Tales from Places in Town -Urban settings as promoters of inclusive learning Danish team; UCL / Teachers College: Ole Juel Nielsen (MA (psych)) & Pia Kathrine Pedersen (MA (English)) Tales from Places in Town

Aim of Work-Shop To consider and explore various urban settings as promoters of inclusive learning. And produce teaching material for school and teacher education; material that comply with different student conditions (language, culture, socio-economic background, gender, temperament, intelligences, physical and mental conditions). Tales from Places in Town

Elements Product Environment Method Learning Tales from Places in Town

(un)predictability Tangibility Element & Variables Environment Tales from Places in Town

Why? In school you deal with something that isn´t there You deal with ’symbols’ Tales from Places in Town

Environment Tales from Places in Town (Un)Predictability of classroom versus predictability urban environment The individual in control

Cognitive Strategy Learning Styles MI Element & Variables Product Tales from Places in Town

Product -Text -Sound -Image Individual sub- products become 1 collective product Tales from Places in Town

MI Element & Variables Tales from Places in Town

Multiple Intelligences (H. Gardner) Spatial Linguistic Logical- mathematical Bodily- kinesthetic Musical Interpersonal Intrapersonal Naturalistic Existential Tales from Places in Town

Cognitive Strategy Element & Variables Tales from Places in Town

Digital Part/element Sequence Analog Global Situation Hemisphere specialisation Tales from Places in Town

Hemisphere specialization Tales from Places in Town Left HemisphereRight Hemisphere Spatial PerceptionPoor Superior; Distance 3-D analysis ThinkingSymbolic, analysis Holistic, imagination Focus Foreground, Specific Background, General Aware ofDetailOverall picture Better atStructured tasksOpen-ended tasks Language Decoding, literal surface meaning Context, meaning humor, metaphor

An Example of Cognitive Style Presmeg (1989) designs a task that exemplifies the hemisphere specialisation; children were asked to solve the following problem: A dog pursues a fox which is 30 metres from the dog. The dog covers 2 metres in each step; the fox 1 metre. While the fox takes 3 steps, the dog takes 2. What distance does the dog need to cover in order to catch the fox? Tales from Places in Town

Strategy 1 Two children of the same nationality and culture: -Investigator (I): Read the text to yourself again -Darren (D): (after a moment) Fox - covers 1 metre in each step; dog - 2 metres (D thinks aloud while drawing the following diagram) -I: Do you want to tell me what you’re drawing? -D: (writes calculations on the sheet of paper) Right, for every 4 metres that the dog covers (points to the spot on the diagram while speaking), it wins 1 metre. So the dog wins the 30 metres in 120 metres Tales from Places in Town Fox Dog

Strategy 2 Another pupil (Ashwin) solved the problem as follows: -A: If the dog takes 2 steps it covers 2 * 2 metres = 4m; if the fox takes 3 steps it covers 3 * 1 metres = 3m; so the dog wins 4 - 3m = 1m. Therefore, the dog wins 30m in 4*30m = 120m. Tales from Places in Town

Two Learning Styles According to the two strategies of solving problem, Darren is grouped with ’image makers’; Ashwin with the group of ’structured and organised thinkers’ (Presmeg, 1989). Another grouping would be: when solving mathematical problems, Darren applies a qualitative learning style (visual), and Ashwin makes use of a quantitative style (or sequential). Tales from Places in Town

Learning Styles Element & Variables Tales from Places in Town

Learning styles (Dunn & Dunn) Tales from Places in Town

Cognitive Taxonomy CL Element & Variables Method Tales from Places in Town

Method Individual work Cooperative work Translation of impression to expression The group cooperates to realise one collective product Tales from Places in Town

CL Element & Variables Tales from Places in Town

Cooperative Learning The so-called ’structures’ in CL might inspire organisation of groupwork: Heterogeneous groups Defining steps in the problem solving process Defining roles and tasks for each member in the group Tales from Places in Town

Cognitive Taxonomy Element & Variables Tales from Places in Town

Designing Questions Questions may answer themselves... How to challenge all students? Consider the cognitive taxonomy (Bloom) Tales from Places in Town

Bloom’s Taxonomy – original and revised Tales from Places in Town

Goldilocks and the Three Bears - an example Tales from Places in Town

Goldilocks and the Three Bears – and Bloom 1. Knowledge What did Goldilocks do at in the Bears’ house? (list as many events as you remember) 2. Comprehension Why did Goldilocks prefer Baby bear’s chair? 3. Application If Goldilocks visited your house, what things would she like, do you think? What things would she have tried? 4. Analysis Tell the tale about Goldilocks and the three crocodiles 5. Synthesis How would the tale have been different if Goldilocks had visited the three fish in stead of the three bears? 6. Evaluation Do you think that what Goldilocks did was right/wrong? Why? How would you have liked to be there? Tales from Places in Town

Elements & Variables Product Environment Method Learning Tales from Places in Town

-Urban settings as promoters of inclusive learning Thank you for listening to our tales – from someplace Danish team; UCL / Teachers College: Ole Juel Nielsen (MA (psych)) & Pia Kathrine Pedersen (MA (English)) Tales from Places in Town