My goal with this assignment was to begin to create an on-line professional development course that met the needs to BC educators who are seeking to understand the First Peoples Principles of Learning (FPPL) and learn how to use them as a framework to create learning environments and activities in the BC K-12 system. The need for this type of pro-d has intensified as BC undergoes its curriculum revisions which now include an increased focus on the FPPL as an effective approach to student-centred learning. As it was important for me to begin to create something that is relevant for my purposes, I wanted to create an online professional development experience that can substitute for the person-to-person pro-d that I have been doing with school districts in the province.

The materials intended to meet the requirements of Assignment #2 are found in the Intro and Module 1 sections of my Moodle course.

Modelling Through Design

Beside the inherent challenge of learning how to develop a course in Moodle, I was also challenged to design a course that also reflected the very principles the course participants would be learning about, and have made this effort explicit to the participants as I ask them to pay attention to what is asked of them, and determine how the course attempts to model what it is they are learning how to do.  This goal of the course reflecting the FPPL affects both the content of the course, the types of interactions asked of participants, and the assessment used in the course.

The FPPL reflect a learner-centred approach to learning that mirrors O’Neill & McMahon’s (2005) summary of learner-centred learning as learning environments that include increased learner choice, active learning (learner “doing” more than the teacher), and shifting power in the student-teacher relationship (learner owning own learning). As students proceed through the course they will engage in thinking about how the FPPL also reflect a learner-centred approach. One might even argue that they are the original learner-centred approach (and in a similar vein are considered by some as the original example of place-based learning).

Central to the implications of a FPPL approach to learning is the development of community, and a collaborative approach to learning. Scardamalia and Bereiter (1994) also suggest that knowledge building is supported by intentional social interaction where participants provide constructive response to each other’s work, and the positive effect of collaborative learning is supported by Rogers and Ellis (1994) in their explanation of collaboration within the framework of distributed cognition, whereby knowledge is shared throughout networks of people. In order to reflect the complimentary drivers of both FPPL and constructivist approaches to the course, the first discussion topic asks participants to share information about themselves both professionally and personally. The overview of the course informs participants that subsequent activities will provide opportunities for collaborative work and will ask them to support each other’s learning through feedback to each other.

Assessment Decisions

The course is not a conventional one with grades or credits. As such, it makes extensive use of formative assessment strategies that are designed to further the participants’ learning, which also reflect a First Peoples’ perspective of assessment that it be authentic and relevant to supporting learning. These strategies are primarily self- and peer- evaluation, with additional provoking questions from the facilitator.

As Wiggens (2006) indicates, the purpose of assessment in education is to further learning. For the purposes of this course the learning is more effective if internalized by the learner in a way that encourages the learner to develop the habit of self-evaluation, as this process also compliments a First Peoples’ perspective of education. In addition, two of the five strategies that William (2006) as indicated in identifies as allowing assessment to assist, rather than inhibit learning are:

• Creating learning environments where students are supported in owning their own learning (rather than the teacher being seen as responsible for the creating the learning)
• Encouraging learners to be resources for each other

Both these strategies are included in the course design decisions as they also reflect principles found in the FPPL.

From a First Peoples’ perspective, summative assessment could be interpreted as the application of what it is that was learned. In this course this summative element that might be included in grade-based course is replaced by the final project where educators are asked to create the units of study for their students and implement them in their classrooms. Their learning will be represented by their ability to do.

In order to remain loyal to the principles I am using to guide the development of the course I decided to use the quiz requirement of this assignment as a formative assessment tool at the beginning of the course. The use of it this way can be understood as a combination of assessment for learning and assessment as learning (Earl, 2003) The questions are designed to be small teaser questions to start participants thinking about First Peoples, and First Peoples’ perspectives in education. As soon as participants answer the multiple choice, matching and short answer questions, they are provided with answers. It does not matter if the question is answered correctly, as the process of being asked the question, and thinking about the answers, meets the goal of generating thinking and peaking curiosity. Reading materials in subsequent modules will expand upon the information and ideas briefly touched upon in the quiz questions.  The participants are ask to keep a record of their long answer questions to that they can refer back to them to compare with later learning in the course.

Communication

Course participants are encouraged to use each other as the first line of support. This strategy helps develop their understanding that they can support each other’s learning journey. It contributes to the development of a sense of community that is important in the context of the FPPL and in a learning environment influenced by constructivist concept that learning is socially constructed. Social constructivist theory proposes that learning occurs as a result of the individual’s interaction within a group or community (Vygostky, 1978). The collaborative nature of group learning, which is further supported by encouraging learners to see each other as a potential learning support reflects Vygotsky’s understanding that social interaction is the necessary and primary cause of ontological development of knowledge in an individual (Glassman, 1994).

The course contains a discussion forum where students are encouraged to post questions that might be able to be answered by other course participants. I indicated that, as the facilitator, I would regularly check the postings to respond to questions that were not able to be answered by anyone in the group. As a last resort, I supplied an e-mail address for direct queries.

Final Thoughts

I have to say that I found this assignment a challenge. I spent more time trying to learn what in the end seemed to be simple things about organizing on Moodle. Various video resources I found and watched helped somewhat, but it took an inordinate amount of time to find answers to simple little questions – and at times these were not resolved, so I made alternate decisions about the course design. At one point I looked at what was actually in the assignment course site (what I had achieved up until that point) and it seemed pathetically sparse in comparison to the amount of time invested. At this point, I am not sure that Moodle would be the option I would choose if I had to make a decision about an LMS for my purposes.

Jo

References

Earl, L. (2003). Assessment as learning: Using classroom assessment to maximize student learning Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press

Glassman. M. (1994). All things being equal: The two roads of Piaget and Vygotsky. Developmental Review, 14(2), 186-214.

O’Neill, G., & McMahon, T., (2005) Student-centred learning: What does it mean for students and lecturers? Retrieved from: http://www.aishe.org/readings/2005-1/oneill-mcmahon-Tues_19th_Oct_SCL.html

Rogers, Y., & Ellis, J. (1994). Distributed cognition: an alternative framework for analyzing and Explaining collaborative working. Journal of Information Technology (9), 119-128

Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences. 3(3), 265-283.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press

Wiggens, G. (2006). Healthier testing made easy: The idea of authentic assessment. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/authentic-assessment-grant-wiggins

Wiliam, D. (2006). Does assessment hinder learning? Paper presented at ETS Invitational Seminar held on July 11th, 2006 at the Institute of Civil Engineers, London, UK. Retrieved from: http://www.dylanwiliam.org/Dylan_Wiliams_website/Papers.html