Научная статья на тему 'Teacher-to-student instructive communication design'

Teacher-to-student instructive communication design Текст научной статьи по специальности «Науки об образовании»

CC BY
64
55
i Надоели баннеры? Вы всегда можете отключить рекламу.
i Надоели баннеры? Вы всегда можете отключить рекламу.
iНе можете найти то, что вам нужно? Попробуйте сервис подбора литературы.
i Надоели баннеры? Вы всегда можете отключить рекламу.

Текст научной работы на тему «Teacher-to-student instructive communication design»

TEACHER-TO-STUDENT INSTRUCTIVE COMMUNICATION DESIGN

M. I. Teneva

A teacher has to fulfill a whole new set of requirements as both a person and a professional in today’s society. In universities, the job of a professor is now in transition from teaching “ready-made” knowledge to providing informational and didactic resources, incentivizing, counseling and rendering other forms of assistance and support to students in their cognitive process. And the percentage of independent work has increased in relation to “collective” class work.

In the past few years, education researchers have increasingly debated whether it would make sense to divide up university faculty staff into professors “dedicated to research” and those “dedicated to students.” Some scholars predict that this division will become more imperative as the integration of ITT into the education process continues and deepens. I believe that such “specialization” would definitely free up more space for professors to devote to students, but on the other hand, teaching must be underpinned by research if high education quality is to be sustained.

In this article, I would like to share my experience in the design and delivery of educational interaction models between teachers and students. I will describe the patterns that I follow in the teaching of specific subjects -those I teach to BA sophomore students at the Department of Education Engineering in Sliven (which is part of the Technical University in Sophia), and those I teach at the continuing professional development courses for teachers and academic counselors. I will briefly describe my “instructive interaction” algorithm below.

1. Students’ needs assessment. Before the course can begin, I will identify the learning needs and expectations of my future students. This is easily done by means of direct or indirect polling with a questionnaire form.

I use the returned answers to design an instructive interaction model that’s open-ended and flexible enough to be adapted to any situation.

2. Goal setting, planning and contracting. At the beginning of the course, I define my global and tactical goals. I present the contents of the course in a nutshell, and the educational and didactic resources I will be using. I explain the available educational interaction options, my testing and evaluation criteria, and the communication options my students can use between themselves. The teacher motivates the students and helps them identify their own goals and plan their work according to a timeline (deadline compliance is of the essence). In some cases, a collective or individual contract may be signed.

312

3. Managing the learning environment. The educational environment is centered around the student, his/her needs and interests. That environment needs to be filled with diverse informational and didactic resources (in print form, on magnetic carrier, online, etc.). The content of the educational process is organized into a number of free-standing modules: (а) curriculum; (b) tentative independent work plan; (c) assignments for collective and individual work; (d) a list of IT resources; (e) games, workshops and self-tests; (f) glossary of key definitions, and so on. To encourage students to become active participants of the education process, their share of independent work needs to be increased and they should be involved in various projects. Every student should be enabled to not just learn, but also design, manage, receive and generate information, publicly showcase his achievements and be accountable for the results. It is essential to put an enabling framework in place where every student would be able to satisfy his/her learning needs, moving at their own learning pace and according to their style. The educational environment should offer opportunities for real and virtual interaction and it should sustain continuing collaboration between teachers and students, and between students themselves. The best learning environment is the one in which people not just exchange and share information, but also generate ideas and new knowledge. This implies a high degree of freedom - the freedom to choose one’s own learning trajectory, the freedom to be active, to show your “individuality.”

4. Interaction management. The relations between the parties to educational interaction are to be based upon the basic human precepts: equality, cooperation, tolerance and mutual respect. The teacher is your partner and advisor at the same time. The teacher manages group interactions, encourages communication, helps students work together, stands by during their individual and collective work and assesses their progress. The students interact with the teacher and with each other. They develop such qualities as independence, creativity, responsibility and communication. The desired definitive properties of educational interactions are free will, spontaneity and symmetry.

5. Evaluation is really two things: (a) evaluation of students’ progress. Fair assessment of educational results calls for clear, precise rules, indicators and criteria. Progress evaluation ought to go along with the entire learning process. It is important to move progress evaluation from the “stress zone” to where students stop dreading it as a test or exam, but instead take it as a recognition of the effort they make. Evaluation is not so much about “diagnosing,” but more about “encouragement.” Grades should

313

come with a set of advice, an outline of prospects and motivation for future achievement; (b) evaluation of the teacher’s job.

At the end of the course I do another poll using an anonymous questionnaire form, in which students are asked to share their thoughts about the educational process overall, and to evaluate their teacher’s and their own performance. The idea is to match the students’ expectations (as stated in the poll at the beginning of the course) against their level of satisfaction with the results achieved. The questionnaire form should include questions that ask students for feedback on the curriculum, process organization and the teacher. The results are used to make adjustments to subsequent projects.

My own previous experience in course design shows that this algorithm, if followed faithfully, is a way to design excellent, unique courses that (1) are focused on the individual student, and (2) can be updated and adapted to suit any circumstances. Success in this is assured by the following points: (a) the training process puts the student’s needs and interests above everything else; (b) classic and virtual technology is employed to create a vibrant, attractive learning environment jam-packed with all kinds of learning resources and opportunities to communicate and work together; (c) the student enjoys a great deal of freedom of choice; the student is active and free; he gets professor’s help every step of the way; and (d) standby analysis provides information for continuous improvement and updating of the teaching/learning process.

In conclusion, I would like to note that, in order to design powerful educational interactions and make them work, the teacher must possess certain qualifications and a certain level of expertise. Not only must he/she be a flexible, creative, top-notch professional; the teacher has to have selfcontrol and discipline, he must be open and responsive to every student’s needs and wishes, and he must be able to inspire and provoke thought and imagination and sustain a creative learning environment throughout the course.

314

i Надоели баннеры? Вы всегда можете отключить рекламу.