In the afternoon of the College-Wide Professional Development day, faculty and staff from self-paced delivery programs met to share ideas about various plans that the Foundational Learning department should consider as part of its current move to restructure as a new centre for excellence. These programs included Flex Class, Aboriginal Upgrading, and Anytime Online. As well, the curriculum team contributed ideas.
The two coordinators, Karen Mercer and Carey Hilgartner, facilitated the event, letting faculty contribute their own ideas in a safe environment. Faculty and staff noted ideas on white sheets in small groups at various tables. If an idea was already noted, the group added stars and checkmarks to indicate agreement. At the end of the activity, the group voted to assign priorities to the various plans.
We would like to share our ideas with you. Below are listed a sample of some of the suggestions from the plans. These plans are drafts as statements of possible ideas to consider for future planning.
To see the whole list visit the plans document. Be sure to add your own ideas as comments for the post or email them to Karen or Carey.
Staffing Plan
A balance of part-time and full-time staff needed. [A] predetermined path for casual to full time continuous work [required].
[The department should] mentor new staff.
Educational Technology Plan
[Educational Technology] leaders [have been] established; however, access to their knowledge, time, and expertise [needs to be improved].
[We should] prepare self-instructed lessons for those who want to develop skills in a certain area.
Marketing Plan
[We need to] cater to our literacy audience.
Student focus groups and interviews [could be conducted].
Professional Development Plan
Regular interdisciplinary meetings [should be held].
Internal courses for PD [should be made available].
Curriculum Development Plan
Release time [should be provided] for instructors to develop curriculum [in order to] collaborate with all departments and [participate in] technology info-sessions. [This release time would allow a] variety of folks [to participate].
Exams [need better] instructional [fit].
Student Support Plan
Application process must be simplified.
A new student bootcamp [should be available] like the one currently in use. A session via Adobe Connect or a pre-recorded session [could be made available to give access to all students].
If the first four slides of your PowerPoint smell like strawberries, then that fifth slide better smell like bacon.Yesterday, during the virtual workshop “How to Make Presentations Memorable”, Carmen Simon of Rexi Media referred to this as the 5th element. Changing the stimulus allows you to control what your audience remembers:
Simon says that the “secret balance to making anything more memorable” is using recognition and surprise. For example, present your audience with something they are familiar with, such as an apple, and force them to reconsider it:
By deviating from what people expect, we wake up the brain, force it to make new connections and think about things in novel ways. Simon spoke of three phases for designing presentations:
Change the stimulus: you can make anything noticeable by interrupting consistency. Switch from graphics to text, or text to graphics. Every third to fifth slide should be different from the previous ones.
Add vanity/ytinav. Most people have desire for social approval. Are you in the know?
Build your MQ (metaphor quotient) . Transform and/or add to your audience’s understanding of a concept.
Think about this: how much of this blog post will you remember? Which things will you remember? Or, further, which blog posts from On the Same Page do you remember and why?
Finally, Simon suggests doing whatever you can to keep information alive. Choose images and text that have a high arousal factor and produce feelings of awe, excitement, amusement; anger; anxiety, instead of contentment or sadness. How did Simon do this? By having us participate in timed challenges and asking us to share our work; by making us do jumping jacks; by showing us a video of an iPad being smashed to bits and put into a blender.
I end with a challenge: In the comment box below, share your own thoughts on what the camel and martinis could be a metaphor for. No, you can't write "Don't drink and ride a camel." That one is already taken.
Last Thursday, March 21, 2013, English Language Arts faculty reviewing equivalency exams participated in a retreat at SAIT's Heritage Hall. No, not a retreat from reviewing exams, but rather a temporary release from instruction to give review the needed attention and time required.
As a group, we examined items and readings previously marked by the larger group as needing revision. Many items required changes in wording. Some items needed distractor revisions as the best choice may not be clear. Three of the readings were considered too long, at over 150 lines, and will need to be shortened, using a preamble. Footnotes will be added to several readings to handle complex vocabulary not attainable through context clues.
Next, we examined the imbalances on the blueprint for both forms of the ENG0302 equivalency exams to determine what questions would need to be revised, dropped and added. For moves requiring changes in difficulty, from A to B to C, items could be revised. For moves requiring changes in outcome, from 1 to 2, items would likely to be dropped and new items added, with these new items preferably attached to the same reading. Questions will need to be added to provide outcome 3 questions for both forms.
