Category: M01ODL Weekly reflections

I’m the type of person that hates to leave a job half-done, so only dipping into the course a week at a time was a challenge for me, especially when I allowed allocated times to catch-up on blogs after completing each 2 week course.
Now, I can see the light as I see the above 100% of steps completed!

I just wanted to share my joy of having each little checkbox ticked!

The learning over this module has a times being repetitive and ardious, making me miss face-to-face lectures and seminars, but this is what I opted for by taking an online course!

Although, at times it has been a little difficult to manage, I feel rather accomplished. Not only have I been actively participating in each week, but my confidence has grown dramatically. My fear of secondary and FE teaching experience and qualifications not being transferable to HE have been dashed. I have found that my abilities and my style works well in HE and I should have never doubted myself! More so, I have learnt a fair few skills and areas of HE T&L, which I was previously unaware of. I hope to continue this learning to be a successful teacher with happy, engaged students, reaching their full potential.

My next steps are now to complete the UKPSF mapping activity and the final reflective assignment.

Wish me luck 🙂

Week 2 of the course focussed on the actions we take after we evaluate, ensuring that it is not a one-step task.

Action following evaluation is important, in order to improve and progress. However, from my perspective, sometimes there needs to be a level of acceptance of what we are unable to change. If we are limited due to funding, policies, management or other circumstances, it’s making the best out of our situation.

Here are my initial thoughts:

What was important for me, was reading through the comments and seeing this as a response to another learner:

I will be separating this post into the following areas of learning: turning evaluation into meaningful actions  and the significance of learning communities.

 

Turning evaluation into meaningful actions

Actions as an outcome of evaluation can be separated into 3 areas of impact, taken from the online course download:

1. Immediate impact
   
2. Medium-Term impact
   
3. Long-Term Impact
   

We were then given some really useful examples of gathering feedback. This was my favourite:

One proposal, which I have recently had approved for service desk, is the use of feedback pods to get instant feedback. My proposal included a ‘floating pod’, which departments can hire out and use in a class to gather data on student understanding, satisfaction rates and more. The pods are each connected to online surveys, which can be advertised using QR codes, for those that want to provide more detailed feedback. This is something I have been pushing for for some time, so I am very excited to have these in place on the service desks and I hope to use the pods in my sessions from October.

The online course makes a valid suggestion to follow a reflective cycle, which highlights the importance of action following evaluation. The example used comes from Kolb’s learning cycle:

The cycle seems pretty standard, but I can understand how easy it is for reflection and actions to be made when new to teaching. For experience teachers, I feel this would be easy to keep-in-mind, as it comes so naturally following training.

 

The significance of learning communities

This is a fantastic idea to be fostered at Coventry University, however looking through the comments in reaction to the above text and a video on FLCs in action, it appears many staff fear for time available to engage. From my perspective the time given to engage in an FLC may be costly at the beginning, but with the opportunity to work collaboratively with other departments leads to improved practice and saved time long-term, then I see no problem. I would suggest that these FLC activities take place strategically in the academic year, during quieter periods that allow deeper reflection and collaboration.

Creating my own FLC may be a little more difficult at Coventry University London as part of the professional services, however:

 

Conclusion

This week has been a development on the previous week, more than anything reinforcing the fact that teachers need to use their own reflections and evaluations in their own practice. The ongoing cycle we need to take part in, as mentioned in the previous week by Boyer (2015).

I have been discussing recently the need to create a more centralised approach to providing student support services, and I hope to use what I have learnt over the last two weeks in proposing this. When reflecting my future practice, I will take a look at the use of social media and technology available to create methods of gaining feedback that our students would be interested in engaging in.

Now, this is a great start to a week!

As you would know from my profile, I love all things reflection and identity. Dropping into this weeks course looking at evaluation processes called to me!

