Читать книгу Quest for Learning - Marie Alcock - Страница 12

CHAPTER 2

Identifying Questing Components

Quests contain a myriad of elements—design approaches, affinity spaces, research types, and products. What is a quest’s bedrock? The tenets of engagement. They are true for any learner in any learning condition. Beyond the tenets, there is the element of design to consider. In this book, starting with this chapter, we focus on three contemporary design options that can help maximize these tenets of engagement: (1) inquiry, (2) game, and (3) network. These tenets are interconnected, and any design option you choose might touch any one or all three of them to promote a learner’s engagement.

Tenets of Engagement

These tenets come from a meta-analysis of brain-based research (Kolb, 1984; Zull, 2002), game-based theory (Gee, 2007), and our combined experiences with thousands of students. The tenets speak to the challenging, joyful process of learning regardless of the environment where the learning takes place—at an internship location, in a virtual chat room, during pretend play, or in a laboratory, for example.

The questing framework gives rise to students who are fully engaged, motivated, and committed, persevering through problems with their learning networks and demonstrating expertise—all of which promote the tenets of engagement. As noted in the introduction, these are the three tenets of engagement.

1. The learner engages with relevant, worthy inquiries and experiences that are interesting or emotionally gripping.

2. The learner engages in an active, intentional cycle with clear goals and right-sized, actionable steps.

3. The learner engages in social, collaborative opportunities that grow expertise.

The tenets are not isolated aspirations; teachers, by following and emulating examples in this book, incorporate and grow these tenets throughout instruction to maximize engagement. Nor do they occur linearly. We stress that the tenets can occur in any order, happen repeatedly, or be omitted when appropriate—the choices are yours and your learners’. Let us look more closely at each tenet to examine the research, further explain the significance, and provide examples.

Relevant, Worthy Inquiries and Experiences

The first tenet is that the learner engages with relevant, worthy inquiries and experiences that are interesting or emotionally gripping. As a teacher, you may deem an inquiry topic worthy if it is motivational, meaningful, or joyful for the student. Science proves that long-term memory and passion for learning increase when students (with help from teachers, if necessary) connect to something that matters to them and they’re allowed to choose to pursue that interest (Bernard, 2010; Davachi et al., 2010; Evans & Boucher, 2015). Learners become motivated to try, believing a topic is a valid investment of their time and energy (Lambert, Gong, & Harrison, 2016).

Problem posing and critical thinking are vital here, since students must form questions and conclusions before and throughout their quests. The learner’s inquiries stem from his or her sense of curiosity and critical thinking, which stimulates action, conversation, and reflection. For example, elementary students may be interested in designing something to beautify their community. Instead of brainstorming good ideas in a vacuum, they collaborate with the people who will ultimately see the beautification on a daily basis and discover their concerns, challenges, and hopes for the space. Students then use that information to make an inquiry such as, How can we make something that has what people want and involve them in the making?

Another example might be high school students investigating and potentially acting on the global refugee crisis. When discussing current events in class, students may be aghast at the hardships refugees endure. They also may be sympathetic to the rights of sovereign nations that want to be compassionate but do not want to become flooded with new challenges. The questions that emerge are complex: Why are refugees being treated this way, and what can we do to help? Students investigate and collaborate with global organizations such as UNICEF and the United Nations, as well as national and local groups, to provide refugee assistance and examine the real fears people have when they see a new wave of refugees.

The beautification and refugee examples are a testament that student inquiries can drive a quest at the same time they address key standards. Elementary and middle school students can interview neighbors (speaking and listening), collect data on preferences and decide what to select (data and measurement), and design and execute the project (science and art). High school students can examine root causes of the refugee crisis (economics, geography, and history), propose solutions that demonstrate both nations’ compassion and sovereign rights (civics), and call people to action (argumentative writing and art). Instead of skimming the surface to arrive at an oversimplified solution, slower, in-depth study on a topic increases understanding. Immersed in ambiguity and uncertainty, the learners experience ideal conditions for learning. This condition can be brief or extended—either way, it primes the brain for engagement. This is why deeper, questing-type learning makes such a difference for the learner. He or she is building knowledge differently than before. In fact, we propose that questing, as a pedagogical framework, offers bigger, deeper, more authentic opportunities for students to build content knowledge all while being interested, engaged, and ready to receive the new learning.

