The past two weeks we have been exploring
the model Community of inquiry. The model is presented in the previous post. A
couple of things caught my attention.
Cleveland-Innes, M. (2018) presents
categories of teacher presence. She says the teacher presence is seen in three
dimensions:
- Design and organization
- Facilitating discourse
- Direct instruction
This is no news, but she illustrates the
categories, which help me grasp what is expected from me as a teacher. On order
to have a great design I have to set the curriculum, time parameters, establish
a netiquette for the qroup and use the medium effectively. Facilitating discourse
consists of setting the climate right, drawing the participant in, encouraging,
identifying disagreement and seeking consensus and assessing the efficacy of
the process. The direct instruction is only a part of the teacher presence.
Direct instructing consists of presenting the content, focusing discussion, confirming
understanding, diagnosing misconceptions and injecting knowledge. (Cleveland-Innes,
M., 2018) Much of the teachers work is done in the shadows and in direct relation
to every participant.
Gilly Salmons (2013) five stage model explores the same issue, but from a slightly different perspective. She is not only writing about the teachers doings, but includes the whole community of learners in the process. The active learning process is achieved together. The teacher has to See to that all learners have access and help them find purpose and reason in the course. Then on the next step the teachers helps the learners by creating a space for online socialization, a kind of a microcommunity. The next stage is ensuring information exchange between the learners, helping them focus on learning outcomes and supporting. The fourth stage is about knowledge construction. The applying of what has been learner, the critical thinking and the more complex contributions are happening on this stage. The fifth step is about reviewing the learning process. It’s about becoming self-aware and working on an metacognitive level.
Sources:
Cleveland-Innes, M. (2018) Community of
Inquiry and Teaching Presence: Facilitation in online and blended learning.
Presentation slides.
Salmon, G (2013) The Five Stage Model.
[Homepage] http://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html
