This entry looks back over the previous reflections to consider what themes seem to recur in my thinking about teaching in EDF4113 and why; what’s missing from my reflections; and some thoughts about my ongoing professional learning as a teacher educator. The idea of a meta-reflection is that it is a way of recognising patterns in thinking as a teacher and from that, how future growth might be informed.
My journal began as a way of thinking-aloud in EDF4113 about the teaching, learning and science experienced in the unit. I wanted to share my thinking about how I teach, student responses and my own responses to sessions and how my thinking about these different aspects informs my teaching.
It is clear to me through the journal entries that knowing how students experience my teaching matters a great deal to me. This is a value that I hold that has been borne out through the experience of the unit. I have tried a variety of different ways of getting feedback in this unit - this blog, informal conversations with students, feedback sheets at the end of the unit, replying to student emails with open ended questions about how they are going, making a space on the ‘Blackboard’ site for discussion and trying to engage with students who do offer feedback through the Blackboard site. I have tried to present myself as a person who cares to know about learners and to be responsive where I can be. This has been both successful and unsuccessful as I have been able to make contact with a range of learners, but not all by any means. I have also tried to promote discussion in classes as a way of sharing and hearing experiences of others.(It is interesting that Mezz picked this up as typifying my approach.)
Why is knowing about learners' experiences so important to me? I feel strongly that the relationship in teaching promotes learning. Making connections with, being with and relating to others is likely to lead to deeper engagement compared with handing out information. This meaning of teaching then means, knowing about and trying to respond to the needs of different learners so that they might feel valued and willing to take a risk, to try new ways of working, be honest about their progress and share these experiences with others (rather than defending or rationalising behaviour.)I hope that these practices might influence how new teachers might work with their students.
I have noted something very interesting in my blog entries about this theme of valuing relationship. The way in which I seek feedback is similar each time – always open ended questions (e.g., “Session 1 – “I am very interested to know about your thoughts about your experiences of the unit… how did the time feel for you today? Were you feeling like the time went quickly, or not? Session 3 - did it make sense? was it relevant?” Session 5 – “As always, am keen to hear your thoughts about this or any other aspects of the session....”Session 11” What feedback do you want to say about the session?”). And, only a small number of students took up my invitations to comment. This reminds me of camp this year , when I was concerned there was limited feedback from the whole group about their experiences of planning. I learnt from that experience that I needed to structure the task differently to get the kind of feedback I wished to encourage. Here too might be the same thing – How might I structure this blog differently, then? Perhaps a person/small group could be nominated each week on behalf of the class to ‘write back’ – that becomes one of their journal entries?
However, how do I know that what students say in their feedback is not just what I want to hear? How do I know what they are really experiencing? Brookfield (1995) says, “The main difficulty in trying to see ourselves through our students’ eyes is that students are understandably reluctant to be too honest with us…Even under the cloak of anonymity it feels risky to point out the oppressive aspects of a teacher’s practice.” (p.34). As a teacher, the best that I can do is continually work towards finding out how students’ think and in ways that enable students to feel as though they can speak honestly. I hope that through raising this issue here that some students might be prompted to consider how they work with their own students to encourage open dialogue. The tricky part is that once you have opened up an avenue for communication, then you must take responsibility for knowing what to act on and how to act on it. For example, in this unit, I have tried to act on feedback related to assessment by clarifying tasks and criteria with students and lecturers.
To be continued....
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Session 12 Reflection
This week I will focus on 2 aspects that I experienced as significant: (i) the idea of PCK and (ii) being a learner in teacher education.
PCK
First up I was quite apprehensive about how the idea of PCK might be received. It is a challenging theoretical notion that might not be seen to have much (at least immediate) relevance to students. However, at the same time, I also want to promote the idea that learning about teaching means learning about something important - that teaching consists of more than resources and teaching ideas - a 'something bigger' that binds this together and makes teachers professional know-ers. In this way, teachers can take more control of their profession (not 'victims' of externally imposed ideas from people who do not know teaching) and also know more purposefully do what they do in the classroom to promote good science learning. (Bit of soap-box there!)
So ,there was a bit of front end loading to begin with - in the form of a lecture. I have come around to the idea of lectures a bit more now, compared with my previous position of not thinking that too much learning of quality can occur in them. I guess how you do the lecture matters and that you do not only lecture. (This is like the discussion we had in the tute about chalk and talk. It's not 'bad' to do chalk and talk. It's an approach that you might choose for a certain purpose at a certain time. It's not good to do it all of the time, and it's not good to do it because you think kids will learn successfully that way. They won't. But, as part of the mix of how you understand teaching then it is useful.). As the slides went through i was starting to think there was too much text to deal with and too many ideas to process at once. the chance to stop and talk is important and the kinds of responses that people gave helped me understand how at least a few people were thinking about the ideas.
