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"In the beginning there was the word, and the word was made FRESH!"

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1. Holding thinking and discipline specific language – the lesson through the eyes of Chris Tovani (2004) and Tony Buzan in Literacy Across Disciplines (LAD)

When looking at my event through the lens of LAD it becomes clear that I had unintentionally employed several strategies the significantly contributed to the success of my lesson. As outlined by Hammerness, Darling-Hammond & Shulman (2001) the effectiveness and success of these strategies has only come to light following a critical reflection of pedagogical reasoning within my lesson.

She states:

“Without this grounding in and connecting to the professional knowledge base of teaching and learning, students’ cases might have remained personal and idiosyncratic explorations of their own experiences” (Hammerness et al., 2001, p. 24).

As such, I have outlined three key theories/perspectives noteworthy of the lesson:

A. Instructional purpose

In the words of Tovani (2004), “When readers have purpose, they tend to remember more of the text” (p. 52). Upon reflection of my lesson through the lens of LAD, it is clear that I placed a strong element of instructional purpose from the beginning of the lesson. As such, students responded with greater levels of attention, comprehension and engagement. In order to achieve this, I began my lesson by emphasising its purpose on the first slide of the PowerPoint I was using to aid my discussion. The slide stated:

By the end of today's lesson you will be able to:

Describe the three classes of joints

Describe the main structures within synovial joints

Identify and describe the types of synovial joints

Describe the movements that occur with various synovial joints

These key points/learning objectives were reinforced as key concepts in a revision mind-map (discussed in detail later in this post) that students created throughout the lesson. Likewise, the last five minutes of the lesson was dedicated to a class discussion summary of the lesson covering the points above. This techniques was evidently effective as I observed a high level of student engagement throughout the lesson. 

Tovani (2004) suggests that, “...when we share a clear instructional purpose, we give our students a lense through which to read the piece... A clear instructional purpose can greatly improve a reader’s comprehension, because the reader has an indication of what to read for” (p. 59). Likewise she outlines that, “Define a purpose and help students have a clear reason for their reading and writing...Meaning arrives because we are purposefully engaged in thinking while we read” (Tovani, 2004 p. 9). Concurring with these arguments James (2004) highlights that, “Instructional alignment (instructional purpose) has been shown to greatly contribute to enhancing student learning as well as providing information to the teacher about student learning” (p. 30).

In order to improve my future practice of instructional purpose, I aim to incorporate the, “...three steps of structural alignment”, as outlined by James (2004) when struggling to find a sense of purpose for particular lessons. The first step is determining the intended learning outcomes that are explicit and developmentally appropriate (James, 2004). The second step is selecting a learning experience to match the intended outcome (James, 2004). Whilst the final step is to develop assessments (whether they are formative or summative) that measures the planned learning outcomes (James, 2004).

B. Discipline specific language

In addition to my emphasis on instructional purpose, reflection of this teaching event has revealed that I placed a significant emphasis on PDHPE discipline specific language and literacy. The Articular system can be a difficult area of study for some students, due to the sometimes foreign and scientific/anatomical terms associated with the content. In providing students with tools to comprehend these terms and supplying them with an opportunity to apply the content to the real world, literacy became a “gateway” (Shann, 2012) through which students were able to engage with the content in a deeper, more realistic level; thus, improving their revel of comprehension and understanding.

In the words of Tovani (2004), “Teachers of any subject are going to help their cause by teaching their students to be better readers of their content” (p. 25). Likewise, she suggests that in order, “To know how to help readers get through difficult content, I must first identify what they are struggling with” (Tovani, 2004 p. 29). In this case, I had the opportunity to observe this lesson in which students were first introduced to the Articular system content. Throughout this lesson I observed the majority of the class group struggling to comprehend the various types of synovial joints and the various joint movements specifically. As such, I aimed to assist students in what Tovani (2004) refers to as, “...the meaning-making process” (p. 27) and improve their levels of understanding on these topics.

Analysis of Elizabeth Moje’s work on discipline specific literacy (Moje, 2008) has revealed several reasons why I was able to assist students in the, “meaning-making process” (Tovani, 2004). Moje (2008) suggests that in order to be truly effective, discipline specific literacy involves, “...teaching students what the privileged discourses are, when and why such discourses are useful, and how these discourses and practices came to be valued.” In order to achieve this, these were several instances throughout the lesson where I applied the example of my own knee injury to the key terms/concepts we were discussing (i.e. structures of the joint that was damaged, the joint movement that caused the damage, type of joint etc). In addition, I called on students think of themselves as sports physicisians, sports doctors, physio’s etc when revising for this topic so they could hopefully get a tactile and authentic experience of how the concepts we were discussing applied to the ‘real world’. In doing so, I had implemented a strategy suggested by Moje (2008). She (2008) elucidates that teachers must come to the, “...realisation that learning in a discipline requires people to enact particular identities, at least at some levels” (p. 101). Clearly, this strategy I employed inadvertently was effective, as students began applying the content to their own lives and thinking like a sports physician professional. Evidence of this was seen during the discussion I was having with students after class.

A question from one of my students: “So my Dad has had knee surgery after trying to step and avoid a defender in a game of Rugby, does that mean he damaged his medial ligament? And does that mean his articular cartilage was damaged as well?”

I concur with Moje (2008) and Tovani (2004) who argue for the employment of discipline specific leteracies in the classroom rather than generic literacy teaching strategies and aim to incorporate this into my future teaching wherever possible having now seen its effectiveness first hand.

