En busca del aprendizaje significativo en el aula 2.0

La robótica está de moda. No hay más que echar un vistazo a los folletos de las empresas de actividades extraescolares. La fiebre de la robótica y el aula 2.0 no ha hecho más que empezar. Interesante la puesta en marcha que han hecho en Canarias. Merece la pena ver el vídeo, en minuto y medio condensa el proyecto que están llevando a cabo:

“La tecnología puede ampliar los efectos de una buena docencia, pero una buena tecnología no puede reemplazar a un mala docencia”, Andreas Schleicher.

No podría estar más de acuerdo con esta afirmación (ni con esta divertida imagen). De hecho, estos días estamos reflexionando sobre el uso de las TIC en el aula y la innovación educativa. Resulta curioso cómo un estudio de la OCDE relaciona el uso del ordenador y su efecto en los resultados académicos, de modo que existe un máximo rendimiento con un uso intermedio del ordenador en el aula y en casa (en el punto medio está la virtud):

 http://www.elmundo.es/espana/2015/09/15/55f71deb46163fbd058b458f.html

Ya lo hemos comentado mucho: innovar, conseguir el tan preciado aprendizaje significativo pasa por aproximarnos al alumno, a veces mediante el uso de la tecnología, pero también debemos revisar nuestra práctica en el aula.

Como ya he reflexionado en Twitter, el uso de las TIC aproxima el mundo del aula al mundo cotidiano del alumno, con lo que captaremos su interés y los motivaremos, y es a ello a lo que debemos aspirar como docentes.

Pero resulta curioso que Internet, las tabletas y los ordenadores, las consolas, el smartphone se utilizan casi exclusivamente para el ocio. Debemos revertir esta tendencia y conseguir un uso educativo de las herramientas 2.0 y, a la vez, revisar nuestras metodologías en el aula.

Muchas veces hemos criticado que los docentes no saben utilizar las pizarras digitales. En Magisterio las aulas están plagadas de éstas, pero una única vez durante la carrera nos mostraron recursos para utilizarla y, en ningún caso, hemos podido experimentar con ella más allá de proyectar presentaciones en el aula.

¿Alguien se ha planteado experimentar con una flip classroom? ¿Primera vez que lo leéis? Hasta hace un momento yo también, en este artículo que explica por qué la tecnología va a cambiar la forma de enseñar en las aulas. Está claro que no deja de ser un artículo de un periódico (El Mundo), que nos invita a reflexionar tras la celebración de la Feria SIMO Educación 2015. Debería servirnos, al menos, como punto inicial en nuestra reflexión sobre las TIC, la educación y qué queremos hacer al respecto.

Which training courses would you like to have access to as a teacher? Why? Which is, in your opinion, the best way to share good practice amongst teaching professionals? Why?

I think that teachers should always have lifelong learning; this should be a requirement for working in this profession. I think that attending and participating in courses is very important to improve and to adapt our methodologies to the needs of children of the XXI Century.

At this time, I would study many courses of new technologies and their incorporation to the educational world, the use of whiteboards, the improvement of creativity and emotional intelligence, etc, because I believe that, at that moment, I really have to learn about these issues. In addition, I think that there are many interesting courses to learn many things that I have not learned at University. I enjoy studying, and so, I think that, in the future, I will continue studying many courses of all kinds.

With regard to improving as a teacher, I think that a good course could be a learning mobility for the teacher or cooperation between organizations and schools in order to work together, to get to know another kind of learning practices. For instance, if all teacher work together, even if they work in different schools, they could improve educational practices and methodologies for all students to develop their full potential and develop meaningful learning.

In my opinion, the best way to share good practices between teaching professionals is, for example, promoting school exchanges. I mean teachers traveling to other schools to learn new educational practices. Other ways of sharing knowledge it is doing classes of specialization with other teachers about important issues, so it is a good way to share experiences, case studies, methods, etc. Working groups are also very important because teachers develop their research projects and educational innovation. In these groups teachers develop new initiatives and they implement projects based on educational theory.

In conclusion, I believe that it is very important for teachers to learn new practices to improve schools. Although realizing courses and lifelong learning is very important, the most important matter is the willingness of teachers to change their practices in order to get to improve among all schools and this society. Teachers have to find solutions to the new challenges that arise and be humble to evaluate their teaching and be able to change what does not work.

