In-service Activities and Teaching Techniques to Promote Gender Equity

by Kay Reat and Howard Jensen

Introduction

In this paper, we will discuss some of the techniques that can be used to increase gender awareness and help nontraditional students succeed in the math and science classroom, and present other suggested in-service activities which may be used. Additional information on these topics can be found in: Gunter, M., et al., Instruction: A Models Approach, Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1990, and Joyce, B., and M. Weil, Models of Teaching (4th ed.), Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1992.

Teaching Techniques

THINKING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS

One does not teach children how to think merely by imparting information, nor do any subjects or courses automatically teach thinking. Different strategies must, therefore, be used to teach the thinking process. Some of these techniques are included here.

Positive, Negative and Interesting

Use material from media reports of current events that might be of particular interest to students or relevant to the course being taught. Have them identify the positive, negative and interesting aspects of the event, and then indicate what decision they would make concerning the issue presented. The students could do this in a log or journal and then present to the class or to a small group.

Case Studies

Utilize science and math related societal problems toward which people would have differing attitudes. Aid students in exploring their attitudes by asking them if they would support a particular issue and why they might or might not do so.

Identifying Problems and Issues

Students use analysis and other information processing skills to identify the problems and issues inherent in a societal situation that is presented to them.

Deciding What Comes Next

Students are asked to determine what will next occur as a result of a natural event or science or math related issue.

Determining Effects

"What if" statements are used to promote student thought and involvement. Questions should be open-ended and result in a variety of appropriate answers.

Anticipating Objections

Ask students to determine objections that might arise if certain actions took place or policies were enforced.

Take a Position on Issues

Students, individually or in groups, develop a position statement. They might then prepare a position paper on the issue. As an extension, they can also be asked to prepare a position paper representing the opposite views of the ones they hold.

Using Everyday Problems and Issues to Challenge Student Thinking

The students are presented with a list of inventions and innovations and asked to answer questions such as:

• What is the purpose of the item?
• What attitudes of society are reflected in the development of the item?
• Does the item show a specific point of view in its relationship to the environment?
• What would happen if the item were banned?
• Would the world be better without the item?

Consensus Activity

Provide students with four to six statements about a math or science related societal issue. Each student should individually agree or disagree with each item before discussion by the group. If all members of the group do not agree on an item, then the item must be discussed and reworded so that consensus can be reached.

Change the Rules

Ask the student to change the rules and examine the consequences of this change. An example would be to discuss the consequences of "The density of ice is greater than the density of water."

Concept Mapping

Concept mapping is a technique that can teach students how to learn based on the work of David Ausubel. This asserts that concepts derive their meaning through connections with other concepts, and that meaningful learning occurs when new knowledge is linked to existing concepts. Concept maps are a visible relationship of cognitive structure consisting of concepts, relationships, hierarchy and cross-links. Concepts are tied to one another through linking words to form a proposition. Propositions are developed in a hierarchy from the most general concept at the top of the map to progressively more specific concepts at the bottom of the map. (Cross-links are used when possible to show the relationships that can be made between concepts in different domains on the map.) Concept maps may be developed in a variety of ways and can represent a personalized view of a given area of knowledge.

There are six steps to concept map making.

1. Select an item for mapping.
2. Identify the major concepts.
3. List or rank the concepts from general to specific.
4. Arrange the most general concept at the top of the map. Link it to the less inclusive concepts. Label all lines with linking words that explain how each pair of concepts is related. The map should read from top to bottom.
5. Try to branch out. Add two or more concepts to each concept on map.
6. Make cross-links between two concepts that are already on the map. Label all cross-links with words to explain how the concepts are related. Draw these links with an arrow so the reader will read in the intended direction.

In evaluating concept maps, one might make a qualitative judgment about a student's progress, or one might look for specific components of the map. Concerning the propositions, there should be a meaningful and valid relationship between the two concepts indicated by the connecting line. The map should show the hierarchy, with each subordinate concept more specific than the concept drawn above it. The map should also show meaningful connections between one segment of the concept hierarchy and another segment in the form of cross-links. Point values may be assigned to each of these components to determine an overall grade.

Concept Attainment

Concept attainment is based on the work of Jerome Bruner and is the process of defining concepts by determining the characteristics that are absolutely essential to the meaning of the concept and disregarding those that are not. It is also concerned with learning what is and what is not an example of the concept. Only use when teaching a concept in a process-oriented manner. To qualify as a concept, an item has to have a name, examples, attributes, and attribute value (some things are essential for meaning and some are not).

There are three stages to planning a concept attainment lesson. First, select a concept that meets the criteria given above. Next, select the characteristics, or examples, that define the concept. Last, develop positive and negative examples of the concept and arrange them in a sequence to be used in presentation. The examples may be actual objects, pictures of the concept, or words that illustrate the concept.