Lastly, we examined item sets to see if we needed to replace any to achieve balance on the blueprint. We removed two readings and their accompanying items. The group established that readings were directly related to texts covered in the curriculum should not be used on equivalency exams to maintain fairness. Form B will require a functional writing reading.
In the end, the group came up with a revision plan, to be published at foundationalcurriculum.com in the coming week. Revision tasks will be shared with the larger group of English Language Arts faculty. More importantly, we came away as a new team. Thanks to Maureen Stewart for setting up the event and providing guidance for the group during review. Thanks to Patricia Pryce, Susan Lemmer, Tasha Nott, Meghan Clayton, Murray Ronaghan and Jennefer Rousseau for taking the time to review. Next time, I promise to bring patio chairs.
As many of you know, THE CEFL is developing a follow up tool to Read Forward. It is a writing assessment tool for adult literacy learners called WriteForward. This is a multi-year project and we are currently in Phase II, the framework development phase. As part of the project, the WriteForward team wants input from all stakeholders, including learners. One way we incorporated learners was the Writing Collection.
In February, the WriteForward team conducted the Writing Collection at the college and with literacy partners across Canada. The purpose was to learn from ELL, Ac Prep, High School and career learners what they can write and what they want to be able to write. I did mini-presentations to five English Language Learning literacy classes, five Ac Prep classes and three high school classes. A very big thank you to the CEFL instructors who participated! David Kemp, Stephanie Baier-Scott, Patricia Pryce, Lorna Houck, Mary Smith, and Ann Hanna all graciously allowed me to come to their classes for presentations and collection of samples. We also invited our Advisory Committee to participate in the Writing Collection with their learners, and Scott Henwood invited his online learners to participate as well.
We posted a video on YouTube for the online learners and anyone else who was interested. The samples and information we received were interesting and diverse. We received everything from poetry to shopping lists to essays. The learners provided us with many excellent examples of writing they do at home, work and in their community. We have classified the contributions into home, work and community, and we will further classify them into skills. The results from the classifications will help to guide us in developing the framework for WriteForward, as well as item writing when we begin to create the tests.
If you are interested in learning more about WriteForward, feel free to contact either Maureen Stewart or Deanna Jager for more information, or visit our website writeforward.ca Thanks again to the instructors for their support of the project and the Writing Collection!
Donna Schendel, our new Human Resources director, presented on the need for effective performance management, its characteristics, and its benefits.
The focus on positive elements of performance management put such activity in a much needed positive direction. Performance management needs to grow people so the team can grow together. Coaching, mentoring, regular communication, positive feedback should be emphasized and supported in all team activities. Training has so many opportunities to bring people together for a common purpose in such a human way. Leaders must do this in the service of others.
Relationships and communication are central to performance management. We cannot grow and grow together without knowing each other. We need to talk to know where we are going and why. We need to celebrate achievements. We need to tackle issues and overcome challenges together. I was glad to see so many friends in the room.
The case studies brought out discussion among the leaders in the room about key issues: such as staff personal interactions affecting work and conflict. Leaders in the room had different responses but the same general aim. Deborah turned the responses into a positive dialogue: dialogue being the essential element in finding positive resolutions. It even broke out into role play and ensuing hilarity. We need to have crucial conversations.
In the end, leadership is being a good person, being charitable to others. You need to encourage positive people and you need to respectfully support people causing unhealthy conflict.
The workshop was engaging, comprehensive and thought-provoking. It was a good starter for future dialogue on the most critical activity for the college as it grows and move forward.
Photographs, drawings, and videos all have the ability to help learners understand course content better - when used appropriately. Part of our aim with the Media Development Project is to help instructors understand how to use visuals effectively. This post captures some key elements from chapter one in the research-based book Graphics for Learning by Ruth Colvin Clark and Chopeta Lyons (2004).
The Unrealized Potential of Visuals
Have you designed a handout for your class and at the last minute added some clip art in the corner to make it look nicer? Clark and Lyons note that visuals are often an afterthought added to instructional material used to add visual interest. Unfortunately, this means that the true learning power of the visual is not used - and, worse, some visuals can actually interfere with learning.
Three Factors of Effective Visuals
1) Function
Surface features - the features that stand out when looking at a visual, such as whether it is a photo or an illustration, a video or an animation. Research found that surface features do not impact the effectiveness of learning; basically, people can learn from all types of visuals depending on the other factors.
