The Central Purpose Question or Comprehension Purpose Question strategy (CPQ) challenges students to respond to an important and often complex question, to connect this question to their own background knowledge and beliefs, and then to read a relevant text or watch a short video with the CPQ in mind. This strategy presses students to read, listen, or watch with purpose and helps them to find, select and remember important details. Instructors may choose to deal with the CPQ in a variety of ways. One approach is to share the question on the whiteboard or a PPT slide and spend some time as a class talking about it before tackling the task (possibly as a think/pair/share activity). Other approaches might involve incorporating the CPQ into an anticipation guide, a quick write, a discussion web, a role play, a visualization exercise, or a case study. Regardless of how it is advanced, the CPQ is very important for the teacher as well as the student. It lends focus to the lesson and helps to provide relevancy. Some teachers have formalised the CPQ by developing an organizer and leading their students through the three stages in an active learning process (anticipation, consolidation, and extension). In this approach:
N.B. If the CPQ is one that can evoke a yes/no response that asks for reasons for and against (e.g., “Should 16-year-olds be given the opportunity to vote in municipal, provincial and federal elections?”), teachers should consider using a Discussion Web. Providing students with a central purpose question prior to assigning a short reading or video presentation serves several important functions:
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NorQuest College students, might use recipe cards as a creative and effective tool to study and memorize important concepts. Recipe cards provide a compact and organized format for summarizing key information, making them ideal for self-assessment and quick review. Here's how our students can use recipe cards for studying, using nursing studies as an example:
In this Frayer model for Pain Assessment, the term "Pain Assessment" is defined and its key characteristics and examples are outlined. The visual representation section can include diagrams, flowcharts, or illustrations related to pain assessment, which aid in visualizing the concept.
Remember, the Frayer model is a versatile tool, and you can adapt its sections and format to best suit the specific nursing concept you are studying.
By employing recipe cards in their study routine, college students can leverage the power of concise summarization, self-assessment, and active recall. These techniques aid in consolidating knowledge, reinforcing important concepts, and promoting effective learning. In the past few weeks I have been reflecting on teacher leadership, and more specifically, the roles of team lead, associate chair and chair. While the role might seem appealing to many, it strikes me that anyone considering taking on one of these roles might first need to do a bit of soul searching. Teacher leaders that I have worked with over the years have all shared how difficult the transition could be. One day they were just another colleague, sharing a laugh in the faculty lunch area and the next day they have “gone over to the dark side” and “become one of them”. Their motives, decisions, work habits and leadership style became fair game to be questioned by others, and they felt like they lived in a bit of a fish bowl. That is not to say that these people didn’t enjoy being in this leadership position, they just had to learn that actually working in the position was a little different from observing it as another instructor. Teacher leaders are called upon to provide real and timely leadership in three different ways; they need to provide professional, administrative and instructional leadership. Depending on the size of the department and the duties assigned, this can mean: advocating for students and faculty, balancing budgets, mapping out the scope and sequence of a program, assigning course loads, scheduling classes, problem solving, and dealing with challenging personalities. On top of all these tasks, teacher leaders must be change agents, advocating for quality practice, encouraging professional reflection, and pressing for improved student learning and achievement. Complicating all of this is the fact that roles like team lead or associate chair are usually term appointments and often come with a considerable teaching load in addition to leadership responsibilities. People in these roles have said that they feel caught between two worlds; they aren’t really in the overall leadership team and stream, but they are no longer in the community of instructors. Stepping into such leadership is not easy; the work cannot be done half-heartedly. So why would one bother to take on such a role? So why take on teacher leadership?Teacher leaders have a single guiding purpose - to build capacity in others. They use their talents to influence, shape, support, and catalyze change that results in increased student achievement. Their actions reveal their fundamental belief that they more they build capacity in others, the more they contribute to sustaining long-term, deep transformation that allows others to address today’s challenges and to be prepared for facing those that arise tomorrow. (Killion, 2011, p. 11) I love this quote from Joellen Killion. Although it refers more to those who take on teacher leadership roles in the K-12 system, I think it captures the essence of why instructors consider taking on academic leadership roles like team lead, project lead, associate chair, or chair. For the most part, people take on these roles because they want to make a difference, a difference for the students and for the staff that they have come to know so well. In addition to the need to make a difference for students and colleagues, those looking to move into leadership roles may also be enticed to do so for any combination of six different factors:
