2.1+Student+Confidence

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 * Readings Reflections**

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This reflection is a one page summary of "Student Confidence and Student Involvement". Paste your reflection followed by your name. This is due Wed, Jan 18 before 11:59pm.

The article, “Student Confidence and Student Involvement”, summarizes the implementation, observations, and results of a teacher (Amy Nebesniak) who implemented a cooperative learning model into her middle school math classes.

Any change in the classroom learning environment must be implemented by the teacher. Changing an educator’s teaching style is one of the most difficult challenges in educational reform (2-2). This is not a surprise. As teachers, we usually teach the way we were taught. We have certain mathematical beliefs that have been instilled in us from our educational experience as students. Implementing a new teaching strategy is difficult because not only is it foreign to us, but most teachers do not know how to change their classrooms (1-2 and 1-3). As a teacher, I know I feel more comfortable in the traditional model, yet I see positive results from a more actively engaged student environment.

Amy chose to implement the Kagan cooperative learning model (2-9). The Kagan model includes four principles (2-5). These principles differentiate cooperative learning from group work. Any change in the learning model must not only be embraced by the teacher, but must be explained and embraced by the students (3-2). If the students don’t understand the reasoning for a classroom change, they will resist it. Most of us will not change our actions unless we see a benefit for ourselves.

How does student confidence affect learning? I have observed that student confidence is vitally important to student learning. When I have taught developmental courses at KVCC, most students expressed to me that they were “bad at math”, “dislike math”, and “have always had difficulties with math”. Their confidence was very low in this subject. If they do not experience any success, they eventually tune out and give up.

With the Kagan model’s emphasis on peer support and interaction, the confidence level of the students did rise. Once confidence rises, students will take the risk to engage in problem solving which results in an increase in their understanding of mathematical concepts (3-5).

It was an interesting observation that all levels of students exhibited heightened confidence with the Kagan model, including the high-ability students (3-8 and 4-1). As an instructor, it is easy to forget about the high-achievers and focus all the attention on the low-ability students. This model appears to raise the confidence of all students, with the low-ability students experiencing the most benefit (4-1).

The increased involvement by students using the cooperative learning model resulted in an increased understanding of math (6-1). This is especially useful for the low-ability student who is usually embarrassed by his lack of mathematical knowledge and tends to sit passively in the classroom. Students at the middle school level are extremely sensitive to their peer status. This model enables students to seek out mathematical understanding and assistance without risk of public embarrassment – which can exist in the traditional classroom model.

The foundation of the Kagan model is a safe and interactive environment for learning, which results in increased student involvement and confidence. The ultimate outcome is increased student achievement in mathematics. //**(Susan Copeland)**//

I feel like teachers fall into the trap of teaching like they were taught when they were in school instead of implementing more of the why and how of a problem. Amy ran into this problem too (1-2). However, she saw the benefit of cooperative learning, which had students collaborate on ideas and learn actively (1-3).

It seems like there is a lot that can go wrong in a cooperative learning style, including students copying the work from others or just socializing and not doing the work at all (2-2). I think it's really cool the benefits cooperative learning has, like decreasing special education placements, classroom anxiety, and disciplinary referrals, also increasing math confidence (2-6). I think it's interesting how there are multiple cooperative learning methods to use, and how even though they have the same ideas, each of them are different (2-7).

Student involvement can happen by interacting with peers or the teacher or both (4-4). Student involvement was very limited in Amy's classroom before she incorporated cooperative learning. The number of students who became more engaged in math and with each other increased (4-5). I think that cooperative learning is something that I would want to look into more for when I become a teacher, because I would like it if my students understood more of the concepts and felt more confidence working and understanding math. **(Nicole Parry)**

I would like to start off saying I really enjoyed this article, it is about the trials and tribulations of becoming successful in implementing cooperative learning in the classroom. Much like the author I really do not want to fall into the trap of just lecturing and assigning homework (1-1), so it is important to learn how to incorporate teaching methods such as cooperative learning. I feel that a lot of teachers feel the same way as the author come across the same obstacles and give up, I am referring to when the author first talks about implementing cooperative learning in the class room. “ I struggled to use cooperative learning. I was afraid to lose control of my classroom, both in terms of management and instruction, and never allowed myself to fully tran­sition to a cooperative environment. Although I would permit students to work together from time to time, it usually ended with few students completing the task, several students copying others’ work, and others using the time to socialize. In the end, it was easier to remain teacher-centered and continue along the same path (3-2).” One way that the author dealt with this struggle is brilliant in my opinion and that is to pre-teach your students cooperative learning that way everything runs smoother in the classroom and students know what to expect (4-1). After cooperative learning was being continually used in the classroom there seemed to be a positive response from students such as a boost in their confidence in their math abilities (5-2), which is encouraging to hear about.It would seem that transitioning from a teacher-led environment to a cooperative learning classroom can be a difficult process for anyone but the rewards of doing so vastly outweigh the difficulties. **(Hutch)**

The majority of the population who has been through school has experienced the traditional, direct-instruction teaching model that is most popular among classrooms today. This includes Amy Nebesniak, author of the article “Student Confidence and Student Involvement”. Amy was among those who were using the direct-instruction teaching model, but decided that it didn’t feel right, and that something was “missing” from her classroom (1-1). That was when she decided to implement cooperative learning into her teaching style.

