Bridging the Gap
Artifact 2: Professional Development Course for Hope International School
Course: EDUC 5201G Foundations of Leadership
Description: The consulting report (report and a digital artifact) was developed to bridge the gap in adult educational needs of the Hope International School, Bangladesh where a learning program was developed using the ADDIE model to move the organization from its “current state” to a “future state.” For this artifact, in reporting from a perspective of a newly appointed consultant for the organization, a meaningful learning program was developed incorporating current digital technologies available to use in the school to accomplish the learning goals of the program.
Reflection: Louise et al. (1995) argues that for schools to improve there is a need for development of a strong professional community where adults learn and think together about how to improve their practice in ways that would lead to improvement in student achievement. In these professional communities, the participants collaborate, work together as a team and take collective responsibility for the group outcome. Here, they engage in reflective dialogue, critical inquiry and are accountable for their work to meet student performance.
At Hope International School, due to the disconnected campus location the mathematics department of this school experiences difficulty with their teacher communication and collaboration between the campuses. The teachers are unable to work, help or collaborate with other teachers to share departmental concerns, math teaching knowledge/ideas, or take any initiative to work together for student success. According to (Wenger, 1998) there is a need for creating an “overlapping” community that would work together towards a common goal, increase the interaction with other groups within and across the system to enhance opportunities for learning beyond traditional boundaries and encourage learning as a social system. In other words, there is a need to build Community of Practice where members are bound together by their collectively developed understanding of their community, build interaction with one another, establish normal relationships of mutuality that reflect interaction as well as have shared repertoire of communal resources. For example, in a the collaborative learning environment in the school people engage in collective learning which provides a knowledge platform for Community of Practice, where members of the community can share knowledge and interesting information with others and work together to discuss different issues. In short, when community of practice is exercised it allows collective presence, a variety of interactions, easy participation, valuable content, connections to a broader subject field, personal and community identity and interaction, democratic participation, and evolution over time. (Schwartz, Clark, Cossarin, & Rudolph, 2004)
Working from a perspective of a consultant, I have created a learning program for Hope International School that emphasizes on the collective learning of the individuals where everyone will be working towards a common goal for building individual knowledge. The program consists of a collective capacity focusing on the improvement of inter campus mathematics department communication and collaboration for student success. In this learning program, the teachers will be participating in a 12 day scheduled activity where they would be required to participate in face-to-face workshops, involve themselves in discussion forums, create a math wiki, attend Adobe Connect meetings, observe lessons and have teacher discussions. The participation in these activities would encourage interaction between in-campus and inter-campus teachers, allow them to engage in discussion with their colleagues to construct group knowledge, collaboratively develop mathematics teaching strategies, understand knowledge of the subject matter, provide a platform to share resources with each other to create a resource for the mathematics department.
For designing this professional development program the learning theories that were considered are Theory of Constructivism that focuses on learning by active engagement, inquiry, problem solving and collaboration with others. (Cannella & Reiff, 2004) The Social Cultural Theory was also considered that stresses learning to be a social negotiation, where the learners attempt to attain agreements on the learning task and the interaction itself. (Vygotsky,1986) In this program, the learners are put into expert’s shoes requiring them to construct their own knowledge from a vast amount of information gained from others. The collective learning experience would allow the teachers to gain a platform for Communities of Practice, where members of the community can share knowledge/interesting information with others and work together to discuss different issues. (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002)
The development of this learning program enabled me to learn how to design a professional development program using the ADDIE model to move the organization from its “current state” to a “future state. The effective use of already existing technologies would allow the math department teachers from different campuses to become networked and interdependent on each other. In developing this program, I learned that when teachers build a community of practice they receive opportunity to collaborate, connect and involve themselves in interpersonal dialogues to share knowledge, ideas and teaching resources with others. This opportunity allows them to enhance their teaching practice and help them understand the subject knowledge. From my understanding, I can hypothesize that if this program is implemented appropriately and the learning outcomes are achieved the teachers in this school would work together as a single unit for student success where learning of all members of the organization will be positively impacted.
