The first teaching
day in Room number 3
Oh did I say 3? WRONG. Number 4. I stayed almost for 5 minutes in a
wrong room until Janne the teacher came to drag me to the room
which I was supposed to be.
Competence
goal 1
You
are familiar with the documents that regulate planning teaching and
guiding.
The
main questions provided for each group were:
Group 1: How do the official
documents and regulations affect the planning of the teaching in your
vocational field? Where can you find all this information?
Group
2: What are the views of learning and how do they affect the planning
of the teaching in your particular vocational field and in
competence-based education? Choose at least one view that you use in
your teaching task!
Group 3: How does
student centered approach, personalization and competence-based
system affect the planning?
Group
4: What is a pedagogical script? How can that help you promote
learning in a classroom, on the job learning and virtual settings?
Group one representative started her presentation:
Question 1: How do the official documents and regulation affect the planning of the teaching in your vocational field? Where can you find all this information?
She stated all the objectives clearly and I could see easily what we will
conclude in the end. I think, by saying the purpose of the lesson directly and
clearly, students’ mind will have a better chance to be grounded and settled on
the topic so the reflection and discussion do not deviate from the main topic,
especially if the time of the teaching is limited. This was exactly my own mistake
in my very first online teaching. I noticed it, when after passing almost half
of the session, one of the students asked: Ok, what is the main topic? Of
course I had prepared the lesson plan and all the objectives of the lesson two
days before teaching, but I should always bring it clearly in form of a title or objective goals on the beginning of my for example Power-point slides.
In this teaching the idea of going through the web pages to find a reliable
source for checking regulation documents in Finland was interesting and
practical; I really like practicality. However, giving the specific
detail like find the source on German language was a little bit demotivating. I
think, if we were asked to find the regulations on our own field of study and
profession or more general, on the vocational education, we would have been
more motivated.
I really liked it, that she was asking questions to make sure everything is
clear and we all are on the same page. Something that most teachers forget and
students do not even care enough to ask.
I always appreciate it when teachers ask questions related to our real life
experiences in regard with lesson’s subject. I believe that if
you want to motivate adults to listen carefully and be interested in the topic, just ask them to talk about themselves. :) Adults love to talk about
their experiences and their ways of doing things. This is also what I most
of the times do when I have adult learners. Our classmate (teacher at the moment) wanted to
know if we had any issues regarding following the regulations in our teaching career. If yes, how did
we handle them? I remember that, in my country I had to always follow the rules
and there was less chance to change or substitute anything. I always
was rebellious and tried different methods, materials, and courses. Of course, because of that I was most of the times in trouble. I really believe that freedom
of choosing materials, methods and techniques based on the needs of the
students is teacher’s responsibility. When I see teacher does not care about some regulations, because she does not think it is good for her students, I surely want that class for my own children.
Right at this time, I was informed by Janne that I am both in room number 3 and 4 😅 (Still learning how the Teams platform works!)
We also
were asked to find answers to some questions based on the provided references.
These are important questions which every teacher needs to answer before even
choosing the profession of teaching in any environment and condition, since not
only creativity and freedom in choosing methods, approaches and materials need to be taken into consideration, the main structure of the education which is
founded based on various scientific researchers are also important. Here are
the questions:
1. What matters the most in quality of education?
2. To what extent teacher’s responsibilities
are limited to?
3. What new role of a teacher is emphasized in current
vocational teaching?
4. When the vocational educational and teaching was
recently reformed in Finland?
5. Up to which age, compulsory education
is extended in Finland?
6. What can be done to maintain equality in vocational
education?
7. When does
National Reforms in Vocational Education and Training and Adult Learning come to force in Finland?
8. How can you make your teaching effective?
9. Do legal and
ethical issues mean the same in teacher´s profession?
