Chad+Turner

toc

About Me
In order to improve our society and the generations to come it is imperative that educators eliminate the boundaries between gender, culture and classes. Teachers must always motivate our students by piquing their individual interests. Teachers are a guide for students and must help facilitate the learning process. Our goal is for students to be intrinsincally motivated and to help each student find internal goals that they can reach. We must motivate our students to the point where there are self-regulatory and no longer rely on external factors. We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

Takeaways / Big Ideas
My biggest takeaways from the EE Ford experience will be the multitude of brain based strategies that can be applied directly to the classroom. The experience equips you to apply specific strategies and techniques that engage students into the learning process. I have reconstructed my classroom to allow for movement and space. I have implemented primacy-recency to reset the learning environment as may times as I deem applicable to facilitate engagement. I have implemented humor and emotional content to increase storage, recall, retrieval (from long term memory) and transfer. I have given instructional activities (reports, presentations, blogs, etc) on the brain to allow the students to gain an understanding of their own brain and how they process information individually, as a class and as a school to assist students in taking control of their own learning.

AR Overview
My Action Research came about through a class room activity in which a student gave some background information on himself and made several analogies about his life. Well a month later,in a different classroom discussion a different student(low performer) recalled what the student said about himself and used his analogies to apply it the current topic. And it struck me - do students particurlarly male students ( I teach at all male school) learn (store info, retrieve it and transfer to new learning) more successfully from peers(with teacher guidance ofcoursw). Most of the guys are involved in athletics and how do we learn in athletics...from each other. As a result, my action research stems from applying specific gender based (which are brain based) strategies that afford the opportunity from stuents to learn from each other.

AR Question

 * How does peer-to-peer instruction affect recall, retrieval and transfer?**

AR Process
I used 2 classes to complete my study. The 1st class I taught the traditional method. That is, lecture group work, individual assignments, differentiation based on results from the learning style pofiles, etc. The 2nd class is the peer-to peer instruction class. In that class specific instruction is given in the peer groups but the group leaders received some additional instruction with expected outcomes. The group eaders were largely responsible for the instruction of their groups.

I began my process by finding out how my students learned BEST. I used a learning style profile identifier to assess the type of learners I had. Having an all male class room the resullts were quite predictable. 70% were tactile leraners and the other 30% were visual learners. As a result I grouped each learner into a peer group the leader being a relatively high performer. I gave a learning style profile very 3 weeks to determine if anyone learning style changed as a result of the instruction in both groups. (higly recommended)

I recorded and compared the data results for each class over the period of 3 months. In the areas of engagement, enthusiasm, assessments (formal and informal) and application to new learning (subjects) in an effort to test or recall, retrieval and transfer.Fellow colleagues and a adminstrator were used to judge engagement.

Additionally to facilitate the process of learning from each other in class I used several techniques (in class vocabulary games, role play and contest) in an effort to smooth over the process of hearing each others voices and adjusting to mannerism to prepare them pschologically to learn from each other.

AR Data Analysis
Comparing the data between the two classes (traditional and peer to peer) several revelations come to the forefront. 1. Students (male) recall information more efficiently with the assistance of fellow classmates. 2. Students (male) retrieve information more efficiently with the assistance of fellow classmates. 3. Students (male) transfer prior knowledge to new learning more efficiently with the assistance of fellow classmates. 4. The peer group scored 30% higher individually on all comparable assessments. 5. The peer group was more creative and in group assignments(projects). 6. The peer group completed all group projects and presentations on deadline. 7. The peer group displayed more motivation than the traditional group to complete tasks. 8. The peer group held each other accountable for time off task. 9. The peer group were more engaged and enthusiastic about learning and the class in general. 10.The peer group became moe competitive no only within the class but through out the school.
 * The Peer group outscored the district and surpassed the state average on the CTAE End of Pathway Exams.*

AR Conclusions
The conclusions: 1. A well designed peer group that affords students the opportunity to learn content from each other increases productivityo, engagement and self motivation. 2. Peer-to-Peer instruction increases the amount of information the student can recall and retrieve. This is primarily due to the fact the students have the ability to make instruction emotional and student friendly(use student friendly language). 3. The amazing part of the peer-to-peer instruction was that it actually assisted in the process of transfer. The students transferred previous knowledge to new learning consistently. In addition, they begin to develop techniques to make learning interesting and begin to ask for ways to compete each other about knowledge of content. 4. Going forward, I would like to develop vertical integrated peer-to-peer groups across grade levels as well as the in class groups. 5. I will/have become the resident guru in peer to peer instruction and its effectiveness on student achievement.

Lit Review & Resources
PeerAssisted Learning Strategies [] Sousa, David(2011) How the Brain Learns-4th ed.p.cm Thousand Oaks, California.: Corwin Press, 2006.Print Patterson, M.N(1997) //Everybody can learn//.Tucson,AZ:Zephyr. Portrat, S., Barrouillet,P., & Camos(2008). Time-related decay or interference-based forgetting in working memory? //Journal of Experimental Psychology:Learning, Memory, and Cognition,// 34, 1561-1564 Restak, R.M(2001). //The secret life of the brain//.Washington, DC: Dana Press. Restak, R.M(2003). //The new brain: How the modern age is rewiring your mind//. New York;Rodale Tomlinson, C.A.(1999). //The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners//. Alexandria, VA; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Reflections
Looking back at my year in the EE Ford Brain Cohort I am extremely pleased at the new ideas, new thinking and the new was of tecahing and learning that I have developed with the aid of the instructors and fellow Cohhort members. I will use many of the techniques learned in my classroom and will share them and model them at my school. I learned how to efficiently plan for the year in my class room. I will use learning contracts with my students and suggest the use of them with my peers. The main result of my AR Process of Peer-to Peer instruction reveals that not only do students learn more from peer-to-peer instruction but I do as well.