Week 7

Teaching Students Peer Critique

Revision and Reflection: This is the foundation for building rigor which seems to be such an important concept in today’s educational setting. Revision and reflection promotes a practice of quality. It allows the entire learning community to participate including community mentors, educators, and student peers. STEM relies on a formative learning experience that is a part of revision and reflection. It is the tinkering, remixing, and practice that is essential in both the PBL and STEM learning environment.

For feedback to be useful, whether from teachers or from peers, the feedback needs to indicate:

• Where have I done well?

• Where can I improve?

• How do I improve?-specific suggestions and examples

• What do I do different next time?

Coaching

Atul Gawande: Personal Best- The Value of Coaching https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/03/personal-best

Motivation and Work that Matters

"…Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might..." Ecclesiastes v 10

As any classroom teacher can tell you, student learning is greatly dependent on motivation.

As Daniel Pink, in his book Drive points out, motivation is dependent upon three factors- mastery, autonomy, and purpose.

While mastery depends heavily upon well-structured lessons and enthusiasm on the part of the teacher, autonomy and purpose depend upon the student's sense that they are in control of their learning, and that their individual work has meaning.

Incorporating art-making in science and engineering projects- the 'A' in STEAM- helps students to express this meaning, whether in graphic art, a musical composition, a Tik-Tok video, or an interactive Scratch story. And once the work is created, whether a drawing, an interactive story, or a video, it must be exhibited and celebrated, both to communicate what goes on in school to the larger community, and to communicate to the student that their work MATTERS.