Everyday things that make a teacher

When I wrote this post I thought that would have been fun in prezi. Please have a look and enjoy!
Everyday things that make a teacher

My Personal Study plan - a comparison

Summer and autumn brought me enthusiasm and one reason is these studies. They were (and they still are) what I was looking for. I started with a lot of energy in a group on very hard working and talented people. Each of them gave me something and I will never forget them having been with me in this adventure.
To be in harmony with your group members is fundamental for your learning and that´s why a teacher should provide a good learning environment for his/her students.
I was looking about the topics to make this DP useful for me and for those who are going to read. I was looking on my preliminary task before to start the studies. I was almost laughing by myself because - already then -when I was writing that stuff I was really thinking there has going to be something deeper than this.Otherwise they wouldn't ask. As I  read my answers now I feel there really is.

Look at this link if you would like to see my personal study plan in detail:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-0RqYEy9XvPDfN_NJbz1RK2x-f1xezlMCRdCZbTdNZs/edit?pli=1
 

Analysis of my competences in teaching

I decided to do now my analysis of my competence in teaching because I wanted to let all the presentations through. These studies are an adventure. I am studying with a terrific group of people: we can debate, we can have fun together and most of all we can learn together. All the presentations and the collaborative learning method felt as a contribution to my growing as a teacher. If I read through what I wrote in my preliminary task I really feel ashamed. Now, after this path, I can give better answers and I can analyze my competence on teaching from the right side. This analysis is of course temporary because as definition learning is a dynamic thing that changes all the time. I would like to use this blog also in the future when these studies will end in order to embrace the lifelong learning.

Competence in world of work: during this path one aspect that we considered was the structure of working life and the importance of building a connection between the world of work and the education. I think what I learnt the most is the idea that schools should train people for the labor market and not for just the knowledge´s fun. The world of work is constantly changing and every day comes new professions. I think that reflecting at which level also we could consider this connection. It´s fundamental to the idea of on the job learning and the thing that with this system we can create a dialogue between institutions and working life. I think I will be even more conscious about this when I will do my teaching training.
Few days ago I was actually wondering why in my country the link between education and labor market is not working. The governments are actually reforming the universities and the education system in general. In Italy we are still far from the idea of lifelong learning and the idea that schools train people for the labor market. The world of work is the real contest where a student can learn. I also think that the cooperation between schools and working life should be improved more. I understand that in times of crisis (like this one) it´s all the time more and more difficult to arrange people job learning places but I suggest to continue and to create a new occupation place: maybe a person that is in an interface between the VET and the world of work? I can also see myself as such a student counselor working with those competences in meeting the needs of working life teaching and students. The competence in the world of work means also the skills to teach entrepreneurship? I would say that not everybody is an entrepreneur but still anybody can get the idea what entrepreneurship is. I also wrote a post about entrepreneurial mind set in here.
Pedagogical Competences and Values integration: during these studies we pointed out many times how important it is for a teacher to be conscious of his/her role. A teacher should deal with different learners and identify students’ difficulties: besides her/his role to create a community, a teacher should not fear to spend too much time in educating students and leaving no time for teaching the substance. In one of my classes there is a group of nurse students who are going to leave to Italy for a year. I always spend part of my lessons for giving them advice about the Italian culture (explaining for instance certain behavior). I think also that the main point here what I have learnt is to involve more digital tools and resources in order to engage learning. I now use Prezi quite much and also popplets if the students bring their computers. I also get more ideas about curricula competence: before these studies I didn´t read even once a curriculum because in my job in Community Colleges we actually don´t need to read those. I know now that National Core Curriculum needs to be developed all the time. We need to create all the time new opportunities for the students and in order to form professional people we have to try different teaching methods. The teaching methods after this first part of the studies are for me now much clearer. To have a lesson that covers all of them is giving us opportunity to upload the old system and engage the learning and create a community. Without mentioning the planning that will help to have a better vision what a student will need and get during the lesson.
Being in touch with the world of work will encourage to get into life learning idea. The Pedagogical competence includes also having in the group special needs students. Even though in the future we will have all the time the special needs teachers it´s a good idea also consider those students and give them and their families also support when needed. In my teaching career I haven´t yet met special needs students, but I met them during my school education. In Italy at that time we didn´t have special needs student teachers that work simultaneously with the main teacher. Very often students are left behind and in the future they are not willing to continue the studies forward. They will drop out.
We spoke and also use all the time computer supportive collaborative learning: using ICT technology in teaching is one of the focal areas in pedagogical competence. Anyway I think that teachers should be aware of the opportunities and the limits that ICT technology gives. It´s not the only way to operate even though it is the future. Using the computer or any technological device brings with it the strenghtness that I gain from this experience: my previous strength was the curiosity for the technical world. I always like to try and one of my hobbies is internet surfing. Virtual pedagogy gives you possibility to work independently and also is good for theoretical topics and supports different kind of instructions. Online environment is also part of students daily life not to mention about that with virtual pedagogy is an advance for those who live far away from urban centers. The weakness of using CSCL in my actual profession is the student´s age: as Community College teachers my students come to my class to relax and learn Italian language and culture. I am anyway using support of computers (computer support) in order to show them videos about food and culture.
Global Competences: being in an international and multicultural group of students takes me back to my Erasmus time and also to all my experience abroad. When I will become a teacher I have to be able to prepare my students for a changing world. In order to do this I should:
- to research, communicate and cooperate: building a network for me and my students
- to be open to new opportunities, ideas and ways of thinking
- self-awareness about identity and culture and sensitivity and respect for differences
- empathy and valuing multiple perspectives.
My Erasmus experience and my EVS project taught me a lot and part of my experience will help me to advice those students that they don´t belong to Finnish culture. The multiculturalism will increase all the time so it´s important to get those skills such as positive attitude towards the variety and also the responsibility for equality. Everybody must be treated equally and therefore a teacher should be equal to everybody.
Competences in research development and innovation: After this first part of VOC1 in this specific area, I practice all the time the researching and I try with my classmates to develop a specific theme and try to give in this blog voice to that development. Unfortunately  I don´t feel having those competences to manage projects and cooperate with entrepreneurs in projects in a manner that integrates these projects with further development of work communities as same as tutoring student´s in their thesis.

