What is your teaching philosophy? – Doreen Chia Pei Nee

What is your teaching philosophy? How was this originated and can you evaluate how your educational touchstones will impact on the teacher you aspire to be?

“What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand.” - This is the quote that shapes my approach in teaching and it always acts as a reminder when I plan my lessons. My teaching philosophy is to create an ideal environment where students are eager and passionate to learn. I was brought up in a small city where I attended conventional school and I was educated in a very traditional way. Throughout my learning journey, all my schools are very ‘test-heavy’ and we were asked to sit in front of our desks in rows and repeat our reading and writing after the teacher. Therefore, in my teaching now, I always take into consideration and make allowances for hands-on and fun learning activities in my lessons to engage my students in their learning. According to Hunton (2015), “fun without the learning implies a missing object and a lack of strategy supporting the use”. I do believe that ‘fun learning’ is one of the key elements to emphasise positive learning behaviours and create an engaging learning environment in class.

I also believe that Hunton’s theory links to applying ‘Active Learning’ in classrooms and the first three levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy which is ‘Remembering’, ‘Understanding” then ‘Applying’. Tabrizi & Rideout (2017) states that, “This reflects on how we learn from simple (remember) to complex (create), and from concrete to abstract”. When students are given a new concept, they explore and learn through different activities and once they understand the idea, they could then apply this knowledge in other areas. Also, Hunton (2015) argues that, “Challenge is one of the Eight Triggers mentioned by Griffith and Burns (2012) as being a great motivating technique; accepting challenge is an effective way of obtaining results”. Eventually, we are aiming that the student can reach a higher level in Bloom’s taxonomy, where they ‘evaluate and create’, by including critical thinking approaches in lessons and to challenge the more ability (TS5 – “Adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils”) in class to keep on learning.

In my first Mandarin lesson, whilst it was fun and informative, it was too much learning for students to comprehend in one single lesson. Upon reflecting on my teaching, just as Hammond and Gibbons (2001) explained, “Scaffolding is the heart of effective teaching and teachers are just like builders, providing supporting structures to assist learners to develop new concepts”. In order for students to ‘internalise’ new understanding, effective scaffolding in planning and delivering lessons is what I believe a teacher should always be mindful of.

My aspiration is to be a teacher who supports and helps the children to achieve what they are passionate about by providing a secure and loving environment to grow. Just like my first school that I worked at, the school’s philosophy was “The teacher speaks softly, the children grow calmly. I promise to provide you a safe place to grow, I promise to offer you a happy place to develop.” (TS1 – “Establish a safe and stimulating environment for pupils”). This has impacted my teaching approaches and shaped my ideology in teaching.

By embracing fun learning in my teaching and bringing together what I am learning in this course, I believe I can achieve my goal to be the kind of teacher I would like to be, compassionate and knowledgeable, and my students would thrive and flourish in the future.

References

Tabrizi, S. & Rideout, G. (2017). Active Learning: Using Bloom's Taxonomy to Support Critical Pedagogy [Online]. (https://infonomics-society.org/wp-content/uploads/ijcdse/published-papers/volume-8-2017/Active-Learning-Using-Blooms-Taxonomy-to-Support-Critical-Pedagogy.pdf)

Hunton, J. (2015). Fun Learning Activities for Modern Foreign Language [Online]. (https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/warw/reader.action?docID=1977262)

Griffith, A. & Burns, M. (2012). Outstanding Teaching: Engaging Learners, Carmarthen, Crown House Publishing.

Hammond, J. & Gibbons, P. (2001). What is Scaffolding? In J. Hammond (Ed.), Scaffolding: Teaching and learning in language and literacy education. Sydney: Primary English Teachers Association.

