From learning design to effective practices

From Learning Design to effective practices.

Developing Adults' educators professionalism in the context of ALICE project

Juliana RaffaghelliInternational Center for Educational

Research and Advanced Training (CISRE)Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

International ConferenceTransforming the Educational Relationship:

Intergenerational and Family Learning for Lifelong LearningBUCHAREST, 24-25 October 2013

Adults Education, a new frontier of practice Adults education is a key for

our societies. One of the less structured, ill-

defined in terms of practices and competences of the professional operating in the field (Beleid & Plato, 2008a)

For the educator this means that she has to feature the own context of work in every intervention (Przybylska, 2008)

Raising the overall level of skills of the adult population by offering more and better learning opportunities throughout adult life is important for both efficiency and equity reasons (…) . Not only does adult learning help make adults more efficient workers and, better-informed and more active citizens. It also contributes to their personal well-being (EC COM 2006 [614-final] p.5)

Adults’ education to promote creative intergenerational experiences Intergenerational learning (IL) improves dialogue

between generations through civic participation in common social and institutional spaces.

A developing field of adults’ education (Hatton Yeo, 2012)

Creating IL environments is still a challenge: a “crossing-boundaries practice”

“Crossing Boundaries”: based on Activity Theory (Engestrom, 1987)

Knowledge and expertisetransfer between contexts—such as school and work—through a process of “developmental transfer” and “expansive development” involving collaboration and the active reconstruction of knowledge between two or more activity systems (Tuomi-Gröhn, Engeström, & Young, 2003)

An example…

Two activity systems in dialogue

ALICE main assumptionsDid you know?

Intergenerational learning (IL) is when adults and kids benefit from sharing activities and learn important Key competences.

Adults as educators play an extremely  important role in Society.

Adults benefit from being educators.

They create space for intergenerational dialogue

Differences enrich Creative Languages can become a bridge between generations

ALICE main assumptionsDid you know?

They help to decrease the stress of dealing with «differences» through a joint activity

For adults to reflect on the own role as educator.For children’s agency (expression and reinforcing of the self)

Creative Languages Play, invent, share.

Intergenerational Learning, an opportunity

Two activity systems in dialogue

Learning Design & Design thinking: the kernel for adults’ educators professionalism

Design: from engeneering and architecture to education (Laurillard, 2012)

Analysing the context, the available resources, the educational problem and the participant’s motivations, in order to orchestrate educational solutions based on the theory of learning (Goodyear & Dimitriadis, 2012)

Learning Design, as conceptual and methodological approach for educators to explore their

educational problems and make more grounded decisions to plan/implement their pedagogical

practices (Conole, 2012)

Learning Design & Design thinking: the kernel for adults’ educators professionalism Design: from engeneering and architecture to education

(Laurillard, 2012) Analysing the context, the available resources, the

educational problem and the participant’s motivations, in order to orchestrate educational solutions based on the theory of learning (Mor&Craft, 2012)

Learning Design, as conceptual and methodological approach for educators to explore their educational problems and make more grounded decisions to plan/implement their

pedagogical practices (Conole, 2012) Designing for Adults learning is one of the key competences

for professionals operating in this area (Buiskol, Broek, van Lakerveld, Zarifis, & Osborne, 2010)

It requires design thinking (Cross, 1982) as boundary crossing professional competence.

Design Thinking At the level of the single educator: The more the

educator improve their skills for design thinking, the more she will be able of planning and intervening in ill-structured problems, providing creative educational solutions

At the level of the community of adults’ educators: the more the educators are able of designing for adults learning, the more they can adopt tools to represent, share and discuss the own practices, reinforcing a field of professional practices, which is also part of the adults’ educators professional identity.

ALICE case study LLP-GRUNDTVIG project “Adults Learning for Intergenerational

Creative Experiences”; Transnational and eLearning approach. 6 institutions from IT,

RO, UK, EL, CH built a course and an educational environment (on moodle) provided the space to reflect about practices and share ideas, during 6 months of implementation.

A professional learning community composed by 23 adults’ educators and a team of 6 adults’ education institutions attempting to shape new approaches (Adults Learning Pilot Programmes or ALPPs) to promote the idea of adults as educators as well as the value of creative languages to mediate intergenerational/family learning.

www.alice-llp.eu www.alice-llp.eu/virtualspace

Research Methodology Design Based Research (Brown, 1992; Pellerey

2005; Bielaczyc et al., 2004)

The trainer

Designing for IL

ALPP

Initial Idea

Action

Reflection/

Evaluation

Adapting

Promoting design thinking along an educational intervention as creative process: phases and elements

Phase DescriptionUnderstanding the context of practice

Objective: to collect information and reflect about the driving forces in the context of educational practice.Tools to represent/think about the design approach: Design Narratives and Force Map. Design thinking to provide solutions for...: The context as changing, fluid space of learning. The enlarged context of learning in the intergenerational case: adults’ goals of learning and children/teen goals of learning differ, but can dialogue in an enlarged context of learning.

Representing the educational process

Objective: Plan the intervention beyond the procedures, reflecting on the pedagogy.Tools to represent/think about the design approach : The Four Leaves taxonomy and its 4 steps (information, laboratory, assessment/evaluation, personalization).Design thinking to provide solutions for...: a clear and concise representation as part of the process of Learning Design to allow discussion and peer-reviewing on the quality of approaches before putting them into practice.

