Uma+Subramanian

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if they are provided the right motivation and opportunity for learning. This has been my motivation for looking for new strategies and innovative instructional practices in order to engage all students and to make mathematics a learner friendly subject in my mathematics class. My recent love has been with Problem Based Learning (PBL) and it is the topic for my doctoral dissertation at Georgia State University. || || =** Takeaways / Big Ideas **= Reading the book ‘How the Brain Learns’ by David Sousa ascertained a lot of facts heard and read as tit-bits. I would recommend quite a number of brain-based strategiesfrom the book for teachers to be used on a regular basis. However, I would like to focus on two brain related facts and their implications here: Fact #1: (Page 52) Criteria for Long-term Storage: Information is most likely to get stored if it makes sense (comprehensible/understandable) and has meaning (relevant/purposeful). Of the two criteria, meaning is more significant. Implications for Teaching: Often times, my students ask me, ‘why am I learning this?’. I started the unit on Differential Equations for my AP calculus class with a problem ‘Murdered friend’ (PBL case). Students realized that they have to learn about solving differential equations in order to find the time of death of the victim. Learning to solve DE was meaningful to them. Fact # 2 (Pages 91, 92) Learning and Retention Learning and retention are different. There is almost no long-term retention of cognitive concepts without rehearsal. Rehearsal is different from practice. Rehearsal deals with the repetition and processing of information. Practice is repetition of motor skills. Whoever explains learns. Implications for Teaching: Avoid giving independent practice before guided practice because if practiced the wrong way, wrong learning becomes permanent. Allow students to rehearse and not practice. Allow students to explain to others in class.
 * About Me **
 * Uma Subramanian is a math teacher and educator with twenty plus years of rich classroom experiences that includes teaching mathematics in urban and rural schools in India and ten years of teaching mathematics for Atlanta Public schools. Twenty years ago, my mentor made me realize that all children can be good at math

My Action Research
AR Overview I teach math for seniors. For the most part, I see students engaged and learning. Exit ticket data shows at least 80% of the class score 80% or more as a proof of having learned the concept and / or the skill taught every class period. However, only 60 % of the class score 70% or higher on the unit test given. I understood the problem as retention of concepts and skills taught. During the months of October, November and December, I shared facts about the brain, how the brain learns, short term memory and long term retention, etc. This had impact on very few students. Davis Sousa suggests 'summarizing and note-taking as two of the strategies for rehearsal to improve retention of concepts learned. Robert Marzano also lists summarizing and note-taking' next to 'similarities and differences' as the top research based strategies that work for classroom instructions. I helped students summarize and take notes and this was my focus for my action research. I also allowed students to revisit important notes from previous units on a regular basis.

AR Question
How will summarizing for 5 to 10 minutes every class period help students in terms of making connections and long term retention?

AR Process
Rationale for my study: I teach seniors in an urban city school. Almost 50 % of the seniors have a job and work for 4 to 5 days a week. They all depend on Marta to go to work from school and return home around midnight. Even if they want to, they do not find time to learn or complete home work at home. 10 % of the seniors I teach either play sports or are involved in other activities and return home late after practice. David Sousa says if a new material learned is not revisited within 24 hours, it is not retained in memory. David Sousa also talks about ‘making sense and having meaning’ for anything learned to be retained in long term memory. Talking to students and analyzing their journal entry on reasons for failing in math helped me realize that lack of basic skills, not finding the math content relevant to their immediate survival and not re-learning for retention are the major causes for failing math unit tests in my class. Upon reflection, I knew I do not have control over what happens after school. Re-teaching basic skills involved different groups of students at different times. Bringing (meaning) relevance to the concepts taught depended a lot on the curriculum; however, I introduced PBL cases (see sample attached) that uses a real world problem as a hook to motivate learning a unit/ concept whenever possible. For abstract topics, I emphasized on making sense by making connections with past experiences. Students either do not have the time or do not have the motivation to learn at home. I wondered if allowing them to summarize in class and learning the concepts from previous class at the beginning of every class period will help in terms of long term retention. This formed the basis of my action research. **Action Research Study Design**: I chose my AP Calculus class and my math IV class for my action research. AP Calculus students had my class every day for 90 minutes during the first block and Math Iv students had my class on alternate days for 90 minutes during the second block. I had initially started sharing a few brain facts during every class period since October. Starting January, I provided asked students with a composition notebook and asked students to write a summary of what they learned at the end of each class period. When students came the next class period, I asked students to revisit the concepts by reading what they wrote. This took nearly 15 minutes of class instructional time and students also felt it was extra work they were doing for no reason. In February, I devoted an entire class period to teach a lesson on ‘How the brain learns’ and ‘Summarizing and Note-taking’ using two power point presentations. I found on the web. I would consider my action research as a work in progress and I will continue to collect more data as I see more students taking responsibility for summarizing not for a grade but for their own benefit of retaining concepts. Now, my students have opted to write summary at the end of each week and at the end of each unit instead of every day because of time restrictions in class. They also spend the first 5 minutes to browse concepts learned either from the previous class or something learned earlier in the semester. || || AR Data Samples
 * The first was a summary of Davis Sousa’s book and the second was experts from Robert Marzano’s book, ‘Classroom Instructions that work’. This was followed by a class discussion where students from both classes discussed about what they agreed with, what they would like to implement for their own self-improvement. This also helped me to teach them how to summarize and how to write questions and cues in their notes. From this point, students had a positive attitude towards summarizing. Before midterm testing, students asked if they could utilize extra time in class to write a summary for the entire unit that they will be tested on. I had also discussed the learning pyramid with students during the presentation and there were at least two students in my AP Calculus class and six students in my Math IV class who volunteered to teach others inside and outside of classroom having faith in the statement, ‘you retain 90% of what you learn by teaching others’.