In the end, we were given to-the-point and important information about
the policies and current practices in vocational education. There are four main
factors influencing regulations which are:
1. Quality and Equality
2. Right to learn development
3. Reform of continuous learning
4. Access and admission of students to vocational education
program, public notification (Group 1 presentation)
Quality
and Equality:
- Standard
, related to work life , understand current knowledge in the field,
hands on training
- Gender, Minority, Handicapped (considering unique
instrumentation and tools)
Right to learn
development programs and Basic disciplines:
- Orientation,
bridging programmes, coaching
- Implementation of practical based learning
- Following legal issues (both teachers and students)
Reform
of continuous learning and timetable:
*This reform updates the entire vocational education and training
(VET) by 2018 in Finland. While planning the course, it is equally important to take into
consideration the facts that determine the viability of the course.
For example, whether the course can be completed in time and the
course workload complements the time duration given to the students
or otherwise.
Access
and admission of students to vocational education program, public
notification:
- Continuous
admission
- Public notification about course modules,
admission,
Before getting to the conclusion for this presentation I thought it is good to give a definition of what teaching documents are:
"The documents which are used by the teacher in the preparation, implementation and evaluation of teaching/learning process. They include schemes of work, lesson plans, records of work and progress records. They are meant to make teaching and learning more effective." (Wikieducator)
This is important to mention that, there is also common education documents which include:
- Admissions forms
- Financial aid paperwork
- Student records
- Personnel records (helpsystem)
And at upper level there is official government documents:
"Generally, a government document is any publication produced by a government agency. Government documents are issued by all branches of government, and may be available in a variety of formats, including print, microfiche, CD-ROM and electronic." (Ministry of education and culture)
In conclusion, I believe in order to ensure that the student is given clear and precise instructions, it becomes necessary to align instruction with standards. However, in the end this is the teacher who is in close contact with students and can change or manipulate things in order to meet the students’ needs. But generally, there always need to be standards. Standards ensure better accountability – holding teachers and schools responsible for what goes on in the classrooms (Tomlinson, 2000). The practice of aligning learning to standards also helps ensure that a higher level of learning is attained, guides teachers in the process of assessment and helps keep them on track (Brandt, 1998).
Here is the update to this section of blog where I share more about the documents and regulations' impact on planning, teaching and guiding.
Based on Finnish Education Database, “Finland has a proven track-record as the home of world-class
education.” This is something which I used to hear about Finland, as
the utopia of education system! Until I started my teaching
practice firstly in a comprehensive school for eight weeks, and then
in a vocational school which still is going on. And guess what?
Finland deserves to have the track-record of world-class education.
Even in the first day of school we will see the system has been
built on the equality and quality principles. Consequently, the
learning gap of the weakest and the strongest students (in a same
mental, physical, and environmental situation) in Finnish schools is
one the narrowest in the world.
As Burg (2018) states, “Finnish
invest less time in school and more time in personal and professional
development, curriculum planning, and various school improvement
initiatives.”
The focus of the
Finnish education is students’ needs and is not what the government
wants. That is why the documents and regulations give general
instructions on the learning theory, teacher's and learner's
autonomy.
As I noticed so
far in my teaching practice sessions, the reformation into competency-based and learner-centred approach has changed teachers' role more into a guide than teacher; however, this change has not made them demotivated. Teachers are still important soldiers on the field! To my opinion, this is ironic and softly complicated. As Randi Weingarten the president of American Federation of Teachers organization says:
“Finnish
educators believe that teachers should be at the center of a child-centered education system. They work to ensure that teachers have
what it takes to accomplish the task of educating a country.”
The feeling that
I had during the first session of the teaching practice in English
course, which was fully integrated with technology learning technique
and the required competence in the business setting, was Trust. I
felt the energy of trust between learners and their teacher. This
feeling was felt in all the Finnish educational settings that I have attended so far. I can surely say that trust is the quality of teachers.
