Report of the test of the Story-line approach applied in Barcelona.

 

1.      Introduction

The technological education approach using Storyline, proposed by Haagse School, has been adapted and tried in four groups of pupils, -two of P4 (4 years old) and two of P5 (5 years old)-, of CEIP Lola Anglada of Tiana (Barcelona).

In the groups of P4 the selected history was about a prisoner princess that the prince wants to liberate. In the groups of P5 it was chosen the history of the farmer who has problems to dry his washed clothes.

In order to integrate the activity to the school curriculum, its formative interest was valued because of the procedural contents that includes and because of its interdisciplinary characteristics. Regarding the technological and scientific contents the following aims were considered of interest a priori:  

-      Initiation into the learning of a methodology of work applicable to many situations and contexts.

-      The learning of the properties of materials by means of its manipulation in a context of usefulness.

To facilitate the learning of the methodology of work, a simplified adaptation of the Projects Method was applied and the activity was programmed and realized in three working periodes distributed throughout 3 weeks:

·       Presentation of the problematic situation and gathering of ideas for solutions.

·       Graphical representation (design) of the problematic situation and of the selected solution.

·       Carrying out the solution

 

 

2.      Presentation of the problematic situation and gathering of ideas for solutions.

This session corresponds to the stages of the Projects Method of analysis of situation, definition of the problem and discussion of possible solutions.

 

2.1.        Temporization and organization of the classroom.

The session goes on for an hour and is organized in two phases. The main tutor works with all her group class (15-20 pupils). With regard to the composition of the groups, the number of girls in all of them is slightly top (13 %-15 %) than that of boys.

 

2.2.        Brief description of the activity

In the first phase the history is presented to the children with images or realizing a performance with puppets (15 - 25 minutes) and in the second phase the children are asked to do proposals to help the protagonists and to say which the necessary materials to construct these solutions are.

 

2.3.        Metodological considerations

In the first phase the teacher acts as a narrator of stories, explaining or dramatizing the history with puppets, and she asks the children in order to interest them in the plot. The children listen attentively and intervene with answers, observations and questions.

In the second phase, the teacher stimulates the children to do proposals to help the protagonist. She asks the children about the necessary materials that might be used and also in order to help them to become aware of the viability or not of their proposals. The teacher picks up the children ideas and manages the interventions that take place about every proposal and about its viability. The children do proposals of solutions, they explain them and argue them, and propose the materials that might be used in their construction. 

 

3.      Graphical representation of the situation and of the chosen solution.

In this session the solution is chosen and drawn. It is an adaptation and simplification of the phase of chossing and design a solution of the Project Method.

 

3.1.        Temporization and organization of the classroom

The session goes on for an hour and is organized in two phases. In the first phase, the teacher works with all her group class and in the second one the pupils work individually with the sporadic support of the teacher.

 

3.2.        Brief description of the activity

In the first phase the history and the problematic situation are reminded and the pupils choose the solutions that will be carried out later, in small groups. In the second phase the children draw the solution that they have chosen.

 

3.3.        Methodological considerations

In the first phase the teacher does questions to the children in order that they remind the history and the problem of the protagonists and the solutions that they had presented and discussed in the previous session. The teacher uses questions and observations to orientate the pupils towards solutions that are feasible, according to their possibilities. The children participate in explaining details of the history and of the solutions, and they argue advantages and disadvantages of these.

At the second phase, the pupils work individually in drawing of the solution that they have chosen. The teacher support them and asks them about what they are drawing. The teacher records the explanations that the children give to him/her.

At the end of the session, the teacher asks the children to bring from home the materials that they could find to build the solutions.

 

4.      Carrying out the solution

This session is the longest one and corresponds to the phases of the Project Method of planning and executing the designed solution. Given the characteristics of the educational level, the solution is not carried out to real scale but of modelling.

 

4.1.        Temporization and organization of the classroom

The session has an approximate duration of 2 h 30 minutes and it is organized in two stages with a break time, which corresponds to the time of playground. The pupils of every classroom are distributed in 3 groups of 5, 6 or 7 pupils with a teacher for every group.

 

4.2.        Brief description of the activity

Under the supervision of the teacher, every group values the materials that they  have and carries out the construction of the solution that they have chosen. 

 

4.3.        Methodological considerations

The teacher shows the drawings that the children of the group have done and the materials that they have brought from their home. She asks questions and does observations to help the children to choose the materials and the most suitable option of construction. The children intervene with manipulations of materials, explanations, proposals and arguments to end up by to make more specific the construction, the materials that are going to use and the way as they will arrange them in the construction.

Later, they carry out together the construction of the solution, helped by the teacher in those tasks that are more difficult for them.

 

5.      Valuation of the activity

Once the activity was finished, we did a session of evaluation with the teachers, where several aspects were valued: the didactic approach, the pupils' response and interest, the teachers' task and the formative value of the activity regarding the technological education.

