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PROJECT BASED LEARNING AND CRITICAL THINKING – ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS�and�EMPOWERING PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS TO TEACH DIGITAL LITERACY

DIGI-SCHOOL PROJECT Project Number: 2020-1-TR01-KA226-SCH-097822

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asist. Dejan Zemljak and asist. dr. Maja Kerneža

Second day of the LTT Activity (6th of May 2022)

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EMPOWERING PRIMARY TEACHERS TO TEACH DIGITAL LITERACY

Maja Kerneža

University of Maribor

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What is TEACHING DIGITAL LITERACY about?

What to do to better understand what we read online.

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  • Children use the Internet at an early age in their free time and as a part of the educational process at school.
  • Primary school students do not have sufficiently developed digital literacy skills to effectively participate in digital learning environments (Kerneža, Kordigel Aberšek and Legvart, 2021).

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Digital literacy competences...

...must be systematically developed from the beginning of schooling.

The Stavanger Declaration (2019) points out that the teachers and other educators should teach students strategies that can help them read and learn online.

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How?

The Internet Reciprocal Teaching (IRT) strategy (Leu et. al., 2015) has been particularly effective in helping adolescents read online.

The IRT strategy is suitable for developing functional literacy in digital learning environments of second triennial students (4th to 6th grade), while younger students were less successful or needed some adaptations.

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RECIPROCAL LEARNING METHOD (summary)

  1. Teacher explains the steps of the strategy.
  2. Teacher models all steps („think aloud“), students observe.
  3. Students are divided into small groups (5–8).
  4. Individual students in each group take on the role of the teacher (moderator).
  5. Students teach each other (teacher directs the conversation when/if necessary – he helps the less experienced).
  6. Teacher only intervenes in case of misunderstandings between students.

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Castek, J., Henry, L., Coiro, J., Leu, D., & Hartman, D. (2015). Research on instruction and assessment in the new literacies of online research and comprehension (p. 324-344). In S. Parris and K. Headley, Comprehension Instruction: Research-Based Best Practices (3rd Edition). >NY, NY: Guilford Press.

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INTERNET RECIPROCAL TEACHING

Necessary prior knowledge:

Structural elements of IRT:

  • Ability to formulate important questions
  • Locating information
  • Critical evaluation of information
  • Synthesizing information
  • Communicating about new knowledge

Basic computer skills

Ability to search the internet

Internet navigation skills and availability to use e-mail

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3 BASIC STEPS �OF IRT

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First step: The teacher present basic computer skills and rules for using the computer in class

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Second step: Frontal modelling of online reading strategy on concrete curricular goal

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Third step: (Independent) research

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FIRST STEP OF IRT: TEACHER‘S INSTRUCTIONS

Teacher guides the process of reading from the web by presenting the steps of IRT.

First step is about acquiring basic computer skills.

Students work in groups – the more experienced students show the less experienced students how to use the computer/tablet.

At the beginning the teacher gives instructions frontally, mostly using thinking aloud strategy.

Later students work in groups and help each other to solve problems. Teacher only helps if the problem is unsolvable for students.

Teacher monitores the progress using Checklist 1 of the TICA scale. When most of the class has basic computer skills, he moves to the next step.

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SECOND STEP OF IRT: FRONTAL MODELING

  • Students begin to take responsibility for presenting new strategies and for demonstrating when each strategy should be used.
  • They learn a curriculum content in a small group.
  • Students in each group discuss their solutions, exchange ideas. Important:
    • asking the right question,
    • locating (finding) information,
    • critical evaluation of information,
    • synthesizing what has been learned,
    • communication about new knowledge (sharing with a variety of communication tools – email, blog, wikis, Google docs etc.).
  • An important part is frontal phase. After completing the learning unit, students present what they have learned in the group to the whole class.
  • Progress is monitored by the teacher using the Checklist 2 TICA scale.

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SECOND STEP: SUPPORT QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS

Planning the research

  • What are the main concepts related to the topic?
  • Who could write about the topic?
  • What organizations could provide information about the topic?

Searching

  • What the new potential search terms did you observe during the initial search phase?
  • What kind of stakeholders write or publish about the topic?
  • Select the most interesting sources that represent two stakeholders.
  • Why did you select these sources?

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SECOND STEP: SUPPORT QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS

Evaluating

  • What kinds of expertise does the author/publisher have about the topic?
  • What are his or her motives to publish the text?
  • What is the main claim that the author wants to deliver the audience?
  • How well does the author justify the claim?
  • What kind of evidence does he or she use?
  • How is the author‘s expertise reflected in the way in which he or she justifies the claims?

Synthesizing

  • How did the views of different sources differ from each other?
  • What was common?
  • What may explain the differences (e.g., motives, expertise)?
  • What two issues that you observed in your comparison were the most exiting or surprising?
  • Which of the actors was more plausible and why?

