Gina, an intercultural piece would provide some context about possibly the educational system, communication styles and the learners expectations of teacher/student. I really like the idea of a picture to get a sense of where one is going to be. Good for packing.
emma bourassa
Posts made by emma bourassa
Thanks for your thoughts Jeff.
The 'students' are educators and this is part of a professional development course.
The why of the prompt is to have educators reflect on how they approach teaching and learning. By asking educators to reflect on this, they are actually experiencing what educators ask of students, so the best outcome would be that they recognize what they expect from students, possibly identify something they would like to improve and then start to explore changes they could make.
For example, from your message, I now am thinking that I am a very high context communicator. I need to lay things out more clearly.
The what of the prompt is that I assume the educators who would engage in the question have had some success but may be looking for improvement, for example in increasing participation in discussions with their students. This is a opportunity to look beyond what they are doing now, and imagine another approach.
For example, the first prompt I had was pretty broad, as you have rightly pointed out. So, in an effort to clarify, I rewrote it. Now it is much more direct but it is still lacking something. So let me explain the ideal situation- what would happen:
The participants take time on their own to brainstorm what they want to change (e.g. more students in discussion, more frequent posts, more effective posts that expand the knowledge of all, etc.) Perhaps they would benefit from examples to get them going?
The participants then share openly, with me or take time to mull.
The final outcomes is a capture and sharing of ideas, perhaps as Beth did with summarizing our ideas.
The next step would then be to look at peers' wants and offer resources, ideas, encouragement. Perhaps even an opportunity to try it on within the professional development group to be able to practice and get real time feedback.
Thanks for bearing with the long post.
Any comments are very welcome.
A revision
What constructive outcomes could happen if you changed your approach to any aspect of a course?
The context for this question/prompt is facilitating educators in re-imagining how learning occurs and can occur.
The intent for the instructor is to provide a positive start to the discussion of change, which can be difficult for some. The other is to focus on constructive ideas, rather than hash through what is not working. A redirection of sorts. This serves as a needs assessment for me as I look at how to support the participants within the course as they take risks to redevelop an aspect of a course/workshop or create something new.
The intent for the participants is to provide a space to try on new ideas, with no evaluation (that will work/won't work) of those ideas. There is not an expected 'end point' as this is more of a process focusing on the 'do' aspect rather than the 'do not' angle. I'm wondering if being in process is too hard? I realize that online learning is outcome based, but it seems from the discussions here and the discussion prompts, that there is room for shifts? Is there space for creative exploration?
Individuals prefer various stages of creating curriculum or aspects of teaching. This process stage may be frustrating for some, so I am looking at starting with a choice of either sharing with others, sharing with me only, or holding it to themselves for a specific period of time to be able to mull. I welcome your ideas and impressions!
The prompt: What do you want more of for the teaching and learning experiences? (this comes from an appreciative inquiry perspective)
Thanks for your ideas!
Oh I just can't resist *smile*
https://youtu.be/Y1qDNTG9lg0 I love this non-example!
(Edited by Sylvia Currie - original submission Wednesday, 20 February 2019, 4:00 PM - added link to youtube + removed jumbo emoticon)