Steve Lee, assistant director of the CLIMB program (Collaborative Learning and Integrated Mentoring in the Biosciences) at Northwestern University, states in his piece, "A Metacognitive Reflection on Using Metacognition in Professional Development", that, "We often assume that we understand students' backgrounds, what they need to succeed, and how they define success." I agree that I make many assumptions about the latter two, but not as many about the former. Since I'm 55 and most of my students are 19 - 22, I begin my courses understanding that I know nothing about their backgrounds. Admittedly, I assume that they are more adept with the digital than I am. I assume that some are brighter than I am, some are about the same, and some are not as bright, but this doesn't matter, because I assume that they are all capable of succeeding in my courses. In the first class, through introduction activities, I attempt to learn about students' backgrounds - where they come from, who their "people" are, what their interests are, their studies and experiences to date, and their plans for future studies and employment - and, although, I've set the course syllabus beforehand, I think the knowledge I gain in the introduction class does influence my choices of examples, illustrations, anecdotes and supplemental curriculum.
Steve Lee says that he has shifted his practice to "helping students develop their metacognitive skills ... to discover their own strengths ... so that they take more ownership of their work ... constructing their own path to success." Steve Lee's students are PhD level, so, by its nature, that level requires that students distinguish themselves in a unique course of study. However, I see how OLTD 509 promotes metacognition. Our instructor, Avi Luxemburg, has provided bountiful choice within the course for students to hone their strengths and to begin developing new skills. It is clear that he uses metacognitive reflection to guide his own teaching practice. He has creatively shared some of this ongoing reflection using the characters Yesvi, Novi, Avi and Him, encouraging his students to reflect on their own beliefs and assumptions about their teaching practice. Steve Lee has observed that with metacognitive reflection students might simply navel-gaze. Since he is assistant director of a program committed to collaborative learning and mentoring, he wants students to consider not just "who am I?" but also "who are we?". He says that college studies often have a bias towards fostering independence at the expense of interdependence; whereas, he wants to foster the quality of interdependence in his students. Lee, therefore, encourages collaborative reflection and discussion with student peer groups. I find it interesting that while the current course that I am enrolled in is "Emerging Technologies", I am engaging more in metacognitive reflection on my teaching practice than I have in a long time. Reference Lee, Steve. (March 12, 2012). A Metacognitive Reflection on Using Metacognition in Professional Development. The Evolllution. Retrieved from https://evolllution.com/opinions/a-metacognitive-reflection-on-using-metacognition-in-professional-development/
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Authentic learning includes "real-world" problem solving, experiential learning and/or hands-on learning. It also involves metacognitive reflection - thinking about how the learning applies and how useful the learning is in the "real world". I am reflecting upon the authenticity of the learning in my first-year English classes. In "The NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2016 K-12 Edition", the piece on Authentic Learning identifies five major obstacles to the practice of authentic learning in schools:
1. Curriculum and content standards are too rigid 2. Testing and accountability are driving pedagogical decisions 3. Schedules are too regimented and silos are too restricting 4. Educator practice requires more risk-taking 5. Education policy is fostering a culture of achievement instead of one of teaching and learning At my college, authentic learning naturally occurs in health and trades programs, and to some extent in business and tourism programs. Health programs have simulation labs and students have preceptorships or practicums. Learning in trades programs is mostly hands-on and is linked with apprenticeships. The most authentic learning is business and tourism programs comes through co-op opportunities, but our college is making community partnerships to provide students with real-world learning experiences. With my business writing and technical writing courses, I am able to integrate authentic learning experiences in a significant way into the content. I find that obstacle #1 identified above is not an issue for me. As long as I and my students are meeting learning outcomes, I have flexibility with content. Therefore, I am able to create real-world application writing assignments, such as collaborative proposal writing, process descriptions formal letter writing, based upon student interest and career direction. In my experience this has helped to improve retention. But, how to create the conditions for authentic learning in a literature course? My belief is that a student's understanding of literature grows through understanding themselves - their values, biases, motivations - and through working at understanding others, and through working at understanding their roles in relationships with others. I am not a sage, so I cannot show or teach them how to know themselves more deeply. Increasingly, though, I am offering opportunities for metacognitive reflection in my literature classes. The element of fictional characterization, for instance, naturally offers up activities to explore how the student relates to the character and how they differ or are similar. I require students to consider why they analyze a story a certain way and consider why a fellow student has a different interpretation. In addition, the students must consider and analyze the choices the writer made in creating the characters, the plot, the symbolism, the theme ... again they reflect on their own perspective and the sources of it and they reflect on the perspective of the writer. In workplaces, effective collaboration, team problem-solving and conflict resolution comes through understanding of self and being open to and curious about the fears, motivations and interests of others. And, of course, many will need to be able to write effectively for workplace communication. While I have the opportunity to offer what I think are authentic learning experiences in my English courses, I agree that there are some obstacles at the college level as identified in the Horizon Report. At my college the schedules are regimented and the silos are restrictive, since there are few interdisciplinary offerings which could mimic real-world learning. I have noted in previous blog posts that risk-taking by college instructors is present but not widespread and not supported adequately. The culture of achievement continues from high school into our college primarily because North Island College offers few degrees, and most university-level students, after a year or two, seek admission to VIU, UVic, UBC and other universities. I loved learning about and experiencing literature in my undergraduate English program. I had some engaging professors. But, I don't remember considering the learning as more than academic learning. Never did I consider it real-world learning. Work Cited Authentic Learning Experiences. The NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2016 K-12 Edition. (2016) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6btfF7n9Vl1ZmlBSnZqT1VLRTg/view Michael Gorman, in "Ten Ways to Use Discussion Forums to Promote Digital Citizenship and Academics" discusses, yes, what the title implies, but also how effective online discussion forums are as collaborative learning tools.
