Month: June 2023

Instructional approach: Inquiry-based learning

According to Queen’s university, inquiry-based learning harness the curiosity of learners. The responsibility for learning is often placed on the students, encouraging them to arrive at an understanding of concepts by themselves. (Queen’s University, 2023).

This learning approach makes learners more inquisitive and prompts them to find the answers to their questions, hence increasing their knowledge and competencies. Learners are active and they discover information individually, in pairs or groups. As an instructor, it is a good idea to choose topics that are of interest to the students, hence they will be more motivated to find out more about the subjects and learning becomes more meaningful. It is a also great opportunity for learners to share their knowledge and skills in the learning environment. Another Important element of inquiry-based learning is reflection and feedback from peers and instructors as it is a way to check learning. Inquiry-based approach encourages students to become self-directed learners and they learn to work collaboratively.

Inquiry-based learning aligns well with one of the blue print task on “Influence of social media users on us and our self-esteem”. Students will conduct research to answer a couple of guiding questions, which will be provided by the instructor. They will also analyse those guiding questions and create some sub questions that would be relevant to the guiding questions. Then, they will devise their own questions to find out about things that are of interest to them but making sure it is relevant to the topic. Coffman encourages instructors to “facilitate inquiry throughout the learning process to guide students in higher order thinking by having students question and reflect on their findings” *(Coffman, 2017, p.18); I will implement this in the research task because it is always good to evaluate information that we receive. Finally, students will communicate their findings in a blog post on Word Press.

For the blueprint, another member of the group is implementing the open pedagogy approach and I find that this is another interesting approach. Instead of being consumers of information, students become creators of information.

Inquiry-based approach is becoming more and more popular in the world of education; for example, International Baccalaureate schools find great value in this method.

Coffman, Teresa . Inquiry-based Learning. 3rd ed., Rowman and Littlefield, 2017.

Queen’s University . “Inquiry-based Learning.” Centre for Teaching and Learning, www.queensu.ca/ctl/resources/instructional-strategies/inquiry-based-learning#:~:text=What%20is%20Inquiry%2DBased%20Learning,by%20themselves.%20Lee%20et%20al. Accessed 23 Jun. 2023.

Inclusion plays an important role in the education system, British Columbia’s vision is “to provide inclusive and responsive learning environments that recognize the value of diversity and provide equity of access, opportunity and outcome for all students including students with disabilities and diverse abilities” (BC government).

Teachers cater for all students by diversifying the learning material, by taking into consideration students’ needs, by facilitating participation and building a rapport with every student. Educators ensure that students feel a sense of belonging by creating a welcoming and safe environment, focussing on increasing and maintaining students’ motivation and encouraging participation.

As Moore stated in her book, I agree that students should be given the option to learn, for example “to choose to work in the hallway, in the library, at desks or at tables – the more choices the better” and this variety help students to become more successful. (Moore, 2016, p.27).

Social media plays an important role in increasing my knowledge and developing my practice as a teacher. For example, I joined several Facebook groups that talks about teaching and learning. These groups are regional, national and international, of different school types and of different age groups. I believe that as educators we can all benefit from learning from one another; the more diverse the group the better, we learn more from people from different backgrounds, abilities, views and experiences. Thus, we can better support our learners.

Social media is such as important tool for our development and our contribution to our society and the world; it helps us to connect with individuals from all around the world. Furthermore, there are variety of social media platforms that we can benefit from, for example: we can use YouTube, which is a great audio-visual learning medium, and we can share our ideas, tips and strategies with the creator of the video as well as with other viewers; learning from one another.

BC . “Inclusive Education Resources.” British Columbia, 31 Jan. 2022, www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/resources-for-teachers/inclusive-education. Accessed 16 Jun. 2023.

Moore, Shelly . One Without the Other : Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion. Portage and Main Press, 2016.

Nowadays, LinkedIn and Twitter seem to be among the most common digital platforms that individuals use to develop their professional network. They could also consider creating their own YouTube channels or create their own websites that they could share with their professional network.

Data privacy and security may limit PLN as the information that we share about ourselves are not always publicly available on the internet because we often limit access by setting some parameters for our own privacy and safety online.  On the other hand, organisations who are registered, have been vetted and legal and who agree to the terms and conditions of data privacy and security, they can access our information and be of our PLN’s.

I am considering creating a digital identity by using more professional sites such as LinkedIn or Twitter. To help build my reputation, I could include recommendations from some professionals in my profile to support any claims I make about myself.

 I think my social media presence would not affect my employability. I am mostly a visitor online and use it more professional reasons or as a requirement by some institutions.

