Education minister Lukaszuk says reduced school year off the table

Education minister Lukaszuk says reduced school year off the table

How should we transform education

CBC.ca | Type A

Listen to this through-provoking look at the business model applied to education. I do not agree with all the ideas discussed, but I do think they are good starting points for debate. As an instructor who has worked hard, and done my best, I like the idea of merit pay. I get tired of seeing "slackers" continue with mediocre teaching - they do us all a disfavour. Nevertheless, how do we measure merit? Would it mean that each of us would waste endless hours "marketing" ourselves? For example, I see countless examples of people taking part in community service events, and other activities with a so-called genuine desire to make a difference. Yet if we really look at their motives, they are doing this things to look good, to add another line on their resume. Furthermore, would only the popular teachers get merit? Or, would those who pad the marks to get higher scores win? Or, would those who glitz up their classes with technology that really does nothing to enhance instruction?
Meanwhile, the day to day tasks would be left to those of us who just do the right thing, and quietly work to make sure things get done. All too often I have watched colleagues lauded for good teaching, while I was too busy picking up behind and cleaning up their mistakes to focus on the important work of teaching. Sour grapes - maybe? But it does point out the problem with merit pay. Accountability for our work is important, but I'd hate to fall into the world of universities - where I heard one prof brag that she spend 3 weeks collecting data to show what a good teacher she is. I call this a waste of time.

Anyway - this episode should spark some timely debate.

What is good teaching?

I have been reflecting lately on what is good teaching. There is no simple answer. Perhaps the betteer question is what makes q good teacher. I believ the following qualities ar essential elements of good teaching: 1. Flexibility 2. Adaptability 3. Curiosity 4. Organisation 5. Creativity 6. People skills interpersonal skills 7. Desire to remain current 8. Appeal to learner's reality ...trying to figure out what is important to them so you can draw relevance to their world and the content.

Reinforces my views on teaching adults

Here's an article from Faculty Focus

• Treat them like the adults they are. Adult learners are generally more sophisticated and experienced than their younger counterparts and they benefit from realistic examples of skills they can use in "real life." "Adult learners will be empowered as they discover they have a great deal to teach their younger classmates, and the dynamic is mutually beneficial," said Thomas Lisack, an instructor at Rasmussen College in Wausau, WI. Lisack recommends incorporating intergenerational discussions on issues that otherwise have a generational divide as appropriate for the subject matter to engage learners of all ages.
• Be aware that their classroom skills may be "rusty." Some adult learners have not been in a classroom for 30 years, so you may need to remind them of basic rules and etiquette, such as raising a hand if you have a question. At the same time, reassure them that, as the instructor, you will not be judgmental of their life experiences or their perspectives, and that they will be evaluated only on their mastery of the content. Be generous when it comes to formatting issues such as APA writing guidelines. Instead, focus on content. "I have found adult learners to be self-conscious, even apologetic, when it comes to being in the classroom," Lisack noted. "They might even exhibit some shame because they feel decades behind their classmates. The more you can break down these walls of insecurity, the better."
• Consider and acknowledge the technology gap. Students in their 50s and 60s are generally not nearly as tech savvy — or tech dependent, as some would argue — as 18 or even 30 year olds. Assess each student's level of proficiency as it relates to class requirements and compensate. Lisack said he once spent three hours after class teaching a group of displaced workers — many of whom had never used a computer — the finer points of Microsoft Word. "The students were very grateful. I felt I'd accomplished something important to help them on their educational journey and it was very satisfying," he said. Even if they are skilled with technology, adult learners tend to have dramatically different habits. "While younger students may be tethered to technology, adults have longer attention spans and traditional classroom approaches appeal to them," Lisack said. "This does not mean you can lecture to them for three hours, but you can expect the older learner to concentrate on complex material without feeling 'withdrawal' of from a technology device."
• Be efficient with lessons and activities. "Move fast and don't waste anyone's time," advises Andrea Leppert, adjunct instructor at Rasmussen College in Aurora/Naperville, IL. "Adult students have jobs, sometimes children and tons of responsibilities, so pack every class with information and useful activities." Consider balancing instructional time with "lab" time, giving students an opportunity to do modeling work or homework in class to give them a better chance of accomplishing all the requirements on time. Leppert also suggests being "strictly flexible" — diligent in your expectations, yet understanding about busy lives, illness and working late. "Like any job, it's not to be abused, but as grown-ups, we have priorities that sometimes take precedent over finishing assignments," she said. "Build in safety nets that allow a limited number of late assignments to maintain flexibility, accountability and expectations of excellent work."
• Be creative: Use the unique vibe or personality of each class to teach the lesson and choose activities that engage, and even entertain to some degree. Pair highly motivated students with those less skilled on projects to create peer encouragement and mentoring. Leppert says this strategy keeps students interested, attendance high and motivation strong.

