A Model for the Creation of
Meaningful Community College Learning Experiences

 

Construction of individual meaning improves when students develop their ability to identify patterns.

What we know:

The ability to recognize patterns is key in many disciplines/fields and serves as the basis for the creativity that leads to new ways of thinking about the world around us. For example, a medical researcher may notice a pattern in data that leads to the development of a cure for a disease. Researchers in economics study (and try to make sense of) patterns in consumer spending. Police detectives look for patterns in clues to help them solve crimes. When we hear the word patterns, we usually think first of the sorts visual/spatial patterns such as the decorative pattern in a piece of printed fabric, or patterns in nature (leaves, shells, molecular structures). However, patterns can also be rhythmic patterns (music, poetry), verbal (speech patterns of a character's dialogue in a creative work of fiction), metaphoric (circle of life), mathematical (the way functions describe the movement of an object, or behavioral (patterns of behavior leading to self-defeat or to self-empowerment). These are just a few examples. Patterns are everywhere around us, and the ability to see these patterns and, very importantly, to make sense of them (think of the movie A Beautiful Mind) is at the heart of constructing individual meaning.

The brain searches instinctively for patterns and for how to make sense of the patterns it recognizes. For example, as I worked on this section of our manuscript, I struggled with how to find a pattern in types of patterns. (You can see some of this confusion in the paragraph above). Also, instinctively, I searched for how to relate the emerging pattern in the paragraph above to patterns I already knew (yes, more of that "connecting to prior knowledge" idea). Suddenly, it hit me that one useful pattern that will help us understand types of patterns is multiple intelligence theory. Click here to read more about MI in our "Valuing the Unique Learner" section.

If we consider the intelligences identified by Howard Gardner (visual/spatial, verbal/linguistic, bodily kinesthetic, musical, naturalist, interpersonal, intrapersonal, existential), we can see that patterns recognition and manipulation (and finding meaning from the patterns) is at the core of each intelligence. Visual/spatial intelligence involves the ability to see patterns in physical space (Perspective and balance in a painting, for example). The naturalist intelligence involves understanding patterns in nature (patterns in the stars used for navigation, patterns in tree rings indicate age, understanding patterns in animal habits/behavior, plant growth, and weather help the hunter succeed). Take a moment now to think of meaningful patterns at the core of the other intelligences, as well as a meaningful pattern you have discerned in some area of your own life within the last few weeks. If you're raising a teenager, for example, you're probably tuned in to strange new patterns of behavior, and you're probably working desperately to interpret these new behaviors!

Gardner (1993), in Frames of Mind, makes a point that's important for us to understand about patterning in a discussion of visual-spatial abilities of chess players. Gardner cites work by Adrian de Groot exploring how master chess players use patterns. Apparently, master chess players can memorize chessboard layouts (configurations of the pieces on the board) in seconds if the pieces in the layout have meaningful relationships (rather than being placed on the board randomly). Without this meaningful relationship, the master players can't memorize more game board configurations than what most of us could memorize. Their unique talents, then, are related to their ability to make meaningful connections between the chessboard configurations and previous (and future) meaningful chessboard configurations. Gardner says that Herbert Simon, a researcher in AI (artificial intelligence) has shown that master chess players can recall as many as 50,000 or more chess board configurations. That's how, of course, they can think ahead so quickly and "see" what the implications of every move will be. As an amateur player who learned the game at age five (my father was a rated player), I struggle to see two or three moves into the future, but even that's enough to be a fairly decent player. Of course, with practice, I could improve by learning more and more meaningful patterns -- which is why people learning chess read books about "standard opening moves", of course. The relevant point that Gardner makes is that the ability to "relate a perceived pattern to past patterns, and to envelop the present position into an overall game plan, that is the true sign of talent at chess" (p. 195). I'd suggest that this ability is also at the heart of what we'd like our community college students to learn to do in our courses.

 

The support for what we know:

As we've explored brain science and theory related to teaching and learning, we've found that the work of Renate Caine and Geoffrey Caine has been of particular value. As we discuss elsewhere in our model, the Caines have developed a theory of brain-based learning that includes twelve principles (click here to read more about the twelve principles). Principle One and Four are particularly relevant to this discussion:

Principle One (The Brain is a Parallel Processor) - the brain is constantly processing many things related to learning (thoughts, emotions, information, context) at the same time (Caine & Caine, Making Connections, p. 88).

