Pelz, B. (2004). Three principles of effective online pedagogy.

Pelz, B. (2004). Three principles of effective online pedagogy. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 8(3).  Retrieved on March 14, 2010 from 
http://www.ccri.edu/distancefaculty/Online%20Pedagogy%20-%20Pelz.pdf


Introduction
William Pelz is the 2003 Sloan-C award winner for Excellence in Online Teaching.  His philosophy emerged over his teaching career and he embraces the diminished role of teacher and the rise of student controlled learning.  He makes the distinction between effective teaching and pedagogical sound instructional design.  He believes the role of professor is limited to providing the necessary structure and directions, supportive and corrective feedback, and evaluation of final product.


Pelz took time for reflection in action and reflection on action by maintaining links to current education practice after he started his teaching career.  New information created new links to existing philosophies.


Principle No. 1 Let the students do (most of) the work
Student led discussions
Pelz understood through his student's activities that he only needed to guide them.  He introduced texts critical to the objective of his modules, and allowed the students time to read, reflect and engage with each other.


Students discuss web resources
Students locate more up to date information than in the textbook, or related research.  Subsequent discussions enables higher order thinking and evaluation of information.


Students help each other learn
Peer assistance.  View clip of children teaching and helping each other learn.


Students grade their own homework assignments
Assignments are submitted and students receive a rubric to mark their work.  Peer evaluations will often diagnose differences, and advice may be taken or professorial help is requested.


Case study analysis
Students are given guided activities.  Collaboration is encouraged.


Principle No. 2 Interactivity is the heart and soul of asynchronous learning
Pelz's observations of his undergraduate students support the integral strategy of online learning design, that talking and listening promote communication, and reading and writing promote higher order thinking.  Courses can be designed to support physical (or any) interaction in class.  Examples given:

• collaborative research paper;
• research proposal team project.

Principle No.3 Strive for presence
Social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence are categories that add value to discussion postings.  Personal characteristics help establish a community of learning.  Students appreciate a level of anonymity that allows for more self disclosure than would occur in a physical class.  The professor and students construct and confirm knowledge.  The use of advance organisers gives structure to discussions, enabling students to reflect within topic.  Discussion postings are moderated by the professor in the manner of assessing test answers and according to a rubric.  It is possible and desirable to merge principle no. 3 with principles 1 and 2.

Learning Styles

Anderson, T. (2008). Toward a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson, & F. Elloumi, (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed.)  Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/01_Anderson_2008_Ally-Online_Learning.pdf


Contributed chapter by: Ally Mohamed


Introduction
Asynchronous communication promotes higher-order thinking.  Instructional strategy, not technology influences the quality of learning.  The computer is a medium that provides processing capabilities, and delivers instruction to learners.  Learning materials should be designed to engage and promote the student so the focus is on learning, with adequate support, on achieving workplace context through interaction and collaboration.


Designing online learning materials
Based on proven and sound learning theories, a combination of theories are used.  Research materials include add ons to existing theories to address new and changing learning contexts.  The author's choice is to use connectivism to guide the designer when planning the use and delivery of online learning objectives.  Course content should include strategies on motivation, critical thinking, personal development, and methods of comprehension while encouraging interaction and feedback.



Schools of learning

• Historically behaviourism has been used to measure output of computer based learning. From a behaviourists perspective, the mind is a black box. It was thought if a student had effectively understood the lesson, there would be commensurate changes in his behaviour.  However, critics indicate that not all learning related behaviour is observable.
• Cognitive psychology states that learning is a process that includes memorisation, motivation, analysis and reflection.  An internal process that is dependent upon individual intellect and commitment.  We rely on our senses to absorb information and theory relies on this sequence of events occurring: information is received in our sensory store which has a life span of 1 second; if it isn't transferred to the working memory (second stage) within this time, it is lost.  The working memory is short term memory (shelf life = 20 seconds), where analysis takes place.  The deeper the analysis, the richer the information that is transferred to long term memory where the information either is fitted into existing philosophies, or existing philosophies fit to new information.
• Constructivism is the theory of learning by observation and interpretation of the world relative to the individual.  The concept that learners must put their experience into context before it becomes meaningful/useful.
• Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, complexity and self-organisation theories.  It indicates that individuals learn and work within a network that is constantly changing and developing.  New methods adapt to or replace existing models.  The author indicates that connectivism is gaining acceptance as the means to measure learning, but states that these theories are interconnected in their overlap of ideas and principles - a taxonomy of learning.

