WebQuest
Content: The content will be the development of a lesson using a web quest and scaffolding for Higher Level Learning. The learners are teacher education students in an instructional methods course for secondary science.
Background Information: Scaffolding is a variation on the technique of teaching by modeling and demonstrating a new skill. Jerome Bruner's work with mothers and children are the first reference to scaffolding. As a mother reads aloud to a toddler, she may simplify the book to meet the attention span and interests of her child, calling the child's attention to material that is appropriate and eliminating material that is beyond the child's present capacity.
Teachers can apply scaffolding by reducing complex tasks to manageable steps, helping children to concentrate on one task at a time, being explicit about what is expected and interpreting the task for the student. But the following site takes scaffolding from just being used to break down complex tasks to encouraging higher level learning. http://webquest.sdsu.edu/necc98.htm
WebQuests: A Strategy for Scaffolding Higher Level Learning
I. Objective
SWBAT: Students will be able to define and apply the process of scaffolding for higher level learning to the development of a lesson.
II. Rationale: Arkansas Teacher Licensure Standards
Principle 1: The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she will be licensed to teach and can link the discipline(s) to each other.
1.1.1 The student knows how to apply major concepts, assumptions, debates, processes of inquiry, and ways of knowing that are central to the discipline(s) he/she teaches.
1.1.2 The student has a multicultural perspective of his/her discipline(s).
The student understands how students' conceptual frameworks and their misconceptions of an area of knowledge can influence their learning.
Principle 2: The teacher plans and teaches curriculum appropriate to the students, to the content, and to the learning objective.
2.1.5 The student knows how to ask questions to stimulate discussion as well as creative and critical thinking.
2.1.6 The student knows how to use various instructional technologies to address individual and group needs.
Principle 3: The teacher plans and presents instruction based upon human growth and development, learning theory, and the needs of students.
3.1.2 The student can evaluate and knows how to apply appropriate techniques and strategies based on different learning theories.
The student knows how to evaluate and use a variety of materials to support different instructional strategies.
III. Materials Needed to Accomplish Objective
Background Information on Scaffolding
Set Induction
Using the class discussion list, students are to post suggestions for a lesson topic and a procedure for introducing the lesson.
Procedures for the Lesson
Students will research WebQuest Examples found at the above Matrix site and choose one to describe on the class discussion list.
Students will research scaffolding for higher level learning.
Students will be divided into cyber groups.
Students will select a leader, researcher and recorder.
Groups will select a topic to develop a lesson that uses scaffolding to achieve higher level learning and submit it to the instructor for approval.
The recorder will post the lesson to the class discussion list.
Evaluation of the Learner
The learner will be evaluated through their participation in the group activity and completion of their activities. An average of the group critiques will be used and if any lesson does not have a 40/50 or higher average, it must be resubmitted.
