Lorella's Ideas – M39

The Learning Designer is an online tool which helps the educators to plan their teaching. This tool helps the educator to design the activities for a particular lesson or a group of lessons. It encourages the educator to think about the learning experiences they are planning for their learners to help them achieve their learning outcome.

At the beginning, one must input the lesson title, the topic, description of the lesson, the aims and outcomes. The learning outcomes can be based around Bloom’s Taxonomy pedagogy in learning domains.

The tool is based on the six learning types from Diana Laurillard’s Conversational Framework – a model of the conditions necessary for learning to take place. The six learning types are: Read/Write/Listen (or Acquisition), Inquiry, Practice, Production, Discussion and Collaboration. In principle, a good learning design will contain a mix of all of these types of learning. The Learning Designer encourages the educator to aim for FCL rather than a traditional teaching setting.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/learning-designer/index.php?backtrace=%2Flearning-designer%2Fdesigner.php%3Furi%3D%2Fpersonal%2F%2Fdesigns%2Ffid%2F7175fc0cdfef9166d9594846c9f6de59833ef84c88060f9320462d1fbf0556e9

References:

Dimakopoulos, D. (2013 – 2018). Learning Designer. [online] Ucl.ac.uk. Available at: https://ucl.ac.uk/learning-designer/designer.php/… 

YKennedy, E. (2016). An Introduction to the Learning Designer. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0edRboC9vI 

https://blogs.it.ox.ac.uk/eet/2013/12/20/regenerating-the-learning-designer/

The Future Classroom Lab (FCL) is an inspirational, fully equipped, reconfigurable, teaching and learning environment in Brussels, challenging visitors to rethink the role of pedagogy, technology and design in their classrooms. In the Future Classroom Lab, visitors can explore:

• The competences and roles for students’ and teachers’  21st century teaching and learning.
• Different learning styles and more personalised, active learning.
• Learning environment design and how it can impact student engagement and classroom interaction.
• Current and emerging technology to support all of the above and societal trends affecting education.  http://www.eun.org/professional-development/future-classroom-lab

The Future classroom brings about many changes. It encourages the educator to ”rethink the role of pedagogy, technology and design in their classroom”. The Future classroom has 6 learning zones, with each space that highlights the specific areas of learning and teaching. 

”All together the spaces form a unique way to visualise a new, holistic view on teaching. The zones reflect what good teaching should be about: being connected, being involved, and being challenged. Education should result in a unique learning experience, engaging as many types of students as possible.” Fcl.eun.org. (2016)

The Future classrooms encourage the teachers to promote a new way of teaching and hence move away from the traditional way of teaching which is not as beneficial to the learners, 

Fcl.eun.org. (2016). [online] Available at: http://fcl.eun.org/documents/10180/…[Accessed 28 Feb. 2019].

Active learning is generally defined as any instructional method that engages students in the learning process. Active learning requires students to do meaningful learning activities and think about what they are doing. This can include traditional activities such as homework, in practice, active learning refers to activities that are introduced into the classroom. The core elements of active learning are student activity and engagement in the learning process. Active learning is often contrasted to the traditional lecture where students passively receive information from the instructor.

Traditional structure methods have repeatedly been found inferior to instruction that involves active learning, in which students solve problems, answer questions, formulate questions of their own, discuss, explain, debate, or brainstorm during class.

Example “active” activities include: class discussion, small group discussion, debate, posing questions to the class, think-pair-share activities, short written exercises and polling the class (Bonwell and Eison, 1991).

What are the benefits of an Active Learning classroom?

Active Learning classrooms promote a collaborative atmosphere and hence the children are able to develop collaborative skills. Students are also more engaged in the learning experience since they are responsible for their learning and hence they are more likely to retain the information they learnt. 

Active learning encourages critical thinking as they are able to build an argument and learn how to discuss together as a group. Moreover active learning encourages learners to be more creative in their work and it encourages them to gain skills in order to tackle problem solving.

Personalised learning refers to a different ”variety of educational programs, learning experiences, instructional approaches, and academic support strategies that are intended to address the distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds of individual students.” (Education Reform, 2015)

Personalised learning is viewed as an alternative to so-called “one-size-fits-all” approach. Through personalised learning, the activities planned by the teacher are more towards student centered learning. The main purpose of the educator should be to encourage individual learning rather than what might be preferred, more convenient, or logistically easier for teachers and schools.

