A Rationale
for using Data Bases
Data bases are wonderful learning tools because they embody
so much of the learning process. Once teachers begin to understand how to apply
this technology to curricular projects, learning truly becomes a process of
give and take. Here are some of the highlights of that exciting experience.
- Obtaining Background: Students need to read or research designated
curricular topics. This includes going on field trips, watching videos, and
listening to visitors to the classroom.
- Planning: Students participate in brainstorming that gives
them the opportunity to recall large amounts of data. Recalling data also
serves to develop concepts.
- Organizing: Students learn and apply organizational skills
when they plan a data base.
- Gathering Facts: Students extend their research skills as
they fit facts into categories.
- Using Tools: Students learn to create and use a data base
to store data in an organized, efficient manner.
- Questioning: Students learn to formulate questions that result
in the extraction of information from the data base.
- Hypothesizing: Students learn to state and test their own
hypotheses.
- Analyzing: Students quickly understand associations and relationships
within the data base.
- Evaluating: Students understand the difference between data
and information.
Using a data base as a teaching tool is quite different from
using word processors within instruction. Just as the use of word processing
requires planning, the use of the data base as a tool requires strategies that
go beyond a few afternoon sessions in the computer lab. It is important, therefore,
to incorporate the inductive model of Hilda Taba into the learning process in
order to succeed in integrating data bases with the curriculum.
