In Week 8, we completed a HOT Strategy Discussion activity as a group. For this reflection, you will complete a similar activity where you select one strategy that is most valuable to your personal or professional practice. Please select an a strategy from any of the four categories that was NOT selected during our class activity.
Please respond to the prompt below:
| Reflections on Learning: Prompt #4 Review Chapters 4 - 7, and select ONE (1) strategy (not shared in class) that you agree is the most valuable or HOT strategy for assessing, collaborating, experimenting or imagining. For this strategy, please provide the following information in your reflection response:
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7 comments:
A strategy that I found particularly useful for a professional development experience that I plan to conduct is “Development Through Self-Assessment” found on pages 63-66 in Chapter 4 of Developing Adult Learners.
The purpose of this strategy is to help learners define for themselves and/or a group what constitutes good work (i.e. creating scoring rubrics for projects, papers etc.).
Brief summary: After a major project or paper has been assigned, the instructor will introduce the concept of self-assessment and invite each student to offer one idea of how good work vs. not so good work may be defined. This process of idea gathering continues until all relevant criteria have been covered. The ideas are recorded and displayed as they are being given. After all ideas have been recorded and displayed the instructor will seek additional information regarding any ideas that may need further clarification and redundancies are eliminated. Then, related ideas are categorized and grouped together. Learners are then asked if they would be willing for their work to be judged by the resulting criteria. The answer is likely to be yes; sometimes after further discussion and clarification among the learners. The criteria can then be used in a few ways: the learners can seek feedback from their peers using the criteria and then will engage in their own self-assessment (to be handed in with the final paper or project) as be graded by the instructor using the same criteria.
Idea for implementation: In thinking about my involvement in professional development, it occurred to me that most employees of major corporations and institutions go through an annual “grading process” – the performance review. However, in most corporations and institutions, a list of generic criteria is used to judge performance regardless of position. Almost all employees, no matter how inappropriate, are judged by the same performance criteria. It seems to me that involving employees in the development of performance criteria specific to their roles and responsibilities would not only result in a more meaningful evaluation, but also would foster a greater sense of responsibility among employees for their performance. It also could increase employee motivation for real engagement in professional development learning opportunities designed to enhance the knowledge and skills needed in one’s potentially ever-changing work environment.
Modification(s): The process for implementation of this learning/assessment strategy would not differ significantly between the academic and professional environment. The same process of developing criteria by which performance would be judged could remain the same. In addition, requiring employees to complete a self-assessment prior to their annual review using the same criteria that would be used by their supervisor to assess performance could lead to more powerful and meaningful discussion during the review. This process also could be utilized in individual mentoring situations where career development is the goal. The only aspect that I would leave out is the peer-review assessment as this seems inappropriate to me in professional development and performance review contexts.
Development through self assessment: I thought your idea of getting employees involved in the development of performance criteria was an excellent idea. After all they are the stake holders.
I'm on the fence when it comes to peer review. If it's anonymous (used for feedback purposes only)I wonder if it would still be a good idea for assessment purposes.
I struggled with limiting myself to only one HOT strategy, as I truly grappled between two: Repertory Grids and Examining of Paradigms. After spending more time evaluating the two, I realized that they are very similar in nature and, in fact, address many of the same issues. When asked to consider how we would implement them into our own personal or professional practice, I decided to focus on the Repertory Grids for my professional strategy in relation to being a high school teacher.
Under the umbrella of Assessing, the Repertory Grids, found on pages 49-55, are the most engaging and revealing for me. The grid’s purpose is to “raise to the level of awareness a learner’s assumptions as a springboard to conscious analysis of those assumptions toward greater self-understanding” (50). In other words, we put onto paper what we naturally think or feel, revealing the underlying assumptions that we all may have. The grid allows for comparisons amongst categories which facilitate the reflection process. It is a quantitative approach to qualitative assessment.
The process of creating the grid is just as engaging as the reflection of the end result. You have two players in this scenario: the interviewer and the respondent. The interviewer will be working within specific parameters in order to establish the shape of the grid (the book uses an example of a woman examining her relations with her colleagues). Throughout the process, the respondent will be challenged to place people, ideas, behaviors, emotions, activities etc… onto a continuum based on initial random groupings. He/She will assign certain characteristics to these groupings, thus establishing the parameters of the continuum. The interviewer assists in the groupings but does not aide in the response. You continually repeat this process until a full grid has been established and there is enough information from which to draw conclusions. The respondent will see the big picture and be able to make connections between the categories, taking the time to critically reflect on their results. Each person’s grid will be different and each person’s perception of the continuum will vary as well. This is an exercise for individual revelation and reflection of assumptions. Even though the results are individualistic in nature, there does not need to be a differentiation of teacher versus learner between the interviewer and respondent. In fact, both become learners from this situation, no matter what their initial role, just by participating in the process. Watching others actively compile thoughts/beliefs and reflect upon their results is, in itself, an activator of change.
