14. Journal & Course Reflections

Reflection and Captured Ideas:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pwfhP2cw6ZBswKIGOdkXVcNV5iNGPe2B6h1t3B4R6AA/edit?usp=sharing

A Aha moment:

I had an "Aha" moment when instructor John Orlando pointed out that it is hard to have a genuine discussion in a face-to-face course, whereas online discussion moves the center gravity from the instructor to the class. This was my struggle in my online discussion. Most of my students would wait for me to give them the correct answers. (A habit of our traditional education.) I believe collaborative learning is of great value to the information age. In a collaborative learning environment, individuals are taking both learning and teaching roles. It not only helps create a strong community but also promotes higher order thinking because learners must work together to make sense of competing and diverse sources of knowledge. If we can provide more opportunities for students to practice higher order thinking, we can prevent creating more blind followers or "copy cats".

Table 1. Behaviorist and Constructivist Implications for Instruction

Qualities of Constructivist Learning Environments

Active/manipulative: Learners are engaged by the learning process in mindful processing of information where they are responsible for the results.

Constructive: Learners relate new ideas to prior knowledge in order to make sense or make meaning or to reconcile a discrepancy, curiosity, or puzzlement.

Intentional: Learners are actively and purposively trying to achieve a learning goal.

Contextualized: Learning tasks are situated in some meaningful real‐world task or simulated through case‐ based or problem‐based learning.

Reflective: Learners articulate what they have learned and reflect on the processes and decisions involved in how and what they learned.

Conversational: Learning is a dialogic process in which learners benefit by being part of a knowledge building community or by engaging in internal conversations that help them to relate new information to prior knowledge in memory.

Collaborative (social constructivism): Learners work in learning and knowledge building communities to make use of each other’s skills while providing social support and modeling and observing the contributions of members.

Note: Social constructivism emphasizes collaboration and community. However, constructivist approaches can be applied to self‐ paced/independent learning using simulations, scenarios, and other activities and tools that assist individuals to interpret and organize knowledge (cognitive constructivism).

Table 3. Learning Principles and Examples for Online Teaching

Table 4. Examples of Cognitive, Metacognitive, and Technology Skills

Cognitive skills

• Selecting relevant information

• Comprehension

• Application

• Relating concepts

• Analysis

• Synthesis

• Evaluation

• Problem solving

• Creative thinking

• Critical thinking

• Interpretation

• Integration

• Prediction

• Hypothesis

• Imagination

Metacognitive skills

• Planning

• Appraising relevance

• Identifying requirements

• Setting goals

• Estimating time and effort

• Organizing resources

• Finding a place to study

• Monitoring comprehension

• Managing time and pacing

• Maintaining motivation

• Staying on track

• Seeking help when needed

• Evaluating learning and the effectiveness of the learning process

Technology skills

• E‐mail

• Word processing

• Keyboarding

• Navigating a course management system

• Downloading plug‐ins/software

• Searching the Internet

• Accessing online resources

• Using a discussion forum

• Using social media, such as chats, blogs, or wikis

• Collaborating online

• Evaluating media for appropriate, effective application

• Troubleshooting, searching for solutions

• Experimenting with solutions to technology glitches

Table 5. Goals ‐ Motivations

Intrinsic goals

• Skill development

• Intellectual growth

• Self‐improvement

• Enjoyment

• Passion

Extrinsic goals

• Credential

• Requirements

• Approval

• Status

• Career advancement

Table 6. The Features of Deep and Surface Approaches to Learning (Entwistle,1987)

Deep approach

 Intention to understand

 Motivated by intrinsic interest in learning

 Vigorous interaction with content

 Confidence

 Versatile learning, involving higher‐level cognitive skills for both:

 Comprehension learning

o Relate new ideas to previous knowledge

o Relate concepts to everyday experience

 Operational learning

o Relate evidence to conclusions

o Examine the logic of the argument

Surface approach

 Intention to reproduce or memorize information needed for assessments

 Motivated by extrinsic concern about task requirements

 Failure to distinguish principles from examples

 Focus on discrete elements without integration

 Unreflective about purpose

Table 8. Some Tips for Encouraging a Deep Approach

Provide opportunities for learners to improve their learning skills and to develop a range of learning strategies.
Make help and support available to students who are anxious or new to online learning.
Discuss with the students the ways a task has value for them—its relevance, challenge, interest, or usefulness.
Provide instructional activities that engage students in active learning through projects, reports, case studies, exercises, discussions, debates, role plays, or other inquiry methods.
Encourage deep approaches by emphasizing relationships among concepts and the application to real‐life situations.
Design assessments that reward understanding, making connections, and applying ideas rather than memorization of facts
Use course designs that give learners some freedom and responsibility to direct their own learning, but provide support when needed.
Recognize that heavy workloads may not provide enough time for deep learning.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse