Establishing Cambourne's Conditions of Learning
To assess my ability to provide quality education I rely on Cambourne's (1995) conditions for learning. In the diagram below (adapted from Cambourne 1995) I highlight these conditions and ways I act to foster them in my classroom. As shown in the figure, student engagement is central to learning and teachers working to foster it can utilize strategies from the 7 outer categories.
Creating a safe & welcoming classroom environment
Conflict prevention and resolution
Before students enter the room
During the first few weeks
Throughout the school year
- Learn the cultural expectations of my students by communicating with students, parents, and faculty
- Address concerns of dangerous and disrespectful behaviors immediately
- Teach conflict resolution strategies along with curriculum
- Encourage students to become effective communicators & mediators
- Reflect on my ability to intervene and adjust strategies accordingly
Before students enter the room
- Send emails home welcoming students to the new school year
- Make sure the classroom looks professional, stimulating, and welcoming
- Prepare an introduction for myself and the coursework
- Arrange the seating to facilitate individual and group work
- Prepare a syllabus and highlight classroom behaviors & expectations
During the first few weeks
- Greet students at the door
- Learn students' names, backgrounds, and interests as soon as possible
- Work with students to develop acceptable behavior guidelines (and post them in the room)
- Make sure every student experiences success in one way or another
- Reinforce class norms and establish routines, including a bell-ringer
- Discuss the course and their interests in science
Throughout the school year
- Consistently reinforce class norms
- Help students track their learning through the use of journaling learning target logs
- Continuously offer positive feedback and constructive critiques for student work
- Review and revise lesson plans to address student needs
- Have students reflect on their own progress
Getting to Know my Students
Here are ten activities I plan to use during the first week of class organized by some specific information I expect to gain from them.
Exploring individual's talents, personalities, and performance under pressure.
Exploring group dynamics, communication skills, and leadership qualities
Exploring individual's talents, personalities, and performance under pressure.
- Minute to win it: have individual students perform feats of talent using guidelines based on the NBC gameshow of the same name.
- Coat of arms: have students build a coat of arms where each piece of a shield symbolizes something about their lives (e.g. favorite foods, weird talent, what he/she would do with $1 million)
- Ball toss: students must pass and catch a ball with questions written on it. Whichever question the right thumb is closest to is one they need to answer to the class before passing it off again.
- Comm. style survey: have students take a survey to learn more about how they prefer to communicate and what the implications are for working with others who may or may not feel the same way.
- The puzzler: students are presented with various riddles related to biology and then must use internet and classroom resources to solve the mystery.
Exploring group dynamics, communication skills, and leadership qualities
- Marshmallow challenge: have groups of students work to build the tallest free-standing spaghetti tower they can that supports the weight of a marshmallow (see video below)
- Write-draw: have students start by writing down a 1-2 sentence story, then pass the story to the next person. That person must draw the story (without words), fold the paper to cover the 1st person's writing, and pass it to a third person, who then tries to re-create the story from the drawing. Repeat until it's back to the original writer (note: groups of 5-6 work best)
- Draw-back: students get into pairs where student A faces the board and B faces the opposite direction. Student A has to describe a picture to student B without saying exactly what it is while student B tries to draw it.
- Bio item share-out: pairs of students must brainstorm possible uses/origins of various scientific instruments, specimens, or pictures. After drafting their explanations the class must try to determine which descriptions go with which items.
- Interviewing a partner: students interview each other by asking basic questions about life history and perceived goals of the course. They then introduce each other to the class.