This exercise can be used in a variety of ways. Presently, my school is going through the Middle States accreditation process and this grid format could be used in assessing our students, faculty, facilities, learning philosophies….the topics are endless. This process works for me because it is a concrete, hard-copy method for really “seeing” your assumptions. However, if you are a more abstract thinker and prefer a more tactile approach, using differing objects and ranking them on a continuum is just as effective. The book gives the example of places different statues in an order and then reflecting on your choice. You could do the same with sound or visual prompts as well. The purpose is to reveal and examine underlying assumptions. It is extremely applicable to our accreditation process because the grid results imply action and challenge us, as a community, to become reflective and self-aware of where we are as people, teachers, students and a school. We would be able to implement this strategy in large group setting by modifying the role of the interviewer and respondent. But, due to the personal nature of some of the topics, large group modification may not always work. Questions we may need to consider…Why do we teach the way we teach? Why do we accept the students we accept? Why do we require courses? Are we attuned to learning differences? All of the answers to these questions can be uncovered in guided use of repertory grids.
Strategy Name: Action Learning
Purpose: An intervention process that “promotes development, change, and transformation in individuals, groups and teams, or organizations.” The developmental intentions include toward knowing as a dialogical process and toward being a continuous learner.
Summary: As the authors state, this is not a pre-packaged program; rather, it is a process of working on real problems in a small group. The process uses a learning coach who helps the team “learn from their work without compromising the work itself.” The process involves “inquiring into one another’s ideas, surfacing and examining assumptions, and reframing the problem.” Action is taken on the problem and then the group reflects on the process and outcomes.
Page # Location: 96-100
Ideas for Implementation:
Action learning is a strategy to work on a real problem in the workplace and to also learn from the process. This is a great strategy for busy work teams who may not see the appeal of training without a tangible product. However, there has to be a willingness and commitment to engage in the learning process, the problem-solving process, and, finally, the reflection process.
This strategy made me think about the work of Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline and the accompanying field book. Senge discusses at length how to get individuals and teams to suspend assumptions and beliefs and move into a space of inquiring and imagining. I have found this to be one of the most difficult tasks I have encountered with individuals and teams. People naturally want to problem-solve using their current paradigms and assumptions. As Brookfield says, “we are our assumptions.” In addition, the problem-solving process is much more appealing than the reflection process because the action stage feels more like “real work!”
Working with groups and based on Senge’s field book material, I ask individuals to think about and identify their assumptions. I then ask that they take those assumptions and suspend them in the middle of the group so that they can move into the imaging, creative problem-solving mode. I have them literally take their hand and place the assumptions in the middle of the table. Another idea I have used is to have them write the assumptions on paper and place the papers somewhere in the room. The participants have to be open to this kind of process with an authentic desire to learn. I think it would be easy to adept the Snowball method to assumption hunting.
Once the assumptions are suspended, people seem better able to reframe the problem. All during the process, people have to be able to engage in critical reflection, asking themselves such questions as, “Did I really surface and examine all of my hidden assumptions in a productive mode?” or “How is my current paradigm stopping the group from solving this problem?”
Brookfield says that, “Becoming aware of the implicit assumptions that frame how we think and act is one of the most challenging intellectual puzzles we face in our lives. It is also something we instinctively resist, for fear of what we might discover.”
Because this strategy does not have a pre-determined sequence of events or programmed steps, the learning coach/facilitator has to adapt to each group or team. This requires understanding the context and the individuals and being clear about what the expectations and goals are for success.
Strategy Name: Experimenting- Exploratories in Physics
Purpose: To use an interactive approach to maximize student involvement in the study of basic physical principles.
Brief Summary: At the start of a new major learning topic/ concept, the students are given the opportunity to travel to different stations around the room to explore numerous manipulatives that relate to the topic. Suggested activities and thought provoking questions are also included at the stations. A class discussion follows the hands-on experience.
Pages 93-95 Chapter 6: Experimenting
Ideas for Implementation:
I'm not sure if I will ever teach science concepts to adults, but I currently teach science to teenage students, and really enjoyed reading the chapter on experimenting. I love the ides of exploring topics before formal discussion, and really feel that exploratory activities provide a common foundation for all students to build upon.
If I wanted to use this type of activity with my students I teach now, I would probably need to provide a little more structure and focus during the exploratory phase. The activities at the stations would probably be requirements instead of suggestions, but I would still provide time for them to explore on their own as well.
I think this type of activity works well for adults because they are more self-disciplined and take more ownership of their learning. I would even consider using this type of technique when training adults to use a new type of technology tool or product.
A strategy that I found interesting is "Cooperative Inquiry" on page 85-87.
Purpose: This strategy is to engage learners in researching to learn how to examine, develop, and look at how to do things better in their life to change a situation in their life.
Summary: I think this strategy is good adult learners in any walk of life to look at what is happening in their world and take the necessary steps to understand how to do things better by making informed decisions to bring about change. The strategy can be conducted by way of inquiry of groups that share the same interest, such as a field of study. The activity is is based on four phase approach with the learners conducting research and working together make sense of the world and the application of the work. After the inquiry students take the time to reflect on what they have learned. I believe this is a good way to learn and teach some subjects for the field of correction because officers share the same world and they can learn, share what they learned to make improvements in their world.
Implementation: I would use this strategy to teach a new skill and to have officers research the different ways that the new skill could be conducted. For example: I would teach entry level officers how to conduct cell searches, but have the officers tell me the different tools they can use to conduct the search and have them share it amongst each other so that they can figure out what would work for them or what changes they could make to their job more efficient and effective.
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