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Tămaș Lavinia

Age: 30 years old

I live in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Teacher of Romanian

Experience: 10 years

I teach in a private school. I teach children of all ages, from Primary to High School, but I am specialized in High-School students. In our school, all teachers use an Ipad and a MacBook. All rooms are equipped with projectors and we have Internet access throughout the whole school.

The classes are formed by 15-30 students and the students follow the National Curriculum and the Cambridge one during their learning proccess.

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Video 4: Examples of Project-based learning from across the Europe (Anne Gilleran)

eTwinning -  funded by the European Commission, which is the largest community for teachers in Europe allowing schools to carry out projects together nationally and internationally.

Livia di Nardo encourages teachers to provide for the students at least one practical entreprenurial experience.
Entrepreneurial programmes:

First: the engagement of volunteer mentors from enterprises to help students make the connection between what they are learning and the world outside school.

Second: Teachers have to become “learning facilitators” and work in teams with the business sector mentors.

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Video 3: A Teacher’s Experience of using Project-Based Learning to Teach Mathematics (Sandra Fay)

Challenges: New content, few resources, time allocation, routine disruption

Facilitating factors: collaboration inside the department, intensive school support, supportive leadership, team teaching, use of IT support learning.

Tips for teachers: use project-based learning, create an environment where students can make connections accorss the subject; create rich tasks and encourage students to use different strategies; encourage students to discuss Romanian and justify their solutions

My reflection on the video: “The tips we have received from Mrs Fay seem very useful. I will take them into consideration in my further projects. “

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Video 2: How to Develop Learners’ Collaborative Problem-Solving Skills (Caroline Kearney, Patrick Griffin and Esther Care)

Skill - an action a person can perform, competence - something that goes beyond physical and cognitive aspects to include attitudinal characteristics, competency

Knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, ethics

The Nature of collaborative problem solving:

1. A problem state must be jointly recognised, and collaborators must identify and agree on which elements of the problem each can control or monitor.

2. A representation of the problem must be shared.

3. Collaborators need to agree on a plan of action, including management of resources.

4. Plans must be executed, which may require a coordinated effort by collaborators acting together or in sequence.

5. Progress towards a solution must be monitored, different options evaluated, plans reformulated if necessary, and collaborators must decide on how to proceed in the face of positive or negative feedback.

Collaborative problem solving is therefore defined as a joint activity where two or more people work together to contribute knowledge, skills, materials and procedures and move through a series of cognitive states that involve collection and analysis of information and the formulation of hypotheses that they jointly set out to test.

So in designing a collaborative problem based task or project there are several steps:

1. Define the problem or collaborative project.

2. Identify project elements and components in detail;

3. for each component identify the resources that are essential. These can be; a. knowledge b. materials c. strategies d. experience e. equipment;

4. Allocate to each participant non-overlapping, unique sets of resources necessary to be contributed to the project completion or problem resolution. Divide the resources amongst the participants with no shared or common resources

5. Clearly state the goals of the task or problem solution and observed to students procedure in the task.

6. Explain to the participants that they must identify the problem, sort out a strategy to resolve the problem or complete the task

7. The students also need to develop a means of keeping records of their decisions and discussions. For face-to-face attempts at collaborative problemsolving or collaborative project work keeping records is an essential aspect of the assessment process.

My reflection on the video: “I am looking forward to apply these techniques with my groups. “

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Video 1: How to design Project-Based Learning Activities (Anne Gilleran)

Inquiry-based learning starts with questioning, continues with exploration and investigation and ends with finding a solution, drawing a reasonable conclusion, making a substantive decision or applying new knowledge or skills.

Implementing the PBL Learning approach:

What is your project idea?

What is the time frame proposed?

Is the project idea manageable?

Is it a project just between you and your class or will you collaborate with other teachers in your school or in other countries

If it involves partners from other countries, what is the language proposed?

What subjects could be integrated into this project?

What technical tools, if any, will you use?

How does your project fit with the school planning and calendar?

7Steps for PBL:

Step 1. Involve your students from the very beginning. Start with a guided exploration of some topics you have in mind as a whole class; but also be prepared to change if better ideas are emerging from the class. It is important to establish certain ground rules regarding behavior with them in advance.

