Category: Needs Review/Editing

Teaching Perspectives Inventory – Then and Now

Original Post: 2012.11.30

A quick review of my TPI indicates that what I believe and what I do are two different things. I don’t feel much conflict or hypocrisy about this, however, as I can very easily identify the reason behind this discrepancy: I teach English in Korea. That’s not meant to be dismissive or antagonistic toward Korea, it’s a statement of the culture I teach in, its expectations of how I should teach, and the content that is not much under my control. Korea still expects – and follows – a direct instruction paradigm, and within that there is a strong reliance on the Grammar Translation method of language instruction; two pedagogies that found their way to the archives of popular opinion in other countries years ago. Strother (2003) argues in East Asia teacher-centered pedagogies are culturally reinforced in China, Japan and Korea, but differ only in matter of degree. My experience here certainly echoes his findings.

Kim Hogg's TPI Results
I don’t do what I think I should do, but I know that.

Dominant: Nurturing

Back-up: Transmission, Apprenticeship, (Developmental)

Recessive: (Developmental), Social Reform

These results indicate that I am more concerned with my students’ self-confidence, and that’s true; that’s what I’m instructed to concern myself with. The primary purpose of my existence as a “native speaking instructor” in the classroom has little to do with any (perceived) expertise and more to do with making my students comfortable talking to a non-Korean in English without getting so embarrassed and shy that they collapse into a black hole of themselves. I wish I were exaggerating, but on most accounts this is true. Any opportunity I have to assist them in making gains in their abilities (which really are mostly under-practiced; any Korean students of English probably know more grammar rules than their native-speaking teachers), their social views, or other areas of their lives is pure icing on the teaching cake.

So if my job is merely to being a comforting figure that boosts her students’ confidence and helps them with a few errors along the way, why do I stay? What drives me into a graduate program that demands resources both financial and temporal when it’s not going to make a difference to my job requirements? Looking at my score, my stronger beliefs around Apprenticeship, or what Pratt and Collins (2001) refer to as the teacher-as-highly-skilled-practitioner role, I see my own desires to improve and become a better teacher.

My higher score in Transmission likely also assists in driving me forward. While it is not high on my Beliefs score, it is higher enough in Intentions and Actions to push it to second position in my results. The Transmission perspective also relies on an expert teacher, and that is also an expectation of my students. I have oft been told that in Korea, the teacher knows everything, the students are empty vessels and come to be filled. While I have my own personal disagreements with this philosophy of teaching, I need to find balance between how I view teaching should be, and how my students expect me to act. As such, the Nurturing perspective, which balances care and expectations, is a natural fit.

I also notice that my scores are not strongly opinionated; that is to say, I don’t display a strong set of convictions according to this profile. This may reflect the natural evolution of my teaching philosophy, one that has grown out of trials-by-fire, time in the classroom, and conversations with others navigating their way through the mire of possibly pedagogies without the aid, advantage or influence of formal, professional training. Indeed; I did not go to university planning to be a teacher, but it is what I do, and at the end of the day, I want to be good in my practice. And while I’m certainly after the credentials, it makes sense to me to develop my craft and work toward becoming better, to the best of my ability.

Retake: 2013.5.15

TPI Results May 15, 2013Dominant: Apprenticeship and Nurturing (38).

Backup: Development (32)

Borderline: Social Reform (31)

Recessive: Transmission (27)

Well, a few things have certainly changed, and probably reflects my changes in instruction methods and thoughts about how I’m going to teach vs. what is expected. In short, I’ve thrown a fair number of expectations to the wind and have gone with what feels right in my heart.

From left to right on the scale, my Transmission score has dropped from second to last place (-6 points), Apprenticeship (+8) is now tied with Nurturing (+3) for first place at 38, followed by Developmental (+5) and Social Reform (+7).

Looking again at the descriptions, I can see that the drop in Transmission is likely related to a shift from a teacher-centered model to an increasingly student-centered, constructivist model based (where possible) on problem-based activities. This is all while continuing to work in classes segregated by language skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing); an old set of divisions being replaced by the ACTFL delineations (interpretive, communicative, presentational). This drop in Transmission isn’t to suggest that mastery and careful pacing have become less of a concern. Quite the opposite, in fact.

