Dr. Akihiko Takahashi, from DePaul University in Chicago, is leading our eleven o'clock hour Reflections on Practice sessions this summer. His focus is "What is the open-ended approach?" He started off by asking the group, "What is the most interesting part of the morning (8:30 - 10:45) class?" The participants responded with comments: "Sharing own knowledge," "running on one's own level," "we can go where our comfort level is," "Everyone is able to help each other," "There was collaboration and different view points were expressed," and "problems were possible, accessible, and challenging." One participant noted that "It was very interesting to see that everyone at our table started in different directions, but wound up together." Aki stated that the goal of this class will be to "get this type of activity in your own classroom." He discussed some of the disadvantages of traditional instruction and some of the advantages of the open-ended approach. He then handed out The Water-Flask Problem which we worked on in our groups for 20 minutes. Back to: Class Notes || Day 1 |
