week 4: PBL & meaningful essay feedback

Dear flowers,

We did a problem-based learning (PBL) activity this week in class as you can see in the masterpiece we created above. The facilitator put up a slide of a scenario where we had to imagine ourselves as a teacher for a typical class composed of half boys and half girls including 3 disruptive children. We were asked to structure a classroom lesson on space and/or geometry, ensuring that we differentiate the curriculum for each of our students. So as a group we discussed the scenario starting with the possible reasons for the disruptive children's behaviour and decided to separate them into different groups. Thankfully we had a great group dynamic which was evident when we managed to bounce back and stay on topic whenever someone got bogged down on an issue. I think we did this by constantly recalling our main goal, integrating PAL concepts, we considered each others suggestions and negotiated solutions which was at challenging since everyone had such great views and experience. The constant questioning, clarification and negotiation is a unique characteristic of PAL and something I see as useful for my future primary classroom. For example, PAL can be used for Writer's Workshops and student-initiated scientific investigations.

Also, just thought I'd mention the hilarity of when the facilitator did a coffee run soon after he presented us with the PBL task. And when I asked for whiteboard markers he went all the way to his office to get them for us! I have learnt that the nature of PAL leaders is closely aligned with 'facilitators' who may be more cognitively congruent and hence more approachable compared to lecturers.

A confronting exercise was reflecting on our experience after completing the PBL activity and also writing down the worst things about the unit of so far. The facilitator actually read each reflection aloud which is something that I have never experienced. I thought that this was quite an effective strategy since we were all able to hear each other's genuine thoughts, free of judgement.

The essay I said I was working on in my last post is now complete. I felt a bit of added pressure to do better than usual for this assessment task since we constructed our marking rubric as a class. I felt more ownership and inevitably more responsibility for my piece of work. This anxiety translated into motivation which pushed me to monitor my research and the construction of my essay ensuring it was in line with rubric criteria. In hindsight this is definitely something I will do more often with future assessments. I'd also like to mention that we had to mark ourselves for this assessments, as in we had to highlight on the rubric how we think we did. For me it was surprisingly a hard task since I had to really step above myself, in a sense, and mark it objectively. I didn't give myself full marks because I knew that there was something lacking in my essay and also that it is extremely hard to get full marks at uni. (I wonder if we could ever see sample HD work for different assessments as evidence that HDs do exist and are not just given out to 2% of the cohort to satisfy norm-referenced assessment). The facilitator said that self-marking is quite an interesting exercise since you are forced to ask yourself, "Why would I hand this in if I don't think it deserves full marks?"

Within 2 days of handing the essay in I received feedback. Complete shock that a marker could mark like Speedy Gonzales. Never before have I received such constructive feedback. Have you ever read a journal article online, highlighted key text and annotated using that speech bubble function? Well, this is how I received my feedback. I think it reflected the effort of the marker since it meant that each of our essays were valued. Other lecturers should look into this method of marking that is both informative, aligned with the rubric and paperless! It is much more meaningful than tick-tick-BOOM, here's your mark!

Also thought I'd share my "teacher's haul" with you guys. I picked up all these goodies at Officeworks the other day. Did you know they close at 12am? Starting to collate materials for my PAL leadership assessment and also for another unit where we need to create maths and english resources for children to take home based on learning outcomes within the syllabus. I never knew how much fun laminating could be but sadly running out of things to laminate.

Looking forward to attending and observing a PAL session this week. I'll let you know how it goes down.


Love,
Miss Fun size.

week 3: students Vs lecturers

Dear flowers,

Choosing an angle for an essay topic, provided a given question, is quite difficult. Choosing an essay topic is even harder. I’ve chosen to critically discuss the following statement that really struck me when reading about a PAL program implemented at a UK university in 2008:

“Successful students are better equipped and better placed than lecturers to pass on [writing] skills to novice students in a peer-facilitated environment.”

My initial thoughts on this statement were that students are better placed than lecturers in some situations but lecturers still have a significant role to play in terms of their student’s learning. Perhaps lecturers are needed for the initial introduction of content, to authenticate and give purpose to what we the students are required to know. And, of course (how can I forget?), lecturers set assessments, which motivate students to keep up. Tutorials help us recall what we can remember from lectures, facilitated by more friendly professionals. But peer-facilitated groups such as study groups really give you a chance to cement and clarify what you know. In peer groups you feel free to make connections with lecture material without fear of being judged or embarrassed, which I think is a huge thing for first years trying to comfortably find their place at uni. In peer groups you can ask as many questions as you please because you know that lecturers will be especially pee’d off if you ask them silly questions that your peers can answer. You support each other more than a lecturer or tutor ever can because of the obvious ‘professional distance’ that they project. If lecturers weren’t so busy supervising their PHDs and whinging about uni-related political issues then perhaps we’d feel more inclined to approach them.

