Experiencing Difficulty

Beginning

Approaching

Meeting

Excels

SCORE

Learners are given opportunities to relate prior concepts to new understandings; the PD structure provides access to appropriate resources; the environment facilitates knowledge construction and is not just a medium to deliver instruction

• Learners have an opportunity to explore and build upon their existing knowledge

• The environment engages the learners through a realistic problem-based question or issue

• Learners are able to affect the environment by manipulating something, constructing a product, making decisions

• Appropriate resources for problem solving are provided

• The environment facilitates knowledge construction and is not just a medium to deliver instruction

It is the process of the PD lesson, more than the final product, that helps the learner into reaching the multiple lesson goals (understanding quality online teaching/course design and the value of collaborative group work in an online environment).

• The process allows the learners latitude in determining goals, topics, and/or relationships among topics

• Learners access, transform, and incorporate information from multiple perspective

• Learners evaluate the quality and quantity of content

• It is the learning process itself, as more or more than end goals or products, that contribute to the construction of new knowledge

• Feedback and revision is incorporated into the learning activity

Through collaborative social learning and access to multiple expert opinions online, the learners are provided with opportunities to compare and expand their own knowledge.

• The learning process encourages collaborative (working together) and co-operation (working towards a common goal) in achieving a common goal

• Learners are provided with opportunities for collaboration

• Learners are encouraged to consider multiple views, of group partners and/or other experts in the field

• The learning environment represents a real-life scenario involving multiple perspectives and/or collaboration

Learners are placed in an authentic, problem-based situation that provides relevance and meaning to the learners in an engaging environment

• The learning environment involves problem-based, issue-based, project-based, or case-based learning

• The learning tasks designed to be interesting, relevant, and engaging

• All relevant factors surrounding the problem are provided or available to the learners

• The representation/scenario of the problem is interesting, appealing, and engaging

• The problem manipulation space provides a physical simulation of the real-world task

The process encourages the learners to examine and reflect on their own understandings of how they personally learn and how they teach their own students; the actual content learned is less important than understanding the factors that aided their own learning

• Learners are encouraged to become self-regulatory, self-mediated, and self-aware

• The lesson allows learners to examine their personal beliefs, conceptions, and personal theories about the subject matter

• Learners are asked to articulate their problem-solving process

• Learners are encouraged to think ON-action (“reflecting on the process to learn from the experience and develop strategies for approaching a similar case in the future.”), and think-IN action (“thinking on one’s feet”) to develop professionalism.

The lesson models appropriate strategies that the learners may incorporate into their own teaching, while providing necessary scaffolding through social collaboration with their peers or from the PD facilitators

• The instructor (in this case the workshop developer/facilitator) provides appropriate supports as and when needed by learner participants.

• Learners receive the appropriate training required to complete the tasks

• Behavioural modeling of necessary tasks has occurred

• Scaffolding is provided, as required, to support individual learning

The evaluation of the PD exercise allows focus to be placed on either the “instrumentality” (the effectiveness of the experience as it relates to promoting growth for the online teachers’  instructional practice/course design)  and/or the “metacognitive skills” of the learners  (their ability to reflect on their own personal learning process). Does the learner gain proficiency in the desired skills?

• Assessment examines the use of the skills in practice, not just their verbal description

• Learners should assume responsibility for setting their own goals, determining their own strategies and monitoring their own learning

• Learners have the opportunity to present their learning in a method they deem to be most appropriate or effective for themselves to describe their learning