Strategies for Engaging Students

Education and Learning, Learning, Student Engagement, Student Interest, Teaching, Teaching Philosophy, Teaching Practices 0 comments

Strategies for Engaging Students

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 149

I am an ELT instructor mostly working with students who are majoring in English Language Teaching (ELT) at Universidad Latina in Costa Rica. I currently teach various types of courses, mostly on literature and technology for education, on a hybrid modality in which there is a F2F session per week and an Internet-based assignment for students to complete. For the nature of these college courses, I work with different teaching focuses to deal with diverse instructional objectives and outcomes in which I take into account student learning preferences and their development of technological skills to be used in education.

As a very simple teaching strategy I get to use in any of the courses I teach, at the beginning of each course I tell my students –based on the course outline- what I expect of them in our hybrid modality of learning always linked to Bloom’s taxonomy, which allows me to see a measurable behavior when projects are submitted. At the beginning of the course, as if it were some sort of previewing exercise for me, I try to find out how much students know technology-wise and content-wise to foresee which areas need to be strengthened or developed more to achieve learning outcomes. And to guarantee success, I like to spend some 20 minutes of each class making sure what the class needs to have accomplished by the time online assignments are submitted.

My pupils will always find a sketch of every single piece of a project they must develop in my class, which somehow synthetizes what needs to be learned, mastered, and graded. I have created my own instructional tools to comply with course outline requisites. However, it is interesting when I have my learners work hand-on on something right there in the classroom, whether that is in situ or perhaps prepared in advanced. In any case, when they are made responsible for their own learning, it is when I get to realize what my students are made of and ready to perform to demonstrate that my explanations have not been delivered only to the classroom’s walls.

In terms of formative and summative assessment, my exercises –I guess I should call them learning tasks- are broken into different segments to see the evolution of the process and how students handle it. I am not into partial or final examinations any more, and for that reason I break down those percentages to have more fulfilling learning tasks to verify that students are understanding and that there is a change in their behavior as future teaching professionals. I would rather see my students perform badly once than to see them failing because of an exam. Learning projects are much more rewarding for my students, who get a sense of accomplishment, and for me the instructor, who can see their development throughout the process.

At certain key moments of the course, especially after certain big tasks, I like to have a feedback session with the whole class. I like to give my feedback to my students as well as to listen to what they have to say. If there is something that can be improved, I will try to take care of it to maximize student learning. If it cannot be done during the term, I keep that information to make a different kind of planning the next time I teach the course. Reflective teaching with student feedback is a great way to achieve one’s professional development.

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Strategies for engaging students from jonacuso

Student Engagement from Eastteacher80

Pittman, A. (2013, Nov. 25). Student Engagement. [PPT]. Retrieved on Sept. 30, 2014 from the SlideShare.Net Website at http://www.slideshare.net/Eastteacher80/student-engagement-28599319?related=1

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Goals for Learning

Bloom's Taxonomy, Learning, Reflective Teaching, Teaching Practices, Teaching Styles 0 comments

Goals for Learning

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 148

Pre-Reflective Activity

Take a look at the following case in a sociology class. Reflecting upon the situation, what would you have done differently? I did post my own way of seeing the problem. Would you come up with a different reflection?

Maria is teaching a course in first-year sociology. It is the first time she has taught the course, having stepped in for a colleague who became ill very near the start of the term. Her colleague was able to send her a copy of his syllabus, which provided the chapter readings for each class, and some lecture notes. Since she had less than a week before the start of the term, and several other classes to prepare for, she decided to use her colleague’s syllabus without modifying it. He is a well-respected faculty member in the department, and she could not imagine that there would be anything she would need to do differently.

The syllabus called for a quiz at the end of the first three weeks of class. As she was preparing the quiz, she thought back to some of the discussions she had had in class, and some of the questions students had asked. She often felt like they were missing the point of the class—they seemed too focused on terms and facts, and did not appear to appreciate the contribution that sociology could make to understanding everyday human behavior. She decided to include some questions about this on the quiz, since she thought it was a very important part of a first-year sociology course.

