Personal Blogs

After a few months prep: I am now writing a script set during the First World War. In parallel I am reading and reviewing over 14 novels writing by men (and one woman) who served during the Great War and adding these to The Western Front Association Book Reviews pages. I'm also watching movies made about #WW1 which includes 1918: The Battle of Kruty which has Ukrainian students fighting to delay an attack by the Red Army and the brilliant 'The Rifleman' or 'Blizzard of Souls' from a book of the same name. This is about a teen in the Russian/Red Army but includes in its conclusion the brief attempt by Lithuania to form a state apart from the Russian Empire / Soviet Union. I'm yet to find if Estonia has produced the equivalent, while Poland has many.  I've created a list of over 180 films on or about the First World War in IMDb > http://www.imdb.com/list/ls539199369/ 

My own writing concerns the antics, fictionlised, about Lieutenant HRH Edward, Prince of Wales. This is something I worked on as a novel five years ago and have returned to as the first of several scripts I wish to develop. Getting them in front of a producer via an agent will be another matter. 

In 1996 Prof. Hugh Cecil of Leeds University completed his magnus opus on the fiction written about the First World War by those who were there. He reviewed 12 books by 12 authors, and along the way mentioned many others. I have reviewed this and am now, one by one, acquiring and reading each of the books. 

I have just completed my second reading of 'Way of Revelation' by Wilfred Ewart. I feel I was transported to the sites and sounds of London and the Western Front between the summer of 1914 and late autumn of 1919, from the 'London Season' to the 'Victory Ball'.

I can think of no better insight into what it was like. 

First time round I was dismissive of this course as a set of 24 10 to 15 minute long videos of Jed talking at us. I didn't realise until I was re-doing the course that there is a substantial 154 page 'workbook' that accompanies the course - not just 'support notes' as indicated, but something different, an accompanying text written, it would appear, by Jed Mercurio, saying more and summarising the videos. It also includes three or four worthwhile exercises after each 'module' which I am now doing as I once again decide to device, write and then send out a TV series proposal.

I got into the BBC, Children's BBC, Children's ITV, Zenith, Jim Henson and others, including a Paris based producer, to discuss ideas so feel I can do this again. This time older, wiser and enlightened. It justifies watching a lot of Netflix, Amazon and now Disney +

Whether I revisit the many old scripts and concepts is another matter. Whilst some of those ideas should still get the attention of producers I know also that they need to be written up from scratch - just as well, as I don't fancy transcribing the contents of various Really Useful boxes in the shed, or lifting scripts of CDs, Amstrad discs or other devices. 

A three week cold. It took several days to get bad enough to stay at home, then stay in bed. A period of intense sneezing, a head produces bags of snot, then it went to my chest. I coughed for 5 days and nights. Then, slowly, things have improved. 

A month on I have the slightest residual cough which could be seasonal allergy as much as the left overs of the cold. My inclination is to keep wearing a mask as I don't want to give my cold to anyone else ... or for them to pass on further germs to me, like 'flu or Covid. 

I put it to the Council that a simpler way to communicate projects from the Neighbourhood Plan would be to create a deck of Top Trumps Cards. We are now close to achieving this - 31 cards and a blank template. These cover everything from improving the urban environment, traffic calming, pedestrian crossings, toilets, planting more trees and shrubs to major works to add foot bridges and riverside walks.

I'm busy being a Digital Editor - all things First World War 1900 to 1923 or thereabouts. I'll be covering the years 1850 to 1949 in due course ... and the entire 20th century! That war has a long shadow.

Otherwise Town Council stuff and Green Party.

Swim Teaching and Coaching.

And Life Drawing twice a month. Got to keep my hand in.

That and Lingvist for my French most days.

The only thing I put on a New Year's Resolution list 5 years ago that I have not done is pick up and play the guitar, or sail much or ski at all. 

Oh, well, you can't have everything.

Applying for two related though different positions, one in a college as the Digital Learning Manager the other in an national charity as the Online Learning Manager - both offer opportunities, both see my having complementary and overlapping skills, with a gap or two perhaps in my experience and skillsets to fill.

First interview on Friday, second interview on Tuesday so a busy few days doing what is expected these days to occupy a 1 1/2 hour interview process made up of presentations, tasks and interview.

I'm determined that whatever I do takes advantage of what I have learnt at the Open University otherwise it rather negates my having completed the MA ODE. I do rather think at times that an FE, practical skills in learning tools choices, design and outcomes would be of more value to get a foot through the door than the PGCE / Graduate level theorising that comes with the MA ODE.