Reflection and evaluation is something I actively participate in, but not just my teaching. I use reflection in all apsects of my life, from my cooking methods (likely because my cooking is so poor, when my baking is great), to my management style, to my organisation skills, to my ability to stand in front of a room of students, then my ability to stand in front of a room of peers. Each situation, every action and each observation we are involved in is important in the grand scheme of how we mould and change as we grow.

So, the prospect of looking at evaluation, starting from the quote above sparked my interest., as you can see

 

This week, I will be reflecting on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of my own teaching practice, through reflection.

Origins of evaluating teaching practice

According to the course, Hounsell (2008), who first introduced the concept of evaluation of teaching, was initially criticised. This surprises me, as in my experience, evaluation comes naturally following teaching. A quick tick-box in my head of what did and did not work, what I should and should not do next time seems simple! According to the course, this is due to teaching being viewed as a ‘private’ activity. This may be why my own experience differs, as completing an 11-18 PGCE and teaching in glass-walled classrooms gave me a much more public approach to teaching. Learning and working with a community willing to share best practice, resources and time was really important when working in secondary schools and FE, so I can only imagine evaluation comes so naturally as a result of this.

Later in the course, we were asked to read the blog post Open Your Door: Why We Need to See Each Other Teach by Jennifer Gonzalez (2013). A lot rang true for me and my comment reiterates my thoughts on open evaluation processes:

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

 

I have attempted to summarise the 4 areas below, from Boyer (2015).

• Discovery: The action of research and learning in order to develop knowledge to be applied in HE teaching.
• Integration: To make connections across disciplines and putting them in a perspective of a larger context, revealing and illuminating data and new insights.
• Engagement: The application of knowledge, that benefits both the individuals and the institution we work in. This should be ongoing, engaging often with discovery and integration and reapplying to close the gap between the values of the institution and the larger world.
• Teaching: Teaching occurs as the outcome of the above. To be a teacher, an individual must be well informed and knowledgeable in their teaching area. Teachers should undergo pedagogical planning to ensure learning, but also engage in the act of being a learner.

Reading through the comments on SoTL following the above and a video developing on indivual SoTL practice, this comment was closest to my own views:

Evaluating the effectiveness of my own teaching practice

As an initial introduction to reflecting on our own teaching practice, we were asked to consider groups that should be involved in teaching practice, other than teaching colleagues, self-reflection and students, as recommended by Hounsell (2008). Here were my thoughts:

We next covered the process of evaluating with teaching colleagues and peers, looking at the following examples:

• Collaborative learning sets (CLSs) and action learning sets (ALSs)
• Professional dialogue
• Learning communities
• Coaching and mentoring

As managed of the Personal Tutoring service, I believe I engage with each of the above, however would benefit from a CLS of staff across other HEIs in similar positions. This is something I will now actively look into.

Self-reflection, as I have mentioned has been most prominent in my practice. The course opened up this method of evaluation with the following quote:

We were then asked to capture our methods of engaging in self-reflection by creating one slide in a larger collaborative PowerPoint, which was a really fun activity. I had taken the course earlier than some and now looking back at the PowerPoint, which has grown greatly, I can see many were just as involved in looking at their own methods of self-reflection.

Here’s my contribution:

Student feedback is of course the most important to consider when evaluating, as they are experiencing the teaching and learning. The Personal Tutoring service has used multiple methods to gain feedback, including: end of module survey questions, end of session feedback surveys, focus groups and more. What is really important for me is real-time feedback, using formative assessment and observations of my audience.

My own thoughts were then expanded upon in the course material, looking at sources of informal and under-exploited feedback:

Conclusion

So far, this has been my favourite week of learning. The information was quick and snappy, the activities were engaging and I felt a strong connection to the materials provided. This is likely as it falls into a passion of mine, but I found the week useful in looking at different perspectives of reflection. I look forward to completing the following week and finishing the module, bringing my learning experiences together.

