Sunday, July 31, 2011

Making Thinking Visible: Using Whiteboards in the Chemistry Classroom & Beyond

One of the most fascinating aspects of student learning is the way in which information is processed in a student's mind. Teachers, and students alike, cannot fully appreciate how a student ascertains a set of given facts, a new concept, or solves a problem. This is because thinking takes place 'behind the scenes' in the human brain.

When a student demonstrates that they have learned something, or comprehend an idea, it almost seems magical how the learning took place. It can be as if understanding suddenly appeared within a student. Some might call this an "ah-ha!" moment, but in reality understanding does not simply manifest out of thin air. Conceptual understanding, memorization of a string of facts, and recall of information for use in solving a problem are all demonstrations of student learning. Sometimes teachers, who are rushed by curriculum maps and other factors, focus on the ends (the learning) and not the means (how learning took place.) Although the learning is in itself important, the process by which learning takes place is far more important.

Essential to improving teaching is an understanding of student learning; similarly, essential to student learning is an understanding of how students themselves perceive and process information. Critical to these understandings is an awareness of how students organize the information in their brain, connecting it through associations with other things they know (Levine, 2002). To reveal the thinking processes that take place in students' brains when they learn or problem solve, thinking must be made visible to thinkers themselves and others as well. Students can develop understanding in their minds much more effectively if the thinking process that leads to understanding is elucidated for them. Teachers and students alike can support novice learners in developing their reasoning abilities by making expert thinking in a subject area visible (Collins, Brown, & Holum, 1991). Thinking can be made visible in a classroom in three ways: when teachers make their thinking visible to students; when students make their thinking visible to other students; and when students make their own thinking visible to themselves.

Each of these modes of making thinking visible help students to develop expert strategies for thinking about subject area content and problem solving within a subject area. Not only will scaffolding students to expert thinking help them to attain conceptual understanding, but making thinking visible will enhance students' critical thinking, metacognition and non-linguistic representations of ideas and processes (Marzano, 2004).

In the chemistry classroom, where abstract concepts abound and algorithmic problem solving processes are ubiquitous, students must be scaffolded and coached to develop expert thinking; otherwise, students are left to their own devices to fend for themselves in attaining an understanding of chemistry. Scientific practice involves the construction, validation and application of scientific models, so science instruction should be designed to engage students in making and using models (Reif, 1995).

When a teacher asks students to "show their work," this is an attempt to peek 'behind the scenes' of student thinking. Showing work does not fully make thinking visible, because it is a one-directional pathway for showing thinking patterns; instead, creating an awareness of the strategies that students are using intuitively can help them call on these strategies more purposefully as well as develop these strategies and other metacognitive skills (Darling-Hammond, Low, Rossbach, & Nelson, 2003). Whiteboarding is simply a method of making thinking visible to students and between students. For years, teachers have used chalkboards, paper, dry-erase boards, and interactive whiteboards to make their own thinking visible to students, but rarely are students given a strategic way to make their own thinking visible with their classmates. These whiteboarding techniques facilitate making thinking visible in the chemistry classroom.

Techniques
Board Meeting
  • Description: Students or student groups form a large circle in which they stand and hold their boards facing the inside of the circle. Each student should be able to see all of the boards "meet" in the circle from where they stand; each student should be part of one continuous circle. Do not allow students to stand outside of the circle. The teacher stands outside of the circle.
  • Key Features: Students can see all the information on all of the whiteboards easily and quickly; students are all on the "same level" by being in a single continuous circle; students are less likely to try to opt-out of discourse when standing in the circle.
  • Major Functions: View all boards at once, compare data, generate non-linguistic representations, abstract relationships and patterns, or display problem solving strategies; students interact with entire class

Gallery Walk
  • Description: The boards are positioned on easels, on a chalkboard ledge, or on top of a table/desk propped against a wall. All boards are displayed like artwork in a gallery. Groups walk around the room to view all the boards; groups draw conclusions or answer questions based on groups' boards. One member of the group that created the board should remain near their board to answer questions.
  • Key Features: Students can reflect on the content of a whiteboard one at a time; smaller number of students interacting with content at any given time; teacher can interview individual groups in front of a board, observe interactions between board creator and viewers, and teacher can address individuals' understandings or group questions.
  • Major Functions: View boards one at a time; teacher can perform formative assessment; teacher can remediate as needed or address students' thinking; students can compare different problem solving strategies; students interact with their own group members and board creator.

Floor Display
  • Description: The boards are laid on the floor adjacent to one another like pieces of a floor puzzle. Students sit in chairs in a single continuous circle around the boards. Students should be able to see all of the boards; but due to difference in board orientation relative to seat position, only some students will be able to easily read some boards. Students should not sit in front of their group's board. Boards should be oriented so the bottom edge of the board is closest to the circle of chairs.
  • Key Features: Like a board meeting, students are all on the same level as part of one large group discussion. Students have the individual responsibility of reporting the information contained on the board directly in front of them to the rest of the class.
  • Major Functions: View all boards at once, compare data, generate non-linguistic representations, abstract relationships and patterns, or display problem solving strategies; students interact with entire class.

