Insight into U.S. Curriculum and Teaching Cases

Author: Cognitive Technology Group, Wintech University, USA; Translated by Wang Wenjing, Qiao Lianquan, et al.
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: This book is a culmination of years of research by the Cognitive Technology Group at Wintech University, USA. The Jasper series developed by them has been a sensation across the United States since the 1980s, exerting significant influence. As one of the newest examples of mathematics teaching in the U.S., this book reflects the efforts and attempts made in the reform of mathematics education in the U.S. The new content, ideas, and perspectives presented in the book are worth everyone's reflection and appreciation. It should be said that the Jasper Adventure series was designed for mathematics courses, but the educational philosophy it embodies transcends disciplinary boundaries. This actually contains two layers of meaning. First, Jasper Adventures create a broader context that not only helps students integrate mathematical concepts but also organically blends mathematical knowledge with knowledge from other disciplines. As the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) commented on Jasper, "These adventure stories are primarily centered on the discovery and resolution of mathematical problems, but it is particularly noteworthy that each adventure story provides rich opportunities for problem-solving, questioning, communication, and interaction with other fields such as science, sociology, literature, and history." Second, if we understand the Jasper series itself as a design model and method for curriculum and teaching, then it should not be limited to the field of mathematics. The core ideas embedded within it should naturally be transferred to the design and implementation activities of all disciplines. I believe that both mathematics teachers and teachers in other subjects can gain profound insights after reading this book. The book can be broadly divided into three parts. The first part provides a general introduction to the Jasper series and discusses in detail the various internal and external conditions that contributed to its creation. The second part delves into the Jasper series from the perspectives of curriculum, teaching and evaluation, and teacher learning. The third part summarizes the lessons learned during the development of the Jasper series and offers prospects for future project development. Throughout the book, the narratives and analyses surrounding the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Jasper series attempt to convey three clear and important educational concepts to the readers.
1. The contextual nature of knowledge and its learning. Experimental research on human cognition has shown that if teaching does not help students contextualize knowledge, the knowledge they learn can only be stored as isolated facts and limited to specific contexts, making such knowledge essentially inert. The authors of this book—the Cognitive Technology Group at Wintech University, USA—have also proven through experiments that the inertness of knowledge is widespread among students and is strongly influenced by the initial ways in which information is acquired. Based on this, the idea of creating new learning environments and helping students contextualize knowledge directly led to the development of the Jasper Adventures teaching context. In the Jasper Adventures series, stories like "The Journey to Cedar Creek," "A Big Idea," and "A Success Blueprint" are essentially learning contexts (anchors) embedded with various problems, mathematical concepts, and skills (algebra, statistics and probability, geometry). Students begin by developing an understanding of these skills and concepts while using their own knowledge to question the adventure stories. In solving the challenging problems in the stories, they acquire various learning strategies, and students in different groups can share the different mathematical concepts and skills they propose during problem-solving. From another perspective, the development of Jasper Adventure contexts helps students "steal" knowledge that is truly important and useful in a near-real and complex problem-solving situation, which directly validates the tacit nature of knowledge. Therefore, the contextual and tacit nature of knowledge and learning, and the inherent constructive nature of knowledge and learning that directly reflects this, constitute the most prominent feature of this book.
2. The significant role of educational technology in classroom teaching. The power of technology is fully reflected in the design of the Jasper series. Video not only provides students with realistic learning contexts in multi-media representation forms but also makes it easier for them to revisit and randomly access different segments of the adventure contexts through advanced barcode selection technology and digital selection technology. What makes it even more distinctive is that the researchers of the Cognitive Technology Group have fully utilized the integration of telecommunications, television technology, and internet technology to design the operational platform for the SMART Challenges series. Students and teachers can represent problem designs in multiple ways through dynamic and static simulation software and drive the resolution of problems through interaction and feedback. In the Jasper series, information technology has completely surpassed the view that technology is merely a cognitive tool. Concepts such as human-computer interaction, virtual reality, immediate access, and feedback have been fully integrated into the application of technology, placing the Jasper cases at the forefront of technology and the times.
3. A new understanding of problem-solving. Problem-solving is a core topic across all disciplines, especially in mathematics. The Jasper Adventures series represents an example of problem-based learning, with the overall goal of helping students transform isolated facts into powerful conceptual tools during the problem-solving process. In its design, problems are first defined as complex problems based on real-world contexts to increase student engagement and help them discover the connections between mathematical problems and reasoning in daily life. Second, after each adventure story concludes, students are encouraged to identify and clarify the problems they need to solve and are provided with opportunities for continuous reasoning. Third, all the data required to solve problems are embedded in the video of the story contexts, and students need to apply real-world standards to their decisions based on their understanding of the data, emphasizing the multiple possibilities of problem-solving answers. Finally, problem-solving is a shared interactive social negotiation activity within a learning community. For example, when solving the problem "A Big Idea," students must use the data they have collected to sample and predict the number of students who will buy tickets to the event. Some students may use percentages to solve this problem, while others may use fractions. When students share these methods, they have the opportunity to interact with their understanding of fractions and percentages, thereby constructing a genuine understanding of the problem and its solutions through such negotiation activities.
Of course, the value of this book is not limited to the above three points, and readers from different backgrounds will undoubtedly gain more benefits from it. More importantly, we should realize that the Jasper series, like a multifaceted mirror, has reflected the significant strides made by the U.S. education and mathematics education communities in integrating curriculum, teaching, and information technology. With the support of advanced theory and technology, U.S. mathematics curricula are increasingly respecting the natural essence of human learning, aligning with meaningful learning for students, and promoting the transformation of knowledge into real-life contexts.