A Space for Making Mistakes

Reflection diary on Sep. 8 online jigsaw teaching 

Good attitude. 

This is a keyword that I want to use to summarize our meeting on Sep 22. Maybe it is because that was the first Jigsaw session that we did, everyone was very enthusiastic about the teaching and was actively participating in the sessions when others were teaching. Besides learning about the competence goals that were taught in the sessions, we have also learned a lot of new tools, for example, Prezi, Kahoot and Flinga. For me, the most precious part of this practice is our learning community. We have similar goals and we can learn from one and another. More importantly, it has provided such a space where we can practice making mistakes, so that we can learn from those “mistakes”. For me, this is an unavoidable route to becoming a teacher. When we were preparing for teaching the lesson, we could have easily used only Padlet to organize all sorts of learning activities. Instead, we want to try using Kahoot and Flinga. Most of us have not used those tools before, so why not give it a try now that we have such a space to practice? We knew that it would take time for the participants to get used to the unfamiliar tools, but it was a learning process for all of us. Who knows? Maybe we could actually find some tool that works more conveniently than Padlet? :) The fact that we used various tools in the teaching was one of the positive feedbacks that We received from the participants. In real teaching, using those tools did take quite a lot of time and explanation. A lesson learned: we need to be patient and generous with time when it comes to learning or teaching something new. Preparing for the lesson needs a lot of cooperation and teamwork. I am grateful that our team members are very committed to the preparation and teaching. When we started the discussion, it was a bit difficult to decide what to teach and how to teach the lesson. I think the turning point was when we set the learning goals for the lesson, which gave all of us a more clear and structured idea of what to do to achieve those goals. Planning a lesson takes more than one meeting session. Therefore, having set the learning goals makes the planning process more smooth. And we could also separate the tasks, so that group cooperation and time management is more efficient. 

 Picture 1: setting learning goals

The competence goal that our group was teaching was “You are familiar with the documents that regulate planning teaching and guiding.​ How do the official documents and regulations affect the planning of the teaching in your vocational field? Where can you find all this information? ” This competence alone did not specify that it should be related to vocational education, but later on, the tutor did point out that our examples and focus should be on vocational education. The design of my teaching was so that participants first think out of the box and try to search for relevant regulations that affect the teaching of German as a second language in the lower secondary school. The question was designed for participants to try looking for relevant information and for triggering them to think WHERE can one find pedagogical regulation documents. The participants mentioned that the task was a bit challenging for reasons that time was limited and that the question can be a bit too narrow. Forming a question that could guide students´ learning is definitely not an easy task for teachers, and just because of that, a teacher is irreplaceable when it comes to guiding students´ learning. Despite the difficulties that participants came across when looking for the relevant regulations, we had quite a good discussion on where teachers can usually find pedagogical regulations that regulate their own teachings. Most of them cannot be found online but are provided by the school or educational institutions that the teachers are working in. 

 Picture 2: sources for vocational education regulations

From the information searching task, we moved on to important documents that regulate teaching and learning vocational education in Finland. More importantly, we provided a search engine for participants, where they could search for official documents and regulations that could affect their teaching in their own field. The tool was very much appreciated by the participants. After that, we continued to the third learning goal, which was a reflection on one's experience related to following certain pedagogical guidelines in their own teaching. It is interesting to hear that different teachers have very different opinions on this issue. One participant has worked as a teacher in Iran for more than 10 years and she did not like that in Iran, teaching has to be done by following pedagogical documents very strictly. She wants more freedom, and she hopes to be trusted by the system more. The teacher who has been teaching for years as an Italian language teacher in Italy however said that sometimes she wants to have more guidelines from the school or the governments to help her plan her lessons, for example recommendation of textbooks. She thinks that there is so much responsibility that she feels burdened sometimes. We had such a good discussion and in the end, we came to a conclusion that freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. If teachers' teaching activities are too much restricted by the official documents, they do not have much freedom to decide what to teach and how to teach. But if the guidance is not enough for teachers, teachers will have to take a lot of responsibility in designing the lessons and guiding the students´ learning. When it comes to following certain guidelines that regulate teaching, it can be about balancing a teacher´s freedom and responsibility. 

 Picture 3: the reflection task

I received quite good feedback from both the participants and the assessment group. Below is a feedback example for my teaching. 