AR Data Analysis
Initial data samples included 2 sets of unit test scores from my students from my AP Calculus class and from my Math IV class. Comparing these scores with scores from first semester did not yield significant difference. The average test score for AP Calculus was less than the average test score from last semester. According to research, summarizing and note taking are strategies that highly effective teachers use for student achievement. Brain research also suggests summarizing and note-taking as strategies for learning and retention. This made me ask why summarizing and note-taking did not work for my students. I asked my students to take a survey to know if my students understood about how the brain learns, about learning and retention and also to see if they agree with research. The survey results for the 6 statements are given here: //Agreed// || //% of students that// //Strongly Agreed// || //% of students// //that Disagreed// || //% of students that// //Strongly Disagreed// ||
 * || **Survey Statements** || % //of students that//
 * 1 || Learning about ‘How the brain Learns’ has helped me to learn better || 53 || 9 || 38 || 0 ||
 * 2 || I understand learning is different from memory || 78 || 19 || 3 || 0 ||
 * 3 || I understand that long term retention requires rehearsal which is repetition with understanding || 56 || 38 || 3 || 0 ||
 * 4 || Summarizing is a best way to remember || 59 || 16 || 22 || 0 ||
 * 5 || Writing notes, asking questions while summarizing helps in long term memory || 62 || 22 || 16 || 0 ||
 * 6 || I learn more by teaching others || 53 || 25 || 19 || 3 ||





The survey results indicated that only 62% of my students either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: Learning about ‘How the brain learns’ has helped me to learn better. I interpreted disagreeing with the above statement meant the following: üThe student had not learned anything about ‘how the brain learns’ üThe student had only partial knowledge about ‘how the brain learns’ üThe student learned about how the brain learns, but did not apply the strategies suggested I found the names of the students who had disagreed and found the following: a) two of them (approximately 6%) have a high rate of absence that they might have not learned anything about how the brain learns b) three of them (approximately 9%) were indifferent towards learning about the brain as they felt it was stealing their time from learning the math. The other 23 % of students could be the ones that had learned about how the brain learns, but did not feel convinced to implement the strategies. I was pleased with the fact that more than 90 % of the students either agreed or strongly agreed with the fact about learning and retention and the requirement for long term retention. Though I have introduced summarizing and note-taking as research based instructional strategies, only 75% agreed or strongly agreed with summarizing and only 84% agreed or strongly agreed with note-taking to help in their long term retention. David Sousa uses the learning pyramid to suggest that students’ retention rate will be higher when they put their learning to immediate use. One way to do that will be to teach others. However, my survey results indicated that as many as 22% disagreed with the statement.

