Why we work

Recent 'discussion papers' and various fora in NZ have been discussing the 'future of work'. Left and Central left viewpoints via the Labour Party and the Tertiary Education Union, provide access to the Productivity Commission's investigation on the role of tertiary education in NZ, published late last year.

As per reports in other countries, e.g. this one from knowledge works, the world of work is now one of continual change. Workers of today will expect to shift jobs and careers several times during their life times.

This TedTalk by Barry Schwartz  asks the question 'why do we work'? and the reasons for the importance of 'rethinking work'. Work is not just to earn a wage, for many, it is also a source of fulfilment. Workers often 'go that extra mile' not because there will be a financial reward, but to make their work more fulfilling and to meet individual's intrinsic motivation. Companies who put emphasis on nurturing their human resource, obtain returns in outputs.

Slightly longer version of Schwartz's work is in the book, with overview at brainpickings.

In NZ, the Productivity review 'issues' section is now open for submissions. An 'issues paper' detailing the context / background and various possible 'models' for tertiary education in NZ. Tertiary education providers in NZ include universities, polytechnics (ITPs), Wananga (Maori tertiary), provider providers and adult and community ed. (ACE). Provision for this large sector has always been a challenge. In short, the government is seeking better return on investment for the $$ put into the system. There is also the mandate to improve outcomes for all NZers regardless of ethnicity and social capital. Some of the 'models' put forward as examples in Chapter 5 (new models) make for interesting reading and critique. Chapter 6, proposing a range of 'questions' for submission, poses a range of interesting options. As with large shifts in public funded education in the past, NZ does not shy away from asking the hard questions. How things eventually workout, will impact on the future career prospects of a generation of NZers. Therefore, important for all in the sector to respond, bearing in mind the global / international changes bearing down on the world of work. How do we assist our students to meet the challenges of the future of work?

Using Sway

Sway is microsoft's free, online, presentation and storytelling app. I have been dipping in and out of it and the concept holds promises for enabling our staff and students to put together short presentations.

Several examples are showcased on the sway site, including this one on the future of education, and this one with examples for teachers. So education is one of the areas, the developing team have targeted as users of sway. Microsoft blogs indicate the trend with this one on using sway as a case study in education and another on teaching math with sway.

Also examples from ethos3 as a comparison between other presentation apps and mieexpert archiving various sway features and resources.

A few critiques / reviews from teacher with this one from the Australian teachers' blog and another which includes a tutorial on using sway / office mix from jonathanwhylie.

Looks like sway will be here to stay. Overall, the app is quite user friendly but tends towards a linear structure. So, sway is structured for linear rather than ad hoc storytelling. Along with office mix, sway provides an alternative to powerpoint. Both useful expecially for tutors putting content together for distance students and students to showcase their learning. However, there is a need to ensure story boarding type planning precedes, otherwise, messy presentations lacking coherence are the result :(

Connected learning advisory - NZ

Picked this one up from the NZ Educational Gazette – Tukutuku Korero – the fortnightly publication by the Ministry of Education providing news and updates relevant to the compulsory school sector.

The Connected Learning Advisory – Te Ara Whitiki -  is set up by the NZ Ministry of Ed. to support schools and clusters as they plan for, manage and use TEL. 

There is a god series of guides, including:

How to guides around volume purchasing of equipment;

‘decisionmaking guides’ useful for deciding various permutations of providing devises, BYOD and multimedia hardware selection.

GPS Doodling - uses in Vocational Education

This article came up on the Stuff website tweaked my techy muse. The cyclist, Stephen Lund, has been using his bike rides and his GPS to create GPS doodles. Stephen presented at Tedx and archives his doodles on strava. In the course of a year (20150, he has accomplished 70 doodles!! All completed through cycling around his home city of Vancouver.

There is a creative aspect to GPS doodling, but also a great deal of planning to plot the route before executing the ride. The uses of similar technology in education are numerous. Students, on field trips' could undertake similar trips, either as plotted on the GPS by their tutor, or to create their own 'piece of art'. Learning outcomes include important practicing of spacial skills and learning is made all the more powerful when authentic examples are availed through GPS guided field trips.

Will now have a chat with tutors who may find the idea useful :)

What' trades learning' and pedagogy can learn from music pedagogy

Came across this via the facebook page I follow intermittently. The page is looked after by the current band master of my school band. 40 plus years since I left school, the band continues it's strong tradition of excellence set by the first band mistress, playing a leading role in nurturing young people through learning  music and the discipline and camaraderie fostered through long hours of practice required to attain excellence.

Thestrad webpage focuses on supporting string players, with good resources on practice, technique, teaching music and collation of articles on repetitive practice and the need for effective practice. All in, a good resource of pragmatic responses to assist the learning of complex skills.

I had a look at other resources for learning music and came across some books including one on piano pedagogy.

At the CPIT library, there is a scholarly book on teaching piano – Teaching performance: a philosophy of piano pedagogy by Swinkin and published by Springer in 2015.

