Aisha Hassan1

Problem Identification/Rationale Paper

I am planning to do my research project on cooperative learning. This is important to me because currently I am a student teacher at Salt Lake Center for Science Education (SLCSE). This school is a chartered school and their emphasis is science. All the 9th graders in this school take physics. All the 10th graders take chemistry and all 11th graders take biology. Although this is the general structure of the school, in each class there are still few students that take science classes from another grade level. I think this might be due to some students entering the school after 9th grade. Overall, the school does not have tracking (honor or AP chemistry). As a chemistry teacher, I get to teach mostly 10th graders. However, in my class I do have some 11th graders. I teach two classes and I see these students every day. Unlike the regular high school, these students have 1hr 30min of science (in my case chemistry) every day except Fridays. Fridays are short day and the students have 45 min of science. In my chemistry class, I work with students who have a wide range of learning needs. For example, learners who are on Individualized Education Plan (IEP), English Language Learners (ELLs), and learners that are above or below grade-level. Some of my students read at an elementary reading level. Therefore, my class is a good example of an inclusive classroom. One of the key pedagogical strategy I have to employ in all my lessons is differentiation. In my experience so far in student teaching and learning from my site teacher I came to learn that the best way to implement differentiation in my lesson is to do inquiry base comprehension check activities and lab activities. Although, doing differentiation in lab activities is becoming easier, I still continue to struggle to do differentiation during comprehension check activities. I give my students comprehension check activities after I teach a concept. During this activity, I discovered that students struggle helping each other in understanding concepts. Some of my

Aisha Hassan2

Problem Identification/Rationale Paper

advance students get done with the assignment fast and start talking. Some of my other advance or the average learners understand the concept and struggle explaining to their group members. They usually resort to asking their friends to copy the work. I usually get stuck running from one group to another trying to double check if everyone in the group is doing the comprehension check activity and understanding the concept. Although students are in groups, I discovered that they lack the skills of working together and making sure everyone is getting the concept. If students are not working together really well then it creates difficulty for the teacher and makes differentiation even more challenging. Thus, my goal is with this project is to make differentiation in a inclusive classroom a little easier through the use of cooperative learning. Differentiation in general is providing opportunities where all the students are challenged within their zone of proximal development. One of the realities I have come across in teaching an inclusive classroom is that it is difficult to continuously provide a different more advanced work for advance students every day. It is possible to do inquiry base lab activities and challenge advance students even more. It is also possible to bring in more challenging material for the advance student when inquiry based lab activities are not done. Continuously providing a different but more challenging assignment for the advance students has been challenging and it creates a disconnect between advance and non-advance students. This has the potential to hurt the classroom community. Therefore, my goal is to incorporate differentiation activities where advance students get to work with non-advance students. For example, students will work in groups that is made up of advance, average and struggling learnings. All the students in the group will work together to understand the concept taught in the lesson. Students that understand the topic must take the role of explaining it to their peer in a manner that helps their peers not

Aisha Hassan3

Problem Identification/Rationale Paper

only understand the concept but also encourages autonomy and independence. I think having advance students teach concept to their peers is a great tool for challenging my advance students in the concepts they learned. It helps them use higher order thinking and come up with a way where they can teach the concepts to their peer in a simpler and creative way. In addition, through this research project, I want to use it to foster a classroom community. I want the students to care for each other and be concerned if their partner or any of the group members are not in grasping the material. I know this is going to be very difficult especially since there is wide range in the learners in the class. Usually, when students are working in groups or pairs, there is a disconnect between them. Most of the time their focus is on getting a good grade and they tend to look at their peers who are struggling with the concept to be a burden. The students who are struggling on the other hand tend to let their more proficient peer take over. Thus, true collaboration is diminished between group members. However, if collaboration between students is successful, there is a golden opportunity for scaffolding for students that struggle with concepts. It will creates an environment where students feel a sense of belonging. This will not only contribute to a productive group work but also will contribute to students contributing more to the classroom discussion. This kind of group work will also teach students the skills to become an autonomy and independent learner as well as support their peers in acquiring these skills. In terms of researching article, a great place I have started is researching cooperative learning and inquiry based science teaching in an inclusive classroom. I also want to research differentiation in an inclusive classroom as well as Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID). This is a college preparatory class that helps students learn tools to become successful

Aisha Hassan4

Problem Identification/Rationale Paper

students. In the past I have worked as a AVID mentor. During this project, I want to use it as an opportunity to research more into this program and find ways I can implement in my classroom. Usually AVID is an elective class where student bring in their homework and learn skills to help themselves and their peers. My goal for this research project is how to teach these skills in a chemistry class while teaching content as well. I want to also find a way I can make a connection between my research for cooperative learning and AVID and see if I can create a hybrid of what I learn in both researches.