Course: EDUC 5201G Foundations of Leadership
Description: The consulting report (report and a digital artifact) was developed to bridge the gap in adult educational needs of the Hope International School, Bangladesh where a learning program was developed using the ADDIE model to move the organization from its “current state” to a “future state.” For this artifact, in reporting from a perspective of a newly appointed consultant for the organization, a meaningful learning program was developed incorporating current digital technologies available to use in the school to accomplish the learning goals of the program.
Reflection: Louise et al. (1995) argues that for schools to improve there is a need for development of a strong professional community where adults learn and think together about how to improve their practice in ways that would lead to improvement in student achievement. In these professional communities, the participants collaborate, work together as a team and take collective responsibility for the group outcome. Here, they engage in reflective dialogue, critical inquiry and are accountable for their work to meet student performance.
At Hope International School, due to the disconnected campus location the mathematics department of this school experiences difficulty with their teacher communication and collaboration between the campuses. The teachers are unable to work, help or collaborate with other teachers to share departmental concerns, math teaching knowledge/ideas, or take any initiative to work together for student success. According to (Wenger, 1998) there is a need for creating an “overlapping” community that would work together towards a common goal, increase the interaction with other groups within and across the system to enhance opportunities for learning beyond traditional boundaries and encourage learning as a social system. In other words, there is a need to build Community of Practice where members are bound together by their collectively developed understanding of their community, build interaction with one another, establish normal relationships of mutuality that reflect interaction as well as have shared repertoire of communal resources. For example, in a the collaborative learning environment in the school people engage in collective learning which provides a knowledge platform for Community of Practice, where members of the community can share knowledge and interesting information with others and work together to discuss different issues. In short, when community of practice is exercised it allows collective presence, a variety of interactions, easy participation, valuable content, connections to a broader subject field, personal and community identity and interaction, democratic participation, and evolution over time. (Schwartz, Clark, Cossarin, & Rudolph, 2004)
Working from a perspective of a consultant, I have created a learning program for Hope International School that emphasizes on the collective learning of the individuals where everyone will be working towards a common goal for building individual knowledge. The program consists of a collective capacity focusing on the improvement of inter campus mathematics department communication and collaboration for student success. In this learning program, the teachers will be participating in a 12 day scheduled activity where they would be required to participate in face-to-face workshops, involve themselves in discussion forums, create a math wiki, attend Adobe Connect meetings, observe lessons and have teacher discussions. The participation in these activities would encourage interaction between in-campus and inter-campus teachers, allow them to engage in discussion with their colleagues to construct group knowledge, collaboratively develop mathematics teaching strategies, understand knowledge of the subject matter, provide a platform to share resources with each other to create a resource for the mathematics department.
For designing this professional development program the learning theories that were considered are Theory of Constructivism that focuses on learning by active engagement, inquiry, problem solving and collaboration with others. (Cannella & Reiff, 2004) The Social Cultural Theory was also considered that stresses learning to be a social negotiation, where the learners attempt to attain agreements on the learning task and the interaction itself. (Vygotsky,1986) In this program, the learners are put into expert’s shoes requiring them to construct their own knowledge from a vast amount of information gained from others. The collective learning experience would allow the teachers to gain a platform for Communities of Practice, where members of the community can share knowledge/interesting information with others and work together to discuss different issues. (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002)
The development of this learning program enabled me to learn how to design a professional development program using the ADDIE model to move the organization from its “current state” to a “future state. The effective use of already existing technologies would allow the math department teachers from different campuses to become networked and interdependent on each other. In developing this program, I learned that when teachers build a community of practice they receive opportunity to collaborate, connect and involve themselves in interpersonal dialogues to share knowledge, ideas and teaching resources with others. This opportunity allows them to enhance their teaching practice and help them understand the subject knowledge. From my understanding, I can hypothesize that if this program is implemented appropriately and the learning outcomes are achieved the teachers in this school would work together as a single unit for student success where learning of all members of the organization will be positively impacted.
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