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My name's Anunciação Rocha and I'm a Biology and Geology teacher in Felgueiras, Portugal.
I decided to join this course because I feel like learning more about ways to motivate my students and hope to grow as a person as well!

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1.2. Interests and preferences of my students

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1.2. Interests and preferences of my students

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My students are between 15 and 17 years old.
In general, they are motivated for learning and most of them intend to pursue university studies.

The preferred school area of ​​interest is biology and chemistry. Many of them have extracurricular activities like soccer, swimming, music and dancing.

The new technologies are another of their interests, namely the social networks that they use to communicate and to share ideas and situations of the day to day.
As we spend a lot of time in the classroom context, I think I'm getting to know them all.
On way to get to know them better is to increase their involvement in activities outside the classroom in a more informal setting.
At the beginning of each school year, I usually ask them to write about themselves, filling out a documento "I am..." where they can reflect on themselves, their ambitions, tastes and desires, as well as the difficulties they present.
It's a strategy that has allowed me to get to know them better.

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Formal, informal and non-formal learning

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Formal, informal and non-formal learning

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Formal education is characterized by being highly structured. It develops within its own institutions where the student must follow a predetermined program.
Informal education is one that comes spontaneously from personal experiences with family, friends and colleagues.
Non-formal education takes place outside the school sphere and can be conveyed by the media, museums, observatories and other institutions that organize events such as free courses, fairs and meetings. Non-formal learning is based more directly on the interests of the individual who seeks it and develops it in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Therefore, we can say that knowledge is a multifaceted construction that reflects the life history of each individual.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEcy8G_1kcA

As a personal example of the contextualization of the three forms of learning I can say that I learned to understand the cellular biological processes in a formal context during my upper course.
In an informal learning context I learned to cook and to know medicinal plants with my Mother!
In terms of non-formal learning, I learned to do meditation, after a short course.

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Linking non-formal, informal and formal learning

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Linking non-formal, informal and formal learning

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Any of these types of learning, viewed in isolation, is reductive in the construction of knowledge.
Effective articulation between all strands is necessary so that the knowledge built can be meaningful. The formal learning carried out in the classroom should, whenever possible, meet the needs and interests of the student, his / her previous knowledge, in order to awaken the desire to know more, to research, to intervene.
If we rely on examples of their daily lives (informal learning), the established association will be greater and the final knowledge more effective.
To approach a particular concept / process, in addition to formal learning, my students like to play kahoot, field trips, watching films or documentaries.
As they are very active students, they like to get involved in the organization of this type of activities and their motivation is most significant.

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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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Taking students to empowerment is part of an inner motivation to learn sustainably. To do this, it becomes necessary to change the paradigm of learning / teaching and to give more power of intervention and decision to the students. Let them select the possibilities according to their interests and pave the way for a more critical and creative thinking in problem solving.
The strategies I use to favor student empowerment go through project work methodologies in which a problem is raised and students in groups seek solutions to the problem, research, debate, and present proposals for resolution. In the end, we point out the positive aspects and those that need to be improved.
Another activity that I usually promote is for the students to prepare the field trips, according to the themes that interest them most.

However, since my students have a national final exam at the end of the school year, I can´t always have the time for this type of activity because of the pressure to prepare for these evaluation moments

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Diana Rhoten on Sparking Student Interests with Informal Learning (Big Thinkers Series)

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Strategies to empower students in their formal & informal learning (cont.)

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Strategies to empower students in their formal & informal learning (cont.)

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The situation I want to share with you is that of a student who did not attend the class because she had many economic difficulties and this made her feel apart.
One day I discovered that the student loved English and spoke fluent language.
As I was developing an eTwinning project, I asked her if she would like to participate in the working group. She was responsible for communications in English with elements from other countries. The interaction with the other elements of the group, and later with the class, improved significantly.

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The Shift from Engaging Students to Empowering Learners

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The term personalised learning does not really make sense, because really all learning is personal. Personalised instruction is trying to imagine the greatest amount of ways that you can customise a curriculum to the abilities and the interests of the individual student. – Randy Bass, GeorgeTown University

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How Do You Define Personalized Learning?

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Imagine that you have to personalise a learning task with two activities for two kinds of learners (high-skilled and low-skilled learners). What would you do?

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Imagine that you have to personalise a learning task with two activities for two kinds of learners (high-skilled and low-skilled learners). What would you do?

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In my daily practice, heterogeneity is a constant. Each student has a particular view of the world, different interests and ambitions, and different types of intelligence.

Sometimes I ask high-skilled students to prepare and present a certain content / subject to the class, choosing materials and methodologies. In my classes I very often promote peer or group work to solve multi level exercises, so that low-skilled learners can carry out the activities at their own pace and giving their opinion on solving problems.

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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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At the beginning of the school year I usually apply a self-knowledge questionnaire with questions like "I am ...", "I like ...", "My expectation with this discipline is ...", "I am sad when... ".
This has been a method that has allowed me to know a little more about the interests and expectations of my students and to try, from there, to develop my work with them.
At the end of each thematic unit, each student makes a critical evaluation, pointing out the aspects that he/she considered most positive and presenting suggestions to improve the learning process. Although the quantitative results are important, I try to focus more on the knowledge-building process.

