Learning and Teaching in Practice/Summaries of class sessions

Session 1 - 28 August 2013 - Module 1 and 2
Today we went over some areas you were having trouble with. Terry feel free to jump in and correct anything that you think is steering students away from what you are telling them.

A. Learning theories
in brief, mainly behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism, mentioning connectivism and humanism. Also Kolb’s experiential learning theory – a good one, I believe, to use when observing teachers and students in classrooms.
 * The main thing to look for when in class and trying to work out the learning theory underpinning their approach is whether teachers are:
 * giving students facts and information and checking their understanding – giving positive reinforcement – correct or not correct - behaviourism.
 * building on existing knowledge and encouraging students to explore information to build their understanding, individually or in groups – constructivism.
 * using activities to help students process information for short term memory (superficial learning) and long term memory (deep learning) – cognitivism.
 * facilitating and empowering learners who have more control over the learning – a values-based approach – humanism.


 * A reminder from Namarta to use the teaching observation template when writing up your observations in class.

B. Preparing evidence for the portfolios

 * I covered what you need to do – see page 2 in the course outline.
 * You wish to set up a site on Google sites for your ePortfolio assessments - https://sites.google.com/
 * I will assist with this on Thursday next week once you have made a start.
 * For module 1 you need to develop a learner profile of a group of students you have seen in class – use the Activity questions at: http://wikieducator.org/Learning_and_Teaching_in_Practice/Knowing_the_Learner
 * We will start work on the module 1 portfolio assessment next Thursday. We will cover:
 * how to link all the evidence you have prepared on your blogs with other material in Google sites –
 * further evidence – files, e.g., examples of activities being used by teachers you are observing;
 * a narrative – why you have chosen the evidence and why it meets the learning outcome for module 1;
 * a reflective discussion about what you have learned from the evidence in your portfolio and how you will put this into practice in your teaching; and
 * your choice of supporting literature and how it supports your learning, practice and views about the topics in Module 1.

C.Feedback models

 * We did the star drawing assessment exercise and you gave each other feedback.
 * We then discussed the value of feedback for learning, and I showed you the four level feedback model by Hattie and Timperley (2007) – you have a hand out on this.
 * I asked you to look at the Feedback models material, especially the videos.

D. Kamya’s question
about the portfolio activity for open and online education – you will send me what you have written so I can give you feedback.

E. Timeline for you to fill in
dates when you expect to complete the portfolio assessments for each module – use the hours on the Study Desk to guide you. We will discuss the dates, next week.

Schedule for next Monday 2 September 13:30 – 15:30 in H614
We will be covering the following: - 13:30 – 14:30 - Critical thinking overview and exercise. - 14:30 – 15:00 – overview of educational design (Module 3 ) and discussion – with Paul Left via adobe connect using the screen in class. - 15:00 – 15:30 - I will facilitate an activity about learning design afterwards.