Learning to Teach through Collaborative and Interactive Activities Presented by Doris Shih 施佑芝 Fu-Jen Catholic University

Outline u Rationale u Design of Course Activities u Website and Sample Projects u Future

Rationale

Collaborative Learning “The enthusiasm for collaborative learning has become so widespread that most researchers and educators believe that students learn better when they work in groups as compared to when they work autonomously” (Coleman, 1995, p. 137) “collaborative learning promotes higher achievement as well as personal and social development.” (Li, 2002)

Visualization u Visual organizers help learners to recognize & take control of the intellectual processes which bring meaning to the study of academic content (Clarke, 1991; Jonassen, 2000)

Situated Learning u Teaching students through hands-on experience will help conceptualization and thus learning (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989)

Reflective Learning u Online environments furnish space, time, and opportunities for reflective thinking (Bakardjieva & Harasim, 1997; Owston, 1997) u Students became open in discussions and reflected their thoughts in depth (Montgomerie & Harapnuik, 1997)

Design of Course Activities

Stephen Krashen’s 5 Hypotheses Learning/Acquisition Distinction Monitor Hypothesis Natural Hypothesis Input Hypothesis Affective Filter Hypothesis

Mini-Lessons u FJU Student-designed lessons for 50 minutes u Sample lesson “Asking for Directions”

Media Workstations(1/3) u Definition of workstations An idea from personal workstation (Merrill et al., 1996) Workstations as learning centers

Media Workstations (2/3) u Sample stations in the Writing to Read center in Kettering City Schools, Ohio (Merrill et al., 1996) u Allow collaboration; using the Internet as tools u Information literacy is necessary in teacher education programs (Asselin & Lee, 2002)

Media Workstations (3/3) u FJU Student-designed media workstations u “Learning English through Stories”Learning English through Stories u “Delicious Food”Delicious Food u Collaboration with prof. Kate Liu: re-design of the workstations Learning English through Telling Love Stories Delicious Food

Online Discussions u Discussion Board u Reflected on issues related to the different teaching methods u Reflected on the use of technology in teaching u Responded to the design of media workstations

Future u Student-teachers were learning by doing u Continue in developing media workstations and online workstations u Use discussion boards to aid collaborative learning (discussion thread record the learning process) (Eastman & Swift, 2002)

References u Asselin, M. & Lee, E. (2002). I wish someone had taught me: Information literacy instruction in a teacher education program. Teacher Librarian, 30(2), u Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Research, 18(1), u Clarke, J. H. (1991). Using visual organizers to focus on thinking.Journal of Reading, 34(7), u Coleman, E. (1995). Learning by explaining: Fostering collaborative progressive discourse in science. In R. Beun, M. Baker, & M. Reiner (Eds.), Dialogue and instruction: Modeling interaction in intelligent tutoring system, NATO ASI series (pp ). Belin: Springer-Verlag. u Eastman, J. K., & Swift, C. O. (2002). Enhancing collaborative learning: Discussion boards and chat rooms as project communication tools. Business Communication Quarterly, 65(3), u Li, Q. (2002). Exploration of collaborative learning and communication in an educational environment using computer-mediated communication. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 34 (4),

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