MODULE 4

Monday, Oct. 23:

Watched: Mitra, S. (2010, July). Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education [Video
file]. Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education
- very interesting work done by Sugata Mitra
- good teachers dont want to go where most needed. I have some agreement with
this statement, though I would also argue its not simply lack of good teachers, it
often also involves lack of community and resource support, and varying local
cultures that place less emphasis on education.
- If children have interest they will learn

Tuesday, Oct. 24:

Hubball, H., & Burt, H. (2004). An Integrated Approach to Developing and
Implementing Learning-centred Curricula. International Journal for Academic
Development, (9)1, pp. 51-65.
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Factors influencing curricular reform: desire to increase efficiency /

accountability, increasing enrollment and declining budgets, institution
competition; shifts from teaching-centred to learning-centred, increasing
importance of PLA, increased interdisciplinary, interprofessionalism, etc.
No single curriculum model will suit all settings
Learning-centred also includes assumption that students, faculty,
stakeholders all active in reform process
Incorporates wide range of teaching/learning strategies
Emphases on learning communities, curriculum integration, diverse
pedagogies, clearly define learning outcomes
Benefits of learning-centred:
Informs learners of what expect to achieve, betters organize
time/effort
Communicates curriculum/program goals
Outcomes-based
Guides curriculum committees
Guides instructors designing objectives, content delivery,
assessment strategies

Strategic Approach to Reform

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Learning Context Strategies: critical implementation initiatives: support

leadership. Input, responsiveness, incentives. Accreditation requirements?
Chair seeks input from stakeholders, looks at resources avail., challenges,
ensures inclusive process. Ensure teaching excellence. Identify barriers and

solutions, provide adequate and ongoing support. Everyone is kept up to

date.
Planning Strategies: both global and specific learning outcomes. Developing
curriculum wide outcomes, that are responsive and higher-order and
accountable. Consider global (core program) and specific (program stream)
outcomes, ensure include cognitive, affective, psychomotor. Outcomes
influenced by needs of faculty, students, society, and be flexible.
Assessment Strategies: range of methods/procedures to assess. Integrate
learning outcomes with evaluation, programming and contextual factors.
Authentic assessment techniques presentations, portfolios, projects, exams.
Develop standards to differentiate students, develop formative and
summative evals, informal/formal, teacher and learner-centred. Provide
time/workshop support for faculty to develop learner-centred
teaching/assessment approaches
Programming Strategies: development and integration of diverse learning
strategies. Looks at sequencing, core courses, pre-req./electives. Consider
variety delivery strategies. Broad-based pedagogies, interdisciplinary,
collaborative, web-based, case based, etc.

Stage Specific Intervention Strategies

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Awareness Stage: aware of reform in similar settings LEARNING CONTEXT

STRAT. Research, benefits identified, internal and external motivation
identified. Accreditation? Past student satisfaction/reviews?
Initiative Stage: Interest and commitment toward reform, Chair and key
personnel. LEARNING C.S. Whole faculty engaged via open-dialogue,
consultant assisted in conceptual framework and strategic approach to entire
process.
Mobilisation Stage: curriculum committee/working groups. LEARNING C.S.
Entire faculty engaged collectively, open-dialogue, needs assess., indiv./focus
group interviews
Action Plan Stage: buy-in readiness and integration
PLANNING/ASSESSMENT/PROGRAMMING Vertical and horizontal integration.
Global and specific learning outcomes document & integrated with learning
experiences. Ensure outcomes assessed throughout all years.
Practice Stage: on-going analysis, refinement REFLECTION/FEEDBACK
STRATEGIES Formal review.

Challenges: - change can be incremental

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Faculty anxiety to overcome

Learning-centred = content integrated w/ ability based outcomes > drives
teaching/learning
Requires inclusive committee design
Professional development key
Open minded and flexible to incorporate broad range of pedagogies
Continuous reporting / open dialogue

Wednesday, Oct. 27 Friday Oct. 28

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Spent considerable time perusing various websites, blogs, professional

organization related to my professional context, which I identified as Postsecondary teaching in an environment trending towards learner-centred. I
searched for more specific communities to focus on instruction in health
sciences and even as narrowed as Paramedicine, however these proved
elusive and when found, typically the personal blogs of select educators with
limited following.
I narrowed my choices down to three, which included Edutopia.org, ceaace.ca, and Facultyfocus.com. After exploring each of these, I decided upon
the latter, Faculty Focus, primarily because there is consistent almost daily
articles, good response to these from the community, and within minutes
already found interesting articles with direct correlation to my daily planning,
instruction and assessment.

http://www.facultyfocus.com/

In order to post comments a quick sign-up was required and email

verification, however no qualification were required.
Saturday, Oct. 29

One of the first short articles that peaked my interest:

