Week 4: Letting Go

As an educator responsible for helping IB students master a very large quantity of complex material, I find myself having difficulty letting go of control in the classroom. There are some valid reasons for this:

1) I will not teach them a misconception. When I let them take over, they sometimes think they understand and end up reinforcing the misconceptions they came in with.

2) It's fast. Not a great argument when I know they won't retain the information as well over the two years before they take the IB exam, but I have a responsibility to see that they're exposed to all the material.

3) I know a few tricks. Well, I certainly hope that my degrees and years of experience help me consider some ways of presenting, some examples to pull out, some attention grabbing demos, etc. that will help my students succeed.

But I have to be honest: I hold onto the reins too tightly and I know it. (This is much more the case for me in IB as opposed to a course without a high stakes exam.) I know that my IB students are not getting enough joy of exploration, fascinating tangents, or student-driven work. For every lesson I create two complementary parts. One is the powerpoint with all the information and visuals that explains as clearly as possible the syllabus material - these contain reflection questions every few minutes and practice problems, etc but are substantially direct teacher instruction. The other is a varied collection of open-ended lab demos, current research and headlines, neat but tangential topics, ethical questions, and jumping-off points for further learning.

In IB, the ppts always get first priority. The rest is squeezed in where possible and as often as not, completely dropped. In Bio 10, my lessons move more slowly and there is lots of variety in activities. In Bio 10, I actively experiment with new technologies and new directions for old material. Interestingly, I surveyed my students in both courses, and found that a solid majority of IB students (about 80%) want to spend the same amount of time or more on ppt lessons, but a smaller percent agree that the learning is consistently engaging. In Bio 10, the students find the class more engaging.

I recently allowed a biochemistry discussion in Bio 10 to take it's own course - the students looked up the chemical composition of foods of interest. That led into health, food labeling, marketing and advertising, diet programs, artificial sweeteners, and more. I led the students with ideas to explore based on their own findings and interests. It was a rich experience with many connections being made across disciplines and to their daily experience. They now know a good deal about organic macromolecules and their roles in diet and I believe they'll retain it quite well.

I would love for the IB students to have the same kinds of experiences but the only way I can see to do it is to cut ppts or increase the pace of the course. My responsibility to prepare them for the exam conflicts with my responsibility to help them learn biology! Still, I am trying little activities here and there - testing them out in Bio 10 - and hopefully, with time, the IB Bio students will get a balanced experience that prepares them for the exam and gives them opportunities to explore.