There were quite a few students who said they benifited from summarizing and note-taking. A few comments from some students: A few words from students who said they benefit from teaching others: I reflected on the survey data and wanted to answer the following questions: a) Why students are not willing to believe what research dictates as best practices for learning and retention? b) Why students are not embracing and following research based strategies that would help them in learning and retention and in terms of improved test scores in the long run? I interviewed a few students who had disagreed with one or other of the last 3 statements on the survey and who were also struggling math students and these are some of the comments: About summarizing and note-taking:
 * S //ummarizing has really helped me to learn better for a test. Earlier, I used to jump from one problem to another, with no particular order and will get confused. Now, my notes (summary) helps me to learn in a particular way.//
 * //I// //always had problems in choosing the right formula for each problem. Now my notes guide me as when to use what?//
 * //Teaching others help me to learn better, because it helps to know the formulas; even though the teacher teaches, it may be complicated sometimes; and students understand it better when it comes from a student's perspective. It also gives me confidence when I take a test and helps in increasing my score on the test//
 * //Teaching others helps me because you can only relate something only when it is truly engrained in your mind; not when it is rote learning. Teaching also helps peers because, sometimes it is easy to learn from someone your age rather than from the teacher. And knowledge has no purpose if you cannot relate it to the rest of the world//
 * // When asked to summarize, I am afraid I might leave some important points. So, I prefer to read the entire notes, but you know, I never find the time and so mess up on the test //
 * // I //// know I am not good at math; I can never get anything more than a 75% on any math test-I never have. So why bother doing extra stuff- like summarizing. As long as I get a 70% I am happy. //
 * // I //// used to think I can excel in math; but this calculus- its getting harder and harder. I just don’t want to fail. As long as I don’t fail, my mom is OK with it. Summarizing and writing notes in the form of questions- If you give extra time in class, I can do it; but not at home. //
 * // I //// have never summarized in a math class. We used to write notes, do examples and work on our own. You ask for too much. //

About teaching others:
 * I //know I am good at math. The way I process math is different from the way others do it and so I do not want to teach others.//
 * //I// // will never try teaching others. I know math is my weakness. So why would I teach others? //
 * // I know I can retain more if I teach others. I will have to know the problem well before I help someone. By the time I learn and master, you move so fast – to another topic //

AR Conclusions
When I looked at presentations from cohort members from last year, I was inspired and assumed that the research based strategies are going to work like magic in my classroom. When the strategies I implemented did not give me results I expected, I had to look for reasons for failure. One reason could be that I had not approached the strategy in the appropriate manner that id did not make a good impact on the students. I also had to think about students’ motivational level and their beliefs about mathematics. There have been a number of research studies that have emphasized the influence of students’ attitudes toward mathematics and their beliefs in students’ performance in problem solving (McLeod, 1994). Confidence about doing mathematics, self-efficacy, teacher practices and exposure to non-routine problems all play a major role in improving students’ achievement in mathematics. If students have not seen success in their mathematical learning in their earlier classes, they are likely to develop low self-efficacy and also might lack confidence in learning the mathematics. This action research has indeed opened a variety of ways that I can empower my students in the learning of mathematics. I strongly feel that my students should have a positive attitude towards learning mathematics and should truly believe in their ability to do the math. I intend to continue my action research and I plan to do the following:

ü Teach students about how the brain learns empower them to utilize strategies that work for them based on their learning preference ü Encourage them to gain confidence in learning mathematics by providing them with a constructive feedback on assignments as against just a score ü Make the mathematics more meaningful and relevant by introducing problem based learning to a variety of topics ü Follow other brain based and research based strategies from the beginning of the year ü Have a student centered (constructivist) class environment and promote collaborative learning at all times I will have to learn and reflect on how to collect data on mindset, confidence level, attitudes and beliefs and its influence in promoting student achievement || ||
 * Teach students about growth mindset and motivate them to develop a growth mindset

Lit Review & Resources
@http://michaelgr.com/2007/04/15/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset-which-one-are-you/ @http://www.mindsetworks.com/webnav/whatismindset.aspx [] []

Reflections

I would like to thank the organizers and the facilitators for this wonderful experience. As a participant of this E. E. Ford Fellowship program, I was able to do an action research on my own in my classroom, and I was also inspired by the action research taking place in 19 other classrooms simultaneously through blogs posted and through sharing face to face on alternate weeks. I really enjoyed being a part of this brain cohort and I see myself in the beginning of a new journey towards more action research.