HOW THIS
EDTEC 498A COURSE CHANGES MY TRAINING STRATEGY
(Antonius Tanan)
My Teaching Philosophy Before The Course
I am an entrepreneurship trainer and a
curriculum developer as well, as the President of UCEC (University Ciputra
Entrepreneurship Center) my job is to help adults to start a new venture or to
be entrepreneurs. I have two key
philosophies in preparing a training program. Firstly is the Transformation
Theory of Jack Mezirow and secondly is the practice of experiential learning or
learning by doing program. Fayolle A.
(2006) mentioned that there is
no universal pedagogical recipe to teach entrepreneurship however he agreed
that “learning by doing” or a real-life situation should be preferred. The process of evaluation will focus on the progress of trainees
in their ability to create a new venture. Trainees will go through a
step-by-step and progressive learning experience and certain evaluation is
designed to assess the progress in each level.
Mezirow in his
writing on “Fostering Critical reflection In Aduthood” defined learning as ‘the process of making a new or revised
interpretation of the meaning of an experience, which guides subsequent
understanding, appreciation and action’ (p.1). This concept provides
several guidances for entrepreneurship trainers to design learning by doing programs. Firstly, the experiences must be designed in a
context of predetermined meaning and the lesson learnt must be defined clearly
beforehand. Secondly, we need to provide resources (information and mentor) to
help trainees to interpret the experiences in a right way. Thirdly we need to
prepare trainees to be
able to apply their new understanding in the
next experiences. Fourthly we have to design the experiences as an opportunity
for trainees to solve problems - how
to do something or how to perform or task oriented problem solving. Mezirow also argued in his
writing “Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice” that the role of educators is more to facilitator and provocateur
[PS1]rather than as an authority on subject
matter.
Mezirow described the transformative process occurring across
the following phases in the clarification of meaning (Mezirow, 2000,
p.22):
1. A disorienting dilemma;
2. Self- examination with feelings of
fear, anger, guilt or shame;
3. A critical assessment of assumptions;
4. Recognition that one’s discontent and
the process of transformation are shared;
5. Exploration of options for new roles,
relationships and actions;
6. Planning a course of action;
7. Acquiring knowledge and skills for
implementing one’s plans;
8. Provisional trying of new roles;
9. Building competence and self-confidence
in new roles and relationships; and
10. A reintegration into one’s life on the
basis of conditions dictated by one’s new perspective.
I would simplify the
transformative process into four main processes and how entrepreneurship
educators should respond to the theory.
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Experiencing
· A disorienting dilemma;
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The experiences
must push trainees “to the limit”, lead trainees to
leave their comfort zone and trainees must reflect their personal experience in a real market place. This kind of challenge will create dilemma, trainees will face
uncertainty, complexity and risk of failures
|
|
Reflecting
· Self- examination with feelings of fear,
anger, guilt or shame;
· A critical assessment of assumptions;
· Recognition that one’s discontent and
the process of transformation are shared;
· Exploration of options for new roles,
relationships and actions;
· Planning a course of action;
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· Moment of reflection should be part of
the program
· Facilitators must provide questions
which will trigger a meaningful reflection
· Trainees must have a personal time to
discuss their reflection with the mentors
|
|
Responding
· Acquiring knowledge and skills for
implementing one’s plans;
· Provisional trying of new roles;
· Building competence and self-confidence
in new roles and relationships; and
·
|
· Mentors discuss with trainees their
response to the reflection
· Mentors must make sure the trainees have
an effective way to pursue transformation.
|
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Experiencing with
New Mindset
· A reintegration into one’s life on the
basis of conditions dictated by one’s new perspective.
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· Mentors provide trainees with a new
experiential learning that will offer trainees to apply new perspective and
also encounter a more difficult challenge.
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Hsu, Ching and Grabowski (2009) showed that cognitive processing
involved organization and integration with prior knowledge, critical thinking
and self-regulated learning and actually all these thinking experiences happens
in the process of Experiencing, Reflecting, Responding and Experiencing a New
Mindset in my Entrepreneurship Training. Hsu, Ching and Grabowski (2009) showed that
the cognitive processing was
enriched by the presence of We 2.0 Technology (Tagging/Folksonomy,
Collaborative Writing Tools/Wikis and Docs and Journaling/Blogs). Subsequently,
the technology will also enrich our entrepreneurship training.
How This Course Open My Eyes and Change My Training Strategy.
The Web 2.0 or
two-way Web or interactive Web or social media offers a two-way discussion or
interaction mechanism where the line between consumers and producers of the content
is becoming indistinguishable. There are two key words, one is the Internet
itself as the platform of Web 2.0 and secondly the interaction mechanism. The
reading of “Learning, Working & Playing in
the Digital Age” by
John Seely
Brown has opened my eyes that “the internet and the Web as a medium is that it enables us to
leverage the small efforts of the many along with the large efforts of the few”.
