I found the video seminar by Dr Judy Willis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMZnfFD1maU#t=18) to be thought provoking and highly engaging. I learned a lot of new 'nifty' terms too, as well as many new techniques that can be incorporated into classroom situations. These were not all necessarily ICT specific with many being pedagogically aligned. One particular new term I learned which is strongly ICT focused is the method of delivery of this information. I have termed it a video seminar for the benefit of others like myself who are not familiar with the correct term, 'webinar'. How about that?
Dr Willis discussed the importance of learning being facilitated by the absorbing of knowledge. This is not a foreign concept to most I am sure. Dr Willis' focus though was on the barriers to knowledge being absorbed. This was totally fascinating to me. She spoke about the Reticular Activating System (RAS) and the role it plays in filtering information to the 'thinking parts of the brain' like the Pre Frontal Cortex (PFC).
The RAS is the first filter for information travelling successfully to the PFC. This is an instinctive filter. It is all about safety in the environment. The first thing students of any age will notice is change in the environment. The next thing the RAS will do is try to identify danger or stresses and it will then look for things that are new, different and pique the curiosity of the student. Dr Willis suggests a regular and consistent routine in the classroom at the start of a lesson will put students at ease and open up the RAS to be to less of a barrier to information travelling to the PFC.
Ways of to stimulate learning are to appeal to the prior knowledge base, interests and personal goals of students. One method Dr Willis mentioned was to advertise upcoming 'events' in the learning journey. A particular 'event' in her classroom experience was a science curriculum topic based around 'force'. She engaged students in the weeks leading up to this with 'Star Wars' references which intensified as the start date grew closer. This piqued my personal interests also. I am not sure if anyone else noticed but I found this particularly engaging when I noticed that the Edutopia product, the organisation presenting this knowledge, is a product of the George Lucus Educational Foundation. George Lucas being the mastermind behind the Star Wars franchise. This was, for me, a personal example of Dr Willis, possibly totally unintentionally, applying her suggestions of appealing to a prior knowledge base and piquing personal interests to lower barriers and engage for the content to be more readily absorbed.
Dr Willis then began to talk about another part of the brain. The Amygdala is a second filter in the brain that also prevents information flow to the PFC. This is a more subtle filter though and is where the 'fight, flight or freeze' instincts of human nature come into play. Information is screened in the Amygdala once it has already passed by the RAS and before it is received by the PFC. Dr Willis suggest that learning barriers appearing from information blocked in the Amygdala can be identified in defiance or opposition in students. This behaviour may be attributed to the 'Fight' survival technique. Students that display ADHD or similar tendencies, including disengaging and wandering around the room may have succumbed to the 'Flight' characteristic; and those with OCD tendencies, anxiety issues or at the more extreme end of the scale, seizures, are in 'Frozen' mode.
To counter some of these characteristics it is important to ensure that lessons are interesting, relevant and appeal to a student's particular interest and pleasures. There are many ways to achieve this and a focus on personalisation and multi sensory engagement are key pedagogical tools that can be employed here. Dr Willis again referenced the use of advertising to be of great benefit in achieving that goal. She implores educators to focus on HERE/ME/NOW tactics to keep interest and curiosity at a high and stresses and RAS and Amygdala barriers at a minimum. This includes stresses from in the classroom and from outside school.
Some of the 'in school' stresses that educators need to focus on include:
- fear of being wrong
- embarrassed to read aloud
- anxiety associated with exams and tests
- physical and language barriers
- cliques and bullying
- frustration with difficult material
- boredom from lack of stimulation
Some good ways to acknowledge if these factors are impacting on learning is to attempt to personalise the lessons. Ways this can be done is to seek feedback. This can include interactive pedagogy like thumbs up or thumbs down systems or with ICT methods like individual whiteboards or cards for example.
In a classroom environment Dr Willis enforces the need to recognise outside of school stresses. She suggest sympathising with the causes of this outside stress. She states the importance of acknowledging the roadblocks this stress will cause to learning, also understanding that the stressed student will not be able to efficiently learn whilst under these stresses. There may be nothing an educator can do directly (in relation to the lesson at that time) to facilitate the learning of these stressed students. Recognition of this is integral.
Dr Willis outlines that students learn by connecting new or related information to their stored patterns of knowledge. This shows that the core underlying goal here is to create a positive emotional state. This leads to better memory retention while a stressed state leads to less short term and long term memory. A positive emotional state leads to facilitating learning where as a stressed state leads to information blockage on the path to the PFC and the 'thinking parts of the brain'.
