Week Sixteen November 2 – November 8, 2008

UTEP-UMCE News – Dr. Bill Robertson, Fulbright Scholar, UTEP Assistant Professor

Week Sixteen November 2 – November 8, 2008

The following is a summary of the activities that I have been engaged in during the week of November 2 – November 8 as they relate to the work I am doing here at UMCE as part of my Fulbright Scholarship.

Physics Instruction at Liceos

On Monday, November 3, I worked at the 2 local high schools implementing the physics project from la UMCE. The first school, Liceo Juan Antonio Ríos, has approximately 15 students in the project. The second school, Liceo Capitán de Corbete Pedro Gonzáles, has 2 sections of students, the first with approximately 30 students and the second with 35 students. This was the final meeting with the students at the liceos, and we administered our post tests in the areas of attitudes towards science, attitudes towards computers and physics content knowledge in the principles of motion.

The experience at the liceos has been invaluable for me in order to understand both the similarities and the differences in the educational settings and systems between the US and Chile. The main similarities I see are in the type of student that is in these schools and the students we serve in El Paso, especially in the areas with higher Spanish speaking populations. There is also a great economic divide in the educational settings for students throughout the city, something that is also mirrored in El Paso, and in many areas around the US. Finally, I think there is a great tension between the ideas of a constructivist framework for teaching and learning and managing the business of the school, both here and in the US. The struggle to implement a student-centered curriculum within a traditional classroom setting is ongoing as well.

Student Conference on Pedagogy in the Natural Sciences

On Wednesday, November 5, I went with Claudio Perez to attend and to give a presentation at a Science Education Conference for students studying to be teachers in the Natural Sciences. The main thrust of this event was to uncover concepts associated with constructivism and how this methodology can be implemented in the mostly traditional teaching climate found in Chilean schools. The conference was attended by upwards of 100 students primarily from the universities near Chillán and Concepción. The students are all involved in programs that will lead them to be educators, primarily science teachers in high schools in Chile. The students were assembled for a week long conference in order to improve their knowledge, to increase their abilities and to enlarge their networks with other students and participating faculty members.

I was fortunate enough to participate in the event and deliver a presentation entitled “¿Cómo set constructivista en base a una formación conductista?” with my colleague and fellow constructivist, Claudio Pérez. We gave a talk that focused on our experiences in science education and the use of specific methods and techniques that centered on practical applications in the classroom. In interacting with the students within the talk, at lunch and in subsequent informal discussions, I was given the unique opportunity to actually participate in a practical manner as both a teacher and a learner.

Data Analysis of Surveys

I have continued to work on the data from both the pre-surveys and post-surveys from the Liceos and still have to administer the post-surveys to the students in Mechanics here at UMCE, with I hope to do on November 24. This is also part of my work with the Fulbright US Scholars program, as my research study is to understand how this type of approach, integrating constructivist methods and technology into classrooms in Chile, impacts both attitudes and content understandings.

Personal Transition to Work in Spanish

I have been working on a proposal to submit to a science education group here in Santiago, Explora that would be a chance to implement a program in which both Action Science and the Mathematical Modeling of physics would be integrated into schools here in Santiago as part of a pilot program. This proposal and corresponding materials have all been drafted in Spanish and all meetings on the topics done in Spanish as well.

Additionally I have been preparing my materials for my upcoming series of workshops in Argentina, which are being done at the invitation of Fulbright-Argentina and the Ministry of Education in Argentina. The plan is to give a series of workshops for both students, future teachers, supervisors and university professors. It promises to be both challenging and engaging, but also a great chance to see if I can apply what I have learned here in a new and unique setting. In some ways, this is truly a critical thinking exercise, something I try and impart on my students with great regularity, and it is a good reminder to me to experience this in another language in order to understand the obstacles and work needed to accomplish in order to achieve new learning that hinges on analysis, synthesis and evaluation.