The book provides background (some historical) on approaches to teaching piano. The aims of the book are detailed in the introduction. Chiefly the book undertakes to try to resolve 2 dilemmas. One is to bring to the fore, the difficulty in studying music as language, the other is to push teaching of music beyond the technical, to instill greater intellectual depth, emotional sensitivity and interpretative skill in musicians. Unfortunately, I have yet to find an equivalent for trades pedagogy. So, there is a gap in the literature to be further investigated :)

We have the technology - book overview

Brief overview of the book: We have thetechnology: How biohackers, foodies, physicians, and scientists are transforming human perception, one sense at a time by KaraPlatoni, published 2015 by Basic books.

Generally positive reivews from Kirkusreviews which also provides a list of similar books.

This book is an interesting read. I borrowed the book from the local library and took it along with me on a long weekend / biking holiday. Then did a re-read when I got home as there were snippets throughout the book requiring further attention.

The book’s premise is the challenge the world as we perceive it, through our senses. There are chapters diving deeper into each sense – taste, smell, vision, hearing, touch including the ‘meta sensory’ perceptions of time, pain and emotion. Then 3 consolidating chapters on virtual reality, augmented reality and new senses.

The introduction opens with details of the fringe activity of bio-hackers. People who connect themselves to electrical / digital circuitry to add a new sense (e.g. an embedded compass) or augment a sense. The concept of ‘reading’ what happens in our brains to ‘writing’ what it may be saying, is also introduced. In short, we are on the difficult and complex journey towards being able to unravel the impulses in our brain, and translating them to control exterior devices. Of use, especially for people unable to use their limbs or unable to communicate.

In the chapter on taste, the hunt for ‘another’ taste beyond salty, sweet, sour, bitter and unami is detailed. Scientist postulate there is a ‘fat’ taste, a’calcium’ taste and a taste for ‘fullness’. The idea being that the body will intuitively seek foods which it is missing and through taste, eat foods high in the absent elements. Overall, a really good overview of how we taste and the history of research on finding out how we taste.

The next chapter focuses on smell. In particular, the ways smell brings up memories. The chapter details therapies used with dementia patients. Using significant smells, patients are encouraged to articulate their memories triggered by certain smells. Of note is the cultural / generational significance of certain smells. As will all aspects of life, the smells we are exposed to when we are young, are predicated by our life experiences. 

The vision chapter provides details of attempts to augment vision for people who have lost sight. State of the art therapies are introduced and the long process of developing practical application for theories and the refining of visual prosthetics makes for an interesting read. Various prototypes are described and discussed.

Hearing chapter provides details on the work undertaken to try to ‘read’ how the brain handles language. If ‘reading’ can be worked out, then ‘writing’ to it may also be deduced.

In the chapter on touch, surgeons using ‘robotic’ arms are used to illustrate the role of tactile senses in navigating our world.

The chapter on time is somewhat intriguing. It details the movement towards making a clock, that will measure time for 10,000 years.

The pain chapter undertakes to try to understand if emotional pain is similar to physical pain. Why do we suffer from ‘broken hearts’?

Following on, the chapter on emotion explores the cultural desensitisation in some cultures to expressing emotions. How does each culture ‘feel’? Cross cultural studies are detailed with emphasis on comparing how Eastern and Western cultures 'feel'.

The two chapters on virtual reality and augmented reality detail the latest research into these areas. Examples are provided of how virtual / augmented reality has been used to assist American troops with pre-preparation for the realities of overseas postings into stressful environments or to assist with recuperation from post-traumatic stress following deployment.

The final chapter is on ‘new senses’, returning the book’s trajectory to where it started at the beginning. The example used is the inclusion of ‘electro-magnetic’ detection into human sensations portfolio.

It might be some time before any of the above technologies infiltrate the educational sector. The challenge is the cost of developing these technologies and the context specificity of much of human learning. Virtual reality and augmented reality have been around for over a decade, but what we have seems to be only small applications into education. As with other innovative technologies, the research and development dollars are in the commercial, health and military sectors. Slowly, the technologies filter to education which tends to not have the R & D $$ to support large scale and expensive developments. Granted R & D takes place in the university sector, often building prototypes useful for learning as a by-product of applications for other sectors. However, some way yet for VR and AR to become mainstream in all sectors of education.

Peeragogy

Thinking through as to a direction for project surface tablet. One of the main ‘success’areas with tablets has been the use of the tablets to take videos of students learning practical skills or learning dispositions through roleplay. Included is the aspect of peer learning and feedback. So students use the videos as a springboard for learning not only the skills or dispositions but important aspects of judgment required to maintain reflective practice.

This bookon peeragogy, via a 2013 posting on Arlington Education Foundation referring to a holistic approach to technology enhanced learning, provides some suggestions for ways forward with regards to enhancing learning through peer learning. Although set in formal school contexts, the ideas and discussions are transferable across to vocational education.

The online book is basically a collection of ideas / resources from various American teachers who seek to improve learning through implementation of peer learning and peer production. It’s the peer production part which we really need to move along with.