Trust is given to teachers to decide their own methods of teaching,
the teaching material and assessments methods. This trust means that
these are the teachers who decide what is the best for their
students. Essentially, this trust is given from government to teachers, and consequently, from teachers to students. This circle of trust has increased the quality of the Finnish education. When I shared my understanding with teachers in OSAO, I was introduced to this program called "Developing equality and quality in vocational education and training".
This
program has been founded by the Ministry of Education and Culture
together with the Finnish National Agency from 2020 and will continue
until 2022. This program's aim is to make sure that vocational
education and training has high quality and tries to encourage the
progressive development of quality along side with effectiveness
objectives and policies of the Quality
Strategy for Vocational Education and Training. This three years old
program also aims to reduce and prevent differences in learning and
learning outcomes related to gender, socio-economic background, place
of residence or need for support. This, in turn, advances equality
and non-discrimination in vocational education and training. The program is vast and detailed which I refer you to the main page to learn more about it. Reading the objectives and agenda of this program made me think of the influence that the government has in the Finnish educational system, even though the teacher's autonomy is still highlighted. This brings back again the integrated circle of trust among all sectors of the educational system and how smooth this engine is moving forward by researching, reforming, regulating, applying, assessing, and again reforming...
I have explained in details the effect of objectives and regulations on planning in my field of study and profession that is teaching English as a foreign language here.
Here are the related links to vocational education ACTs.
The Ministry of Education and Culture
Finnish National Agency for Education
Vocational Education Decree
Vocational Education ACT in Finnish
European Framework for Language Teaching
Oulu Vocational School
Key Legislation on General Education
Act on Vocational Education and Training
Question 2: What are the views of learning and how do they affect the planning of the teaching in your particular vocational field and in competence-based education?
Second group representative presented a general category of teaching approaches into two categories of learning based and content based approaches.
When we put more emphasis on learning, we will see how our planning and teaching method changes in a more learner-centered approach. For example, the content is not anymore just educational materials which teachers provide in the classroom; students' previous experience and knowledge is also part of the lesson content. When students relate new knowledge to their own
life experiences as the prior knowledge or schemata, they will learn
effectively and their cognition structures the knowledge faster; therefore, the learning happens faster (Hudson, 1982). Students in
content based learning are more passive waiting to receive first the plan and
then the knowledge. But in learning based approach, students are involved in the planning of the lesson content which is mostly based on
collaboration and team working activities. They feel more motivated and
energetic and of course more responsible in their own learning. Handbook for Teachers
Learning–based
approach | Content–based
approach |
Student
needs, earlier knowledge, and expectations form the premises of
planning. | The
teacher’s own points of interest form the basis of planning. |
Students
are asked to participate in planning, where possible. | The
teacher creates a detailed schedule with no room for flexibility. |
Plans
are not too detailed. | The
teacher also plans the course content independently. |
In the end we were presented a table with 4 categories of different levels in teaching methods.
|
Very Easy
Supplementary, reading, summaries, Assembling a knowledge base,
Learning cafe, Cumulative group–snowball, Brainstorming,
Discussion group, Pretest
|
Easy
Independent works, stimulating writing assignments, Group work,
Cross-over groups, Presentation walk, Reading circle,
Presentations (lecturing), Panel discussion, Participants teach
|
|
Average
Exercises, Mnemonics in teaching, Collaborative learning, Teaching
walk, Step-by-step discussion, Symposium, Seminar, Interview,
Web-based learning
|
Demanding
Mind map, Learning diary, Inquiry teaching, Teaching discussion,
Debate with argumentation, Fishbowl, Problem-based learning (PBL),
Case teaching, Project work, Learning by doing, Role-playing,
Games, Creative work, Drama pedagogy, Dialogue with oneself
|
My method of teaching is mixed-method. I believe every skill, every
student, and every situation need special method, and sometimes the best method
is No method. We can easily wait for the moment and see what students need and
let them decide on the method. This is pure learner-centred approach, when teacher is a ghost. After all, this is the main purpose of learner-centred approach
Right? :))) 😂
I also liked the retrospective task in the end of the lesson, where we
were asked to think and discuss about the teaching method which teacher used. To my opinion, it was mostly lecture with the help of PowerPoint and
also group discussion. I really liked this idea that the teacher provided different related supplementary materials in each PowerPoint slide to receive further information. I should consider that also next time in my lesson plan.
