There are four paradigm shifts which are:
- Content Delivery to Capability
- Building Role Driven to Relationship Driven
- Expounding Learning to Experiencing Learning
- Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy
Which of these paradigm shifts will be the most challenging in your context and why?
Shifting content delivery to capability delivery would be most challenging in my teaching context as the capabilities are mostly ‘soft skills’ that can mean different things in different contexts (for example adaptability and differentiating) and are perhaps difficult to identify in students and teach and measure (for example empathy and intuition).
Self esteem to self efficacy. This mindset change i belive is going to be the most challenging. finding ways to encourage and praise our students in a way that will allow them to take pride in their achievements and strive to do better. Ensuring as teachers we are providing constructive feedback and praising our stduents for the right reasons and where it is worthy. However also ensuring that our students feel encouraged and supported to do better. it is important we find that right balance in order to build their self efficacy and ensure they don’t lose interest or motive… Read more »
For me the shift that I will need to work on is self-esteem to self advocacy. Using the language around effort praise is something that I need to practice to ensure a growth mindset – I particularly like the inclusion of the word ‘yet’ as it unlocks potential. It was great to be reminded of the importance of expectations and modelling the mindset you are trying to encourage – a lot to work on!
My cohort is largely migrant and refugee (mostly the latter), so for my students and my teaching I believe that instilling capabilities into my students and having them take charge of their own learning can sometimes (and surprisingly) be the most difficult. Also, bolstering their self-worth and self-efficacy is often quite difficult as many of them have continued traumas having fled from war-torn countries, and they sometimes struggle with consistent need for praise and reassurance. Of course, this is not all of them, but for many of them this is true.
Self Esteem to Self Efficacy. The idea of showering rewards even for students who are not performing well has created a generation who far too often give up. Not all fall into this category, but increasingly more can’t handle being told that the quality of their work is not up to par. It will be difficult to change this way of thinking but well worth the effort to make this switch.
yes definitely. It is hard to make this shift in thinking but i also believe it will be worth while as in the process students will become more confident and capable within themselves.
Expounfing learning to experiencing learning will be interesting to follow.
Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy will be the most challenging in my context. as a teacher I find some students don’t really care much when they are told that their outcome is not as good as they expected, by making an effort to give feedback that fosters a growth mindset it is still not good enough which makes it very hard to change this mindset from fixed mindset to Growth mindset because the students know that they will be rewarded either way. the challenge is to find the difference between Ability praise vs Effort praise and what is the student expectations to… Read more »
definitely, i too find this to be a challenging shift to make. its about trying to find a way to make our students want to achieve something to the best of their ability for themselves. this shift is so important but definitely going to be a challenge .
self esteem to self efficacy – we need to persevere with something not give up. develop and have the confidence to something.
For me it is the last one, Self Esteem to Self Efficacy. The reason being, the movement of false affirmation, showering rewards even for the ones who are not performing well. has created a generation who are easily giving up. Not all fall into this category, but increasingly more do not want to be told that their outcome needs to be better or not up to the standard. It will be challenging to change this mindset but well the effort to make this switch from ability praise to effort praise to create a more resilient generation
The first paradigm content delivery to building capability will be challenging for teacher and student as it is new for both.
content delivery to capability- not enough time to deliver content in the course time frame
Self-efficacy is generally something I see lacking in this generation. There are many people who don’t seem to be able to handle “life”. They don’t seem to know how to manage their time, or put their games or social media on hold long enough to complete a course.
I see students lacking so much confidence and wanting to be hand held through tasks. Helping a student to find motivation will be challenging and rewarding.
Student / teacher relationships are very important. Students what to be known, valued and heard. Developing self efficacy to meet a challenge and being able to persevere when problem solving are life skills, even if they do not achieve their goal.
Kim,
I agree that the student/teacher relationship is very important. I also agree that being able to persevere and problem using self-efficacy is something I see lacking in this generation. The people I teach seem to want the answers handed to them instead of researching or finding their own answers.
Yes Kim I agree! relationships are important to any teacher student relationship
certainly students do thrive when a good rapport is built between the student and teacher. Students feel connected and follow them as role models. The students seem to flourish in this environment
I love this and also agree. I work really hard to foster a good rapport with my students and be approachable, friendly, good-humoured and patient. I think it makes a huge difference as I have several students who have insisted on being in my classes only, refusing other teachers….! Which is not a situation I really want to be in, if I’m honest, but flattering nonetheless.
