Launching new way of teaching

Turnabout is fair play, and this summer dozens of Southwest Florida teachers are experiencing the flip side of the education coin.

As part of the Whitaker Center's Project Launch Summer Institute at Florida Gulf Coast University, this group of nearly 40 elementary and middle school teachers are having to follow classroom rules, participate in group discussions, take quizzes, conduct in-class labs and even take home reading assignments for the next day's class.

For two weeks – 60 hours of class time – the group will be learning not only mathematics and science knowledge, but also a new way of learning – and therefore a new way of teaching.

"When you talk about how to get kids engaged in math and science," said Tim Couch, aerospace educator for Project Launch, "you're talking about inquiry education. Inquiry education is a constructivist kind of education where you have kids involved in what they are learning."

Instead of teachers standing in front of the classroom and lecturing, the inquiry method-also called the Conceptual Change Model of teaching – involves the student in addressing their ideas, and possible misconceptions, before attempting to show them, through hands-on activities, what the possible correct answers could be, said Couch.

"They aren't learning because we are telling them something or because they read it in a text book," he said. "We give them an experience they can go out and try, and from that they piece it together. They are reasoning it out for themselves based on hands-on experience."

The communication between the teachers from each school is another vital aspect to the institute, according to Couch. He said the communication between teachers during the school year is essential.

"When you're talking to each other and saying 'I tried to do this and it didn't work, what do you think I should do,' or 'this child has this misconception, how do I correct it,' those are the real conversations, the important conversations to have," he said. "Those conversations happen and then learning begins to happen, real true learning, not just 'I read it out of a text book' learning."

In what Couch calls "mind's on," as opposed to "hands on," learning, he stresses the importance of breaking down existing misconceptions before trying to push home new truths. And Couch says misconceptions – and often the same misconceptions – are in place whether the student is a third-grader or a teacher with a master's degree; whether the pupil is from an affluent neighborhood and top-level school, or a poverty-stricken neighborhood and a Title One school.

When Couch asked the class full of bachelor's and master's degree holders what they thought caused the changes of the seasons or the phases of the moon, he received a different answers from each of the groups of teachers.

"We had eight different answers and there is only one reason that is right," he said. "We are highly educated, smart people and we all had different answers – it's not about intelligence, its about opportunity."

He said the conceptual change method of teaching provides the opportunity for people to really explore what they think, and why they think it.

"If I don't know you have a misconception, I can't help you address it," he pointed out. "But if I know what you think, then we can go from there. That is why the first step of this teaching style is to find out what the students think."

The misconception-correction style of teaching is applicable to any age group, and any subject, said Couch.

"There is no such thing as tabula rasa (clean slate)," he said. "Every person has experiences, and if they can't explain something, they will take everything they have heard and make up an explanation." What the conceptual change style of education does is to create a mindset where students know they don't understand something, he said, and then let them look at the facts and piece them together. Then they will begin to throw out the misconceptions, he added.

Although Couch said it would be easy to become worried about the confusion on scientific facts and mathematical theories that plague teachers, he said he finds a positive side, and hope for children, in the ability to adapt shown by teachers involved in the institute.

"If adults can have the 'ah ha' moment after 30, 40 or 50 years of understanding something one way," he said, "then I know a third grader can do it. So it give me hope for the younger generations in learning and where we are going."

"I've taught over 30 years and you have to continuously be improving and gaining new knowledge," said Mary Lenick.

Lenick, a fourth-grade teacher at Bonita Springs Elementary, attended the institute with two other Bonita Springs Elementary teachers and said she appreciates both the new knowledge in science and mathematics as well as the new approach to teaching.

"The class is not only showing us what we need to be teaching," she said, "but how we can do this in our own classes."

That dual-focus of the institute is part of what makes the program draw more and more teachers each year, said Couch.

"It's content learning for the teachers, but teachers don't just want to learn the information," he said. "They want to know how it can work for their kids and how it will work in their classes based on the Sunshine State Standards."