Advance Learning Strategy (ALS)
Part 1 research 2013
-teaching science and maths in on-line and classroom enviroment | Adam Mickiewicz University POZNAN, POLAND
Stanislaw Dylak, PhD Adam Mickiewicz University POZNAŃ, POLAND
Grażna Barabasz, MA Adam Mickiewicz University POZNAŃ, POLAND
Mateusz Leszkowicz, MA Adam Mickiewicz University POZNAŃ, POLAND
Anna Wiśniewska, MA Adam Mickiewicz University POZNAŃ, POLAND
Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University at Poznan. He is the head of Department of Research on Teacher Education and Teacher Professional Development (Zaklad Pedeutologii). He is teaching pedagogy and pedeutology (teachers’ profession, teaching and teacher’s personality) and a member and leader of international projects on science education and teacher education. The leader of the SAL group.
Grażyna Barabasz is a PhD student at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland). She has a degree in Education. Her areas of interests are e-teacher`s competences in on-line learning
Mateusz Leszkowicz is a PhD student at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland). He is doing educational research on visual interactions between graphic medium and user. He is engage in eye tracking methodology, investigate reading behaviours of teenagers with infographics. He is also running some courses about visual literacy in education.
Anna Wiśniewska is a second year PhD student at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland). She has a degree in Education and Psychology. Her areas of interests are educational diagnostics, science education and deaf education. She participeted in two innovative projects related to science education: Kolegium Śniadekckich and eSzkoła – Moja Wielkopolska
.
barabasz@amu.edu.pl
dystan@amu.edu.pl
wisanna@amu.edu.pl
mateusz.leszkowicz@amu.edu.pl
An identification of the significant problems in the field of research
47, 8 % 0
The national Science and Maths exam results, prove that science and mathematics achievements of students from Wielkopolska province are rather low
(Table 1). This resulted in putting a research problem: How can we raise learning and teaching results in science, and mathematics? Generally we need improved pedagogy of teaching these subjects. The new way of teaching-learning should be based on students` activity (problem solving), internet and cyberspace which they use on daily basis. It is also crucial that we take into account new ways of learning which are dictated by the ICT development.
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80 %
06 % 51, 60 %
50 %
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49,
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1
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54,
40 %
0
37,
20 %
200
9
60 %
52, 3 % 0
66,
60 %
48 %
35, 7 % 5
201
42,
47,
48,
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68, 6 % 0
50,
41, 7 % 3 13 %
40 %
%
,
33 %
35, 7 % 5
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CO di N C *p ffic LU er ult S ce ie IO nt s i N ag n : P e an ol of sw is co er h l rr ing ow ec e t a qu r s ns es ec w tio on er n d s s r ary eq s ui ch rin oo g ls pr tu ob de le nt m s so ha lv ve in m g sk ost ill s
An outline of the current knowledge of the problem domain, as well as the state of existing solutions
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s ow tud te st le en dg ts re su e a to bi lts re lity (m al to ea -l ife ap n) co s * p si ly lle tu t ua th ct de tio ei da nt ns r ta s a * an bi d lity us t e o re it* a pr so ob ni ng le m * so lv in g*
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What is the main point of Advanced Learning Strategy? The main thesis of strategy is if the students want learn they should build a bridge between their previous knowledge and new informations. ALS is helpfull to build this bridge. On the beging ALS method, students activates previous knowledge, then processing new informations and finally systematize it to build a new cognitive structure in mind.The strategy appeal directly to D. Ausubel who is author of advance organizers theory; indirectly to J. F. Herbart’s apperception theory and L. Wygotski zone of proximal development. According to Stanislaw Dylak, the leader of the group which developed and are working on the Strategy of Advance Learning (SAL), the way of learning determines knowledge operation. Therefore, in the teaching-learning process, we should emphasize the way of learning against the learning results, what we propose in the Strategy.
41, 7 % 3
68,
71,
54,
Who is today's student? Whom is student nowadays? How does student learn? M. Prensky called today’s students the digital native, D. Tapscott used the name: the net generation. Their natural environment seems to be the internet, not only because of that they are just very active in the Internet.They love looking for information and present critical approach to the information they have found. (D. Tapscott) . Moreover their learning is often only skin deep. N. Carr think that their minds are earthbound. Their “learning” is based on scanning contents, and they very often have problem with processing this information into coherent knowledge structure. The problem is growing if we accept the thesis that: the main aim of education should be developing students’ creativity and imagination. How this creativity, imagination and activity should be emancipated? The answer for this questions is hidden in the Advanced Learning Strategy.
70, 1 % 6
42, 52,
42, 3 % 3
70, 1 % 6
Research results
level of understanding
To assess the effectiveness of the Advances Learning Strategy (ALS) we have created an on-line platform, which we then used to run some activities in two different schools. 200 students participated in this project which was regularly supervised. Both teachers and students who used the Advanced Learning Strategy were also interviewed.
Table 1 | Polish lower secondary school students' performance in the national Science and Maths exam (2006-2011) Source: www.oke.edu.pl
much better median
better
median
without changes
median
Table 2 |
median
Changes in students' self – assesed level of understanding scientific issues addressed during Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Physics and Maths classes. Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance (H4 =371,586; p <0,001) demonstrated statistically significant differences in students' self – assessed way of understanding scientific issues depending on classes they took.
median
worse
much worse
0
20
BIOLOGY
self – assesed performence
80
40 60 % students
100
0
20
40 60 % students
CHEMISTRY
N-219
80
100
0
20
40 60 % students
PHYSICS
N-281
80
100
0
20
40 60 % students
GEOGRAPHY
N-375
80
0
100
20
40 60 % students
MATHEMATHICS
N-341
80
100
N-369
much better
Table 3
Changes in students' self – assesed performence during Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Physics and Maths classes. Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance showed also statistically significant differences in students' self – assessed performance (H4 =324,092; p <0,001) depending on classes they attended to.
median
better
without changes
median
median
median
median
worse
much worse
20
0
40 60 % students
BIOLOGY
N-219
80
100
0
20
40 60 % students
CHEMISTRY
N-281
80
100
0
20
40 60 % students
PHYSICS
N-375
80
100
0
80 40 60 % students GEOGRAPHY N-341 20
100
0
20
40 60 % students
MATHEMATHICS
80
100
N-369
Questions Is the Advanced Learning Strategy an effective and exciting option for Polish education? Can we use it within a wide range of situations? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this method from the users’ point of view? People who have been actively creating and promoting the Advanced Learning Strategy are PhD’s candidates and teachers themselves. We are constantly looking for new ways of improving learning and teaching when using ICT.