Learning Never Stops

  Source: Cariyon.com I was nervous about flying down to California to lead a workshop that I dreaded the most. I remembered that  not-so-very-successful workshop in Vietnam a decade ago. I knew I didn't deliver as I should have. My problems had been compounded by an over-zealous Field Rep who kept popping in and taking over my sessions. Though she apologized later (a little too late in my opinion), my confidence as a fledgling leader was at an all time low. That failure (I will call it that for now) seemed to have found a place in my psyche, shaping my identity. I had done an upskilling course on this workshop. But to be honest with you, it was a blur and though I ticked all the checkboxes for the course, deep down I felt I was far from prepared.  But one thing I realize about myself is that I like to face my fears. When the email invitation popped up in my inbox, my heart sank because I knew I would take up the challenge. I had done this workshop several times but they ...

"The power of question is the basis of all human progress." - Indira Gandhi. During an IB workshop I was conducting a few months ago, I remember a teacher heaving a huge sigh of relief when she learnt that it was okay for her students to struggle with generating questions. I was a little taken aback to see her so stressed. Though young children are naturally curious, they usually struggle to articulate their queries in a formal setting. While engaged in play, as they create things with loose parts for instance, most of their questions are in their minds. If they fail at something, you can see their questions in their expressions and movement of their hands as they try and figure out what to do next. Lately I have seen a lot of posts on "X" and some educational platforms where the focus is on surface and deep questions. This is usually accompanied by a visual of a scuba diver trying to reach the depths of the ocean. So this time, instead of a wonder wall for my unit ...

  Concepts-In Use www.ibo.org In this post, one more strategy takes center stage when it comes to designing lessons that aid conceptual understanding in our students: Concept-In-Use. This strategy should be used once several concepts have been covered in class.  A great way to know whether your students are internalizing the concepts is to ask them to explain the connections between two concepts. For example:  In Math Ask them to convert a fraction to a percentage.  Or a percentage to a decimal.  Can they clearly explain the connection?  Can they use drawings to support their explanation? Can they articulate the difference between a prism and a pyramid.  How are they same?  How are they different? How can you represent data visually?  Bar graphs, pictographs, line charts are all concepts. As a designer of conceptual lessons, a teacher needs to be keenly aware of the connections between concepts.  For instance, is the Grade 3 teacher awar...

  Strategy : Internalization What is internalization and how does it look in the classroom? "Transforming an individual physical or material activity into other mental and conceptual forms of that same external activity, to acquire new understandings." (ibo.org) The first time I came across this explanation, I struggled to understand it.  However, as I continued to read more about this strategy, I had a lot of 'aha' moments which helped consolidate my understanding of a few things. The research behind this strategy (Gasperin,1989) addressed the following too: How "internalization" is but an extension of Vygotsky's Social Constructivist theory The reasoning behind a spiral curriculum and why it is so effective How to help students become self-regulated learners For those of you interested in the research,  refer to the sources cited below. So coming back to the explanation of internalization... Learning occurs at three levels: Material level Verbal level ...

How can I begin designing a Concept-driven lesson? I haven't yet completed sharing thoughts and ideas about some of the strategies in my Concept-driven Learning series. Some of you have messaged me about planning ideas. I'm sharing what I created for my assignment during the upskilling course on concept-driven learning for IBEN members. It is a template that helps me use the strategies. 3 pages Hope this helps! hashtag Planning Template

  Strategy 4 : Near and Far Transfer Before we move on to the next strategy on designing concept-based lessons, please find links to the previous blog posts in case you want to read more about other strategies. Part 1: Classification Part 2: Representation Part 3: Generalization How is 'transfer' defined?  When learning in one context enhances  a related performance in another context. (Perkins and Salomon, 1992) The ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts (Brandsford, Brown, Cocking, 1999)  The process of using knowledge or skills acquired in one context in a new or varied context. (Alexander and Murphy, 1992)   Now let us break it down to - Near Transfer - transfer between very similar but not identical contexts. Far Transfer -transfer between contexts that, on appearance, seem remote and alien to one another. Applying learning to situations that are quite dissimilar to the original learning. The strategy of near transfers m...

This post is the third of our blog post series on how to design lessons for conceptual understanding. Part 1 here Part 2 here Strategy 3 : Generalizations You may have come across Lynn Erickson's diagram on the structure of knowledge. In my IB workshop's I always like to present the avocado model alongside this diagram when I am talking about facts. The intention of inquiry-based teaching and conceptually-driven understanding (or Concept-based inquiry- whatever terminology suits your fancy)  is to enable students to make generalizations. In other words, can they transfer their learning to a new context because they have understood what they learnt.  In order to make generalizations, we need to first plan lessons that help students acquire facts/topics that are interesting  and worth knowing. Bringing in local and global issues that are relevant to the topic help students as they begin to compare the topics and see emerging patterns. Remember, facts and concepts have a syn...