Michigan Guided Pathways Institute Grand Rapids Community College March 28, 2019

How do we ensure that students are learning? What do we know about how learning works, and how can we transform and (re)design our institutions to better support learning? Please locate your copies of “Summary” and “Chapter Seven” from How People Learn II.

In our own words, what do we know about how learning works?

How People Learn Learners need: To have their prior knowledge engaged To understand and organize knowledge in the context of a conceptual framework To take a metacognitive approach to their own learning How People Learn In working with STEM faculty to improve teaching, we of course have to work from a solid scientific research base. So we begin with the tenets established by the National Academy of Sciences in their 2000 research report, How People Learn. National Academies of Science, 2000

What do we know about how learning works . . . . HPL II emphasizes the complex influences of culture and a sense of belonging . . . DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES “Without becoming conversant with the academic language used within and across content areas, students cannot readily engage in the type of deep learning that will enable them to go beyond the memorization of facts” (HPL II 143). And what does literacy have to do with it?

College as Discourse Community Students feel like outsiders Educators have many “expert blind spots” Sheila Tobias: . . . think about the student who is having difficulty in a certain subject area not as one who is dumb or lacking in aptitude, but rather as someone standing outside of the conventions, rituals, and expectations of discourse in that field—all of which are second nature to the specialist but to a newcomer can be undecipherable. Expert Blind Spot: Mitchell Nathan and Anthony Petrosino, “Expert blind spot among preservice teachers” They know their field so well that they may be blind to the learning needs and challenges students face in trying to learn topics, processes, and concepts in that field.

Discourse Mismatch and Expert Blind Spot This is not about “basic skills” Let’s be clear. This is not about “basic skills.” It’s not about students being underprepared. It’s about being an insider to a discourse community, with blind spots about how impenetrable that discourse it to outsiders. The texts pictured here range from non-credit bearing refresher courses for electricians to transfer level physics. It’s all hard if you are an outsider.

To be an “outsider” is not just intellectual/ academic What do I have to give up of who I am and where I am coming from to succeed in college? Is it worth it?

James Baldwin “A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.” “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” New York Times, July 29, 1979

Literacy at the heart of disciplinary learning “Purposefully teaching the language and practices specific to particular disciplines, such as science, history, and mathematics, is critical to helping students develop deep understanding in these subjects.” (Summary) Literacy at the heart of disciplinary learning How People Learn II specifically articulates that all of these elements come together when it comes to spefically supporting the development of disciplinary literacy. In other words, Building the “STEM discourse bridge” is the key to equitable and effective active learning environments

Literacy at the heart of disciplinary learning “learning in a content area involves a process of engaging in disciplinary practices that require learners to use knowledge in the context of discipline-specific activities and tasks” (144). Literacy at the heart of disciplinary learning

Focus on learning and establish coherence at the same time Reading Apprenticeship Framework Focus on learning and establish coherence at the same time Help everyone work on supporting the literacies of their domain

Set norms; Surface and value all voices (141) Identify and leverage “individual strengths, experiences, and goals” (137) Focus on PROCESS (141) Model thinking, reading, problem solving, and engage students in guided practice (145) Engage with multiple disciplinary texts (147) Collaborative, relevant and inquiry based

To discuss at lunch What is the process by which the plan comes into existence? Where are there opportunities: To recognize and leverage students’ strengths? To nurture the development of “insider” academic discourse? For active sense-making and knowledge building? For metacognitive reflection? What’s in a plan?

Fostering Faculty Collaboration Please locate the three articles: “This is what we came here to do: Literacy at the heart of institutional change” “Equity Minded Faculty Development” ”Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice” Spend a couple of moments exploring these texts, and then choose ONE to focus on. Text Sets: Extensive reading The power of choice

Fostering Faculty Collaboration What connections do we see between How People Learn and Community of Practice Theory?