Moving on from the previous week on learning space, the second week pulls in the learning environment and connects this to student engagement. Student Engagement is very important to my current role as Student Information and Engagement Manager. I spend a great deal of my time creating new and innovative ways to engage our students in many areas of student life, from enrolment, to personal tutoring, to customer services. I want our students to feel part of a community and to be involved.

 

What is Student Engagement?

‘Learning begins with student engagement’ (Shulman 2005: 38).

Here are some of the most liked and interesting responses:

The course details that Student Engagement is…

 

Issues with engagement

Seven key issues facing the higher education sector in 2015 beyond, according to the Making the Grade 2015: The Key Issues Facing the Higher Education Sector:

Thinking about the above, I can see how these may affect student engagement. Especially as HE has moved away from a institutions for knowledge, moving into a business sector. As we begin to see our students as paying customers, and as the students begin to see themselves as customer, expectations will rise and competition for the best talent will increase.

Watching the short video on engagement by Ken Robinson, it really struck by home how perceptions can alter our lives to drastically. See my comment below:

Support in order to engage

‘The Carleton University guide Recognizing and supporting students in distress pinpoints steps in identifying and supporting students in need of support. These include:

• recognise – look out for changes in behaviour, performance or appearance
• respond – if students approach you be prepared to listen, acknowledge and reassure
• refer – there are a wide range of support services available at Coventry University’

 

The course moves through information on how to support students with distress, as well as how to manage students that present aggressive behaviour. The aim is to then learn of support mechanisms to promote engagement. From my experience, here’s my view:

Student Feedback

‘Effective feedback assists students to engage with knowledge at a deeper level and provides students with the skills to monitor and sustain continuous learning’ (West and Turner 2016: 400).

Nicol’s 12 principles of good assessment and feedback:

1. Help to clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards)
2. Encourage ‘time and effort’ on challenging learning tasks
3. Deliver high-quality feedback information that helps learners
   to self-correct
4. Provide opportunities to act on feedback (to close any gap between
   current and desired performance)
5. Ensure that summative assessment has a positive impact on learning
6. Encourage interaction and dialogue around learning (peer and
   teacher-student)
7. Facilitate the development of self-assessment and reflection in learning
8. Give choice in the topic, method, criteria, weighting or timing
   of assessments
9. Involve students in decision-making about assessment policy and practice
10. Support the development of learning groups and learning communities
11. Encourage positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem
12. Provide information to teachers that can be used to help to shape
    their teaching

From watching the video on student feedback, it is clear how well appreciated feedback is, and the need for clear and useful feedback. Students need detailed feedback in order to learn from mistakes and progress across different assignments, not only a single reflection on a single assignment.

An example of poor and good quality can seen below, taken from the course:

The second feedback, using the online Turnitin system is clearly more effective. The text is clear and well formatted, with advice which can be used across different future assignments.

Group Activity

As part of a group work, we were asked to join an online study group and discuss one of the offered topics.

As a group, we chose the second case, see below.

20 days following my last comment on 27th June, only one more comment was added. For this reason, I saw fit to gather together responses to date to create a summary comment for the public discussion (16/07):

Conclusion

This week has reinforced the need to ensure assessment and feedback is provided regularly in the personal tutoring system.

I am happy to learn that much of what I do to improve engagement was covered in the two weeks, therefore I am following the best path for Coventry University.

The first week of this course is mainly focussed on learning space, be it physical or online. I have organised my reflections according to the progression of the week.

Before Ibegin, let me first provide a little more detail in response to the question ‘What is learning space?’

‘Spaces are themselves agents for change. Changed spaces will change practice’ (JISC cited in Oblinger 2006).

Now, when picturing a learning space, we tend to have a standard image in our minds of a classroom, or in HE a lecture theatre. A place where students are directed to face forward and pay attention. This weeks learning aims to disrupt this image.

Identifying learning spaces

Learning spaces can actually be just about anywhere. I have a fond dream of being able to teach upon a great grass lawn outside of a university… it sounds very american! However, if the learning environment matches the topic, teaching outside would be a fantastic idea.

