SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

 

KLM06Action Learning for Subject Specialist Pedagogy (In-Service)

[Professional Project (M)]

Aims

To discuss the meaning of ‘m’ level study To strengthen understanding of the

relationship between theory, policy and practice in education

To strengthen understanding of relationship between personal and professional expertise, strengths , qualities for development and how to do this

What questions?

Look at the image again Consider what questions each person

depicted is asking and to whom they are directed?

Write down questions for as many as you can in the next 90 secs…

BECOMINGTo build a culture of reflective practice, research must be an essential part of teacher professional development from the outset.

(Tanner & Davies, 2009)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT “Professional development… is the

process by which… teachers review, renew and extend their comitment as change agents to the moral purposes of teaching; and by which they acquire and develop the critical knowledge and skills essential to good professional thinking, planning and practice…”

UCET 1996,1

ASSESSMENT

An agreed project proposal and a full report with reference to relevant research and theory (totalling 4000 - 4500 words), supported by extracts from a reflective journal critically analysing their learning from the action learning set (750 words).

THE POINT OF KNOWLEDGE

“The whole point of knowledge should be to improve experience. Therefore we can’t afford to neglect the knowledge which comes from the examination of that experience itself.”

Leonora Lloyd in Andrews, J. (1994) In Praise of the Anecdotal Woman: Motherhood and a hidden Curriculum Stoke on Trent: Trentham books

LETS BEGIN: DO YOU THINK THAT

most footballers drive expensive cars? students can learn concepts? students can acquire skills? active learning is more effective? language is important in the learning

process? home background makes a difference to

educational achievement?  boys are better than girls at science?

HOW DO YOU KNOW?

‘So my answer to the questions ‘How do you know? What is the source or the basis of your assertion? What observations have led you to it? Would be: ‘I do not know; my assertion was merely a guess. Never mind the source… if you are interested in the problem which I tried to solve by tentative assertion, you may help by criticising it as severely as you can.’

From Karl Popper in Conjectures and Refutations 1974:27

THEORISING

Research has identified many ideas about learning and these have been built up into theories and recognised approaches to teaching and learning. What do you understand as the difference between a theory and an approach?

Activity 2 In the table match the theory or approach to its appropriate definition.

SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT

perception

What do you know about the brain?

It is the vacuum of proper ideas and knowledge—particularly co-constructed ideas that have been put together by educators and neuroscientists—that has allowed the myths to evolve.

Introduction to educational “neuromyths” — Dr Paul Introduction to educational “neuromyths” — Howard-Jones (2007)

Gaps

Much of what teachers perceive as brain-based teaching, such as educational kinesiology, is promoted in very dubious pseudo-scientific terms and we still don’t really know how, and even if, it works. Other programmes, such as those involving learning styles, draw on some meaningful science but, when children get labelled as ‘a visual learner’ or ‘an auditory learner’ and are only ever taught in either a visual or auditory way, then the science is being seriously over-interpreted and misapplied. The good news, however, is that efforts to bridge the gap between neuroscience and education are debunking many of these ideas, and opening up fresh opportunities for valuable and exciting initiatives that are both scientifically and educationally sound.

Howard-Jones, P., Pickering, S &Diack, A (2007) Perceptions of the role of neuroscience in education,

www.innovation-unit.co.uk.

Perceptions Connections

Beliefs & Evidence Teacher Belief Brain Gym Cohen and Goldsmith (2000)

Accelerated Learning

Multiple Intelligences: Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences promotes the idea of many plastic, rather than one fixed, intelligence (Gardner, 1993)

Learning Style Preferences: In education, learners may be allocated to one of three types of learning style [visual, auditory or kinesthetic - VAK Dunn & Dunn (1978)].

Children should know what sort of learner they are

GENDER – BOYS & GIRLS THINK DIFFERENTLY

Research Evidence at odds with present scientific understanding –

perhaps there is a seed of truth in the idea that exercise can bring about additional alertness

An eclectic mixture of popularly-reported neuroscience and psychology

psychological evidence supports the possibility that individual preferences exist regarding how we like to learn. It is believed, but still unproven, that presentation of material in a way that suits a learner’s preferred learning style can improve their learning.

a waste of time

IT AIN’T NECESSARILY SO

Interconnectivity includes sensory inputs. Moreover, if we look at ourselves as primates in VAK terms, there is essentially a bloody great “V” and a little bit of “A” and “K”, because our brain processes are approximately 50 to 60% per cent. visual. What we do with that information is to construct spatial or quasi-spatial maps of the world so that we understand how things connect together.

Visual, auditory and kinaesthetic (VAK) learning styles —

Geake (2007)

VAK is not complex; it is just three things to remember. It is a nice, handy acronym that is easy to recall and think about when you are doing your planning; it prompts a range of activities.

