OK, well I feel like I have now gorged on a never ending all you can eat smorgasbord of the Seven Principles over the last five readings and am now feeling a little bloated, but in a good way, although I still feel a lay down might be in order.
On commencing these reading I had all but completed my 1st assessment for this course and am now feeling pretty happy with the readings I have chosen for my annotated bibliography as they have further amplified areas addressed in these readings..not the seven principles as such specifically, but the related areas of :
- Constructive descriptive and timely feedback;
- reduced student 'fear' in their studies;
- educator to student and student to educator transparent communication
- Active learning; &
- online interactions.
The readings also got me thinking more deeply -this is during my post reading lay down - about the current courses that I am involved in and whether I could tick the boxes, so to speak, in terms of addressing the seven principles there. And am also reasonably happy there, and happier in that I can now see areas for improvement and have the tool required to effectively tackle these.
I did find Reading 2 - Using conceptests to access and improve student conceptual understanding in introductory geoscience courses a bit dry and the diagrams a bit hard to follow, but did enjoy both readings 1 & 3- particularly Figures 1 in reading 3 (is this a version of the human centipede?!) and the concepts of Positive Interdependence. I also found reading 4 valuable in starting to reflect on my own teaching philosophy in that our role really is to 'guide and coach' rather than deliver. Feedback from educators in reading 5 also struck a cord with me and it was great to see feedback from educators in how they thought they were doing in incorporating the seven principles. All this said, I think the seven principles omit an important factor that relates back to the seven principles and that is educator pizazz!
or
pi·zazz or
piz·zaz (pĭ-zăz') 
n. Informal- Dazzling style; flamboyance; flair.
- Vigorous spirit; energy or excitement.
I have discussed this with Scott - but for fellow students benefit..let me tell you a little story...Once upon a time when I was an undergraduate student, I used to be a VAL girl (sounds saucy I know..but not quite Adriana Xenides) VAL, stands for Video Assisted Learning. So what my job was to film lectures that were then distributed to other regional and international campus for use. This involved me sitting in a room by myself out of view from any others - including students and lecturers - with access to a range of cameras and camera locations and the ability to zoom all our the lecture theater... After doing this for a number of years, you can really tell who has IT and who doesn't in terms of engaging students. While most lecturing staff are absolutely skilled and are 'experts' in their fields - some just don't have the pizazz to keep students focused and engaged in the topic. So all this said, I think there needs to be EIGHT principles for good practice..the end.
Nell, you should get a HD not only for that glorious vision of gluttony, but also for referencing the human centipede in the context of higher education! (And yes, I did have to run and look at the illustration in question!) XP
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting what you say about the wow factor, and makes a lot of sense. As a new teacher it's something I am very nervous about - I may learn teaching methods and apply these principles as much as I like, BUT, will I be able to effectively engage the students, or will they end up having a lay down too halfway through my lecture? In my readings I've repeatedly come across student motivation as a predictive factor of success, but do wonder how much is intrinsic to the student and how much depends upon the environment, the atmosphere, and the teacher's skill level on the Xenides Scale of Pizazicity?
I'm worried. Gold just isn't my colour.