Valparaiso University - Teacher Training with a Focus on "Doing"

 Shaking Up Teacher Training: Let's Learn Together!

Alright, so picture this: in the old days of teacher training, it was all about comprehension with attempts at application. So, let’s picture quizzes, summaries of learning theories, and the eventual sharing of lesson plans. Sounds familiar, right? But here's the thing - the sharing process lacked the organization and engagement that professor Ben Boche of Valparaiso University wanted. And the feedback? Well, it was either shared verbally or in a jumbled set of comments buried in separate documents - not exactly the most organized way to make sense of the interactions.

Hear from Professor Ben Boche

Ben made plans to raise the stake. He wanted to set up environments where students could learn from each other. Instead of putting students through isolated sequences of learning, he envisioned equipping them in environments where they could answer:

• How did <my peer> solve this problem?  

• What did my peers think of my solution? What sort of data can I pull from their feedback?

• What did my peers think of other solutions that were shared? 

• Whose solutions should I be sure to check out if I want to improve my _________?

  
  

  

To help bring this sort of learning to life, Ben turned to Huddle Up Learning. 

Getting Hands-On with Learning

Ben realized that learning shouldn't be like sitting in a lecture hall.  It should be more like a collaborative brainstorming session. Picture a bunch of friends sitting around a living room, exchanging ideas and shared work, challenging one another and adding more ideas along the way. Now, take that model of learning and extend it asynchronously over time, where everyone's able to have a voice and build off each other's ideas - an environment where each learner improves, but so does the team’s collective understanding. 

Classmates as Collaborators: Feedback is a Two-Way Street

Ben wanted collaboration to act as the secret weapon. Each learner has something unique to bring to the table. By teaming up, we could create something way cooler than we could on our own.

Now, feedback is crucial, right? But Ben saw how clunky and slow it was to get feedback the old-fashioned way. So, he flipped the script and made it part of the learning process itself. No more waiting around for grades. Now, students give each other tips and pointers at any point along the way, making our learning experience way more dynamic. And, the entire process of sharing and feedback is archived, allowing everyone to learn from the entire group.

Faster feedback: Data ASAP to foster agile learning

A New Way to Think About Learning

In the old model, learning was measured by comprehension - and then the hope was that comprehension translated into a successful application. Ben realized that the real goal of learning was application. Comprehension is a means to an end.. Huddle Up helped reinforce the idea that application is the best way to demonstrate understanding. When learners share their own unique applications of learning, we can fully leverage collaboration and feedback.

Ben vision for a more collaborative, hands-on approach to teacher training is changing the game for his students. By making students share their applications of learning and making feedback an integral part of the process, he's turning teacher training into a more collaborative process of ‘what can you do’, not ‘what do you know’.