Shadowing Monday 24, Tuseday25, Wednesday26,4,12

Monday 24-4-12, we attended a session titled 'Researching targeted market' which basically talks about types of research methodology and the drawn implications in marketing. The class was all about students presenting the already carried research on an aspect in marketing. I noticed that the students actually have done good work in contrast to their level as they were second or third year students. The tutors teaching and guiding efforts was quite clear so was reflected in the students' research in general.                  

However, there was some considerable observation related to the research carried out which can be really a major flaw methodologically speaking. For instance the research had no specified research questions and including so many variables to examine, over 10 variables, which is really too difficult to examine in a single investigation.

Pedagogically speaking, two tutors were sitting and reflecting and commenting on the students' work though was unlikely to be very constructive But maybe they preferred the students to work very hard and mostly depend on themselves, though this could to error-led approach and retention of mistakes!. So maybe I think in such situations enough training and guidance is probably necessary.

Tuesday 25-4-12, we had one of the most interesting and exciting classes, 'Cross-Cultural Session'. This was really an amazing session which I really enjoyed it to the bottom.

Basically the session was talking about the Arab Culture with instances from different countries like Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. The examples drawn from Saudi Arabia demonstrated varying degree of perception among my patriots. This is likely to suggest different viewpoints and perceptions related to how things and world's view is perceived between individuals. That is , some of us viewed world goings on in a more liberal point of view while some other, of us, had a local or in other words a personal view point surrounded by their country customs and traditions rather than a world's view. This tells us that there is a change in cultural perceptions of people but also may show a reluctant step towards change. Pedagogically speaking, this can have implications on learning and teaching culture of one's style or methodology.

Wednesday 25-4-12,  the class was about 'introduction to Finnish language. The session was run fine and students were engaged in several activities such as group work and some speaking. The teacher used a number of classroom activities such as flash cards, vocabulary presentation and students' initiated verbal production though with minimum effort. Nevertheless I noticed that the teacher basically used grammar translation method which is outdated. She relied heavily on translation between Finnish and English which does give the students enough time to brainstorm and think in Finnish language.        

Observation 2

This observation was about marketing models and types. Irmeli introduced the tutor and so did we. The class was like well organized and the class started with debriefing about the last lecture they had with some warm questions. The tutor seemingly was prepared but more indebth knowledge was not obvious. The few observation comments about the teaching includes a number of things. For instance, the tutor might night more body language and EYE contact where this was clearly almost absent. More of students acive role of engagement should have been more pulled and pushed or motivated. Simply because there was a sort of boring pattern of teaching but maybe this was due the pattern of lecture content where modelling and personality types were presented and in need of explaination.
I think that the tutor has more extensive knowledge in practice than the theoritical diminsion so may more sort of teaching skills should be implémented so to gain more experience and variety of input content in interesting ways.

Clssroom Observation1 BTL

Today we had a classroom observation for a class called 'Strategy Modeling in Business"

The class started by inviting the students to introduce themselves. Then the tutor started giving like a warm up overview about the kind of topic being studied. This was also linked very briefly to previous relevant issues without solid grounds. The invitation for the students to comment about whether they have had any idea about the topic was made but seemingly the students did nt prepare any thing about the lesson. This sort of technique is called in training and teaching 'schemata activation' which is highly advisable in such situations. This shows that the tutor has made a good a start for the lesson.

Next, the tutor explained the topic with interventional invitations for the students to participate so they were engaged in the learning process. However, there seemed to be a lack of 'rewording' comments by the tutor though she, the tutor, extended the students' responses so made it in a more technical language and relevant  more directly to the issues undertaken.

In addition, there was a good use of social media applications in the lesson like using YouTube videos for 5 and 10 minutes. This is good so break the traditional pattern of teaching where it is done by the tutor. maybe this has created a sense of focused-on attention to the video. nevertheless, such a procedure was not mentored and followed by the tutor. for instance, the tutor's role was a kind of passive where she should have been a facilitator and could have been walking through students so to make sure they are intentional but in fact a  number of them were busy with their mobile phones and some other things. This can surely lead to inappropriate pattern of conscious learning, as the mentor process is important for learning and teaching quality but unfortunately seemingly wan not that present!

