Online Course-Related Collaborative Activities for Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract

The e-learning asynchronous class entitled, "Transformative Learning Theory for Global Academic Excellence", is designed to aid teachers in improving academic performance of students in the 5th through 9th grades. Developing a successful e-learning course relies on consideration of several factors not the least of which is participation by the instructor and learners. When students ask themselves if they want to pursue a course, what convinces them of its value? The attributes connected to the "who, what, when, where, and why" of the class emerge. The idea for this class originated by considering "why not instruct teachers"? America's declining academic performance of the 5th through 9th grade students continues if the U.S. ranking is compared internationally: 14th in reading performance, 25th in mathematics, and 17th in science. Considering dozens of learning theories, which might enable teachers to turn the tide, resulted in a selection of the Transformative Learning Theory. To design the course, use of COURSEsites by Blackboard was chosen, and is located at https://www.coursesites.com/
webapps/blackboard/execute/courseMain?course_id=_24042_1. This paper includes two sections: Section One discusses three content activities for the teacher students. Section Two includes an overview of the projected reactions by the teacher students who would be completing the two activities as well as a disclosure of why these activities were selected.

Online Course-Related Collaborative Activities for Preservice Teachers

Activities that support how learners try to understand what is being learned (rather than how instruction is delivered) is discussed by Karaman & Celik (2008) who refer to this change as educational reform. Specifically, literature constructivism refers to reform in how learners actively work on knowledge construction by undertaking authentic tasks, which requires application and representation of learners' ideas, and instructors who provide guidance and advice (Karaman, et. al, 2008). Project-Based Learning (PBL) enables learners to accomplish such tasks; therefore, PBL is integrated into the activities below.

A review by Helsing, Howell, Kegan, & Lahey (2008) presented evidence that the
Transformative Learning Theory is important for professional development, which is relevant to the teacher learners identified for this e-learning course. Undergoing transformation also initiates reformation in education, which warrants activities using this learning theory. Today's teachers must know how to completely understand complex problems as well as share and investigate with peers in finding solutions (Helsing, et. al, 2008). Activities are described that enable teachers to gain the skills necessary to find common ground with other stakeholders.

Background for Activity One

Mezirow's work explained that engaging in portfolio development engenders transformational learning due to its support of critical reflection as well as the changes occuring in learners' assumptions and beliefs (Conrad, 2008). The portfolio demonstrates new and previously obtained knowledge by the student's careful selection, reflection, connection, and projection, which includes the depth and a leeway supporting freedom of choice, action, or thinking about prior knowledge (Conrad, 2008).

Activity Description. Because my class is meant to instruct teacher students who are practicing or in post-secondary teaching programs, the activity was chosen for an opportunity to create an electronic portfolio to aid learners in devising materials, and recording demonstrations of past learning, and learning during my class, which is entitled, the "Transformational Learning Theory for Global Excellence". The portfolio activity is also recommended as a Transformational Learning Theory content activity by Watkins, and includes the essential reflection element recommended by Mezirow and Watkins.

Goals. To provide learners with an opportunity for reflection, selection, connection, and projection (Conrad, 2008) by creating an online portfolio. In addition, the portfolio activity will ideally result in Transformational Learning outcomes using and constructing accurate documents, using text to appropriately communicate, provide realization of the learning style of the learner, and using the learning style to complete assigned tasks required for the portfolio (Conrad, 2008).

Objectives. As a result of this learning experience, students should be able to engage cognitively with their learning histories resulting in new knowledge "of self, of self situated within the trajectory of growth, and of self situated within the profession" (Conrad, 2008, p. 142). The online portfolio should also provide a life-long learning and recording tool.

Procedures. Students receive instructions from the instructor on the parameters of the portfolio assignment. Students are instructed to select the "portfolio" link within the class' portal on the course's web site. Each learner has already received instruction on the use of WinZip. The students first complete the portfolio's profile seen within the provided template, and save it with a new unique filename, which includes the learner's name and student's identification number. (During the course of the student's program and post-graduation, the created portfolio remains available to the student for updates and revisions as desired. Graduation requirements include the submission of the completed portfolio.)