For instance (paraphrased - hope i get these right) - PCK gives me something to aim for beyond this year of teacher education; how do you get PCK if we haven't got it yet?; how do you know about how the middle band of kids is understanding something compared with the much more obvious 'ends' of the class?; How come you held out til now to tell us about PCK? Wouldn't it have been more helpful BEFORE the teaching prac?
I planned to introduce the idea through the lecture then give you time to play around with it in the tutes. I am not harboring any illusion that simply because i told you about it, you 'got it'. (As a teacher though, it is always tempting to believe this).I used the level of talk and your comments/questions as indicators of my progress, as well as watching body language that suggested engagement or not. Mostly though, this latter one is an unhelpful indicator because people know how to look as though they are at least semi-engaged.
How was the lecture for you?
What engaged you? What turned you off?
In the tute we talked quite a bit about what does it mean to try something out with a class and have it not go well. As a teacher responsible for others' learning, to what extent can you take in new ways of working and see them 'not working' before you decide that you need to abandon the approach? They are of course great questions with no one answer. The answers depend on many variables - and the difficult part about teaching is that you will not always see the effects of your actions. BUT talking with students, developing good relationships where they feel as though they can be honest with you AND have a go to trust you when you introduce new ways of working; that is very effective as an indicator.
i felt very pleased to see how much students seemed to engage with the framework task in the tute. Again ,the commetns made and the things written were indicators to me of how you were getting it. It is very true that it is hard to fill in 'why do kids need to know this?' beyond - because it's on the test - but if you can answer it, then you will have a much stronger sense of purpose in teaching. We had a great example from teaching about nuclear radiation in out tute.
Being a learner.
Everything you do in this unit (course) is an opportunity for you to learn about learning. How experiences affect you personally will be helpful guides to think about how you work with learners in the future. Do you feel as though you can be heard? That you are dealt with fairly? How do you accept responsiblity as a learner? Do you expect things that don't go your way to be changed? Why? Are you tough on yourself? (Will that mean you are tough on your students too?). This does not mean that all your learners will be like you - in fact, very few of them will be - but if the teacher can see that how learners feel influences their ability to engage, more progress will be made than if everything is around the teacher's way. So how does this relate to EDF4113?
Changing the tutors around this week was supposed to be a prompt to help you think more about this issue of yourself as a learner. For me, changing classes, i was surprised and pleased - I felt as though the class I went to had such a good dynamic of working together to discuss ideas, that i could slip in and be a part of it, rather than taking on a more 'controlling' role.
PCK
First up I was quite apprehensive about how the idea of PCK might be received. It is a challenging theoretical notion that might not be seen to have much (at least immediate) relevance to students. However, at the same time, I also want to promote the idea that learning about teaching means learning about something important - that teaching consists of more than resources and teaching ideas - a 'something bigger' that binds this together and makes teachers professional know-ers. In this way, teachers can take more control of their profession (not 'victims' of externally imposed ideas from people who do not know teaching) and also know more purposefully do what they do in the classroom to promote good science learning. (Bit of soap-box there!)
So ,there was a bit of front end loading to begin with - in the form of a lecture. I have come around to the idea of lectures a bit more now, compared with my previous position of not thinking that too much learning of quality can occur in them. I guess how you do the lecture matters and that you do not only lecture. (This is like the discussion we had in the tute about chalk and talk. It's not 'bad' to do chalk and talk. It's an approach that you might choose for a certain purpose at a certain time. It's not good to do it all of the time, and it's not good to do it because you think kids will learn successfully that way. They won't. But, as part of the mix of how you understand teaching then it is useful.). As the slides went through i was starting to think there was too much text to deal with and too many ideas to process at once. the chance to stop and talk is important and the kinds of responses that people gave helped me understand how at least a few people were thinking about the ideas.
For instance (paraphrased - hope i get these right) - PCK gives me something to aim for beyond this year of teacher education; how do you get PCK if we haven't got it yet?; how do you know about how the middle band of kids is understanding something compared with the much more obvious 'ends' of the class?; How come you held out til now to tell us about PCK? Wouldn't it have been more helpful BEFORE the teaching prac?
I planned to introduce the idea through the lecture then give you time to play around with it in the tutes. I am not harboring any illusion that simply because i told you about it, you 'got it'. (As a teacher though, it is always tempting to believe this).I used the level of talk and your comments/questions as indicators of my progress, as well as watching body language that suggested engagement or not. Mostly though, this latter one is an unhelpful indicator because people know how to look as though they are at least semi-engaged.
How was the lecture for you?
What engaged you? What turned you off?
