GCTLT - Evaluation Plan

Evaluation

Link to development and implementation plan

I intend to have informal discussions with my colleagues in the department (College of Enterprise and Development), particularly those that teach on the project based learning papers.  I would like to find out from them whether they use 'cooperative learning' as their model, 'active learning', 'collaborative learning' style or 'problem based learning' (Prince, 2004) and compare my style of teaching with their format.

I have already had discussions regarding whether they mark the group work individually or as a group. My plan is to encourage cooperation but once roles and work have been assigned then the final assessment will be marked individually, evidence based on the blog summaries.

Aim:

•  To conduct a formative evaluation in the form of interviews to look at the design of a mixed media paper in the Diploma of Travel and Tourism for delivery to students synchronously.
• To prepare a set of questions for a focus group of industry professionals using their observation and feedback on the performance of student interns (summative)

Goals:

•  To measure whether the team building instruction and exercises used in the paper are likely to support cooperative learning (formative)
• To collect feedback about the design of the paper (formative)
• To establish whether the content is relevant to travel and tourism learners (formative)
• To measure the relevance of this design in preparing learners for the Tourism Industry (Summative)

I plan to  use a mix of qualitative/quantitative approaches using an interview process as formative feedback and industry focus groups as part of my summative evaluation.  The reason for this is the over-all design is using an "interactive learning system(s) for education and training"  where the rationale is that in order to get constructive feedback, this approach " emphasises the utilisation of information by a wide range of people to improve decision making".(Reeves & Hedberg, 2003, p.3)
The groups I will focus on are fellow lecturers, students and Industry professionals.

Reeves and Hedberg (2003) say "we define Interactive learning specifically as a process involving some form of digital mediation between a teacher or designer and a learner".  This approach to me would make more sense than gathering figures to indicate the effectiveness of the design, however I will use this as one form of evaluation.  

"The 'qualitative' aspect represents the emphasis on the human being as the primary evaluation instrument, rejecting the mathematical modeling of phenomena upon which the quantitative paradigm depends to heavily".

Questions for interviews with three lecturers( One on-line expert, one wiki-educator expert and one with limited technology use) (formative).
Big picture question;

A. How effective is the design of a mixed media paper in The Diploma of Travel and Tourism, for encouraging cooperative learning for students?

1. Do the learning outcomes match the course design?
2. Effective team work is an essential part of  being involved in the Travel and Tourism Industry.  Do you think the 'cooperative learning' approach is the right method for this paper ?  Other approaches include 'active learning' 'collaborative learning'  and 'problem based learning'. Link to definitions of learning
3. Do you think a blog is the most effective forum for students to summarise and reflect on their work?  What other media do you feel would be more appropriate?
4. The idea is to change the grade from a pass mark to a percentage grade and to mark the assessment individually.  What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?
5. The assessment is based on the completion of a magazine as an e-book with articles written by individual students.  In your opinion, is this an effective way of assessing students?

Students at the beginning of the course will be given a series of open-ended questions to answer once they have set up the blog and had an overview of the paper.  These can be answered in email format to me; (formative).  These questions are based on the Canadian Education Association (2013) "When students believe that you have a "correct answer" in mind, they are slow to respond.  On the other hand, a true open-ended question sincerely invites authentic reflection and discussion."  Based on Bloom's Taxonomy, " asking an open-ended question is a way to elicit discussion, brainstorm solutions to a problem, or create opportunities for thinking outside the box". (Canada Education, 2013).

1. What are your first impressions of the design for this paper?
2. How was your experience with setting up the blog and interacting with your team?
3. Do you enjoy participating in the team activities? If not, why not?
4. How do you think you can effectively contribute to the team's success?
5. Do you understand the requirements of the paper?

Methods: (How to gather and analyse data)

I have always found the course/lecturer/WES evaluations at Otago Polytechnic a very effective way of analysing data.  The method used is a Likert Scale, its easy to read and sorts the information into simple, straightforward data.  This type of rating scale is measuring a person's attitude.  Another possibility here would be to ask the questions to the students as a series of statements about the design of the course and measure the responses through a likert scale "in terms of the extent to which they agree with them, and so tapping into the cognitive and affective components of attitudes".( McLeod, 2008).  Example of Likert Scale:

Likert scale displaying feedback on quality of facilitator

This way the responses can be measured as a linear scale on a continuum from strongly agree to strongly disagree, these results would be quantitative, timely and feedback to the students would be relevant within a reasonable period.

