1. Summary:
Our team discussed a few procedural tasks found in math classes, such as converting fractions to percents and order of operations. In addition, the team found sources which cited the benefits of directly teaching procedural tasks. Some of the benefits included breaking tasks into smaller manageable parts or "chunks" and the use of mnemonic devices.
2. Research:
The following article addresses a specific intervention program evaluated by the Institute of Education Sciences which lists as one of its objectives "develop a 60-lesson
intervention program that fosters students’ procedural fluency and conceptual understanding of whole number concepts"
Doabler, C. (2011). Using a scientific process for curriculum development and formative evaluation: Project fusion. Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED528965
In our discussion, our team brought up the idea that learning procedural tasks helps students develop transfer skills. The following article reports on a study of students to see if instruction in procedural tasks improved the students' ability to transfer knowledge to future situations.
Siler, S., Klahr, D., Willows, K., & Magaro, C. (2011). The effect of scaffolded causal identification in the transfer of experimental design skills. Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED528963
This article gives some interesting information on how mathematics teachers use assessment data to drive instruction and reteaching. The report is extensive, so searching the term "procedural" will bring you to the parts most relevant to our discussion.
Shepard, L., Davidson, K., & Bowman, R. (2011). How middle-school mathematics teachers use interim and benchmark assessment data. National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED525301
3. Read about the study on teaching procedural tasks to improve transfer at http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED528963
This study cites "A central goal of instruction is to enable learners to transfer acquired knowledge to appropriate future situations" (Siler, et. al., 2011). They found that students in low socioeconomic schools had trouble with "weakly-integrated procedural knowledge", which caused poor performance on far transfer assessments.
4. Question to consider: From what we know about how the brain learns, what is it about procedural knowledge and procedural memory that boosts knowledge transfer skills?
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ReplyDeleteThe results of the study were interesting. Would the results of this study also apply if it were repeated with math concepts? The researchers hypothesized that the student’s poor performance was due to a failure for them to generalize the rationale for controlling variables which resulted in weak procedural knowledge (Siler, Klahr, Willows, & Magaro, 2011). I think that if students do not leave elementary school math classrooms with a clear understanding of procedural tasks and their rationale they will have trouble determining when a specific procedure should be used. According to this study we need to teach to mastery the procedural tasks and the rationale behind them.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question I think that we usually assess transfer when we require students to apply procedural knowledge to new situations. As the student successfully applies procedural knowledge to new and different situations they begin to make generalizations. These generalizations lead to deeper concept coherence which increases transfer.
Reference
Siler, S., Klahr, D., Willows, K., & Magaro, C. (2011). The effect of scaffolded causal identification in the transfer of experimental design skills. Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED528963