Creating Significant

Learning Environments

EDLD 5313- Dr. Maridale Still

A New Culture of Learning

As educators, we have to ensure that we create passion, imagination, and constraint in order to create a significant learning environment. My innovation plan is to allow for students (and staff) to generate ePortfolios. As students and teachers build their portfolios, they will have complete creative control and this will allow them to problem solve, use their creativity/imaginations, and work with some constraint.

As teachers and students are building their ePortfolios they will most likely come across difficulties and this will no doubt make some frustrated. It will also allow for one to find a passion for something specific like the creation of informational videos, or even infographics.

Additionally, adding “something else” to the plates of teachers could cause an uproar, but within my plan for leading change I have ideas to help curb the possibility of anguish and will hopefully build relationships while being creative together.

See my blog post on the topic for further guidance on my thoughts.

My Learning Philosophy

If getting a second masters isn’t a sign that I am a dedicated life-long learner, then I don’t know what is. I started using that phrase when I started teaching and it has just stuck with me. I don’t know what it is about gaining knowledge on new topics, but I am definitely the person in the group that usually has background knowledge on the topic of conversation, or knows a ton of random, off the wall facts. Research by Bransford, Donovan, and Pellegrino (1999) supports the idea that there are three solid based findings that are backed up by research and how education is regulated. The following are three of the findings they discovered as they further dove into the study;

Students sometimes come to a lesson with prior knowledge and an idea of how things work, but if those ideas are not incubated then they could possibly not gain an understanding of new concepts.

In order to gain competency of a lesson students have to have factual knowledge and they also need a conceptual framework, or meaning, definition, and an explanation of what is going on.

When it comes to problem solving, students can be taught ways to monitor their learning process and how to progress.

Growing up I was an honors student, but I feel like my full potential was never met because of how I learned. I am a visual learner that struggles with test taking. I know the material, but when it comes to taking any sort of written test I struggle with finding the answers. I learned to take good notes and somewhat how to study, but when it came down to answering the questions I usually failed. It wasn’t until I started teaching that I learned strategies and better note taking skills that propel student success. I recently learned that I have adult onset attention deficit disorder, ADD and how to cope with that in a learning environment. With my background as a teacher and my new found success with coping with ADD, I am able to better serve my students.

In an effort to make my students better learners then I have to be a facilitator of learning and not just a teacher. Dr. Harapnuik states that “a learning facilitator is focused on the learner and on creating a desirable environment in which the learner can come to know, acquire knowledge or make a meaningful connection–“a guide on the side” (2019). I believe that I am definitely more a facilitator than a teacher in the sense that I have my mini-lessons here and there, but overall I am facilitating as they make connections, ask questions, challenge each other in conversations, etc. I would love to say that this happens every day, but unfortunately it does not and I am wanting that to change. Through my innovation project I plan to create more opportunities for my students to be successful by showing them how to advocate for themselves, create engaging products, how to take ownership of their learning, collaborate with peers, and become more independent thinkers (continue to question, always). As their facilitator, I will need to understand that they all might have different approaches to learning and make adjustments as needed.

Based on the learning theories I have looked over and a quick survey of my learning experiences, I have discovered that my teaching philosophy goes hand in hand with my learning philosophy. How I learn effectively dictates how I will facilitate my classroom.

Red Gray Steps to Bicycle Safety Infogra

The last three theories, coupled with digital learning skills, have helped to form my own learning philosophy. I now understand how I excel as a learner after being trained with more of a behaviorist approach:

I incorporate what I'm seeing and feeling into my prior experiences.
I like to learn at my own speed, and I value having a set of boundaries to work within while creating context.
I must internalize and process new knowledge. I do not process and build information within my own application if I do not see significance or personal meaning.
When I'm fully engaged in the learning process, information, processing, and comprehension stays with me longer.
After developing my own teaching philosophy, I am more metacognitive in my learning now than when I was a student in high school and college; my own learning philosophy has grown.
I am self-motivated and constantly strive to achieve my highest level of understanding in any given situation.
Learning is a lifelong process that evolves as new information, prior knowledge, and circumstances change.

Bibliography

"Framework for 21st Century Learning - P21." Framework for 21st Century Learning - P21. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. <http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework>.