Active, Intentional Cycle

The second tenet is that the learner engages in an active, intentional cycle with clear goals and right-sized, actionable steps. The extended cycle of expertise, which is based on Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia’s (1993) and James Paul Gee’s (2007) work, is intentional and actionable because it has goals. Teachers can intentionally build the cycle of expertise, shown in figure 2.1, in an instructional sequence. Students need to be invested in a new problem that will require new learning. When they hit the frustration zone, the level of engagement and need to hit the next level help them persevere through the new learning. They learn and solidify new skills through repetition and multiple iterations of problem-solving pathways, leaving them with a feeling of accomplishment as they master the specific challenge at hand.

Source: Adapted from Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993, and Gee, 2007, as cited in Alcock, 2014.

Figure 2.1: Extended cycle of expertise.

Each new challenging skill sends learners through this cycle. For example, an elementary school student might be given a mathematics problem with fractions. Because the student isn’t familiar with fractions, he or she will have to learn new skills to solve, or master, the problem. Because the student doesn’t yet have the required skills, he or she gets frustrated trying to solve the problem. With help, the student develops the skills he or she needs to solve fractions. Practice by way of repeating and applying the new skills in a carefully scaffolded manner helps the student solidify the required new skills. The student feels positive when he or she masters the skills and can repeatedly solve mathematical fraction problems. The student is willing and ready to try attaining more new skills. This results in the spiraling aspect of the extended cycle of expertise.

The extended cycle of expertise shows that the need for a sense of accomplishment (from positive feelings of mastery) couples with repeated success; it is that coupling that propels the momentum of learning toward the desire for cognitive challenge in a new problem or increased difficulty. The student needs this repeated success. Thus, a combination of appropriate-level challenge, timely feedback, and an observable growth in skill or knowledge creates a deeply satisfying learner experience. This extended cycle of expertise is an active cycle of clear goals (specific new skills) and right-sized (challenging but not impossible), actionable steps (presents specific goals).

Additionally, connecting the skills required to solve fractions to a meaningful quest means the learner is thinking deeply about the skills and concepts. When he or she masters the skills, the student, in effect, is an expert. Then the time is right for an increased challenge, a more difficult version of the fraction problem. When students experience frustration, their level of engagement and need to hit the next level of knowledge help them persevere through the new learning (Haskell, 2012). That tension propels students’ learning.

Goal achievement ceases to be the point for this student. The learner learns how to learn: contending with frustration, having the courage to try, persevering, seeing the immediate results, and figuring out what to do next. The learner also grows an ability to self-regulate (monitoring how one is doing and feeling), self-evaluate (stepping back and judging current work), and self-motivate (setting learning goals and committing to how one will achieve them; Stiggins, 2017). This occurs, in part, through the formative assessment process chapter 8 (page 97) describes.

Questing leverages the extended cycle of expertise by requiring students and teachers to do the following nine steps during the tenet of engagement that invokes an active, intentional cycle.

1. Create and clarify the target (find a new problem or level).

2. Make an initial plan of action (experience frustration).

3. Experiment and try the initial plan (experience frustration).

4. Seek feedback and complete data collection (develop new skills).

5. Reflect by reading and processing the feedback (develop new skills).

6. Change or continue with the plan of action (solidify skills through repetition and closely leveled applications).

7. Change or continue experimenting (experience positive feeling from repeated success).

8. Adjust the target (find a new problem or level that requires new learning).

9. Repeat these steps.

As an example, in elementary schools around the world, students learn about life cycles of butterflies and other living creatures. Through the lens of the active, intentional cycle, that learning might look something like the following.

* New problem level: Learning launches with a question such as, What is the life cycle of an animal? or How does a caterpillar become a butterfly?

* Frustration: The answers to those questions are full of sophisticated concepts and domain-specific vocabulary such as chrysalis, metamorphosis, and pupa. To push through this, a teacher might engage several modalities of instruction, including oral explanation, text-based information, and symbolic representation.