Who should take on such a role? From my experience, there is no one profile of the ideal candidate for an academic leadership position. I have seen very different types become very successful leaders. Some of these people saw an associate chair position as a stepping stone in their career; they had their sights on institutional leadership (Look out Carolyn, here I come!). Others were almost reluctant leaders. They hated to leave their classrooms and the students who gave them energy, but they also felt an obligation to the program, to their colleagues and to the students, to take on a leadership role that might ensure the viability of the program. Regardless of how or why each stepped into the role, all of these new leaders needed to develop a new set of skills. Working with students in an online or face-to-face environment is much different from working with colleagues who are masters in their own domain. A teacher leader’s greatest challenge is in building trust, gaining credibility, and establishing purposeful, productive relationships. These leaders are sometimes faced with apathetic, reluctant or resistant colleagues. Often, they are “caught in the middle”, having to roll out unpopular or demanding decisions or initiatives that they might have previously had questions about. This delicate challenge means that they must instead use credibility and kinship as practicing instructors to gently lead–through encouragement, support and even courageous conversations. As such, effective leadership involves constant negotiation and it requires tremendous flexibility, tact and perseverance. What are the keys to success? Some of the important leadership actions or processes that prospective teacher leaders might ask themselves about before making the leap have to do with:
Several years ago, I asked successful “teacher leaders” to share their strategies for creating positive working relationships with their colleagues. They suggested that life will go easier if you:
References: Killion, J. (2011). A bold move forward: consortium outlines new standards for teacher leaders. Journal of Staff Development, 32 (3), 10-12. Kuntz, J. (2015). Exploring the Experience of AISI Instructional Teacher Leaders. (Doctoral Thesis) University of Alberta. Department of Secondary Education. Accessed online at: https://era.library.ualberta.ca/downloads/41687m37h (Permanent link) How might we support our students in preparing for exams?This past week we held two faculty talking circles. They were wonderful! Both circles were well-attended and instructors participating offered helpful suggestions on how to support and encourage students as they prepare for important and often stressful end of term assessments. The instructors were given the following prompt: We are getting to that point in the term where the students are under a lot of pressure to perform. End of module exams and end of term exams loom. And while there is a plethora of websites that suggest the best ways for students to prepare for these challenges - suggesting how to stop procrastinating, make quality notes, and move past recall to better understanding - it does not always follow that students read and apply such helpful advice. How do you support and scaffold your students in preparation for big assessments? Do you share links, develop study guides, set up review classes, schedule drop-ins, manage a chat, pair up students (study buddies), or find some other way to help and encourage? Is your Moodle environment configured to aid students in being confident and competent learners? Or, is studying and exam prep something that each student must take individual ownership of – we are not here to spoon feed or enable our learners! Several suggestions kept coming back as instructors shared their expertise and experience:
Here are many of the other suggestions shared by NorQuest faculty:
Some of the links that were shared while we were in the Talking Circle include: Student Wellness Services self-directed workshop on managing test stress: https://rise.articulate.com/share/pwSBgb-MVbc5ijad-q9s3SA5_tVNOb5L#/lessons/W0gOg6HdekbzQb-sjrT35LM2VKC5sdzR Studying 101: Study Smarter Not Harder (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/studying-101-study-smarter-not-harder/ Studying & Note-Taking Skills for College (Affordable Colleges Online) https://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/study-skills/ Study Skills (Penn State) https://dus.psu.edu/academicsuccess/studyskills.html Hopefully there is a suggestion or idea that resonates with you! If you would like to go deeper into any of the suggestions above, just contact one of our Faculty Developers! Last Week's Faculty Talking Circles - The InspirationThe growth of any craft depends on shared practice and honest dialogue among the people who do it. We grow by trial and error, to be sure—but our willingness to try, and fail, as individuals is severely limited when we are not supported by a community that encourages such risks. (Palmer, 1998, p. 144) A week ago, we had two Faculty Talking Circles at NorQuest College where we continued to explore the concept of learning teams. I asked these faculty groups several big questions. The first was “What, in your experience, allows a learning team to work well?” In the chat and discussions individual faculty said that, in their experience, a learning team works well when there is:
This group also suggested that it might also help to have:
Most of all, our colleagues suggested that a learning team would need to be passionate and committed “owners” of the learning team. A powerful learning team should be built by instructors - for instructors. Thankfully, these observations validated the musings from Jan 11! So on to my next few questions: “Do you have an idea for a team?”, “Who should form these teams?” and “What should their goals be?” Instructors wrote suggestions on a Padlet and we took turns discussing some of them. Ideas for learning teams included a/an:
These were wonderful ideas! That said, I cannot count how many times I have worked with groups of keen individuals and gotten to this point, only to have the enthusiasm ebb out with a bit of time and the pressure of staying on top of daily teaching commitments and student concerns. So how might we take some of these ideas and establish learning teams that meet regularly, sustain a clear and practical focus and make a difference for team members and for our students? One idea: A NQ Faculty Community Of PracticeThe onset of Covid and the switch to online everything has left many of our instructors feeling overwhelmed and disconnected. LRN sessions are not as popular as in the past; people cannot find the time to invest in one-off workshops that may or may not apply to their current teaching contexts and pressures. However, if these same people knew that they could regularly connect with colleagues who face the same challenges and then collectively address ongoing concerns it might lead to professional growth, community building and alleviate some anxiety and stress.
