Innovations in the B.Ed degree Third year Teaching and Learning

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Innovations in the B.Ed degreeThird year
-Teaching and Learning

• Kate Adams

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Why change?

• Student centred learning/ problem based learning
  / e-learning
• New degree - first run of third year
• Teaching associates, seconded tutors
• Curriculum for Excellence
• Changes in Nursery education in the field
  -consulting with children, learning stories

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What can change?

• OLD structure - Preparation for Teaching. Tutor
  taught and visited 15 students
• OLD - 4 Lectures and 7 tutorials
• NEW structure - Teaching and Learning and
  Placement Learning. 1 tutor teaches a group of
  23/24 for PBL and two tutorials, with an extra
  tutor to share the visiting. Each tutor visiting
  approx 12 students
• NEW - 4 lectures,9 tutorial periods,6 used for
  Problem Based Learning, 3 for ordinary tutorial
  just prior to placement

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Structure of groups

• 24 students were allocated to groups of 8
  according to their placement school
• Each small group was formed into a WEBCT
  discussion group with their own space and a
  discussion space for the entire year group on
  which to post the results of their discussions.
  
• Each tutor had access to all student groups as a
  teaching assistant and could make comments.
  Only technician could make changes to WEBCT
  teaching materials.

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Research based group work

• Positive interdependence
• Understanding relevance and commitment to goals
• Communication of ideas and feelings
• Active participation and distribution of
  leadership
• Flexible use of decision making procedures
• Encouragement and constructive management of
  conflicts
• Equality of power and influence
• High group cohesion
• High problem-solving strategies
• High inter-personal effectiveness

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Hiccups!

• WEBCT4 changing to WEBCT 6 - delay in
  establishing new materials
• Students (and most tutors) unfamiliarity with
  WEBCT
• Tutor fear/unwillingness to give up the lead role
  in classroom discussion. This was expressed
  informally in the run up to placement. We need
  to do more for them on

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Changes to Placement requirements-links to
research

• Consulting with children (Reggio Emilia, Peter
  Moss, Stirling Council) - teaching from
  childrens interests, listening and using
  situations to stimulate childrens ideas No
  long term forward planning - more observations
• Documenting childrens learning (Reggio Emilia,
  Te Whariki) Big books, Learning Stories
• No lesson plans or School Experience files

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Tutor reactions

• Delighted that students were reading much more
  widely than previously
• Concerned that some were going off on tangents
  and wasting time
• Disappointed that students were not carrying over
  their increasing awareness of theory into better
  practice
• Suggesting that this latter would not happen if
  we did more tutorials than PBL

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Student questionnaire

• Did you read anything from the two core texts?
  If not why not?
• Which literature inspired you?
• What other sources of inspiration did you find to
  assist your practice?
• In what ways did PBL help you to understand the
  challenges of
• Working in a nursery?
• Working in a team?
• Independent learning?

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Student Questionnaire

• Reading from two core texts
• 67 - Yes. 2 - NO
• If not, why not?
• There is a huge lack of resources in the library
• I only read Smidts book because I bought it.
  The other one I couldnt borrow because everyone
  else had it out.

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Inspiring literature?

• 45 - A Guide to Early Years Practice - Sandra
  Smidt
• 8 - Teaching Young Children - McNaughton
  Williams -
• 24 - further relevant specified book sources
• LTS, BBC, Care Commission and other websites
• Reference list in programme handbook was very
  helpful PBL folder of readings

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Other sources of inspiration?

• 12 - Curriculum 3 - 5
• 2 - Curriculum for Excellence
• 2 - Option texts(language)
• 1 - Nursery Education magazine
• I found a few more books to use but they were
  quite old and outdated. It was interesting
  though that much of what they discussed was what
  the new books were discussing also.

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Other sources of inspiration?

• 9 - The nursery staff
• 5 - The children
• 4 - Recently graduated peers
• 8 - Tutors, Lectures and PBL discussions,
  evaluations on WEBCT
• Nursery resources, Parents, staff notes from job
  in creche, professionals visiting nursery,
  talking to wee cousins

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Other sources of inspiration?

