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?
Developing self esteem can be achieved by encouraging learners to reflect on their responses and consider how they did it well, how they did not do it well and how they would change and do it differently next time.
The most difficult one in my setting is changing from role driven to relationship driven teaching practices. Learners are not as trusting of others especially new migrants and adult learners.
I teach adults in a vocational setting through an online digital platform over a short time period. It would is often difficult to build relationships with learners in this setting. Relationships take time and trust. Students who are less trusting may not wish to build relationships in the online setting and never turn on their camera unless it is required.
Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy- I need to be more mindful about my feedback.
The quote that stuck with me is that “todays students learn teachers, not subjects”. How a teacher can have a huge impact of the students and how I hope that I am a positive and supportive teacher. Also the challenge around different teachers, teaching styles and how students adapt to these changes.
I loved this too. How true it is
Self esteem to self efficacy as you don’t know what someone has gone through or what their triggers are.
It is important to recognise different life experiences and potentially provide support by referring learners to professionals who can guide them. In TAFE ESOL programs learners can have experience considerable trauma and may need additional psychological counselling to help them recover and move ahead in their studies.
Re-thinking the classroom (due to funding) and re-thinking the goal of learning are most challenging as systems are so set in their ways and any change needs heaps of approvals. The practicalities would be so hard to change and adapt. Worth a try, but it takes so many signatures to get change actually done.
Agree – also hard to change when they assessment materials and marking guides are written for you and so heavily regulated with compliance.
I believe the third paradigm shift would be the most challenging for me. Not so much due to being set in my ways or being at the closing stages of my career as an educator. It would be most challenging due to the parameters in which my teaching settings is controlled.
I can see how this would be hard in this day!
This is also the same for me. This is where I need to do the most work.
Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy feels the most challenging because it is about mindset and wording. My students are CALD, so with many culturally diverse backgrounds, it is particularly tricky to understand what is wording and manner is going to motivate, challenge and encourage my students. It is something I need to do a deep dive into.
Monique that’s exactly right, I have been caught out using slang terms and you can tell they just don’t understand what your saying.
This requires a deep understanding of what personalised learning will look like for each individual
I agree but I thnk the adult learners in my area are able to initiate and ask for help better than younger students,
The shift from self-esteem to self-efficacy is the most challenging to accomplish in my opinion. As much as teachers encourage with positive developmental feedback,it takes time for the student to change their mindset.
I agree, applying the mind set and learned optimism can support the cause
A new paradigm is needed for the Fourth Industrial revolution. In reality, I believe all will be challenging, however, I feel optimistic to rise to the challenge of change, as said in other comments I think I am just going to focus most on what I can do right now in which I can model the quote – “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” and foster developing my relationship with students.
Probably content delivery to capability, although the expounding to experiencing is a close second. I feel that we are highly constrained by time and syllabus, and until those change, it will be hard to implement these shifts.
In my opinion as a TAFEy its about finding a balance in the shift for all four paradigms as they are all challenging. Big advantage that I have as an Events teacher is the ability as well as the experience that I have of extensively & regularly using a practical Project approach.
At TAFE re-thinking the classroom will always be a challenge due to funding….
Feedback is more than a satisfactory result – it is constructive and something the student can learn from
yes, I agree
Agree Julie.
I agree, this is also where the concepts of real, tangible, and practical can be part of the learning and feedback at the same time.
Correct, giving them tips for to do even better in a practical skill is so important or just giving them another way to do something that might work more logically for them!
I think the most difficult paradigm shift, for me as a PTCT at TAFE, would be Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy. Although I feel it is so important that we give intentional & intelligent feedback (which I feel I do) & predominately model the mindset I want to encourage – ‘You Can Do This’, at the end of the day the student needs to satisfactorily complete an assessment, set by someone else, who does not personally know the student. Often, as educators we can feel frustrated by ‘the system’s expectations’, ‘time’ &, the ‘basic level of education’ of our students.
Well said
The dynamic and age differences in our cohorts do make a difference as the cultural backgrounds etc. play a big role at how they see us at teachers with their expectations. To get them to open up and embrace our changes takes time and that is what we are often missing.
While they are all challenging, I think I am just going to focus most on what I can do right away which is modelling the quote – “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” and really developing my relationship with students.
That’s a good idea, thank you 🙂
I agree – this is challenging as adult students in my setting are unlikely to quickly accept a different leadership style in the classroom until they see the value of a different approach to building relationships and enabling self direction in learners.