* Skill development and solidification: The teacher continues working with multiple modalities, layering in observations, experiments, and real-world experience (hatching caterpillars in the classroom) that students observe. All the while, students are practicing—through oral explanations and written descriptions—all the scientific concepts and domain-specific words.

* Positive feeling of mastery: Through formative assessment and continued work, students move from receptive to expressive, from receiving and experiencing the information to owning and sharing it.

* New problem level: Armed with their new knowledge, students are ready for new learning.

The process is similar in middle or high school, except that students bring their background knowledge.

* New problem level: Learning launches with a question such as, How is a butterfly’s life cycle similar to a frog’s life cycle? What is happening inside the chrysalis at a cellular level? or How does their habitat affect the life cycle of different butterfly species?

* Frustration: Conceptual understanding from previous learning is essential knowledge here. Students now figure out how to find the answers to the questions, pushing beyond what is easy to acquire in an effort to discover the most meaningful, relevant information.

* Skill development and solidification: Again, teachers continue the work through multiple modalities, layering in observations, experiments, and opportunities for students to demonstrate what they are learning.

* Positive feeling of mastery: The process in secondary school is much like that at lower grade levels, with students not only explaining the new knowledge but masterfully weaving in all prior knowledge as an anchor for new concepts and vocabulary.

* New problem level: The cycle begins again with new problems, questions, or opportunities for investigations.

Social, Collaborative Opportunities

Through this tenet, the learner engages in social, collaborative opportunities that grow expertise on a topic. The learning is shared not only between student and teacher but among everyone in the affinity space (which can include a meeting, an online discussion forum, or a playing field, among others). Students use networks like those described in chapter 5 (page 51) to build teams and create a kind of learning cooperative. They seek out physically close or virtual interactors. In addition to seeking feedback here, others in these spaces may view the student as an expert in some instances. For example, a student who creates a project in Minecraft and uploads it to YouTube has learned both content knowledge and peripheral skills around using Minecraft and screen capture technologies. As a result, other students who seek to replicate those actions might seek out this expert as one who can contribute to their learning processes.

Learners benefit cognitively from sharing their learning (Fawcett & Garton, 2005). We find that most learners also take solace in the fact that they are not in it alone; someone else is out there who has gone through this, or a similar journey, before. Whether someone guides the student through a particular challenge or offers guidance throughout the whole quest, he or she builds trust and rapport that can lead to future collaboration and supporting others who need assistance.

This space nurtures growth because of the many ways to participate and multiple routes to achieve status, all bound together by a common interest. For example, in John Hunter’s World Peace Game (http://worldpeacegame.org), students strategize and navigate complex challenges to help save the world. Through this process, students learn via deep conversation and experience the extended cycle of expertise’s frustration phase. Collectively, players examine alternate pathways to grow from that failure, increasing their problem-solving skills and abilities to ask higher-level-thinking questions (about strategy and resources). The comments sections on Minecraft YouTube videos are another example. They are replete with conversations and instructional videos between novices and experts—a perfect example of social, collaborative learning. In these kinds of spaces, novices try their skills. These affinity spaces are in stark comparison to classrooms, where students are at times afraid to ask questions or nervous to try something new. Questing helps foster technological and information literacy, which are crucial 21st century skills (Partnership for 21st Century Learning, n.d.).

The quest’s goal is to have meaningful learning moments that grow expertise, not necessarily to produce experts in each quest. In fact, during a questing experience a learner may realize that he or she no longer enjoys the topic or field of study. This too can be very powerful learning, and the learning community can celebrate as deeply as when realizing a great passion and love for a topic.

Design Options

The remainder of this chapter explores three design options that are helpful in designing contemporary questing experiences. For each option—(1) question design, (2) game design, and (3) network design—we will provide a brief overview as well as make explicit connections to the tenets of engagement. Whether you are dipping your toe in the water or are a burgeoning expert in inquiry, gaming, or networking in affinity spaces, you will guide students toward options that are right for them and for your classroom during a quest. Students can participate in one or all of these designs depending on the amount of time you have and your resource range (such as technology, games, off-site visits, and the like). We explore each design—question, game, and network—more fully in chapter 3 (page 25), chapter 4 (page 35), and chapter 5 (page 51).