Behaviourist school of learning

1. Student told explicit outcomes of learning in order to self assess progress;
2. Sequencing of materials go from simple to complex;
3. Student examined to measure achievement of outcome;
4. Feedback monitors the need for corrective action

Cognitive school of learning

1. Information commensurate to student intellect must be placed in such a way as to attract maximum cognitive tracking that lead to clear goals.  Suggestions include placing priority text in the middle, organising secondary information under self-reflecting headings, and sensory items kept to a minimum or eliminated.
2. Design of information should be structured so as to make memory links to existing knowledge by using pre-instructional questions.
3. To prevent information overload, and to enhance sequential processing, concept maps are used to cue the learner on the general overview of the course.  Students are expected to generate their own maps at the end of lessons to indicate their level of acquired learning.
4. Effective strategies of transferring information from working memory to long term memory are indicated in the process of application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.  Real-life experience of this process embeds the information.
5. Strategies are based on observed learning styles.  Learning styles are the way we perceive and process information (Kolb), while corresponding sensory elements filter the way we use knowledge (Myers-Briggs).  Philosophies for design support the various types of student learning practice.
6. Dual-coded information (textual and visual) is processed in different areas of the brain.  Different modes of presentation allow the student to embed information in a way that suits them best.
7. Motivation to learn starts by capturing the student's attention by way of connective activity.  Objectives are made obvious, so the student progresses in context by means of application to real world activity.
8. Opportunities to reflect, collaborate and check progress are effective strategies that allow students to reflect and adjust their approach to learning when required.
9. Effective online strategies allow for different and real life experiences that encourage personal meaning making, embedding learning in long term memory.

Constructivist school of learning

1. Learning must be active.  High level processing takes place when students participate in activities that create experiences rich in personal meaning.
2. Mezirow (cited) indicates transformative learning uses the meaning of experience to guide future actions.  Information filtered through an instructor may not be contextually appropriate for the student.
3. Group work encourages collaboration and cooperation, component parts of constructivist theory.  Groups benefit from individual strengths.
4. Students are allowed to choose learning goals as outlined by the instructor.
5. Within lessons are embedded questions about course content.  Course design should include time and opportunity for students to reflect on the relevance and meaning of the information.
6. Relevant material include examples that assist the students in choosing activities to complete meaning making.
7. Interaction through social presence allows the exchange of ideas, new knowledge, skills and attitudes between students.  The developing synergy between instructor, content and student significantly enhances the learning experience.

Connectivist theory for online learning

1. Current information builds upon existing knowledge.  Students need to be auto-regulating and self-teaching when faced with plurality of information available on the internet.
2. There must be acceptance that implications of future research may invalidate current accepted theory.
3. An increase in information sources indicates that authenticity of information must be verified by the student.
4. Students must recognise knowledge that has been invalidated and replaced with current research.  In order to keep abreast, students are instructed in searching and maintaining active links with ongoing research.
5. Diversity of thinking is an outcome of learning and knowledge.  By connecting students globally, alternative patterns of thinking emerge to be examined and shared.
6. Information should be accumulated from a variety of sources to understand diversity.  Multi-channel systems are used to deliver information and facilitate optimal learning.
7. The medium of technology alters the process of learning.  Student expertise will depend on prior knowledge.
8. By exposing students to different fields, links connecting the knowledge network are made.
9. The transformative evolution of information requires instructors to conduct constant analysis of online learning designs.  Future research should optimally include functioning in a digital network age.

Conclusion

• Online learning is not the linking of objects on the web, but a sequence of instructions designed to guide the student to a known objective.  From a variety of strategies employed, students will select the mode that suits best.
• Pre-learning materials outline course details and objectives.  Advance organisers establish a structure that students can use to self-evaluate.  Pre-requisites activate the cognitive structure that students will need to complete the course.
• Learning activities take into account modalities of information transfer that embed learning in long term memory.  Communication of lesson summary from students promotes higher order thinking.
• Access to material should correlate to the sequential processing of information from sensory store to working memory.  Social presence allows contextual sharing of information enabling meaning making.
• Behaviourist strategies teach facts and figures (what); cognitive strategies teach principles and processes (how).  Constructivist strategies teach meaning making and contextual learning.  Connectivism is recommended to guide the development and flexibility of online learning.

See Concept Map

Personal Philosophies of Teaching: A False Promise?

Daniel Pratt: Personal Philosophies of Teaching: A False Promise?
http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2005/JF/Feat/pratt.htm


Introduction
New regulations require teachers to have prepared a personal philosophy of teaching when being reviewed for re-appointment.  Pratt indicates that the core of these statements contain two ideologies that the review panel should be open to:

1. more than one teaching philosophy; and
2. serious consideration of said philosophy.

