www.latrobe.edu.au/learning building a community of practice: teaching science as a second language

www.latrobe.edu.au/learning

Building a Community of Practice: Teaching science as a second language

La Trobe University

Cross Discipline Team

C. Cunnington Academic Language and Learning Unit, La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga Campus;

M. Fussell Department of Environmental Management and Ecology, La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga Campus;

M. Quaglio Equality and Diversity Centre , La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga Campus;

B. Bennett: Academic Language and Learning Unit, La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga Campus;

P. Brosche: Academic Language and Learning Unit, La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga Campus.

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Context: Place & Pressures

Regional campus, classed as Low Social Economic Status area

• High likelihood underprepared students

Pressures:• Review of Australian

Higher Education (Bradley 2008)

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Context: Change in Curriculum & Organisational

Design for Learning:• graduate capabilities

developed within courses• in subject & explicitly taught

Re-structure:• Academic Language and Learning Unit ( ALLU) –

collaborate with staff across faculties, embedded to assist underprepared students

DILEMMA! How and who?

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Community of Practice

Forged new, unlikely, partnership• MF: Faculty of Science Technology and

Engineering ( FSTE)• CC: Academic Language and Learning

Unit (ALLU)

FSTE ALLU

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COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE (COP)Elements:

Domain of knowledge

Shared practice

Wenger. E, McDermott. R and Snyder. W. M; 2000

Community of

committed people

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What we did

Week 2: (48 students) Mini lecture and written paragraph as indicator of writing level (Barthel 2009)

Students flagged :Green: no need to attend (13 students), Yellow: advised to attend (30 students),Red: essential to attend ( 5 students)

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Improving Academic Writing for Science (IWAS)Timetabled, prior to Lecture, 1 hr, just-in-time approach.Attendance: 28 – 11 studentsTopics:

• Academic Reading for Lectures• Starting a Laboratory Report• Features of Academic Argument• Writing for Science• Paragraph answers to exam & tute questions• Analyse question and plan an answer• Edit the answer using a checklist• Lab Report Revisited• Exam Techniques for short answer questions

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How we worked together2-hr planning on Friday, for Tuesday workshop

MF: Direction and topic/ lecture notes

CC: Presentation (PPt) and activities based on 1st Year Survival Guide (Yucel et al. 2011)

MF: Chemistryised language, added subject specific examples Uploaded on

LMS for students Reflection and

planning

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COP: an uncomfortable place

CC: High cognitive load: new concepts, new vocabulary

MF coined phrase – Science as a Second Language (Halliday & Martin, 1993)

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COP: an uncomfortable place

MF: unfamiliar territory - writing, students joining the conversation

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Tension: Practise skill vs Learn Content

Group-Write Activity

Writing a messy process

Extending knowledge through reflection

MF: “I have no idea of what you are planning, but go for it.”

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PowerPointPlanning tool:

• Capture the flood of content• Shaping content into logical sections for students

Presentation tool : How do I show this visually?

Language teaching tool:

• Introducing new vocabulary (hearing and seeing) • Model language structures e.g. Hypothesis • Consistent terminology eg journal/workbook• Memory support

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• MF: “… amazed at the degree of prep CC was prepared to go to..sometimes  thinking ‘Hell no, not another slide!’ Then realising that it was a good thing to be so well planned, compared to … having a mental plan …I know where I want to start and where … to get to ; …what students will find difficult and I target concepts and knowledge they will need. But this area of teaching about writing is new to me, so I had complete trust that CC could show me the way to go. The planning put a fence around what we were going to do and within the fence there was a clear pathway. .. which is very good for the students… they can tie one bit to the next bit.”

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S: “Sometimes the L is talking about something … very important but there are so many new words I get lost, even though I have done the reading before. I have to just wait, sometimes I am lost for 15 mins. And then L says something and I can catch it and keep up for a while.

If there is a PowerPoint it helps because even though I still get lost I can catch up when the new slide comes.”

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All voices in the room

Language Teacher:• Pair work, practising silently• Listening to model target language• Elicited contribution

Power of new voices in the room

Sustainability issues

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Elements of effective COP• Turned daunting to enjoyable challenge. 

Koeglreitter. G, Smith. R, Torlina. 2008

• Found new ways of teaching scientific writing in Chemistry

• Shared overall aim – to implement DFL/Graduate Capabilities• Shared educational backgrounds and teaching philosophy –

valuing experiential learning

• Openly challenged and supported each other

• Look at subject material through a different lens, de-familiarising it and showing what needs to be made explicit, that might otherwise have gone unsaid. 

• Others in COP – questions to uncover assumptions• Including students – knowledge domain

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Draft: Collaboration Manual

• Shared goals – Intended Learning Outcomes• Planning – sufficient time together for real

collaboration• Negotiate a shared vocabulary • “Skills” session use subject content & be timetabled• Expect discomfort and tension – build trust• Co-teaching - shared presenting• Reflect together and be prepared to learn from failure

Benefits of small campus

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Questions and Advice

• How to evaluate an intervention with small numbers of students (10 - 30)

• How sustainable is this approach to teaching graduate capabilities? What is happening at your institution?

Thank you

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Reference List

Barthel, A.,( 2009, November). Life after Post-enrolment language assessment: A case study raising more questions than answers {abstract}. 9th Biennial National Conference of the Association for Academic Language and Learning , University of Queensland.

Halliday, M., & Martin, J. (1993). Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive Power. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

Koeglreiter, G., Torlina, L., & Smith, R. (2008). Reaching Beyond the Boundaries: Communities of Practice and Boundaries in Tertiary Education. North Carolina, USA: Information Age Publishing.

Medawar, P. B., & Pyke, D. (1991). The threat and the glory: reflections on science and scientists. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, USA.

Merzyn, G. (1987). The language of school science. International journal of science education, 9(4), 483-489.

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Reference List

Prain, V., & Hand, B. (1996). Writing for learning in secondary science: Rethinking practices. Teaching and Teacher Education, 12(6), 609-626. doi: 10.1016/s0742-051x(96)00003-0

Sankey, M. D., & Lawrence, J. (2008). I'm not alone: first year course leaders helped through communities of practice. Paper presented at the 5th International Life Long Learning Conference, Yippoon, Australia.

Viskovic, A. (2006). Becoming a tertiary teacher: learning in communities of practice. Higher Education Research & Development, 25(4), 323-339.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Yucel, R. (2009). A broad-based, grass-roots community of practice achieving curriculum reform in first year biology. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 3(2), A26-A35.