Industry specialists: (Summative)At the end of the year the students complete a period of 80 hours in the industry, explore the organisation they are working with and write a report.  Part of the requirement is that the students receive feedback from the employer about their progress while on work experience.  I have included in this feedback form some additional questions which ask specific questions regarding the students ability to work effectively in a team environment.
Example of questions for employer feedback :

1. Did the student work effectively in the team environment? If not, why not?
2. What particular skills did the student display? e.g. initiative, social skills, awareness of others, conflict management, assertiveness, problem solving?
3. Did the student communicate effectively

 Decisions: (what to do with the information)

Lecturer feedback:  I will use this in the form of recommendations from my colleagues and will make on-going improvements periodically.
Student feedback:  The students will email (or blog?) me their answers, my feedback could be individually via email, on the blog or as a class discussion, dependent on the response.  The other approach with the likert scale would be more formal and processed through the department that sends out course evaluations.  This way the students will have two forms of formative evaluation throughout the course and one summative at the end, (student/peer/course evaluation).
Industry specialists feedback: This will be collected, along with the student evaluations at the end of the paper and will inform my planning and preparation for the paper for 2014.

Example of Design matrix

Design matrix for Destination Diploma paper

References

Canada Education, (2013).  Engaging students through effective questions. Retrieved from http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/engaging-students-through-effective-questions

McLeod, S. (2008) Likert Scale. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/likert-scale.html

Prince, M. (2004). Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research. Retrieved from http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/Prince_AL.pdf

 Reeves, T. C. & Hedberg. J. G. (2003). Interactive Learning Systems Evaluation. Englewood Cliffs: Educational Technology Publications.

GCTLT - Development and Implementation plan

Overview;  The story so far.....

Link to Analysis of Learners

Link to Design Overview

Destination (generic) is a level 4 paper designed to provide students with an in depth knowledge of a (chosen) destination.  These destinations have been chosen for their popularity with travellers according to industry sources e.g. Travel agencies

The Learning Objectives currently are;

1. Demonstrate an understanding of visitors needs at a destination

2. Demonstrate general and location specific tourism knowledge of the destination

3. Demonstrate an understanding of the geographical and climatic features of the destination

In order for the students to demonstrate these outcomes in an integrated and participative way the assessment outcome is to produce a travel magazine.  The students are required to document their progress using a course blog and collaborate in teams to research the activities and produce the final product.


Aims and Objectives;
The Travel,Tourism and Hospitality Industries rely heavily on team work within their organisations to provide a good product or service, the success of these is dependent on how well the team works and communicates together.  This is often a pre-requisite for many employees according to the Tourism and Hospitality Workforce Strategy (2006) which says employees need  " the ability and willingness to work effectively in teams"  (as cited in Collier, 2008, p.128).

My main aim;

• Is to develop resources and assessments to support the development of effective team work within the paper. 
•  Also to link these methods more closely to established resources e.g. Blog activity in a team using reflective practice Link to blog activity and individual/peer/team evaluations Link to evaluations
• Explore the concept of teamwork and cooperative learning

"Cooperative learning is instruction that involves students working in teams to accomplish an assigned task and produce a final product (e.g. a problem/solution, critical analysis, or process or product design)" (Johnson, et al., 1998)

• Add another learning outcome to the paper in consultation with Academic Board  e.g. Demonstrate participation in a team, measurable by observing activities in the class, individual blog entries about team progress, stop, start, continue and evaluations

• Change the assessment criteria from a pass mark to a % mark.  Students contributions will be marked individually, the analysis of this taken from the individual blog entries which will highlight the areas that each student has taken responsibility for, formatively during the 'stop, start, continue' feedback and summatively, when marking the magazine.  As Millis & Cottell (1998) say"Cooperative learning can be defined as a structured form of group work where students pursue common goals while being assessed individually"[3,11] (as cited in Prince, 2004, p.1).

