Anchored Instruction: Origins and Perspectives
Anthony Petrosino The University of Texas
October 9, 2007
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Outline for Presentation • Introduction to CTGV • Define Some Terms • NAEP Trends • Word Problems • Facts vs. Problems • Anchored Instruction in
Detail • Demos and Bootlegs
CTGV? LTC?
• Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (joint authorship entity)
• Learning Technology Center (physical) • Multidisciplinary group of researchers
including educators, content experts, instructional technology experts, cognitive psychologists…
John Bransford Washington
Jim Pellegrino UIC
Bob Sherwood Indiana
Ted Hasselbring Vanderbilt
Susan Goldman UIC
Sean Brophy Purdue
Cindy Hmelo Rutgers
Chuck Kinzer Teachers College
Taylor Martin Texas Susan Williams Dan Schwartz
Stanford
Dan Hickey Indiana
Jay Pfaffman Tennessee
Mitch Nathan Wisconsin
Joyce Moore Iowa
Xiodong Lin Teachers College
Tony Petrosino Texas
Mutliple Content Areas • Mathematics
• Science
• Reading
• Health • Special Education • Pre-School
• The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury
• Scientists in Action/Mission to Mars
• Young Kids Literacy Project/Read 180
• Diabetes Project • To Kill a Mockingbird
• Ribbit (Sunburst)
Anyone? Anyone?
• The clip that launched a thousand presentations
• Example of instruction we can all identify in one manner or another
Definition
• Anchored Instruction- – A technique of situating instruction in a
variety of real-life settings (often simulated) to aid reflection, transfer, and higher level problem solving.
Related Words and Concepts
• Cognitive Apprenticeship- enculturating students into authentic practice through activity and social interaction- similar to craft apprenticeship
• Collaborative Learning- Collective problem solving
Principles of Anchored Instruction
• Learning and Teaching activities should be designed around an “anchor” which should be some sort of case-study or problem situation.
• Curriculum materials should allow exploration by the learner (e.g., random access, CD-ROM, DVD, etc…)
Major Goal of Anchored Instruction
• To overcome the problem of inert knowledge. To create environments that permit sustained exploration by students and teachers, enable them to understand the kinds of problems and opportunities that experts in various areas encounter and the knowledge that these experts use as tolls.
Longitudinal Look- NAEP
• “The Nation’s Report Card” • Fairly flat trend lines over the past 25
years (upward trend for past decade) • NAEP shows that the “educational
crisis” is not one of decline; it is one of stagnation and inability to keep pace with society’s expectations
NAEP- A Deeper look
• Levels of Proficiency- MATH – 150 Simple arithmetic facts – 200 Beginning skills and understanding – 250 Basic operations and beginning problem
solving – 300 Moderately complex procedures and
reasoning – 350 Multi-step problem solving and algebra – 500 ill structured, multistep problems
NAEP-Math Results
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
13 17Age of Students
Level 3Level 5
NAEP: Science, Reading, and Writing
• Science- 300 Level or better – 13 year olds: 9.4% – 17 year olds: 41.4%
Similar shortcomings in reading and writing
NAEP
• Most students can remember facts, solve textbook problems and apply formulas
• Seemingly can not rise above rote, factual level to think critically or creatively in solving ill-structured, ambiguous problems that require interpretation
Word Problems
• One bus can carry 60 people. If 140 people have to be transported, how many buses must be rented? (Silver 1986)
• Answer?
Word Problems
• Word problems are supposed to teach problem solving and show how math is useful in everyday life.
• Unfortunately, as often taught, they generally tend to do neither.
Word Problems
• “Word problems are the black hole of middle school mathematics: a lot of energy goes in and no light comes out”
- John Bruer Schools For Thought (1993)
Why so Difficult?
• Often the simplicity and artificiality of word problems undermine their purported educational proposes.
• Word problems are posed FOR the students rather than BY the students. – If our goal is to better prepare students for
problem solving than we need to keep in mind that problem posing is an important problem solving skill.
Why so Difficult?
• Word problems are typically presented without any context other than where they happen to be placed in the textbook – Problems about urns, trains leaving from stations,
and blending teas follow one another. – Rather than rooted in everyday life, word problems
insulate math from the real world of the student.
Why so Difficult?
• Children generally do not like word problems, do not understand their purpose, and see them as another weird task in math class (Cognition and Technology Group, 1991).
Theoretical Basis: Representations and Inert
Knowledge • Generally, children will use the skills or
strategies immediately after instruction but won’t spontaneously use them later. Yet, if they can describe these strategies, the knowledge is in their memories. Therefore….
• Being able to recall information from long term memory (LTM) when asked/prompted does not guarantee spontaneous use of that information when it is needed or useful.
• Cognitive psychologists call this knoweldge INERT KNOWLEDGE.
Key Idea
• The difference between recalling information when asked and using it without prompting when appropriate depends on how the knowledge is stored in memory.
