Module Two

Theories of Teaching and Learning - and Why They Matter

Essential Question for the Course: How can we most effectively teach learners for deep engagement, joy, and expertise that can be developed and refined throughout a lifetime?

Culminating Project: Throughout this course you will be designing a unit outline and five fleshed out lessons. In Module 7 you will be creating an online presentation of your unit.

Guiding Question for the Module

How can we best support learners in joyfully developing usable real-world expertise?

Module Checklist (Looking Ahead)

In this module, you will complete the following items:

1 - Values and Commitments Post on Padlet

2 - Getting Into The Game Reflection

3 - Mental Model/Map Post on Padlet

4 - Respond to 3 Padlet Posts

5 - Technology Padlet Post

6 - EMPOWER Unit Canvas

7 - Reflective Writing

Priming & Orienting Activity #1

Short Brainstorm on Bottom Lines: Brainstorm a list of your deepest values and commitments as a teacher - the biggest bottom lines you work for no matter who or what you are teaching. These are general overarching goals.

Next, brainstorm a list or compose some short statements of your beliefs about how people learn, how they are best transformed in understanding and action, and how they are best helped to use what they learn.

Share Out: Post your writing on our shared Padlet, so your mentor and other thinking partners can learn more about you and your beliefs.

Priming & Orienting Activity #2

Getting in the Game of Guided Inquiry: Before getting started with the course, read and complete the Introductory Activity entitled "Getting in the Game of Guided Inquiry" from pages 5-6 in the introduction of Planning Powerful Instruction.

Then read the analysis on pages 7-8. Write a brief reflection on the ways the approach this book and course reinforce and deepen your current thinking and teaching, and ways in which it might challenge your thinking and teaching.

Share Out: Put your reflection in your folder in our shared Google Drive

Priming & Orienting Extension: Optional PLC activity

If you are keen to get an even more nuanced view of the theories and teaching and learning, do this activity on your own or with some thinking partners or a PLC: Ranking of effective teaching and learning scenarios. We suggest printing the ranking activity, so you are able to annotate as you read.

For each scenario, record the following: Who learned, Why was it learned, What was learned, How was it learned, & How do we know it was learned. Then rank the scenarios from the most effective teaching and learning to the least effective. Write about your ranking and how it reflects your values, beliefs, commitments and knowledge about the Who, Whys, Whats, and Hows of learning. If you have a thinking partner/s who has done the activity, compare your responses.

Then compare each scenario to this Theories of Teaching and Learning Chart – what theory/ies are expressed by each scenario? Based on your ranking, what theory do you seem to privilege? How well does your teaching reflect what this theory says about what to teach and how to teach it?

Optional Share Out: Share your insights with your mentor. You can create a Padlet, a Loom video, record a response on Flipgrid, or something else!

short theory for EMPOWERed.pptx

Input

Teaching & Learning Theories Video

(For your convenience for review, you can also access this PDF of the slide deck.)

This voiced video and slide deck provides further exploration of learning theories that can be useful in consolidating your understanding of the different theories. It is also useful as a debrief for the PLC activity above.

Planning Powerful Instruction.pptx

Planning Powerful Instruction Video

(For your convenience for review, you can also access this PDF of the slide deck.)

This voiced video and slide deck provides an overview to guided inquiry through cognitive apprenticeship and an overview of the EMPOWER model.

Reading Assignment

Planning Powerful Instruction - Introduction & Chapters 1-3

Introduction
Chapter 1: What's at Stake? Teaching Toward Expertise - With a Sense of Urgency
Chapter 2: Making the Shift From Informational to Transformational Teaching
Chapter 3: Introduction to the EMPOWER Canvas

Activities

1) Create a simple mental model/map for a major process/task that you are familiar with (fly fishing, baking a flan, etc.). NOTE WELL: A MENTAL MODEL IS A SIMPLE COMPRESSED MAP THAT REPRESENTS THE MAJOR MOVES AND PROCESSES INVOLVED IN DOING A TASK EXPERTLY. The map you are doing is of the basic moves. The map will be generative and can be made more robust by students over time. THE KEY IS THAT IT WILL BE A SIMPLE AND USABLE GUIDE TO HELP LEARNERS SEE THE BASIC TASK DIMENSIONS AND PROCESSES INVOLVED IN A TASK.

2) Select a unit you would like to develop in this course. This may be a new unit you will teach in the coming year, or a unit you would like to revisit and revamp. Create a simple mental model/map for one of the major processes/tasks you want to teach in your unit. If possible, make it both a visual map and a written process analysis of what is required for an expert performance. This is a first pass at what we call COMPRESS in chapter 5 on Mapping. Compressing (aka articulating and using mental models to navigate complex problems and processes) is a hallmark of expertise.