VAK learning approaches in the classroom – Higgins (2007)

VAKT (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic or tactile) learning styles – another view

There is no scientific justification for teaching or learning strategies based on VAKT and tutors should stop using learning style instruments based on them. There is no theory of VAKT from which to draw any implications for practice. It should be a dead parrot. It should have ceased to function.

(Coffield, 2008)

VAKT

Even the most detailed suggestions for practice drawn from VAKT are based on over-simplifications of a misunderstood and discredited theory.

It’s time to move on. Why do we expect to capture the full complex humanity of learners by dividing them into four categories which are so simple as to be patronising, if not downright insulting?

(Coffield, 2008)

Gender

• Baron Cohen’s empathising-systemising (E-S) theory:

– the female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy

– the male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.

– a person (whether male or female) has a particular "brain type".

– There are three common brain types:

• the female brain - empathising is stronger than systemising

• the male brain - systemising is stronger than empathising

• the "balanced brain” - equally strong in their systemising and empathising

Baron Cohen (2003)

Male Female Brain

The main brain types illustrated on axes of empathising (E) and systemising (S) dimensions ...

(numbers are standard deviations from the mean). •Balanced brain

(Type B, purple zone)•female brain

(Type E, light green zone) •male brain

(Type S, light blue zone)•the extreme Types E and S

lie at the outer borders.

According to the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism, people with autism or AS should always fall in the dark blue zone.

Baron-Cohen (2002)

Male & female brains

People with the female brain make the most wonderful counsellors, primary school teachers, nurses, carers, therapists, social workers, mediators, group facilitators or personnel staff ... People with the male brain make the most wonderful scientists, engineers, mechanics, technicians, musicians, architects, electricians, plumbers, taxonomists, catalogists, bankers, toolmakers, programmers or even lawyers.

Baron Cohen (2005)

A dissenting view…

Baron-Cohen classifies nursing as a female-brain, empathy-based job (though if a caring and empathetic nurse cannot measure dosages accurately and make systematic clinical observations she or he risks doing serious harm) and law as a male-brain, system-analysing job (though a lawyer, however well versed in the law, will not get far without communication and people-reading skills). These categorisations are not based on a dispassionate analysis of the demands made by the two jobs. They are based on the everyday common-sense knowledge that most nurses are women and most lawyers are men.

(Cameron, 2007)

Perceptions

Central to the success of any effort to improve education are the support, understanding and expertise of teachers – who remain exposed to brain-based concepts from earlier and sometimes unscientific enterprises.

Howard-Jones, P., Pickering, S & Diack, A (2007) Perceptions of the role of neuroscience in education, www.innovation-unit.co.uk

THEORISING

Activity 3Write definitions of the following terms:

ACADEMICINTELLECTUAL PROFESSIONAL

THEORISING

Which terms apply to you? Why?

What does this tell us about working at masters level?

Context

Appraisal or Review

Peer

LEARNER

External Inspection

Self Assessment

Policy Initiatives

External Networks

A Model for Professionalism…..

Professional

Knowledge

Emerging Technolog

yProfessional

Body

Membership

Awarding Bodies

Sector Skills Councils

Subject

Specialis

m

Professional

Knowledge

Curriculum Networks

Emerging Technolog

yProfession

al Body Membersh

ipSupport Agencies

Organisational Priorities

Teaching & Learning

THEORY, PRACTICE AND POLICY

Draw a large triangle with Theory, Practice and Policy, one at each apex of the triangle

discuss the relationships between these three concepts

draw arrows or other signs to represent the relationship between the three.

THEORY, PRACTICE AND POLICY

How do they ‘speak’ to each other?

Who does what to whom?

How does the power and influence operate?

Who is developing new knowledge here?

In a Moment...Learning to teach is far more than simply acquiring a set of skills and routines of performance. In order to make effective judgements in the moment during the fast flow of lessons, the most effective teachers rely on a deep understanding of pedagogy built up through reflection on practice and critical analysis of praxis.

(Tanner & Davies, 2009)

A simple definition

In its broadest sense reflective practice involves the critical analysis of everyday working practices to improve competence and promote professional development.

(Clouder, 2000)

THEORY AND PRACTICE

Theory is vastly bigger than the province of intellectuals … Everybody has a set of theories, compounded maybe of fact and value, history and myth, observation and folklore, superstition and convention… Those who refuse all theory, who speak of themselves as plain, practical people, and virtuous in virtue of having no theory, are in the grip of theories which manacle them and keep them immobile, because they have no way of thinking about them and therefore of taking them off. They aren’t theory free; they are stupid theorists.

Inglis, F. (1989) The Management of Ignorance Oxford, Basil Blackwell Publishers

practice

theory

praxis

There is no reason to suppose that only a small minority of people can develop intellectually to a high level of competence.

(Hart, 1998)

Questioning

There is no reason to suppose that only a small minority of people can develop intellectually to a high level of competence.

