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Learning Commons Episode 10: Two Questions About Educational Resources

On December 05, 2011 By // No comments:

SUMMARY
Over fifty types of educational resources are identified. Deeper questions about what makes an effective resource and what makes a resource effective are explored, in establishing the learning commons in modern school.

Playing the Game of The World of Resources
Some people love to spend time categorizing things. For instance, I created the chart below to visualize some of the most common types of educational resources. I made it to look a little like the party game Twister!

As I reread the chart, I was thinking about how today's teachers and students can become easily bent out of shape in feeling:

overwhelmed, at the range of resources
out-of-date at the speed of technological change in creating and recreating resources
fragmented, at the realization they may concentrate on one resource at the expense of the other
anxious, before the necessity of organizing and storing the number of their resources
unskilled or lacking in confidence, in accepting the challenge of applying new resources
isolated from helpful groups who are more easily sharing resources

However, there is really no point in making a show of how many different resources you can name. You no sooner learn about a Flickr than along comes a Twitter!

What Are the Real Questions
No. While you might simply group resources by type into smaller units for comprehension (e.g., print, digital, media, human, and graphic resources), there is more to it than that. How do we view resources if we want to harness them to develop the physical/virtual learning commons that will forge 21st century learning?

After 35 years of managing and teaching in school libraries, I believe there are two basic questions to ask about “resources”:

What makes an effective resource?
What makes a resource effective?

I have summarized my thoughts in the illustration at the right. Feel free to use the slide (with acknowledgement please) as a talking prompt for professional and classroom purposes.

What Makes an Effective Resource?
This first question is predominately about content. Teachers and teacher-librarians regularly analyze the content of the resources they use in their teaching, according to well-established criteria:

How accurate is the information within the resource?
How authoritative are the creators of the resource and the information they present?
How clear is the writing and presentation of the resource? As a result, are the facts and ideas easily understandable for the intended audience?
How comprehensive is the information presented? Is the resource both broad in scope and deep in treatment?
Is the information up-to-date where necessary?
How objective is the treatment of the facts and contexts in the resource?

While these criteria are mainly for non-fiction sources, they can be applied for interesting discussion to other types and forms of information.

The key to answering this question is to integrate it daily in all we teach and learn. Teacher-librarians use such criteria constantly in teaching student how to evaluate websites, select appropriate secondary sources, link to video clips that support their presentation.

What makes a resource effective?
This is the more difficult question, as it addresses the use of resources for effective teaching and learning. Within the usual temporal, spatial, fiscal, and policy constraints, we must think deeply about each resource we think of using by asking such related questions as:

How appropriate is the resource to the user's age, grade, ability, interest, and accommodation?
How feasible is it to use the resource within the time allotted?
How relevant to the task at hand is this resource? Is there another resource better suited to the purpose?
How practical is the resource within the classroom, home, and jurisdictional situation we face now?
How will the resource result in students doing significant work?
How suitable is the type of the resource used? Should we choose print, media, electronic, or human resources for optimum teaching and learning?

One Answer to Rule Them All
In promoting deep thinking about the Learning Commons in schools and school libraries, I concentrated last week on questions of readiness and motivation. This week, I have focussed on questions about resource effectiveness.

What do these questions have in common? Simply this. As we search for, find, select, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate education resources for the Learning Commons, we must be prepared to share the process and products of the process from beginning to end. Not just with other colleagues, but with students, parents, and the community. Or else it is not a Commons at all.

To paraphrase: We can individually identify all the trees we want, but it is by the fruits of our practice together that we shall be known.

Learning Commons Episode 6: A Learning Commons in Action

On August 31, 2011 By // No comments:

SUMMARY: The author's daughter describes her experience of a learning commons at a summer program at the University of Waterloo. Architectural space, innovative programming and community outreach are celebrated, challenging schools to consider new ways of collaboration and inquiry.

An Invitation

This summer, my daughter Alice attended the Quantum Cryptography School for Young Students at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Much of her delight during the week originated from how well the School and its teachers engaged the students in the kind of learning commons that I have been discussing here. While this experience was for a few students, and in a well-endowed university setting, the lessons for teaching and learning for 21st century schools were clear and exciting. So following the launch of our Learning Commons website (see my previous blog to sign up) I asked Alice to write an entry here about her week at Waterloo. I encourage you to comment on what she has written for us.