A large part of what I’m doing (and learning), however, is reflected in the massive jump in Apprenticeship. This is highlighted as “socializing students into new behavioral norms and ways of working” (Summary of Five Perspectives, “Apprenticeship” section). The students, through both student-centered learning activities with a problem-based learning focus is absolutely a shift in behaviour and ways of working. Students and instructor are learning how to make this work. Another new implementation has been standards-based grading. In combination with rubrics now shared with the students, they are learning how to master language in stages, what it looks like, and exactly what they need to be working on to reach the next stage.

This is also reflected in the Nurturing score, where I want my students to understand success is possible, by the students themselves, and that we are all in the learning process together. Standards-based grading allows me to be sensitive to effort, nurturing students in exactly the right ways to bring them closer to achieving the goals for the program. My students know that it’s not about when they learn, but that they learn. We each learn differently and at different speeds, and as long as they show progress over the semester I’m happy.

Finally, for the backup, if Developmental is a measure of student-centeredness, this jump is obvious. I’ve switched from being primarily teacher-focused to intensely, intentionally focusing on how to make my classes more about my students (because I certainly know the material!). An upside of this shift has not only been for my students, but I think also for me as a person. The less I focus on me, what I want and how best to get there, and instead focus on empathy, I’m happier, and so is everyone else.

Re-test 2: 2013.12.3

Here are the results; I’ll have to post an analysis and commentary later.

Chart of TPI results. Details below.
Reverting to the first results

References:

Pratt, D., and Collins, J., (2001). Teaching Perspectives Inventory. Retrieved from http://www.teachingperspectives.com/html/tpi_frames.htm

Strother, J.B., (2003). Shaping blended learning pedagogy for East Asian learning styles. Professional Communication Conference, 2003. IPCC 2003. Proceedings. IEEE International, 21-24. doi: 10.1109/IPCC.2003.1245513  Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org./stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1245513&isnumber=27908

 

CN: Your Cyber Image

I completely agree with utilizing current technology such as a good CMS (be it WordPress, Drupal or something else) to project the public image of the school. For information that is parent or student specific, there are many ways to grant limited access via password and user settings, and in addition, for anything learning-related (that is, directly related to a class or curriculum, behaviour, attendance, etc), the school should be using an LMS to share this information over the internet.

As Shawn mentioned, teacher pages that are out of date and collecting dust should be shuttered. There are many services available online for teachers who wish to present a public portfolio, and the truly web-savvy can work with one of these or manage their own domain. For communication with students, the LMS or CMS can serve this purpose.

As with any company, a school should be concerned with its brand. A public school where student populations are more set and consistent can use their public online face to build community relationships and keep parents and neighbours abreast of ongoing events, be they sport, art, club or academic. A good community of support around the students can only enhance their experiences.

For other schools, such as universities and private institutions, the public webpage serves a purpose primarily as a marketing/student recruitment tool, secondarily as an information portal for existing parents and students, and also as a point of contact for staff recruitment. A quick glance at any well-constructed international school website will demonstrate all of these aspects, usually with a parent and student communication area behind a login screen.

Short of human resources and will, there are no reasons why schools at all levels can’t have a professional face to present the community. Where there is a lack of staff capability, there are student resources available as well as the associated learning opportunity that maintaining the school website can provide. Much like the student newspaper and yearbook, the calendar or event listings can be kept up to date; older students can produce videos and podcasts or other media for distribution, providing lessons not only in website management and development, but media, privacy, and responsible internet “face.”

CN: Web-based Learning

Coultas, J., Luckin, R. & du Boulay, B. (2004). Is There Compelling Evidence for the Effectiveness of E-Learning in Higher Education?. In J. Nall & R. Robson (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2004 (pp. 1828-1834). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.

Abstract: Is there evidence for the effectiveness of e-Learning in the Higher Education sector? This paper offers an overview of theories of learning in instructional contexts and then lists some of the varied and diverse definitions of e-Learning. The question of the extent to which a learning philosophy is implicit (or even explicit) within each definition of e-Learning is raised. The development of a search strategy and the issues of inclusion and exclusion criteria in assessing the evidence for the effectiveness of eLearning are briefly described. A modified form of a systematic review is offered as a methodology suitable to locate and evaluate the evidence needed.

Key Questions:

  • Is learning in Higher Education different to the learning that occurs in compulsory education?
  • Is it useful to revisit theories of learning in instructional contexts?

