OER4Schools/How to use this resource

Title: 0.3 - How to use this resource
Number: 0.3

The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource

• Click to reveal menu, or here for menu page.

  Introduction to OER4Schools

  2.3 - More on questioning

Table of contents.

0.3 - How to use this resource >>>

Facilitator's version, Participants' version

Important information about how to use this resource

The nature of our resource is a practical invitation to try out interactive teaching.

We envisage this resource to be used in a variety of circumstances, most likely by individual teachers, groups of teachers, or teacher educators. We also assume that in some sense you are a practising teacher, and are able to put what you have learnt into practise, for instance in the context of running a programme at your school, or during teaching practice.

The programme is main mode of delivery would be as weekly, or bi-weekly workshops, for all teachers at the school, over the course of one or two years. However, you can use the programme in other ways, such as running a few sessions, dipping in and out of this programme.

The programme is intended to be used by teachers, and would typically be facilitated by one or two teachers at the school, working with a larger group of teachers. While you could use the programme individually, and would hopefully find some inspiration from it, we recommend that you use the programme at least in a pair of teachers, so that you are both able to give and receive feedback.

If you are facilitating the programme (working with a group of teachers) we recommend that you facilitate the programme as a pair of facilitators. This is advantageous as you can prepare sessions together, take turns in the workshop, as well as give and receive feedback on how the sessions went.

Being aware of the wider context and the overarching goals

Throughout the programme, try to bear in mind the wider context. This resource has been developed in a Zambia context, and while it is applicable to other contexts, you will probably make suitable modification and adaptations.

You may want to consider the following questions:

• What are the issues with primary education in your country?
• Why are people invited to the OER4schools programme?
• What are teachers’ expectations?
• What are they expecting to learning?
• How will they attend?

Consider that some teachers attending will be concerned with big picture, others with detail.

You should also consider the overarching goals of the programme. For instance, what is the rationale for running workshops in the first place? One important element is that workshops model practices in the workshop that teachers are supposed to implement in the school. For instance, they offer opportunities for dialogue.

How do you do a whole-school process at your school? Who needs to be involved?

Being aware of the overarching educational principles

Make sure that you are clear about the difference between "interactive pedagogy", and "interactive computer applications" (such as certain types of multi-media, e.g. interactive video). In this professional learning resource, "interactive" always means "interactive pedagogy", i.e. people interacting with each other, not one person interacting with a computer application.

OER4Schools/Principles of interactive teaching

Key interactive pedagogy for the workshop. The interactive pedagogy in the workshop is closely aligned with interactive pedagogy in the classroom (c.f. here). The following ideas are key principles.

Reflection as part of Planning-Doing-Reflecting. Often we just plan and then do something without reflecting on how the "doing" went. In the context of this programme, we often call this "Plan-Teach-Reflect": We plan a classroom activity, we teach this activity, but we don't reflect. Ideally, we reflect at each stage: during the planning, during the teaching, and then after the teaching.

Questioning as a tool for reflection. If we are not used to reflection, we often do not know how to reflect. Questions are a really important tool to help you reflect.

A key “interactive” principle is for the “students” to start from what they know, and then to extend that knowledge.

A key principle is taking responsibility for your own teaching and learning. This means that as a facilitator, you take responsibility for providing a successful workshop, teachers take responsibility for their learning during the workshop and their teaching practice in schools, while school students take responsibility for learning, as well as supporting each other in that process.

Jointly building an understanding of interactive teaching: For instance, at the end of Session 1, ask participants: What does interactive teaching offer you? You might return to the principles of interactive teaching as a group after a few sessions and classroom trials to see which ones are / are not being addressed.

Modelling: Some expectations about what a workshop should be like. Modelling activities in the workshop on activities planned for the classroom. (Modelling participation and interactivity at all levels.)

A key “interactive” principle is for the “students” to start from what they know, and then to extend that knowledge. We apply this to the workshop by asking the teachers about their own experience of interactive teaching.

Taking a non-judgemental stance. The facilitator should make very clear that they will not judge the views put forward, but simply make notes of the views put forward.

