Week 18: Inclusive Practice (Part 1 of 3)

Inclusive Practice 25/02/2014

This lesson covers the impact of personal, social and cultural factors on learning. We started the session with a practical. The peer group was divided in to groups of 3. The objective was to arrange in order of importance the provided factor squares. At this point it was simply our groups ideas as perceived by our current understanding and discussion. Our result was like this:

A subsequent discussion lead to an analysis of the top choice on the pyramid of each peer group.

An inclusive learning environment is one in which, as you would expect, every learner is included. If you cast your mind back a few generations, teachers used one approach to teach the whole class. There was no consideration of individual needs, and many learners fell by the wayside, having failed to match the way that they learn and their individuality to that of the teacher. Inclusivity requires that you, as a teacher, recognise that every learner is different and should be considered as an individual, with specific needs, likes, dislikes, background, motivators and behaviours.


Expectations:
These can be of self or from others. They can be gender related or even prejudice.

Few teachers intend to give unequal opportunities, yet most do. For example,
research has consistently shown that female students get less classroom attention than males, have less access to computers or other specialist equipment, and are marked down if they are very able; and that the offending teachers are unaware of such unequal treatment. Research has also continued to show that: Afro-Caribbeans, Asians, other ethnic minority students, and learners with disabilities or learning difficulties also get an unfair deal in the classroom from most teachers. So do students who are shy, working-class, less able or disruptive. Why is this? Few teachers are deliberately prejudiced; most of the discrimination is unintentional. For example, most of us behave most positively towards students who are able, pleasant or hard-working. This is understandable, but not professional.

Gender:
Research shows that many teachers have different expectations of males and
females; that males generally receive more teacher attention; and that males
dominate in the use of equipment in science, design, technology and computer
studies. Also, males and females leave school or college with different skills and
different expectations of their future lives; many females still set their sights lower than males. It is well known, too, that females are under-represented (especially post-16) in maths, physical sciences and technology.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy:
A study by Rosenthal and Jacobson claimed, then, that a teacher’s expectations affected the student’s performance in the direction of that expectation. In other words, if a teacher thinks a student is ‘good’, they get better – and conversely, if the teacher thinks the student is ‘bad’, they get worse. Other researchers have shown the self- fulfilling prophecy at work in almost every conceivable teaching situation, from nursery teaching to the teaching of adult professionals.
Can a low expectation be fulfilled? Indeed it can. Research shows that slow learners are given less time and less help when answering questions; they get less praise and more criticism, less teacher time overall and a less friendly approach – for example, they are smiled at less often. Less work is demanded of them, and their test papers are marked more severely.

Developmental Delay and Learning Difficulties:
Rather like Mental Health, there can be considerable variation in levels here. Inclusive Practice requires meeting the needs of ALL learners. See also earlier Learning Differences

We revisited the Experiential Learning Cycle
Completed a Learning Style Questionnaire - with the intention of learning more about this topic:

See images:

Group Practical: How these Factors Influence Learning

Group results Slideshow:

Direct links to individual images:

1. Economic
2. Ethnicity
3. Family
4. Gender

Petty, G. (2009)Teaching Today. 4th  Edition. Cheltenham. Nelson Thornes.

Week 17: Questioning Techniques

This week very much followed on from last weeks lesson on Assessment and Feedback. Questioning Techniques, our use of and the way we ask questions, can greatly influence our intended learning outcomes. Some of this weeks lesson was covered earlier too under Learning Outcomes.

Some of the recap this week covered Observation and Peer Feedback in Assessments:

Eg: Colour Card - Emotion Faces - Sliding Scale of Emotion

Through the art of thoughtful questioning teachers can extract not only factual information, but aid learners in: connecting concepts, making inferences, increasing awareness, encouraging creative and imaginative thought, aiding critical thinking processes, and generally helping learners explore deeper levels of knowing, thinking, and understanding. (Erickson 2007)

The Lesson contained some useful activities to engage us as learners, to see the value of questioning, as well as the wide range of techniques that we can employ. 