To present a concept attainment lesson, the teacher must take the learners through four phases. During phase one, the teacher explains the goal of the activity and the methods to be used to determine the concept. Positive (Yes) and negative (No) examples are then presented, always beginning with a positive example. During phase two, students are asked to give other positive examples of the concept and to try to develop a concept rule or definition for the concept. Only when this has been successfully completed is the name of the concept given. For phase three, the students are asked to analyze the thinking process they used in determining the concept rule. Questions that might be asked are:

1. What was your pattern in developing the concept rule?
2. Did you focus on the attributes or the concepts?
3. What happened when your thinking did not prove to be correct?
4. Did you change strategies, and how effective were your different strategies?

The final phase of the presentation is an evaluation of the activity. It can be deemed successful when students can identify additional examples of the concept, identify essential attributes of the concept, determine a concept rule, and relate the concept to other valid concepts.

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is an extremely valuable technique to be used in empowering nontraditional students. It is different from traditional group work, which is often the work of only one or two members of a larger group. It can be described as a group of no more than six members who ALL work together to complete instructional activities. It embodies five essential elements:

1. Positive interdependence.
2. Face-to-face interaction.
3. Individual accountability.
4. Use of interpersonal and small-group skills.
5. Periodic and regular group processing.

Cooperative learning has been found to be especially effective because it meets the needs for belonging, for love, for power, for freedom, and for having fun that all students have. William Glasser and others have found that classrooms that use this technique are more successful. Any teacher who wishes to enhance learning for nontraditional math and science students should become proficient in use of cooperative learning.

Reciprocal Learning

Students are paired and each student is given a different set of problems or questions and the answers to the other person's questions. Students work on their own questions and after each one is finished the two students discuss the correct answers. This requires students to write and verbalize and is a good technique to use for unit reviews.

The Suchman Inquiry Model

Suchman Inquiry is based on the premise that the intellectual strategies used by scientists and mathematicians to solve problems can be taught to students. By using the students' natural curiosity, they can be trained and disciplined in the procedures of inquiry. It will help students:

1. approach future problems with confidence in their ability to seek out the solutions, patterns, and relationships that are expected;
2. to begin to consider success and failure as information rather than reward or punishment;
3. practice the process to develop the ability to sense the relevance of variables; make intuitive leaps, and put problems into forms with which they can work;
4. improve their memory process because when they integrate material into their own cognitive structure material is made more readily retrievable.

This model differs from other inquiry models in the way data are presented. Students gather data in a simulated process through questioning rather than actual manipulation of data. Inquiry training has five phases. The first phase is the student's confrontation with a puzzling situation. Phases two and three are the data-gathering operations that use verification and experimentation. In the data-gathering phase, the students ask a series of questions that the teacher answers with a yes or no. Students may also ask the teacher to engage in experimentation that will enable them to obtain information through observation rather than through inference. In the fourth phase, students organize the information obtained so that they can derive an explanation for the puzzling event. Finally, the students are asked to analyze the problem-solving strategies they used. During this operation the teacher's role is to construct the problem situation, to referee the inquiry procedures, to respond to students' inquiry probes with the necessary information, to help students establish a focus in their inquiry, and to facilitate discussion of the problem situation among the students.

The Concept Development Model

Concept development is based on the work of Hilda Taba. It builds on basic concepts which are part of the learner's prior knowledge, and, as conceptual interrelationships develop, a framework for new understandings is established. The model teaches students to make observations, form different types of inferences from these observations, group data on the basis of perceived similarities, then form categories and labels for the data; thus producing a conceptual system. In so doing, students develop thinking skills.

This model is effective with objectives related to contrasting, applying, categorizing, and analyzing data. Three inductive thinking tasks are utilized. The first is concept formation. The second is interpretation of data. The third is the application of principles. The steps in each phase are initiated by teacher questions.

During concept formation, students identify and list ideas, associations, and concepts through questions such as "What do you see? Notice? Find?" They then group the items based on similarity. Next, they develop categories and labels for the groups.

In the interpretation of data stage, critical or different relationships are established through questions such as: "What did you notice?" "Could some of these belong in more than one group?" The relationships are then explored and regrouping is done if possible. Lastly, students are asked to find implications, extrapolate, and synthesize the information. This may be done through questions such as: "What does this mean?" "What would you conclude?" "Can someone say in one sentence something about all these groups?"

Students may apply the principles by predicting consequences, explaining unfamiliar phenomena, and hypothesizing. This may be done through a question such as "What would happen if ...?" They can then explain or support the predictions and hypotheses by asking: "Why do you think this would happen?" Lastly, students can verify their prediction by asking: "What would it take for this to be generally true or probably true?"

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