• I was helping my friend from B.Ed 3 at Paisley
  University, she was doing an essay on nursery
  transition and learning approaches and I found
  the materials given by her university useful and
  we shared her articles
• I used a lot of Vygotskys theories on peer
  collaboration to inspire my activities

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How did PBL help you to work in a nursery? 47
comments

• 18 - Negative responses
• 41 - Positive responses
• 5 - Maybe?
• It did widen my understanding but I didnt find
  the PBL very useful to refer to.
• I feel I only learned the part I was presenting,
  not much from what other people were researching
• Gave me an insight into the work but I felt
  under-prepared in other aspects - activities, as
  well as what the nursery expects of me.

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How did PBL help working in a team? 56 responses

• 9 - We can do this already
• 2 - Worked alone just collated ideas
• 5 - Fine if everyone participates
• 10 - Obligation to team made me work harder, more
  effectively
• 12 - Related to team work in nursery
• 20 - Great way of working - bouncing ideas off
  each other, prepared me to read more and research
  unknown topics

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How did PBL help independent learning? 47
comments

• 4 - It didnt help I felt like I was always
  working for the group and not for my own
  learning
• 2 - Same as other tasks
• 40 - Positive - developed research skills and
  investigation,worked at own pace, own interests,
  autonomy was challenging but rewarding
• We felt we had to do the independent tasks to a
  high standard because our peers would be reading
  them. To be honest I wouldnt have worked so
  hard if it was purely for my own benefit

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WEBCT questions

• Did you use WEBCT?
• If so,in what ways was it helpful?
• What improvements would you suggest?
• Which video on WEBCT did you find most helpful?

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WEBCT How was it helpful?

• 55 used WEBCT
• 14 did not use WEBCT
• 41 said it was helpful
• 5 used it to access lecture notes and other
  materials
• 8 had difficulty accessing it
• 1 e-mailed her notes to a friend to post
• 2 persevered with the basics in order to work
  with it.

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Suggested improvements re- WEBCT?

• 36 - training, guidance,help available on how to
  use WEBCT
• 3 - Introduce in first year,not at this stage
• 8 - Make sure it works and is running from the
  start
• 2 - Ensure everyone has access before making it
  a core part of the course
• 1 - Allow videos to be viewed at home

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Suggested Improvements?

• 2- An alert should be linked to e-mail system
  when something relevant is posted. We do not
  have the time to keep checking in case.
• 4 - A strict format for postings, for what you
  want in annotated bibliography
• 2 - Lecture notes in advance
• 3 - WEBCT materials should be used in tutorials
  tutor feedback to let us know we are thinking in
  the right way tell us why you want it on WEBCT
  and not presented in class

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Helpful videos? 37 comments

• 18 - didnt watch any, constantly crashed when I
  tried to play them. Couldnt access from home
• 2 - did not know there were videos on it
• 7 - Interaction
• 5 - Space/Time/Resources
• 1- Hanen video
• 2 - LTS videos

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Placement
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Placement
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Placement
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Placement
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Placement
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Learning Stories
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Johnson Johnson 1997

• Principles of experiential learning
• 4 -Acceptance of new action theories, attitudes,
  and behavioural patterns cannot be brought about
  by a piecemeal approach- ones whole
  cognitive-affective-behavioural system has to
  change
• 7.Behaviour changes will be temporary unless the
  action theories and attitudes underlying them are
  changed
• 8. Changes in perceptions of oneself and ones
  social environment are necessary before changes
  in action theories, attitudes, and behaviour will
  take place
• 10. For changes in behaviour patterns, attitudes,
  and action theories to be permanent, both the
  person and the social environment have to change

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Continuing issues for the team

• Clarifying placement requirements
• Devising a simple Read me first set of
  instructions for WEBCT
• Developing confidence in using WEBCT for
  communicating with discussion groups and trust in
  the confidentiality of the tutor group discussion
  forum
• Reinforcing the purposes of PBL and the gains made