The concept of diverse intelligence spoken about in the article by Grace Rubenstein offers support to the theories of Dr Willis. This is particularly true in the case of personalisation of the lessons based on the the needs of individuals and the different ways that people learn. This article points out that the information on brain research outlined is not yet proven and cannot be claimed as fact at this point. However the arguments drawn from the research strongly support Dr Willis' views on personalisation of the educational experience being paramount to permit people that learn in different and diverse ways to each achieve the most they possibly can out of their respective educational journeys.
A personal highlight for me this week was the video clip of Sir Ken Robinson. In this clip Sir Ken discusses the topic of schools killing education. I believe strongly that he has 'hit the proverbial nail on the head' with his insights and anecdotes. Ken gives real life examples of the importance and value of personalised learning being a necessity. He briefly outlines the history of our current education system at a global level. The importance of this is to set the stage for relevance and to highlight the role of personalisation in learning. A genuinely masterful portrayal that I encourage everyone to watch. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY).
The implications of these findings in my classroom are an indicator of potential roadblocks to learning as well as highlighting strategies and pedagogies to counter, and ultimately avoid, many of these educational pitfalls. The need to identify the diversity of the brain and the different learning styles that are necessary because of that diversity will be crucial in my classroom. Facilitating all of the varied learning needs of students is at the soul of modern teaching practices and pedagogies. The importance of managing stress in the classroom, as much as the stresses from outside of the room, are paramount in ensuring students are not just ready to learn but able to learn. This a potentially negative implication in the classroom as much as the diversity of needs that already exist aside from stress. It is the macro and micro management of this range of diversity that presents both the greatest challenge and the greatest rewards available in the teaching profession - to be able to influence the growth and formation of the brains of your students. The magnitude if that is unfathomable. The implications of it in the classroom weigh heavily with responsibility. The outcomes that are possible are truly astonishing and simply amazing. Who would not want to be a part of that process?
To meet this challenge and be successful in the changing face of pedagogies, diversity and educational evolution (or even revolution as Sir Ken refers to it), can only be achieved by using the complete toolbox we have available as educators. ICT is not a useful tool in this success. It is an integral component. ICT needs to be embedded as an essential component in all pedagogical approaches not viewed or seen as a separate pedagogy. ICT practices need to become the underlying web that ties it all together if we are to be empowered to deliver the content we need to deliver to meet the increasing diverse range of educational needs in the average classroom. That said, there is no longer such a thing as an average classroom. Each classroom is becoming increasingly unique. The range of needs in each room is being recognised as unique and the diversity is increasing at a rate where normality no longer is conceivable. ICT is the universal pedagogical tool in our box. It cannot be used alone to be successful it is a glue that binds the other approaches together and allows them to be successful in the modern classroom.
In reference to Sir Ken's video clip and the relevance it holds to this week's topics, it boldly suggests that the entire global educational system is outdated and not structured to achieve the outcomes the modern student, employer and global citizen requires from formal education. Sir Ken points out the existing structure is still rooted in supplying a educated worker suitable for the needs of the manufacturing industry borne of the industrial revolution. The world has changed. People have changed. Education needs to change. The diversity of the individual and the need for more personalised learning has been the theme that has grabbed my attention this week. The diversity this creates in the classroom has highlighted the failings and shortcomings of the current education system to meet the needs of the students, to empower teachers to meet the students' needs and ultimately to 'send them out' into society and the workforce. The quality of person and employee the modern social and business worlds require deems it necessary for the system to be overhauled to achieve this. Assuming of course that this remains a primary goal of the organised educational system.
As a pre-service teacher I found all of the topics this week confronting. Confronting because they challenged my view on teaching, and rightfully so. It was the confrontational nature of the subject content that kept me keen and focused on the work. This made it personalised for me. The implications of these factors in the classroom are equally challenging. I look forward to embracing the opportunity to meet this challenge, not head on as such, but more in a fashion of 'melding it all together'. The diversity of a classroom is the greatest challenge I can see in my future as an educator. This same diversity will be responsible for the greatest satisfaction I aim to gain as a member of the teaching profession and it is what drives my motivation for my personal journey as a member of the teaching vocation. Success for my classroom will be each student gaining the most useful tools they can to enable their own educational journeys, and therefore facilitating their own personal definitions of educational success.
For me, social constructivism, which focuses on social interactions and collaborations, and connectivism, the tools to find infomation, are what works best for my personal learning needs. In my working life between school and university, I built a career around connectivism. Knowing where and how to source information was far more reliable than trying to remember the information. This proved particularly important when updated information superseded older text. For other people with different learning needs the quizzes and tutoring tools of behaviourism may be more appropriate. Cognitivism and the mental processes it involves will appeal to people with yet another set of learning needs. As educators though, it is our role to understand how and when to employ each of these methodologies, when appropriate, based on the diversity in our respective classrooms at any given time.