So here’s my idea going forward. I think it is time for NorQuest to establish a Faculty Community of Practice. This umbrella group would be able to facilitate the networking, sharing, and resource development necessary for a wide range of learning teams. Your faculty developers would help to coordinate this community, but they would not be the ones who lead it. The NQ FC of P would be a true professional learning community. Some thoughts: With tight budgets and Covid cutbacks, it would be difficult to secure funding or dedicated time to run this Community of Practice. While being supportive, our college leadership would not be able to carve out something for us. That said:
A plan: I know that we have a core group of dedicated and innovative instructors who might champion learning teams. I have been in their classrooms (online and F2F) and I have listened to their reflections and presentations. Now we just need to find out if there is enough interest to make a go of this idea.
If all goes well, we might be able to stage several NorQuest College Community of Practice Showcase afternoons. This would allow individual groups to share what they have tried and learned with colleagues. However, at this point, let us just see if there is enough interest to go forward. Many thanks to Mabyn Grinde from Lakeland College who attended our last talking circle, shared the Parker Palmer quote and the suggestion that “Members of a learning team need to be owners, not renters!” Palmer, Parker J. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life. San Francisco, Calif. : Jossey-Bass, 1998. It’s all about ME and six C’s Just after finishing my master’s program in 1994, I started looking at what makes an adolescent learner persevere in their learning. From research and experience, I found that teens have less patience in learning than pre-teens. When charged with teaching teens Trigonometry in Math, Poetic Meter in English, the Past Progressive Tense in French, Mitosis and Meiosis in Biology, or the Causes of the Great War in Social Studies, my students would often fire back three questions:
Now, at first, a teacher might resent such questions. After all, learning for the sake of learning is a noble pursuit, and many of us became teachers - not only because we love teaching - but because we also love learning. Nevertheless, these three student questions are significant and we needed to be ready for them. Moreover, our responses needed to be better than “because it is in the curriculum/syllabus” or “well, some day you might….” So I continued to dig into the research and surprise, surprise, I found out that perseverance in adolescent learners is dependent upon ME! You might take that in a number of different ways: 1) that it all comes down to the teacher or 2) that the single most important factor is the student and their personal (almost selfish?) needs for learning. In fact, both are wrong, what the research told me is that it all comes down to Motivation & Engagement (ME!) and the interplay of these factors in a teaching and learning environment. What is more, as I continued my odyssey in education, teaching at King’s, U of A and NorQuest, I discovered that what applies to adolescent learners aligns with much of what we know about adult learners. Just like teens, adult learners are concerned about practicality, immediacy of application, and personal and professional relevance. In other words, “So what?” and “Just how can I use this?” For our learners at NorQuest, it also comes down to ME - motivation and engagement. However, the idea of motivation is a tricky one. I have heard a number of scholars say that motivation is completely dependent upon the learner and that the teacher has no influence on this. If a student is unmotivated, either intrinsically or extrinsically, there is very little a teacher can do about it. Other educational scholars say that this is poppycock and that such teachers simply do not want to figure out what motivates their students, individually or collectively. Yes, these scholars say, motivation does come from within, but it is also very much influenced by situation, culture, necessity, and rewards (and many other factors). Teachers cannot create motivation, but they can learn and act upon the motives of their students and discover their “motivators”. This makes me think to the work I am doing now with my four-month-old puppies. Daisy’s “motivators” are food and love, Edgar is less interested in food rewards, but thrives on praise and attention, and Rufus is a very smart little dog who likes a challenge (He has already figured out how to open and close the back door.) and is motivated by play. I often catch him doing that Border Collie head cock thing where he looks like he is trying to figure out just how to get into that cupboard, or take away a toy from his siblings. Now, I am not comparing our learners to puppies (well, maybe a little…). Coming to class with a bunch of “puppy snacks” or a clicker would be absurd. However, I am saying that every learner is different and it is up to us to explore ways to use motivators to ignite and fuel their passions. Thankfully, most of our learners at NorQuest come to us of their own free will and chose programs that they see as beneficial to their development a persons, citizens, and professionals. So finding their motivators is a little easier than connecting to teens. Adult “motivators” might be self-improvement, a new career or challenge, a permanent residency card, or simply the love of learning. Junior and senior high school students do not have that same liberty as adult learners – they are conscripts in more comprehensive programming that they may or may not appreciate. Coupled with motivation is engagement. In order to tap into the motivators of our students we need to design learning environments and challenges that allow students to participate in a variety of ways and on a variety of levels. In this way, we might reach and inspire more of our students and support them in their learning journey. That still leaves us with an important question, “Just how can we better engage our students?” Well this is where the six C’s come in. In researching engagement, I found that students engage and persevere in learning, when they:
