Information and Advice for A2: A Critical Reflective Paper – Philosophy of Adult Teaching and Facilitation Practices (35%)
Rationale
The purpose of this assignment is to examine the connections/differences between your philosophy (beliefs) of teaching and your philosophy of facilitation.
You will surface your personal perceptions, values, beliefs and attitudes that underlie the actions you take in a teaching or facilitation setting. Note that this can easily be translated to ‘beliefs, intentions, actions’ from Pratt
You will also identify how your style:
a. is congruent with various theories and (see discussion about using Pratt below)
b. might align with certain facilitation practices (see knowledge, skills, attitiudes, roles and responsibilities and example in action below).
Note: The impetus for this assignment is for students to incorporate session learning relative to teaching and facilitation roles, responsibilities and contexts into their own practices. Learners are to demonstrate their own beliefs with respect to the difference between facilitation strategies and traditional teaching approaches.
In my humble opinion, the distinction between ‘traditional’ teaching approaches and facilitation strategies are artificially accentuated. In real life, we move seamlessly through many variations of the continuum depending on the needs of our participants, the context and our capabilities. So concentrate on who you are and your philosophy; don’t get bogged down by trying to solve the distinction between teaching and facilitating.
Directions to Learners
Submit an 8 – 10 page paper, (at the risk of being inconsistent, this might be a good page target… but my feedback from A1 about preference for breadth and depth still holds) exclusive of title and reference pages, that describes your personal perspective on the facilitation of adult learning according to a selected theoretical framework (see guiding questions below). Illustrate your views with a wide variety of supports from the literature.
This is the focus of the paper
1 – philosophy in your own words using a suggested theoretical framework and supports from the peer reviewed literature
2 – example in action supporting your espoused philosophy with supports from the peer reviewed literature
In your paper, include the following sections (headings and sub-headings):
A. Introduction (exclude this heading as APA does not want it but you need this section)
? Purpose statement and;
? Forward organizer (outline of what you will discuss and develop in your paper) that unfolds the logic structure of your overall work. See my “Important advice and information on writing” for more information.
B. Philosophy of Teaching and Facilitation (consider using sub-headings in this large section):
Use the ‘Theoretical Framework’ suggested below to identify your philosophy of teaching and facilitation.
(Pratt’s ‘Teaching Perspectives Inventory’ that you completed for Assignment #1 will help to identify what you wish to emphasize and articulate in your overall reflection. Review your results now within the contexts of your personal beliefs. You may also wish to review the Philosophy of Learning reflections paper from 4F31.)
Pratt is a good Theoretical Framework to use, because you worked with it in the previous assignment. IF you have a different theoretical Framework that you would rather use, feel free to do so, but make sure you justify why you chose it.
Remember that Pratt asks you to select a specific context to consider when you complete the inventory. The context will affect some of the choices you are ALLOWED to make in terms of intentions and actions. You don’t have to use the RESULTS of the inventory if the context unduly influences your score.
Although you have been invited to use Pratt’s perspectives, try to articulate your philosophy in your own words.
To complete your description of your philosophy of teaching and facilitation using the beliefs, intents, actions heading, review those specific sub scores for each perspective to provide a complete view.
Theoretical Framework
(Use sub-headings for this part of your paper. Suggested sub-headings have been bolded below):
1. What are your key beliefs about teaching, facilitation and learning?
2. What are your intentions as you plan and organize teaching and facilitation strategies? (what do you purposely do? – i.e. I intentionally use case studies in my teaching quite often because I believe they are effective teaching tools for complex learning.)
3. What actions (or behaviours, techniques you prefer to use etc.) illustrate the values and beliefs you hold with respect to teaching and/or facilitation? Our ‘actions’ (what we do – or behaviours) in the classroom or in a facilitated setting, demonstrate our beliefs and the values we hold about teaching and facilitation.
IMHO… these questions might distract you from being elegant and efficient in your writing in this section…. If you use these questions, don’t answer them in your paper, use them to tease out the underlying beliefs, intentions, actions when facilitating. These should help you explore what your believe about knowledge, learning, learners, etc.
Below are some suggested questions to help guide your reflection process – some may be more helpful to you than others but perhaps consider them first, and then take some notes of your responses as you begin to briefly describe your actions that visualize your beliefs:
o What instructional strategies do you or would you most commonly use?
o How do (or would you) routinely start an instructional session?
o Do you have a routine that you prefer for ending a session?
o What are your preferred techniques that you like to use (i.e. here, your different perspectives will show dramatically depending on what techniques you like or NOT LIKE. Sometimes by articulating what actions or behaviours you DON’T DO or would not use etc. you have defined a preference for a belief or value.)
o If someone observed your teaching/facilitation, what activities would they see?
(These questions are adapted from Dan Pratt’s book “Five Perspectives on Teaching in Adult and Higher Education”, p17.)
You can see that your answers to these questions are informed by what you learned when you completed Bens’ self assessment.