My first year as a PGCE students is coming to a close as I deliver a 150+ page Module 3 document which tracks my learning experiences of the last year. Revisiting so much It staggers me how much I have done and how much I have learnt. I have gone from over-thinking, over-writing and over-working content like a web agency producer putting up a website for an audience, to being a collaborator and facilitator in a class (or remote). We learn together. I know the subject, I theme it, prep-things, know my learning aims and outcomes, trigger responses, get them all involved, say less and do more. 

Can stand alone digital do this? At great expense in a gamified environment perhaps, but not when your resources stretch to the Smart TV, some chromebooks and most valuable of all - some marker pens and a whiteboard. 

Just as I put my head down after a short, very early in the morning splurge of activity (I have a habit of doing an hour to 90 minutes from around 3:30am most mornings) I had an idea. One of those ideas which says to be either 'business opportunity' or 'story'. Today it is of the business kind.

Can I now develop something from scratch, again, and this time (for the third time), believe I can make it happen and run with it for at least three years to get it on its feet?

It is all about the business relationship between an educational institution and its digital learning team. Do you have a print room, or purchase in those services as required? 

Meanwhile, I promise in due course to feed some of the 150 pages of my module 3 in here. To write it I've picked out some jottings from here. But I also keep a 'day diary' - a sheet or a few paragraphs just noting emails in/dealt with, meetings. Also, which proved very useful and feasible during remote teaching is the vast gallery of screenshots I have - these reminded me of the number of Google Meets and Zoom Calls I have taken part in, or led and provides ample evidence of the learning journey I have been on and the learning curves I have travelled.

Despite loathing slides I did a 'death my power point' microteach - you do what others do and fail like them, if all you have ever seen is failing teaching. And then I replaced this with the equally deplorable 'death by mind map' - all text and my workings again. All I wanted to do was a TED lecture style, no slides talk. These days I go for TEDx with a few supporting slides and video, and a great deal of interaction where the students research, think through and share and make their understanding rather than me telling them what is what. 

Note to self:

JFV Ed-Tel blog. I kept this for my first two years at GBMET - private mostly, day to day activities and practices.

Day Diary. I call it this but it is a weekly document which can run to 100+ pages where I note down events, emails, link, and add screenshots so that I can back-up my Teflon brain.

Reflections on e-leanring. The external WordPress version of this ... just as Mindbursts.com was before it (and still is)

Google Photos: Weekly sets of screenshots 'dumped' into a monthly gallery.

Is something of an understatement.

Since I last wrote I have received a redundancy/restructuring notification. In this shake up my job has gone. I can apply for a marginally more senioir role ... in competition with others. I'm well suited to this, but not the ideal candidate. Or I could take a 40% cut in salary (far fewer hours and term time only) ... and again, I am well suited to the role, but not ideal.

This leaves me open to other opportunities around the college, potentially teaching (I am submitting my end of First Year PGCE module today), or coaching - using my range of subject expertise.

Meanwhile I have 20 hours of work to hold on to: 12-14 hours as a digital editor and about 6 hours teaching/coaching swimmers. Not much, but this is at least all year long.

While I approach 60, here I am still wondering what I should be doing with my life. I itch to write, to blog, to podcast, to get back into production, to head up a team creating branched learning (storylines that split in multiple directions).

And I am still an active Green Party Councillor with more important local elections in two years time after some spectacular local wins at the county level the other week - 4 Green seats gained from Zero from the Conservatives. 

Now what? All this and a DNA test from Ancestry says I am 58% Scottish, 23% Northern England and West European ... with 7% Irish and bits of Iceland and Spain thrown in for good measure.  I'd love to see how my wife comes out: her paternal grandmother left Ukraine for Poland to escape the Bolsheviks, her paternal grandfather was Polish; on her maternal side she is all Maltese (though her mother was brought up entirely in Italy, then Britain). 

Who cares? Netflix continues to please. Currently caught in 'White Lines' which I missed first time round.

And teaching has been magic. How many classes start with the trailers for Men in Black and Men in Black International and then challenge the students to identify the standards, values and morals of MIB agents and how these have changed 1969 to 2019. They got all the first three films of the franchcise for homework. We meet again at the end of next week: sexisim, elitism, secret societies, shoot first ask questions later, torture of informants, bribery, corruption and racism against certain alien cultures.

Inside the Black Box by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (1998)

My intention with this notes is to qualifiy what I am picking out from what I learn as I go along. ASo watch out, I'll be back several times to adjust what I've put here with examples and reflection. 

