The Potential of Informal Learning

Children, and most other young animals, have a natural inclination to explore their world, test whether new objects can be eaten, find new spaces and possibilities, and this curiosity is important in driving learning (Day, 1982). We retain some of this tendency to explore as we get older, and most of us like the idea of travelling to new places, tasting different foods, trying out new pastimes etc. However, we don’t always associate these informal experiences with learning, and indeed many of us, after years of compulsory schooling, may deliberately shun the idea of associating ‘real life’ experiences with learning. But actually, learning which is unplanned and unconscious may be as important as the more formal learning that comes from a training course or curriculum: it got us from crawling to walking, it ensures that we don’t persist with sampling mud or caterpillars, and it allows us to communicate with one another.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-billed_quelea

Some of what we learn in this way has been referred to by Polyani (1967) as ‘tacit knowledge’: we have knowledge or abilities but may not be able articulate what they are. Rogers (2003) differentiates an awareness of tasks that have been mastered (eg. parenting), and used the term ‘Task-conscious or acquisition learning’ to describe this. However, in many cases, we are not aware of what we know: it takes a metacognitive step to become mindful of our knowledge and skills, and to register new information that we might come across. As an example, I happened to hear about a bird called a quelea on Radio 4 one morning last week, and was interested to discover that it is the most numerous bird on Earth. I later looked up further information about the bird on the web, and seeing a picture of it, and its name spelt correctly, has helped me be aware that I have learnt something about this bird. Furthermore, noting all of that here has helped to consolidate that learning (possibly shunting information from working to long-term memory). I thus added a snippet to my ‘life-long learning’!

This example of learning only took place because there was a source of information that was stimulating, and I was motivated enough to find out more (last week there was a lot on the radio about banks and politics, too, but I didn’t trouble myself to look up anything about them!).  It could be argued that a key role of education in general, and adult education in particular, is to make individuals aware of what is, or might be, stimulating, and to motivate them to find out more. This is education in its truest sense, ie. a ‘leading out’ .  Educational institutions generally translate this into programmes of accredited formal learning with detailed curricula (and fees!), but unless these maintain an appropriate level of stimulation there is a danger of a drop in motivation. This is particular danger for part-time and distance programmes. For adult learners, there may also be a lack of confidence about their ability to engage with future learning, and whether their past learning has any value.
Taking the last point first, adult and workplace learners may have learnt a great deal informally, or in a ‘task-conscious’ way, and it can be highly motivating for them to become aware of what they have already learnt, and recognising its value: this is the basis of APEL (Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning). But how do they continue to be motivated, and how do we maintain stimulation particularly for part-time and distance learners given their potential remoteness?

Part of the answer lies in continued communication and feedback, as indicated in a previous blog, and a key tenet of Gilly Salmon’s writing (Salmon, 2013). Both communication and stimulation can, to an extent, be addressed using technology: some of this may have been part of the domestic scene for some time (eg. TV and radio), and some, such as mobile phone applications, may be a lot more recent. All have the advantage that they are already part of the scenery of informal learning for many people.
Examples include Twitter, and though this can be annoyingly trivial at times, it is a constantly available means of communication. Following key individuals or organisations can provide a great deal of information, and use of hashtags allow for searching and exploration of themes. Another example is Google maps, which not only give information about roads and terrain, but also names of businesses, restaurants, train stations etc. Moving a step further, applications such as Layar  allow you to use your camera to give information about the buildings etc around you, indicating shops, pubs, bus-stops etc. If QR codes are available (eg. on museum exhibits), detailed information may 

from Morguefile.com

be readily accessed.
All these examples require an internet-enabled mobile phone (or smartphone) which may be a barrier to some, but increasingly, these tools are part of what we carry around with us, and as educators, we need to make full use of the increasing range of mobile-based tools to augment informal learning, reinforce formal learning, and help learners to become more self-reliant.

References

• Day, HI (1982) Curiosity and the interested explorer. Performance and Instruction, 21, p19-22
• Polanyi, M. (1967) The Tacit Dimension, New York: Doubleday.
• Rogers, A. (2003) What is the difference?  a new critique of adult learning and teaching, Leicester:  NIACE
• Salmon, G. (2013). E-tivities: The key to active online learning (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge

New Resource on Professional Learning for Teachers

Last week, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) learnt that it has been successful in its bid to the Welsh Government to produce an online learning pack for ‘Professional Learning’. This will be hosted on the Welsh Government’s ‘Learning Wales’ website, and will add to a suite of existing learning packs which form key resources for the ‘Masters in Educational Practice’. This is an important masters-level component in continuous professional development for teachers in Wales, and a key part of the ‘National Model of Professional Learning’ announced by Huw Lewis, the Welsh Government’s Minister for Education and Skills, in June 2014. The Wales Institute of Work-Based Learning (WIWBL) at UWTSD will have a key role in authorship, with myself as Project Coordinator and lead author.

