Digital
Is Kahoot! engaging?
In the leadership activities for this week, we played a Kahoot! quiz. In what sense is this 'engaging'?
"Students should be enticed by the competitive nature of the game if it is going to be a valuable learning experience for the students. They benefit from using digital games in the classroom by learning how to handle success and failure as well as how to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills." (Icard, 2014).
Engagement and Flow
Fredericks, Blumenfeld and Paris (2004) proposed a framework for considering engagement that distinguishes between cognitive, behavioural and emotional engagement. It is important to clarify the scope of the term ‘engagement’. Policy discussion has long focused on the negative consequences of disengagement, such as school dropout, and clear behavioural indicators, such as absenteeism and disruptive classroom behaviour. This often overlooks the complexity of engagement, especially the cognitive engagement of students who may be otherwise attending class and behaving well. A short paper form the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2016) gives an interesting view point and summary about those three types of engagement in schools - what does engagement mean and how can you measure it?
Shernoff (2013) states that engagement always connotes a relationship, one of involvement to something, and defines it as a heightened, simultaneous experience of concentration, interest, and enjoyment in the task at hand. His definition includes no presumptions about how students should think, feel, behave, or relate to school. You might notice that his definition includes no mention of school whatsoever so that engagement in learning can be viewed as on par and comparable to that experienced in other less formal contexts. That definition is based completely in the experiences of students, so that engagement may be considered as a learning experience, one to be valued in its own right. This definition is rooted in Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) conceptualisation of 'flow experience.' Flow is an optimal state of cognitive and emotional engagement, so absorbing that one may lose track of time and awareness of the self. Although the nature of schoolwork can vary, the ideal state of engagement could maybe be an active attentiveness and problem solving or the fashioning of products that promotes learning and the development of new skills, an ideal that flow experiences encapsulate.
Research tends to converge on the observation that meaningful engagement is composed of two independent processes; academic intensity and a positive emotional response. Optimal learning environments provide academic intensity through environmental challenge characterized by clear goals and high expectations for performance with complex tasks found to be relevant to students’ lives and the community at large. They also support students to succeed through motivational support, positive relationships, feedback, and opportunities for action and collaboration.
Flow and engagement can be contagious, having the potential to cross over from teacher to student, student to teacher, and permeate an entire group participating in a shared activity. New immersive technologies also show promising signs of enhancing student engagement to learn in the future. Indeed, there are many routes to engaging youth; creating meaningful engagement requires attention to a variety of contextual, instructional, developmental, and interpersonal factors beyond the preoccupation with narrowly defined educational “outcomes.”
Student Agency
Martin (2004, p. 135) characterises agency as "the capability of individual human beings to make choices and act on these choices in a way that makes a difference in their lives”.
Lindgren and McDaniel (2012, p.346) on the other hand underline that “giving students the sense that they have control and the power to affect their own learning is one of the great challenges of contemporary education”. Even if also the Piagetian (1967) notion of constructivism says that “the most transformative learning experiences will be those that are directed by the learner’s own endeavors and curiosities”.
The figure above from Nakata (2014) suggests that agency builds on self-regulation, but student agency is then the basis for autonomous learners. Further, teacher autonomy is a pre-condition for learner autonomy.
References and recommended readings:
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Fredericks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C. & Paris, A. H. (2004). School Engagement: Potential of the Concept, State of the Evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59-109.
Lindgren, R., & McDaniel, R. (2012). Transforming Online Learning through Narrative and Student Agency. Educational Technology & Society, 15(4), 344–355.
Nakata, Y. (2014). Self-regulation: Why is it important for promoting learner autonomy in the school context? Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 5(4), 342-356.
Martin, J. (2004). Self-Regulated Learning, Social Cognitive Theory, and Agency. Educational Psychologist, 39(2), 135-145.
Shernoff, D. (Ed. 2013). Optimal Learning Environments to Promote Student Engagement (Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development). Dordrecht: Springer.
Leadership
Nationality Versus Culture
Nationality is not a very meaningful concept. Culture is much more significant. “It is remarkable how fast and how effectively you can construct a nationality with a flag, a few speeches, and a national anthem.” (Taleb, 2008). Nick Taleb, who might be described in these terms as a Lebanese American, is dismissive of nationality, he sees it as a largely meaningless way of defining someone.
International Capabilities
The Ministry of Education (2014) defines international capabilities as the knowledge, skills, attitudes, dispositions, and values that make up the key competencies that enable people to live, work, and learn across national and cultural boundaries. Being internationally capable includes not only the awareness of other cultures, about also the awareness of one’s own culture as particular and specific. It involves the understanding that we all experience our lives through a number of cultural and personal "lenses", and that comprehending and accepting others’ needs and behaviours rests as much on understanding ourselves as it does on understanding them.
Intercultural Competence
Intercultural competence refers to behaving and communicating effectively and appropriately in cross-cultural situations to achieve one’s goals to some degree (Berardo & Deardorff, 2012). It comprises:
- Recognition: How competent is a person to recognise cultural differences around him or her?
- Respect: How respectful is a person about those differences?
- Reconciliation: How competent is a person to reconcile cultural differences?
- Realization: How competent is a person to realise the necessary actions to implement the reconciliation of cultural differences?
The Value of Diversity
Do we do more with diversity than just talk about it? Sue McDowall, (in Hipkins, Bolstad, Boyd & McDowall, 2014) noted that “The activities I set up made space for diversity, but they did not require diversity to do the work.” She also recognised that “We hardly ever used the diverse ideas of our class and community for real work.”Do we value the diversity we have?
