Roles and Responsibilities

Peter
03/11/10

Reflect on how in my job role I support the learning of students in these three areas:

Ways of doing - Skills
Demonstrations, both visual and physical
Student participation - hands on approach

Ways of knowing - Knowledge and Social practices
The appropriate application of skills/techniques
Idea creation based on newly learnt skills/techniques
Encourage debate/discussion/research 

- to help explore/discover -

*

Ways of being - identity

*Realisation/understanding/application

Self direction
Tutorials
•encouragement
•guidance


NOTE: If students/learners have an understanding of what is about to be learnt/taught/demonstrated/practiced, will their learning be deeper/more involved?

Etienne Wenger - Communities of practice First publish 1998

Introduction
A social theory of learning

Wenger describes a typical learning environment as being separated from the rest of our activities ... we arrange classrooms where the students - free from the distractions of their participation in the outside world - can pay attention to a teacher or focus on exercises. Then to assess learning we use tests with which students struggle in one-on-one combat, where knowledge must be demonstrated out of context, and where collaboration is considered cheating. By teaching/testing out of context, learning is often seen as boring or irrelevant by the learners and if not cut out for these types of activities, could consider themselves as unable to learn. What if we assumed that learning is as much a part of our human nature as eating or sleeping, that it is both life-sustaining and inevitable. ... And what if ... we assumed that learning is, in its essence, a fundimentally social phenomenon, reflecting our own deeply social nature...

A conceptual perspective:theory and practice


There are many different kinds of learning theory. Each emphasizes different aspects of learning, and each is therefore useful ... To some extent these differences ... reflect the more fundamental differences in assumptions about the nature of knowledge, knowing and knowers, and consequently about what matters in learning.
My assumptions as to what matters about learning and as to the nature of knowledge, knowing and knowers can be succinctly summarized as follows. I start with four premises.

1) We are social beings. Far from being trivially true, this fact is a central aspect of learning.
2) Knowledge is a matter of competence with respect to valued enterprises - such as singing in tune, discovering scientific facts, fixing machines, writing poetry, being convivial (being jolly, friendly), growing up as a boy or girl, and so forth.
3) Knowing is a matter of participating in the pursuit of such enterprises, that is, of active engagment in the world.
4) Meaning - our ability to experience the world and our engagement with it as meaningful - is ultimately what learning is to produce.

These components (shown above) include the following.

1) Meaning: a way of talking about our (changing) ability - individually and collectively - to experience our life and the world as meaningful.

2) Practice: a way of talking about the shared historical and social resources, frameworks, and perspectives that can stimulate mutual engagement in action.

3) Community: a way of talking about social configurations in which our enterprises are defined as worth pursuing and our participation is recognizable as competence.

4) Identity: a way of talking about how learning changes who we are and creates personal histories of becoming in the context or our communities.

Clearly, these elements are deeply interconnected and mutually defining. Proposing that you could place and of the peripheral components in the the centre, and it would still make sense.

Communities of practice are everywhere

We all belong to communities of practice. Home, work, school, hobbies, sports, online forums, bands, clubs, lifestyle, outlook etc We can belong to many at any one time, and they can/will change over the course of our lives. Communities of practice are an integral part of our daily lives. They are so informal and so pervasive that they rarely come into explicit focus.

Rethinking learning

placing the focus on participation has broad implications for what it takes to understand and support learning.

• For individuals, it means that learning is an issue of engaging in and contributing to the practices of their communities

•For communities, it means that learning is an issue of refining their practice and ensuring new generation of members

•For organizations, it means that learning is an issue of sustaining the interconnected communities of practice through which an organization knows what it knows and thus becomes effective and valuable as an organization. What the F? - Discuss...

...learning is an integral part of our everyday lives. It is part of our participation in our communities and organizations. The problem is not that we do not know this, but rather that we do not have very systematic ways of talking about this familiar experience and having a systematic vocabulary to talk about it does make a difference. An adequate vocabulary is important because the concepts we use to make sense of the world direct both our perception and our actions.

