CIC: Semester 1: Practical Pedagogies

Pedagogy is the theory and practice of teaching and learning. An educational researcher, Alexander, described it as  " what one needs to know, and the skills one needs to command, in order to make and justify the many different kinds of decision of which teaching is constituted" (Alexander, 2004 p11*). This week you're each going to read a short article about a different sort of pedagogy and then explain what you found out to the rest of the class. The aim is for you to learn about a selection of pedagogical techniques which might be useful when you're working with children without having to read loads. CiC hive mind!

1. Go to the Practical Pedagogies book by Mike Sharples in the university library (You may need to access this from Learn if this link doesn't work). Read chapter 1 "Innovative Pedagogy". As you read, make a note of any pedagogies which you want to learn more about.
2. Select one of the pedagogies you are most interested in and read the chapter about it.
3. Ask the Edinburgh Language Model for a summary of that pedagogy. Is the summary consistent with your own understanding of it?
4. Write a discussion post about the pedagogy for the other students:
   1. In a nutshell, what is the purpose of the pedagogy and what does a teacher do to use it?
   2. Do you think the pedagogy would be useful for teaching computing? What topic? What age group of learners?
   3. If you have ever seen this pedagogy used in a classroom (when you were at school yourself, or when you visited a school for CiC, or anywhere else) describe the session. How well do you think it worked?
   4. If you haven't ever seen this pedagogy used in a classroom, write a story about a (fictional) classroom where this pedagogy is used.
5. Read and comment on posts of other students so you can learn about more pedagogies.
6. Come to class ready to share what you learned with the other students.

*Alexander, R. (2004). Still no pedagogy? Principle, pragmatism and compliance in primary education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 34(1), 7-33.

Class slides