What I gleaned from the online course (some being a reinforcement of my existing knowledge):
A. Conversational Framework
It starts with the learner at the centre. Learning is an activity that develops both concepts and practises. We develop a concept, which generates an action, and the feedback on that action then modifies the concept to generate a better action that then gets better feedback; concept and practise each assist the other to develop over time.
Here the learner can get help from the teacher on the one hand and from other learners on the other hand.
The best possible learning experience comes from using all those types of interaction. A rich mix of learning activities is likely to be the most effective.
6 learning types
Recommendations for digital tools and resources (by course participants):
B. Creating Motivational Momentum
Keeping students motivated, especially when they are working alone, means that your learning design must always have a momentum to it. At each stage, ask yourself why should they do this? Because it feeds into the next activity? they will find out how well they did? it will help them see how to do it better next time? or… ?
Learning through practice has a natural momentum because it has the cycle of ‘goal – action – feedback – think again - revise action’ [bottom left-hand cycle in the Conversational Framework]
E.g. In a quiz: The question states a goal - you act to answer - you see the feedback - you try again - and get a better score. In the process you have to focus on what you got wrong and why.
Core premise is “if the teacher requires students to complete any work, then the teacher must review that work and give feedback, prior to planning the next lesson”. That teacher follow-through is what creates the motivation for the student to do the work.
First question that popped into my head was how to encourage students to read and work on the feedback given [especially for Geography LDQs haha]; am inclined to try the yellow box technique in getting students to do corrections for their LDQs following targeted feedback for a smaller portion of their full response, which I feel would be more focussed/meaningful (and less daunting) for students. Hopefully seeing improvement in their second attempt would allow them to taste some semblance of success too
Feedback can also be given from learners' peers (can be seen as a form of Discussion). Engaging in a peer review is a powerful learning process in its own right, because it:
Engages students in evaluating the work of their peers
Encourages reflection on their own work
Involves them in both using and applying criteria to explain their judgements
Shifts control of feedback processes into students’ hands.
When they then return to revising their work, learners see it with a new eye, and they do better.
C. MCQs/ Automated Assessment
Have been questioning the merits of having MCQ quizzes for the longest time (especially re: guessing without understanding), so this section of the course was useful in helping me to be more intentional in the use of MCQs to check for understanding and encourage reflection.
The best we can hope for from automated assessment (or any form of assessment really), is that it makes the student think, reflect on what they know, discover what they need to know, and improve their understanding.
The design of an MCQ quiz is shown below, with a critique of each stage, where the features most useful for learning are in bold:
Reducing guessing:
Inevitably MCQs encourage guessing. But guessing would be reduced if the MCQ were preceded by an initial open answer question, with no answer options given, i.e. a ‘Concealed Multiple Choice Question’ (CMCQ). In this case, the learner is required to think about and express their answer before being distracted by wrong answers. Then the quiz proceeds as above, but with two advantages:
The learner has been encouraged to think first, rather than be invited to consider incorrect answers that could diminish their conception, and
their answers to the open question tells the teacher about the range of student thinking, and they can use this to create better plausible incorrect answers (LOL).
A note: The best reason for using these MCQ quizzes and similar instant feedback (despite the drawbacks) is that students enjoy them. Doing the quiz before and after a reading, for example can be a good way to focus their attention more on the reading.
Comentários