 Picture 4: feedback example on my teaching

 

--------- Topic 2 -------- 

What are the views of learning and how do they affect the planning of the teaching in your particular vocational field and in competency-based education? Choose at least one view that you use in your teaching task! In this lesson, the teacher chose to use the lecturing teaching method. 

The teacher picked some of the teaching methods and explained them with words. There were quite a lot of texts on the presentation slides and I found it a bit difficult to follow. Maybe there were technical problems with the teacher´s device, he did not seem to hear our questions, but to keep to his teaching procedures. For me, the most impressive part was learning about the Fishbowl method. It was surprising for me that a method that we use quite often in different kinds of pedagogical settings has such a funny name. Even though the method was not explained by the teacher, we managed to search for relevant information and learn about this method online. For example, this article gives really good examples of how to apply the fishbowl methods in teaching. 

 --------- Topic 3 -------- 

 How does student-centered approach, personalization and competence-based system affect the planning? 

 I think the presentation was really well-prepared and the learning activities were clearly structured, well-paced, and clearly instructed. The lesson started with free storytelling, which was relaxing and engaging. Later on, we saw some pictures that showed what education looked like in the past and what it looks like nowadays. The discussion surrounding the “fair test” picture has seen opposing opinions on whether basic gatekeeping rules should be used or not when it comes to selecting students. 

Picture 5: fair test (screenshot taken from Group-3´s presentation slides) 

This picture delivers a rather clear message that there are tests that are unfair for some participants. For example, a fish cannot even live without water, not to mention climbing a tree. But when it comes to the real-world education problem, it is necessary to apply some gatekeeping rules. For example, as Janne pointed out, in Finland, one cannot study to become an engineer if he or she does not have the prerequisite mathematics skills. I think education equity and equality do not have a straightforward answer. Being fair can only be measured relatively. The picture makes me think, “What is the purpose of this test? Why would the fish even choose to take this test in the first place?” On one hand, we want education to be fair for all, but on the other hand, there can be necessary standards. A window should always be open and it depends on the case. 

 --------- Topic 4 -------- 

 What is a pedagogical script? How can that help you promote learning in a classroom, on the job learning, and virtual settings? 

 The term pedagogical script is new for me. The most interesting and helpful part of this lesson is our discussion on what pedagogical script is. In what forms can the scripts be? I wish there would have been more examples to show what pedagogical script can be like, but we were running out of time for the fourth teaching group. I did some research on the topic after the lesson and learned that pedagogical script can mean the organization and arrangement of the learning activities that can promote learners´ learning process. It can be in various forms. It can be a written script or even just a teacher's thoughts on how a certain activity is going to be carried out. By this definition, I think teachers often need some sort of scripts to help organize the learning activities. When I was reading some articles, I also found that in Asian countries, such as Vietnam and China, written scripts are usually teachers´ portfolios and it is often compulsory for teachers to write those scripts for their lessons. When I was teaching in China, that was very much the case. Teachers were required to write those scripts and the scripts were checked by the headteacher of a specific subject or the school. Whereas in Finland, teachers have much more freedom to choose what kinds of scripts they want to use for organizing their teaching. Those scripts can be videos, music, or flashcards. And in many cases, students´ participation has a great influence on teachers´ pedagogical scripts. A student's question can even change a teacher's plan for the whole lesson or the whole course. Once when I was visiting an elementary school in Finland, the teacher told me that once a student came to the teacher with a piece of news about NASA´s air potato project and the student asked if they could try doing something like that. The teacher planned a whole STEAM project based on that student's interest.

During the lessons, various teaching methods were applied. I think there is no such method as a bad teaching method. It is about whether the method is suitable for students´ learning or not. For example, if learners can learn the best in a lecture, then lecturing is a suitable method.  I learned a lot from other teachers students. For example, the second group used the lecturing teaching method and I learned how to structure the lecture speech. The third group has a very smooth flow of activity design and the teacher can engage participants really well. The fourth group´s teacher led quite a deep discussion on learning and the related learning theories. Not all teachers are perfect, and yet this is a space where we can improve our teaching and develop to be more professional.

References:​

1. https://minedu.fi/en/vocational-education-and-training​

2. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/vocre.html​

3. https://www.oaj.fi/en/education/ethical-principles-of-teaching/​

4. https://www.oecd.org/education/policy-outlook/country-profile-Finland-2020.pdf​

5. https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/national-reforms-vocational-education-and-training-and-adult-learning-21_en