<<back to publications<< …..........................>> to Teach0logy.xyz>>
When getting ready to the conference (http://www.phystec.org/conferences/2016) I was planning on giving an oral presentation, but then I converted it into a poster (see the slides below). I also made a movie to hear how would I sound, there is a link to that movie, too.
The following links lead to a pdf version of the presentation and the video of the presentation (prepared as a training video)
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
This presentation has two parts: the firs part is “a manifesto”, a call for building a consensus on a universal standard for measuring learning outcomes in physics; the second one is on productive form of teacher professional development. Use the links above if you are not interested in another part (will save you about 7 minutes).
Link to the 1st part: www.teachology.xyz/FW.htm Link to the 2nd part: www.teachology.xyz/PrD.htm
(1) Hello, I am Dr. Valentin Voroshilov,
(2) I’ve been in the field of education for many years playing many different roles.
I was born and grew up in Russia. I had a pretty good career in Russia, but when I got a chance to move my family to the US, I took that chance.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(3) After starting again from the bottom I have regained most of my previous career achievements. I am pretty proud of this, considering I had no formal education in English and no professional network to support my efforts.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(4) The title of my presentation is ”Project-oriented form of teacher professional development for pre-service and in-service physics teachers“
I would like to start my presentation from two statements:
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(5) Physics is a science. Teaching physics is not.
Of course, these statements are based on a certain definition of “science”.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(6) Personally, I do not like descriptive definitions like “science is the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment” (this is the top Google search result for “definition of science”). In fact, such a definition does not really allow to distinguish a science from a religion. I prefer operational definitions, like “A science is an internally consistent body of knowledge based on the scrupulous and logical analysis of a vast amount of data”. In particular, this definition allows us to see when a school of thoughts becomes a science.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(7) For example, Astronomy dropped Astrology and became a science when Kepler finished his analysis of huge amount of data collected before him, and wrote his famous laws. Of course, in reality there is always back and forth between theorizing and data collecting, or as we call it today – data mining, but in the end,
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(8) every science is based on a solid foundation of the results of intensive data mining.
If teaching physics is not a science, can it become such?
Of course. All we need is to mine a lot of reliable and comparable data.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(9) I want to stress the latter word – comparable. Educational data mining is a young field. It starts producing a large amount of data.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(10) However, having a lot of data without being able to make a comparison is like using different currencies without establishing exchange rates.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(11) The history of physics shows us a means for establishing the comparability we need – such means are called standards.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(12) We would have never had a hadron collider built in Geneva if after an almost hundred year long journey physicists would not agree on a set of common standards.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(13) There are standards in education, too. But when an educator says “a standard”, he or she means something very different from what it meant in physics. In education, a standard is a description of “the learning goals for what students should know and be able to do at each grade level”.
However, people using the same educational standards still can use different measuring procedures leading to incomparable results.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(14) Based on those results all we can conclude so far is that: if we take two large groups of similar students, and one group of students will have a more extensive or divers learning experience (for example, more contact hours, or more time spent on certain exercises, or training through more different exercises, etc.) students from that group, on average, will demonstrate better learning outcomes than the students in a controlled group.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(15) This conclusion becomes almost obvious if we employ the notion that a brain is basically a muscle, or a collection of muscles, the development of which strongly correlates with the variety and intensity of exercises it goes through.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(16) In order to move beyond the obvious we need to adapt to teaching physics the same approach which had been adopted to doing physics. We need a standard which, like in physics, is an actual object, or a feature of an object, accompanied by a specific procedure which allows comparing similar features carried by other objects with the one of the standard (that is why “a standard” is also called “a prototype”, or “an etalon”). For example, a standard of mass is an actual cylinder. A verbal description such as: “A standard of mass looks like a cylinder “with diameter and height of about 39 mm, and is made of an alloy of 90 % platinum and 10 % iridium” would not work as a standard, because it is impossible to compare the mass of an object with a sentence.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(17) By now everyone who is still listening might be thinking, how the heck is this all related to the title of the presentation?
Fair question!
I divide my presentation into two parts. The first part – the practical one – is almost done, and its goal is to demonstrate in practice such essential elements of professional designing as goal making, and collaboration seeking. The second part, which starts in four slides, is based on my PhD dissertation and is currently in works for becoming a chapter in a book by IGI Global about teacher professional development.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(18) This conference is a big professional development event. When attending such an event, the result depends heavily on the attitudes of the attendees.
Having a passive attitude means, that during an event an attendee does not search for a specific means for advancing his or her own practice; the activity is limited by seeing or hearing something new.
Having an active attitude means, that during an event an attendee searches for a specific means for advancing his or her own practice. Such a means can include a specific knowledge, or a technical instrument, or a potential collaborator, or else.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(19) For example, I believe that “a standard” for measuring learning outcomes must satisfy the following five conditions:
(a) Every aspect of the development and the use of the standard has to be open to public and be able to be examined by anyone.
(b) The use of the standard must lead to gradable information on student’s skills and knowledge.
(c) The use of the standard must lead to gradable information on student’s skills and knowledge, AND must not depend on any specific features of teaching or learning processes.
(d) The use of the standard must lead to gradable information on student’s skills and knowledge, and must not depend on any specific features of teaching or learning processes, AND must allow to compare on a uniform basis the learning outcomes of any and all students using the standard.
(e) Any institution adopting the standard should automatically become an active member of the community utilizing the standard and can propose possible alternations to the standard to accommodate changes in the understanding of what students should know and be able to do.
And I am using this professional development event in part to find people who share the same belief.
LINKS:
video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk
pdf:
http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(20) I have more than just a belief. I have developed a specific approach which will lead to designing such a standard. The approach is based on using MOCCs (MOCC stands for “a map of operationally connected categories”); the link on the screen leads to a detailed description of what MOCC is and ways to use it (http://www.teachology.xyz/mocc.htm).
