“Developing Adaptive Expertise”

Action Research Cycle One Report
Brent Hibbert
March 11, 2008


The Problem:

For eleven years my classroom teaching has been instructor driven. I teach a wide range of classes, from Horticulture to Welding, twelve different subjects total. I enjoy teaching and I’m passionate about it, but I am not an expert in all of the areas I teach.  My lack of content-area expertise has limited the possibilities for my students.

Another problem I have identified is time. Class periods are only 55 minutes. After subtracting the time it takes for students to dress down, clean up and then get back into their street clothes, 40 minutes of time remains to engage students in learning.

I find that my students have a hard time relating to school, and finding tangible value in what they are being taught. I need to create better ways to engage my students in the learning process and create situations where they want to be part of the creation of their own learning.

Each of these areas of concern contribute to the problem of “surface learning”. Each contributes to my tendency to “cover” the material. Students do not get the opportunity to become experts or to experience how experts learn, negotiate problems and reflect on their actions. If my students can become experts in one area (domain specific knowledge) then they should be able to transfer their experiences in expert learning to other areas.

Research Question

Will creating student directed, expert-guided experiences enable learners to create knowledge about how experts problem-solve, design, build and reflect?  Through these experiences will students be able to adapt their domain specific knowledge and become adaptive experts?

Purpose of my Action Research

My purpose is to improve my teaching practice and improve the learning experiences and measurable learning outcomes for my students. Each student has selected an individual project and each is also part of a group collaborative project. Students will control what they investigate, experience and learn. Each will design their project in-depth and build it. The individual projects they are building are a utility trailer, pickup bumper and a laminated recurve bow. The collaborative group project is designing and building duck and goose calls out of wood. Each student will be mentored by experts and be able to discern and put into practice the way experts do things, learn things and reflect and improve. After this project, I want them to be able to adapt what they have learned to become experts in any area they want to pursue. The purpose is for them to develop adaptive expertise.

My Actions, Outcomes and Reflections

The first action I have taken is to reflect on my current teaching practice. I have recorded all of my reflections in my blog at http://bhibbert.wordpress.com . One outcome of this action has been the evaluation my teaching performance daily. I have seen that my worry over the “product” the students are making has overshadowed my focus on the “process” of learning. Through my reflections I have become a more reflective person and more able to adapt and change my teaching actions. Through blogging, I have been able to model the reflective aspect of my own learning and share that with my students. They have been able to see the value of my reflections and to use that in their own blogs.

Another outcome of my reflections is in looking at my teaching more systematically and discovering areas that I am not teaching at the level I would like to be. Likewise, I have identified areas that I am succeeding in and finding ways to become even more successful. I have also begun to identify the actions of our mentor experts and reflect on these actions in my blog.
 
The second action was to guide students in choosing a design project they were excited and passionate about. During this process I spent a lot of time out of class, with each student and their parents to decide on a project that would be interesting, relevant and challenging for them to learn about, design and build.

Obviously, one outcome of this action has been that students enjoy coming to class not only because they get to build projects but because they are building the project of their choice. Students are spending more time researching their projects and working on them outside of class. They spend so much time, that some parents have expressed concern about the amount of time they work at home and how late they stay up at night blogging, or designing on SketchUp.  

Reflection: If I did this again I would spend more time dialoguing with them about “why” they wanted to do a specific project---what they saw themselves accomplishing.  By doing this it would help give them a better idea of where to start.  

I wanted my students to direct their learning because if it is relevant to them they will be engaged and want to learn.  If I had been more a part of the selection process in what they were building, I know my students would have not been as excited in the process.

The setting that my students are in is slightly different than the one at school, because I am teaching this class at different locations depending on what we are doing.  If it was at a school setting there would be a few more restrictions.
 
My third action was to assist my students to locate an expert that will interact with them face to face or through internet communications. Even though we live in a remote, isolated community I was able to locate a local metal and machining expert for each student. I found that the “Big Picture” experiences of Dennis Littky were replicated in Salmon, meaning I found more mentors that I had students who needed one. I have three students and I located twelve experts in the design areas students chose.

Before selecting these mentors I spent a lot of time researching and visiting with them to make sure they would be responsive and open to new ideas and ways of doing things. I spent three to ten hours with each mentor talking with them about the process of learning and what my action research question involves. I spent time building a relationship with them so we could maximize our collective efforts in benefiting the students.

One outcome of discussing my action research with each expert and gaining a commitment from them to mentor my students was that I refined the goals and desired outcomes of my action research.

Another outcome I did not expect, was that the mentors have a renewed passion in their field of work. When we visit, they have worked to show us “new ways of doing the same thing”, or have worked to solve a problem or concern we were encountering.

I also located online experts in the area of “duck/goose call design”. Each student is working on an individual metal/wood design project and we are also working on a group collaborative lathing/woodworking project to design duck/goose calls. I was able to purchase a book, and develop a mentoring relationship with the author of the book.

