investigaciones

curriculum will not work at this stage in their experience. It
is possible that the students do not have enough
experience in automotive mechanics to generate enough
topics for a complete curriculum, or that they have been
trained by 12 years of schooling to be passive learners. On
the other hand, however, it may be worth polling each
class for specific topics of interest to them and fitting the
topics into the standard curriculum.
Another, perhaps larger, problem is that the work in an
automotive shop is extremely varied and that it is not
possible to plan in detail the hands-on activities that the
students will experience. The lessons cannot, therefore,
anticipate the work that the students will do. There is,
therefore, an inherent disjunction between a lesson’s
delivery and the students’ need for the information or
insight. Only with experience will students be able to
appreciate the wide range of topics available for study and
their need to study them.
This research
project taught me
that the more I
eliminate the split
between teaching
and doing, the
more effectively I
teach and the
more effectively
my students learn.
I do feel, however, that the style of the lessons worked well
and that when the opportunity presents itself, when the
subject of the lesson is available, demonstration coupled
with lecture is an excellent way to teach. All students
seemed more engaged when I used the small-group
demonstration and lecture format as compared with the
straight lecture and textbook style of teaching.
Demonstrations seem to work especially well for those
students who have difficulty reading and writing and who
are considered a “problem” by the rest of the staff.
Finally, analyzing my field notes, I believe that this class
learned the hands-on concepts that I taught them more
thoroughly than did previous classes: I cannot recall
another class that performed practical tasks with ease and
confidence of this class. When students had occasion to
apply the lessons that I taught them, in only seven out of
29 instances did they have no idea what they were doing.
The students who were at a complete loss tended to be
those who had poor attendance and missed either the
lesson or the review. In one case, involving welding, I
believe the problem lay in a lack of self-confidence.
This research project taught me that the more I eliminate
the split between teaching and doing, the more effectively I
teach and the more effectively my students learn.
24
Teacher Research in the Backyard