Comments to Marja:
Assessment Question
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Grading
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1
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2
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3
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4-5
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A. Did the video include footage of the following components?
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- lesson introduction and wrap-up
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x
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- students working on the activity
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x
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- an interview with your supervising instructor giving feedback about your teaching
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x
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- an interview with one of the students who participated in your class giving feedback about your teaching
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x
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B. Did the video include footage, text or voice-over describing the following components?
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- lesson title and objectives
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x
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- student's prior knowledge had been assessed and / or addressed
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x
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- age and skill appropriateness of the lesson
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x
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- an effective assessment of the lesson
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x
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C. Was the video completed within the 10 minute time frame?
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x
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Marja's video is very well done with sliding lifts and Swiss landscape in the background. The video is 9:05 minutes, so the time frame has been followed. There are lesson plans and objectives presented in the video. However, some information is only in the blog and not in the video, for example the students prior knowledge, assessment and wrap-up. There is no footage about students working on the activity, even though the students refer to the activities in the interviews. Moreover, the classroom teaching part could have been longer.
It was inspiring to learn how Marja had used iPads and Padlet walls in teaching, and according to the comments, the students had liked these tools. Modern learning tools seem to make studying more interesting to students. This is something I should keep in mind for my own teaching practice.
Marja had taught also teachers to use iPads. The program leader told that Marja's approach was not to deliver the information, but to give the teachers the tools and explain how to access the information themselves. This was a well chosen method, as it was acknowledged to be an effective way of teaching.
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Comments to Aleksandra:
Assessment Question
|
Grading
| |||
1
|
2
|
3
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4-5
| |
A. Did the video include footage of the following components?
| ||||
- lesson introduction and wrap-up
|
x
| |||
- students working on the activity
|
x
| |||
- an interview with your supervising instructor giving feedback about your teaching
|
x
| |||
- an interview with one of the students who participated in your class giving feedback about your teaching
|
x
| |||
B. Did the video include footage, text or voice-over describing the following components?
| ||||
- lesson title and objectives
|
x
| |||
- student's prior knowledge had been assessed and / or addressed
|
x
| |||
- age and skill appropriateness of the lesson
|
x
| |||
- an effective assessment of the lesson
|
x
| |||
C. Was the video completed within the 10 minute time frame?
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x
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Very professional teaching overall. The objectives of the lesson are age appropriate and they are covered in the video. The students have opportunities to engage in a learning dialogue. One example of this is the section where a student answeres a question made by another student. The assessment is based on the photography projects which students present in the video. The photography project as a group work seems to be a suitable method for the students to learn how to visualize ideas through photographs.
Students have a big role in the video, which is great. I also like the fact that students were involved in Aleksandra's teaching video project as some of the students were shooting the video. However, the student interview is missing from the video. Moreover, there is no mention about students' prior knowledge. Perhaps prior knowledge was not needed as this is an elective course. One more thing to point out is that the video exceeds the time frame as the actual teaching video is 12:54 minutes and mentor's comment video is 4:52 minutes besides.
However, overall this is very good work. The atmosphere in the classroom seems to be good for learning as Alexandra appears to be a supportive teacher, and the students are enthusiastic about their photography projects.
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Part 3 of the course
The third part of the course was to make a video of one's own teacher practice. For my video I went to teach Finnish to immigrants at the multicultural centre. Before that I had been observing Finnish teaching lessons at the university for a few times. Observing was very useful for me as I have only started to study Finnish linguistics. For my teaching video I had studied the Finnish verb classes. In the lesson it appeared that the students knew the verb classes already and we just revised them. However, teaching in this group made me realize some of the difficulties that students may have with Finnish forms. The complete video is in the course blog.
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Part 2 of the course
The second part of the course was a debate task, where we had to defend or object different views of education. While preparing ourselves for the debate, we learnt more about the theories we had presented in the first part of the course.
I had several online meetings with my group when we planned the debate. We decided to split the information gathering so that everyone of us took some theorists and searhed for more information to support our position. My task was to collect Dewey's ideas that seemed to support our position. According to Dewey, the actual interests of the student must be developed. Two of these interests that Dewey mentioned were communication and artistic expression (Philosophy of Education), which both are difficult to measure because of their intangible nature.
