A look at collaborative practice for languages classrooms You say co-operative, I say collaborative.

A look at collaborative practice for languages

classrooms

You say co-operative, I say collaborative

•Examine some of the background to collaborative approaches to learning

•Explore the links between Curriculum for Excellence and Critical Skills/Co-operative Learning

•Get Active! Apply some aspects of these approaches to one area of teaching and learning of relevance to you

Sounds familiar?

• Knowledge is a fixed body of information transmitted from teacher or text to students

OR• Knowledge viewed as developing

interpretations constructed through discussion

Brophy, J 2002 : Social Constructivist Teaching: Affordances and Constratints

• Teacher is responsible for managing students’ learning by providing information and leading students through activities and assignments

OR• Teacher and students share responsibility for

initiating and guiding learning efforts

Brophy, J 2002 : Social Constructivist Teaching: Affordances and Constratints

• Students memorise or replicate what has been explained or modelled

OR• Students strive to make sense of new input by

relating it to their prior knowledge and by collaborating in dialogue with others to construct and share understandings

Brophy, J 2002 : Social Constructivist Teaching: Affordances and Constratints

• Discourse emphasises drill and recitation in response to convergent questions

OR

• Discourse emphasises reflective discussion of networks of connected knowledge; questions are more divergent but designed to develop understanding of the powerful ideas that anchor these networks: focus is on eliciting students’ thinking

Brophy, J 2002 : Social Constructivist Teaching: Affordances and Constratints

• Students work mostly alone, practising what has been transmitted to them in order to reproduce it on demand

OR

• Students collaborate by acting as a learning community that constructs shared understanding through dialogue

Brophy, J 2002 : Social Constructivist Teaching: Affordances and Constratints

This is what you would see or experience in the traditional classroom

A traditional British classroom often had high window-sills—to prevent the seated pupils from being distracted by more exciting events outside, or indeed staring out of the window. (Architecture with intent: design of control)

And constructivist classrooms…

• Curriculum is presented in whole to part with emphasis on big concepts

• Pursuit of student questions is highly valued

• Teachers generally behave in an interactive manner, mediating the environment for students.

• Teachers seek the student’s point of view in order to understand student conceptions for further use in lesson

• Students work primarily in groupsBrooks and Brooks: Making the case for

Constructivist Classrooms

So what?? Some trends….Twentieth Century

Curriculum-centredInteractiveDelivered wisdomOne-size fits allNationalStableRetainingTeachingIndividual

Twenty first century

Learner – centred

Participative

User-generated content

Personalisation

Global

Agile

Critiquing

Learning

Community/collaborative

5%lecture

10%reading

20% audio-visual

30%demonstration

50% discussion group

75% practice by doing

90% teach one another – immediate use of learning

95% when give each other immediate feedback

NTL, Bethel, MAINE, USA

THELEARNING PYRAMID

Characteristics of the CSP and CfE school...• Students and teachers frequently work in teams • Students and teachers actively solve meaningful problems

• Students and teachers publicly exhibit their learning

• Students and teachers reflect on what they are learning

• Students and teachers apply quality criteria to their work

• Teachers mediate, coach, support and teach

• Work is interconnected

• Everyone takes responsibility for the learning community

•You have 30 minutes for this task

•Read the outlines of the two challenges and look at the template in your pack. Discuss how they could be used.

•Using your own resources and/or mind maps, adapt one activity into a meaningful challenge.

•Specify the year group, prior learning and time to be spent on the challenge (brief)

•Share the roles within the group and decide who/how to share your work.