So, instead of providing feedback etc. the next step is to perhaps have students develop a how to ‘guide’, using their original videos as source material. The ideas included in the book are ways to organise student groups, activities suitable, organising learning context, assessment suggestions etc. Technology tools suitable like forums, wikis, real-time meetings, MOOCs etc are discussed.

I will try out a few of the ideas with our project tablet teams, to extend on what we have begun and to continue to improve on our learning-centred approaches as supported by introducing ‘situated technology enhanced learning STEL’.

Using Sway

Sway is a microsoft free online presentation and storytelling app. I had a play last here when it first came up and found it quite user friendly. Since then, the sway team have been busy putting up examples and the examples offered are now more varied and interesting.

Although not the best example (it is structured as a scroll down) the content in this sway on the future of education is thought provoking.

Resources are now up for educators in the form of a sway, plus microsoft office has resources here and here as well providing examples for use of sway.

There is a positive review from Australian teachers blog and  jonathanwylie has a tutorial with examples.

In my own context, sway represents an opportunity to showcase ones work or for students to compile multimedia content. Sway is generally easy to use and hows promise but requires time to learn. As with other presentation tools, it is important to 'storyboard' before embarking on forming the resource.

Future of learning - schools and unschooling - impact on post-school / tertiary

While in Perth, also did a bit of reading around what the school sector is coming up with with regards to 'the future of schooling'.

Teachthought provides one perspective with 13 likely realities for the future of learning.   Included are the usual suspects of personalised learning through access to information via the WWW and the impact of the 'maker movement'.

Also, form teachthought, articles on ways technology will change education and the caveat of putting curriculum before technology.

All the above provide a good overview of what thought leaders are thinking with regards to the schools sector.

Meanwhile, in the world of work, sites like knowledge works provide articles on the uncertainty of work. Some congruence between the two sites. Tertiary learning is therefore the connecting systems between formal schooling and the future of work.

There is a need to prepare ALL for a world of continuous change. In some forms of work, there may be less change in the actual work (e.g. craft / trades) but the impact of social-political changes forces the work to refocus. For example, a carpenter still needs the skills, knowledge and dispositions of being a craftsperson BUT the ways in which the business of carpentry is conducted, will shift. There will be economic pressures to adjust to through ways materials are sourced. Technological changes in how the carpenter interacts with 'head office'. New requirements set by legislative changes and the need to be more sustainable in using materials and in building design. Therefore, important to sift out what ACTUAL impacts there might be so the curriculum to train, shifts with time.

Of interest, for instance is this book chapter by Trevor Marchand which came through my Google scholar alerts this morning. The chapter ' managing pleasurable pursuits: utopic horizons and the arts of ignoring and 'not knowing; among fine woodworkers in the 2015 book 'regimes of ignorance' - chapter one available for overview. In Marchand's book chapter, the idealistic direction of aspiring woodworkers is tempered as they progress through their two year programme. Many of the students are 'vocational migrants' - mature students who intend to 'retrain' into, perhaps, more fulfilling work - (as per Crawford's shop class as soul craft intentions). Marchand's woodcraft student interviewees appreciate the thorough grounding they are being provided with through the programme at the Building Crafts College (BCC). However, they intimate that some 'management of small business' focus may also be useful as many graduates intend to set up their own business after completing the programme.

At my institute, many of our trades programmes run in similar ways to the programmes at the BCC. There is strong emphasis on crafts skills. Business management etc. is usually something graduates of trades type Certificates embark on at Advanced Certificate or Diploma level in some trades - see NZ Dip in baking level 5 as an example of incorporating business into a trades programme. Many trades people also enrol (usually part-time) in business management type diplomas after they complete their apprenticeship. However, there is also a large category of trades people who 'stay on the tools' and leave business management aspects of their business to other business partners or their spouse or other family.

So perhaps an aspect to keep in mind and have conversations about when we design trade programmes. When, how much and how the wider business arena, beyond crafts training, needs to be introduced.

Presentations - Tim Ingold, Patricia Churchland

I was in Perth for two weeks over the Christmas and New Year to catch up with family. The weather was hot - at least 30'C everyday. I was up early as Perth is 5 hours behind NZ. Comparatively cooler in the morning to work off the good food dished up each day by my mother and other rellies, with 20 - 30 kms bike rides. Thankfully, some small hills and mostly on bike trails to explore area around the Canning River.

During the afternoon, when temperatures made it too hot to be outdoors and my parents, babies, pets  etc. were having their post-lunch siesta, I caught up with a range of youtube videos on topics relevant to my research projects - i.e. trades learning and how people become trades people. Usually, I previewed the video on afternoon. Then spent another afternoon working through the details of some of the concepts presented using Google Scholar and the presenters' webpage. Then drilling down to salient concept and to write up notes etc. with another more selective video watching session. So each of the following presenters took up a good 5 - 6 afternoons.

First up , caught up with a few videos with Professor Tim Ingold who has a chair in Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. There were several videos reflecting the evolution of Professor Ingold's work. One I watched through was on'Thinking through making' recorded in October 2013. Although only about half an hour, the presentation covered many of the precepts of Ingold's work, with text version covering for example in 'Toward an Ecology of Materials'. Annual Review of Anthropology' .

