Weeks 6 & 7

Reading chapter 7 of the Interdisciplinary Inquiry gave me so much information in the way that I could engage students in inquiry. I especially liked the Inquiry-builder chart developed by Kovalik and Olsen that incorporates Bloom's Taxonomy with Gardner's “frames of mind” and science as inquiry from the National Science Education Standards. I am a very visual learner and seeing the way that the chart was laid out gave me clear impression of identifying cognitive processes that may be learned by the student. Though a student might not have all these processes, the chart can act as a map in finding how they can learn. I thought that this chapter also good to read side by side with chapter 3 in the Roberts and Kellough book on developing ITUs. Both of these chapters dealt with idea of influencing cognitive behavior in students. This is a subject that I don't know much about, coming from the field of behaviorism, but it was good to learn how others in education see the learning process. I do find it most fortunate that I have taken most of my behavior classes before reading this chapter because I might have had a difficult time organizing my thoughts on these conflicting view points, confusing myself along the way. At this point I find it refreshing to learn this new method of viewing education and maybe help find a common middle ground to use both of these methods of thought to help the students that I work with.

Chapter 8 in Interdisciplinary Inquiry and chapter 4 in Roberts and Kellough dealt with assessing learning which I happen to be familiar with as a behaviorist. I take data daily on different behaviors that my client exhibits as I try to determine if the intervention that I am using is changing my clients behavior, for better or worse. I think that assessment is such a critical part of anything we do as it will show us results of our actions. I am a firm believer in Socrates' maxim, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” As far as incorporating my client in the assessment process, one his teachers this year made a portfolio for his work, as described in the reading. I am an advocate for this technique not only for the benefit of the teacher or the parent, but especially for the student. For example, at the end of this school year when my client received his portfolio in his English class, he was extremely proud of all the work that did. This is a great reinforcement for him and something that I can draw from in the future when he needs to be reminded what he is working for. Not only can data collection be way to show progress, or lack thereof, but also a tool to motivate students. And if we as educators can teach a valuable lesson to our students, it's that results matter. And that hard work can translate to a more positive self-esteem.

Considering the online tutorials on assessments, I found it valuable as well. I enjoyed learning how one can assess the students you are teaching in the scope of what they produce and also how they produce. I really enjoy the online tutorials because it is a nice summarization of our reading and it happens to have videos which help me relate to the topic more.