Wednesday 10 November 2010
Sunday 20 June 2010
Coaching as a pedagogical method
by Katarina Andersson
Coaching can be defined as ”processes to set free och develop the potential of people”. This definition corresponds to the visions of Folkuniversitetet – to provide people with the best possible prospects for a richer life, by engaging them to continuously add to their knowledge and develop their skills through a variety of creative activities.
People have different ways to learn new things, and we need a variety of methods to make learning and teaching successful, effective and interesting for the students. Coaching as a pedagogical method has met more and more interest the latest years, to be used in combination with other methods.
In recent years the coaching area has grown – from sports to working life and private life. Folkuniversitetet works with coaching aiming for new jobs and career planning, but also with coaching aiming at personal development, with the goal to support people to find the ways to a life in balance and good health.
A coach must create conditions for the person to work forward against explicit goals which he or she expresses themselves. The coach will not give any answers, but must be a support for the person in the development process. The coach listens, asks questions, gives feedback in order to:
As a short summary, coaching is the art of improving other people´s achievements, ability to learn and personal development. The coach is a guide and gives support to another person in her process of development, and gives her knowledge and methods to reach the goals she (or he) has put up in a given situation, for example to accomplish better and get better results. The coach helps other people to reach their most important goals.
The article continues, read all here
Coaching can be defined as ”processes to set free och develop the potential of people”. This definition corresponds to the visions of Folkuniversitetet – to provide people with the best possible prospects for a richer life, by engaging them to continuously add to their knowledge and develop their skills through a variety of creative activities.
People have different ways to learn new things, and we need a variety of methods to make learning and teaching successful, effective and interesting for the students. Coaching as a pedagogical method has met more and more interest the latest years, to be used in combination with other methods.
In recent years the coaching area has grown – from sports to working life and private life. Folkuniversitetet works with coaching aiming for new jobs and career planning, but also with coaching aiming at personal development, with the goal to support people to find the ways to a life in balance and good health.
A coach must create conditions for the person to work forward against explicit goals which he or she expresses themselves. The coach will not give any answers, but must be a support for the person in the development process. The coach listens, asks questions, gives feedback in order to:
- Open up for new possibilities and to remove obstacles
- Promote the person’s own answers and motivation
- Give focus, support and motivation
- Create results
As a short summary, coaching is the art of improving other people´s achievements, ability to learn and personal development. The coach is a guide and gives support to another person in her process of development, and gives her knowledge and methods to reach the goals she (or he) has put up in a given situation, for example to accomplish better and get better results. The coach helps other people to reach their most important goals.
The article continues, read all here
Saturday 10 April 2010
DETVET meeting in Sant' Angelo in Vado
The third meeting meeting for DETVET took place in Sant'Angelo in Vado on April 7-8, 2010.
We enjoyed an effective meeting, good weather and interesting cultural visits. Our heartfelt thanks go out to Elmo de Angelis, Kylene de Angelis and Settimio Bravi (the mayor of Sant'Angelo) for hosting the meeting in their pictoresque town and making all the arrangements that made the meeting easy and enjoyable. We are saddened to leave Italy and Sant'Angelo and hope to return soon again.
Elmo de Angelis opened the first meeting day by welcoming us to Sant'Angelo. He layed out some of the goals of the meeting. Next, we heard from the partners on the subject of the questionnaire and the results. The results in general were somewhat expected but there were also some interesting patterns. Like that the results for Sweden and Denmark were practically the same. The result for social media and coaching was similar in all partner organisations and there is a need to learn more.
In the afternoon we had the priviledge of hearing from Kylene de Angelis about the use of ICT in education. Jarno Tolonen presented his case for the use of social media in education.
Elmo opening the meeting On the second day, Loreta Staskuniene lead the discussion about the goals to be reached before the next meeting in Odense, Denmark. The look and content for the brochure was agreed upon.
Elmo de Angelis presented an idea about using the mobilities for the project to bring teachers along for the remaining project meetings and running workshops simultaneously to the meetings. It was widely felt that it was a good idea to involve and engage teachers in the project but there was some serious doubt wether the scope of the project and the resources of the partner organisation would allow it.
Due to illness, Cai Melakoski was not able to attend the meeting. Everybody were sure to send their best wishes and were hopeful and confident in seeing him in Odense.