5.1.        Organization and Methodological considerations 

With regard to the resource of introducing a technological problem by means of a history, the teachers think that it is effective to catch the attention and the interest of the children, but they believe that the histories would have to be more real, more close to his/her daily experience. If the children are placed in a context of a fantastic tale, -for example with fantastic histories with princesses in impregnable towers-, it is normal that they propose fanciful solutions, often inspired by tales: wings for to fly, Peter Pan's Wendy Darling, or the princess who leaves her hairs to grow in order that the prince can climb up by them. The teachers suggest that the histories that are used for the problem’s presentation must be based on usual situations, and that would be interesting that these could be performed by the children, as a rol’s game.

In relation to the organization of the classroom the teachers think that during the valuation of the proposed solutions by the children and the construction of the solution, the work must be done in small group. The ideal number of children for every group would be 3 or 4. When they are in small group, the children who habitually are less interested and more reticents, they begin with the manipulative work and get involving with more easiness. 

Related to the duration of the sessions the teachers think that 1 hour is not excessive and that the children were not showing weariness or decrease of interest. On the contrary, they value positively that the construction of the solution was done in a longer session (2 hours and 30 minutes), because for the children is interesting to end up seeing the result.

 

5.2.        Attitude and response of the children

In a general way, the teachers value very positively the involvement of the children in the activity and very specially the process of thinking of the children.

They believe that the activity facilitates very much the participation and the creativity of the children that contribute with many ideas. But for them it is difficult to separate evidence and fantasy, especially if the context of the history is very fanciful.

Besides the fantastic solutions commented before, the children also propose solutions based on what is more habitual and known for them. For example, to rescue the princess they propose firemen's stairs, to build a stairs or to use ropes to climb; and for drying the clothes of the farmer they propose drying’s machines, to cover it in order that it not be wet if it rains, fanes or stoves.

The teachers believe that in order that the children could propose solutions more suitable for technological activity that we want to develop in the school, it is necessary that the children experiment previously with technological devices. For example; if they don’t know what a water’s or wind’s mill is, it’s difficult that they could propose its utilization. Therefore, activities would have to be realized previously in order that the children know and experiment with technological devices. 

 When the practical activity of construction begins, the thinking of the children fits more to the reality and they look for real solutions to technical problems that are arising (for example, for assembling materials)

The children brought materials from their houses that were indication of the children involvement and also of their parents involvement. But it is necessary to have materials in the school and not to trust only on the ones the children will bring.

Teachers have not detected differences either of interest or of participation between boys and girls. On the other hand, they have noticed that there were children, who habitually have difficulties in the learning of more abstract level, that in this activities they had a surprising participation, giving interesting ideas for the solutions. The teachers think that this kind of activities could help to balance an education that often is based too much in theoretical contents.

5.3.        About  the task of the teachers

Teachers think that the most difficult part of her task is the one of moderating the children’s ideas. How we have above commented, the children propose fanciful ideas that are unreal and the teacher has to find the way of to make understand them that their proposal is not valid. Also, when the children do proposals that are habitual but cannot be realized in the classroom, it is difficult for the children to understand why these have to be rejected. For example, for them has not meaning that a firemen's stairs can't be a good solution for to liberate the princess, because they see it in television, they know it. In the story of the clothes of the farmer, -that was more real because sometimes the clothes don't dry well at home-, the children proposed the radiator, the drying machine and they did not understand that his/her solution was not good.

The teachers think that to show a collection of objects and to propose that the children use them to find a solution, will be not very useful if the children don't have previously worked in technological assemblies with these objects. Only the known objects can be useful to the children.

 On the other hand, the teachers think that the lack of materials can be a problem, but also this has the advantage of fomenting the thinking and the search of solutions to this problem.

The teachers are conscious of her lack of technological formation and recognize a certain degree of insecurity in front of the proposals that the children could do, because they thought that perhaps they could not know how to realize these proposed solutions. 

Analyzing her intervention, some teachers think that, due to her insecurity, they have directed too much the children during the activity, in order not to have excessive diversity. But they are sure that in later activities there would not be any problem to leave more autonomy to the children. It would be nice that there was a permanent space in the classroom where the children could experiment freely.

5.4.        About  the technical education value of the activities.

The teachers think that due to the level of modelling and of the lack of technological knowledge, an important part of the proposed solutions have little technological value, because they are slightly realistic or because they are excessively simplistic and not use many elements of technology. It would be then interesting to introduce in the school’s curriculum some activities as analysis of technological objects, that could give to children and teachers the possibility of develop their experience with tools and technological solutions. 

With regard to the work that has been done on knowledge of materials and its properties in order to be able of choosing and of using them to construct the solution, the teachers value this  very positively.

Also the teachers value positively the utilization of the structure of the Projects Method and they believe that in later sessions would be obvious that this way of working is getting used to the children and they improve their rate of learning.