An outcome of building a relationship with online mentors is my students have learned that even people they have never met are excited to help them learn and build their projects. Since Salmon is three hours from any towns with colleges, tech schools or Universities, we are relatively isolated from the outside world. My students have begun to see how many experts there are outside of Salmon. They have begun to develop a collaborative relationship with a larger community of people outside of where they live. The mentors they are communicating with, often reply within hours of a student’s inquiry or a student’s post. The mentors value what the students are doing.

Reflection: Instead of limiting our online mentors to two or three, I feel we need to expand to 4 to 6, as sometimes the students do not receive enough feedback, quickly enough from our current mentors. Moving forward, I would like to setup an online conference or meeting with a mentor.
 
My fourth, and ongoing action is guiding students in observing experts and how experts see problems, design and reflect. I do this through dialogue with students during and after working with experts. I ask them to reflect in their blogs about what they see.

The outcomes of this action have been varied. It took my students several weeks to become comfortable enough with their mentors to ask questions about different processes, design ideas, structural strength and quality.  As students work through their own design problems, they have been mentored by the expert. They have had an opportunity to dialogue daily with an expert and reflect daily with their expert. As the students speak their thoughts out loud I have been able to observe their thought processes. They have become more comfortable sharing their successes and failures.

Another unexpected outcome for students and myself, is that each expert has a different opinion and process to build the same project. The experts respect the differences of the other expert. The students have commented on these differences and benefited from the discussion resulting from these differences. They have learned that it takes a community of people to work through some of the problems. All expert knowledge is not possessed by one expert. The two or three experts together, along with the students can create and do more than one alone. The students have also learned to respect themselves, and each other. They have expressed this in their blogs.

We spend time as a group talking and reflecting on what has gone on during mentoring visits.  I try to bring up questions that will help them reflect on what they have experienced during their visits with mentors.  I also try to help my students see things from the experts point of view and identify and their “way of thinking” and “see their actions”. During our reflection we dialogue about how the experts view the problems and designs we bring to them and how we can “think like the expert” about these ideas.

I have video-taped my discussions with the students. I have found that as we talk about each student’s individual interpretation of what they are experiencing they each have unique points of view. The experience of hearing each other’s view has enabled the students to develop respect for each other and each other’s opinions.

To maximize time spent with the mentors, I meet with them weekly before they meet with the students. Together, the experts and I reflect on the previous week’s learning sessions and discuss how together we can provide learning activities and projects that the students need to do, to experience experts at work.

Reflection:  
I have set this experience up with my students mentors so that the students can get daily feedback from each other, from me and from their mentors.  I did this because I have found that the more feedback the students can get the more they can reflect on their experiences and create knowledge.  I have wanted the mentors to spend some time reading and responding to the students blogs.  I am going to work towards this in my next cycle.

The mentors and students viewed the outcomes of this experience much more rewarding then they had thought it would be.

One outcome that is an issue of concern for me is the lack of time for students.  The students always have more questions and things to accomplish than time allows.  Limited time with the mentors impacts the opportunities for them to reflect with the students on the process of designing, building and problem-solving. One way to address this would be to schedule two periods in a row for students to work (an impossibility currently). Another option is if students are willing and have time, we could meet on Fridays or weekends. Part of the project may go into the summer

I have learned that utilizing experts exposes students to expert ideas and learning processes. This enables them to learn how experts learn.  I also have learned that I don’t need to have all the answers, because there is always someone that is out there that wants to help you.
 
Each new discovery and step towards becoming an expert involves reflection and speaking out loud. The most significant action I have taken is requiring students to reflect on their learning experiences daily, both verbally and in written form.  They also write about what they want to learn and why they want to learn about it. They plan what they want the outcome to be, so they are learning, with the end in mind.

The outcome of their blogging is I have a window into their experiences from their point of view. Another, is that experts can read and comment on what they are designing and building. Each student also has a place to ask questions. They have made connections with people who want to be a part of what they are doing.

Student blogs:
http://ishootstraighterthanyou.wordpress.com/ Brian
http://livin4thehunt.wordpress.com/ Brandon
http://schoolfab.wordpress.com/ Trent

Reflection:  I have used blogging as a way to get my students to write down what they are doing and their experiences from those.  I have found this a great way for me to express myself and write down my reflections of what has happened to me and why.  In the past I have had a hard time expressing what I expect from my students on the projects they are building.  I found this once again to be a problem with blogging.  I had them start without really getting them to understand what the purpose and benefits would be.  I should have started by showing them blogs relevant to their projects. My students are still struggling with how blogging can benefit them. Moving forward, I plan to ask their expert mentors to read and respond to their blogs on a weekly basis. Also, through feedback from Marie, I am going to have students post more photos of what they are doing and “narrate” their photo, so they have a subject to write about (a prompt).
 