Abigail Ball : 07 Feb 2022 10:16 |  Tags: Doreen Chia Pei Nee Philosophy Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

What is your teaching philosophy? – Zhen Wei Chew

My teaching philosophy lies in the importance of a student-centred education and so our role is twofold. At its simplest level we must:

1) develop an interest in the pupil for learning the subject

2) challenge the pupil to think and learn through ideas and problems

These two roles combine to produce an effective educator. An interested pupil with no challenge does not progress and a challenged pupil with no interest will become frustrated. My journey as a teacher so far has been one of seeking to balance these two concepts, continuously developing my own repertoire and teaching methods towards this end.

An interested student

The importance of developing a love of learning a subject in a student is obvious but often overlooked in teaching. This cannot be substituted for them having fun in the lesson or enjoying teacher interactions (though of course these are important in their own right). Instead, we must help them foster personal reasons to enjoy learning about a subject. As an IGCSE student, though I found certain subjects like Geography and PE fun, I now realise that my History teacher had instilled in me a passion for learning about historical figures and eras that made me excited to even write essays! This love of learning about the times before has stayed with me until now. Philpott, summarising Bruner, states that ‘extrinsic rewards are important yet learning will only continue if the rewards become intrinsic, when the pupils are learning because they want to’ (Philpott, 2001: 122). One obvious way to develop this is to include the students’ preferences where possible within the framework of the lesson objective. For example, for my module on The Modern Pop Song for Year 9 students, I asked them to provide their favourite pop song which I listened to and organically added to my plan for the unit. This encouraged them to engage more with the lesson, often being particularly eager to answer questions on their chosen song when it was used.

A challenged student

Challenging the student within the subject is vital both in developing their understanding and, in my particular context, demonstrating that music is worth developing their understanding of. In Malaysia, outside of international schools, music is very rarely part of the secondary curriculum, and when it is offered is often discouraged by parents. Against this backdrop, challenging students in music gives assurance that it is a subject that can be explored critically in its own right and is worthy of academic pursuit. The possibility that I could study music critically was something that only occurred to me when studying Music at A Level, as I had found IGCSE music was quite easy. I discovered that the detail and depth one could find in the different characteristics and contexts of music was very stimulating. As Pitts states ‘emphasis on outcomes other than musical ones risks distorting the place of music in the curriculum, positioning it as an enabler of other kinds of development rather than a valued subject in its own right.’ (Pitt, 2017: 161). The neglected position of music in Malaysia’s education landscape is something I look forward to overcoming one day.

References

Pitts, S. E. (2017) What is music education for? Understanding and fostering routes into lifelong musical engagement, Music Education Research, 19:2, 160-168

Philpott, C. (2001) Learning to Teach music in The Secondary School. London, RoutledgeFalmer.

Abigail Ball : 01 Feb 2022 13:10 |  Tags: Philosophy Teaching Zhen Wei Chew |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

What is your teaching philosophy? – Nina Basra

The teaching philosophy journey that has led me into a path of teaching is my interest to always want to learn new things, just as John Dewey suggested ‘learning by doing, adapt your environment to learn’ this is true for me when I started my professional career in the software licensing team at an IT reseller. During my first few years, I particularly enjoyed learning about new types of software available for businesses to use and how to support a business to license these according to various vendor’s criteria, it fascinated me for many years.

As I took a career break and started to investigate a suitable education path for my first daughter, I ventured across the Reggio Emilia approach to learning that focused on a child-centered form of learning using a different approach which interferes with a traditional approach, making the child better at problem-solving, able to engage with their community and environment, welcoming new experiences, able to express themselves better and enjoying learning with confidence. I battled with the decision to send her to a traditional playgroup as I had attended when young or a bright new concept for learning. The inspiring new way of learning was the right learning decision for her as she smartly pondered into her daycare for a few days during the week with confidence and a smile, becoming independent as a little two-year-old. It also had disadvantages for the nursery staff as my daughter had full access to the bathroom taps and sink to play with the water at any time.

