Documents that Regulate Planning, Teaching, and Guiding (2) (My presentation)

The first teaching experience in professional teacher education program!

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?

My group's topic was:

How does student-centered approach, personalization and competence-based system affect the planning?

I prepared everything the night before the teaching. I went through my lesson plan again and thought of the time management and the possibilities which might make me to change the time determined for some parts during teaching. The day of the teaching, I checked all the links and presentation to see they work properly.

In online teaching it is important to know that planning is essential for an online classroom environment. students in virtual settings have different needs compared to the students in face to face teaching context. It is not easy to always have access to them and it is hard to prepare a totally similar learning environment for all of them.

This is really crucial to have our syllabus and materials laid out clearly before class starts, therefore, they will have a chance to see if the course generally (the deadlines, materials, other requirements) can fit into their lives (Philips, 2016).

I started by introducing myself and giving a brief information about myself. Then I asked them to say who they are. This always breaks the ice and they feel closer to the teacher and each other.

I try to start my teaching by presenting something interesting; to me, introduction and conclusion are really important parts of the lesson. To start the lesson we need to consider different factors like, attracting students’ attention, making the objectives of the lesson clear, giving motivation etc. I used Prezi website to present the lesson.

In this session I started by asking a question related to their personal experiences which they have had in the past while they were student in the school. Of course, we all have seen the obvious difference between old times schools setting, teaching methods, rules, etc. Therefore, stories were told and the comparison was made by the students. This made them to be interested in the topic and have enough motivation to participate in the discussion. I also presented different photos in black and white format (to emphasis on the old-time-schools) and colorful format (to emphasis on the modern-time-schools). I asked them to compare the photos of course except the color. :)

Some features in the photos were obvious like the arrangement of the chairs and desks, the position of teacher and students in the class (teacher in front and students in organized rows facing the teacher). We discussed also about more deep differences among photos. Of course to show that I know how to use Padlet :), I asked them to write their opinion on the Padlet shortly and we discussed about the main ideas. (I think Padlet works better for larger groups and in a group of 4 students, i would rather we share our thoughts by talking.)

To focus more on the positive and negative points of teacher-centered approach and those traditional approaches which did not include student’s personality and competence in their models, I showed a picture and asked whether they agree or not and then we discussed about our opinions.

Everybody is a Genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is STUPID. (Unknown reference)

In the old times with fully teacher-centered approaches, fish had to crawl up tree. They simply could not. And their ability to swim was ignoring. Many kids were fish out of water. And yes those kids were us, the old generation kids who survived and at this age trying to learn their special ability and talent. Are they successful now or still regretting the wasted time and energy trying to achieve things which was not even their passion and never succeeded in doing so?

Of course, as we discussed, we decided also that at some point there are some standards which are needed to be kept up with and acquired for understanding the structure of our field, which we have passion and talent for. For example, if one has the passion of becoming an engineer, then they need to know the mathematics! 

We need to have more freedom and more classes to help these students, everyone is set to a standard and expected to live up to it, but everyone is different and so that standard is not fair. If we have customized cars, phones etc, we can customize education to which every student is learning to the best of their abilities in the best way that they can. (This topic is a bit controversial, and I will discuss more about it in the pedagogic competence I, Assessment section.)

After talking about fair assessment, I provided the simple basic model in competence-based approach in education. According to this model, in competence-based approaches the knowledge becomes skill and by doing and practicing that skill in real life situation and having hand on the job, this skill becomes an ability. 

Let's see firstly, what is competency-based education?

Competences as defined by educational experts, to consist of three interrelated ingredients:

• A knowledge component (the understanding part),
• A behavioural components (the overt behavioural repertoire) and
• A value component (including values, beliefs and attitudes) ( O'sullivan & Burce, 2014).

O'sullivan And Burce (2014) stated a competent learner is someone who possesses a combination of skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours which are considered to be required for effective application of the task or activity.