References:

Paaso Aila, Korento Kati, The Competente Teacher 2010-2020 The competences of teaching staff in upper secondary Vocational Education and Training Final report, Finnish National Board of Education 2010 retrieved on http://www.oph.fi/download/122136_The_competent_teacher_2010-2020.pdf

School of Vocational Teacher Education, study guide Oulu University of Applied Science 2012 retrieved on http://www.oamk.fi/amok/docs/opiskelijalle/amok_opinto-opas-2012-2013_en_web.pdf

Maunonen-Eskelinen Irmeli, Mutka Ulla and Kaikkonen Leena Teacher´s competences in the light of new demands and opportunities in Finland retrieved on http://www.jamk.fi/download/25611_AOKK_TK_Kiinanartikkelilhetetty.pdf

Key Competences for lifelong learning in Finland Education 2010 interim report Helsinki 7 may 2009 Ministry of Education retrieved on http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc/natreport09/finland_en.pdf

Sahlberg Pasi, The Secret to Finland ´s success: Educating Teachers, Scope, Stanford University School of Education sept.2010 retrieved on  http://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/secret-finland%E2%80%99s-success-educating-teachers.pdf

Competence Based Vocational Training in Future Learning Finland retrived in http://www.futurelearningfinland.fi/fields-of-expertise/competence-based-vocational-training

Use of Technology in my field of education

 "Curriculum integration with the use of technology involves the infusion of technology as a tool to enhance the learning in a content area or multidisciplinary setting. Technology enables students to learn in ways not previously possible. Effective integration of technology is achieved when students are able to select technology tools to help them obtain information in a timely manner, analyze and synthesize the information, and present it professionally. The technology should become an integral part of how the classroom functions — as accessible as all other classroom tools."
(The Intenational Society for Technology in Education. Their web site is available here http://www.iste.org/standards) 

It is a fact nowadays that the number of computers in the classroom continues to increase and tremendous support for technology integration exists in business, government and education institutes.

I think several questions we have to consider when we reflect on the use of technology in education:

1. What do we know about the use of technology in education?
2. How can we use knowledge of teaching to guide our use of technology?
3. What is the real level of the use of the technology respected (?) by the educators and the actual use of it in the classroom?
4. What is the role of technology in the future of education? 

We do know that in the current world there are very few jobs where the use of computers and technologies is not required. Even a reindeer breeder can use a GPS equipment to trace the reindeer.
Besides the business, also the way how we communicate changes all the time because of technology. We now communicate in the global scale. This is a direct result of advances in technology: the information and the learning are free and mostly available to anyone with the right technology. A common theme among schools mission goals is the preparation of students to be productive members of changing society. Much of that change is due to technology. Without a commitment to using technology in the classroom there won´t be teaching and learning. We will be unable to meet those mission statements.
Using technologies in education improves the results. What are the disadvantages? The students are growing up in a digital age where they have constant exposure to a variety of media which has an impact on the way they interact and use information.

