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Hi, everyone.

My name is Paulo Almeida, and I’m a Portuguese Biology and Geology teacher.

I’ve been teaching for 28 years. Usually, I teach in Portugal but nowadays I’m a seconded teacher at one of the European Schools in Brussels. I’ve been here for 5 years and it has been a very special experience in my career. I teach students that are 10 years old until 18 years old. I also teach Chemistry and Physics in the junior schoolyears as, at this school the curriculum is different from the one we have in Portugal. Here we have a subject called Integrated Sciences, where we teach units from various sciences, and I have learned a lot with this experience.

My pedagogical practices are mainly based on social interactions between students. My master thesis is related with this issue and since then I practiced it a lot. So, one of my main interests in the course is about learning and sharing my ideas about this and its relation with formal, non-formal and informal learning.

Let’s share & learn!

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My students' interests are very diversified. Mostly, they try to build a coherent and comprehensive academic course, in the sense that many intend to continue their education in another European country than the one of origin (although in many cases , students have more than one nationality, since several have been born in another European country).
Also in this context, there are interests that are developed in terms of a democratic participation, in the context of an active citizenship, in which several students are involved in the defense of causes such as the environment or the fight against discrimination (gender, sexual orientation , religious, political, etc.). In addition to these more formal dimensions (if I may call it that), they have common interests with many young people, such as participation in various social networks, extracurricular activities (sports, theater, music, dance, etc.), many like videogames, music and reading! They like to do researchs, to work with ICT and to do lab work… and yes, to have a voice inside the classroom.

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Attending a conference

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Learning a second language at a school

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Learning to play  piano, at home, with my brother

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Linking formal, non-formal and informal learning

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Linking formal, non-formal and informal learning

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Throughout the school year, I try to create contexts of non-formal education. The laboratory work that I propose to the students is usually done in groups. After the practical realization of the work, the students have to build in computer support, a presentation to be discussed with the class. During the course of this work, students are taken to search information at home, using the internet, or to consult books that are available in the library of the school or the place where they live. One of the important points in these presentations is that the students establish relationships between the laboratory work performed and their daily life (where provided).

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Formal, non-formal and informal learning

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Strategies to empower students in their formal & informal learning

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Strategies to empower students in their formal & informal learning

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From a given topic of the syllabus, let the students develop research projects: it leads them to research (through the internet, library, newspapers, magazines, ...), formulate and reformulate the guiding questions of the project, to operationalize the project and get the answers. The presentation and discussion of these projects is always an excited moment of questions, from the other students and the search for answers by the authors of the project.

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The first webinar on formal, informal and non-formal learning

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The first webinar on formal, informal and non-formal learning

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NESTT Webinar 1: Formal, nonformal and informal learning

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The first badge!

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I would probably give the students the same task. However, I would put them to work collaboratively, where the high-skilled student would help the low-skilled student in solving the task. In this way, not only the high-skilled student would develop his / her competences in helping the other, but also the low-skilled student could develop his / her competences, being accompanied by a tutor who speaks the same language and who can feel closer, in terms of relation and age level.
I could also do the same type of practice, but with different tasks.

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Formative assessment – identifying what your students know and need

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Formative assessment – identifying what your students know and need

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Usually, at the beginning of each school year, I apply an instrument that was developed in a research group to which I belonged "Interaction and knowledge" and that allows to evaluate competences developed by the students. In addition to this instrument, I distribute a small questionnaire asking questions about the students' personal and scholastic tastes, the disciplinary areas they prefer and least liked. However, the most important question in this questionnaire is the answer to the "whys", as this allows us to have a more accurate picture of the reasons behind the likes of my students. This questionnaire is read carefully and categorized, which allows me to have a deeper understanding of each of the students, as well as the potentialities of the classes that I will teach. At the same time, during the year, informal conversations or small discussions that arise spontaneously in the classes, allow me to know even better the interests of the students.
About the formative evaluation, I give the students opportunities to perform a certain work in phases, giving them feedback on what to improve before the final version is delivered. These phases are not subject to classification because their objective is centered in the improvement of the learning and the quality of the final product.

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In my classes, I often use online simulation activities that allow students to test hypotheses, experiment, observe results, discuss, and draw conclusions. There are several websites that can be used as tools for this type of activity.
One of the most used is PHET:
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/.
This site presents several laboratory activities in the form of simulations, in the field of sciences (biology, earth sciences, chemistry, physics). The activities presented are very interactive and allow the teacher to create scripts (some of them are available on the website itself, in several languages) that students can follow individually or in a group, at their own pace!

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By converting our sims to HTML5, we make them seamlessly available across platforms and devices. Whether you have laptops, iPads, chromebooks, or BYOD, your favorite PhET sims are always right at your fingertips.Become part of our mission today, and transform the learning experiences of students everywhere!