Dr Willis discussed the importance of learning being facilitated by the absorbing of knowledge. This is not a foreign concept to most I am sure. Dr Willis' focus though was on the barriers to knowledge being absorbed. This was totally fascinating to me. She spoke about the Reticular Activating System (RAS) and the role it plays in filtering information to the 'thinking parts of the brain' like the Pre Frontal Cortex (PFC).
The RAS is the first filter for information travelling successfully to the PFC. This is an instinctive filter. It is all about safety in the environment. The first thing students of any age will notice is change in the environment. The next thing the RAS will do is try to identify danger or stresses and it will then look for things that are new, different and pique the curiosity of the student. Dr Willis suggests a regular and consistent routine in the classroom at the start of a lesson will put students at ease and open up the RAS to be to less of a barrier to information travelling to the PFC.
Ways of to stimulate learning are to appeal to the prior knowledge base, interests and personal goals of students. One method Dr Willis mentioned was to advertise upcoming 'events' in the learning journey. A particular 'event' in her classroom experience was a science curriculum topic based around 'force'. She engaged students in the weeks leading up to this with 'Star Wars' references which intensified as the start date grew closer. This piqued my personal interests also. I am not sure if anyone else noticed but I found this particularly engaging when I noticed that the Edutopia product, the organisation presenting this knowledge, is a product of the George Lucus Educational Foundation. George Lucas being the mastermind behind the Star Wars franchise. This was, for me, a personal example of Dr Willis, possibly totally unintentionally, applying her suggestions of appealing to a prior knowledge base and piquing personal interests to lower barriers and engage for the content to be more readily absorbed.
Dr Willis then began to talk about another part of the brain. The Amygdala is a second filter in the brain that also prevents information flow to the PFC. This is a more subtle filter though and is where the 'fight, flight or freeze' instincts of human nature come into play. Information is screened in the Amygdala once it has already passed by the RAS and before it is received by the PFC. Dr Willis suggest that learning barriers appearing from information blocked in the Amygdala can be identified in defiance or opposition in students. This behaviour may be attributed to the 'Fight' survival technique. Students that display ADHD or similar tendencies, including disengaging and wandering around the room may have succumbed to the 'Flight' characteristic; and those with OCD tendencies, anxiety issues or at the more extreme end of the scale, seizures, are in 'Frozen' mode.
To counter some of these characteristics it is important to ensure that lessons are interesting, relevant and appeal to a student's particular interest and pleasures. There are many ways to achieve this and a focus on personalisation and multi sensory engagement are key pedagogical tools that can be employed here. Dr Willis again referenced the use of advertising to be of great benefit in achieving that goal. She implores educators to focus on HERE/ME/NOW tactics to keep interest and curiosity at a high and stresses and RAS and Amygdala barriers at a minimum. This includes stresses from in the classroom and from outside school.
Some of the 'in school' stresses that educators need to focus on include:
- fear of being wrong
- embarrassed to read aloud
- anxiety associated with exams and tests
- physical and language barriers
- cliques and bullying
- frustration with difficult material
- boredom from lack of stimulation
Some good ways to acknowledge if these factors are impacting on learning is to attempt to personalise the lessons. Ways this can be done is to seek feedback. This can include interactive pedagogy like thumbs up or thumbs down systems or with ICT methods like individual whiteboards or cards for example.
In a classroom environment Dr Willis enforces the need to recognise outside of school stresses. She suggest sympathising with the causes of this outside stress. She states the importance of acknowledging the roadblocks this stress will cause to learning, also understanding that the stressed student will not be able to efficiently learn whilst under these stresses. There may be nothing an educator can do directly (in relation to the lesson at that time) to facilitate the learning of these stressed students. Recognition of this is integral.
Dr Willis outlines that students learn by connecting new or related information to their stored patterns of knowledge. This shows that the core underlying goal here is to create a positive emotional state. This leads to better memory retention while a stressed state leads to less short term and long term memory. A positive emotional state leads to facilitating learning where as a stressed state leads to information blockage on the path to the PFC and the 'thinking parts of the brain'.
The concept of diverse intelligence spoken about in the article by Grace Rubenstein offers support to the theories of Dr Willis. This is particularly true in the case of personalisation of the lessons based on the the needs of individuals and the different ways that people learn. This article points out that the information on brain research outlined is not yet proven and cannot be claimed as fact at this point. However the arguments drawn from the research strongly support Dr Willis' views on personalisation of the educational experience being paramount to permit people that learn in different and diverse ways to each achieve the most they possibly can out of their respective educational journeys.