Principle Four (The Search for Meaning Occurs Through Patterning) - by "patterning" the Caines mean "the meaningful organization and categorization of information." Describing Principle Four, the Caines suggest that the brain searches for meaning by "attempting to discern and understand patterns as they occur and giving expression to unique and creative patterns of its own" (Caine & Caine, Making Connections, p. 89). Furthermore, they maintain that the brain will reject meaningless patterns (unrelated pieces of information without context). This is how the Caines explain what this means for teachers: "When the brain's natural capacity to integrate information is acknowledged and invoked in teaching, vast amounts of initially unrelated or seemingly random information can be presented and assimilated (Caine & Caine, Making Connections, p. 89).

In an article in Educational Leadership, the Caines describe the use of their approach at Dry Creek Elementary School, in Rio Linda, California, a Chapter 1 school that has seen solid gains in academic performance since being immersed for three years in brain-based learning theory and practice. The application of the theory involved developing the idea of an "apprentice community" which sounds very much like what we might also call a learning community. The apprentice community at Dry Creek is a "community in which students can experience and test many of the relationships and ideas they will need in the real world in a safe, nurturing, and challenging context...each student is engaged in multiple apprenticeships - to other students, to teachers, and to community members" (Re-inventing Schools Through Brain-Based Learning).

The Caines described the importance of Principles One and Four to the success of this model program:

Brain-based learning stresses the importance of patterning, that is, the fact that the brain does not easily learn things that are not logical or have no meaning. Because our natural tendency is to integrate information, we resist learning isolated bits of information. Because the specifics of instruction are always tied to larger understandings and purposes, we believe teachers must help their students see the meaning of new information. We expect to see teachers and students using stories and complex themes and metaphors to link information and understanding, and we expect computers to be used for all types of work. Brain-based learning also stresses the principle that the brain is a parallel processor - it performs many functions simultaneously. Therefore, all meaningful learning is complex and nonlinear. This means that teachers must use all available resources - including community resources and multiple apprenticeships - to orchestrate dynamic learning environments (Reinventing Schools Through Brain-Based Learning).

The point is that if we can create learning experiences that encourage learners to search for and "extract" patterns (rather than imposing patterns), the learner can more easily construct individual (and therefore personally relevant) meaning from the learning experience (Caine & Caine, Making Connections, p. 90).

If we provide the patterns for our students, how will they make the patterns personally meaningful? For example, most English teachers have faced the puzzle of students who can perform perfectly on English grammar tests but can not write grammatically correct sentences in their own papers. These students are capable of recognizing patterns provided to them by the teacher or in the grammar book, by doing grammar drills, and so on, but these exercises are not necessary meaningful patterns and the "learning" of these patterns does not often lead to the construction of individual meaning (which would lead to better student writing). On the other hand, having students figure out the internal logic of their own sentences (and having them try to unlock the grammatical "rules" governing the creation of their own sentences) would lead to a more meaningful learning experience for students. After all, a grammar is just an attempt to describe a language, and community college students already "know" enough about language to figure out "correct" grammar on their own. As we know, our students are capable of figuring out systems just as complex as English grammar in other life situations. Our job is to devise learning experiences that will encourage this creative exploration of grammar and to develop the interest level necessary for such a challenge.

Here's an example of an approach that would take advantage of natural patterning: Forget, for the moment, the "labels" we have attached to the function of the various "parts of speech" (nouns, pronouns, verbs, etc.). Ask your students to write a paragraph on a large sheet of paper. Make photocopies of the paragraphs. Next, have them cut out all of the words and put them in groups classified by "how the words work in the sentence." What is each word's job? (Students will want to refer to the photocopied "intact" paragraphs as they try to figure out how the words function in the sentences.) This would be a challenging project for even the college students who can rattle off the names of the parts of speech. That's because we're not asking for surface memorization here ("a noun is a person, place, thing, or concept"); instead, we are asking students to look for patterns and to try to create meaning from those patterns. We're asking them to figure out the relationships that are described by English grammar. Of course, this exercise would work the best if the paragraphs the students wrote were personally meaningful and tapped into student emotions. (We would be remiss not to point out here the Caines' Principle Five: Emotions are Critical to Patterning. To read more about the Caines' principles click here; to read more about our thoughts on the importance of the emotional environment in the community college classroom, click here.) As we develop further in our discussion of creativity, creating a learning experience that encourages the learning to discover her own meaningful patterns can be more effective than giving a learner step-by-step instructions for how to do something.

