Flipped preparation 10.4.17

Learning Theories - Digital and Collaborative Learning 

Skinner -

• instant feedback 
• work at their own pace
• experimented/researched with animals
• positive forms of reinforcement - Not control. 

Connectionism

• Build learning a step at a time
• positive reinforcement
• Against lectures and demonstration

Progressive - John Dewey

• Teachers as guides
• Connection home and school
• Hands on learning
• Learning through doing

Constructivism - Vygotsky

• Social development
• Zone of Proximal Development
• Teacher = facilitator, not content provider

Constructivism - Equilibriation - Piaget

• Discovery
• Balance with environment
• Create students that can create new things - not already done. 

Social Cognitive - Bandura

• Observation and modelling
• teachers act as models - Media can effect behaviour

Situated Cognition

• Learning is about performance in situs - not accumulation of knowledge
• Don't pour knowledge into head - create eye glasses  - see world in new way. 

Constructionism -Papert

• Learning based on doing
• Creating

Community of Practice

• Domain, community and practice
• social relationships and co-participation
• Interaction

Connectivism

• 'Learning Theory for the digital age'

***Use for assignment. 

Research-Informed Teaching of Adults: A Worthy Alternative to Old Habits and Hearsay?

1. research-led, where the curriculum content is based on the research interests of teachers 

2. research-oriented, where the process of learning content is seen as important as the content itself and hence, an emphasis on learning inquiry skills 

3. research-based, where the curriculum is based on inquiry-based activities rather than acquisition of content

4. research-informed teaching, which consciously draws on systematic inquiry into the teaching and learning process itself.

Decisions, decisions, decisions: 

"As teachers, we make these decisions based on a range of grounds – tradition, hearsay, suggestions or advice from colleagues, observing other teachers, fads, ‘common sense’, myths, ‘gut feeling’ and probably most frequently, ‘we’ve always done it like this’."

Effective teachers - Who decides on their criteria? 

Teaching Inquiry is key to best practice and best outcomes. 

Conclusion: 

Teaching is a complex activity, involving the interplay of multiple factors in multifarious contexts. It is also involves creativity and even a certain amount of X factor that can never be quite isolated or nailed down to an analytical floor. But it also involves multiple components about which we have an increasing body of good quality research. Although the research evidence is rarely clear-cut or irrefutable, it does provide a sturdier platform to base our teaching than the alternatives of old habits and hearsay. The challenges lie in assembling the ‘preponderance of research evidence’ to inform teaching practices, to present it in forms that practitioners can understand and utilise and then to develop strategies that help teachers integrate it into their daily work with learners. Rising to these challenges is neither straightforward nor easy, but achieving it will almost certainly provide more satisfying professional performance for teachers as well as better outcomes for learners.