среда, 14 декабря 2016 г.

What future for education, week 3 (summary)

Professor Alex Moor.
What is a good teacher? The professor resists to answer. A teacher should focus on the questions like what he/she is, is she/he happy with that, how can he/she improve that, rather than thinking more about "Am I a good teacher?". Surprisingly, it might never happen! :)
Focus on good teaching rather than a good teacher.
Obvious things about a good teacher. He/she can:
- plan lessons appropriately, carefully and thoroughly,
- communicate well with the students;
- be sympathetic to students' need, recognize people with a different way of learning in big groups,
- have a good knowledge in the area he/she teaches, etc.
If a teacher is focused on becoming rather than being, than he/she should be adaptable, flexible.
We should remember that we are not working alone. Unfortunately, teachers now tend to isolation with their classroom and also with their problems.
Working as a team is a very important characteristic of a good teacher.

We should constantly evaluate our teaching and think on how we can do it better. What is good in one situating may not work in another.

How can I do my teaching better? I'm going to sleep now with this question in mind :).

... part 2
Teaching is not only about a list of certain competences as many people tends to think (in fact sometimes standard methods don't work). But why did it happen that teaching is often reduced to standardized methods, tests and so on? The professor thinks this is caused by an idea that everything has to be measured. What if something it difficult to measure? We either remove it from the list of competences or invent some complex strategies to measure it, but they may not work for everyone.
So such important thing as managing emotionality of you as a teacher and your classroom cannot be measured, but it is highly important.
Another thing is the language we use. It is very crucial for teaching. And I do need to reflect on it. Which words would I use for certain situations?
Also, the professor spoke about questioning and answering. When we focusing on "becoming" rather than on "being" questioning becomes the most crucial tool. However, standard teaching approach values answers prior questions: "give me an answer", every question has only one correct answer and so on. In order to come to something new, we should be able to ask new questions. Many people understand that, and problem solving games in small groups are becoming more popular.

It was difficult to understand the professor as his speech was full of new words and complex grammar constructions. I enjoyed this challenge :). I will ponder the subjects mentioned in this video: the language I use and its effect on my students, emotional climate in my classroom, and how can I raise the value of questions. 


вторник, 6 декабря 2016 г.

A nice comment on my coursera's assignment


I have received a comment to my week's assignment, which I would like to keep.
2 days ago
Dear Raisa,
I'm happy that you too received a lot through this week's lesson. Being a music teacher, I know it would be really hard not to label students as being "gifted" or "non-gifted". I wish you well in your journey in being a better teacher, and being an expert musician. You can do it!  Kenan Sadhu
Also, I would like to think about a few things.
Music is a particular way of thinking. It integrates knowledge, skills, imagination, emotions. Yes, I can distinguish separate skills in that area, but the goal is to "develop a musicianship".
Every piece of information is taken from real musical composition. I would like to create my own bank of "topic-examples" that would be arranged by different levels of understanding and different styles of music.
Every piece of information should stimulate student's imagination. What kind of tasks would do that? Another folder would be "topic-creative tasks".
Every piece of information must transform into actual musical skill: distinguish triads by ear, understand a melodic movement by ear, etc. "Topic-practices".
How can I find the balance between these types of practice? What is a musicianship? Why could one say "this student is musical, but this is not"? What is the difference between them? These are the major issues. If I happen to teach music teaching I will include these questions as a reflection tasks to my students :). As for now, it would be a happiness to find or create a teachers' community to discuss different approaches, scientific discoveries in education, play difficult classroom situations in a role-play game, ask and give a meaningful feedback.

пятница, 2 декабря 2016 г.

What future for education, week 2. My reflection. Part 2

How to become a better learner? First, to have opportunities to do many things (Bill Gates as an example).
Schools have straight curriculum and often ignore kids interests. Such boredom kills desire to learn in some children. It does not mean they are bad learners. It means the teacher hasn't found something his student is good at, hasn't made connections between the subject he/she teaches and the real world, hasn't kindled interest. The film Cares is a good example of this.

What opportunities do I give to children? They can choose the songs we sing. Sometimes they offer new rules for games. I ask them to compose melodies so they can explore the opportunities themselves. But I also should give more examples of using particular material in music than I do. Also, we sing romances of famous composers, and children love it.
I should ask them to pick up their favorite melodies by ear more often. It would also be fun to add beatbox to rhythmics lessons :). At the same time, the curriculum is straight enough and I have to follow it.
I should advise music events or music compositions to listen to. I should play the music to them more often, encourage them to find examples.

What opportunities do I have as a learner? I guess too much. Just to name a few I have chosen:
  • sing in a choir;
  • play the piano in ensembles;
  • teach;
  • program using Max MSP;
  • learn music history, harmony, polyphony etc.
  • learn English.
What I have discarded: learning German, learning to play bass-guitar, working as a software developer. Stop.


How can we as parents help a kid to become better learners?
1. Find our what he/she actually know. Ask questions that might show any misunderstanding. And if there is, ask where did this misunderstanding come from?
2. Give them a bigger picture.
3. Constant feedback.
4. Expand vocabulary.
5. Ask hypothetical questions rather than factual.
Feedback should not be empty. Good feedback is very task-focused and specific. 

What feedback? Btw, some music teachers give very painful feedbacks. I don't think it's correct. For me it won't work. I will loose interest to the subject, get upset and give up. It will not motivate me. I am motivated by new ideas, new look on an old things, by team work, by understanding of importance and (more crucial) practical use of the new information or the exercise.

Teacher must have a good picture of progression in his subject. 

It is a matter of experience. I must admit that my picture hasn't yet become clear. 
Sing a tone, sing some music elements, understand the concept of a scale, interval, chords, apply them from one pitch, then from another etc. Connect these elements together. I use the picture of our school's curriculum, the picture of the books I 've read.
As for my progression in music... I write it down almost every week. My biggest recent achievement is a better understanding of music expression.

A teacher should explain children why they are doing something. They should understand their progression. What it would be like if I am successful? Ask open-ended questions.
The statistics about questioning is bad: 60% recall questions, 20% procedural questions. The answer usually requires 3 words.

The word "Ability" is about teachers' reputation, about their work but not about a kid. It's about the way teacher treats him. So it's a label. 
Expert teacher demands a high cognitive work, expects children to do deep learning work, make sense of it for themselves, really put in some personal views into it.

Reflection tasks

During your own education, how has your "intelligence" been assessed?
How has this affected the educational opportunities you have been given?
What judgments have people made about you that have been affected by an assessment of your "intelligence"?
Do you consider yourself to be a "learner"? why?