Outcomes/Deliverables

A wiki-educator page that can be generic enough to change the Destination topic each year without effecting the structure of the lesson.  Easy to follow structured lesson plans that are initially facilitator driven, developing into student driven.  A variety of on-line resources for students to access during their self-directed process.

Stakeholders

Students; "An extensive body of [educational] research confirms the effectiveness of cooperative learning in higher education.  Relative to students taught conventionally, cooperatively-taught students tend to exhibit better grades on common tests, greater persistence through graduation, better analytical, creative, and critical thinking skills, deeper understanding of learned material, greater intrinsic motivation to learn and achieve, better relationships with peers, more positive attitudes toward subject areas, lower levels of anxiety and stress, and higher self esteem"(Johnson, et al., 1998; Mckeachie, 1999).

By helping the students to learn 'cooperative learning' skills in a structured way that scaffolds the learning this will enable them to transfer these skills into the Industry they have chosen.

In a previous paper I created a mind map that illustrates who my stakeholders are, where they are situated in relation to my facilitating context and the influences they have on the learning environment;

Stakeholders - Learning in context
By having a well structured programme that engages students with flexible content and delivery in a cooperative environment, there would be obvious benefits to my colleagues, the department, the industry, the polytechnic and the tertiary sector.

Learning Strategies;
As I have already discussed the main learning strategy that will be my focus will be creating the resources for a cooperative team building environment.
Learning Objectives;

1. Demonstrate an understanding of visitors needs at a destination

•  Identify and describe transport, accommodation and travel products   
•  Gather information on climatic conditions for two seasons, currency, time difference, tipping

2. Demonstrate general and location specific tourism knowledge of the destination

• Identify and describe constructed attractions and sporting/cultural events

3. Demonstrate an understanding of the geographical and climatic features of the destination

• Research and compile information on Mountains, National Parks, Lakes, Canals and Islands
• Locate on a map Countries, Islands, Cities
• Identify travel times between Cities and Islands

4. (Yet to be approved) Demonstrate the ability to work cooperatively in a team environment with reflection of practice

• Contribute and record progress of a project (magazine), building a portfolio for reflection and evaluation
• Reflect and evaluate on own performance, that of the team and each member

Content;

The main source of content is through wiki-educator (web-based), this has a main page, with templates for lesson plans, activities and resources.  Much of the foundations are there it just needs to be linked together and structured so that the emphasis is on creating a cooperative learning environment.  The lesson plans will take on a structured flow in the first classes so the format is teacher driven it will become more learner centred once the students understand the format.  The lesson plan will include a weekly team building activity, a weekly general knowledge quiz based on the destination they are exploring (Remembering), a lecture linked to cooperative learning (Understanding) and the assessment activity and time for feedback on the blog progress.

 Lesson plan example

Formats and media;  Visual.  A number of guest speakers from the destination they are exploring with emphasis on visitors needs at a destination, particular tourism knowledge and descriptions of geographic and climatic features of their area(Learning outcome 1, 2 and 3).  The session will be filmed, with the consent of the guest speaker, and up-loaded onto the wiki page as a resource in the future.
Video/DVD.  You tube, informational DVD's on the destination.
Magazines, written material.  Examples of travel magazines, brochures, maps,

Technologies and platforms; Micro-soft Publisher, for magazine, printed and bound.  Google or blogger for blog platform, individual contributions with a group summary.  I will also add a blog to the main page of the wiki and add announcements, reflections and updates as a form of reflection for me and the students.

Communication/interaction
The learning will be facilitated synchronously and asynchronously.  There will be a two hour lecture each week for 10 weeks.  This will take the format of a structured session (see lesson plan above) with a small amount of time for self-directed consultation with the group.  The group activities, quizzes each week and use of 'the five tenets of cooperative learning' will encourage them to 'talk' and interact with each other. (Applying)

Five Tenets of Cooperative Learning;

• Positive interdependence.  Team members are obliged to rely on one another to achieve the goal. If any team members fail to do their part, everyone on the team suffers consequences i.e. the project does not get completed.
• Individual accountability.  All team members are held accountable both for doing their share of the work and for understanding everything in the final product (not just the parts for which they were primarily responsible).
• Face-to-face promotive interaction.  Although some of the group work may be done individually, some must be done interactively, with team members providing mutual feedback and guidance, challenging one another, and working toward consensus.
• Appropriate use of teamwork skills.  Students are encouraged and helped to develop and exercise leadership, communication, conflict management, and decision-making skills.
• Regular self-assessment of team functioning.  Team members set goals, periodically assess how well they are working together, and identify changes they will make to function effectively in the future. (Johnson, et al., 1998). 

