Three Steps to a Collaborative Learning Environment: the discussion continues
My conference input enabled me to explore ways of getting students collaborating and in the process giving each other feedback and comment. Some interesting points were raised by the other participants and I would be pleased to hear what you think about these aspects of collaboration:
Is the resistance to collaborative approaches because of how trainee teachers are trained -- or about their own educational experiences as students? Or something else? Is a change of culture needed if teachers regard feedback as a judgement?
I think that if you are not used to working in a way which means you have to comment on other people’s ideas and work, it must take a while to get used to it. What do you think?
Are schools leading the way?One delegate said: “I have been amazed at peer feedback activities. They’re in every lesson”
Should we assess feedback and collaboration as important 21st century learning skills?
I hadn’t thought of that as an argument in their favour - I was coming from the belief that peer feedback and collaboration result in more-effective learning. Do you think it is a kind of basic skill?
Do you give students a 'crib' for feedback? I do find that the trainee teachers need to practise giving feedback in the fairly formal setting of the micro-teach, when they feed back on their peers’ sessions. One of the reasons giving this kind of feedback is valuable is that to give it you have to have a reasonably good grasp of the criteria for judging a session; these are complex and have to be learned.
Is Padlet the best tool for (online) collaboration? I think you have to strike a balance between making use of the many new technologies and running the risk of intimidating some learners. I have had some good successes with getting students to work together on Padlet, but as I said there are many more-accomplished practitioners than me around. My main vehicle are discussion forums, online meetings and swapping slides.
How do you get your students working together with each other and with you?
Feedback on feedback
Three Steps to a Collaborative Learning Environment: the discussion continues
My conference input enabled me to explore ways of getting students collaborating and in the process giving each other feedback and comment. Some interesting points were raised by the other participants and I would be pleased to hear what you think about these aspects of collaboration:
Is the resistance to collaborative approaches because of how trainee teachers are trained -- or about their own educational experiences as students? Or something else? Is a change of culture needed if teachers regard feedback as a judgement?
I think that if you are not used to working in a way which means you have to comment on other people’s ideas and work, it must take a while to get used to it. What do you think?
Are schools leading the way? One delegate said: “I have been amazed at peer feedback activities. They’re in every lesson”
Should we assess feedback and collaboration as important 21st century learning skills?
I hadn’t thought of that as an argument in their favour - I was coming from the belief that peer feedback and collaboration result in more-effective learning. Do you think it is a kind of basic skill?
Do you give students a 'crib' for feedback? I do find that the trainee teachers need to practise giving feedback in the fairly formal setting of the micro-teach, when they feed back on their peers’ sessions. One of the reasons giving this kind of feedback is valuable is that to give it you have to have a reasonably good grasp of the criteria for judging a session; these are complex and have to be learned.
Is Padlet the best tool for (online) collaboration? I think you have to strike a balance between making use of the many new technologies and running the risk of intimidating some learners. I have had some good successes with getting students to work together on Padlet, but as I said there are many more-accomplished practitioners than me around. My main vehicle are discussion forums, online meetings and swapping slides.
How do you get your students working together with each other and with you?