C. Strategies to hold thinking

In addition to the above strategies, reflection of LAD content had elucidated that I also employed pedagogical techniques of what Chris Tovani (2004) refers to as, “...strategies to hold thinking.” Put simply, Tovani outlines that educators should, “Teach students how to hold their thinking and give them opportunities to use the information they’ve held” (Tovani, 2004 p. 18).

The two major strategies to hold thinking included:

Word association and metalanguage

In this instance, I asked students to associate all key terms associated with the Articular system to a particular word that described the term. For example, Fibrous was associated with Immovable in note taking and discussion (Note: a fibrous joint is an immovable joint). In doing so, I was assisting students in simplifying what may seem a complex term, into more straightforward concepts. In addition, I had again incorporated PDHPE discipline specific literacies and used metalanguage to improve student comprehension. Ladwig & Gore (2003) outlines the incorporation of discipline specific metalanguage as a pivotal element to achieving a classroom of intellectual quality. They (Ladwig & Gore, 2003) elucidates that effective lessons, “...explicitly name and analyse knowledge as a specialist language (metalanguage), and provide frequent commentary on language use and the various contexts of differing language uses” (p 11). Interestingly, a study conducted by Van Kraayenoord, Beinicke, Schlagmuller & Schneider (2012) also found, “...metacognition had a direct effect on reading comprehension” (p. 63). Which was clearly the case during that lesson as the observation and discussions I was having with students for formative assessment demonstrated they were able to apply key terms to discussion topics.

Likewise, I emphasised that in order for students to remember all of the joint movements, they had to ‘think in pairs and remember anatomical position’. For example, flexion is the opposite movement to extension, thus, they were a pair. In doing so, it was hoped that in order for students to remember all of the joint movements, they would simply have to remember one of the pairs. Cochaud (1984) highlighted this word association as an valuable memory strategy, stating, “For an item to be learned, its contents must be seen to be related to the content of an item already memorised...Once the accessibility link has been forged, all other relationships between individual items are irrelevant...Once learned, any item of information is wither accessible from a particular other item” (p. 104). Similarly, a study carried out by Van Kraayenoord et al., (2012) found, “...word identification (word association) has the greatest influence on reading comprehension” (p.51). 

Mind mapping

Over the course of the lesson I modelled a revision mind map of the Articular system on the white board next to a Power Point presentation. Following the completion of discussion/explanation on a particular learning objective, I would scaffold a section of the mind map for students who would then complete it in their work books. The primary reason I incorporated this into my revision lesson was that I remember it being a highly effective learning tool for me when I was learning the same content as a student. Following reflection and analysis of research however, the work of Tony Buzan, has highlighted the effectiveness of mind mapping for improving student comprehension and memory (Buzan, 2006). Likewise, his work on mind mapping has highlighted some of the limitations of the mind map I modelled for students (see post below).

Primarily, Buzan (2006) says, “As memory is a process which is based on linking and association, the fewer items there are in the ‘recall store’, the less will be the possibility for new items to be registered and connected” (p. 69). In order to improve this, “recall” (Buzan, 2006) process, Buzan (2006) outlines the multitude of advantages that mind mapping has over the linear form of note-taking; which is normally common to a typical revision lesson in PDHPE. The main include (Buzan, 2006, p. 96):

• The centre with the main idea is more clearly defined.

• The relative importance of each idea is clear – more important ideas are towards the centre, less important are near the edge.

• The links between key concepts will be easily recognisable due to proximity and connection.

• Recall and review of information will be more accessible, effective and rapid.

• Structure allows for easy and neat addition of new information.

• Each map created will look different from another, aiding recall.

• It is more creative than note taking, enabling the brain to make new connections more easily.

(Buzan, 2006)

In addition to this, Buzan (2006) recommends that in order to be truly effective, mind maps have to incorporate certain characteristics. Upon review of the following list, it is clear that whilst I incorporated some elements of effective mind mapping to students, they are several areas of improvement. Key characteristics suggested by Buzan (2006) include:

• Start with a coloured image at the centre – place in landscape position, encourages thought while significantly increasing memory.

• Place images throughout mind map – helps to assist all cortical processes.

• Words should be printed – providing more photographic, clear, legible and more comprehensive feedback.

• Printed words should be on lines, and reach line should be connected by other lines – to show relationship of concepts and guarantee basic mind map structure.

• Words should be in units, one word per line – more note-taking freedom + flexibility.

• Use colours to enhance memory and simulate right cortical processes.

• Leave mind map as a creative process, the mind should be left as free as possible there is no one right way to create the finished process.

Buzan (2006)

Following the analysis of information, I have posted and image in the blog post below with the an example of the mind-map I modelled to students during the lesson. Directly below to it is an image of what the mind map should have looked like, incorporating the recommended features from Buzan (2006) in order to improve student comprehension, memory retention, recall and holding of thinking. I aim to incorporate Buzan’s (2006) strategies into future lessons in which I incorporate mind-mapping. Likewise, I will seek to use mind mapping wherever deemed appropriate in place of the linear note taking processes. Buzan (2006)suggests that there are a multitude of application for mind mapping, including its use application to speech writing, essay writing, examination tasks, meetings and communication and note-taking/summarising (Buzan, 2006).

***NOTE: See reference list in post below***