Using Games For Learning!

There has been an extensive research supporting the fact that games are effective learning tools simply because they involve the concept s such as : Winning, Collaboration, Exploring & Building, as well as Problem-Solving or Strategizing techniques.  I believe, one of the strong factors that promote individuals' learning vis-à-vis gaming is because individuals continue playing as it is not only fun but it also motivates them to continue going once they start to see that they are winning.  But also, because motivation creates the desire for the individual to learn. 

Just a Thought :Technology Enabling Flipped Classroom

When I was in the process of note taking for my digital project on cooperative learning, I started thinking about how many of the instructional techniques that we use could borrow ideas from each other. One particular aspect of cooperative learning that I felt could really help with making the idea of a flipped classroom feasible is to focus on the instructor as a facilitator. People often think that a flipped classroom is difficult for the teacher, but I'm sure it's difficult for the students as well. We have a group of people who are likely used to being guided, and now we're roughly telling them to learn from each other. Instructors also have to understand how to divorce themselves from their traditional role and to make the flipped classroom more accessible. 

Flipped Classroom!

Flipped classroom has been a hot topic that has been around for quite some time now; it has only been until recently that it has attracted a lot of attention. Thus, opinions surrounding this topic vary as ‘flipped classroom’ can be applied to different learning environments and as such, it may require different types of educational settings for this instructional strategy to work at its best.  Flipped classroom enables instructors to introduce new ways for teaching a subject matter and therefore add a new perspective on to the old teaching practices that have been used regularly in classrooms.  Thus, to answer your first question, flipped classroom is not a fad; rather it is considered a solid instructional strategy that combines the instructional as well as constructional aspects of learning to work both at home as well as in the classroom. But one of its disadvantages to this instructional strategy that I think may prevent it to work efficiently is when we begin to combine the newest learning models with technology. Nonetheless, I'm a little curious, is it tough getting all the students to try the activities or just some of them. I wonder if there is a learner mentality aside from lack of experience in the flipped classroom that really keeps them from engaging. I recall when I was younger, whenever the teacher let up on the pressure my friends and I would grow a little complacent. Could learner motivation be a big factor? Maybe the flipped classroom is better suited for older learners, where everyone's peers tend to have more experience and knowledge.

Motivation From the Perspective of Enrolling in The PIDP 3250 Class...

       I should say my intention for enrolling in this class was extrinsic. After doing over a month of volunteer work, full time at Langara's Childcare Development Center, for the purposes of getting my application requirements completed for admission to Langara's Early Childhood Education Program for fall of 2015, while I just finished the PIDP 3100 class in May. I did not have it in me to enroll yet in another course. But, having been informed that this course will be offered online and I could do it from home and at my own preferable timing, as to when I wanted to go online, I finally signed-up for the class.  

        Although, I find it sometimes hard to find time to fit it into my busy life, I have learned a lot from this course thus far and attempting yet another digital project, has made me less fearful of technologically advanced software and resources that I originally had a fear of even coming close to touching just a few months ago. Here is an interesting video on Motivation and Online Learning : 

   

Motivation From Self-Determination Perspective

The idea of "love of learning" being divorced from reality really made me think about why the idea of loving learning seems so unrealistic. Is it just because people are lazy and unmotivated? If anything, I would say it's not because learning is so much about doing something that we dislike, but is strongly rooted in the way we do things. 

Take food for example. There are often foods that we don't like eating. I'm not a big fan of Brussels sprouts, but I'll probably eat them if they're slathered with enough cheese or toppings. I'm also okay with them when they're deep fried. Though nobody would catch me dead with steamed Brussels sprouts on my plate. It leads me to believe that many people have motivation, but the environment has to be right. But the lingering thought in my head is that there are many types of individuals, and it may be impossible to motivate every student equally in a group setting. That, by large and far, is probably the most unrealistic aspect of fostering a "love for learning." 

Journal Entry #2 - The Power Of Introverts!

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view until you climb into his skin and walk around in it" (Finch, A., 1960).

Objective Questions: Begin with Data, Facts, External Reality

Personality is defined as: “the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s unique character” (Robinson, J., 2014). Extraverts and Introverts are considered the Yin & Yang of our personality, with introverts being the Yin to the extroverted Yang side of the population.  Introverts constitute about one third of the world population.  This journal entry is based on my reflection on Susan Cain’s TED talk, “The Power of Introverts” and on her book: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World That Doesn’t Stop Talking. She starts the presentation by reflecting on her summer camp experience at an early age where she was encouraged to be ‘rowdy’ at all times and to actively participate in group activities when preferred to be alone, reading her books instead.    

Reflective: What are my initial feelings about the video?