I would like to improve on self-esteem to self-efficacy so that I can help students to develop a growth mindset. This is a skill that will help them in all areas of life.
Yes, and not an easy one to teach! resilience is important!
Building self-efficacy will help to build a love of learning, “I can do it” attitude and a skill for life.
this is key for our next generation to believe in themselves and say “I can do this”
We can change the way we sometimes unconsciously peg students int categories and be fixed in the way we treat them. Loved the quote Intelligence is Learnable.
I agree Mario however the next generation need a change in the system. they need us to adapt to changes by making learning real, tangible and practical. i know we are trying our best but we as teachers need to adapt and change to be able to foster learning to the fullest
I think content delivery to capability would be the most challenging as when it comes to theory units, the content needs to be gone over for the learners to complete the assessments, in the alloted time frame to course complete
I agree Aimee, content delivery capability is challenging too especially the theory units, the time allowed for delivery is not enough to allow the students to learn something by doing something its just read and answer the question i hope this will change in the future
I think that there needs to also be a shift in curriculum to allow this to happen
I think we can all agree that the TAFE loading and probably the school loading, too, does not lend itself to *understanding* of new concepts but rather pushes students to memorise as quickly as possible to pass assessments and push them up the ladder of courses. It is very frustrating.
I agree Amber – the structures and organisational motivations are very restrictive.
It is interesting that TAFE is trying to put as much learning as possible on to Moodle (knowledge based learning assessed mostly through multiple choice quizzes). Almost all of the capabilities needed for the future are skills which need to be taught, practiced and observed by a teacher skilled in providing effective, instant feedback and on the spot guidance.
I feel the most challenging paradigm shift will be number 3, Expounding learning to experiencing learning. It would require the most resources and the most time, two things that are always a battle. The statistics are clear as only 1 to 2% of school utilise problem or project-based learning. It is a fundamental shift that is required and I can see the huge overall benefits such as high engagement, a tangible product at the end of the learning cycle, and space for creativity and original thinking. I feel it is where the most natural learning would take place including communicating,… Read more »
I agree, a lot of school are only just starting to make this shift in view of 21 century teaching and learning.
Hi Josh,
As a TAFE teacher, project-based learning is a large part of our training pedagogy. It does work well, and it gives the students a sense of completion to have taken a project through from start to finish.
For me the most challenging paradigm shift will be moving from self esteem to self efficacy, as its those little differences in giving the praise to shift them to the growth mindset
I think that self esteem to self-efficacy is the most challenging in my context. Students need the opportunities to develop a growth mindset and respond to feedback effectively.
I agree
I believe the shift from self-esteem to self-efficacy will be the most challenging. As we know feedback is essential for learning. Students are motivated by different things and respond differently to different forms of feedback and praise.This may require a shift in not only the way we give feedback for learning but also for behaviour? I found it interesting to learn about the comparison between the effects of ability praise versus effort praise.
Agree with your comments – feedback is essential for learning and also the learning around the comparison between the effects of ability praise v effort praise!
Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy is most challenging. So many concepts here are transferred into real world contexts, outside the classroom environment. They’re life long skills!
We had a speaker come to our school on growth mindset who stated that you should never praise effort and made many teachers doubt themselves, yet now it is shown to be effective. It appears that a growth mindset is a correct approach but the delivery of this still needs to be agreed upon. The joys of research and stating your opinion I suppose.
I think content delivery to capability building is the paradigm shift most challenging in my context as I am so focused on teaching specific units and completing structured standard assessments it’s sometimes hard to re-think the classroom and remind myself what my students goals of learning are.
Definitely the expounding to experience learning…..this involves a whole new mindset on the content we deliver as well as it then being about more than me delivering the content and a reliance on others to be willing to impart their knowledge and experience.
I agree Jodie. The new mindset I feel would be the most time consuming and require the most management of time and resources. What is the first step in changing? I’m not too sure what it is and perhaps is the reason why so many schools are reluctant to adopt project-based or problem-based learning.
Being in the VET sector, i would find changing from being Role driven to relationship driven the most challenging. The other 4 Paradigm’s can be put into practice with ease. I do feel the students would benefit from a teacher being relationship driven.
