This is why Britain is a failing nation - Telegraph

This is why Britain is a failing nation - Telegraph

eLearn: Best Practices

eLearn: Best Practices

Learning organizations are proficient at two types of learning: "adaptive" learning and "generative" learning. To survive, an organization must solve short-term problems. This is the realm of adaptive learning. But, what sets learning organizations apart from other institutions is generative learning. Generative learning enhances the capacity to create. Senge describes the foundations of a learning organization, as generative learning requiring the mastery of five disciplines:

1. Systems Thinking (The discipline that integrates the other four)
2. Personal Mastery
3. Shared Vision
4. Mental Models
5. Team Learning

I was immediately struck by its relevance for teaching in virtual classrooms. Two related ideas occurred to me: 1) A successful online class is a microcosm of a learning organization; and 2) Virtual team projects are instrumental in achieving an online course's learning objectives as they create a vibrant interaction between students and the instructor and among students. These interactions overcome the solitary nature of online instruction.

BBC NEWS | Education | 'Too many' cannot read and write

BBC NEWS | Education | 'Too many' cannot read and write

Informal Learning Becomes Formal - elearnspace

Informal Learning Becomes Formal - elearnspace

Assessment and school improvement in Slovakia (may be start of my essay for AfL course)

School improvement can happen in many ways from building development and equipment through management up to behaviour and parents involvement. However the most important and probably most looked at area is the

attainment the students. Assessment is integral part of teaching and learning, and formative assessment even more so, as it does not happen at the end but during the learning process.

Following the evidence from international studies, we can believe, that assessment for learning does raise students attainment and understanding. Therefore this will be the area of the school, which can be improved by good application of AfL principles into practice.

Now what does it mean school improvement and raise of standards in the context of Slovak schools. Unlike British system with more transparent and published Ofsted reports, league tables, Sats results etc. Slovakia does not have the culture of comparing schools or measure school performance. From this point of view it is difficult to point at whole school performance and claim, that it will improve as a result of good AfL programme.

However the national Monitor of Math and Slovak Language proficiency, number of absolvents accepted at good FE institutions, or even (may be more importantly) such subjective criteria as students enjoyment can measure whole school improvement.

Year 2008 saw the introduction of a new national curriculum and re-articulation of national aims in education in Slovakia. This brings new challenges and opportunities: All plans and schemes of will have to go through very careful revision. And as Planning is the vital part of AfL, this is a good opportunity to put this into practice. And to review school policies on assessment and planning and make AfL a part of school life.

Assessment in Slovakia is mostly for summative/diagnostic purposes and usually does not involve any outside agencies until year 9, where national monitor of Slovak Language and Mats takes place. Even compulsory tests and pieces of work can be left on the teacher’s discretion. In theory teacher assess student’s knowledge or skill against standard given in national curriculum and gives a grade. Half way through the year and then again at the end of school year this grades are the basics for an overall grade.

There are many dangers in this system of assessing students. Teacher is the one, who knows and understands the standards and success criteria. And this understanding can vary from teacher to teacher, so someone seen as good student here can be seen as mediocre in different school. Also the
use of grades as punishment or reward became quite common practice as well as great emphasis on knowledge and facts as this is very easy to measure. So those students, who are good at memorizing facts and behave well are more likely to success than those with learning difficulties
or behaviour problems.

The Big Question: Is the success of specialist schools an illusion resulting from extra funding? - Education News, Education - The Independent

The Big Question: Is the success of specialist schools an illusion resulting from extra funding? - Education News, Education - The Independent:

"findings, published by the Gatsby Foundation, they reveal that a pupil attending a music specialist school was more likely to get an A grade in physics at A-level than a pupil attending a specialist science school. In fact, the specialist science school only came fourth in the league table for science A-level results - behind modern foreign languages and maths and computing specialist schools as well. The figures were 36 per cent attaining A grades in music schools, 26.5 per cent in language schools, 24.4 per cent in maths and computing and 23.7 per cent in science.

Why was this so?"
...