If you were not limited by the demands of the national/regional curriculum, what would you say is the most important thing you would teach your students about your subject (in a CLIL context)? How would you assess their learning?

The school is one of the most important places in our society because it is there where children develop all their skills and where they learn to solve all the problems that society presents. I wish teachers in schools had more freedom to raise issues or activities. That in the current school is not possible because teachers are limited by the demands of the national and regional curriculum.

If I were not limited by the curriculum in my class, I would work on projects that arise from students’ concerns. For example, I would not work in class all the conceptual contents that the curriculum stipulates because I think that there are many contents that the curriculum does not propose to study and which are very important. In my class, I would work oral language skills harder. For this reason, I believe that in the current school is an aspect that is not given the importance that it deserves, but I consider that it is very important that students improve their oral skills, in spite of the fact that I consider is the most important matter is learning to make reference to daily life and student’s environment. Because, in this way, their learning will be meaningful.  

As for evaluation, the most important matter is to assess the learning process, it is not achieving goals the most important matter but student’s process while achieving them. The assessment has to be adapted to the characteristics of each student and teachers should recognize the different types and speeds of learning. Assessment in my classroom would be continuous, assessing all activities, promoting dynamic activities and students participation. Therefore, I would evaluate all the skills and content such as language skills, learning to learn, social and civic, etc. It is important for students to take part in the process actively as well as in their own. Due to that, students must know the items that will be evaluated and become aware of their own evolution through the process of teaching and learning.

Finally, we should not forget, that, if used properly assessing in the classroom, it can be a very valuable tool for students’ learning.

Advantages and disadvantages of the ELP in primary school.

Before explaining the advantages and disadvantages of ELP, I’m going to explain that ELP is a personal document of languages that includes, as well as our record our record of formal qualifications, the experiences of language learning and linguistic experiences, out of the school environment or with other cultures.

As teacher, I think that there are more advantages than disadvantages when we use the ELP.

First of all, because due to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for

Languages) was established an order in the level of languages. I believe that the most important thing is that all the skills are organized and each European country shares the same system.

The ELP should have three compulsory components:

1.      The Language Passport, which describes a learner’s proficiency and competences.

2.    The Language Biography, which facilitates planning, reflection and assessment through the descriptions written for each language proficiency level from A1 (basic user) to C2 (proficient user).

3.    A Dossier, in which learners have evidence collect evidence of their developing proficiency.

The ELP also has benefits and advantages for teachers. They can benefit from using the ELP in class with their students because it is based in two functions:

1. The pedagogic function
2. The reporting function

The pedagogical function is based in making the language learning process more transparent for learners and to foster learners autonomy; For this reason, it assigns an important role for reflection and self-assessment. The ELP is engaging learners to share responsibility for the learning process, to think critically when they plan and evaluate their learning, and to develop appropriate target language use.

The reporting function completes information provided by official diplomas. This means it allows the owner to proof languages learning that has taken place during formal education, other courses and in the leisure time.

Nevertheless, from my point of view, there are some disadvantages too.

First, it's necessary a lot of responsibility from part of students, and maybe, not all students can meet this requirement. Another disadvantage is, perhaps, that ELP needs much time and sometimes we don't have enough time in class. Because of these limits, I have experienced that, sometimes, this plan fails in factual situations. In addition, there are countries which don’t pay attention to ELP, which causes mobility problems for other travelers.

However, despite the disadvantages, I like the ELP, and I think it would be a good project which I am able to carry out in class with my groups. Personally, I think that there are more advantages than disadvantages, and I think that my students will can improve and develop more their skills with the ELP, and this is the most important for me. 

The theory of multiple intelligences. Gardner in my classroom.

I´m studying to become a teacher. In all these years at University, I have learned many things: theories, applications ... In my practical classes at school, I was where I have learned more things because I have been able to see all theories had learned and taught using everything I had learned at University. 

One of the most important theories that I have studied is the theory of multiple intelligences of Gardner. For Gardner, intelligence is the sum of intellectual capacity and talents. For Gardner, intelligence is the sum of intellectual capacity and talents. Howard Gardner states that there is not only one but eight intelligence:: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal.

