Emergent Instruction

Oh oh, it's a list! Don't you love when articles are lists? Here are a few little facilitation tricks that I like to employ regularly to maintain participant focus and engagement. Most of these are straight-up classroom management 101. They work in most situations and are worth trying in any situation. Regardless, I'll explain in italics the contexts/settings I find that they may not work. 1. Move Around This one won't work if you are confined to a stage or a podium with a microphone, or in a tight theatre-like setting.  Are you standing in one place, giving a lecture? Are you physically able to move around, amongst those you are instructing? By god, move! When I have to lecture, I always make sure to move around the room, sometimes to an excessive degree. It keeps them awake; they must continually turn to see where I am in the room. It also helps to convey a sense of excitement about what I am saying. They are less likely to check-out.  2. Us...

The maturity fallacy Adults do differ from children, but not in the ways you want to believe. Adults are goal-oriented; but then again, so are children. To a significant level, adults are more intrinsically motivated than children, as a result of having developed a concept of self-identity. However, I would argue that extrinsic motivation is still the highest motivator of adults as well; a need to succeed at a career is extrinsically motivated by factors such as being higher in the social hierarchy, attractiveness towards potential mates, and economic security. Most adults are too distracted, by the struggles of maintaining their status in the economic and social system, to learn simply for the sake of expanding their own knowledge. Their everyday reality is one in which they must provide value in return for compensation; the focus of their learning will be to increase the value they are compensated for. Theories of learning and instruction for adults must not be based on the idea th...

Andragogy Malcolm Knowles proposed “a new label and a new technology” of adult learning based on the European concept of andragogy, which he defined as “the art and science of helping adults learn” (Merrium, 2001). Knowles identified the following assumptions of the adult learner (Knowles, 1968): Need to Know: Adults need to know the reason for learning. Experience: Adults draw upon their experiences to aid their learning. Self Concept: Adult needs to be responsible for their decisions on education, involvement in the planning and evaluation of their instruction. Readiness: The learning readiness of adults is closely related to the assumption of new social roles. Orientation: As a person learns new knowledge, he or she wants to apply it immediately in problem-solving. Motivation (Later added): As a person matures, he or she receives their motivation to learn from internal factors. Andragogy vs. Pedagogy While many have called what Knowles proposed a theory of learning,...

Developing scientific habits of mind allows individuals to create new mental habits that successfully cope with uncertainty by methodically working to solve complex problems and make sound decisions. Education should have two objects: first, to give definite knowledge — reading and writing, languages and mathematics, and so on; secondly, to create those mental habits which will enable people to acquire knowledge and form sound judgments for themselves. The first of these we may call information, the second intelligence.  -Bertrand Russell Mental Habits A mental habit is the routine thought behavior that an individual engages (often subconsciously or compulsively) when faced with a specific circumstance. As a habit, it is formed through repetition of experiences over time. The process of habit can be described through a simple loop with three components: trigger (or reminder), routine, and reward. An event triggers a pattern of behavior that has been used previously, and th...

Understanding the essential characteristics of science can lead to acceptance of the scientific enterprise and the development of scientific habits of mind- mental habits that help you to navigate uncertainty and solve complex problems. What is this term Nature of Science? The Nature of Science (NOS) is a term that is used in primary and secondary school education. It is an attempt to accurately and simply portray the philosophy and culture of the scientific enterprise. I believe that understanding of NOS is essential for all- and a prerequisite for those who wish to solve complex problems by developing scientific habits of mind . In fact, scientific habits of mind are directly informed by NOS. So, what is the Nature of Science? I’m going to copy/paste an excellent table from a seminal work in science education, The Role and Character of the Nature of Science in Science Education : TABLE I  A consensus view of the nature of science objectives extracted from eight...