These authors also believe that a competence may be also divided in three components:

It is the ability of a person to show:

1. A particular behaviour in 2. A particular context and with 3. A particular quality.

PISA, (Programme for International Student Assessment) created a framework for comparing student competencies for purpose of assessment:

“A competency is more than just knowledge and skills. It involves the ability to meet complex demands, by drawing upon and mobilising [mobilizing] psychosocial resources (including skills and attitudes) in a particular context. For example, the ability to communicate effectively is a competency…”  PISA

Based on what I have found out so far in Finnish educational system, the learning process is considered generally to be initiated as the unconscious competence, i.e., students at first "do not know what they don't know". This is where the guidance plays an important role and it should be somehow planned to give students this possibility to try experiencing different fields and get to know what their interest is.

After this level, students get familiar with their competence and their interest and enter the desired educational path, whether vocational or university. There, they also learn their incompetencies (conscious incompetence) i.e, they know what they don't know. With the special planning for their incompetencies, students start learning by mostly doing especially in vocational education where students find a way into real work situations to practice real tasks. There, after doing and learning, they become aware of what they know now i.e, (conscious competence). When the real opportunity is given to the students to practice and work with given responsibilities based on their ability, as they planned it with their advisor and counsellors, the learned competence becomes automatic and their real ability. This is the optimized outcome which is called unconscious competence.

This is what I enjoyed a lot when I could find out that the Finnish educational system especially vocational education is planned generally based on this learning process. It attracted my attention to read and study more in this matter to see how the details are planned and embodied in universities also.

Right now I think I am in conscious incompetence, where I feel insecure and I need to know, learn and practice more. The last 45 presentation gave me this chance to evaluate myself and know that what areas I need to develop and be more aware of my incompetencies. Hopefully, with practice and studying I will enter the unconscious competence level.

We also discussed about different features of personalization-based approaches and the impact which they have on the planning. How does the focus on the students’ interests, purpose, and personality affects for example the teacher’s lesson plan. Firstly, it is important to know what the basis of this approach is. We came to this conclusion that this is not only teacher’s responsibility to make a proper plan for the student; it is teacher, student, family and the school’s responsibility together. We also came up with some examples in personalized learning like, One-on-one tutoring. In a situation where you have two individuals: a learners and a teacher, it is teacher's responsibility to understand exactly what the learner already knows, and figure out with the help of learner what skills are needed to be mastered. Mentoring, online course, search engines, and applying training examples etc., are also factors which will improve an effective planning. 

Later, I provided two practical samples of teacher’s lesson and course planning based on personalized and competence-based approaches, which both go under the category of learner-centered approach in teaching. By doing a lesson plan writing task, (in a small scale) we tried to put our knowledge into practice. I provided the students three different lesson plan templates prepared based on learner-centered, competence-based and personalized approach. Then I asked them to fill the templates in together. Unfortunately, students had problem opening the OneNote link which I provided. This experience was important to me. Now, I know which software works better for me while I teach and which one doesn’t. I never lose my control and focus in crisis situations while teaching. (And now I found out also not even in online classes!). I asked the students to do each lesson plan together and instead of filling them in we talk about our opinions regarding each section. And I think it went well. Here, I present one of the templates as an example:

Finally, as I said I like to finish lessons sometimes with thoughtful, funny, interesting pictures or quotations related to the topic of the lesson. As in this session I finished the lesson with this quotation:

This is the update of this section regarding the competence goal 1 i.e., You are familiar with the documents that regulate planning teaching and guiding.

I started my teaching practice in OSAO, and I will soon publish in this blog a full reflection diary on this chapter of my teacher education.

However, after a few days doing teaching practice in authentic setting in Vocational education system, my thoughts have gain some depth. It is different when you read and when you see and feel things in real context. These are the knowledge which I have attained so far during these days regarding documents and regulations.

The basic education or comprehensive school takes 1 to 9 years and is for all children between the ages of 7 and 17. Based on the law all children who reside permanently in Finland must attend this compulsory education. Amendment477/2003, Section 25(2)

Comprehensive school education is free of charge. Amendment 477/2003, Section 31

After comprehensive school, students continue to the upper secondary level and choose between general and vocational education. The general upper secondary education which in Finnish is called Lukio, does not prepare students for any special career or profession. These students study for the final national examination which is the Finnish matriculation examination. If they succeed in this level, then they can apply for further studies at universities, universities of applied sciences or vocational schools. Lukio takes almost three years to complete. Students can apply to VET throughout the year. This national joint application , is organized every spring for those students who have done their basic education and decided to apply for vocational institutions instead of lukio. The main purpose is that each student has a learning place after basic education.

