Visiting Valkeakoski Campus

Hi everyone! 

In this post, I’ll share some experience I had visiting Valkeakoski campus. 

HAMK University of Applied Science has 7 campuses, they are: Evo, Hämeenlinna, Lepaa, Mustiala, Forssa, Riihimäki and Valkeakoski. The VET Teachers who are in HAMK are living and studying in Hämeenlinna campus.

 

Valkeakoski is a town about 30 minutes’ drive from Hämeenlinna, in the southern part of Finland.

Besides Hamk University, we also visited a Valkeakoski Vocational School and Valkeakoski High School there; all of them compose a large campus area, as they are pretty close one another, and share programs, courses, disciplines and physical structure. 

Watch the introductory video: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeqHa5lIG3Q 


HAMK University of Applied Science - Valkeakoski Campus

Valkeakoski campus offers three bachelor degree courses; they are Automation Engineering, International Business (in English) and Electrical and Automation Engineering (in Finish). I’ll highlight some topics that somehow caught my attention:

• The campus offers some international programs in English. Even Finns sometimes attend the program in English. 

• HAMK and the other educational institutions share some courses. Students can have triple programs; they study in 3 institutions at the same time. For instance, a high school student can concomitantly take a Vocational Course and also study some disciplines at the university through the Open University System. Of course, that is a big challenge for a student, but it’s possible. 

•  There are some companies and entrepreneurs using the University facilities. They pay a membership fee and in return they can benefit from students working in their projects, pilot some ideas, offer some training courses etc. ; some even hire students for a part-time job. On the other hand, students can develop actual work life skills and live real entrepreneurial experiences.

 
Valkeakoski Upper Secondary School The compulsory education in Finland comprehends up to Grade 9, called secondary school. After that, students may choose to study Upper secondary school, which is equivalent to secondary school in Brazil, or may take Vocational education or even both concomitantly. 

 

Furthermore, it is also possible for the student who is taking upper secondary school, also take some disciplines in a University of Applied Science through the Open University system.

Valkeakoski Upper Secondary School has a large, bright and functional physical structure which attends all dimensions of learning. Students can get together in different spaces, such as cafeteria, theather, labs, meetings rooms, classrooms etc.

The school takes an acronym - PISA - as its main values, which is for Passion, Involvement, Sociability and Agency. 

All classes are recorded and transmited by Moodle. So, a student who is not there in medical leave, for instance, is able to attend class, or else someone who wants to review class can also take advantage of that practice.

Valkeakoski Vocational School Valkeakoski Vocational Institute offers education focusing on the needs of the economic life in the region. The four sectors of courses offered are: Technology

and Transport; Tourism, Catering and Home Economics; Health and Social Services and Business and Administration. The avarage time each one lasts is 3 years and basic studies, such as such as Mathematics, Finnish, Swedish, English, Civics, Chemistry, Physics, ADP, Arts and Culture and Sports are included in the programme.

We had a presentation from the International Business Course.

Some highlighted topics:

• The course is organized in projects as opposed to disciplines. Students can develop many projects at the same time.  

•  Students are prepared to be independent, entrepreneur and autonomous in relation to their own studies. Therefore, skills needed not only for their
  
  work specifically, but for their own life, are developed as they study.

• Students can make choices, they choose their projects, plan their self-study program, and develop their own ideas. So the learning process is personalized, as they are surveyed about their interests, their needs and learning objectives.
• Students learn work life skills and practice them as much as they can. That happens when they present some project ideas to the market (which may sponsor their projects if they can get any benefit from them) – they organize fairs, create marketing campaign, sell solutions, create products and services etc. They are responsible for the whole process, from the beginning to the delivery of the product/service and the post-project satisfaction survey, thus they experience real work life. 

• The teacher is not someone who tells the student what to do, but instead, guides and coaches. 

• Competence-based assessment.
• The assessment is carried out through the Vocational Skills Demonstration. Students work in real companies and are assessed in real situations.
• The assessment instruments and processes are mainly: a lot of different kinds of self-assessment, digital learning diary, hands-on activities, rubrics (skills required) etc.

 More information click on: http://www.valkeakoskicampus.fi/en/
 

Towards Teacher Development: Peer-Group Mentoring

Hi everyone!

In this post, I intend to share an experience I had attending a Peer-Group Mentoring session, at Kiipula (a Vocational school), led by Riikka Michelsson.

First of all, let me introduce briefly the concept of Peer-Group Mentoring – PMG.

“Peer-group Mentoring is a new model of supporting professional development. It can be organized among a variety of professions but here we focus on teachers. […] (PMG) is an activity involving teachers sharing and reflecting on their experiences, discussing problems and challenges they meet in their work, listening, encouraging one another, and, above all, learning from each other, and learning together (HEIKKINEN JOKINEN and TYNJALA, 2012, p. xv)”.

