OMG! How many pedagogical myths are we still believing?!
Reflection diary on Jigsaw teaching practice on Sep 22
Panicked.
That was the word that I want to use to describe my feelings for my learning journey during this second Jigsaw session. When we were preparing for our teaching, we learned from previous students that the VARK model tells what kind of a learner one is. Is it visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or reading/writing? We were very excited when we found that questionnaire link online and we were planning to ask the participants to do the test. But when we received the feedback from Janne, I was shocked and started to think (screaming in my head): how many pedagogical myths are we still believing!?
For some reason, it is so easy to believe that the teaching instruction methods should cater to learners´ learning styles. But as I read more into the links that Janne shared on the group chat, I was surprised to find out that much criticism online about determining learners´ learning styles and that there has been a lot of skepticism about whether matching teaching methods with learning styles can actually improve learning outcomes.
To approach this subject more responsibly, I changed the teaching plan. Instead of discussing with participants what learning styles there are, the question “should teachers match teaching instructions with learners´ learning styles?” was raised and left to the participants to look more into after the lesson. I wrote in the last learning diary that this is a space where we can try out new things and make mistakes. This is indeed a great lesson for me and I have learned that we should approach controversial topics more critically.
Reflections on different topics
---------- Topic 1 -----------
What are group (or team) dynamics and what collaborative methods or practices can be used in teaching? How can the teaching methods promote students' teamwork skills?
It was engaging that the teacher asked us to first think of the good and bad experiences in group work. I could relate to that very personally and there were really vivid memories popping up. In addition, it was interesting to compare group dynamics to the philosophy of Yin and Yang.
In Yin and Yang, there are forces opposed to each other that are creating harmony together. Some forces are dominating and others are submissive. Reflected by that, group dynamics also involve different kinds of forces that could affect how the dynamics are formed and developed. There can be negative forces, such as miscommunication and compromising. There can be positive forces, such as sharing and negotiation. I wish there could have been more discussion about how Yin and Yang can shed light on our understanding of dynamics.
When learning about collaborative learning, there were some big words that were left unexplained, for example, interdependent theory. As teachers, we sometimes tend to use those big words but there is a lack of explanation. It makes me think about how we could approach those big words when it comes to teaching? It is necessary for students to understand what a teacher is going to say next or what a student is going to learn next. Is it more important to go by the book to tell students the definition of those terminologies or is it more important that students have their own understanding and can explain those words in their own way?
Picture 1: teaching methods promoting students´ teamwork
One of the essential questions for this session is how the teaching methods promote students´ teamwork skills. On the slide that the teacher presented, there is the language support that the teacher is supposed to provide for students, which I think can answer the above-mentioned question well. Teachers play an important role in supporting students to digest difficult words.
---------- Topic 2 -----------
How can the vocational/higher ed. classroom teaching methods promote the individual learning processes and personalized learning paths? What kind of methods can be used?
I taught this competence to the group and have received quite good feedback. Participants like the concrete case about supporting Mika to become a qualified Groom and Horse Instructor. With the concrete example, participants can choose suitable teaching methods to promote Mika´s individual learning paths and they should be able to explain their pedagogical choice. The discussion went really well and every participant joined the discussion and articulated their choice of methods.
Picture 2: Case practice
---------- Topic 3 -----------
How do the vocational teacher tutor and guide groups (teams)? How do the vocational teacher tutor and guide individuals? What kind of methods can be used and what are common guiding processes?
We learned an important lesson about playing videos online while recording. Silvia reminded us that we cannot play the video online while we are doing the recording on Teams, otherwise, we are plagiarizing. Therefore, we came up with the solution that the teacher sent the link to the chat and everyone watched the video on their own.
Personally, I do not like videos like the one that we were watching in the session, because I think it is a bit too intentional. It touched upon the bullying subject but because of its intentional storyline, it actually does not give clear guidelines for teachers on how to approach bullying appropriately. However, it is rather good for analysis purposes.
Even though there was a big gap between the video and the questions the teacher asked, the statement exercise was really well-structured. It gave us a clear and systematic guideline to analyze the video and to contextualize some big words like Progressive curriculum.
Below are the questions that we used to analyze the video.
“The should be restructured so that courses become progressively curriculum more structured”
How does this statement show in the video?
“A diversity of learning tasks is required”
How does this statement show in the video?
“Students need concrete learning experiences such as case studies, team projects, industrial experience, and so forth.”
How does this statement show in the video?
“A learning environment which supports risk-taking needs to be developed”
How does this statement show in the video?
How would you suggest that the teacher in the video teaches the same “anti-bullying lesson” to the three bullies as a group?
Can you give an example of the practice-theory-practice model?
---------- Topic 4 -----------
What are pedagogical models? How can they help you to choose the teaching methods? Choose at least one model that you use in your teaching task!
I think the lesson was well structured and there was a lot of theory support with the pre-reading task about different pedagogical models. The teacher also quickly explained to the models so that everyone has a common understanding of the models before we moved on to do the tasks. Our group´s session deals with rather specific teaching methods, while the discussion on different pedagogical models gave a good framework for us to analyze the different teaching methods. For example, Gamification and Flipped Classroom belong to the Romantic Pedagogical Model. In this kind of model, students take on active roles and create their own knowledge. Project-based Learning falls in the category of the Constructivist Pedagogical Model. The teaching is more structured in the sense that the project is planned beforehand to shape students´ learning. Knowledge is constructed collaboratively and it can be reconstructed. In the Behaviour Pedagogical Model, teachers observe learners´ behaviors and respond to learners accordingly.
In this session, we also discussed the use of Flipped Classroom and it was interesting to learn that even though it was a very popular method in a lot of educational contexts, it was not suitable for all kinds of learners or teaching situations. For example, Silvia mentioned that with younger children, the Flipped method requires a lot of explanation and the pre-task is challenging when children's literacy level is still at an early development stage. We drew a conclusion that there is no right or wrong teaching method but only the suitable one. Learners´ diversity and learning environments and so on have a great influence on what teaching methods a teacher uses. A teacher is recommended to use multimodal and various teaching methods to promote the healthy development of the group dynamics.
References and resources
Uuups! I had no idea about the plagiarism issue you mention for the videos. That was my group´s lesson and we had no clue about that. Indeed, there is so much to learn about our mistakes, but there would not be any learning if somebody does not point out the mistake.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree when you say that there is no right or wrong teaching method, just a suitable one or ones for a given situation. It is our job as teachers to know them and how they work to decide which one/ones to use.
I also learned from you how neat and beneficial it is to add a references and resources section in our blog posts. I did not think how decisive they are in us getting exactly to the point where we are, precisely the reflection and thinking which is the core of our blog posts. Thank you, teacher! :)
Thank you for your comments! We can learn from one and another! The plagiarism issue was a shock to me too. We should pay attention to that in the future sessions.
DeleteVery good and comprehensive reflections of yourself and other groups.
ReplyDeleteI am also surprised the issue of pedagogical myths and its urban legend issues and do not aware myself also believe them.
Thank you for your postive feedback. Yes, sometimes I tend to take things for granted.
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