WHAT IS CONCEPTUAL CHANGE?

Prior knowledge is an important part of ones’ studying carrier, but sometimes the knowledge you have isn’t 100 % correct. Because you’ve had this misconception in your head for so long, it is difficult to just discard or replace it.  Conceptual change is when misconceptions are revealed and fixed by changing them to the correct concept.

When you have to fix a misconception that you carried with you for so long, your brain in many cases rejects the new concept.  If this new concept is not rejected, it is either learnt off by heart and memorized (rote learning or short term learning), or you could incorporate parts of the new concept into the areas that was wrong of the old concept, or your brain completely replaces the old one and keeps the new.  The last is the preferred option as this is what is remembered as prior knowledge later on in life.

You as teacher can test whether there was a conceptual change by giving the students an activity where they need to apply their newly found knowledge.

FROM 3 TO 5: THE 5E LEARNING CYCLE MODEL

During the early 1970’s, the early learning cycle model had 3 stages (Exploration, invention and discovery), but this was changed to a 5E learning cycle model and the steps involved in this model are as follow:

STEP 1: ENGAGE: In this stage, you as teacher have to find out what the students already know.  This can be done by class discussions or short questionnaires.  From this, you know where to start with your lesson.

STEP 2: EXPLORE: During this step, you need to fix all the misconceptions that came to light from step 1.  You also give the students a hand on activity that will explore the topic in a bit more detail.

STEP 3: EXPLAIN: Here you could divide the class into groups and let them discuss what they just did in the activity.  Each group will then have a turn to explain to you and the rest of the class what they understood from the activity.  This is also where you bring in new concepts that you explain to the students to broaden their knowledge.

STEP 4: ELABORATE: Give the students a new activity where they will need to apply their newly found knowledge.  By doing this you ensure that this sticks.

STEP 5: EVALUATE: the purpose of this step is to see if the students truly understand what they just did.  This can be done formally as an exam of test or just as a oral presentation.

This is an easy way to develop a lesson plan, but just remember, students don’t all study the same way and in these 5 steps, you need to try and accommodate different studying techniques to improve your lesson plans effectiveness.

GETTING THROUGH TO YOUR STUDENTS USING TECHNOLOGY

Being a student myself, I know what it means to lose interest in a lecture.  I have many times found myself sitting in a class, not really paying attention to what the lecturer is saying, and this is not because the topic is boring, but because of the way the lecturer is trying to convey the message.  I have even seen students walking into a lecture hall, putting their bags on the desk and just sleep from the start to the end of the lecture.  So how do you as teacher/lecturer get through to your students and prevent this from happening?

The truth is you have no idea in which state of mind the students are going to be in when they get to your class (especially on a Monday morning, first period). The problem is you are still expected to get most of your students to pass, without lowering your standard of teaching. BUT HOW?  The answer is quite simple, just increases your knowledge about new technologies to the same level as your students, and once you get that rite and start using it in your classes, class should be fun for you and your students. So, I am actually telling the teachers that they should become the students for a while before they can teach modern day students.

Students use technologies that most teachers/lecturers won’t even dream about using.  They’ve found ways to show things or convey messages to each other in ways that they find much more interesting than a lecturer using overhead projectors or wordy power point presentations.  So what can you do to get their attention?

There are many technologies out there that you as a teacher/lecturer can use to make class easier and fun, not only for the students, but you as well.  To overcome students (who were sleeping during your class), coming to your office asking questions about the work you just did in class, why not record yourself in the lecture/class, or let a student do it for you.  Nearly all students have cell phones with cameras or voice recorders, why not encourage them to use it in your class, or you could use the free-ware called Audacity and install it on your laptop and record yourself.  Instead of having the students come to you for the electronic lecture, why not put it on a downloading site where students can access it using their phones or any pc connected to the internet.  This is a good idea, but remember that, just because the technologies are there, it does not mean that it always works, you need to tweak it so that it can accommodate your classes needs.

Another way to get your students to, not only interact with the work in class, but to make sure that they actually think about it in their free time is to use blogs or Facebook pages.  You as the lecturer/teacher can set up a blog or the Facebook page, putting on the main concepts of what you did in the class.  Here, students not only get the main concepts of the previous class, but they can comment or ask questions on the blog or Facebook page.  This is a good way for them to discuss certain topics amongst themselves, and you as their lecturer can see where they misunderstood you in class and who it is that commented on the post.  This gives you insight on what you have to go through again in class before you move on to the next topic.  You can also comment on this page, and correct the students as they will most probably use the site as a revision lecture for test and exams.

Another good way of making the class interesting is to make videos or slides of the work.  Instead of just talking the whole hour in class, why not show the students a slide show or TED video about the work that is going to be discussed.  The slideshow you can make yourself by using free software like Picasa or Photostory.  This doesn’t necessarily make the class more interesting, but it makes it different, and thus the students won’t get bored so easily.

There are many other things that you can do, but you should always remember, that different students take in information differently, thus, you should always try and use different techniques to accommodate all of the students in your class.

Dr. Seuss – The Lorax

How can a children story be used to teach Biology? Younger kids prefer to study using pictures, and this is also seen at university level.  Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is the perfect story to start teaching about environmental conservation. The story deals with pollution and over harvesting, how this impacts the environment, but more importantly, it ends with telling you that, no matter how bad things look, you can always make a difference and restore what was lost.  The story, if you haven’t read it already, can be found at http://www.joannemeszoly.com/2009_04_01_archive.html, but here is a story retell, without the rhymes and pictures.

