Embodiment and professional learning - open access book - brief overview

 This 2021 book - Embodiment and Professional Education : Body Practice and Pedagogy is published by Springer and edited by S. Loftus and E.A. Kinsella.

Through learning, humans attain not only knowledge, but also appropriates practice. With the current discussions on AI and its impact on teaching and learning, one of the impacts is that AI replaces some of the 'doing'. It is in actual practice that we consolidate knowledge through application. Deliberate practice is required to bring mind and body into active enactment of what has been learnt. Therefore, in the current circumstances, discussions on embodiment and how this makes us human have great relevance.

The book is is open access (via UTS) and has 17 chapters.

The first chapter by the editors, summarises the main themes of the book. It calls for promoting the significance of the body in our lives as to date, it has been much neglected. 

Chapter two by B. Green introduces practice theory and concepts of corporeality and its role in professional education. The practice turn recommends bringing the body back into professional learning.

E. Swartz contributes the next chapter on 'To act as one body? collective and embodied judgement within professional action and education'. Through professional practice, which includes human relations within a social sphere, collaboration amongst professionals contribute to practical wisdom or phronesis. The chapter introduces and discusses the concepts.

S. Loftus then writes on how embodied knowledge and thinking should be the hallmark of professional education.

Two chapters on 'embodiment and professional practice' follow. T. Chemi with 'the genealogy of the actor's laboratory: making kin as embodied pedagogy' and S. DeLuca on 'theatre of carnival: a classroom for the vigilant embodied healer'.

The three chapters on 'embodiment and reflection'. E.A. Kinsella and K. S. Smith with 'I listen to my body more': embodied mindfulness in professional education; 'Body mapping to facilitate embodied reflection in professional education programmes' by H. F. Harrison and 'Ethics and embodiment in health professions education' by A. M. DeBaets.

Following on are three chapter on 'Embodiment and professional knowledge'. S. Loftus with 'Goethe and embodiment in professional education and practice'; B. Roberts with 'Neurophenomology and Professional education'; and 'Embodied learning and two-eyed seeing: indigenous and feminist perspectives in professional education' by E. Cupchik and M. Schnarr.

The last section has four chapters on the theme of 'embodiment and technology. First up, W. Kupers with ' (Re-)embodied digital education practices: Empirical vignettes about teaching and learning in 'tele-co-presence'; B. Delgarno with 'Technological affordances for embodied learning in authentic contexts'; K. Mahon on 'neoliberalised (human) bodies and implications for professional education' and R. A. Gardiner and J. Chisholm on 'Its not just one bad actor: Tracing the embodied effects of institutional sexism in the implementation of gender-based violence policies and practices.

The editors close with the last chapter to present 'implications for practice'. Overall, the book makes important contributions to better understand the processes of human learning. With the advent of AI, it is important to evaluate what makes us humans and to appreciate that processes of learning, involving holistic experiences, to prepare us to live and be in the world. Without doing and by abrogating our responsibilities to AI agents, we become less able to grapple with the complexities of life. Given the VUCA world we now live in, it is to our detriment if we place all of our reliance on using AI rather than take up the work required, to be proficient and skilled at cognitive, evaluative, tasks and critical thinking which are the hallmarks of being human.

 

ob3 - ocean browser 3 - examples of application

For several years now, the midwifery programme at Ara Institute of Technology, have used a platform called OB3 - or Ocean Browser 3 - to keep in contact with their students through a highly blended learning environment. There is an Ascilite paper from 2014, detailing the approach. A more recent 2017 Ascilite paper, provides examples from the opthamatrist programme at Otago University. At the moment, I am working with another programme to embed OB3 into their teaching. This programme will be highly blended as well and have a large amount of text based anchored discussions and learning activities. Approaches which match well with OB3's current capabilities.

Basically, OB3 works well with text based discussions because the discussions can be carried within the content, rather than separately as with other LMS. This ability to bring activities into the content, creates a seamless and user-friendly experience for both teachers and students. One drawback is that the webpages generated can become quite long, requiring scrolling through copious texts. One needs to be part of the whole discussion to be able to keep track of all the threads, springing forth from either teacher embedded questions, or from students adding discussion points through the document.

OB3 allows for quick upload of a range of content, including multimedia - pictures, videos and podcasts. Both teachers and students are able to upload and share these items. This process supports a co-constructivist form of learning. An important aspect is that students need to be scaffolded into the OB3 approach, otherwise, the content becomes overwhelming. However, if students participate through the process, they 'take ownership' of the content, leading to engagement and deeper learning.

OB3 allows students access to their content post-qualification. An eportfolio type add-on will be available next year.

Into the future, it will be good to stretch the capabilities of OB3 and to see how the concept can be applied to programmes which are less text rich.

Ara Institute of Canterbury - Sharing Experiences of Educational Design - SEED #1

Lunch time session with two of our ARA institute of Canterbury excellence in teaching award winners.

SEED set up by ARA staff who have won internal institutional awards to Sharing Experiences of Educational Design. Short 15 minute sessions to facilitate the sharing of good teaching.

Engineering tutor, Steve Tomsett is the inaugural presenter and he presents his experiences on flipped learning – dots and line in a flip class. Provided brief introduction of his context, mainly focused on teaching engineering maths. Compared traditional classroom approach with passive theory learning followed by application with flipping, so passive theory is learnt before coming to class and classroom learning revolves around active learning. Advocated using a one-one, short recording focused on ensuring ‘added value’ occurs both before and during class. Dots are the HOW we do it – and the line is the WHY. Ensure dots are presented in short ‘bite sized’ bits and then in class, join the dots. Provided an example with screencast on Adobe Connect archived on Moodle. Quizzes are attached to each video to ensure understanding dots occurs before class. Activities in class include authentic problems, application to real world problem solving and extension of understanding of implications / consequences.

Jane Parker from Business presented in ‘building confidence in learners’. Provided a perspective as a ‘new’ tutor and empathy with learners lacking in confidence based on her initial experiences in picking up a class, ¾ through course, following 2 other tutors who had left! Talked about challenges with teaching a complex subject – law. Brought in student’ own experiences with ‘law’ and current topical issues as starters for classes rather than just cover the syllabus. Co-operative learning used as an approach to encourage communication skills and working through the issues.

Always good to hear from passionate teachers J