This was my chance to change direction and explore a different career, having seen everything that was happening in the daycare sparked joy and passion and I knew I wanted to work with children and build a career in education. Frank Parson’s trait and factor theory develop the idea that an ideal career can be based on matching personal traits, values, and various other factors, he recorded the better the fit the higher the job satisfaction.

In 2011 I completed an NCFE in supporting teaching and learning in schools, however, my days of studying were not complete, I knew I was destined to study for my PGCE however we were seconded to Singapore putting a hold on my career path. I settled my family and me and began to investigate options on how I could pursue my path in teaching. I started working at a school which confirmed my interest and that is where I found out how to pursue this course.

During my time at school, I worked with many talented teachers and learned many concepts about teaching. This has remained with me and is part of my pedagogy as the belief in the importance of a growth mindset in order to embed learning, enjoying the love of learning, which will reflect on the impact I will make as a professional teacher. “The best gift we can give children is to teach them to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning” (Dweck, 2012. p270).

References

John Dewey suggested ‘learning by doing adapt your environment to learn’

Dweck, C. (2012) Mindset: How you can fulfil your potential. London. Robinson.

Reggio Emilia - https://www.reggiochildren.it/en/reggio-emilia-approach/

Frank Parson’s trait and factor theory Parsons, F, ‘Choosing a Vocation’, accessed December 2008, (www.leonardoevangelista.it)

Abigail Ball : 24 Jan 2022 09:45 |  Tags: Nina Basra Philosophy Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

What is your teaching philosophy? – Esme Barrell

What is your teaching philosophy? How has this originated and can you evaluate how your educational touchstones will impact upon the teacher you aspire to be?

At the heart of my teaching philosophy is ‘the development of students as autonomous, self-directed and self-regulating learners’ (Weimer, 2013, p.10). In relation to what I teach, I believe this should transcend from subject content into disciplinary skills that support students for their whole lives; empowering them to become life-long learners.

This belief derived from the advice of my A-Level History teacher to ‘think like a historian.’ To learn history, and to teach it, is not just a memorization of facts. Students personify the cognitive skill set of the discipline. Whilst, in ten years’ time, I do not expect my students to recall every piece of factual information of the historical periods studied. I hope the historical thinking skills they’ve harnessed, such as interpretation and analysis, will leave lasting cognitive legacies that they can apply independently everyday. I’ve observed how History is often inaccessible to students because it's generalised as facts and dates, which derives them from the fruits of the subject. My ambition, as a teacher, is to develop student inquisitiveness, using Ford and Kennett’s metaphor of ‘historical learning as a great symphony of facts, conceptual skills and narratives’, with myself as ‘the conductor’.

Aligned with constructivist pedagogy, I believe ‘learners are active in constructing their own knowledge’ (Bruning, Schraw, Norby, & Ronning, 2004, p.195) thus my classrooms are environments for student questioning and contention with objective truths in history. During lessons at my current school, I proactively guide students towards conceptual questioning, reflection on their cognitive processes for problem solving and use of independent judgement. In subsequent student self-reflections, students have shared how this makes their learning more meaningful and engaging. Above all, I hope to encourage their passion for studying History through this constant rethreading of subjective narratives. It is this ceaseless labyrinth of interpretation that makes History so bewitching. As a teacher, by giving students autonomy to reach their own conclusions, I hope to embed a love of learning and mental models for life.

As Weimar illuminates, these skills are ‘sometimes used within the course itself and regularly after it’ (Weimer, 2013,p.11) . To embed this, I allocate time for student reflection on a weekly basis so they can take ownership of their learning; scaffolding techniques such as journaling and target-setting, influenced by experiential learning pedagogies such as Kolb. I believe that my responsibility as a teacher is to be the architect of the learning environment, in terms of structure, objectives and modelling. However, students are all unique and should be challenged by guiding learning with their own ideas and conclusions.

