A Step into Your Learners Mind

1
A Step into Your Learners Mind

• Ágota Scharle
• Cambridge University Press
• 7 October 2006, Esztergom
• IATEFL-Hungary

2
Once upon a time

• Story taken from Tsai and Fehér Creative
  Resources IAL 2004
• And she set off
• First the road was clear and the sky was bright
• Dark clouds came rolling up the sky
• but she always held on to the little magic box
• There it was the beautiful city in the green
  valley!

3
Focusing on the process

• Sometimes the journey is more important than the
  destination.
• The outcome is the person and their skills rather
  than the solution to some maths problem or a
  historical date planted in the brain.
• Shifting focus lets eat pizza!

4

• How do you eat your pizza?
• Where do you cut into it first?
• What shape/size of chunk do you cut out?
• Do you go straight into the heart of it, or start
  at the edges?
• Do you use a fork, or you just pick up a slice?
• Do you go clockwise or anti-clockwise?
• I usually start by cutting it into 6-8 pie
  slices and then start from the middle - and leave
  the edges.
• Taken from Davis-Garside-Rinvolucri Ways of
  Doing, CUP 1998

5
How to focus on the process in your teaching?

• Prompting reflection on how learning happens
• Relying on what learners know about their inner
  process of learning
• Sharing teachers information

6
Whats the connection with autonomy?

• Say, you give your students a choice of tasks for
  a ten minute slot in your lesson...
• To make an informed choice, they need to know
  about
• whats each task good for
• what they need to practise most
• what types of task suit their learning style

7
Teachers inputWhat to share with your learners?

• Think of a group or one learner you are teaching
  now
• Info about the teaching/learning process you have
  shared with them (aims of an activity, goals in
  the curriculum, various learning styles, etc)
• Discuss in pairs anything that strikes you
  unusual and
• which of these helps them (or what else would)-
  to reflect on the learning process?- to make
  informed decisions about their learning?

8
Learners input what can they possibly give?

• The context
• A new society
• A new generation
• Especially teenagers they are very different!

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• Girls in Boarding school in Sárospatak, 1950s
• Hair bands or long, tight plaits, skirts,
  politely crossed legs
• Compare girls at Bethlen G. Grammar school, 2006
• loose hair, no skirts, no chairs, legs all
  about!
• Or even Class photo Fazekas M. Grammar school,
  1992
• Girls huddled together hands? smiles?
• Compare freshers night at Bethlen G. Grammar
  school, 2006
• Quite a bit more relaxed

10
The transition to a Western society has brought

• more encouragement for individualism its ok to
  be different
• less formality in social interaction
• technical innovations in communication they
  chat, text, blog, and skype

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Teenagers especially

• Adolescence is the time for identity formation
  - they keep observing, comparing, reflecting,
  and discussing- they are hungry for feedback
  from friends and relevant adults
• More outspoken and adventurous, and perhaps more
  independent minded than their parents

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Source Németh (2004)
13
Source Németh (2004)
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Is this a nuisance or a resource?

• Four activities using peer feedback and IT
• Empathy in pair work
• Blog for self-expression with feedback
• Cooperative writing
• Peer evaluation, no IT needed

15
Empathy in pair work

• Peer feedback can hurt, and they need to be aware
  of this so that they can avoid it
• In pairs, have a conversation about a topic of
  your choice
• A starts talking, B can intervene any time, but
  first they have to repeat/paraphrase what A has
  just said
• B continues and A can intervene any time same
  rule applies
• Not a grammar exercise may use you said and
  continue without backshift
• Taken from Davis and RInvolucri Confidence book,
  Pilgrims Longman 1990

16
Community blog

• Think of opportunities for learning outside the
  classroom and pick one
• Write about this on your class blog site
  http//www.blogger.com
• Rules facts and observations only no
  evaluation!
• Teacher participates same way as students
• May skip home work if you add a good par. to your
  blog (agree on what makes a good par.)
• Kick start with some motivating input

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Cooperative writing class chronicles

• Students write the saga of their learning
  experience as a group
• use a cooperative writing site www.writely.com
• they can access the same document
• add, delete or change text
• see and comment on everyone elses contribution
• see who else is working on the text at the same
  time
• need to agree on rules of contributing

18
Peer evaluation pure, old fashioned

• work in pairs
• fluency practice you decide if written or oral
• decide what you want feedback on grammar,
  fluency, pronunciation/spelling, vocabulary,
  information content, etc.
• in 2 minutes, say/write as much as you can about
  Esztergom
• your partner listens/reads for and gives you
  feedback on what you asked them to.