 

E-portfolio: Future goals

This eportfolio is really bare-bones and I hope it will eventually grow into something amazing. Something amazing would probably look like Stian’s PhD Wiki, with the accompanying incredi-workflow. Unfortunately for us mere tech mortals, this is a cobbled-together solution that isn’t a stand-alone plugin or series thereof that can be easily implemented. I haven’t yet started to learn Ruby, so I’m certainly not going to be able to pull this off any time soon.

What I do really like about the wiki, however, is how the research is documented, the individual author pages and the like. As I move through my own research, my own projects and such, it would be really nice to have something a little more like that. For now, I’m using WP because I’m both comfortable with it and familiar enough to make it jump through a couple of hoops for me when I need it to. I’m not convinced this is best, however. The further I get into this, however, the harder it is going to be to get out.

Future wants:

  • a running bibliography of things I’ve read and my comments on them. I have this all in devonthink right now, but I want something online in the interest of open academia. This is a particular strength of Stian’s wiki that I think is valuable.
  • a repository of things I’ve tried in classes and how well they’ve worked, or not, and why.

Thinking Computers and Education

This module’s question:

What is the trend among educators relative to beliefs in technology, culture and the power of computer assisted learning? As you respond to this consider the notions of construed reality, own cultural influences,  influences from cultures unfamiliar to you, and the view that computers will likely be able to achieve human like thinking ability. You might also scan the links below:

My Response: (Notes on individual sources follow)

What is the trend among educators relative to beliefs in technology, culture and the power of computer assisted learning?

I’m not sure that I can speak to a single trend beyond anecdotes. There seem to be several groups that dominate the discussion, from technophiles such as myself, to the guarded (not early adopters or technophiles, but willing to engage with guidance) to the resistant.

Within the ESL/EFL/ELL field, there are special interest groups related to CALL (Computer-assisted Language Learning) that goes back to the days of language labs and headsets for every user to practice simulated language use. I think most teachers are willing to engage with technology where there is evidence that it can improve outcomes for students. Resistance appears to come from educators generally uncomfortable with change or comfortable in their current ability to bring students to set outcomes.

 

Sites to Scan: These were identified to provide you with links to a variety of resources that contain trends, developments, perspectives, philosophies and other tid-bits of information.  As a collection it is disposed only as an incomplete base.  At best the links provide you with a starting point from which to view a host of ideas on the topic of this module.  Within the links you will find trends, collection of philosophical views, issues, position papers, chronicles, titles, training opportunities etcetc

This resource is no longer available.

Basic history of calculators from 1950s onward.

Network access assessment tool called “Checkmate” uses “neural networks” to determine the intent of a user’s access on a network and block out hackers as effectively as human network administrators. Sold commercially.

Sadly, this link points to the same article as above.
  • Harris, Mishra, and Koehler provide a small collections of views and philosophies on Teachers technological and pedagogical practices related to computer integration into learning: http://mra.onefireplace.org/Resources/Documents/TPCK%20Article.pdf (JRTE, 41(4), 393–416. Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Learning Activity Types: Curriculum-based Technology Integration Reframed. Judith Harris, Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler)

“TPACK encompasses understanding and communicating representations of concepts using technologies; pedagogical techniques that apply technologies appropriately to teach content in differen- tiated ways according to students’ learning needs; knowledge of what makes concepts difficult or easy to learn and how technology can help redress concep- tual challenges; knowledge of students’ prior content-related understanding and epistemological assumptions, along with related technological expertise or lack thereof; and knowledge of how technologies can be used to build on existing understanding to help students develop new epistemologies or strengthen old ones” (Harris, J., Mishra, P., Koehler, M., 2009).

This article reinforces the idea of how technology, content knowledge and pedagogy must work together (TPACK), and suggests how to plan to use all three in learning activities for students.

Basic jist is that teachers aren’t using technology to its fullest educational potential: “Researchers emphasize technology uses that support inquiry, collaboration, and reformed practice, whereas many teachers tend to focus on using presentation software, learner-friendly Web sites, and management tools to enhance existing practice” (p. 393).

Seems to be offline (2012.10.23)

Dense. My head hurts. I’ll have to reexamine this one later.
I have to completely agree with the introduction: The breathy adulation for the newest form of media through which we transmit information is not closer to the ideal “freedom of information” that some espouse – it’s merely appropriate for the context of the time it is tied to. While the written word, and its ability to transmit information over time and space was transformative, as was the newfound accessibility through the printing press, the radio, the TV and now the Internet, it is still constrained by the characteristics of the delivery system. While the accessibility is wide, the freedom of the press is still limited to the person who owns one. Without the tools of access and creation, the information may as well not exist at all.
In the summary of the paper to be presented by Blanchette, I noticed this quote: “while digital humanists may well benefit from engaging in “computational thinking,” I will argue the computing infrastructure implicitly performs much of that thinking, before a single line of application code is written” (“Infrastructural Thinking” as Core Computing Skill, para. 2). I could not help but be reminded of McLuhan’s “the medium is the message.”