Raising stands of learning that are achieved through school education. (p.1)

System engineer = black box and inputs to deliver outputs.

What is happening 

Some things counter-productive

Something policy-makers can do?

Teaching and learning have to be interactive (p.2)

Feedback to modify the activities

Effect size 0.4 = one grade at GCSE

Improved formative assessment helps the (so-called) low attempt more than the rest.

Frequent assessment feedback helps both groups enhance their learning (Fuchs et al, 1997) Effects of Task Focused Goals on Low Achieving Students. (p.5)

Actively involved (p.5)

Requires guidance on how work can be improved.

Advice not grades are needed (p.6)

Personal improvement is more important than setting one against another with grades. 

Vs. students getting into the habit of ‘just getting by’. (p.8)

NOTE :> The ultimate use of assessment information which is elicited in order to improve learning is the pupil.

Vs. - ‘the overall result’ (with grades/gold stars) ‘is to enhance the frequency and the extent of under-achievement’.

• A culture of success

• A belief that all can achieve

NOTE:> Feedback to any pupil should be about the particular qualities of his or her work, with advice on what he or she can do to improve, and should avoid with other pupils.

Formative assessment is enhanced through self- and peer- assessment.

Pupils are honest in assessing themselves and others.

Their own assessments become an object of discussion with their teachers and with one another. (p.10)

The desired goal

Present position

A way to close the gap (Sadler, 1989) Formative Assessment and the design of instructional systems (Instructional science) 18 pp 119-144

NOTE : > For formative assessment to be productive, pupils should be trained in self-assessment so that they can understand the main purpose of their learning and thereby grasp what they need to do to achieve.

Careful scrutiny of the main components of a teaching plan. As the argument develops it becomes clear that instruction and formative assessment are indivisible.

NOTE : > Opportunities for pupils to express their understanding should be designed into any piece of teaching for this will initiate the interaction whereby formative assessment aids learning. (p.11)

The dialogue between pupils and a teacher should be thoughtful, reflective, focused to evoke and explore understanding, and conducted so that all pupils have an opportunity to think and to express their ideas.

Untapped potential not fixed IQ (p.14)

To take new practices on board what teachers ‘need is a variety of living examples of implementation, by teachers with whom they can identify and from whom they can both desire conviction and confidence that they can do better, and see concrete examples of what doing better means in practice. (p.16)

Drawing > Median > via swimming and making a jigsaw > full time in the West for creativity.

Facts or thinking

This is my teaching bible. These are my notes. Somewhat cryptic but I have my favs. These are quote ready so that as I write or reflect on my practice I have the right words and person to hand. Where I have picked out the full reference to a book it is because I plan to dig further - to get that book if I don't have it already. 

I have truly found this process transformative. All kinds of teaching in the widest sense of the word have improved - we humans are by default teachers and learners. How else have we got to where we are? Writing a blog on a distance learning website rather then sniffing about in the bushes all day for something to eat. 

Classical Learning Theories (p.1) 

Plato ‘nature’

Aristotle 'nurture’

• Behaviourism - react to stimuli
• Cognitivism - individuals create, rather than receive knowledge
• Humanism - the individual and the nature of learning

Being Socratic (p.9)

• Never be afraid to make mistakes

• Try to avoid giving out too many answers

• Have the clase share their wisdom

Plato (p.10)

It is in a learner’s nature to behave in the manner that they do.

Aristotle (p.12)

Examine, interpret, self-expansive and develop self-belief.

Tips for the Class:

• Set high expectations

• Recognise tasks completed

• Recognise effort

• Look for answers themselves

• A few early wins

Nature (p14) vs Nurture

Biologists - Behaviourists

Nietzsche (p.18)

What is personal to the student matters

What a student currently believes is important

Learning is an active process

Dewes (p20)

Learners should be provided with quality experiences that engage and build their existing experiences. 

Shared thinking and reflection should be the cornerstone of teaching.

Sartre (p22)

Education to understand who you are and your version of reality

It's a mistake when you blame it on fate and not on yourself

Freire (p.24)

Build on the language, experience and skills of the learner.

Story of Jane Elliot teaching segregation to white kids by separating them by eye colour. (p.24)

Critical consciousness

Action - Reflection - Action (p.24)

Get a rich picture of the learner’s perspective 

Have students open up about things that could be affecting their learning

Behaviourism (p.27)

Thorndike Skinner Englebaum

Pavlov Gagne

Stimulus/Response

Edison 1% inspiration / 99% perspiration (p.29)

Spell out the rules and regulations relating to how you want people to respond and the penalties for infringing them. (p.30)

Colman (p.36)

People don’t apply their learning unless they have a reason to do so.

