Encouraging participation

“What Stops Students from Participating in Discussion?” (Brookfield 2006 p.133)

Brookfield identifies several reasons:

Crippling Personal Introversion, Fear of Looking Stupid, Feeling Unprepared, lack of trust, not feeling welcome, feelings of being burned by the “safe environment”, it is not cool, and more.

As a health & safety advisor lack of participation has become my “Holy Grail” if you will. On any given day I am tasked with encouraging people to participate, and fail to understand why something as important as ones personal safety can become something “we don’t talk about”.

Here are some of my thoughts:

Sharing YOUR idea is personal, and for each and everyone of us there are things that need to be in place before we do that.

1. On some subconscious level we must trust the environment we are in. If one person has our internal “Spider Sense” tingling we will not share. Inside we each have a criteria that must be met before we feel safe, if this does not happen we keep to ourselves, and try desperately not to be noticed.
2. By sharing we open ourselves to criticism, both positive and negative. But the fear of hearing and interpreting one comment negatively shuts us down. We fail to understand we learn by failure, how many times do you have to put your hand on a hot stove to realize it will burn and hurt you.

Ultimately we must approach our chosen career with respect without judgement. And understand at the end of the day we will forever be stymied why one approach works one term and the next term we fall flat on our face. We are dealing with individuals and I would bet that most instructors do not take the time, or do not have the time to learn and understand how to effectively communicate with each individual.

Brookfield S, The Skillful Teacher on Technique, Trust, and classroom Responsiveness in the Classroom, 2006 John Wiley and Sons

The Skillfull Instructor

I must admit keeping up with the blog process can be a challenge.

I have entered yet another term at VCC in the PIDI program and my job this term is reflect to your my learning of the Professional Practice.

Brookfield identifies three core assumptions of skillful teaching:

Whatever helps student learn,

Adopt a critically reflective stance towards their practice, and;

The constant awareness of how students are experiencing their learning and perceiving the teachers’ actions.

Teachers beliefs have a powerful impact on their willingness to adopt new teaching strategies. Tarman, B. Teachers must be willing to put the needs of their students before the needs of themselves with respect to the learning environment. As an instructor we must fully understand the responsibility we undertake on a daily bases. Many of us enter this profession because we are driven to pass along information, we want to see others succeed.

And yet I cannot help but sit here and think that assumptions are the mother of all screw ups. I feel the intent behind Brookfield concepts are valid but I find the choice in vocabulary. Possibly we can look to a better definition for the above mentioned concepts as something more concrete than something that has no proof.

Prospective Teachers’ Beliefs and Perceptions about Teaching as a Profession

http://www.academia.edu/2329026/Prospective_Teachers_Beliefs_and_Perceptions_about_Teaching_as_a_Profession

Instructional reflection

I have been sitting, pondering, and reflecting on my time in the Provincial Instructors Diploma Program and I am starting to realize the simplicity and complexity.

We have covered topics highlighting curriculum development, where we learned the importance of alignment. The verbs we choose dictate the level of competency expected from the students we teach. We discovered the importance alignment plays from conception to finished product.

We are starting to see that motivation and engagement are closely linked, they  co-exist. When our programs have these two entities active learning takes place.

We have discussed topics like questioning techniques, types and styles of media to use, and evaluation techniques that allow the participant and instructor shine.

Our discussion on what makes an ideal instructor vs. an inspirational instructor yielded the same results. We want passion, and empathy; we want to be connected with on an emotional level as well as an instructional one.

Through all of this I have learned above all the instructor needs to be adaptable. Susan Cain the author of Quiet and Ted Talk The Power of Introverts really opened my eyes to this and reminded me at the end of the day teaching is an interaction between human beings, and as such we need remember that.

Cain S, Jan 2012, Quiet, Broadway Books

Questioning techniques

I have often stated I would make the worlds greatest apprentice, maybe it is because I refuse to grow; I will admit I am a six foot talk kid who asks Why do you do it that way knowing it allows me to really learn.

As instructors we have an obligation to our participants to challenge them, we try to encourage them to go beyond their comfort zones and experience the class on a different level. We hope they will give the class their all just as we do facilitating the information to them.

One of the ways we can understand where the participant is at with the material we are presenting if through good questioning techniques, and I am not referring to test or exam questions. Think of them as checking in questions. Many of us ask ‘does that make sense’ and inevitably we get a room full of heads nodding in unison stating emphatically yes, for sure, absolutely!!! Our participants deserve more than that from us. We need to be asking that evaluate Clarity, Precision, Accuracy, Logic, Fairness among just a few. Open ended questions that allow the information we are looking for to flow back to us as instructors.

“Three processes interact in a dynamic fashion to advance student learning, performance, and achievement; are Questioning, thinking and understanding.” (Chapter 1)

One must consider the balance of good questioning techniques, alignment and over all engagement.