The final debate was in Oulu in March. Debate is quite funny way to learn. In this course we were not allowed to choose our position, and thus we had to defend ideas that we wouldn't necessarily have defended otherwise, and the result was quite humorous. On the other hand, knowing that it is a competition makes you try harder to justify your opinions. Debate suited well for this kind of course, and it would also be a suitable method, for example, for teaching languages.
Sources:
Philosophy of Education: an Encyclopedia. Edited by J. J. Chambliss. Garland Press. 1996, pp. 146-153. http://deweycenter.siu.edu/pdf/Dewey_Bio.pdf
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The Lesson Plan of Pragmatism and Dewey's theory
I wrote the individual task of a lesson plan about pragmatism and John Dewey's theory, which I connected with media education. I wrote learning objectives in an assessable form using verbs that describe what a student should be able to do after finishing this course. This approach follows the guidelines of behaviourism, which has been influential to guide curriculum planning. In my lesson plan the students are given a group work task, where they can practise the skills described in the objectives, and they are assessed by how they perform the task.
Compared to the first time, when I wrote a lesson plan at the VOC1 course, this time it was easier, since I knew some theory behind lesson planning and I also knew how objectives should be linked to the content of the lesson and assessment.
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Part 1: The teaching session on December 3, 2013
My first teaching session of this course consisted of the introductions of the three theorists: Dewey, Bandura, and Banks. We had written the presentation as a group work.
The presentation was divided into three parts so that firstly there was a presentation about Dewey, secondly a video about Bandura followed by a presentation on Bandura, and finally a video and presentation about Banks. The videos were meant, besides to give additional information, to cut the stream of lecturing to keep the students more focused. The studies say that people can follow lecturing only for 20 minutes (or less) and after that they can't concentrate anymore.
At the beginning of the lecture I told the students that I will have questions about the lecture at the end. The method used here was inquiry teaching or, in fact, more like a game, since it tested only how much they remembered about the lecture and not the ability to apply the theory (Hyppönen & Lindén 2009, 43, 52). Originally we had planned to have this game as a competition, but since the teaching groups were so small, we gave up that idea. The idea of this kind of game is to motivate the students to follow the lecture more keenly, since they know they can put the information in use right after the lecture.
In general, I find it quite challenging to plan alternative teaching methods to avoid plain lecturing, when there are a lot of new theories to teach. It's not a wonder that so many teachers stick mainly to lecturing even that is not the most effective way to learn.
I also learnt many issues from other groups presentations. I support Freire's pedagogy, which is called the pedagogy of the oppressed. He stated that the learner must develop a critical consciousness in order to recognise that the culture of silence is created to oppress. In the Freire-type education students are active participants who bring their own knowledge into the process. This type of critical approach suits well, for example, for media education. (The secondary source: The Group Aquamarine.)
According to Piaget, "the principal goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done" (The secondary source: The Group Magenta).
Gardner developed the theory of multiple intelligences (MI). According to Gardner, educators should both individualize and pluralize. Individualizing takes into account each learner's intelligence profile. In pluralizing a teacher present the most important topics in a variety of ways. This way the educator can reach more students and, on the other hand, students start to think in several ways, using multiple intelligences. I support Gardner's idea that in assessment it's better to have a variety of testing methods available in order to give different types of learners a chance to demonstrate learning. This enhance equality among students. (The secondary source: The Group LimeGreen.)
The source of the teaching methods:
Hyppönen, O. & Lindén, S. 2009. Handbook for teachers - course structures, teaching methods and assessment. Publications of the Teaching and Learning Development Unit of the Helsinki University of Technology 5/2009.
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THEORIES OF BEHAVIOURISM, COGNITIVISM, AND CONSTRUCTIVISM
(According to the book Jordan, A., Orison, C., Stack A. 2008. Approaches to Learning : A Guide for Teachers, Open University Press.)
1 Behaviourism
Behaviourism concentrates on behavioural changes in organisms. Behaviourists define learning as a relatively permanent change in behaviour as the result of experience. (Jordan et al. 2008, 21.) Pavlov's experiment with dogs is a classical example of behaviorism.