The story of
Pueblo Project in the Longview School in Phoenix, Arizona is a very good
example of the above concept. The Project connects a set of senior citizens
acting as mentors with kids in the school systems. It shows the small efforts
of the many—the senior citizens—beautifully complemented the large efforts of
the few—the teachers. This report helped me to create a new option for Reflection
process of the trainees. Previously the Reflection process was discussed with
trainers or other trainees but in the future I will connect my trainees with
those who have the same concern through the Web 2.0 technology.
My second
insight is on how Web 2.0 enhances Social Learning. The simplest way to describe
Social Learning is “based on the premise that our understanding of
content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and
through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or
actions. The focus is not so much on what we are learning but on how
we are learning“, it is what Brown (2008, p.??) mentioned in his writing. I
have practiced Social Learning in my training however it was limited into a
traditional small group discussion and classroom discussion and now I just
found out through reading and assignment in this Web 2.0 course that I could
promote a better Social Learning especially for the process of Experiencing,
Reflection and Responding. The discussion in Angel, Diigo, Adobe Connect and
Group assignment has helped me to learn from others.
My third insight, I learned that Web 2.0 could help my
entrepreneurship training in promoting Individual Cognition. The
following figure of Web 2.0 technologies as cognitive and collaboration tools were
prepared by Hsu, Ching and Grabowski (2009). It clearly described the big picture of
web 2.0 and learning.
Web 2.0 technologies as cognitive
tools from Hsu, Ching, & Grabowski (2009)
My individual
cognition can become more productive when I utilize Web 2.0 because I can
communicate with specific bloggers, discuss a specific issue with an author in
his/her Facebook or comment to pictures and videos. This Web 2.0 has expanded
the scope of learning source. I used to
have the Web as what Hsu, Ching and Grabowski (2009) described as “a
repository/depository space of information” but now I can use it for “a
collaborative space enabling proactive and participatory use”. Now I can say that the Web is not only the
“Web- as-information-source” but it can be the “Participatory Web” that
encourages user participation, creation, and sharing, beyond simple retrieval
of information (Decrem, 2006; Wikipedia, 2007e).
The Implication (My Next Plan)
I will change my training strategies and I
will do these three new things. One I
will create a Facebook Group and I will ask all my trainees to be members. I
will discuss certain topics in the Facebook and I will even inform my
assignments in the Facebook. My reason
of using Facebook and not Blogs is because Facebook creates a more informal
environment. It allows people to write a
short or a long comment and to use an everyday language. The role of trainers
is more as mentors in the entrepreneurship training. That is why an informal communication setting
is important. Secondly, I will use
Google Docs and Diigo for report writings and group discussions. Both tools are very useful in promoting social
learning. Thirdly I will ask my trainees
to have their own Blogs to write the learning journey and the process of
change. I will give comments on their Blogs.
My role as an educator will change as well. It is not enough to be an information provider
for the trainees, I have to be able to encourage my trainees to seek the
information and share them to the group.
Secondly I have to be an expert of the discipline. As a mentor I have to be able to guide my
trainees about which information is really valuable and which information have
less quality. I can conclude my learning
experience in this course into three benefits. One I have learned how to utilize the Web 2.0
better for my Individual and social cognition; two I have experienced it by myself;
and three I have evidences and examples on how to practice it in my own training
program.
References:
Decrem,
B. (2006). Introducing
Flock Beta 1. Retrieved
May 15, 2007, from http://www.flock. com/node/4500
Brown. (2008). Minds on Fire: Open Education,
the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0. Retrieved from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Brown. (1999).
Learning, Working & Playing in the Digital Age. Retrieved from
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/seelybrown/seelybrown.html
Fayolle.A.(2006).Essay on
the Nature of Entrepreneurship Education. Retrieved from http://www.kmu.unisg.ch/rencontres/RENC2006/Topics06/A/Rencontres_2006_Fayolle.pdf
Hsu, Ching, & Grabowski. (2009). Web 2.0 Technologies as
Cognitive Tools of the New Media Age. In Tan Wee, Subramaniam.(2009). Handbook
of Research on New Media Literacy at the K-12 Level:
Issues and Challenges.
Mezirow.J. Epistemology of Transformative Learning. Retrieved from
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.116.8014&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Mezirow.J.(2000). Learning As Transformation.
Mezirow.J. Fostering Critical
Reflection In Adulthood: A Guide to Transformative
and Emancipatory Learning Critical Reflection. Retrieved from http://www.graham-russell-pead.co.uk/articles-pdf/critical-reflection.pdf
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