Background

The Class of 2011!

My name is Alice Gauntley. In honour of the launch of the Learning Commons website, my dad has asked me to write about my glimpse of a “learning commons” in action—the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. A few weeks ago, I was privileged enough to attend the Quantum Cryptography School for Young Students at the University of Waterloo. This week-long program was for high school students interested in exploring quantum physics and, in particular, ways to ensure information security in an age of quantum computing.

It was an amazing experience. Difficult concepts—modular arithmetic, quantum superposition, public-key cryptography—were taught by engaging and enthusiastic people in informal lectures with lots of time to ask questions and receive clarification. It was a revelation to be in an environment where everyone was genuinely interested, not in test scores or rankings, but simply in learning for the sake of learning.

The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo Ontario

The Perimeter Institute

But one of the highlights of my experience at QCSYS was the tour we were given of the Perimeter Institute. PI is one of the world’s foremost institutions for the study of theoretical physics, and its stunning architecture alone makes it stand out from the functionalist concrete of the University of Waterloo. A guide led us through the building—a new wing has just been completed, integrated seamlessly with the old—and explained the very deliberate way the Institute had been designed.

When the Perimeter Institute was being constructed, the architects and planners sought the input of the physicists who would be working there—what did they want in a workplace? Their suggestions were taken very seriously, and the result is an environment I would love to work and learn in (although I’m not really planning a career in theoretical physics).

Spaces for Collaboration

To begin with, the professors consulted asked for lots of natural light—so ceilings are made of glass, and every office has large windows. Even within the building, many walls are transparent, allowing researchers to see where their colleagues are in case they want to meet up to discuss a project or talk through a new idea.

Collaborating to Build Knowledge

The physicists also asked for lots of collaborative spaces—places where they could share ideas and work through concepts with others. In other words, the very definition of a learning commons. Blackboards are scattered throughout the building—apparently theoretical physicists prefer chalk to dry-erase markers—in open areas with comfy chairs and wood-burning fireplaces. The collaborative spaces are located near large groupings of private offices, often on a level midway between two adjacent floors, so they are accessible and convenient for all (but not distracting—all offices are soundproofed).

Outreach Programming

Lastly, PI’s outreach program is exemplary. Its lecture halls play host to public lecture series so popular the (free) tickets are all claimed hours after they’re made available online. The Institute also uploads videos of all their events to their website, and all their courses are available free of charge on iTunes U. The lecture halls are acoustically sound and they draw huge crowds with their concerts and other cultural programming as well. Not only is the Perimeter Institute a learning commons for the people who work there, it is also a place for the community to gather and gain knowledge.

New Thinking

My tour of the Perimeter Institute was truly inspiring, and I think it presents a model for how to construct spaces that encourage creative and cutting-edge thinking.

Gauntley’s Best: 2. Reference Websites for Secondary Schools - Portals and Directories

On June 12, 2011 By // No comments:

Search Engines vs. Portals and Directories

Any teacher-librarian will tell you that search engines are a double-edged sword. They get instant results from keywords and strings but often an overwhelming and commercially-biased amount of them. Without human agency, mere algorithms can waste time, direction, and interest for students.

From the beginning of the Web, the library community continued to do for digital resources what they had done for print: create subject and topic guides to recommended resources. A typical (library) directory is a digital guide that gathers and categorizes websites and other other information for a specific audience (e.g., by interest, age, expertise). A portal is a more commercial or organizational directory that amasses vast amounts of related information (e.g., links, podcasts, blogs, wikis, images, videos etc.), all through a web gateway that makes searching and finding easier.

Both directories and portals open up relevant possibilities by narrowing less relevant ones. Quality, not quantity, is the name of the game. Browsing is a delicious pastime in these “cornucopia” sites!

Often search engines will return portals on the first page of a search as these have likely paid for placement. Because of traffic, more humble directories find their way close to the top as well. However, just as with the general reference sites from last week’s posting, a teacher and teacher-librarian should have favorite, curricular-related sites handy, for both the quick reference question and designing resources in lessons and units.

Reading Content and Structure

As a teacher-librarian, I spent time demonstrating both the content and structure of directories and portals. I found this “web-booktalking” paid off well in empowering my students with independent habits of inquiry and research. I made such in-depth analysis of multi-layered websites part of my digital reading program, discussing such issues as audience, purpose, organization, and interface effectiveness. Who says we don’t need teacher-librarians? Maybe just me!