We started out trying to write examples of 9 different questioning techniques. The sheet looked like this:

This was the result of my sheet + annotations from the discussion after:

We then associated this with the Domains of learning:

• Cognitive
• Affective
• Psychomotor

Questioning Techniques in Practice

Using the iPads we viewed the following interactive poster which linked to video footage of question techniques:

Interesting, informative and a great use of IT in education!

Questioning Exercise:

We were given a question check-list and an exercise

Here is the question check-list:

And here is the Questioning Exercise. Which was some optional homework.

Week 16: Assessment and Feedback part 2 + Presentations

This week saw the results of our homework from Last Weeks Session.

Video footage here is a video based assessment of our understanding and use of assessment and feedback in teaching.

In Class Assessment and Feedback Work:
We were paired up. Each had to formulate a scenario for the other. My pair partner Nick, chose the following:

A student is practising hoeing in a line of nursery trees. He makes a good job, but in the process he has managed to catch the stem of the trees at the base during hoeing.

A video based assessment and feedback 'Praise Sandwich' of 1min:

Week 15: Assessment Methods and Evidence

This weeks Lesson can be seen here and a more detailed document of assessment methods can viewed Here.

The lesson started with a bit of fun really, drawing a desert island and then swapping drawings with the peer group and assessing the drawings. It just served to illustrate the assessment didn't have any criteria, any point of reference with which to make an assessment. Therefore, all assessment was subjective. This set the lesson off to a good start. We discussed the importance of clear goals, without which, assessment cannot be constructive, with a view to offering informative and helpful feedback:

Summative Assessment

 Sometimes called Final Assessment, this aims to make a final measure of a students progress. Usually Graded: Eg: 90% or A+. Typically this form of assessment is more for the benefit of a client. For example a prospective employer can easily see what standard of education you have reached/achieved. 10 years down the line, this assessment will likely be far from a true reflection of your sum of knowledge in a given topic.
The aim may be to sum up what the candidate can do (criterion referencing). This might be done with the aid of a checklist of skills or competences, and/or by reports
or profiles. Alternatively, the aim may be to grade candidates, or place them in a
rank order (norm referencing). This is usually done by means of an examination,
designed to differentiate between candidates on the basis of the breadth and depth
of their learning.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is informative feedback to learners while they are still
learning the topic. But to be truly formative, this information must be used by the
learner to improve. The teacher can provide the formative assessment, but the
learners can also formatively assess themselves and each other. Research shows
that this feedback while you learn has more effect on student achievement than
any other single factor, so it’s worth getting right! Formative Assessment prepares a student for the Summative or Final Assessment. Eg; Like a Mock exam prepares you for the real thing.  
Geoff Petty. (2009). Assessment. In: Nelson Thornes Teaching Today. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. 479.

_____________

The main use of assessment for teachers is the ongoing or formative assessment.
This is used throughout the course to form judgements on whether, and to what
extent, learning has been successful; and to pinpoint difficulties so that remedial
action can be taken. Initial and diagnostic assessment have similar ‘formative’
roles. They are carried out at the beginning of a course.  
Geoff Petty. (2009). Assessment. In: Nelson Thornes Teaching Today. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. 479.

Assessment is an essential part of the learning process. It serves several vital roles in an education system, such as:

• informing teacher and learner of progress and future development needs; 

• recognition of achievement; 

• providing accountability data on the performance of teachers, departments, education organisations and even international comparisons.

Both assessment for learning and assessment of learning. Assessment for learning provides information to learners and teachers about the learners’ current levels of ability and this information guides the teaching and learning strategies that are planned and prepared by the teacher. This is known as formative assessment. Assessment of learning provides information of learners’ achievement and is usually summative rather than formative. Both methods have purpose and both recognise learners’ achievement.

Lynn Machin, Duncan Hindmarch, Sandra Murray & Tina Richardson (2013). A Complete Guide to the Level 4 Certificate in Education and Training. Nothwich: Critical Publishing. 59-73.

Norm Referencing:
As in summative assessment of GCSE, provides a graded result, compared to a peer group at a specific time. Yields an estimate of the position of the tested individual in a predefined population, with respect to the trait being measured. The estimate is derived from the analysis of test scores and possibly other relevant data.

