Discuss the role of the teacher and the learner in the selected lesson plans.
The role of the content-specific lesson plan is to get the student engaged in the scientific learning process. The objectives that are stated in the lesson plan are that the “The learner will state two critical attributes of liquids—taking the shape of containers and taking up space”—understanding these particular attributes of liquids is fundamentally important for the development of student understanding of the scientific process and of the properties of liquids as a type of matter (Appleton, 2006). Alternatively, the long-term objective of the role-play lesson plan is stated as, “The learner will participate in collaborative problem solving using discussion, compromise and consensus rather than tattling.” The instructor is interested in ensuring that students learn how to interact with each other on a basis that does not involve adult intervention, while the students are expected to be engaged with the learning process and the role-playing process.
There are many issues associated with teaching science to young children—one of the primary issues that is noted in the literature is that students do not receive enough science education from a young age. Appleton (2006) notes that in general, teachers spend only a few per day teaching science at the elementary school level, while they spend 90 minutes per day or more teaching reading (Appleton, 2006). Although reading is undoubtedly a good thing to be teaching students, the lack of science education and science literacy in elementary school classrooms can be extremely problematic later in a child’s educational journey (Appleton, 2006).
The other skills that children are encouraged to learn are given as the ability to “describe the critical attributes of solids, liquids, and gases and will provide examples of each state of matter”—for the student, understanding the different states of matter is the first step to understanding the ways that the world around them works (Appleton, 2006). Good science literacy at an early age will help students become more science literate later as well, and will give them an excellent foundational base of capabilities. The role of the learner in the content-specific lesson plans is much different than the role of the teacher. The teacher’s role is to guide the student through the learning process, giving him or her the tools necessary to do the development and understanding necessary; however, the role of the learner is to explore the natural world. In addition, the learner has to be able to meet the standards set by the lesson plan, although this is really the responsibility of the instructor as well—the lesson plan is, as is the whole educational experience, the responsibility of the educator. The student, especially a student in elementary school, is a participant in the process, but the process is both guided and overseen by the instructor (Appleton, 2006).
Conversely, the goal for the student in the role-playing lesson plan is stated in the long-term learning objective of the lesson, but the students also have other goals associated with this particular lesson plan that are more immediate, and are predicated on a previous situation specific to this classroom or school. The student must be able to listen to his or her classmate during the role-playing process, because without good listening skills, the role-play will not work in any real way. The instructor, on the other hand, must be able to facilitate and lead learning throughout the lesson—the children will probably be unable to guide the learning process independently, even though they are in the fourth grade. Some of the students will be able to function more independently than others, but the variation in the developmental processes of children dictates that students will develop at different speeds and will therefore be able to complete the tasks associated with this lesson at different, varying levels of competence (Joyce & Weil, 2009).
Role-playing in elementary school classrooms can be a difficult thing for the instructor to control, because students are able to guide the learning process by themselves in many ways. On the other hand, the science lesson plan has the teacher firmly in the driver’s seat the whole time (Joyce and Weil, 2009). These are two different plans with vastly different tasks for teacher and student. Fitriyah (2014) writes, “Open ended role play as experimented in the study has a potential to be a technique to build learners characters as well as their language competence. It is due to its openness nature that is still open for imagination and development. However, careful preparation needs to be done before applying this method so that it can be a workable and advantageous technique” (Fitriyah, 2014). The process of role-playing, in short, is positive because it encourages creative development with language and interpersonal interactions, but it is also difficult to maintain good balance between creativity in student interaction and achievement of overall learning objectives (Fitriyah, 2014).
One thing that the student is expected to be able to do in the role-playing lesson plan is listen to his or her partner. This gives them the chance to learn from their partner as well as from the instructor (Joyce and Weil, 2009). While some students may struggle with this, it is part of the lesson that they are learning in this specific instance, and the instructor must be able to facilitate excellent listening in students. Again, developmental differences may dictate that some students may grasp the concepts better than others and much more quickly, but the instructor is tasked with ensuring that all the students are able to grasp the basic concepts of listening and communal problem solving before the end of the lesson.
Identify and analyse the instructional and nurturant aspects in these lesson plans.
One of the key aspects of the content-specific lesson plan is that the child is continuously involved in the learning process. It does not matter what kind of lesson plan it is—this one happens to be a science lesson plan—but the student is involved in the lesson plan, and he or she is able to express his or her learning process extensively throughout the process (Joyce & Weil, 2009). When the instructor first introduces the concept, the children are asked questions about the nature of the lesson plan and the different liquids that are involved in the lesson plan; this is a way to ensure that students are engaged in the learning process. However, even as the lesson plan goes on, the instructor continues to engage the learners in the learning process by asking questions and continuously checking knowledge levels within the student group (Appleton, 2006). This should be done in a nurturant manner, ensuring that the student’s needs are understood and taken care of and that the students understand the process (Appleton, 2006).
The good thing about the content-particular lesson plan is that the instructional part of the lesson is both nurturant and instructional—the instructor is able to give the student support and feedback, but there is also an element of instruction as the educator gives the students the skills that they need to understand and identify different states of matter. There is no reason that the lesson plan cannot be nurturant and instructional, and this lesson plan strikes a balance between the two sides of the educational process in an effective way (Joyce & Weil, 2009).