Favourites

Here then are some of my favorite portals and directories. They include celebrated websites by library institutions, governments, media groups, and dedicated individuals. Note that these sites have also been added in chart form to the Pages section of this blog.

Using Free Commercial Software for Curriculum Design

On April 11, 2011 By // No comments:

Social Networking and Curriculum
While most schools are still hard-pressed to fund enough technology to provide universal access, Web-based environments are wiring teachers and students towards greater technological integration in the curriculum. In particular, my recent work with the innovative Shore Consulting group has shown me the dynamic value of connecting teachers with social networking environments that are secure, resource-rich, and education-friendly. Such applications will revolutionize the way teachers plan, design, deliver, and assess instruction.

Software Criteria
I have always been fascinated by the possibility of using off-the-shelf web-based software in the classroom, particularly building it into versatile, differentiated curriculum design. I realize that for many educators, using commercial software is fraught with ideological caveats, but that’s what teachers are good at: sorting the pedagogical wheat from the chaff.

So I will be regularly reporting on software finds that meet the following criteria:

available for free or minimal cost
accessible at home and school
educationally relevant across disciplines
value-added for teaching and learning
practical and easy to use by both teachers and students
pedagogically sound in scaffolding knowledge and skills

Mac App Store Free Apps

Our first look is at the new Mac App Store’s free apps. I am currently playing with the following six apps and see their potential for the classroom. I invite teachers to comment on my suggestions and to use social networks in their school districts to widen the conversation. For PC users, treat this as an eventual paradigm shift, not as a platform-specific hassle. I have included product support websites as several of these applications are also available for PCs (e.g., Evernote and Kindle). Send me others that you have found. Please note that I have only included the Lite (free) versions of these apps; you may want to check out the paid deluxe versions for other situations.

Evernote is an idea and file management system that allows you to save and synchronize web pages and clips, create lists, attach images and PDFs—all in one place—and share your own “memory” with others. You could integrate Evernote into a curriculum unit that requires recording research and class notes, analyzing saved webpages, and capturing new ideas for group work.

iProcrastinate is a task management system. Its to-do lists, rich calendar, and integrated tasking (staring, updating, and reminders) are designed into an attractive screen that can be customized by subject or class (related groups of tasks) in educational settings.

linesART is a fast way (instant!) to import any photo or image into a line art rendering. Students young and older can explore and experiment with such artistic and photographic components as intensity, exposure, saturation, contrast, and brightness. An interesting use for more adept art students would be to retranslate a linesART image into another medium.

Kindle is the celebrated ebook interface to Amazon’s Kindle Store. While you will no doubt discourage purchase of best sellers on your school credit card (!), there is plenty to learn and read from free books (e.g., copyright-free classics, special titles) which all students can access either at home or school. For more information about special titles and recommendations, check out the helpful eReaderIQ which provides a regularly updated list of all non-public domain freebies on Amazon.com. and a superior search engine than that on the Kindle store.

MindNode is a basic graphic idea outliner. Ideas are entered as nodes. You create new nodes by hovering over a node and dragging the + sign or just pressing the plus sign to automatically a new node will be automatically created. When you create a new node, you can edit it right away. You can enter the edit mode anytime by double clicking the node. This app does not have the sophistication of Inspiration or Smart Ideas but in this case less is more.

Smartr Lite is a learning tool and study aid that allows you to create “smart” flashcards, then to take a quiz on content while remembering past performance. The lite version restricts each user to make 100 cards in three formats question and answer, picture recognition or cue, and vocabulary. Students could have educational fun incorporating Smartr stacks in a presentation to engage listeners.

Processing: The Third Stage of the Inquiry Process

On March 21, 2011 By // No comments:

The third stage of the inquiry process, as identified by our work with the Ontario School Library Association, is termed processing.

Here students engage in the deep work of constructing meaning out of the information and ideas generated from the plans, sources, and focus of the previous stage.

For some, this is where the rubber hits the road and the hardest work begins, as the inquiry requires the development of higher-order thinking and organizational skills such as:

analyzing the interest, accuracy, depth, and relevance of the information found to date
evaluating the development and significance of the ideas formed to date
organizing and synthesizing ideas and information in preparation for communicating them.