The group session  I attended usually happens once a month. I was lucky I had met Sanna Ruhalahti, the person who made all the contact so that I had the chance to join it and, besides that, gave me the book I’ve been reading recently.

When I arrived, I was warmly welcomed by Riikka. She was preparing coffee and said that was an important kind of “ritual” to open the session. As a coffee-addicted, I totally agree that is a great way to warm-up conversations and boost Professional Development!

She organized everything so neatly. We had a quick chat before the meeting; Riikka shared some important historical and operational aspects of this PGM project called Osaava Opelix, which is a project funded by the Finland Education Ministry and aims to support teacher and school community development.

Through PGM sessions, educators not only find support for their professional challenges through the discussion and group construction/negotiation of some coping strategies, but most of all, they advance their skills, build network, share good practices and enhance their knowledge. Thus, a sustainable professional development comes about and everybody’s knowledge and experience are taken into account.

Riikka said it has started with an attempt of retaining young teachers in schools, as a lot were quitting their jobs during the first year; probably because of lack of guidance and support.

Coffee was ready, and along with it a set table with some goodies, beverages and finger food. The way Riikka took care of everything, so carefully, surely caught my attention. It was not only about a job, it was about people, receiving them warmly and giving them/taking from them the best with open heart.

The group was welcomed by the door. Everyone helped themselves, grabbed their coffee and joined the table. A quick conversation went on.

The session began with the use of dialogical tickets (Dialogical Method – developed by Helena Aarnio). The aim is to assure dialogue happens symmetrically.

Each one received the same amount of tickets, in this case five. Summarizing, this is how it works: each ticket gives the person the chance to talk. Each one uses a ticket a time, after everyone had their turn. That allows symmetry in conversation, as everybody has their chance to speak and be listened.

Sometimes, one can get excited with the conversation and forget about the cards. The group then makes the person remember and somehow that also becomes a fun, pleasant time.

Facilitator is always present, mediating and assisting dialogue. With good use of communication strategies, the group members are able to conduct themselves symmetrically and respectfully.

After that, an open conversation went on. No one held the conversation for so long. They talked, they laughed and they came up to many levels of work life and their own life, not only about challenges, but about positive things and how to help students to develop important skills for the 21st century.

The session took a little more than two hours. People were there talking, having coffee and surely growing together. The PMG project has been designed in such a way that it provides practice-oriented Professional Development; on-the-job learning. Educators’ knowledge is explored and valued.

What amazed me most was becoming aware of the fact that this kind of project is supported by the Education Ministry, even being provided for small groups (4-10 members in each). Quality is the focus, not quantity. The fund is decentralized and administrated by the mentor himself/herself. Trust is the basis of all relations and we can see that through small attitudes, everywhere.

Engaging people in learning

Some reflections on how to engage students/people in learning and build learning communities

Hi Everyone! This post has resulted from a class discussion about engaging students in learning and building learning communities.

As this subject provides a lot of paths I could take, I’ll try to reflect upon some studies, but with no intention of going deeper in this post. During our discussion in class, Peter Senge was approached on the topic of moving organizations forward and dealing with comfort zone, development zone and panic zone in a learning community.

I immediately linked Senge’s ideas with some of my readings, mainly regarding Vygostky and Stephen Krashen.

There are many points of view and theories on how to engage students in active learning or how to advance an organization towards learning. A common agreement, usually, sets that to do that so, learning experiences must be interesting, relevant, connected to our reality, inquiring, challenging and reflexive.

Cognitive Psychology has been answering how learning happens inside a brain. Some studies point out how that can occur when it comes to emotion. As an English Language Arts teacher, I have to mention Stephen Krashen’s studies (1988), an American educational researcher and linguist. He set five hypotheses related to second language acquisition; and one of them is called “affective filter”. That is related to emotions such as motivation, good self-perception, self-confidence and a low level of anxiety. Negative emotions combined may move up the affective filter and thus language acquisition process may become impaired. So, positive affect is extremely necessary, although that is not enough to make a process efficient.

Therefore, we could state that learning has a lot to do with feelings and emotions, since you can only learn if you feel emotionally comfortable. Being okay is not enough to make learning happen, but it is a starting point. And that is true for a classroom or for all learning environments.

Broadening our perspective, we could think of schools not just regarding the students’ learning process, but also the orgianization learning process. To implement changes towards a growth mindset and behavior of a learning community, implementers (they do not necessarily must be in administrative position), should have some ideas about it.

We could then link that to Senge’s and his co-authors studies about managing changes in organizations. The authors state that people somehow shape organizations, hence, organizations are a result of what people think about them. Every learning community requires a leadership community or community builders. Not just people in leadership/administrative position. In this sense, the first step to create a learning community is to have some community builders, people who believe they can change things and make things better. 

Education follows, or at least should, the society dynamics (not always in the same pace). Everything is changing all the time, but we are not always aware of it. Therefore, learning should be happening all the time as well, but it’s not like that. Learning can only occur when by some means we are challenged. That is related to the zones where learning may or may not occur, which are comfort zone, development zone and panic zone; pointed out by Senge in his studies about challenges to implement changes in organizations.

