To be honest, prototyping was an intimidating assignment. What does a prototype even look like? Well, that's the point of a prototype, to decide what the project might look like. After completing some beginning work on mapping out a prototype, I am thankful for the process. I feel like it has begun to add some clarity to the idea spinning around in my head. Everything in this project can feel so interconnected but categorizing it, even into a table of contents and headers adds something concrete to it all. It also helps me to realize where the idea is lacking and where it is overloaded.
As I was working on my bubble map, I realized that I have the best and clearest blueprint for my “Evidence” prong, the section of my prototype dedicated to convincing my audience my project is worthwhile. That is important to me because I do not assume every person who reads my prototype will automatically share my viewpoint on the value of a growth mindset and student agency in a mathematics classroom. I cannot really think of a reason why someone would dismiss it as a bad thing, but I can certainly imagine an educator agreeing but just “not being able” to find the time to do it. Still, even though I believe it is an important aspect of the project, it may be a little too heavy. I recognize that parts of the other prongs (teacher training and student resources) both will involve “database” components that are full of third party and original resources, but I still need to be very cognizant of the purpose of my project. I am not building this capstone to argue with it, but to provide the means for change and growth. I need to turn down the argumentative side of my brain and really make sure I pack in as much value into the other two sections as possible. Trying to categorize the three prongs of my hypothetical model also made me consider the overlap of resources. My target audience is educators, but part of my product is providing resources the educators can use with their students. It really makes me question, even as I am still compiling various resources, what is truly a training tool for educators and what is good for students. Should students also be exposed to articles about a teacher serving as a facilitator? Will the student understanding the teacher role help alleviate frustration and help them take advantage of the structure. If yes, is that something within the scope of project or am I going to far? Is understanding the teacher role part of the “culture of agency” I mention in my driving question. How essential is it? I am glad to be answering these questions now before we really get into the meat of it in our next course. I also appreciate this process because I can see my colleagues protoypes. Even though our topics are different, our motivations are mostly the same, to innovatively improve some aspect of education Jen Ellison’s protoype explicitly reaches for parents as well. It makes me ask if that is an essential part of my model as well? How crucial is parent support of a student at home to the success of my project? More and more questions to answer about my design.
1 Comment
As I keep considering the specifics of my capstone project, one dilemma in particular comes to mind. My product will be aimed towards educators (although I would not be heartbroken if some students stumbled across it as well) and its intended purpose will be to persuade and enable educators to change their classrooms. My action research had a focus towards increasing student performance but that is really just the carrot at the end of the stick. It is the justification for the product and certainly a great result but not the sole purpose. So I need to answer the question, what do I want from my audience? In a word, I want to create change. All of our readings in 701 and the sensemaking readings in 792 are all pointing to the same thing, the American education system contains deeply rooted and fundamental flaws. Looking at an international context, countries with wildly different educational systems from each other consistently outperform American students. This suggests it is not solely the systems in these high performing countries. Both ends of the educational spectrum CAN be successful. Even America’s messy blend of a system tends to maintain a spot in the top 10 countries in middle school math according to TIMSS. http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2015/international-results/ Granted, I believe America should, based on world status, sit higher on that list so there is definitely a problem, even if we do “outperform” quite a few developed countries. As it is, the top five are all about 70 points or more ahead of America. So, I am fully supportive of integrating technology in the classroom and developing 21st Century Skills and focusing on problem solving. I completely believe that the landscape of the workforce is changing and students need to be prepared in a new and innovative way. However, I also do not believe that pedagogy and computers and standards is the final solution to our performance issues. I believe a cultural shift is necessary as well. In fact, I believe everything I just listed will be even better with a healthier academic and mathematical culture. I talk about math culture a lot on this blog but just to quickly highlight what I’m talking about I will list a few things which I am sure are not unique to America, but are likely rare in the top five performing countries. First, and this is the one that hurts the most, is adults growing negative mathematical mindsets in students. A child brings their parent their math homework looking for help and the parent says “I can’t do this. I was never good at math. Everything was fine though! I have a family, a house, a good job. Don’t worry about math.” That sentiment is so toxic to a developing student. It is a frighteningly common attitude, one I have even heard from non-math teachers! It kills motivation for students. It solidifies the idea that there are “math people” and “not math people.” This is a sentiment that put music in danger in schools. There was a time when music was required in schools. Then the idea came around that some people just are not musically inclined. Well, if some people just aren’t made for music why are we wasting educational resources forcing all kids to learn some foundation of music? When budget cuts come around, music always comes up first. I am deeply convinced that is a cultural issue. And now people wonder why all music sounds the same and no one seems to be able to create “great music” anymore. Quietly, the same has happened to math. We culturally disparage mathematics and then wonder where all the American mathematicians went! I talked about that topic longer than I wanted to but this blog was prompted with what inspires us and math culture inspires me. The idea of a toxic culture around mathematics is involved in many issues we face in mathematics. How many movies have the math teacher as the hero? Even Good Will Hunting has the math teacher as the “bad guy.” English teachers are usually the heroes (probably because scriptwriters have more fond memories of English class than math). How many people think “oh cool!” when you mention a major in mathematics? At least science majors are beginning to seem cool in the mainstream. Children soak up these spoken and unspoken sentiments about math and then we wonder why they don’t like math. It’s not cool. It’s hard (and some of that is a pedagogy issue). Life still works out fine when you give up on it. In elementary school, math is the fact memorization and worksheets and boring lessons. Students arrive at middle school and for the first time get a room and a teacher dedicated to math and they are already at a disadvantage. Time to put the soapbox away. That is what I really want to impact. I want to combat the negative mindset towards mathematics most students pick up throughout their childhood. This will enhance 21st Century Skills, tech integration, and the Common Core. I firmly believe it is an investment for a long term achievement in mathematics. So back the question I asked 100 years ago at the start of this post, what do I want from my audience? I want to convince them of the value of changing the culture in their classroom. That takes an investment of time and energy and sacrifices some instructional minutes (although I believe that sacrifice will pay dividends). So my dilemma is, how do I get my audience here? The teachers who find this blog on their own are already motivated to make change. It is an easy win for them. How do I get my small time online blog or capstone website into the hands of educators who AREN’T looking for tools to change their classroom? This is my dilemma, how do I access my audience? There is a sense of irony that in my quest to preach growth mindsets in math, the most likely to listen are those who already have a growth mindset. I feel like my product is in danger of preaching to the choir, so how do I push the borders of my audience? This goes back to Clarke. How do I design my product in a way that it is widely accessible, even to people who might not frequent educational blogs? |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
October 2017
Categories |