Reflection on the TPACK assignment PART 3

3. Reflection on the product à professional development program

3.1 Does the development program has an added value for teacher to support the integration of technology in their teaching?

I really think that the training itself has an added value for teacher to support the integration of technology. By inform the teachers about TPACK in a practical way they will become aware of the benefits. Beceause they where actively involved in the designing process they feel owner of the designed lesson plan form. Although I think that teachers (in primary school and teacher trainer education) are not going to use the lesson plan form for preparing their own lesson, they will adapt the TPACK idea in their way of teaching. I think we managed to do this by let them become enthusiastic about  the topic and being aware of the benefits of technology in education.

At the other hand I also think that the results of this program the lesson plan form will be helpful for students of the teacher training education. These “future’’ teacher will practice their lesson preparation for their internship by using lesson plan forms. If they use the lesson plan form in which TPACK is integrated they “grow up” with it. So that it will be a normal thing that technology is integrated in their lessons.

3.2 How will the professional development program support flexible learning?

It think that the professional development program will not support flexible learning directly. I do think that the results influence flexible learning indirectly. By using technology combined with pedagogy and content they create all the preconditions for flexible learning. It is to the teachers and students them self to develop a flexible lesson with the help of a TPACK integrated lesson plan form.

3.3 What did I learn from the professional development program?

What I learned from our professional development program is that you need to training teachers in an active way. If you want to inform them about a complex model like TPACK it is important to segment all the information and let them practice with all the segments. At the end you can combine the different segments so that TPACK becomes clear.

Reflection on the TPACK assignment PART 2

2. Reflection on the process à developing a professional development program

2.1 How did we came up with the idea?

During the lecture of the international students we came up with the idea of designing a lesson plan form for students in teacher training education.  We focus on this target group because these are the future teachers. Next to this we want to involve teachers of teacher training education and teachers of primary education by designing the lesson plan form in a teacher design teams. By this way of designing we can reach a larger target group to inform about TPACK. We chose for a lesson plan form because all students in teacher training use these forms for preparing their lesson during their internship. By integrating TPACK into their lesson plan form they will implement it in their way of teaching.

2.2 What kind of design model did we use for designing the professional development program?

For the design of the professional development program we used the model of J. Pieters (2008). This model consist out of the different phases: analyse, designing, developing and implementation. During these phases you keep the way of implementing in mind. You also evaluate after each phase and at the end. Because we designed a design process for a lesson plan form  it went slightly different. We started with the analyse phase to state the problem definition. After this we started to design and develop the professional development program. By this designing process we kept the different phases of the model in mind. For example during the training there will be 2 different moments for evaluation.

2.3 How did we collaborate?

Although we had huge time pressure (and working with three part-time students doesn’t benefit this), we managed to deliver the assignment on time. Another barrier was the distance because we live far away from each other we needed to be flexible and worked online by using e-mail. During the first lecture time we made a planning and wrote down the actions that needed to be done. We started with the first activities and during the second meeting we divided the activities that still needed to be done. By dividing the tasks we kept everybody’s talents in mind. So is Linda an expert in finding literature and background information. Jeffrey is the didactical talent and Mariëtte was responsible for the visual aspects of the assignments and presentations. She also took care for the lay-out. It was my task to design the evaluation and example lesson plan form (together with Linda). I also looked after the designing process  itself. To make sure we reached the deadline. Overall I could say that I’m glad about our collaboration. My group members where flexible and professional in their way of working.  

2.4 what did I learn from the designing process?

What I’ve learned from the design process is that it is hard to design a professional development program in which participant design an instrument. Because you have a design process for a design process. Sometimes it became a bit vague. For example with writing the implementation. It wasn’t clear if we needed to work out the implementation of our training or about the training results, in our case the lesson plan form. If I will design a design process again I will make sure the my assignment will be more clear.  

Reflection on the TPACK assignment Part 1

Reflection on the TPACK assignment:

1. Reflection on the assignment

What was the assignment?

To pass the course Pedagogies for Flexible Learning supported by Technology I had to deliver and present the final assignment. In this blog I will write my reflection about this assignment. I will focus myself on reflecting on the process and the product of this assignment. But first of all I will explain where this assignment is about.

For the final assignment we could chose between designing a TPACK based lesson or a TPACK based professional development plan. My group consisting out of: Linda, Mariette and Jeffrey chose for the second option. The reason for this was that Jeffrey, Linda and I, have experience in teaching en designing lessons.  Developing a professional development program was more challenging. 

So we needed to design a professional development program  for primary education teachers.

What was my opinion about the assignment?

Because of our flexible teacher there where almost none restrictions or limitations for this assignments. Normally a teacher provides a very clear assignment, including a description where you could earn some credits. I noticed that I felt a little confused in the beginning. What was this assignment about, what did the teacher expected from us?

After the lecture where international students presented some professional development programs it all became clear. We worked out our first idea and send it to our teacher for feedback. Because our teacher received a lot of question she made the assignment more clear. But still it was too vague for me. In our group we decide just to get started.

By working on the assignment everything became more clear. But I’m still wondering  if I fulfill the expectations of the teacher and pass my last assignment…………… Who knows? 

What did I learn from the assignment?

For me the learning process for this assignment consisted out of 3 different points:

- integrate my knowledge about TPACK into a professional development program

- the process designing a professional development program

- collaborate within a group (different learning styles) and huge logistic problems (distance and time)

I learned to transfer the information about TPACK from the lecture of Petra into practice by adapting a lesson plan form to a lesson plan in which TPACK is integrated. (one of the material assist for instruction of the professional development program). (link assignment TPACK)

Next to this I learned to design and develop a professional development program, by using the curriculum design model (Pieters, 2008). During my pre-master educational science and technology this model was presented. This is the first assignment where I actually could apply this knowledge.  You can read more about this in my second post: reflection on the process à developing a professional development program.

And third I learned to collaborate with a Mariette. I collaborate before with Jeffrey and Linda. I was used to their way of working a because of their teaching experience we had shared knowledge. Mariette has less experience in teaching that’s why we something went to fast. But by asking a lot of questions she kept up and caused a more transparent way of communication. We also found out that she is a creative talent! For me it was the first time to collaborate with a real visual-minded person. I found out that a picture explained more than a thousand words.