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Is there really room for all this?

• Again think of a particular class/student you are
  teaching or have taught
• Think of how you could fit in any one of the
  activities we have done so far
• Please put up your hand if youve got it
• . If your hand is still not up tell us why.

20
Difficulties and concerns

• At what age can you start?
• Self awareness, self-esteem, personality,
  adolescence see Tókos 2002 (in Hungarian), or
  Assor-Kaplan-Roth 2002, or Inside the teenage
  brain, 2002
• Is it good value for time?
• gradual introduction, starting with tighter
  structure see Chapters 1-2 of Scharle-Szabó,
  2000 or Zins et al, 2004
• Will students take it seriously? Will they see
  the point?
• awareness raising see Chapter 1 of
  Scharle-Szabó, 2000motivating participation,
  dealing with discipline problems see Hadfield,
  1992
• Or

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Where to get the energy

• for setting off on a journey like this?
• Sit back, relax, take a moment to think
• of all the things you have done to refill your
  batteries during the past month
• of all the things you did as an investment in
  yourself as a professional
• and of all the things you have done to help
  yourself enjoy your job as a teacher

22
Thank you for your attention and active
participation.

• Ágota Scharle
• CUP ascharle_at_yahoo.com
• SEAL-Hungary seal_at_emk.hu

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References and further reading on autonomy,
awareness and adolescence

• Assor, A, Kaplan, H and Roth, G Choice is good,
  but relevance is excellent Autonomy-enhancing
  and suppressing teacher behaviours predicting
  students engagement in schoolwork, British in
  Journal of Educational Psychology 2002, 72, 2,
  261278
• Damon, W., Hart, D. Self-understanding in
  childhood and adolescence. New York Cambridge
  University Press, 1988
• Davis and RInvolucri Confidence book, Pilgrims
  Longman, 1990
• Davis-Garside-Rinvolucri Ways of Doing,
  Cambridge UP, 1998
• Evers W. J. G., Brouwers A. and Tomic W. Burnout
  and self-efficacy A study on teachers" beliefs
  when implementing an innovative educational
  system in the Netherlands in British Journal of
  Educational Psychology, 2002, 72, 2, 227-243
• Ferrari, M. and Sternberg, R.J. (eds.)
  Self-awareness Its nature and development,
  Guilford Publication, 1998
• Gallup, G.G., Jr. Self-awareness and the
  evolution of social intelligence. Behavioural
  Processes, 1998, 42, 239-247.
• Hadfield, J. Classroom Dynamics, Oxford UP, 1992
• Hart, D., Yates, M. Identity and self in
  adolescence. In R. Vasta (Ed.) Annals of Child
  Development, London Jessica Kingsley, 1996,
  207-242
• Hart, D., Atkins, R., Fegley, S. Personality
  and development in childhood A person-centered
  approach. Monographs of the Society for Research
  in Child Development, 2003, 68(1, Serial No.
  272).
• Hippe, J. Self-Awareness A Precursor to
  Resiliency. In Reclaiming Children and Youth.
  2004, 12, 4
• National Institute of Mental Health Teenage
  Brain A work in progress. National Institute of
  Mental Health, 2001 www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/teen
  brain.cfm
• Németh, Á Iskoláskorú gyermekek
  egészségmagatartása - a HBSC kutatás Health
  behaviour of school age children the HBSC
  research, presented at ELTE Pszichológia- és
  Pedagógiai Kar, Budapest, on 29 Sept 2004.
• Public Broadcasting Service www.pbs.org Inside
  the teenage brain, Jan 2002 http//www.pbs.org/wgb
  h/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/
• Scharle, A. and Szabo, A. Learner Autonomy,
  Cambrige UP, 2000.
• Silvia, P. J. and Duval, T. Shelley Objective
  Self-Awareness Theory Recent Progress and
  Enduring Problems Personality and Social
  Psychology Review, 2001, 5, 3, 230-241
• Tókos, K A serdülokori önismeret az elméleti és
  empirikus kutatások tükrében pedagógiai
  megközelítésben, in Új Pedagógiai Szle, 2002 (in
  Hungarian)
• Tsai, B and Feher, J.Creative Resources,
  International Alliance for Learning, 2005
• Zins, J E., Bloodworth, M.R., Weissberg, R.P.,
  and Walberg, H.J The Scientific Base Linking
  Social and Emotional Learning to School Success,
  in Building Academic Success on Social and
  Emotional Learning What Does the Research Say?
  Teachers College, Columbia University. 2004.