Enjoying a break between meetings Monday 29 March 2010
Away from text pt. II
The excitement and news-worthiness of social media derives from the fact that, as all social media are communication from many to many, it is a fiercely effective way to collect a reference group around any issue. Something that used to demand a lengthy campaign of communication from few to many, can now happen in an instant with no discernible effort at all. For advertising and marketing this has enormous implications in terms of reaching potential consumers. For education, or moreover the girl who could not sit still, social media can create a connection with a community that she needs to thrive with her own potential. "Finding your tribe" as Robinson (2009) calls it, is immensely important especially for the young learner who is not only faced with learning skills but finding their place in the world. In most cases there is no specialist or psychologist to point the student in the direction of his or her natural abilities. Social media, at best, can facilitate an authentic learning environment in the sense that there exists a community in which and with which to learn.
This is not to say that social media in itself is the salvation for every failing student. There is no added value in the existence of social media tools if there is no motivation or effort involved from the part of the student. Social media is however an avenue for the growing number of people who find it hard to find an anvil to their hammer. And at its very best it can help the people who have misplaced their hammer in finding it.
While there was a tech-utopia period in e-learning (or multimedia learning in those days) towards the turning of the millenia, it seems to be the technically fairly simple social media practices that have changed the world. The struggle away from old methods of text-based learning has turned in on itself in the sense that social media tools are largely text-based (though video and audio follow suit they haven't caught on in a major way). In fact, it is the two simple but novel ways of publishing text that seem to have had the most effect: the tag and the comment.
The tag is most commonly only a one word definition for a subject. Yet the fact that anyone can tag, anyone can participate in defining the subject holds great power. The comment is similarly only a short text but the fact that anyone can participate and anyone can comment on a comment generates a contextual web around the subject. With an infinite amount of things to comment on, only the commentators genuinely interested on the subject will gather around it. Genuine interest sparks relevant conversation. Much more so than university degrees or job titles. Not all subjects enjoy intelligent discussion, but social media does afford a chance to discuss and the chance to find your tribe.
So, in accordance to the title of this text: e-learning and social media have not moved us away from text at all but completely the opposite. They afford us new ways of using text and in so doing take us deeper into text. The fact that what we write is now published and read and reacted upon in ways that no-one could have predicted, is generating a new future for us. How that future will play out, is for anyone to tag and comment.
This is not to say that social media in itself is the salvation for every failing student. There is no added value in the existence of social media tools if there is no motivation or effort involved from the part of the student. Social media is however an avenue for the growing number of people who find it hard to find an anvil to their hammer. And at its very best it can help the people who have misplaced their hammer in finding it.
While there was a tech-utopia period in e-learning (or multimedia learning in those days) towards the turning of the millenia, it seems to be the technically fairly simple social media practices that have changed the world. The struggle away from old methods of text-based learning has turned in on itself in the sense that social media tools are largely text-based (though video and audio follow suit they haven't caught on in a major way). In fact, it is the two simple but novel ways of publishing text that seem to have had the most effect: the tag and the comment.
The tag is most commonly only a one word definition for a subject. Yet the fact that anyone can tag, anyone can participate in defining the subject holds great power. The comment is similarly only a short text but the fact that anyone can participate and anyone can comment on a comment generates a contextual web around the subject. With an infinite amount of things to comment on, only the commentators genuinely interested on the subject will gather around it. Genuine interest sparks relevant conversation. Much more so than university degrees or job titles. Not all subjects enjoy intelligent discussion, but social media does afford a chance to discuss and the chance to find your tribe.
So, in accordance to the title of this text: e-learning and social media have not moved us away from text at all but completely the opposite. They afford us new ways of using text and in so doing take us deeper into text. The fact that what we write is now published and read and reacted upon in ways that no-one could have predicted, is generating a new future for us. How that future will play out, is for anyone to tag and comment.
Thursday 25 February 2010
Mentoring in the TAOKK way
We at TAOKK (Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Vocational Teacher Education Centre) apply an approach that we call collaborative inquiry learning. It relies on shared expertise and collaborative knowledge building. The theory and the method was developed by Kai Hakkarainen et al (see: http://www.helsinki.fi/science/networkedlearning/eng/delete.html#pi ). In practice, our teacher trainees work in small groups and decide for themselves what they want to study more thoroughly. They discuss their reading in groups and finally produce an answer to their research question, which can be in the form of a formal report, or a CD, video, play, whatever they see fit. During their studies they compile a portfolio of what they've learnt. The portfolio is first and foremost a tool for self-reflection (and takes a lot of guidance to succeed) and can be in electronic form as well. We encourage teacher trainees to be creative in showing their learning. Continuous self-assessment, peer-assessment and group assessment are as important as the teacher's assessment of learning outcome.
