Evaluation of Learning

How does one go about evaluating the learning of each student?  We are taught that everyone learns in different ways, so what is the best way to test students on their knowledge of the material covered?  As I read through the readings dealing with this issue this weekend, I realized that there is no ideal testing scenario, but it is completely necessary.  For this reason, I think that it is important to change up ways in which a student can succeed, so that everyone has a chance to truly show what they know.  For this reason it is not a good idea to simply test with a straight multiple choice type test.  It would be better to incorporate different types of questioning, such as true/false, short answer, essay, etc.
In my mind, a large part of Agricultural Education is learning by doing, or the hands on lab experience.  So, how do we go about assessing the learning that is occurring while out in the lab?  Personally, I do not think that it is enough to grade on solely completion of a project.  I believe that a student should be able to explain what they did and evidence that they not only can do everything, but they also understand why each step was necessary, or why each part was necessary.  To help facilitate and encourage my students to continue to make connections and seek understanding while out in the lab, I will remain engaged with the students and questioning their understanding as they work through the steps. 
 

As I further prepare for my quickly approaching time in the classroom, assessment is something that I continue to worry about.  I want to ensure that I am using both my time and the students time effectively.  I want to see my students succeed.  I want to see them truly get it.  But above all, I want my students to want to learn.  I want to assess them in a way that allows them to show they have learned the content, and to ensure that I have been effective.  I believe that all of these can be tested with an effective form of assessment.

The Problem Solving Approach in Action!

As I prepared for this weeks lab, I began to get really excited.  I was not only excited to see how the problem solving approach would work in a classroom setting, but also for the content of my lesson!  For the first time, I was going to teach a lesson on content that I was not only comfortable with, but that I have personal experience with!  My lesson was on determining what information needs to be known in order to figure out why a dairy animal is not getting pregnant.  This is something I deal with regularly in my own life with my dairy animals.  I believe that as a result of my excitement for the lesson, I was more enthusiastic this week than I have been in the past.  I am far from perfecting enthusiasm, but I do believe that I made a slight improvement.  However, I recognize that I need to be enthusiastic about every topic I teach, not only the ones I have personal connections to.  I believe that for me, enthusiasm is going to be a direct correlation of confidence in the content.  That is something I need to work to continue to get better with.

I began working through my presentation, and everything seemed to be going smoothly at first.  I asked if anyone wanted to be a veterinarian, since this will be for my Veterinary Science class.  I then informed my students that they were all going to be Veterinarians today.  I asked them to pair up with another partner, and then I posed the problem to them.  I have a cow, Fortune, that I cannot get bred.  After posing the question, they had 5 minutes to develop at least 5 questions that relayed what further information they wanted to know about Fortune before they could diagnose the problem.  I really liked this because it made each group think through the problem instead of just having a handful of students call out the questions.  I floated back and forth during this time and tried to get the students thinking a little bit deeper.  Looking back I should have asked them more questions, but overall, I think it went well.

After each group had their 5 questions formulated we began to answer the questions.  I wanted to keep every student engaged, so I rotated back and forth from each group to take one question at a time.  I was afraid that taking one groups questions all at once would cause the other groups to check out.  This worked really well for the most part.  Looking back, though, I wish I would have captured the questions on the board.  I will have a student helper come up and write the questions down so that we can see what all we have covered.  I think that this would also help the students make connections and possibly think of more questions.  I also should have increased my questioning during this part.  Occasionally I asked the students why they wanted to know that information, why it was important, however, I do not think that I asked enough questions to really engage the students to the best of my ability.

Overall, I think that this teaching experience went pretty well, but I definitely have room to improve.  I need to continue to work on my clarity, which has gotten a little better since I have started scripting out my directions.  Now, I just need to remember to look down at them :)

This week I have been reminding myself that even small progress is still progress!

The Problem Solving Approach

Until recently, I have never sat down and thought about how many decisions I make in a day.  Each of us, as individuals, make decisions to solve problems every single day.  However, I never realized the benefit that bringing this approach into a classroom could have.  As I read through the book and articles, I began to think back on my time sitting in the classroom.  Problem solving is a skill that needs to be developed in everyone.  It is a skill that is needed for jobs of any kind.  However, when looking back, I do not remember seeing this approach used very often in any of my classes. So, as a future educator, why would I not take the time to help my students develop a skill that is going to be useful to them no matter where their future takes them? 