The results of the first quiz were not good—not only did students do poorly on the questions about the nature of sociology and its role in understanding human behavior, but they also did not score well on the factual questions. Some students even complained that she hadn’t covered what was on the quiz and that they had no idea how to study for it.

Taken from Laureate Education Inc. (2014)

How should an instructor approach a course whose syllabus has already been planned by a colleague that cannot teach that class anymore? This is the situation of the sociology teacher presented in the case provided before. Though his/her colleague can be a well-known professor with ample experience in their field, it does not mean that both of them approach teaching in the very same way. In other words, one cannot take for granted that two individuals (faculty members, in this case) will plan and structure student learning alike.

Though a course syllabus had been prepared, would one plan instructional goals and instruments likewise if compared to a colleague teaching the same course? A not very elaborate answer can be stated over here since no single instructor would plan the very same identically. Assuming that one can use a colleague’s syllabus does not guarantee success in teaching and in students learning. Had the sociology professor considered this simple issue at the beginning, the instructor would have made necessary modifications to suit his/her teaching and planning style to benefit deep learning among the class members. Bearing in mind that the teaching process is indeed a complex one and that no instructor will probably plan instructional goals similarly can guarantee that we can have all learners work on the same learning objectives and learn the same concepts to be applied in meaningful contexts.

Another important issue to consider in this case sample, which is also applicable to one’s teaching, is the use of schema in teaching. All students come into one’s classrooms with lots of prior knowledge and former experiences, and all of this information background that humans have can be detrimental in learning. Had our sociology professor activated learners’ prior knowledge, the teacher would have been able to create new connections in the students’ experiences and would have assisted them in building more knowledge. Some sort of previewing technique at the beginning of the sessions could have yielded some more positive results when summative assessments were applied and checked. From my teaching experience in and out of college education, this link between individuals’ prior knowledge and what they need to learn is vital to produce deep learning.

Clear goals, learning outcomes, and teacher and students’ expectations need to be set at the very start of a course. A course outline is not just a set of goals that need to be met by the end of a term, it is a contract that we faculty members must comply with to produce deep and long-lasting learning among learners. A course outline is not written on stone and can be modified to suit one’s teaching style and pupils’ learning preferences. Modifying outline content and expectations by means of a learning outcomes taxonomy such as Bloom’s or Fink’s Taxonomy is a must since we want students to replicate certain behaviors and use knowledge in other different contexts to produce a certain effect to prompt learners to think critically and –why not- out of the box.

Laureate Education Inc. (n.d.). Certificate in Higher Education: Module 1. [Online Certificate].

TeachThought.Com. (2013). Bloom’s Taxonomy. [Infographic]. Retrieved on 2014, Sept. 21 from http://www.teachthought.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/BloomsTaxonomySized.jpg

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Goals for learning from jonacuso

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Legends in Language Teaching and Culture Learning

Culture, Culture Teaching, Teaching, Teaching Practices 0 comments

Legends in Language Teaching and Culture Learning

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 147

At some point in our lives, especially when we were children or we became parents, folktales and legends were part of our daily bedtime stories. As a kid, we probably enjoyed listening to an adult recounting an old tale that was probably transmitted by a distant relative or that was heard in another town or far-away place. As parents, we probably used these stories to amuse our kids and prepare them for sleeping and to somehow teach them something that was encoded in the story, some sort of moral or hidden teaching, which is part of our children’s enculturation.

Since legends and folktales are part of a culture’s folklore, “folklore constantly reinforces cultural lessons” (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel 2010). And folklore can be spotted in a great variety of settings within society; it can be witnessed in school, at home, etc. As proposed by many language teachers, legends can be used to reinforce students’ four skills; we can have students respond to a story in writing or by giving a short presentation. If the instructor is an experienced storyteller, folktales can be used to practice listening comprehension and why not, some interpretation of the facts provided in the story. Reading is indeed another option to teach the language but the culture synchronously.

As suggested by Rodriguez (quoted by Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel 2010), “Folktales are not only regarded as some of the best keepers of our language and cultural memories, they are also helpers in the process of socialization.” Through this process of socialization and/or enculturation, we the culture outsiders, along with our students, can get to see what a culture labels as important, irrelevant, funny, ironic, sarcastic, etc. All these can be taught to language students in class to be better fit to interact with the target culture, and even with any other culture the learners are bound to encounter in their future. This, depending on the level of the students, can become a great asset in their work-readiness training.