Implementing practices and networking to improve the educational sustainability

Objective: A process of implementation that is continuously monitored from peers, participants and external stakeholders (institutions engaged in the practiceTools to represent/think about the design approach : Check-lists, mental maps, blog and private trainers’ log.Design thinking to provide solutions for...: abiliytelling a story that makes the whole approach accountable and shareable.

Evaluating practices

Objective: A participatory approach to understand learning achievements and the educational impactTools to represent/think about the design approach : the learning/key competences map.Design thinking to provide solutions for...: understanding effectiveness as part of the educational process.

Making the approach transparent: opening practices

Objective: To understand the importance of Open Educational Resources in strenghtening the pedagogical and design thinking.Tools to represent/think about the design approach: templates and a virtual platform to shape/upload the own educational work.Design thinking to provide solutions for...: sharing educational practices in search for quality within the educational process.

[1] http://www.ld-grid.org/resources/representations-and-languages/ [2] http://www.slideshare.net/JulianaElisaRaffaghelli/alpp-strategylu6lu7[3] http://www.slideshare.net/JulianaElisaRaffaghelli/alpp-strategylu6lu7 [4] http://www.slideshare.net/JulianaElisaRaffaghelli/alpp-strategylu6lu7

The creative process of educational intervention

ALICE’s Phases of Development

Train adults' trainers

• Understanding and implementing ALICE’s approach.

Learning Design

• Designing for adults intergenerational creative experiences. Different adults could be the target: partners, senior citizen, teachers, volunteers.

Adults’ Learning

Pilot Programmes

• Testing phase where adults will use creative languages with children. Participatory evaluation with impact on intergenerational dialogue.

Engaging Local

institutions

• Better understanding and practices on IL as part of adults education. The adult as educator

Connections between the phases as part of an approach to professional development

Analysis

Trainers’ Competences Map as counterpart of the adults Key Competences/Learning Map

Trainers’ Log Social media as collectors of evidence on the

ongoing practices The crystallized practice: an Open Educational

Resource within the field of adults education

Analysis

Trainers’ Competences Map as counterpart of the adults Key Competences/Learning Map

Trainers’ Log Social media as collectors of evidence on the

ongoing practices The crystallized practice: Open Educational

Resources produced.

Excerpt of Trainers’ Learning Map

Threasholds

    Competen

ce Indicators  

Initial threashold

Descriptors

Standard threashold 

        Descriptors

Advanced threashold

        Descriptors

Expert            Descrip

tors

Learning Unit 6: Learning Design – Implementing Adults Creative Intergenerational Activities

Networking for project implementation

(Nr of respondent

s22)

I am eager to participate in local projects regarding adult education

(22%)

I am able of creating some informal educational activities in collaboration with other expert trainers

(0%)

I am able of creating specific activities both with other or by my own.

(26%)

I am able of creating specific activities negotiating them in local networks. I am open also to work with national European networks.

(52%)

Excerpt of Trainers’ Learning Map Threasholds

    Competen

ce Indicators  

Initial threashold

Descriptors

Standard threashold 

        Descriptors

Advanced threashold

        Descriptors

Expert            Descrip

tors

Learning Unit 6: Learning Design – Implementing Adults Creative Intergenerational Activities

Evaluating Adults Learning Pilot Programmes

(Nr of respondent

s22)

I’m informed generally about the strategies of participatory evaluation (like the Key Competence Map).

10%

I can recognize the importance of the strategies of participatory evaluation (like the Key Competence Map).

16%

I can recognize the importance of the strategies of participatory evaluation (like the Key Competence Map); I’m also able of adopting some of these strategies. Everything is perfectly clear to me.

34%

Not only I can recognize the strategies of participatory evaluation (like the Key Competence Map), as well as adopting some of these strategies; I’m also able of identifiying new strategies to keep improving my skills on participatory evaluation.

50%

A picture of first achievements (Source: ALPPs Learning Design – PW)

Creative Language

Nr of ALPPs

Nr. Of Sessions

Nr of Adults

Nr. Of Children

Nr. of institutions

KC addressed Documents/Products collected

Art/Cooking 4 14 80 126 6 Mainly 5 and 8, but also 6,7.

5 LD-ALPP6 blog post (CISRE)4 Presentations (CISRE)3 newsletter articles (CISRE)

Children Narrative

9 40 75 127 11 Mainly 8, but also 5,6.

3 blog posts3 Newsletter articles

Digital Storytelling

9 35 89 264 5 Mainly 4,5, but also 6,7.

2 blog post1 video1 newsletter article

Games & Social Media

6 8 70 56 6 Mainly 5, but also 1, 8.

1 international presentation1 Newsletter article

Music 3 3 56 50 3 Mainly 5 and 8, but also 1,4,6.

1 blog post1 newsletter article1 video

Total 33 86 290 497 31

Countries CH EL IT RO UK TOTAL

Nr of ALPPs 5 6 6 14 2 33

National Participation

Conclusions The complexities of acquiring a cross

boundary vision; frustrating experiences during the implementation

The need of not only collecting evidence, but sharing it with adults as a mean to keep the focus on the value of the intervention

A sense of ethical committement reinforcing the conversational and transformative framework (on the basis of Knowles, Mezirow, Freire)

The overloading process of data collecting in DBR

An open research process…

Thank you for your comments and suggestions!