Introduction to
Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science is an open course through the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The web address of the course is http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/urban-studies-and-planning/11-124-introduction-to-teaching-and-learning-mathematics-and-science-fall-2004/index.htm. According to the course description, this
course is meant to provide an introduction to teaching and learning in the K-12
environment (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012). Throughout the various learning activities of
the course, students examine the opportunities and challenges associated with
teaching.
There
are a variety of factors to look at when planning and designing for distance
education which are explored in Teaching
and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education. Graham, Cagiltay, Lim, Craner, and Duffy (2001)
suggested seven lessons for online instruction.
These lessons appear to be guidelines to use when preparing online
instruction. One of these lessons is
that instructors should provide clear guidelines for interacting with students
(Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012). The syllabus is what
provides the students with guidelines for the course. In fact, the syllabus is the most important
course document that an instructor can create.
In the syllabus, there needs to be enough information so that the
students can understand the course structure, expectations and assignments, as
well as how they will be assessed (Simonson et al., 2012). In the syllabus for this course, the
instructor does provide a course overview and rationale and overview along with
a brief explanation of the course learning activities that the students will be
completing throughout the course. This
shows that there has been preplanning because the instructor is able to
communicate this information to the students before the course even begins so
that students know what to expect. The
syllabus for this course, however, does not explain how assignments will be
assessed.
There
are other factors discussed in the course textbook that demonstrate careful
planning and design as well. This
includes:
·
Clearly established learning needs that
are built around specific outcome statements.
·
Variety in the teaching and learning strategies
that are activity based.
·
Materials address the life experiences
of the learners.
·
Participation is encouraged (Simonson et
al., 2012).
This
open course follows a lot of these ideas to some degree. For example, in the syllabus, it is clearly
acknowledged that this is one of several courses that are for students who do
not necessarily major in education but at times add on the course to their
program (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012). Another thing mentioned is that most of the
students have had little difficulty with math and science and have demonstrated
that on assessments. While the learning
needs are clearly delineated, the outcomes are more difficult to distinguish
because they are embedded in other information.
For example, in the syllabus it says, “As a result these courses are designed to provide
students with maximum exposure to different teaching and learning styles, and
provide them with encouragement and support as they pursue their interests in
teaching. The course emphasizes the benefits of a constructivist approach, and
the merits of hands-on, project-based, collaborative work. All too many
traditional education courses lecture to the students about the virtues of such
hands-on constructivist approaches. Instead this course in turn takes a
hands-on constructivist approach so that students may experience these methods
while they learn about them. This approach sometimes confuses students who are
not used to such methods. The second semester explicitly addresses these
issues, and students consistently demonstrate understanding of this material in
their own practice teaching” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012) In terms of the outcome, out of all of this
text I was able to pull that students may experience methods as they learn
about them. When I have seen outcome
statements before, they have been clearly separated so that they can be
distinguished. In addition, the learning
is active because the students will be applying the knowledge they obtain
through a variety of activities.
While the course does follow recommendations for online
instruction that were discussed in the textbook, it seems as though they could
have been followed to a deeper degree.
For example, although the course syllabus provides an overview of the
course to the students, it does not provide a way for students to contact the
instructor which would help to deepen the instructor-student interaction
component that was discussed. In
addition, as already mentioned, it was difficult to extract the learning
outcomes from the material that was presented in the syllabus. As a result, this could make it more
difficult for students to really understand what they should be able to do by
the time that they finish the course. It
is made clear, however, who the target audience is for this course, which is
important. The audience for this course
is those individuals interested in becoming teachers.
Through
the activities in this course, the learners are actively involved. Pulleys and Gears is one assignment where
students contrast paper and pencil mastery of content versus hands on
mastery. Flastplants is another activity
throughout the course where students examine issues in experimental design and
the scientific method. The Prisoner’s
Dilemma project allows students to explore technologies that have become widely
used in the classroom and those that have not in addition how best to use
technologies in the classroom. Other
activities include teaching mini-lessons, conducting analysis, and
observations. With this course, it is
important to note that approximately 10% of class time is spent on lecture
materials and the rest of the course time is dedicated to class or group
discussions, hands on activities, and student-led exercises (Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, 2012).
In
conclusion, the Introduction to Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science
course contains a lot of the factors and qualities that demonstrates a great
deal of preplanning and design has taken place.
As noted throughout this review, however, explanations could have been
taken to a higher level with the course and assessment information could have
been added so that students know in advance how they would be evaluated. Overall, I think this would be a course were
individuals still getting their feet wet in education could learn a lot.
Reference:
Massachusetts
Institute of Tecnhology. (2012).
Syllabus. Retrieved from
Simonson,
M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and Learning
at a
Distance:
Foundations of Distance Education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
No comments:
Post a Comment