My initial reaction was that of awe. After watching Cain’s presentation, all I could think about was how her own childhood journey matched mine. I was often shy, and never possessed a loud and outgoing personality. Today, I have no issues communicating or socializing, but it certainly is not my natural response. After listening to Cain’s journey to being a high powered Wall Street lawyer, I was suddenly possessed by an urge to find out more about myself. I wanted to know where I fell in the extrovert-introvert continuum. I knew I possessed a more introverted personality, but Cain’s presentation ignited a long dormant curiosity.  Thus, I took the introvert/extrovert quiz posted on https://psychologies.co.uk/self/are-you-an-introvert-or-an-extrovert.html.  Despite having thought originally that I only mildly possessed some of the introverts’ personality, the result suggested that I am in fact an extreme introvert. Originally, this took me by surprise, nonetheless the results affirmed why I was neither as outgoing nor talkative as my parents would have liked me to be during my youth. However, it suddenly occurred to me that this was likely the reason why I had so few friends and were quite selective in choosing them in the first place. One point I found myself nodding was to Cain’s statement about how lifestyle and culture has a profound influence on our level of introverted or extroverted (ness) and how much of those aspects we exhibit in our daily lives. Still, what angered me was learning about the stigma that is still attached to introversion. I did not like the fact that such a dominant aspect of my personality is looked down upon, especially in light of my past achievements and successes. Why should my personal value be determined by how much I could talk without annoying someone else? It also suddenly dawned upon me how culture had long influenced the way I think feel and interact socially. When I was a youth in Iran, men were (still are really) mostly in charge of economics and education, making introversion almost default for women there. Even though in modern Iran, women have started finding their own voice, only a few have found the recognition that they deserve, such as Shirin Ebadi for her work in law, promoting women and children’s rights and Maryam Mirzakhani who won the nobel prize in mathematics. Their achievements make certainly emphasize the power of introverts whether they are artificially created by culture or just born that way.

Interpretive Questions: Draw out the meaning, Values, Significance, Implications

            After thinking about the topic for some time, I started to really think about whether Cain was right or whether society was right. Was it really more important to get along with society or to engage in quiet contemplation? The conclusion I came to was that it was important to have a balance. North America’s obsession with extroverts comes with a price; introverts get relegated to unimportant positions and roles without ever having revealed their true potential. This is a social and talent goldmine that society is neglecting. Instead of pushing people like myself away, society should be looking for ways to properly integrate and utilize our skills. Research on this topic shows that strong organizations have human resources specialists that help recruits choose their roles and align with personalities types that would enhance their productivity (Karimi, 1996). However, as much as I would like to espouse further on Cain’s points, I do recognize that extroversion is an important aspect of human nature too. Just thinking about society makes me realize how little humanity would achieve if we were unable to efficiently communicate. Some of the best inventions would have never seen the light of day as they collected dust within our minds.

In addition, extroverts tend to live more healthy lives as they tend to vocalize concerns and thus receive more assistance and social support, leading to longer lives (Grainge et al, 2000).  As such, the implications of this of course is that in fact personality types is not only one of the fundamental issues in psychology but also must be given a lot more attention and focus in the workforce as well as in academia. It is through this significant importance that the relationship between culture and personality type have found a rather special place in research in the field of humanities as well as in social science.

Decisional Questions: Bring the Conversation to a Close, Eliciting Resolution to Make a Decision About The Future.  (What are you going to do about it, what is your personal position on it?)

In conclusion, I believe that Susan Cain’s presentation outlined the dichotomy between different personality types quite well, while highlighting a few reasons behind the extrovert dominance in our society. While she managed to give a few ideas as to how this shift in focus could be possible, I believe that all individuals possess both introvert as well as extrovert qualities within themselves, therefore it is necessary to cultivate both sides in order to achieve flexibility in a dynamic environment, which much of North America is. This type of thinking is also important in the role of Childhood Education. The current model is terribly didactic and essentially hoists social expectations upon the child, instead of letting them recognize their own potential. However, as an educator I have noticed that the point of education is to prepare a student for the rigours of surviving in society, so it is necessary to adhere to a standard, but not so much that it throttles the abilities of a child. We live in a time of great prosperity, but it is also a time that is rife with conflict and potential worldwide catastrophes, humanity must harvest the most from our greatest resource: our children. I’m quite proud to be a natural introvert; it has brought me to where I am today. However, to be a proper child educator, I cannot sit comfortably in the confines of my own thoughts. Instead, I must reach deep within and present my inner extrovert in order to ensure that the children under my care find a balance in their lives.

References

Bergin, J. (2006). Introvert-Extrovert, Pace University, Last Updated for content: 
      March 24, 2003(For form January 12, 2006)

Briggs, M. (2013). On Ambiverts: Why Distinguishing Between Extroverts and 
      Introverts is Inadequate. Retrieved From: http://diplateevo.com/on-ambiverts
      -why-distinguishing-between-extroverts-and-introverts-is-inadequate/

De Dreu,K., Bechtoldt, M.N, & Nijstad,B.A. (2003). Diversity and the Creative 
    Capacity of Organisations and Teams, Sustainable Development in a
    Diverse World (SUS.DIV) Position Paper of Research Task 3.2, University of
    Amsterdam, Department of Psychology, the Netherlands

Grainge, M.J., Brugha, T.S., & Spiers, N. (2000). Social Support, Personality 
    and Depressive Symptoms Over 7 Years: The Health and Lifestyle Cohort. Soc. 
    Psychiatry Psychair Epidimol, no.35. p. 366-375.

