Basic HTML Version
Q
uantitative
R
easoning &
P
roblem
S
olving
26
© 2014 Pacific Crest
Step
Watch it Work!
1. Establish
purpose
My primary intent is to learn a bit more about what makes Process Education
“tick.” I think this information could make me a better learner in this class.
2. Set learning
objectives
I want to be a journalist and believe it is important to have breadth and depth
of knowledge. I also want to learn enough about Process Education so that I
can make some sense of what it is and means.
3. Set performance
criteria
I will assess how I have met this goal by how well I can explain what I read to
my classmate, Molly.
4. Estimate time
involved
The actual article is quite long and will take me about an hour, though I probably
will skim some parts. For now, I am just using the methodology on these three
paragraphs, so this should take me about 10 minutes.
5. Vocabulary
terms
Most of the vocabulary is okay, but I probably should check out the definition of
“facilitator,” since this is a key word in this passage. I also am not too sure what
“locus of control” means.
6. Outline
This article is about 10 pages long and is an academic article in a published
journal. The abstract gives an overview of the article itself, and that’s helpful.
7. Quick Read
Who is the audience for this article? It seems to be written with other teachers in
mind, or at least those interested in teaching. It also seems to assume I already
know some things about educational philosophy. Because this is academic
writing, I can see that I will have to watch for jargon. For example, I see phrases
like “collaborative learning” and “facilitative learning.”
8. Comprehensive
Read
I think I did pretty well in my first reading to get the main points. I looked up the
word “locus,” and it means the place where something is situated, so that would
mean that the place of control would not be with the teacher/facilitator, but with
the class? With the student? Groups? I wonder how that works…
9. Inquiry
Questions
I wonder what makes a problem ill-defined... And about teachers serving as
facilitators...is that something my teachers do? I need to think about that. Maybe
journalists are a kind of facilitator?
10. Synthesis
I understand that what is key here is that learning comes as a result of a group
cooperating to solve an “ill-defined” problem with the help of a facilitator.
11. Integration
I can see how medical students would be better served from getting ill-defined
problems to work with. My father is a doctor, and he often told me that he learned
the facts in med school, but lacked many of the skills he needed to solve real
problems. There was too much emphasis on knowing the facts. I’ll have to ask
him if he would have benefited from working on more ill-defined problems.
Just from these few paragraphs, I have a better idea now why we have been and
will be doing so many activities. I will spend some time in each activity observing
our group and how our instructor interacts with our group. I also will be more
aware of the kinds of problems we are given. Are they ill-defined? So far, they’ve
been more exploratory than ill-defined.
12. Assessment
I understand more about Process Education, but ended up really focusing
on Problem-Based Learning and cooperative learning. I would have enjoyed
more examples, but I’m sure I can find them online if I look. My own efforts
were strong, and I came away from the reading with some things that I want to
explore in more detail. I think I met my learning objectives, and when I talk to
Molly later, I’ll see how well I met my performance criteria.