 - We pay attention to what we expect to see, we hear what we can place in our understanding, and we act according to our world views - This statement seem quite poignant to his way of thinking, would be good to discuss further

Kolb's experimental learning theory model

Kolb's model works on two levels - a four-stage cycle:
1. Concrete Experience - (CE)
2. Reflective Observation - (RO)
3. Abstract Conceptualization - (AC)
4. Active Experimentation - (AE)
and a four-type definition of learning styles, (each representing the combination of two preferred styles, rather like a two-by-two matrix of the four-stage cycle styles, as illustrated below), for which Kolb used the terms:
1. Diverging (CE/RO)
2. Assimilating (AC/RO)
3. Converging (AC/AE)
4. Accommodating (CE/AE)
Ref: http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm

Learning and Teaching at the Sushi Bar

20/10/10

Gill Nah - PGC course leader

(Slide)

How PGC courses construct the 'good teacher' - Nichol & Harrison (2003)

Good teachers;

• Design teaching sessions

• A concern for student development

• A commitment to scholarship

• A commitment to work with and learn form colleagues 

• A commitment to equal opportunities

• Continuing reflection on professional practice

--A simple outline to be used as a guide, not necessarily the norm--

(Slide)
Dispositions of the ‘good student’
(Barnett, 2007)

•A will to learn

•A will to engage

•A preparedness to listen

•A preparedness to explore

•A willingness to hold oneself open to experiences

•A determination to keep going forward

(Slide)

To be 'good', students need the following qualities
(Barnett, 2007)

• Integrity

• Carefulness

• Courage

• Resilience 

• Self-discipline

• Restraint

• Respect for others

• Openness 

--Again, just a starting point--

--It is good to consider not just the objectives of each lesson/workshop, but the objectives and expected level of learning over their entire time with you and beyond. Then reflect upon this and reflect upon what was actually learnt and its appropriateness to what I was expecting and the objectives of the course.--

(Slide)

Traditionalism Challanged

John Dewey (1859-1952) and American psychologist, philosopher, educator, social critic and political activist.

•Humans have 'the ability to learn from experience. Education is development and life is development therefore life is education and growing is living' (Brockbank & McGill, 1988:22) - it is transformational.

•'Thoughts are incomplete, they are suggestions and standpoints for dealing with situations of experience' Learning can occur from experience

•Only when an idea has been tried out and applied in practice can the process of reflection begin'

(Dewey, 1916)

(Slide)

Piaget - A cognitive perspective c1970

•Cognative Constructivism - learners do not copy or absorb ideas from the external world, but construct their concepts through active and personal experimentation and observation

Vygotsky - Socio-cultural perspective c1978

•Socio-cultural Constructivism - emphasises the importance of social interaction for learning.

(Slide)

Jerome Bruner

Began (late 70's) with Piaget's ideas, moved over to Vygotsy and developed further...

'culture shapes the mind... it provides us with the toolkit by which we construct not only our worlds but the very conception of our selves and our powers' (1996)

This presupposes that human metal activity is neither solo nor conducted unassisted, even when it goes on "inside the head" (ibid)

Zone of proximal development

http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm

(Slide)

Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger (1998)

Learning is a process of participation in communities of practice.

Four components:

Meaning

•Knowledge

Practice

•Doing

Community

•Belonging

Identity

•Being

--Be aware of the community/structure of your course. Does the more 'integrated' a student become have an affect on their learning?--

(Slide)

Communities of Practice

-Discuss-

•What communities you belong to

D&D

Family

Friends

•social (pub etc)

•Interests

•school

•asscoiate

•distant

Work

Online

•FB

•Twitter

•Blogs

(Slide)

Learning Theories

•Deep & surface
A deep approach is characterised by a search for both meaning and links between ideas. A surface approach concentrates simply on getting the task done.

•Experiential
The experience that learners bring with them or engage in on a course can motivate and shape learning.

