Brainstorming, Mind mapping and Step-by step discussion methods

In this assignment we asked to pick up three methods from Hyppönen et al. (Chapter 4; something you have never/seldom used yourself) and use it for this presentation!

We decided to pick up these three following methods: 

• Mind mapping 
• Brainstorming and 
• Step-by-step discussion

In the Handbook For Teachers - Course Structures, Teaching Methods and Assessment  written by Hyppönen and Linden (2009) described our methods as follows: 

Mind Mapping

In a mind map, the most essential subject is placed in the centre of the paper, to which subjects are connected in a tree-like form. The teacher can use mind maps to structure a presentation, to create a description during a discussion or to support the students’ activities or group work.

Brainstorming:

In brainstorming, the teaching group is divided into smaller groups, which are then told to come up with solutions, questions or factors. The groups think up their ideas simultaneously so that each member can write down their ideas. It is important to emphasize to the students that even the craziest ideas can be presented during brainstorming and that all critique is forbidden during the brainstorming phase. The ideas are criticised after the brainstorming session. After the ideas are assembled, the best suggestions are then found by voting or otherwise filtering the ideas.

Brainstorming

Do`s in Brainstorming                      

Capture everything

Encourage participation

Ask clarification

Don`t in Brainstorming

                          Evaluate everything

                                              Force participation or sequence
                                                  Ask judging questions

                                                        

After Brainstorming do these process

Categorize

Reduce

Analyze

Step-by-step discussion

The idea of the step-by-step discussion is to go through a series of questions either with the whole teaching group or in smaller groups. For the implementation, the teacher prepares a set of questions that follow one another, to which the students then find answers. The answers can be found by reading or through discussion or thought.

Strengths and challenges

This method can easily be used with varying group sizes. Because the questions are prepared beforehand, the teacher may lead the students through a selected train of thoughts. Preparing the questions beforehand also makes it possible for the teacher to predict the situation. The method’s major challenges include the creation of good series of questions. The answers to the questions should be readily accessible for the students, but they should not be too easy. Another challenge is how to reach the ultimate goal of learning from searching for the answers instead of just answering the questions. (Hyppönen et al 2009, 43.)

Inquiry Based Learning Theory

"Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand.” The last part of this statement is the essence of inquiry-based learning.

Inquiry implies involvement that leads to understanding. Furthermore, involvement in learning implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit you to seek resolutions to questions and issues while you construct new knowledge.  (source: thirteen.org)

Major difference between traditional way of learning and IBL:

Traditional learning focuses more on LEARNING ABOUT THINGS, while inquiry learning focuses more on LEARNING THINGS! Another useful way to contrast the two might be: Thinking WHAT as opposed to thinking HOW. (source: thirteen.org)

"The Levels of Inquiry-Based Learning:

There are many different explanations for inquiry teaching and learning and the various levels of inquiry that can exist within those contexts.

Level 1: Confirmation Inquiry. The teacher has taught a particular science theme or topic. The teacher then develops questions and a procedure that guides students through an activity where the results are already known. This method is great to reinforce concepts taught and to introduce students into learning to follow procedures, collect and record data correctly and to confirm and deepen understandings.

Level 2: Structured Inquiry. The teacher provides the initial question and an outline of the procedure. Students are to formulate explanations of their findings through evaluating and analyzing the data that they collect.

Level 3: Guided Inquiry. The teacher only provides the research question for the students. The students are responsible for designing and following their own procedures to test that question and then communicate their results and findings.

Level 4: Open/True Inquiry. Students formulate their own research question(s), design and follow through with a developed procedure, and communicate their findings and results. This type of inquiry is often seen in science fair contexts where students drive their own investigative questions. Banchi and Bell (2008) explain that teachers should begin their inquiry instruction at the lower levels and work their way to open inquiry in order to effectively develop students’ inquiry skills. Open inquiry activities are only successful if students are motivated by intrinsic interests and if they are equipped with the skills to conduct their own research study.[15]

Inquiry-based learning can be done in multiple formats, including:

• Field-work

• Case studies

• Investigations

• Individual and group projects

• Research projects" 

 (source: wikipedia)

I agree with the critics of IBL and it might lead to certain misconceptions of knowledge. I would see that IBL is a more appropriate method for advanced courses rather than the basic ones. 

Effective Learning Methods

Effective Learning Methods

Do a teacher can inspire and facilitate learning?

Teacher can do a lot and use different methods and tools to activate learning.  Thera are different methods that  teacher can make learning affective, but these methods should be as fellows;

1) Teaching methods be adjusted and satisfied learners`culture and motivation. 