As part of Coventry University London, I believe a tour of London would be a great learning opportunity for British Culture during enrolment, but I feel staff and student time, as well as budgets are limited for top bus tours.

What the course brings to light is that learning does not necessarily have to take place in a physical environment. The use of online space is itself a learning environment, and this has somewhat been elluded to in previous courses of this module (active learning).

What surprised me most was how students had a preference for using learning space to engage in group work, as reported in a course video interviewing students.

Physical space

When asked to reflect on the physical space our lessons take part, I was again reminded that the rooms available are not always fit for purpose, nor do they promote engagement.

The course then pushes us to think of different methods for using our space:

Virtual space

‘The virtual is a space in which we can be, just as we can be in physical spaces.

It’s any space in which we can meet others, interact and coexist using networked digital devices. We may interact simultaneously using blogs or instant messaging if we desire, or interact asynchronously via email and discussion forums. Whatever the function, virtual spaces can often make us feel. They have the power to immerse us, to generate emotional attachment or a sense of belonging within us, and therefore influence our level of engagement and interaction.’

When thinking of online learning, I have a few thoughts:

We were given a few examples on online learning spaces, including: Moodle, Simulation and Google docs. Prior to beginning the PGCert, I had given myself and my team the task of training on Moodle lessons, in order to create interactive online sessions. My team have also gone one step further, creating and embedding our PDF handbook as an interactive book.

Blended learning 

‘Blended approaches use multiple methods to deliver learning by combining face-to-face interactions with online activities’ (HEA 2017).

Blended learning is something I am working hard on for personal tutoring, allowing different opportunities to engage and develop.

Conclusion

From this week of learning, I will definitely start looking at how to use more online tech in the classroom, perhaps even looking into the use of Social Media.

One thing I really liked about this week was how short and snappy it was. I was able to learn at a more suitable pace, with the ability to spend more time on certain areas of interest.

From Week 1 of the course to Week 2, we have moved from the building blocks of a lesson, using constructive alignments elements (learning objectives and assessment) into the creating a full lesson plan, implementing the final element (assessment).

In this post, I will reflect on: elements of lesson planning, a lesson plan I created for the course, active learning methods.

 

Lesson Planning 

We were asked to reflect on our teaching techniques according to an article written by Billie Hara (2010) and out of the stereotypes, I would align myself more closely to a ‘disorganised professor who is totally brilliant’. Not because I am disorganised, I always have a lesson plan and materials ready to run with, but I’m not the type of person to follow my plans to the letter. From working as a teacher for a good few years and already completing an 11-19 PGCE, I’ve learnt to relax a little in the classroom. I can read a room better and know how to change a lesson, which I may have planned very well, according to the needs at the time.

Following on this and watching a video discussing teaching perspectives, I believe I have definitely found my own technique and style. I may be able to improve and progress, and I may completely change styles in the future, but at this moment in time,  my style suits me and it works well. I am well organised, but relaxed and flexible. I can manage a classroom and be able to create a safe environment. I know my strengths and I am well aware of my weaknesses. I’d like to think that the style I have found makes me comfortable, but also promotes engagement.

Progressing on this, we were asked to reflect on our position in the classroom. My position is everywhere. I stand according to where the focus should be. Behind a room when I should be out of focus, around the room when explaining something important to draw attention. Running around a room, signing and dancing all help with memory retention as well.

Teaching Conceptions

 

Active Learning 

• Flipped Learning

‘Flipped learning is ‘a strategy that can genuinely improve the student learning experience through increased interactivity’ (O’Flaherty and Phillips 2015).’

Traditional lecture vs flipped learning: In my opinion, both have their place if they are used appropriately and are not the sole method…

• Enquiry-based learning

‘Enquiry-based learning is driven by a process of enquiry owned by the student. It involves the active construction of knowledge, rather than its passive reception (Kahn and O’Rourke 2004).’