The instructor is not as involved in the role-play lesson plan as in the previous lesson plan: the role-playing lesson plan is much more student-driven than instructor-driven. However, this lesson plan still has elements of instructional and nurturant teaching embedded in the text of the plan. The lesson plan states, “The content of today’s lesson is relevant for the students because the issue of tattling has been a big problem for them this year Interacting appropriately with others is a social skill that is needed in many different aspects of life. In order for these students to be successful in life and work well with others, they will need to know how to solve problems and issues in an appropriate way without resorting to tattling.” Although the instructor is not actively giving an instructional on how to properly interact with other students, allowing students to role-play with each other is a way to encourage students to solve problems themselves and to be able to solve problems with their peers without the involvement of the instructor. In this way, the lesson plan is also nurturant, because the instructor is providing students with a basic understanding of how to interact with each other and others in a calm, respectful manner, without butting into each other’s business and interfering with each other’s lives in an unnecessary way.
One of the key differences between the two lesson plans is the role of student as instructional tool. In the content-based lesson plan, the student is passively an instructor during the beginning discussion of the lesson, but in the role-playing lesson plan, the students are interacting with each other in such a way that they are actually acting as though they are instructors themselves—the educator takes a guiding role rather than a leading role in this particular lesson plan (Joyce & Weil, 2009).
Evaluate the lesson plans in terms of the effectiveness in developing and enhancing knowledge amongst the learners. Scrutinize phases or stages of the lesson plans that help provide learning opportunities.
The content-based lesson plan does a lot to develop a method of learning for individuals of all different learning styles. Students that learn visually are provided with a visual system of understanding—during the discussion portion of the lesson, lists are made on the board, and the instructor notes that an item that indicates “yes” or “no” can be used for the process of identification of liquids. The students that learn through auditory understanding are those that are going to excel during the discussion—although the discussion is also built around other types of learners, discussion is always excellent for auditory learners and those that can pay attention well in class (Joyce & Weil, 2009).
The lesson plan notes, “During the closure of the lesson, creative movement could be used to bring the critical attributes to life.” This leaves some space for improvement for the students who learn through kinesthetic means: students who learn through kinesthetic means are sometimes left behind in the elementary school classroom because it is more difficult to teach them; however, a significant effort must be made to ensure that these students receive the help and learning support that they need in the same way that the students that are auditory or visual learners receive their support. The support for tactile students is better, but could still be improved upon—although liquids are potentially messy and not something children should be playing with in the average classroom, there are other things that represent different states of matter that could be brought into the classroom for the more tactile-oriented students to engage with on a physical basis (Joyce & Weil, 2009).
The discussion part of the lesson plan is excellent for engaging students in the lesson itself and promoting student interest in the world as a whole. The lesson plan states that the instructor should ask, “What is your hypothesis?” which is an excellent question to ask young students, because it gives them the ability to use hypothesis-based thinking, but also because it gives them the authority to feel as though they have the power and ability to make guesses about the information that has been presented in the lesson. This is undoubtedly a very empowering thing for many students, although some could need to be persuaded to engage with the class in this manner. Appleton (2006) suggest that encouraging students to make hypotheses is something that can be extremely powerful in encouraging students to have better scientific literacy—when young students understand the scientific process, they are more likely to succeed in the process of scientific learning later (Appleton, 2006). Asking students to give the instructor a hypothesis about what he or she thinks is an empowering way to encourage this engagement in the sciences.
Alternatively, the second lesson plan—the role-play based lesson plan-- is interesting, because it is designed to be the response to a very specific incident—an incident involving tattling at school, in which the teachers got very angry with the students. Being angry at children is rarely an effective method for teaching them to develop good critical skills, so the instructors developed this particular lesson plan to deal with the issues that they were facing at the school. The teachers asked the students if they understood why the teachers had been angry the previous day, which is an excellent way for the instructors to deal with the issue of anger in the classroom. Teaching children how to appropriately handle emotions like anger—including apologizing for anger—helps them learn to be better-adjusted students and individuals (Eisenberg et al, 1997).
The teacher asks the students to role-play the different instances that they have been struggling with, with a little guidance on the teachers’ parts to ensure that students are using polite words and good problem solving skills with their peers. It is a good set of role-playing games that are designed for a very specific set of circumstances—instances in which the teachers were struggling with a very specific set of student behaviors. It provided the students also with an outlet to deal with the problems that they had been having with their classmates, giving them the opportunity to adjust their behavior and learn critical communication skills for difficult situations like line cutting, tattling, and so on. The best part about the role-playing is that there is an opportunity for both teacher discussion and evaluation and student discussion and evaluation after the completion of the role-play between the students.
References:
Appleton, K. (2006). Elementary science teacher education. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Fitriyah, S.M. (2014). Open-Ended Role Play: Building Young Learners’ Character, Fostering their Independence.
Joyce, B. & Weil, M. (2009). Models of Teaching (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
Procter, L. (2013). Exploring the role of emotional reflexivity in research with children. Emotion, Space And Society, 9, 80-88. doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2013.04.002
