SDL and EQ in Stratetic Communication

After reading Andria's review of Chapter 7 on self-directed learning, I thought I should jump ahead also since I am currently designing an online version of Strategic Communication for graduate adult learners.

The chapter outlines the cycle of self-directed learning and suggests educational strategies for each phase. Strategic Communication is about interpersonal skills. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a corner stone of interpersonal skills development (how to manage self and how one handles relationships with others). Effective (strategic) communication then becomes a channel in establishing and managing relationships.

As it turns out, the processes for developing EQ (for example self-awareness and self-management) are similar to metacognitive activities described in the book.I also found a couple of studies suggesting that student blogs can help develop metacognition. In the design of the course I have one early writing assignment using a blog. I think I will expand this into a weekly assignment where students reflect on their performance using the metacognitive cycle. This would allow me to interact with each student where I can monitor and suggest strategies to the student recommended by the book.

The course will be delivered in the next term so I have time to make adjustments in the design. Should be interesting...

Intermission

7 more individuals have joined our question to understand the book How Learning Works... I am excited to read the intuitive foresight and grand background knowledge each brings through his or her blog. While the books are being distributed and others have the opportunity to read, I though I would begin to delve into other resources to help me connect with the content in the book. The pattern for me is the beginning of the title...How Learning Works...
     I was looking for information to help write a short speech which will be given to students in the school of education. I wanted to sound pithy and intelligent (both take  a lot of preparation for me!). In looking I found an  RSA Animate video called the divided brain. I watched the video and had so many questions I wasn't sure were the patterns of learning begin and end. How will I use this information to expand my thoughts and rationale? Can I use these facts and explanation to enhance my teaching or presentations?
 The link is below....I would love to discuss the topic of the divided brain and what you think it means to how learning works......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI

I await your thoughts!

Chapter 7 Self Directed Learning

I would like to begin with a pattern all teachers encounter. The pattern of those who study endlessly and fail paper pencil assessments and those who put no time into studying and identify every skill flawlessly. Why does this happen and how do we provide assistance for those who are trapped in this catch 22 cycle?

According to the book my favorite subject is the key to this problem... Metacognition! The ability to monitor, control, and reflect play a large part in the success of learning. The research says that we should make sure students assess the task at hand, self evaluation of skills, and planing learning. Although the chapter discusses applying self corrective strategies and making adjustments I think just the repetition of the first three will provide valuable assistance. The last two are much higher level and cannot be completed successfully without application and understanding of the first three strategies I mentioned.

The first step is to assess the task at hand. Most of the time I have found students expect for this step to be digested for them. They come into class and want the specific content and approaches to be defined.

The following questions are each asked during my courses. See if you can find any that sound familiar?
 "How long do you want my response to be?"
" What do you mean by new knowledge?"
" Should I just tell you what it said in the book or do you want something else?"
" So should I use headings when I write?"
" Can I just bullet the information?"
Please do not misunderstand my comments here. I am not saying that criteria for assignments should not be presented to the students. On the contrary. I not only tell the students what I want within the content, but also how many points each area is worth. I also model each assignment or provide a model for the students to access. I ask for questions. Then present that information in three ways: an outline, a paragraph, and a table. My hope is that one of these will be the easiest for the students to understand. What the students are not doing is assessing what is being provided.They are not asking themselves: What considerations as the learner do I need to employ to complete this task and show my level of learning?

The next step I believe my students do to a fault. Evaluate their own knowledge and skills.
This is where I go back to the example at the beginning of this blog. Some of my students are sure they know nothing and try to learn every tiny detail presented in class, the book, and the activities. Others assume they know everything and that the information presented is simply a waste of their time. I'll give you an example. Last week I had a student who was self professed gifted come into my office and ask this question, "What do you want in my reflections because I do not seem to be doing them correctly? I stated that the criteria was posted in class and on the syllabus and described in class. However, I restated that the intent of the reflections were two fold; one to show me what they had learned and two to attribute this new knowledge to their future career. The student then told me that is what he/she had done on the prior assignment, there just wasn't much information that was not already known. Most of the time I would attest that patterns are good and very important to the cycle of learning. However, not this pattern. Believing there is nothing new to learn is extremely counter productive.

Now I have been teaching a long time and participate in a lot of professional development as well as personal development. I consider myself a life long learner and the one thing I can say is that I never encounter a new situation where I don't add to my learning. I wish I could say I was shocked with this student's response but it happens almost every semester.

My  other story is about the student who is sure they know nothing. For four year now I have had a student who questions which information is most important. He/she highlights all of the information in her book and takes copious notes during class. This student is so worried about trying to absorb everything that he/she becomes overwhelmed and stagnant in learning. We have discussed repeatedly that if he/she would look for concepts to help categorize the information learned, the task at hand would be much easier. With out students belief in his or her ability to learn, along with confidence in prior knowledge and making connections this student continued to study endlessly and still fail the assessments due to an inability to learn the deeper meaning. Again, this pattern causes problems with learning and inhibits successful self-directed learning.

