Activity 2: Metacognitive reflection on learning and practice.

Activity 2: Metacognitive reflection on learning and practice.

The last 24 weeks…

In the last 24 weeks of study, the first sixteen weeks was very intense. I felt the workload was high and became compounded by my schoolwork. Four hours per day, two hours per course, once a week was intense and lot of information to take in and think about. At times, I felt that certain topics needed much more time for me to comprehend.  The first two courses had some interesting topics that kept challenging my views and assumptions. Some of the interesting topics that grabbed my attention were collaborative learning and coding, augmented reality, blending learning, games in education and gamification of leadership, agile based learning and leadership, design thinking in classrooms and leadership, leading change and leadership theories plus leading change. These topics are of great interest to me, which needs further attention. From weeks 17 to 24, the literature review was quite involved and demanding. The inquiry based research project was equally demanding but beneficial. However, doing online discussion on the Mindlab discussion forum was helpful. Seeing other peoples’ views in regards to your discussion was also helpful.

Key Competencies

In the last 24 weeks of enrolling in this programme, my personal views about classroom pedagogy and pedagogical theories have been critically analysed. In doing so, I have further developed some of the key competencies. The two that I would like to mention are :

i)                    Thinking skills

ii)                   Managing self

Thinking:

“Thinking is about using creative, critical, and metacognitive processes to make sense of information, experiences, and ideas.”  as defined by  the NZ curriculumon TKI web site. This course has taken me on a learning journey where I had to rethink my learning strategies to assimilate all the information disseminated at us. I had to read, think and accept information relevant to my learning. At the same time, I critically evaluated the importance and relevance of certain information while writing my assessments for this course. As time went on, I found that I became better at sieving relevant information and critically analysing it. My metacognitive skills also developed. I think while doing my literature review, my thinking skills helped me review information relevant to my research questions. Furthermore, my creative writing skills enabled me to tie in all the information gathered in a cohesive manner to produce a literature review. In the last 24 weeks I believe, I have empowered myself to become a lifelong learner.

Managing Self:

As per New Zealand Curriculum TKI website “This competency is associated with self-motivation, a “can-do” attitude, and with students seeing themselves as capable learners. It is integral to self-assessment.” 

While doing the first sixteen weeks of this course, I found that I had to manage myself in order to sustain this course. I felt it required lot of motivation from myself and lot of discipline.

When I started doing my first assessment, I was completely confused. At one point, I felt like withdrawing from the course. Anyway, my results from the first two assignments were not to my liking as I always set very high standards for myself. I started setting goals and having that positive can do attitude helped me through the first 24 weeks. I have also built resilience and manged my time wisely with my school workload.  In doing so, I have developed my leadership skills.

Key Changes:

As mentioned earlier, this course has led me to make pedagogical changes within my classroom. The two key changes that I am looking at are:

i)                    Creating project based learning in class.

ii)                   Using digital games to enhance students understanding of concepts in Physics and maths.

Project based learning

As mentioned in http://www.edutopia.org/pbl-research-learning-outcomes

“Project-based learning essentially involves the following:

·         students learning knowledge to tackle realistic problems as they would be solved in the real world

·         increased student control over his or her learning

·         teachers serving as coaches and facilitators of inquiry and reflection

·         students (usually, but not always) working in pairs or groups”

As a teacher, I can create some real world problem questions, which the students will have to solve using inquiry based learning. Students are engaged, creative, they ask questions and allows them to revise knowledge. At the same time their skills in critical thinking, collaboration, communication, reasoning, synthesis and resilience is developed.

Using digital games to enhance students understanding of concepts in Physics and maths.

Digital games have the ability to develop the following 21^st century skills. Critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, effective communication, motivation, persistence, or learning to learn. “Many DGBL experts now believe that the true power of digital games lies in their ability to promote these 21st-century skills through the learning strategies that digital games support and the unique way in which those strategies are synergized through gameplay.” (Van Eck, 2015).

Bibliography

Van Eck, R. (2015). Digital Game-Based Learning: Still Restless, After All These Years. Retrieved from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/10/digital-game-based-learning-still-restless-after-all-these-years