Furthermore, the teacher or teacher-librarian needs a varied treasury of direct and indirect strategies to support both the dependent and independent learner. Such strategies will include organizers, checklists, and conferences. More than at any stage, progress here may be uneven, but eventually so personally rewarding.

There is a direct relation between the success of this stage of inquiry and the previous stages. For instance, if a student's initial questions about the topic were superficial and weakly formed, likely his analysis will be as well. If the student's focus or thesis was too wide or too narrow, her application of relevant information to develop the ideas will prove frustrating. If the student gathered information without planned limits or supporting documentation disparate, synthesizing it into forceful and well supported ideas will be difficult.

You can see why regular teacher assessment and guidance is vital to prevent errors from being compounded in the last stage of the inquiry. Next week: creating, to share the results of the inquiry.

The Glossary of Teaching/Learning Strategies

My evolving glossary is now complete as planned to include inquiry-based strategies. Please read the glossary and comment on your favorite strategies, especially any that are missing from my list.

Investigating: The Second Stage of the Inquiry Process

On March 13, 2011 By // No comments:

The second stage of the inquiry process, as identified by our work with the Ontario School Library Association, is termed investigating.

Here students begin to gather their preliminary ideas and questions to set a direction for their inquiry: they make a plan, then search sources for relevant information, and finally construct a focus. It is a stage usually marked by great excitement and engagement as students feel they are on a roll. As a teacher-librarian, I find a light but firm touch here is best, being accessible for advice but getting out of the way when possible.

First, when creating a plan for inquiry, students often need guidance to determine which of the many organizers seem best such as:

step-by-step plans (“first I must do this, then I can do that”)
contingency plans (“if I find this, then I will do that”)
calendar-based plans (“I will do this on X, for Y days, to reach a goal Z”).

Secondly, when searching for information, many students go off the rails if they have not done strong preliminary work with asking effective questions. Often, they will have to go back briefly and reformulate these questions to make them more probing and significant. Moreover, this stage’s behaviors are an interesting paradox: finding seems more important than searching, but browsing seems vital to follow unexpected leads.

Lastly, students must construct a focus (e.g., a thesis, a main idea, a particular slant, hook, or position). Here, teacher/peer guidance is essential, as student powers of analysis are being developed in preparation for the third stage of the process. I want to investigate this moment of focus building in greater depth in a later blog, where I can discuss ways of improving the chances of success through good curriculum design.

The steps in this second stage should be shared and celebrated to reinforce mutual delight in inquiry, However, time is needed to treat the whole stage as circular and recursive. Skilled inquirers recognize what I call the three “R”s of original research: the need to return to examine original assumptions, the re-searching of a topic based on new information, and the reformulating of a focus when things take an interesting turn.

Next week, the hardest stage for many: actually processing what you have found and determining what you intend to do with it!

The Inquiry Process: At the Heart of Design

On March 07, 2011 By // No comments:

This week’s blog begins a stage-by-stage posting over the next four weeks that highlights learning by inquiry. My career in teacher-librarianship convinces me that at the heart of great curriculum design is the scaffolding of ways to guide all students in learning about inquiry as a process, not just as a product.

So many inquiry or research assignments/projects in school are what David Loertsher calls “Bird Projects.” They are poorly conceived, constructed, and delivered and rarely engage learners in subjects that matter to them. Knowing how students actually inquire (e.g., exploring, investigating, processing, and creating) is essential to learning. Building this into the collaborative design of an assignment, can make all the difference.

The diagram above represents Exploring, the first stage of inquiry in which students engage. Notice the guiding teacher questions to assist the process, as well as the achievement standards that are identical in each stage. Experience shows how vital this first stage is to success and joy in an inquiry-based activity in any subject, as it increases teacher awareness of affective and cognitive realities for all students K-12. For instance, do you ever ask students about how what they already know about a topic can change the way they feel as they begin their research?

The diagram is based on work found in the new document from the Ontario School Library Association Together for Learning: School Libraries and the Emergence of the Learning Commons. I had the privilege of leading the chapter on inquiry with my colleague Cathi Gibson. We based our work on research and evidence (Ross Todd, David Loertsher, Carol Kuhlthau et. al.) about how student achievement increases when guided inquiry becomes part of a school’s learning culture. Carol's Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century is essential reading for all teachers and administrators.