In the tute we talked quite a bit about what does it mean to try something out with a class and have it not go well. As a teacher responsible for others' learning, to what extent can you take in new ways of working and see them 'not working' before you decide that you need to abandon the approach? They are of course great questions with no one answer. The answers depend on many variables - and the difficult part about teaching is that you will not always see the effects of your actions. BUT talking with students, developing good relationships where they feel as though they can be honest with you AND have a go to trust you when you introduce new ways of working; that is very effective as an indicator.
i felt very pleased to see how much students seemed to engage with the framework task in the tute. Again ,the commetns made and the things written were indicators to me of how you were getting it. It is very true that it is hard to fill in 'why do kids need to know this?' beyond - because it's on the test - but if you can answer it, then you will have a much stronger sense of purpose in teaching. We had a great example from teaching about nuclear radiation in out tute.
Being a learner.
Everything you do in this unit (course) is an opportunity for you to learn about learning. How experiences affect you personally will be helpful guides to think about how you work with learners in the future. Do you feel as though you can be heard? That you are dealt with fairly? How do you accept responsiblity as a learner? Do you expect things that don't go your way to be changed? Why? Are you tough on yourself? (Will that mean you are tough on your students too?). This does not mean that all your learners will be like you - in fact, very few of them will be - but if the teacher can see that how learners feel influences their ability to engage, more progress will be made than if everything is around the teacher's way. So how does this relate to EDF4113?
Changing the tutors around this week was supposed to be a prompt to help you think more about this issue of yourself as a learner. For me, changing classes, i was surprised and pleased - I felt as though the class I went to had such a good dynamic of working together to discuss ideas, that i could slip in and be a part of it, rather than taking on a more 'controlling' role.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Session 11 Reflection
After returning from practicum, the idea for this session was to give you a chance to discuss in small groups your experiences and to provide an opportunity for clarifying goals for future (short term) development. I am mindful that running a Thursday session means that students will probably already have had a chance to 'de-brief' in other units, and also informally. Finding a way in to making the talk meaningful and helpful is a challenge - there has already been quite a bit of talk and how do you move beyond recalling experience to learning from experience?
The kinds of issues that were raised in my four groups for aspects that students wanted to better understand/develop included these:
Simplifying concepts - how do you transform a complex biology (science) concept for a particular learner group so they can understand it?
Developing authentic assessments for senior classes - what would an example of this be? For whom would it be authentic? (e.g., teacher? students - which students?)
Managing Time flexibly - how do you be both mindful of getting through the curriculum and responding to the needs of different learner groups? What happens if one class seem to get through the work faster than another?
Transitions and Being responsive within in a class - how do you pick and then act on the 'right time' to move from one activity to the next?
Being perceptive - how do you read 'cues' from students to get a sense of their progress. How can 'marker' students be helpful?
Learning how to build productive relationships - what do student teachers do to build quickly?
Engaging students and 'hooking them in to learning' - how do you get kids engaged from the start? What happens when there is already a deeply engrained culture of not working, or a particular style of working that the students trust (e.g., chalk and talk)?
How do you close a lesson with learning? In other words, help students to recognise what they have learnt as well as what they need to know to make progress with their learning?
How do you figure out what level to pitch a lesson at?
Recognising differences between managing learning and controlling learning.
These are all fantastic questions/issues. It would be interesting to know whether any of you might have predicted in advance that these are the kinds of issues that you expected to encounter? Could you/we have prepared in advance for any of them? If so, how?
Now, afterwards, what can we/you do in order to help you move forward? To me, more experience is not the answer - not just yet anyway - more experience with ...what? A way of making sense of experience so that you can start to answer these questions for yourself in more detail?
My challenge to the group is this:
Part 1 - Look for these aspects that you want to learn about NOW as you engage with your uni learning. Is there engagement? Relationship building? How are transitions made? Are sessions pitched at your appropriate level? etc. etc.
Part 2 - ASK your lecturers explicitly: How did you work out what level of complexity to present this to us? Did you consider making it more or less difficult? I noticed you stopped this activity at a certain point - Why did you do that? What were you looking for? Why did you start the session today the way you did? etc. etc.
I'd like to say there is a prize for the first 10 people to report doing this (include my classes please!!!), but well, there isn't - except the prize will be advancing your own learning and what better prize could that be? You might even begin a great conversation about teaching and learning in your session.