Criterion Referencing:
A criterion-referenced test would report the student's performance strictly according to whether the individual student correctly answered set questions. A norm-referenced test would report primarily whether this student correctly answered more questions compared to other students in the group.

Student Referencing:
The advantages of self-directed learning are that it strongly encourages active
learning, develops student autonomy and gives the responsibility for learning to
the student. A self-directed learning approach is widely used when teaching adults,
especially adult professionals, where it underpins the idea of the ‘reflective practitioner’.


Homework:
Prepare a 5 min presentation on assessment and feedback based on your teaching practice: Preparation can be viewed: Here (PDE)

Week 14: Embedding the Minimum Core

The Minimum Core:

Teachers need to understand fully how low ability in the core subjects: Maths, English and ICT might impact on access, vocational achievement and progression. And that it is necessary that, as teachers, we have sufficient skills to assess and support learners. It doesn't mean, as teachers in FE we need to be experts in these core areas, but we should understand that such basic skills are intrinsic to good teaching.

This was Our lesson Outline for this week

I guess it brought to the fore the reason why we had our Maths and English skills assessed. Although it didn't matter if we were really good or bad, it served to highlight where we are, what level/standard we work at and then we can reflect on room for improvement.

Some more detail on the Minimum core can be read Here, which shows it be part of Inclusive Learning Practice.

ICT:

We discussed the importance of this and how confident we are in this area. Personally, I feel reasonably comfortable/confident, I know a little bit at least. Many of us in the peer group had used Presentations using Power Point when we did our first Micro Teach. I actually use Power Point to produce all my Lessons, even though they only get used in printed form.

Richard introduced me to a new piece of software called Prezi. It's a cloud based presentation software with ZUI, which makes for a flashy looking presentation. It's proprietary software and requires additional proprietary elements such as Adobe Flash so the free elements are somewhat restricted, which was disappointing to me, but fair enough, I understand their philosophy. And since we are seeing such a growing use of Mobile devices and yet a lack of support by Adobe for Mobile devices, personally I'd be inclined not to favour Prezi. Nevertheless, I knocked together a sample presentation:
My Prezi

Week 13: Talking about Teaching

07/01/2014: Talking About Teaching

This weeks lesson can viewed Here

In all it was a review of some of the main teaching points we already covered before the end of term. We discussed the following in rotating pairs:

Actually we didn't cover differentiation as it was one of our more recent topics and the discussions of 1-4 resulted in a significant coverage of it.

Active Learning:
Practical Sessions
Open Discussions that involve the students
Activities
Real Environments
Searching Questions
Self Assessment

Active learning is not something done to the students, but something students do to themselves. The opposite of an Active learner is a Passive learner (not desired). Passive learners would expect that all they need to do is sit back and soak up information.
Geoff Petty (2004). Teaching Today. 3rd ed. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes. 55-58.

Geoff Petty also talks about: 'Giving the problem to the student'
eg:

'How do you find your lab reports, Peter?'
'Oh. OK I suppose.'
'What do you find most difficult about them?'
'The conclusion bit, Sir.'
'Yes, lots of people find conclusions hard. So what are you going to do to improve them?'

Teachers must see themselves as a learning facilitator or learning manager, and encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning.


Learning Outcomes:
Geoff Petty (2004). Teaching Today. 3rd ed. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes. 391-403.

Were discussed in earlier sessions and can be read: Here
Learning outcomes are testable statements describing what you intend your students to learn; for example

The student should be able to use inverted commas correctly.
The student should be able to solder resistors to a circuit board.

The point is that 'Outcomes' precisely describe observable learner performance, shifting the focus on to what the student will be able to do as a result of their learning, and away from what the teacher will do. Well defined outcomes help both student and teacher. Outcomes will reflect the needs of differentiation too.


Alignment of Learning:

We must have a clear idea of what we want students to be able to do, and make sure the student knows those objectives.

Intended Learning Objectives / Learning Activities and Assessments must be aligned.