During these days of teaching practice I could see closely the great change from traditional model of teaching and class setting to a totally learner-centered system of education in all aspects of teaching and learning.

Generally, this transition from seat time (teacher-centered), into flexible structure (student-centered), let the learners to progress as they present their academic content mastery, regardless of time, place or learning's pace. In the competency-based system like vocational education (VET) in Finland, this flexibility is provided in the way that credit can be earned or awarded. This system provides students a personal competence development plan (PCDP) (section 44), which is drawn up by a teacher or a guidance counsellor together with student.

The competence-based and personalization approaches in education system is obviously noticeable in vocational education system planning. And is provided with all the details in Finland's Ministry of Education and Culture website.

Based on the learner-centered approach in planning which happens in three levels of educational, course, and lesson, as I noticed in my teaching practice time that the main focus is on hands-on-the job learning. In this planning teachers also try to tailor the students' personal planning in the areas where they need to develop. Students do not need to work on those previous skills which they have already acquired through any means for example from working life, another school, international study, work placement periods, family and leisure activities or through the media. Previous learning is recognised and only the missing skills are acquired. Their personal plan is also prepared somehow so that it enables students to master skills at their own pace. This saves both time and money.

As stated clearly in section 48 of Act on Vocational Education and Training, "It is the duty of the VET provider to plan how the student is to acquire the vocational skills or competence specified in the national qualification requirements or education and training requirements if the student possesses no prior learning to prove such competence. Also, it is the duty of the VET provider to plan for any guidance and support measures that the student may require, to monitor the student’s progress.

As I mentioned before, the practice gives your knowledge depth; so, I found out that the documents and criteria in planning the language courses is different in VET compared to other educational settings. Based on Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), the language learners are pre- and post-assessed as Basic user (A1, A2), Independent user (B1, B2), and Proficient user (C1, C2).

However, in VET module planning and assessment, English language is not considered as a separate course like in comprehensive schools. And therefore, this skill is assessed while doing the hands-on-the jobs learning. And the assessment criteria is presented also as it is integrated in the special field the students are studying. For example as it shows in this curriculum plan for business sector of vocational school in OSAO, There are competence requirements firstly for customer service as part of customer-oriented business activities, secondly Sectoral language proficiency for Finnish speakers, thirdly, Sectoral language proficiency for Swedish speakers, and finally, Sectoral language proficiency for speakers of other languages. (Vocational qualification in Business)

As it is shown in all the next tables, there are five levels of assessments: satisfactory with 1 point, satisfactory with 2 points, good with 3 points, good with 4 points, and finally excellent with 5 points, which will be applied into students final assessment for the whole education period. For all five sections there are different criterias which students need to achieve. All those criterias are competence-based planned related to the job skill which students are learning; and in contrast with CEFR those criterias are not evaluated purely as language skill.

This teaching practice is providing me a great chance to see closely and learn how to evaluate and assess students' English language skill along side with their vocational competencies.

Photo references:
https://flex.wisconsin.edu/stories-news/competency-based-education-what-it-is-how-its-different-and-why-it-matters-to-you/

https://practices.learningaccelerator.org/strategies/blended-personalized-learning-implementation-guides 

https://www.quotemaster.org/Traditional+Education

https://www.oberlo.com/blog/online-teaching

https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/table-1-cefr-3.3-common-reference-levels-global-scale

https://valtioneuvosto.fi/en/marin/government-programme/finland-that-promotes-competence-education-culture-and-innovation

https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokset/2017/en20170531.pdf

https://eperusteet.opintopolku.fi/#/en/selaus/kooste/ammatillinenkoulutus?hakutyyppi=perusteet

Reference:

O'sullivan, N., Burce, A. (2014). Teaching and learning in competency-based education. The fifth international conference on e-Learning (eLearning). Belgrade, Serbia.

https://minedu.fi/documents/1410845/4150027/Finnish+VET+in+a+Nutshell.pdf/9d43da93-7b69-d4b5-f939-93a541ae9980/Finnish+VET+in+a+Nutshell.pdf?t=1569997944000

https://vipunen.fi/en-gb/vocational-education-and-training

https://minedu.fi/en/education-system