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?
It is important that Teachers can evolve as they teach. Having a fixed mindset is a negative attitude that leads not only to teacher dissatisfaction but also to student apathy. With a growth mindset, teachers can establish student/teacher relationships that challenge both. Students are more able to embrace failure as a learning opportunity.
Authoritative teaching leads to confidence, certainty even if they deviate from the learning outcomes. Teachers must make learning empathetic toward the student. Make learning tangible (facilitate outdoor learning – give them parallels in the real world). Make learning outcomes practical – results could be based on videos for example.
Content Delivery to Capability Building is a challenging change to teaching. I need to re-think my role as a teacher – not just dishing out information and expecting students to understand. Rather I need to nurture their needs and measure more in depth their understanding of the subject by being mindful of my motivation. Practice responding to questions with a question and begin with What or How rather than What. Make the classroom more friendly by changing it to a more friendly environment. Time constraints often tend to dictate time spent on interesting discussion which is a negative approach to… Read more »
I think the 3 ways to create a learning experience is essential to good teaching practices – keep it real, make learning tangible and make learning practical.
I believe self-esteem to self-efficacy will be challenging in a system that is so focussed on results, in particular the relentless drive for every improving SACE results. It does not reward effort and is discouraging to see that often schools are increasingly businesses where high results are the sole focus for leadership to increase enrolments, putting a lot of pressure on teachers and students.
Self esteem to self efficacy will be challenging for teachers and students. Teachers have to use the assessment process which is basically pass and fail not recognising the effort or progression of skills and knowledge. Students predominantly are used to passing and failing also. Perhaps the older generation students will appreciate the effort feedback more readily than those that are conditioned for the talent feedback.
I agree – younger students are conditioned for talent feedback at an increasingly young age, which is very discouraging.
Content Delivery to Capability – this is a mind set change that needs to start early on in the learning journey. Retraining of older teachers, ESOL and cultural expectations, funding may present a challenge.
Yes, we have a lot of older teachers who have spent a lot of time amassing teaching resources and it can be challenging to change that mind set for some, given the amount of effort and time taken to accumulate content.
Content delivery to capability building would be the most challenging in the context of teaching low level ESOL students. The students’ lack of tech skills, computers, and language curb their abilities to learn independently. It could be done with a lot of pre-teaching (language and technology), and tech support but the resources and time to do this would unlikely be available.
The paradigm shift from content delivery to capability is quite a challenge as there are several units of competency with several assessments for each unit which must be completed within specific timeframes within the duration of the course.
The change will need to occur in the assessment processes to support this shift.
Content delivery to capability building will be the biggest challenge as I see it. Where does that leave teachers who must teach the learning content and assessed on it?
Expounding Learning to Experiencing Learning – requires the student to self-evaluate their progression in the learning process through constant reflection these are not innate skills and students will need to be taught these skills alongside core discipline knowledge.
If this is encouraged from an early age then this may be well advanced in later schooling and if very powerful.
The shift from content delivery to capability building is the most challenging. In most courses, teachers are expected to complete the prescribed curriculum, and students are assessed according to what they have learned from the class. if the teacher deviates from the syllabus, the headteacher has to take action.
The change will need to occur in the assessment processes to support this shift.
Content delivery to capability delivery – we are teaching to the assessments so we need to get the content across we know the students will be directly assessed on their ability to remember the content.
the focus on more on learning using real, tangible and practical methods make learning so much more real and also fun , teaching hospitality and having stiff guidelines on the end product which has been done 20 years will definitely not attract students who would love to explore their creative mind, teaching has to be a 2 way street
I belIeve self esteem to self efficacy. Difficult to change that mindset in terms of finding the right way to encourage students to persevere.
When students have been learning something for years (such as English) – and still have a long way to go – it is so important they are effectively encouraged to keep going. Mastering the language can seem like an impossible goal, particularly if age, past trauma and limited education are factors. Finding new ways to encourage perseverance and providing opportunities for success can be a challenge.
Expounding learning to Experience learning – challenging and interesting. I think it will be challenging to use skye, empatico and virtual reality due to the practical steps to set these up between locations/groups and get funding for these technologies and teacher/peer support. Getting students outside is difficult as there’s not much outdoor space and if another class or two are outside then it’s hard to be heard over the noise and can be difficult to maintain attention. I prefer to be outside on sunny days and want to do this with the students. I want to make learning tangible and… Read more »
Just hoping that the this role shift will be able to be performed by educators to reflect on their practice and for some shift their pedagogical approach.
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 »
Yes, finding that balance can be tricky, particularly if the students come from another culture. Some students can believe they are ‘in trouble’ when given constructive feedback. Knowing the student helps enormously.
Yes I agree – encouragement rather than praise with self reflection. The power of a choice of words.
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!
Kerry, I think I will find “modelling” a challenge also. I find I need to work on my own Growth Mindset eg: I put off doing gardening jobs that use big power tools. I could watch some videos on how to use the rotary hoe at home and then do it in the garden by myself/alone. If I do this – I could use it authentically as a story of growth mindset to the students at an appropriate time.
yes using language and works like YET definitely gives a student some sort of a target that they would aim for the next time pushing these boundaries further improving their growth in learning
I agree the word “yet” was also a reminder for me that it unlocks potential
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.
Amber I’m guessing you find teaching very interesting. Your cohort (migrants/refugees) must need to be able to trust you first and foremost. They must have a need to see you care since they have lost so much. Showing interest in them and their stories (not so much the trauma but their good memories) must be a fascinating place to start.
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.
very true , the concept of ability praise rather than effort praise makes students give up very quickly
Expounfing learning to experiencing learning will be interesting to follow.
Experiential learning opportunities shift the role of the educator to a facilitator, hoping that educators have the skills or have the resources available to develop them in order to develop students’ skills in reflective practices.
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 .
I agree with Michael that some students are very passive and teachers have to encourage them to participate actively in class. Switching from self-esteem to self -efficacy is really challenging for most teachers. However, we still have to find the teachable moment and facilitate students’ learning as much as possible.
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
I agree, with the notion of false affirmation, brings more damage than rewards.
I too agree with your statement, false affirmation creates more damage with students giving up too easily.
The first paradigm content delivery to building capability will be challenging for teacher and student as it is new for both.
yes, this will be the challenge
content delivery to capability- not enough time to deliver content in the course time frame
Yes we are driven by the curriculum.
Yes, teachers have not much choice but to follow the curriculum.
As teachers we are responsible to deliver the learning content as prescribed.
Unfortunately we are all in the same boat. Insufficient time to deliver content to produce a good outcome.
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.
I agree, a lot of them don’t know how to learn
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 agree, student teacher relationship is the most important, trust and respect are the foundations in the classroom.
I agree with your statement that relationships are important.
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