Taiwan (Day 2)

So here's what I've learnt:

• Females have a much stronger "don't talk to strangers (guys)" attitude here. One chick was especially rude and started to ignore me when I was asking for directions.
• The city works on completely different timings, things open around 11am and close at midnight!
• As such even the work life is different - my colleagues don't start work till noon at the university. Seems like the country all sleeps in and stays up late (just like me :) )
• It's uncomfortably hot here. Only because it's much more humid and it feels like you are perpetually bathing in a light coat of sweat whereas Australian summer is more like high-temperature hot.
• There is an abundance of cute things in stores.

Taiwan (Day 1)

A whole new world ~ a new fantastic point of view ~

What tiring trip. 11:30pm flight with little sleep, oh well watched Kung-fu Panda 3 which had a weak plotline then Daddys Home which has a hilariously bad CG moment. Didn't get to finish watching The Alamnac Project as the plane landed during the climax :(

Taiwan's different, culturally different in that ever hour I spend here I'm fascinated by the dichotomy between how Western and Eastern cultures perceive social interactions. Breakfast was lol; I went to a street vendor and realised I didn't know what to order as I couldn't read the menu! Was too embarrassed to ask so I waited until another customer came along and just ordered the same thing, the struggles are real! After taking a 1 hour nap, I went to meet Maggie (Sunny's sister), she helped me a lot and took me to get a much needed haircut and eat good food.

Later that afternoon got lost in the NTNU campus before learning that I was on the wrong campus. I met all the people I'd be working with, interesting to say the least and they took me for a stroll. I went back early and crashed and slept till 9pm then woke up and found that I was living directly on top of the Shida Night Market!

Didn't know what to eat though as I strolled through the alleys, bustling to life with uni students. I ended up approaching a store and asked what they sold. The owner looked at me funny and pointed at the sign; had to explain that I'm illiterate in the language upon which she showed great sympathy. Turns out her brother lived in Melbourne and has the same problem every time he came back. So we chatted and she told me about the area, gave me some free fruit and I bought dinner from her and went back to watch GOT S06E03 :) epic as always!

Tackling an First-year Engineering Threshold Concept

Laurillard, D. (2012). Teaching as a Design Science : Building Pedagogical Patterns for Learning and Technology   Retrieved from http://UQL.eblib.com.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=957058

Cowan, J. (2004). Education for high level capabilities. Beyond alignment to integration? : University of Aveiro and netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development.

In ENGG1100 a topic that is often challenging or troublesome for students to grasp would be mass balancing. It requires students to be able to identify that a system contains multiple different components that can move independently of one and another and you can study each and any of these by itself to learn more about the system. Additionally when the system contains multiple operational units, there is an level of thinking required which is to see that each system can be studied individually and you can break any larger system down into smaller parts.

It's an unusual way of thinking and not one that you'd ever use growing up in an average household. I suppose one way of dealing with it would be try a scaffolded approach and to fade that scaffold away over a few weeks. Perhaps this could be achieved by using cooking as a base example since it is more applicable to students' past conceptions. For this approach I would need to (Laurillard, 2012):

• Break down complex tasks and get the learner to complete them using actions that are currently in their repetoire.
• Provide opportunities to test their actions.
• Provide feedback that allows them to further develop their actions.

 After reading Cowan (2004) book chapter it definitely affected my design. He puts the reflective practice into perspective (see my other post) and I can see how I could possibly apply it in such a way that the students won't find the reflective exercise trivial like in past classes. I also think I need to re-evaluate the learning outcomes of mass balance teaching in first year as there is so much to teach with so little time. What do I really want to get across?

Education for higher level capabilities

Cowan, J. (2004). Education for high level capabilities. Beyond alignment to integration? : University of Aveiro and netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development.

This paper is written from a constructivist point of view where knowledge is generated not transmitted. The driver being that assessment is not in line with learning outcomes and that students are satisfying the assessment but not achieving the outcomes. The following table from Cowan (2004) shows some great examples of misalignment and then contrasted by a triangle diagram showing good alignment.

 
Similar to the previous article discussed, these seems to be a strong focus on evaluating at the end of a design curriculum. But how, is not very clear.

The article talks about a standard of marking where are given 2 examples, one that is sound and one that is above sound and then asked to grade it. Then their own assignments will be graded by the teacher based on the same scale. Feedback provided is minimal if they achieved a sound grade and only points that made them increase or decrease away from sound standard are returned to students. However I feel this isn't the best way to approach things as this doesn't tell the student what they have to do to improve!

A way that I like which could be implemented is the Reflection-for/in/on-action model which is using an activity to promote 3 stages of thinking:

• For - what do I need to know to tackle the question?
• In - what do I currently know, what is the next step?
• On - what did I learn from this, what can I take away to use in future questions? This in particular as this is would appear very outcome orientate for students. What common theme or skill/method occurred in this family of questions? What makes these questions the same?

 It also places emphasis on getting students to evaluate their own work against the criteria as an effective way to learn. Although I foresee logistical issues on how to run such an exercise.

This book also pointed out a glaring weakness in misalignment of assessment for ENGG1100. I'm asking them to show me a PFD but never teach them it.

I think with reflective tasks the most important thing is to link it back to student interests. They need to see how the reflective task will help them get better grades. It also points out that we shouldn't be teaching to try and cover X amount of content but rather to the capabilities of our target audience (i.e. the students).

So many potential issues this book points out, I like it. Things like self-assessment will help lower discontent when students get back their marks, true. Getting students to tell the tutor what they have done that week is also a form of self assessment as well and I can foresee that being effective.

As a finishing statement that I just read by relevant author Paul Ramsden: didactic learning tools such as lectures which can be considered largely transmissive are still relevant and valid, it all depends on how you implement them to achieve your learning outcomes.