“Thinking Like a Professional”

James Atherton, UKTony Ciccone, USAPeter Hadfield, UK

Chair; Renee Meyers, USA

Learning Teaching

Peter Hadfield

Professional

Discipline

Preparing to

Teach

Teaching and

Learning

Process

Assessing

Teaching and

Learning

Observed

Practice

Year 2

Exit with PGCE or Cert Ed

Evaluation and

Action Research

OrganisingPost-Compulsory

Education

Context of

Learning and

TeachingSymposium

Symposium

Dual Professionalism

•Subject specialist

•Teacher of that specialism/subject

Political

Background

Legal

AspectsResearchmethods

EthicsPhilosophies / models ofPractice

Discipline-SpecificTheory

ProfessionalStudies

Practiceskills

Other contributory

skills

Technology

Values

Pedagogy and professional education

Competing models

Compliance• Role and tasks

defined externally• Little discretion• Emphasise

accountability• Standardised ways

of working• Convergence in

learning experience

Autonomy• Role and tasks

defined internally• Growing discretion• Emphasise

professional values• Flexibility

• Divergence in learning experience

Value-base of course

• That you, …, are competent adults, already acquainted with the field of work and study, and having more or less clear ideas about what you need to learn …

• That those ideas … need to be respected, even when it is necessary to show their limitations and to go beyond them.

• That you will learn most effectively when you … have appropriate control over your learning experiences.

• That the accumulated experience of members of the student group is one of the most valuable resources available to the course, and every effort should be made to utilise it.

• […]• That … the ability and motivation to learn from continuing

experience through disciplined reflection … should be fostered by the Course.

• That a course which purports to teach good educational practice must itself embody and model such practice, and lay it open to scrutiny.

• […]

Wot, no assignments?

Stories

•Bill “I’m not learning anything”

•Marie “I can’t believe this assessment strategy”

•Brian The reflective firefighter

• Julie “Just tell me what to do…”

Learning to Think Like a Professional:

Embracing Complexity

Tony CicconeUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Example of Change Across Semester

• By the end of the semester I hope to walk away knowing a little bit more about the people around me and myself in terms of comedy and laughter.

• Now I realize that comedy usually seems to be addressing the larger issues at hand. Is comedy shaping how society views important issues? Does comedy help us deal with our daily lives?

• I have learned that incongruities are one of the most essential elements of laughter. They are molded by what we view as normal which is shaped by what society sets as standard. I now realize how vital humor is to our society and happiness. It gives me an open mind and the flexibility to function in a rigid world.

Reflective Paper Topics

• Topics for first and last reflective papers: One page summary of ideas you found

interesting and questions you’d like to examine this semester. What are your expectations for the course? What do you hope to learn?

Review your first writing assignment and write a one-two page reflection on what you’ve learned over the course of the semester. Were your expectations met? Did you learn things you didn’t expect to learn? How has your thinking changed?

Becoming a Professional: Developing Complex Thinking

1.Recognition of one level, mostly surface level, of meaning (content-based)

2. Recognition/awareness of two levels of meaning (content-based)• Possibility that content means something

for self understanding or other understanding

• Possibility that content has larger meaning

Becoming a Professional: Developing Complex Thinking

3. Recognition of what it means to learn (process-based) What have I learned? How do I learn (factors identified with learning)

4. Developing a deeper appreciation of second-level meaning and value of content (content-based) What is larger value of comedy? What is larger value of thinking about comedy?

5. Experiencing a change in the complexity of one’s thinking—starting to think like a professional (process-based) Articulation of an awareness of change in

thinking Articulation of how you now think differently

Recognition of One Level of Meaning

• I like psychology-related topics, so it sounded really cool to study why people laugh or why things are funny to some and not funny to others.

Recognition of Two Levels of Meaning

•Content means something for self- or other-understanding By the end of the semester, I hope to walk

away knowing a little bit more about the people around me and myself in terms of comedy and laughter.

