Sentio's story : experience and reflection
Transcript of Sentio's story : experience and reflection
IMAGE: Kevin Dooley ‘Puzzle: The daily jigsaw puzzle, providing casual challenge and conversaAon’, CC BY 0.2. Sen$o, who was a very prac$cal fairy who applied herself to every task, brought a puzzle. ‘Whosoever puzzles this puzzle will grow wiser and
wiser as each day passes. I give you the gi? of reflec$on’.
Imagine a world where our students are the best possible learners. Imagine they immerse themselves in the lecture experience, taking in the knowledge presented to them and thinking about how it applies to the wider topic/subject. Imagine they embrace seminars with enthusiasm, raising ques>ons and exploring answers. Imagine they complete their assessments ably demonstra>ng that they have truly acheived a cri>cal understanding of the topic. Imagine what it is like to teach, and learn alongside, those students.
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Our star>ng point is the asser>on that students can learn a great deal from DOING. Gibbs, in a recent piece for SEDA, argues that there is not enough learning by doing in the Higher Educa>on System hIp://www.seda.ac.uk/resources/files/publica>ons_181_31%20Much%20learning%20is%20acquired%20by%20doing,%20but%20seldon%20only%20be%20doing.pdf . So what is so special about it? On this slide, you sill see Bloom’s Taxonomy (learning pyramid) ; this is probably familiar to most people but it is an essen>al star>ng point. BLOOM B S (ed.) (1956) Taxonomy of EducaAonal ObjecAves, the classificaAon of educaAonal goals – Handbook I: CogniAve Domain New York: McKay Basically, the pyramid sets out 6 different levels of learning which are used by educators for the development of learning outcomes and curriculum design. The idea is that learners begin at the base of the pyramid and move upwards. A summary of the different stages is provided below: KNOWLEDGE: The first stage is to acquire factual knowledge about a
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The problem is that experience along is rarely sufficient for learning. Many of us include ac>vi>es in our teaching which require students to do something beyond simply reading and listening. But how many of us as sure of the impact it has had? What did the students learn? How will it contribute to their cri>cal awareness? How will they relate it to the rest of their studies? Will they recall it as a learning experience in job interviews? Will they even remember experiencing it when they walk out the door? Boud et al (1985) raise some essen>al ques>ons about what enables learners to gain maximum benefit from the situa>ons they find themselves in. The key to learning from experience, they suggest, is structured reflec>on. There is an extensive literature on models of reflec>on, but on this slide you can see a very simple form of the model. Basically, you have an experience, you describe what happened, you ask why/how it happened that way and then propose how you will approach it differently next >me.
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Presented in a slightly more complex way, here is Gibbs’ much celebrated Reflec>ve Cycle (Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods ). So, we take from this the point that in order for learners to turn their experiences into learning, they need to go through this process. The reality is, a lot of the >me, that they don’t. So the ques>on is, how can we help them? Talking to my own students, it became clear to me that for them there are two problems or obstacles: 1. I do not tell students to do this, they do not do it ins>nc>vely. Therefore, it
never gets done. 2. If students do start the process (prompted or otherwise), they ogen get stuck at
the early stages of the process: recording what happened and how they felt.
So, I have looked for ways of ‘uns>cking’ them; to give them the opportunity and encouragement to do this stage of reflec>on in class. Today, I will introduce you to the tool of ‘freewri>ng’.
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Image: ‘Parkour Founda>ons’ by Thor, CC BY 2.0 Freewri>ng is a technique popular amongst writers for increasing produc>vity, confidence and crea>vity. It is useful for tackling writer’s block. In the simplest terms, you set a >me limit and then just write. You have to keep your hand moving or your fingers typing at all >mes; you must keep wri>ng even if your mind wanders or goes blank. If you are bored or distracted, ask yourself what is bothering you and write about that. You should not worry about spelling or grammar and you should not pause to read over your work and correct mistakes. You have to carry on wri>ng, no maIer how much you think it might be nonsense. When the >me is up, read through what you have wriIen and highlight any useful sec>ons that you want to come back to. This is an approach which can be used in a number of different ways with students. You could use it at the start of the class to get students to
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Image: By kind permission from Sabine LiIle. ACTIVITY: In the session you will work together on a short task. You will then be given instruc>ons for reflec>ng on that task.
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IMAGE: Kenneth Rougeau ‘Alice through the looking glass’ CC BY 2.0 We will complete the session with a period of meta-‐reflec>on; reflec>ng on the process of reflec>on as experienced today.
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