The students will be required to meet up once a week in their own time to work on their magazine and add to the blog.(Self-directed) (Analysing). I will set up a group email system to keep in touch and will add comments to the blogs as and when necessary.  Depending on how many students I have in a class, (five students per group), the blogs will be linked so that the students can view each others work and can make comment. (Shared documents). (Evaluating).

Assessment

The 10 week lessons will have a structured approach, initially lecturer driven with the emphasis moving more to student driven.  They will contain a team building activity, a quiz, a lecture(based on the assessment criteria), guest speaker and some time for informal feedback on their progress (formative).
There will be 'regular self-assessment of team functioning', this will be built into the 10 weeks and will take the form of a 'stop, start, continue' assessment to address any imbedded behaviours or attitudes. (formative). This, ideally will be student driven once they have been given the methodology behind it and the feedback will be informal/constructive.  At this stage it there will be some reinforcement of the cooperative learning model.
Some of the content will cover team attributes as described by Besterfield-Sacre et al, (2000):

• Collaboration/Conflict management
• Team development
• Interpersonal style
• Participation

• Team Communication
• Active listening
• Feedback
• Influencing others
• Sharing information

• Team decision-making
• Defining a problem
• Innovation/idea generation
• Judgement/Using facts
• Reaching consensus

• Self-Management
• Establishing directions and standards
• Managing meetings
• Personal conduct
• Leadership(as cited in Project Catalyst Team, 2004).

Near the end of the course the students should have moved through Bloom's revised taxonomy, (2001), remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and finally creating a magazine.
At this stage the learning outcomes align with the majority of the assessments but the over-all strategy that I am implementing will require another learning outcome to be added.

Milestones and time line for Objectives

• Exploration of assessing team work - December 2013.
• Link methods/lesson plans more closely to established resources - December 2013. 
• Prepare structure and lesson plans for cooperative learning plan - December 13th 2013.

• Add blog page to the wiki for announcements, updates and reflection - February 2014.
• Discussions with programme manager regarding changing the programme document to include another learning outcome and changing the marking criteria from a Pass mark to a % mark - December 2013.
• Implement proposal to academic board - End of December 2013.
• Update Wiki page with lesson plans and resources - February 2014.
• Launch 20th February 2014.

Resources

I need tutorial time with one of my colleagues to teach me how to use micro-soft publisher, in the past this colleague has given the students extra support, but this may not be ongoing.  I will also investigate using a wiki book to produce the magazine, which could also be marked online or used as an e-book and printed.

Plan, organise and contact the guest speakers, which will be done early in the new year.  The students will be required to provide laptops which is a course requirement.

The evaluation of the plan is on a separate post 

References

Besterfield-Sacre, Mary E, et al, "Defining the Outcomes A Framework for EC 200," IEEE Transactions on Engineering Education, Vol 43, No. 2 May, 2000.  Also available at http://www.engrng.pitt.edu/~ec2000

Buchnell University, (2004). How to Engineer Engineering Education A Catalyst for Change, Teamwork Session.  Retrieved from http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/ProjectCatalyst/Workshop/202004/20CD-Rom/Teamwork/teamworkhandouts.pdf

Collier, A.(2008). The World of Tourism and Travel. Auckland, New Zealand: Pearson

Felder, Richard M. and Rebecca Brent, "How to Improve Teaching Quality," Quality Management Journal,Vol. 6, No. 2, 1999, pp. 4-5.