Here is the update to this section of blog where I share more about the views of learning in my field of study and profession.
Learning theories are conceptual
theories on the ways that human beings learn (Lavadenz, 2011). These
include behaviorist, cognitive, and sociocultural
perspectives.
|
Learning theory
|
Origination
|
Definitions and instructional implications
|
|
Behaviorism
|
US c. 1914; influenced by European empiricism
|
Learning as a response to environmental stimuli and can be
manipulated, observed, and described (Watson; 1919, Skinner,
1938). Teaching thus is through practice, repetition, and rewards.
|
|
Cognitive Constructivism
|
1950s to present
|
Learning can be explained as deep, complex psychological
phenomena such as motivation, schemas, and processes for learning
(Bruner, 1996; Piaget, 1974). Teaching occurs in phases with
gradual complexity
|
|
Sociocultural Constructivism
|
1970s to present
|
Learning is influenced by social, cultural, and historical
factors. Learning takes place within social interactions
(Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1991). Teaching occurs through
meaningful interactions between experts and novices.
|
The influence of behaviorism in English language teaching (ELT) can be seen in method like audio-lingual.
When the World War II started, armies needed to be orally skilled in the languages that their enemies and their allies speak as fast as possible. That is the reason this language initially was called the Army Method and later Audio-lingual Method. In this method, which was under the influence of Skinner's Behaviorism theory, correct behavior receives positive feedback, while errors receive negative feedback up until the right response is automatic (Rao, 2018).
In this method, the emphasis was not on the understanding of the words but the acquisition of structures in common everyday dialogue, which I have seen these days in my teaching practice session in vocational school. The teacher does not teach the structure or grammar in a separate format but students actually acquire them through practice and repeating for themselves in the form of dialogues specially made with the context of their course which in this case was business. Here is an example of one of the lessons in International business class.
However, in the reformed principle of education in OSAO, teachers have decided not to use books as materials anymore; since students are more prone into using digital materials which has been designed with the same approach in English teaching. Although, I heard from some teachers that their students prefer books and feel more competent using the book as a guide in acquiring the language.
To my opinion, this was against the idea of personalization system in teaching, in which different learning styles are appreciated and taken into consideration.
Getting back to Audio-lingual method, some characteristics of this method are:
- Drills are used to teach structural patterns
- Set phrases are memorised with a focus on intonation
- Grammatical explanations are kept to a minimum
- Vocabulary is taught in context
- Audio-visual aids are used
- Focus is on pronunciation
To my opinion, this method can still be used in a modern way. For example, in early stages of teaching English language to the learners we need drilling to enforce the right pronunciation, and in my experience this has been the most successful method in pronunciation part of language teaching. Of course, learning the structure of language i.e., grammar in the form of repetition, as I witnessed in OSAO, is helpful as long as it is kept as a part of individual lessons rather than as a method for the whole lesson.
The main shortcoming of this approach was that, it did not take into account the role of context and previous knowledge, and also later, the scientists found out that language is not acquired through a process of habit formation. (Vygotsky, 1962)
Cognitive constructivism
Cognitive
constructivism stems from the work of J. Piaget. He conceives learning as a “holistic,
‘bottom-up’ process” (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006). In this theory the individual learning process and how s/he construct knowledge through experience is taken into account. Firstly, brain rejects the new knowledge, since it does not have any related previous knowledge or experience close to it. This is called disequilibrium phase, or the challenge, and when the brain receives more and more knowledge (input) the same as the new knowledge from the outside world, it tries to reform it and adapt it and this is when the learning happens. Actually this cognitive change is learning. This mechanism that promotes change in cognition is equilibrium, which happens as soon as the learner adopts the new knowledge.