Click to access 6605_walsh_ch_1.pdf

6 seconds to engagement

Alright I will be the first to admit it takes awhile to figure out how to make an impact in six seconds.

Taking on this project for myself allowed me to look back on the PID program as a whole. At every level so far we have discussed how as instructors we can challenge ourselves to keep the class engaged throughout the duration of our programs.

(Bowen 2012) “We can open doors, but students have to walk thought them” Without motivation do we truly have engagement? Maybe Barkley 2010 says it best with “Motivation is the portal to engagement”

With these powerful statements in my mind I set forth to see if I have captured my experience within the SIE program at VCC. I present to you my six seconds., okay seven seconds

Motivation, Barkley 2010, Student Engagement Techniques A Handbook for College Faculty, John Wiley & Sons

Motivation, Bowen 2012, Teaching Naked How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning, John Wiley & Sons

Student engagement

“Engaged students do more than attend or perform academically; they also put forth the effort, persist, self-regulate their behaviour towards goals, challenge themselves to exceed, and enjoy challenges and learning” (Klem & Connell 2004)

So how do we get them engaged. I have always found the more curious I am the greater my interest which in turn seems to be how engaged I am.

Recently my daughter showed me a Vine, these are 6 second videos that loop continuously. So I started to think 6 seconds is enough time for a human resource specialist to decide from looking at your resume whether they want to bring you in for an interview. 6 SECONDS!!!! Well is 6 seconds can determine whether or not you get an interview I want to see if it will be enough to get a group of students engaged.

Stay with me I am going somewhere with this…. I have decided to issue myself a challenge to create a 6 second video and see if I can capture your attention and get you engaged. Check back within the week and watch my video and let me know what you think.

Christenson, Reschly, Wylie 2012 Handbook of Student Engagement, Springer New York

Motivation

Motivation and engagement seem to go hand in hand, without either active learning seems to fall to the side.

In many of the classes I have attended either online, distantly, or in class the class has been told within the first week we are all sitting at 100% what we do with that is up to us. This got me to thinking what are our expectations as instructors that students bring a level of motivation with them? Does all of the responsibility lie on the shoulders of the instructor? I realize for the great majority of us we want our student body to succeed, it is a reflection of ourselves, but what happens when our students are just not engaged and motivated despite our best efforts?

How do we let them know they are full of greatness?

Ethical Dilemmas Part 2

This has been bouncing around in my head since my very cool discussion with my current instructor.

My previous post regarding ethical dilemmas was to highlight how it can be effectively used as a teaching technique, but it has opened a can of worms in my head if you will, and I am hoping to tie together some very important points in this post so bare with me please.

The ego of the instructor can be a fragile thing; I hypothosize the ego wants to be considered the expert in the subject matter, so encouraging students to take a more active role in their scholastic career can be damaging.

Students ego wants to be respected and challenged; it has an arrogant sense of entitlement, why else would we have to have such explicit instructions.

When it comes to the concept of students being self-directed or self-regulated we have to consider the level of the egos involved. Falling back on my health and safety background MY personal ethical dilemma questions whether these are qualities we want in ALL students. I agree effort is needed on the part of the participants, but when dealing with lives and health issues there needs to be a form of accountability. The internet has highlighted for us how easy it is to become an overnight expert in ones field, it has also highlighted the lack of accountability.

Weighing the pros and cons should be carefully considered when encouraging students to take a more active roll in their education in the classroom.

Ethical Dilemmas

Ethics “rules of behavior based on ideas about what is morally good and bad”, n.d., Merriam Webster, retrieved May 27, 2015, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethic.

Background:

In 2010 British Columbia passed a law regarding distracted driving specifically targeting cell phone usage. It is estimated that distracted driving is a factor in approximately 4 million crashes each year in North America, CAA Statistics, retrieved May 27, 2015, http://distracteddriving.caa.ca/education/index.php.

Scenario:

On any given day your friend spends 2 1/2 hours commuting to, from and for work. Part of their commute has them  in and out of school zones. While driving they fill their time talking with clients, responding to emails, sending text messages, and  ensuring their twitter feed is kept up to date.

Do to a series of unfortunate events you find yourself at work with a broken down vehicle, a deadline if missed could cost you your job, and a child at school who needs to be picked up. You have exhausted all other possibilities when your distracted friend offers you a lifeline and volunteers to pick up your child.

What is your decision?

Safety and instructing

So I originally started this blog as a requirement for a school project. As I move into the next course along my journey to my Provincial Instructors Diploma the thought occurred to me to keep this blog going.

Over the next few weeks I am going to be doing a series of post instructional strategies and how we maybe able to use them from a health and safety stand point.