An application of the theory: Bloom’s taxonomy of learning (Jordan et al. 2008, 29)
Bloom’s concept of ‘mastery learning’ (1968) has been particularly influential to guide curriculum planning. ‘Mastery learning’ involves the statement of educational objectives and their translation into learner behaviours so as to generate criteria for assessment. For example, in English literature, behaviours that demonstrate an understanding of the concept of alliteration might include:
- providing a definition (knowledge)
- giving an example (comprehension)
- recognizing alliteration in context (application)
- looking closely at examples (analysis)
- appraising the effectiveness of alliteration in a given context (evaluation).
2 Cognitivism
Key stages in the cognitivist model of learning are (Jordan et al. 2008, 48);
- sensation
- perception
- attention
- encoding
- memory.
- Learning does not always involve a change in behaviour.
- Cognitivism focuses on internal mental learning processes.
- The key metaphor in cognitivism is the computer model.
- This model assumes discrete stages through which information is processed.
- Learners actively process, store and retrieve information for use.
- Learners organize and interpret information to create knowledge.
3 Constructivism
Constructivism is a progression from cognitivism and both are interested in cognitive processes (Jordan et al. 2008, 55). Constructivism focuses on meaning-making and the understanding of knowledge.
Key proponents: Piaget, Bruner, Vygotsky, Bandura, Freire, and Habernas
A constructivist approach to teaching, learning and curricula has been recommended in schools since the 1960s, but it's argued that constructivist principles are still only limitedly acted out in the classroom. One reason is that schools must generally follow imposed curricula, which often makes it difficult for teachers to respond to pupils’ constructions of knowledge. (Jordan et al. 2008, 65)
3.1 The categories of constructivism
The categories of constructivism that are most relevant to learning and education are trivial constructivism, social constructivism, and critical constructivism (Jordan et al. 2008, 56).
Trivial constructivism: learning is an individual process, where new material is accommodated within old to form new understanding (Jordan et al. 2008, 58); a proponent: Piaget
Social constructivism emphasizes the role of society and culture in learning (Jordan et al. 2008, 59); proponents: Vygotsky and Bandura
Critical constructivism, also known as ‘critical pedagogy’, is particularly applicable to the adult and community education context. This view of learning gives importance to raising people’s consciousness of the social conditions – particularly when their circumstances are characterized by disempowerment. It emphasizes the importance of people being self-reflective, of their being able to challenge dominant social views and articulate counter views. (Jordan et al. 2008, 60-61); a proponent: Freire
3.2 Educational implications of constructivism
Some constructivist practices in education include (Jordan et al. 2008, 62):- the diagnosis of learners’ individual learning styles
- the identification of learners’ strengths or intelligences
- curricular practices such as Individual Learning Plans (ILPs)
- attention to cultural inclusivity
- innovative learning and teaching strategies such as problem-based learning
- links between community-based learning and formal education
- authentic assessment practices, which incorporate learners’ views
Jordan, A., Orison, C., Stack A. 2008. Approaches to Learning : A Guide for Teachers, Open University Press.
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JOHD DEWEY AND PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
According to the website dewey.pragmatism.org, John Dewey (1859-1952) was an American psychologist, philosopher, educator, social critic and political activist. He was one of the most influential educational philosophers of the 20th century and the father of progressive education. Progressive education is a theory that believes students learn best with real-life situations and experiential learning. The emphasis is on learning by doing. Dewey had high regard for the experimental method.
Dewey's key theory (Philosophy of Education 1996, 146-153)
Traditional education emphasized learning about theories, but Dewey stated that learning by doing is equally important. According to him, schools must be places of interaction with the life of the new technological culture. To this end, the actual interests of the child must be nurtured and developed: interests:
- in communication
- in finding out about things
- in making things
- in artistic expression.
- Two aspects of education: education should emphasize both the child and the curriculum: The task of the teacher is to guide the child to discover his or her own talents and best techniques for learning. The teacher directs the energies of the child away from what is destructive, to focus the attention of the child on important themes and problems, and to help her or him develop the tools needed to play a full and productive role in society.
- Motivation is important to learning.
Sources:
- Philosophy of Education: an Encyclopedia, edited by J. J. Chambliss, published by Garland Press, 1996, pp. 146-153. http://deweycenter.siu.edu/pdf/Dewey_Bio.pdf
- http://dewey.pragmatism.org/
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