Instructional Strategies
This section is designed to familiarize you with instructional
strategies recommended for use with A Living Laboratory:
Volcanoes.
Click on the any of the following to proceed:
In recent years there has been an explosion of brain/mind research,
with important new implications for teaching and learning processes. In
addition, certain techniques that successful teachers have used
throughout history are now being validated by scientific studies of how
people best learn
Learning-styles research has shown us that students learn in
different ways, and that all styles of thinking and learning need to be
nurtured. We have begun to understand how anxiety inhibits effective
cognitive activity, and how reducing stress and increasing active
engagement allow for more cross-talk between brain hemispheres, better
reception, and greater retention of new information. Imagery, a very
powerful teaching tool, brings into play one of our highest intellectual
processes, and one thought to be unique to humans: the prefrontal lobe
and integrative use of the entire mind/brain system.
We are recognizing the need to empower students to be responsible in
the learning process, encouraging in them the internal locus of control
that is essential to motivation. We are seeing a shift from emphasis on
content to greater attention to process. With information in many fields
becoming obsolete almost as quickly as it finds its way into textbooks,
we must give our attention to teaching in ways that prepare students for
self-directed, lifelong learning.
Teachers attuned to these needs are encouraging students to view
facts and information in new ways, to raise new questions, to explore
unresolved issues. Such processes require higher cortical functions, the
use of advanced investigative techniques, and metacognitive awareness.
The "thinking-skills movement" offers promise of moving learners
beyond rote acquisition to the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of new
information. It requires learners who are active participants, rather
than passive recipients, in the learning process.
Teaching and learning can and should be fun. Activities designed to
expand the thinking potential of our students also challenge and enliven
teachers. Such activities are central in A Living Laboratory:
Volcanoes. We hope you will find this Instructional Strategies
section valuable, not only in the classroom and field-trip implementation
of this curriculum, but as a tool for use with other materials as well.
Sharon Bancroft, Managing Editor,
A Living Laboratory: Volcanoes
Educational Service District 112
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