This is part of teacher trainees' studies. The other part is work based. They learn on the job in their own schools supported by mentors trained by us (9cr + 1-2 days of updating annually). Mentors guide their teacher trainees in planning their teaching practice (including observation and actual teaching), give feedback on their lesson plans, and observe their teaching in class. The assessment is based on the teacher trainee's self-evaluation, the mentor's feedback and evaluation, and a training report that consists of a plan with learning objectives and a record of hours observed and taught, examples of lesson plans, and the teacher trainee's personal theory of practice.
This is part of teacher trainees' studies. The other part is work based. They learn on the job in their own schools supported by mentors trained by us (9cr + 1-2 days of updating annually). Mentors guide their teacher trainees in planning their teaching practice (including observation and actual teaching), give feedback on their lesson plans, and observe their teaching in class. The assessment is based on the teacher trainee's self-evaluation, the mentor's feedback and evaluation, and a training report that consists of a plan with learning objectives and a record of hours observed and taught, examples of lesson plans, and the teacher trainee's personal theory of practice.
Wednesday 17 February 2010
Away from text
The Education Technology Centre eEDU in Tampere University of Applied Sciences was founded 2001 to coordinate and develop web-based learning (e-learning) and teaching in TAMK. It's function was and still is to assists teachers with the use of learning environments, support teachers with the implementation of on-line teaching materials and offer consultation in the educational use of ICT. Besides support for teachers eEDU is responsible for research and development in its field of expertise at Tampere University of Applied Sciences.
To perform it's tasks, eEDU needs to keep up with the development of e-learning (the concept as well as the tools), to form our own view of e-learning on the basis of domestic and international signals. The following is an insight into the type of discussion that forms our view.
Since its conception e-learning has been struggling to find alternative media to text-based learning. The whole concept has been wrapped around the premise of being something other than text printed on paper. Visions of that otherness have varied from video walls to brain plug-ins. As in any technology driven field, innovation, new applications and new gadgets have moved the concept forward and guaranteed funding. Now, we are entering a period in which technology is not the main issue. The main focus is coming back to people and their goals of learning. It is this shift in thinking that has been the basis of conversations towards what is e-learning for eEDU. It is extremely important to have open discussions about what learning is and what it is that we want to achieve via education. The following video is one of the sparks for conversation about long term goals and profile of the education system. It is a 20 min. video and well worth watching for anyone working in education.
(The video is from TED.com which is worth while the visit if you are looking for quality academic disussion about social issues.)
There are two key issues in the video. First, the education system is geared towards producing university professors. Traditionally, the goal of the student is to succeed well in your studies. The best possible success is to become a university professor. This however omits completely the students individual tendencies. For a small percentage of students, it is desirable and worth while to seek the ultimate goal of professorship, but what about the rest 99,9% of students? (Finland is, and has been for a while, producing doctoral thesis at an alarming rate.) What is the role in society for those students who are not and will never be university professors? This brings us to the second key issue in the video: the girl who could not sit still. The girl had intelligence which did not include sitting silently in rows of desks, reading and producing text. She had to move to think. Then, and even now the girl would have been doomed as a failure to life outside the society. BUT through the appropriate discourse and proper supportshe became a successful dancer/choreographer and has had a merited and fulfilling career. This is not to suggest that all children who cannot sit still will become the lead in Bolshoi's next production of Swan Lake. What it does suggest is that there is a definite demand for diversified education and diversified learning environments. This demand and the potential for social media and authentic learning environments to answer the demand make this a revolutionary and exciting time in education.
(to be continued)
To perform it's tasks, eEDU needs to keep up with the development of e-learning (the concept as well as the tools), to form our own view of e-learning on the basis of domestic and international signals. The following is an insight into the type of discussion that forms our view.
Since its conception e-learning has been struggling to find alternative media to text-based learning. The whole concept has been wrapped around the premise of being something other than text printed on paper. Visions of that otherness have varied from video walls to brain plug-ins. As in any technology driven field, innovation, new applications and new gadgets have moved the concept forward and guaranteed funding. Now, we are entering a period in which technology is not the main issue. The main focus is coming back to people and their goals of learning. It is this shift in thinking that has been the basis of conversations towards what is e-learning for eEDU. It is extremely important to have open discussions about what learning is and what it is that we want to achieve via education. The following video is one of the sparks for conversation about long term goals and profile of the education system. It is a 20 min. video and well worth watching for anyone working in education.