Having personally studied at an international school, I believe my classrooms should be spaces to share differing viewpoints and cross-cultural awareness. Similarly, my current school also holds a diverse international student demographic. My teaching philosophy here is grounded in constructivist underpinnings that active student dialogue and sharing of beliefs and opinions help students grow into global citizens . I strive to maintain this opportunity during online learning and continually reflect on how to effectively install student-student collaboration and discussion into virtual classes. I believe an outstanding teacher is responsive, and will continually reflect on how best to meet shifting student needs.

Whilst history is associated with the past, I aspire to guide my students on how to thrive in the future.

References

Brooks, J. G & Brooks, M. G. (1993) In search of understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Bruning, R., Schraw, G., Norby, M., & Ronning, R. (2004) Cognitive psychology and instruction Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, p. 195.

Ford, A and Kennett, R. (2018) “Conducting the orchestra to allow students to hear the symphony: getting richness of knowledge without resorting to fact overload”. Teaching History: 171. The Historical Association, 9-10.

Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning: experience as the source of learning and development. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc.

Weimer, M. (2013) Learner Centred Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice 2nd Ed, San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, p.10-11.

Abigail Ball : 17 Jan 2022 09:51 |  Tags: Esme Barrell Philosophy Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): Considering and measuring impact

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): Considering and measuring impact

By Dr Kerry Dobbins (Assistant Professor, Academic Development Centre) and Dr Isabel Fischer (Reader in Information Systems at Warwick Business School)

Questions about how to evaluate and measure impact of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning activities (SoTL) have always generated much lively discussion and debate within the SoTL community. For example, a recent LTHE Tweetchat focused on the topic of ‘Breaking boundaries: career progression and education-focused roles’. At the heart of the discussion was the nature and purpose of SoTL in relation to career advancement. Two specific questions discussed were ‘what forms and outputs can SoTL take?’ and ‘how should quality and impact be measured?’ In recent times, these questions have become more important than ever for all colleagues on education or teaching-focused contracts due to their connection to institutional promotions criteria. Routes to promotion for these colleagues will often involve criteria including:

• Making a significant contribution to pedagogy.
• Gaining recognition for quality and impact of scholarship.
• Demonstrating educational impact and influence within and beyond the University.
• Producing scholarly outcomes that advance learning, teaching and assessment.

Outputs and demonstrable impact of SoTL underpin these criteria and highlight why the recent Tweetchat was such a topical discussion. Considering the various forms or outputs that SoTL can take connects to how impact from those outputs may be measured or viewed to have made a significant contribution. The Twitter community identified a wide range of forms that SoTL outputs can take. These included:

• Conference/webinar presentations
• Publications
• Podcasts, blogs, vlogs
• Infographics
• Content for repositories, e.g. the National Teaching Repository
• Books
• Invited talks
• Staff/student development training
• Well-designed courses/modules

There was much leaning towards open access forms and critical scrutiny occurring through the teaching community, rather than tying outputs largely to journal publications and scrutiny through the standard academic peer review process. This leaning is still in line with the SoTL principles of sharing findings for communal use and review, but importantly the Twitter community placed considerable value on practitioner-focused scrutiny.

There was also recognition that different outputs serve different purposes and that any output can have an impact. This takes us into the realms of questioning what ‘impact’ means in SoTL and how it might be measured. Again, the Twitter community identified various ways that ‘impact’ of SoTL could be considered and/or measured:

• Policy changes – national, institutional, departmental, etc.
• Creation of staff development provision.
• Explicit recognition and reward of teaching through, for example, promotion and recruitment criteria.
• Improved module/course evaluations and student grades.
• Enhanced student engagement.
• Paper citations, usage metrics.
• Engagement in networks or communities of practice.
• Improved resourcing for teaching/development.
• Changes in colleagues’ practices.
• Engagement in collaborative activities.