In general I can say that I haven´t used so much technologies in my field of education. When I was a student in university we didn´t really use internet as source, but we were forced to go to the library and get there the material needed.
In my teaching job I use technology such as:
- audio sources > for instance iTunes
- video sources >> when I have to reach visual learners and I need to speak also about culture. In my studies we use platforms such as Skype and ac.
- blogging, mobiles and learning management system in my field of teaching are at the moment less useful since I am working in the Community Colleges. I asked to some of my students if they would like to have a blog while they are studying Italian but they denied the offer since they are too busy.

I notice some positive things anyway in using technology in my field of education. First of all I am more engaged in learning. I find these tools much more democratic and flexible.  I also think that internet gives much more opportunities to the students. I have used for instance many web sites to fill the gap in teaching part of the language that is not so deeply explained in the book: the phonetics.
As said before I wasn´t so into technologies because I have grown up with real old fashioned learning. With these studies I noticed that when I have to look up material for any kind of presentation or essay the use of technology covers also my weakest learning styles. In addition it can give me practice on core (main) content and skills. The online sources gave me also the opportunity to take learning outside the classroom. In internet, material can vary from small tutorials with small concept to large ideas taught in the class. Some material is free and anybody can access it.

I notice that I have more possibilities to discuss with my colleagues about a certain topic. The use of Skype and AC and virtual learning in general fits with my daily schedule: so while I am making my laundry I can hear same time a lesson about learning styles.
I think, as a teacher, technologies will give me also better means to organize and give lessons.

Here you have a video of positive aspects of using technology in education: TOP TEN REASONS TO USE TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

Sources:

• Us Department of Education, Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning retrieved on http://www.ed.gov/oii-news/use-technology-teaching-and-learning
• Geer, R., & Sweeney, T. (2012). Students’ voices about learning with technology. Journal of social sciences, 8 (2). 294-303
• Ritchel, Matt. Growing up Digital, Wired for Distraction. The New York Times. 21 Nov. 2010. 
• Greenfield Susan Modern Technology is changing the way our brains work, says neuroscientist, Mail on line newspaper retrieved on  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-565207/Modern-technology-changing-way-brains-work-says-neuroscientist.html 
• Technology in Education. (2011, September 1). In Education Week November 9, 2011, retrieved on  http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/technology-in-education/
• Michelle R. Davis, Social Networks go to school, in Education week  Published on line 14 June2010, retrieved on  http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/06/16/03networking.h03.html 

Still about evaluation

I borrowed the picture from http://remixingcollegeenglish.wordpress.com/category/assessment/

In my previous post, assessment is extremely important to guide us into the curriculum: assessment is meant to improve the learning and the teaching process. Assessments FOR, AS and OF learning are the basics for gathering, analyzing and reflecting on evidence to make informed and consistent judgments to improve future student learning.
We know there are different methods of evaluation. It depends how large group you have and how long time and most of all what do you want to know. Evaluation which is done before the course is called formative evaluation. This evaluation is meant to aim at eliciting comments from the students for the instructor to make corrections to the course. I usually do formative evaluations in my job too. Before starting a class I use the GIVE - GET - AVOID questions in order to have an idea what the students expect to get from the course. Summative evaluation is done at the end of the course. It is useful for the next implementation of the same course and can provide the instructor information about the specific areas needing improvement. I usually use the summative evaluation to all my courses. Normally the Community College gives me a form which the students fill up. I evaluate also in my own way, using the ideas from  Training Tool Box from the Salto net page.

On this century one good method is of course a blog. Evaluation of teaching is required to help the instructor to improve the course, compare instructors, reward or punish the instructor or inform the potential students. Improvement on teaching without feedback is impossible.
But does the form(at) of assessment really matter? John Biggs in his Assessing for Learning quality: II Practice, says that "It´s important for a teacher to identify the learning goals, the objectives, the methods and he/she should be able to reflect on them." Assessment in learning is a diagnostic tool to find out learner´s strengths and weaknesses and needs to maintain standards (even thought is not always possible because the students’ backgrounds vary) and finally it provides evidence of learner´s progress. In Vet it is difficult to assess competences and it´s also hard to divide them into smaller and different categories. The assessment in this century should be stay on quality: it should fit to the purpose, need a strategic approach. On the light of this consideration my question is: Is it even possible to keep an high quality of assessment?
In  Edutopia there is a good explanation about assessment: you cannot assess students with paper and pen you need to have performance based assessment because the project requires these students to create products or performances. Portfolio in this century is very useful for us. It provides us certification purpose, formative purpose and documentation purpose; with it you can evaluate the final performances, the process, the strategies used and the progress during the process.