Hi apottz77, i try to do this with different cohorts, usually TVET students.
And over a four hour lesson, I knew more about the students than previous teachers that had had this group.
Of the four paradigm shifts, although the shift from Content Delivery to Capability Building, the idea of moving from Role Driven to Relationship Driven and the change from Expounding Learning to Experiencing Learning are interesting paradigm shifts, I reckon the most challenging with my students would be enabling the transformation from Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy. Most of my students are adult migrants and some are refugees and although I try to be very supportive and extremely understanding, they lack the ability to appreciate themselves and their achievements. They always look for external approval and feel overwhelmed especially when their performance is… Read more »
All four shifts require an adjustment but the one I would like to improve on is the self-esteem to self-efficacy so that student develop a growth mindset. This would enable them to develop capability in study and life.
The wording of feedback will require more thought.
I also agree that self-efficacy is the most challenging paradigm shift among my students, too.
Judith….I agree….and our feedback definitely needs to be more considered
I also agree the subtle difference is difficult yet will have a big impact
I’d say the most challenging paradigm shift will be moving from self esteem to self efficacy. Many students I work with have low self esteem so will benefit greatly when they realise ‘I can do this” and go on to be successful at the set task
I agree, i see this all to often. Once the student realises that they are capable they do their most creative work
Certainly a difficult paradigm shift. Applicable to students of all ages and teachers!
hi Rhonda, I agree with you on this comments, student I have had before with low self esteem withdraw and do not want to even attempt tasks! but once they realise they can, its amazing to see their sefl esteem improve!
I believe that one of the most challenging shift is content delivery to capability building. Many teachers have the belief that they must know all the answers, deliver the content and are focused on the end product rather than the process.
The challenge then in TAFE is how to develop capability as a measureable process to encourage its inclusion in the training process. Beyone Competent, Not Yet Competent.
The change of content to capability will require an adjustment but will be beneficial to our students. It is going to be the change of teachers’ mindset.
I agree. This shift requires a complete shift in mindset, it can be scary to open yourself up to being vulnerable.
I agree, Alyssa. We need to realise the path to knowledge is just as important as the destination.
Relationships are definitely at the key to so much of this, especially linked with self esteem and self efficacy and role drive to relationship driven. Always the key to success for many of our students, the importance of having a champion, someone who believes in you.
I love the Everyone deserves a champion ted talk 🙂 Relationships are a huge factor in being a successful student. I was always told you must have the 3 R’s to be a great teacher- Relationships, Relationships, Relationships!
A lot of change required on the teachers behalf to learn and develop a set of relationship buliding skills, above and beyond knowledge and skillset specialisation.
Totally! It always makes a difference if you know you have someone in your corner.
Having someone back you and believe in you supports your success both as a student and an individual – we really need to find opportunities to develop those positive affirming relationships
I feel the paradigm that i will have the most difficulties adapting to is the 1st one Content deliveries to Capabilities deliveries, The extra out of classroom work is extensive now and feel adapting new teaching formats and making changes is going to add a lot of extra pressure… change is sometimes difficult as things move forward I’m sure we will adapt to the change.
There are lots of technological tools available to communicate content, and students should now be expected to utilyse these, even if the only one they use is “Google”. Our focus should be about “soft skills”, learning skills, resilience skills, capabilites, this is the challenge that we have, how do we do this.
I agree we need to shift the mindset of both teachers and students.
I think the change in the Teacher – Student relationship is a big change for many and a very powerful one. Many of my students have both parents working and feel that they just want time, they want to be heard, listened to and valued.
I agree , the students who thrive are the ones who you spend your lunch break and after class listening to their life challenges
The paradigm shift from content delivery to capability is really challenging for me because there are many units and assessments needed to be completed within the time frame of the course.
Alan I agree…and finding that balance between giving our students the relevant life skills for the course area and meeting all the regulatory requirements.
The shift from expounding learning to experiencing learning even in the VET sector, is a challenging one with reductions in funding and therefore time allocated to teach particular units of study. The paperwork and time involved in getting students “out” of the classroom and off the campus to experience learning in the real world is often a deterrent for many teachers. However, in our courses that have a big practical component this experience is essential – Covid-19 has added to the complexity of providing these “real” opportunities for our students.
