Conceptions of my students, knowledge and learning in my subject

Conceptions of my students, knowledge and learning in my subject

We’ve have studied different pedagogical theories, each one provide a view about the teacher and learner posture within learning process as well the methods that must be used to reach effective learning outcomes. I think all theories have contributed in some way to provide the set of tools available to teach, the biggest obstacle is the teacher realize that the most important actor of the learning process is the learner and what should be done is figured out how to construct a cozy and stimulant learning environment that keep learners motivated.

I’ve changed and evolved my conceptions about learning in the last few years. I understand learning as a process where the learner is provoked to reflect, collaborate and make choices, supported by a teacher that act as a facilitator. In my opinion the main factor to achieve the learning goals is motivation, both learners and teacher.

Motivation: A Key Factor in Second Language Learning’ by Reena Mittal.

Considering I’ve taught practical subjects of the last half of the course, my students are very related with their careers, determined, appreciate learning by doing and most enjoy working in groups. I think the students construct knowledge through experience, collaboration, challenges and reflections. There are information in everywhere, teachers are agents who should lead theirs students to transform the big amount of information in adequate knowledge. 

Available in "http://www.growthengineering.co.uk/3-tips-to-make-learning-social/"

Let’s increase the collaboration among our students? A brief view about some collaborative tools for different educational purposes.

I’ve been presented to some collaborative tools that could be very interesting to apply in my classes toward to motivate and engage students in different ways. I’ve realized the teachers of Tampere University of Applied Sciences try to introduce their classes with a warm-up activity using some of these tools. Beyond the using of specific collaborative tools to make their classes more attractive, all TAMK teachers I’ve seen have used a learning management system (Moodle) to foster a blended learning environment.

The padlet tool (padlet.com) é a platform that allows people to collaborate their thought on a common topic. We used this tool in two situations, at the first one Sisko asked us to write our name in a Brazil map to represent where we live and at the second situation Leena requested us to resume in few words one relevant learning experience of a colleague in the last six months. This tool seems extremely suitable to ice breaking of students at the beginning of the course and to engage students in specific situations of the class.

I have used tools to construct mind and conceptual models for a long time especially in research tasks. Assuming the role of student, I have realized that I could use this tool to resume and to structure ideas from readings, presentations, discussions and others. The tool coogle.it allows that users work collaboratively designing mind maps and I have made a lot this.

There is a world tendency to apply gamification in education and I have seen this process a lot with different teachers in TAMK.  Leena organized a game, like a pop quiz, using a tool called kahoot (kahoot.it). I have thought it should be an excellent strategy to start some classes, addressing contents read by students previously. Kahoot tool foster some king of competition among students at the same time that the teacher is able to accompany the overall knowledge about a specific content. There are two user interfaces, one is offered to the person who will create the game (survey) and another to the game’s participants. Participants must create a nickname and immediately he becomes a game player. The game’s owner has different visualizations to accompany the players’ performance. If the game’s owner desires, he/she can exhibit the participants ranking after each question.

Sami show us a tool very interesting for collaborative interpretation of texts (prism.scholarslab.org). He provided an scientific paper on prism tool and asked us to mark parts of the text that we agree, parts that we disagree and parts that we believe should not have enough information. After that, we could see the marked parts of the text considering the suggestions of everyone who had collaborated.

Sami and Hanna offered us a workshop about Flipped classrooms where they could show us many authoring tools with different examples. After that, they divided us in groups to create an object learning that could be used in a flipped class. It was an amazing experience when I could learn a lot, in addition to seeing the amount of possibilities to apply that acquired knowledge in my classes in Brazil. Flipping some of my classes’ materials will allow the students to develop more practice during the classes and foster environments for them learn by themselves. In this activity we use different resources from Powerpoint, YouTube, Screencast-o-matic and Playposit. The result of our work can be seen in:

https://www.playposit.com/delivery/206400/405872/why-is-good-teams-communication-important-in-a-project

Book's chapter Review: Teaching presence in Blended Learning Environments - Technology

Link: https://coggle.it/diagram/Vxex2zo8KTUykdPx

Project-based learning in practice: The MIRAMI Method

Overview, impressions and inspiration.

At the beginning we were presented to the teachers and advisors that will teach/guide us during our training at TAMK. One teacher call my attention because in few words he presented himself and his role at VET mentioning terms like agile process, information systems, learning by doing, students motivation, etc. Immediately I became interested and anxious for understanding more about the project that has been developed and oriented to  BIS 1st year students.