So throughout March I will be posting the following:

diagrams of all four stages of the inquiry process
inquiry-based teaching and learning strategies on my Page 1
web links to important writings on the inquiry process, particularly its connection to curriculum design.

I hope you remain inquisitive!

Multiple Intelligences at the Academy Awards

On February 28, 2011 By // No comments:

During last night’s Academy Awards, I was struck by the celebration of the different arts and sciences needed to make a movie and win an Oscar. From the 71 year-old screen writer to the actors thanking their mothers, there was real joy and generosity in applauding the particular skills and intelligences of each nominee.

While I was watching the glitz and glamour, I had today’s blog in my mind (!). I know the Awards are a contest, but talk of losers is rigorously avoided. I am often dismayed as we turn education into a contest, especially one with winners and losers. Often based on business models and assumptions, some schools compete for status through the performance of their workers (teachers) and clients (students). Desperate to ensure our children's academic success, we separate them early into programs which feed our own agendas. For instance, check out today’s story in The Toronto Star about parents in wealthy neighborhoods donating money for special resources and programs to boost the academic results of their kids' schools.

Now this blog is about curriculum design and learning resources, not the politics of education. However, the challenge remains to differentiate learning for all students not differentiate students for success. How can we use the teacher’s art and science to create, deliver, and assess individualized learning for every student, through well-funded and rigorous programs of inclusion and diversity?

If there were an Academy Award for Education, my award for Best Performance by a Researcher would go to Howard Gardner. Gardner is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His famous work on multiple intelligences has deeply influenced teachers world-wide, though they have somewhat erroneously confused these intelligences with ‘learning styles.’ For me, the key application of this research is that we should first meet our students at the gate of their own ‘way of knowing’ before driving them down a path of our own preference.

Designing for multiple intelligences is still an untapped resource in our schools. I have added operative terminology to the evolving list of strategies on Page 1 and encourage readers to comment on their use of Gardner’s work.

By the way, Gardner has a brilliant FAQ resource to read as we consider ways to design curriculum to meet the needs of all our students. He also comments in his article Can Technology Exploit Our Many Ways of Knowing on the promise of technology to answer the challenge of designing learning to meet individual student needs and natures.

Now perhaps if Colin Firth played Howard Gardner in his next Academy Award winning film ...

A Little Passion on Valentine's Day

On February 14, 2011 By // No comments:

It’s Valentine’s Day and time to think about passion — for learning and teaching! In adding arts-based strategies to my evolving list of teaching/learning strategies (see Page 1), I want to honour exemplary, passionate colleagues who either taught the arts or integrated the arts in their own curriculum.

I remember RB, who left aircraft design to teach music and who could captivate both the student studying the cello privately, and the bewildered soul handed one on her first day in high school. There was RW who saved Friday afternoons for a cultural exploration of art and architecture with his wood technologists. And there was AH who celebrated folk and popular music in his academic history courses.

The disciplinary and interdisciplinary power of the arts to promote creativity and critical thinking is undeniable. And whether you use a tableau to create a timeline of the American Civil War, a collage to juxtapose cause and effect in early childhood education, or a storyboard to sequence a scientific experiment, you are applying those artistic elements held in common with all subjects: movement, language, rhythm, pattern, composition, gesture, characterization, and sequence. Through the arts, you and your students experience the unique contribution that dance, art, drama, and music can make to a life of learning.

In retirement, I am enjoying a new artistic phase: establishing a musical instrument business in our home in Port Stanley, Ontario. I have my product in mind— affordable and beautiful string folk instruments. But it is the interdisciplinary process that is so engaging and demanding. I must research and design a range of instrument models with mechanical pencil and plastic templates, submit my financial plan for review to the local business association, search the Internet for the best quality woods and glues, read the flyers for deals on tools, learn how to make my own strings, set up an economical and ergonomic workshop, and market the fruits of my labour. Some sleepless nights later, my shop is assembled and I’m ready to go.

In attempting to become a passionate luthier, I am relearning to learn. I hope that on this Valentine’s Day you enjoy a passion for learning, even if it gives you a sleepless night or two!

ICT for Pedagogy and Pedagogues

On February 07, 2011 By // No comments:

If you have ever had the privilege and challenge of hanging out with ICT mentor Stephen Heppell, you know that his mixture of pragmatism and idealism is infectious. I first met him at the Ontario Library Association's SuperConference. After wonderful conversations, he promised me a ride on his boat moored in the Thames. I’d settle for a pint at his local pub!