3 good questions for policy

Here's an update from Cheryl Smith re: discussion surrounding school initiatives:

Keeping student success at the forefront as policy decisions are made



  through these lenses:

1.  Is the proposed change going to enhance student success?

2.  Is the proposed change funded?

3.  Will the proposed change keep the system flexible (provincially and

locally) so that school boards can respond to shifting  and local needs and so government and school boards can move forward on the transformation agenda?

21st Century Competencies

What does it take to be successful in the 21st Century?  According to Alberta Education, the following competencies are essential:

• Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making
• Creativity and Innovation
• Social, Cultural, Global and Environmental Responsibility
• Communication
• Digital and Technological Fluency
• Lifelong Learning, Personal Management and Well-Being
• Collaboration and Leadership

I see the need to embed these competencies into our curriculum, but how do we get others on board when so many are still focused on traditional lecture delivery methods?    I also see an urgent need for us to re-evaluate the English curriculum outcomes to reflect a focus on these outcomes.  For example, why are we focusing on memos when few people write them anymore? Furthermore, the format for memos expected does not even meet the current technological delivery method.  No wonder our program feels somewhat stale and stalled.

The week in review - back in the saddle again!

This year is getting off to a great start.  I feel much more organized, although I could easily spend more time on planning and general prep.  The marking load will soon  be upon me, so I need to be prepared.
Nevertheless, the success I've noticed this week include:
1. I learned how to create quick 2 - 3 minute video tutorials, post them to Vimeo, then embed them in the course.
2. My English 095 class went very well.  I had created a visually appealing slide show to lead us through a discussion of Once More To the Lake, followed by a 5 minutes journal writing session. I had a variety of pictures showing while they wrote, and played some quiet music. While the wrote, I occasionally offered some suggestions on what to write about, based on the pictures and the music. For example - what did they hear, see, smell while at the lake of their past?  The music I selected naturally moved to a more upbeat rhythm as we moved toward the end of their journal writing time.
3. All my classes naturally included a variety of activities designed to reach different learning modes

Using "Think Alouds" in class

Here's another great idea from The Teaching Professor.  I'm going to consider how I can do so!

January 6, 2012

Think Alouds Shed Light on How Students Grapple with Content

By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog

One of the enduring legacies of the classroom assessment movement (thank you Pat Cross and Tom Angelo) is that most faculty now realize that if they want to know how well something worked to promote learning in the classroom, they can’t just rely on what they think. They need to support what they think with feedback from students and, if that feedback doesn’t agree with what they think, they need to listen carefully to what the students said.

Building on that foundation, the scholarship of teaching movement has shown faculty that they can “study,” as in systematically inquire about, what’s happening in their classrooms. Increasingly, instructors’ examinations of their teaching and their students’ learning are finding their way into the pedagogical literature. One of the side benefits of these scholarly endeavors is the importing of a number of interesting assessment techniques mostly developed in psychology, cognitive psychology and educational psychology. Think alouds is one such technique and Lendol Calder describes how he used this approach in an introductory history course.

Think alouds were originally developed by cognitive psychologists as a research tool to study how people solved problems. Calder used them in his course “to measure changes in thinking patterns over time for selected individual enrolled in my survey [course].” (p. 1367) At the very beginning of the course he gave students a number of historical documents (somewhere between seven and ten) pertaining to the battle of the Little Big Horn. Students were supposed to try and figure out what the documents meant. They did so by talking out loud to themselves. “Their verbalized comments were recorded and transcribed for later analysis to determine patterns of cognition used to make sense of the documents.” (p. 1367) Students participated in the same exercise at the end of the course only with a different set of historical documents.

You could do the same with papers written before and after a course, but Calder thinks that the think alouds have distinct advantages. “The advantage of think alouds over graded student work is that they allow one to observe the process of thinking in a raw, unvarnished state. Think alouds reveal not only what a student thinks but also how she came to think it. Think alouds expose the stumbling, the hesitations, the blind alleys, the good ideas entertained and abandoned, the inner workings of a mind trying to make sense of the past.” (p. 1368)

But Calder identifies another advantage that’s even more compelling: “Listening to my students think out loud as they tried to make sense of documents is the single most eye-opening experience I have had in my years as a teacher.” (p. 1368)

Could changes in student thinking be detected in the before and after of these think alouds? “What my studies revealed is that even in a short, ten-week course students on average make modest to occasionally dramatic gains in all six aspects of historical thinking taught in the course.” (p. 1368) I should note that Calder’s course is your not typical history survey course—his article describes a course design that deviates significantly from how history courses are usually designed and taught.