Question Design Choices

Regardless of topic or ultimate design decision, questions are necessary for all quests. Inquiry, which is the first learner engagement query and a design type, is the starting point for quests with game and network design. Inquiry leads to a quest because a learner must make choices that compel him or her to launch and navigate a quest. By nature, a learner is an inquirer, asking questions that require imagination, exploration, re-examination, and reworking.

Questions help merge emotionally gripping topics with learning targets such as the following Common Core State Standards for mathematics and for English language arts (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA] & Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010b, 2010c).

* Write a meaningful argument (W.9–10.1).

* Write a helpful informational piece (W.11–12.2.a).

* Create charts to display data collected (3.MD.3).

* Identify whether there is a correlation in data and describe the relationship between two variables (HSS.ID.B.6).

* Design a model (HSG.MG.A.3).

* Create a character (W.3.3).

* Solve a problem with double-digit multiplication (4.NBT.B.5).

We introduce four distinct but interrelated types of questions here, discuss each at length in chapter 3 (page 25), and flesh them out in chapter 8 (page 97).

1. Essential questions promote inquiry in a topic, skill, or concept. The teacher designs these questions because the teacher knows what content and skills are most significant (and must be addressed) in the curriculum.

2. Driving questions guide research, action, and creation. Inspired by essential questions, students generate driving questions. These questions optimize student ownership, help students establish the challenge, and aid in their mapping out an approach to inquiry. With these, the learner engages with relevant, worthy inquiries and experiences that are interesting or emotionally gripping.

3. Probing questions deeply examine statements. Teachers can design these alone or co-create them with students to help examine assumptions based on evidence. Probing questions help students navigate learning goals and make sense of information or results.

4. Reflection questions encourage deep thinking about what the student learned and its impact on him or her. These questions help students during deliverable development, guiding revisions as well as monitoring how they feel about their process and progress.

Table 2.1 links the question types to the tenets of engagement.

Table 2.1: Question Design Connections to Tenets of Engagement

Design Connections	Engagement Tenet
The teacher designs essential questions to begin a student’s quest. The student drafts a series of driving questions to guide his or her inquiry process.	The learner engages with relevant, worthy inquiries and experiences that are interesting or emotionally gripping.
The teacher uses probing questions for the student to actively consider, guiding the extended cycle of expertise as the student develops patterns, solutions, prototypes, and creations. This may lead to new or nuanced driving questions.	The learner engages in an active, intentional cycle with clear goals and right-sized, actionable steps.
The student connects to others through a shared interest in specific questions, topics, or creation examination. As students share their thinking and development, reflection questions guide revisions.	The learner engages in social, collaborative opportunities that grow expertise.

Chapter 3 focuses both on inquiry development and the spaces where learners can pursue those questions.

Game Design Choices

Game design encourages students to learn while playing or designing a game. Neither learners nor teachers need to be fluent in the art of game design. Both can choose game design and its options without a background in game design. Good questing games are those that are challenging enough to be fun, but effectively teach content and skills so players do not quit when the game challenges them further. There is a balance between a task’s challenge and the support provided to prepare players to accomplish that task or collection of tasks; that is known as reaching a win state (a phrase the gaming community employs to explain how to win any game that has more than one way to win). The same is true for quests—there is more than one way to move forward.

Different kinds of computer languages, such as Visual Basic, have evolved from BASIC. Visit Code.org (www.code.org) if you’re interested in learning more. (Visit go.Solution Tree.com/instruction for live links to the websites mentioned in this book.) Chapter 4 (page 35) further explains game options, when learners make the following choices.

* The type of game that fits best for the desired learning: cooperative, competitive, or simulation

* Whether the learner will play a game to learn or design a game for other learners

* Which existing games, affinity spaces, and models can support the questing experience

Table 2.2 connects the tenets of engagement and the game design model.

Table 2.2: Game Design Connections to Tenets of Engagement