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Personalised learning & flexible learning spaces

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Personalised learning & flexible learning spaces

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My classroom is a science lab.
It has non-removable countertops, with water fountains, sinks and electricity sources.
Students are sitting in pairs, along 4 rows of benches, so the lab is not not very interactive-friendly, in the sense that students in the front row do not see the faces of the students in the back rows. It is clear that moments of interaction and knowledge sharing are created, but it would be better if the room had a "U" or "V" layout.

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1 - "collaborative work is essentially structured as an articulated and joint work process, which allows to better achieve the desired results, based on the enrichment brought about by the dynamic interaction of several specific knowledge and various cognitive processes" (Roldão, 2007);
2 - "CL is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together" (Dillenbourg, 1999).

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Working in groups can be very productive. Ideas are shared, knowledge is discussed and co-constructed, opinions are argued, shared decisions are made, and the final product is better than the sum of the parts. On the other hand, we learn from others and learn to get to know each other better, through established social interactions.

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What group work do you already implement with your students?

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What group work do you already implement with your students?

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Usually my students work in groups. The work is developed mostly in pairs and sometimes in larger groups (preferably no more than 4 elements). The proposed tasks are initially performed in pairs (or groups of 4) and then presented and discussed in the class group. However, the constitution of pairs (called dyads) can not be made by chance if we are to enhance the process and the product.

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I have developed some projects with my students. One that most motivated students was developed in the former non-disciplinary curriculum area - project area. In this field, the students were led to choose themes that fit into a general theme that was chosen by the class in a brainstorm session. Each group consisted of a set of 4 to 5 elements. Students developed research-orienting questions that they wanted to investigate, and then developed action plans. All this work was phased and developed under the guidance of the teacher who was observing, giving suggestions, opinions and questioning. After building the action plan, students were collecting data, information, mostly in institutions outside the school space. They made interviews, visited places, distributed questionnaires, made inquiries, videos. After the collection of information, a relatively long period of processing of the collected data was followed. The students transformed this data into artifacts (graphics, powerpoint presentations, videos, among others) that were presented to the class. In the end, all contributed, in part, to the discussion and reflection on the general theme initially chosen.
What worked the best, I think was the spirit of mutual help among the students and the willingness to participate and collaborate for the final product. The students have developed a lot, their autonomy and their motivation was evident throughout the development of all the project work. The final product developed was of high quality and students were proud to have developed the ability to make decisions, share ideas and learn from peers.
The biggest challenges were financial and bureaucratic in nature. Effectively, developing projects of some size implies expenditures (of travel, material, others) that can not always be supported by schools (although, at the time, there was a small amount that the school allocated to each class). The students also struggled with bureaucratic obstacles, since institutions outside the school did not always show great willingness to participate in the project. Finally, on another level, one of the major challenges was to guide students to a type of work that required a lot of autonomy and responsibility, for which they were not initially prepared. However, social and cognitive skills were put into action and students responded positively to the challenges.

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How do you make your students feel safe and comfortable? How do you make them feel ready to engage in the conversation and to take risks in their own learning?

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How do you make your students feel safe and comfortable? How do you make them feel ready to engage in the conversation and to take risks in their own learning?

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The fear of making errors is one of the main obstacles to learning. In this way, I try to get students to take ownership of the idea that error is a fundamental element to learn and that if error is an element for reflection and for the reconceptualization of ideas, there is no reason to regret. On the other hand, developing self-confidence and learning to believe that you are capable, helps you work collaboratively and creates a positive classroom context, where everyone has a voice and can help each other.

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I usually distribute students for dyads. These are made up of students of different genres and with a development of complementary competences. Thus, a student who can play a more competent role in one task may, in another of a different nature, need the help of his or her peer. Thus, the objective is not always to have the same element of "more competent" and the other as "less competent", and may alternate these roles. When in larger groups, I try to group two dyads together.

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Collaborative learning in a flexible classroom

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Collaborative learning in a flexible classroom

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My classes are all taught in labs. The workbenches are fixed and there is no possibility of modifying the structure of the classroom, so they do not facilitate interactions among the students. They are distributed by queues and this makes it impossible for them to see the faces of each other, which is little promoter of social interactions.
However, once I develop collaborative work, fundamentally in pairs, students have the opportunity to interact, two by two. In this way, even the laboratory allows the development of this type of strategy, although it limits the discussion in the extended group of the class. When I want students to work in larger groups, I distribute them across different workbenches and turn the chairs around so they can interact more easily.
The video is inspiring but when the room is not just "ours", being used by other school teachers, it forces me to leave the room as I found it, so it is difficult in this context to try to promote profound changes in the rooms. The ideal would be to have removable furniture (with wheels) that would allow an organization of the space, depending on the type of work that is intended to develop, but this has high costs that the schools can not support.