•Constructivism
Emphasis is place on the way in which learning involves the student creating concepts or constructs, as a result of processes  that are personal to the learner .

•Behaviorism
Here the focus is on behavioral outcomes of learning, so that in effect a response can be measured to a stimulus.

(Kahn and Walsh, 2006:Ch2)

Learning Styles

Honey & Mumford questionnaire separates learners into:

•Activists (Do)

•Reflectors (Review)

•Theorists (Conclude)

•Pragmatists (Plan)

VARK http://vark-learn.com Separates learners into:

•V = Visual

•A = Aural/Auditory

•R = Read/Write

•K = Kinesthetic 

(Slide)

Did you know that we remember-

• 60% of what we do

• 50% of what we say

• 40% of what we see

• 30% of what we hear

• 20% of what we read

•90% of what we read, hear, see, say and do

Flanagan (1997)

--This is only a guide, as content, interest, volume etc all have an impact--

Starting to teach in further and higher education

13.10.10

Hilaire Graham

Dean of Learning and Teaching

Q: What do you bring to teaching?

(various answers)

Enthusiasm

Experience

•work

•life

•enterprise

Technical skills

Knowledge

•Specific

•General

•learned

•discovered

Communication skills

•listening

Note; To give inspiration often leads to gaining inspiration

Me: A desire to encourage exploration through sharing knowledge/experience

Beginning to teach

•Feel good about beginning to teach

•Prapare for your teaching activities

•Feel confident about marking

•Give appropriate feedback

•Reflect on and develop your practice

Teaching as a profession

•What does it mean to be a professional?

Confident

•communication

•self belief

accountable

objective

Supportive re:

•students

•peers

Informed

•your knowledge/practice

•cultures

•student/peer needs

•teaching methods

Prepared

Detached

Letting others learn

being a part of a community

What is teaching?

The exchange of knowledge and experience that help students develop more conscious/focused decision making

Showing a path

Guiding exploration

Understanding the 1 way & 2 way exchange of information and when they are appropriate

Successfully creating an understanding of the subject being taught

role model

duty of care

Understanding your students needs/learnig requirements

Being successful in your objective

•Telling knowledge

Health & safety

History. Chronology

Feedback

What do we consider to be our 'code of conduct'

Dutiful

Professional

Inclusive

•of student diversity

•of peers

Current/knowledgable

Competent

Inspirational

Committed

Organised/responsible

Ethical

Team member

Supportive

Respectable/Confidental

Expertise in teaching learning and assessment

Recognition of institutional expectations

The education sector

HE is represented in government by the department of business & skills

HEFCE

•Higher Education Funding Council for England

LSC

•Learnig Skills Council

Professional body

•HEA - Higher Education Academy

Things that help you(me) learn

Self

•Visual explanations

•Repetition

•Familiar environment

•Encouragement

•Regonising when I 'get it'

•Doing

•Voicing theories

•Research - seeing how others did it - replicate - understand

•Practice

•From mistakes ie; from lack of knowledge or risk taking

•Question things

•Doodle

What can impact on your learning

•Environment - noise - light - temp - comfort - distractions

•Time - making time for learning

•Other interests - can take time from your studies but could inspire

•Home life

•Finance

•Travel

•Weather

•Physical condition - wellness

•Peers - both in a supportive role or as a distraction

•Confidence

•Contact time with tutors

•Interest

•Course structure

•Technology - including home/univercity facilities
•Pervious learning experience
•Learning style
•Age
•Personality
•Attitude

RM: Teaching, Tutoring and training - Susan Wallace 2007

CHAPTER 8
THEORIES OF LEARNING

Objectives:
•draw on theories of learning to critically inform your own practice and to meet the needs of individual learners
•draw on theories of learning in order to motivate and support learners
•draw on theories of learning to establish and maintain a supportive and safe learning environment
•understand the principles, frameworks and theories which underpin your practice