Spot on… how do we convince ASQA and Govt’s that it is less about the content and more about the experience, the “capability”.
The shift to experiencing learning would be great, but I agree with Lee challenging in the VET sector as business are not forthcoming in offering assistance due to their business work load. The organisation by the teacher adds to their workload which appears now to be focused on students completing assessments.
Two new units I have had to teach this semester (Apply inclusive communication skills and Apply negotiation strategies) did not have assessment tasks on Learning bank so I was able to design my own and make the context “real” and practical. I received some encouraging feedback from my students as to how “fun” the tasks were, as the students did the work but I did the paperwork in terms of observation checklists.
I think the most challenging paradigm shift will be moving from self esteem to self efficacy as I find many students lack self esteem and have a need for approval and to be right all of the time.
This shift is a challenging one as I agree, many students have low esteem, low resilience and easily give up when things get a little challenging.
Agree, they are afraid to try if they do not know the answer or it is hard, they don’t want to “fail” although this is the learning part
The same with my students. Lana. They lack confidence and look forward to regular approval and constant external appreciation.
Yes I agree, students do have a need for approval and give up way too easily.
I think the most challenging Paradigm shift will be to drive from self esteem to self efficacy as majority of students I teach are coming from disadvantaged background. They have either dropped out of school or have experienced number of failures in their life. They all have fixed mindset and changing that is bit challenging
I feel the same, we need to be open to new techniques to change of capabilities for the future
I feel my learners will find it challenging to move from self esteem to self efficacy. Many come with a fixed mindset and often very poor self esteem.
Very True, that’s what we also experience amongst the majority of students in VET sector.
It is difficult to encourage students to believe “they can do it”
In the VET sector we aim for a combination of shifts 1 and 3 and I focus on being relationship driven, this session has me focusing on shift 4 and how to incorporate that shift.
Agreed, shifting of Paradigm 1-3 is always the focus but tchanging the mindset is the real challenge
I was teaching practical subjects so seemed a perfect opportunity to get the students out to participate in ‘real life’ situations, especially as most of them liked the hands-on approach, but the more traditional head teacher made it very difficult, citing all the paper work required, curriculum requirements and that they were going out of the classroom too much! We persevered and the difference in the student attitudes made the effort worthwhile.
Teacher – student relationships are the key to good results for students in as much that a student who feels as if they matter, is often more motivated to achieve and to push through the barriers.
I have found this to be consistent throughout my teaching. Sometimes it is not about what you teach, but your attitude in how you teach, that seems to be the most powerful for students.
Agreed, how you teach develops the relationship
Yes. If students find teachers care about them, they will try to be attentive in our class.
The relationship you have with the student definitely impacts the learning.
Creating a positive and supportive learning environment is key!
Yes, that’s correct, the manner of your teaching develops the relationship.
Yes this is true. I find if you put extra effort into contacting students when they don’t show up or show an interest in their lives outside of the classroom they are more responsive in the classroom and their attendance will be more regular.
I agree it is so important that students feel liked and valued. . Building strong relationships and environments where students feel safe and supported is essential for productive learning.
Yes agree, teachers need to build a relationship with each student and have mutual respect and trust for each other.
The ‘expounding learning to experiencing learning’ paradigm is one that I am very interested in and excited about embracing in my classes. I believe it is a great step forward but worry that the VET system is so geared towards us being a facilitator rather than a teacher that the limited amount of time allocated for preparing classes makes the development and inclusion of experience based learning hard in real time.
Yes: it is a balancing act Elizabeth.
However, content or foundations must first be expounded so that they can be experienced. They can only be experienced once the student has enough knowledge to build understanding and then, to develop their concepts. Expounding provides a good starting place; however, is all about how it is done in the classroom in my view.
I think that teachers need to be skilled expounders, and then , be able to ‘facilitate’ the learning by meaningfully linked activities to solidify the knowledge for the learner.
Personally, as a relatively “new” teacher, this way of thinking has been a part of my teaching for the past 5 years or so, and I have found it served me well. I think as an institution, education provision will continue to struggle with moving from Content Delivery to Capability Building because too many of us just don’t know how to deliver it. There is also a reluctant attitude to change the way “we’ve always done things”….
