The power of feedback.

Benedict Anderson’s deservedly famous thesis about the origins and nature
of modern nationalism turns around the central notion of an “imagined
community.” This category provides him with a matrix out of which one
can apprehend-theoretically and historically-the different variants of nationalist discourse formulated over the last two hundred years. We will refer,
in the brief comments that follow, to three basic dimensions structuring
the fabric of Anderson’s argument: 1) the presuppositions implicit in the
notion of an “imagined” community; 2) the kind of substitutability or solidarity which is required to be a member of such a community; 3) the kind
of relationship that is established between such a community-which is by
definition finite or limited-and its outside. Before that, however, let us
describe the main features of Anderson’s thesis.

On Imagined Communities

E-Moderators are \"the new generation of teachers and trainers who work with learners online\" (p. viii) using Computer-Mediated Conferencing (CMC) as a learning tool, regardless of the subject they are teaching. They are the focus of E-Moderating, a recent book which provides both a theoretical framework for developing online learning using CMC (part one), and a wealth of practical advice (part two). The book is supported by a Web site. The author, Gilly Salmon, a distance education specialist with the Open University Business School in the UK, provides a five-step model of effective online education, along with copious examples of how the model relates to real-life online learning contexts. Salmon proposes that, by basing learning on a constructivist model, it is e-moderators that can make the difference in online education as they convene, direct, summarize, and archive synchronous and asynchronous discussions.

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E-Moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online

Transforming qualitative data: Description, analysis, and interpretation

Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. 352 pp. $40.00 (paperback).ByL. D. Fink (2013)Dee Fink has been advocating learner- and learning-centered approaches to teaching since the 1970s. This revised and updated version of his classic book continues that tradition with its focus on what educators must do to foster learning that will enhance individual lives and foster informed and thoughtful citizens. Fink's central idea is that education will not improve until educators step down from the lecture podium to walk with and among their learners, to collaborate in designing learning experiences. He argues that the most effective way for individuals to do this is by developing instructional design skills grounded in active and experiential learning theories and methods. On one level, Fink targets individual educators from all disciplines who desire to make a significant change to their teaching practice, and on another level, he relates to groups interested in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), professional development and instructional design. Fink's scholarship and insight make this an excellent resource on both levels.Fink organized his book into seven chapters. The first two focus on the need for change in postsecondary education. He then defines "significant learning experiences" and introduces his taxonomy as a means to provide grounded theories and concepts for action. Chapters 3 and 4 puts his taxonomy to use with practical language that details integrated course design concepts and tools. Chapter 5 provides a case study as well as other examples from educators who improved their practice by using Fink's taxonomy and course design model. Chapter 6 explores what front-line educators need to make significant learning experiences the new norm. Fink ends this book with a conversation about what education could become if the idea of "significant learning experiences" became the goal.Fink defines significant learning experiences as those that result in something truly significant in the learner's life. For this to happen, learning experiences must go beyond fostering understanding and the ability to remodel discipline- related information, they must connect the course content with the learner's life in such a way that the learner will draw upon past experiences to connect the content with new ideas and new future learning. Teaching is broken into four components: subject matter knowledge, design of instruction, student interactions and managing course event. Fink makes the case that designing instruction is the weakest link for post-secondary educators; this is where the majority have no conceptual tools - it has not been part of their background or training. …

Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses

Meaningful learning in the tertiary sector benefits from the inclusion of a variety of teaching and learning techniques including active learning. Role-plays are one type of active and participatory learning activity that creates interaction between students and a simulated scenario. This reality can serve to open the minds of participants to issues they need to be able to deal with in their chosen careers. This paper reports role-plays in four different learning applications: the first was in a multicultural education class and simulated a microcosm of society where students took on the roles of minority groups. The second reports on a history class that provided simulations of key battles of World Wars One and Two. The third was in mathematics for primary teachers’ class where the students simulated experiences as children in mathematics classrooms, parents and teachers speaking to each other and teachers teaching children. The fourth was in a leadership class for final year Early Childhood and Primary pre-service teachers, and involved role-play of an interview during the management of an unsatisfactory work performance by a staff member. The findings show that in each case the objectives of having students experience a simulation of reality were met.

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Role-Playing as a Tool to Facilitate Learning, Self Reflection and Social Awareness in Teacher Education

The use of threshold concepts to define key points of curricula is a relatively recent development in educational research. Threshold concepts represent crucial stages of learning, the acquisition of which enables learners to progress from one level of achievement to another. In this context, the learner is described as passing through an unsettling liminal space in which they may encounter troublesome knowledge and experience uncertainty or anxiety. When applied to online pedagogy in higher education contexts, academic staff become the learners as they extend their on-campus teaching knowledge into the online realm. In this setting, the identification of threshold concepts has the potential to inform the content of professional development (PD) programmes for novice online teachers. Because little research has yet been reported on threshold concepts associated with online teaching, this study identified these threshold concepts and investigated their specific nature. Funded by an Office for Learning and Teaching Australia Grant, the project employed a mixed-methods research approach. A mixture of qualitative and quantitative data was gathered from responses to questionnaires and reflective journal entries provided by university educators who were teaching in online contexts. Also, experts in the fields of PD, online teaching and threshold concepts were consulted using a modified Delphi technique that incorporated two rounds of surveys. Results of this study are discussed in association with potential applications to PD design for novice online educators, informed by the most fundamental learning experiences encountered by their more experienced colleagues.

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Threshold concepts about online pedagogy for novice online teachers in higher education

Higher education institutions are developing more and more online courses to supplement and augment the courses they offer in on-campus modes. In fact, some universities now offer the majority of their courses through online contexts. However, for academic staff who design and teach these courses, the transition from teaching oncampus courses to teaching in online learning environments is not always speedy or smooth. Academic teaching staff require support, mentoring and professional learning programs to develop their existing capacities and apply them to an online context. This paper reports on Phase 2 of a research project, which takes into consideration the cumulative effect of tailored professional development measures implemented in response to findings in Phase 1. The three aims were: 1) to identify the threshold concepts that teaching staff develop when they learn about online learning and teaching; 2) to compare self-efficacy levels and threshold concepts of staff who are experienced or inexperienced in online learning and teaching; and 3) to develop customised professional learning programs and resources to extend the online teaching and course design skills of academic staff. Findings from the study are outlined by identifying threshold concepts, threshold attitudes and self-efficacy levels of online educators and the implications these findings have for designing professional development programs in higher education contexts.

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Navigating Learning Journeys of Online Teachers: Threshold Concepts and Self-efficacy

/pdf/coherence-the-right-drivers-in-action-for-schools-districts-4vcy0rpuoa.pdf

Coherence - The Right Drivers in Action for Schools, Districts and Systems

............................................................................................................................... III ACKOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................................... IV LIST OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................V LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. VIII LIST OF FIGURES .....................................................................................................................X CHAPTER 1 ..................................................................................................................................

Peter W Kilgour

Papers

Role-Playing as a Tool to Facilitate Learning, Self Reflection and Social Awareness in Teacher Education

Threshold concepts about online pedagogy for novice online teachers in higher education

Navigating Learning Journeys of Online Teachers: Threshold Concepts and Self-efficacy

Coherence - The Right Drivers in Action for Schools, Districts and Systems

Student, teacher and parent perceptions of classroom environments in streamed and unstreamed mathematics classrooms