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Continuing Professional Development for Teachers: What Works?

28/2/2020

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Mark Martin (@urban_teacher) has taught ICT for over 10 years and supports teachers in using technology to improve teaching and learning. Here Mark shares ideas on how schools can deliver impactful CPD for both new and experienced teachers.

What would you like to see more of in CPD for teachers today?

I would like to see more of a focus on design thinking and co-creation. We need to change the type of CPD sessions where presenters just talk at passive observers. I’m not a fan of the top-down model of training where more ‘experienced’ staff talk about generic teaching resources and one-size-fits all answers. What you’ll find is when people are more actively involved in the learning process, they are more motivated to take ownership of their professional development. We need to work with new teachers and support them with coming up with tangible solutions for specific teaching challenges. Schools could also provide opportunities for key stakeholders in education such as trainee teachers, experienced teachers, the senior leadership team and edtech companies, to get together to discuss current issues in education and collaboratively design real strategies to overcome these challenges.

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Can you remember a particularly impactful school CPD session?
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There was one where groups of teachers had created market stalls. They shared good practice on the new strategies they had trialled in their lessons. Everyone walked around the school and saw the amazing things that were being done within particular subjects. It provided a great opportunity for teachers to discover and experiment with something they might not have tried with their students. It also opens up opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching.
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How can schools avoid delivering CPD sessions on content that teachers already know?
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It’s a shame when teachers go to a CPD session and they hear about something that they’ve already learned previously. Schools need to strive to keep CPD sessions new and fresh. Before you deliver the CPD session, skill check your team. Create a short survey to find out exactly what they would like to develop. Carefully word the questions and allow teachers to self-assess their strengths and areas for development. Using this information, teachers can be grouped according to their interests then targeted CPD sessions can be delivered to these groups. You’ll find that there will be less resistance and more openness from most teachers when their opinions are used to design the sessions.
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Building Knowledge with Dual Coding

22/2/2020

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Most of us have experienced death by PowerPoint at some time in our lives. You might remember how much time the presentation wasted or just how insipid the overall experience was, but can you remember what it was all about? Of course not. So why do some teachers continue to deliver lessons in this way? We’ve all heard that we need to keep the text to a minimum on visual aids, use larger fonts and some pictures, but what else can be done to benefit the learning of your students? Oliver Caviglioli the author of Dual Coding With Teachers shares some tips on how educators can design visual aids to support the learning of their pupils.
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When I transitioned from teaching in a local comprehensive to a special school, the clarity and directness of the visual explanations used in the special school became immediately apparent. Throughout my childhood, my architect father would deliver daily sermons on the principles of design and demonstrated how sketching could play a powerful role in problem-solving. It was at the special school where I applied this knowledge and began experimenting with visual designs to engage my pupils. Later, in the 1990s, I discovered that I had actually been putting Allan Paivio’s theory of dual coding to practice all along.

What is dual coding?
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Dual coding can be traced back to two stories. The most well-known dual coding story dates back to Allan Paivio’s research from the early 1970s. This involves combining a word and an image to form a single unit of meaning. As images and words are processed separately in their distinct channels, this makes for what Professor Paul Kirschner calls double-barrelled learning. The double encoding that happens through this tethering of word and image, leaves a double memory trace and, consequently, offers double the chance of being retrieved. What is less well known is that Paivio’s experimental subjects were dealing with very simple words, with no conceptual challenge at all. So, for the encoding and memorisation of simple content, this story of dual coding is useful but hardly has great significance when dealing with the cognitive challenge that represents teachers’ everyday work in classrooms.
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The second less well-known dual coding story with far more educational significance is related to his later work — particularly Mental Representations, 1990 — he writes about the differences in structure and consequent processing of verbal and visual information. While he did not do any research into this in the same way as in his earlier work, he considered it significant. Its significance was explored a few years before by Larkin and Simon in 1987. They established what they termed The Visual Argument based on their findings that well-formed diagrams were more cognitively efficient than text alone. In their experiments, subjects given such a diagram were more rapid and accurate in finding answers to comprehension questions than those presented only with text.

​The lessons to be drawn from both stories is that the earlier story is about the visual capacity, while the second story is about the visuospatial capacity. Processing text, with its linear structure, places more challenge than the non-linear arrangements of diagrams on the subjects’ cognitive resources. As philosopher, Bertrand Russell, pointed out in the 1930s, a diagram, its elements and their relationships are immediately and explicitly available to the viewer. In the parallel situation of the same information being articulated in text alone, the necessary complexity of the syntax involved inevitably increases the difficulty of comprehension. Thus, the findings a half century later of Larkin and Simon in 1987 as mentioned above.

Why do teachers need to know about dual coding?