Related to patterning is the concept of parts and wholes, as the Caines put forth in their Principle Five - "The Brain Processes Parts and Wholes Simultaneously" (Caine & Caine, Making Connections, p. 91). The principle states that there are "two separate but simultaneous tendencies in the brain for organizing information. One is to reduce information into parts; the other is to perceive and work with it as a whole or series of wholes" (Caine & Caine, Making Connections, p. 91). The idea is that all "all knowledge is embedded in other knowledge (p. 39). My arm is part of me. My arm is made up of parts (bones, skin, muscles, tendons). I am also a "part" of my family, and my family is part of my village community, my village community is part of New York. Parts and wholes. Think about how this relates to the learning in the community college classroom at every level ranging from concepts with a discipline (grammar = parts, story = whole) to connections between courses and disciplines (the study of chemistry is "embedded" in the study of ceramics which is "embedded" in the study of art in a particular culture which is "embedded" in the study of an historical period).

 

How does this relate to teaching in the community college classroom?

In the spirit of "parts and wholes" as discussed above, let's begin with the "parts" and then see how they fit into the "wholes." We've found that simply calling our students' attention to the process of patterning and then integrating/considering patterning in our everyday classroom activities is a useful approach. This can be done very simply by discussing, first, the relationship between patterns and learning. For example, I've used the opening clip from A Beautiful Mind to illustrate how we search for patterns (the protagonist "sees" patterns in the sunlight on a cut glass punch bowl, in the lemon slices in the punch, and in his fellow students' ties). This clip (and the story) are also useful for pointing out the difference between meaningful patterns and meaningless patterns. Having students identify some personally meaningful patterns is a good idea at this point. This quick discussion/video clip is just one way to set the stage for a semester-long exploration of patterns in any course. Posters illustrating patterns in nature and art can be an interesting addition to the classroom environment. And activities and games incorporating puzzle solution and pattern identification are also helpful. For example, students learning paragraph structure in a basic writing course may detect patterns by color-coding the "shape" of the paragraph (perhaps red/pink for the topic and angle in the topic sentence, purple for the concluding sentence, blue for primary support, and green for secondary support. Or, maybe the conclusion should be color-coded brown -- all the colors mixed together -- to signify that the conclusion sums the paragraph up). Of course, abstract puzzle/pattern activities are not as helpful as those that are in some way tied into the core course projects and/or learning in other courses and/or the community. (Remember, the students should choose their own colors and methods for the color-coding. If the teachers says use this color for the topic sentence, etc., the students will be learning what color the teachers thinks topic sentences should be rather than puzzling out a pattern for themselves that might help illuminate paragraph structure in a personally meaningful way.) Okay, these are examples of "parts."

Now, more about the wholes. As the Caines say, teachers "need to orchestrate the experiences from which learners extract understanding. They must do more than simply provide information or force the memorization of isolated facts and skills" (Caine & Caine, Making Connections, p. 5). The Caines call this approach "orchestrated immersion" and explain it like this: "The thrust of orchestrated immersion, specifically, is to take information off the page and the chalkboard and bring it to life in the minds of students. Immersion focuses on how students are exposed to content. When wholeness and interconnectedness cannot be avoided, students are obliged to employ their locale memory system in the exploration of content (p. 115). These experiences can be short (one class period) or might go on for several weeks or an entire semester. We believe the Caines' use of the word "orchestrate" is a wonderful metaphor for what instructors need to do to create these experiences for students. An example of an immersion experiences would be visiting a foreign country or culture. An "orchestrated immersion" would be the creation of a similar experience for students. Related approaches include project-based learning, capstone courses (with projects), internships, thematic teaching, experiential learning, learning by doing, simulations, and problem-solving programs such as Odyssey of the Mind (click here to learn more about Odyssey of the Mind), Model UN, across-the-curriculum programs, and gifted/enrichment programs. With this approach, the "content" becomes part of a whole (connected learning experience). Furthermore, the approach can be characterized as challenging (see our "Creating a Learning-Centered Environment" section for more about creating an appropriate level of challenge), enthralling, enriching, and creative and chaotic.

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What do we mean by "construction of Individual Meaning?

Construction of individual meaning is improved when students make connections.

Construction of individual meaning improves when students pay attention (and paying attention can shape the brain).

Construction of individual meaning improves when students think about how they learn (metacognition).

Construction of individual meaning is improved when instructors create appropriate assessment (including self-assessment) for complex tasks.  

Construction of individual meaning improves when students develop their creativity.

Construction of individual meaning improves when students develop their ability to identify patterns. (You are here.)

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