thought (1995) "The Naturalistic Theory: In Search of a Unified Learning Theory for Instructional Methodology and Tactical Education," by Charles R. Granger, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp.85-96.
The Piagetian-based learning cycle instructional strategy is an inquiry, hands-on methodology that advances student reasoning skills and concept attainment through three experiential phases: 1. Concept Exploration, 2. Concept Introduction, and 3. Concept Application. During the exploration phase students work with concrete materials, observing, questioning, and identifying problems that are associated with a concept that cannot be explained by their current understanding. This experience is designed to motivate them to observe patterns, establish relationships, identify variables and suggest explanations for the phenomenon or situation they are observing.
During the second phase, concept introduction, the teacher presents the concept to the student or the concept is invented or deduced by the student. Understanding the concept elucidates the exploration experience and adds to the cognitive structure of the student.
The third phase, concept application, involves activities that provide an opportunity for students to practice the use of the concept or skill in a variety of pertinent problem-solving situations. It can be used to assess the working understanding of the concept and to determine if the student can transfer this understanding to other similar situations.
In summary the Learning Cycle = Exploration (Inquiry, Discovery, Hands-on Experience) + Concept Introduction (Introduction of Concept) + Application (Practice Use, Problem Solving). The learning cycle design format and procedure is illustrated in Curriculum Materials for Teaching Core Competencies and Key Skills in the Life Sciences, (1986) by Charles R. Granger. pp. 1-17, Appendices A (pp. 298-300), C (p. 303) and D (pp. 304-306).
The VIPER Instructional Delivery System incorporates a summary stage in which students write and orally communicate their understandings and relate the concept to a social issue of significance to them. The last stage is reflective and may take the form of an essay, treatise, panel discussion, debate or structured argument. This component builds on the cross curricula and interdisciplinary nature of VIPER including mathematics, the social sciences and language arts.
Delivery Timetable Model
The NET approach is systematic and demands a systemic approach to curriculum engineering. Figure I. is a schematic of the processes that make up the VIPER Instructional Delivery System. The natural flow of action starts with the development of the knowledge concepts and performance skills from sources in or that will be in the students' environment and processing them in accordance with the Naturalistic Education Theory. Using a three dimensional cognitive map format an idealized cognitive architecture is developed that dictates a series of learning cycle-based lessons that fit into a spiraling net of concepts. The result is a natural curriculum which leads to student success and confirmation.
Table I illustrates the typical or generalized format used to
design a lesson for students. A detailed example of a lesson plan
that follows this format and incorporates the learning cycle instructional
strategy can be found in Curricular Materials for Teaching Core Competencies
and Key Skills in the Life Sciences, "Developing a Relationship with Plants
or Plant Systematics," by Charles R. Granger, 1989, pp. 64-95.
Table I
| Time
minutes |
Plan | Approach | Example |
| 4-10 | Pre-Assessment - Diagnosis current knowledge and skill levels. Review and affirmation of prior knowledge and skills necessary for learning activity. | Student recitation and
presentation to explain foundation concept(s) needed to understand the new concept and give illustrations from previous studies. |
Pretest on concept. Present working definition of the concepts "set"
and "grouping." Assess their compare and contrast skills.
|
| 20-40 | Exploration -
Presentation of phenomenon (discrepant event) and introduction of concept to be studied. |
First phase of the Learning Cycle (Disequilibration).
|
Students attempt to
establish their own classification system of fasteners, e.g. buttons, screws, etc. |
| 5-20
|
Concept Formation - Students propose explanation for the operation
of the phenomenon or definition of the concept.
|
Second Phase of the Learning Cycle (Conceptualization and Stabilization
of Concept).
|
Students test their schemes and determine the most effective and efficient.Try
to give explanation as to why. Point out dichotomous key concept
and its effectiveness.
|
| 20-40 | Application and Synthesis - Students apply what they have learned in a slightly different venue to solve a problem using the new concept or skill. Assessment of mastery of concept. | Third Phase of the Learning Cycle (Assessing Conceptualization and
Transfer of Concept).
|
Students provide a working definition of classification and utilize
a dichotomous key to identify unknown species of trees.
Post-assessment. |
| 6-10 | Reflection -
Students journalize and/or make oral presentation of their ideas and results. |
Written essays on critical questions, detailed lab reports, debate
and/or structured controversy on relevant social issue.
|
Write brief treatise on appropriate criteria for classifying and what safeguards can be used to limit biases and stereotypes when classifying objects or people. |
Each lesson plan will spin into the next concept in line on the concept map to produce an ever expanding learning spiral. In the example given a logical step would be the development and utilization of a taxonomic scheme involving familiar fauna or flora. The application would be made relevant by involvement with the St. Louis 2004 Nature Survey Project of the Missouri Botanical Garden and surveying the students' own neighborhood.
The spiral then continues on to look at variations among plants, for example, angiosperms and gymnosperms which lead to flower structure and function. A spiraling sequence of such student experiences is illustrated in Curricular Materials for Teaching Core Competencies and Key Skills in the Life Sciences by Charles R. Granger, Experience Numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6, 1989.
The concepts specified in the district curriculum and state frameworks are sequenced according to NET and linked together via a three-dimensional cognitive map. Each concept lesson is engineered based on the learning cycle instructional strategy and forms a natural segue to building a developmentally appropriate learning spiral. This combination of integrated processes produces the curriculum for the VIPER Instructional Delivery System. Web Site: http://www.umsl.edu/~sep/
Personnel
Dr. Charles R. Granger, Professor of Biology and Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, is the director of the project and lead consultant. He oversees the carrying out of the objectives and works with teachers, students and staff to implement the program in the school. He is responsible for editing and evaluating the VIPER curriculum.
Ms. Michele Grant is chairperson of the Science Department at Vashon High School and coordinates activities at the high school site. She is a co-author and developer of the program. She oversees the implementation of the curriculum and the cooperative efforts of the teachers.
Mr. Ray Cummings is a ten year veteran teacher and is the lead teacher for the project. He will model the curriculum and specific student experiences and be responsible for coordinating and implementing professional development at the school site. He is co-author and developer of the VIPER curriculum.
Mr. R. Frank Richter, graduate student in the School of Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, acts as interdisciplinary liaison and writes and coordinates the communication skills components of the project.
Ms. Nancy K. Diley, Administrative Aide, assists in coordinating the administrative efforts and is responsible for organizing and preparing materials for publication and dissemination.
Summary
The VIPER project replaces the past traditional course work in
the 9th grade science classes at Vashon High school with a neo-constructivist
pedagogical approach using the Naturalistic Education Theory as a construction
tool and the learning cycle as the basic instructional strategy.
This model project will be evaluated with respect to efficacy and transportability
to other school sites.