Digital identity is our digital footprint; depending on what we share, the results of your digital identity would have different impacts. It could be a great platform to attract; for example, new employers if you are being mindful about what you share;  you may land with a great job offer. On the other hand, you may sometimes face bad consequences if you made the choice of sharing content that you are not necessarily proud of.

As Spracklen states in his article, “the net is a positive space for constructing and maintaining social net[1]works, identity and belonging”; I also believe that social media can help some individuals in feeling a sense of belonging; especially for individuals who find it difficult to communicate in person (Spackle; p. 112).

Personal linking network (PLN) helps to keep individuals and society connected. It gives us the flexibility; we can stay connected at different times, location and in the way that we wish to be connected; we can decide how much information we would like to share. With the increasing economic and social changes, it has become even more important for us to develop our network skills and digital literacies. However we have to be cautious as Boyd states in his article “Our data—and with it, our privacy—is increasingly networked.” We should be careful what data and how we are sharing our data. (Boyd, p.1)

I use social media predominantly for professional purposes. I find that it can sometimes be helpful as I learn new strategies to assist me in my workplace. I always check the sources for their reliability and relevancy. On the other hand, I also have the opportunity to share certain topics or strategies that I have found helpful to other members of my Personal linking network.  I believe it is a great way as it allows us to be life long learners who can share their passion. I always make sure that I respect the privacy of others and I take great care to review any information before posting them.

Spracklen K. “Identity-Making and Social Media.” Digital Leisure, the Internet and Popular Culture, 2015, https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/content/pdf/10.1057/9781137405876_6.pdf. Accessed 4 Jun. 2023.

Networking using social media involves the use of internet-based social media sites to maintain contact with family, colleagues, friends or clients. The purposes can vary, it could be business or social. Examples of such sites may include Instagram, Twitter and Facebook…

The Personal professional networking model figured in the an  article shows that individuals are motivated to participate in networked publics as they see it as an opportunity to build new contacts and when those are maintained, it can potentially activate great results. (Ragagopal, Joosten–ten Brinke, Bruggen and Sloep, 2012)

As well as rewards, there are also risks of public communications. I believe that in his article Social and Surveillance, Boyd highlights a very important point that “what we share about ourselves tells heaps about other people”. Often, we unconsciously include information about other people and this is a breach of their privacy. (Boyd)

Information that we share on the different networks can easily be subject to a variety of interpretations. For example, sometimes only part of an information is extracted and this section is then reused to give a different interpretation.

Personal linking network is becoming increasingly prevalent especially after the pandemic.

 Hello,

Thank you for sharing your different learning experiences. I can relate to the sentence you wrote whereby the teacher made ” a point to involve their students in instigating discussions that really made us think and analyze before we digested or integrated any learning”. It is really valuable when you get the opportunity to reflect upon how you are learning, these are transferable skills that helps us in life in general as well.

ESL Technician (opened.ca)

Thanks for sharing,

Languageteacher

Share a story about your best learning experience (could be a formal course or something more personal). Why did you enjoy it?

During a previous course that I completed, I had the opportunity to be exposed to the cognitivism method. As a result, I learnt so much during that course, I was so impressed with the progress that I made in my learning journey.

Learning was more relatable because I was reflecting on what I already knew and then I was able to link those to the new learning situation. This gave me a lot of confidence because it reminded me of the things that I already knew and then I was able to use my existing knowledge as building blocks to learn something new. This did not only enhanced my knowledge but gave me a better understanding of my capacity to reflect deeply on knowledge and skills that I had previously acquired.

As mentioned by Ertmer and Newby in their article, I also believe that “instruction must be based on a student’s existing mental structures, or schema, to be effective” (Ertmer and Newby; 7).

I recall the use of analogies in the lessons, it was very helpful to use comparison between things to help with explanation and this is stated by Ertmer and and Newby “designers use techniques such as advance organizers, analogies, hierarchical relationships, and matrices to help learners relate new information to prior knowledge”(Ertmer and Newby; 8).

Regarding motivation, I believe some learners are motivated to learn when they receive rewards, it could be tangible by receiving good grades or prizes or intangible; when they know they understood what they were trying to learn, the light bulb moment! I agree with the second video “The Backwards Brain Bicycle” which states that knowledge is not equal to understanding. I find the BC concept-based curriculum and instruction and its effects on learning very impactful; the link between Know, Understand and Do.

I believe that in teaching, a cognitivism approach gets students more engaged and it is a great skill that we develop in students to better equip them not only in their future studies but in their life experiences too.

Ertmer, Peggy A., and Timothy Newby. “Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism.” Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology, 2018, https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations/behaviorism_cognitivism_constructivism. Accessed 2 Jun. 2023.

BC Curriculum . “Curriculum Redesign.”, 1 Jan. 2023, curriculum.gov.bc.ca/rethinking-curriculum. Accessed 2 Jun. 2023.