(Kurita)Hello, everyone. (Students)Hello. (Kurita)This is “Interactive Teaching” WEEK 3 titled “Learning Sciences”. Today’s group work topic is, “breaking down skills into component skills". I handed each of you this worksheet. The objective of this group work is to be able to break down skills into component sills. Today, we shall actually work on that. The procedure is shown on the handout. Suppose that you are going to teach a small child how to ride a bicycle. First, break down all the skills a child needs to acquire in order to ride a bicycle independently, and write them down on tags. For example, sitting astride a saddle is one of the skills, which happens to be difficult for a small child. Second, gather all the tags on a whiteboard, and line them up in order roughly from the first step to the final step of a child being able to ride a bicycle independently. I am giving you about two minutes to write them down. You will be pasting the tags directly on the whiteboard, so write on them in neat and large letters. Now, start. I think you have had enough time, so we are going to gather everyone’s tags. Are you ready? I would like to ask someone to control traffic. May I ask you, Ozawa-san? (Student)Sure. (Kurita)It might get crowded here if I call out eight people at once. Well, come over here, everyone, and could the group over there wait for a while with your tags? Please manage this situation, Ozawa-san. Start from here. Arrange the tags in order from the first step to the final step where a child is able to ride a bicycle independently. Let’s get started. Could you tell us how you laid out the tags, Ozawa-san? (Student)Yes. A child starts by learning with their eyes, like by looking at the demonstration of riding a bicycle. They also need to build up basic strength. Before pedaling a bicycle, they need to be able to balance themselves while holding the bicycle handles, so there are basic skills and practices without moving the bicycle like lifting a stand, sitting on a saddle, holding handlebars, applying the brakes, and checking ahead. After that, they should work on pedaling and carefully balance between left and right so as not to fall. Speaking of balancing, there are skills related to pedaling with training wheels, so as to be able to ride a bicycle even if they cannot yet balance themselves. Being able to brake when necessary is important for safety. And riding a bicycle with an assistant… this tag should be placed here (riding a bicycle with training wheels.) They could then work on the skills needed for riding a bicycle on a regular road, such as going straight and making a turn. These are the things practiced in the places that are not so dangerous like around the house or in the yard. After that, the practice venue should be changed to somewhere without so many people such as a park. This skill is followed by comprehending traffic rules so that the child can ride a bicycle on the street, estimate dangers and pay attention to the surroundings so that they brake when someone runs into the street, and riding at a safe speed. Covering all these steps will enable a child to ride a bicycle independently. (Kurtia)Yes, thank you. Could you return to your seats? Thank you. Through group work, you broke down the skills for “riding a bicycle independently” into component skills. Look at the many steps there are to acquire a single skill. We have broken down the skills. Next, we need to integrate those component skills, and help students use those skills at the right time. So, it is important to move to the next stage by incorporating practice and feedback in the design, or enhancing motivation. Let’s go over what we have learned again. What you have gone through was the phase of helping students acquire component skills, and especially identifying what those skills are. You need to have students practice these skills. Design and implement learning settings that help students integrate component skills, and further help them use the skills in various situations. Speaking of riding a bicycle, you might not have a child ride many types of bicycles, but you could take them to several different roads with different traffic rules so that they apply skills such as braking or riding speed appropriately and consequently achieve the objective of riding a bicycle independently. Please make use of today’s group work and include component skillls for your objectives when designing a class. That’s all for this session. Thank you.