At first, Amy attempted the new style of instruction within her classroom, but was not successful. The students didn’t really cooperate when it came to working together in groups on a problem; many of them failed to complete the tasks, some just copied others, and the rest socialized the whole time (2-1). Then, when Amy moved to a different school district, that was when she could truly implement the new style of teaching.

At this new school, she was surrounded by other teachers attempting the same difficult task of teaching by cooperative learning, making it easier to do. She had three mathematic classes of 8th graders split up by their level of abilities in the subject. Amy then began her research by taking surveys and conducting interviews with the students about their confidence in mathematics and their interest in it. This was a very smart move since it really gave her a good sense of the beginning places for each student, which is important when measuring the amount of growth within them. Also, Amy had to teach her students about cooperative learning before actually putting it into action (3-2). They needed to break free of the traditional teacher-centered classroom and learn to work in teams, and really grow accustomed to each other so they could learn and grow as a group.

As the implementation continued, Amy recorded everything about what she and the students were doing and how they felt about it (3-4). That way, she could use her notes to improve her classroom in the future to figure out the most rewarding classroom practices. She observed that more students seemed engaged, began to act more interested in the lessons, and participated an increasingly amount. From the interviews, surveys, and her own personal examination, Amy discovered that the student’s confidence had increased within all three of her classrooms of 8th graders when involved with a team (3-8). I believe this is an indirect link to students doing better in school. This is because when their confidence is raised, they are more likely to participate because they aren’t so afraid that their answers are wrong, which makes them articulate and explain their thought processes more thoroughly. Thus, by doing so, the students understand the material better, causing them to grasp the concept more.

Just as Amy had suspected, increasing student’s confidence and implementing cooperative learning into her classroom greatly benefited everybody. The students became more involved, and said that their confidence had risen in their abilities when working with a team. It is hard work to change (2-2) and takes a lot of determination since most everybody is used to the teacher-centered classroom, but Amy proved that it was well worth it to put in the extra effort. **-(Shanna Thorn)**

“Student Confidence and Student Involvement” was a very interesting read and I thoroughly enjoyed this refreshment that teachers are trying to make a change in their teaching styles, even after they have already been in the classroom for some time.

I noticed that the author was able to catch herself and see that she were not really teaching how she wanted to and instead she were teaching how her previous teachers had (1-2). She noticed that this “tradition” of teaching was not very effective for their students and she wanted to get out of the flow and create and atmosphere that she had experienced in her graduate classes at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Science Foundation professional development project (1-3). It was here that she really began to understand the influence collaboration and active learning had on one’s own understanding. This also helped with the contextual and pedagogical knowledge she had longed for (1-3).

Time after time of trying to implement cooperative learning, the author would want to go back to how she had always been taught, the teacher-centered classroom, when she wouldn’t see any results (2-2). This could have been so hard on her because the textbooks that she was using in the class were not meant for this kind of teaching and, in turn, would create more stress and work on her to transform the traditional teacher-centered textbook into a student-centered textbook. The author switched school districts and used two different curricula than she had at her old school district. Both were made for cooperative learning (2-3). This was a much easier environment for her to teach in because she could lean on her colleagues when she could not at her other school district. The author’s world had been shaken of any excuses for having any beliefs in a teacher-centered classroom (2-3).

Johnson and Johnson’s definition as well as Kagan’s four principles help define what they believe cooperative learning to be. The underlying theme seen in both of the definitions is that students can help each other understand and work through the problems through interaction and discussion. The author notices that when using Kagan’s principles that her low-achieving students benefit more than her high-achieving students (2-11). The first big step to take to implement cooperative learning was to introduce this concept to the class to somehow rid them of the expectations they had been taught of before (3-1).

Students become more confident in themselves when they are able to work with each other and interact with one another. The confident students are the ones that are willing to even try the problems and help others with their work while also learning from any mistakes they have made (3-5). Reflecting back on how the students in the author’s other school district responded to her teaching, the author was able to see the difference between the high-achieving and low-achieving students. The high-achieving students would not need any prompting at all, they would simply get to work when a task came to them. However, the low-achieving students would need the prompting and more one-on-one time that the author simply could not do or all of those that needed it (3-6). Moving toward cooperative learning, the author was able to see how the transformation thrived in the students.

Generally, all groups felt more confident when in a group. The students felt more confident when they would collaborate with each other, ask questions, figure out what the question is asking, and get checked on how each other is going about doing the problem from each other.