Then, the work of Professor Patricia Churchland from the University of California on neurophilosophy, leading to a collection of videos from Serious Science - which I will park for another occasion to view. Also a longer video on free will and self control related to her work on neuroethics.

I find videos to be a good way to better understand the writings of researchers, especially with topics requiring effort to build up a foundation in and then to work through complex concepts. Viewing the video brings into focus researchers' / writers' standpoint. Good presentations often include examples not always detailed in articles. So, videos are good supplements, especially if ever being able to watch f2f presentations from illustrious academics are out of reach.

Papers - researching work and learning 2015 and sino nz tvet research forum

Put in an afternoon last week to catch up on papers from conferences I missed out on last year. Thankfully, presentations and papers archived by the efficient conference organisers :)

Firstly, the Research in Work and Learning 9th conference which was held in Singapore at the end of November last year. Links to abstracts with papers start from this site. Symposium papers with a couple discussing on sociomateriality

Then, papers from the  3rd sino-NZ TVET research forum also held at the end of November, in Hamilton. Good to see progress in establishing links between Kiwi and Chinese TVET.

The year ahead - 2016

This year two major items will impact on my workload and work direction.

Firstly, the merger of CPIT and Aoraki Polytechnic to form a new institute is now in progress. This raises issues of support for staff situated away from Christchurch city. Due to the distributed nature of our campus, there is a need to support learners who will be geographically dispersed. There has been an emphasis on ‘flexible delivery’ to date but the merger will mean flexibility of access becomes an important implementation goal.

Secondly, we have at least 2 new educational developers starting with us this year, with possibility of 2 more. The arrival of this cohort of educational developers, brings us up to former strength. The newbies come from either the higher education or the formal education (secondary) sector. Their challenge will be to come to an understanding of our diverse portfolio relatively quickly. The outcomes of TRoQ/ MRoQ mean we have substantial work to do. The merger will challenge us, with our mostly f2f delivery modes, to prepare teaching teams for shifting to provide more flexible forms of learning.

On the technology-enhanced learning front, a major project will be to complete pilotsof Onenote Classroom Notebook with several courses. We need to test the viability of this platform for deployment into specialised discipline areas, each with specific pedagogical goals.   

Work with tablets continue as several teams supported over the last 3 years have now adopted BYOD or have managed to purchase class sets of tablets.

Dissemination continues with several journal articles in various states of draft, close to submission, peer review and tidying up for publication. There is a joint book chapter to coordinate and write and discussions for an edited book to see to fruition. 

So, looking forward to a busy year with new challenges and continuing work.

2015 overview

Here are some reflections at the end of a busy year. This year, there has been concentrated work on completing learning design projects. Hence, less time to get to conferences, ruminate on the philosophy of vocational education and write.

The main programme I have been involved with this year have been from computing with a total of 8 programmes of study developed into two new programme documents.

Programme development support has largely been with Architecture as they developed programmes of study for 3 qualifications. My role has largely been to facilitate staff to understand the process and to help them work through the implications wrought by the course descriptors developed by another ITP. We worked on ways to improve learning focus through development of authentic assessments to assist students’ work readiness.

Additionally, I have supported my colleagues with the development of 4 other programmes, either as sounding board, critical evaluator or with staff development support for the teaching teams. Tag teaming assists us to ensure we provide a seamless and pro-active support as and when required. Often, teaching teams need ‘just in time’ support and we have found developmental activities solicited by teams, yield better long term outcomes. The teams are already moving in a certain direction and our role is to gently steer into the path which will assist with enhanced active learning, and formative feedback principles.

Technology enhanced teaching support has focused on several ‘new’ project tablet projects, including one to trial one note notebook creator with a small cohort of students. Also the support of 4 teaching teams to use tablets and miracast in the new teaching spaces of our ‘science’ and humanities teaching block.

Research has been quiet this hear due to the need to concentrate on programme development. I have concentrated on dissemination and review. as a means to increase access to my work, I compiled an annotated bibliography as reference for people interested in the scholarship of apprenticeship and trade-based learning. There has been encouragement from winning several awards in the vocational research arena. Confirming I am on the 'right track' and encouragement to work at honing my writing and presentation skills.

Off next week for a couple of weeks of rest and recreation :) 

Mud Masons of Djenne - ethnographical study of apprenticeship and workplace learning

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is curating a series of video interviews of with the masons of Djenne . The video interviews (in French) are with the 'master' masons, present practitioners and apprentices. Viewing the videos bring to life the work of Professor Trevor Marchand and the descriptions and scholarship from his books 'Minaret building and apprenticeship in Yemen (2001) with a supportive review and 'The Masons of Djenne (2009)' and an overview paper.

The videos are short but provide a window into the world of the learning of a pre-text based craft. Mimetic learning is the norm with apprentices learning 'by stealth' and gradual belonging into the community of masons. Worth a look through for background into studies of learning through practice.