The story starts with a boy walking down a road leading to the Once-lers house to try and find out what happened to the Lorax.  When he gets to the Once-lers house, the Once-ler agrees to tell him the story, but he has to pay the Once-ler fifteen pence, a nail and a shell of a great-great-great-grandfather snail.  The Once-ler then tells the boy, that a long time ago, when he first came here, the land was filled with Truffula trees and animals such as the Brown Bar-ba-loots, Swomee Swans and Humming fish.  He looked at the tops of the Truffula trees and realized what nice thneeds (clothing) they would make. He chopped down the first tree and made a thneed that he quickly sold to somebody for three-ninety-eight.  After chopping off the first Truffula tree, the Lorax appeared at his house to try and discourage him from chopping off more trees.  “I’m busy” the Once-ler said, “shut-up if you please”.

The Once-ler, realizing the business potential, called his aunts and uncles to help him expand his business, and soon it was so big that they could not just chop one tree at a time, but started using a mechanical devise he called “my super-axe-hacker”.  The Lorax constantly shows up at the Once-lers house, now telling him about what is happening to the animals because of his business. The Lorax eventually had to send away the animals one by one as the Once-ler was not listening to him. The Brown Bar-ba-loots were sent away because without the Truffula trees, there was no more for them, the Swomee Swans because the smog in the air stopped their singing and the Humming fish because the goo that was released into their pond was covering their gills. 

Eventually, the last Truffula tree was cut down, and the Once-lers company closed and his aunts and uncles left.  The Lorax also leaves, leaving behind a small pile of rocks with the word “unless” on it.  The Once-ler tells the boy that he never understood what the Lorax meant by it, but now he does.  He explains to the boy that unless he does something to save the environment, no one will.  The Once-ler then gave the boy the last Truffula tree seed to keep safe and to try and restore the Truffula forest so that the animals can come back.

Just from the retell, you can already see the endless possibilities to use this in a conservation biology class.  Once you have discussed the story in class, and the students understand what the story behind the story is, try and get them to relate what happened in the story to a real life example. By them using a real example they can relate to, they will remember what you discussed in the class.

Those who can, do. Those who understand, teach.

In my first year at the University of the Western Cape, in the second semester, I had class with Mr Martin Hendricks who kept telling the class that all we need to pass his module is some “koppenosity”.  I only realized what he meant three-quarters of the way through my second year when Mr. Frans Weitz talked about “prior knowledge” and how important prior knowledge is in biology.

Prior knowledge s the knowledge students bring with them.  Those things that is already there.  The problem is that this prior knowledge is in many cases not much help because it is wrong, or in a lot of instances it is missing all together because students rely too much on their short term memory, i.e. cramming for tests and exams.  So how do you as a teacher get things to stick with the students?

The paper titled “Those who understand; Knowledge growth in teaching” by Lee S. Shulman (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1175860) tries to explain what is needed to be a good teacher.  This comes down to three types of knowledge, these are:

1)   1)   Content knowledge, or the understanding that teachers have about the subject they are teaching.  This understanding is not simply knowing definitions and theories, but in depth knowledge and understanding of those definitions and theories.  This also implies that teachers have to stay up-to-date with new developments in the field so that their students can get the best knowledge.  Content knowledge is important because students ask questions, or if they don’t understand something, you as the teacher need to be able to explain and give them examples, because it’s those examples that tend to stick with the students.

2)    2)  The second type is the knowledge teachers should have of resources that could assist them in their teaching, i.e. things they could bring into their lesson plan that can help the students understand the content being taught.

3)   3)   Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) or how teachers bring the content to the students.  These include diagrams, tasks, group discussions, debated, concept maps and many more.  To find the best way to bring content to students is reliant on the teacher knowing what makes the course difficult, and what it is the students already know, “prior knowledge or koppenosity”, even if it is wrong.  It is important for the teacher to find out if the prior knowledge is correct before they move on and if not, to first fix the misconceptions the students have.  A good example of a different way of teaching can be seen in the paper titled: A genetics game by Haws and Bouer (http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/4451171.pdf?acceptTC=true).  Here students are able to see the effects of genetic variation, gene flow, mutation and dominant and recessive traits when they build their own organism.  Due to the fact that it is so different, students will not only enjoy it, but theoretically, they should grasp the content better because they are doing it themselves.

Different students have different ways of studying, and you as teacher needs to know what ways your students prefer, and your lesson plan should accommodate more than one type.  George Bernard Shaw once wrote: “He who can, do. He who cannot, teaches”, but this can easily be changed to “Those who can, do. Those who understands, teaches (Lee S. Shulman), if teachers embrace these three types of knowledge.

INTRODUCTION

I am doing a course called Biology in Education at the University of the Western Cape. The course, taught by Dr. Lorna Holtman, deals with different teaching techniques that could be used by teachers or lecturers or by practical demonstrators and tutors like me.  In this course, we will focus on how to get the students or learners to enjoy classes and how teachers can do things in class to get the best results from their students.  Lets face it, in life, you understand things better if you enjoy what you are doing. I will try and get a post up after each topic discussed in class.

Enjoy

Francuois Müller