Design, development and approval of programmes

Experiences of reflection and digital storytelling

Blog Authors: David Cullen, Walter Patterson, John McVeigh, Lynn Brown, Tracey Howe, Lisa Shields

Image: Dave Morris from Oxford, UK / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

City of Glasgow College has many interests including: ESOL teacher development, reflective practice in educators and the use of technology in assessment evidence. This week’s paper ESOL pre-service teachers’ experiences and learning in completing a reflection paper and digital storytelling was chosen for review as it ostensibly covers a number of these topics.

Here’s what they did

The subjects of the qualitative study were 20 students on a post-graduate level Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) course. In a module on Language and Culture, the students had to complete two assessment tasks: a written assignment and a digital storytelling artefact. The researcher then had the students carry out two further tasks for the purposes of the study: writing a reflection paper and delivering a reflective presentation. The researcher analysed all four sources of data and sought to examine the subjects’ performative approaches to the tasks, and their reactions to the tasks. The researcher also considered the gender and nationality of the subjects in relation to their performance and response.

Here’s what they found

that there were general commonalities in the subject’s performance of and reaction to the two sets of tasks (assessment and reflection).
there was a significant difference in subjects’ responses between the familiar written report and the unfamiliar digital storytelling task.

The author/s concluded

The inclusion of a dual reflective task was of benefit to pre-service TESOL candidates as it enhanced their reflective literacy and their understanding of the course content on Language and Culture. TESOL training courses should consider using this approach.

Our Journal Club’s views

Who are the authors of the paper and where do they work? This study was undertaken by an individual researcher, an Associate Professor of English (TESOL) at Murray State University in the United States. Regarding the individual author, it was not possible to find a list of publications or citations. We also noted that only one other individual contributed to the research activities.

What do we know about the journal? The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering research in educational technology, instructional design, online and e-learning, educational design, multimedia, computer assisted learning, and related areas. It was rated in 2015 as having an Impact factor of 1.171. It is published by the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education. Our view is that this is a trustworthy publication.

What about the methodology used? We felt that the literature review was almost completely descriptive, serving only to provide definitions of terminology, and failed to critically evaluate the sources.

Secondly, the researchers failed to identify and declare any potential bias and limitations of their activity. Thirdly, we felt that the writing of the article, while being thorough and detailed in parts, lacked clarity, and was consequently difficult to decode and interpret.

Finally, there was significant and undeclared potential for bias: the researcher was also the course tutor; the students as subjects were potentially eager to teacher-please in their responses; only one other individual was involved in supporting the researcher and that person was also a direct colleague.

Given the high probability of bias and the other concerns outlined above, we have limited confidence in this article and we feel that the exploratory project would have been better served had it been presented as a less formal case study account.

Our conclusions are – that this evidence has a high risk of bias.

Implications for our practice

How can CoGC staff develop “reflection” in our working practice and professional development ?

Is this concept included in Staff Integration activities?

Is digital storytelling something we can use in staff development and/or student work? The topic of reflective practice should be considered for inclusion in the OneCity event in June and the Education Symposium after summer.

We have recently had a tussle with a local university over the accreditation of a vocational award. The university insisted that reflection should be assessed via an essay. After several rounds of negotiation, the university has accepted that there are equally valid representations of reflective practice – such as digital storytelling (videos, blogs, e-portfolios). We have been assured on many occassions by Scottish Qualifications Agency (SQA) that it has moved away from specifying the form in which evidence can be presented – if only all External Validators were of the same mind!

Next steps

The topic of reflective practice should be considered for inclusion in the OneCity event in June and the Education Symposium after summer.

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What do you think?

References

Ho-Ryong Park. ESOL pre-service teachers’ experiences and learning in completing a reflection paper and digital storytelling. Journal of Education Technology, 2019, 35(4)

SQA 2017 Digital Evidence for Internally Assessed HN and VQ Units: Principles and Guidance

Keywords:

Our Blog Posts are written by staff at City of Glasgow College to inform and inspire our practice. We meet together at the Journal Club to consider the latest evidence to provide insights on hot topics related to learning and teaching, quality assurance and subject needs. It forms part of our activity for General Teaching Council Scotland registration and Professional Standards for lecturers in Scotland’s Colleges demonstrating that we are a self-critical staff community.