CPIT 'lightning presentations' - embracing 21st Century learners

Attended and presented at today,s lunch time session from Diploma in Tertiary Learning and Teaching and from staff who presented at the recent National Tertiary Learning and Teaching conference. Format is for Pecha Kucha, lightning type presentations of 5 minutes each. So lot of short sharp presentations.

Smoothing the landing: Creating a MOOC for new international students  (Kevin Brennan and Rowan Jeffrey, Learning Services) as per NTLT presentation, introducing staff to a MOOC created to assist new students to study skills and academic literacies. Covered rationale, pedagogical approach as to MOOCs, identification if topics through student forums and staff voices and preview of some of the content.

A model for ‘blending’ a highly interactive f2f course – Lynette Winter and Niki Hannan (Teacher Education) also as per NTLT presentation, bringing active learning approach into Moodle. Covered rationale and approach. Course re organised from scratch to not lose what was already working and to bring strategies in to make the blend work - attend workshop, complete online activity and apply learning to their work.

The positives of negative marking (Steve Tomsett, Engineering). Provided rationale and how it works. Presented marking schedule to show how it works. Negative marking deducts marks for errors and total mark may overlap. Argues negative marking allows relative and absolute importance.

From Lurking to Posting: Encouraging student engagement in on-line course content (Julie Richards, Midwifery). Presented brief background and approach using OB3. What works - connection before engagement, prompt lecturer response, learning activities require individualised response and importance of student created content.

Social Work: introducing flipped lessons  (Karen Argyle, Social Work). Learnt about flip learning from last years session! Talked on strategy used to create content and evaluation used to work out if students have engaged and why. Next year, intends to teach one as flipped and other without to see if any differences.

Using self-reflection and peer review to increase understanding of assignment criteria: the pros and cons (Arifah Addison, Computing). Summarised approach and details of how deployed. Especially to allow introverted students to be in a more comfortable way to provide feedback and scaffold to better attainment of social and communication skills.

Creating models for explaining concepts (Paul McGowan, Electrical Trades). Brought along a physical example to help students understand difficult concepts, especially concepts that may not follow common-sense. Detailed adventures in learning how to create animations (with literature showing mixed impact of animations on learning).

Aligning graduate profile framed qualifications with occupational identity indicators  (Selena Chan, Academic Services Division) as summarised in previous post.

Trades engineering (embedded numeracy for YG students) (Bernie Streeter, Engineering/Manufacturing at Trades). Using teaching techniques to help dis engaged students learn trade maths. Provided background and improvements made, based on understanding of concepts as presented recently at the trades campus by Nathan Mikaere-Wallis.

Presented on a example on learning surface speed formula to move from the concrete to the representative to the abstract. Especially covering how to use physical object to cover representative concepts.

Engineering the write way (Bruce Morrison, Humanities) as presented at NTLT. Provided rationale to integrate technical literacy into engineering fundamentals  first year course. Lab reports used to assist students to learn ways of scientific thinking and communication.

Project-based learning: Making it real (Lynne Coker, Business). Context based learning to develop soft skills. Lynne summarised a presentation from NTLT by Wendy Trimmer & Juliana Korzon from Whitireia. Scenarios were used to assist nursing students learn how to make clinical judgments.

Using One NoteClassroom Creator as a tool for improving students’ report writing skills in engineering (Lindsey Alton, Engineering). Summarised the pilot and evaluation run this semester with engineering students to assist learning how to write lab reports. 

OneNote Class Notebook creator - resources

Here is an update on Onenote class notebook creator bringing together, the various resources created by Microsoft and others to support the platform. These resources will be used as we structure plans to extend our initial pilot of the platform to other departments and discipline areas.

Notebook creator is part of suite of tools offered through office 365 educator suite. Not all the products will be available at the initial launch of Office 365 as we will also be using a range of corporate tools.The most important outcome of moving across to Office 365 is the 'one access' password into the system, providing access to all the apps available and ability to connect all the software being used to the cloud.

There is a dedicated page for teachers with links to various resources / tutorials etc. to get started and make the most of onenote. Including one on curriculum 'delivery', and one on collaboration. Some of the resources were put together using the relative new 'Sway' app to put together a presentation with ebook book style navigation.

Pros and Cons of using notebook creator are discussed in this blog from broadeducation.

Ako Aotearoa Academy symposium - day 2

Day begins with Dr. Peter Coolbear, director of Ako Aotearoa providing an update on the tertiary landscape. He discussed - what's on the horizon for NZ and Ako Aotearoa. Stressed importance of cooperation due to increasing sector complexity. Summarised current challenges : integrity of funding system and fundees; validity of NZQA quality assurance processes being questioned; TEC trying genuinely consultative on mew models of investments; productivity commission review; expectation that domestic demand to fall; employability still on agenda; renewed push for international education; and inherent assumption that tertiary education can fix socio-economic deprivation. 

Encouragement to contribute practitioners view when productivity commission seeks feedback. Look at recent review of social services as an example. Covered Ako Aotearoa objectives for 2016. There is need to demonstrate impact; re focus project funding - with need to rationalise 'gaps' in regionally funded projects, re invest in dissemination of project recommendations to push change etc.; use strategic fora to drive change; becoming semi-independent; Expand work on evaluative self assessment; support professional accreditation of practitioners. 