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(21) I believe that the time has come to create a coalition of individuals and institutions which goal is to developing the universal standard for measuring learning outcomes in physics (for starters). And that is one of the reasons why I am attending this conference.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(22) When a teacher attends a professional development event, he or she always has a choice to make.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(23) The teacher can take a passive position (“I am just looking for something new and interesting”).
Or, the teacher can take an active position (“I have a problem and I need to find a means to solve it”).
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(24) The latter position significantly increases chances that after the event the teacher will be making some constructive changes in his or her teaching practice. And that is what we all want from a professional development event.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(25) “When I started my career, I did not have a say in the menu of courses that my district taught. We logged into a training system and chose, based on what was being provided. The problem was that none of the provided sessions applied to what I needed, and when district requirements were that a certain number of hours be earned through in-district training, it meant that a large majority of teachers were taking courses just to earn the hours. That was more than 10 years ago, and sadly, in many school districts, this is still the case.”
This is a quote from a book by Rafranz Davis, “The Missing Voices in EdTech”, 2015 (CORWIN)
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(26) Various researchers have been looking for methods to ensure that after attending a professional development workshop a teacher will bring into his or her practice new knowledge presented at the workshop. One of the practices which proved to be efficient is based on the activity theory, and called “Professional Designing”.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(27) Professional Designing helps to ignite and maintain a process of transformative development of an individual or an institutional educational practice.
The theoretical foundation of this branch of the research can be found in publications of G.P. Shchedrovitsky (1964, 1966, 1971, 1977, 1981), and his colleagues, such as N.G. Alekseev (1992) and followers such as A.P. Zinchenko (2014).
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(28) By a definition: Professional Designing is an intellectual activity resulting in: (a) constructing an image of the ideal/perfect professional situation (whatever it might mean for a given person), and (b) planning activities aimed at the transformation of the actual professional situation making it closer to the ideal one; the material result of a professional designing is a project. The link on the screen leads to a broader description of Professional Designing and its application to teacher professional development: http://www.teachology.xyz/pd.htm.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(29) In order to transform his or her professional situation, teachers (a) must be willing to change their own practices, and (b) must be able to make the change. This means that professional skills, abilities, competencies of a teacher should include not only specific subject-related skills or teaching-related personal qualities, but also “meta-skills”, allowing to manage processes of idealization (i.e. drawing mental images), reflection, goal-setting, action scheduling, and so on, which are required for transforming a human practice. A combination of such skills forms the ability for designing the own teaching practice.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(30) A professional designing is an activity that takes place primarily in the area of personal values and motives, goals and objectives, actions and procedures, problems and possible solutions. When conducting a professional designing, or shortly – when designing, one does not deal with real objects or subjects, but manipulate with the abstract concepts relevant to the one’s professional practice (here and below a person conducting a professional designing is called a designer, or a projecter – with the stress on the last syllable; other versions are “a projectEur” and “a projectOr” ). The first product of a professional designing is the formation of a project idea.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(31) In simple terms, a project idea of a designer describes in his or her words “what is wrong with what I do”, and “how will I fix it”. The presence of a project idea does not automatically ensure its future realization, but it indicates the direction of the future actions of the designer; the project idea becomes the basis for the development of a detailed professional project, which is a textual representation of a current professional situation, certain professional problems, and proposed steps for solving those problems, including criteria and procedures for assessing the progress.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(32) The most important product of a professional designing is a personal professional project, the existence of which significantly increases chance for a teacher implementing in the future practice knowledge presented during a workshop.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(33) A professional designing – as a human activity – is essentially situational; its ultimate goal is to find mechanisms for self-transforming a concrete current professional situation of a projecter. A projecter never works alone; there is always a set of active or potential collaborators (or competitors).
An effective form for coordinating professional goals and actions, based on the implementation of project-aimed activities, is the so-called “activity-organizing workshop”. AOW participants usually represent coworkers from an institution or an institutional entity, or represent the same district. (sometimes at a retreat)
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(34) Communicating processes ignited during AOW and aimed at unveiling images, views, and opinions of participants about professional activities of themselves and others are complicated and sometimes emotional. That demands the involvement of an experienced moderator (a.c.a. a “methodolog”, a.c.a. a “methodologist”; the former term is more broadly used in the context of AOW). Guided by a methodolog, AOW participants become actively engaged into an individual professional designing. As the result of this work, the participants inevitably advance their ability to conduct a professional designing. The effectiveness of AOW strongly correlates with the experience of a methodolog moderating the event.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(35) It is very important for the success of the whole event that participants would be willing to openly discuss their teaching experience (including such personal and usually internal matters as their values, moral limits, beliefs, life expectations, professional aptitudes, goals and actions). This conversation usually leads to an eventual realization of the existence of some gap/disconnect/incoherence between the results and the structure of actual teaching practice and the declared teaching goals and methods. When the existence of this gap is clearly presented to a participant, the so-called “problematic situation” has been reached.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
(36) All precedents of AOW demonstrate that when teachers are immersed into a professional designing it positively affects their teaching practice in general and an ability to self-improve their teaching practice in particular. The conclusions on the effectiveness of the project-oriented methods of organizing teacher professional growth were made on the basis of individual interviews, surveys, and reflective feedback from teachers, and observations of teachers’ activities during events and while teaching students before and after events.
LINKS: video: https://youtu.be/Ix5Mu3M3YFk pdf: http://www.teachology.xyz/pr16.pdf
Thank you!
Dr. Valentin Voroshilov / http://www.TeachOlogy.xyz
P.S. All the pictures above a courtesy of the Internet and/or MS Office tools.
<<back to publications<< …..........................>> to Teach0logy.xyz>>