Step 2. Having defined the topic, in discussion with the class break it down into different tasks. Discuss which technologies to use and how they will be integrated

Step 3. Plan well, set goals, define outcomes. Above all be concrete, students need goals to work towards and responsibility of tasks in order to achieve them

Step 4. Proceed to put pupils into small groups with responsibilities for a particular task. Encourage pupils to ask personally relevant and socially significant questions regarding the topics chosen. Work to the strengths of each pupil.

Step 5. Create a tangible artifact that addresses the issue, answers questions, and makes learning visible and accountable.

Step 6. Arrive at a conclusion...take a stand...take action.

Step 7. Document, justify, and share conclusion with larger audience. (parents, school etc)

My reflection on the video: “PBL is exciting not only for the students, but for the teachers as well. “

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Module 2: Teaching Key Competences through Project-Based Learning

Objectives:

-principles behind project-based learning, including inquiry-based and problem based methods

-preliminary checklist, basic steps, strategies to design a project-based learning activity

-set up a collaborative problem-solving task

-understand the cognitive and social skills learners need to apply and teacher need to observe during a collaborative problem-solving task

-project-based learning examples

-design a project-based learning plan to effectively develop one or more of learners’ key competences or transversal skills

-First quiz results: 87%
Results on self-assesment: 75% in the beggining - I was wrong in the sentence about the obligativity of multidisciplinary and in the efficiency of the techonolgy to assess the collaborative problem-solving. 100% - the second try.

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Video 5: Irish case study: Key Skills in the Irish Curriculum & Project Maths (Caroline Kearney)

Irish curriculum reform - key competences = key skills

Completely revised mathematics syllabus (change the syllabus, align the assessment with learning outcomes, big investment in teachers professional development)

Think creatively

Develop creative skills

Apply knowledge to unfamiliar situations

Resourcefullness

Unfamiliar situations

Complex questions

Discussion, investigation

The project maths approach the ideal preparation for college or univerisyt prepapration - very positive results

imaginative+creative = innovative thinking

My reflection on the video: “Big investment in teachers professional development! This needs to be repeated many, many times…”

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Video 4: Competence-based education in Europe today (Caroline Kearney)

European Competences Framework - key competences (terms used for key competences varies across countries:" key skills", "key capacities" etc. ). Several european countries implemented new legislation to set up key competences framework - to integrate key competences into school education. Most european countries included key competences into the national curricula.

Recent/current education reform —> re-emphasizing centrality of key competences

Situation accorss europe is varied - overarching strategies addressing all/most competences; initiatives promoting specific competences. no country has made a complete shift to key competence based education.

various trategies used to foster a competence-based approach: innovative partenership, pilot projects, monitoring&evaluation of new initiatives, dedicated funding, capacity building etc.

KeyCoNet: Key Competence Network on School Education

Survey: Students, teachers and parents consider that key competence learning is very important. progress has been made in defining and implementing the key competences, improvement is needed in term of collaboration and communication.

A participative approach is needed.

School leaders pay an important role in communicating key competences objectives.

My reflection on the video: “When it comes to the participative approach, I consider that it is very important to remind parents that they are also a significant part of the learning process of their child/children. "

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Video 3: Key Points on Assessing Key Competences  (Janet Looney)

New approaches: Meeting different students needs; Collaborative and multidisciplinary learning; Transversal skills: creativity and problem solving - important for personal development and learning to learn, they are also a new challenge for assessment

The assessment should reflect these new ways of teaching and learning.

New competences in new curricula were introduced and came with new learning objectives and outcomes for different stages of education. Learning objectives, curriculum and assessment need to be aligned - otherwise is impossible to draw valid conclusions or to adapt teaching to individual needs.

