Excerpt F: The saying that you learn as you teach was very true for all of us.
We started class by examining a research project done with students at a California state
university. Evidently, Asian students were consistently getting higher grades in freshman
Calculus than students from other ethnic groups. After observing students during the semes-
ter, researchers concluded that the reason for this disparity in performance was not the in-
telligence of particular students or the amount of time they studied, but because the Asian
students were more likely to work outside of class in unofficial study teams. Other studies
have found that group work can facilitate learning at all age and academic levels.
This does not mean that if teachers put children into groups they will automatically be-
come better students. We discussed ways that teachers can design groups to make them
work more effectively. All team members should have clearly defined responsibilities.
Teachers should be active participants in each group, advising, stimulating and monitoring
the performance of students where necessary.
The class worked through a cooperative learning activity using an old high school alge-
bra final exam. Each team had people who were comfortable with math, people who were
just okay, and people who were terrorized by math problems. Our goal was to prepare a stu-
dent who has “math phobia” to teach a problem to the rest of the class. The key to the activ-
ity was that we had to help the person who did not understand math, not only to under-
stand, but also to explain the problem to the class. The saying that you learn as you teach
was very true for all of us.
At first, I thought this kind of group activity wouldn’t work very well. When I was put in a
group in high school, I found the “smart person,” and I just floated along. But the ideas of
clearly defined responsibilities and of teacher-as-active-participant have potential and I can
see myself getting enthusiastic about cooperative learning.
I also like the idea of having teams work on a term project. This type of long term activity
teaches students how to work together, how to plan their time, and how to organize their
thoughts. Group term projects will allow students with different talents to contribute them
and make everyone’s work better.
Excerpt G: I need to strike a balance.
As an opening exercise, we worked in groups writing questions to ask students about a read-
ing passage. I hadn’t realized how hard it would be to come up with good questions. After
each group presented their questions to the class, we examined our questions using a sys-
tem called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom organizes questions into a hierarchy ranging from
simple, recall questions, to questions requiring comparisons, conclusions, and complex
thinking. Personally, I like the structure Bloom provided for thinking about questioning, but
some people were concerned that teachers who applied his formula could become rigid and
only ask “higher order” questions. We also had difficulty deciding the differences between
some of his categories. It might be more useful to locate questions on a continuum instead of
placing them in distinct categories. Certain questions will have the tendency to draw
thoughtful responses, even though they don’t initially seem that sophisticated. Alan says his
most important question is “Why?”
My second mini-lesson went much better than the first one. I prepared more questions
and was more relaxed with the topic. Because my first mini-lesson was somewhat dull, I tried
to make this one more exciting and the class got a little rowdy. I see that I need to strike a
balance between the two and keep the discussion a little more civilized. I was also speaking
too fast and cutting people off before they could finish presenting an idea. These are both
nervous habits that I have to address before student teaching. Anyway, I worked hard and
people felt that I improved.
28 CHAPTER 1