Diary of a Fresher: 'Perhaps the real purpose of uni is to facilitate growing up' - Higher, Education - The Independent

Diary of a Fresher: 'Perhaps the real purpose of uni is to facilitate growing up' - Higher, Education - The Independent

Second Seminar: AfL - Planning

Although it was good seminar and full of questions and discussion, it left me a bit puzzled. It might be, that my expectation of that course were more practice than theory orientated.
Following a results of study of progress of American Kindergarten Children (Black and William, 1998) we have looked in the importance of planning for Assessment for Learning. One of most important messages was the need to 'analyse what knowledge and skills learners need to do the task (experiment, research etc.)'.
In short there is a good evidence that if we analyse previous knowledge and needs of our learners and build our teaching on that, we are very likely to enhance learning experience and learning gains. It is kind of obvious (but many of us need to be told this obvious things sometimes, don't we)... the more important question is How do we do it? Because once I realised how important and good idea it is, I want to know how to use it in practice and how to gain skills.
I sat down (waiting for my train back home) noted down some ideas:

1. Planning is important for every project
2. AfL is about baseline assessment, questioning, feedback, peer/self-assessment, sharing success criteria.
3. AfL uses this to inform future practice, and use feedback for feed forward purpose.

How do you start?

• by realising your learning aims?
• by evaluation of success criteria?
• By study of level description and previous attainment of your learners (if available)?

I came with some suggestion in that process, which highlights some of main characteristics of AfL:

1. need to have the idea of what your aim and learning outcome is.
2. this will define your success criteria and path to achievement
3. design activities which will lead to desirable outcomes
4. plan baseline test (taking prior knowledge into account) - this is tricky one as it makes assumption of what they already know, or should know.
   
5. plan assessment activities - time and methods and possible interventions.
   
6. do not finalise this plans until you have done pre-assessment or pre-test. you need to adjust all your plans based on this.
   

Suggestions from the seminar:
Contingency planning - question to expose learners current knowledge designed to lead to certain number of possibilities and plan for same number of activities to bring all learners to the same level.
Concept mapping/brainstorming - exposure of current ideas of a group.
Baseline assessment - pre-testing, using traffic lights, check list etc.

Big Dog, Little Dog: Training

Big Dog, Little Dog: Training

Training is Dead, Long Live Training

Pupils learn to mentor fellow students | Education | guardian.co.uk

Pupils learn to mentor fellow students | Education | guardian.co.uk

Inset Day

We just had the INSET day couple of days ago - well straight after the holiday. I find this an amazing idea of starting the work at school after holiday. You get chance to catch up, chat with people, be more casual and most importantly tune in into the work. So your next day, day with students in is definitely less stressful.

There were few interesting things on that day. Behaviour for Learning as one of them. Well, many will say, that this is too worn, too old and very little new we can hear. That is right. Most of the ideas about consistency, boundaries, humor and mutual respect etc. are old. And they are coming back again and again. And that is what is important. May be that session wasn't anything new or groundbreaking. But it was - consistent. And there was the opportunity to refresh, re-motivate ourselves...

SEAL - or as (apparently) they are going to call it again - Social and Emotional Aspect of Learning. Again, maybe this is nothing new there, but still, it is worth as we can see thing again and maybe from different point of view. And get the chance to see how other people might see the problems.

The last session was about How to use Teaching Assistants in the lesson effectively. Something I was looking forward to (It doesn't apply to me directly as I do not plan the lessons, but I want to know a bit more). There were two information I have learned:

1. We do not know what impact TA have on students' results. (No research has been done on that)
2. The best model to use (from the video we have seen) is TA gets told what is going to happen and what resources need to be made... No direct involvement in planning and no creativity of professionalism (of TA) used. Good as a starting point. But is that really where we want to be at the end?
   

