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--