Www.latrobe.edu.au/learning Building a Community of Practice: Teaching science as a second language.
21
www.latrobe.edu.au/ learning Building a Community of Practice: Teaching science as a second language
Transcript of Www.latrobe.edu.au/learning Building a Community of Practice: Teaching science as a second language.
www.latrobe.edu.au/learning
Building a Community of Practice: Teaching science as a second language
La Trobe University
Cross Discipline Team
C. Cunnington Academic Language and Learning Unit, La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga Campus;
M. Fussell Department of Environmental Management and Ecology, La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga Campus;
M. Quaglio Equality and Diversity Centre , La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga Campus;
B. Bennett: Academic Language and Learning Unit, La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga Campus;
P. Brosche: Academic Language and Learning Unit, La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga Campus.
La Trobe University
Context: Place & Pressures
Regional campus, classed as Low Social Economic Status area
• High likelihood underprepared students
Pressures:• Review of Australian
Higher Education (Bradley 2008)
La Trobe University
Context: Change in Curriculum & Organisational
Design for Learning:• graduate capabilities
developed within courses• in subject & explicitly taught
Re-structure:• Academic Language and Learning Unit ( ALLU) –
collaborate with staff across faculties, embedded to assist underprepared students
DILEMMA! How and who?
La Trobe University
Community of Practice
Forged new, unlikely, partnership• MF: Faculty of Science Technology and
Engineering ( FSTE)• CC: Academic Language and Learning
Unit (ALLU)
FSTE ALLU
La Trobe University
COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE (COP)Elements:
Domain of knowledge
Shared practice
Wenger. E, McDermott. R and Snyder. W. M; 2000
Community of
committed people
La Trobe University
What we did
Week 2: (48 students) Mini lecture and written paragraph as indicator of writing level (Barthel 2009)
Students flagged :Green: no need to attend (13 students), Yellow: advised to attend (30 students),Red: essential to attend ( 5 students)
La Trobe University
Improving Academic Writing for Science (IWAS)Timetabled, prior to Lecture, 1 hr, just-in-time approach.Attendance: 28 – 11 studentsTopics:
• Academic Reading for Lectures• Starting a Laboratory Report• Features of Academic Argument• Writing for Science• Paragraph answers to exam & tute questions• Analyse question and plan an answer• Edit the answer using a checklist• Lab Report Revisited• Exam Techniques for short answer questions
La Trobe University
How we worked together2-hr planning on Friday, for Tuesday workshop
MF: Direction and topic/ lecture notes
CC: Presentation (PPt) and activities based on 1st Year Survival Guide (Yucel et al. 2011)
MF: Chemistryised language, added subject specific examples Uploaded on
LMS for students Reflection and
planning
La Trobe University
COP: an uncomfortable place
CC: High cognitive load: new concepts, new vocabulary
MF coined phrase – Science as a Second Language (Halliday & Martin, 1993)
La Trobe University
COP: an uncomfortable place
MF: unfamiliar territory - writing, students joining the conversation
La Trobe University
Tension: Practise skill vs Learn Content
Group-Write Activity
Writing a messy process
Extending knowledge through reflection
MF: “I have no idea of what you are planning, but go for it.”
La Trobe University
PowerPointPlanning tool:
• Capture the flood of content• Shaping content into logical sections for students
Presentation tool : How do I show this visually?
Language teaching tool:
• Introducing new vocabulary (hearing and seeing) • Model language structures e.g. Hypothesis • Consistent terminology eg journal/workbook• Memory support
La Trobe University
• MF: “… amazed at the degree of prep CC was prepared to go to..sometimes thinking ‘Hell no, not another slide!’ Then realising that it was a good thing to be so well planned, compared to … having a mental plan …I know where I want to start and where … to get to ; …what students will find difficult and I target concepts and knowledge they will need. But this area of teaching about writing is new to me, so I had complete trust that CC could show me the way to go. The planning put a fence around what we were going to do and within the fence there was a clear pathway. .. which is very good for the students… they can tie one bit to the next bit.”
La Trobe University
S: “Sometimes the L is talking about something … very important but there are so many new words I get lost, even though I have done the reading before. I have to just wait, sometimes I am lost for 15 mins. And then L says something and I can catch it and keep up for a while.
If there is a PowerPoint it helps because even though I still get lost I can catch up when the new slide comes.”
La Trobe University
All voices in the room
Language Teacher:• Pair work, practising silently• Listening to model target language• Elicited contribution
Power of new voices in the room
Sustainability issues
La Trobe University
Elements of effective COP• Turned daunting to enjoyable challenge.
Koeglreitter. G, Smith. R, Torlina. 2008
• Found new ways of teaching scientific writing in Chemistry
• Shared overall aim – to implement DFL/Graduate Capabilities• Shared educational backgrounds and teaching philosophy –
valuing experiential learning
• Openly challenged and supported each other
• Look at subject material through a different lens, de-familiarising it and showing what needs to be made explicit, that might otherwise have gone unsaid.
• Others in COP – questions to uncover assumptions• Including students – knowledge domain
La Trobe University
Draft: Collaboration Manual
• Shared goals – Intended Learning Outcomes• Planning – sufficient time together for real
collaboration• Negotiate a shared vocabulary • “Skills” session use subject content & be timetabled• Expect discomfort and tension – build trust• Co-teaching - shared presenting• Reflect together and be prepared to learn from failure
Benefits of small campus
La Trobe University
Questions and Advice
• How to evaluate an intervention with small numbers of students (10 - 30)
• How sustainable is this approach to teaching graduate capabilities? What is happening at your institution?
Thank you
La Trobe University
Reference List
Barthel, A.,( 2009, November). Life after Post-enrolment language assessment: A case study raising more questions than answers {abstract}. 9th Biennial National Conference of the Association for Academic Language and Learning , University of Queensland.
Halliday, M., & Martin, J. (1993). Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive Power. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Koeglreiter, G., Torlina, L., & Smith, R. (2008). Reaching Beyond the Boundaries: Communities of Practice and Boundaries in Tertiary Education. North Carolina, USA: Information Age Publishing.
Medawar, P. B., & Pyke, D. (1991). The threat and the glory: reflections on science and scientists. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, USA.
Merzyn, G. (1987). The language of school science. International journal of science education, 9(4), 483-489.
La Trobe University
Reference List
Prain, V., & Hand, B. (1996). Writing for learning in secondary science: Rethinking practices. Teaching and Teacher Education, 12(6), 609-626. doi: 10.1016/s0742-051x(96)00003-0
Sankey, M. D., & Lawrence, J. (2008). I'm not alone: first year course leaders helped through communities of practice. Paper presented at the 5th International Life Long Learning Conference, Yippoon, Australia.
Viskovic, A. (2006). Becoming a tertiary teacher: learning in communities of practice. Higher Education Research & Development, 25(4), 323-339.
Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Yucel, R. (2009). A broad-based, grass-roots community of practice achieving curriculum reform in first year biology. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 3(2), A26-A35.