Something that was interesting to me as i went to visit students in schools was the difficulty many were having in getting the kind of feedback they wanted from supervisors.Some people used a variety of strategies to help educate their supervisor to get more of what they wanted, others found that even when they did that the supervisor was still too busy, etc. That is disappointing but a reality. Part of me wonders whether, because teachers are often very busy DOING teaching that they don't spend much time TALKING teaching, so it may be difficult for them to know what to say or how to say it (apart from management type or organisational type things - eg. keep board writing neat, keep an eye on Corey, etc.). The more you can learn to use a language of teaching and learning - talking about the teaching approaches, the learning styles, the ways of recognising learner progress, the better you may be at helping yourself and others make progress in understanding teaching and learning. Does that make sense?
Can you think of anything a supervisor said or did that was particularly helpful?
One great example I heard....
*When students are working in small groups, this is a time for relationship building. Go around and talk to them, find out how they're going with the work, make contact, not just checking if they're on task.
Final point:
I was happy to hear discussion of the ideas of the assignment in the final part of the tute yesterday. Great connections between what people had learned from reading and what they had learned from talking with interviewees. This is valuable since it informs you as a teacher about some of the likely challenges you will face as a teacher in teaching particular topics. I didn't plan it to happen but i was very happy when it did, as well as the ways in which people picked up on the ideas and linked it with their own experiences.
What feedback do you want to say about the session? Was it helpful? Not helpful? What would you have changed about yesterday's (whole) session, if you were teaching it? What did it make you think about?
Bye
Welcome back.
Mandi
The kinds of issues that were raised in my four groups for aspects that students wanted to better understand/develop included these:
Simplifying concepts - how do you transform a complex biology (science) concept for a particular learner group so they can understand it?
Developing authentic assessments for senior classes - what would an example of this be? For whom would it be authentic? (e.g., teacher? students - which students?)
Managing Time flexibly - how do you be both mindful of getting through the curriculum and responding to the needs of different learner groups? What happens if one class seem to get through the work faster than another?
Transitions and Being responsive within in a class - how do you pick and then act on the 'right time' to move from one activity to the next?
Being perceptive - how do you read 'cues' from students to get a sense of their progress. How can 'marker' students be helpful?
Learning how to build productive relationships - what do student teachers do to build quickly?
Engaging students and 'hooking them in to learning' - how do you get kids engaged from the start? What happens when there is already a deeply engrained culture of not working, or a particular style of working that the students trust (e.g., chalk and talk)?
How do you close a lesson with learning? In other words, help students to recognise what they have learnt as well as what they need to know to make progress with their learning?
How do you figure out what level to pitch a lesson at?
Recognising differences between managing learning and controlling learning.
These are all fantastic questions/issues. It would be interesting to know whether any of you might have predicted in advance that these are the kinds of issues that you expected to encounter? Could you/we have prepared in advance for any of them? If so, how?
Now, afterwards, what can we/you do in order to help you move forward? To me, more experience is not the answer - not just yet anyway - more experience with ...what? A way of making sense of experience so that you can start to answer these questions for yourself in more detail?
My challenge to the group is this:
Part 1 - Look for these aspects that you want to learn about NOW as you engage with your uni learning. Is there engagement? Relationship building? How are transitions made? Are sessions pitched at your appropriate level? etc. etc.
Part 2 - ASK your lecturers explicitly: How did you work out what level of complexity to present this to us? Did you consider making it more or less difficult? I noticed you stopped this activity at a certain point - Why did you do that? What were you looking for? Why did you start the session today the way you did? etc. etc.
I'd like to say there is a prize for the first 10 people to report doing this (include my classes please!!!), but well, there isn't - except the prize will be advancing your own learning and what better prize could that be? You might even begin a great conversation about teaching and learning in your session.
Something that was interesting to me as i went to visit students in schools was the difficulty many were having in getting the kind of feedback they wanted from supervisors.Some people used a variety of strategies to help educate their supervisor to get more of what they wanted, others found that even when they did that the supervisor was still too busy, etc. That is disappointing but a reality. Part of me wonders whether, because teachers are often very busy DOING teaching that they don't spend much time TALKING teaching, so it may be difficult for them to know what to say or how to say it (apart from management type or organisational type things - eg. keep board writing neat, keep an eye on Corey, etc.). The more you can learn to use a language of teaching and learning - talking about the teaching approaches, the learning styles, the ways of recognising learner progress, the better you may be at helping yourself and others make progress in understanding teaching and learning. Does that make sense?
Can you think of anything a supervisor said or did that was particularly helpful?
One great example I heard....
*When students are working in small groups, this is a time for relationship building. Go around and talk to them, find out how they're going with the work, make contact, not just checking if they're on task.
Final point:
I was happy to hear discussion of the ideas of the assignment in the final part of the tute yesterday. Great connections between what people had learned from reading and what they had learned from talking with interviewees. This is valuable since it informs you as a teacher about some of the likely challenges you will face as a teacher in teaching particular topics. I didn't plan it to happen but i was very happy when it did, as well as the ways in which people picked up on the ideas and linked it with their own experiences.