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/getting-examdebriefs/

My first post below as follows:

Hello, I'd just like to say a fantastic thought! I typically exercise the "brief
debrief" focusing on poorly answered questions and reviewing the specific
content to ensure understanding before going forward, and then often re-test
the same material on subsequent tests. The goal is not to continuously
penalize, but allow students another opportunity to get it right, too often
though the question is again answered poorly.
The obvious workload aside of having to create new tests each year, has

anyone entertained thoughts of utilizing this two-stage approach? I think I

may choose to weight the in-class test vs the take-home attempt at a 2:1
ratio over the 1:1 described.
And while I'm contemplating this approach, how would one find a solution for
students with exam writing accommodations, who require assistive
technologies? As a relatively new teacher in the college system, I appreciate
any thoughts on improving the traditional assessment and improving overall
student learning. Thanks!

Sunday, Oct. 30
Another short article that proved pertinent and applicable to me that I wanted
to reply to:
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/simple-invitationplease-see/
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Thanks for this article and for the comments. Through continuing methods of
colleagues, I have often used the Please statement, but I fully embrace
the wording You are welcome Small change, big difference in student
interpretation and I found greater response following a test just written.
I agree that these meetings can become a strain during a heavily loaded
semester, one strategy I found that helped this year was by starting the
semester informing the students that my office is always open, and Ill be
pleased to assist, after youve taken steps to exhaust all available resources
and come with a specific inquiry.

Tuesday, Nov. 1
Continuing to explore this community further, a couple of the articles Ive read in
detail tonight include:
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/happens-studentsstudy-together/
and
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/teaching-criticalthinking-practical-points/
You can also search the wealth of articles by author or general topic, for example
choosing curriculum development finds dozens of related articles dating back to
2008. It is quickly becoming clear that the general tone of this community is the
popularizing and quickly evolving concept of learner-centred education. My college

is doing the same, so this is proving to be an invaluable resource of pertinent and

applicable concepts. Having subscribed to the article feed, every couple of days a
new submission arrives by email, thus far I have not been disappointed!

Wednesday, Nov. 2
Todays article rolled across my email stream and peaked my interest about using
humor in the classroom. As a content expert turned teacher, Im very passionate
about my subject area and in what Im teaching, and that shows in my enthusiasm,
relevance, and empathetic approach to my developing new craft. Paramedicine is
a practice field, that takes a strong sense of humor to do the job, and particularly in
lab settings I find Im able to combine both a light comfortable atmosphere with at
times the serious focus that are both positive traits of successful paramedics.
Article link:
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/humor-in-theclassroom/#comment-2981028182

And replies thus far to todays article:

I then posted my follow-up thoughts to the developing conversation:

Well said Dan, having a passion for your subject leads to natural enthusiasm and
candor. Humor is a great way to keep students engaged, and I think most
importantly demonstrates that as a teacher I am human, fallible, and
approachable. I echo the concept mentioned of encouraging a community of
learning, and shows students it's important to have fun in what you choose to do.
Thanks!

Thursday, Nov. 3
Write about why you selected the context of professional practice that you did, what professional
contributions you hope to make in the professional space, how these spaces can contribute to
your growth as a professional, and how they can serve as a place for you to provide leadership.
As stated I searched for some time to find a community focused on college teaching with a
practical focus. I chose Faculty Focus because it met these needs, and seems to be a vibrantly
active source of information. In a short time it has already provoked much self-reflection of my
instruction and assessment techniques, and indeed Ive already begun to incorporate some of
these small but very meaningful changes. Im always open to new ideas, and have begun to
place more emphasis on student self-assessment, and indeed have planned a new activity this
week around this. Im having students film themselves during our lab class during their patient
care scenarios, utilizing an evaluation style scenario, and having the students then use the
evaluator rubric and marking scheme to self-evaluate. The intent is that this will facilitate
greater familiarity with the evaluation by promoting greater transparency, and improved
performance ownership.
The majority of my contribution to this site will be as an active audience to the academic articles
surrounding planning, instruction, and assessment. By contemplating articles and contributing to
ongoing debate and the furthering of ideas, I hope to learn from others experience as well as add
my own thoughts, questions, and take-aways.

This space has already proven to me it can be a highly valuable and practical resource for me as I
continue to hone my new craft as a college instructor. The topics are highly pertinent to my daily
practice, and continuously provoke meaningful self-reflection of my teaching style and
techniques. My program must meet accreditation standards and as such is highly outcomes
based, however the faculty are otherwise quite free to reach those outcomes in whatever manner
we see best fit, thus instruction and assessment is open to modification. I look forward to future
topics and continuing to search older ones to continue building, modifying, reflecting, and
developing my abilities as a teacher.
Through this personal development, I will certainly gain insight and ideas to take back to my
program and school, and provide a leadership role in program improvement and shifting towards
a more learner-centred outlook. Within this particular space, I can certainly assist in leading
debate and conversation, and perhaps over time may develop or find a specific area to consider
submitting an article myself. That said, the majority of authors do appear to be of the PhD
designation.

