Powerful pedagogies and learning dilemmas

Identify your pedagogic approach

Which description most closely resembles your pedagogic approach?

• 1. Learners have clear goals and targets set for them to achieve. These are monitored and they are given frequent feedback about performance in relation to their goals and targets. Learners develop their skills and competence by working towards their goals in a highly structured way.

• 2. Learners develop their own ideas and set their own targets. Learners collaborate on tasks with other learners. Learners are encouraged to reflect on their own performance and feedback on each other’s work.

• 3.Learners mostly take part in activities by interacting with peers and tutors through dialogue and discussion. They learn in a community in collaboration with tutors and other learners. This community is not limited to their immediate cohort.

What’s your pedagogy educational technology?

• associative learning ? In associative models of learning, it is understood that people learn by association, initially through basic stimulus-response conditioning, later through the capacity to associate concepts in a chain of reasoning, or to associate steps in a chain of activity to build a composite skill

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constructivist learning

• In constructivist models of learning, it is understood that people learn by active construction of ideas and building of skills, through exploration, experimentation, receiving feedback, and adapting themselves accordingly. Students will be engaged in activities which focus on real world, authentic tasks and require collaboration with their peers. Learning constructively leads to the integration of concepts and skills into the learner’s existing conceptual or competency structures. Schema/expert scaffolding.

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situative learning

• In situative models of learning, it is understood that people learn through participation in communities of practice, progressing from novice to expert through observation, reflection, mentorship, and legitimate peripheral participation in community activities. Situativity leads to the development of habits, values, identities and skills that are relevant to and supported by that community.

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Dilemma 2 Where do we learn most?Formal learning.a definition

Formal learning takes place in education and training institutions, leading to recognised diplomas and qualifications.

Non formal - a definitionNon-formal learning takes place alongside the mainstream systems of education and training and does not typically lead to formalised certificates. Non-formal learning may be provided in the workplace and through the activities of civil society organisations and groups (such as in youth organisations, trades unions and political parties). lt can also be provided through organisations or services that have been set up to complement formal systems (such as arts, music and sports classes or private tutoring to prepare for examinations).

Informal - a definitionInformal learning is a natural accompaniment to everyday life. Unlike formal and non¬-formal learning, informal learning is not necessarily intentional learning, and so may well not be recognised even by individuals themselves as contributing to their knowledge and skills.

IssuesUntil now, formal learning has dominated policy thinking, shaping the ways in which education and training are provided and colouring people‘s understandings of what counts as learning. The continuum of lifelong learning brings non-formal and informal learning more fully into the picture. Non-formal learning, by definition, stands outside schools, colleges, training centres and universities. lt is not usually seen as ‘real‘ learning, and nor do its outcomes have much currency value on the labour market. Non-formal learning is therefore typically undervalued.

Issues Informal learning is likely to be missed out of the picture altogether, although it is the oldest form of learning and remains the mainstay of early childhood learning. The fact that microcomputer technology has established itself in homes before it has done so in schools underlines the importance of informal learning. Informal contexts provide an enormous learning reservoir and could be an important source of innovation for teaching and learning methods.

What skills, which age are you located in?

Mechanical age?Extraction >manufacturing>assemblyMarketing>Distribution>Products & services

ToKnowledge ageData> Information>Knowledge >Expertise>Marketing >services and products

To conceptual age >Creativity> teams>problems>multitasking

Too much of learning is about the reading of content; of receiving passive content and having it transmitted as such is it any

wonder that its clients find it dull?

I liked education when I was at primary school but I didn’t like secondary school. I took no exams whatsoever and was determined to leave school as quickly as I could, which I did do. I remember being taught about South America and earthquakes and volcanoes in my junior school. My memory of secondary school can be summed up in one word BOREDOM! I WAS BORED TO TEARS. Maths used to affect me in such a way that I used to seriously consider throwing myself through the window- just to liven things up! ‘Errol’ in Malik, Rees and Savitsky (2003) p 27

‘The alternative perspective starts with the claim that there is no such thing as learning in general. We always learn ‘something’. And that something is always connected in

some way, to some semiotic domain or other.’ Gee 2003

At its core Learning POWER has 4 aspectsof student’s ‘good’ learning.

The 4Rs. (Guy Claxton)

The 4 Rs of Learning Power are:1. Resilience2. Resourcefulness3. Reflectiveness4. Reciprocity

Resilience - learners are ready, willing and able to lock on to learning

Resilience is made up by four components

Absorption – For good learning to occur the learner has first to be engaged with the object of learning and maintain attention without it being overbearing

Managing distraction - There are a number of things that create distraction, such as hunger, tiredness and anxiety. BLP aims to help learners become aware of the possible sources of distraction and how they can diminish them.

Noticing - Good learners are skilled in noticing. They have an ability to notice significant detail.

Perseverance - This trait is simply down to a learner’s ability to understand that some things do not come easily and that sticking at something is usually rewarded by a successful outcome in the end.

Resourcefulness - learners are ready, willing and able to learn in different ways

Questioning - This means that good learners have the ability to ask goodquestions and the curiosity to do so.

Making links - The thinking here is that good learners are able to make links between what they already know and new experiences.

Imaging - Good learners are able to look at things in different ways. They use their imagination to aid learning by creating scenarios in their minds eye and link those images to their learning.

Reasoning - Research suggests that secondary education has not been very successful at developing students’ ability to think logically in real life.

Capitalising - Put simply, a good learner is familiar and comfortable with using a whole host of resources at his or her disposal to aid their learning.

Reflectiveness – Learners are ready, willing and able to become more strategic about learning. Planning - Good learners manage the learning process by a series of techniques, such as taking stock of a problem; assessing the available resources; making an estimate of the time the learning will take and anticipating hurdles or problems that arise.

Revising - Learners have to expect the unexpected. Therefore, good learners have to be able to change their direction.

Distilling - This involves mulling over experiences either alone or in discussion with others, and looking for useful lessons or generalizations that can be articulated and consciously applied to new situations.

Meta learning - This is an expansion on distilling. It is a process good learners go through to talk constructively about the process of learning and to articulate how learning works.

Reciprocity – Learners are ready, willing and able to learn alone and/or with others. Good learners have the ability to listen, take their turn and understand the viewpoints of others

Interdependence - Good learners know how to manage the balance between interacting and being solitary in their learning.

Collaboration - This means exactly what it suggests - being able to work as a pair or as a team in a scenario in which no one person knows all the answers.

Empathy and Listening - Good listening skills can be taught, but it is an essential part of a good learner’s make-up.

Imitation - We learn by learning from others. If we see someone doing something well we recognise this.

Problem based learning

• Problem-based learning in education described as,• • (...) a way of constructing and teaching courses

using problems as the stimulus and focus for learner activity. It is not simply the addition of problem-solving activities to otherwise discipline centered curricula, but a way of conceiving of the curriculum which is centered around key problems in professional practice” (Boud and Feletti, 1991, p.14).