Theory Meets Practice: Piaget and Bandura Go OnLine

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Theory Meets Practice Piaget and Bandura Go
On-Line

• Innovations 2009
• Rich Cerkovnik, Ph.D.
• Anne Arundel Community College, MD
• Mike Cerkovnik, J.D., M.A.
• Mary Institute and Country Day School, MO

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Please Do Now

• Obtain
• Presentation Disk
• Resource Handout (hardcopy)
• 2 blank sheets of notepad paper
• We will give away all of the books we brought.
  If you write your name on a notepad sheet and
  submit it to us, you might receive one of these
  books. Please do this now.

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Introduction Questions

• Organizations K12, CC, 4 year, other
• Who Instruction, Administration, Student
  Support, other
• Beliefs about on-line instruction

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Overview

• Disk Documentation
• Presentation Preview
• Purpose
• Beliefs, Engagement, and Models
• Contextualization, Dialogue, and Examples
• Conclusion
• Questions

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Disk Documentation (16)

• Some Beliefs and Constraints
• Complete Course Policy and Related Documents for
  Set Up
• Concept Conference General Topics and Topics of
  the Week
• Examples of Conference Interactions
• Concept Conferences and Participation Reports
  Implementation and Evaluation Documents
• Seminal Resources (12 books, 7 articles, 1
  audio-cast, 3 summaries) (Handout)

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Seminal

• Seminal does not necessarily equal new
• Handout (write on, fresh copy on disk)

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Presentation Preview

• Focuses on beliefs about on-line instruction
• Many educators and the general public have
  beliefs about OL instruction that influence their
  decisions concerning OL instruction
• This presentation centers on the fundamentals of
  sound learning theory and motivation theory that
  is manifested in high quality instruction that
  surrounds us everyday, regardless of format.
• This presentation contextualizes this focus with
  some examples from a current on-line classroom
  and provides contexts for the participants to
  explore their own beliefs related to what we know
  about learning and motivation.
• One of the take-aways will be a concise and
  efficient list of the most seminal or thought
  provoking books (about 10), articles (about 5),
  audio-casts (1) , and summaries (3). Plus a
  complete set of softcopy documents of the
  on-line course materials.

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Purpose

• Identify personal beliefs about OL teaching and
  learning
• Explore these personal beliefs through a
  knowledge lens (what we know about learning and
  motivation)
• Reflect and self-assess per personal beliefs

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Do This Now Please

• Write down, on a single blank notepad paper, two
  personal beliefs you have about OL teaching and
  learning (2 minutes)
• These beliefs do not have be generally accepted
  beliefs, but MUST accurately represent your own
  personal beliefs or feelings about on-line
  instruction.
• Anonymous.
• Submit to the front

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Tetrahedron of LearningBransford/Jenkins
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Parallels Between Classroom and Presentation

• Reflection and Self-Assessment
• Learning Theory
• Motivation Theory
• Cyclical
• Non-threatening environment
• Motivation Theory
• Learning Theory

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Why Explore these Beliefs?

• We design our classroom environments based upon
  what we believe about
• Ourselves as instructors
• Students
• Technology
• Administrators/Evaluators
• Our Global Environment
• Participants Beliefs

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Some Beliefs and Constraints

• Some students will cheat if given the
  opportunity
• Long held beliefs (concepts) are highly resistive
  to change
• During face2face instruction I rely upon many
  non-verbal cues to evaluate my students degree
  of understanding, and base my instruction upon
  these spontaneous assessments
• I have limited time

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More Beliefs Constraints

• Some students should not take on-line courses
• An instructor has significant influence over how
  a student feels about the academic environment
• There are teachable moments and sometimes
  information/instruction/ learning activity is
  best timed to these moments
• More on Resource Disk

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What My Beliefs Made Me Do

• Create a non-threatening environment to
  facilitate student reflection and self-assessment
  
• Maximize the impact and efficiency of student and
  instructor responses
• Choice (respecting individual differences)
• Timing the teaching moment to coincide with the
  learning moment
• A word about FAQs
• Minimize the frivolous postings
• Respect time
• Accurately assess student reflection and
  self-assessment (Participation Grade)

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Concept Conferences

• Topics
• My Question (no points)
• Makes Sense
• Does Not Make Sense
• My Life
• Change in Thinking
• Resource
• Topic of the Week (1-3)
• Project/lab related
• Additional content
• Additional learning activity/misconceptions
• Timing (10-13 per semester)
• Choice/Personally Relevant

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Participation Reports

• 3 participation reports
• Start with 70
• Do not require that students present a correct
  scientific view of a concept
• Student selfassessment
• Student is responsible for arguing for the merits
  of their participation (sample format provided)
• Reduce end-of-semester crush

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Participation Report 1

• I hope this is close to what you're expecting
  except for the amount of participation. I didn't
  realize how little I was actually participating.
  I'm working with the family tax prep business and
  working on getting more time to focus towards
  this class.
• Student Comment

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Results

• I rarely see a trivial conference posting
• No student has complained about their
  participation score
• Participation scores vary across students over a
  broad range
• There is a sense of community within the
  classroom

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So
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• Who was this Lev Vygotsky anyway, and why should
  I care?

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Conclusion

• Audience Beliefs
• Next step ponderings/actions
• Presentation on League Website (not disk)

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Questions

• ?

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The End
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Additional Reference

• Reflection in action, reflection on action
  Designing for Reflection in On-Line Courses,
  2002, Harrington and Oliver

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Theory Meets Practice Piaget and Bandura Go
On-Line

• Innovations 2009
• Reno, NV
• March 16, 2009
• Mike Cerkovnik, J.D., M.A.
• Rich Cerkovnik, Ph.D.
• Anne Arundel Community College

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Recap

• Generate student reflection
• Writing reveals student thinking about concepts
• Other students identify with reflection
• Instructor modifies or deepens concept
• Tone of instructor response is critical

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Bandura/Dweck