But if we were dealing with children rather than adult learners, Rabbidge & Lorenzutti (2013) point out extensive reading, which can no doubt be applied to folktale and/or legend reading as part of the English class, “benefits the development of speaking, listening, and writing languages skills, as well as involuntary acquisition of vocabulary.”

No matter what the level of students could be, legends, folktales, and the like are great sources of enculturation patterns that can be taught to students so they can better understand the target culture. These stories have benefits that go beyond the mere comprehension of the story, benefits that are intrinsically related to language development and cultural understanding. Legends and folktales can indeed be great sources for teaching in the EFL classroom along with the teaching of cultural tolerance.

Rabbidge, M. & Lorensutti, N. (2013). Teaching Story without Struggle: Using Graded Readers and Their Audio Packs in the EFL Classroom. English Teaching Forum, 2013, Number 3 [28-35]. Retrieved from http://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/51_3_6_rabbidge_lorenzutti.pdf

Samovar, L., Porter, R., & McDaniel, E. (2010). Communication between Cultures. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning

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An example of Central American legends that could be used in a school teaching scenario is one coming from the Maya Quichés in Guatemala called Hunahpú and Ixbalanqué.

Legends in language teaching and culture learning from jonacuso

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Reflective Journaling (1): Assessing my Own Teaching

Reflective Journaling, Reflective Teaching, Teacher Development, Teaching, Teaching Philosophy, Teaching Practices 0 comments

Reflective Journaling (1):

Assessing my Own Teaching

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 146

When asked to assess your goals for teaching, what are you supposed to reflect upon? Though the question sounds rather ambiguous, it can be directed to address my beliefs about the learning process. Understanding that students may be learning differently in terms of purpose, we must admit that we have deep-learning-oriented students and surface-learning-guided learners. Based on this premise, my goals for my teaching is to raise awareness -among my students- of the importance of developing one’s critical thinking skills. These skills can be quite practical and useful during one’s professional practice and career. To sum up, I want my pupils to become thinkers and not just brains that can regurgitate theory that they cannot relate to anything tangible or intangible in the real world.

How about asking yourself about your beliefs about teaching? Though the question again is ambiguous, once more it can make us reflect on our basic beliefs about our performance in class. Though I now teach on a sort of blended learning fashion, I must confess that I need to make good use of my F2F time with my learners. While I am dealing with students, I see myself as a trainer with a group of trainees who need to be guided to achieve the course’s goals, but successfully. Success in this very case is not just to be able to replicate a behavior, as stated in Bloom’s Taxonomy, but the ability to use the recently-acquired knowledge in different scenarios related or unrelated to their current or future working environment. In short, I want to have my pupils well-trained for the moment they become professionals looking to find their niche in the working world.

As a teaching professional at the university level, all of us have to be certain that learning is coming every single week. As for my experiences and new knowledge is the understanding of the learning dichotomy that learners are exposed to: “deep learning” or “surface learning?” For a test in or out of class both types of students can succeed, but for what it may mean for one’s future professional life, it may simple be just a lost memory lying somewhere in the back of one’s mind that cannot be retrieved, some sort of a blocked memory. For this learning dichotomy I cannot work with learners unless I design and then develop a hands-on activity that “forces” them to comprehend processes and behaviors that they need to replicate to accomplish a final product at the end of my learning tasks. In brief, PBL (Project-Based Learning) combined with F2F guidance and a blended phase on their own can be a way to set the path for students to walk towards their development of deep learning.

Have you ever been provided with a strategy that resonated with you? I bet all of us in education “suffer” from frequent epiphanies. My latest sudden realizations were connected to create an effective “bridge” between what happens in class (F2F teaching), what learners have to do on their own (application of newly-acquired knowledge or blended learning scenario), and what needs to happen in class the next time you meet with your students (learning consolidation activity and [formative & summative] feedback). The second was the introduction of dense questioning, a technique used in reading skills, literature, etc. The combination of these two elements have been quite enlightening for my current teaching. It never occurred to me that these two pieces were part of the same puzzle and learning in my teaching journey.