Work-based learning in technical and vocational education

Photo by Science in HD on Unsplash

Blog Authors: Tony Adams, Fiona Balloch, David Cullen, Ian Hamilton, John McVeigh, Walter Patterson, Jan Robertson, Joe Wilson, Tracey Howe

City of Glasgow College provides over 2000 courses across a diverse range of technical, business, and professional curriculum areas. Our unique Industry Academy model channels our curriculum and staff expertise, along with external industry partner collaboration, to match the needs of students with the needs of employers. As a result, our students graduate with industry-relevant skills and highly valuable qualifications sought after by industry. We were therefore interested in a recently published systematic review of Application Of Work-Based Learning Model In Technical And Vocational Education (TVET).

Here’s what they did

The authors searched five databases: Scopus, PsycINFO, Springer, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect using search terms “Work-Based Learning” “Conceptual Model of WBL” “WBL in TVET” and “Implementation of WBL in TVET”. They included and reviewed 16 research based articles published from 2000 to 2018.

Here’s what they found

The extent of the implementation of WBL in TVET in tertiary institutions including universities is low.
Emphasis was given to aspects such as Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) leaving other aspects unexploited. cooperative work experience, job shadowing, youth apprenticeship programme, internships etc.
Factors affecting the implementation of WBL in TVET included curriculum defects, poor policy framework, inadequate trained manpower to supervise the proper implementation and lack of WBL learning implementation framework in institution of learning.

The author/s concluded

WBL is beneficial to students and attainment of the goal of TVET, however, the several obstacles to the proper implementation of the WBL contradicts the effectiveness of the WBL in TVET ……… However, there is no high quality evidence with which to provide robust answers to questions about the effectiveness of WBL.

Our Journal Club’s views

Who are the authors of the paper and where do they work?The authors work at Department of Technical and Engineering Education, School of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru and Department of Electrical and Electronic Technology Education, SOSE (Technical), Federal College of Education (Technical) Bichi, Kano, Nigeria.

What do we know about the journal? Education, Sustainability and Society (ESS) is a peer-reviewed, open access trans- and interdisciplinary e-journal. Volume 1 was published in 2018.

What about the methodology used? The authors state that this was a systematic review. However, there were no definitions of the population of interest other than ‘schools’ and ‘workplace’. They did not offer the definition of ‘work based learning’ that they used to include papers. Neither did they define any specific measurable outcomes they were interested in. It is unclear whether papers were independently reviewed and how disagreements were resolved.

The analysis section was weak giving no information on how themes were established or whether they were indeed defined a priori by the authors. No indication is given on whether quality appraisal took place. The findings are descriptive and lack detailed critique.

The discussion is a summary and is not reflective and does not draw upon the extensive wider literature. Instead it focuses on issues relating to the authors own contexts.

The authors could have benefiting from using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Our conclusions are – that this evidence has a high risk of bias.

Implications for our practice

This paper evoked much discussion around this topic. There is literature from North America and Europe and UNESC and the World Bank on this area, examples include [Joe to add].

In terms of our own practice we should be cognisant of National – and for World Skills – International occupational standards and we considered whether our staff are up to date and aware of the latest versions and integrate these into curriculum design, delivery and evaluation. This could be facilitated by the engagement of members from industry professional organisations at all phases in the curriculum cycle. Our Industry Academy model would provide an obvious platform for this.

We discussed the validation cycle for rapidly moving areas such as computing [other examples] which are currently 5 years. Should we be looking a faster cycles such as 18 months? This could be addressed within the refresh of our student experience strategy. Other organisations have considered graduate skills and given the dramatic change since the Covid-19 pandemic we also need to consider skills FOR and AT work.

Other areas discussed included the College’s role as a Civic Anchor and how we could benefit the wider community for example linking with Volunteer Scotland.

Next steps

Review the integration of new staff from industry into education
Review staff expertise and identify opportunities for updating skills
Redefine Industry Academies and their operationalisation
Deliver new opportunities for professional practice deriving from work placements – building on staff internal capacities.
Anticipate demand for Active Blended Learning and Active Distance Learning programmes in preparation for and during work as part of an ongoing engagement with Industry and Commerce.
Finalise the ‘Appointment of visiting and honorary staff’ scheme
Engage externals in our governance process e.g. Faculty Boards
Engage externals in all aspects of the curriculum process
Address some of these issues within the refresh of our student experience strategy.

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What do you think?

References

Rabiu Haruna, Yusri bin Kamin(2019). Application Of Work-Based Learning Model In Technical And Vocational Education: A Systematic Review . Education, Sustainability And Society, 2(4): 01-04.
University of the Highlands and Islands Zooming in on graduate skills infographic [accessed 30th April 2020]
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement [accessed 30th April 2020]
City of Glasgow College A civic anchor in a time of crisis [accessed 30th April 2020]

Keywords: systematic review, technical, vocational, work-based, education, learning