2)Teaching methods should embrace different methodology and to fit student levels of development  

3)Teaching should be designed the effectiveness of teaching method.

There are several teaching models that are believed to be effective: Progressive Inquiry (can be shaped as Flipped classroom or Problem-based learning); Scientific Learning Cycle; and Kolb's Learning Cycle. All of them are more or less designed under the Cognitivistic view. 

Scientific Learning Cycle Theory

How this SLC can be applied in teaching? For example, first, students are introduced with some experiment or do certain simulation. Further their exploration is explained by scientific concepts and theory. Finally, students are asked to apply the received knowledge for new examples or develop the knowledge further and make ‘knowledge structure’ (key relation chart; memory board; concept maps or networks; etc.). (summarized from Wankat & Oreovicz, chapter 15)

Progressive Inquiry Theory

PI's goal is to find answer for the problem, which cannot be solved with extant knowledge. Process is collaborative and spiral: a group starts searching how certain problem can be solved; asks related to the problem questions; build possible hypotheses; read and search for relevant information which could help to solve the problem till conclusion about solution is reached. The answer to the problem might even be that solution is not possible. The most important thing is to build collectively and cumulatively knowledge and understanding about a certain challenge or problem. (summarized from class discussion)

Activating Teaching Methods

In my opinion discussion is  a very useful tool to engage and activate the class. It is very important for a teacher to rise right and useful questions in the discussion and without this capability classroom discussion may not be productive, mind provoking, and will be waste of time.  Teachers need to manage class discussions, because there are always students need to talk more,  some of them are out of topic, therefore managing class discussions will be challenging. Finally discussion is useful method and encourage diversity of students and I liked it. It is not always easy and simple to manage class discussions, therefore it is needed to plan and set up guiding questions rather than to follow the new ideas generated form the class.

Learnng through discussion (LTD) is a model, which consist of 4 steps: 1) Students explore and do the research on given topic alone. 2) They compare their findings in pairs. 3) They gather with their findings into bigger groups, discuss and try to form a common agreement on findings. 4) Every student takes part in a conversation with everyone in the class room. This might be a bit chaotic sometimes, but it is very useful experience. This way more than just a few students will be activated into discussion compared to a normal teaching and reflecting situation 

There are other methods that can be activate classes such as Self-Regulate Learning; teacher is like mentor who is observing students efforts to set certain goals for his/her own learning, process with investigation, and reflect on the learning outcomes against individually set criterion. 

Please watch below video, and you will admire how teaching can be activated. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dilnw_dP3xk#t=184

Different Learners

Different learners, Source: Google

It is claimed that visual way is preferred by most of the people (Barbe & Milone, 1981; as cited in Wankat & Oreovicz, chapter 15), but  our online class we tested our differences of learning and found unlike results.

During our study of different learners we foung that For reading alone, the learner’s retention was 10 percent; for hearing alone, 26 percent; and for seeing, 30 percent. If the learner both saw and heard, retention was 50 percent; if the learner said something, retention was 70 percent; and if the learner said and did something, the retention was 90 percent. Thus, auditory styles of teaching should be heavily supplemented with visual and, to a lesser extent, kinesthetic learning opportunities."  (Wankat & Oreovicz, chapter 15)

Therefore combining visual, auditory, and kinesthetic methods of delivering the information increases learning productivity dramatically! This means that opportunities for the student to speak, write, and solve problems should be incorporated in every course.

A short video about different learners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWybSdIDuRs

Differentiation of learners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkIQ6KiyA5U

Competencies of Vocational Teacher

Figure 1 Competences of vocational teacher (FNEB)

Practical working experience:

In Finland, a vocational teacher should has at least three years of work experiences and to know how things done practically. Teachers with lacked of practical work experience and outdated knowledge & skills threat the quality of vocational education and training. A competitive vocational teacher should have practical working experience to teach learners practical knowledge.

Vocational knowledge and skills:

Generally teachers are expected to be experts, but the main traits that teachers missing are technological competences, new working methods for their fields, entrepreneurial teaching, ecological focus and wellness services.

Field development and continuing training:

Teachers were supposed to have the will to develop their own field and sense of responsibility for development of their own specialization area. The future prospects of different fields were not seen clearly and the economic recession was perceived to weaken the attractiveness of certain fields and to reduce willingness to study. Continuing training and development are essential for vocational teacher in order to teach his/her learners an updated information and knowledge. 

Development of personal competence and cont. training:

The challenges for change in the world of work were considered to require continuous studying, updating of knowledge and skills in the relevant vocational field, organization of professional development placements at workplaces and participation of teachers in working life projects and international exchanges. Working and training are both needed to develop personal competences of vocational teachers.