Johnson, David. W., Roger. T. Johnson, and Karl. A. Smith. Active Learning:Cooperation in the College Classroom.  Interaction Book Co., Edina, Minnesota, 1998

Prince, M. (2004). Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research. Retrieved from http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/Prince_AL.pdf

Victoria Business School, (2012), Bloom's revised taxonomy. retrieved  from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/vbs/teaching/steps-to-teaching-success/bloom-revised-taxonomy

Graduate Diploma in Tertiary Education - Digital Citizenship

My pre-teen son and daughter have technological skills way beyond my abilities and I often call on them to help me add a screen shot or put a powerpoint together!! My son does his homework on his google account and up-dates his blog on a regular basis, my daughter keeps in regular touch via i-message, with all her school friends, sometimes while at school!
We all try to keep the grandparents connected by teaching them to text and how to log into emails, but I sometimes think I am being left behind with the speed in which this is all happening as Rodd Aurum in his lecture on 31 January, 2013 said " technology is moving at warp speed".  If I am feeling this way imagine how the grandparents are feeling!

However I also understand the importance of embracing this wave (tsunami) and try to take the challenges as and when they arise.  Its about balance and recognising the signs of being over stimulated and knowing when to withdraw and stick your head in the sand.  I observe my students in class, they have a computer each and are constantly multitasking, talking on Facebook, texting and (sometimes) working, often with headphones in!! 
As Kharbach (2012) says,
"Lack of concentration, short attention span, distraction, visual stimulus overload, identity theft, lack of real world socializing, privacy issues, depression, and many more are but a direct result of the growing exposure to this technology."
However as he says, the positives out weigh the negatives and  these should be treated as tools to enhance the learning opportunities and what can we be doing to manipulate the multitude of tools in order to help them have access to a digital world. 

Ribble,( 2013) says "learners must be taught to learn anything, anytime, anywhere", but with that comes issues of accessibility and maintaining a healthy mental and physical state.  All these new ways of learning and engaging are very stimulating to the brain and people are increasingly withdrawing from them, its a question of balance .  As Thomas (2013) explains "we can alienate people who are already very literate in other areas, and that's why I prefer to take an holistic approach and be as inclusive as possible."

Below is a link to a previous post from my flexible learning paper and demonstrates some of the techniques I have been experimenting with to enhance the use of wikieducator,Link to technology post .

One of the really successful tools we use for the Hospitality Operations paper in the Certificate of Travel and Tourism is a virtual hotel reservation system.  The paper is structured around a hotel in London that the students explore and build up an image of the hotel through role plays and creating a brochure.  They follow a workbook and role-play taking a reservation over the phone, checking customers in and checking them out.  The system is closely aligned with systems utilised in the industry.  This is a package that the department provides and so I cannot provide a link. This covers some of;

"Developing digital literacies in practice requires:

• Providing authentic contexts for practice, including digitally-mediated contexts
• Individual scaffolding and support
• Making practices of meaning-making explicit
• Anticipating and helping learners manage conflict between different practice contexts
• Recognising and helping learners integrate their prior conceptions and practices"

(Beetham,2013)

The students can only access this during class time which helps with any difficulties that they experience with the system or interpreting the workbook.  This is sometimes an area that can create barriers when students have limited access to the internet, as Beetham 2013) says;
"It's all about having time, having opportunities for 'peer supported experimentation' - which turns out to be the best way to learn new technical tricks".

Here are some links to other areas of digital experimentation I have been working with;

Link to Travel and Tourism Facebook photos

Link to use of audio with a powerpoint presentation

Future focus

Areas that I feel I need to focus on are ;

• Learning to edit and mark on-line, I have been experimenting with this with the Diploma students and use my peers in the office to assist me, this has been working well and is alot more sustainable at the same time
• Learning to detect plagiarising, during my reading I see there are on-line tools to assist with this, an area for further investigation
• The Lync phone system will provide more opportunities for virtual communication, I am yet to be Lync'ed!
• An area that I find is a real challenge is communication with students via email or moodle as I find that a majority of the students do not check their student email and /or do not actively access moodle
• We will be offering more tutorials at the beginning of next year to improve this and to help students gain a greater understanding of the systems available to them

I certainly don't have 33 digital skills but do feel that I am learning all the time and I utilise the skills and abilities of others around me to assist me with this.  Doing the GCTLT and GDTE are helping enormously too!!