CN: Ten Stages of Working the Web for Education, Tom March

Assignment:

Discussion Activity Review Tom March’s Ten Stages of Working the Web for Education found at this website. In this piece Tom comments:

“…You may have noticed that the first three stages to Web-Use Nirvana had to do with your personal and professional growth. The middle chunk all relate to curriculum design. What ever happened to teaching, with kids, in a classroom?” And then he asks “…So what is the New Job for Teachers?”.

Given your experiences as a teacher and in using technology to teach, what would you say to these questions?

———————-

Purpose of the article: “The goal of this article is to offer identifiable milestones to help educators effectively use the Web to engage students in advanced thinking. This could serve as a self-assessment or as guidelines when mentoring others.”

The Ten Stages:

  1. Getting to know the web – Browse directories (this is written pre-web 2.0 popularity and pre-Wikipedia) and see what’s actually on the web, and not what you think is on the web. 
  2. Find your web– Find a place to call your own. Find places you want to come back and revisit (bookmark them!)
  3. Meet your neighbours – The value of the web is the connection to other people, so connect to them. When you appreciate someone’s work, let them know.
  4. Using the web with students – Students are depending on you to know what to do with the web, so become an expert in the first three steps before you engage them in it.
  5. Design Goal-based Activities – March here lays out some ideas (knowledge hunt, for example) that are simplified versions of what others call for in terms of problem-based learning and previous articles on WebQuests. [Needs a link]
  6. Advanced Goals-based Design – WebQuests and other activities included here.
  7. Pursuing Transformation – First guide students to develop expertise, then put them into a situation that requires them to use it. Role-based deliberation can be one such method. Expertise, while laudable is insufficient. 
  8. Welcome to Your New Job – Stages 1-3 are personal/professional growth for the teacher. The middle section is curriculum design. Carrot: Great websites designed by students through ThinkQuest competition. Stick: Plagiarism is easy and convenient; challenging mental engagement is not. We must: maintain the connection with the authentic, maintain motivation and compelling experiences, stay learner-centered, and teach both cognitive and people skills.
  9. Taking off the Training Wheels – Coach rather than teacher. Analyze strengths and areas for improvement. Come up with ways to prompt expert performance. Give practice in authentic scenarios as much as possible. Work on metacognitive practice with the students. 
  10. All that’s left is learning – the process is internal, not external. What looks the same on the outside can be very different based on cognitive processing.
At step four in this article, I’m starting to get a bit weary of it’s age. The idea that students don’t know what to do with the web is 2012 is a different assumption than it was in 1999. This is still partially true, however. Students today are quite aware of what to do as far as their own communication needs and personal interests are concerned. However, even in the World’s Most Wired Nation™, many of my students are still very ignorant of what their technology and access to the Internet can do for them in their educational and other goals. The Korean-language web is not devoid of good content, as far as I can tell. Rather, it seems that the delivery methods are still very primitive. While most companies in the west have bought into the idea that no website is a death knell, companies here, when they do have websites, may be using what Western users would consider the equivalent of Geocities or MySpace to disseminate information, what limited information it may be. Koreans still largely connect by phone. Email is only a way to transfer documents and collect spam; few, if any, use it as a primary communication tool.
The application sections were interesting, and the more I learn about PBL I wonder how I can employ this for my own students in a culture that is very teacher-focused and still stuck in the Grammar-translation method of language instruction. I remember how a colleague of mine had developed a series of stages in a game scenario (played out in Second Life or Open Sim) where students had to engage with the target language and use it to solve problems and mysteries and win the game. In a science university with high levels of game use recreationally by students, this was very popular.
While considering how to make this relevant to my own practice, I did some searching and found the following article to be of assistance:
  • Brief: Problem-Based Learning and Adult English Language Learners This downloadable brief examines some background on PBL and Adult ELL, and provides walk-throughs for teachers and administrators interested in using PBL in their learning environments. Does not provide suggestions for dealing with classes of entirely the same L1, where moving like-L1 students to separate groups does not solve the problem of L1 use.