Stephen is one of my heroes. On January 31, 2010, he looked back on a decade of learning potential and wrote:

Online learners now have laid down a single set of markers for personalisation, for transparency, for mutuality, for us-ness, for whole new economic models, for quite literally unbounded learning, for a world of helping learners to help each other. The artificial distinction between "formal" and "informal" learning has already vanished online. We are, as I have often reflected, facing the death of Education, but are very much at the dawn of Learning. 21st century Learning looks pretty exciting and today's leaners, with today's pocketable personal connected ICT, are showing us very, very clearly just how good learning might be. We ignore that at our peril.

For me, it is also imperative that we help teachers help each other to take charge of their own new learning. We must not merely implement ICT in our daily practice with students. We must integrate ICT in our practice with each other. If Stephen calls for global and local connections in learning, these must include teaching as well.

Some questions arise:

How does teaching reflect learning in the 21st century? How can we both learn from and lead our wired students.

How can governments, teacher organizations, and school district harness the power of social networking? How easily do teachers in 2011 build curriculum, share resources, and forge innovations together and globally?

Must educational professionals depend on commercial enterprise for leveraging their learning capacity? Are Facebook, Twitter, and teacher.net. our communications default, by default?

I continue to seek examples of social networks set up for and run by teachers, where their own learning is honored and their professionalism is developed. Last week, I mentioned several examples of curriculum planning and resource sharing tools across N.A. My jurisdictional scan continues, especially in consultation with Toronto’s Shore Consulting Group. I will be posting more on this soon.

In the meantime, I am posting the next set of teaching/learning strategies (you can see why I prefer the slash), adding ICT-based strategies to my glossary on Page 1. Of all the additions, this is the most tenuous, given the daily dawning of educational change.

I hope Stephen approves and buys the first round.

Curriculum Design: Squaring the Circle

On January 31, 2011 By // No comments:

All curriculum planning templates are “constructions” that follow deeply held beliefs about teaching and learning, perhaps even about life itself.

Diagram 1. illustrates a mainstream paradigm of curriculum design used throughout Canada and the United States.

It is common to order the above questions in linear ways. The thinking goes that first, one “designs down” from standards and built-in evidence towards instructional methods and necessary resources. Secondly, one then “delivers up” from instruction and resources to meet standards and measure evidence. This particular paradigm is said to be "results-based" and reflects the philosophy of the educational pragmatist. An idealist might see emphasis on results and measurement getting in the way of the joy of learning, expecting that evidence of student skill and understanding simply follows masterful teaching.

In workshops, many teachers have asked me about more holistic paradigms. Do not the complementary acts of designing and delivering suggest not a line but a circle, whose parts react to, reverberate with, and are informed by each other? Isn’t the distinction between designing (a complex term) and delivering (a strange one) artificial and more about the business of education than its art?

Establishing a consistent, operational order on paper is central educational practice, but busy teachers are often overwhelmed by the complexity and time involved in planning lessons, units, and courses. Defensively, some reach for the quick, canned lesson (the Web is full of them) rather than plan and implement their own rich and comprehensive work. Worst still, this planning is often done merely to satisfy administrative and policy-driven demands “from above.” Whatever the finished paper trail, exemplary curriculum design always focuses on student learning.

How then can jurisdictions motivate their teachers to be robust curriculum designers? Ten years ago, the Ontario Ministry of Education spent time and money on creating an electronic planning tool called the Ontario Curriculum Unit Planner (OCUP). Those of us who developed OCUP met with some success in building capacity for good results-based planning, with the CD-ROM’s template, commissioned units, and web-support made available for all Ontario teachers. OCUP’s demise is unfortunate, now that the Web has the potential to develop it with more flexible templates, real-time networking, and dynamic resources.

For 21st century learning, teachers need tools that reflect jurisdictional design principles, while providing flexible templates that meet local needs. We need to better harness social networks that leverage new ideas and quality resources. My favourites are Quebec’s Dotplan and Authentic Education’s Curriculum Framer. If you have your own Web-based favourites, why not share your findings in my comments section? I am currently scanning provinces and states for more models and will report my findings here.

Designing curriculum is integral to my professionalism. In the end, it motivates me to do my best and celebrate the joy of teaching and learning. Call me both a pragmatist and an idealist!

