Research Informed Teaching
For the past two and a half years my school has set aside time every Wednesday morning for Professional Learning Groups. These groups provide teachers with time to work on their inquiry cycle and have professional discussions with others about their classroom practice. I appreciate having the opportunity to develop my pedagogy in this way.
As a teacher - as a human being - the assumptions that I bring to my practice are influenced by a range of different things. The way I teach can be influenced by factors including my world view and the way I was taught (and didn't like being taught). But these influences aren't always going to be conducive to best practice. One of the things that I really like about the inquiry process is that after identifying an issue to address, there is an expectation that I will identify my own learning needs and that my next steps will be evidence based. Utilising the vast array of research that has been done on education is to me a logical thing to do. Just as my teaching practices are always adapting, so to is the evidence about what works best in the classroom.
It's not just my classroom practice which should be informed by research, but also decisions made by the school. When we were looking towards BYOD, one of the main reasons parroted was because other schools were doing it and we would look bad in the community if we didn't. True, but it's not enough of a reason to turn digital or because technology is cool. As one of the teachers pushing for more ICT in our classrooms, I repeatedly said that it's not enough to use technology for technology's sake, that technology is a tool for learning and that the learning goal should be the main focus. My motivation to increase technology in the school was driven by the research that I was doing as part of my PLG group.
Of course teachers need to see the link between theory and how it can be applied in a practical classroom situation. The Mindlab session this weak outlined four approaches to using research in education:
Research led - curriculum based on research interests of students - interests of teacher drives content
Research oriented - teaching is based on creating a research ethos
Research based - curriculum based on inquiry-based activities
Research informed - consciously draw on the teaching and learning process (Bensement 2013, see the full article here)
I think my practice is primarily research oriented but that I am moving along the continuum towards being research informed (especially through the course). Educational theory is a huge area and I have to admit to forgetting the some of the major theorists in the field but I am still aware of the general theories (eg, constructivism, social cognitive theory, behaviouralism) and to some extent their validity in today's classroom.
I know that there can be a gap between research being too theoretical and the practical needs of teachers. I do want it to give me practical strategies, but more importantly to drive the basis of how of teach. I want my own theories about teaching to be grounded in research.
Theories of education have changed, probably even in the few years since my own teacher training. There has been a movement from behaviouralist drill exercises to students constructing knowledge themselves. It is useful to apply theories to learning activities. During this week's session we were introduced to programming on Scatch and how to use it with Makey Makey electronics to create a musical instrument. We were then asked to consider to what extent the activity was constructionism or constructivism.
The first step was to figure out the difference between the two theories!
Constructionism: The best way of learning something is by making something - doesn't have to be a physical item, could also be theory, operates in virtual world and world of ideas. The important thing is the process of making something.
Constructivism is a broad spectrum of things - rather than having knowledge handed down to us knowledge is constructed by learners. The term is used to describe range of theories. Most modern education based on constructivism
Our group rationalised that as we were guided through Scratch and how to make the instrument by a teacher, we were less constructivist, but definitely fell into the constructionism category as we made a product.
We were also asked to assess the activity in terms of collaboration and cooperation, which was a little more tricky as the terms are often used as synonyms and there are differing definitions of the terms.
For example, cooperation could be considered when students split work, solve tasks and assemble partial results into a final product, whereas in collaboration all work is done together. Another view is that co-operation is focused on working together to create an end product, while collaboration requires participants to share in the process of knowledge creation - shared knowledge creation. We decided that we approached our activity in a collaborative way.
As a teacher - as a human being - the assumptions that I bring to my practice are influenced by a range of different things. The way I teach can be influenced by factors including my world view and the way I was taught (and didn't like being taught). But these influences aren't always going to be conducive to best practice. One of the things that I really like about the inquiry process is that after identifying an issue to address, there is an expectation that I will identify my own learning needs and that my next steps will be evidence based. Utilising the vast array of research that has been done on education is to me a logical thing to do. Just as my teaching practices are always adapting, so to is the evidence about what works best in the classroom.
It's not just my classroom practice which should be informed by research, but also decisions made by the school. When we were looking towards BYOD, one of the main reasons parroted was because other schools were doing it and we would look bad in the community if we didn't. True, but it's not enough of a reason to turn digital or because technology is cool. As one of the teachers pushing for more ICT in our classrooms, I repeatedly said that it's not enough to use technology for technology's sake, that technology is a tool for learning and that the learning goal should be the main focus. My motivation to increase technology in the school was driven by the research that I was doing as part of my PLG group.
Of course teachers need to see the link between theory and how it can be applied in a practical classroom situation. The Mindlab session this weak outlined four approaches to using research in education:
Research led - curriculum based on research interests of students - interests of teacher drives content
Research oriented - teaching is based on creating a research ethos
Research based - curriculum based on inquiry-based activities
Research informed - consciously draw on the teaching and learning process (Bensement 2013, see the full article here)
I think my practice is primarily research oriented but that I am moving along the continuum towards being research informed (especially through the course). Educational theory is a huge area and I have to admit to forgetting the some of the major theorists in the field but I am still aware of the general theories (eg, constructivism, social cognitive theory, behaviouralism) and to some extent their validity in today's classroom.
I know that there can be a gap between research being too theoretical and the practical needs of teachers. I do want it to give me practical strategies, but more importantly to drive the basis of how of teach. I want my own theories about teaching to be grounded in research.
Theories of education have changed, probably even in the few years since my own teacher training. There has been a movement from behaviouralist drill exercises to students constructing knowledge themselves. It is useful to apply theories to learning activities. During this week's session we were introduced to programming on Scatch and how to use it with Makey Makey electronics to create a musical instrument. We were then asked to consider to what extent the activity was constructionism or constructivism.
The first step was to figure out the difference between the two theories!
Constructionism: The best way of learning something is by making something - doesn't have to be a physical item, could also be theory, operates in virtual world and world of ideas. The important thing is the process of making something.
Constructivism is a broad spectrum of things - rather than having knowledge handed down to us knowledge is constructed by learners. The term is used to describe range of theories. Most modern education based on constructivism
Our group rationalised that as we were guided through Scratch and how to make the instrument by a teacher, we were less constructivist, but definitely fell into the constructionism category as we made a product.
We were also asked to assess the activity in terms of collaboration and cooperation, which was a little more tricky as the terms are often used as synonyms and there are differing definitions of the terms.
For example, cooperation could be considered when students split work, solve tasks and assemble partial results into a final product, whereas in collaboration all work is done together. Another view is that co-operation is focused on working together to create an end product, while collaboration requires participants to share in the process of knowledge creation - shared knowledge creation. We decided that we approached our activity in a collaborative way.
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