GoKic is a Seattle based Non-profit Organization focused on STEM and Technology Education with a lens of race and social justice.
In this project my learners are two-fold:
a) There are the GoKic instructors in which a goal is to structure this learning engagement so that teachers have adequate education on teaching the GoKic curriculum.
b) The GoKic students (late elementary - late middle school) in this learning engagement are directly interacting with topics of race, gender, stereotypes and the intersection with technology.
Challenge
Since there are different learners different questions must be addressed:
a) How can we create a resource that allows the embodied knowledge of GoKic instructors to be better distributable?
b) How can we design this resource to help facilitate workshops and training for the internal distribution of knowledge?
c) How will this resource impact the students taking the course?
Solution
In this project I led and developed a learning kit for GoKic instructors to have learning theory based systematic approaches for engaging and teaching their students. This learning kit would allow other instructors to read and learn about a curriculum, be used as a workshop tool, and allow flexibility as well as reflection to allow the instructors to change/modify activities and lessons.
Impact
A 9 session (10 week) long learning kit was created for the course entitled “Robotics Racetrack” which leads students through topics of critical race theory and concepts of robotics. A template for course development, learning theory, and learning objective mapping was along with this learning kit was provided and used to teach incoming instructors as well as future and subsequent GoKic courses.
Artifact
Note: Due to confidentiality this is a sample of the overall learning kit
Learning Goals
Teacher learning goals:
Introduce the educational theory and research behind the curriculum
Understand the learning goals and objectives for students
Develop confidence in conducting the activities in a classroom
Answer and or appropriately handle difficult questions about race, gender, and stereotypes
Understand the importance of teaching these ideas to the students
Student learning goals:
Students build connections, have fun, and feel positive about their experience learning, designing, and creating in the STEM field.
Students understand how racism, discrimination, and stereotypes are embedded within technology and further develop a sense of empowerment and agency to foster their identities in STEM fields.
Students better understand their communities, themselves, and the structures that govern inequalities seen in technology.
Methodologies and Process:
Critical Race Theory:
GoKic works to provide technological education through a social justice lens. Understanding critical race theory and the critical race curriculum is important as means to create lesson plans and curricula that work to deconstruct inequities, but also access and deliver the lessons to students with as much knowledge and intentionality to serving the community as possible.
Bloom’s Taxonomy:
We use bloom’s taxonomy to structure how instructors would engage with a full day workshop. This learning framework helps engage and instructors on various levels of learning to hopefully help the process of building knowledge around critical race theory, education theory, as well as skills within the classroom such as navigating difficult questions on topics of race and or gender, or developing a lesson plan for students on any given topic.
Gagne’s Level oF ENGAGEMENT:
In the learning engagement for students. WeI use Gagne’s level of engagement as a means to help structure the activity that students would engage with while in the class. In using Gagne’s level of Engagement we can better craft a learning an engagement that allows students to use a range of various cognitive abilities.
Active Learning Theory:
Active learning theory is portrayed in both the full day workshop of instructors but also in the lesson plan for students. Bonwell and Eison have defined active learnings as “instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing” (Bonwell and Eison, 1991). We use these some of the strategies and frameworks underlying active learning theory such as constructivism and the zone of proximal development to further refine our engagement. In scaffolding projects and discussions for which instructors and students socially interact and construct knowledge we hope to leverage the experiences and collectivist understanding of all the learners to create a unique but also rich learning experience. Research by Bonwell and Eison, as well as Freemon et. Al, have shown how active learning produces greater effectiveness in exam scores, concept inventories, and other forms of field specific assessments.
Backwards Design:
The GoKic lesson plan template is built in way that explore the idea of backwards design as introduced in Understanding by Design. Through exploring the design of learning experience that target the learning objectives then after designing the activities, instructors can better map the activities to the outcomes that students will be able to perform.
Evaluation:
How will you know whether students have achieved the desired results? What will count as evidence of learning?
Instructor Evaluation:
In the full day workshop I hope to evaluate instructors through feedback and assessment of the instructors crafted lesson plans and presentations. I recognize that the lesson plans may not be complete but through assessment and evaluation of how instructors might engage with students GoKic can provide feedback and further help develop the skills of future GoKic instructors.
Student Evaluation:
Students that progress through the GoKic curriculum are engaging in an afterschool program and so finding the balance between assessment that is not intrusive to the goals of having fun, and building a community while still getting useful feedback on the students’ learning and development of the overall lessons are important. In brainstorming evaluation tools the use of reflective journaling and overall project evaluation are ways in which GoKic can gather information about to improve the lesson but also assess students changes in thinking over time. In[MOU1] reflective journaling having students after every lesson discuss something they learned, how they feel, and any questions about the lesson or concepts discussed we hope to see the progression of student thinking and learning. At the end of the curriculum there is a project and project showcase. Here instructors will be able to access and evaluate student performance on the project. While the projects aren’t graded, instructors can provide important feedback that exemplifies further steps and ideas that could improve and boost the project, where the intention and goal is to have students think beyond the assignment and other applications for how their final project could take greater forms.