Even if teachers never use dual coding in their classrooms, they can benefit enormously from learning about it because through the theory they can better understand the significance of the role of schema in teaching and learning. As the term schema is currently being revived in teachers’ lexicon, it seems crucial that we start to investigate its structure and processes. Studying dual coding — in the sense of story number 2 — does this very effectively.

Teachers can use dual coding initially in revealing their schema of the topic under question when introducing and explaining it to their students. That way, students have the fleeting and vanishing words of their teacher (the transient information effect, in the context of cognitive load theory). Then through a process I have termed Recount and Recall, students can study and reproduce the graphic organiser in such a way that results in perfect or near-perfect recall. For details of this process, see my forthcoming book with Tom Sherrington, Teaching WalkThrus: five-step guides to Instructional Coaching.
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Equally, at a later stage, teachers can give their students a partially completed graphic organiser, in which the missing parts can be filled in with a multiple choice style format with an array of plausible options below the visual.
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Free dual coding resources

My website — www.olicav.com — has 16 sections that cover topics such as posters, powerpoint, graphic organisers, diagrams, course modules, walkthrus, sketch notes, portraits, quotes, icons, illustrations, videos and podcasts. Most of the resources are freely available to download, subject to a Creative Commons agreement.

I currently present on different aspects of dual coding at international, national and regional researchED events. I lead training sessions in schools and colleges, and have recently collaborated with Tom Sherrington to produce Teaching WalkThrus: five-step guides to instructional coaching, a practical guide on 50 teaching techniques that convert Rosenshine’s principles of instruction into daily practice. The publication will be released next month.
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You can follow what Oliver is up to on twitter @olicav
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Creating the First European Master’s in Educational Entrepreneurship

4/2/2020

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A discussion with Blair Stevenson (PhD., Oulu University of Applied Sciences)
 

Around four years ago, Oulu University of Applied Sciences (OAMK) established a pre-incubator programme called EduLAB. It was as a full-time edtech specific pre-incubator programme. The vast number of programme applicants revealed that there was a real demand for further qualifications in educational entrepreneurship, not only in Finland but also globally. Due to this feedback, OAMK decided to create Europe’s first Master’s degree programme in Education Entrepreneurship. The course was specifically developed for professionals who are interested in getting involved in the global edtech industry. So how did the course organisers go about designing the programme of study? They built the course content from scratch, agreed on key course components and benchmarked the programme of study against other existing programmes such as the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education’s Master degree programme in Education Entrepreneurship. Why? Penn Graduate School of Education was the first university in the world to successfully launch a study programme of this kind. OAMK has since formed a partnership with Penn Graduate School of Education allowing for the exchange of knowledge and expertise.
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What makes this study programme unique?
 
The course is structured as a one year blended executive programme and is delivered entirely in English. The Master’s degree programme isn’t delivered by OAMK’s Business or Education School. It is housed in its School of Media and Performing Arts. Blair believes this has many benefits. “ I feel business schools have a very particular vision about how to be an entrepreneur, so do faculties of education. Being in the School of Media and Performing Arts infuses our approach in design principles,” says Blair.​ The programme’s course content explores education, business management and finance, and service design. Sometimes you come across startups where the founder doesn’t have a strong grasp of pedagogy but has the necessary skills to manage or lead a business. Or it might be the other way around. This course develops the participants’ understanding of both pedagogy and company creation - whether or not they are an entrepreneur or intrepreneur. The course has a design-based learning approach. They find this supports collaboration and sharing throughout the different stages of the programme. The culminating experience of the programme is a thesis which often connects with the participants designing and launching their own educational product or service.

Blair has noticed both a national and international demand for the programme. “About half of the cohort are from Finland and the other half are from across Europe and around the world. It’s a very interesting mix,” he says. OAMK is a professionally-oriented university with strong industry links. The programme also provides participants with the opportunity to participate in some of the largest gatherings in edtech. Last year, they attended EdTechXEurope. OAMK celebrates the role it has played in transforming higher education and entrepreneurship for EdTech. Given that the first cohort is just finishing the programme, it is too early to evaluate its impact. It is clear that the course has been designed to prepare participants in a different way to traditional programmes. So it is expected that they are developing a different type of learner - individuals with a strong knowledge in effective pedagogy with the ability to lead innovative edtech startups.

Find out more about the programme here 
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Soronko Academy: Coding for Sustainability

3/2/2020

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Regina Honu is the CEO of Soronko Solutions, a technology company based in Ghana. She successfully runs Soronko Academy — the first coding and human centered design school in West Africa for young people and adults. The academy is part of Soronko Foundation which initially trained only girls and women, and later expanded to support boys and men in learning how to code. The academy is inclusive and supports learners with special educational needs and disabilities. Her entrepreneurial success story was published in Lean in for Graduates by Sheryl Sandberg, and on the Impatient Optimist blog by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Here is her story to help inspire your own educational entrepreneurship.