Conrad's (2008) stages noted above (reflection, selection, connection, and projection) are each included in the activity. This activity requires eight weeks to complete. Therefore, during the three-month course, the activity will start at the beginning of the second month, and each stage will be finalized and assessed weekly by the mentor. Other activities and assignments require completion every week until the end of the course, and the rubric reflects such assignments.

The reflection stage requires the learner to contemplate activities from life events, and relate them in writing to according to the academically influenced learning outcomes (e.g., organizing a household creates good organizational abilities). The selection stage requires learners to choose past activities, which can be transposed into curriculum requirements. Critical thinking skills are developed more acutely as learners record past histories and current life events strategically, which emulates those skills needed to develop an essay (Conrad, 2008). The connection stage evolves into uncovering understanding derived from the first and second stage (Conrad, 2008). The presentation stage simply involves a decision on how to best display that learning resulting from the completed portfolio.

The learner will create content for the portfolio's segments including a "table of contents, a resume, narrative autobiography or personal narrative, a chronological learning history, educational and career goals, demonstration of learning through learning statements, and documentation of learning" (Conrad, 2008, p. 145). The learner includes additional documents including "letters of attestation written by externals to validate their learning claims, and copies of credentials, awards, certificates, and other artifacts" (Conrad, 2008, p. 145). The completed portfolio will be submitted by the course's end date.

Evaluation. This activity additionally provides an assessment tool for the instructor to evaluate learning, which the instructor completes by reviewing "the connections that learners have created between their past experiential learning and its application to current learning, and looking for the insights revealed in the learners’ narrative writing that speak to the learners’ thoughtful awareness of the importance of their learning in their personal and professional lives" (Conrad, 2008, p. 147). The instructor evaluates the portfolio by looking for missing information, a display of strengths and weaknesses, and determining how the learner might complete knowledge gaps so that the learner's course can be finished. Each learner will also submit a reflective self-assessment (Conrad & Donaldson,2004) to the instructor. The portfolio activity is worth 20 per cent of the course's grade.
The instructor reviews each student's portfolio weekly using WinZip, provides suggestions to the learners via the class' e-mail system, and grades at the end of the three-month course. Each learner will also post their portfolio to the class' discussion forum, and learners will be evaluated on their feedback (Watkins, 2005).

Background for Activity Two

Structured Virtual Tours improve learners' abilities to use electronic resources to investigate academic issues, and enable learner's to provide recommendations based upon critical thinking skills. Two Virtual Tours assignments are recommended as an individualized and team activity. Mezirow (Cooper, n.d.) explains that learning the Transformative Learning Theory is reflected in students who use literature to "stimulate critical consciousness" (para 17) thereby facilitating a critical reflection of assumptions as activities progress. In order for the learners to identify potential solutions to declining academic performance, the Virtual Tours provide learners with the opportunity to examine "the depth and meaning of their world-views" (Cooper, n.d., para 8). Cooper (n.d.) and Ryman and Richardson (2009) explained that Mezirow identified rational and critical discourse as a mechanism for transformation. Critical discourse in particular transforms into constructive results as learners participate in "explaining, exploring, questioning, defending and testing ideas, in tandem with individual reflection" (Ryman & Richardson, 2009, p. 48). Therefore, the Transformational Learning Theory can successfully result in finding pathways to unexplored thinking, creation of knowledge, increased strength and trust from social relationships, potent leadership, and personal revolution, which could focus the learners on identifying solutions to falling academic performance.

Activity Description. The second content activity, Virtual Tours, provides students with exploration of web sites that enable students to become more familiar with the course's topic: Mezirow's Transformational Learning Theory, the Programme for Student Assessment (PISA), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Education World, which provides information on America's testing standards, scholarly articles regarding the Transformational Learning Theory, and international learning institutes. The primary Virtual Tour web site was designed by the instructor, and includes a tour of the web sites noted above. The activity also requires in depth review of all elements within the web sites explored. Searching skills will be reviewed to aid learners in finding other relevant web sites. The review of search techniques has links in the primary Virtual Tour website, originates from YouTube.com, and are entitled, "Evaluating Sources on the World Wide Web" (heglandgm, 2009), and "Searching the Internet Effectively" (cmduke1972, 2011).