It is interesting to see from the responses the different levels at which impact may play out (e.g. individual, institutional, etc). Of course, one of the ultimate aims of SoTL is to understand how students learn effectively so that learning experiences can be enhanced. However, SoTL is also recognised as an essential component of academic professional development and a mechanism through which HE teaching as a profession is advanced. As the responses above show, this wide remit of SoTL means that impacts from its activities can take many forms.

It is also apparent that some of the impact examples offered above may take longer to realise than others and be harder to measure in a quantifiable sense. A key question emerging in the Twitter discussion was whether SoTL impact needs to be measurable. This again takes us back to the question of what ‘impact’ means in SoTL and more specifically, what type of impact is being sought.

Different stakeholders (e.g., individuals, community groups, institutions) may of course be seeking different types of impact from SoTL activities but in reality, the needs of the different stakeholders are not so easily separated. There continues to be a challenging balancing act being played out in SoTL between it being an activity to develop individual and community practices, and it becoming a significant feature of aspects like promotions criteria. Whilst inclusion in promotions criteria demonstrates institutional recognition and reward of SoTL, it adds a layer of trying to measure or capture a narrative of identifiable and evidence-based impact that resonates with a panel who may or may not be familiar with the various lenses and dynamics of SoTL.

What all of this leads to is the need to keep engaging in institutional conversations about SoTL so that purposes, outputs and impacts of this activity are not viewed in too reductive terms and the various lenses and levels identified by the Twitter community are not overlooked. This is the vast flavour of SoTL and if we are too reductive, we may only taste elements of the impacts that it could have.

Two further questions should also be asked in the context of these institutional discussions:

1. How to align expectations about output and impact with time allocated for SoTL, e.g. what should be the output for somebody who receives a workload allocation of, say, two to three hours a week versus somebody who receives one to two full days per week?
2. How might expectations about output and impact be aligned on an inter-disciplinary instructional-level to encourage transferability?

It is important to ensure that discussions to define impact more clearly (and broadly) at an institutional level do not deter us from seeing the sharing of SoTL work and findings as an activity worthy in and of itself. At Warwick, we aim to create and encourage opportunities for the sharing of SoTL activities as part of our internal communities of practice. This way inspirational SoTL findings can be spread and impact upon colleagues’ practices, independent of views about measurability.

Abigail Ball : 10 Jan 2022 09:43 |  Tags: Isabel Fischer Kerry Dobbins Learning Scholarship Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Happy New year!

Welcome to the new year and a new term. We hope that you have managed to have a restful break and spent some time with your loved ones.

Is one of your new year's resolutions to start your research journey? Ever considered blogging as a first step?

What is WJETT?

The WJETT blog or Warwick Journal of Education - Transforming Teaching blog is designed to encourage staff and students to disseminate good practice and to engage with their peers on academic cultural critique or areas of research that they find interesting. With the increased focus on ‘teachers as researchers’ in the sector, many qualified teachers are expected to publish the outcomes of any action research projects they undertake. The WJETT blog can be the first step on your journey towards publishing and enables you to experience publishing and reviewing in a friendly and supportive environment.

Can I write about anything in my blog post?

Yes pretty much. Academic cultural critique (Thomson and Mewburn, 2013) is always a good source of content for academic blogs. This can include (but is not limited to) comments and reflections on funding; higher education policy or academic life. You might also want to consider blogging about:

• Academic practice (Saper, 2006)
• Information and/or self-help advice
• Technical, teaching and careers advice
• Your research or practice
• How you’ve undertaken research
• The impact of research on your practice
• An area of research/practice that interests you
• Your teaching experiences/reflections

How long can my blog post be?

Each individual blog post should be no longer than 500 words. Long blocks of text are sometimes hard for readers to digest. Break up your content into shorter paragraphs, bullet points and lists whenever possible. Also include a list of keywords or tags as this makes it easier for Google to find your work.

Do I need to use citations?

No, this is a reflective piece so it does not need to include citations (but you obviously can include them if they are relevant).

Can I include links or images?