Keeping these six C’s in mind (choice, confidence, challenge, context, connections and collaboration) when we plan our courses, units and lessons, gives us a better chance in reaching our students and in making courses meaningful and relevant. The Great Hack of 2020… I continue to be amazed at how quickly that we, as a human race, have adapted to the present COVID 19 crisis. We’ve learned many lessons about social distancing, hygiene, and the difference between needs and wants. (You don’t really need that much toilet paper…) In the same vein, we have - as faculty, adapted very quickly in response to the COVID 19 crisis. Within a very short time, instructors have made the adjustment to teaching online. Just how have we done so? Well that’s a question that Viola Manakore and I hope to investigate in the coming weeks and months. And Viola and I are not alone, I know of several others, both inside and outside the college, who have an interest in studying this phenomenon. It is a fascinating and historic time in teaching, this “Great Teaching Hack of 2020”, and it is worth studying. This past weekend I spent time thinking about the factors that made the transition possible (Thanks Clara!). At first look I had to say that the transition could only happen because of 1) the urgency of the situation, 2) the teamwork mentality of instructors and leaders, 3) the professional support through workshops videos and tip sheets, and 4) the fact that NorQuest had IT capacity and timely IT support. But, digging deeper, I would have to say that the heavy lifting in making this transition was really upon the shoulders of our instructors. Our faculty stepped up, and I would suggest that many of you did so on the basis of four factors: Agency, Assurance, Adaptive Capacity and Authenticity. The COVID 19 crisis pushed our college in ways we never even imagined. It was like the perfect storm. In the past couple of years, we had been talking about disruption and innovation, but change comes slowly when things seem to be going just fine. Why change what is already working? At the same time, we have been going through a cultural change at the college, one that advocates for giving our employees more autonomy and the freedom to “work from anywhere”. People leaders were/are being challenged to stop micro-managing, trust their colleagues and empower them. And now COVID 19 forced us all to be innovative, work from anywhere, trust and empower! Whether they were comfortable with it or not, many instructors were given the agency to make changes to their delivery approach, planning and assessments in order to make whatever changes necessary in shifting their delivery. This newfound autonomy allowed you to take on the daunting but exciting challenge of re-thinking your whole approach to teaching. It asked you to use professional judgement, which is extremely empowering. Closely linked to this agency is the need to be intentional and reflective. Our present circumstance forced us all to visualize just how an online environment might be used to generate interest, provide support, build collaboration and conduct assessments. And, as the weeks progress, we will need to be very reflective, asking questions about the efficacy of our online practices. Along with this newfound agency and autonomy, most NorQuest instructors needed to be given some assurance that they could and would get through this transition. Anxiety and self-doubt do not promote professional learning, and instructors who are insecure about their technical and teaching skills, need an ear, some reinforcement, permission to make mistakes, and the courage to ask for support. Those messages had to come from Norma and the leadership team, from the deans, chairs and associates, and from faculty supports like our department, the library, curricula, IT, and the learning/assessment centre. I believe those messages were relayed and reinforced and this helped with the transition. As instructors, you were also forced to tap into your adaptive capacity – the ability to make adjustments minute to minute and second to second. In the classes, workshops and meetings that I was involved with this week there were all too many of those “unplanned for” moments. There were connectivity issues (How can I teach if my WIFI keeps popping in and out?), technical problems (I had students whose microphone sounded like a jackhammer.), unfamiliarity with the environment (One of the apps I was using only allowed 10 participants, I wondered why 5 didn’t show up…), and the overwhelming responsibility of teaching through technology (How do I respond to the chat, upload poll questions, provide insight, work through the presentation, and check if people are actually listening – all at the same time?). I’m guessing that many of you were working through the very same problems and many more. And that you are still working through these issues on a daily basis. But you can, and you will. And finally, I believe that many of you found ways to make your new teaching environment reflect a little of who you are and how you connect. Our teaching is an extension of our person. That’s why I’ve always bristled when educators sling around phrases like “best practice” and “research says”. I know that every classroom comes with its own unique set of circumstances and that there is as much an art to teaching as there is a science to it. That’s why it is important to remain authentic. I know firsthand that our NorQuest faculty is a diverse bunch and that different instructors are successful for very different reasons. While one instructor makes connections through anecdotes and stories, another uses group activities, discussion boards and debates. Some instructors are uproariously funny, while others are “all business”. There are instructors who show their concern for their students through regular email and conversation and others who do so by providing a wealth of resources and support. But, regardless of what type of instructor you are, you have to find a way to live and breathe in this new teaching reality – a way to make your new environment a vibrant, engaging and personable space. |
AuthorJeff Kuntz Ph.D. ImagesExcept where indicated, images used in the blog posts are personal photos, images from NorQuest College or images from Pixabay. Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images, videos and music. https://pixabay.com/ Archives
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