Personalising Learning in the 21st Century

 Re: Student vs Learner

A copy of a letter to my "aboves" today...

Mōrena korua,

 I hear the statute will be under review in the next few days - one idea to float is changing the word student to learner and freeing us from the traditional implications of the word student – moving us more fully into the 21^st century world of education and re-establishing a keystone/foundation for our NMIT culture.

 While there are implications for a range of policies in this change (which I think is why it has never been achieved before) it is a desirable adjustment for a world where demand is towards personal ownership of learning and it is beneficial to encourage personal responsibility for knowledge transfer - as opposed to the traditional system where institutions and teachers owned the knowledge and ‘students’ only got it if it was handed down to them from ‘above’ in very specific places.

 The traditional system has a tendency towards knowledge as a strictly controlled commodity only for specific people - the 21^st century acknowledges we are all learners, free to engage in knowledge acquisition wherever, however and whenever we want.

 While we (as the institution) are still accountable for the learning, I believe it supports (and benefits) everyone in the process if learners are empowered and have an awareness of their responsibility in the process of acquiring knowledge. Where is the incentive and motivation to learn if all the implied responsibility is on the teacher?  (After all, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink…).

We need to change the thinking that supports the traditional implications.  Language is an important part of establishing this change in mind-set.

 Perhaps this year is the one to get it done 😊

 Some people may argue that it causes issues with some particular sentences around the “student” management system and Learner managed hours – but these can be overcome with a simple rewording in all the cases I have encountered in the programme regs for instance. Some of the other barriers will be removed if we can get the word officially changed in the statute.

 Some people may push to not rock the boat when there is so much going on – but this is also a very common reason why seemingly trivial changes with wider implications keep being put off...

 Well worth a try anyway, IMO.

 Hei konā mai,

Shine Kelly

Academic Advisor

NMIT

This Week in World History...

Did you know that New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world to grant the vote to all adult women?

This allowed ALL women in NZ (with the exception of prison inmates) to officially and legally have their say on the decisions and laws that impacted them for the first time in November 1893.

I say ‘all’ proudly, as even subsequently, in other select places, rights were not given straight away to all women but selected pockets that were deemed worthy such as the wealthy, property owners or rate payers.

Previously only the Isle of Man, as an internally self-governing dependant territory of the British Crown, had enfranchised women property owners in 1881 and on Pitcairn Island female descendants of the Bounty Mutineers were allowed to vote for ruling council members from 1838.

It was not until after WW1 that Britain and America allowed women the vote.

Interestingly (to me, at least!) this would have occurred even sooner in NZ had it not been for the concern of certain members of parliament with friends (and fingers) in the Liquor industry who opposed the bills put forward to parliament to allow the vote on the grounds that women would use their new found influence to negatively impact the availability of liquor (as was one of the main drives of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in those times, which they believed went hand in hand with improving the conditions for women and family life in general).

Kate Sheppard and fellow suffragists travelled our country gathering support (and educating) under fierce opposition. Women who came out in support were ‘recommended to go home, look after their children, cook their husbands’ dinners, empty the slops, and generally attend to the domestic affairs for which Nature designed them’; and told they should give up ‘meddling in masculine concerns of which they are profoundly ignorant’.

They gathered signatures of around 32, 000 women from all over the country, glued the sheets together and presented it dramatically as a 270 m roll bowled across the chamber of the House in July 1893.

The Electoral Act 1893 was passed (by both houses) and became law on Sept 19^th (even with the opposition of our Premier at the time; Richard Seddon – a friend of the Liquor Industry!).

You can view the list, read the names of the people that signed and find out more info about the NZ Suffrage on the NZhistory.govt.nz website.

Nelson had its own list of signatures of support which was submitted separately and subsequently lost from history so we can’t look at that – however,  I have included below, the text of a leaflet published by the Women's Christian Temperance Union in May 1888, which was sent to every member of the House of Representatives. I imagine at the time people didn’t giggle at all as much as I did when I read it! ( please note: I am grateful I live in a time where I have the right and am able to giggle about such things!).

Ten reasons why the women of New Zealand should vote (1888)

1. Because a democratic government like that of New Zealand already admits the great principle that every adult person, not convicted of crime, nor suspected of lunacy, has an inherent right to a voice in the construction of laws which all must obey.

2. Because it has not yet been proved that the intelligence of women is only equal to that of children, nor that their social status is on a par with that of lunatics or convicts.

3. Because women are affected by the prosperity of the Colony, are concerned in the preservation of its liberty and free institutions, and suffer equally with men from all national errors and mistakes.