(Hart, 1998)

What reason is there to suppose that a large majority of people can develop intellectually beyond a low level of competence?

What reason is there to suppose that people are prevented from developing intellectually by the opinion of others that they cannot?

Why is intellectual development the measure of competence?

Is this a polemic against provision for ‘gifted & talented’ pupils motivated by an ‘anti-elitism’ agenda?

?

theory

policy practice

Context

Appraisal or Review

Peer

LEARNER

External Inspection

Self Assessment

Policy Initiatives

External Networks

A Model for Professionalism…..

Professional

Knowledge

Emerging Technolog

yProfessional

Body

Membership

Awarding Bodies

Sector Skills Councils

Subject

Specialis

m

Professional

Knowledge

Curriculum Networks

Emerging Technolog

yProfession

al Body Membersh

ipSupport Agencies

Organisational Priorities

Teaching & Learning

theory

policy practice

Teaching &

LearningSubject

Specialis

m

Context

Reflective responses

Ever

y

Child

Matters

theory

policy practice

theory

policy practice

theory

policy

practice

theory

policy

practice

The teacher who is the slave of another’s will, cannot carry out his instructions except by making his pupils the slaves of his own will. The teacher, who has been deprived by his superiors of freedom, initiative, and responsibility, cannot carry out his instructions except by depriving his pupils of the same vital qualities. The teacher, who in response to the deadly pressure of a cast-iron system, has become a creature of habit and routine, cannot carry out his instructions except by making his pupils as helpless and puppet-like as himself. Holmes, (1912)

theory

policy

practice

theory

policy

practice

theory

policy practice

theory

policy practice

PRAXIS performance or application of skill

the practical side and application of

something such as a professional skill, as opposed to its theory

established practice

established custom or habitual practice

encarta

PRAXIS

Not synonymous with ‘practice’

Not opposed to theory

Practice as the moment of realisation of (or the most developed form of) theory

Theoretically guided practice

The dispute over the reality or non-reality of thinking that is isolated from practice is a purely scholastic question.

Marx, K (1845)

PRAXIS

Pre-theoretical praxis• Practical know-how• Problem solving

Theoretical praxis• Success or failure• Practice informs

theory

Theory-supported praxis• informed practice• sufficent• Subsumed

Practice precedes theory

Theory arises in practice

Horst Steinmann

Andreas Georg Scherer

Geert-LuekeLueken

Teacher in Role...

PRAXIS

Theoretically, it is not difficult to understand, for example, that becoming critical in the process of reading reality does not come about through a mere intellectual exercise.

makes me critical

gives me knowledge

teaches me how to read reality

teaches me how to re-read realityPaolo Freire

Teacher in Role...

On the other hand, there is also another danger, which is to think that just practice or just action is enough to teach someone how to become critical.

PRAXIS

What truly makes someone critical, able to "read reality," is "insertion in the struggles in order to intervene in

reality. It is praxis." Paolo Freire

Freire’s pedagogical values

• Every kind of activity of educational praxis in which two, three, four, fifty, or one-hundred students are challenged to increase curiosity and to improve their understanding of how reality is becoming, every kind of action in which the subjectivity of the students is respected in its relationships with the objectivity of the object, every kind of educational praxis in which the students are considered also as being subjects of the very process of education has to do with me—or maybe I should say I have to do with it. I think that telling it to you in this way is better than trying to put these ideas into some scheme.

(Cited in Olson, 2006)

PLANNING FOR NEXT SESSION Have a look at the Critical thinking: Knowledge,

skills and attitudes on page six and using a rating of 4 strongly agree to 0 strongly disagree, give yourself a score. Be honest with yourself!

  Now do the same for the Priorities: Developing

critical thinking abilities sheet (page seven). Then, following the introduction to the module, complete the ‘Action to improve’ column on this sheet.

  Notice your responses to these tasks. What can you

say about yourself as a learner? Jot down your thoughts in your Learning Log. It will be interesting to reflect back on these notes later.

SWOT EXERCISE - Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

diagram

Thinking about what you are embarking on here on the M level credits, note down what for you at the moment, as you start off on your learning journey of professional development, and having done the activities above, are your Strengths, your Weaknesses, the Opportunities to come and then the Threats that you also think will pop up.

Next time you meet up, share your SWOT with your group.

READING Read Chapter 2 On the Politics of Research in

Education in M. Bassey (1996) Creating Education through Research Edinburgh, BERA

and Moon, J. (2008) Critical Thinking: An Exploration

of Theory and Practice, OXEN:Routledge Chapter 2 Critical thinking as an elusive concept

The purpose of this reading and your thinking is to consider the relationship between theory, policy and practice and the role of different kinds of research in all this.

Bibliography

Howard Tanner; Susan M. B. Davies (2009) How engagement with research changes the professional practice of teacher-educators: a case study from the Welsh Education Research Network in Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy, Vol 35, 4,373 – 389