Latent Learning

Ask the individual what experience they have of the subject matter.

Fish around and play detective

Gagné (p.38)

Gagné Nine Levels (p.38-39)

1. Get their attention

2. What they will be able to do

3. Test prior knowledge

4. Organise logically

5. Support with examples

6. Demonstrate understanding

7. Give feedback

8. Final Assessment

9. Understanding through use

Engelmann

• Direct instruction model
• Differentiate learner’s ability
• Clear steps. 
• Gradual steps

Cognitivism

Constructivism/Connectivism

Dewey-Piaget-Bandura

19115-1935-1959

Dewey (p.49)

Learning is relatable

Encourage people to have a personal interest in the subject matter

Design experiences that lead to independent learning

Research the student’s interests

Show its relevance to the modern/current world and their lives

Köhler

Gestalt (p.46)

Interacting relationships from failure through reflecting perception to insight

Encourage new ideas (p.47)

• Use techniques
• Reassure learners
• Evaluate want went wrong
• Keep on trying to find out 
• Allow not to be bound by emphasis on ‘delivering the content’.

Vygotsky

MKO > Most Knowledgeable Other

ZPD > Zone of Proximal Development

Like ‘flow’ and Mehaly Csikszentmihalyi

Scaffolding

• Build interest in the subject
• Break the task into smaller sub tasks

Use MKOs

Piaget (p.50)

• Stage of cognitive development
• Take an active, mentoring role
• Learn from peers
• Learn from mistakes
• The process of learning as well as the outcome
• Respect limitations

Try to cater for all your learner’s needs - some flourish in a group, others on their own. (p.51)

Bandura (p.52)

Children are copycats.

Ausubel (p.54)

Link new concepts with existing understanding and knowledge

New materials should not be introduced unless it can be integrated into what is already known.

Bruner (p.56)

• Personal participation
• Actively in the process of knowledge acquisition
• Design sessions that help the individual
• Discover the relationships between bits of information

Give the students the information, but have them organise it to solve a problem.

• Assess
• Ask
• Discover
• Determine
• Find out (assess)

Section 1.4 Humanism

People have a natural potential for learning

Most significant learning takes place when the individual can see that the subject matter is relevant to them.

Knowles (p.62)

Adult learners are more concerned with learning in order to complete tasks or solve problems than just learning subjects.

Who are you to define when or if I have become an adult?

Rogers (p.64)

Facilitating the process of individuals arriving at their own solutions.

• Be true to yourself
• Consider issues from the other person’s standpoint
• Accept others for what they are

Class Facilitator

1. Set the mood/climate

2. Agreement on outcomes

3. A range of resources

4. Find out what they learnt

Maslow (p.66)

You can’t teach anyone anything unless they want to.

(You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink) JV

• Physical
• Psychological
• Affiliation
• Esteem
• Self-fulfilment

Mezirow (p.68)

• Experience of life
• Critical reflection
• Rational discourse

(What you learn at home/family or immediate community) JV

Summary of Part I (p.92)

Behaviorist theory relates to reactive

Learning and is underpinned by conditioning and reinforcement

Humanist theory is about reflective learning dependent on experience and self-efficacy.

NOTE :> Test learners’ prior knowledge of skills at the start of every lesson.

Express less objectives in terms of what the learner will know or be able to do at the end of the lesson. (p.93)

Give constant feedback on performance throughout the lesson.

Professionalism (p.100)

The seven habits of highly effective teachers:

1. Creative in their use of materials

2. Competent in their knowledge of the subject

3. Caring towards learners 

4. Communicative in the way they support learners to believe in themselves

5. Confident and having a high sense of value of self and others

6. Considerate in the way they approach learners

7. Calm in being able to understand and manage difficult situations

Petty (p.102)

1. Be Creative
2. Solve problems
3. Use knowledge productively
4. Use knowledge meaningfully
5. Increase their desire to want to learn

Inspiration - spontaneous

Clarification - intentions 

Evaluation - SWOT

Distillation - evaluation and chose 

Incubation - reflection 

Perspiration - effort 

Schneider (p.107)

Earn the respect of your learners by showing an interest in them as individuals.

Purkey (p.108) = Engagement

Teachers need to communicate effectively and invite students to participate in learning

Respect, care, trust, optimism.

Berne (p.110) = Confidence

High Self - confidence and high confidence in learners results in a harmonious situation in the classroom which will be characterised by constructive and cooperative relationships.