(The video is from TED.com which is worth while the visit if you are looking for quality academic disussion about social issues.)
There are two key issues in the video. First, the education system is geared towards producing university professors. Traditionally, the goal of the student is to succeed well in your studies. The best possible success is to become a university professor. This however omits completely the students individual tendencies. For a small percentage of students, it is desirable and worth while to seek the ultimate goal of professorship, but what about the rest 99,9% of students? (Finland is, and has been for a while, producing doctoral thesis at an alarming rate.) What is the role in society for those students who are not and will never be university professors? This brings us to the second key issue in the video: the girl who could not sit still. The girl had intelligence which did not include sitting silently in rows of desks, reading and producing text. She had to move to think. Then, and even now the girl would have been doomed as a failure to life outside the society. BUT through the appropriate discourse and proper supportshe became a successful dancer/choreographer and has had a merited and fulfilling career. This is not to suggest that all children who cannot sit still will become the lead in Bolshoi's next production of Swan Lake. What it does suggest is that there is a definite demand for diversified education and diversified learning environments. This demand and the potential for social media and authentic learning environments to answer the demand make this a revolutionary and exciting time in education.
(to be continued)
Thursday 28 January 2010
DETVET Project Meeting in Östra Grevie
Östra Grevie FolkhögskolaThe second project meeting took place in Östra Grevie yesterday and today in Folkhögskolan Östra Grevie close to Malmö, Sweden. The main objective of the meetin was to learn more about pedagogical methods and techniques.
After the welcome speech by the session organiser Katarina Andersson the meeting digested the presentations:Coaching as a pedagogical method in VET, theory and practice (Tord Hansson and Maria Beres, Sweden)What's the challenge and teachers role, when the students go abroad? (Henrik Hjort and Kaare Jorgensen, Denmark Tutorship In Adult Education and Management Of Self-Study (Helena Grecmanová and Pavla Mruzkova, Czech Republic)
Finalising the questionnaire DETVET uses to collect data from VET teachers was done under supervision by Irena Pasilyte and Pavla Mruzkova, Czech Republic).
Dissemination was discussed after the presentation by Elmo de Angelis, Italy, and Cai Melakoski (Finland) led the discussion about developing the social media tools of the project, the blog and the Google group.
Finally DETVET project manager Loreta Staskuniene chaired the final talks about the work and tasks until the next meeting.
The next meeting will be held in Sant'Angelo in Vado, Italy April 7-8.
Östra Grevie Folkhögskola
After the welcome speech by the session organiser Katarina Andersson the meeting digested the presentations:Coaching as a pedagogical method in VET, theory and practice (Tord Hansson and Maria Beres, Sweden)What's the challenge and teachers role, when the students go abroad? (Henrik Hjort and Kaare Jorgensen, Denmark Tutorship In Adult Education and Management Of Self-Study (Helena Grecmanová and Pavla Mruzkova, Czech Republic)
Finalising the questionnaire DETVET uses to collect data from VET teachers was done under supervision by Irena Pasilyte and Pavla Mruzkova, Czech Republic).
Dissemination was discussed after the presentation by Elmo de Angelis, Italy, and Cai Melakoski (Finland) led the discussion about developing the social media tools of the project, the blog and the Google group.
Finally DETVET project manager Loreta Staskuniene chaired the final talks about the work and tasks until the next meeting.
The next meeting will be held in Sant'Angelo in Vado, Italy April 7-8.
Östra Grevie Folkhögskola
The host delegation Tord Hansson, Maria Beres and Katarina Andersson preparing their group assignment Monday 25 January 2010
European competences and Adult's education
In relation to the DETVET project aims and objectives, LLP Leonardo da Vinci office in Rome promoted the following contact seminar "Net-Working...Net-Thinking: The European common tools for transparency and certification of competences and qualifications (ECVET and EQF) and the non formal and informal learning" on 10-12 December 2009. 95 people participated representing different organisations from the training sector all over Europe. One member of Training 2000 participated in the seminar to discuss competences and transparency of certification for teachers and trainers in the domain of EQF and ECVET. The developped draft material was presented in the plenary session and accepted great interest.
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