I read in an article that lecturers are beginning to feel obsolete due to the increasing availability of online lectures. Some students are saying that they are just if not more valuable than face-to-face lectures. After four years of being at uni I still prefer attending lectures rather than listening online. Maybe it’s due to the whole personal aspect of being able to see the lecturer and see how they speak since I am quite a visual learner. Or perhaps it has more to do with having a fixed scheduled time, requiring me to attend in order to minimise the guilt of not going. Maybe that’s why I sit in the front row, to make myself feel more accountable to the lecturer.

I know that some people think less of me sometimes because I don’t do what typical 21 year olds do but I choose to learn from experience and the experience of others. I know how I learn best which is by sitting in the front row, getting rid of distractions and working with authentic people. It produces amazing results.


Love,
Miss Fun size

week 2: will you be my PAL?

Dear flowers,

I'll be doing something different for the next 12 weeks.

I’ve recently started a unit called Theory and Practice of Peer-Assisted Learning where we are asked to write a reflective journal throughout the course. I was surprised that the convenor allowed me to use my blog for this assessment since it is the perfect outlet for me. What is a bit nerve-wracking about this assessment is that it doesn't feel like one. There are no real boundaries as to what we can write but we are to "assess our successes and ongoing professional development needs" to become "critically reflective teachers."

I thought that I would firstly share why I chose to enrol in this subject. Since high school I perceived effective study as something you do solo since it was ultimately a competition where other students were out to steal your hard-earned notes. In hindsight I find this perception shallow and quite hilarious after finally appreciating how much more meaningful study groups are.

My narrow view of effective study turned on me when I did a course at uni which required us to work together for a Writer's Workshop. The conditions of the workshop were that we could not say a word when each person read aloud their literacy autobiography, we had to take turns asking questions to clarify our understandings, we also had to provide 'praise' and 'polish'. Providing 'polish' meant giving suggestions as to how the reader may like to improve their work. I learnt from this exercise that receiving criticism is not all that bad and something that I ended up preferring over praise. Recently I read that the most effective way for lecturers to integrate PAL strategies is to make them explicit learning outcomes. Students experience the challenge of negative dynamics and thus learn to be more open and understanding. And in this instance, we learnt to get over the competitive side of things and appreciate the cooperative process.

I remember the sense of belonging and value I experienced throughout that assessment. My attitude towards co-operative learning definitely changed that day. For the first time it did not feel like we were out to do better than one another. We were all equal. We all had diverse literacy backgrounds. What also interested me was how the tutor did only 3 things that lesson: 1) told us to separate into small groups, 2) walked around the room, listening to our stories and discussion and 3) asked us how we felt after the exercise.

After this workshop I began to organise study groups that ended up being quite successful and productive. We, of course, went off on tangents but good tangents! I think that when people are engaged they see how concepts apply to their lives and so they can't help but share connections between the content and their real life experiences. This is a beautiful thing because from these connections you know that your study buddies have really learnt something that is meaningful and therefore will stick.

Some study groups I have been a part of hold 'mini lectures' in the pod area at the bottom of the library. This type of study is based on jigsaw learning where each person becomes an 'expert' of a particular lecture, writes big picture ideas on a whiteboard and discusses them with the rest of the group. So literally, like a jigsaw, we are actively constructing knowledge and we are all equally contributing to the masterpiece(: On the other hand I have also been involved with small group study where each member becomes responsible for a particular module, each typing up notes so that we have our own “version” of the course. We ending up with our own textbook that if we were lucky were able to take into exams that were open book.

So as explained it is only until very recently that I have realised the power of PAL and how if it is mutually reciprocated can produce amazing results for all involved. I think that the overarching requirement for PAL to be successful is the attitude of each member. If you all have a purpose for being there, whether that be to improve your understanding of the course, to revise or even to meet new people which may be the case for some first years, then you will naturally be more engaged and hence more open to negotiate meaning with others.

I have never done a course like this before where you get to hold the reigns on your essay topics, create a marking criteria as a class (as shown in the photo above) and write a reflective journal with no word limit. My uncertainty and anxiety, I feel, is beginning to motivate me to reflect on my teaching pedagogies more closely and to assess my conceptual understandings after each PAL seminar.

I am grateful for a unit that genuinely feels rather than claims to be learner-centred.

And now it's ESSAY TIME!


Love,
Miss Fun size