Tough to teach: History of the earth. Analysis of the video adressing concepts of motivation, memory, learning, teaching, attention, etc.

1. Sara AlonsoDiez
Educational Psychology
Final exam
TOUGH TO TEACH: History of the earth
Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCFLGykMasI
The videointroducesusto a teacherthat is clearlyinvolvedwithhissubjectandthe student’s
learning. He says already in the beginning that one of his maingoals is to make students learn
something through learning that subject. That is, he wants his students to research, process,
measure and apply mathematical concepts more than to remain everydetail of the lesson. He
useshislesson asa waythat studentspractice anduse strategiesto thinkbythemselvesand go
deep into their critical and abstract thinking.
Definitely,he goesbeyondmakingstudentslearnonlyfacts.He couldhave onlygive the lesson
and focus on the factual knowledge about the earth and its history, but instead he uses that
conceptasa wayinwhichstudentscan actuallythink.Hiseducationalobjectivesgofurtherthan
only remember; he develops a lesson that make students deeply understand the concept,
applying it in a different context (kindergarten to 12 grade time line, rope time line in the
hallway), evaluating and making them realize about their own learning(how different they do
between the first time with the rope time line –before the paper time line in class, and the
secondtime withit –after the paper time line),andalsogivingthemthe opportunitytocreate
theirown time line.FromBloom’staxonomyperspective,he worksinorderto promote higher
forms of thinking rather than just remembering facts (rote learning).
Another really great thing that I’ve noticed in his teaching is that he creates a community of
learners. Hislessonisstructuredinawaythatisthe opposite of acompetition:almostall of the
learning is cooperatively, and students have to talk and interact with each other to come to a
conclusion.He encourage thiskindof learningalwaysaskingthemtotalkwiththeirpartners,to
work in pairsand to compare their product with othergroups (same pointof view of Vygotsky
theory about how we learn). I think one of his maingoals is that kids learn to learn from each
other,helptheirpartnersandlistenandreflectaboutother’sideas.Itisnotaboutperformance
goals (looking good, getting the answer faster than the rest of the class, saying and doing
everything correctly…) but about mastery goals (collaborate with peers to enhance learning,
interested in really understanding the concepts….).
He talks in the video how lucky he is of teaching something as science, something about what
studentsare alreadyinterestedin.However,thatintrinsicmotivation couldhave perfectlyfaded
away if the lessonwouldn’thave beenenoughchallengingormotivatingforstudents.So,how
he achieves to maintain students’ attention and motivation? First of all, he bring them to the
lesson in two main ways:
1. Giving continued opportunities to learn:
a. Cooperative learning: The students created the paper time line in pairs and then
shareditwithotherclassmates,contrastingtheirthinkingprocessandexplanations.
Anotherexample iswhenthe teacherssays“Do you thinkthat he have to move to
the left or the right in the k-12 time line? Guys, turn to your table partner and
decide.” He gave wantthemto talk to eachother,share theirideasandencourage
cooperative thinking.

2. Sara AlonsoDiez
Educational Psychology
Final exam
b. Opportunities toparticipate:“Choosewhereyouthinkyouare inthe k-12time line”,
“Point out in what part of the rope do you think the Neolithic was”, “Raise your
hands if you think differently”, etc. He makes many questions throughout the
explanations and during the activities,not only giving the chance to everyone one
to participate but also maintaining students engaged to the explanation.
c. Student’s active role in discovering the answer by themselves using different
resources (textbooks, computers…). The teacher gives students time to research
and discoverthe answers. It’sreallyinterestinghow studentsare sointothe lesson
that theydon’t stopwhentheyfindthe answerstothe teacher’squestions,butgo
furtherin theirowninvestigation.Forexample,whentheyhave tosituatedevents
in the rope time line theycome up withnew eventsthattheydiscoverduringtheir
research.
d. Differentwaystoapproachthe content:He gave the studentsa12-pagesdocument
about geologic time scale and history of the earth so they could approach the
conceptbefore classandhave backgroundknowledge aboutit.Bydoingthishe was
able to invest the time of the lesson in the experience and hands-on activities.
Studentshadthe chance to approach the content by reading,experiencing,solving
problems,inbiggroup,individually,cooperatively,etc. He says:“Do the same thing
multiple times in different ways; sometimes researching, sometimes outside,
sometimes with the textbook. That’s the way they are going to learn.”
2. Pressing their thinking:
a. Appropriate activitiestomake studentsfeelchallengedandmotivated.Thereisone
time that he asks “Where would you place the appearance of oxygen?” and a
student says “That’s hard”, and he responds saying “Yes, it’s a challenging one!”
That is just an example of how he stablish the lesson, activities and questions so
they fit into the students’ motivational zone of proximal development. In this
example we can actually see how students, feeling appropriatelychallenged and
motivated, run to the part of the rope time line trying to answer to answer the
question. Furthermore,he mediatesduring activitiessotheyare reallymeaningful
and valuable for students.
b. Questions that encourage students thinking and promote deeply understanding.
What I’ve notices about thislesson is that is not mainlythe questions what makes
studentsthinkandreasonbut the activitiesthemselves. Theyare plannedina way
that make students little by little get a deeply understanding of the concept. For
example,referringtothe rope time line he says:“Bysettingupa time line like that,
where I can have them actively moving back and forward to where they think
certainlythingshappened,(…) theynaturallyrealizedandunderstandthe sequence
of events. That’s the reason I wanted to teach that way.” Anyway, he also make
some high level questions that require more thinking and knowledge connections
of students like “Why do you think the book focus only on this part of the earth
history time line?”

3. Sara AlonsoDiez
Educational Psychology
Final exam
He isreallyinvolvedinmakingthe lessoninterestingandfun. He givesgreatimportance tostep
into the shoes of his students and understand how can he planned the lesson to make it
attractive.Althoughhismainresource to achieve thisare his activities, duringitsdevelopment
he supporthisstudentsandencourage them, boostingtheirmotivation.Forexample,he saysa
couple of times “You guys are so good”, and when they don’t get the right answer, instead of
saying “wrong” or “you are not paying enough attention, he says “very close!” He presents
several characteristics of an authoritative teacher, like his tendency of giving students
opportunitiestoparticipate,encourage situationstothink(mainlythroughactivitiesthatimply
cooperative learning), and present the content from a valuable perspective, trying to give it a
sense. He knows that for many students the big texts in books about earth history are
meaningless,sohe turns them into real experiences with much more (and deeply) meaning.