4th Design Principle -The Learning Principle

 “Good learning designs engage students in “playful” activities at the edge of their knowledge and understanding using symbolic tools to develop and internalize meaningful thought.”

This week we read Vygotsky’s Mind in Society and discussed the 4^th design Principle.  The most resonant concept I have taken is what Vygotsky referred to as the zone of proximal development.  In class, we used the helping of a child to cross a river as a metaphor.  On one side of the river is the child’s actual developmental level or mental age.  The other side is the child’s potential developmental level.  It is a place the child can go with adult guidance.  The developmental level lags behind the potential level.  Once a concept can be achieved independently it becomes their actual level.  Our job is to keep pulling them along into the edge of their learning. We model, coach, and fade.

I try every week to relate what we learn in class to my daily activities in my elementary music class.  To some degree I have been using the 4^th design principal.  With musical concepts that involve actual music fluency or performing like singing, playing musical instruments, or purposeful movement I am good at discovering where each child’s ability is and pushing them to the edge of their potential.  I model, coach, and fade. Where I have severely lacked using good design principles is I don’t design my lessons to tie cultural and historic SOL’s to the performance piece. I have been teaching them as separate units that I realize aren’t meaningful and definitely not authentic.

I have a question about the zone of proximal development. Why does it have to be an adult to guide the child? If a child in the class can demonstrate mastery, independently on a task why can’t they guide another child who is on the other side of the river?

The Third Design Principle – Knowledge

“Good learning designs recognize concepts as tools, situate those concepts in the context of their use reflecting authentic activity, conceptual tool, and culture, and analyze content for generalizable knowledge.”

This weeks reading and discussion has allowed me to take a few more steps on the bridge form teacher knowledge to classroom practice.  I learned that not only do lessons have to enculturate student into authentic scenarios but also have to solve a real world problem.  Every week I try to incorporate what I learn from class into my planning.  I have been working towards authentic learning but I have not seen the big picture or the end of the road.  That is the real world problem.  Working towards solving the problem will drive the lesson.

A perfect example of a lesson driven by a real world proble was the “Don’s Texts” activity. First, an authentic problem was created. Don was exposed to sick folks in Africa.  Was he going to die?  He asked to be emailed at 11:00 with information or instructions on what to do.  That was a clear outcome or product.  We knew the goal was to solve the problem and Email Don.  Then we were then given Ipads with a disease database to discover what diseases Don may have been exposed to.  We had to use process and critical thinking skills utilizing the information given, background knowledge of the human body, and software skills to navigate the app.  We ultimately decided Don was going to live.  Dr. Norton even told us a story of her history to make the problem more real.  The articles we read on design process SPD, ABCS, AeCTS were summed up perfectly by this activity. 

The Ends Principle

In Sabre Tooth Curriculum the New-Fist was an educator because he was preparing people to know what the community needs done and he had the will and energy to do it.  He taught fish grabbing, horse clubbing, and tiger scaring.  These were all very valuable skills that helped the tribe.  As time went on and the environment changed, these skills became obsolete but they were still being taught. The reasoning being that each subject taught a “generalized skill”.  Teachers were separated from teaching and learners were separated from learning causing the demise of the tribe.

What I took from our second class meeting was the “ends principle” solves real world problems.  Lessons need to be designed with the real world in mind and ultimately have a practical application to fulfill a community need.  When I was a kid in school I could not focus or retain material from a lesson if I didn’t see purpose.  Actually, I’m still that way.  I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve sat zoned out in lousy professional development sessions where the trainer provided no information in the purpose of the training or activity.  How can I expect children to do any better? I must show practical application of lesson activities and design my lessons in the real world with PICKLE.  If not, I’m teaching Magic.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the end goals of lesson planning.  My school is following a School Enrichment Model (SEM).  There is a big push for authentic learning where students are exposed to experts in the community and real-world scenarios.  The end goal is to have students learn objectives through a project that either has an authentic audience or serves a community need.  I feel like what I am learning in this program is coinciding with my school SEM goals.  I’m getting exposed to some really good design strategies.

Teachers as Designers

On Sunday I participated in the Shenandoah Mountain 100.  It is a 100 mile mountain bike race that summits 6 mountains, including Reddish Knob, through the George Washington National Forest.  To keep my mind off of some of the grueling pain I spent several hours of my 12 hour ride reflecting on our first class meeting.  The concept that has been rolling around in my head the most from Thursday is “design is not planning”.  We read and discussed two different teachers who managed their learning much different.  One teacher who had scripted lessons using iPads and another who had a student driven design where students created a podcast to display their knowledge.  When I take an honest assessment of where my teaching is right now I discover that I primarily a planner.  I fall into a creative rut of scripting a day rather than designing a learning outcome.

In “Saber-Tooth Curriculum” the doer called “New-Fist” designed his first curriculum with a real world objective that would help his tribe. Fish grabbing, horse clubbing and tiger scarring all had very positive and important benefits to society. The same can be said for the Podcast.  Students had to learn Google Classroom, Google Docs, how to blog, and use sound apps to complete the assignment.  Their finished product was a more relevant display of knowledge than taking a multi choice exam.  It showed depth of knowledge and students learned many valuable skills along the way.   

I need to design my learning outcomes using relatable real world scenarios with possible design problems and solutions to those problems in mind.  I currently teach Student Enrichment Clusters (SEM) along with general music at my school.  In SEM I have been able to use design to help student driven learning and create learning outcomes that effect the community.  The students decide at a certain point where they want to take their learning and what their role is in the group.  I have trouble designing these types of lessons in my general music class.  SOLs drive learning and I have a hard time designing lessons that expose my students to the many SOLs I have to teach per class and not make it seem like a scripted schedule rather than designed learning.