CURRICULUM MATERIALS THAT SUPPORT TEACHERS AND THEIR LEARNING

Susan McKenney, University of Twente #dariahTeach, March 23-24, 2017, Lausanne, Switzerland

SHARED INTERESTS The mission of the ERASMUS+ #dariahTeach strategic partnership is to develop open-source, high quality, multilingual teaching materials for the digital arts and humanities (the official name of the project is DARIAH Reference Curriculum). A secondary, no less important goal of the partnership is to strengthen alliances and foster innovative teaching and learning practices among members of the ESFRI-roadmap Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH) network.

THIS TALK Foundational ideas §  About curriculum materials §  Infrastructure for teacher learning Insights and examples §  Key educative features of materials §  Theory of action embedded in materials §  Implications for open resources

WHAT ARE CURRICULUM MATERIALS? §  Pedagogical

–  For learner use –  Types: Knowledge generation,

knowledge expression; convergent, divergent (e.g.Harris & Hofer, 2009)

§  Performance –  For teacher use –  Types: Before, during, after class

CURRICULUM AS POTENTIAL §  Interpretation of

materials is crucial

§  Requires curricular literacy: the ability to see resources through multiple lenses

§  Resource curation also requires knowledge of goals & assessment

QUALITY: CRUCIAL YET RARE Characteristics of high-quality curriculum materials (Carlson & Anderson (2002):

§  Research and standards-based §  Engender active involvement of students

(e.g. inquiry-based)

§  Built upon a conceptual framework §  Field tested in classrooms & revised accordingly

INFRASTRUCTURE FOR TEACHER GROWTH

To design materials that support teacher growth, we need to understand and attend to §  The core tasks performed by teachers §  The knowledge, skills and attitudes those tasks

require §  Cognition for growth in teaching performance §  The situatedness of teacher growth

TEACHERS DESIGN, ENACT & REFLECT

CORE TASKS PERFORMED BY TEACHERS

performanceenactment

reflec-ondesign

EXPERTISE

Knowledge-Fundamental:learners,subjectmatter,pedagogy,integratedknowledgeofthesethree-Enabling:curriculum,assessment,andlearningenvironments

Skills

-Craftingactivitiesandresources-Facilitatingdevelopmentofnormsanddiscourse-Noticingsalientfeatures-Reflectingonownpractice

Attitudes-Beliefsaboutlearnersandpedagogies-Perceptionsofvalueofexternalgoals-Convictionsregardingprofessionalidentity

EXPERTISE FOR TEACHING

exper-se

performance

knowledge,skills,a7tudes

enactment

reflec-ondesign

GROWTH THROUGH INTERACTIONS Expertise=>Performance Performance=>Expertise

Performan

ce

DesignUsepedagogicalcontentknowledgetodifferentiatelearningactivities

Createnewpedagogicalroutinesthroughdesign

Enactment Useinteractionskillstomanageclassroomdisruptions

Automatecommunicationroutinesthroughpractice

Reflection Useformativeassessmenttoidentifyareasforimprovement

Identifypatternsinlearnerthinkingthroughreflection

COGNITION FOR GROWTH IN PERFORMANCE

exper-se

performance

growth

knowledge,skills,a7tudes

enactment

reflec-ondesign

TEACHER LEARNING IS SITUATED Three main types of context features powerfully influence teacher learning

Human Material Structural

THE SITUATEDNESS OF TEACHER GROWTH

exper-se

performance

context

growth

knowledge,skills,a7tudes

enactment

reflec-ondesign

INFRASTRUCTURE FOR TEACHER GROWTH

exper-se

performance

context

growth infrastructure

knowledge,skills,a7tudes

enactment

reflec-ondesign

INFRASTRUCTURE FOR TEACHER GROWTH

exper-se

performance

context

growth infrastructure

knowledge,skills,a7tudes

enactment

reflec-ondesign

KEY FEATURES OF CURRICULUM MATERIALS

§  Student learning (pedagogical) §  Teacher procedures (performance) §  Educative teacher supports (performance)

DESIGN DIMENSIONS

OUTCOMES AT SCALE

Predictor variables

Learner Outcomes

(n=50)

Teacher Outcomes

(n=29)

Scope (supplementary units/activities/tools=0, curriculum sequences=1) .36** -.02

Supports for student learning (no=0; yes=1)

Cognitive supports -.04 -.08

Accommodation supports -.09 .03

Supports for teaching (no=0; yes=1)

Procedural supports

Organizational information .16 .05

Teaching strategies .26* .40** Variations created by others .05 .19

Educative supports

Alignment to standards .07 .34* Unit(s) goals .20 .22

Information about students .39** -.25

Background information about subject content .24* .09

**p≤.01 (one-tailed); *p≤.05 (one-tailed)

Phi values for the association of curriculum characteristics with learner and teacher outcomes

WHAT MATTERS MOST?

§  Multiple sequences §  Teaching strategy support §  Alignment to standards §  Information about students §  Background information about content

THEORY OF ACTION? §  Crucial §  Often missing or vaguely implicit §  Must attend to at least

–  Practicality –  Effectiveness

§  Integrates knowledge of how teachers learn through use of materials (i.e. the role of infrastructure)

§  Anticipates and accommodates mechanisms for: Trial, uptake, sustained use, spread, maintenance

THEORY OF ACTION ANTICIPATES §  What engenders results (effectiveness)

–  How students learn specific content and what they need to do so –  Where teachers struggle and what they need

§  Teacher decision making (practicality) –  How much guidance is needed –  How much existing practice can be leveraged

§  Natural mechanisms for spread –  Dissemination (planned push) –  Diffusion (organic pull)

THEORY OF ACTION: 2 LAYERS §  Within the open

resource materials themselves

§  Embodied by the portal through which they are accessed

OPEN DISCOVERY SPACE

ODSinnova-onmodel

Moreinfo?OpenDiscoverySpace.eu

NOW WHAT?

Three considerations for §  The design and use of open

education resources in higher education

§  DariahTeach 2.0?

SUBJECT EXPERTS VS EXPERT TEACHER

Issue §  The importance of growing as a teacher varies widely

in higher education §  Human and structural features of context influence this Open educational resources could §  Explicitly support both the growth mindset of teachers

as well as their learning

SENIOR TEACHING QUALIFICATION

CONVERSATION VS ISOLATION Issue §  Outside of the classroom, teachers learn

through conversing about their practice §  Previews, reviews, revisions (Horn, 2005)

Open educational resources could §  Be designed to encourage collegial talk

TEACHER DESIGN TEAMS

TEACHING SCHOLARSHIP VS ADD-ON DUTY

Issue §  Scholarship of teaching is crucial for higher education

development (Shulman, 1999, 2011)

§  Academic reward systems structures Open educational resources could §  Support higher education teachers in the scholarly inquiry of

their own practice

WITH NOT JUST FOR STUDENTS

BACK HOME AGAIN Foundational ideas §  About curriculum materials and open resources §  Infrastructure for teacher learning Insights and examples §  Key educative features of materials §  Theory of action embedded in materials §  Implications for open resource design and use

DISCUSSION? SUSAN.MCKENNEY@UTWENTE.NL www.EducationalDesignResearch.org