Direct-Instruction Strategies

On January 25, 2011 By // No comments:

When I joined the Ontario Ministry of Education for four years in 2000, I was engaged in a new wave of curriculum development. Many hours were spent listening to combative stakeholders with vested interests in “content standards.” One of the most vocal groups saw curriculum policy as a way to prescribe the way things were taught and to prevent wayward teacher activity. They insisted on “bringing back” traditional teaching methods such as worksheets, the chalk-and-talk, and stand-and-deliver lecturing, and told curriculum writers to concentrate on direct instruction. Ideology seemed to trump pedagogy.

Several key (and ultimately useful) questions arose. First, how could such a narrow focus improve learning when good teaching was expansive and diverse? Secondly, how could apparent emphasis on teaching rather than learning meet the differentiated needs and styles of all students. Lastly, what was “direct instruction” anyway: how did it work and why did some consider it “superior?”

My thought then and now is that we elevate direct instruction because of the teacher who delivered it. I recall with pleasure and gratitude my arty Grade 8 teacher’s flash cards on the habits of Ontario birds, my meticulous Grade 12 teacher’s book talks on dystopian novels, or my cultured Grade 13 teacher’s lecture on Hamlet’s procrastinations. However, if I think about these models of learning, I can see lots of arts-based work, inquiry, and high level writing and thinking going on. Good direct instruction, like any teaching or learning strategy, is inclusive of other strategies. The art and science of teaching transcends ideology as we daily strive to find what works: the right approach at the right time for the right reason.

So from the perspective of simply gathering more arrows in the quiver, I have now added direct instruction strategies to my evolving glossary on Page 1. Just remember when you are planning that next Socratic dialogue to balance direct instruction with other types of strategies as you proceed. Is that direct enough?

Activity-Based Strategies

On January 17, 2011 By // No comments:

Many teachers are committed to experiential learning as the most effective way to engage students. Such learning has a long and noble tradition, from Buddha to Comenius, from Rousseau to Dewey. Recently, some educators are concentrating on technology as the ultimate experiential model, arguing that it provides game-changing opportunities for hands-on learning. Others fear that emphasis on digital learning is all too often "out-of-the-body." I will address ICT-based learning strategies in a later blog; however, in the meantime, let us not forget more traditional approaches that raise the bar – and often the noise level – in our classrooms and school libraries!

Today’s blog adds some of my favorite traditional “activity-based” teaching, learning, or instructional strategies to the evolving list on Page 1. One could debate (an activity-based strategy!) that properly conducted, all strategies – from ICT-based to arts-based – are experiential, especially if there is demonstrable change that is actually experienced by the learner. Again, let the debate continue as long as we help our students strongly answer the question they still get at home: “What did you do in school today.”

Notice that Page 1’s header now identifies other categories of strategies that I will add and discuss in the coming weeks.

A Vocabulary of Teaching/Learning Strategies

On January 04, 2011 By // No comments:

Many have collected and grouped teaching and/or learning strategies in order to clarify pedagogical "tools of the trade." Questions arise about what is the difference between a "teaching strategy," a "learning strategy," or an "instructional strategy." And when is a teaching or learning strategy better seen as an "assessment" strategy? Perhaps answers to these often semantic debates are best resolved in practice.

Semantics aside, my own experience is that teachers gain real insight into their own style and preferences when they group and track the strategies they regularly use (e.g., "How many times did I encourage students to identify similarities or differences;") or plan to use (e.g., "Which type of learning strategy could I use when teaching the novel?"). Possibly our wisest voice about such tools is Robert Marzano, whose influence on teaching practice has been profound in Ontario and other jurisdictions. Marzano seeks to empower educators in the use of a common pedagogical language. However, Marzano advises teachers to consider these tools carefully: all strategies can work or not work depending on the context and intent.

Using a common language is particularly important as we design and deliver curriculum together based on content standards (e.g., Ontario's curriculum expectations). Later blogs will try to draw connections between good design and teaching/learning methodologies.

On today's blog I have begun to distill my own work with teachers in evolving a glossary of terms used in boards and ministries throughout Canada (see my Pages section). I start with cooperative strategies and will add new strategies by type (e.g., thinking-based strategies, ICT-based strategies etc.). I recognize my glossary is yet another "construction" but hope you'll find it useful. Cheers. Tim

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