Content is key to knowledge in my view. There is no reason why an institution should stop delivering content; however the content must be made meaningful so that the student can understand how this knowledge will benefit THEM.
The two go together like bread and butter in my experience. Without good content, there is nothing to learn about.
I agree – content is so important, as the students need to acquire this knowledge ….it is about the way we deliver that is the key to this being relevant and meaningful.
Content delivery to capability is difficult because there is so much to teach and not enough time.
very true.
I believe vocational education addresses paradigm 1 & 3 satisfactorily, paradigm 4 can be developed through training & reflection. However, role to relationship is the most challenging! It is very difficult to develop trust & relationships with teenagers that come to TAFE with personal struggles.
Why? What do you see as the barriers?
I think building relationship needs to take time. Give your students time. They can sense your sincere care.
Relationships are the key, we underestimate the value of these in our teaching practices, students need to feel safe and secure to learn and grow.
Yes Cassie, I agree
Relationships are very important and immediate results can usually be seen, but time constraints make it hard to do for all the students.
So true!
Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy simply because it’s something I struggle with personally and can see it now in my son too and it upsets me how much I have unintentionally passed on.
Totally! Being a parent and a teacher is a double edged sword! I myself grew up with the labels my parents gave – I was the smart one, my sister was the beautiful one….and now my own daughters see themselves as the “maths one” and the “english one”. Or one is creative and one is sporty…..I do wonder how much it suits us to put ourselves into boxes?!
Agreed! I have to make so much effort to change the words and phrases I traditionally look for. Hoping they role off the tongue a little more easily soon.
I was one of 5 kids so my mother said she tried to find one thing that each of us could be considered good at to make us feel more special. With the best intentions, as we have seen from this session, it backfires and we have all grown up feeling inadequate in so many other areas and it’s hard to change that mindset. Being aware of it has made me more careful both with my own kids at home and in the classroom.
I was so pleased to listen to him talk about the shift from role driven to relationship driven. Everybody needs to feel loved, respected, capable, valuable. That is how some teachers always seem to end up with ‘really nice classes’ and others seem to always end up with ‘a demanding class’.
100% agree. The teacher who demands respect v’s the one who gives respect and hence naturally receives it back.
I agree. Building rapport with your student can make such a big difference in their lives and ours.
Yes: it is definitely about the relationship first. Sometimes a teacher may not be the best, but their actual presence motivates the learner.
Absolutely – we need to ensure that basic needs for inclusion are met,also valuing each other ( and in turn being respectful of each other)
Number 1 – content delivery to capability building. Not everything about this paradigm shift but some aspects where I’m very ‘comfortable’ delivering content.
I feel that content delivery to capability delivery will be the most challenging, as our education system is set up to be content driven. Finding time to factor in experiential learning opportunities will be hard to find and not always appreciated by the parents or the educational hierachy.
Good point Sharon. We are expected to deliver ‘X’ content in ‘X’ time-frame.
How is this actually possible? as we all learn differently.
There is so little time and focus on the preparation side of teaching that it’s hard to break the old habits and spend time planning better methods of delivery.
I agree! I think parents also have a big impact on the school system. It takes time to use 21st-century methods to teach students however the impact on students can be quite powerful.
Content delivery to capability building will be challenging as we have very structured curriculum that must be delivered and assessed. The evidence collecting and reporting requirements driven by an outside body drives us along our journey. We also have unrealistic time frames to adhere to. It certainly will be a challenge to try and use the four paradigm shifts in our teaching.
Lorraine, I agree – the compliance requirements can be a challenge here.There has to be a way though.. so it is great to have time to reflect on the ‘how’.
I agree.
Definitely content delivery to capability building… why, due to training package elements and performance criteria and expectations, content expected delivery and reporting requirements to meet auditing purposes. Time is a factor, less time these days to deliver/capability build to met reduced funding (Vocational education)
Such a good point! Pressure of audits
The shift from content delivery to building capability is the most challenging with assessment requirements demanding an increasing amount of knowledge evidence. Skills building requires time – opportunities for active learning and feedback, building confidence, learning how to analyse and problem solve. The scope and complexity of learning outcomes in current curriculum is often unrealistic for the time frames available for learning. Education is increasingly assessment driven.
very true, so how can we make time for this?