Communication function - what are you trying to communicate with the visual? The authors present seven different communication categories (p 15).
decorative - used to make something look good or add humour
representational - used to show something as it really is (as with a photograph)
mnemonic - used to provide retrieval cues for factual information
organizational - used to show qualitative relationships
relational - used to show quantitative relationships
transformational - used to show changes in objects over space or time
interpretive - used to illustrate a theory, principle, or cause-and-effect relationships
Psychological function - how visuals can support the learning process. This can be done in six separate ways (p 16).
support attention - by drawing attention to important elements and minimizing divided attention
activate or build prior knowledge - by engaging existing mental models or providing an overview to support learning of new information
minimize cognitive load - by minimizing unnecessary mental work and working memory load
build mental models - by helping construct new long-term memories
support transfer of learning - by promoting deeper understanding and realistically showing key features
support motivation - by making material interesting but not depressing learning
2) Instructional Goals and Lesson Content
Not all visuals match all instructional goals. Certain visuals will provide memory support, some visuals will assist in creating relationships between pieces of information in the lesson and thus help learners build mental models. These concepts are expanded on in a later chapter in the book.
3) Learner Differences
Not all learners will glean the same information from the same visual. Both prior knowledge of a subject and one’s spatial abilities influence how helpful a visual may be to a specific learner. These concepts are expanded on in a later chapter in the book.
Choosing Instructional Graphics
The authors provide three guidelines for choosing effective graphics.
Graphic effectiveness depends on graphic functionality - focus on the communicative and psychological functions rather than the surface features
Guidelines for graphics should be based on research evidence - their guidelines are based off of research, most of which was done with college-age people
Context will influence use of visuals - graphic selection needs to be based on the entire instructional landscape (ie: delivery mode, budgets, etc.). This concept is expanded on in a later chapter in the book.
Want more details? This article talks about much of the same content as this chapter of the book.
I’ve kept track of some exciting HRSDC-funded research taking place at George Brown College, located in downtown Toronto, entitled “Understanding Individual Numeracy: How Are We Doing? Does it Matter?”. See below for an email I sent to math instructors in 2009 while I was Math and Science Curriculum Lead Hand that has some background about Jump Math as well as the research project.
Taras Gula and Carolyn Hoessler of George Brown College are presenting the results of the study at the XVI Annual Conference on Research on Undergraduate Mathematics Education (2013), hosted by SRUME (Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education).
Research Abstract
Many first year college students struggle with foundational mathematics skills even after one semester of mathematics. JUMP math, a systematized program of teaching mathematics, claims that its approach, though initially designed for K-8, can strengthen skills at the foundations college math level as well. Students in sixteen sections of Foundations Mathematics at a college in Canada were randomly assigned to be taught with either the JUMP math approach or a typical teaching approach. Students were measure before and after on their competence (Wechsler test of Numerical Operations) and attitudes (Mathematics Attitudes Inventory) to identify any improvements. Results showed that students in JUMP classes had modest, but consistently higher improvements in competence when compared to students in non-JUMP classes, even after controlling for potential confounding variables, while improvements in Math Attitudes showed no differences. (From http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~dbachman/RUME_XVI_Linked_Schedule/rume16_submission_107.pdf )
XVI Annual Conference on Research on Undergraduate Mathematics Education (2013)
A couple of years ago, a Jump Math representative at the MCATA Conference gave me some copies of the Jump Math workbooks to look at. These are great materials for grade levels 1 to 8. Kids and instructors love them. I was surprised to see a booth at the ATA Science Council Conference: we now have a Jump Math representative based right here in Calgary.
Jump Math is a registered charity funded by TD Bank, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (Bow Valley was just approved as eligible for funding from NSERC), and many others. Jump Math was founded by Dr. John Mighton, an Adjunct Professor in Mathematics at the University of Toronto, Order of Canada, an Ashoka International Fellow, winner of two Governor-General's Awards for Drama and the prestigious Siminovitch prize.
Jump Math isn’t just for kids. George Brown College in Toronto is piloting Jump Math with adult students.
Research is being conducted that is verifying the effectiveness of the Jump Math materials. Preliminary findings from a randomized controlled study by the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and the University of Toronto “found that the math knowledge of children using JUMP Math grew twice as much as that of children using the incumbent program.”