The engagement of students in classroom activities was clearly seen in the students working in groups of various strategy models to present through caravan fill-in report. The students were quiet collaborative and worked hard to make what they were assigned to do, then each group was presented by one of the group nominees. This follows 'group-discussion' and think-group-share' teaching methodology which is good to apply in such situations. Drawing on the Saudi  education context, in particular, technical colleges, this is a bit far from appropriate implementations, simply because the type of the students enrolled in the technical colleges is possibly demotivated and unwilling to make such effort to bring up desirable outcomes. In addition, the time spent on working out the models by the students was about an  hour which is not the same sort of time that can be given in technical colleges where the lesson period is almost 90 minutes, but surely this is not an excuse!!. The tutor's role, back to students group work, was a bit inactive where she should have been engaged more tediously in order to make instruction and help more clearly, especially at the beginning where the students were a bit confused of what exactly they had to do.

Complete Second Encounter

Second Encounter

This entry is about the second week content as each encounter represents a week study pereiod. The second week, though, not much was covered, useful information has been delievered. This sort of information which can be seen as cornston blocks for some pedagogical grounds basically includes 'theories of learning, instructions for blogs and social media applications.

The 'learning theories' includes a comprehesive set of theories, or schools of thoughts for instance behaviorisim, cognitivisim, constructivisim amd soci-constructivisim where lights were shed on and selected as the most important ones for delievery by the tutors. Behaivurisim basically suggests for instance the following: 

1.Learning happens when a correct response is demonstrated following the presentation of a specific environmental stimulus.

2.Learning can be detected by observing an organism over a period of time.

3.Emphasis is on observable and measurable behaviors

4.Emphasis is on relationships between environmental variables and behavior.

Behaviorism is built upon notceable behaviors, thus information and data collection when conducting researhc can easily be accessed which is a surplus for such a school of thoughts. Effective  techniques such as intensive behavioral intervention or analysis, , token economies and discrete trial training are all rooted in behaviorism. These approaches are often very useful in changing maladaptive or harmful behaviors in both children and adults.any critics argue that behaviorism is a one-dimensional approach to understanding human behavior and that behavioral theories do not account for free will and internal influences such as moods, thoughts and feelings. Behaviorism does not account for other types of learning, especially learning that occurs without the use of reinforcement and punshment. People and animals are able to adapt their behavior when new data is introduced, even if a previous behavior pattern has been established through reinforcement. Drwaing on pedagogical implicationa of such a theor in the Saudi education contex, i think that there is an adaptation of such theory in practice by a vast majority of teaching practionairs possibly uncounciasly. This is quiet clear of basically in the dominant approach of teacher-centeredness as an observable style of teaching and memorisation by heart learning. One way to change such a behaviour is gaining awarness of the assumptions and patterns of such a school of thoughts and understanding the advantages and disadvantages of it, them making serious efforts to adapt other theories which can serve the teachers' needs and go in harmony with recent developments in pedagogy. To sum up while behaviorism is not as dominant today but maybe more in other parts of the world not much in Saudi Arabia, as it was during the middle of the 20th-century, it still remains an influential force in psychology. Outside of psychology, animal trainers, parents, teachers and many others can make use of basic behavioral principles such as basic drills like repetition for language begginers to help teach new behaviors and discourage unwanted ones. Actually this what globale literature has aggreed on while accessing various reflections on such a school of thoughts.

A part from learning theories comes the use of social media applications.  Such applications can include many uses of technological programs such as Skype, blogs, screens, slideshow, prez among many others. In fact, i found this tutarial very useful and has open my eyes to various ways of technology pedagogical applications. Before i had no extensive knowledge of the use of such technology in classroom and even for myself but now there seems to be an addition in personal theories and schematic knowledge. This has levelled up the span of world knowledge on one hand and also my personal knowledge on othe other. However, there seems to be a need to further examine the use of such tools practically on more than one occusion. I think that it would have been more useful if had spent more practical sessions on the use of such programs in a way that reinforces the threshhold level we have got in technology.