Vocational Teachers are in charge of delivering the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills to their learners. They also have main responsibility for the learners and their overall progress. The question is how a teacher without the some above four components can ensure the progress of learners. The four competences of vocational teacher are interrelated to each other and cannot be separated. 

A good teacher needs to possess a wide and deep knowledge and understanding of the professional field, personal and human growth and development and how to handle this growth by means of education and training. Furthermore, teachers need to have adopted the ethical responsibility of the profession. Finally, a teacher operates in a multi-dimensional context and must understand the dialogue and interlink between education, labour market and society to be able to promote the learners progress in life.

Traits of Good Teacher

Verbal ability:

Studies show that students taught by teachers with great verbal ability learn more than those taught by teachers with lower verbal ability (Rowan, Chiang, & Miller, 1997; Strauss & Sawyer, 1986). Therefore a great link exists between effective teachers’ vocabulary and verbal skills and student academic success, as well as teacher performance, because communication skill is a part of verbal ability, teachers with better verbal abilities can more effectively convey ideas to students and communicate with them in a clear and compelling manner.

Here are some characteristics of good teacher:

• Qualification
• Content Knowledge
• Teaching Experience 
• Caring, knowing students
• Listening, understanding 
• Fairness and respect 
• Social interactions with students
• Enthusiasm and motivation 
• Attitude towards teaching 

Much of the recent research on teacher effectiveness focuses on relating teacher behaviors to student achievement. Studies suggest that instructional and management processes are keys to effectiveness, but many interview and survey responses about effective teaching emphasize the teacher’s effective characteristics, or social and emotional behaviors, more than pedagogical practices. These affective characteristics are difficult to quantify; however, characteristics such as love of children, love of work, positive relationships with colleagues and with children contribute to a teacher’s feeling of happiness. Noddings, (2005) explained that a teacher’s happiness could affect the classroom climate and therefore affect students. Moreover, the teacher’s psychological influence on students has been linked to student.

My reflection

Teachers are not machines, therefore it hard to quantify the characteristics of effectiveness. A good teacher is capable to recognize his/her own emotions as well as emotional atmosphere in the class. A good teacher is good a psychologist, who can see beyond the words said. Teacher should give the feeling of being cooperative and fair. With the respect of all other characteristics, I strong agree that social and emotional behaviors of teachers emphasize the students’ performance more than pedagogical practice. These characteristics include communication, listening, emotional intelligent, caring, respecting, cooperative, and fairness etc. The activities of teachers vary from sector to sector.

References

James H., 2007. Qualities of Effective Teachers. 2nd Ed. Virginia: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD)

http://teaching.about.com/od/Information-For-Teachers/a/Twenty-five-Essential-Qualities-Of-A-Good-Teacher.htm

https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/resources/teaching/planning-your-approach/characteristics-effective-teachers

Volmari, K., Helakorpi, S. & Frimodt, R. 2009. COMPETENCE FRAMEWORK FOR VET PROFESSIONS: Handbook for practitioners. Available at: http://www.oph.fi/download/111332_Competence_framework_for_VET_professions.pdf

Teacher Centred Vs Student Centred Class

Teacher Centred Class

Student Centred Class

Teacher-centered vs. Learner-centered paradigms

Comparison of Teacher-centered and Learner-centered paradigms (Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses by Huba and Freed 2000)
Teacher-Centered Paradigm	Learner-Centered Paradigm
Knowledge is transmitted from professor to students	Students construct knowledge through gathering and synthesizing information and integrating it with the general skills of inquiry, communication, critical thinking, problem solving and so on
Students passively receive information	Students are actively involved
Emphasis is on acquisition of knowledge outside the context in which it will be used	Emphasis is on using and communicating knowledge effectively to address enduring and emerging issues and problems in real-life contexts
Professor’s role is to be primary information giver and primary evaluator	Professor’s role is to coach and facilitate  Professor and students evaluate learning together
Teaching and assessing are separate	Teaching and assessing are intertwined
Assessment is used to monitor learning	Assessment is used to promote and diagnose learning
Emphasis is on right answer	Emphasis is on generating better questions and learning from errors
Desired learning is assessed indirectly through the use of objectively scored tests	Desired learning is assessed directly through papers, projects, performances, portfolios, and the like
Focus is on a single discipline	Approach is compatible with interdisciplinary investigation
Culture is competitive and individualistic	Culture is cooperative, collaborative, and supportive
Only students are viewed as learners	Professor and students learn together

Teaching and assessing are intertwined, they aren’t separate.

