MLP or just Effective Pedagogy
I am keen to find out if anyone can define MLP and if we can't, perhaps ditch the term and just talk about effective pedagogy?
Can anyone give us a succinct definition of what Modern Learning Practice / Modern Learning Pedagogies are?
Can't be about technology- not that modern (they were part of the rationale for the move to open plan units in the 1960's)
Can't be about student centred learning... being around for ever!
Can't be about having a shared vision, values and beliefs...they are not pedagogies or practices
Is it about preparing children for their future- I think thats just part of our day to day job (effective pedagogy?)
If it is about pedagogies I am wondering if there are some new modern pedagogies I am missing?
Perhaps it is about Collaborative teaching? If so lets call it that. But that seems confusing because you can go on a course to do MLP in a traditional classroom?
Be cool if it was about culturally inclusive practice (that's quite modern) but I don't think it is?
I suppose my concern is; Have we created a new acronym for something when perhaps there is no need and it just adds to the confusion of MLE, ILE, ILS, FLS...MLP? Perhaps more importantly teachers are been led to think there is a new pedagogy or a 'modern learning practice' that is required to teach in a flexible learning space as opposed to a classroom
Really keen for some feedback....
Neill
Replies
- Victoria King (View all users posts) 30 Sep 2015 4:52pm ()
Thanks for sharing links to interesting work being done on developing effective collaboration, Sarah. (sghailes)
It certainly makes sense to develop team inquiries to really focus, clarify and maintain the direction of professional development and promote collaboration for teaching teams. We are hoping to use Lesson Study as a component of our inquiries and appraisal process to enable the use of collaborative planning, teaching, and the self and peer reflection to build teacher/team capacity.
Exciting times ahead!
- Leigh Hynes (View all users posts) 04 Oct 2015 11:38am ()
Reflecting on the discussion has really brought me back to Bolstad and Gilbert et al s work. The themes of future oriented teaching and learning are extrmely well discussed by Gilbert and Bolstad et al and it seems to me that the ideas about MLPs that are discussed in this debate could easily be placed under the 6 headings of the themes.
- personalised learning (any time, anywhere, incorporating self regulation or learner agency of choice and control)
- new views of equity and diversity (capitalising and developing individual strengths for the benefit of all to make a stronger community)
- new relationships with community (anywhere, anytime, relevance, use of digital technologies to support)
- using knowledge to build learning power (metacognition)
- lifelong learning for educators and leaders (working towards what works best for individual learners, reflecting on the learning, adjusting, trying new techniques and technologies
- new roles for teachers and learners (collaboration)
- Mia (View all users posts) 07 Oct 2015 2:49pm ()
Great topic, Neill! You always challenge our thinking! I'm all for ditching the terms. They seem to just scare people off (parents, BOTs and some educators!)! Effective pedagogy or best practice is all we need to call what so many of us are trying to do. Student agency, collaboration, learner voice.... all the buzz words are just words really. Do we need labels for everything?
- Neill O'Reilly (View all users posts) 07 Oct 2015 3:14pm ()
Thanks Mia,
No you are quite right we don't need labels for everything....however ,
I would want to know and understand (as a school, team) what; Effective pedagogy is, what student centred means, and how to create an effective collaborative teaching and learning environment (student centred will include agency, voice etc)
;-)
- Paul Wilkinson (View all users posts) 08 Oct 2015 6:13am ()
Three great questions Neill. If you added something like ... How will we demonstrate student progress? I think you have the essential questions that schools need to be able to articulate answers to. Combine those answers with the NZC and you have the theory sorted. Just get on with doing a really great job of creating an environment that matches the vision. Hah! Easy really.
Last night I watched the documentary "Most likely to succeed". It is an expose on an American high school (High Tech High). Matching that documentary with the four questions you could clearly see they had thought through and were able to articulate what pedagogy, being student centred, collaboration (both student and teacher) and reporting on progress looked like. Well worth watching if you get the opportunity some time. If you don't the thirty second summary is ...
teams of two teachers (may have been other groupings but the movie focussed on one particular pair of teachers)
mixed disciplines
no bells, extended learning times
students left to figure stuff out on their own and to fail at stuff (supported through reflection rather than teacher solutions)
project based learning
termly showcase of learning as main reporting and accountability tool
teachers have total curriculum freedom
There is a brilliant segment showing one boy who did not succeed in having his segment of the collaborative project completed by the showcase night. They filmed him over the next four or five weeks (into the summer holiday break) working to complete his piece of the project so that it could be added to the whole class model (it was an unbelievably complex laser cut, gears and pulleys connected representation of the rise and fall of civilisations).
What stood out for me was at one point they filmed the teacher standing outside the room looking through a window into where this boy was on his own (in the holidays by now) laser cutting pieces. The teacher was saying words to the effect... "It is quite hard standing here watching him fail over and over, I just want to go in there and fix it up for him".
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