What feedback do you want to say about the session? Was it helpful? Not helpful? What would you have changed about yesterday's (whole) session, if you were teaching it? What did it make you think about?
Bye
Welcome back.
Mandi
Friday, April 4, 2008
Session 5 Reflection
Today's session was interesting in lots of ways.
First, the structure was different. Instead of 1 x 3 hr block we ran the 3 x 1 hr rotations. This made the sessions more like a 'typical' school time for both teachers and learners. The idea behind the change in structure was to be able to give students a taste of the specialist areas that they are planning to teach as well as acquainting students with some of the aspects to look out for in terms of safety and knowledge about lab procedures and equipment.
Second, the feel was different in that I was interacting with different groups which meant that some students I knew well and others hardly at all.
Third, I was trying to balance supplying information about the Study design with engaging students in an experience of learning that is relevant to the study design and that introduced new teaching procedures ('Draw what you know', Venn Diagrams) and content (plant transport systems, pathogens and parasites).
Okay some more detail about each of those aspects and my response to them as a teacher.
The structure.
This was a good reminder about making a compressed message - which is the everyday work of teachers in schools, compared with the relative 'luxury' of uni teaching in 3 hr blocks. What can you reasonably get through in 50 mins? How can this be constructed as a worthwhile learning experience? I was much more modest in my expectations for this session than a regular 3 hr session, but then still struggled to get through the intended curriculum. That this struggle is experienced by teachers no matter what their level of experience was brought home to me in a comment from a student (a comment which i was very happy to hear), that he was yet to see a teacher educator model getting through the intended plan with time to spare. That's true. It is ALWAYS a balancing act for teachers/teacher educators since there is more than the plan going on in a classroom. Because teachers are interacting with people with a variety of needs that are changing, then the intended plan is being moderated against that all the time.
Another aspect of the structure meant that student teachers were more in the position of school learners, moving from one (shorter) class to another, without a break in between. I kept thinking about what this was like for you. I was expecting students to engage straight away with what i was doing, and yet you were dealing with what had come before and what was coming next. As the afternoon wore on, the weariness factor would have also kicked in too - I still had a message to give but i was aware that by 4.30 it would have been harder to hear. I would be keen to hear responses about that.
The 'feel' of different groups.
It was clear from the first group that I needed to resolve some confusion - as far as possible - about the structure of the afternoon. This then impacted on what was possible to do in terms of intended plan. Part of me felt annoyed that it seemed as though some people had not checked out the website or the unit guide as to the week's activities - another part of me acknowledged that maybe it wasn't so clear and that i should spend time on it. This will be a dilemma that you experience as teachers all the time - learning to balance explaining what is going on, with getting on and doing it. Understanding this aspect also includes recognising that maybe a minority of students wanted to know this information, and in this case, I may have been allowing them to 'hijack' the lesson with their concerns. I know i did stress to the group that if you don't deal with these concerns as a teacher then it will be hard for students to focus on your intended message.
As the groups changed, then this aspect of confusion reduced and i could direct the session differently.
Supplying information and engaging in learning.
At the end of the first session, i asked the group about how they experienced what i had offered and what changes they thought i should make for the next group. I 'thought-aloud' with them, deliberating over what would best serve the needs of learners when there is limited time. I found it very interesting that the feedback from some students was to reduce the amount of time spent on the study design and get on with the learning activities. (Surprised because i thought students would be hungry for detail about the curriculum - even though my view is that beginning student teachers should be realistic about what it is possible to know about the curriculum.) This then influenced the approach for the next group - i went more quickly through the design and we had at least 20 mins on the learning. Feedback from this group indicated that the pace was ok. In the 3rd group, a change of rooms meant there was no access to the powerpoint, so that my explanation of the study design was much more of an overview, and then instead of looking at 2 different learning activities we looked at one, because the small size of the room would have made it too difficult to run, otherwise.
Important point here, and that runs through the whole afternoon, that as a teacher you are always working within an intended plan and an enacted plan. The enacted plan must be sensitive to the learners and the context, but should not be compromised by them. Knowing how learners are experiencing the teaching then matters in feeling your way towards what will be most helpful as a learning experience. Getting through the plan can become a trap - a sense of completion for the teacher - but not necessarily a good learning experience for the learners. On the other hand, not getting through enough of the plan can disadvantage learners - particularly in doing a senior curriculum subject and may leave learners confused.....Good teaching is complex!