Key aspects of this resource will be:

·         the importance of reflecting on practice, posing questions about practice, and undertaking research activity which develops both teacher and teaching

·         the value of data and other evidence, and how it can be used to inform practice, particularly in key areas such as differentiation and personalization

·         ways in which teachers can collaborate and support each other during their careers

·         how teachers can become ‘self-sustaining practitioners’ as they embark on a professional learning journey which may take them in various directions, including leadership

My Top Tools for Distance Learning

Jane Hart, C4LPT, published her Top 100 Tools for Learning for 2014 last month

(http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/ ), which got me thinking about the tools which are most useful for distance learners. The answer, to some extent, is ‘it depends’. It depends on the nature of the course, and the nature of the learners and their access to technology. It also depends on when you reflect on your answer, because technology is changing rapidly, and so is education in general. One significant change is the shift towards mobile, and there is no doubt that internet-enabled mobile devices have a significant potential for learning, though they may also have limitations (eg. screen size, keyboard usability), and are probably not a key device for older distance learners in particular (Zhou et al, 2013). Whether or not mobile devices are used, all distance learners need access to quality information in appropriate formats, a well-structured programme of study (eg. Open University), regular feedback from their tutor(s) (as detailed by Gilly Salmon), and some form of regular contact with their peers.

 

Anyway, here’s my list of top tools:

1.       Books, in which I include all good quality print-based materials (NB: the ‘good quality’ bit is essential; there are plenty of useless books). This may sound very ‘digital immigrant’, but I have yet to find a substitute for a book in terms of ease of reading and flicking to and forth to check on concepts, links between topics, making notes etc

2.       Email: still, in my opinion, the easiest way to communicate detailed information with 1 person in an asynchronous way (and sometimes it’s better to be asynchronous)

3.       Skype: probably the easiest way to communicate with 1 person in a synchronous way (though the good old telephone does that quite well, too, especially if you’re not looking you’re best ;) )

4.       Webinar platforms (eg. Blackboard Collaborate): the easiest way to communicate, and convey detailed information, with >1 person in a synchronous way. I’m aiming to try out MS Lync soon (just happens to be available in UWTSD). Haven’t yet found a free-to-use platform that works reliably.

5.       VLE: this is a bit ‘old fogey’, too, but actually, you do need an online way of gathering videos, articles, power-points (yes, we still need those!), study planners, access to webinars etc. I am still making Xerte learning objects (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/toolkits.aspx) to add to the UWTSD Moodle, though not sure what will happen to Xerte once it’s absorbed into the Apereo Foundation. I’m also very interested in sites such as www.blendspace.com which brings together resources and interactivity in the same sort of way as Xerte, and currently free to use.

6.       Audio/video feedback: again, something that might sit on a VLE, but could be made available to individual learners in other ways. This is really an extension of talking/explaining and in that sense has an edge over written feedback. There are plenty of audio/video recorders, and also screen-casting applications such as Camstudio (http://camstudio.org/ ) and Jing ( http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html ) (both free to use) that are handy of you’re trying to explain something that has numerous steps, as in a mathematical problem.

7.       ‘Open’ resources, again only if good quality. These include OER (Open Education Resources) from sites such as Jorum (http://www.jorum.ac.uk/ ) and Xpert (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xpert/)- though not sure how up-to-date these are now- and also from the OU’s OpenLearn (http://www.open.edu/openlearn/ ). I also include in this category ITunesU, and, very importantly, YouTube. Video is a powerful learning tool, and YouTube has become the main conduit for video-based information from interviews to medical procedures.

8.       Collaborative authoring tools such as Google docs, and Mindmeister (https://www.mindmeister.com) for collaborative mind-mapping. Titanpad (www.titanpad.com ) is also handy, with no login needed.

9.       Google scholar for non-institutional searching, and Delicious (https://delicious.com ) for bookmarking (and searching). There may well be better alternatives to Delicious by now (please let me know if so!), but I’m still using it, and I’d have trouble coping without it.

10.   Twitter: not essential (yet), but an increasingly handy source of information, and another way of ‘maintaining contact’.

A lot of my preferences are visible in Jane Hart’s Top 100, and also in articles by Scott Steinberg (Huffington Post, 2013) and Marsha Bermeister (2008). I suspect that my list won’t change much in the short-term, but I do expect that the way I access some of these applications may change, and the advent of the Windows 8 ‘block’ interface signposts what may be to come.

