Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement by Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock identifies 9 categories of instructional strategies that have been shown through research to be effective in the classroom. They base their conclusions on meta-analyses done by researchers at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. It is important to realize that there is much overlap in the strategies and the good techniques in one strategy are often used to advantage to enhance the learning effectiveness of other strategies. Below we list the strategies employed in this web activity. The strategies are listed in order of effectiveness as rated by the average effect size (achievement in standard deviation units).
Identifying Similarities and Differences: The strategy of Indentifying Similarities and Differences will enter in several places. When your students compare the average and the values that make up the average graphically using the red bar and the plot for different cases, they will be Indentifying Similarities and Differences. They also will be Indentifying Similarities and Differences when they explore and explain how different data gathering techniques effect their heart rate data.
Summarizing and Notetaking: Students should take notes as they make their observations. An effective note taking structure is to use the left side for notes in text, perhaps an outline, and the right hand sides for drawings and other graphical aids that help organize and clarify their observations. Finally, a summary can be written along the bottom as the groundwork that holds the structure together (download an MSWord version of the note taking structure). This method of notetaking would be effective in this activity if students put all their observations for exploring the effect of changing their data gathering techniques on the same sheet or group of sheets. For the most effective use of this technique, have students discuss and compare their notes and summaries.
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition: Reinforce students positively as they explore, make progress on organizing, recording, and plotting their data. Have the students present their heart rate data so you and the class can recognize their good work. The very best reinforcement and recognition comes from parents, teachers, and other students.
Homework and Practice: You should assign reading about exercise and heart rate as homework. You could have your students plot their heart rate data on graph paper after using the Squeak HeartPlot project to reinforce and provide practice. When they are finished with the activity, assign as homework a brief paper summarizing their method of data gathering and explaining their data plots. High achieving students could be assigned the task of modifying the Squeak Exercise project (see Extensions).
Nonlinguistic Representations: This activity is replete with nonlinguistic representations such as graphics and animations. Students will learn more from nonlinguistic actions as they see the numbers they pick turn into a simulation of Norbert and Zot running on their Galactic Fitness 9000 treadmill. The red bar they use to compare the average and the values that make the average provides another way of seeing numerical relationships. If the students deconstruct the Squeak project to find out how it works and construct a modified project using the graphical tiles, they will be working with nonlinguistic representations of ideas (programming commands) and mathematics (arithmetic). The natural integration of these representations enhances the learning experience.
Cooperative Learning: Setting up cooperative learning groups is the recommended way to maximize student learning in this activity. Five defining elements of cooperative learning are: positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, individual and group accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing. Reciprocal Teaching is a research-based strategy that can be used effectively with cooperative groups. The four phases are summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting. If you assign groups to work on gathering heart rate data, it is a valuable experience for each student to play different roles and cycle through the diffeent roles - exerciser, timer, recorder and plotter. Then through discussion the team members can summarize, question and clarify.
Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback: Objectives that are set shouldn't be too narrowly focused or learners tend to miss too much related material. For this activity a good objective would be to understand the relation between exercise level and heart rate. Students could offer feedback to other students through discussions explaining their ideas of average and estimation and explaining their heart rate data and interpretation. If you give your students a test on the activity, research shows that the optimal time is one day after exposure to the material. Feedback on exams or projects has been shown to enhance learning and the best form is an explanation as opposed to just being given the correct answer.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses: Both inductive (abstracting a principle from a set of specific observations) and deductive (using a principle to predict a specific result) reasoning can be used to advantage to promote learning. Deductive reasoning activities have been shown to be more effective, but it depends on the circumstance. The division into inductive and deductive is often blurred and the concepts are most valuable when considered as two extremes of reasoning. In this case your students could follow the inductive path by deriving a principle from the heart rate data they take. They could make a hypothesis about the effect of exercise on their heart rate and test it with their data. It has also been shown valuable for students to explain their hypotheses and predictions, which they could do as homework or in class or both if time permits.
Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers: These strategies all take advantage of students' prior knowledge and are good ways to start a lesson. As you give cues and ask questions, keep in mind that higher-order questions are more effective and students are more interested in things they already know something about. For example, good starting questions would be "What is an average?", "What does it mean to estimate?", or "How does exercise affect heart rate?" Remember that it is important to wait after asking your questions to give the students time to collect their thoughts before they respond - you will have a much better discussion. Advance organizers are a way of giving your students a brief "heads up" before starting a topic - they aren't outlines or summaries. Research shows the most effective advanced organizers are expository, followed closely by skimming. In this case a story involving Norbert and Zot as as astronauts on the way to Mars, would be in order. How would they keep healthy? What does their heart rate have to do with it?
