Pedagogical third spaces attempt to bridge the academic learning of the university and the practical knowledge of internships and field experiences. Blended, or hybrid, learning usually means a combination of online and face-to-face learning environments. This session will disseminate results from a blended teacher education “methods course” held that was held in a local K-12 school. Adaptive learning provided the structure for the online learning that focused mostly on academic knowledge. The face-to-face sessions primarily focused on practicum-like experiences with university students applying their knowledge in classrooms.
Goals
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
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Define the concept of a “third space” in terms of educational settings.
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Describe methods to structure a course with an adaptive online component focused on academic knowledge and a face-to-face component focused on practical, professional knowledge and skills.
Analyze the challenges of designing a cohesive course with flexible, adaptive academic content and structured, sequential practical sessions/field work.Pedagogical third spaces attempt to bridge the academic learning of the university and the practical knowledge of internships and field experiences (Zeichner, 2010). Blended, or hybrid, learning usually means a combination of online and face-to-face learning environments. This session will disseminate results from a blended teacher education “methods course” held that was held in a local K-12 school (Vick, 2017). Adaptive learning provided the structure for the online learning that focused mostly on academic knowledge. The face-to-face sessions primarily focused on practicum-like experiences with university students applying their knowledge in classrooms. The experiences of this faculty member and the instructional support center provide a case study for other courses that would seek to combine academic and practical skills in a “third space” type environment.
The exemplar course presented in this session has been previously taught in fully online and blended modalities. The blended course has been taught in both traditional university and “third space” settings. The course was delivered in a fully online, adaptive learning environment for a three-week summer session as a pilot of the adaptive learning structure. During the academic year the course was taught in both third space and university classroom settings using a blended learning modality. The online portions of both formats utilized an adaptive learning framework created with RealizeIt.
The adaptive learning environment provided for a flexible, self-paced environment for students to learn and show knowledge about science education pedagogy, the elements of the Next Generation Science Standards, and curriculum design frameworks. Adaptive learning was especially useful to help students to show competence in many elements of the standards which their prior background and experience already provided a solid foundation. At the same time, students with weak science backgrounds could spend more time and get support to show competence in these areas.
The use of asynchronous adaptive learning with much of the academic material for the course required some innovation with the synchronous, face-to-face sessions. While some required pacing was used to guide students to certain midpoints during the course, this was kept to a minimum to allow for the power of adaptive learning to be utilized by students. The weekly course assignments for the face-to-face sessions (typically lesson plans that were actually taught) were structured to actually help students identify the modules/nodes in the adaptive learning environment on which they should be focusing their efforts. Thus, students could use external formative feedback to help them prioritize the suggestions from the adaptive learning system about next modules/nodes to complete.
Challenges for instructors and instructional designers planning a third space course using adaptive learning include sequencing of adaptive learning, structured deadlines versus flexibility, and building meaningful connections between the unstructured, adaptive, online learning and the structured, application-based practicum work.
Engagement Strategies
Poll Everywhere will be used to gauge the participants experiences with third spaces and adaptive learning in order to focus the presentation. Open responses will be gathered and shared throughout the session to expand the conversation.
Session Plan (45 minutes)
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Definition of Third Spaces in education/connection to literature (5 minutes)
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Overview of the structure of a third space teacher education course (5 minutes)
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Design of the asynchronous, adaptive environment for academic knowledge. (10 minutes)
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Design of the synchronous, face-to-face environment for practical knowledge application and reflection (10 minutes)
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Difficulties and opportunities in combining flexible pacing with structured elements in face-to-face (10 minutes)
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Question and Answer (5 minutes)