            

References

      ·         Burmeister, M (2008) Ten Top Tools for Distance Learning [online]. Available at: http://www.nova.edu/~burmeist/topten_resources.html. [Accessed 6.10.14]

·         Hart, J (2014) Top 100 Tools for Learning 2014 : Best of Breed  [online]. Available at:  http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/best-of-breed/

·         Salmon, G. (2013). E-tivities: The key to active online learning (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge

·         Steinberg, S (2013) Distance Learning: Best Apps, Tools and Online Services. Huffington Post [online]. Available at:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-steinberg/distance-learning-best-apps-tools-and-online-services_b_3805068.html. [Accessed 6.10.14]

·         Zhou, J et al (2013) Age-related difference in the use of mobile phones. International Journal of Universal Access in the Information Society. DOI 10.1007/s10209-013-0324-1 [online]. Available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10209-013-0324-1#. [Accessed 6.10.14]

Class size: what’s best?

 

The latest SEDA blog discusses ‘Class Size matters’, one of Graham Gibbs’ 53 Powerful Ideas All Teachers Should Know About (http://www.seda.ac.uk/resources/files/publications_167_19%20Class%20size%20matters.pdf). Graham focuses predominantly on HE, and contends that large class sizes are detrimental, leading to reduced student-teacher interactions, diminished levels of feedback, reduced access to resources, reduced depth of student thinking, and reduced achievement (Gibbs’ own study published in 1996 shows a small but significant drop in grades obtained in class sizes >30) . He attributes many of these problems to the ‘scaling up’ that may often be the response to reduced funding, but also notes that these detriments are not inevitable,  mentioning the success of the OU despite their massive cohorts (but small tutor groups and their own high-quality resources). Many of Gibbs’ points are echoed by Cuseo (2007), who also suggests that large class size reduces student satisfaction and retention.

 

By contrast, Hattie’s 2005 meta-analysis of the effect of class size in schools seems to indicate that there is very little effect of class size on learning outcomes, most of which are related to achievement. Hattie’s explanation for this revolves around teaching methodologies, and he commented:

“The argument is that moving from one ‘‘level’’ of class size to another requires a shift in the concept of excellence of teaching—a move from direct (most often transmission) teaching of students (at 80+) through attending to teaching and learning (at 20–80), to co-working with a cohort of individual students teaching and learning together. The shift required by teachers is not merely to adapt their methods as they move across the levels, but a major re-conceptualization of what it means to be excellent as a teacher at the various levels of class size.”

 

This may well be a valid point a point, but I am rather concerned about exactly which ‘learning outcomes’ should be used to gauge the effect of class size: is 'achievement' always appropriate, and which forms of achievement should we consider? I would also suggest that teaching approaches, whilst important, are not the only variables involved: student age and motivation are also important factors, along with the way that learning is organized, Hence, medical students, for example, may be highly motivated to learn even when a lecture theatre is packed, and even with a ‘poor’ lecturer, though they would undoubtedly learn more from a ‘good’ lecturer. However, they would also need sessions in small groups to discuss key concepts, or learn specific skills. At the other end of the spectrum, a parent or nursery nurse would have difficulty managing effective learning interactions with more than two or three infants. In between, I believe that a lot depends on the needs of individuals and groups, and research carried out by Peter Blatchford et al the Institute of Education around ten years ago gives an important perspective:

“Results showed that as class sizes became smaller there were more times when pupils were the focus of a teacher’s attention, and more times when they were engaged in active interaction with teachers. This effect was found for all groups at both primary and secondary levels. It was also found that pupils’ classroom engagement decreased in larger classes and this problem was particularly marked for the pupils who are already attaining at lower levels” (http://classsizeresearch.org.uk/ )

 

 In short, if we want learners to enjoy, and benefit from, their lessons we need to understand their needs, be clear about what the ‘learning outcomes’ should be, and ensure that there is sufficient resource available to provide the most appropriate learning methodologies. This might involve a reduction in class size for at least some of the time.

 

References

·         Blatchford, P; Bassett, P; Brown, P. (2008) Do low attaining and younger students benefit most from small classes? Results from a systematic observation study of class size effects on pupil classroom engagement and teacher pupil interaction. Proc. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting 2008, New York [online]. Available at: http://classsizeresearch.org.uk/aera%2008%20paper.pdf  [Accessed 25.9.14]

·         Cuseo, J. (2007) The empirical case against large class size: adverse effects on the teaching, learning and retention of first year students. Journal of Faculty Development, 21, 1, p5-21.

·         Gibbs, G (2014) 53 Powerful Ideas All Teachers Should Know About: Class Size Matters. SEDA blog [online]. Available at: http://seda.ac.uk/resources/files/publications_167_19%20Class%20size%20matters.pdf . [Accessed 25.9.14]

·         Hattie, J. (2005) The paradox of reducing class size and improving learning outcomes. International Journal of Educational Research 43, 387–425