The ten ways he describes includes: as a formative assessment tool, checking for understanding; as a reflecting tool for meta-cognition; as a divergent tool in which students pose questions in response to questions; as a launch tool for classroom discussion; as a connection tool in response to a video or other resource; as a mentor tool in which an online expert hosts a discussion; as a simulation tool in which a historical character or fictional character hosts a discussion; a role play tool in which several students interact in the roles of characters from a story; a research tool in which students share research links; a student-centred tool in which a student group is responsible for creating an extension discussion from class topics. I have used online discussions on the Blackboard Learn sites of my f2f English courses in the past, but sparingly, and I have been the initiator of the discussions, i.e. I pose questions and require that students post a response to my initial post and that they respond to, say, the post of one other student. The online discussions, therefore, have been mostly teacher directed. Because I decided to add some blended learning to my literature courses for the winter semester, I chose to include collaborate literature circles with an online discussion component. Each group of four students is responsible for guiding the class through an analysis of a short story using the roles of Director (to identify and describe five important elements of the fiction), Connector (to make five connections between the story and other stories, movies, news events, personal experiences), Researcher (to research cultural contexts, historical aspects, difficult vocabulary), and Passagist (to identify passages that foreshadow, that are metaphorical, that are poetic, that are imagery-laden). These groups present to the class f2f as a panel. It is not a requirement for the students to use a presentation tool other than a handout, but some have said they will use PowerPoint or Prezi. Each group also has a Discussion on Blackboard Learn and each group member is required to post a question to the class related to their role. Other students are required to read these questions before the group's presentation and be prepared to respond as these questions will be the basis for class discussion after the presentation. I have provided a rubric for the collaborative group work. I prefer in-class discussions in f2f literature classes, but I know that not every student will always read and/on think about the discussion questions posted by a group and come to class prepared to discuss. My inclusion of the discussion post in this way is a student-centred approach; however, in the future I'd like to expand the blended learning. Reference Gorman, Michael. (July 1, 2014). K-12 Blueprint. Tech and Learning. Newsletter. Retrieved from https://www.k12blueprint.com/blog/michael-gorman/ten-ways-use-discussion-forums-promote-digital-citizenship-and-academics James Kobialka, in his Edutopia piece, "7 Reflection Tips for Assessment, Empowerment, and Self-Awareness", says that reflection is an integral part of teaching and learning. I would agree that it contributes to deeper learning and that, for an instructor, reflection can transform one's teaching practice.
