Khan Academy is an educational website that provides free online videos, coursework and practice tests for students from K -12. According to Ani (2013) the website encompasses more than 3,300 videos that have been viewed more than 160 million times. The videos and coursework focus on seven main areas, primarily, math, science and engineering, computing, economics and finance, arts and humanities, test prep (i.e. SAT) as well as college and careers. The platform can be used by teachers as a resource to supplement information and students can use the website to review topics that have been identified as areas of growth (Guevara, 2019). Many of the videos that concentrate on math, science, engineering, etc. are designed with step by step instructions which are advantageous to students when supplementing or reinforcing concepts. As noted earlier, Khan Academy provides a wide variety of videos and my team chose to review the topic of Growth Mindset.
The Growth Mindset program was divided into three sections. The first section included an introduction for teachers, the second section included eight high school activities and the third section included five middle school activities. Each high school activity consisted of three tutorials which were titled Connect, Learn and Reflect. High school students and middle school students were provided PowerPoint slide decks to read and videos to review in the different sections of the tutorial. Each activity offered information and suggestions, and in some cases the activity incorporated a recommended step by step process. The reflect tutorials for high school students included a review of information and a questions to think about section. None of the high school or middle school activities included any structured activities to allow students to work with others or to share their reflections and learning about their respective growth mindset.
A growth mindset is personal and specific to each participant. Not all participants begin with a growth mindset and some may begin with a fixed mindset. Therefore, each person may take something different from the program and each person may gain personal insight and knowledge about themselves. Although this topic offered step by step instructions to follow in order to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset (Ani, 2013), it lacked the reflective socially constructed check-in exercises with the student to help guide the individual’s progress. In both the high school and middle school activities, there were questions posed to the students about their personal progress in the development of a growth mindset. However, the program did not include any opportunities for the students to work together, to communicate their feelings or to discuss current state or future state goals related to a growth mindset. Khan Academy videos are not good at promoting social constructivist learning (contextualizing and meaning-making) because they aren’t able to provide the interactions necessary to promote reflection and personalization of knowledge.
Therefore, my question is:
How can videos be used in a setting that promotes the interactions necessary to support reflection and personalization of knowledge?
References
Ani, K. (2013). Khan academy: The hype and the reality. Education Digest, 78(6), 23-25. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=ef63593c-e234-4cac-832e-e208f96e71bd%40sessionmgr4008
Guevara, S. (2019). KHAN ACADEMY: LEARNING MADE PERSONAL. Computers in Libraries, 39(6), 33-36. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.royalroads.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/docview/2264120250?accountid=8056
April 20, 2020 at 11:41 am
Caroline, this line of inquiry should produce interesting results, particularly with the way you have widened the lens to place video-based learning into a wider social constructivist context. There may be literature from earlier in the program that could help shed light on social constructivist theory as well.
April 20, 2020 at 5:19 pm
Thanks Irwin for the feedback. I will look at the information from earlier in the program.
April 23, 2020 at 8:28 pm
Interesting to place video based learning into a larger context. I look forward to seeing how your critical inquiry into how learning theory lenses can be applied to this type of learning in order to unearth a needed critical view to this learning environment.