3.4. What knowledge, skills and attitudes you consider important for adult teaching and facilitation;
4.5. What you see are the important roles and responsibilities for facilitators of adult learning, along with a rationale for your statements;
a. What do you believe are the indicators of successful adult teaching and facilitation? I believe this question is redundant. If you like the question, use it to answer the ‘beliefs’ section above
5.6. Underlying Beliefs and Values – What do you believe has influenced your perception and beliefs about teaching and facilitation roles and responsibilities? I believe this is redundant! If you like this question, use it to answer the ‘beliefs’ section above
6.7. Similarities and Differences – How is your philosophy of facilitation similar to/different from your philosophy of teaching? Briefly explain. I think this is a “red herring”
C. An Example in Action
Give an example from practice or from your personal observations as a learner, as to how you have or could deliver a lesson/exercise in a way that would demonstrate your philosophy in action.
Make sure your example supports your claims about your beliefs, intents, actions, knowledge, skills, attitudes, roles and responsibilities.
D. Summary
? In summary, revisit your thesis/purpose statement and recap your main points relative to your discussion.
My suggested paper outline
1. Introduction
1.1. Create interest
1.2. Purpose of paper
1.3. Paper outline (main points)
1.4. Foreshadow conclusion
1.5. Foreshadow the rationale for conclusion (thesis of the paper)
2. Philosophy of Teaching and Facilitation
2.1. Beliefs
2.2. Intentions
2.3. Actions
2.4. Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes (aka Competencies) required
2.5. Roles and Responsibilities you assume
2.6. Similarities and Differences between Facilitating and Teaching (OPTIONAL)
3. Example in Action
3.1. Although there are no sub headings, you should consider this portion of the paper to be equally important as you philosophy statements (likely same amount of ink)
4. Summary
4.1. Restate information in introduction
4.2. NO NEW INFORMATION
Remember – you don’t earn grades for re-stating Pratt’s Perspectives or Bens description of facilitation competencies and roles, you earn grades for using them to explain your philosophy. You also earn grades for using your peer reviewed references to explain your philosophy or example in action.
Assignment 2: A Critical Reflective Paper: A Philosophy of Adult Teaching and Facilitation Practices Evaluation Rubric (35%)
1-3 4-5 6-7 8-10 0 Content Critical Reflection
? Belief Philosophy statements are missing many key elements of the theoretical framework
? Minimal or vague detail
? Little demonstration of critical reflection
? Philosophy Belief statements include some elements from the theoretical framework
? Beliefs discussed simply and without depth
? Limited use of examples to illustrate beliefs
? Some irrelevance or confusion
? Belief s philosophy statements include most elements from the theoretical framework
? Solid discussion and examples to illustrate beliefs
? Facilitation and teaching philosophies are articulated and reference to theory and facilitation practices established
? Underlying influences are identified
? Belief philosophy statements include every element of the theoretical framework
? Sophisticated self-analysis of core beliefs that includes well integrated examples to illustrate
? Facilitation and teaching philosophies are fully articulated and well linked to theory and facilitation practices
? Underlying influences are fully examined and discussed
1-4 5-8 9-12 13-16 0 Academic Rigor
? Limited or no peer-reviewed references utilized to explain and illustrate belief statements
? Few peer-reviewed references to explain and illustrated belief statements
? Citations were included but not integrated with belief statements
? Some peer-reviewed references to explain and illustrate belief statements
? Citations were integrated with belief statements
? Frequent use of the textbook and the literature to explain and illustrate belief statements
? Citations were critically integrated with belief statements to explain and illustrate
1 2 3 4
0 Assignment Requirements
? Addresses few of the assignment requirements
? Addresses some of the assignment requirements
? Addresses many of the assignment requirements
? Belief, intentions, actions, knowledge, skills,
? Addresses all of the assignment requirements
attitiudes, roles and responsibilities and example in action Style
0 1 2 3-4 5-6
0 Clarity & Organization
? Random or scattered ideas lacking focus
? Difficult to follow
? No apparent deliberate organization
? Minimal simple organization
? Some orderly progression of ideas and a general focus
? Some sections confusing or unrelated to main idea
? Clear, logical pattern of development in organization
? General focus and coherence
? Logical sequence of ideas
? Transitions between ideas consistently smooth and effective
? Some use of a heading system to segment work
? Elegant, subtle, seamless pattern of organization
? Ideas flow naturally and smoothly, reinforce and support content
? Extensive use of headings and sub-headings to clearly identify the logic of each section of the paper
0 1-2 3-4 5-6
0 Writing Conventions and use of APA
? Significant grammar, sentence structure, spelling, or punctuation errors
? Inconsistent use of APA format
? Frequent but minor sentence structure, spelling, or punctuation errors
? Most citations are cited in APA format
? APA style is missing in key areas
? Missing citations: Fails to attribute idea or concept.
? Minimal grammar, sentence structure, spelling, or punctuation errors
? All citations are accurately cited in APA format
? APA style is generally used correctly with minimal exclusions
? Reference page adheres to APA format
? No grammar, sentence structure, spelling, or punctuation errors
? APA style is used correctly throughout the paper including citations, title and reference pages, page numeration, line and paragraph spacing, page justification, font, levels of headings and subheadings and running head
? All citations from relevant literature are accurately cited in APA
format
Total / 42
Assignment Grade /35

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