Finally the two teaching procedures: draw what you know and Venn Diagrams. I was really interested to hear the variety of student responses to the drawing task - some were over it in a matter of moments, others had way more to write and draw. This does highlight the individual nature of learning and that the teacher can not 'get it right' but is always balancing different needs. Belinda asked a very good question of the group about doing the tasks - How do you think your students might experience this task compared to how you experienced it as an adult learner (with a biology major)?? This is a great question to take into practicum as the assumptions that you have about what students should know, what they might enjoy and how they might learn from your teaching may be vastly different from your own views. I will be keen to learn how you might find this out.
As always, am keen to hear your thoughts about this or any other aspects of the session....
First, the structure was different. Instead of 1 x 3 hr block we ran the 3 x 1 hr rotations. This made the sessions more like a 'typical' school time for both teachers and learners. The idea behind the change in structure was to be able to give students a taste of the specialist areas that they are planning to teach as well as acquainting students with some of the aspects to look out for in terms of safety and knowledge about lab procedures and equipment.
Second, the feel was different in that I was interacting with different groups which meant that some students I knew well and others hardly at all.
Third, I was trying to balance supplying information about the Study design with engaging students in an experience of learning that is relevant to the study design and that introduced new teaching procedures ('Draw what you know', Venn Diagrams) and content (plant transport systems, pathogens and parasites).
Okay some more detail about each of those aspects and my response to them as a teacher.
The structure.
This was a good reminder about making a compressed message - which is the everyday work of teachers in schools, compared with the relative 'luxury' of uni teaching in 3 hr blocks. What can you reasonably get through in 50 mins? How can this be constructed as a worthwhile learning experience? I was much more modest in my expectations for this session than a regular 3 hr session, but then still struggled to get through the intended curriculum. That this struggle is experienced by teachers no matter what their level of experience was brought home to me in a comment from a student (a comment which i was very happy to hear), that he was yet to see a teacher educator model getting through the intended plan with time to spare. That's true. It is ALWAYS a balancing act for teachers/teacher educators since there is more than the plan going on in a classroom. Because teachers are interacting with people with a variety of needs that are changing, then the intended plan is being moderated against that all the time.
Another aspect of the structure meant that student teachers were more in the position of school learners, moving from one (shorter) class to another, without a break in between. I kept thinking about what this was like for you. I was expecting students to engage straight away with what i was doing, and yet you were dealing with what had come before and what was coming next. As the afternoon wore on, the weariness factor would have also kicked in too - I still had a message to give but i was aware that by 4.30 it would have been harder to hear. I would be keen to hear responses about that.
The 'feel' of different groups.
It was clear from the first group that I needed to resolve some confusion - as far as possible - about the structure of the afternoon. This then impacted on what was possible to do in terms of intended plan. Part of me felt annoyed that it seemed as though some people had not checked out the website or the unit guide as to the week's activities - another part of me acknowledged that maybe it wasn't so clear and that i should spend time on it. This will be a dilemma that you experience as teachers all the time - learning to balance explaining what is going on, with getting on and doing it. Understanding this aspect also includes recognising that maybe a minority of students wanted to know this information, and in this case, I may have been allowing them to 'hijack' the lesson with their concerns. I know i did stress to the group that if you don't deal with these concerns as a teacher then it will be hard for students to focus on your intended message.
As the groups changed, then this aspect of confusion reduced and i could direct the session differently.
Supplying information and engaging in learning.
At the end of the first session, i asked the group about how they experienced what i had offered and what changes they thought i should make for the next group. I 'thought-aloud' with them, deliberating over what would best serve the needs of learners when there is limited time. I found it very interesting that the feedback from some students was to reduce the amount of time spent on the study design and get on with the learning activities. (Surprised because i thought students would be hungry for detail about the curriculum - even though my view is that beginning student teachers should be realistic about what it is possible to know about the curriculum.) This then influenced the approach for the next group - i went more quickly through the design and we had at least 20 mins on the learning. Feedback from this group indicated that the pace was ok. In the 3rd group, a change of rooms meant there was no access to the powerpoint, so that my explanation of the study design was much more of an overview, and then instead of looking at 2 different learning activities we looked at one, because the small size of the room would have made it too difficult to run, otherwise.
Important point here, and that runs through the whole afternoon, that as a teacher you are always working within an intended plan and an enacted plan. The enacted plan must be sensitive to the learners and the context, but should not be compromised by them. Knowing how learners are experiencing the teaching then matters in feeling your way towards what will be most helpful as a learning experience. Getting through the plan can become a trap - a sense of completion for the teacher - but not necessarily a good learning experience for the learners. On the other hand, not getting through enough of the plan can disadvantage learners - particularly in doing a senior curriculum subject and may leave learners confused.....Good teaching is complex!