Harapnuik, D. (2019, February 20). Learning Philosophy. Retrieved from:

http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=95

Harapnuik, D. (2016, March 11). Four Keys to Understanding Learning Theories. Retrieved from: http://www.harapnuik.org/?p=6344

Haave, Neil. (2015, October 23). Developing Students’ Learning Philosophies. Retrieved from: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/developing-students-learning-philosophies/

National Research Council; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Board on Behavioral. (1999, April 12). How people learn: Bridging research and practice. Retrieved March 15, 2021, from http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9457.html

Siemens, George. "Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age." Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. <http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm>.

Tan, Seng Chee, and David Hung. "Beyond Information Pumping: Creating a Constructivist E-learning Environment." Educational Technology, 42(5), 48-54. Educational Technology Publications. Web.

Weimer, Maryellen, PhD. "What's Your Learning Philosophy?" What's Your Learning Philosophy. 26 Mar. 2014. Web. 9 Mar. 2016. <http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/whats-learning-philosophy/>.

Western Governors University. ( 2020, May 27). What is constructivism? Retrieved from:

https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-constructivism2005.html

Connect Four, or More:

Aligning Outcomes, Assessment and Activities

When designing significant learning opportunities for our students, we must understand the learning expectations we have set for them, the experiences they will participate in, and how we will measure their success. To do this, we must design our classes, as well as each learning section within them, with the end goal in mind. A roadmap for building a significant learning experience for the beginning of my portfolio initiative. This plan is based on Fink's Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning (Fink, 2003)

My innovation plan proposes encouraging students to use immersive videos, activities, and games to incorporate lesson subjects, allowing them to learn at their own speed and giving them more time in class for discussion and questioning. As foundational learning experiences, I've included activities in my plan to a lot for several types of learners and educators. It is made up of interchangeable parts that allow for freedom of adding and eliminating as we go. It is also just one part, or a start to where I eventually would like to go with ePortfolios.

Learning Environment & Situational Factors to Consider

Specific Context of the Teaching/Learning Situation

Secondary students in a class of 22-27 students that are 45/ 90 minutes long.
It is a blended course of in-person students, students on Zoom, and students that work asynchronously.
Students have a 1:1 iPad and in the case that they forgot theirs, or it is being repaired, then they receive a Chromebook for the day. (in-person students)
Students have wi-fi access while on campus and if they do not have access at home, they are given 30 gigs of data a month to use for school.
Sometimes there are outages that are repaired somewhat quickly. Usually, they are website or app-specific, and adjustments are made until repairs are complete.

General Context of the Learning Situation

Students are expected to understand and complete their assignments and tasks and make decent grades, in order to pass the state test, advance to the next grade.
Students will be able to create sites and multimedia content.
Students will gain skills that are transferable to a later educational path and/or career.

Nature of the Subject

This is a realistic and relatable subject. Students are going to develop a website from the ground up, allowing them to become self-sufficient learners through more authentic learning.
By having control of their site's content, students would have more freedom and ownership.
Most students have never created a website before, ePortfolio development can be difficult. It is not the "traditional" way of teaching to add material to a customized platform such as tasks, assignments, and/or blogs.

Characteristics of the Learners

The campus I work on is diverse in that it has a population that comes from low socio-economic status. There are students that live in a single-parent household, a blended family environment, with guardians, homeless, or have their family unit still intact.
The scholars are not fully aware of the topic of ePortfolios and some staff may not be educated on them either.
The learning objective is for students to develop a website in order to reflect on their learning, grow as critical thinkers and problem solvers, and learn how to create digital content.

Characteristics of the Teacher

Someone who learns something new every day, whether it is something worldly or something concerning the latest trends in education.
Has a good understanding of how to manage a classroom and helps guide students to learn in their environment.
In general, agrees that ePortfolios are extremely helpful in assisting students in focusing on their work during their educational journeys.
Learned a lot about ePortfolios as a result of recent classes.
Gives students motivation to help them sustain a growth attitude, giving students preference, ownership, and voice when completing assignments and projects, and developing relationships with students are among my strengths. Relationships are vital and the teacher strives to build on them daily.

Questions for Formulating Significant Learning Goals

A year (or more) after this course is over, I want students to be using ePortfolios throughout their courses. The hope is that they will see the benefits and continue using them throughout their educational journey.

Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG)

Students will learn how to build digital content while focusing on their learning journey in order to become critical thinkers and problem solvers.