Anyway this is back to school now and all busy already.

eLearn: Feature Article

eLearn: Feature Article

How to Sell Yourself into an Online Teaching Position
By Errol Craig Sull

Participation in online learning takes many forms: instructor, supervisor, course designer, registrar, tech support—the list goes on. No matter what your background, if you decide to teach your first course—or seek additional teaching gigs—you must learn how to effectively sell yourself as the ideal instructor for a particular school. Of course, teacher requirements vary substantially with the institution. But after teaching online courses for 13 years, conducting national workshops on distance learning, and receiving feedback on my related writings over the years, I've assembled a list of broad-based tips, techniques, and requirements for scoring that online teaching gig:

Wired Campus: Students Watch Lecture Videos in Fast Forward - Chronicle.com

Wired Campus: Students Watch Lecture Videos in Fast Forward - Chronicle.com

Ten education reforms to improve social mobility - Telegraph

Ten education reforms to improve social mobility - Telegraph

After First Seminar...

of my course I started at Uni I am so pleased I started it and I was impressed with all we have done there. Theory with lots of questions and discussion and hands on experience.

The course is on assessment for learning. I knew a lot about it. But this was like breaking it down and rebuilding the knowledge from different perspective and with some experience - with thinking How To Do It? instead of What Is It?

I didn't know that it assessment for learning is (or could be) interchangeable with 'Formative Assessment'. I have learned about formative assessment before. But it was all theory without links to practice. And I didn't know that this topic is big just ten years now. Now I am thinking about my teacher training in Slovakia an tying to recall if we had something similar on that. I need to go through my lecture notes and books (summer job?).

During this seminar I have learned a lot about effects of AfL and the big difference in how it is done in comparison with Assessment Of Learning (Summative Assessment). And I have realised that it definitely is not about data and measuring performance by grades or levels. It is about the process of teaching - about the delivery of content. Assessment of prior knowledge and understanding to adjust plan and tailor the content. Feedback by questioning and self or peer-assessment not to mark, but again to assure that the teaching delivers what is needed, what will close the gaps.

And it is about using data for the same purpose too.

eLearn: Feature Article

Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More Successful E-learning Professional

By Stephen Downes, National Research Council Canada

The following list was inspired by eLearn Magazine Editor-in-Chief Lisa Neal's blog post "Ten Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes To Be a More Successful e-learning Professional." We'd like to offer the "Web 2.0 Edition" of Lisa's list:

eLearn: Feature Article

Assessment for Learning: Putting It into Practice

Book by Paul Black, Christine Harrison, Clare Lee, Bethan Marshall, Dylan Wiliam; Open University Press, 2003.

135 pgs.

An assessment activity can help learning if it provides information to
be used as feedback by teachers, and by their students in assessing
themselves and each other, to modify the teaching and learning
activities in which they are engaged. Such assessment becomes formative
assessment when the evidence is used to adapt the teaching work to meet
learning needs. Formative assessment can occur many times in every
lesson. It can involve several different methods for encouraging
students to express what they are thinking and several different ways
of acting on such evidence. It has to be within the control of the
individual teacher and, for this reason, change in formative assessment
practice is an integral and intimate part of a teacher's daily work.(Black et al. 2)

http://www.questia.com/read/113690812#

Book that finally made me understand what is meant by AfL in practice. Most of the time, especially when discussed by colleagues at school, this was about data and how data inform targets and intervention. Which is important too. But how do you gather data, how do you intervene, how do you make it meaningful for Y7 students?

In the picture with other books I read recently it makes more sense. Teachers talk, body language, giving feedback, asking questions, teaching students to assess themself and their peers...

BBC NEWS | Education | Lessons 'tougher for male staff'

BBC NEWS | Education | Lessons 'tougher for male staff'

Old-fashioned story books 'better for children than electronic learning gadgets' - Telegraph

... just a common sense. we have to be around our children, show the love, interest, teach them to be curious, grateful and have fun...

Old-fashioned story books 'better for children than electronic learning gadgets' - Telegraph

eLearn: Opinions

The e-Learning Rules of Engagement
By Mark Notess, Indiana University

The word "engagement" is often used in connection with e-learning—so often, in fact, that it has come to represent a general, warm fuzziness that everyone wants but which proves elusive. But what does engagement really mean? Let's examine some of the ways the term is used in connection with online learning.

A property of materials. Promotional literature for learning materials often makes claims about how engaging a particular product is. This can refer to anything from pictures to animations to simulations, or to some supposed relevance of the materials to the learner. When we say materials are engaging, we are saying they have properties intended to stimulate use or interest by learners. But can engagement reside entirely in materials? If an e-learning course is engaging, but no one takes that course, where is the engagement?

