Learning in Personally Real Context Brad Thompson 11205

Learning in Personally Real Context Brad Thompson 1/12/05

Realistic • • • Real World Real Life Applicable Practical Relevant

Beyond Realistic: Personal and Real • • More than “realistic” and “real world”. Prior and ongoing experience and/or interest in the anchoring context(s). Active and doing based: Instructional activities incorporate direct involvement in the data creation and collection, analysis of the data, and the corresponding decision making. The data is “based on” something real to the student. • • Connection between the data and the activity the data describes is clear. The data describes the students’ performances or the performances of student selected players. • • • Key questions: Am I good? and Are they good? Students utilize personally developed evaluatory criterion. Students control the evaluation and ranking of their own and others performances.

Personalness • Like textbook worksheets are all problems and they have the little lines where you write them on and stuff. And you………You’re just kind of bored when you are doing it……. you get it done, but you’re not having that much fun because it’s not really anything, it’s just math problems. • Well when you play, the basketball and you see all the names and you’re working with their statistics, you have more fun doing it. And, and you can relate, what they’re doing and that kind of stuff. And, there is pretty big difference between them. • Um, 2 for 12 I think. And, well it was outside and it was cold and, um, I’m not used to those hoops……the appearance of the hoop…. . And, the wind……. . you didn’t have the perfect, a, length. ………. . we were a little closer or a littler farther………. And it really messed you up since you’re so used to just shooting from that length……. when you move up closer, you like, shoot it and it goes so hard it bounces off the backboard and comes right back at you.

Realness Because, its kind of easier. Like I said earlier because you are using it to get something maybe like doing or watching and you are not just learning it. You are actually using it to base it on something and get the answers and see, you know, not just learning it, like I said. You are actually using it for something. Like if you were looking at a problem comparing two basketball players and if you would look at a story problem comparing different, just like regular fractions in regular math class. It would be easier to look at this kind of stuff. Because you could think about how many shots they made or missed. It just kind of, you look at the numbers, like out of, something out of something. You wouldn’t look at, as a fraction, just to add or subtract like you would usually do in regular math class.

The Importance of Personalness and Realness • Access – Invitation – Sense Making Framework • Internalization – – Ownership Extension Interpretation Synthesis

Access • • • Technically they are (worksheets) and they feel like them when you are doing them. But really when you are doing you don’t even notice because, You’re, since its something you can relate to and you know, and you have fun doing that you don’t even notice that they’re worksheets at all. You’re just getting statistics and writing them down about your favorite players. And it doesn’t really feel like work, it feels like more fun Um, it (basketball) makes it more interesting, definitely. And it, sometimes makes it more easy to understand because you are not just learning it, you are actually comparing it to something and using something to do what you need to get learned. And so, its easier I think. …………So, I mean you like getting your statistics so you are thinking wow this is math but I am doing something I like with it so you probably understand it a lot better. Because when you say 10 out of 15 you think about how many shots they missed and made. And just kind of easier I think.

Internalization Because he shot 4 for 7 and that’s only missing three shots so he shot over 50%, its like 56%. And other people shot around 8, 10, 11, 12 (total shots) and, almost came even close to him, and, that kind of shooting. I mean, um, somebody did, somebody was like 4 for 10 or something, but he………. . . He made more than he missed and I think that’s pretty good. Say, um, you are shooting free throws, and you have like either a real good free throw shooter on the line and then you have to press a button when it comes right over the net. It will go slower for a good shooter, but whenever you have like Shaq or someone at the line who is not that good it will go really fast so it makes it harder and it kind of shows who is the better shooter.

Pre-Test/Post Test Overall Results Name Pre. Test % Post Test % % Point Increase Mike 32 71% 62 98% 27% Lisa 18 40% 58 92% 52% Beth 12. 5 28% 44 70% 42% A 11. 5 26% 58 92% 67% B 23. 5 52% 55. 5 88% 36% C 24. 5 54% 59. 5 94% 40% D 18 40% 55 87% 47% E 30 67% 56. 5 90% 23% F 10. 5 23% 45 71% 48% G 12 27% 55 87% 61% H 16 36% 38 60% 25% I 15 33% 55 87% 54% J 23. 5 52% 58 92% 40% K 15 33% 59 94% 60% L 27. 5 61% 59. 5 94% 33% Total 45 100% 63 100% Mean 19. 3 43% 54. 5 87% 44% STDEV 7. 0 16% 6. 8 11% 13% MIN 10. 5 23% 38 60% 23% MAX 32 71% 62 98% 67%

Indicators

Vision • Broad applicability of personally real contexts and the ranking, realness, and control structures. • Depths of internalization. • Boundaries. • Word problems into Participation Problems. • A practice.

Future Research • Endurance of internalizations. • Alternative anchors, common structures (ranking, realness, and control). • ‘Personalness’ and ‘Realness” to the teacher. • Multiple classrooms and multiple settings. • Frameworks for pre-service teachers.

Applications of Future Research • • Curriculum Teaching Personal Realness Hands-on, up-close, sense-making