 
References;

Ribble, M. 2013, Digital Citizenship. Retrieved 30 Oct from
http://digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html

The Guardian, 2013, Digital Literacy in Universities.  Retrieved 1 Nov from http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2012/may/15/digital-literacy-in-universities

Kharbach, M. 2012, The 33 digital skills every 21st century teacher should have.  Retrieved 4 Nov from http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/33-digital-skills-every-21st-century.html

Graduate Diploma in Tertiary Education - Work Context

Understanding my organisation within a wider context

In order for me to gain a better idea of where I fit within the organisation and where the organisation fits within the wider community, nationally and internationally,  I drew up a mind map of the context, the idea taken from a previous paper.  The different colours indicate the influencing factors that need to be taken into consideration when working in an educational institution.  A systems approach was used and is one that explores the surrounding environment indicating that this has influencing factors on the teacher/facilitator.

I also felt it was important to explore the importance of learning in context and the underlying factors behind this Link to Learning in Context.

I then looked at "THE GOVERNMENT’S TERTIARY EDUCATION 

PRIORITIES FOR THE NEXT THREE TO FIVE YEARS 

• Increasing the number of young people (aged under 25) achieving qualifications at levels four 

  and above, particularly degrees 

• Increasing the number of Mäori students enjoying success at higher levels 

• Increasing the number of Pasifika students achieving at higher levels 

• Increasing the number of young people moving successfully from school into tertiary education 

• Improving literacy, language, and numeracy and skills outcomes from levels one to three study 

• Improving the educational and financial performance of providers 

• Strengthening research outcomes. "

(Tertiary Education Strategy, 2013) and  compared these priorities with the Otago Polytechnic's, (2013) Strategic Goals, 

"Achieving educational excellence

• Our learners succeed in their studies
• Our learners enjoy an outstanding experience
• Our graduates are: capable, future focused and ready for work (self-employment and for continuing employment)
• Our graduates practise sustainably, and make a difference to society. " This indicates to me that
• the educational priorities of OP are that all learners should be successful and have access to the necessary support  to achieve success in their area, no matter their age, ethnicity or background.
• I also looked at the Maori Strategic Framework,(2013)
• "Priority Three: Kai Tahu/Māori Students.  This priority area reflects the desire for increased recruitment, access, participation, retention, development and success of Kai Tahu/Māori students at Otago Polytechnic. " There is a good support network in place to offer a whanau environment to ensure retention and success.  There is also continued support from the tertiary sector to "continue our efforts to make tertiary education more relevant and more efficient, so that it meets the needs of students, the labour market and the economy " (Tolley, 2010).  

There is particular attention being paid on an area"which is focused on improving literacy and numeracy, youth achievement, and tertiary system performance" (Tolley, 2010).  

In order for me to explain and understand the relevance of all this information on my position within the orgainsation I decided to show an example of some of the techniques used to assess, monitor and provide assistance for those learners identified as needing it. The priority to provide literacy, language and numeracy skill improvement for learners has resulted in all students up to level three being assessed and assisted in particular areas.  I have provided particular students with individual learning plans and here is an example of one that provided some positive results.

Evidence of work with students on Literacy and Numeracy

Individual learning plan

ILP showing structure of lessons

 

When the student first started the Cafe and Bar course, they appeared very timid with low self-esteem, nervous and unsure of themself.  When preparing for an assessment they would become very agitated and tearful.  However, their attendance was 100%, they took detailed notes in class and studied for the assessments.  X was given the option of attending extra tuorials at The Learning Centre, but chose to work through their notes and revise in their own time.
The student was really pleased with their improvemnt in all areas covered and has grown in confidence during the course.  A number of factors have contributed to their success, including the way the course was taught, breaking down the parts and structuring the lessons to build on the main ideas.The motivation of the student who had clear goals of what they wanted to achieve and their willingness to put in the extra work.  All this contributed to the students's comprehension and their over-all success.  The student, when re-assessed on the on-line assessment tool had made a significant gain in a short period of time. ( See example of lesson structure ).