Dealing with conflict - focus on the issue not the person (p.115)

Learning Styles - the Debate

Coffield et al. (2004)

Should we be using learning styles?

Honey and Mumford (1986)

Manual of Learning Styles

The ‘idiosyncratic’ way in which an individual acquires, processes, comprehends and retains information. (p.117)

Neil Fleming - VARK (p.120)

(I disagree with this nonsense JV)

Kolb (p.122-123)

• Divergers
• Assimilations
• Convergers
• Accommodators

Peter Honey and Alan Mumford (p.124-125)

• Activists - learn by doing
• Reflectors - stand back
• Theorists - think it through
• Pragmatists - problem solving

Don’t teach in a way that caters for only one style of teaching (p.127)

Briggs-Myers & Cook-Briggs (p.127-129)

Myers & Briggs

• Extrovert - Introvert
• Sensor - Intuitor
• Thinkers - Feelers
• Judges - Perceivers 

ENFP (p.129)

Not having to deal with routine and uninspiring tasks. 

Understand that in a group of learners there will be a range of different personalities.

Don’t prepare learning materials that cater for only one personality type.

Sternberg (p.131)

The key to effective teaching is variety and flexibility in order to accommodate any way of thinking and learning styles, systematically varying your teaching and assessment methods to reach any learner. 

REF: Sternberg, R.J. 13 Thinking / Learning Styles

Motivation (p.133)

The thinking you do to get others to do something.

Something that happens, inside people that gets them to do something.

Do students accept:

• They need to learn
• They have the potential to learn
• Learning as a priority
• Classroom facilities
• Student input
• Knowledge/enthusiasm for the subject
• Approachable but professional
• Set realistic challenges
• Positive and helpful

Encourage your learners to believe in themselves (p.137)

X/Y Teachers / Students (p.138-139)

Don’t let the people (learner/student) who crave power undermine your authority. (p.141)

Curzon’s Fourteen Point Plan

Show the learner how each lesson objective dovetails with long term learning intentions as set out in the course aims and scheme of work.

Set challenging but achievable tasks - aim for one level above.

Make learning materials interesting and meaningful.

Enthusiasm

Group Activities

Problems to solve (p.143)

REF: Curzon, L.B. (2013) Teaching in Further Education (7th) London: Continuum

Carol Dweck (p.144-145)

Most people are at either end of a spectrum. 

Fixed mindsets 40% - Growth mindset 40%

• Intelligence is not fixed and can be developed through hard work and the accumulation of knowledge and understanding.
• Potential full potential can only be reached through constant learning.
• Validation: show the learner that they can become whoever they wish and should never try to justify themselves to others.
• Challenge: get them to welcome the challenge and be willing to take reasonable risks to overcome this and improve. (p.144) 
• Learning: get them to value learning for what it will do for them.

Dweck argues growth mindset learners are motivated by inner desires to improve rather than by external stimuli. In this respect, none of the above interventions will work unless the learner is intrinsically motivated to want them to work.

How to motivate your learners to have a growth mindset (p.145)

• Praise effort as much as praise results.
• Success comes from hard work not the individual.
• Failure is the result of lack of effort only.
• Use analogies, metaphors, and role models to demonstrate just what can be achieved through hard work and effort.

Get students to reflect on the effort they put in to achieve the results they got. 

Convince learners that every setback is a challenge and should be viewed as an opportunity.

NOTE :> "You really tried hard there."

Encourage the use of self-assessment and peer assessment.

REF: Dweck, C.S (2012) Mindset: How you fulfil your potential. London: Robinson.

Section 2.3 Behaviour Management

Classroom rules are in the interests of learners and teachers (p.148)

Involve learners in setting the ground rules (p.149)

Some good ideas here on managing classroom behaviour. (p.151)

Kainin, J.S. (1970)

Discipline and Group Management in Classrooms. New York: Holt, Reinhart & Wilson

Working and long-term memory (p.154)

Memory is the residue of thought.

Encourage learners to think about a subject in a way they find interesting will enhance their capacity to remember the subject. (p.154)

Critical thinking requires background knowledge.

Learning is impossible without practice - practice reinforces basic skills and protects against forgetting

NOTE :> Learning styles are futile: effective teaching focuses on the content of the lesson, not differences in the learners’ preferred style of learning.

• Questions
• Case studies
• Stories
• Analogies
• Practice

Don’t overload your learners (p.155)

Test your learners prior knowledge of the subject and build on what they already know as a way of helping them to understand new material.

Cowley (p.156)

NOTE :> Knowledge is power: whatever system your organisation has in place for dealing with disciplinary matters, make sure you fully understand it.