Poster Presentation
  • Description: Class remains seated while one group at a time goes to the front of the class and shows/presents their board to the class and teacher. Groups hold boards or position them on easels. Simulates poster presentation session that would happen at a professional research conference.
  • Key Features: Performance assessment centered on each group; students can model their thinking to the rest of the class; teacher can ask questions of one group that may be pertinent to the entire class; students can ask presenters questions about their board; class can take notes based on board content
  • Major Functions: View boards one at a time; presentation of homework questions; guided practice; formative assessment

Whiteboarding is a versatile practice that can be incorporated into any classroom content to help show lines of reasoning or to illustrate students' thoughts. The goal of whiteboarding, to depict student thinking, is reachable by other approaches as well. For the chemistry classroom many applications of whiteboarding exist including, showing problem solving steps, illustrating atomic and molecular structures, or interpreting experimental data to name just a few. Ultimately it is important, regardless of the methodology, for teachers to focus on the underlying goal of whiteboarding and create the opportunity to make thinking visible for students in the classroom.

References
  1. Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Holum, A. (1991). Cognitive apprenticeship: Making thinking visible. American Educator, 15(3), 6-11, 38-46.
  2. Darling-Hammond, L., Low, B., Rossbach, B., & Nelson, J. (2003). The learning classroom. S. Burlington, VT: Mort Crim Communications, Inc.
  3. Levine, M. (2002). A mind at a time. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  4. Marzano, R. (2004). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
  5. Reif, F. (1995). Understanding and teaching important scientific thought processes. Am. J. Phys. 63(1), 17-32.
  6. Wenning, C. (2005). Whiteboarding & Socratic dialogues: Questions & answers. J. Phys. Tchr. Educ. Online. 3(1), 3-10.
  7. Wenning, C. (2006). Engaging students in conducting Socratic dialogues: Suggestions for science teachers. J. Phys. Tchr. Educ. Online, 4(1), 10-13.
Resources

52 comments:

  1. Nice resources. I love me some whiteboards. I'll add one more. I like using a round robin method where students rotate. I haven't gotten a lot of traction from traditional board meetings with 34 kids staring at one board. I describe it here. http://alwaysformative.blogspot.com/2012/05/argumentation-part-2.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cool approach with the round robin in your post on argumentation. Thanks for sharing. Really liked the double-blind peer review format too!

      Delete
  2. Chemistry needs to be understood by the complete explanation. Whiteboards can help us a lot for this purpose. Such techniques cost little but are so amazing to perform well but now you can check rushmyessay reviews to get quality papers. On the whiteboard, the black ink is clearly visible why this the best option. Really a great blog to read.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I needed to thank you for this very good read!! I absolutely enjoyed every bit of it. content //com.android.browser.home/index
    I have got you book marked to check out new stuff you post…

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello! I could have sworn I’ve been to your blog before but after browsing through some of the articles I realized it’s new to me. Nonetheless, katmovie sd I’m certainly happy I discovered it and I’ll be book-marking it and checking back regularly!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I needed to thank you for this very good read!!
    https://free-cell.co/

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have to thank you for the efforts you have put in writing this site. I am hoping to see the same high-grade blog posts from you later on as well. Content://com.android.browser.home/ In fact, your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own, personal blog now ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Don’t forget to check our APP section for other useful apps for Android.

    Don’t forget to check our HOW TO section for other useful guides for Android.

    Don’t forget to check our TROUBLESHOOT section for other useful error fix guides for Android.

    Don’t forget to check our TOOLS section for other useful tools for Android.

    Don’t forget to check our ABOUT section for other information guides for Android.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Einthusan is a popular yet illegal website to watch movies and tv series. Besides this, spammy add-ons and pop-up ads can put your device at risk. As the Einthusan is full of spammy pop-up ads, it's a better idea to watch the movie on some Einthusan Alternatives available to watch movies and series

    ReplyDelete
  10. 123movies is the largest online streaming platform to watch and download the latest movies, web series and TV shows. 123movies has been a popular name for streaming latest movies and TV series on PC, Android and other platforms.

    ReplyDelete
  11. How to take screenshots on Android 11 and earlier version? This is a quite common question you might come across day to day life. The traditional method to take screenshots on Android is to press the power and volume down button together and bam! the screenshot appears as a tiny icon on the left bottom corner of your screen.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Google Reverse image search is a technique to find the details of an image.  Reverse images search on Android can help to find identical images and other details of the image. The search engine is used to search for the image by using an image rather than the traditional text search. But, how to perform a reverse image search on Android? Find out the complete process to perform a reverse image search on Android and the method to perform an image search.