We would encourage you to include links to any articles that you have considered whilst writing your blog post. We also welcome the use of images (as long as you have permission to use them) as they can often help to illustrate a point and obviously will not be included in the word limit. Please remember this is a public site so if you want to include images of your students in your classes then you will need permission to do this.

What is the process for submitting a piece of work?

Your blog post should be emailed to me at A.Ball.1@warwick.ac.uk. Once the submission has been reviewed it will either be uploaded at the beginning of the next available week or sent back to you for editing if it requires amendments. You should then send the amended work to me once again and I will then upload it onto the WJETT site.

Abigail Ball : 04 Jan 2022 08:25 |  Tags: Blog Reflections Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our readers and our authors for their continued support throughout another strange and frankly surreal year. There will be no new posts across the Christmas period but we will be back in the new year with fresh teaching philosophy posts and more information about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Best wishes

The WJETT Blog Team

Abigail Ball : 20 Dec 2021 16:02 |  Tags: Christmas |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

What is your teaching philosophy? – Aimee Barker

What is your teaching philosophy? How has this originated and can you evaluate how your educational touchstones will impact on the teacher you aspire to be?

Classroom environment is said to be one of the most important factors affecting students' ability to learn. According to (Dorman, Alridge & Fraser 2016) cited by (Young, 2014, p.1) students learn better when they view the learning environment as positive and supportive.

It is within my belief system that we all have the ability to learn. Humans are instinctive learners; we are continuously absorbing and organising an abundance of new information that we are exposed to each and every day. However, although learning is a natural process, I believe that for many students, they can come to fear learning, through worry of failure or disappointing the many anxious adults around them (Holt, 1964, p.1). Subsequently, I believe that it is the responsibility of the teacher to inculcate a positive relationship between a student and their ability to learn, whilst also ensuring that we are immensely supportive.

My current teaching philosophy - that learning is an intuitive human process that needs to be positively curated - derives from my own learning experiences. Historically, I believed that I was not naturally ‘academic’. Throughout primary and high school I struggled to find my strengths and always focused on my weaknesses. Therefore after completing my A-Levels, I found that my confidence to continue with further education was low, thus I decided to train as a hairdresser. Hairdressing is seen as an ‘easy’ choice for many young people and admittedly, I thought the same. It was only when I turned 21, after 3 years of working in the ‘real world’, I realised that I was capable of studying, I just needed the confidence and motivation behind me, in order to succeed.

As you can imagine, after graduating from University in 2018 with a first class honours degree, I was in complete shock at my academic capability and realised that I had in fact ‘feared’ learning. This I believe was down to the ‘old school’ educational setting that I had previously attended, where a supportive, nurturing environment ceased to exist and we were told to “get on with it”. (Moore, 2013 cited by Hargeaves, 2017) states that fear is rarely discussed within teaching pedagogy given its potential impact on learning.

To me, the classroom should be a community (whether it be in class or online), to which students feel safe and confident to learn, without fear of ‘getting it wrong’ (TS1). We all have strengths and weaknesses, it is the teacher who must endeavour to adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils (TS5). It is my belief that in order for a child to flourish and fulfil their greatest potential, a teacher must create a strong classroom community. By classroom community, I mean a trusted, motivational relationship between the teacher and the student, as well as continually building a student's positive attitude towards learning and confidence in oneself as a good learner.

I have no doubt my teaching philosophy may change. However after reflecting at present, I realise the responsibility as a teacher to continually strengthen a students positive outlook upon their learning and create a safe space, where students ideas, answers, voices and opinions are heard and valued (Stead & Sabharwal, 2017).

References

Department for Education. (2011). Teachers Standards: Guidance for school leaders, school staff and governing bodies. Secretary of State for Education, pp.10-11.

Hargreaves, E. (2017). ‘Authority and Authoritarianism in the Classroom’. Children's experience of classrooms: Talking about being pupils in the classroom. UK: SAGE, p.31.