Goals. Learners will gain more expertise specifically addressing the Transformational Learning Theory, and use valid and reliable web sites to address improving academic performance in America and around the world.

Objective. As a result of this learning experience, students should be able to engage in investigating web sites that guide the learner toward finding solutions to improve academic excellence, and provide well-rounded and well-written reports of those web sites.

Procedure. The first Virtual Tour will be scheduled the third week of the course, and
the team Virtual Tour will follow four weeks later. Each Virtual Tour requires the student and the team to complete the required elements within one week. The Virtual Tour reports will be posted in the class' discussion forum. To begin the Virtual Tours, the learner accesses the instructor's guide in the class forum, which will include instructions and examples for completing and reporting on web visits. The guide includes the specific criteria for conducting and reporting upon the Virtual Tour as well as links to required web sites. The guide also provides directions as to how the Virtual Tour will occur. For example, a sequential list in the guide explains the web site's pages to be viewed, the order of viewing, time to be spent on each page, the links and functions to be selected, Web-sharing details, and other important web site information (Watkins, 2005).

Although the class is asynchronous, this activity is synchronous, and the two Virtual Tours require the individual and the team members to meet online with the instructor at the web site to be examined. The instructor will guide the learners through the web site, and provide a report to the learners of the details of the completed tour. The team will consist of 15 learners, and the team designates one learner as the lead who will be responsible for scheduling synchronous or asynchronous meetings, and posting the team's report. Each learner will select the desired activity's component to complete. The individual and team learners will use e-mail or telephone to contact the instructor as questions or problems arise. The instructor will respond to e-mails within 24 hours, and respond to telephone calls the day of the call. This activity prepares the learner to conduct web site
investigations independently. The Virtual Tours will be recorded to provide learners
to revisit the activity, and enable learners who missed the activity to complete the tour as possible.

Evaluation. Code (2010) commented that since the data captured is explicitly linked to the learning outcomes and research questions, extraneous data such as key clicks that do not provide information about the learning objectives become irrelevant. This data is keyed in establishing the validity of the in-world interactions for the purposes of assessing student inquiry learning. These data can then be used to model students’ thought processes and knowledge providing a base for understanding the cognitive implications of those actions. As serious games and virtual worlds provide a medium in which to situate students to exercise inquiry practices, there are far reaching implications for serious games and virtual worlds as an assessment tool" (para 3). The assessment instrument for this activity posted on the class' forum page requires each student to access a list of questions regarding web
site validity. Each student will choose and identify a web site page, and answer each question developed by the Regents of the University of California (2011). The
student will post the completed list to the "assignment" forum.

Background for Activity Three

Taylor (et. al, 2008) stated that "Mezirow’s transformational learning theory seeks to be a comprehensive theory of adult learning based on the fundamental principle that adults make meaning and learn from their life experiences" (p. 20). The content activity entitled, "Varied Reactions", facilitates learning by requiring learners to investigate the topic, which is the Transformative Learning Theory for Global Excellence". Investigation of the topic is required because the student teachers must perform in depth research about the teaching infrastructures around the world with special emphasis on the top 20 academically performing countries.

Activity Description. This activity will be completed by the student teams weekly
throughout the course, and completed reports will be posted in the class forum for
review and discussion by all learners. Reports will consist of three pages or less using a double-spaced format in the Times New Roman size 12 font with references shown in the American Psychological Association's (APA) format. Each team member will contribute a perspective to the team's forum regarding the chosen new's topic or undertake a role of a person that people would typically associate with the new's topic. For example, team members could represent the article's writer, a person-of-interest, a person who challenges everything, an informed advocate, and so forth (Watkins, 2005). The news item, roles, and perspectives will be discussed in the team's forum, and address world news updates on academic performance. References will be no older than five years (60 months).