In the Uawanui project (a project set up at Tolaga Bay Area School on the east coast just north of Gisborne) learners had to engage in a progression of diversity within ideas and people, ranging from Mātauranga Māori and western science and people (students from other schools, different class levels, community members, kaumatua, scientists, forestry workers, landowners). All students had the opportunity to use group diversity to build knowledge that was new, at least to their group.
School Culture
According to the Ministry of Education (2016), a school's culture consists of the customs, rituals, and stories that are evident and valued throughout the whole school. An effective school culture is one in which the customs and values foster success for all; and where clear boundaries are set, known, and agreed to by everyone. In developing a positive culture, effective principals ensure that educational practices are inclusive. They make certain that students and their families do not feel alienated either from their own culture or from the culture of the school.
Hauora - Well-being
Hauora is a Māori philosophy of health unique to New Zealand (Ministry of Education, 1999). Could Hauora be one of the key concepts on defining a positive school culture? It encompasses the physical, mental and emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of health. The concept is recognised by the World Health Organisation. Maybe that could be the key to personal, national or even global success?
Hauroa comprises the following types of well-being:
- Taha tinana - Physical well-being - the physical body, its growth, development, and ability to move, and ways of caring for it
- Taha hinengaro - Mental and emotional well-being - coherent thinking processes, acknowledging and expressing thoughts and feelings and responding constructively
- Taha whanau - Social well-being - family relationships, friendships, and other interpersonal relationships; feelings of belonging, compassion, and caring; and social support
- Taha wairua - Spiritual well-being - the values and beliefs that determine the way people live, the search for meaning and purpose in life, and personal identity and self-awareness (For some individuals and communities, spiritual well- being is linked to a particular religion; for others, it is not.)
Kura Culture
Te Aho Matua is the foundation document for Kura Kaupapa Māori. According to Tākao, Grennell, McKegg & Wehipeihana (2010), the six sections of Kura Kaupapa Māori are
- Te Ira Tangata (the human essence)
- Te Reo (the language)
- Ngā Iwi (the people)
- Te Ao (the world)
- Āhuatanga Ako (circumstances of learning)
“our tamariki are able to go out into the world standing strong in who they are and where they are going and enjoying ongoing education along the way in whatever they choose. – Whānau, Te Ara Hou" (Tākao, Grennell, McKegg & Wehipeihana, 2010 p.3),
PISA
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-member nations of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance in mathematics, science, and reading.
PISA also includes the concept of collaborative tasks. The Released Field Trial Cognitive Items docuement (PISA, 2015) dsicuedbed an assessment unit where the premise for is that a group of international students is coming to visit a school. The student must collaborate with 3 agent teammates and a faculty advisor to plan the visit, assign visitors to guides,and respond to an unexpected problem that arises. The assessemnt involves the follwing challenges requiring collaborative skills
- solicit and take into account criteria for assessing the options
- clarify statements made by teammates
- correct misinformation and avoid deadlock
- prompt team members to perform their tasks
- ensure that the final recommendation meets all specified criteria
Fullen (1993) notes the importance of collaboration at different scales. “There is a ceiling effect to how much we can learn if we keep to ourselves. The ability to collaborate - on both small and large scale - is becoming one of the core requisites of postmodern society”.
The PISA discussion
Even if there are many positive affects in this sort of skills comparison it also provokes strong debate from educators the world over. When it was developed, it was created as a diagnostic tool to bring together education policymakers together to discuss and track education and education improvement. However, in recent years, it has become widely criticised as a league table that is used as a indicator of a country's education health. Sir Ken Robinson criticised PISA for “squeezing out” other more creative subjects and creating an anxiety around education that was “grotesque”. Academics from around the world expressed deep concern in the 'PISA letter' (The Guardian, 2014) about the impact of Pisa tests and call for a halt to the next round of testing.
However, PISA tests are developed further all the time and they do assess an unprecedented range of learning outcomes and their contexts, including student performance measures, measures of social and emotional dimensions, student attitudes and motivations, equity issues, and parental support. The OECD has announced that Pearson has been chosen to develop the PISA 2018 Student Assessment 21st Century Framework (Pearson, 2014).
Many have wondered - Does money buy strong performance in PISA?
It has been shown that greater national wealth or higher expenditure on education does not guarantee better student performance. Among high-income economies, the amount spent on education is less important than how those resources are used. Successful school systems in high-income economies tend to prioritise the quality of teachers over the size of classes and school systems that perform well in PISA believe that all students can achieve, and give them the opportunity to do so.
Kahoot! Pedagogy
In this weeks session we included a Kahoot! quiz. Kahoot! is designed to be gamified and engaging. According to Icard (2014), Students should be enticed by the competitive nature of the game if it is going to be a valuable learning experience for the students. They benefit from using digital games in the classroom by learning how to handle success and failure as well as how to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
References
Berardo, K. & Deardorff, D. (2012). Building cultural competence. Sterling, Va.: Stylus Pub.
Fullan, M. (1993). Change forces : Probing the depth of educational reform (School development and management series 10). London: Falmer Press.
Hipkins, R., Bolstad, R., Boyd, S., & McDowall, S. (2014). Key competencies for the future. Wellington, New Zealand: NZCER Press
Taleb, N. (2008). The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Random House.
