May 16 2009
Considering 7 Principles of Good Practice
While the SECTIONS framework presents a holistic set of criteria to consider when choosing amoung educational technologies, I find the Seven principles for good practice useful for assessing my teaching context. I teach high school science and biology in an older public school in Vancouver. The school has a strong community service mandate with many successful programs to support it. With respect to technology, the school is slow to adopt newer learning technologies. My classroom has blackboards, but I have access to an LCD projector with internet access. There are two computer labs in the school that can be accessed on a sign-up basis. Because I am new to the school I work at, I can not describe in detail how the 7 principles of good practice are accomplished at the administrative level. However, I can discuss how I address them in my own classroom.
1. Encourages contacts between students and faculty: This is not too difficult to accomplish at the high school level. I have daily contact with my students and try to have individual conversations with them on a regular basis. Students are encouraged to come ask for extra help if required and I offer advice on post-secondary and career options. I strive to inform my students about competitions and opportunities in the field of science and biology.
2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students: I often incorporate group work into my practice. Group assignments, projects, and studying make students accountable to each other. I have also tried having students assess each others work before submitting it to me.
3. Uses active learning technique: This is an element I am constantly trying to include in my practice. I subscribe to the learning theory that you can not learn anything unless your brain has processed the information. In order to process information, you have to actually think about it. The more times and ways that you think about the information, the more chances you have to process and thus learn it. As such, I encourage my students to think about the information I am presenting by trying to make it relevant to them, asking higher level Blooms taxonomy questions (eg. application) and assigning “translation” tasks (eg. turn the information into a story , skit, comic, song etc. )
4. Gives prompt feedback: I strive to have tests and assignments marked promptly and returned while the information is still fresh in their minds. When possible, I offer feedback on how students could improve aspects of their assignments and when appropriate, I allow them to re-submit with improvements.
5. Emphasizes time on task: As discussed in number 3 above, the more time spent processing information, the greater chance that the information will be “learned”. At the high school level, we often promote time on task by offering extrinsic motivators such as work habits marks. I am interested in learning more about promoting “life long learning” and fostering intrinsic motivation.
6. Communicates high expectations: I have experimented with my level of expectation from my students. In general, I have found that they generally rise to the level of expectation. Even those students who choose to scrape by on the minimum possible work will rise when the minimum standard is set higher. I think as my career progresses, I will only keep raising my standards.
7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning: Having taught students with learning differences, I have developed an appreciation for diversity of learning styles. I encourage students to play off of their strengths and try to find ways to incorporate their talents into their work.