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THIRD STEP: (INDEPENDENT) RESEARCH

  • Acquiring the ability to independently search for information/knowledge online.
  • Online work is done individually or in small groups.
  • The teacher provides guidance only as needed on how to use the strategies students learned in Step 2 in solving problems.
  • The teacher encourages students to look for new, original solutions for successfully using the web for learning and to share these new solutions with classmates, the learning group, and the teacher.
  • Progress is monitored by the teacher using Checklist 3 of the TICA scale.

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PROBLEM BASED LEARNING

Dejan Zemljak

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FNM 2022

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CRITICAL THINKING

Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to form a judgment.

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CRITICAL THINKING

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PROBLEM BASED LEARNING (PBL)

Students solve an open problem and at the same time acquire new knowledge.

The problem situation stems from real life.

Developed for medical education, it later expanded to other fields.

The learning method encourages collaborative learning, strengthens interaction between students and encourages critical evaluation.

The teacher provides support, guides and monitors the learning process.

Great emphasis on newly acquired knowledge that students use in solving the problem itself.

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PROBLEM BASED LEARNING (PBL)

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presentation of the problem

identifying the problem and finding the necessary skills

acquisition of the necessary knowledge

information exchange

use of acquired knowledge

evaluation

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MAJOR CURRENT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

Dejan Zemljak

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FNM 2022

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MAJOR CURRENT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

Our environment faces several problems, and many of these seem to be worsening with time, bringing us into a time of a true environmental crisis. It is therefore becoming increasingly important to raise awareness of the existence of these issues, as well as what can be done to reduce their negative impact.

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Pollution

Pollution of the air, water and soil caused by toxins such as plastics, heavy metals and nitrates, caused by factors such as toxins and gases released by factories, combustion of fossil fuels, acid rain, oil spill and industrial waste.

Global warming

The emission of greenhouse gases due to human activity causes global warming, which in turn causes an increase in temperature that then leads to rising sea levels, melting of polar ice caps, flash floods and desertification.

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MAJOR CURRENT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

Overpopulation

We are facing a shortage of resources such as food, water and fuel to sustain the rising global population, particularly in developing countries. Intensive agriculture attempting to lessen the problem actually leads to more damage through the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides.

Waste disposal

An excessive amount of waste is produced and dumped in the oceans. Nuclear waste is particularly dangerous, as well as plastics and electronic waste.

Ocean acidification

The increase in the production of carbon dioxide by humans causes the oceans’ acidity to rise, which has a negative impact on marine life.

Loss of biodiversity

Species and habitats are becoming extinct due to human activity. This causes an imbalance in natural processes like pollination and poses a threat to ecosystems – coral reef destruction is particularly affected.

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MAJOR CURRENT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

Deforestation

Loss of trees in order to make space for residential, industrial or commercial projects means that less oxygen is produced, and temperature and rainfall are affected.

Ozone layer depletion

Pollution caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the air creates a hole in the ozone layer, which protects the earth from harmful UV radiation.

Acid rain

Pollutants in the atmosphere such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides cause acid rain, which has negative consequences for humans, wildlife and aquatic species.

Public health issues

Lack of clean water is one of the leading environmental problems currently. Pollutants in the air also cause issues such as respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease.

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ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

The Ecological Footprint measures how fast we consume resources and generate waste compared to how fast nature can absorb our waste and generate resources.

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TASK 1

Explore how big is your country’s environmental footprint is and try to figure out what contributes the most to it.

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REMEMBER (IRT)

  • Planning the search
  • Searching
  • Evaluating
  • Synthesizing

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  • AND: Communication about new knowledge.

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COMMUNICATION ABOUT TASK 1 �(what we learned about the topic)

Password: konya

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1. PLANNING THE RESEARCH

  • Main concepts related to the topic.
  • Who could write about the topic?
  • Organizations that could provide information.

2. SEARCHING

  • New potential search terms.
  • Stakeholders that write about the topic.
  • Most interesting sources that represent two stakeholders.
  • Why did you select these sources?

3. EVALUATING

  • Author‘s expertise about the topic.
  • Author‘s motives to publish the text?
  • Author‘s main claim.
  • How well does the author justify the claim?
  • What kind of evidence does he or she use?
  • Reflection of author‘s expertise in the way in which he or she justifies the claims?

4. SYNTHESIZING

  • How did the views of different sources differ from each other?
  • What was common?
  • What may explain the differences?
  • What two issues were the most exiting or surprising?

+ SHARING NEW KNOWLEDGE

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WHAT ABOUT GREEN ENERGY?

  • What is this anyway?
  • Is it really as green as we think?
  • Example of electric cars.

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Could we connect environmental issues and problem-based learning?

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TASK 2

How much green energy does your country make? How successful is your country?

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COMMUNICATION ABOUT TASK 2 �(what we learned about the topic)

Password: konya

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  • http://green4uproject.eu/sl/games4youth/