Another action I have taken is to have students complete a survey to provide feedback to me on how I am doing in developing expert learning experiences and supporting student learning (Appendix 1). Each of these students has taken several of my classes over the last three years. They were able to make comparisons about the type of teacher “I used to be”, and the type of teacher “I am becoming”.

One question from the survey was, “How has Mr. Hibbert changed as a teacher? Please list specific items or areas”. Students reported the following:
•    “The more I get to know him the better I understand and learn. He has changed recently with this new class and using different ways to teach”.
•    “Mr. Hibbert has changed from telling us what to do in his class to letting us decide for ourselves what is best to do. We are making duck calls in his class. He lets us decide how we should make the mandrels cut the wood and lathe our calls. Its not like a free for all though he is thier to ensure our saftey and listen to our thoughts. In return we listen to his”.
•    “He is more into accepting your ideas than just going on and using his own”.


Students also reported the following:
o    I am listening more.
o    I want student input and direction in what they want to learn.
o    I am not worried about building as many projects as in the past.
o    I want them to enjoy the learning process.

Reflection:  I made the survey to find out what my students thoughts were on how I have changed as a teacher.  This was a good opportunity for my students to write down and reflect on how I was doing as a teacher.  This had a positive result because it gave me feedback on what I was doing that impacted my students.  After designing, giving and then evaluating the results of the survey I realized that some of the questions could have been written differently to get more specific answers.  I also should have asked several questions about their mentors and expert learning.  A second evaluation will include better written questions. I will also develop a survey for the experts that are working closely with us.
 
Another action I have taken is using SketchUp Pro (a Computer Aided Design Program) with students to design and visualize projects in 3D before purchasing materials and beginning to build.

One outcome of my students using SketchUp has been an increased ability to envision what they are going to build before they have even started.  This has been a large problem in the past for me to try to get them to look into the future and visualize what they are building. I see my students developing “Promisingness” which Berreiter & Scardamalia (1993) describe as the ability to take previous knowledge and experiences and use them in a present project to envision the outcome and make decisions based on that vision.

A second outcome was students spent a significant amount of time designing their projects as compared to past work in my classes. Students worked on their design at home. Students created multiple designs and explored multiple possibilities. Students made changes to their design after receiving feedback from their mentors.

Another outcome was the parents were more involved in the student’s project design because the parent could visualize the project. The students each sat down with their parents and showed them their design on their laptop.

One outcome of this action was students learned to use a CAD program. None of my students have worked with a CAD program before. Each has two books about SketchUp they can refer to. They learned how to use it through “doing”.

Reflection:  Why were my students more excited and why did they spend more time working on designing their projects?  It is obvious that they were really excited to see their projects unfold in front of them as they designed and built them on the 3D SketchUp drafting program.  I picked SketchUp because it is a free program that my students could download onto their computers.  It is also a very easy program to learn to use.  It has the capability to be used in the industry in many machining processes.  There are many other programs out there that we could have used, but I felt this program gave the students the skills and basic knowledge they would need to work in the industry.  I was very surprised at how excited my students were to use this and design and draw their projects.  A very unexpected outcome was how much more their parents were involved in designing of their projects when they used SketchUp.  I learned that when I am excited about what I am teaching, some of that transfers to my students.  I need to always keep my students interests foremost in my thoughts when designing curriculum and learning activities.
Moving forward, I need to have them turn in their drawing drafts to me weekly (post them on their blog).
 
One action I am taking is providing feedback to students on a daily basis during class and by responding to their blogs. I also email them frequently and chat with them online through Gmail chat and Skype.

One outcome of this action is, that the more I respond to their blog posts, the more they post. Another outcome is I have found students are asking more questions of me, both verbally and through email, chat and posts.

Reflection:  I have tried to spend a lot of time giving feedback to my students because I have found so much value in it myself.  The more feedback my teachers have given me the more value I have found in the class and the more excited I stay throughout the class.  I also have found that my students do not have this insight as of yet. I plan to spend more time reflecting as a group about what we are learning and how we can use our experiences and reflections in our blogs as learning experiences.
 
Appendix 1: Student Survey

1. How would you describe, or define "learning" as you have experienced up to this point in your life?

2. How would your teachers, or administrations describe learning?

3. What has been your most memorable learning experience, and why?

4. Is learning "Hard", please explain your answer.

5. What has Mr. Hibbert done as a teacher, that has made learning Hard for you?

6. What has Mr. Hibbert done as a teacher, that has made learning easier for you?

7. How has this class so far changed your view of learning.

8. What part of this class have you enjoyed the most, and why?

9. What would you change in your other classes at school if you could?

10. How has Mr.Hibbert changed as a teacher? Please list specific items or areas?



REFERENCES:

Berreiter, C., & Scardamalia, M. (1993). Surpassing Ourselves:An Inquiry Into the Nature and Implications of Expertise. Peru, IL:Open Court

Grabelle, S., & Littky, D. (2004). The Big Picture: Education Is Everyone's Business. Alexandria, VA: Association For Supervision & Curriculum Deve.