Regarding the language development,
Piaget and Inhelder (1959) believed that cognitive development and language
acquisition are closely interrelated processes. In Piaget's view, the
cognitive knowledge about the world does not develop, if the language
development does not happen. It means that the development of
language forms is controlled by cognitive growth.
Influencing Piaget's Cognitive theory
of learning, some basic teaching English language techniques covers
activities like problem-solving learning, discovery learning,
project-based learning etc.
In Problem-solving learning, the students come up with a problem, they search and find the solution, then they analyse and evaluate, and Finally, the draw the conclusion.
Traditional and Problem-based (solving) Learning Traditional Learning | Problem-based Learning |
The lecturer decides the problem. The lecturer presents the information and prepares the materials. | The students decide their own problem. The students look for the information and relevant materials. |
I personally, see weaknesses of this approach in my English classes boldly compared to the strengths, especially in the elementary levels of language learning. learners do not have a good command of English yet, they struggle to find the right words and phrases let alone the grammar construction. And it is also time consuming. Still, I believe this approach works well in more advanced levels. It is perfectly applicable in all four language skills of speaking, reading, writing and with some challenges listening tasks.
I witnessed using this method mainly in vocational schools in finland. For example, in my first day of teacher training, the customer service students were given a real dirty car to do the interior cleaning. the problem was obvious and the solution was needed to be decided. The way the students think of the materials for cleaning and the team work was great. Teacher just showed them the car and stood aside to observe and if it was necessary gave some guidances. English was the language of communication. Those who did not have a good command of English were listening carefully to those who were fluent and this peer pressure made them to use the same words and structure while doing the main task which was cleaning the car. All those special words and phrases and the required structure was already practiced before in their special digital material with all the included tasks. Again, not such a big role for English language teacher. S/he is there always to give teachings in case students feel they need to know more about, for example a structure or ask for a new word. Teacher is actually a communicator, guide, supervisor and supporter.
Okay, let's get back to cognitivism. Later, Perry (1970) while validating
Piaget's learning theory, presented that most men and women have
logical approach with objective analysis and argument to build their
opinions. Palmer (1983) stated that this objective knowledge, also
named separate knowledge, intentionally removes the personal
experiences and feelings from the logical analysis. However, he also
mentioned that some men and women have different approach. This
approach which is an empathic reflection to divergent views is called
connected knowledge. People using this approach, try to
understand the reasons for another person's way of thinking. They
believe that the truth might not be what they say, but maybe what the
other person does. However, personally I believe the truth is
somewhere in between!!! (enough with philosophy :D)
I am in favor of this complementary
section of Piaget's theory from Perry. In teaching anything, both
feelings and though are important. These two should not be separated
from learning. In language teaching field, researchers realized that,
only by focusing on linguistic factors, the human interests, background
knowledge, and motivation are disregarded (Pishghadam, Tabatabaeyan &
Navari, 2013). To support this idea, the concept of emotioncy was
coined by Pishghadam (2015) a psycholinguist who believes that our
emotions have a great role in building the knowledge.
Inspired by Greenspan’s (1992)
developmental, individual-differences, relationship-based (DIR) model
of first language acquisition which places emphasis on the affective
domain of human behavior, Pishghadam (2015)
introduced emotioncy as the missing link in shaping human cognition.