Let us move on to the third part of this self-directed learning cycle- Planning. I do not know how many times I stand in front of the class and say these words, "See this assignment? The one I just modeled for you? This will take a lot of time. I am sharing this modeling with you early so that you plan to complete one part of the assignment a month. That way whey it is due, you will have it completed and feel good about the information you have shared. YOU CAN NOT COMPLETE THIS THE NIGHT BEFORE. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH HOURS TO DO IT. However no matter how excited I get there are always students who believe they can start this assignment the night before. We need to take more time to help students  set goals, identify their own work pace, and reward students who use planning in our classes. Without the applications of these three strategies and refinement of student perceptions of teacher guided versus student guided learning....we may never move our students into the self-directed learners we would hope they become.

Patterns are wonderful things when they work in your favor and horrible when we repeat those practices that get in our way of learning!

Thinking about prior knowledge in strategic communication

I really like the way that How Learning Works is organized. The authors start each chapter with a couple of stories on different scenarios but related teaching situations. The stories are analyzed to identify core problems and then the authors cover what the research tells about these challenges. They end the chapter with strategies to mitigate these challenges. So I thought I would take a look at how these strategies work in my online graduate leadership course.

Methods to Gauge the Extent and Nature of Students' Prior Knowledge

MSOD students are adult learners, most of which are actively in the workforce. They come with a wide variety of experiences in leadership - good and bad. As adults they have already formed their attitudes and have preconceived ideas about leadership. The course does not require any prerequisite knowledge.

So I am not sure that formal diagnostic methods are suitable here. But the authors suggest a couple of strategies to expose students' prior knowledge that I think would work. The first is using a brainstorming activity. According to the authors, it can help uncover beliefs, associations, and assumptions. I sort of tried this during the current term. One of the most popular debates in leadership studies is comparing leadership to management so I used this in a discussion forum. It quickly identified students that lean toward behavioral and trait theories with a smaller group leaning toward contingency theories. Knowing this up front really helped me frame subsequent lessons in the course.Another method recommended by the authors is using a concept map which I would love to try but will need to think through how to do this well in an online class.

Methods to Activate Accurate Prior Knowledge

Here I tried a sequence of assignments to help students link prior knowledge to new knowledge. This included:

• Private journal assignments to reflect on how an approach to leadership is currently used, or not, in their existing organization.
• Online Team Learning Activities where a group of students share their experiences and new knowledge on a particular problem.
• Individual case study where they apply the new knowledge. 

I think the strategy is sound but it requires a number of assignments from students during a given period of instruction (in this case a two week period), some of which would normally be done in the classroom that must now be done online. I am anxious to see the course evaluations on how they felt about this.

Methods to Help Students Recognize Inappropriate Prior Knowledge

Normally I use discussion forums late in the sequence of instructional events, but this time I decided to use discussion forums as the first assignment in the instructional sequence to do two things. The first was to see if there were any conceptual issues as we transitioned from one part of the course to the next. The second was to see if there was any inappropriate prior knowledge that I needed to focus on in later assignments within the sequence. I found this very helpful.

Methods to Correct Inaccurate Knowledge

Here I used the strategy of showing where analogies break down. I did this by two methods. The first was providing explicit individual feedback to students that included my solution for the case study. For the second method I created a course instructor leadership blog where I could highlight the limitations of analogies and address other common misconceptions concerning the leadership approach we just studied. I published a blog after each major milestone in the course.

In summary I am finding the book to be a valuable guide in designing learning activities within my course. So far it seems that I am able to accommodate strategies in an online graduate course. Pretty neat...more to come.

How Learning Works - The Beginning...

I was very excited to be invited by Andria Stokes into an Avila University book study. The book we are looking at is How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by Ambrose, Bridges, Lovett, DiPietro, and Norman.

As an instructional designer, I know that learning theory should be considered in curriculum design, and as a part-time Advantage faculty member, understanding how students learn (especially adult learners) is important to me so that I can provide the best learning possible in my undergraduate and graduate leadership courses.

I plan to use this blog for reflections on the 7 research-based principles and how these apply in the design of my leadership courses and how I give instruction and facilitation especially in my online formats. I look forward to knowledge sharing with everyone in the book study group!

Chapter 1: How Does Students' Prior Knowledge Affect Their Learning?

To view prior posts click here.

The patterns I see in this chapter is a yin yang experience. The principle highlighted in the chapter is:

Students' prior knowledge can help or hinder learning.

It appears that the key is not that instructors, teachers, or educators activate prior knowledge but more importantly take into account the accuracy and the appropriateness of the prior knowledge. We spend a great deal of time thinking about how we can activate or stimulate students' prior learning to help continue to build content and understanding. What I forget to stop and think about at times is the quality and quantity of the knowledge is being used.