Holt, J. (1964). How Children Fail. Middlesex: Penguin, p.1.

Stead, J. and R, Sabharwal. (2017) Learning without fear: A practical toolkit for developing growth mindset in the early years and primary classroom. Wales: Crown House Publishing, p.35.

Young, J. (2014). The importance of a positive classroom. USA: ASCD Publications.

Abigail Ball : 13 Dec 2021 10:33 |  Tags: Aimee Barker Philosophy Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

What is your teaching philosophy? – Suzanne Bacon

What is your teaching philosophy? How has this originated and can you evaluate how your educational touchstones will impact on the teacher you aspire to be?

Central to my teaching philosophy is my belief that children need to have a positive, nurturing connection with their teachers and feel safe and comfortable in their environment in order to learn effectively. Many of the learners that I meet are encountering new experiences for the first time - they could be new to the country, culture, school setting or language. It is easy to forget how young they are, and behind the uniform and face masks are children who have each encountered vastly different circumstances on their individual life journey into my classroom. Building relationships and creating a nurturing environment are central to teaching these (and all) children. Evidence shows that “children with close teacher–student relationships tend to perform well academically including having higher scores on achievement tests, more positive attitudes toward school, more engagement in the classroom, less retention in grade, and fewer referrals for special education” (Bergin & Bergin, 2009, p.152).

Flowing from this core belief is my behaviour management style, which is relationship-centred and restorative. Reflecting on my recent school experience working as a classroom assistant, I have noticed an emphasis on developing relationships with the learners to promote good behaviour. The school uses a restorative approach to manage behaviour and I have found that this allows behaviour to be managed whilst maintaining and restoring the relationships between learners, and between teachers and learners. This preserves the secure teacher-student relationship, which I think is so crucial to allowing students to feel safe and comfortable in order to learn.

When I think of an inspirational teacher, I think of my secondary school geography and geology teacher. He taught with such passion that we never noticed that some of the material that we covered was actually quite dry, and his enthusiasm was infectious. I intend to promote a love of learning (UK Teacher Standard 4) using my own passions and enthusiasm. I will seek engaging, stimulating ways to develop understanding in my learners in the hope that this gives them a lifelong love of learning.

I believe that learning is so much more than just the subjects which are learnt in the classroom during the school day. When I reflect on my own education, I had a very positive experience with a strong emphasis on academic achievement at my secondary school, but the elements of my education that helped me to develop the character strengths that I now rely on such as resilience, open-mindedness, and teamwork were really developed outside of the classroom through activities such as orchestra, playing team sport, Girlguiding and joining special interest groups such as the school’s conservation club. These activities gave me access to people, experiences and challenges which I didn’t encounter in the traditional classroom. This is highlighted in Principle 8 of the TLRP Ten Principles of Effective Learning - Recognises the Significance of Informal Learning. I aspire to be a teacher who creates and encourages opportunities to learn outside the classroom for my learners during and outside of the school day, as I believe that they are crucial to developing confident, balanced children.  

References

Bergin, C. & Bergin, D. (2009), Attachment in the Classroom. Educational Psychology Review, 21 pp.141-170

Department for Education (2011). Teachers’ Standards: Guidance for school leaders, school staff and governing bodies.

Crown Copyright. M, J & Pollard, AJ 2011, 'TLRP’s ten principles for effective pedagogy: rationale, development, evidence, argument and impact', Research Papers in Education, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 275 - 328.