Karimi, Y. (1996). Personality Psychology. Tehran, Publication of Virayesh.

Mulligan , R. (Director), & Pakula, A. (Producer). (1962). To kill A Mockingbird 
    [Motion Picture]. Pakula-Mulligan Brentwood Productions, Universal Pictures, 
    United States

Robinson, J. (2014).  How to thrive in an introverted /? Extroverted workplace, 
    Published in Phys.Org

Soufi, M. (2012).  The Studying of the Relationship between Personality Type 
    (Extrovert or Introvert) and the Personals Organizational Citizen Behavior, 
    Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, Vol.4, No.8

Appreciative Inquiry!

The Appreciative Inquiry Model (AI) has evolved over the past few years and has taken a new direction allowing the educators and learners to collectively, passionately, and persistently ask questions about the subject matter at hand. From what I understand, it is based on the problem solving approach that expands one’s understanding enabling them to surpass the learning obstacles and thus allowing them to not only explore new ideas but to force them to change it by means of discovery and inquiry.

What I found rather interesting about this topic and is in fact noted repeatedly in literature, is that: “lasting change in individuals’ learning comes from problem resolution but from discovery”.

Nonetheless, I don't think  that  appreciative inquiry in its true sense is a simple concept. It certainly feels that appreciative inquiry is based on the idea that everyone thrives on being positive. However, I know of a lot of people who actually thrive on negativity. Personally, there's little that motivates me to achieve more than someone telling me that I can't do it or that I'm not good enough. I really feel that in general, if someone is neutral or encouraging, it puts me into a mentality of complacency. How would we adapt appreciative inquiry into a method that would be more universal for the differing types of personalities out there?  

Critical Thinking & Questioning Techniques

Critical Thinking 

I was looking forward to my colleague : Shelley' facilitation of this discussion topic as I will also be facilitating this topic in Week 6-7 of our class.  I like how she started the discussion forum, mainly because the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the topic of choice in the discussion forums was "how to do we in fact teach critical thinking?"  How I view the subject is that we ought to have learned to think critically ourselves first prior to teaching it to our learners.

Thus, I think, teaching our students how to think critically is rather difficult while at the same time the first role of schooling is to teach students and to enable them to think critically. Furthermore, how one learns to think critically is through experience, learning from their mistakes along with experimentation and trial and errors. If anything, encouraging critical thinking is not an exercise that is accomplished with questions. 

If anything, the best thing to do while finding a balance in traditional learning is to simply provide material and assignments as per usual, but allow the students to evaluate themselves and how they reached their finished product. Helping students to be critical of their own work makes them think more critically than just simply asking them any question.

In essence, this is creating critical thinking through applicable means as opposed to just being theoretical.

This video really helped me to think about this topic from a different perspective : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpPKRFh-yCc

Stimulating Thinking Through Socratic Questioning

"Do not take what I say as if I were merely playing, for you see the subject of our discussion—and on what subject should even
a man of slight intelligence be more serious?—namely,
what kind of life should one live . . ."
- Socrates

This is one of Socrates quotes that has fascinated me the most. I believe one of the settings in which the Socratic Questioning could be used is in classroom discussions.

I found that what is absolutely amazing about the Socrates Questioning is that it is not based merely on lectures, power points or a lesson plan. Rather, Socrates Questioning bases its principles on a shared dialogue and the individuals`mutual understanding as well as respect for one another`s thoughts. Now that I have come across the correct terminology for it, I can say with confidence that we use it almost regularly in the field of Early Childhood Education. 

Group work and Learning In an Adult Environment

Even though I haven't implemented group work into my classes yet, I certainly see the potential and look forward to trying in the near future.

The advantages of group work in my opinion is that it fosters cooperation between children. In many cultures, education is competitive by nature and creates a selfish learning environment. This may be good for finding the best student, but is actually counter productive to finding someone that is productive when they are finally in the working world and forced into team situations. It's even worse if one is thrust into a group of leaders all vying for power and getting zero done. In addition individual learning in a traditional environment is limiting, as one is not open to the ideas of others and ends up being very insular in their perspective. 

However, group work is not all sunshine and rainbows, it runs counter to the current teaching paradigm. Making group work effective means changing a lot of the practices that instructors are used to. Teachers have to learn to facilitate group work instead of simply giving students things to do together while sitting back and having some coffee. Such an approach would only confuse students who do not naturally engage with others.

To me, the success of group work actually makes teaching more difficult, but it seems like an exercise that will foster a stronger generation of teachers who are flexible in their perspective and abilities. Teachers have to learn to work in a group with each other and with their students.