"How would you yourself define learning?"
The absorption of knowledge that directly or indirectly, informs future decisions and/or actions

-The teacher - learner relationship-
"what do we hope will result from the interaction between teacher and learner? Whatever the answer is, there is no reason why it's effects should be confined to the learner" ie "the learner becomes the receptacle for knowledge skills or attitudes all mediated through the teacher who, , remains unchanged by the process" like a "glorified ATM"

"Rogers (1983) - like Freire (1972) - presents the learning process as one which is to the mutual benifit of the learner and the facilitator."
The interaction of such learning rests not upon the teaching skills of the leader, not upon [their] scholarly knowledge of the field, not upon [their] curricular planning, not upon [their] use of audio visual aids, not upon the programmed learning [they] utilize, bnot upion [their] lectures and presentations. No, the facilitation of significant learning rests upon certain attitudinal quailities which exist in the personal relationship between facilitator and learner.
(Rogers, 1983, p121)

"There are two things that must strike us about this. Firstly, the list of teaching skills which he enumerates here could almost be seen as a paraphrase of the QTLS Standards; and secondly he is claiming the none of them is more important to the learning process than the relationship - of trust and respect - between the teacher and the learner."
This view is at present, not as fashionable as it was 20-30 years ago and "it could certainly be argued that that the rise of competence-based models of education and training had contributed to this change, arising as they do from the instrumental view of education as a process designed wholly, or at least largely, to meet the needs of employers and the economy."

•How would you distinguish between 'learning; and 'development'?
•Do you see a difference between the terms 'teacher' and 'facilitator'? If so what is it?
•Doews the language we use about learning really matter? What about that word 'delivering' for example? Do you think it reflects on the teachers role and status?

IMAGE

"What is important here is the body of knowledge, or the set of competences, which must be transferred to the learner. A 'successful' learner, therefore, is one for whom this transfer has been satisfactorily completed." This model basis learning on "active teacher and passive learner" with the premise being on the knowledge being all important, and learning being measured by the students ability as a receptacle to retain information - Surely this would make the teacher, nothing more than a slightly interactive book? This would also suggest that anybody with appropriate knowledge can teach, as it is the knowledge that is key and not the 'role' of the teacher, whom simply has to regurgitate information in a lackluster fashion to perform their part.

IMAGE

"Here it is the people - the teacher and the learner - who are important. What is gained from the learning process is thereby left more open-minded; and the measure of success less clear cut."
Why is it less clear cut? If your teaching is inclusive and engaging surely there will be just as clear results as those gained from the previous teaching model - Discuss this within the group for answers

-The Behaviorists and Neo-Behaviorists-

This section talks of the application of Neo/Behaviorist notions within the classroom environment. By taking the concept that most humans are goal orientated it is possible to encourage learners to behave in a way we want them to. By rewarding positive behavior and ignoring negative behavior "For example, if you find you are praised for attempting to answer a question, even if you get it wrong, you'll be even more inclined to risk offering an answer next time too"
However, as pointed out in the example this method also works well at encouraging negative behavior, in the example it explains how restating your class for late comers is like a reward, which they accept as the norm and will continue to turn up late in future.

-The Gestaltists-
"The teacher should view the learner's experience as a gestalt, a whole, in which the learner achieves understanding by a process of reorganising their thoughts. Often this will involve discovering how one fact might relate to another, or how a 'gap' in the pattern or structure should be filled. The idea of wholeness, then, is important in two ways: as a way of construing the learning process, and as a significant part of that process when learning leads to insight and we suddenly 'see the whole picture'.
reminding us "of the importance of encouraging learners to find their own solutions, and to make their own connections and discoveries. It will also prompt us to ensure that learners have understood how they have achieved their ask or solved their problem."

