Personal Reflection on this Lesson Series
It may be obvious that I got a little carried away with developing this lesson and series of activities and probably went a little deeper than was necessary – but the personal constructivist learning was outstanding! I really enjoy this type of assignment where I get to create an online learning environment! Therefore, for the purposes of completing this assignment #2 – Day 3 of the activities marks the beginning of the 1 hr. of instruction time for the purpose of this assignment and, as the assignment stated, the 1 hr. would actually be longer online as the pieces cannot be completed individually (without time for peer discussion in the online forums) or all at once.
Next, I am delighted to have discovered the wealth of information, free for use for educational purposes, developed by the First Nations Program at UBC (Crey & Perreault, 2008). I have used much of their content in this online lesson development. They are credited in the reference section and in a few other places throughout.
I am also very fortunate to have located the opensource software associated with ProBoard for creating the online discussion forms used extensively in the lesson activities. The lesson is housed within the UBC Blogs.
The lesson framework that I used has been greatly adapted from one that I created for the course that I taught this summer in special education at the local university. The reason I included it there was because of the over-representation of Aboriginal students in four of the Ministry of Education special needs categories. I turned the originally intended “brief” discussion into a “full day of inquiry” about our beliefs and attitudes regarding Aboriginal Education and why we must ensure that no students are wrongly placed in special education due to cultural, linguistic or other diversity-based reasons. It was an eye-opening experience for me to host such a discussion as a non-Aboriginal. I was expertly guided in my preparation (five weeks ago) by the District Principal for Aboriginal Education from School District 68 (Nanaimo-Ladysmith), Ms. Laura Tait. I want to extend a sincere appreciation to Ms. Tait for the encouragement she gave me to take on this lesson content despite my initial apprehension. I accepted the challenge to “pry open” the long-held assumptions that sometimes go unchallenged in our discussions.
In using the content created by (Crey & Perreault, 2008) I have developed what I believe to be a truly constructivist lesson based on the three models that we have focused on in this course; namely the constructivist principles of the CIM, POE and CCM models. The charts included in the Blog lesson section titled “Constructivism” identifies the activities that align with each specific model.
The initial activity to kick off the lesson is a personal brainstorming session for each student on their background knowledge of Aboriginal Education. They are to create a concept map and maintain it throughout the course. The online lesson gives them the details and also the link to download CMAP. This online concept map is easily modified by the students as they brainstorm, then through reflection as they complete activities and make changes again due to discussion forum activities and more reflection as they challenge their assumptions.
In the next activity I wanted the students to contemplate their personal views and prior knowledge using a wonderful essay by Marie Battiste as the impetus for reflection. I wanted the students to contemplate, in private, their own possible Euro-centric views and have them reflect on what they could do to blatantly explore this Euro-centrism in terms of guiding student conversations in their classrooms.
Once online in activities two – eight I would encourage students to probe their beliefs and ideas about Aboriginal education, over-representation in some special needs categories and our own wide-spread Euro-centric views that we, most times unknowingly, bring with us into the classroom.
In the eight activities that I have created there are many opportunities for students to make predictions about what is behind the actions of individuals in the video. Then, through the online discussion forums, the students will have opportunities to change and/or modify their ideas/conclusions and also to build upon them in relation to the lesson objectives.
The Constructivist Instructional Model (CIM) provides the best fit for this lesson series, however, all three models have been utilized and incorporated. The CIM model is initiated with the search through the student’s background knowledge and thorough exploration of their content knowledge and beliefs on Aboriginal education. Then, as in the other two models, predictions are made and new learning is constructed through the personal and peer challenges, and reflection.
The Prediction, Observation and Explanation Model (POE) provides students with the ability to observe a situation and make predictions as to how to best guide the discussion and/or solve the issue. They can then test their predictions in their own minds as they watch the video segments and then discuss their predictions with their peers online. They can then practice their new learning online with their peers in preparation for the “real life” discussions they will have in their own classrooms in the future.
The Conceptual Change Model (CCM) indicates that new knowledge construction results from connections with pre-existing ideas/information. As students are invited to investigate and challenge their beliefs through the activities they will discuss their dissatisfaction and enter into generating new meaning. In this way the topic becomes immediately meaningful, challenges their predictions or initial ideas, and because the discussion forums provide students with the ability to exchange their ideas, it provides authenticity to the discourse and as such, greater meaning and new learning.
This was a fantastic exercise and it was truly a learning experience. Due to the work and effort that went in to creating this series of online lesson activities, I am looking forward to using it in the future in my university teaching. I will also share this lesson with Ms. Tait in Aboriginal Education to determine if it can be useful to her in her work.