James Patterson leads a session on "the outward looking face of the academy". Shared overview of the work done to publicise the academy. Refresh of the imagery and material providing academy information. Shared potential new and brochures. New website launched. 

Professor Angus Macfarlane presents on "looking back at 50 years of Maori education" or nga tapuwae o mua, mo kura - food steps from the past, informing the future. Covered briefly historic icons, recent thinkers, knowledge areas, ways of knowing, examples of culturally responsive education, summary of more recent thinkers, the discourse of diversity. Posed challenge to all academy members to accept responsibility assist adding value to Te Ao Maori. In particular, truths tolerated, data sought, experiences tasted, assumptions challenged. Reviewed historical colonisation impact on Maori, Maori education and current lobbies and organisations supporting Maori initiatives. Increase of 'conscientization' to accept Maori streams of consciousness with a convergence of streams of knowledge and consideration of culturally embedded streams. Need to destory the past negative experiences and restory positive success. Need to ensure Maori perspectives become part of all deliberate acts of teaching. Challenged academy to step up ensure meaningful cultural responsiveness. Encouraged insistence of high standards, tap into students culture, consider nuances of dominant discourse, take at risk students under their wings, perceive teaching as a calling, provide care and guidance and transform classrooms from boring to brisk. Covered ways to engage students including withitness and mana. Therefore need to integrate culturally inclusiveness, avail socioculturally grounded resources, attitudinal shifts, good teaching, wise leadership and informed and confident communities of learning. 

After morning tea, we have Dr. Elana Curtis present on "Maori and Pacific success: how tertiary institutions can make a difference ". Shared experiences, personal and professional, on strategies to assist. Tertiary institution strategies can help. Exampled Auckland University 40 years of investment in increasing numbers and improving outcomes for Maori and Pacifica. Need to reimagine potential and invest in recruitment (starting early), re focus selection process. If applicants follow advise and meet criteria they stand higher chance of completion. In programmes, important not to spoon feed, assist independent learning, support learning community. Need to reorient academic support. Also review and critique own role as educator.

On a similar theme, Margaret Henley shares her work on "first in family (FiF) and the recognition of non-traditional cultural capital in first year tertiary learners: a NZ / UK comparison". Shared literature on the topic - UK, USA, NZ and Australian. Tended to have a deficit approach and as a problem to solve. Recommended work by Yosso, 2005 as an approach. Find out aspirations, work out familial resources, linguistic skills, social capital, navigational abilities through institute and experiences with resistance to the norm. Need to be aware of the invisible pedagogy accessible more to middle class families. Aims of FiF programme to help manage transition, maximise learning, enhance engagement, reduce attrition rate and pool academic and professional staff resources. Provided details of intervention - targeted learning sessions - to identify students early, build relationships and provide assistance where required. Online version ask so available. Students identified through completion of 5 mark trigger assessment as a diagnostic and 'product' to frame the targeted learning sessions. 

After lunch, Ksenija Napan leads a workshop to work through the "many faces of academic life: the adventures of Pinocchio and his friends while navigating through a neoliberal university". Questions posed to teams, each taking on a character from Pinocchio, to work through. The goal is for each team to co create an alternative story, relevant to academy member. Modelled the co participate inquiry approach.

Symposium closed with academy hour to provide feedback on the experiences.  Eric Pawson facilitated session on Feedback collated from members on action points started, progressed or completed through the learning from last years' symposiums reported. 

Overall, a growing maturity of the academy came through. We are larger in number, still diverse but finding common ground in our practitioner perspectives on excellence and quality tertiary learning and teaching. 

Feedback session closes a busy but interesting symposium. 

Ako Aotearoa Academy Symposium 2015 - day 1

At this year's annual gathering of Excellence in tertiary teaching awardees held in Wellington over two days. Great to touch base with familiar people and to get to know the awardees from 2015.

Symposium opens with Maori welcome from Angus McFarlane, Kelly Pender with a special welcome from Dame Dr. Iritana Tawhiwhirangi. She shared her initial teaching experiences following on from teaching in the school with Sylvia Ashton Warner to the setting up of the total immersion schools in the 1970s. James Patterson welcomed everyone and provided overview of program and Amy Fitzgerald ran through housekeeping matters. 

Eric Pawson, currently academy president then welcomed the new members and members at the first time to the symposium. Committee members introduced. Tony Zaharic went through details of two days and logistical matters. James facilitated a welcome to new members. Alison then summarised role of academy and where it connects with other Ako Aotearoa functions. 

Dr. Karyn Paringatai presents on an approach she uses successfully to enhance student learning - nga kura huna o Te Po - the hidden secrets of the dark. Went through evolution of method, refining and evaluation. Then modelled the technique for all of us to learn a Maori song. Questions followed to better understand the concepts.  