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A personalized learning can be achieved with activities carried out in work groups, project methodologies, use of diversified technologies ... in order to develop autonomy and creativity, respecting the rhythm of the students. I think it is also important to have a clear definition of objectives and a reflection on the observed evolution.

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I often use in my class kahoot (as a consolidation game that can be performed in pairs or groups), prezi (for presentations) or padlet (for group work, giving opinions) and try to develop collaborative learning.

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Personalised learning & flexible learning spaces

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Personalised learning & flexible learning spaces

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The classroom where I teach is a biology lab.

The room is always organized in groups, both in theoretical and experimental classes. Students work in groups and can move freely around the room, to ask questions with other colleagues or share information.

In the front zone you will find the teacher's desk, the interactive board and a white board. In the room we have a sound system that allows students to listen to music during laboratory activities.

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Collaborative learning is a process in which each individual actively participates in the construction of knowledge, in solving a problem or in exploring a situation. This collaboration is supported by a personalized intervention, in which each element gives its opinion, suggests strategies of resolution, analyzes and shares responsibilities. In this process, negotiation and decisions are made, stimulating the communication between all elements.

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Why do you enjoy group work?

I like to work in groups to understand different perspectives of the same situation and to share my ideas and doubts. In the end, you learn more and better!

What group work do you already implement with your students?

In my classes, the students work in groups to solve worksheets, research work and during laboratory activities.

What would you like to achieve next?

More strategies to promote active participation of all students.

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My students participated in an eTwinning project (C.A.L) about laboratory practice in science teaching. This project lasted 6 months. During this time, students performed some experiments, crated videos about it and provided a detailed report in English; students of another group (another country) reviewed the report and creatively constructed a video presentation of their friends experiment. They also participated in the elaboration of a multilingual catalogue of the laboratory equipment, through the collaboration of all students of the partner countries. One of the main obstacles during the activities was the difficulty of speaking and writing in the English language and also the number of students involved (a group of 10). All translation and preapproval activities were done outside school hours and it was difficult to reconcile it with the extracurricular activities of the students involved.

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Collaborative teaching & learning | Collaborative learning through project-based learning

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Collaborative learning to build deeper understanding

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Collaborative learning to build deeper understanding

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To make my students feel safe and comfortable, at the beginning of the school year I usually divide the class into groups, allowing the students to choose the elements of each group. As the activities are being carried out, we are debating what works best for each group and what needs to be improved. At the end of each trimester there is a reorganization of the work groups, with a new distribution of students. This action allows to increase the proximity between all the elements of the class and to create a climate of greater confidence in the moment of sharing the doubts or making oral communications.
Usually, the working groups have 4 students, depending on the total number of students in the class. Students can get up during class and ask questions or exchange ideas with other members of other groups. At the beginning of the school year the students choose the groups, to feel more comfortable in the exchange of ideas but as they get to know each other better as a group, there is a reorganization of the working groups. The idea is to promote a generalized exchange of ideas in a calm environment and to strengthen the human relations within the class.

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Collaborative learning in a flexible classroom

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Collaborative learning in a flexible classroom

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In the previous module I shared a photograph of my classroom, the biology lab. In this room, the space is already organized to provide group work and free movement of students in the room. The room has a computer with internet connection and Wi-Fi, which are used whenever necessary. The works that the students are doing throughout the year are exposed in the room, so that they identify more with that space and feel it as their own. I think this provision favors collaborative learning among students.

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Remake Your Class Part 1: Planning for a Collaborative Learning Environment

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Collaborative learning and personalized learning are concepts that interrelate in the classroom. The group work, with students of heterogeneous characteristics, allows working the capacity of communication, resolution of problems and respect for the other. The teacher's approach in each group, as well as guiding the learning process, also goes through a more personalized orientation and action in face of the difficulties and characteristics of each element of the group. Collaborative learning also gives teacher time to focus on lower skills students.

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Collaborative & personalized learning (2)

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Elements of effective collaborative work

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Elements of effective collaborative work

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Elements of effective collaborative work

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I agree with Phil because it is necessary to structure very well the activities that each student must carry out so that there is a real participation of each element and so that everyone feels involved in the accomplishment of this activity. I think that only then will learning be effective.If there is an effective participation of all the elements, each one can better develop their skills and knowledge, and the learning becomes thus more solid.

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The use of checklists becomes important in the context of group work to enable student self-regulation in how his / her learning process is taking place. The student is thus able to see what his strengths are and what aspects to improve throughout the process. This allows him to be involved in his assessment and a greater responsibility towards building his own knowledge.

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Student collaboration outside the classroom

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Student collaboration outside the classroom

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An example of collaborative learning outside the classroom is the dramatic representation of some composition that is analyzed in the formal context. The dramatic representation of different scenes promotes a great interaction between the students and develops many transversal skills, as a result of the collaborative work that is developed. Field trips are also a way to guide students in a more informal context, and digital tools (that complement learning and encourage collaborative work) can be used.

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Creative Classrooms Lab - Tablets in schools - Austria

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The Creative Classrooms Lab project (2013-2015) is working with 45 schools in eight European countries and policy-makers to collect evidence on the implementation, impact and up-scaling of 1:1 pedagogical approaches using tablets. The project, funded by European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme, is coordinated by European Schoolnet, and has 10 partners.

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There is more that one kind of intelligence!!

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There is more that one kind of intelligence!!

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I love this video!!!!