Future action influences
This exercise has enabled me to think about the wider context and influencing factors that effect me and the students in our learning environment. If I look at OP's strategic goals (2013) in terms of three words; (Graduate outcomes).  My aims will be;

• Capable - creating opportunity to do presentations, work in groups and problem solve
• Future focused - providing careers advise and providing examples of possible job opportunities
•  Ready for work - Creating more opportunity to role play, volunteering and work place scenarios

It is easy to focus on the micro aspects of your daily job and easy to forget about the macro implications on the bigger picture, so good to review  "Otago Polytechnic's Mission and Purpose; Communities to prosper and advance

We contribute to the economic and social success of New Zealand and to international communities
• We lead by example and deploy our resources in the interest of our communities." (Otago Polytechnic, 2013)

References;
Ministry of Education. (2013).Tertiary Education Strategy. Retrieved from  http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/TertiaryEducation/PolicyAndStrategy/
~/media/MinEdu/Files/TheMinistry/TertiaryEducationStrategy2010/TES2010to2015.pdf

Otago Polytechnic. (2013). Governance and Management plans.  Retrieved from http://www.op.ac.nz/about-us/governance-and-management/plans/

Graduate Diploma in Tertiary Education - Cultural Competence

While wading through the vast amount of literature regarding cultural competence I thought about my learners and the diverse mix of uniqueness that each one of them brings to the class environment.
How, through different techniques, observations and reflections (both by the facilitator and the learner) they grow, contribute and help to create a unique environment where learning happens, cultures are shared and a new culture is generated.  I have just finished an analysis of learners for my GCTLT paper and thought it would link in well here. Link to analysis of learners.  These particular learners are studying their Diploma in Travel and Tourism and have limited Industry experience.

I analysed the Ministry of Education, (2011) version of a culturally competent facilitator and as I am a visual learner, in order for me to make sense of what this looks like I decided to illustrate this in a form of a diagram, linking all the concepts together.  Then I thought about what I do in the classroom towards cultural competency and wrote these thoughts around the outside.  In order to provide evidence of our actions in the classroom here is a link to a previous post that outlines some of the experiential learning environments the students encounter. to access, equity and diversity.

Ministry of Education, (2011)

Back in 1995 I completed an Otago University Education paper on Racism, Ethnicity and Educational reform, and wrote an assignment on Tino Rangatiratanga or Maori Sovereignty from both a Maori and Pakeha perspective.  The focus was on how this related to the interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi in relation to the field of education.  This helped me have a better understanding and perspective of the history and culture of New Zealand.
The growth and development of tourism through NZ history is taught as part of our curriculum and I recognise the importance in the students understanding the priniples of the Treaty especially when engaging with overseas visitors.  According to Sir Tipene O'Regan, (2013) visitors want more than surface contact when visiting a different country, they want to engage with the history, culture and form relationships with the local people.  In that way they are able to make connections to their own culture,  history, and language.

I have just recently completed a Certificate in Te Ara Reo Maori through Te Wananga O Aotearoa, a one year level 2 NCEA qualification and found the teaching methods and techniques an inspiring experience, read about this through another blog entry Link to Indigenous learners.

All these experiences have helped me to understand and implement techniques in the classroom to engage, recognise diversity and use these unique qualities to each others advantage.

Particular aspects I have learnt and hope to incorporate more into my teaching in the future are;

• Ako - reciprocal learning
• Learning through exposure e.g. doing the activity, role plays, events, volunteering
• Modelling and demonstrating
• Importance of food gathering, songs and calls of welcome
• Group work - learners work through staircased tasks that get harder, they then have the opportunity to teach others (holistic thinking)
• Establish a Whanau group through team building, sharing stories and building connections
• Assessment - variety
• Group/individual assessments
• Oral assessment options available

All in accordance with the memo of understanding between Te Runanga o Moeraki, kati huirapa Runaka ki Puketeraki, Te Runanga o Otakou, Hokonui Runanga Inc (Ka Papatipu Runaka) and The Otago Polytechnic.

References;
Ministry of Education.
"http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/http://teachercoucil.govt.nz/required/Tataiako.pdf.  Ministry of Education. n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2013.  <http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/>

O'Regan, T. (2013) Cross-Cultural Symposium Otago Polytechnic

GCTLT - Design overview

I stated in my analysis of learners blog Analysis of learners the reasons for my re-design of this paper.  This was evidenced in part by the response from the students evaluations of themselves, their peers and the course.  See below an excerpt of a response from one of the students in reply to some specific questions regarding the course.