Personalized learning is applied in order to facilitate the academic success of each student by first determining the learning needs, interests, and aspirations of individual students, and then providing learning experiences that are customised for each individual.

In order ”to accomplish this goal, schools, teachers, guidance counselors, and other educational specialists may employ a wide variety of educational methods, from intentionally cultivating strong and trusting student-adult relationships to modifying assignments and instructional strategies in the classroom to entirely redesigning the ways in which students are grouped and taught in a school.” (Educational Reform, 2015)

Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey came up with a chart that shows the difference between personalisation, differentiation and individualisation lies in the shift in focus from the teacher to the learners. These approaches are all beneficial to the learners in different learning situations.

I agree that personalised learning should be implemented in the classrooms. Through this learning process children are more engaged in their learning activity as it is catered for their learning needs. The students are provided with materials which suits them best. For instance, if a child learns more through a video explanation, s/he should be provided with that material but another child might be learning if s/he is presented with a model. Hence, educators should know their learners and try to cater for their different learning styles.

References:

New Classrooms Personalized Learning Instructional Model – Part 1. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6BPXhGTg00#action=share

Partnership, G. (2019). Personalized Learning Definition. Retrieved from https://www.edglossary.org/personalized-learning/

PDI Chart, v3. (2019). Retrieved from http://kathleenmcclaskey.com/personalization-vs-differentiation-vs-individualization-chart/

Project Title – Discovering different festive Traditions in different countries

Description

This project focuses on cultural, culinary and religious traditions in different countries which occur throughout the year. Children will share their Carnival traditions, easter traditions and other feasts which are celebrated in their countries.

Objectives and aims:

1. The children will be aware of different traditions each country hold.
2. The children will be able to learn new cultures and traditions in different countries.
3. The children will also be able to learn how to accept others’ traditions.

Process:

Part 1: Throughout the first stage of the project, the children will introduce themselves and share information about their country through various projects.

Part 2: The students can share information on different religious festivities and culinary traditions associated with the feasts. They can share their crafts, photos and videos.

Part 3: The students will send each other some gifts from their country and then they will open the gifts together whilst doing a video call together. This will encourage them to ask questions about the gifts and try some sweets too.

eTwinning is an online platform for educators and their students where they can communicate, collaborate, create projects and share knowledge together from different countries within the European Union.

I have been using the eTwinning platform for quite a while now and I find it quite interesting to collaborate with other educators and involve my students in different projects. Through eTwinning I also made some friends from different countries and usually collaborate with them to make new projects. I think that apart from communicating with other educators in the same sector, the students also find it quite interesting to communicate with other students from other countries. They seem to be more encouraged in the projects whilst including learning and achieving their learning outcomes.

A potential project which we can work on for the next scholastic year is to work and collaborate with year 5 class in Gozo and after sharing some things together the students can then meet each other. This can be easily done since we usually take our students to Gozo around May. This would be really interesting for the students as they will see that it is true that we can communicate online but meeting each other after sharing their work and collaborating together will be a nice experience.

During last week session, We discussed about various learning online communities which educators can access and follow a course online. These were the European Schoolnet Academy (click here) and the Microsoft Educator Community (click here).

I think that as an educator it is quite useful to know that there are these online platforms where we can seek for different courses to enhance our professional development in areas which are of our interests.

Once the educators choose and complete a course, they will receive a badge as a ‘reward’ to demonstrate that the course has been completed. These badges are recognised by different educational entities. Certificates and points are also given when courses are completed.

An advantage of these online learning platforms is that you can access these whenever you want to from the comfort of your own home. However one disadvantage is that is not easy to show the competences you acquire.

After looking at various learning styles, I must admit that applying different learning styles encourages the learner to be more intrigued in the learning process. During this course, we have experienced different learning styles which an educator can implement in the classroom. In fact, as a student in this course I have found it quite interesting to experience these different learning styles.

Although I have already experienced online learning both synchronous and asynchronous learning, I never had a course which had a ‘mixture’ of learning styles. I think this way, the learner can find a way which is best for their learning styles and encourages you to learn more.