Foundational Knowledge

What key information (e.g., facts, terms, formulae, concepts, principles, relationships, etc.) is/are important for students to understand and remember in the future?
Students will be able to create their own personal websites, create multimedia content, and collaborate and exchange ideas with their peers.
What key ideas (or perspectives) are important for students to understand in this course?
When focusing on their learning journey, students will gain a deeper understanding of how to create digital content.

Application Goals

What kinds of thinking are important for students to learn?

Students use critical thinking to interpret and compare their own and their peers' websites.
Students use creative thinking to visualize and construct material for their websites.
Practical thinking, in which students solve problems and make choices about the layout of their website and the content that will be included, such as tasks or projects.

What important skills do students need to gain?

Students must learn how to create multimedia content, as well as what other types of content should be used on their pages.

Do students need to learn how to manage complex projects?

Students must learn how to create websites, blogs, and digital posts, as well as what other types of material to display on their websites.

Integration Goals

What connections (similarities and interactions) should students recognize and make?

Students should be able to produce content on their own. Students should also be aware that their pages could be used by any one of their classes.
Students should be informed that they will share information about their extracurricular interests and voluntary work. Students should also be aware that this website can be used as a resume for academic purposes.

Human Dimensions Goals

What could or should students learn about themselves?

Students should be taught how to be imaginative as well as how to take charge of their own education. Students should also learn how to write material for the internet, such as a blog post.

What could or should students learn about understanding others and/or interacting with them?

Students should realize that engaging with one another helps them to get new ideas from their peers.

References:

Fink, L.D. (n.d.). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning [PDF].

Retrieved March 21, 2021, from

https://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

TEDxYouth. (2012, October 16). Stop stealing dreams: Seth Godin at TEDxYouth@BFS

[Video}. YouTube. https://youtu.be/sXpbONjV1Jc

Understanding By Design

I've looked at two strategies for building our learning spaces. Both approaches launch the preparation process with the end in mind. I looked at the three-column solution last week from Fink (2003). This week, I investigated the approach proposed by Wiggins and McTighe in Understanding By Design (UBD) (2005). It's crucial to look at a variety of preparation tactics and they all have advantages and disadvantages depending on what we use to build our environments. Finding the preparation strategies that perform well for you and your scholars, and then utilizing what you find useful, is an important part of building a significant learning experience.

When comparing the two preparation methods, I conclude the documents and Fink's three-column strategy are more effective at organizing my thoughts and assisting me in seeing the various dimensions I need to incorporate into my lessons. It also aids me in making my evaluations useful learning resources, not only for content but also for connecting the dots–connecting previous learning my students bring to class with new knowledge. The UBD plan is close to what I actually do when it comes to preparing lessons for my students. It is helpful to me, but it does not contribute much to my planning process. The WHERETO components in instructional preparation, on the other hand, proved to be incredibly useful. Where, Hook, Equip, Rethink, Evaluate, Tailored, and Organized are all of the components that make up WHERETO. I've included an infographic that explains each aspect of the acronym. I thought about labeling items in my UbD with the letters that coordinate with the graphic, but I will make that decision later on in the process.

For a deeper understanding of the difference in the plans, compare and contrast the plan below with my three-column plan based on the same instructional unit. I've included components important to my innovation plan, interactive lessons, and group discourse, in both plan designs.

Educational Technology Classroom Agreeme

References:

Fink, L.D. (n.d.). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning [PDF]. Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (expanded second ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Grow Through What You Go Through!

For me, this class on building significant learning environments has been a remarkable experience. I have picked up a few new ideas that I will integrate into my creative strategies and lesson plans for developing ePortfolios. I think something I will continue to struggle with is knowing what to choose from and when to put the strategy into play.

The first thing we did was read A New Culture of Learning by Thomas and Brown (2011). In my blog post, Learning How to Learn, I talked about how our new educational system is focused on approaches that have been used for more than a century. Rather than being trapped in our old ways, we should follow the advice of Thomas and Brown (2011) and incorporate more implicit wisdom. This suggests that rather than being told what we need to do, we need to do more learning by doing, observing, and engaging with the content. My innovation plan is to have all educators and students on my campus create ePortfolios. Educators will use them to house their favorite lesson plans, ideas, instructional inspirations, and any other educational items they wish. Students will use it to keep track of their data and to house their favorite pieces of work.