The author feels that she had moved from simply dispensing the mathematical knowledge to managing the understandings and interactions that the students are really in charge of (4-9). Working together, as the students would put it, really helped them be apart of the content, rather than being on the outside looking in

(5-1). **(Ryan Sherman)**

Question: - (3-6) talks about the hierarchy of students and how they would respond different to math problems. When the author talks about the low-ability students and how they would require the constant prompting and one-on-one work, is that something that is caused from their previous teachers? Or is this more on factors in their life outside of school? I had a hard time grasping whether the author was saying this was from lack of cooperative learning or whether I thought that this was caused by something from another teacher or an outside factor. Any thoughts on this question? Actually, this is how the discussion pages of the Wiki can be used.

Cooperative learning is important, because student interaction allows students to learn from their peers and allows them to use their instincts to talk with those around them. When students explain their knowledge and ideas to others, their understanding of the topic deepens (3-1). This deeper knowledge allows students to better connect that specific topic with others. If you understand derivatives extremely well, it will lead to better understanding of antiderivatives and integrals later. Working with colleagues that use cooperative learning makes using it in your own classroom a little easier (3-3). Positive interdependence, individual accountability, equal participation, and simultaneous interaction are four essential components to cooperative learning according to Kagan (3-4). Cooperative learning leaders to higher academic achievement and more higher-level thinking (3-5). This higher-level thinking can transfer to other courses, which allows students to gain a deeper understanding of material in all classes, not just mathematics. This higher-level thinking and cooperative learning leads to better confidence in mathematics and lessens special education referrals, which should be the end goal for all mathematics educators (3-6). The key to successful cooperative learning, is for the students to understand the concept and meaning of cooperative learning, so there has to be goals, guidelines, and activities to lay the foundation of group work (4-2). The teacher used interviews and a journal to keep track of how she and the students were feeling about progress and the effect of the cooperative learning (4-4). This allows her to see the progress in attitudes, achievements, and thoughts of each group. Working in a group leads students to be more confident in doing math problems, because they do not have to come up with every idea by themselves, and they have others to bounce ideas off of (4-6). Group work and cooperative learning leads to more student interacting with the teacher and other students (5-5). This is helpful, because then the teacher gets different thoughts and perspectives from different students. This allows students to see that there is more than one right way to get the right answer, which helps change the mindset from one of the questions in our first article by Franks. Cooperative learning is beneficial to all students, but students that struggle with a subject can sometimes benefit more, because they feel more comfortable with the support of others (7-4). This is good for teachers to understand, because many teachers that I have heard discuss cooperative learning are concerned about the lower-ability students not being able to keep up with the group, and this article says the opposite, that cooperative learning helps them catch up to the group. (Josh Kaylor)

In the article “Student Confidence and Student Involvement”, Amy Nebesniak and Ruth Heaton explore the benefits to cooperative learning through interviews with 3 different middle school 8th grade classes with placement based on mathematical achievement (4-3). The author writes that her classroom followed NCTM Standards (1-1), but was not feel students where developing an understanding of ‘how’ and ‘why’ that she felt could be tackled by cooperative learning (1-2). Explaining mathematics was how the author developed a deeper understanding and she wanted her students to discover the benefits of explanation as well (2-1). I found the idea of explaining leading to understanding especially interesting because I too feel like I understand mathematics better when having to teach it to someone else. The same problems that I found in middle/high school when assigned “group work” appeared for Nebesniak and Heaton--- students copying other’s work and being off task (2-2). However, an interesting perspective on the difference between “group work” and “cooperative learning” is presented: Cooperative learning is “positive interdependence, individual accountability, equal participation, and simultaneous interaction” (3-5). From this, I think of many “group work” assignments I’ve been given in the past and realized they were merely group work and did not meet the criteria for collaborative learning—which holds several benefits as discovered by the author. Educational researchers have attributed the following benefits to collaborative learning: “academic achievement and social skills development, higher level thinking, more frequent transfer of learned concepts to new situations, and more time on task” (3-6). Although there are several models of collaborative learning, it is suggested by the authors to pick one (3-8). I found this a somewhat disturbing because personally I believe students need to be adaptable to change, and sticking to too much routine could potentially make students too comfortable and lesson their chances of trying new learning techniques. I agree with Nebesniak and Heaton’s philosophy that students need to be taught what cooperative learning is and classes must develop a climate for cooperative learning to exist (4-2). If students do not understand the difference between cooperative learning and group work, they will likely fall back to what they are more familiar—which is likely group work. Also, I personally work better with people that I am comfortable enough to make mistakes in front of so I believe students would feel this way, too. One area that was found to have improved through cooperative learning was student confidence—69% agreed they were more confidence in learning through this teaching strategy (4-6). Another interesting result was that students in the advanced class were less likely (56%) to indicate confidence in a group compared to the other two groups, Core 2 and 3, which were 65% and 73% more confident in groups (5-1). My theory, as this is how I would have responded to the question, is that I am more afraid to make mistakes when considered a “smart kid”—since expectations are higher for the advanced class, it may be more embarrassing to make a mistake whereas lower classes realize that other students are not advanced and may be more comfortable trying new things. The authors, however, did not address a theory on why confidence was higher in groups for lower preforming students.--- Katie