Originally, Soronko Academy was started to sustain a programme that Regina had started called Techniques Girls. It was a mentorship programme where girls aged from 6–18 were coached to lead and innovate by learning to code. Techniques Girls faced some key challenges that needed to be addressed. The programme took place at different locations and would engage with different groups of young women for a limited period of time. Impact assessments revealed that the programme participants struggled to build on what they had learned previously as they did not have open access to computers.“When a community doesn’t understand what an empowered girl looks like, if you empower her and leave her without support they bring her back to a worse state,” says Regina.

Regina found a permanent space for the programme to take place. The girls were able to have unlimited access to the devices. Facilitators also had a place where they could discuss and design a personalised curriculum for the learners. Regina received requests for the programme to be made available to boys and learners with special educational needs and disabilities. The new location made it possible to deliver tailored projects to support the wider community.
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Soronko Academy is also involved in making coding accessible to learners in public schools in Western Africa. They are currently piloting a coding curriculum in a group of schools in Kumasi. They are monitoring the impact that learning to code can have on a learner as they transition from primary to secondary school. The school’s activities encourage participants to develop and use their skills to benefit the community. For example, some students have volunteered their services to build websites for local hospitals. “That demonstrates the impact learning coding can have on our learners, and how they can apply their new knowledge to give back to the community and solve local problems,” says Regina.

Regina has great plans for Soronko Academy. The academy is partnering with existing organisations and setting up centres across the Western African region to deliver more coding and stem related activities. It is her goal to expand the academy’s activities to vulnerable rural and and underserved communities to ensure that they are not left behind in the digital revolution.
If you want to find out more about the Soronko Academy, contact them on info@soronkoacademy.com
http://www.soronkoacademy.com/
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The London School of Mosaic: Piecing Together Community

2/2/2020

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David Tootill was struggling to maintain his work-life balance. During the day, he taught in a secondary school. After lesson planning in the evening, he barely had time to read to his children. It was as if he was on a treadmill set at a speed that left him constantly exhausted. After three years of working as a teacher, he became more frustrated with the stifling rigidity of traditional schools. He decided to leave secondary school teaching to establish a progressive organisation that combined two of his interests: education and mosaic.

As a student, he visited surviving mosaics from St Mark’s Basilica in Venice to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. He was fascinated by their intricacy. “Mosaic is architecture’s most expressive type of surface and it’s a way of turning something bland into something interesting,” says David. He then began experimenting with the ancient art of mosaic in the UK.

More than decoration
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David initially set up the social enterprise Southbank Mosaics. He believes that there is more to mosaic than decoration. It can enable socially excluded people or communities to fully participate in society. Southbank Mosaics was a community-based programme that aimed to engage at-risk young people in creating mosaic art in shared community spaces. Although the organisation became quite successful, he felt that it needed to offer something else, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
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Eureka moment

In 2011, David attended a lecture given by Dr Will Wootton where he called for more schools of mosaic in the UK. “Most of Britain’s ancient mosaics have been discovered, sometimes restored, and then reburied in order to preserve them. We don’t have many UK based specialists with the skills to restore them. Mosaics are part of our history. We need to make them an open history and not hidden,” says David. David decided to establish a school that serves the diverse needs of the local community while providing some with the skills to restore mosaics. This led to Southbank Mosaics developing into the London School of Mosaic.

“We’re training people from beginners right through to higher education. That includes children from primary school age to adults studying fine art,” says David. The school offers accredited courses. It supports participants with special educational needs and disabilities, and has delivered a mosaic course for young people who are serving community sentences as part of their rehabilitation programme in Camden.

David believes empty spaces are often magnets for antisocial behaviour. For this reason, the London School of Mosaic is interested in improving public spaces, through encouraging more social interaction and civic engagement. This is why he chose to house the London School of Mosaic in garages that were derelict for 42 years in Camden. They’ve created installations in public spaces and have received letters of thanks from the public for revitalising once bland spaces.
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The school’s successes
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They have 22 resident artists and encourage them to create links between mosaic and other art forms. They have artists involved in fashion, sewing, ceramics and film, photography and painting, printing and bookbinding. The school collaborates with international mosaic experts to share good practice with their students. “We do a lot of work with Italians here because we recognise that they have a fantastic tradition in mosaic…If you know how to do something well, then it’s good to share your expertise,” says David.