Since 2007, JUMP Math’s National Book Fund has helped hundreds of teachers bring JUMP Math to schools serving thousands of students in the First Nations, rural, inner city, low income, ESL or special education communities.
As a successful applicant, you will receive the following free of charge:
• A set of JUMP Math Assessment & Practice books (Parts 1 and 2) for each student
• A Teacher's Resource for each grade (up to two grades) being taught in the classroom
• SMART Board lessons for one grade
• Unit Tests
• Answer Keys
• Professional Development
• Support from JUMP Math
Information about eligibility, program requirements, evaluation, and the application process can be viewed at the JUMP Math website at http://www.jumpmath.org/cms/book_fund_intro
Each application consists of separate submissions by a teacher and their principal. Application forms can be submitted online, and it is possible to save your work and complete it in stages.
Teachers’ application: http://www.formstack.com/forms/?1395306-7EexYsiOTH
Schools’ application (to be completed by principal): http://www.formstack.com/forms/?1395346-7EexYsiOTH
If you do not have reliable access to the internet, we will fax you a copy of the application form upon request. Please e-mail noreen.mclean@jumpmath.org or fax us at 416-596-1208.
Completed applications must be received no later than 11.59 pm on Thursday, March 28, 2013.
(Email from Jump Math, 2013)
In mid-February, the Media Development team, including the
Curriculum Coordinator, Carey Hilgartner, the Media Development Lead, Deanna
Jager, and myself, the Media Development Assistant, decided it was time to do a
mini project.The purpose of the project
was to create a PowerPoint and video that could support instruction in Math
Foundations and Essential Math and give me an orientation to project development.
Following our process for project development, but on a
smaller scale, I met with Glenna Besse to review existing Essential math
materials and to do a needs analysis.
Glenna has done an incredible amount of work creating PowerPoints for
Essential Math and her guidance was an enormous help.
Thank you Glenna. After meeting
with Glenna, and deciding to create a PowerPoint on whole numbers, I
brainstormed and played and made mistakes and brainstormed some more. The goal was to create a PowerPoint and video
that was engaging, relevant, and instructional.
The result can be seen on our YouTube channel:
As we develop projects, we learn what works and what we can improve. Your reviews and feedback are part of this process and help us create better media in the future. Interested in what the Media Development team is doing now? Check out the Media Development Centre on the Foundational Learning Curriculum website.
Email comments or suggestions to Jenny Tzanakos: jtzanakos@bowvalleycollege.ca
It seems to me that how students find their way to BVC and the offerings of the Centre for Excellence in Foundational Learning specifically has been left largely to chance. This is especially true when we think of students with basic literacy challenges or those with learning disabilities - these are not typically students who will pay attention to print advertising.
Having worked in the nonprofit sector for a long time, I know that the move is towards the creation of "systems of support" for individuals accessing a variety of human services... including education. Yet the reality is that most organizations act as independent islands rather than as contributors to a sequence of services that a person may require.
I want to create systems related to literacy and have undertaken to invite community agencies to BVC to start conversations about how such a system might look.
On March 5, we had 14 agencies working with adult literacy. We discussed what our department is doing, the programs we offer and where we are thinking of going. We expressed an interest in working with agencies and eventually have cross referals between BVC and literacy organizations. A closer working relationship would mean that families or individuals who may be connecting with social service agencies for basic needs could be referred to BVC once they are stable enough to undertake improvement in their literacy and/or educational foundation.
Moving forward, I will be meeting with Persons with Developmental Disabilities Regional Board to explore how we might better draw the nearly 2,600 individuals funded by PDD to the College for literacy programming.
Other opportunities to meet with groups of agencies will present themselves over time. I would like to take advantage of those opportunities.
If you are aware of networks of nonprofit agencies that connect with our students in some way, I would be interested in hearing about it.
Your role as an educator puts you on the boundary between BVC, the community, and the lives of our students. Your insights are unique and valuable. I do hope that you will share your thoughts on how we could build new relationships and address the literacy and educational concerns of our students - current and future.
In the afternoon of the College-Wide Professional Development day, faculty and staff from self-paced delivery programs met to share ideas about various plans that the Foundational Learning department should consider as part of its current move to restructure as a new centre for excellence. These programs included Flex Class, Aboriginal Upgrading, and Anytime Online. As well, the curriculum team contributed ideas.