The basic premise of the whole system is that the curriculum is designed so that the learning activities and assessment tasks are aligned with the learning outcomes that are intended in the course. 

Related to Active Learning, Alignment is about getting students to take responsibility for their own learning and establishing trust between student and teacher. If students construct their own learning and this takes place inside the students' brains, where teachers cannot reach, then the real learning can only be managed by the students. All teachers can do is to create an environment which is encouraging and supportive of students engaging in the appropriate and necessary mental activity. We can do this by providing the pieces and specifications of what the students must become able to do as a result of modifying their cognitive structures, and set up or suggest activities that students can use to achieve these changes or intended learning outcomes.

We must have a clear idea of what we want students to be able to do at the end of a unit of study, and communicate these intended learning outcomes to students so they can at least share in the responsibility of achieving them. However, we know that students will inevitably tend to look at the assessment and structure their learning activities, as far as they are able, to optimise their assessment performance. We must therefore make sure that the assessment very obviously does test the learning outcomes we want students to achieve

Behaviour Management:
We gave good coverage to this here: Behaviour and Classroom Management
And our discussion in this lesson reiterated much of that earlier material.
Geoff Petty (2004). Teaching Today. 3rd ed. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes. 101.

• Effective Lessons
• Good Organisation
• Good Rapport (teacher/student relationships)
• Effective Discipline (almost impossible unless the first three conditions are satisfied)

We had some positive reflection on this subject which sparked a lively discussion. Overall I found this whole lesson very valuable in further impressing the knowledge we had already gained.

Week 12 Communication and Questioning

Communication and Questioning 17/12/2013

This weeks lesson can viewed Here

The communication map

Effective communication is, without doubt, the most fundamental skill that any teacher needs to master. Whilst we need to be knowledgeable in our specialist area, we must also be able to convey that knowledge in a manner that learners will understand. The understanding and application of key theories of communication are a key part of development as a teacher.

Communication is not one-way. Effective communication needs at least two active participants. This can be represented by a model of communication, for example, that developed by Shannon and Weaver:

This model, while initially applied to technical communication, was also applied to human communication. At it's simplest, this model can be considered to have two parts, as source and a receiver. Therefore a conversation initiated by you the teacher to a learner would have you as the source and the learner as the receiver.

Shannon and Weaver also recognise that interference, or noise can hinder communication. That might be literal as in a construction work, road works, a telephone ringing, it doesn't necessarily have to be. Noise can take a wide range of forms including visual distractions, disabilities or learning difficulties, language or jargon.

Barriers to communication take two forms. Extrinsic: external influences, which includes noise, language and the environment in general. Intrinsic: barriers are set up within the receiver and include attitudes based upon past experience, feeling, emotions and internal thought processes relating to both the communicator and the message content.

Effective communication results when a student's response corresponds with the teacher's intentions and vice versa. Communication failure results when a teacher's intention and a student's response are incompatible. Information is not merely transmitted and received; it is also interpreted. The message is frequently distorted as it passes through barriers to communication and interpretation of content will be affected by previous experience or personal values.

Assessment of Learning through Questions

In small groups we discussed questioning methods and marked down the + or - of each questioning strategy:

This was followed by an open discussion and our tutor Richard carefully made use of the different strategies in questioning the group.

We also discussed again the value of resources in communication and then used a practical challenge to demonstrate communication difficulty. The communication challenge we used was to describe how to make a Origami Jumping Frog to a fellow student. We were made in to paired couples, armed with a instruction sheet (to be used by the instructor) and A4 paper for the student building the frog. The same process was followed also with reversed roles. If you look at the results and compare it with the Communication Cycle image above. In discussion, after the challenge, we were able to determine that the communication cycle could break down at every element of the cycle. What was the point....
Well simply to demonstrate the importance of building lesson plans that strengthen the bonds of communication and effectively bridge all the gaps in the communication cycle and that we may be able to incorporate resources (particularly ITC).





Lynn Machin. (2013). Communication. In: L. Machin, D.Hindmarch, S. Murray, T. Richardson A Complete Guide to the Level 4 Certificate in Education and Training. Nothwich: Critical Publishing. 81-95.