A personal highlight for me this week was the video clip of Sir Ken Robinson. In this clip Sir Ken discusses the topic of schools killing education. I believe strongly that he has 'hit the proverbial nail on the head' with his insights and anecdotes. Ken gives real life examples of the importance and value of personalised learning being a necessity. He briefly outlines the history of our current education system at a global level. The importance of this is to set the stage for relevance and to highlight the role of personalisation in learning. A genuinely masterful portrayal that I encourage everyone to watch. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY).
The implications of these findings in my classroom are an indicator of potential roadblocks to learning as well as highlighting strategies and pedagogies to counter, and ultimately avoid, many of these educational pitfalls. The need to identify the diversity of the brain and the different learning styles that are necessary because of that diversity will be crucial in my classroom. Facilitating all of the varied learning needs of students is at the soul of modern teaching practices and pedagogies. The importance of managing stress in the classroom, as much as the stresses from outside of the room, are paramount in ensuring students are not just ready to learn but able to learn. This a potentially negative implication in the classroom as much as the diversity of needs that already exist aside from stress. It is the macro and micro management of this range of diversity that presents both the greatest challenge and the greatest rewards available in the teaching profession - to be able to influence the growth and formation of the brains of your students. The magnitude if that is unfathomable. The implications of it in the classroom weigh heavily with responsibility. The outcomes that are possible are truly astonishing and simply amazing. Who would not want to be a part of that process?
To meet this challenge and be successful in the changing face of pedagogies, diversity and educational evolution (or even revolution as Sir Ken refers to it), can only be achieved by using the complete toolbox we have available as educators. ICT is not a useful tool in this success. It is an integral component. ICT needs to be embedded as an essential component in all pedagogical approaches not viewed or seen as a separate pedagogy. ICT practices need to become the underlying web that ties it all together if we are to be empowered to deliver the content we need to deliver to meet the increasing diverse range of educational needs in the average classroom. That said, there is no longer such a thing as an average classroom. Each classroom is becoming increasingly unique. The range of needs in each room is being recognised as unique and the diversity is increasing at a rate where normality no longer is conceivable. ICT is the universal pedagogical tool in our box. It cannot be used alone to be successful it is a glue that binds the other approaches together and allows them to be successful in the modern classroom.
In reference to Sir Ken's video clip and the relevance it holds to this week's topics, it boldly suggests that the entire global educational system is outdated and not structured to achieve the outcomes the modern student, employer and global citizen requires from formal education. Sir Ken points out the existing structure is still rooted in supplying a educated worker suitable for the needs of the manufacturing industry borne of the industrial revolution. The world has changed. People have changed. Education needs to change. The diversity of the individual and the need for more personalised learning has been the theme that has grabbed my attention this week. The diversity this creates in the classroom has highlighted the failings and shortcomings of the current education system to meet the needs of the students, to empower teachers to meet the students' needs and ultimately to 'send them out' into society and the workforce. The quality of person and employee the modern social and business worlds require deems it necessary for the system to be overhauled to achieve this. Assuming of course that this remains a primary goal of the organised educational system.
As a pre-service teacher I found all of the topics this week confronting. Confronting because they challenged my view on teaching, and rightfully so. It was the confrontational nature of the subject content that kept me keen and focused on the work. This made it personalised for me. The implications of these factors in the classroom are equally challenging. I look forward to embracing the opportunity to meet this challenge, not head on as such, but more in a fashion of 'melding it all together'. The diversity of a classroom is the greatest challenge I can see in my future as an educator. This same diversity will be responsible for the greatest satisfaction I aim to gain as a member of the teaching profession and it is what drives my motivation for my personal journey as a member of the teaching vocation. Success for my classroom will be each student gaining the most useful tools they can to enable their own educational journeys, and therefore facilitating their own personal definitions of educational success.
For me, social constructivism, which focuses on social interactions and collaborations, and connectivism, the tools to find infomation, are what works best for my personal learning needs. In my working life between school and university, I built a career around connectivism. Knowing where and how to source information was far more reliable than trying to remember the information. This proved particularly important when updated information superseded older text. For other people with different learning needs the quizzes and tutoring tools of behaviourism may be more appropriate. Cognitivism and the mental processes it involves will appeal to people with yet another set of learning needs. As educators though, it is our role to understand how and when to employ each of these methodologies, when appropriate, based on the diversity in our respective classrooms at any given time.
Hello Damien. Well, I held my breath throughout because you had me hooked in. You told a story, and made links throughout to your experiences and values so that you developed your individual beliefs system by the end. This is a fine piece of writing, drawing together ideas, and then contextualizing them in your closing statements. I am impressed.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Wendy. The next challenge will be the assessable blog posting for this week. I intend to play around with a slightly different style (given that there are specific questions that need to be answered) and would love to hear your feedback to guide me for the next assessable posting. The non assessable posts will follow more of a narrative like this one.
ReplyDeleteThanks again
Damien