Reflection on Inquiry project

 
Our group's actual intention (Ivy and I) for choosing the inquiry project topic of enriched learning is learning how to inspire and motivate students in math classrooms.  We researched how we could make the math classroom more exciting and help more students enjoy learning math.
We learned about the mini-school history through this inquiry project, the many and varied available enriched learning programs locally.  Most local schools have opened their own enriched learning programs and mini school program.
By interviewing mini school and regular schoolteachers, I learned that while mini schools and regular classes have similar pedagogy, mini-schools being smaller allows students to more easily participate and provide input in school management.  Mini-school students are screened by entrance exams and interviews and have above-average academic performance and ability.  The better caliber students help teachers to easily extend the teaching contents deeper and broader for students. When I was young, our school would divide the classes based on students' academic performance into accelerated, standard and slow classes.  While this system does segregate students into different tiers and potentially social ranking, it helps teachers as they are working with students with similar cognitive abilities.
In my additional research on inspiring and motivating students in mathematics, I have found some excellent videos on inspiration and mathematics motivation.  One video is "Math is the six sense" by Eddie Wu, a high school math teacher known for his passion for teaching mathematics and passing that passion onto his students.  His talk is about how everyone has a sense of mathematics.  Another video is about infinite patterns, which shows the beauty of mathematics through patterns.

Final Inquiry project slides

 Please refer to the link below:

Final Inquiry Project Slides

Exit Slip-Inquiry connection with real world

Exit Slip 

Today's progress for inquiry project:

1. We wrote an email and asked questions to one of the mini school's teachers and waiting for a response

2. We interviewed one parent and two teachers

3. We discussed the project's procedure 

Tentative Project Presentation Procedure 

Introduction and Literature Review

Part I Introduction Megan 2 minutes 

• Definition of mini schools 

• Types of mini schools 

• Recruitment standards 

Part II History          Megan         4 minutes 

Part III              Literature Review        Ivy                 6 minutes 

Real World Connection 

Part IV Ted Talk or any interview information  Megan 4 minutes 

Part V Interview Information   Ivy 4 minutes 

Activity 

Part VI Interactive activities- design mini programs 5 minutes 

Bibliography-inquiry learning

 November 22nd, 2020

Enriched Learning - A Case Study of Vancouver Mini Schools 

                                             Presented by – Megan and Ivy

Annotated Bibliography

1. Ellis, J., & Yoon, E. S. (2019). From alternative schools to school choice in the Vancouver school district, the 1960s to the neoliberal present. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy (188).

The article provides historical information about the transformation of alternative secondary school programs in Vancouver, British Columbia.  It concludes that the selective district specified alternative program is the one to thrive due to policy, institutional, and philosophical change.

2.  Davis, J. L. (07/14/2014). Gifted education: Current perspectives and issues Emerald Group Publishing Limited. doi:10.1108/S0270-4013(2014)0000026011

The chapter of the book exams the impact of family involvement for high-ability and gifted learners.  Innovative practices specifically designed to improve connections with families are discussed in this chapter.

3. Yoon, E.-S. (2011). Mini schools: the new global city communities of Vancouver. Discourse (Abingdon, England), 32(2), 253–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2011.562670

The article explains mini schools' development, a small and selective public school within larger urban public secondary schools. The author explores the experiences young peoples have of mini schools and how this ramification of the education market has increased the social disparity and polarization.

4. Yoon, E., Lubienski, C., & Lee, J. (2018). The geography of school choice in a city with growing inequality: The case of Vancouver Taylor & Francis. doi:10.1080/02680939.2017.1346203

The article measures the impact of school choice policy on secondary school student enrollments in Vancouver.  It examines the impact of an increasingly market-oriented educational system on schools' social-economic composition under the Canadian context.

5. Morisseau, J. J. (1975). The Mini-School Experiment. Restructuring Your School: A Handbook

The book discusses the shortcomings of the existing education system and advocates the benefits of the new alternative education program (in New York).  It also provides guidance for educators who are interested in launching their own similar programs.

6. Sharp, Laurie A, & Tiegs, Ali. (2018). Impact of WOWW’s Fine Arts Enriched Education Programming. International Journal of Instruction, 11(2), 25–40. https://doi.org/10.12973/iji.2018.1123a

The article claims that learning through fine arts in dance, music, theater, and visual arts provides many benefits to students.  Through analysis, the authors conclude that students engage in learning activities such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communications, and collaboration will enhance their academic performances and engagement in school and other social environments.  

