Teaching in the Information Age

Many people, including Sir Ken Robinson, have talked about the fact that our education system was created for the Industrial Age. Students are required to take similar classes and the hope, originally, was that they all graduate with similar abilities. The education system realized that this is not possible, so it has been adjusting to meet individual needs, a.k.a. "Differentiated Instruction." In other words an Industrial education system is trying to adapt to meet new demands in the Information Age, but I don't know if it will be able to adjust fast enough, especially because the Information Age changes very rapidly.

Information Age Tools
Let me tell you of an experience I had that is not uncommon. Last week, in a Geometry class, there was a day for students to work on their quarter projects and I there was one student who had finished his project. I told him to turn it in and he can do work for a different class. He was working on either Literature or History, I couldn't tell. But this student, who is a very good student, was constantly doing web searches to make sure that he understood the questions on his worksheet and that the answer he wrote down on his worksheet was correct. I have seen this repeated during a study hall period, and watching my students work in my classroom before school, after school, and during lunch. Today's high school students are aware of the Information Age tools that are available to them, and they use them. I think that the days is gone when teachers can close the door and assume that we are teaching in a vacuum. Students carry devices with them that open the door, not only to the entire school, but to a world and history full of information. Maybe it is time for teachers to have their students do more web searches and fewer worksheets.

What does an Information Age Classroom look like?
The next logical question is, what would an Information Age classroom look like? What kind of classroom would prepare our students for the future that they will be working in? My answer is ... I don't know. I imagine that it would have the four c's from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. I imagine that it is more project based learning and less content front-loaded instruction. I imagine that it is more open ended solution finding, than finding the "correct" answer. There are complex problems in the world that need to be solved, and students need to be taught how to handle those problems with the tools in their era, not a past one.

My Classroom
I would love to say that my classroom is like this, but it is not. I am still trying to figure out how to adjust my teaching to meet these needs. My last major shift has been to flip my class. I think my next shift will be to more project based learning because I believe that this is what students will need to develop 21st Century Skills. My hesitation has to do with the need to still prepare students for their next math class and future math classes. I will get there, not because I need to, but because my students need me to.


If you have suggestions or examples of what PBL looks like in a Geometry or Statistics class, please comment below.

Japanese Research Lesson

On March 21st I was invited to visit a junior high school in Wakoshi of Saitama-ken. A "research lesson" was being taught by two different teachers. So we saw the same lesson twice. Once with eighth grade students and then with seventh grade students.

Previous Lesson
The lesson prior to this lesson the students were given this picture. It is a cube. Points P and Q are the midpoints of the sides.

The students were asked "What kind of quadrilateral is PQGF?" The students used nets to think it through. I wasn't present for this lesson so I don't know the details of this lesson. It turns out that PQGF is a rectangle.

This Lesson
Then in this class, the students were given this picture. Points P and Q are the midpoints of the sides.

The question that was asked to the students is "What kind of quadrilateral is DQFP?" The students were given time individually to think about it, and then the teacher asked students to raise their hand based on what shape they thought it was. The common answers were square and rhombus, but there were students who thought it was a rectangle, parallelogram. I was impressed that no student was concerned of the social implications of their initial guess. I think that if I asked this question to my students, many students would vote how the few "smart" students vote. I was impressed that students felt safe enough to voice their thoughts, even if they were the only ones.

After students made their initial guess, the students got in groups of 3 in their han. (Their han is a grouping of about 6 students. These groups are set at the beginning of the year and are the same throughout the entire year). Since students had different opinions, they were to discuss their reasoning and as a group decide on what shape they thought it was and why. The students were also given the following net:

As they were reasoning, they were invited to use that net. Some students drew the shape they thought the lid was and then cut it out to see if it matched. For example the groups that thought it was a square constructed a square on the net and then cut it out. Or I saw one group who thought it was a rhombus, construct a rhombus of two equilateral triangles and see if it matched. Neither of these worked. I saw another group cut out the net as shown, then place the lid face down on another piece of paper and trace the top.

At the end of the lesson the teacher didn't announce what the shape is. I was really impressed by this. If I was teaching this lesson I would want to wrap it up and say what the answer is. The truth is, if the teacher did give the answer at the end a two things would happen:

• The students would stop thinking about the problem. If the teacher doesn't announce it, there will be students to continue thinking about the problem on their own and may come up with an answer or other connections.
• The next task that the teacher presented, the students would be significantly less motivated to attempt it because they would know that if they wait until the end of the lesson, the teacher will tell them the answer anyway.

My Reflection
I loved this task! It was very simple to understand, but very complex to solve. I loved that it was open on how to answer the question.

I love research lessons! I wish that I could find more lessons like this to use in my class, with my students.