4. Because women are less accessible than men to most of the debasing influences now brought to bear upon elections, and by doubling the number of electors to be dealt with, women would make bribery and corruption less effective, as well as more difficult.

5. Because in the quietude of home women are less liable than men to be swayed by mere party feeling, and are inclined to attach great value to uprightness and rectitude of life in a candidate.

6. Because the presence of women at the polling-booth would have a refining and purifying effect.

7. Because the votes of women would add weight and power to the more settled and responsible communities.

8. Because women are endowed with a more constant solicitude for the welfare of the rising generations, thus giving them a more far-reaching concern for something beyond the present moment.

9. Because the admitted physical weakness of women disposes them to exercise more habitual caution, and to feel a deeper interest in the constant preservation of peace, law, and order, and especially in the supremacy of right over might.

10. Because women naturally view each question from a somewhat different standpoint to men, so that whilst their interests, aims, and objects would be very generally the same, they would often see what men had overlooked, and thus add a new security against any partial or one-sided legislation.

Women vote for the first time at a polling station in the tiny South Otago settlement of Tahakopa on 28 November 1893. Despite ominous warnings by diehard suffrage opponents that delicate female voters would be harassed and jostled, the conduct of the election was peaceful and orderly throughout the country.

Of the around 120, 000 NZ women at the time about 102,000 turned out to vote for the first time in the election following the Sept 19^th law pass.

So – this Sept 19^th (Wednesday), 125 years on – take a moment to think about the rights you have, how you got them and how you use them.

Constructive Alignment

 Just ran into this in my current job  (I am Academic Advisor at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology right now - advising on tertiary qualification programme of study and handling approval and accrediatation requirements that go to NZQA documents).
Professional reading! Yah!  Now I can blog!!!



Full reading here

'Constructive alignment' has two aspects.

The 'constructive' aspect refers to the idea that students construct meaning through relevant learning activities. That is, meaning is not something imparted or transmitted from teacher to learner, but is something learners have to create for themselves. Teaching is simply a catalyst for learning:
'If students are to learn desired outcomes in a reasonably effective manner, then the teacher's fundamental task is to get students to engage in learning activities that are likely to result in their achieving those outcomes... It is helpful to remember that what the student does is actually more important in determining what is learned than what the teacher does.' (Shuell, 1986: 429)

The 'alignment' aspect refers to what the teacher does, which is to set up a learning environment that supports the learning activities appropriate to achieving the desired learning outcomes. The key is that the components in the teaching system, especially the teaching methods used and the assessment tasks, are aligned with the learning activities assumed in the intended outcomes. The learner is in a sense 'trapped', and finds it difficult to escape without learning what he or she is intended to learn.

In setting up an aligned system, we specify the desired outcomes of our teaching in terms not only of topic content, but in the level of understanding we want students to achieve. We then set up an environment that maximises the likelihood that students will engage in the activities designed to achieve the intended outcomes. Finally, we choose assessment tasks that will tell us how well individual students have attained these outcomes, in terms of graded levels of acceptability. These levels are the grades we award.

There are thus four major steps:  

1. Defining the intended learning outcomes (ILOs);
2. Choosing teaching/learning activities likely to lead to the ILOs;
3. Assessing students' actual learning outcomes to see how well they match what was intended;
4. Arriving at a final grade. 

Simple reading which clearly outlines the concept and aspects.
Pleased to see it fits in with my current recomendations on outcome based learning activties and LOs (learning outcomes) for a more student centred programme (rather than a teacher having an agenda of info they need to teach and designing a programme to meet that agenda - we want to move towards a programme design that matches the graduate outcomes and let's them 'hit the ground running' in their chosen work environment).

Also ties in with SOLO TAXONOMY and BLOOM's (which I don't entirely agree on it's current useage in NZ tertiary programme design... but that is a blog for another time :P )
Weird Conclusion though - I did not find it related much at all to the rest of the article, lol! (maybe I got distracted by then!)

EdPuzzle.com

A new resource that looks to have great potential! (have gathered and added a tutorial video link, a review and some google slide instructions).
I know.. I rock!

Instead of giving students YouTube links or telling them to search for a video on a particular subject, with EDpuzzle teachers can select videos, edit them down, assign them to students, and quiz them as they watch.

http://www.edudemic.com/edpuzzle-review-easy-use-tool-lets-teachers-quickly-turn-online-video-lessons/ 

EDpuzzle: Teacher Instructions - Google Slides


Getting Started with EDPuzzle - Smore

how to use edpuzzle - YouTube

Formative Assessment....