‘Enquiry-based learning encompasses a range of approaches that drive enquiry, but each differ in characteristic from so-called ‘pure’ enquiry-based learning. Problem-based learning, for example, requires the teacher to prescribe a specific problem in a structured way, arguably reducing scope for student choice and creativity. See Tosey and McDonnell (2006) and Levy (2015) for further distinctions.’

• Playful learning

‘Play is an intrinsic part of our lives. Dewey (1933: 218) defines serious play as ‘the ideal mental condition’ during which seriousness and play are in harmony to elevate learning.’

‘Playful learning methods can be structured, and may incorporate rules or parameters, but they always align to relevant learning outcomes. They encourage collaboration, creativity and inquiry but, most importantly, they give our students agency to experiment and have the freedom to fail and improve in a safe space.’

• Research-inspired learning and teaching

My Lesson Plan

Using our learning journey from the previous week, in combination with the learning of the week, we were asked to use the lesson plan template provided to write a complete lesson plan.

The lesson plan template, in my opinion, was rather long-winded and required a lot more time and effort than is needed. In the Personal Tutoring Programme, I have created our own blank template using something similar to what I created for FE teaching. The template is fit for purpose and I would argue can be used across FE and HE:  Lesson Plan_Blank

The final lesson plan, (Revision Workshop_Lesson Plan), on reflection is student-centered, with enough opportunities for students to be involved and craft the lesson to their own needs. There is structure, which I have created and could be argued as teacher-centered due to my own subjectivity and preferences, but there is allowance to chop and change as required.

The Assignment

In order to bring together all of our learning over the two week period, we were asked to reflect on the original lesson plan we submitted, which was then peer-reviewed. Please see my assignment and review below.

Conclusion

I feel the most useful part of the this week was reviewing flipped learning, as I have always seen it as a bit of a teaching cop-out. Although my views have not completely changed, I have a better understanding of how the approach can be used and when.

Over this two week period, we learnt about different methods to effectively plan a lesson in HE, allowing plenty of active learning opportunities to promote engagement.

In this blog post, I will be reflecting and discussing: constructive alignment, learning outcomes, and assessment and feedback.

Constructive alignment

Although it would appear from the diagram alone that constructive alignment is defined by learning outcomes, activities and assessment, the course is clear in communicating that this theory is more than just aligning the 3 elements. Constructive alignment has a role in creating a lesson design, with active engagement. If we were to look at all 3 together when developing a lesson, teachers and students may see a clearer pathway in the learning journey. For this reason, when lesson planning I used tables with clearly labelled columns, closely connected to the elements above: activity, details, outcomes (linked to LOs) and assessment. See my reflection below:

Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes usually tend to be my starting place when I start planning a lesson, as they tend to help me structure a lesson’s content. The Learning Outcomes I create move up in levels of learning, using Bloom’s Taxonomy (2956), as mentioned later in the course. My first reflection on how I plan a lesson summarises well my approach to teaching and learning:

There was some debate over the use of verbs within LOs  and whether the use of LOs impeded creativity. Please see my take on this below:

After looking at the importance of LOs across a course, I believe I need to review and rethink my departments actions:

 

Following the first week of course 1, we were asked to complete an assignment, using our learning objectives, please see the full assignment below:

Assessment, as part of constructive aligngment

‘assessment is the most powerful lever teachers have to influence the way students respond to courses and behave as learners’ (Gibbs, 1999: 41)

Quick definitions:

• Assessment of learning: measuring and making judgement on achievement
• Assessment for learning: assessment being used for learning
• Summative assessment: end assessment to measure and certificate learning
• Formative assessment: continuous assessment, in order to develop using feedback and feed-forward.

Looking at the above definitions, it is clear that we would be in a better position using assessment for learning in education. Assessment of learning of course has a place, but we tend to see this more in summative assessments, as used in exams. Using assessment for learning in the classroom can promote engagement and provide time to reflect and develop.

