Chapter 3: "Understanding how students learn and remember what they learn"
Chapter three dove deeper into the procedures that Nuthall and his colleagues used to complete effective research in the classroom. As I was reading this chapter, I participated in the Teach Ag! Adventure Orientation where I received syllabi for the upcoming fall & spring semesters. One of my assignments will be completing a "Student Learning Outcome/Action Research Project" while at Manheim Central High School. I sense a connection between this chapter and my research next spring. Nuthall's explanation of how he decided on research practices and fulfilled his goals for the studies will help me to efficiently complete my Action Research Project.
Secondly, I appreciate the conclusions that the research provide. Those that I found to be most important are listed below.
1) When it comes to teaching our students, we must remember that much of their capability to learn comes from the background or prior knowledge that they have. Background knowledge is often outside of a teacher's control but it is still a key piece to the learning process.
2) It is recognized that a student must encounter the content that a teacher aims to teach at least three times to understand the concept. This is not to say that vocally repeating a concept three times will ensure that a student learns it. The first time it is taught, a student puts the information into their working memory. The second time they hear it taught or mentioned in a different manner, it has already been in the working memory and is reinforced in a new way. The third time the concept is encountered the student's brain will covert the content from the working memory to the existing knowledge. A variety of methods of teaching need to be used which I am enthralled to learn this fall in my preparation classes!
Chapter 4: "Life in classrooms: the contexts within which learning takes place"
The key point that I received from chapter four was that "students live their lives in classrooms within the context of three different but interacting worlds." These three worlds act to shape a student's attitude and experiences in the classroom.
1) Public World - this world is seen and managed by the teacher
2) Semiprivate World - encompasses the peer relationships carried out by students
3) Private World - this world is found within the child's own mind
While considering these worlds that student's live in, we must recognize that students learn from teacher managed activities and self-generated learning experiences. Nuthall's studies show that the teacher provided a critical mass of the things learned in the classroom. Of course this is reassuring for me as I begin teaching. However within that data, I was most interested to read that students who are labeled "less able" based on standardized test scores depended more on teacher managed activities. It was also found that no matter what ability level a student was ranked at as long as they were provided the same experiences, they would learn the same amount. Going back to the Student Learning Outcome Research there is a similarity with wanting to track the growth as opposed to raw scores of students in a certain area.
Chapter three and four were two more interesting chapters in which I learned many interesting conclusions of Nuthall's research and also came up with some ways to approach my Student Learning Outcome/Action Research Project during my time student teaching! (Ps. If you have any ideas please comment to let me know!)
Coming in August: My final reflection covering the rest of the book. Stay tuned!