Oxford Brooks University. (2014). What is a Reflective Journal? Retrieved on 2014, Sept. 20 from the Oxford Brooks University website at https://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/upgrade/pdf/reflectiveJournal.pdf

Northern Illinois University, Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center. (2014). Reflective Journals and Learning Logs. Retrieved on 2014, Sept. 20 from the Northern Illinois University website at http://www.niu.edu/facdev/resources/guide/assessment/reflective_journals

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Saturday, September 20, 2014

My Teaching Philosphy

Reflective Teaching, Teaching, Teaching Philosophy, Teaching Tips 0 comments

If you were asked, “What do you believe about teaching?” or “What do you want to achieve as a teacher?” What would your response be? Those answers will simply indicate what your teaching philosophy is all about. Here you have mine; how much does it differ from yours?

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 145

Education is a simple and complex equation in which 50% is provided by the Instructor (teaching) and the other 50% is supplied by the Students (learning); without this symbiosis education may not take place. Learning is then an autonomous journey anyone is meant to take to shape his/her knowledge. In a successful learning situation, pupils will achieve learning outcomes and will develop new competencies they can eventually employ at work.

My perfect learning environment is that one in which students are self-motivated because deep learning is part of their way of being and experiencing knowledge. Life-long learning is what inevitably happens once my students are away from my virtual or F2F classroom since their thirst for more knowledge is so great that they need to quench it on their own, exploring new horizons in their education autonomously. And in this process, pupils will indeed develop their critical and hierarchical thinking skills to succeed and excel in their field.

When my teaching is over, I would like my students to have developed all sorts of competencies to become excellent teaching professionals and to have satisfied their learning expectations in any of my courses. I really want my students to develop their whole potential to eventually see them using technology in their classroom wisely and ecologically and to see them apply suitable classroom management strategies that can really yield learning and a positive environment to foster that learning, too. I’d really like to see them planning and carrying out all sorts of activities in their future classroom to produce and replicate learning for other learners, their learners.

As a well-matured teaching professional, I have sampled lots of teaching methodologies, and now –at this point in my teaching career- I guess I have found a nice niche for my teaching potential: Project-Based Learning in content courses in a hybrid fashion because I want students to experience hands-on projects to develop creativity and a sense of accomplishment and CLT or Communicative Language Teaching –the real stuff- for the language classes I get to teach with a twist in which Krashen’s Model for Learning is always present.

I see myself as a trainer rather than a teacher. I want to prepare teaching professionals who can face current and future challenges in education. For that reason, providing formative feedback for guidance towards learning is my priority. If I see my pupils as my trainees, I can “train” them to become topnotch language instructors who can excel by themselves and benefit their future students’ learning. As trainees I want my pupils to learn the importance of treating others as humans and not just as a number is a college system. Likewise, they will treat their future learners as people and not a numerical figure. Furthermore, I want my students to really experience deep learning, not surface learning, since competencies and skills they will develop in my classes are useful assets for their teaching practice and professional development.

By attaching myself to these to these basic principles, I have developed myself professionally and matured as a teaching professional. Education is a symbiosis of many different factors, and I want my students to be certain that they will learn what is already stated in a course outline and why not, beyond.

Coppola, B. (n.d.). Writing a statement of teaching philosophy: Fashioning a framework for your classroom. Retrieved from http://galois.math.ucdavis.edu/UsefulGradInfo/HelpfulAdvice/

University of Minnesota, Center for Teaching and Learning. (2013). Writing Your Teaching Philosophy. Retrieved on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014 from the University of Minnesota webpage at http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/philosophy/index.html

The Pebble Pad. (2010, Oct. 15). Writing a Teaching Philosophy. Retrieved on Tuesday, Sept 16 from The Pebble Pad website at http://portfolio.pebblepad.co.uk/bradford/viewasset.aspx?oid=361083&type=thought

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My teaching philosophy from jonacuso

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Strategies for Engaging Students

Goals for Learning

Legends in Language Teaching and Culture Learning

Reflective Journaling (1): Assessing my Own Teaching

My Teaching Philosphy

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