Finally the two teaching procedures: draw what you know and Venn Diagrams. I was really interested to hear the variety of student responses to the drawing task - some were over it in a matter of moments, others had way more to write and draw. This does highlight the individual nature of learning and that the teacher can not 'get it right' but is always balancing different needs. Belinda asked a very good question of the group about doing the tasks - How do you think your students might experience this task compared to how you experienced it as an adult learner (with a biology major)?? This is a great question to take into practicum as the assumptions that you have about what students should know, what they might enjoy and how they might learn from your teaching may be vastly different from your own views. I will be keen to learn how you might find this out.
As always, am keen to hear your thoughts about this or any other aspects of the session....
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Session 3 Reflection
I want to focus on 3 aspects of today's session.
1) Debriefing camp: Think/Pair/Share
2) Science Curriculum (Deb's presentation)
3) Group work
1) Think Pair Share is a strategy that is designed to encourage a progressively wider discussion about an issue/question/problem. Beginning with your personal views, you can build to a group view, and at the same time everyone has the potential to contribute since everyone gets to have a think first individually. Obviously this is better suited to some kinds of content than others. As a teacher, a challenging element of this teaching approach is to keep the first part as an individual task (especially adults tend to talk straight away). Today was quiet during the individual part and I was pleased that people had the chance to do some private work in this way. From reading the body language,it appeared that people were engaging with the task - to be more sure of that, i would have had to ask some people about that.
In a broader sense, my purpose in doing the task, was to encourage students to consider how to take from a specific experience, something that can be applied more broadly to teaching.
I really liked the insights that the groups came up with - these are very valuable - but will they be remembered beyond the session? It will be important to return to the ideas raised and not just take them for granted now, or forget them as we move to the 'next topic'. (eg., how will you build trust, how will you learn about students, how can you look beyond the face value of a situation??)
An aspect of the think-pair-share that i think is important, that i neglected today, was to give people advance warning that after the personal 'think' part that they would be sharing with another. Depending on the nature of the task (and today could have been quite personal) individuals may not wish to share what they have written. It is important to respect that - so fore warning would have helped.
2) Deb's lecture on science curriculum. I felt engaged because the ideas made sense to me and stimulated my thinking further. But that was ME as teacher, what about the learners for whom it was intended?? It appeared that at least for some others that this was the case too, as they spontaneously asked questions - a great signal for a teacher that your students are connecting. However, that does not tell me about all of the students - did it make sense? was it relevant? how did locating the curriculum in a context help you to know what it is that you need to do as a teacher when you are on practicum? Addressing this question makes for a tricky situation - you need both practical information in preparing to teach but also need to move beyond this to start questioning how the bigger picture came about and what agency (power) you have as a teacher. That's tough. But not impossible.
If there are a couple of strong messages to come from the lecture that i hoped people might pick up, it's that every curriculum sits in a context and different people want different things in shaping a curriculum, so it will always be a kind of consensus model.Again, if these ideas matter they will need to be revisited by us, and by learners.
3) Group work on VELS.
In terms of the document itself, my purpose in asking you to look for the big ideas, was to help you see that a curriculum is composed of big ideas and that once you can recognise these then you are more free to work with these, rather than being a 'slave' to the detail. It is challenging to work from a big ideas perspective, but it is important to identify not only HOW to do it but also, WHAT these big ideas are, because science learners in secondary classes ALSO need to have sense of the big ideas and their connections (they could do the same task as you did today around a particular science topic that they have learnt about - map it and identify connections). The more connections you can make, the more meaningful and effective the learning.
I took a deliberate stand on group work today and it was a pity that we did not have an opportunity to discuss what i was doing and your response to it face to face. I deliberately withdrew and only minimally interacted with groups - my purpose was to let you get on with your work without 'close up teacher surveillance'. This does not mean that i did nothing - on the contrary, i listened and watched from a distance, to help me know when i might go to ask a group about their progress, or whether they were on track, or what aspects they were raising for discussion. How did it work for you? What are you used to teachers doing during group work? If the teacher sits with you or stays close by dos this change your behaviour in a group? Does this matter?
Finally, what struck me as a STRONG reminder today about group work was what happens at the end of a group task. The 'normal' routine is for groups to report back about something. In some ways, this creates a kind of incentive to do the task (if you are the kind of learner who is externally motivated in this way - are you?), and can offer a summary of ideas collected.(This will not be the case for everyone!) My purpose today was to help to tune you into the big ideas from other science discipline areas, but actually it didn't work too well....and I'm pretty sure I know why. Some people were done with task, it was hot, end of day, wanted to go home, and listening to thers about their big ideas is perhaps not an effective way to learn about these ideas. Others I suspect, were feeling under pressure to get their group map ready for when it came time to report, so they couldn't listen being busy with their own stuff. To stop and discuss this with the class and what are the alternatives here was running through my head; but at 4.50 I felt it was not time to act.