If you are uncertain about what is allowed, learning will sense it and exploit it.

REF: Cowley, S (2014) Getting the Buggers to Behave (5th Edn) London: Bloomsbury Education.

Psychopaths and how to deal with them. (p.158)

Section 2:5 Coaching and Mentoring

Teachers are (    ) trained professionals who work with people on developing their understanding of an issue. (p.161)

Coaches: to develop specific skills.

Mentoring: a relationship of mutual trust.

(p.162) see diagram

Whitmore : the ultimate goal of the coach is as a facilitator who helps the person select the best options.

Bob Bates (p.166)

Teamworking (p.173)

In order for people to find a reason to work as a member of a team, they need a common purpose and sense of identity. 

• Forming > Storming (p.174-175)
• Norming
• Performing > Adjourning

NOTE :> Francis Buckley

And team teaching (p.178)

Teaching people to be competent is good but supporting them to be creative is where the added value is. (p.181)

Part 4: Planning, Delivering and Assessing Learning (p.255)

Some teachers will be given pre-set curricula and lesson plans and have little scope for variation from these. Others will be given a blank sheet of paper and total freedom in planning lessons.

Curriculum planning

All the learning experiences which are planned and delivered. (p.257)

Ralph Tyler - a behaviourist approach. (p.259)

Objectives

Content

Teaching methods 

Assessment

• Formulate objectives (p.261)
• Select content
• Select teaching methods
• Delivering teaching
• Measuring outcomes

Hilda Taba (p.262)

Content/Objectives

Evaluation/Methods

= learning objectives

‘Grassroots’ - developed by teachers.

Daryl Wheeler (p.266)

Rational Objective Model - teacher-centred

Diagnose learner needs

• Learning outcomes as behavioural changes
• Content taking account of desired behavioural changes
• Learning experiences and content interrelated 
• Evaluation to inform diagnosis of learners needs

NOTE :> Place the interests of your learners first by diagnosing their needs.

Always express your outcomes in terms of what change in behaviours you expect from your learners as a result of the learning experience.

Jerome Bruner (p.272)

Any subject can be taught effectively in some form to learners at any stage of their development.

A logical progression from simplistic ideas to complicated ideas.

Philip Jackson (p.224)

Recall is the highest form of intellectual achievement.

Lesson Planning (p.279)

NOTE :> Why lesson plans are important: structure, logic, objectives, assessment - an aid for the teacher.

Bloom (p.280)

Attract learner’s attention (p.285)

REF: Bloom, B. and Krachwork/ D (1956) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. London: Longman

Pritchard (p.288)

• Focus - is it clear and explicit
• Content - based on existing knowledge
• Context - Is this appropriate 
• Is there scope for social interaction and for activity?
• Is there variety and choice?

• Focus
• Content
• Context
• Interaction
• Variety
• Challenge

George Doran (p.290) 

• Specific
• Measurable
• Acceptable
• Realistic
• Time bound
• Exciting
• Rewarding

Make sure you can describe in a clear and unambiguous manner, what learners will be able to do by the end of the session.

Tell the learners how their progress will be monitored.

‘By the end of the session, you will be able to … “ (p.292)

Delivering learning (p.295)

If teaching is a methodical, carefully planned delivery based on research and well-structured approached ( > then self-paced digital is the future) JV

If teaching (and being taught) is a performance where the teacher (more like a standup) responds to their audience’s reaction and relies on instincts and creativity ( > then it is 1 to 1 and classroom based).

Delivering Learning

Science or art? (p.295)

• Behaviourist - directing learners
• Cognitivist - transferring knowledge
• Neurologist - process info
• Humanist - guide

John Hattie (p.296) Visible learning

Evaluate the effect of teaching on learners

Assessment is feedback about impact

Ian Reece and Stephen Walker

• Verbal praise - for effort
• Feedback - timely
• Arousal - baffle/perplex
• Unexpected - mix it up
• Familiar - know them

Usual Context (p.300)

Games and simulation

REF: Reece, I and Walker, S (2007)

Teaching, Training and Learning (6th Ed)

Sunderland: Business Education Publishers. 

Sayer and Adey (p.301)

If teachers give the answers learners remember the facts. If learners develop the answers themselves, they will understand.

Learners respond best when they are pushed slightly beyond the level where they as individuals can work without assistance.
Learners need to see the connection between what’s being taught and their own interests.

Each learner should have the opportunity to explore the subject in terms of what they want to get out of the subject.

Learners learn better in a classroom environment where they feel significant and respected.