Collaboration and working as a team plays an important role in our life. I consider myself quite a collaborative person and I love to work with my colleagues in order to share our ideas and grow together in the learning community. On the other side, as an educator I believe that implementing collaboration in the classroom is essential. Through collaboration, students can be involved in discussion and sharing of ideas which will help them enrich their learning process. Moreover, the students can learn that in life one must always be collaborative in order to have a positive experience. Therefore, I believe that as an educator I must always work harder to involve collaborative learning in my classroom.

In the document ”Integrating collaborative learning in the classrooms across Europe”, Katja Engelhardt (2018) argues on how educators can integrate collaborative learning in their classrooms. Engelhardt (2018) also specifies on what we need to prepare for and how to include collaborative learning. http://www.eun.org/documents/411753/665824/Perspective_Collaborative+learning_Dec2018.pdf/

Collaborative learning has different benefits from which the students can develop their transversal skills when it is implemented in the classroom. The OECD has reported that these skills are very important but through various research and the PISA report in 2015 these skills have not been evident. ”Despite this evidence, some teachers and policy-makers are unconvinced and do not encourage collaborative learning, seeing it as a distraction from serious learning and knowledge acquisition.” (Engelhardt, 2018)

Teachers and educators need to be encouraged to choose this approach to their learning strategies as it is a way to move forward from the traditional way of teaching. Although collaborative learning suggests the interaction between students and to avoid the teacher being a ”dictator” of information, Engelhardt (2018) suggests that the teacher should also form part of the community. The teacher is a guide to the learners and facilitates their learning.

Although having said that the teacher should guide the learners, I also agree with what Elena Pezzi (Engelhardt, 2018, Elena Pezzi) states “sometimes you also have to disappear as a teacher to let your students discover by themselves and to make mistakes. The ultimate goal is to become the teacher that makes his students go up the stage to see things from a different point of view.” Through this, students will be able to grow into independent learners.

References

Engelhardt, K. (2018). Integrating collaborative learning in classrooms across Europe.[ebook] European Schoolnet. Available at: http://www.eun.org/documents/411753/665824/Perspective_Collaborative+learning_Dec2018.pdf/ d711eec2-4a84-4e8b-883c-22505d486045 [Accessed 25 Jan. 2019].

”Collaborative learning is a method of teaching and learning in which students team together to explore a significant question or create a meaningful project.” (Educational Broadcasting Corporation, 2004)

Characteristics of Collaborative Learning

In a collaborative learning environment, the educator and the students will be working together in a collaborative way. This encourages an environment where the learners are active in their learning process and not there just to follow what the educator is passing to them. In this setting, the educator is leading the learners in various activities which encourages collaboration between the individuals.

Moreover, in a collaborative learning environment the students need to understand that although they are working in groups together with the other learners, the individual effort is essential. The educator monitors each individual and therefore opt for differentiated tasks on which the learners can be assessed on even though they’re working together in a collaborative way.

The benefits and importance of Collaborative Learning

1. Students ”embeds knowledge through listening and sharing”. In different studies it is shown that students are more eagerly to learn when they are discussing with their peers. ”The dialogue and discussion over new ideas and approaches to solving the task set make it more memorable and require a deeper level of skills.” (ResourcEd, 2019)
2. Collaborative learning encourages learners to become more confident in themselves. This is due to the fact that through collaboration the learners can understand that their ideas and thoughts are essential in solving the task.
3. Collaborative learning encourages ”inclusivity” as every child is valued and their credit is also important in the learning process.
4. Learners are given the skills to deal with when facing social situations in the future. It encourages the learners to deal with problem-solving and discussion in order to enhance the learners skills towards a more collaborative society in the future. (ResourcEd, 2019)

References:

Collaborative learning: what can it do for your students? – ResourcEd. (2019). Retrieved from https://resourced.prometheanworld.com/collaborative-learning-students/

Educational Broadcasting Corporation(2004) Cooperative and Collaborative Learning: Explanation. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/index.html

Engelhardt, K. (2017) Integrating collaborative learning in classrooms across Europe. [ebook] European Schoolnet.  http://teachup.eun.org/documents/556205/1092039/TeachUP_D1.1a_The-changing-role-and-competences-of-teachers.pdf/f1b05e36-4e2a-42f2-8907-9b17409aaf46