Following that, we were allocated the task of studying multiple learning philosophies in order to develop our own learning philosophy (scroll down). I learned that I learned in a behaviorist manner in my younger years, but now that I'm in the DLL curriculum, I'm more of a constructivist. As a result of my analysis, I've determined that my classroom should be a combination of cognitivism, constructivism, and connectivism.

Then it was time to get down to work with classroom instruction. We've been over two separate approaches to backward planning in which we began with the end in mind. I wanted to make a proposal for an ePortfolio unit. My three-column table, based on Fink's Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Substantial Learning, helped me to begin thinking more deeply about the subject and plan for my BHAG, Big Hairy Audacious Goal. With the Understanding by Design prototype, I expanded on the work I began with the three-column table. I got very precise about the learning objectives, understandings the student will have when completed, and the important issues that need to be answered with this strategy based on the design by Wiggins and McTighe (2005). The second stage described evaluation techniques, and the third stage outlined the main learning experiences. These two preparation strategies both helped me see how having students create ePortfolios would help me get these critical learning experience elements into the hands of my students.

The Growth Mindset Plan 2.0 was the class's final product. My first Growth Mindset plan was in 5302 after reading Carol Dweck's (2006) Mindset for the third time, and I learn more each time I read it. Since there is so much emphasis on ratings, this initiative focuses mainly on how training our students to use a development mentality will deal with some of the problems we face in education, such as students feeling like they are failures no matter how hard they try. We need to make sure that our students realize that failing forward is an opportunity before we can get our structures to change to more effective learning. They do not understand everything "yet", but they can.

This class has, without a doubt, been an educational opportunity. It's given me a lot to think about as I prepare for next year's classes and, hopefully, put my creative strategies into action.

Growth Mindset 2.0

It is important to build a positive learning environment in our classrooms. Our students must learn in different ways than we did as students or even as teachers. When new concepts and innovations come into play, the way things are done has to sometimes completely change. We must develop a growth mindset mentality in order to cope with the changes. For a growth mindset mentality, you'll be able to see that you'll have setbacks along the way, and then learn to benefit from them and improve.

My first growth mindset strategy was developed in EDLD 5302. I addressed Dweck's (2006) four measures for fostering a growth mentality. To begin, you must learn to understand the voice of your fixed mentality. I am aware of when I do not have a growth mindset because I get an anxious, negative feeling in my stomach and I end up getting in my head to come up with ways to change. As much as that sounds like a growth mindset, I feel like it is my version of a fixed mindset. Having a positive mentality helps contribute to my consistent state of mind in a growth mindset arena. With that being said. the second step is to recognize that you have a choice between listening to the fixed mindset or embracing the growth mindset. The third step is to respond with a growth approach. Set aside your preconceived notions and think outside the box of a fixed mindset. Step four is to spread your wings and put your growth mentality aspirations into motion.

All things considered, this has definitely not been the typical school year. I have more of a growth mindset than a fixed one but found myself in a negative space more often than not towards the beginning of the school year. I'm putting in a lot of effort. I am continuing to learn how to work with the adversity of the pandemic, which is important for me to explain to my students. By refusing to give up, I show the strength of the growth mentality and in turn, hope that they see that as a quality they want to acquire. I'm still looking for new opportunities to improve my processes. I've already told my students that I'm in graduate school, and they sometimes inquire about my progress. When my students begin complaining, or ask me how I have so much patience with them, I tell them that it’s all about your mindset. If I give up, I am not only giving up only myself but also on them as well. It is all about the power of one word, YET!

Students' behavior in class will change if they adopt a growth mindset. They're hesitant to speak up in class right now because they're afraid of looking stupid if they're wrong. When we explain the growth mentality, we talk about how you may not get it right now, but you will learn when you go. All students have places that they need to change, and they must be able to learn more and take academic risks. Making our classrooms a welcoming environment in which they can express themselves without fear of being mocked will allow students to continue with that growth mindset mentality.

What role does a growth mindset play in fostering a positive learning environment? Many of our students are not used to becoming active participants in the classroom, so they would be reluctant to engage in a more significant learning environment. Since transition can be daunting for students, incorporating a growth mentality approach in the classroom can make them feel more at ease. When you make these changes and are consistent with the approach, you will begin to see students’ use the power of yet in their daily routines.

References:

Dweck, C.S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.

Fink, L.D. (n.d.). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning [PDF].

Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

Thomas, D., & Brown, J.S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. CreateSpace.

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (expanded second ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.