Based on the NaMaYa Course by Nina C. Smith, M.Ed., teacher trainer & pedagogical consultant

Sponsored by Teachers CenterTeaching is the Core GrantFacilitated by Kim Lewis

Improve the Learning Experience: Finnish It ?WVCS Presentation May 20, 2014

Big Questions of Todays Workshop:What are strategies I can apply to improve students intrinsic motivation to learn?How can I make learning more meaningful to my students?How can I help students increase their desire and skill in self-regulating? What ideas can I implement from the Finnish educational model that claims to create students who are trained to survive in the modern economy?

Finnish Vs U.S Educational Reform

FINNISH IT?

Are we preparing students for a Life of Tests or for the Tests of Life?Personalization: create safe and nurturing learning environment, then expect (and allow) students to take a significant role in their own learning. Cooperation: emphasize collaboration over the traditional subject/discipline lines, instead of using the winner-takes-it-all mentality (including high-stakes standardized testing). Process instead of product: refocus education from teaching to learning, and emphasize the individual learning process over cookie-cutter teaching

3Nina C. Smith

What did I MINE from her work?MetacognitionGrowth MindsetHabits of MindExecutive Function Self Regulating Locus of ControlFeedback as a strategyLQ Learning to Manage your Own Learning

Student- Centered Learning

14 Learner Centered Psychological Principles:Thoughts from Worksheets?OLD Blooms Taxonomy

NEW REVISEDBlooms Taxonomy

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/EDTEC470/sp09/5/bloomstaxanomy.htmlMotivation to learn is stronger when driven by the young persons prior knowledge and interests WHY focus on Prior Knowledge?

Connecting to Real Life

Uncover and Discuss Hidden ExpectationsNegotiating the meaning of words with students is one tool to handle hidden expectations(Example Group work)Students who feel they are being treated fairly are more committed to learning.Use Student Self-assessmentsFor knowledgeBut also effort, learning styles, the environmentMake Brain Connections Personalization StrategiesRESOURCE

Rubrics that require both self-assessments and teacher assessment can be effective motivators. When my students produce a product, they must evaluate their own work based on quality of the product and quality of the work process. I discovered quite by accident that expectation of performance and actual performance are often completely disconnected. Low achieving students predicted low grades even when they gave themselves mid to high scores on the rubric. Conversely, students who tend to perform well in academic classes .have stated that they deserved a high grade because I always make As. When students can recognize their own successes and identify their own need for improvement, they are more likely to take ownership of their own learning.

Interestinghttp://www.edweek.org/chat/2006/08/30/transcript_08_30_06.html

Neds Gr8 8Connections Stimulate LearningWhat do you think?Why do you think that?How do you know this?Can you tell me more?What questions do you still have?

Student Engagement:5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Studentshttp://www.edutopia.org/blog/five-powerful-questions-teachers-ask-students-rebecca-alberWait time to thinkVary your toneUse this scaffold: Think Pair Share

RESOURCE3Cs of Effective Teaching and Learning

C1-Cognitive approachmakes teaching and learning easy and effective. Viewing learning as a student-centered and dynamic process where learners are active participants, it strives to understand the reasons behind behavioural patterns. Teaching with Executive Functions (EF) in mind helps students to improve their academic performance by learning how to self-regulate their behaviour, engagement and learning. This helps students to understandwhat is needed for becoming successful in learning and life.

C2-Constructive practiceemphasizes the learning process and students need to construct their own understanding. Delivered or transmitted knowledge does not have the same emotional and intellectual value. New learning depends on prior understanding and is interpreted in the context of current understanding, not first as isolated information that is later related to existing knowledge. Constructive learning helps students to understand their own learning process and how to enhance it.

C3Cooperative learningengages not only the whole student in her/his learning, but also the whole class (or school, or even a district!) into the learning process. Teaching and learning become more meaningful for both teacher and students, because there is no need for the power struggle in the emotionally safe classroom. From students perspective cooperative learning is about behaving responsibly and being accountable for your own learning.

13METACOGNITION: Thinking about Thinking

SWBAT:Learning Goals

14Executive Function: Self Regulating

RESOURCE:D/LEF 101

Executive Function: Self Regulating

16Executive Function: Self Regulating

Executive Function: Self Regulating

Habits of Mind

Explore MeaningsExpand CapacitiesIncrease AwarenessRESOURCE

Focused & EffectiveFEEDBACK

Dimensions of feedback:Quality of feedback:

O-Only processN-Never criticizeS-Stay within your framework. P-Focus on positive.O-Ask an open-ended question. T-Students task is to plan for improvement.

26 min videoRESOURCEFeedbackGiving effective feedback is not always easy. But it is a skill that can belearned(and taught). The very first requirement in providing good feedback is to have a clear focus where to target it and an understanding about the desired outcome. If the objective is to write a story with a good plot, there is not muchsense ingiving feedback aboutpoor handwriting, or even the grammatical mistakes (while, of course, when practicing grammar, it would be insane to praise the good cursive skills, right?).Feedback that is not authentic gives students a distorted image of their learning and of themselves as students. Feedback must also provide information to help students' progress in meeting the guidelines given and help them to become self-directed learners. Here is a six-step guide for giving effective andemotionally safefeedback that guarantees bettercooperationand thusdeeper learning:Have a clear understanding of priorities before starting the feedback process. Only focus on the process and achieving the objective to make your feedback most effective. Even if you want to remind a student about other things s/he needs to do, restrain yourself. There will be another time to do it. Only successfully meeting small goals increases students appetite to tackle bigger ones.Never criticize personal characteristics, skills, attributes, intelligence, understanding, or circumstances. These are beyond students control, and thus may feel like an attack against their private self which leads them to not cooperate with you. Without cooperation, feedback is meaningless and cannot be called feedback anymore.Use the objective as a framework in targeting the feedback. This is the basic principle in creating any rubric: having an objective and agreeing on the means to achieve it.Focus first on something positive. Make sure your remark is authentic and relevant for meeting the objective. Praising the pretty color of the print or paper is hardly relevant, unless design is the objective. Before starting the feedback process it would help to think or even write down positive words and phrases about the desired outcome. This makes it easier for you to come up with something appropriate and unique which is important too, if feedback happens within hearing distance of other students. It is hard to appear authentic if you keep repeating the same words.Ask each student about her/his idea for improvement. Use open-ended questions. If a student needs help, give a suggestion for improvement from your point of view and ask if the student agrees with you.Check understanding by asking the student to explain his/her plan for improvement. In some situations, writing a short to-do list may be appropriate. This last point is very important because it clearly places the responsibility for improvement on the student. End on a positive note to leave a lasting positive impression.

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"In short, good values have to be grown from the inside out. Attempts to short-circuit this process by dangling rewards in front of children are at best ineffective, and at worst counterproductive. Children are likely to become enthusiastic, lifelong learners as a result of being provided with an engaging curriculum; a safe, caring community in which to discover and create; and a significant degree of choice about what (and how and why) they are learning. Rewards--like punishments--are unnecessary when these things are present, and are ultimately destructive in any case."Goals and Motivation

ERIC Digest 1994http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/ror.htm

LOCUSOFCONTROLWhich quadrant do most of your students live in?

Where do you want them to be? My specialty in motivation is the study of students' beliefs about their intelligence. My research shows that students who believe their intelligence is fixed (they have only so much and that's that) tend to worry about how smart they really are. Their motivation and engagement are tentative--when a task gets too hard, they lose interest and flee. But students who believe their intelligence can be developed get deeply involved in learning and remain engaged in the face of difficulty. We have shown in many studies that their engagement and intrinsic motivation is hardier.Carol Dweck, Ph.D. Growth Mindset

Carol Dweck, Ph.DTest Your Mindset On LineClick Intro Clip

If youre doing what you did yesterday,Then you are not planning for tomorrow.What went excellently today and WHY?What could have been better and HOW?What do I want to change in my teaching?Daily Reflection : Find Positive Elements Excerpts from Student Motivation: What Works, What Doesn't August 30, 2006Guests:Edward L. Deci, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester; Carol Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford University; and Susan Graham, middle school teacher at Gayle Middle School, Stafford County, Va.

Thoughts on Motivationhttp://www.edweek.org/chat/2006/08/30/transcript_08_30_06.html People do not thrive in an environment in which they feel judged An administration that simply judges and evaluates its teachers will not win their trust, but an administration that shows it is interested in helping teachers improve and grow will be seen as the teacher's ally. Teachers who live in this more trustful environment may then be encouraged to create such an atmosphere in their classrooms.The solutions for students motivation come from examining the degree to which the interpersonal climate in a learning setting allows students to satisfy their three basic psychological needs (i.e., competence, autonomy, and relatedness). To the extent that they are able to satisfy their needs by doing school related work, they are likely be motivated.Is In- Depth and Immersive Is Rooted in Community of PracticeProvides Growing Challenge & Opportunity to Exercise New Capacities -Learning takes place within but at the outer limits of the learners resourcesAttends to Motivation [So that we can. ]Supports Developmentally Appropriate Agency

Principles of Effective Learning:http://www.howyouthlearn.org/pdf/Realizing%20the%20Poential%20of%20Learning%20in%20Middle%20Adolescence.pdf RESOURCE:D/LProvides Opportunities to Apply Knowledge and Make Meaning of Learning ExperienceRecognizes the Importance of Emotion in Learning [Helps young people learn to manage emotions as they pursue their goals] Links Assessment Closely to the Learning ProcessIs Diverse as a WholeIs Supported by a Rich/ Multi-Dimensional Role [Strong Relationships]Principles of Effective Learning- Cont.:http://insidetheclassroomoutsidethebox.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/musings-on-mindset/http://www.mindsetworks.com/default.aspxhttp://www.mindsetworks.com/webnav/program.aspx http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2012/10/13/the-best-resources-on-helping-our-students-develop-a-growth-mindset/http://www.habitsofmind.org/node/713 http://www.teachinternalcontrol.com/ http://www.edweek.org/chat/2006/08/30/transcript_08_30_06.html MOTIVATION infoLQ Learning to Manage your Own Learning http://www.ace-d.co.uk/id11.html

Additional Resources:Video Clips

Professor John Hattie, has been Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia http://school.namaya.com/aspdp/index.php/courses/47-improve-the-learning-experience-finnish-it/learn_paths/295-module-2-building-knowledge