But, it takes time to nurture a culture of reflection in the classroom, and there must be a way of keeping track of, or a way of curating, reflections so that learning, and growth can be assessed over time. I am continuously reflecting - on my teaching practice, on being a husband, a father, a stepfather - but I'm abysmal at recording my reflections. Hence, some reflections become like sample loops, and I have no idea whether I've experienced growth. Therefore, after reading Kobialka's piece, I am committing to some systematic recording of reflection on my teaching practice. I see the value of what he writes about using reflection in the classroom with students. His first tip is "Reflect with Shout-outs". At the end of the day or class, students share something positive that a classmate did for them that day. I'm using this tip this afternoon, in fact. A collaborative group in my first-year literature class with be presenting a literature assignment on a short story. I will ask that their classmates give them feedback on one aspect of the story that the group helped to clarify. The second tip is described as "Reflect through Writing", but specifically, Kobialka is referring to giving the opportunity at the end of the semester for students to explain what grade they should deserve and why. Since I use rubrics, students know what mark they have by the end of the semester, and the rubric explains why they will have received certain marks on their assignments. And their grades are available to them on Blackboard Learn. I have not explored self-assessment at all. Some college colleagues have. Some have even explored it to the extent of creating the evaluation criteria with the students at the beginning of the assessment. At the college level, I believe there are opportunities for self-evaluation, and, in this, student self-reflection would be required. The third tip is "Model Reflective Learning with Pluses and Deltas" Since I use peer-editing in my composition course, I ask students to read another student's writing and identify plusses and at least one "delta", as Kobialka calls it (a suggestion for revision). It's important to give the students some language to use as examples of useful, actionable, feedback because many students will not have engaged in this type of activity. Kobialka's fourth and fifth tips for Reflection, "Reflect on Quizzes" and "Reflect on Behaviours" are not as relevant to my college classes; however, I could use a variation of the former. Some of my courses include mid-term exams and they all include take-home essay essay assignments. In variably, I hand back marked assignments and exams, littered with comments (some plusses, some deltas) and I ask students to see me if they have questions about the comments I made. They almost never do. And, I don't know whether they will take my suggestions and use them to improve their next assignments. Perhaps what I could do is ask them to write a reflection on specific improvements they could make based on my feedback, and I could give them credit for these reflections. The sixth tip is to "Model Reflection for Your Students." Specifically, Kobialka describes when a lesson doesn't go as the teacher expected, the teacher might say to the class, " We didn't get as far as I hoped we would today. Does anyone have any ideas why?" I suppose to a room full of perplexed faces, you might say, " It looks as if this concept isn't clear. How can we explore this in a way that would help your understanding?" Finally (and this is one that I will improve my practice of this semester), "Reflect on your Teaching Practice". By journalling about failures and successes and saving notes you made on lessons, you curate your reflection, and you are better able to note growth in your teaching practice. I see how this record would stop the loop of reflecting, but not changing, and how it makes the development of your teaching practice measurable and, therefore, celebratory. Reference Kobialka, James. (May 10, 2016).7 Reflection Tips for Assessment, Empowerment, and Self-Awareness. Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/reflection-assessment-empowerment-self-awareness-james-kobialka Discomfort, Growth and Innovation
Alyssa Tormala, in her Edutopia piece, “Discomfort, Growth and Innovation says that, according to Simon Sinek’s discussion of the Law of Diffusion of Innovation, “only 16 percent of any group actively pursues change”. The 16% of teachers who actively pursue change risk, learn, grow and innovate. They try new strategies, new ways of assessment, new technology, and they consider it a learning experience whether the risk they took succeeds or fails. They believe in continual growth and improvement in their practice, and they look for new and innovative ways to meet challenges. During my 22 years teaching at North Island College, I have gone through phases. I first taught upgrading courses in west coast First Nations communities, then I was the Aboriginal Education Coordinator for three years. Next I had a 10 year period of very little change professionally, primarily, I think, because I was experiencing a lot of change in the rest of my life. Towards the end of this period I realized that I was experiencing no professional growth. I requested, and was granted a move into the English department. Each year since, I have taught at least one new course which has allowed me opportunities to take risks and to grow in my practice. Within the English department, I have felt, in a way, like a new teacher again. However, I haven’t considered myself as being part of the 16%, despite the change I’ve experienced and sought and despite engaging in the learning in OLTD. Most of the teaching that occurs at my college is traditional. I believe it’s because that while some innovation is encouraged and the few innovators are celebrated, as Tormala describes in the piece, not much support is in place to create innovation, or in other words to assist the 84% of instructors to engage in change and growth. One limiting factor in the public college system seems to be the course calendar. I proposed to my department chair to change one of my courses from f2f to a blended model for its next offering in fall 2017 and was told that it would have to wait for approval for fall 2018 because the calendar would alreading be advertising the course as f2f. Tormala says that in order to move more instructors out of the status quo, empathy for their fears and concerns must be shown, modelling by innovative instructors must be shared and even the smallest changes and growths in practice must be shared and celebrated. Here’s two small changes I made to courses I’m teaching this semester, and they were made possible by the learning I experienced in my OLTD courses this past fall. First, I’m including a couple of small online assignments in my f2f literature, thereby including some blended learning in my courses for the first time. And, secondly, I am adding an optional assignment using social media (Twitter) for the first time. These are very small changes, indeed, but I will share them with my department colleagues and I will learn from them whether they succeed or failure. And, while they are not very original changes, they allow me to begin innovating my teaching approaches at a pace that presents what I consider to be acceptable risk and change, and which also seems to fit with the slow rate of change in the college system. Reference Tormala, A. (October 24, 2016). Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/discomfort-growth-and-innovation-alyssa-tormala |
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