The MIRAMI Method has been applied in 1st year students of Business Information System (BIS) Bachelor's Degree for 4 years. The MIRAMI Method has implemented an approach to unify courses from 1st year of BIS around the development of a complete game project. Altogether there are about 15 teachers involved with this project every year and they need to work together to reach satisfactory outcomes. Teachers have used some traditional lectures with collaborative approaches through blended learning focused in a common learning outcome. One principle I have appreciated in MIRAMI method is: "Coaching and team working more them teaching and individual working."

The student should deal with many abilities like leadership, autonomy, teamwork and others to succeed. The MIRAMI Method uses a Project-based learning approach combining principles of pedagogy, software development, management, gamification, coaching and others to motivate and engage the students through the development of a game from a demand of a real company. 

In IFPB context, we have faced to a high dropout rates of ICT students along the first year of their courses. The project I submitted to CNPq to develop in partnership with Finnish orientation try do find out solutions to this challenge. Being aware about MIRAMi Method has been a great inspiration to me. As Rami said, it is not an easy task to convince our colleagues to work together and try to transform our learning practices, therefore I think I could begin with one or two colleagues and attempt to reach innovative and successful learning outcomes. 

How has this course been operationalized?

The Business Information Systems is a 3.5 years course and the MIRAMI Method has been implemented only at the first year. At the first semester the students have been faced with some subjects that will support their work at the second semester. The teachers of the first semester have not only employed traditional lessons model, the students are encouraged to learning by doing and adopting collaborative tools.

At the beginning of the second semester, the students attend to a kick off day, when they need to decide their groups and apply for some roles, for example programmer, web designer, scrum master and others. Depending the role, the students should study specific subjects more deeply. In a informal talking with BIS students, they said the programmers have the possibility to attend to a intensified course of programming language Android. The teams just have between three and four months to design and develop the game.

BIS students study together the first year, after that, they need to choose a specialization among game production, software production, network services, web services and entrepreneurship, that must be studied on remaining 2.5 years of the course. At the final of the first year the students need to apply for a specialization and they are selected by their grades on 1st year. Considering that rivalry for a desired place, the competition climate sometimes is not healthful. On the other hand, the students said they learn to work as a team and it's quite common members of a team help colleagues from other teams when they are in trouble.

Learning SCRUM through a Game

We had two meetings to understand and reflect about the MIRAMI Method. Rami Lehtinen, the method inventor, gave us some explanation about BIS and the MIRAMI Method at the first moment. At the second, he planed a game to teach us about SCRUM, an iterative and incremental agile software development framework for managing product development. Rami divided everyone in groups of four. The groups should apply the SCRUM to solve some problems in a defined time. Group members should assume SCRUM roles and work as a team.

As I were familiarized with SCRUM, when Rami proposed the game I felt unmotivated, but for my surprise, the game was able to engage everyone on the SCRUM steps, including me. It was my first contact with a project-based learning in practice and we were part of that process. In my opinion, everyone could learn SCRUM by doing. Moreover, that situation was significant to get together the VET group.

We had a moment more to analyze what we had learnt and to deepen about SCRUM and MIRAMI Method. Rami showed us the games developed in 2015 and reinforce the invitation to GAME EXPO 2016. I've been amazed with the quality and creativity of the games, all them have been available on Google Store to download. The teams need to work so hard dealing with different competences related with game production, e.g, programming, web design, trailers creation, project management, deployment process, networking, innovation, etc. I could observe the students were too focused and motivated to present their games on  the GAME EXPO.

Sales and Negotiation Class: Observations*

Last week I observed a class about Sales and Negotiation of the course International Business. After that I did the opportunity to talk to the teacher and with some students. The teacher said that the entire course of International Business is taught in English and that all teachers use a Learning Management Systems to foster a blended learning and a more collaborative learning environment. During the observed class just a half of the students was present, because the other half part of students were attending another course at the same time.

During the observations I've identified innovative lessons, classroom infrastructure allowed for an integrative sitting arrangement and role playing activities. With modern colorful and flexible couches and chairs learners were free to arrange themselves and work in pairs or groups. Thus, furniture can be categorized as organic-conversational, since it provides a comfortable and inspirational environment, which fosters creative learning, knowledge sharing, diverging thinking, autonomy, self-direct learning, and authentic production, all necessary to the course goals.