Recognition of Two Levels of Meaning

•Possibility that content has larger meaning/value

I had no idea that there even were theories about this topic (much less a book), and I can’t wait to have laughter and comedy explained to me. I would also like to see how these theories pertain to today’s society, seeing as how comedy plays an important role

Recognizing What It Means To Learn

• What have I learned? Learned specific facts— Incongruities are one

of the most essential elements of laughter. They are molded by what we view as normal, which is shaped by what society sets as standard.

Learned answers to specific questions— I asked why some people laugh at certain things while others do not. The answer to this is the distance that certain people have . .

Learned specific skill— I remember watching the first comedy . . and not being able to say why I laughed because I wasn’t able to analyze it yet. Now if I watch anything funny, I am able to say what theory explained my laughter.

Recognizing What It Means To Learn

• How do I learn (factors identified with learning) It is very important to keep an open mind

while learning all of the new theories. You do not necessarily have to believe the theories, you just have to keep an open mind and consider them

I was able to question my own understanding of humor as well as add to the pre-formulated thoughts I already had on the whole idea of what humor actually is.

I liked that we got to observe and analyze many different forms of comedy and then compare them.

Developing Appreciation of Second-Level Meaning and Value of Course

Content

• What is larger value of comedy?

. . . my thinking has changed. I now realize how vital humor is to our society and happiness. It gives us an open mind and the flexibility to function in a rigid world.

Developing Appreciation of Second-Level Meaning and Value of Course

Content

•What is larger value of thinking about comedy?

The course taught me a lot, not just about comedy, but it helped me to think about things in different ways than I normally would, and made me more open to new ideas.

Experiencing a Change in the Complexity of One’s Thinking:

Starting to Think More Like a Professional

• Articulation of an awareness of a change in thinking My thinking has changed drastically about

comedy since the beginning of the course . I cannot watch any form of comedy without analyzing it. Even when I laugh at one of my friends, I still think in terms of techniques and theories.

Experiencing a Change in the Complexity of One’s Thinking:

Starting to Think More Like a Professional

•Articulation of how you NOW think differently This class has also changed my

perceptions on ideas and concepts of everyday life. I don’t accept things as just simple ideas any more. I engage myself to reflect more now and not to just accept what is given to me as right and wrong.

Implications for Instruction

• Need to intentionally design activities that move students along a path of greater awareness of their own thought processes.

• A course (particularly a general education course) should move students toward a more complex understanding of the topic AND a more complex understanding of what it means to learn something.

• The ability to appreciate the value of a more complex understanding of both a topic and what it means to learn in general is a characteristic of thinking like a “professional.”

Implications for research

• Connecting student reflection with student performance

• Think aloud’s, student focus groups, etc.

• Feed this analysis back to students; is this an accurate interpretation of your thinking?

Discussion; models of practice and learning

James Atherton

For Discussion

•What would a course/programme look like if it attempted to embody the approach outlined on this page?

•How do they contribute to “thinking like a professional?”

• Please identify positive features on the green post-its, “interesting” on the yellow, and issues requiring caution on the pink/red ones.

Rite of Passage

Initial Status

Initiation

Marginal Status

Return

New Status

Time

Situated Learning

Initial interactionis with othernew entrants

Progress isbeing allowedto take on morekey, or risky, tasks

The boundaryis constantly

moving

Initial interactionis with othernew entrants

Progress isbeing allowedto take on morekey, or risky, tasks

Note: Lave & Wenger explicitly reject this kind of depiction of their model

The boundaryis constantly

moving

Developing Expertise

Novice

Advanced Beginner

Competent

Proficient

Expert

Reflection

ConcreteExperience

ReflectiveObservation

Abstract Concept-ualisation

ActiveExperiment-

ation

Towards unconscious competence

Second

Nature

Relative

Mastery

“Sound”

Hit and

miss

Have

a go

Help!

Learning ll

Learning 0Direct experience

Learning I“Ordinary” learning

Learning II/ Deutero-learningLearning how to learn

Learning IIInot really understood