Going for Authentic Teaching Practices

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Going for Authentic Teaching Practices
ITE Teachers Conference 2008
Acquiring Capabilities, Advancing Authentic
Practices
Samuel Ng

• 29 Feb 2008
• 2.30pm
• Main Lecture Theatre
• ITE College East

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Presentation Outline

• Motivation for Authentic Teaching Practices

• Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Capability
  for Authentic Teaching Practices

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Motivation for Authentic Teaching Practices
What is Authentic Teaching Practice?
It is the extent of authenticity or real-world
practices that your teaching practice has
translated into meaningful, authentic learning
for your students.
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Motivation for Authentic Teaching Practices
Three Illustrative Examples
Example 2 Missed Trip - A scenario-based
interactive video
Example 1 Fixing Service Breakdown APlus
eLesson
Example 3 Interactive virtual reality for
Shell Take 5
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Motivation for Authentic Teaching Practices
Newmann et al (1995), in their national study of
23 restructured schools, termed it as Authentic
Pedagogy
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Motivation for Authentic Teaching Practices
Newmann et al (1995), in their national study of
23 restructured schools, termed it as Authentic
Pedagogy
They found that
the higher the level of authentic pedagogy, the
higher the level of student performance for all
students regardless of achievement level or
demographic characteristics (race, gender or
family income).
Reference Newmann, F.M., Marks, H.M. and
Gamoran, A. (1995) Authentic pedagogy and student
performance. Paper presented at the annual
meeting of the American Educational Research
Association, 18-22 April, San Francisco, CA.
ERIC ED 389 679
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Motivation for Authentic Teaching Practices
Core Characteristics of Authentic Pedagogy

• Engagement in knowledge construction
• Instead of reproducing the knowledge that others
  produced, students produce new meanings or
  understandings by engaging in higher order
  thinking activities such as manipulating
  information and ideas to acquire, build up and
  organise the base knowledge and develop skills of
  the discipline to solve problems
• Engagement in disciplined inquiry
• Using the knowledge base, students explore, work
  on, discuss about ideas, issues, problems,
  experiences related to the subject matter or
  discipline by engaging in elaborated inquiries
  and extended conversations with teacher and/or
  peers to build an improved and shared
  understandings and
• Engagement in making real-world connections
• Students produce works or solve problems that
  have meaning and value in the real-world by
  making direct connections between acquired
  disciplinary knowledge and personal experiences
  or real-world problems/situations they have
  encountered or are likely to encounter.

Newmann et al (1995)
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Motivation for Authentic Teaching Practices
Why is it important?

• The ways schools use .. math formulae or
  historical analysis are very different from the
  ways practitioners use them. Thus, students may
  pass exams but still not be able to use a
  domains conceptual tools in authentic
  practice.. students need much to be exposed
  to the use of a domains conceptual tools in
  authentic activity to teachers acting as
  practitioners and using these tools in wrestling
  with problems of world.

The ways schools use .. math formulae or
historical analysis are very different from the
ways practitioners use them. Thus, students may
pass exams but still not be able to use a
domains conceptual tools in authentic
practice
Brown, J. S., Collins, A. Duguid, P. (1988)
Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning.
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Motivation for Authentic Teaching Practices
Why is it important?

• All would-be scientists, mathematicians,
  engineers, and historians need to be
  enculturated into the discipline and the
  earlier the better.

Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991)
Situated Learning Legitimate peripheral
participation. Cambridge. Cambridge University
Press
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Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Capability
for Authentic Teaching Practices
To be effective, teachers need special
understandings and abilities to translate
real-world practices into appropriate authentic
learning tasks, instruction and assessment for
the students.
Shulman (1986) identified this special capability
as, Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK).
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Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Capability
for Authentic Teaching Practices
PCK distinguishes you, a good electronics
engineer-teacher, from a good electronics
engineer.
Authentic Teaching Practice
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)/Capability
Domain Knowledge (Technology Capability)
Pedagogical Knowledge/ Capability
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Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Capability
for Authentic Teaching Practices
Advancing Authentic Practices
Authentic Teaching Practice
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)/Capability
Acquiring Capabilities
Domain Knowledge (Technology Capability)
Pedagogical Knowledge/ Capability
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Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Capability
for Authentic Teaching Practices
Acquiring PCK
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Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Capability
for Authentic Teaching Practices
PCK for Beginning Lecturers (PCTE Programme)

• 8 weeks of formal full-time training at HQ
• Acquire basic pedagogical knowledge and skills
• Teaching Learning Methodologies
• Instructional Technology eLearning
• Evaluation Assessment Methods
• Management, Motivation Counseling of Student
• Action Research for Professional Growth
  Development
• Authentic tasks, guided by pedagogic specialists
  to understand and apply pedagogical concepts to
  domain-specific content

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Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Capability
for Authentic Teaching Practices
PCK for Beginning Lecturers (PCTE Programme)

• 1 year of Supervised Field Teaching at the
  Colleges
• Acquire PCK through integrated application of
  content and pedagogical knowledge, guided by
  experienced content-specific Mentors, to perform
  real tasks and deliver
• 1 complete lesson plan
• 1 set of assessment instruments
• 1 courseware uploaded into eTutor with quiz
• 2 case study reports (counseling, classroom
  management issues, etc)
• Classroom observation (2 teaching practice
  observation reports from Mentor)
• Real classroom teaching practice (2 teaching
  practice report from Section Head)
• Reflection on above tasks and activities

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Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Capability
for Authentic Teaching Practices
Deeper PCK for Lecturers (Specific Pedagogic
Courses Projects)

• Specific Pedagogic Courses (Some examples)
• Evaluation Assessment Methods for Theory Tests
  Learning Assessment Evaluation Capabilities
• PrAISE Motivation Student Management
  Capabilities
• Modeling expert performance using video
• Collaborative Application Projects (Some
  examples)
• Application of APLUS Instructional Model in
  career development planning
• Application of iDeLITE in nursing simulation
  training

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Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Capability
for Authentic Teaching Practices
New PCK Development (Pedagogical Innovation
Projects)

• Collaborative Innovation Projects, developing new
  instructional models
• SLIM - Situated Learning Instructional Model for
  customer service
• Taxonomic role-play instructional model for
  service excellence
• SA3T Instructional Model for Shell Singapore
• A3 METI Simulation-based TTT Instructional Model
• Collaborative Innovation Projects, developing new
  instructional tools
• iDeLITE

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Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Capability
for Authentic Teaching Practices
EDT Framework for Pedagogic PCK Development
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Conclusion Going for Authentic Teaching
Practices
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Conclusion Going for Authentic Teaching
Practices
Education is what survives when what has been
learned has been forgotten.
B.F. Skinner, The New Scientist, May 21, 1964
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Thank You