The programme draws on ideas from Leadership for Learning and the Index for Inclusion.

Connecting with overarching goals of the programme

Each session (from unit 2 onwards) has got a section called Connecting with overarching goals of the programme, which reminds participants as follows:

Open space (10 min). It's now time for the "open space", that gives you an opportunity to discuss issues that have arisen, and to relate those to the broader context of the programme. Do not just gloss over this section, but make time to raise issues, and probe the progress that you are making. You could use this space to:

• Remind yourselves of the of the Most Significant Change Technique, and e.g. collect more of your stories.
• Discuss your assessment portfolios: Is there anything that you are unsure about? Is it going well? What could be done better?
• Check on the work with the classroom assistants: Is this going well? Are there any tensions? Any observations or tips you can share?
• Reviewing individual ICT practise (such as typing practise).
• If you are preparing a presentation for other teachers, you could work on the presentation (about what you have been learning, stories emerging from MSC).
• Remind those who are doing audio diaries, to upload them.
• You could discuss any other issues that have arisen.

You will find notes and summaries of various techniques and concepts on our reference page, and you might want to refer to those for clarification during this activity if needed.

Planning activities with the sessions

Important to plan activities within the session (especially initially) rather than having this as a follow-up activity.

Resources you will need (including ICT)

As key aspect of the programme is preparation, which includes having the right resources to hand. The programme (and interactive teaching in general) does depend on having some resources - but many of these you can make or find.

Mini-blackboards (or "mini-whiteboards" or "showboards") are used throughout this programme. Have a look at some of the sessions, to see how these are used, and make sure that you have some available. The mini-blackboards used in the pilot schools for this programme were made locally at relatively low cost.

You should also collect useful things, such as plastic bottles, and other items that can be used for interactive teaching. You will also need items like measuring tapes, and you might need to make some if you do not have any available.

The proramme can be used with and without ICT. Interactive pedagogy certainly does not depend on having ICT. If you do not have access to ICT resources, you could replace ICT-based sections with other activities (or run slightly shorter workshops).

However, if you have ICT resources, we suggest you draw on them in this progarmme. As ICT resources will be vary varied in different settings, you may need to adapt the ICT-based sections to what you have available.

The following ICT-tools are used throughout this programme (with example activities given in brackets):

• Geogebra^(tool) (see e.g. introduction to Geogebra)
• Spreadsheet^(tool)
• Word processors^(tool)
• Mind-mapping^(tool)
• Images^(tool) (see e.g. Using images, introduction to slideshows with OpenOffice)
• Typing tutor (see e.g. typing practice with students)

Educator note

If you are running the programme as envisaged here, you need to become familiar with these tools. Whenever a tool is introduced, there are usually various exercises available. Look through the programme, and familiarise yourself as needed.

Different types of materials

There are also background notes, that are useful to teachers and educators for background reading. They are usually found on separate pages or at the end of units, and are meant to provide additional background information that workshop participants can read in their own time.

Background reading

There are also background notes!

In the facilitators’ version, additional notes for facilitators appearthis and is for an educator to use, for example when facilitating aworkshop or working with a class of students. It is interspersed with the “teacher” text, to provide additional guidance on how to use theresource.

Educator note

In the facilitators’ version, additional notes for facilitators are available, which appear in blue boxes like this. They provide additional information for a facilitator.

If you are using this text in a self-guided way (or in a small group), you will want to work from the facilitator's version (i.e. including the facilitator notes), because they provide additional guidance.

Classroom assistants

This is something that needs to be negotiated with your school well in advance of running the programme. It depends on whether you are running the programme between a few interested teachers (in which case you can make more contained arrangements with other grades), or whether you are running the programme across the whole school (in which case you will need very systematic arrangements).

Have a look at our page on classroom assistants.

Portfolios

Participants would produce "portfolios" showcasing their work. These portfolios could also be used for formative assessment. They are introduced in this session, and if you are facilitating this programme, you should familiarise yourself with this now.