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Collaborative learning is, in my perspecive, necessarily a personalized learning. The reasoning behind this statement is that, with the collaboration, it is intended to respond to the students' individual needs. When they try to negotiate meanings, solve tasks, combine consensuses, students are interacting in a sociocognitive domain that allows them to develop various types of intelligence and individual knowledge, that is, they are personalizing their learning.
Respect for the times to learn, the help of a tutor or more competent pair that unlock cognitive processes that are preventing the appropriation of certain knowledge or skills, the involvement that the collaborative work requires of the elements involved are characteristic of both approaches that become a facilitator of student learning.

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I totally agree with the arguments defended by Phil Spoors. The nature of the task should provide, as much as possible, the opening of different possibilities of resolution / response, since this opening is conducive to greater discussion or debate among students. As I see it, we always learn more in groups than individually, since we are subject to being confronted with other ideas, positions and arguments.
The involvement of all students is another fundamental aspect. In this way, students collaborate and develop their social and cognitive skills. However, for this to happen the nature of the task must contribute to that involvement. Usually, closed tasks (with a single response) are less effective in providing discussion and debate and thus less effective in engaging all students.
Collaboration if it is constructed in such a way as to challenge the other to argue and defend a position will effectively promote thought. However, tasks that mobilize divergent thinking are more conducive to the development of cognitive abilities.

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I have already used documents that allow to assess the level of student performance in collaborative work. Whenever students perform collaborative work (other than in dyads), I use evaluation criteria related to their involvement in performing the work. To do this, at the end of the assignment (sometimes also during the process, if the assignment lasts for several classes), I distribute to the students a document with a grid in which they must evaluate all the elements of the group and do also self-assessment. If there are significant discrepancies in the assessment proposed by the group members, I usually meet with the students involved to clarify the criteria and try to find consensus.
I have already proposed to students to modify the criteria and adjust or improve them according to what is intended to be analyzed. However, there are sometimes difficulties in formalizing these criteria objectively, in terms of descriptors of performance levels. There are several possible criteria and descriptors and their use will also depend on the objectives of the work.
In terms of collaborative work in dyads, I often use classroom observation grids to evaluate the level of engagement, participation, and input in solving a task, and the mutual support between the peer elements.
Below, one of the grids used to evaluate collaborative work [Sorry, I only have the Portuguese version]. This grid is intended only to evaluate the process, not the final product, for which I have other criteria and levels of performance.

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Student collaboration outside the classroom I

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Student collaboration outside the classroom I

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Several activities can be done in terms of collaborative learning outside the classroom. In the context of the Natural Sciences / Biology, for example, they can make, in groups, studies of ecological nature to characterize the fauna and flora of a certain place, relating it to the abiotic factors (humidity, temperature, luminosity, etc.) that influence them. To do this, they can use the Internet, through tablets or mobile phones, on the spot, allowing them, for example, to classify some of the specimens observed in the field. They can also explore the same region in geological terms in order to better characterize the area.
This type of work, which I have already developed with some students, is quite effective in terms of the students' involvement in the preparation and performance of the tasks, at the site itself. Students often collect data in a group, which is then presented and explored in the classroom, putting into practice many learning in a theoretical context.

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Student collaboration work outsider the classroom II

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Student collaboration work outsider the classroom II

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Never tried (not even knew) this application - Actionbound. It seems to me interesting, particularly, for outdoor activities that imply the exploration of a certain place (for example, ecological trips, since being a professor of Biology, is one of the most accomplished with the students). Recognizing that we live in a world where applications appear like mushrooms and that I am outdated in relation to them, I do not stop considering using them whenever I consider it useful in the teaching and learning process. Kahoot is one of the most well-known and, in my view, has some potentialities, although sometimes students become more involved in the competition than in the formative process that it can contain.

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Some results seem surprising to me. Usually, maths is not usually a subject that a significant number of students particularly enjoy. Thus, the result relative to this subject is quite positive.
I was also surprised by the high number of answers that refer to the house as a preferred learning space. Effectively, it is a space conducive to learning (formal, informal and non-formal) and therefore perhaps one of the places where we learn the most. However, students routinely relate learning to school and hence I consider this result to be relevant.
Although this training focuses on collaborative work, it is not surprising that most students chose to study individually. Effectively working collaboratively is not easy, it requires negotiation, compromise, and also some humility (recognizing that the other can know more than we can, that we can depend on the other to progress but we can also learn from it). Whenever I propose to my students, at the beginning of the schoolyear, to work collaboratively, there are many who become suspicious and even stressed. It is not easy to adhere to other work methodologies when we meet one in which we succeed (especially for highly successful students). Hence, sometimes the first step is to reject and choose to work alone. However, after experiencing collaborative work (which obeys several rules that everyone has to negotiate and follow), they end up recognizing its many advantages.
However, I think the key is to adapt the methodologies according to the tasks, the contents and what competences are intended to be developed in the students. Working with students, allowing them to have a voice in choosing the "best" methodologies is also an option. Varying the type of tasks (open / closed) and learning processes (more teacher-centered / more focused on student activity) is fundamental to respect the various cognitive styles that are present in a class.

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My Bridge the Learning Scenario- Paulo Almeida