In my class there are 25 students and some of them have a lot of difficulties with the interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence.  Many children, who come from immigrant families, have problems integrating. For this reason I consider that it is necessary to work activities empathy and, most importantly, work together with others.

For this reason, I proposed making a "box of emotions" in my class. Children had to write letters to other children to tell them how they feel. The activity was very positive because all the problems were solved in the classroom. Children stopped fighting, learned to be more empathetic and be respectful to other people. For me, it is important to work the (intrapersonal and interpersonal) emotional intelligence because I consider that it is essential to learn how to learn effectively and autonomously.

In the classroom the learning should be accessible to everyone and we have to include different proposals for each student, within their learning. The student must be able to integrate and assimilate those lessons in the best way possible to achieve the comprehensive and effective education.

In conclusion, I think that teachers should be aware that there are multiple intelligences and we have the obligation to develop all intelligences in our students.

Which ingredients of the C-Wheel are most relevant to you?

Carol Read developed eight important ingredients to create good conditions for learning. The ingredients are: coherence, challenge, curiosity, connections, care, community, creativity and context. In this essay I want to give my opinion about how the most important ingredients are and which ones I would use in my class when I become a teacher.

In my opinion the creativity is one of the most important ingredients. Many times creativity is an aspect that many teachers thinks that it is not very important, but I think that it is necessary to include activities which develop creativity, fantasy and imagination because at this moment there are a lot of challenges in our society, and children have to be prepared to respond to all the problems of society, and in a global context, our society is in a constant evolution and changing. So Creativity is not an option, it's an absolute necessity.

Other important think in the school is to build a connection with the other subjects. For example, when I was in a school practising to be a teacher I connected maths with science or history, and I felt that in this way children learned more. I also think that it is very important to relate their daily lives and their environment with the subjects working in class. For example in class you can make a market for children to learn to use money, because in their daily lives it is important that they learn to use the money, and in this way they practice with numbers in a “real” case.

Thirdly it is important that students learn from previous knowledge to make learning full and significative (or acquires a significative learning). This means that during the process of teaching and learning student must have prior knowledge which can be linked to the new, so it is necessary that the child already has some ideas on this subject, proposals and concepts.

If the student has some previous ideas the teacher must connect this ideas with the new learning.

The best teacher I’ve ever had.

Education is one of the holiest occupations in my point of view, because due to this job a teacher can change the world. This is possible because the teachers deal with their students, who are all the kids of the world and the adults of the future. It is said that a good teacher is someone who makes their students pass all their exams. I believe that is right in a certain way, but not quite. From my point of view, a good teacher hasn’t got one dimension but two:

1. Motivation: Teachers, besides making students learn, manage to awaken interest in their pupils causing the students’ willingness to learn and to attend to school.

2. Learning by living: Teacher care about their pupils’ problems and, the most important issue, teachers stand next to their students to support them.

I had a teacher who meets the criteria. His name is Esteban and he made me change the way I used to see the world.  He is one of those teachers who will be able to make you want to learn a lot of things and enjoy learning at the same time.

He was my teacher in the high school La Morería, and he taught the Latin subject. He managed to make Latin a really interesting subject so that we could get the best out of it.

After several years and teachers, Esteban is by far the best teacher I’ve ever had. He succeeded in keeping order of the class making it enjoyable pleasant at the same time.

He’s always been there for academic as well as personal help. Honestly, during that year, I considered the possibility of not passing the course, something inconceivable for me, in order to continue with him another year. Esteban has taught me a lot about the Roman history and language. I am not just talking about history, writing, and reading. He has taught me to appreciate the little things, never to judge, and to be happy about the result of my work and effort. I have grown as a personal and professionally more in these years with Esteban than the rest of my life, and I owe it almost completely to Esteban.

Esteban did a good job preparing me for the university entrance exam (PAU), for which I am very grateful. I feel that I had studied to become a teacher due to him. When I become a teacher I want to be a good teacher like him. Throughout the years, he has become my role model. I believe that becoming half the teacher he is would be an incredible achievement.

He showed me that hard work is worthwhile and that I should never give up.

Due to all of the reasons thank you, Esteban.