After lunch, parallel sessions begin with two short sessions. I support Paul Robinson's presentation on "lateral speed" with Paul sharing his journey a chef and educator. An interactive session to celebrate life long learning. Paul summarised the themes encountered as he travelled a journey both physically and cognitively. Showed video made to complete his Bachelors in Culinary Arts centered around case studies of 3 chefs / bakers / restauranteur and their on going learning and entrepreneurship beyond the Christchurch earthquakes to re establish their businesses. 

Then with Warwick Murray on " virtually there? Transporting students to the field through music and images". Shared 4 ways to teleport students to the field while they are situated in a lecture theatre. Field work is preferable but expensive, time consuming and has inherent cultural and physical challenges. Transform and translate context, delivery and assessments to assist setting scene, activities and expectations. Examples are simulation e.g. Working in the governance of an imaginary country through interactive game followed by reflective practice. Strategies include music and images to set scene, writing songs and listening to songs, ge-ogs (small snippets taken using mobile, usually personalised so connects with students), and amalgamate various scene setting and digital resources into virtual field trips. Immersive virtual field trips final objective. 

A reflective session followed to unpack learnings from previous sessions. 

After afternoon tea, I facilitate a workshop on "using video to improve learning skills, knowledge and dispositions" with emphasis on the sociomaterial dimensions of learning. An interactive session where my assigned 1/2 hour ran to an hour. Good ideas generated by participants which I hope they will put into practice and report back next year 😀

Then a closing plenary for the day from Zoe Jordens on "an exploration of science lecturers' views on quality teaching in science at university". Opened with her experiences from scientist to becoming an educator and how the learning process has captured her interest and focus. Compared typical undergraduate science lab with workplace collaborative lab practice. Provided overview of her current PhD studio topic and overview of the Delphi method (specifically dissensus) used to collect data. Participants were Academy members teaching science. Findings indicate themes of relevance,motivation, understanding the scientific process and variety of ways to deliver assist how students learn science. Variety of ways include doing science, working with scientists, observation and other supporters and sources to construct own knowledge. Quality teaching includes interactive teaching, connection, critical thinking, scientific ways of thinking, reflection and the NZ context. Approaches that prepare students well include authentic tasks, scientific ways of thinking and practicing,mrelationships with industry and inquiry based learning. Next phase of Delphi to analyse data from collection of responses from larger sample of science 'lecturers'. 

Dinner provides another opportunity to catch up and learn from each other. 

OneNote - Notebook Creator - interim pilot

Our small pilot of OneNote Class Notebook has yielded positive results. Only a small cohort of engineering students (year one on a three year degree) participated.

The main objective of the pilot was to:

• ·         Test one note notebook creator as lab report tool
• ·         engage engineering students in using lab books on a progressive basis
• ·         Provide students with formative feedback as their lab books are completed.
• ·         Provide a platform for summative assessments of student lab reports.

Both tutor and students feedback were supportive. The main bugbears were difficulties with inputting equations, sketching and citation/ referencing. Some of the challenges with entering equations etc. can be solved with using stylii.

      

'     OneNote Class Notebook’s capabilities are especially useful for pedagogical approaches reliant on timely formative feedback. The platform allows tutors to ‘see’ student work as traditionally paper-based learning activities are worked through and provide feedback ‘in-situ’. Co-constructive learning through problem-based or inquiry-based learning are also other areas the capabilities of OneNote Class Notebook would be useful.

      

      We will now plan for a more extensive pilot from early next year as the institute attains full access to Office 365. In particular, we need to try the platform across a range of discipline areas, with a variety of formative / summative assessment requirements.

The body in professional practice, learning and education - book overview

A book edited by Bill Green(Charles Sturt University) and Nick Hopwood (University of Technology, Sydney), published 2015 by Springer as part of the series on professional and practice-based learning. Read the ebook accessed over the last week through CPIT library.

15 chapters in 4 parts

Part 1 – Introductions

Chapters 1 and 2 by the editors provide a foundation with overviews of role of body in practice.

On professional practice as embodied, performed by material and corporeal beings, in specific space-time. Reasons for the topic and themes in the book discussed. Frameworks anchoring the studies and concepts introduced through the book are briefly discussed. Includes works from philosophers exampled by Aristotle, Witttgenstein, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Schatzki; feminist literature of Butler and Grosz, sociology of the body with Shilling and Turner and the poststructuralist theories from Foucault, Derrida and others. The relevant contemporary work on ‘professions’ and ‘embodiment’ also reviewed briefly, providing good grounding for any future work.

Defines practice, rationalises the reasons for researching the topic. Recommends research methods including combination of ethnography and discourse analysis framed by actor-network theory or  cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT).

Origins and chapter summaries also provided in the first chapter.

In the second chapter, the theoretical underpinnings supporting the various discussions in the book are previewed, summarised and discussed. There is an overview and discussion of Schatzki’s conceptualisation of ‘being a body, having a body’, the instrumental body’ and relevance to practice. The aspects of performance and habituation are also considered.