Comfort zone is where somehow we like to be. We have a great tendency to remain in the comfort zones, although we wish to go to the development zone, where learning happens. As human beings, composed by a variety of feelings and motives, we also want to be pushed in a challenging way. But not at a distance that can drive us to the panic zone, where learning doesn’t happen at all. If we push too much, people tend to get into the panic zone. I'm telling you!

There are individuals in organizations who tend to get stuck, on the other hand, in some cases, organizations get stuck and stop people’s growth. But, anyway, organizations just reflect what people think about them (SERGE, 1999).

Institutional Psychology studies explain why that happens. Most of the time, a set of elements constitute the so-called “institutional forces”. We can’t explain, we just feel that nothing, or almost nothing, is working. Or at least the way we would like it could be.  We usually account that for institutional bureaucracy, people’s struggling for power, leadership problems, “the system”, the policies, the curriculum or simply human/group behavior. No one is to be blamed, but at the same time, who/what is?

When people want to move on and the “institutional forces” keep holding them back, they tend to get frustrated and that is infectious. Danger ahead!. We have to keep our eyes wide open to that. Otherwise, our willingness may fade away and we can’t explain why. That might happen to a whole school community: teachers, students, administrators.

We face many contradictions in any organization. Sometimes, teachers are in the panic zone, administrators in the comfort zones and nobody in the development zones. They can also be in different zones. Fact is, we can never find everyone in the same zone. And that’s ok. 

As developers/teachers and community builders, we can sometimes energize ourselves in the comfort zones, but being aware of going back to the development zone, so that we can really keep on providing our students or people around us opportunities to learn and grow.

There are many practical ideas about how to engage students. The most effective ones, in my opinion, are the ones connected to the constructivism studies; when students previous knowledge is valued and explored. Or when a learning community knowledge is also valued and explored.

Interaction plays an essential role when it comes to learning. As Vygotsky states, learning occurs through social interaction.

No one possess the “box of knowledge”, he/she is one member of a learning community. Learning is never-ending and it is transformed as social relation happens. Each individual supports the other and can provide emotional comfort so that they can proceed to the development zone (Senge) and advance in their Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky).
 
Learning communities (in educational organizations, in classrooms etc.) are built by believers, supporters and enthusiasts. That can also be positively infectious:)

Reviewing and reflecting on the "Educational Innovations that promote student engagement in Engineering" keynote

Review and Reflection

EDUCON - 2015

The second keynote session conducted by Stephanie Farrell (Rowan University, USA) during the EDUCON-2015 conference was an interesting one, just like the others, as she could rescue some historical background which was important to explain the phase we are facing now in Education, which is pertinent to the Engineering education as well.

Although we had a lot of good ideas for Education in the past, from philosophers and scholars, we were not able to use them. However, they played an important role, as our history is socially constructed and we needed the basis to develop a better Education.

The 20th century brought some advances in Developmental Psychology and  Cognitive Science and a better understanding of how the brain works and therefore how learning is processed. It was proved through the use of specific image techniques that active listening activates more areas of the brain than when the listening is passive.

Nowadays, we are facing a revolutionary phase in Education once again. This phase is composed by a huge set of information, knowledge, resources and everything we need to transform education.


We understand the pillars we need to change education (and the four pillars of learning: learning to do, learning to know, learning to be, learning to live with) and some more specific needs for changing practice in Engineering Education (technology, theory and evidence); we have a variety of new technologies available; a variety of resources; we also have solid educational theories, we have facts, proven experiences that passive learning doesn’t work as active learning. We have everything we need. However, we still have teachers offering an old way of passive teaching, disconnected to the reality and to the 21st century needs. Why that so?


A survey carried out in a Faculty in the USA showed that some teachers, even knowing about Research-based instructional strategies, don’t use them and argue that they do not do that so because of: class time, preparation time, students’ resistance, or lack of resources.
 

We have to improve the way engineering/vocational course is taught, by engaging students, preventing dropouts and studying retention; by connecting educational institutions to the work market and its needs; by exploring technology to benefit education improvement; by providing competence-based learning and integrated curriculum.

It takes a lot of time, energy to change a classroom, to improve education. Teachers need support just as students do too. Again, learning communities must be implemented, including a virtual one, so that time and task management can be facilitated.

Educational Institution administrators must be aware. They can not only send teachers to be professionally developed, but they have to make their work possible, to get also prepared so that they can speak “the same language” and thus dialogue.
They should be taking specific actions to actively support teaching, by making resources available, by promoting the establishment and maintenance of learning communities, by creating learning-teaching centers and thus making RBIS operation possible, by rewarding and promoting innovation, by promoting additional teacher and student assistance, by evaluating teachers according to their learning outcomes accomplishments, not by the quantity of classes orhours they work a day or by their evaluation results.