Date: October 18, 2010

1.My aim:

Content (methodology): to make students aware of the ENV model and the way of using it for making an algorithm

Thinking: the introducing of the ENV model

2. Material/Task: Yes/No game guessing game

Procedures: guess an object in the classroom by means of asking 10 yes/no questions

The first round – a failure. The reaction: are we stupid or what?

I elicited the characteristic of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ questions.

The second round they asked better questions and nearly guessed.

The third round – I was guessing with 5 questions. When I managed to do it – surprisingly for myself, one student said: have you got extra sensorial abilities? Then I elicited the ENV model and asked them to create the steps towards the task fulfillment, share with their peers, modify if necessary and try out a similar task with their pupils or friends. I also asked them to describe their learning and teaching experience.

Time: it took us 2 lessons – nearly 80 minutes.

3.I think I have achieved the aim: they got aware of the model and the procedure of using it. However, I have not managed to lead them to the thinking task framework yet, so they were not clear yet on the flexibility of the algorithm and how to increase the room for thinking.

I asked the students what they thought they had learned. The majority of them recognised that they learned a useful tool that organizes thinking. Most of them did not consider this time wasted – there was one student who did. There were several questions, too:

1.How should ENV be introduced to secondary school pupils?

2.When exactly to introduce it?

3.How much information to give to pupils and how much to elicit?

These are quite difficult for myself, and we left them for the future.