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Friday, October 12, 2018

Problem Solving Approach Lab Reflection

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Jobs and careers are demanding more and more employees know simple skills such as public speaking, interpersonal and problem solving skills! In education, this is where teachers can bring in the problem-solving approach. I think this is especially applicable to Agricultural Education because the ag industry is always facing problems. Not only does it help the industry but it helps the students gain skills that are easily transferable to other aspects of life.

For this week's teaching lab, we were able to use the problem solving approach in a lesson. This is literally just as it sounds...the students are given a problem that they need to solve. We were only given 20 minutes (the problem did not have to be solved by this point) to teach the beginning of our lesson.

Background on My Lesson

  • animal science reproduction taught in the spring to 3rd year students
  • we would have just looked at and talked about male and female bovine reproductive tracts and the stages of embryonic calf development
  • it was scenario based (real life from my farm); brood cows and 2 year old heifers were aborting their calves and the students had to figure out why
    • they had to come up with what they needed to know, questions to ask the farmer, his wife and their daughter (who all had different roles on the farm)

Opps-Opportunities to Do Better

  • speed up and have flow for lesson
    • just be comfortable with what I'm teaching; I really struggled to come up with a problem that I thought was "good enough" to do a lesson on so I was slightly uncomfortable trying it out; I was fine with content though
  • show more interest in students-"shares-a-lot" role said she had cattle but I didn't ask her what kind or anything.
    • I think I was afraid that if I talked more about that I was going to get off topic and I didn't want to do that. It was a fine line that I did think about in the moment.
  • engage students more
    • have them give their answers to the questions and ask if anyone else has anything to add

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Gems-Things to Keep Doing

  • great real world scenario
    • it actually happened to me and may actually happen to students since it is a dairy community
  • kept students on track
    • there were a lot of snarky comments that were way off topic and I ignored or very briefly addressed them
  • moved around room and asked how students were doing
    • students can be left out of group work or they can get off task if you don't ask
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Overall

  • I will keep students engaged, keep my enthusiasm and be comfortable with whatever I am teaching.

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2 comments:

  1. Sara, great reflection of your PSA lab that included all of the key components. I especially like your detailed discussion of your gems and opps. What are some things that you plan to do to help turn your opps into gems for future labs?

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  2. Sara, a large portion of the "real-world" is problem solving....sure a lot of life is spent planning, but the problem-solving happens when the plan doesn't go as expected. Problem solving naturally induces the higher levels of thought, and in turn, this process is where some of the most authentic and deepest learning occurs. Creating real-world problems to solve is the best way to create these rich learning opportunities...look at the world for idea inspiration.

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