Team Time Take this time to envision the PROFESSIONAL LEARNING that will support the next stage of your work. Brainstorm potential learning spaces (department or committee meetings, PLCs, workshops, etc.) Brainstorm potential people (who can lead? Who can apprentice?) How can you use principles of how people learn? Change will not occur without learning that has been intentionally designed and facilitated to: BUILD KNOWLEDGE BUILD RELATIONSHIPS BUILD CAPACITY

Assessing Metacognitive Work Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) Student self efficacy survey Curriculum Embedded Reading Assessment (CERA) Concept Inventories Tracking learning

Pre test Student Data: Reading & Metacognition Fall 2012

Post test Student Data: Reading & Metacognition Fall 2012

Assessing the Impact of Professional Learning Value Creation Framework (Wenger, Trayner, de Latt, 2011) Value narratives Levels of engagement Types of value Ground vs aspirational narratives Educator self efficacy survey Tracking change, culture shift

Embedding Active Learning in MiTransfer Pathway Courses Grand Rapids Community College March 29, 2019

The Notion of “Apprenticeship” Reading is Problem Solving: Capturing your Reading Process Locate “An Introduction to Threshold Concepts” Ann

Capturing your Reading Process Read the text silently as you normally would when you want to understand something. You’ll have about seven minutes to read, and then we’ll do a short writing piece afterward. Please re-read if you finish early. Ann

Capturing your Reading Process What did I do? Where did I do it? How did that affect my reading and understanding? Capturing your Reading Process Ann Inquiry Protocol

Personal Learning Histories Can you think of a time when you struggled to cross a conceptual threshold? Personal Learning Histories

BREAK

What do we know about how learning works? “Without becoming conversant with the academic language used within and across content areas, students cannot readily engage in the type of deep learning that will enable them to go beyond the memorization of facts” (HPL II 143). “learning in a content area involves a process of engaging in disciplinary practices that require learners to use knowledge in the context of discipline- specific activities and tasks” (HPL II 144). And what does literacy have to do with it?

The Reading Apprenticeship Framework A partnership of expertise between educators and students . . . . . . drawing on what experts know and do as skilled discipline-based readers and problem solvers and on students’ unique and often underestimated strengths. Ann-Reading Apprenticeship is a both an instructional framework for teachers and a professional development model for teachers’ own learning. The model has been developed over the last 20 years with teachers and researchers working together in continuous cycles of development, investigation and refinement. We work with middle school, high school and community college teachers of all subject areas. Our national office is located in Oakland CA and is part of WestEd, a large education non-profit with offices in 8 states.

The Reading Apprenticeship Framework How did our work before the break fit into this framework? How does this framework connect to How People Learn II and Threshold Concepts?

Set norms; Surface and value all voices (141) Identify and leverage “individual strengths, experiences, and goals” (137) Focus on PROCESS (141) Model thinking, reading, problem solving, and engage students in guided practice (145) Engage with multiple disciplinary texts (147) Collaborative, relevant and inquiry based

Metacognitive Conversation Overview Think aloud Talk to the Text Metacognitive logs Reading/ problem solving process analysis Metacognitive Conversation Overview

    When you return from lunch, please sit with colleagues from your home discipline

Framing Threshold Concepts Brainstorm a list of possible threshold concepts in your discipline

Consider a Threshold Concept in Your Discipline

Next Steps What problem or task could you give students to do? What would they need to know and be able to do in order to complete this task the way a disciplinary insider would?    Where/how will they learn to do these things?  How would you/your program facilitate this learning (at the program or course level)?   How would you address the liminal nature of students’ work?  What might this “liminality” look like and how could you intervene?  What support/ feedback might you give?  Think of a disciplinary problem or task.  How would someone who thinks with this threshold concept approach the task or solve the problem?  What questions would s/he ask?   What steps would s/he take and why?    Use Ra framework

Reading Apprenticeship in a Chemistry Class What do you notice . . . . About students’ reading, writing, and talk? About supports for students’ reading, writing and talk? About the instructors’ role and language?