7.  Liebrader, M. L. (1977). Alternative Education: Mini-Schools, Sub-Schools, Schools Within a School. 

This article discussed mini-school as an example of alternative education methods to prevent the students from dropping out from public schools in the 1970s. It illustrated mini schools' aims, curriculum, and the selection and administration of students.

8. Webb, R. (1972). Mini Schools: McMurray Junior High, Nashville, Tennessee.

This article describes the mini-school program is designed to provide a smooth transition from elementary school to the independent discipline approach of high school.

 

9. Raywid, M. A. (1996). Taking Stock: The Movement to Create Mini-Schools, Schools-within-Schools, and Separate Small Schools. Urban Diversity Series No. 108.

This article suggested many educators see school downsizing efforts as the linchpin of school restructuring. Several forms of that school downsizing efforts a retaking are explored, along with a discussion of the reasons small schools are being established.

 

10.   Abramowitz, S. (1976). The Effects of Mini-School Size on the Organization and Management of Instruction.

This article discussed whether the Mini-school size directly affects teachers’ interaction, attitude, role specification. This article studied 51 different mini-school sizes and found teachers were more satisfied with smaller class sizes. 

11. Beck, M. M., Lind, R. R., Geertsen, S. S., Ritz, C., Lundbye-Jensen, J., & Wienecke, J. (2016). Motor-enriched learning activities can improve mathematical performance in preadolescent children. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 10, 645. 

This article discussed how academic achievements can benefit from specific types of motor activities integrated into learning activities. The study aimed to investigate whether fine or gross motor activity integrated into math lessons (i.e., motor-enrichment) could improve children’s mathematical performance.

 

12. Bellanca, J. (2011). Enriched learning projects: A practical pathway to 21st-century skills. Solution Tree Press.

In this book, author Bellanca shared his experience as a classroom teacher about the project- based learning and the center of student- leading teaching methodology is beneficial to students.  In this book, Bellance also discussed how project-based helps learning. 

                                                      

13. How you can be good at math, and other surprising facts about learning | Jo Boaler |   TEDxStanford.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3icoSeGqQtY

Jo Boaler is a mathematics education professor at Stanford and the co-founder of YouCubed, which provides resources and ideas to inspire and excite students about mathematics. She is also the author of the first massive open online course on mathematics teaching and learning. Her book Experiencing School Mathematics won the Outstanding Book of the Year award for education in Britain.

14. Mathematics is the sense you never knew you had | Eddie Woo | TEDxSydney. https://youtu.be/PXwStduNw14 

In this illuminating talk, high school mathematics teacher and YouTube star Eddie Woo shares his passion for mathematics, declaring that "mathematics is a sense, just like sight and touch" and one we can all embrace. Using surprising examples of geometry, he encourages everyone to seek out the patterns around us, for "a whole new way to see the world."

Exit Slip-planning for inquiry project

 To connect the real world, I plan to interview the school math teachers, parents, and students about my topic. Also, I would like to add the idea of the related topic fromTed-talk to my inquiry project. The interactive activity that I plan to do is to discuss with my peers if she/he asked to volunteer to design an enriched learning program, what theme do they want to focus on? How to design this enriched learning program. 

Exit Slip-Discussion of 'trust science' and keeping open minds for creativity

Our discussion today was about how do we trust science and use rigorous scientific methods to check facts and theories, while at the same time keeping open minds for creativity and new ways of understanding the world.

In our breakroom with Julia and Zach and I discussed that people are experts in one field or some field doesn't mean he or she is an expert in every field.

As a teacher, we need to teach our students critical thinking skills which help them to make rational decisions. At the same time, encourage students to don't afraid to express their new ideas.

Entrance Slip- Permitting Creativity in Science

The first stop for reading this article is :

I feel it is so true that often we are not comfortable being different. I remember that sometime in our experiment in first-year university physics class didn't match our hypothesis. Our group member would be panic and thought it must be us did something wrong—nobody questioning our hypothesis since it was what everyone knows. I relate Bavelas's point to my short practicum when I drew three different dimensioned rectangular prisms with the same surface areas on the whiteboard and asked my students to predict which one had the largest surface area and which one had the least. No students said they have the same surface area.

My second stopping point is:

I like this passage since it is true that the new findings which everyone knows and believes it must not big discoveries. My reflection will be don't be afraid of getting unexpected results, and I would like to also encourage my students with this passage in the future.

My third stopping point is:

I like the suggestion that taking the field already clear, not the new land, because this point reminded me of my own research. I have to admit that happened to me when I tried to research Acupuncture in an English class. I hesitated to choose this topic, although I was interested in this topic since I was afraid that there were not enough articles I could find. When I finally decided to do this topic, I was in a hurry since I felt that I didn't have enough time for my research.