Week 7: Is an M.Ed. project right for me?

I really appreciated the guest speaker, Lisa Tsumura, that Lorayne had arranged to have in class this week. Her talk echoed every thought that I have had about whether I want to pursue a project in my Masters program or if I only want to do the course only option. I've already done the thesis route as I have my Ph.D. in Biochemistry so I really don't want to go through that again (it was a fantastic experience but I know the amount of time and effort that needs to go into it). I am quite intrigued about the project idea though and Lisa (and this course) has given me a lot to think about.

Exploring Ideas

As I've been changing my approach to my teaching practices this year, I'm beginning to identify various issues within my subject area. Chemistry, or any science for that matter, is traditionally taught in a very teacher-directed manner, likely because there is a lot of content to learn in such a short period of time. As I've been moving away from this model to one that is more student-centred, I am meeting a lot of resistance from both students and parents. I've even come up against comments such as "I can't learn this way" or "can't you just teach us the traditional way" to "you're not teaching or doing your job". Just from the conversations that I've had this year, with colleagues as well as with others taking this course, I've seen that other subject areas can easily integrate student-centred approaches so why is it that science can't be taught in a similar manner? Why is there so much resistance in science against student-centred learning approaches? Are these perspectives and views actually present? And if so, how can I, and other science educators, go about changing this? I have so many questions swimming around in my head and I'm wondering if this is the beginning of a project idea...

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Week 6: An Introvert's Perspective on Class

This week, Lorayne has asked us to focus our learning log on what we are doing during class time. Specifically, what am I doing in class time? How much is passive learning? And how much is active learning? What I'm Doing During Class Let's start with what I am doing during class time. I have to admit that most of the time I am listening to the conversation and discussion that is happening in class, especially when we are in a larger group. As an introvert, I really find class overwhelming in terms of stimulus because I'm trying to take everything in, including the discussion, chat window etc. I need time to process information... it's just the way that my brain works! I do participate much more frequently during breakout discussions. I appreciate it when we do breakouts as it gives me a break from feeling overwhelmed and allows me a bit more time to process and contribute to the discussion. Passive vs. Active Learning In regards to ...

Week 8: Peer Review and Case Study

As this was an asynchronous class this week, my time was spent working on the group case study and the peer review of learning logs. Case Study My role in our group is to provide the case and the context for this assignment. I chose to make a PowToon video to explain our case study, which is a challenge for me since I've never used PowToon before. I like to challenge myself like this and try new things as I really learn a lot from these experiences. As I was getting ready to make the video, I quickly realized that I needed to prepare a script. As I was writing the script, I realized that I had begun to write the paper! I spent quite a bit of time working on the script but this effort that I'm putting forth now will mean less work for me in the coming weeks. Here is the video that I made: Peer Review For the peer review of the learning logs, I reviewed Jen Artan's blog. This process was beneficial as it provided an opportunity to gain...

Week 3: Group Work

I used to really hate and dread anything to do with group work. I've had some pretty horrible experiences in the past, even as recent as during my B.Ed. For my biology curriculum course, we needed to plan out an entire unit (on plants) and ALL of the work was basically left for me to complete. It was the most frustrating group work experience that I've had to date - aren't teachers supposed to collaborate and work together? If teachers themselves can't do this, how do we expect it of our students? BUT... over the past year and a half, as I've been working on completing my M.Ed. at UOIT, my opinion of group work has done a complete 180. My mindset has changed for a few reasons; I have gained a better understanding of social constructivist learning theories and I have experienced what and how collaborative learning should be implemented in education. This past week, I have focused on working on assignment 2 with my group. We have been develop...

EDUC5205G Learning Log

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