Goals. Students and teams will successfully provide reviews of scholarly and peer-reviewed news items regarding the class' topic, display differing perspectives and roles used during the news' investigations, and illustrate enhanced acuity in communication skills.

Objectives. As a result of this learning experience, students should display clarity when thinking outside of the box, seek answers for improved academic performance that may not readily be clear, review current events, and discuss findings with classmates.

Procedures. The instructor will provide students with a list of roles and
perspectives aligned with the class' topic. The activity is a collaborative event, and the previously identified teams of five will identify each person's role and perspective. Each team will select an appropriate news item, choose selective references, contact news' sources as needed, discuss findings and decide the perspectives to be used as a group. Any issues will be discussed with the instructor and one lead team member. The news report will be posted by the due date, and depth of discussion by all learners will be half of the assignment's value. Each subsequent "Varied Reactions" activity requires team members to select new roles and perspectives.

Evaluation. Each team member will complete and submit to the instructor a template requiring feedback on each team member's contribution. The template's questions include an inquiry into how the team members interacted, how the selected communication and meeting tools were chosen and used, identification of conflicts and resolutions, inquiry into each member's level of freedom to select role and perspective, a summary of positive and negative emotions tied to student's role, and a synopsis of plans for the next news topic including a recommendation for research ideas that would gain more understanding of the topic. The 12 "Varied Reactions" activities are valued at 30 per cent of the total grade (two and one-half points each). The template for each of the 12 activities is to be submitted within 24 hours after the teams' reports are posted according to the due dates provided by the instructor.

Reflection

Students' Reactions to Activity One, Two, and Three. The Portfolio, Virtual
Tour, and Varied Reactions activities provide learners with a superb organizational tool usable for a life-long online recording tool, a synchronous collaborative exercise guided by the instructor, which provides discovery of web page content, a
team-building activity aiding learners as they participate in different roles, and
builds critical thinking skills as research affects participants' perspectives related to identifying reasons for the declining academic performance around the world. Each activity promotes growth in social discourse, new knowledge related to internet technologies, and skill-building due to working in teams. Varying learning tools aid in building student interest, and challenges students to create answers independently and in teams. To train America's educators how to elevate collaboration with higher achieving global educators, and elicit improved academic performance by American students will be a positive and valuable experience for the learner and instructor.

Purpose of Activities' Selections. The rationale for selecting the specific content e-learning activities for high school teachers regarding the "Transformative Learning Theory for Global Academic Excellence" is important because the ranking of America's institutes of learning continues to fall if compared with global learning institutes. Cooper (n.d.) wrote that transformative changes in learning methodologies will not occur if new knowledge fits within one's frame of reference. As the students' fundamental beliefs and assumptions are challenged, the tools that Transformative Learning provides enables a smoother transformation for improving instructional effectiveness. Beldarrain (2006)wrote that newer models of teaching as described above in the activities provides for students to adopt the instructor's role, share expertise, present course content, and use the school's file-sharing capabilities to transfer documents to the instructor or peers. Furthermore, the activities improve problem-solving skills because tasks are attached to situations or problems. The activities above aid students in solving problems by fostering content and peer interaction. An additional purpose in choosing the three activities above is that the act of reflection should infiltrate as many activities as possible. Actually, Grossman (2009) indicates that thoughts and feelings cannot be discerned easily during reflection. However, transformation in how thoughts are organized does relate to the course's main topic, and continues to assure this writer that activities targeting the Transformational Learning Theory will fulfill the purpose for this class: transforming thinking to find solutions to declining academic performance.

Conclusion

Developing a successful e-learning course, and its activities relies on consideration of several elements. Assessing dozens of learning theories to determine the closest fit for enabling teachers to turn the tide of falling performance resulted in a selection of the Transformative Learning Theory. Transformative learning instruments provide educators with an ability to support integration of knowledge and comprehension, and promises a stronger route toward improving academic performance.

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