...

eLearn: Opinions

Why Gen Y Is Going to Change the Web - ReadWriteWeb

Gen Y is taking over. The generation of young adults that's composed of the children of Boomers, Generation Jones, and even some Gen X'ers, is the biggest generation since the Baby Boomers and three times the size of Gen X. As the Boomers fade into retirement and Gen Y takes root in the workplace, we're going to see some big changes ahead, not just at work, but on the web as a whole.

There's some contention over where exactly Gen Y starts and stops - some say those born 1983-1997, others think 1982-1997. In this week's Entertainment Weekly, Gen Y is defined as "current 13 to 31 year-olds" and BusinessWeek says they can be as young as five. Regardless, we know who they are - they're the young kids of today, the most digitally active generation yet, having been born plugged in.

Why Gen Y Is Going to Change the Web - ReadWriteWeb

Why School is Bad

there might be truth somewhere hidden...

StumbleUpon WebToolbar - Why School is Bad

Connecting Character to Conduct: Helping Students Do the Right Things

Book by Rita Stein, Roberta Richin, Richard Banyon, Francine Banyon, Marc Stein; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2000. 137 pgs.

Although the Centerville School District is a composite of sev- eral schools we've worked with, we are using authentic examples and experiences to show how you can implement respect, impulse control, compassion, and equity in your school. We organized each chapter of this book to illustrate how a typical school district can use the content of the curriculum; the structure of the school day; the sequence of the school year; and the counseling, discipline, and safety practices to provide all members of the school community with meaningful opportunities to use RICE (respect, impulse control, compassion, and equity). From the hallway to the classroom, the athletic program to the parent-teacher conference, and through each step of professional development, we illustrate how a school district can use the character and conduct approach to help students learn and stay safe. ¹

¹ Rita Stein, Roberta Richin, Richard Banyon, Francine Banyon, and Marc Stein, Connecting Character to Conduct: Helping Students Do the Right Things (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2000) 6, Questia, 3 Jan. 2009 .

Interesting book about one fictional school (with real examples and following rules and procedures from real schools) and its way to create meaningful and safe learning environment. Good to consider with other systems or methods. What it shows is, that to maintain successful school we need set of values and rules everyone would follow and our approach need to be planned and thought through. And shared with whole community. Good resource of ideas and tips or as a start for planning new system at school. But it is not only about discipline or values. It's about communication, willingness to help and being engaged and about motivation too. And probably most importantly motivation of the teachers and parents. They need to be ready to step out of comfort zone and try something new.

Connecting Character to Conduct: Helping Students Do the Right Things

Now on LinkedIn too

LinkedIn

'Indulgent' parents fuelling bad behaviour in classroom - Telegraph

"Comments support a popular notion that parents and society have become over child-centred and preoccupied with 'rights' rather than responsibilities,' said the report. 'There is a view that some children believe they are irreproachable as a result. The two most common attributions are therefore linked as many teachers blame parents for acting as bad role models in the way they interact with teachers and other forms of authority."

'Indulgent' parents fuelling bad behaviour in classroom - Telegraph

Xixixi. When I was teaching back in Slovakia, we used to complaint about this, although the behaviour wasn't so bad. But still there were some parents who could not bear the fact, that their child made something wrong. It will be everyvhere the same I suppose, and it depends on the school policy, consistency and the ways of communication. What do you think?

Phoebe — pedagogic planner

Phoebe — pedagogic planner: "Phoebe is a web application designed to provide inspiration and practical support for learning design."

Lessons to be learnedoutside the classroom - Liverpool Echo.co.uk

TEACHERS in England will have to act as ‘role models’ both in and out of school under a proposed new code of conduct.

Why should we expect anything less?

Being forced to act as role model. Well this would expect that we have common set of values, which allow us to create some kind of unity. I cannot see this happening. Even goverment does not act as having one set of values, but rather different and contradictive ones... Let's see how will it work.
Lessons to be learnedoutside the classroom - Liverpool Echo.co.uk

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Slovakia becomes eurozone member

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Slovakia becomes eurozone member

Education preview for 2009 - Telegraph

Education preview for 2009 - Telegraph