Section 4:4 Assessment and Feedback

• Accountability
• Recognition
• Certification

• Inductive - are they right for the course?
• Formative - ongoing throughout 
• Summative - at the end of every lesson
• Deductive - at the end of the course

REF: Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (p.310-311)

• Active involvement
• Feedback based on clear learning intentions
• Methodologies flexible to feedback
• Learners able to self-assess and assess others

For formative assessment to be effective teachers need to get inside their learner’s heads and to connect with their thinking and feelings.

Clarify with your learners what the planned learning outcomes are.

Agree milestones where feedback will be given.

Encourage a culture of self-assessment and peer-assessment in the class.

If the purpose of the lesson is to learn how to make an omelette then don’t engage learners in debate about what came first, the chicken or the egg. (p.313)

REF: Jim Gould and Jodi Roffey-Barentsen (pp.318-319)

A six stage model for giving feedback.

1. Listen to what the learner has to say about their performance

2. Confirm that you have listened to and understood what the learner had to say 

3. Inform the learner of the thinking behind your assessment of their performance

4. Focus on specific points in the performance.

5. Summarise the points that have been discussed

6. Agree what action the learner needs to take to improve performance.

QQ: “What did you feel you did well?”

To gauge their level of self-awareness (p.318)

Shute uses the analogy of feedback as being likened to a good murder, in that a learner needs a MOTIVE (a desire for it),opportunity (can do something with it) and means (the ability to use it effectively). (p.320)

Focus feedback on the task not the learner.

• Specific
• Clear/simple
• Elaborate
• Chunked
• Unbiased/objective

Provide feedback immediately after a learner has attempted a task.

“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one who must walk through it.”

REF: Shute, V.J. (2008) Focus on formative feedback. Review of Educational Research 78(1) 153-189

Section 4.5 Evaluating Teaching and Learning

Measure the quality of teaching relative to fitness for purpose: will the teaching do what the learners want it to do?

Reflection

Evaluation (p.323)

Schön (p.326)

Reflection on action

After the event > review, describe, analyse and evaluate.

Reflection in action

Thinking-while-doing - on your feet about what to do next.

NOTE :> ‘Reflecting-in-action’ - is at the core of the ‘professional artistry’, where practitioners develop the talent to ‘think-on-their-feet’ and improvise.

Stephen Brookfield (p.328-329)

See practice through four complementary lenses or what I would call their 'point of view' (POV) 

• Autobiographical lens (pov)
• Learner’s lens (pov)
• Colleagues (pov)
• Theoretical literature (pov)

Brookfield, S (1995)

Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

I've done a lot of this of late: reading hefty tomes on education. It makes the pragmatism and evidence based practices of Dylan Wiliam all the more important. Here goes for Kolb. There are a few quotes worth citing and no doubt some theories I might, with your asssitance, get my head around. 

Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development

• David A. Kolb (1984)
• New Jersey, USA
• Prentice Hall PTR

Eight Chapters

• Intro
• Towards competence
• Working knowledge
• Pertinent jobs

C1. Adaptation and learning - this is the unique human skill

And why something like Covid-19 is a catastrophe and a catalyst for change

‘Learning is no longer ‘for the kids’ but a central lifelong task essential for personal development and career success.

Experiential learning:

• Internships
• Field placements
• Work/Study Assignments
• Structured exercises
• Role Play

Gaming simulations (Kolb, 1984)

• Apprenticeships
• T Levels
• Learning Model Cos

Online selling (2021)

E.G. Digital literacy reflection ‘adults’ learning interests are embedded in their personal histories, in their visions of who they are in the world and what they can do and want to do.’ Rita Weathersby (1978, p.19)

NOTE : > For these adults learning methods that combine work and study, theory and practice provide a more productive arena for learning. (Kolb, 1984, p.6)

Tension/Controversy conflict - brings about discussion and learning (p.10)

In and off the moment i.e. living it.

Being detached enough to see this process and context for what it is.

Open atmosphere

Formal models

Vitality and creativity

C2 The Process of Experiential Learning

The central role of that experience plays in the learning process (p.20)

Here-and-now concrete experience - observations and reflection - formation of abstract concepts and generalisations > testing implications

The Lewinian Model (p.21) 

Dewey’s Model more detailed

Knowledge obtained partly by recollection and partly from the information, advice, and warming of those who observed.

Piaget’s model and stages (p.23)

0-2 years concrete/active sensory-motor stage

Feeling, touching, handling, goal-orientated behaviour.

2-6 years - beginning to reflective orientation internalising actions and converting them to images.