-The Cognitivists-
"Cognitivists argue that thinking is central to the learning process. - the learner gaining progressively more and newer knowledge, while at the same time adapting or discarding old knowledge which no longer fits their growing insight into the world. It is most important that we provide learning opportunities which will develop the learners' understanding and allow them to explore the relationships between ideas and concepts, rather than, for example, simply learning to recite the bare fact about them. Names most often associated with Cognitivists are; Dewey (1859-1952) and Bruner (b. 1915) Both place the learner at the centre of learning and believe/d that the curriculum should be designed to meet the needs of the learner - the structure and sequencing of learning being of key importance to the teaching and learning experience.
This could be social as well as personal within an e-environment. ie; Learning from watching an online video then repeating to make sense of it. Or 'chatting' via forums or blogs to gain insight that helps you make sense of your own thoughts/quires.


-Humanists-
"Carl Rogers (1902-87) - argued that the relationship between learner and teacher is the key to successful learning. Indeed he went further than this, claiming that the facilitator/teacher should demonstrate an 'unconditional positive regard' for learners (Rogers, 1983). In other words, the teachers attitude should be non-judgmental and accepting; the learner should be made to feel valued and cared for."
"Abraham Maslow (1908-70) - used the term'self-actualisation' to express the notion of the individual's realisation of their full human potential. Maslow's most widely recognised theory: the hierarchy of needs suggests Unless our basic needs for safety and comfort, a sense of belonging and a sense of self worh are met, argued Maslow, we will be unable to self-actualise; that is, reach a state of readiness for real learning and development. This could explored as such: Are our learners warm enough? Are they hungry or tired? Do they have anxieties which are creating a barrier to their learning? Do we scare them? Are we sufficiently approachable? Are they being bullied? Are they scared of looking stupid? According to Maslow, any obstacle to a learners well-being may also be an obstacle to their learning.
The Humanist are often regarded as being somehow in opposition to the Behaviorists. - However, to view the Behaviorist and Humanist theories as an either/or choice would be to throw away much that is useful. Taken together, they offer the teacher a range of possible strategies and responses to try out depending on the circumstances and the situation.
Poignant
Undeniably there are contradictions. Faced with a disruptive student, for example, a Behaviorist might caution: 'Ignore her. Any attention you give her will amount to positive reinforcement. She'll take it as a reward and keep repeating the behavior.'
The Rogers inspired Humanist, however, could well advise: 'Despite this learner's disruptive behavior, she still deserves your unconditional positive regard. How can possibly ignore her?'
And Humanist inspired Maslow would proberbly say: 'This learner can't learn until her basic needs are met. Perhaps she is afraid. Perhaps she fears that if she actually sits down and tries to apply herself to the task you've set her, she won't be able to do it and she will lose what little self-esteem she has.'

Lifestyle Communications - Image deconstruction

My first workshop with Yr3 FP

The aim; to help them see/understand the building blocks within advertising images, so that they can make more informed and conscious decisions when creating there own.

To do this I decided on keeping the source material focussed. By choosing images from Chanel campaigns, I was able to highlight consistencies within images over time, to demonstrate the importance of product/brand placement, and how a product is portrayed.

The session was quite loose, with a steady flow back and forth between the students and myself. Often with me introducing an image then getting them to break it down into its various components (lead by prompts from myself if they came up blank) We focused first on the image itself, ie; What can you see, name the parts that build up the picture, what can you not see, where is the focus, what is similar in this campaign to the last, what is identical in this campaign to the last, how much of the frame is taken up by what, which photographic techniques were used. Then I questioned 'Why?' to all the above and broke it down further to help them appreciate that every advert is very consciously constructed.

Then we moved onto the subject character, ie; who is advertising this image, what do you know about them, what are they famous for, how are they portrayed in the press etc. Which lead to the discussion of why choosing the right person to sell your product is so very important, then took it further by talking about who they thought could possibly be used in the next campaign.

We broke all the images down in a similar fashion and by the end there was a general consensus that there was more to creating an advert than they originally imagined - Which makes me feel there was an element of success to the workshop.

Getting the students to play an active role throughout the activity was a key part to making the workshop flow