Around 150 people have successfully completed courses at the school at level 2. Several London School of Mosaic course participants have also set up their own mosaic-related businesses. “We’re very pleased to see people move on and thrive. We’ve encouraged that and support that, ” says David.
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How To Start a Reskilling Revolution

1/2/2020

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In 2016, two friends discussed how they wanted to change the direction of their careers. Zahra Davidson and Jacob Bacian noticed that most people who wanted to make a career change took the formal education route to reskill themselves. But what happens when you don’t have the desire, time or money to pursue a traditional master’s degree? Zahra and Jacob agreed that there were some elements of traditional education that they really could benefit from, but there were some aspects they felt were really not for them. They wanted to work in collaboration and exchange skills ideas with a dynamic cohort of supportive co-learners. They also wanted structure over a significant period of time to act as a backbone for meaningful learning enquiry. They didn’t feel a need for accreditation, a fancy campus or being told what to do by tutors. From this discussion, the peer-to-peer learning collective — Enrol Yourself was created.

Learning Marathons
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Zahra and Jacob ​started the first Learning Marathon pilot of Enrol Yourself in the summer of 2016, as participants themselves. The Learning Marathon cohort consisted of a group of adults committed to learning with and from each other, over a period of 6 months. During the pilot, they realised that the process could be of value to more than the 12 people participating in the initial pilot. This led to Enrol Yourself developing from a side project to social enterprise.
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Enrol Yourself gives participants the opportunity to collaborate in a multidisciplinary peer group. In formal education, students studying on the same programme often come from similar professional and educational backgrounds. Zahra and Jacob believe homogenous learning groups are of much less value in terms of learning than more diverse ones. Diversity of skills, backgrounds and perspectives only enrich the learning experiences of Learning Marathon participants. The peer-to-peer learning gives participants the chance to share and construct new knowledge.

The Learning Marathon curriculum is always evolving to meet the specific needs of each cohort. It is co-created with participants at the beginning of every Learning Marathon. Everyone maps their skills and goals. The group then discusses and votes on which workshops will be of most value to them. From this, a personalised programme of learning that spans 6 months is designed.
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The Learning Marathon provides participants with a safe space to experiment. Participants decide on what ‘good enough’ looks like to them. The role of an expert tutor doesn’t exist in a Learning Marathon. The co-founders stress that the roles of all participants are of equal importance to the Learning Marathon. This environment enables participants to feel safe enough to take risks; try out new ideas; express themselves; tackle challenges; and be vulnerable.
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Learning with a purpose

Each participant comes to the Learning Marathon with a specific learning question. This question frames their exploration and learning — and it’s essential that the question is of great importance to the individual. For example ‘how might I create a boardgame that communicates important messages about the climate crisis?’ or ‘how can I use movement and dance to overcome limiting thinking habits?’. Each Learning Marathon enables participants to get to know a group of new people through the lens of their most burning question. New relationships are formed around the things that matter most to them.

Addressing local needs

A large amount of funding is available for programmes that provide learning opportunities for young people up to the age of 25. The co-founders noticed how this provision drops off a cliff for similar programmes for over 25s. “In the 21st Century we are facing huge challenges, not least widening inequality and the climate crisis. These challenges will not impact everyone equally. Those who typically have fewer opportunities will be impacted the most. There will be huge changes to society including loss and creation of jobs due to automation and accelerating technological development,” says Zahra. She believes adults are going to need to learn like never before if they’re to continue to thrive — or even stay afloat. “If people need to rely on our traditional models of learning for this, the majority will be screwed. We need models of learning that devolve power and opportunity to communities to do it for themselves, to reduce costs and redistribute agency.”
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Enrol Yourself addresses this challenge by placing peer-to-peer approaches at the heart of everything they do. They train all local hosts who initiate and run the Learning Marathon in their local area. Everything they do is designed to be distributive, locally-led and empowering at the grassroots level. The programme encourages people to take their learning into their own hands, alongside their peers.
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The impact of Enrol Yourself
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More than 130 people have now participated in the Learning Marathon in London, Birmingham and Bristol to date. Enrol Yourself measures the impact that each Learning Marathon has on learner wellbeing, resilience and 21st Century skillset. Their alumni tell them they are 38% more professionally effective, 27% happier and 23% more entrepreneurial after participating in the programme. They also report that the process has improved their mental health, helped them set up side hustles and businesses, helped them change careers, find new jobs, allowed them to make new friends, helped them feel more purposeful, less lonely… the list goes on.

  • Enrol Yourself is always looking for new hosts and participants. If you want to find out more about hosting or participating in the Learning Marathon head to enrolyourself.com
  • You can follow what they’re up to on twitter @EnrolYourself and on instagram @enrol_yourself
  • Enrol Yourself also work with organisations; running programmes for employees and offering learning design/delivery consultation, drawing on their experience running the Learning Marathon.
  • Contact them on hello@enrolyourself.com if you’d like to work with them, or partner with them on a project.
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