The amount of experience which people have with some objects or
concepts has effect on the level of their understanding and also learning. I refer you to the main article for getting the details. Emotincy
This was an introduction to my opinion on the language teaching methods which are applied in Finnish vocational school. As I mentioned previously, the cognitive and sociocultural constructivism is boldly applied in this system and various teaching methods and techniques put the learners in the center and each one of the students are taken into account and their feelings, learning styles, personalities are also taken into consideration. But the only issue which I noticed is that how do we teach them the connection between their mind and their feelings? Why the materials used in the classes are far from emotional challenges which we experience every day in real life? In one of the sessions in my teaching practice in OSAO, one of the teachers asked the students to do the hands-on-the job method for learning a skill. He told me students like it more and become more close to each other when they do that. Then I was thinking how about the language classes? When the learners have the chance to feel and learn? Of course, it is always easier for hard skills to touch the materials and equipments and get connected and hold the emotioncy, but for soft skills like language it is problematic to put the learners in authentic context and engane their feelings. This has been always a challenge for me and I expressed this in this article regarding emotion based language teaching. Emotion
Socioculturalism
The sociocultural approach towards
learning is holistic. In this theory meaning has given more value in
any teaching and states that knowledge and skills must be taught in
all its complex forms, rather that isolated concepts (Turuk, 2008).
The sociocultural perspective of
language acquisition originates in the work of Vygotsky (1962). He
includes the premise that second language teaching and learning
occurs when the social interactions of the learners with more skilled
others happen (K+1). He was mainly looking for the cultural and historical
influences on learning (Wertsch, 1991). This theory shows that children's language acquisition is attained through everyday
conversation which they have with adults such as naming objects. It can
be said that kids learn about the world and the appropriate behavior
through adults.
Tenets of Sociocultural Theory:
• Learning precedes development.
•
Language is the main vehicle (tool) of thought.
• Mediation is a
central concept of learning.
• Social interaction is the basis of
learning and development. Internalization is a process that
transforms learning from the social to the cognitive (individual)
plane.
• The Zone of Proximal Development is the primary activity
space in which learning takes place. (Lavadenz, 2011)
*Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is defined as the distance between the child's current level of cognitive development and the potential level of development (Lavadenz, 2011).
In the area of language teaching, one of the methods influenced by sociocultural learning theory is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).
CLT followers considered communication
as the ultimate goal of language learning which is achieved through
the interaction with others. This approach is still applied in
vocational education system in Finland in language classes, where the
most focus is on acquiring the language through communication with
teacher and other students. As I observed in teaching practice
sessions so far, language teachers engage students in meaningful and
learner-centered activities in all four languages areas. As the most
widely used method for language teaching, CLT focuses on all four
skills of language— listening, speaking, reading, and writing—and
does not specify a prescribed grammatical or structural sequencing.
As an example, the students, who were studying customer service
competency, in a role play task, communicate verbally with teacher as
a customer who wants to change a product which she had bought before.
And now the student as a salesperson communicate in English or
Swedish language with the teacher as customer. The same way is
practiced for writing skill, when the students write in English or
Swedish an e-mail to an imaginary customer about for example an
appointment. I could see how the teacher puts her focus on meaning
through contextualized interaction over form.
The
last teacher was from Amazing team. Interesting name 😉 I am wondering
why my team doesn’t have a name yet!
The
topic was presented on the first PowerPoint slide:
Question 4: What is a pedagogical script? How can that help you promote learning in a classroom, on the job learning and virtual settings?
We
started by sharing our opinions on these questions:
We
all believed that teachers’ having a pedagogical script has an important role
in learning quality. As one said the pedagogical script clear pacing and order
of teaching activities and learning activities help students understand what teacher
does and what student does. In addition, I also believe that having a
well-thought-out pedagogy can improve the quality of our teaching and the way
students learn.
Regarding the
second question, I think lesson planning can help the teacher to be well
prepared and be aware of what he/she intends to do. And
every teacher has their own style and interest. The educational context is not
just about learners. It is a two way road. When the personality and interests
of students need to be always taken into consideration, the teachers’ personality, preferences
and experiences are also really important, therefore, having a common tailored
and engineered pedagogical script for all the teachers is not a fair idea. However,
this is what Janne the teacher believed: I think some kind of script is in the
background - even very loose and maybe not conscious script - but Listen a
lecture - talk about it with your group to understand the lecture... that's a
very basic and loose script. But hopefully the script is more thought
through.
