Course Compilation Post

December 8, 2024

 

Reflection:

EDLD 5317 has created the opportunity for me to synthesize an authentic document and activities that has allowed me to develop as a self-directed learner and gain additional skills to help my students become self-directed learners themselves. 

 

When I began the ADL program at Lamar University, I was focused on the idea that I could turn my classroom into a Blended Learning Community in which high school juniors and seniors would find a way to be more self-directed learners on their way to college, trade school, the military or the world of work. I quickly realized that taking one or two classes with me would not be enough to help change the small percentage of students who pass through the hallways of my school. Throughout EDLD 5304 and EDLD 5317, I need and can expand my focus to include the entire staff and most courses taught in the high school.  Then I began to focus on systemic changes in the education of all students in my district.  In doing so, this will have to cause a change in the structure of my Innovation Plan. As a staff, we truly need to change our focus from teaching to collaborating and mentoring and change the young people in our school from students to self-directed learners.

There are two elements that I want to clarify from my introduction.  First, I wrote that most courses could convert to a Blended Learning classroom approach. As a comprehensive high school in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we house both academic and Career and Technology programs on our campus. Having written curriculum for academic courses throughout my career, I believe that a transition to blended learning can be accomplished fairly easily on the academic side. I am unsure what this would look like from the CTE perspective, but would certainly like to take on the challenge. The other element I want to clarify is that we do not use the term learner to indicate the young people in our charge. I feel we need to transition to blended learning to effectively use that term. As a staff, we need to turn the tide of educational apathy our students are swimming in. As I developed my Publication Outline into my Rough draft and used the reflections and comments of my Learning group and the Podcast we developed, it all led to my Publication Article. My article discusses the need to ameliorate student apathy. The proposal is that we can use the blended learning structure to engage our students, help reduce if not eliminate the academic and educational indifference students hold on to so stringently, and make them the lifelong learners society needs for education and informed learners.  My district’s mission statement is to “Prepare every student by name for success at every level.”  How can we prepare them if they are indifferent to learning and learning how to learn?

As a teacher who wishes to be an academic mentor and coach, I believe that the most important elements that I need to focus on from Roger Shank’s (2024) article “Teaching Minds: How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools” are Experimentation, Value, Judgment, and Teamwork.  In a blended learning environment, students must be allowed to experiment and fail.  It is in the failure that a student can make judgments about what will work for them and what will not. Students will hopefully, then begin to see the value in their learning- creating, adjusting, destroying (if necessary), re-creating, and building the skills, processes, and artifacts that show what they have learned. Not all of this can be done in a bubble though, It will require the use of teambuilding and teamwork skills.  Very few professionals today work in isolation. Law firms work in teams to fight for their clients’ best interests. Doctors, nurses, and hospital administrators work to provide the best quality care for their patients. 

These elements also lead us to the idea of ‘invisible learning.” As we grow, our minds form new pathways with each new experience. The experiences are linked to others like it or to situations that can very likely fall into the same set of standards. It is through invisible learning that we learn many of the dos and don’ts of life. It is through the development of invisible learning that we can master the skills that Schank highlights in “Teaching Minds: How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools.”

 

References:

Education Futures. (2011, September 15). Roger Schank on Invisible Learning.   https://educationfutures.com/blog/post/

      roger-schank-invisible-learning.

Schank, Roger. (2024).  Teaching minds: How cognitive science can save our schools. 

              https://www.rogerschank.com/teaching-minds-how-cognitive-science-can-save-our-schools.