The observed class had begun in the morning with a brief lecture and the discussion about the role playing, when the students should simulate the sale of a fishing travel package to Thailand. The girls should be the sellers and the boys should be the buyers. During that morning they should research and prepare the sale strategies to apply at role playing later In terms of interaction, we must say that innovative lessons focused more on learner interaction and knowledge exchange between the groups rather than teacher and student interaction. 

Role playing methodologies showed Problem based learning traits and provided real-life tasks connecting learners to a meaningful learning. As for the teacher’s role, we observed that teachers worked more as tutors, facilitating knowledge production, avoiding directive activities and therefore favoring the autonomy development, learner’s researching skills and discussions. Moreover, lessons which were predominantly innovative also made wide use of blended learning, by assigning tasks on the virtual learning environment Tabula, which included extra materials to be downloaded, homework, tests and varied activities, and even for assessment.

At the last part of the class, the teacher Päivi Mayor asked all the girls, as sellers, about the difficulties and the strategies used during the sales process. Teacher listed all the sales techniques used by students and they had studied earlier. After each girls talked, the teacher asked the boys, as buyers, the strengths and weaknesses of the sellers approaches. During that time the students could interact and the teacher acted as a facilitator. In my opinion, the teacher approach was able to motivate and engage the students during all the moments the class I could observe.

* Part of this post had the contribution of Jamylle, Elisângela and Igor.

Teachers in Finland

My impressions about Teachers in Finland

Since I arrive in Finland, I have read and learnt lots of things about the teacher career in Finland. Beyond the readings, I've had the opportunity to see and accompany diverse classes with teachers in action. Teacher profession is very popular in Finland, unlike Brazil, from kindergarten to PhD degree. Teachers have a proud of their careers, which they carry with innovation, confidence, trust, security and maybe passion.

Finland has been much worried with education the last decades, reflecting in excellent international students' assessments. To become a teacher in Finland a person needs to study a lot, at least this career requires a master degree,  like in others professions extremely essencial and challenging. Besides that, teachers need to update periodically. One thing call my attention in special, teacher's responsibility and commitment, almost is not necessary inspection to evaluate their work.

Until today, I have had the opportunity to observe more classes at University. Most classes were very interesting with teachers using innovative pedagogical methods and collaborative tools to support their courses. The students usually were motivated and engaged mainly when they were learning by doing. Some colleagues from Brazil have made a big amount of questions about Finnish teachers and their routine, salary, motivation, etc. My impression is that in Brazil teachers haven't had enough and rigorous formation, the consequence is the low level of learning of Brazilian students, in general.

I've observed TAMK teachers use technology in their classes, especially collaborative tools. I've realized I could adopt some of that practices in my classes too. It's clear to me that fostering collaboration in specific tools it become the students much more engaged. It is what I've felt during this time as student at TAMK.

Impressions about TAMK University of Applied Sciences

My first impressions about TAMK University of Applied Sciences

I was so anxious to arriving at TAMK on April 04, my first day there. TAMK is very well located and it is also well served by buses. As I need to rent a car, I was a little bit worried if I would find free parking spaces, but I have found every day. TAMK is divided in many buildings, all them connected, besides TAMK campus is completely adapted to disabled people. 

The University is clean and there is an awesome atmosphere. I have had the opportunity to visit different classrooms and I have realized they were projected to offer a perfect environment for learning experiences, both for teachers and for students. I could see the classrooms are different depending the subjects are taught there, for example, in an International Business classroom the furnitures are designed to foster an ideal environment for sales and negotiations. All classrooms I have seen provide an ideal space for collaboration.

I feel delighted to visit some laboratories from different courses on my first days at TAMK, like Mechanical Engineering, Construction Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Information Systems etc. The labs are well structured with innovative machines making possible teaching and researching at a high level. A considerable part of the advanced projects researched in TAMK is sponsored by companies.

Talking about TAMK library deserve a whole post. The building is amazing and comfy with separated areas for individual and group studies. Library staff are attentive and the registration process was very easy. I observed one thing that caught my attention, the machines to drop out rented books, a fast and so efficient mechanism. 
TAMK offers many facilities for students and all most of them are free. TAMK offers different kinds of restaurants with a great variety of foods. There are no tuition fees for students in Finland Education Model, independently of study level.