Questions I asked myself while reading were (the blue script is the continuation of the definition of learning provided in this book):

 If a student knows the content do they understand how to use it? (Knowledge vs. Doing)


What procedures have I left untaught that will change the learning for my students? (Processes and Change)


How are students using analogous information and will it deter them from my intended learning outcomes? (Thinking and Experience and Change)


What misconceptions are getting in the way that could create misinformation in future coursework? (Experience vs. Thinking)


Without taking the time to go through my content and review these questions could I be creating a learning environment that will not support all learners? I need some strategies. Thank goodness there are some at the end of each chapter! I am not crazy about starting the semester off with a diagnostic assessment. I find that kills the learning climate I am trying to establish in the course. But I do like the idea of having the students assess their own prior knowledge. I'm not sure how I would do it but I know it would have to do with technology and it would be something students could return to for refinement of learning.

I have used concept maps before and if the students know how to use them I think this could be effective. On the other hand if they need to be taught I believe they will not be used as effectively for the intended purpose of identifying prior knowledge. Students will be so concerned about the creation of the map they will lose track of the content that should be in the map.

I do watch for patterns in errors, comments, or questions to help identify what a student knows and explicitly link new material and prior knowledge during instruction. What I think I may start doing is helping students do more reflection during class. Have them ask, "Am I making assumptions based on my own cultural knowledge that may not be appropriate here? If so, What are those assumptions and where do they come from?"

I am also going to try to help my students understand discipline-specific conventions. Writing in science, writing a reflection, and writing a report are not all the same type of writing and each discipline has it's own expectations.

Introduction: Building the Bridge

The first thing on the page is a quote from Herbert A. Simon. It reads

Learning results from what the student does and thinks

and only from what the student does and thinks. The 

teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the 

student does learn.

So I thought to myself the pattern I see so far has to do with learning, doing, and thinking. The rotation of these three actions creates a pattern of knowledge and understanding. Why is a bridge necessary...as stated in the title? Shouldn't the research and the practice say the same thing? Students learn when they think and do. Students think when they learn by doing. Students do and they think and learn. The interaction of this pattern appears necessary all levels of formal learning. So, I continue to read to see how the pattern plays out in this chapter.

I see the definition of learning used in this book and the three italicized words are: process, change, and experience. So what does this definition have to do with learn, do, and think? I found my answer near the end of the introduction: The seven learning principles described in the introduction and throughout the book are domain-independent, experience-independent, and cross-cultural relevant. Student learning involves a process no matter what content is provided. When students do or participate their knowledge base begins to change from the experience. Once an experience occurs the student will think about the cultural relevance and how that caused the experience to play out.

Now that I see the pattern...connections...interplay, I understand the principles in a different way.

1. Prior knowledge helps or hinders learning (What you know changes the way you think.)
2. How knowledge is organized influences learning and application of knowledge (Thinking is changed due to the process.)
3. Motivation determines, directs, and sustains what is learned (Personal and non-personal experiences effect what is learned.) 
4. Mastery of knowledge requires acquisition, integration, and application of skills (Learning through a process requires change in understanding.)
5. Use of goals as directives along with targeted feedback enhances the quality of learning (Change agents  coupled with the learning process creates high quality learning.)
6. Interaction of current level of  development with affective, cognitive, and social domains creates the learning climate within the classroom (Experiences create types of learning.)
7. Monitoring and refining learning allows students to be self-directed learners (The learning process along with change enhances knowledge.)

This may not make sense to the reader right now, but I do see a pattern of use with the words I have identified in this blog post. We need to keep in mind- if we want quality education- that a bridge must always connect the learning process, the action of change, and the experiences in life.

Why the concept of patterns

       When I began learning about metacognition in 1992, one of the "strategies" I found that helped my students learn quicker and understand in a deeper sense was identification of patterns. I decided to tell my students to look for patterns all around them. We identified patterns in sounds, clothing, architecture, and nature. Then I told my students to look for patterns in the content I was teaching. We found that there were words that had cvc patterns, numbers multiplied in patterns, communities had neighborhoods that were created in a pattern. Soon  my students saw patterns within the world and noticed that identifying them helped us understand how things worked. They began to make connections across subject areas and parts of their lives. They saw the pattern in the moon phases, and patterns in their names. I know it sounds crazy but here I was in the middle of Kansas City, Kansas in a room full of first, second, and third grade students who were diagnosed as "educable mentally retarded" and I was watching them learn content that had taken me years to teach with previous students. The key had to be the intentional and explicit use of identification of patterns.
       Kristin Gunckel wrote about children learning science through identification and use of patterning in her article Experiences, Patterns, and Explanations. This 2010 Science and Children article discussed finding patterns in everyday experiences as a key to learning. She discussed how scientist look for patterns when comparing the outcome of experiments to help generate new laws or generalizations about the world. Gunckel also shared that the Roman's made connections between patterns of sound moving through air and waves moving away from a pebble dropped in the water. These ideas got me thinking....what if I read a new text but viewed it only from the perspective of patterns that I see in the content provided. So, that is what I intend to do in this blog.
     My goal is to look for the patterns that explain how learning works. I hope you will join in on the conversation as you read and share your ideas through the lens of a chosen concept.