    ReplyDelete
  13. What’s the difference between USSD, MMI and SS codes?
    Very code that you enter over your phones keypad that contains asterisk (*) or hash (#) characters is an MMI code. MMI stands for Man-Machine-Interface.
    Even though most of these MMI codes look pretty similar, they fall into different groups with completely different actions. Some are just used locally on the device, some are sent to the SIM, others are sent to the network.

    ReplyDelete
  14. How to access and configure voicemail on android. A voicemail is a smart idea to handle the incoming calls by forwarding them to stay distraction-free without missing an important calls on android.

    ReplyDelete
  15. before you consider a replacement or repair, it is suggested to try hard reset buds. resetting buds can solve most of the major errors. Read here about reset the Samsung Galaxy buds.

    ReplyDelete
  16. If you are new to this and don’t about the issue, then you must read this part. Otherwise, you can skip it. The error called “Mobile Network State Disconnected” it’s about the signal issue of Android phone, often it happens because of the network sim if you have an only 3G sim and the phone is trying to connect to the 4G network.

    ReplyDelete
  17. To delete a Spotify account all yo need is to before deleting a Spotify account and data on a premium subscription you are required to cancel the subscription first.

    ReplyDelete
  18. In fact, smvvm is a folder on the phone's internal storage. The android system uses this folder to store the data received via voicemail on your android phone.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Google Partner Setup is an app that helps you run applications in conjunction with Google products. For example, with this application's help, you can use the calendar from your device with a ToDo app that you've just installed. Learn all About Google Partner.

    ReplyDelete
  20. The market is flooded with Android smartphones having excellent features including big size screen and high-end video players. There are a number of MOV players for Android available that facilitates playing MOV and other popular formats.

    ReplyDelete
  21. You can simply identify the network connection error while making a call. Every time an attempt to make an outgoing call will display a pop-up box saying Mobile network not available.Fix Mobile network not available Error on Android

    ReplyDelete
  22. it is easy to delete Venmo account, but before you proceed it is suggested to close all your pending transactions and clear out the available balance in the account.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Musicpleer is the largest online music search engine on the web. The service is quite popular in the United States and India for downloading Mp3 songs. Musicpleer also lets you download Youtube videos in mp3 mode. What is Music pleer? How to use Musicpleer? And other details about Musicpleer online music search engine.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Thanks for the detailed article on this topic. I would like to see more such awesome articles from you .

    ReplyDelete
  25. Musicpleer music Download is quite popular in places like the United States and India, with lots of users using this app as a medium to gain access to varieties of songs of their choice. What song is this the reverse music search engine.

    ReplyDelete
  26. HwModuleTest is a system app on Samsung Android devices that lets the user run different tests on the device to diagnose if the hardware and software on the device are working properly.

    ReplyDelete
  27. There are some other music apps similar to Spotify music streaming you can use to enjoy the music. So, let's dig into the list of some Spotify alternative music streaming services which you may find useful.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Use smart network switch to save mobile data expense on your Android phones including Samsung Galaxy series(S2,S9,S10) and other Android smartphones.

    ReplyDelete
  29. How to Fix a Hacked Android Phone? Diagnose and Troubleshoot
    "My Android phone is hacked" A frequently heard line by an Android user. But, is your phone really hacked? How to figure out if an Android phone is hacked? And last but not least how to fix a hacked Android phone?. Let's find the answers to all these queries and also a detailed guide to follow to prevent your Android from hackers.

    ReplyDelete
  30. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  31. CIDManager is a pre-installed system app on Samsung android phones that works as a bridge between carrier provider and CSC codes. The linking is required for manual OTA updates by changing the CSC code on Samsung. The app is identified as a package name com.android.cidmanager and can be identified running in the background.

    ReplyDelete
  32. You laughed, smiled, told jokes, told stories and for just a fleeting moment you thought, "Wow this person is so cool."dry hcl gas generator

    ReplyDelete
  33. Appmanager assists the users with installing new apps and uninstalling unused apps at ease. The aap asks for the review for the installed app on the device after 60 days of the activation of the device. This helps the AppSelector to recommend a better list of apps for you to install.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Within this webpage, you'll see the page, you need to understand this data. secure online storage reviews

    ReplyDelete
  35. If you have a Samsung device, you would have heard about the new strange program named CIDManager or Carrier Identification Manager. A lot of users have complained that this app sends a network service provider notification that cannot be removed and it creates tons of issues.

    CIDManager

    ReplyDelete
  36. Android application PacKage called APK An application file ready for installation in an
    Android device. The compressed APK file, which is a ZIP archive in the JAR format



    AOWhatsApp APK

    ReplyDelete