As I continued to read about the Problem Solving Approach, I learned that there are six steps that must be followed when executing this technique in the classroom, and they are as follows:

1. Interest Approach
2. Objectives to be achieved
3. Questions to be answered
4. Problem Solution
1. Develop possible solutions
2. Acquire new knowledge, skill, and experience
3. Formulate conclusions and general principles
5. Testing solutions through application
6. Evaluation of solutions

 I also learned that Bradford's IDEAL model for problem-solving is as follows:

1. Identify the problem
2. Define the problem through looking at alternatives, brainstorming, and checking out different points of view
3. Act on the strategies
4. Look back and evaluate the effects of your acctivity

These two models stood out to me as I read and began to prepare for my teaching lab this week, which is to be a problem-solving approach lesson.  When I first looked over the description for this lab assignment, I was completely confused as to why it was even an assignment, however, after reading through the articles on problem solving the past few days, I am really looking forward to trying to put this into practice.  There are many more principles on how to effectively teach problem solving that will be extremely beneficial as I continue to prepare to use this in my classroom.

As a future educator, it is my hope that I can prepare my students for real life situations and scenarios to the best of my ability.  After completing these readings and attending class on Friday, I truly believe that the problem solving approach is a way to better prepare my students for life outside of my classroom walls. 

Be sure to check back later this week to find out how this approach works when I put it into practice!

Demonstration Lab

When I first read over the requirements for the demonstration lab, I was terrified.  We were required to prepare an Agricultural Mechanics Demonstration, and Ag Mechanics is far from my strong point, or my comfort zone.  When I began to dig deeper and actually pick a topic, I knew that I had to stay within either electricity or plumbing since these are the two ag mechanics units I will be coming.  If I were to step outside either of these areas, I would not have had the opportunity to try something that I could use directly in my student teaching experience.

As I went through the planning process, I decided to pull out a demonstration with electricity since I actually had some experience with it.  My initial thought was to pull together the potato battery lesson and show my students what a complete circut was, as well as demonstrate how potatoes can generate energy (this can also be accomplished with lemons, limes, and other citrus).  When I tried this experiment on my own however, the light was hard to see, and I was concerned about lack of student engagement if the demonstration failed.  I decided then to change my lesson and simply demonstrate the properties of a complete circuit.  This was a change made on Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours before my demonstration was due.  Needless to say, I stressed myself out.  Looking back, I learned a lesson that I should have grasped a long time ago.  Good things take time, and in order to accomplish good things, I need to allow myself the proper time to prepare.

Moving into my presentation then, I was given many other great opportunities to learn as well.  I began my lesson, and had my students do the bellwork, however, I don't think anyone actually did the work.  Looking back, I should have had paper provided and communicated that this was an expectation that they needed to have done.  One thing I asked them to do was draw an open circuit and a closed circuit.  If this had been done I believe there would have been a smoother transition into the lesson if I had enforced that the students draw out the different circuits.  This also would have given the students a picture to go back and correct and label as the learned what was going on in a circuit.

To teach my students what was going on in the circuit, I showed a video.  I requested that the students take notes.  Again, I do not think that my students took notes.  I believe that in the future I could provide a worksheet or have a little quiz at the end to hold the students accountable for the information presented.  I do not want my students to check out when a video is shown, I want them to understand that I am showing them valuable material.

Finally, my actually demonstration.  I really like how it worked with having my students come up to see the demonstration up close.  However, I do not think my class of 20 students will be able to see the tiny circuit I had to demonstrate with.  I want to work to come up with a different way to ensure that each student can see and is engaged during the demo.  I provied an operation sheet so that the students had steps to follow along with, I really liked that, however I think I will add pictures for when I use it with my students.

This lab taught me a lot when it came to preparation and presentation.  I know that I still need to work on my enthusiasm as well as classroom managment.  I do feel that classroom management went better this week.  I paired my two chatty and distracted students with other students who were more on task.  I believe that this disabled the distrations the two students were causing by playing with the materials, looking for ways to make the lesson "more interesting."  Looking back I would have separateed these two immediately when I noticed they were sitting together up front for the demonstration.

Overall, this was a great experience.  I look forward to keep growing from here!