It’s such an interesting assessment strategy. Even if you didn’t want to use it in a rigorous study design, the idea of listening to students as they try to deal with content has got to be revealing. In the cognitive psychology research, think alouds have been used to differentiate expert and novice knowledge and thinking processes. As I have pointed out in previous posts, it is so easy for faculty experts to forget how novices think about the content. Yes, it can be depressing, even frightening, since most students do not think all that deeply about our content. But knowing where they start allows for a more efficient journey to where they need to be. As Calder’s experience shows, you can then design a course, in his case one where he used the content to explicitly teach six cognitive habits: questioning, connecting, sourcing, making inferences, considering alternate perspectives and recognizing limits to one’s knowledge. (p. 1364).

Reference: Calder, L. (2006). Uncoverage: Toward a signature pedagogy for the history pedagogy. The Journal of American History, March, 1358-1370.

Campus Technology - Blogging as an Effective Tool for Enhancing Critical Thinking

I'm thinking about using Blogs in my class this semester.  This article I just read reinforces my interest in using blogs, and confirms my idea that  a blog is a more effective tool than a wiki - for the purpose I intend!

http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2012/01/01/Strategies-for-Blog-Powered-Instruction.aspx?Page=2

Using Reading Groups

Once again, the Teaching Professor is offering great advice. Here's their article on using Reading Groups to teach reading

Reading Groups Get Students Reading

Written by: Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D.

Given how difficult it is to get students to do their assigned reading, we continue to share strategies that encourage students to read, that develop their reading skills, and in this case, that also develop their abilities to work with others in groups.

This strategy was developed by two sociologists and they report on their experiences using it in 12 different sections of four courses at three institutions. Students in these courses are assigned individual readings, as opposed to a textbook, often on “highly politicized subject matter” (p. 364) like race and gender. The reading groups, each with five or six members, are formed by the teacher who works to create diverse groups so students are more likely to hear various viewpoints. Students complete an information survey that the teacher uses to form the groups.

Group reading discussions take place in class and are identified on the course calendar, with the readings assigned for each discussion listed there as well. Students arrive in class having done the readings and with a completed reading preparation sheet. Generally, they are allotted 20-30 minutes for their discussions, although in some courses discussion times are longer.

One of the interesting features of this assignment design is that students are assigned different roles—discussion leader, passage master, creative connector, devil’s advocate, and reporter. Students assume one of these roles in each discussion, but not the same role. The discussion leader comes to the discussion with prepared questions (and brief answers) that he or she uses to facilitate the discussion. The passage master brings several important passages—ones that provide key information. They may be controversial or just a passage the passage master finds interesting. He or she is prepared to summarize these passages for the group. The creative connector makes connections between the readings and other “social, cultural, political or economic ideas.” (p. 357) They may be connections to other readings or they may be advertisements, clips from YouTube, cartoons, or the discussion of movie content. The devil’s advocate prepares a list of questions raised by critics of the authors or by those whose viewpoints differ. The reporter summarizes the group’s discussion, including topics where there was agreement and disagreement, points of confusion, and ideas the group found most interesting. These roles are described on a handout given to students; that handout is included in an appendix at the end of the article.

Participation in these group reading discussions counts for between 10 and 30 percent of the course grade. Students are graded individually, not as a group, and their grade is based on their reading preparation sheets as well as a peer assessment of their participation in the group. Reading preparation sheets may be turned in on discussion days, they may be posted electronically, or they may be retained and submitted at the end of the course in a reading portfolio. The authors have used all these strategies and report the assets and liabilities of each. They are considering having students review all their reading preparation sheets before turning them in and then writing a paper in which they reflect on their reading and reading discussion experiences.

Student responses to this strategy have been very positive. Data reported in the article shows that on a 5-point scale with 5 being “Always,” the “How often did you complete the readings for this course?” question received a 4.25 overall average. The average response to the “Were the actual reading groups/class meetings helpful for understanding the readings?” question, again with 5 being “Always,” was 4.35, and a question about whether the prep sheets and discussion helped students see connections between the readings and everyday life garnered an overall average of 4.43.

This is a useful article, with various handout materials appended and all the logistical details carefully described. The authors correctly conclude, “The group format described here can provide the basis for collaborative learning within a range of courses within and beyond sociology.” (p. 365)
Reference: Parrott, H. M., and Cherry, E. (2011). Using structured reading groups to facilitate deep learning. Teaching Sociology, 39 (4), 354-370.