Diigo bookmarks (weekly)

• Tomorrow's Professor eNewsletter: 1324. Mindsets Toward Learning

  • In addition to adopting the strategies and techniques that will help you grasp and remember information, you need to understand something about yourself as a learner that we believe will result in a fundamental change in the way you learn
  • The next time you take a class on a subject you fear because you think you are not "smart" in that area, keep in mind that practice can make a huge difference in your learning success.  The class may not be easy for you, but if you have some background knowledge in the subject or take the time to learn some background information (e.g., through learning development courses or tutoring) and you work hard (keep a growth mindset), there is no telling what you will achieve

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If you're talking 'bout a learning revolution, count Steve in!

A Learning Revolution Project is underway, as is–or soon will be The Learning Revolution Conference (April 21-24, 2014), one of many organised or supported by Steve Hargadon. 

Steve announces these projects and programs in a rack of newsletters and blog posts bursting with information and inspiration with regard to both education and educational uses of technology. For example, the snippets below about risk-taking resonated with concepts of learned helplessness (Maier, Peterson, and Schwartz, 2000) and growth mindsets (Dweck, 2006) that have bubbled up in consciousness as a new semester gets underway.

In follow-up remarks about risk-taking as a fundamental component of proactive learning, Hargadon argued, "Failure is a one of the natural outcomes of risk, but we're not striving for failure--instead, we are encouraging risk and acknowledging that failure will often be the result. / Without risk, there is no progress" (Hargadon, 2014, Final Notes, ¶¶2-3). Yet in contrast, Hargadon observed, "… A high-stakes, test-driven education environment induces the opposite of risk-taking, it creates fear, and so results in little intellectual progress" (Hargadon, 2014, Final Notes, ¶4).

Celebrating failure itself, of course, makes no sense; nor does never allowing for it. Education is a choice we make in how we think about learners. If we want learners who will take risk, build their skills and talents, and then learn to live their lives fully as contributors and creators, we'll recognize that they need to learn to prepare [for] and take risks, and that failures are an inevitable part of that process. 

(Hargadon, 2014, Final Notes, ¶7).

For more about about Steve's work across the field of education, I recommend browsing through the projects and labs he features on his blog (Steve Hargadon: Projects), and checking out the communities he supports in various other venues (Web 2.0 Labs: Communities). You may well find one or more to suit your own needs. For a bit of follow-up reading on mindsets, I suggest you check out Tomorrow's Professor, post 1324, Mindsets for Learning (April 18, 2014 [JST]), and the list of references included there.

References

Dweck, C.S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House. 

Hargadon, Steve. (2014, April 15). Learning Revolution Free Events - GREAT Keynotes - MiniCon - ISTEUnplugged! - Striving for Failure? [blog post]. Retrieved April 18, 2014, from http://www.stevehargadon.com/2014/04/learning-revolution-free-events-great.html

Maier, Steven; Peterson, Christopher; & Schwartz, Barry. (2000). From helplessness to hope: The seminal career of Martin Seligman. In J. Gillham (Ed.). The science of optimism and hope (pp. 11-37). Radnor, PA: Templeton Foundation Press.

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Diigo bookmarks (weekly)

• SHERPA/RoMEO - Publisher copyright policies & self-archiving

  "a wonderful search engine that has been around for over a decade now, providing information to authors who want to learn more about the copyright and open access policies of journals" (Lawson, Ask RoMEO…, ProfHacker blog, 2012.10.16)

  tags: academic writing copyright journals policies publication

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Diigo bookmarks (weekly)

• Humanising Language Teaching Magazine: A Case Study of Team Teaching Perspectives

  Okamoto, Michael. (2014). A case study of team teaching perspectives. Humanising Language Teaching Magazine, 16(2). Retrieved April 10, 2014, from http://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr14/mart01.htm

  tags: ALTs education English Japan JTEs secondary schools statistics team-teaching

  • the results from the survey are based on t-test, ANOVA, and frequency of replies and not on Spearman’s Rank-order correlation method due to the fact that there were not an adequate number of participants to ensure accurate results

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Diigo bookmarks (weekly)

• The Mindset List

  The Mindset list is "a globally reported and utilized guide to the intelligent if unprepared adolescent consciousness" (home page, Welcome to the Beloit College Mindset List for the entering class of 2017, ¶2, 2014.04.01). Previous Lists are available through a link in the sidebar on the home page.

  tags: culture generation gaps generations mindsets students

• Tomorrow's Professor eNewsletter: 1317. Writers Groups: Composing a Balanced Faculty

  Though focused primarily on "faculty learning communities ... on two-year college campuses," this article may help a wide range of group types envision benefits and get started.

  tags: academic writing cooperation faculty groups professional development publication writers

  • Writers groups can bring faculty members together for dedicated individual writing time, team brainstorming sessions, reading and discussions of books designed to improve writing productivity, and peer review of works in progress. By creating a supportive interdisciplinary group for idea exchange, writers groups rely on internal expertise, inspire interdisciplinary discussions, and create community (Benson-Brown, 2006).  In addition, scheduled writing time that leads to peer review of works in progress creates accountability that helps some faculty finish writing projects that otherwise might have languished.
  • Writers groups raise awareness in participants by helping them to see challenges faced by student writers and by offering them an opportunity to reflect on teaching through their writing activities. 
  • One basic success has been use of a facilitator to set meeting schedules, obtain meeting space, and keep group members on task via their commitment to participate at regular times.
  • At colleges where a writers group is faculty driven, the leader is unlikely to be compensated by anything more than a line on his or her curriculum vitae, though perhaps this is not insignificant, given that leadership roles are frequently considered in tenure and promotion.
  • While some faculty in writers groups participate because doing so helps them to schedule time to work on projects, others need something different from the community: a group of peers who can review drafts and offer feedback for editing and revision. Even in interdisciplinary FLCs, the peer-review function can be very useful to members, providing them with commentary from a variety of perspectives.

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