After examining the internet space of your context of professional practice, think about what the
mode of communication best suits the space. Also, analyse the web site for clues as to the
practice of the sites participants. What type of curricular design commonly guides planning,
instruction and evaluation? (And think back to educational philosophies and conceptions of
curriculum at some point in your writing). Then, write out your analysis.

Focus on Faculty is an online resource that predominately reflects teaching practice in the
college setting. An email subscription sends new article updates directly to subscribers, and the
website is set up in a blog fashion that allows easy perusal and search of articles. Comments are
welcomed, and this is the best mode of communication with the community. Articles are
submitted by experienced academics, and the site has a global following. A brief sign-up is
required in order to post comments.

After having read several articles and exploring the realm of the website, the majority of
contributors and those commenting from the community best reflect elements of planning,
instruction and evaluation associated with the Learner Based design, though there are also
concepts discussed that would reflect a Society-Culture design.
In The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture by Lorrie A. Shepard, Student-Centred
design applies as she incorporates understanding students as individuals, places importance on
self-assessment and metacognitive awareness, transparency, and emphasizes students as the
centre of the educational process. This viewpoint is demonstrated throughout several articles I
have had the opportunity to view, including two articles by Dr. Maryellen Weimer, Getting
More Out of Exam Debriefs and What Happens When Students Study Together. The former
discusses using tests for student self-assessment, self-correction, and providing opportunity to
promote further learning, the focus of assessment being to enhance learning, not just
superficially measure it. The latter discusses promoting strategies to enhance student selfefficacy, self-esteem, and personal growth, and describes giving focus to success of individuals.
This article also illuminates the importance of activities such as group studying in developing the
skills to co-exist peacefully in a diverse and changing world where varying opinions may exist,
leading to a viewpoint also congruent with that of the Society-Culture design.
An article by Linda B. Nilson entitled Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Practical Points
places emphasis on methods to facilitate metacognitive awareness and development of the
individual, also in line with a Learner-Centred design.
Also contributing to a Learner-Centred design is the article A Simple Invitation: Please See Me
by Micah Sadigh. This article talks to promoting the student and teacher working together for
the individuals success, the importance of student ownership of their work, and nurturing and
supporting positive study habits through individual student conferences and evaluation
discussion.
The Society-Culture aspect of this site incorporates the Reconstruction and Pragmatism
Philosophies, which connect with the conceptions of Social Reconstruction/Relevance and
Cognitive-Process, and Personal Commitment to Learning, Self-Actualization, and also
Cognitive-Process respectively. Through the Reconstruction Philosophy there is emphasis on
developing abilities to deal with a changing society (Eisner and Vallance, 1974), which Weimer
discussed with her article on study groups (as detailed above), this then aligns with the
Reconstruction conception, as well as the Cogntive-Process which emphasizes contentindependent skills such as peaceful teamwork and social interaction (Eisner and Vallance, 1974).
Predominately the viewpoint of this community is the Learner-Based design. This design stems
from the Pragmatism philosophy which values both content and process, and recognizes
differences in individual student motivation and needs (Hill,1994, p.39). This philosophy
connects with three primary conceptions; Personal Commitment to Learning, Self-Actualization,
and Cognitive Process. Personal Commitment identifies the idea of creating an attitude towards

life-long learning and intellectual exploration (Vallance, p.27-28). Self-Actualization portrays

that education should be personally satisfying for each student and should be relevant and
promote self-awareness (McNeil, pp.1-12). Cognitive Process also aligns with the Pragmatism
philosophy (as it did with Reconstruction), with its focus on open-ended education and student
growth orientation (Eisner & Vallance).

Overall this community is forwarding the growing trend towards a Learner-Centred design,
which aligns with the current framework of my college and program. Our ongoing faculty
resources and departmental meetings place emphasis on active accommodation and ensuring
education meets the individual needs of our students, and the Faculty Focus community is
certainly proving to be an additional and highly valuable resource for me towards this end.

Eisner, E., & Vallance, E. (Eds.). (1974). Five conceptions of the curriculum: Their roots and
implications for curriculum planning. In E. Eisner & E. Vallance (Eds.), Conflicting conceptions
of curriculum (pp. 1-18). Berkeley, CA: McCutchan Publishing.
Hill, A. M. (1994). Perspectives on philosophical shifts in vocational education: From realism to
pragmatism and reconstructionism. Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, 10(2), 37-45.
Vallance. (1986). A second look at conflicting conceptions of the curriculum. Theory into
Practice, 25(1), 24-30.