References:

• C. Wankat, S. Oreovicz Teaching Engineering, Mcgraw-Hill College | ISBN: 0070681546 | 1992-11 retrieved on   http://ebookee.org/Teaching-Engineering-Phillip-C-Wankat-Frank-S-Oreovicz_318753.html#GBHj47gqe0Fi56XF.99 
• Jarvis P. Adult Education and life long learning, Routledge, 01/ago/2004. Retrieved on http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Adult_Education_and_Lifelong_Learning.html?id=vdtF-pk_6OUC

About Curriculum

"Instead of a national curriculum for education, what is really needed is an individual curriculum for every child " 
Handy, Charles (1989) The Age of Reason, Century Hutchinson

"A curriculum is a normative document (or collection of documents) setting the framework for planning learning experiences. Depending on the country, the type of education and training, and the institution  curricula may define, among other learning outcomes, objectives, contents, place and duration of learning, teaching and assessment methods  to a greater or to a lesser extent. The learning program is written document planning learning experiences in a specific  learning setting.It is developed on the basis of the curriculum and takes into account learner´s needs."  (in Learning outcomes approach in VET, Luxembourg, Publication of EU 2010)

In many states the general goals are decided by the government. For instance here in Finland it is the Ministry of Education which decides over 53 vocational upper secondary qualifications and 119 study programs. Here in Finland it is exactly like this. Teachers can apply different methods to get to the goals.
When we speak about curriculum we naturally speak about learning outcomes: how then the curriculum directs the development of studies? Curriculum is increasingly seen by stakeholders as dynamic framework...but is it like this in all European countries and outside Europe? I can´t now speak about all countries and their curricula but I can give general thoughts about how much the curriculum follows and guides the studies. I would recognize that curriculum is not only for improving the human capital potential of educational and training graduates but also I am thinking the other side of the coin: can a curriculum be one of the greatest obstacles on the educational system for the labor market? And what about the assessment? Is it going to be the curriculum as the frame for the assessment or is it vice versa? If we consider the learning outcomes when we develop a curriculum we must also evaluate the students’ learning, the understanding and also if the students are able to apply the knowledge and the skills to the labor market. For teachers, usually when a curriculum is built on the knowledge, skills and competences that learners can acquire through an interdisciplinary approach, it is more challenging than traditional approaches but also more flexible.
Teacher - as in Finland - can tailor the approach on the needs of the learner and applying innovative pedagogic and assessment procedures. For learners it is even better because they have opportunity to learn actively and see the progression in the studies and the integration in the labor market.
When we speak about curriculum we also speak about evaluation. Assessments are meant to improve the learning and teaching process: Assessment FOR learning occurs when teachers use inferences about students’ progress to inform their teaching; assessment AS learning - occurs when students reflect and they monitor their progress to inform their future learning goals. Assessment OF learning - occurs when teachers use evidences of student learning to make judgments on students’ achievement against goals and standards.
In VET schools have to train people to be productive and in order to do that, the students have to be able to do things in practical situations. Schools help the students to gain the necessary competence to face their real life. The assessment is the frame/the guide to the curriculum. The teacher decides the performances that the students have to do in order to demonstrate their skills and abilities. Based on the abilities you can define the curriculum. The curriculum becomes the tool for the developing tasks.

Sources:

• Finnish National Board of Education National Qualification Requirement For Vocational Education and Training http://www.opetushallitus.fi/english/sources_of_information/core_curricula_and_qualification_requirements/vocational_education_and_training 
• Cully Melissa Curriculum Development, Creating Plan for each curriculum area retrived on http://712educators.about.com/od/curriculumandlessonplans/a/plan_of_study.htm
• Research paper n.6 on Learning outcomes approaches in VET curricula, a comparative analysis of nine European countries, Luxembourg, pubblication of European Union 2010 retrieved on  http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/Files/5506_en.pdf
• Council of the European Union (2008). Conclusions of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within he Council of 22 May 2008 on promoting creativity and innovation through ducation and training. Official Journal of the European Union C 141, 7 June 2008, p. 17-20. retrieved on http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:141:0017:0020:en:PDF
• CPI (National Institute for Vocational Education and Training) (2007). National
  Institute for Vocational Education and Training in development of a common
  European VET area. Pubblication of European Union 2007,  retrieved on http://www.cpi.si/files/cpi/userfiles/Publikacije/ESF_eng.pdf