Assessment is used to promote learning not to monitor the learning. Learning outcomes is assessed through authentic assessment, paper work, projects, assignments, portfolio, writing reflection, etc, not through objective score test. 

The objective of assessment is not to judge the students, but to motivate the students and apply their knowledge.

Reflection:

Remembering my early classes, teacher-centered class was a common. The learner-centered class is the one we need to engage our students.

As you can see the three bold boxes on the table above are the most features on learner-centered class, that 21^st century teachers are needed to consider deeply with the consideration of all others.

Teaching and assessing are intertwined

Assessment is used to promote and diagnose learning 

Desired learning is assessed directly through papers, projects, performances, portfolios, and the like.

References

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/pedagogy/v003/3.1kain.html

http://assessment.uconn.edu/docs/TeacherCenteredVsLearnerCenteredParadigms.pdf

Learning Theories

Behaviorism, Cognitivism, constructivism

Behaviorism ”focuses on one particular view of learning: a change in external behavior achieved through a large amount of repetition of desired actions, the reward of good habits and the discouragement of bad habits. In the classroom, this view of learning allow educators to assist their students in excelling both academically and personally. They praise for correct outcomes and immediate correction of mistakes. In the field of language learning this type of teaching was called the audio-lingual method, characterized by the whole class using choral chanting of key phrases, dialogues and immediate correction.

Within the behaviourist view of learning, the "teacher" is the dominant person in the classroom and takes complete control, evaluation of learning comes from the teacher who decides what is right or wrong. The learner does not have any opportunity for evaluation or reflection within the learning process, they are simply told what is right or wrong. The conceptualization of learning using this approach could be considered "superficial" as the focus is on external changes in behaviour i.e. not interested in the internal processes of learning leading to behaviour change and has no place for the emotions involved the process.”

To me behaviorism in education is a foundational way of introduction to learning. It is needed in primary education to prepare small kids for the journey of their learning. It allows small kids to feel good for the positive enforcement and rewards. 

Today, this is adea is widely practicing in many countries for all levels of education, which is unfortunate. Gaining good marks is the main motive of learners and thus memorization is the best way to get high marks. Sometimes learners get pressure from their parents, because they are ones, who decide what subjects their children learn and what professions will have the future. 

Learners have career models, which is based on having luxury hoses, latest cars and to be wealthy, and simply they follow what employers, teachers and parents say to get huge money at their earlier ages. Therefore behaviorism will remain in our education system and this will eliminate or reduce the creativity our societies.

Cognitivism: The cognitivist revolution replaced behaviorism in 1960s as the dominant paradigm. Cognitivism focuses on the inner mental activities – opening the “black box” of the human mind is valuable and necessary for understanding how people learn. Mental processes such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving need to be explored. Knowledge can be seen as schema or symbolic mental constructions. Learning is defined as change in a learner’s schemata.”

Source: https://www.learning-theories.com/cognitivism.html

Constructivism - "At their core, constructivist perspectives focus on how learners construct their own understanding. ... learners construct knowledge based on what they already understand as they make connections between new information and old information. Students' prior ideas, experiences, and knowledge interact with new experiences and their interpretations of the environment around them. Research by Savery & Duffy (1995) suggests that learning how to use constructivist theories involves many interactions between the content, the context, the activity of the learner, and the goals of the learner. Cognitive conflict drives this knowledge-building process. Cognitive conflict occurs for learners when they encounter and recognize discrepancies between what they already know and new persuasive information that brings their current understanding into question

It seems difficult to see the difference between teacher's and student's role in Constructivism and Cognitivism. Constructivism seems to be even more personalized and individually orientated than Cognitivism, but how does the role of the teacher and learner differs?

Online Group

Our group consisted of five people located in four different places; Helsinki, Vaasa, Kotka, and Italy. The challenge was how to prepare lectures, since we all live in different places. The idea of Skype came out for our discussions, but again the challenge was how to create the masterpieces of our presentation with equal input of all group members, then GOOGLE DOCS with Skype was the ideal and helped our online group working.  We agreed to collect materials and share on each other through emails, and after reading we discuss on Skype, select the important parts from all of the groups’ materials and finally decide the design of our presentation. 

What I liked and need to appreciate our group was common understanding, while all of us came from different culture backgrounds. No one was convincing to take his/her material to others for the presentation.  The all group members collect huge information with different angels and tools, which could never happen while working alone. 

Sometimes, in a group work you think that some ideas cannot work at the beginning, but may be at the end it will work perfectly, so always accept difference, creativity and be patient.