Encounter One

This journey is meant to reflect critically and thoroughly on the sessions taken over the training course conducted in Haaga-Healia School in Helsinki in fulfillment of the course requirement for the Achievement Certificate on Professional Training. This Journey is composed of several entries. Each entry represents reflection on the week content already taken. This reflection briefly describes the week session content sequentially, to a great extent, followed by a critical treatment and reflection upon which implications drawn  in a relevant concern such as the Saudi context but also  within the global framework.

First Encounter

Entry One

Here we will be talking about two main aspects taken over the first week which TVTC education philosophy and the Finnish one on one side and learning culture. They will be highlighted and reflected on sequentially. Several aspects related to general concerns like TVTC and Finnish Education 'mission, vision' and 'operational strategies' were presented and gone though compare and contrast analysis strategy. This, for instance, includes 'equality', 'quality' 'efficiency' and 'Competition' versus 'Collaboration'.

As can be noticed from the last two words being italicized, it can show the philosophy behind work where the competition (TVTC) aims at winning, maybe at any cost, while the collaboration (Finnish Education) may perhaps in this context suggest a team work targeting a similar goal, in other words all in the same boat!. This is important to highlight in my view for training policy and design makers to adapt which will probably have an effect not only in the learning culture but also in the workplace environment, additionally perhaps in the individual charisma along life.

In relation to the learning culture and group work, introduction to the concept of learning culture, factors affecting the learning culture such as 'national level' and values in group work. The concept of learning culture is quite easily understood but what is more complex is the underlying assumptions behind such a concept where it really requires considerable information on cognitive psychology and sociocultural and educational factors. For instance, some people are quite serious about little detailed information when working in a group while others can be more holistic. This probably requires at least a general scope of knowledge about learning styles and strategies. In group learning, maybe with some participants, for instance in Saudi Arabia, in particular at Colleges of Technologies, there is a serious need for demonstrating what is the group work theoretically and practically. In other words, the students perhaps need to be shown the advantages of group work and how it should work not just by throwing the students in groups and ask them to work. A number of research studies relevant to leaning strategies have demonstrated that group work in Saudi Arabia in general was not effectively carried out in a way that students in a group relied on each other in a negative way. This means that they depend on , for instance, one the more active participant to execute, for instance, the task requirements while the rest does not, maybe, actively become involved in such a process. To solve such a problem, it has been suggested in literature related to teaching methodology that the trainer should first be aware of his/her role as a facilitator and also of the learning culture of his/her learners, so can push them into adapting more active role after demonstrating the mechanism and importance of the group work. In addition, this can also be more effective once the trainer knows the external factors of the learning culture, e.g. 'the national, organizational, and individual ones'.

However, there are other 'internal' factors affecting the leaning culture such as 'hierarchy' in the group, 'approaches to pedagogy', 'working methods' and 'commitment to the group'. It can be seen that the first two factors basically refers to methodology of training in general terms where the sort of training approaches used in classroom can possibly shape up the learning path. For instance, the teacher-centered approach can perhaps have a negative impact on the learning outcome. An example of this is when the trainer fully leads the learning process acting as the dominant carrier of knowledge and information. This is still noticeable at different educational levels in Saudi Arabia. This reflects what research says and compatible with the writer's teaching and educational supervising experience. On the far end of continuum, the learner-centered approach suggests that the trainer acts as a facilitator of the knowledge and information, which intensively gives voice for the trainee to learn. This suggests 'autonomous learning'. However, literature on teaching and learning suggests that this is sometimes a phase processeded by the explicit teaching. That is, once the learner has passed a threshold level of knowledge where he/she has accumulated an acceptable level of the sort of knowledge relevant to his/her discipline then autonomous learning should kick off. This calls for what is so called 'Learning Strategy Instruction'. In this way, it is suggested that the learner is supposed to be well aware of the importance of pair or group work