Self esteem to self efficacy is problematic if a student maybe not a high achiever depending on their family life background , social life experiences and former educational achievements , different strategies in engaging the student are required to lift them to a level of self efficacy .This takes time and experience, time is sometimes a factor.
I agree it add difficultly what the student hear, sees and believes from family and friends that may inform them they aren’t a good learner… they need some “grit” and self-believe to want to step up.
Agree Michelle, belief in self takes time for some students who are easily influenced by others opinions.
I think content delivery to capability building. As high school teachers we are very siloed – ie we teach within our learning area and that’s it, yet this is what needs to be dismantled so capability building can occur.
This is difficult as it’s in the system and while we as individuals can grow and change, we still have to stay within our bounds.
Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy would probably be the most challenging. This is due mostly to the different influences outside of the school that we cannot necessarily control, particularly in a time of continuous connectivity through social media, etc.
I believe this to also be an issue within my context too. Many students are driven extrinsically and lack the self-believe to step away from what is socially accepted to be themselves and do their own thing, this is quite damaging to them
Trying to keep students focussed on edu and not so much whats happening at home is a challenge sometimes.
The shift from self-esteem to self-efficacy is probably the most challenging to accomplish. Family support and upbringing of students can have such an impact on their ability to manage challenges and difficulties, including learning challenges.
Absolutely agree, there’s a lot of learner behaviours to contend with here.
Too true 🙂
I concur many factors are involved
I agree with this – cultural differences in learners backgrounds impacts how they learn and how they like to learn. Many esol students in TAFE prefer teacher directed learning and prefer to sit and listen because that is what they are used to from their previous education.
This has been an interesting module and has raised a number of issues The concept of content delivery to capability is going to be the biggest challenge as so much of our system is set up on content delivery and ensuring that content has been delivered.
I believe the self-esteem to self-efficacy will be quite challenging. While, we as teachers, can start to change the way we model ourselves, provide feedback and be mindful of our expectations, it may take longer than we think to turn around the mindset of our students.
I agree, Nicole. There are also many other influences impacting this shift,
Definitely, our time with our students is limited in the grand scheme of things. Shifting the mindset of our students is a big job, made more difficult if this is classroom specific and not adopted as a whole school approach.
That’s a good point. I am glad you brought that up, it is really helpful.
With the rise in mental health issues, the self-esteem to self-efficacy is probably the biggest shift i have had to and will continue to have to adapt to.
The mental health issues are a large challenge and seem to be increasing each year. The last few years of Covid has certainly seen this and I do wonder how much media also has to play in this with the constant reporting. It would be interesting to see if media focused more on the positives to what result this would have on our students.
Absolutely, Colleen. Wish the positive mindset was embedded in all aspects of our culture.
Good point Ben! I definately agree 🙁
What I see around me is still this teacher role being the authority. It may take a generation to be a relation driven teacher as it is difficult to do things different from your own learning / childhood / history / habits.
We still have a few teachers who believe they are the keepers of all knowledge and need to be in control – there are less and less of them around, but they are still an element that needs to be supported to move towards new ways of thinking
I feel the 4 Paradigm Shift feed of each other. They are a stepping stone progression.
I am not sure how this would work in a totally theoretical unit.
Teaching a skill and working with students to master the skill give the opportunity for Capability -. Master the skill and improve, them use the skill to move to more advanced level. The students grows in confidence in their abilities and knowledge.
At Tafe we deal with a wide range of ages (18 – 60). In the majority we are dealing with adults.
The relationship needs to be respectful and supportive. We are not just teaching the theory and practical components of the unit, but also helping them to prepare for the workforce.
To transfer the the knowledge and skill to the workplace the student need to have the opportunity to build and practice the skills required. This takes honest positive feedback and time and patience to being the struggling students along with the group. The student must have the confidence to admit an error or ask for further explanation. Any wise workplace Supervisor would see a junior/new staff member that can admit an error or ask for further information a great asset to the team.
I absolutely agree Lyn! Acknowledging you don’t know, or have made a mistake, is a great asset to any team! I think of words like; honesty, transparency & team player.
Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy. Within the TAFE world feedback is required for every assessment and I try to provide individual and personlised feedback for every student however most dont bother to even acknolwedge it.
I feel with the marking system it is helping Self-Efficacy as students need to comprehend the whole unit before a satisfactory mark can be given. Maybe students will not acknowledge or understand it at the time, but they will eventually when they can connect the dots.
Feedback is essential even though we may not think that it is receivedit probably is.
Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy-teaching within a a VET background and as previously discussed throughout this thread ,feedback opportunities are plentiful and are a considerable part of our compliance requirements . However, it is still so valuable to incorporate time into our programs which I acknowledge is much easier said than done , to provide feedback outside the realms of internal and external compliance requirements to our students
Budget cut and reduction available hour to complete the unit reduces the opportunities to build Self – Efficacy. Struggling student need more time and support to develop the skills and confidence to achieve Self – Efficacy.
Within our multicultural society the self esteem self efficacy seems most challenging as different cultures expectations of reward for effort in their studies will drive the type of feedback or affirmation that we need to offer our students. With a lot of learning going online the feedback we are asked to give in the VET world is positive reinforcement so students don’t feel like they have ‘failed’ and drop out of the course. In a face to face situation this can be slightly different.
Trying to convince student that error and making mistakes are a great learning opportunity. the student feel disappointed if don’t get a perfect result or the skill is not yet competent. I try to demonstrate and explain Tafe is a place get things wrong or mess something wrong. There is so much to gain and learn working out what went wrong, how to get it right next time.
Expounding learning to Experienced learning. In the VET world we are so driven by training packages and compliance that we have little input to the teaching methodology
agree, we don’t have much influence on how the outcomes are met.
I agree with this difficulty. There is so much set criteria, marking guides and compliance documents that it can be hard to introduce new methods etc
Self esteem to self efficacy
Having read a number of the comments posted I think, particularly in the TAFE world that this paradigm shift will be for me the most challenging – TAFE is now so much about feedback that it has become overloaded – each part of every assessment requires feedback there is so much that the students don’t take any notice any more. We need to make more appropriate and useful feedback, not feedback for compliance
This is so true Wendy – and as the units are competent or not yet competent the feedback is often irrelevant to the student (unless they are not yet competent and they look to the feedback to the answer they need to submit)
This is so true Wendy. I feel all of the effort we put into individualised feedback isnt acknolwedged by most students as they just want to know if they have passed to move on to the next thing.
self -Esteem Self Efficacy at the start of every new semester I begin to explain the assessments criteria straight away I hear some students say I can’t do that. When I hear that I bring real work experiences into the classroom knowing that once they hear this… they know that they can do the work…
Agree Jeanette – often needs an explanation ad put into context
Self Esteem-Self Efficacy-when I start working with new students I often hear them say I CANT DO IT! My response is the quote: If you say you cant you wont but if you say you can you will! i explain that by them telling themselves that they cant do something just allows them to give up ,so change the thought and use words like this is more challenging than I thought ,or I’m finding this hard ,allows them the ability to keep trying.
Expounding learning to experiencing learning will be challenging, given we are restricted by the rules and regulations.
yes this is my concern as well. We are so driven by compliance
Yes, with compliance and now with the impact of Covid we are so limited in our scope.
Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy. This is hard when we are expected to give feedback on every little question a student answers in a assessment
Absolutely agree with you Jackie.
Jackie, I agree, feedback and reflection is vital to improve on any performance however in my experience ,our younger students find it difficult not to hear that they have not achieved perfection immediately
Self-Esteem to Self-Efficacy as a lot of my younger students are resistant to any feedback that isn’t telling them they are perfect straight up. I find it takes a lot of effort to convince them they will learn how to do it with practice, that I am here to help and teach them how to do the task in front of them. Always encouraging their effort.
exactly. they are resistant to feedback that is not telling them how excellent they are
Agreed, even the simplest, constructive feedback is viewed as an attack.
Further to this a dangerous extreme side effect where students (adult learners) feeling as though constructive feedback is then premise to make unfounded complaints about a teacher, attacking them on a personal &/or professional level with no remorse or regard for facts simply to devalue the original feesback.
This also occurs in the adult learning environment particularly those older students that return to TAFE for job role changes – these students often come in with a mind set of believing that it is all too hard – it is a challenge to keep them engaged and positive
In my opinion as an educator I feel the need to find a balance in implementing a shift for all the four paradigms as they are all challenging depending on the context that you are dealing with. The advantage that I have as an Early Childhood educator is the ability as well as the experience that I have of extensively & regularly using the ‘Project Approach’ of learning and teaching which not only engages children but also makes learning extremely real and meaningful.
i agree. we need to approach all of the shifts and balance them all
These four new paradigms for pedagogy are very important for learners to inspire to learn and maintain motivation. As educators we should not forget when we were learners long time ago. We need something familiar and something challenging. Familiarity to maintain our confidence and challenges to inspire our agency and spirit to learn working together is what our learners what to experience in the learning process.
A good perspective provided to encourage ourselves to think how & when learning was most meaningful for us as children and why??
I agree with that Romi.