7-11 years - logic of classes and relations. The child increases his independence.

12-15 years

Jerome Bruner ‘Toward a Theory of Instruction’ - makes the point that the purpose of education is to stimulate inquiry and skill in the process of knowledge getting, not to memorise a body of knowledge.

Implant new ideas (p.28)

Dispose of or modify old ones

Resistance to new ideas

Bring out examine and test the learner’s belief and themes

Integration and substitution

Wallas (1926)

Four stages:

1. Incorporation
2. Incubation
3. Insight
4. Verification

Fig.2.4

See this for elements to include in a lesson/sessions

C3 Structural Foundation of the Learning Process

A four-stage cycle: (p.40)

1. Concrete experience 
2. Reflective observation
3. Abstract conceptualisation
4. Active experimentation

How people do things regardless of it being the best approach.

Overtime, individuals develop unique possibilities - processing structures that the dialectic tensions between the pretension and transformation dimension and consistently resolved in a characteristic fashion.  (p.76)

As a result of our heredity equipment, our particular past life experience, and the demands of our present environment, most people develop learning styles that emphasize some learning abilities over others. (p.76)

Jungian Types

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

A job choice/success

A major function of education is to shape students’ attitudes and orientations toward learning.

Positive attitude

Thirst for knowledge

Not ‘learning styles’ so much as ‘lifestyle’ choice and approaches.

NOTE :> Learning styles are conceived not as fixed personality traits but as possibility-processing structures from unique individual programming of the basic but flexible structure of human learning

Orientations

Transactions with the world (pp 95-96)

C5 The Structure of Knowledge

Knowledge does not exist solely in books, mathematical formulas or philosophical systems, it requires active learners to interact with, interpret, and elaborate these symbols. (p.121)

Learning style is shaped by what is being taught, the faculty where it is taught and those teaching. Learners adapt to fit what is deemed necessary for the task with engineering, for example adapting compared to social science or the humanities.

Concrete - abstract

Archive - reflective

In his 1955 Lithograph entitled ‘lberations’ M.C. Esher captures the essence of the three stages of experiential learning:

Acquisition

Specialisation

Integrate Development (p.160)

Learning and Development in HE

Acquisition

Preparation

Basic skills

Utilise the tools of social knowledge

Specialisation

Selection

Meet social needs

Integration

Unique capabilities of the whole person toward creativity, wisdom and integrity.

Different learning environments required for different subjects and outcomes - the learner adopts. (p.198)

Affectively complex

Simulate/mirror

Current

Schedules adjust to the learners needs

Perceptually complex

Understanding something

Identify relationships

Define problems for investigation

Collect relevant info 

Research a question

Systematically complex

Solved problem with a right or best solution

Teacher as taskmaster

Behaviorally complex

A practical problem with not right or best answer

Students need to adopt the best learning approach required by a specific task - it is the successful learning of the task that dictates the learning approach or ‘style’ required NOT the students. (p.200)

Concrete experience

Best suited to:

Personalised feedback

Sharing feelings

TEachers as friendly helpers

Activities orientated toward applying skills to real-life problems

Peer feedback

Self-directed 

Autonomous vs theoretical reading

Reflective Observation

Teachers provide expert explanations

Guide discussions

Lecturing

Not task-orientated situations

Abstract Conceptualisation

Case studies

Thinking alone

Theory readings

Not group exercises

Personalised feedback

Active-experimentations tendencies

Small group discussions 

Projects, peer feedback

Homework problems

Applying skills to particular problems vs lectures, task masters evaluations right/wrong

Approaches that individualise the learning process to meet the students’ goals, learning style, pace, and life situation, will pay off handsomely in increased learning (p.202)

Teachers as coaches or managers of the learning process are not dispensers of information.

Curricula design

Content objectives

Learning style

Growth and creativity objectives

With experiential learning and once in work students take on the full range of learning approaches based on the environment and needs of what has to be learnt (p.207)

Lifelong Learning and Integrative Development

‘We seek to grow and develop because we must do so to survive - as individuals and as a world community. If there is a touch of aggressive selfishness in our search for integrity, it can perhaps be understood as a response to the sometimes overwhelming pressures on us to conform, submit, and comply, to be the object rather than the subject of our life history’. (p.209)

We are a ‘teaching species’ as well as a ‘learning species’. (p.211)

ME > Opportunities for creativity/role innovation (Schein, 1972) - the extent to which a career offers continuing challenges and opportunities for changing roles and job functions.

(p.228) Fig.8.2

Fact > Value

Relevance > Meaning

Courage, justice, love, wisdom