Abigail Ball : 06 Dec 2021 12:42 |  Tags: Philosophy Suzanne Bacon Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Using Machine Learning to offer students optional feedback on their draft essay

Using Machine Learning to offer students optional feedback on their draft essays: A joint initiative with Progressay

By Rebecca Mace (Progressay), Moktar Alqaderi (Progressay), and Dr Isabel Fischer (Reader in Information Systems at Warwick Business School)

As part of their Digital Marketing and Technologies module WBS students had this summer the opportunity to receive feedback generated by Progressay, an EdAI organisation, on their draft assignment essays. The initiative was in response to students asking for more academic writing support. The project received formal ethics approval from the university. Students who decided to participate found the recommendations received useful, e.g., ‘I found the graph that showed where the references come from very useful. It is good to see what kind of research my peers do’ and ‘I think it is relatively objective and trustable, because the different evaluations it gave were consistent with my expectations.'

We discussed the importance of ethics for this type of projects already in previous articles and blogs, e.g.:

• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2043886920961782#articleCitationDownloadContainer
• https://www.wbs.ac.uk/news/five-reads-you-need-to-make-ai-ethical-and-trustworthy/
• https://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/wjett/entry/ai_ethics_for/

Rebecca Mace, from Progressay, explains here her thoughts on the ethical foundations of Progressay generally and this project in particular:

Progressay is a disrupter in the EdTech world, not only due to the technology, gamification and feedback systems it offers, but due to its deeply human desire to change things from the inside. We are educationalists, not technologists, at heart. Although we work developing EdTech and EdAI, our fundamental aim is to make things better for those who struggle to find ease of access with regards to learning. Our ethical value system is almost hardcoded into everything we do. Here is how:

• We are acutely aware of the potential for algorithmic bias and seeks to avoid this by working with schools and universities that have significant diversity in their student population. This goes a long way towards ensuring that training for the machine learning model does not reflect common problems such as race or class bias.
• We firmly believe that access to education is a human right, however, having access is so much more than having the ability to attend but feeling you can fully participate in the process. Truly understanding the teaching and learning available is fundamental to a deeper understanding of ‘access’. We facilitate this through gamified and adaptive learning activities for students.
• We focus especially upon making higher achievement a understandable process and understand what reduced transparency within the marking process can do to student aspiration. Our tool marks the essay and shows the student/lecturer in a detailed way how the grade generated was arrived at. It does this using written feedback and infographic dashboards, but also a series of targets for how to improve. Aspiration is translated into achievable reality.

• We adopt an honest and open approach that allows students, lecturers and parents access and understanding into how the system works. It presents this in understandable and easily accessible dashboards. The information it presents is designed to be immediately useable. Students and lecturers can feel informed and knowledgeable about fine grained information relating to their work. Transparency is facilitated through fairness and trust.

• Humanity, not technology, is at the core of everything we do. Education is about the quality of relationships that can be developed, fostered and maintained. We have specifically designed its entire platform to retain this educational ideal adopting an “augmented” approach, where humans are helped rather than replaced. It positively impacts upon areas such as marking workload, leaving increased time (and energy) for lecturers to focus on in depth knowledge of their students’ strengths and weaknesses. It also retains a human in the loop throughout with lecturers having the option to override the system, change feedback, offer alternative comments to their students. Furthermore, the system has been developed to promote student agency. Having deeper engagement with ones learning through transparency of grading, coupled with gamification to enhance understanding, has been shown to increase student efficacy and have positive impacts on motivation and engagement.

In short, we have deliberately and mindfully developed our platform to reflect its ethical values. At the heart is a drive to enhance social mobility by democratising access to education. Those involved in developing the platform have an in-depth understanding of educational theory, as well as years of experience teaching, lecturing, and working with students at all levels. They know what limited transparency, conscious and unconscious bias, a lack of motivation, discrimination, and reduced expectation can do to a student’s educational aspiration. It is out of personal experience and a real desire for change, that we have sought to develop a tool that speaks to these issues directly.

For more information about this project please contact:

• moktar@progressay.com
• Rebecca@progressay.com
• Isabel.fischer@wbs.ac.uk

Abigail Ball : 02 Dec 2021 09:26 |  Tags: Isabel Fischer Machin Learning Moktar Alqader Progressay Rebecca Mace Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem