For many teachers/instructors in education, change can be a daunting task. Students are evolving at a quick pace and instruction as we know it has been drastically changed. Gone are the days when lecturing for hours on end, or even a class period, is an effective mode of teaching. Teachers/instructors have been charged with finding ways to engage students on a continuous basis through student-centered, hands-on activities that give students the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and learning! Thus, plenty of teachers/instructors have turned to Flipped Learning and Flipped Classrooms!
Proven to be a highly effective instructional strategy, Flipped Learning has given teachers/instructors an edge in creating those authentic learning opportunities in their classes. As those opportunities continue to grow, teachers/instructors are now faced with evaluating their effectiveness to know if students truly obtained the skills necessary to show they've mastered a competency!
While many teachers/instructors can use their 'gut' feeling to measure their students level of engagement, the data will tell the story! Data is such an invaluable tool that many teachers/instructors struggle with. For most, data is an opportunity to PROVE that learning has occurred! But really, data needs to be used to drive IMPROVEMENT. Data does not give us the answers, rather it gives us the questions to drive students and our opportunities for growth and improvement.
The most important data a teacher/instructor can use comes from effective use of formative assessments. Whether we are facilitating small-group discussions, playing Kahoot, or giving a quick 'quiz', we are gathering data that will tell us what our students do and do not know about the pre-class work that was assigned. Only then can we accurately meet ALL of our students needs by adapting what we have to meet them where they are at. Similarly, when we construct activities that ask students to be creative and innovative, we are measuring how well they understand what was given to them prior to class! These opportunities for students to display what they learned and how they can apply that information are what 'traditional' classrooms often miss!
Inevitably, most students will ask "Why do I need to do this if it doesn't count?" Fortunately at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, we are not only charged with making sure students acquire a specific set of technical skills, but Employability Skills as well. The greater Green Bay, WI area expects that our graduates obtain both technical skills and Employability Skills to help foster collaborative working environments, While many teachers/instructors struggle with formally measure the Employability Skills, Flipped Learning and Flipped Classrooms present a great opportunity to foster and measure those Employability Skills.
Rather than building in weekly Employability Skills assessments and targets for students, Flipped Learning and Flipped Classrooms give teachers/instructors an opportunity to specifically identify what Employability Skills they are measuring with each activity. At NWTC, we encourage instructors to build in those skills into their rubrics so that students understand and value how important working collaboratively is. Or valuing differences among classmates and accepting personal accountability for being on time and coming prepared!
At any rate, Flipped Learning and Flipped Classrooms have several options to measure if students are learning. As with many options, the accountability falls back on teachers/instructors to make sure they are using those tools to measure effectiveness and evaluate student learning. The power is in your hands - how will you use it?
Monday, July 27, 2015
Friday, July 3, 2015
Setting the Bar Too High???
"Set a goal SO BIG that you can't achieve until you GROW into the person who can." ~Unknown
Education holds a rather unique position in the development and growth of students. Educators are responsible for delivering content and competencies while simultaneously fostering critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, innovation, and analyzing skills. While educators at many levels have ventured into flipped learning to varying degrees, the greatest truth from all educators is the desire to spend more time with students. As flipped learning provides this desired time, educators are then faced with evaluating the use of the time, student engagement, and the expectations of student learning.
When asked "how do I know if the bar is set to high in my flipped class", I had to chuckle a little at the notion of students not being pushed too hard. Can an educator really push students to hard? While it might be easy to simply say YES, the really answer lies within the approach instructors take in getting students to do what they think may be impossible. As educators, we must realize that what students believe about themselves as learners matters. We must be willing to push them beyond what they think they are capable of and helping them understand that not every challenge they face will be easy,
Likewise, we must also be willing to teach them that it's okay to fail at something in school. To fail (First Attempt In Learning) is part of the learning process - to learn from their mistakes and make changes is how we foster critical thinking, problem solving, and analyzing skills in our students. Let's think about this notion for a moment - imagine you are going to get blood drawn from a hospital. Would you be excited to know that the nurse drawing your blood is doing so for the first time? Or what about the sub-contractor building your house - would it put you at ease to know he's learning how to frame the house for the first time?
You see, education is suppose to be about learning - making mistakes in practice to be able to perform in the crunch. If we are expecting students to be perfect on the first attempt, then why aren't they already out in industry, putting their skills to use. As educators, we must be willing to allow our students to make mistakes at appropriate times, and teach them how to become creative and innovative in fixing their mistakes. We want our students to grow into people that can make changes based on evidence they've witnessed or mistakes they've made.
Ironically, many of our educational systems are too focused on grades, rather than the content to be learned. How do I know? I am reminded of my days as a high school math teacher in Lomira, WI where it was decided that the minimum percentage to pass a class was going to move from 60% to 70%. You can imagine the uproar that ensued from students and parents alike that raising the bar was nor fair for anyone involved. Low and behold, one year after implementation, the number of students failing classes was actually less than prior years. You see, students knew they needed to work just a little harder to meet the bare minimum to pass a class! Students know where the bar is set and will do what they need to get there.
Don't ever be afraid to set your bar high! As we are preparing students to meet the demands of tomorrow's work force, we prepare them for jobs that may not even exist yet. Through fostering opportunities to be creative, innovative, problem solvers, critical thinkers, and analyzers, we give them opportunities to be successful in an arena that is always changing!
Education holds a rather unique position in the development and growth of students. Educators are responsible for delivering content and competencies while simultaneously fostering critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, innovation, and analyzing skills. While educators at many levels have ventured into flipped learning to varying degrees, the greatest truth from all educators is the desire to spend more time with students. As flipped learning provides this desired time, educators are then faced with evaluating the use of the time, student engagement, and the expectations of student learning.
When asked "how do I know if the bar is set to high in my flipped class", I had to chuckle a little at the notion of students not being pushed too hard. Can an educator really push students to hard? While it might be easy to simply say YES, the really answer lies within the approach instructors take in getting students to do what they think may be impossible. As educators, we must realize that what students believe about themselves as learners matters. We must be willing to push them beyond what they think they are capable of and helping them understand that not every challenge they face will be easy,
Likewise, we must also be willing to teach them that it's okay to fail at something in school. To fail (First Attempt In Learning) is part of the learning process - to learn from their mistakes and make changes is how we foster critical thinking, problem solving, and analyzing skills in our students. Let's think about this notion for a moment - imagine you are going to get blood drawn from a hospital. Would you be excited to know that the nurse drawing your blood is doing so for the first time? Or what about the sub-contractor building your house - would it put you at ease to know he's learning how to frame the house for the first time?
You see, education is suppose to be about learning - making mistakes in practice to be able to perform in the crunch. If we are expecting students to be perfect on the first attempt, then why aren't they already out in industry, putting their skills to use. As educators, we must be willing to allow our students to make mistakes at appropriate times, and teach them how to become creative and innovative in fixing their mistakes. We want our students to grow into people that can make changes based on evidence they've witnessed or mistakes they've made.
Ironically, many of our educational systems are too focused on grades, rather than the content to be learned. How do I know? I am reminded of my days as a high school math teacher in Lomira, WI where it was decided that the minimum percentage to pass a class was going to move from 60% to 70%. You can imagine the uproar that ensued from students and parents alike that raising the bar was nor fair for anyone involved. Low and behold, one year after implementation, the number of students failing classes was actually less than prior years. You see, students knew they needed to work just a little harder to meet the bare minimum to pass a class! Students know where the bar is set and will do what they need to get there.
Don't ever be afraid to set your bar high! As we are preparing students to meet the demands of tomorrow's work force, we prepare them for jobs that may not even exist yet. Through fostering opportunities to be creative, innovative, problem solvers, critical thinkers, and analyzers, we give them opportunities to be successful in an arena that is always changing!
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