The question
related to learning environment sounds a little bit too general. I believe that, the aim is
to create a total environment for learning that optimizes the ability of
students to learn. There is no single optimum learning environment. As Janne stated,
“In face-to-face settings the scripts flow more easily. But in online setting
they have to be pre-planned much more. On the job learning requires these
moments of pause, reflecting in order to learning take place. Just work, work,
work... is not great for learning. It needs teaching and learning activities as
well.”
I enjoyed
this idea of presenting the root of the word “pedagogy”:
Pedagogy terms comes from
greek word “paidagogia” formed by “pais” that means pupil and
“ago” that means conduct. Amazing group presentation
Then
we got to the different learning theories, which is the most repeated subject
for me during all the years of my study at university. We were so into knowing
about all these models and theories. We used to make a list to remember all the
names of all the figures and scientists, remember all the chronological dates of
each models birth and fading out time and being replaced by another theory. We all seemed like masters in teaching at
that time when we were students at university, calling ourselves “Educationalists” :) Then, I started
my real teaching hour with real students. And there, I was not an educationalist
anymore. I was a mad teacher who was just yelling and running after kids to
make them listen to me. :)) So, after the first session, I was imagining Skinner, Pavlov, Piaget or Vygotsky’s faces in the real
class situations. Were they ever in a real classroom situation, except
their labs or discussion rooms?
And
now after all these years this funny memory came back, so I thought I share it
here!
It
was interesting to know about Kolb’s learning cycle (Kolb, 1984). (The presented diagram is
not the one shown to us in the teaching slide, I actually prefer the charts
and diagrams to be colorful; since they attract more attention and they are not that
boring anymore. :)
(CE)RO=Reflective observers AC= Abstract
conceptualization AE=Active
experimentation
CE= Concrete experience
When students are faced with abstract conceptualization,
as in Kolb’s theory, they have unconscious incompetence (Flower, 1999), meaning that, they don’t know
what they don’t know. This makes them feel like they have no interest and they
feel sometimes even indifferent. In second phase of Kolb’s theory students
start doing try and fail until they know what they don’t know; this is
conscious incompetence which is the intermediate stage of learning, where the
learners reach after some familiarity with the new skill that they are
learning. In the next level of Kolb’s learning theory is the concrete experience,
where the learners do and do to become skilled. This is where the competence
theory states the conscious competence phase. In this state the learner knows
what s/he knows. And my favorite phase in competence theory is the last one
i.e, unconscious competence, where you are at the mastery stage of learning. I think, the difference with last stage is that performing
at a high level is now much more intuitive, and no longer requires much
conscious effort on your part. Maybe, the last phase of Kolb’s theory
sets somewhere between conscious and unconscious competence.
Here is the update to this section of blog where I share more regarding pedagogical script and their effect on learning's quality in a classroom, on the job learning, and virtual setting.
Simply
put, pedagogical script asks teachers to write down what they are
going to say and do before they say and do it. To have an effective
script, teachers require to make conscious decisions about the best
choices of tasks and instructions to have the desired result. In the
beginning of my teaching career I used to argue that preparing a
pedagogical script for a class is waste of time and feels mechanistic
and it kills the authenticity of students' responses. But, later
after doing a few scripts before each teaching session, I found out
that actually it helps teacher to plan in detail the best way
to do something, and then to deliberately practice it. Specifically
having a pedagogical script is beneficial for new teachers to have
enough control on their teaching with a staged, clear instructions
and strong trust building classroom routine. Not just new teachers,
but also experienced ones benefit form scripting to improve the
way they define a complicated concept or connect the separate
activities to promote learning.