Summative assesment - assessment OF learning

Formative assesment  - assesment FOR learning

Self-assessment - students can track their own developement of transversal competences - without a learning standard

Assessment the key competences is very different. High stake examination often not yet aligned with key competences approach, tempting on focusing examination content and passing exams

New tools needed to demonstrate students’ use of knowledge, skills and attitudies to solve problems: portfolios and e-assessment, classroom based formative assessment, interactive classroom discussion, observing and discussing with students working on projects - effective for assessing of key competences, students self-assessmne tof transversal skills

My reflection on the video: “The traditional assessment focuses on exams results. What many teachers need to be reminded is that if a student develops the 8 key competences, he/she will be able to get high results in exams, even if they will not follow the traditional learning process: theory, theory, theory. “

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Video 2: Key Points on teaching key competences (Caroline Kearney)

Key competence approach = application of knowledge in real-world situations

Interactive learning environments - the main approach to teach competences (debate, experimentation, exploration, creativity). Working in teams on multidisciplinary topics, techonology enhance learning, menthal, physical, social and emotional space to have in collaborative solving-problems

Social learning context —> learners engaged in active learning

it motivates learners, learners remember concepts they discover on their own, it provides meaningful context for project based learning

Project based learning - useful method to develop basic competences - several competences are addressed simultaneously in a cross-curricular manner

A school in Finland - new learning environment - the students contributed - Unfortunately, in general, there are insufficient financial resources to changing learning environments

8 Key principles to teaching the key competences effectively

1.teaching should be task-based: complex problems, multiple solutions

2.teaching should be interdisciplinary

3.learning should be collaborative and individualised

4.teaching needs to be both learner and teacher led - guidance from teacher

5.teaching and learning should be techonolgy innovative

6.teaching and learning should take place inside and outside the school

7.teachers should collaborate with widers community

8.teachers to pay close attention to social and emotional aspects of learning

9.classroom based formative assessment

10.student self-assesment of transversal skills

Experienced on low-achievers in 13-16 years old, a school in Malta - speak, ask questions, do things, peer, self-assessment, a lot of continuous assessment and few summative assessment

My reflection on the video: "I am so happy to notice that I work in a school where all of the 8 key principles to teaching the key competences efficiently are being applied. Also, it is the first year when our students follow a Project Based Learning Curriculum and it's amazing to see the way they improve their competences more and more, with each day that passes. "

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Video 1: The importance and definition of competences (Caroline Kearney)

A competence is a combination of knowledge+skills+attitude

-international competence framework have been developed

-only the European Union Framework will be used for this course: 8 key competences: communication in the mother tongue

in foreign languages

matehmatical competence and basic competences in science and technology

digital competences

cultural awareness and expression

sense of initiative and entrepreneurship

social and civic competences

learning to learn - the definitions of the competences framework is available in the course library

-ATC 21s Framework: ways of thinking, ways of living in the world, ways of working, tools for working

-all key competences in the european framework are interdependant throughout the following 7 transversal skills: critical thinking, constructive management of feeling, decision-taking, risk assessment, problem-solving, initiative, creativity

-learning to learn - the foundation of all learning Definition: the ability to pursue and persist in learning, Ability: awareness of one’s learning process and needs; Knowledge: know and understand the strategies, know and understand the strengths and weaknesses concerning skills and qualifications); Skills: acquisition of basic-skills, access, gain, process and assimilate new knowledge and skills, persevere, concentrate and reflect critically on the aims of learning, learn autonomously, work collaboratively, organize your own learning, evaluate your own work, seek advice and support when appropriate; Attitude: motivation and confidence to pursue and success at learning, problem-solving attitude, desire to apply prior learning and life experiences, curiosity to look for opportunities to learn and apply learning in a variety of life contexts

Mathematical competence - 1 key competence

Collaborative problem-solving - transversal skill

My reflection on the video: "I am very curious to find out more about the way we can develop these competences throughout the teaching and learning process and I fully agree with the idea that Learning to Learn is the foundation of all learning.”

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Module 1 - Introducing Competences for 21st Century Schools

Objectives:

-understand the concept of “key-competences”

-differences and similies between national and international frameworks

-basic key principles for teaching and assessing key competences

-European countries’ approach to implementing key competences teaching - especially Ireland

-First quiz results - 50/100
-Results on self-assessment (86% in the beggining - I was wrong in the sentence about ICT - I did not see it says “ONLY one competence: the digital competence”) - 100% the second try