 

Assessment tools and ideas:

1. A-Z of Assessment Methods resource
2. peer feedback guide
3. Online tools:  Socrative, Top Hat and Kahoot

Conclusion 

This week was very useful of reflecting on my own and the personal tutoring teams practice in preparing lessons. I am happy that a lot of our methods used were covered in the week, giving me a greater sense of confidence in what we do. When preparing future sessions, I will begin to look at harnessing more online tools for AfL, as well as to promote engagement.

Again, this week I was lagging behind, prioritising enrolment, but I managed to complete the week without too many struggles.

After the amount of time to complete the previous weeks reflections, I’ll be trying to keep these reflections a little shorter (although I now have a hang of wordpress on domains, finally!).

In week 2 of Understanding Student Learning, the online module content covered: student diversity, the single story and deficit model, diverse ability groups and inclusive teaching and learning. I’ll do a short review on my learning below, as well as my final conclusion of the first two-week learning set.

Student Diversity

As mentioned in the previous week, we all have our own subjectivities and this means we need to take into account each students individual needs and life experiences when attempting to create lessons which involve and engage all (well, most).

Student diversity is impossible to ignore at Coventry University London, with our students coming from over 100 countries. Recognising this type of diversity is impressed upon all staff, ensuring we are able to reach all our customer bases.

In the course, we were asked to be creative and add our own visual representation of our students. Here’s my contribution, as well as my reflection, which took place later in the week (links to following subtitle):

The most useful part of this task was getting to grips with padlet, which I will definitely begin to implement in personal tutoring sessions.

We were then asked to give our opinion on diversity, and after a good reflection, I realised that for so long I had forgotten about all the factors that are covered under the umbrella of diversity, instead focussing on the Coventry University London international aspect.

Here’s my comment:

Following on from this, developing our learning and investigations, we were asked to select on aspect of student diversity to investigate. See my response below:

I still have to come back to this comment and hopefully will soon!

The single story and deficit

As you can see in my above student representations reflection, I have begun to learn about the single-story and deficit model. This fell under the above sub-title, but due to the content, I thought this needed its own section and an entire page screenshot:

Professior Gus John was able to share his personal story via a pre-recorded video for this module, one thing in particular stood out:

‘the question is why is it that 4 generations later, my parents have passed on, for better or worse I’m still here, my children have now got their children and my grandchildren are still being treated as black and minority ethnic in their schools. So, I have to ask myself how long, oh Lord, how long? How long would it take before we sweep away all of that rubbish and begin to understand that the more we stick with those categories, the more we allow some people in this society to feel that they belong and that others are to be tolerated?’

In this, Gus makes a completely valid point. Why is it that BME are underachieving in schools and in HE? The statistics available to show that minority ethnic groups are targeted are treated differently is astounding (educational triage comes to mind, as does self-fulfilling prophecy). If these stereotypes continue into HE, where is the hope?

Tackling the single story early in education is the best method to eradicating the issue in HE.

Diverse ability groups

Towards the end of the two week course, we were asked to tackle a difficult teaching situation, applying our learning.

Please see the situation, and my comment using a mixture of differentiated learning techniques.

Inclusive teaching and learning

 

Final conclusions

After this week and all of the discussions advocating for active and inclusive learning, it surprises me that the CUOnline course is so…. monotonous. As a sufferer of dyslexia, the amount of reading and the levels of discussions that take place can be… I do not want to say overwhelming, instead I’ll opt for ‘off putting’. There is a standard format to the online learning, a video and text or text then an article and per each page, the request to be involved in a discussion in the comments (and although this is not compulsory, I still feel nudged to complete the request). I think I have been unable to manage my time effectively within this course, because online modules have restricted my freedom to learn in my method. Lecturers may bore some and a teaching style I would never personal opt for, but I do love to be in the audience of a lecture when learning. I will press on, harnessing discussions and using the opportunities to collaborate, to apply my learning!