Here, is a simple example of what pedagogical script works. It is a deliberate selection and sequencing of learning activities both in and out of the classroom to best support the achievement of the learning outcomes. Planning
AS it shows in this visual script, the focus is on an educational video which is implemented as a learning material.
To know exactly how, where, what, why, and when this for example video can be implemented in our teaching hour, we need to make a plan beforehand. The next evaluation table shows an example of educational video implementation in a tng class.
In this Pdf you will find out various quality check questions related to this example with details from different perspectives such as, educational value, artistic quality, technical merits etc.
To make it more
specific, a teacher always needs a lesson plan, since it gives a
road-map for the course and clear view on what the outcome of the
course will be. It helps to organize the lesson
into manageable sections which are called units of instruction.
However, it is not only the course outcome which needs to be taken into consideration. The supporting outcome is also important in the planning, which can be both in module level and lesson plan level.
Having a
pedagogical script in virtual classrooms is even more important
compared to face to face classrooms. In F2F setting the script moves more easily. But in online classes, script needs to be much more
pre-planned with plans B, C, D... 😁. In school or educational institutions, there is also one
general lesson plan templates or script for teachers which can be
easily and fast filled in and used. But in online teaching, you will
have to come up with templates yourself, and need to consider all the
components of online teaching. However, since this online teaching is
finding its way more and more in education, we learn everyday new
online management, teaching, presentation, digital and many other
skills.
The core of
every pedagogical script is the objectives of the course or
lesson. I believe the most practical and easy to follow instruction
in writing lesson objectives is SMART introduced by Doran (1981).
- Specific goals are direct, detailed, and meaningful.
- Measurable goals are quantifiable and can be tracked to monitor progress or success.
- Attainable goals are realistic and require employees to have the tools or resources to achieve them.
- Relevant goals align with your company mission and will push a business forward.
- Time-based goals have a definite time frame and a completion date..
* There is also SMART goal setting template available here.
The biggest
challenge so far for all teachers has been holding students'
attention in virtual classrooms. How to keep them interested, and
what tricks to use to give them enough motivation to participate in
the discussions and doing the group activities. According to statistics 93% of students do not stay in online classes.
The reasons might be classes are too boring, unstructured, only presentation method, not engaging activities etc. However, I believe that with a structured and detailed script and lesson plan we can solve these issues and keep the students in front of their computers or any other digital equipments which they prefer to use.
After searching and studying literature reviews I found Hunter Model of lesson plan, which give in depth and detailed structure for lesson planning. In addition, I believe that the lesson plan in any setting is like a flashlight in a dark road for students. They will follow the lesson easily when they have clear image of what is going to happen in their class. I usually try to make this lesson plan available a day before the class starts to all students. It is also worth mentioning that, interesting presentation of the lesson plan can also help to keep the students motivated especially younger ones; as I considered this factor in presenting my own lesson plan for the first session of teaching in this course.
On the job learning also requires pedagogical script since there are many activities involved and the learners need also to pause and receive new updated knowledge. There should be also structured lesson plan for on the job learning for the times when the students need to attend the actual class once a while and do some learning activities; and also teaching activities need to take place. For example, as a teacher when I started my higher education, I made a detailed and structured lesson plan with my supervisor. This helped me to stay focused on the objectives and develop my abilities, and have an organized timetable to be able to do both my job and study at the same time. This helped me also to finish my studies faster and also attain practical knowledge which I needed at the same time to apply in my teaching profession. I do not believe without the big picture pedagogical script and lesson plan I would have been able to get the required outcome.
Cover photo source:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-hybrid-virtual-classroom-a-relatively-new-learning-space-to-synchronously-connect_fig1_348951542
Diagram reference:
https://effectiviology.com/the-stages-of-learning-how-you-slowly-become-more-competent-at-new-skills/
https://marcr.net/marcr-for-career-professionals/career-theory/career-theories-and-theorists/experiential-learning-cycle-david-kolb/
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