Part 2 – thinking with the body in professional practice

Chapter 3 by Margaret Somerville and Karen Vella on ‘sustaining the change agent: Bringing the body into language in professional practice’.  A complex chapter whereby Feminist thought is used to study how organisational change affects professional practice. The PhD supervisor, Somerville and the Phd student, Vella, use an experience working with fabric, to assist in the unpacking of the nuances of embodied experiences.

Next a chapter by Nick Hopwood on ‘relational geometries of the body: doing ethnographic fieldwork’. This draws on personal ethnographies from the author and how ‘body geometries’ can be used to theorise what occurs to the ethnographer as he is steeped in fieldwork.

Chapter 5 with Mary C. Johnnson on ‘Terroir and time space: body rhythms in wine making’. An interesting chapter bringing together the findings on how bringing the body through embodiment with work and the practices of wine making, leads to the discovery of the body rhythms’ roles in learning and continuing practice.

Jo Anne Reid and Donna Mathewson Mitchel provide a chapter on ‘inhabiting the teaching body: portraits of teaching’. Provides good overviews of ‘embodiment’ through practice. How ‘teacherly’ action is adopted. The context of the article is pre-service teacher education and how to prepare beginning teachers to become in touch with their body as teacherly thinking and actions through interaction with material practices and arrangements occur. There is an examination of how expertise develops through experience, as novice teachers ‘fashion’ themselves to diagnose and act pedagogically.

Dianne Mulcahy writes another teaching themed chapter with ‘body matters: the critical contribution of affect in school classrooms and beyond’. The chapter follows on well from the previous. Seeks to break the cognitive bias of studying education to include trying to understand the how emotion impacts on how our bodies interact with ‘objects and spaces’. Uses actor-network theory as a means to unravel the interactions and envisages the many inter-relations between human and material objects as ‘assemblages’ as based on work by Deleuze and Guattari. Has good overview on the affect and bodies – summarising what bodies do and the kinds of practice thinking that informs doing.

Last chapter in this section is with Bill Green on ‘thinking bodies: practice theory, Deleuze and professional education’. Reviews the work of Deleuze and contributions to what it means to think of the body in a post-cartesian frame. Work of Schatzki’s also discussed. The chapter uses the example of how teachers teach reading, to provide frameworks from which the work of Deleuze and others may be understood. In particular, the perspective of the classroom as a ‘corporate body’ whereby the bodies of teacher and students align through activity to try to meet the activity’s goals.

Part 3 relates to the body in question in health and professional education and practice, perhaps of less relevance for the moment, but these chapters ‘show the way’ of how to integrate thinking about practice within specific practice contexts.

In chapter 9, Stephen Loftus writes on ‘embodiment in the practice and education of health professionals’. The chapter is narrative in nature, drawing on the author’s early experiences in medical practice. The need for empathy is a theme through the chapter and understanding the embodied body is one approach to better become a health professional.

The next chapter by Erika R. Katzman is on ‘embodied reflexivity: knowledge and the body in professional practice’. Brings together aspects of embodiment and reflection and how ‘embodied reflexivity leads to improved professional practice. Has overviews of each of the concepts, embodiment, reflection, embodied reflexivity, as understood or applied to a health context. The chapter revolves around the experiences of the author as an ‘attendant’ to a patient who is bedridden. How the author came to know her patient’s body and had to intervene when she saw changes in the patient’s bed sores but due to her position, had great difficulty obtaining assistance.

Then, a chapter on ‘embodied practise in dialysis care: on (para) professional work’ by Lara L Ellingston. The work of para-professionals working with dialysis patients is analysed through ethnographical methods  to foreground principles of embodiment.

Chapter 12 is on ‘(per)forming the practice(d) body: Gyneacological teaching associates in medical education’ by Jody Hall. Uses the experiences of gynaecological teaching associates (GTAs) to unravel the complex processes underlying how they assist medical students to learn how to perform pelvic examinations by allowing students to use them as patients. The author is a GTA and uses her ‘insider’ eyes to bring forth the stories of GTAs, their challenges.

The next chapter focuses on ‘the (de)fragmented body in nursing education’ by Sandra DeLuca, Pat Bethune-Davies and Janice Elliot. Explores how the use of simulations / virtual learning experiences used to educate nursing students, may lead to disembodiment.

Last chapter in section 3 is with Sally Denshire who writes on ‘looking like an occupational therapist: (re)presentations of her comportment within autoethnographical tales’. An example of using autoethnography to unpack the many socio-material aspects of occupational therapy.

The last section and chapter provides concluding reflections from Elizabeth Anne Kinsella on ‘embodied knowledge: towards a corporeal turn in professional practice, research and education’. The rationalisation for the need to widen perspectives on understanding practice is the main focus of this chapter. Not only the socio-material but also potentially difficult aspects (emotional or social taboos etc.) are brought to attention through the various research approaches sympathetic to examining emotions, embodiment etc.

Overall, a good compilation of contemporary work on practice / embodied practice and in consequence, the flow on impacts on embodied thinking, reflection etc. Each chapter takes a slightly different slant on the topic. The work of Schatzki crops up often along with Deleuze, Foucault, Heidigger and Meleau-Ponty, signalling the need for me to get into more reading to get my head around the various perspectives.