4th May 2016

 

Summative - end of

Formative - through out the journey

I know which one I like better! Maybe I used my bias there to make my choice more appealing via the description.. :P

Found this article recently and have come back to it a few times so thought I would post about it. I like how it challenges your gut response to a lacklustre term!
I was just going to quote number 6 but  it's so good I had to quote it all!

10 THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

1. Formative assessment is a verb, not a noun. It’s an action performed throughout the learning experience, not some thing that students are given to complete at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of it. Peek over your students’ shoulders as they work, capture evidence of their progress toward the established learning target, and use what you learn to inform your feedback and what you teach next. This three step approach for over-the-shoulder feedback can help.

2. What matters is their assessment and your assessment, not the assessment. When teachers and students establish clear targets and outcomes, studying how they are achieved can happen in a variety of organic ways without disrupting the learning experience by stopping to test or quiz. What matters most with formative assessment is our assessment of growth and why it is or isn’t happening. Rather than “building” formative assessments, we would do well to pinpoint our targets, identify assessment moments that occur within the learning experience, and establish solid habits of documentation. Our savvy analysis of this evidence and timely response is what matters most, not the construction of disruptive tasks and tests.

3. The only summative assessment that benefits learners is one that also serves as a formative assessment. If we aren’t using summative assessment findings to inform instruction, then why do we give them at all? I understand that all good practice leads to the assessment of mastery, but shouldn’t that assessment of mastery inform continued learning and teaching moves? If it doesn’t, then I’m struggling to understand why we subject kids to summative assessments, other than to evaluate them and give them grades. Please, jump into the comments and push my thinking here, because I’m still rolling these questions around in my head, and I realize that what I’m suggesting may be disconcerting for some. 

4. Learners do not have to complete the same task at the same time in order for teachers to conduct a formative assessment. In fact, you can study learners practicing targeted skills and demonstrating knowledge of critical content in varied contexts. I find that collecting wide and varied evidence about how learners approach a target helps me better understand how and why they are successful (or not). When we assess all kids using the same tools at the same time, our perspective about the target, performance, and process is quite narrow. It’s hard to uncover powerful interventions this way.

5. The more certain you are of your expertise, the more likely bias will compromise your formative assessment practices. Historically, teachers have been expected to have answers and solutions. We’ve been pressured into playing experts, and we’ve struggled to admit what we do not know. Admitting this makes us vulnerable to a certain level of criticism from those who lack awareness of how complex and unpredictable learning can often be. Certainty and pride are the unfortunate byproducts of this phenomenon, and they close our minds and narrow our vision. It’s okay to own our expertise. It’s also important to put it aside long enough to consider ideas and approaches we may not have otherwise–especially those that fly in the face of our expertise.

6. Formative assessment will make your students your very best teachers. Over the last few years, I’ve learned how to presume competence and just let kids try the hard stuff. Instead of assuming an evaluative stance, I simply watch them and document what they teach me. I don’t expect mastery. I expect them to begin and to persevere and to make their learning visible along the way, so I can study it. These are my most profound learning experiences. If you try this, it will change the way you define teaching.

7. The best formative assessments focus our eyes on the learning moves that matter most. Rather than checking for correct answers, processes, and products, formative assessment inspires us to study how and why and when. The answers to these questions fuel our best interventions.

8. Formative assessment inspires us to redefine our narrow definitions of data. The data collected during formative assessment experiences are often qualitative. We document with purpose, using the tools that can best help us capture learning as students make it visible to us. We curate this data in varied spaces, using displays that differ from typical quantitative data displays.

9. Feedback is the byproduct of formative assessment done right, and grades are the byproduct of formative assessment gone horribly wrong. Grades do more harm than good in any context, but when we grade formative assessments, we penalize learners for failing to master content and skills that haven’t been taught or practiced. This is more than inappropriate. It’s unethical.

10. Physical education teachers, music teachers, coaches, and counselors were doing formative assessment before formative assessment was cool. Eager to understand how great teachers use formative assessment to help learners grow? Seek out the best physical education teachers, coaches, music teachers, and counselors you know. Ask them how they assess the learners they serve. Ask them how and when they intervene. Ask them how they got better at growing great learners. We have much to learn from them.

What's Good for the Goose....

An interesting quick food for thought about practising what you preach...
  Teacher professional learning pedagogy needs to change too

This, after all, is what we are striving to get away from in our student's classrooms so should we see it when we go to our classrooms?

I gotta watch this and get back to you!