Contact days in Oulu, September 2013

Our contact days in Oulu at the beginning of September went well and I was able to meet the other students in person for the first time.

There were many exercises in role-play and different teaching methods. It was interesting to see how we can plan teaching in short periods of time and experiment with creative ideas. For example, one of the ideas that our group had was that I teach Serbian language. We had about 50 min to prepare as a group of five. The time just went fast as I was trying to put together the list of words with translations. In addition, we had picture cards drawn by Virpi to match the words for more visual learning. We thought that we could just do a role-play without involving the rest of the group. This did not work as well; we could have for example used the smart board and overhead projector with the picture cards to involve everyone. 

This was a very good example of cooperative learning or experiential learning with elements of experience, planning, conceptualization and reflection. It was a way for us to apply methods we discussed and strategies we learned or observed.

Collaborative learning methods are an important aspect of teaching nowadays as schools are becoming more heterogeneous and in fact, classrooms have never been entirely “homogenous.” Differences in learning styles have been recognised relatively recently especially via Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences, which he published in his book Frames of Mind in 1993. The idea is that we have eight ways of learning: Linguistic, Logical Mathematical, Spatial, Bodily Kinaesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and Naturalist. Gardner in fact wanted to challenge the psychometric community and the ‘sacrosanct nature of ‘intelligence’ as a singular phenomenon and get people to think more deeply about what it means to be ‘intelligent’. (1)

I have to say I have been a bit sceptical and confused how one can apply such diverse learning styles in one lesson or a lecture in a meaningful way. Some very inventive drama teaching quite pleasantly surprised me and perhaps this is something that I think is very useful for kinaesthetic learners. In addition, the message of the drama performance was, that we all need to treat each other with respect regardless of societal status, class, racial or ethnic backgrounds. Students need to work in a way that recognises their individual strengths and needs.

Therefore, we can say that socially conscious cooperation learning is both a pedagogical strategy and a philosophical worldview. (2) It contributes to the more democratic view and a more just society.

This is also derived from constructivist theories of learning by John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky and Piaget. The students are encouraged to deal with multiple viewpoints, social, political issues and ethnic diversity, also discussed via work of James A. Banks in his work ‘Multicultural Education.’

We have also had a chance to meet Dr. Deborah Hill from USA who is teaching in Utah. She was meant to give us a virtual teaching session via Skype but it turned out that she was actually on site. We were quite convinced at first that she was actually calling us from USA via Skype.

Deborah gave us an interesting overview of the teaching profession drawbacks in USA compared to Finland. This is an interesting topic how politics can dictate educational priorities. In Finland, teachers have more freedom in regards to the curriculum and content. Although perhaps USA has more experience with virtual learning technologies.

 There is a lot of work and effort to actually implement and discriminate when to use cooperative learning methods. There can be also resistance from students about shifting from a passive role of a traditional learner to a more professional learner with individual accountability, social skills etc.

Here are some of the ways that one can implement different learning styles in the classroom: storytelling, brainstorming, recording, journal writing, Venn diagrams, Socratic questioning, Visualization, colour cues, picture metaphors, graphic symbols, body answers, pantomime, hands on thinking etc.(3)

We have also had a chance to implement some of these in the Educational Science activity (the 4x4 Teaching Rotation), which involved each small group learning a different skill and using one of the eight learning styles. For example, a string activity was an example of kinaesthetic learning, drawing a symmetrical face was an example of spatial learning and memorizing a poem as well was a linguistic learning challenge.

There were some online tools that we were able to test such as Socrative and Padlet. These are very useful tools especially for teaching online and having a sort of virtual discussion board.

http://socrative.com/
http://padlet.com/

Also I really enjoyed the exercise with mobile barcodes (QR-Codes), where the information about the University’s facilities was hidden. We had to follow the instructions and go to different rooms and talk to the staff in the Library etc. and complete various tasks such as finding out about the book ‘The Theory and Practice of Learning’ by Jarvis Peter.

This was yet again another good example of using kinaesthetic, spatial, linguistic and interpersonal learning styles as a way to devise a learning method and gather information at the same time.

QR Code Generator


References:


(1) Armstrong, T., (2009) Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom (3rd Edition), Alexandria, VA, USA , Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD), (p 190-199)

(2) Cohen, E. G. Brody, C. M. Sapon-Shevin, M., (2004), Teacher Preparation and Development : Teaching Cooperative Learning : The Challenge for Teacher, Albany, NY, USA, SUNY Press, (p 47-65)

(3) Armstrong, T., (2009) Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom (3rd Edition), Alexandria, VA, USA, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD),  (p 72-99)



  


Pecha Kucha presentations by other students were very interesting. It is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each (six minutes and 40 seconds in total). I liked the varied teaching and learning experiences that our group has had. 

Here is my presentation, please use the password: Vocational.


Pecha Kucha _ Aleksandra Paravina from Aleksandra Paravina on Vimeo.
On a more personal note, I love the light and colours of the nature in Oulu. This photo was taken in the evening whilst walking around the city with my colleagues.