To help you, review this Process Analysis tool. Thinking through and rehearsing the process of a task, or reflecting on the process of a task and what made it successful and what could make task completion even more successful, can be very helpful in creating a mental model. Please note: A process analysis is a way of decomposing a task, or reflecting on the process of doing a task. This is what we call REGRESS in chapter 5 on Mapping. It is a significant problem-solving strategy and cognitive capacity.

Share Out: Post your mental models on this Padlet, so your mentor and other thinking partners can learn more about you and your beliefs.

Transfer of Learning/Applications

It is now time to begin applying your learning to your classroom instruction.

Begin by making a copy of this EMPOWER Template and placing it in your folder in our shared Google Drive. You will use this template to sketch out your unit plan using the EMPOWER Mental Model.

Use your knowledge from this module and Chapter 3 of Planning Powerful Instruction to begin brainstorming for a Canvas of your unit plan. You can see examples of completed unit Canvases in Chapter 3. We encourage you to sketch your Canvas in one setting. It doesn't have to be perfect of even fully filled out, as you will continue to flesh out your plan in the subsequent modules.

Reflective Writing

Compose a one-page response reflecting on the following questions:

What are the most powerful benefits of a socio-cultural (aka transformational/pedagogy of empowerment) theory and model of teaching and learning for both teachers and learners? What are the challenges of implementing this model in face to face instruction? in online instruction?

Reflect in a Google Document and share it with your mentor by posting it to your folder in our shared Google Drive.

Online Applications Options

Theories of teaching and learning MATTER for all our learners, but especially for those who are marginalized. Check out this article on how collaborative guided inquiry is the way to culturally responsive teaching. This is something we touch on in the book, but this 3 page article goes in a bit more depth. FOR THOSE INTERESTED, ALSO SEE ZARETTA HAMMOND'S CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING AND THE BRAIN.

https://learningforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/culturally-responsive-teaching-puts-rigor-at-the-center.pdf

Read an overview of how guided inquiry/cognitive apprenticeship approaches can be used with online instruction, what approaches and apps might make learning more interactive, more meaning-constructive vs. presentational of information.

Read: 4 Tips for Teachers Shifting to Online Teaching

The strategies of award winning online teachers closely match the EMPOWER model. Read Teaching Strategies of Award-Winning Online Instructors and think about how the EMPOWER model embeds the moves these award-winning teachers make.

This guide from Corwin has resources and tips for developing a safe and engaging online community, online education tools for different disciplines, how to do Project Based Learning (PBL) online (PBL is consistent with guided inquiry/cognitive apprenticeship approaches and can be greatly enhanced through our EMPOWER approach), and much more.

https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/online-teaching-toolkit

Technological Options for Online Teaching:

An enhancement of a standard slide deck or PowerPoint is using PearDeck. PearDeck is a platform that creates a slide deck with interactive features. You can embed quizzes, surveys, and get feedback from participants. https://www.peardeck.com/googleslides/

EdPuzzle is another engaging way to enhance videos because it allows you to break up a video with notes, reflective writing prompts, or comprehensions questions. You can use notes to highlight important points and ask students reflection questions throughout the video. https://edpuzzle.com/

Have some other technology you love to use? Please share! Post a link to your favorite online tools in our Technology Share-Out Padlet and tell us how you use it in your class. If you see a technology you love already posted there, use the comments to tell us how you use it in your classroom.

Supplemental Reading: Optional

Chapters 1-3 of Strategic Reading

The first three chapters of this book give a very fine grained look at three competing theories of teaching and learning and will give you a just bit more nuanced understanding learning theory. The third chapter connects learning theory to theories of learning to read and responding to text. The text as a whole was an early version of Jeff's work in developing a cognitive apprenticeship approach to teaching literacy.

Gut Check!

1 - Have you used our Padlet to share your Priming/Orienting Activity on your deepest values and commitments, and on your beliefs about learning?

2 - Have you posted your Getting Into the Game reflection into your folder?

3 - Have you shared the tentative mental models/maps of how to do a complex task that is part of a hobby? that is the mental model/map for a major unit task or your unit's proposed culminating project?

4 - Have you responded to the Padlet responses of three (hopefully) new participants in the course?

5 - Have you sketched out your unit plan using the EMPOWER canvas?

6 - Have you completed your post-module reflective writing and added it to your folder?

7 - Have you shared on the Padlet other favorite online tools?

You will certainly have done other work during the module, but it does not need to be shared.

Email your instructor/thinking partner when you are done with this module so that you can get timely feedback!

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