Pratt's argument questions the validity of the institution's request, and the method by which teachers collate their philosophy.  He indicates there are four basic assumptions to be made:

• the agreement on form and substance as to what constitutes a good teaching philosophy (a consensus exists as to the form and substance of a statement of teaching philosophy).  Universities prey on other institution's policies (policies based on faculty value statements that were more descriptive than analytical) to bootleg their own version.  Pratt considers the approach fraught with error.  He suggests the statements were not considered analytical because personal teaching pedagogy was not accounted for - the shortfall between individual teaching practice and personal philosophy "do as I say, not as I do".  Theory is certain only in that it is a theory.  Without actually having experience of practising philosophy, it is not possible for the educator to develop a statement of self.  From this perspective, Pratt considers the distribution of such policies to be of no value.
• the statements are 'learner centred' (acceptable philosophies of teaching are learner-centred).  Pratt challenges the idea that learner-centredness has the same meaning globally.  He uses teaching practices in China as an example: where teachers are in full mastery of knowledge and control.  Students accept this and submit to reciprocal roles.  Pratt's concerns focus on the lack of acknowledgement given to the variety of ways in which learner centredness is culturally expressed, and the subsequent effective teaching practices that account for and direct the learner.
• the reviewers are not biased against alternative philosophies (the reviewers' own philosophies of teaching will not prejudice them against other philosophies of teaching).  There is unspoken assumption that the review panel made up of peers are the best judges of the discipline, Pratt indicates.  However he is concerned that the panel do not receive any guidance or policy to respond to challenging statements, or statements that do not reflect panel philosophy.
• students are able to assess and evaluate the plurality of philosophies (student evaluations of teaching will have fair regard for a plurality of acceptable philosophies of teaching).  Most universities gather student assessment via questionnaires.  Pratt argues that these questionnaires have not been critically evaluated to establish the value of knowledge acquired, nor to reflect the differences that student evaluations place on teaching practice.

Pratt concludes by saying that it his experience not to have found a single good philosophy that dominates over others, but that there is a balance to be found between 'anything goes' and 'one size fits all'.  He does point out that in this climate some educators, in an effort to comply quickly, do not have the time to consider the policies they are bootlegging.

Donald Schon: learning, reflection and change

Retrieved on March 6, 2010 from http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm

Introduction

This article introduces Schon's education and professional history - student of philosophy (Phd) and music - as a point of reference for the perspective and context he conducted his research in organisational behaviour. His focus was on professional learning, learning within the organisation, and in critical self-reflection, where he coined the term 'reflection-in-action'. He describes reflection-in-action as the ability to think on our feet, taking in our experiences, understanding the role our feelings play and making use of theories - generally understanding that circumstance arises from our actions. Reflection-on-action is described as the process of reflection upon actions once the experience is finalised, a post-mortem if you will, raising questions about the characteristics of actions, how it affected the group and what considerations should be adopted in future to develop a more effective process.

Schon was a believer of paideia, education that takes place outside school - that man is educated culturally, shaped by society. He believed that one never stops learning. The society he refers to appears in ancient Greek literature, where slavery was the norm and society freed of the banal, indicating more time to achieve personal development. Shon suggests that as modern man harnesses the power of technology to make his workload light, similar personal development should occur in this era. He spoke of a 'stable state' - "the unchangeability, the constancy of central aspects of our lives, or belief that we can attain such a constancy" - but indicates that we have lost this owing to evolution of industry and the continuous process of transformation, that we cannot expect new stable states to endure even through the course of one lifetime. Instead we are instructed to understand, guide and even influence and manage transformations by learning about learning. Our response to changing systems and requirements must incorporate invented and developed learning systems. In expecting our social systems to learn, we also require that transformation occurs with a minimum of disruption. That is to say that the identity of the social system, and therefore its members, must be retained during its transformation. He uses government by way of example where government learns for society - a learning system that carries the idea of public learning - the ongoing process of directing investigation as to probable causes, nature and resolution of issues.

Schon's collaborative work with Argyris in the late seventies led them to believe learning involves the detection and correction of error, either through a process of single-loop learning (going back to the starting point, choosing a different strategy to implement without questioning the original plan, goal or values) or double-loop learning (the subjecting of variables to critical scrutiny). Single-loop learning is likened to the adjustment of a thermostat, and double-loop learning is the reflection directed toward making strategy more effective, the modification of underlying norms, policies and objectives. This theory indicates that it is not necessary to traverse the full experience of a cycle (as in single-loop learning). Experience has taught us that we need only re-adjust the system (double-loop learning).

Criticisms that Schon encountered centred around a) the lack of time one has to make decisions that arguably cannot take into consideration all mitigating circumstance; and b) analysis that falters in the face of the wider picture. To the former Schon indicated the importance of reflection-on-action, the investigation of error, and subsequent evolving literature on a sequence of events that leaves markers with purpose for all who come after. To the latter Schon responded with faith, reflecting that by allowing ourselves space for recording, supervision and conversation, future generations will be able to look at the component parts with more insight than is afforded in the present.


Invented and developing systems: a quick look at the growing significance of Web 3.0