[MUSIC] Welcome to the Introduction to Teaching and Learning. This slide is what I saw at the entrance to a school. And it said, let the learning begin. But I wondered about that, and I said to the head teacher in that school, now that's a bit strange, isn't it? Because learning does not begin when you walk through the doors of a school. And your learning doesn't begin now when you enter this course. You have learned a lot to have been. You have been practicing as a teacher. And you understand already a great deal about the nature of learning, and the nature of teaching. But in this course we want to build on and extend that knowledge, and sometimes challenge that knowledge. What the philosopher A.M. White had often talked about. And note ideas, ideas that are around and have been around for a long time, but that we constantly need to go back and to challenge, and to think again. Well, one of the things that is important in the teacher's repertoire is to think about how change in information is requiring children and teachers to store information outside the body. And if you think back to along time ago, when all the teaching and learning was a transmission from what teachers knew in their heads, to what children were going to be exposed to, because they had very little else in terms of resources. So in this slide, which is about storing information outside the body, it gives you a kinda historical look at how we moved from parchment through to books, through to things like fax machines, floppy disks, hard disks, and eventually, now to the mobile phone. Which has become one of the most important and useful media for communicating, for storing knowledge, for retrieving knowledge, and it's going to play an increasingly big part in the technology of teaching and learning. When we think about teaching is for, the aim of teaching This slide talks about teaching not to produce learning. Now, there's a thought. Teaching is not to produce learning, but to create the conditions for learning. That is the focal point. How do we create the conditions in which children learn most effectively? Now, in this Introduction, you will find that there are eight units. This first one is an introduction to those eight units. But if you look at this slide, it shows you three domains. The first of which is Professional Knowledge and Understanding. The second of which is Professional Practice. And the third, Professional Values, Relationships and Engagements. And you will see, under each of those different courses. Course two, Being a Teacher. Course three, Learners and Learning. Course four, Curriculum. And then under the second domain, Planning for Teaching and Learning, Introduction to Assessment. And in the third domain, Being a Professional and what that means in terms of Developing Relationships. This introduction takes four weeks. And there are four different themes for each of those four weeks. So we've called the first week, being a teacher. With the subtitle, an ambassador to the kingdom of the child. Teachers as ambassadors to the kingdom of the child. The second of the four weeks, thinking about learning. What do we know? What do we not know? What do we still need to know? The third of the four weeks, how good is my classroom? Asking you to think about and evaluate your own teaching and learning in the context in of the conditions in which that takes place. And then in the fourth week, continuing to learn in a changing world. So, each week there will be four lectures, each of which will be about ten minutes long. Each week also has a think-piece following that lecture. So, if you look at the presentation, you may want to go back, you may want to look at particular things, question yourself as your looking at it. And at the end of that presentation, the think piece asks you to reflect on what you've seen, and perhaps to use that routine suggested by David Perkins. I used to think, now I think. I used to think, now I think. So hopefully our thinking all the way through is being expanded through that process of reflection. You will also find there are follow up videos. Some of these are of classrooms in different countries of the Commonwealth. Asking you to have a look at those classrooms, and do some kind of reflection and analysis on what you see. What do I see? What do I think about? What have I wondered about when I see a classroom in action, which may be very similar to my own, or actually, very different? And then there is reading. We suggest a number of readings, which have been selected because they are accessible and challenging. They provide you with a whole new way of looking at learning and teaching, coming back always to the heart of this, which is about learning and teaching. One of the important parts of this course is the discussion forum. Because you're not alone here in this course, you are one of many thousand people who are engaging in this course, and you need an opportunity to share some of the ideas with your colleagues. In other countries, or in the same country, and perhaps in your same school. But it is through talking through out our ideas. How do I know what I think until I hear what I saying? So as you go through the course, the discussion forum is an important place in which to share your ideas. Mainly with your fellow students, but on occasion with the instructor as well. Above all, this has to be not only a challenging experience, but a very enjoyable one. And as you go through the course you will find constantly being brought back to the center of these ideas, the heart of the matter, learning and teaching in the classroom. Ultimately, whatever you're doing throughout this course, and those that follow, is to constantly come back to practice. And s,o each of these courses involves practical activities that you can do to enhance and improve your own teaching. So these might be observations that you make of your own teaching, or maybe observations that you make of your colleagues teaching, working together, collaborating with your peers. They may be looking at how you use questioning and evaluating your own questioning skills, for example. Or it may be different ways in which you involve your students in ways perhaps that you haven't involved in before. These practical activities become an integral part of the portfolio, because the portfolio represents your learning and records of your teaching as you have gone through the whole program. So it's a developing resource. Not for someone else primarily, but primarily for you. But of course, because it's a valuable compendium, if you like, of you're thinking in your practice, you will want to share it with others. And you will want to be able to have a look at others portfolio. Now if you're lucky enough to have other people in your school, your colleagues with whom you can share that, that's great. But the forums also provide place for you to share you portfolio with others. And of course, you're always open online to be able to share your portfolio with other people who are taking this course. So it is a record, not only of your thinking, but of those practical activities that you undertook in your own school and in your own classroom. To successfully complete this course, and all the other courses in the program, we're going to ask you to engage in writing an essay. A number of essays for each of these courses as you go through the whole program. These provide a record for you of your thinking and your development. They are reflective pieces, if you like, they are essentially about making the connections between some of the big theoretical ideas and your own practice. But they are also a form of assessment for the course, because we're going to ask you to review other people's essays, and also allow them to have access to your essays. So the idea is that in peer review, two other people will review and comment and assess your essay. And you will get that feedback as you also assess the contributions of two of your peers on the course. And then there are quizzes. Quizzes is one of the few ways in which there is, if you like, an objective assessment. A quiz will have eight questions, multiple choice questions asking you to choose from four alternatives. Which one you think reflects best, what has been taught, and what has been learned over the course. So the essay, together with the quiz, provide the heart of assessment for this course. While the quiz is a multiple choice, the essay is a more extended thought process on your own learning. How much time? How long will this take you? How much time are you going to invest each week? Our estimate is something like about three to four hours at a minimum. We do suggest that once you have engaged with the ideas, and you're looking at the videos, and you're going through the course, you will want to spend more time than that. So there are extended activities, extended readings, things you can do to enrich and enhance your understanding and ultimately, of course, enrich your own classroom practice. So, welcome to the program, and to this introductory course. And I'm confident that as you go through each of the other seven courses, you will find that immensely beneficial for your own teaching, and above all, for your own learning as a professional. [MUSIC]
