Case 1: Mr. West wants his students to truly understand Civil War battles. He engages the help of a local Historical Re-enactment Society and assigns each of his students to the Union or Confederate side. His students join the re-enactors from 7:00am-7:00pm for a full day of activities which include a long march (complete with rudimentary battle gear), setting up camp, cooking over campfires, scouting territory, and engaging in a historically representative battle.
1. After participating in this activity, what do you think the students will remember? How might those memories differ from those students would have if they only read about the Civil War in their textbook?
I think they will take away a very concrete perspective on aspects/realities of war. They won’t likely remember dates, but they might take away ideas of battle preparation, tactics, heightened emotions … These re-enactors typically take what they do seriously and preserve the historical aspect as much as possible; gratefully you can depend on accuracy and not as much attempt at correcting misinformation as one might otherwise assume.
The moment or day in the life that the students were involved in will far more likely last longer in their memory than sitting in front of a text or a film and learn to regurgitate blanket facts. This also might translate into active involvement where the students initiate going to the memorization side of things and the text because they were emotionally engaged in the first place. Then they might want to participate in the study with more focus and more self motivated tactics. If this happens, one could easily assume that retrieval will be quicker because of the dual learning tactics.
2. How does Mr. West’s use of a Civil War re-enactment engage students’ emotions? What is the relationship between emotions and learning?
I just mentioned it (again should read all the questions before answering them), but, you are creating concrete pathways to memory and retrieval. You aren’t just studying in text but in physical form. Being a part of things, hardships, emotive pulls, the physical action, can create yet more stimuli. It is long past the short term and certain aspects of the movement will create long term reflection. I wonder what those who were in the Confederate vs. the Union side would take away from perspective in the long term. I wonder if they understood more what each side was fighting for based upon their experience. This takes RAD teaching to another dimension (as long as its tied back together in the classroom in detail). I would assume, but don’t know the research behind it to reinforce my thought process; I assume that the activity should stimulate the brain and positive emotion. Being more personally involved, more personally engaged, would hopefully put the student in greater control and be equipped with a greater sense of self. Having a more positive self should trigger more connections to memory and the brain. So activity mixed with emotive connection should (in theory) engage the amygdala; removing the fear in the learning process and opening the body up to trust and automaticity.
3. Based on the principles of dual-coding theory, what activities would be effective for Mr. West to use as a follow-up to the re-enactment?
I admit that I know very little about dual-coding except what was briefly discussed in class and a bit of scanty research on the internet. From what I can gather, this interactive learning process for the kids isn’t true dual-coding. There is a single aspect of participation, but there is no instruction or written or opposite to enhance the immediacy of the learning. But, in a follow up, if Mr. West were to have taken pictures of the kids and juxtapose those with images and text and movie clips from history while lecturing on the subject matter, this itself would be true dual-coding and in such a socio-cultural manner that I believe it would hit an emotional connection with the participating students. Cognitive abilities would be tapped. With a visual and oral communication, also a time line graphic handout or something along those lines might be helpful for reference – especially if the graphic organizer were connected again to what the students saw in the visual lecture, this would increase the learning and aptitude of the students.
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Case 2: Mr. Dunkin and Mr. Richards, teachers at the same school, are debating in the teacher’s lounge about who provides the best type of organization for the students’ learning. Mr. Dunkin lectures and assigns reading and chapter problems Mondays through Thursdays. On Fridays he gives a short answer exam. In Mr. Richards’ class the students never know what will take place on any given day until they arrive in class and look at a detailed outline of the hour’s activities on the chalkboard. His class engages in mix of role-plays, lecture, videos, group projects and demonstrations. Mr. Richards occasionally gives surprise quizzes and his unit tests can include true/false, multiple choice, short answer, or essay.
4. Who do you think provides better instruction for his students? Support your answer from an information processing perspective.
Before anything else, I think both teachers are missing the point. I think to be effective and well rounded you need to engage with the teaching of Mr. Richards but with the organization (as per student awareness) of Mr. Dunkin. That being said, I would prefer to participate in Mr. Richard’s coursework. So for this argument I will easily and readily side with our second teacher Mr. R. His tests are more varied, his activities engaging and attempting to reach more students than the typical (and proven to be poor in the long run) course breakdown. If we just go to memory system ideas, Mr. R is giving sensory input. He is helping the brain take thoughts and force them to short term memory. Not knowing anything else about his course work we can’t assume how effective he is. But if he can gain students attention, he can focus stimuli to register for longer periods of time. Because he has outlined on the chalkboard, the students have some idea of what to expect so they are not completely caught completely unawares. If Mr. R build on prior knowledge, and offers activities that are varied as is represented, then the students have options when it comes to selection of processing. They are also given more of an opportunity to construct knowledge and have moments of maturation. They are actively involved in their learning which holds them accountable.
5. How would you expect the students’ learning outcomes to differ depending on which teacher they had?
I expect that Mr. R’s class will be more engaged, so therefore personally involved and likely will end up with better test scores. Mr. Dunkin’s class might initially score better on their weekly exams, but the long term and automacity will not likely be there. If you look forward to class, or at least know that you won’t be bored, your mind is actively engaged. If you know that you will be lectured at by a talking head, it’s easier to turn off and zone, not gather any new information, have a severe lack of meaningful learning, and waste your time in a classroom every day for the length of time you are stuck in such a tedious learning environment.
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