Mostly people reported back to me rather than the class - which was not the point - but can serve a checking function.
So, taking some learning from this into other group work situations, that i am reminded of. It is not always necessary for groups to report back - sometimes just doing the task in the group is sufficient.
1) Debriefing camp: Think/Pair/Share
2) Science Curriculum (Deb's presentation)
3) Group work
1) Think Pair Share is a strategy that is designed to encourage a progressively wider discussion about an issue/question/problem. Beginning with your personal views, you can build to a group view, and at the same time everyone has the potential to contribute since everyone gets to have a think first individually. Obviously this is better suited to some kinds of content than others. As a teacher, a challenging element of this teaching approach is to keep the first part as an individual task (especially adults tend to talk straight away). Today was quiet during the individual part and I was pleased that people had the chance to do some private work in this way. From reading the body language,it appeared that people were engaging with the task - to be more sure of that, i would have had to ask some people about that.
In a broader sense, my purpose in doing the task, was to encourage students to consider how to take from a specific experience, something that can be applied more broadly to teaching.
I really liked the insights that the groups came up with - these are very valuable - but will they be remembered beyond the session? It will be important to return to the ideas raised and not just take them for granted now, or forget them as we move to the 'next topic'. (eg., how will you build trust, how will you learn about students, how can you look beyond the face value of a situation??)
An aspect of the think-pair-share that i think is important, that i neglected today, was to give people advance warning that after the personal 'think' part that they would be sharing with another. Depending on the nature of the task (and today could have been quite personal) individuals may not wish to share what they have written. It is important to respect that - so fore warning would have helped.
2) Deb's lecture on science curriculum. I felt engaged because the ideas made sense to me and stimulated my thinking further. But that was ME as teacher, what about the learners for whom it was intended?? It appeared that at least for some others that this was the case too, as they spontaneously asked questions - a great signal for a teacher that your students are connecting. However, that does not tell me about all of the students - did it make sense? was it relevant? how did locating the curriculum in a context help you to know what it is that you need to do as a teacher when you are on practicum? Addressing this question makes for a tricky situation - you need both practical information in preparing to teach but also need to move beyond this to start questioning how the bigger picture came about and what agency (power) you have as a teacher. That's tough. But not impossible.
If there are a couple of strong messages to come from the lecture that i hoped people might pick up, it's that every curriculum sits in a context and different people want different things in shaping a curriculum, so it will always be a kind of consensus model.Again, if these ideas matter they will need to be revisited by us, and by learners.
3) Group work on VELS.
In terms of the document itself, my purpose in asking you to look for the big ideas, was to help you see that a curriculum is composed of big ideas and that once you can recognise these then you are more free to work with these, rather than being a 'slave' to the detail. It is challenging to work from a big ideas perspective, but it is important to identify not only HOW to do it but also, WHAT these big ideas are, because science learners in secondary classes ALSO need to have sense of the big ideas and their connections (they could do the same task as you did today around a particular science topic that they have learnt about - map it and identify connections). The more connections you can make, the more meaningful and effective the learning.
I took a deliberate stand on group work today and it was a pity that we did not have an opportunity to discuss what i was doing and your response to it face to face. I deliberately withdrew and only minimally interacted with groups - my purpose was to let you get on with your work without 'close up teacher surveillance'. This does not mean that i did nothing - on the contrary, i listened and watched from a distance, to help me know when i might go to ask a group about their progress, or whether they were on track, or what aspects they were raising for discussion. How did it work for you? What are you used to teachers doing during group work? If the teacher sits with you or stays close by dos this change your behaviour in a group? Does this matter?
Finally, what struck me as a STRONG reminder today about group work was what happens at the end of a group task. The 'normal' routine is for groups to report back about something. In some ways, this creates a kind of incentive to do the task (if you are the kind of learner who is externally motivated in this way - are you?), and can offer a summary of ideas collected.(This will not be the case for everyone!) My purpose today was to help to tune you into the big ideas from other science discipline areas, but actually it didn't work too well....and I'm pretty sure I know why. Some people were done with task, it was hot, end of day, wanted to go home, and listening to thers about their big ideas is perhaps not an effective way to learn about these ideas. Others I suspect, were feeling under pressure to get their group map ready for when it came time to report, so they couldn't listen being busy with their own stuff. To stop and discuss this with the class and what are the alternatives here was running through my head; but at 4.50 I felt it was not time to act.
Mostly people reported back to me rather than the class - which was not the point - but can serve a checking function.
So, taking some learning from this into other group work situations, that i am reminded of. It is not always necessary for groups to report back - sometimes just doing the task in the group is sufficient.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
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