Fact vs Problem Oriented Problem Solving
Task
• Had students read typical middle school science texts in the areas of: – Nutritional value of food groups – Water as a standard density of liquids – Solar powered airplanes – How Bronze-Age humans made oil lamps
Experimental Task
Fact-oriented learning
Problem-oriented learning
“remember as much as you can”
“read the passage as if you were preparing for A trip down the Amazon”
Experimental Task (testing recall)
Fact-oriented learning
Problem-oriented learning
“Imagine you are planning a trip to the desert…list and discuss 10 issues you would need to address in planning the trip.
“Imagine you are planning a trip to the desert…list and discuss 10 issues you would need to address in planning the trip.
Experimental Task (Results of recall)
Fact-oriented learning
Problem-oriented learning
-Never mentioned any of the information they just read -Gave vague answers
-Spontaneously used infor- mation from the passages they read and specifically mentioned: kinds of food, weight of water, availabilty of solar vs gasoline power in the desert.
Problem-Oriented Learning Works…but why?
• Students learn in a context that is similar to the eventual problem solving situation – This helps them associate new knoweldge
with conditions in which they might use it – The more context, the more associations – Use knoweldge more flexibly- even in new
situations
Raiders of the Lost Ark Study
• Rich problem context
• Accessible to poor readers
• First 12 minutes of movie
• All information needed was in the video
Comparison Group
• Individual instruction • Intensive instruction • Traditional
instruction – All based on word
problems
Word Problem Test
0
20
40
60
80
100
PreTest Posttest
Traditional
Video Based
Transfer Task
• “non-Indy” context • Traditional students
showed no improvement
• Video based students scored 60 percent correct (50% higher than pretest)
Limitations of Movies for Educational Purposes
• Not made with instruction in mind
• Can only cover so much curriculum
• Copyright and other legal issues
Production of Video Adventures
• Production of River Adventure
• Plan details of a 1 week cruise
• Figure out boat’s cruising speed
• How much fuel and water to take
• Boat’s length River Adventure
1956 Chris-Craft Cruiser
Replication Study Planning Problems
Problem Finding
No Math Use
Low 5th Graders
Poor Poor Poor
High 5th Graders
Poor Poor Poor
College Students
Good Good Good
Learning with Video • Results suggested
video contexts might be of value for ALL students
• Teachers were excited by multi-step problems.
• Concerned about quality (homemade) and need for narrative structure.
General Guidelines • Strong story line • Familiar characters • Video format would be
inclusive for poor readers
• Connect everyday experiences to school mathematics
• All clues included but problem solving needed
Journey to Cedar Creek • Jasper wants to buy a
cruiser • Meets Sal and decides
to buy it • Running lights don’t
work-off the river by sunset
• Can he make it back from Cedar Creek to Cumberland City in time?
The Challenge
• When should Jasper leave for home?
• Can he make it without running out of fuel?
Test feasibility of plan against constraints
Time Fuel
Distance
Constraints Met?
Can Do
New Plan: Get fuel at Willies
Yes No
Test feasibility
Time Fuel
Distance
Money
Constraints Met? No
Can’t Make It Can Do
Yes
Test feasibility of plan against constraints
Time Fuel
Distance
Constraints Met?
Can Do
New Plan: Get fuel at Willies
Yes No
Test feasibility
Time Fuel
Distance
Money
Constraints Met? No
Can’t Make It Can Do
Yes
Early Findings Preliminary Studies
– w/o hints 50% college students were correct; with 70% were correct
– W/o hints 1 of 11 above average 6th graders were correct; with prompts 18% were correct
– Both groups had trouble with multi-step probelms
• Classroom Studies – High affect of desire to
want to learn more – Both high and low ability
students improved on generation problems and multi-step problems
– No difference on standardized tests
– Non-traditional students did very well
– Worked on the problem outside of class
– High teacher adaption rates
The Jasper Woodbury Series
Origins
The Overturned Tanker
Mission to Mars (NASA)
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/edc371/movie/marsref.mov
Advantages of Anchored Instruction
• Everyone involved with a common background around the subject matter
• Visual hands-on aspects allow poor readers to participate in class discussion and problem solving
• Facilitates communication between students • Students are free to discover new issues
about the subject
Challenges of Anchored Instruction
• Teacher must change roles from “provider of information” to “conductor” or fellow learner.
• Lesson plans are not fully scripted. • How to help students w/o being totally
directive • How to fit Anchored Instruction into existing
curriculum and make sure it meets needs regarding mandated testing.
Problem Generation
Scientists in Action Jasper Woodbury Mission to Mars
Less Generative More Generative
- Multiple Segments - Challenges at end of each segment
- Single Segment - Pose own problems
- Single Segment - Challenges at end Of segment
PBI-UTeach
Anchored Instruction and UTeach
• Used in Project Based Instruction • http://www.edb.utexas.edu:16080/
anchorvideo/theory.php
• http://www.utexas.edu/courses/edc371/movie/marsref.mov