Student evaluation of Destination paper

The paper is taught at the beginning of the academic year and in order to settle the students into a positive pattern of behaviour for the rest of the year, I feel that a more structured approach to this paper would help.  Therefore I plan to link the lesson plans to the assessment activities and the guest speaker slots, with an emphasis on team building activities/quizzes based on the International Destination.  The idea of separating some of the assessments into individual ones is in direct response to the students feedback.  I used the ADDIE model of design in an earlier post for my flexible learning paper and realised that I designed this one with the same students in mind, just for a different paper, but I feel the same principles apply; Link to ADDIE flexible learning draft plan.  Instead of planning a conference and dinner as shown in this design the students would plan and design a magazine, using a blog to illustrate their progress.

OTARA design model (Hunt,2013)

I have used the OTARA design model to illustrate the activity-centred approach I wish to incorporate into the paper.  

• Objectives - These are the learning outcomes
• Themes - I will base my lesson plans around these making them generic enough that any destination can be used
• Activities - How they will do this
• Resources - What we will use
• Assessments - Marking criteria to show evidence

In previous papers I have explored the importance of scaffolding the learning so that each segment fits together and builds on the last, I have used an example of 'making a cup of tea' and how the sequence is crucial to the end product, see Link to learning sequences.  I plan to build on each of the 'themes' during the paper so that they have all the resources to be able to produce a travel magazine.

My philosophical approach to teaching has been explored in a previous post see Link to Teaching Philosophy, as has my paradigm in which I teach and I believe that Vygotsky's approach fits best with my aims, beliefs and values.  See Link to Vygotsky's constructivism approach.


References;
Hunt, K. & Moore, M. (n.d.). resources.Learning, design and editing. Retrieved October 7, 2013, from http://kjh.co.nz/otara/

All other references in linked posts.

Graduate Diploma in Tertiary Education - Reflective Practice

My understanding of reflective practice is reflecting on my strengths and weaknesses and looking at areas for improvement and development. " Continuous quality improvement in the short term and using evidence e.g. student evaluations to improve content and delivery in the long term". (Bauer, 2010).

For my learner centred learning paper I did a critical review of my teaching practice and created a lesson plan for the session on Human Rights.  See the link below which gives an over-view of the session, my observations and reflections regarding how it went, what happened, how it could be improved and plans for the future.

Link to critical review of teaching practice

During the planning for this session I focused on resources that would have some relevance to the students and considered interesting stories that would help them to link the learning with their own experiences, recognising that "(S)tories and dialogue can be effective technologies for the reflective process because they provide cognitively complex and culturally potent systems for conveying the way we think about, feel about, and make connections in experience"(Amulya, 2013, p.3).
I find using this technique helps when I ask them to remember back to a previous session and use the story to prompt their memories, this helps them link the learning together and make sense of previous sessions.

Using the lesson plan created for this session, I have added some 'in action' reflection and some reflection 'on my action'.  See below;

Amulya (2013) points out that "a person could reflect very frequently, bringing a high level of awareness to her thoughts and actions, but rarely stopping to look across what she has noticed to consider what could be learned by exploring her patterns of thinking across different situations".  In other words, diversely reflecting on the good, the bad and the ugly, at any stage before, during or after. Then "analysing the learning that has emerged", rather than recognising it has happened but not doing anything to change or enhance the experience at a later stage.

"Kolb's Learning cycle proposes that learners plan for and have concrete experiences that they reflect on and derive meaning from.  They do this by making connections and contextualising the experience within their existing knowledge framework.  Learning from and through experience is therefore at the heart of reflective practice." (International staff, 2012)
Learning through experience
Link to Kolbs Cycle of Experience

In earlier posts I have discussed the way I have introduced blogs with my diploma students and have linked the research surrounding the inportant reflective opportunities these processes provide.  I have found my own blog an amazing reflective tool and use the previous learning that I have done to illustrate new and emerging learning that is currently happening.  In the future I hope to start introducing blogs to my certificate students, to help encourage them to use the blogs to reflect on their and others work.



References:

Bauer, Gabriele . "Become A Reflective Practitioner -- Bauer - YouTube." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWnpsiwmups.


Amula, Joy. "What is reflective practice?." itslifejimbutnotasweknowit. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 June 2013. <http://itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files

International staff, 2012, Learning and teaching.  Retrieved from;http://www.internationalstaff.ac.uk/learning-and-teaching/developing-reflective-practise/