Open Dialogue session on Situated Learning for Teacher Development

Som Naidu
University of Melbourne

Dayalatha Lagamge
Faculty of Education, OUSL, Sri Lanka

Shironica Karunanayake
Faculty of Education, OUSL, Sri Lanka

Mohan Menon
COL

     Full text: HTML
     Last modified: October 20, 2006
     Presentation date: 11/02/2006 11:45 AM in NT Ortanique
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
This session will explore the potentials of “situated learning designs” for teacher development. Foremost, it will define and describe the critical attributes of situated learning designs and with the help of a case study, it will explore its affordances for teacher development.

The Masters of Arts in Teacher Education -- International (MATE –I) program of the Open University of Sri Lanka will serve as the case study. The presentation of the case study will be preceded by a general discussion of what comprises teacher development, and why and how it can be served by situated learning designs. The case study itself will comprise a brief description of the MATE – I program, the reasons for adopting situated learning design in the program and a faculty perspective of the experience of the design and development process. The focus of this will be on the challenges it posed to faculty members and how these were approached and resolved. The session will also include voices of experience so far from the program, which would include lessons learned, opportunities, strengths and limitations of the approach. This would be followed with critical reflections on the approach including any unanswered questions from one of the panelists, and then queries and questions from participants in the session.


Session Format

Activity focus Responsibility Format Duration
• Purpose, intended outcomes and format of the session
• Introduction of participants, who is going to do what. Mohan Menon Short oral presentation 5 minutes
• Affordances of “situated learning design”: Brief expose. Som Naidu Short oral presentation 5 minutes
• Teacher development – what does it comprise, and how can it benefit from “situated learning design”? Chandra Gunawardena Short oral presentation 5 minutes
• MATE (I) Case Study: Application of situated learning design. Dayalatha Lekamge Short oral presentation 5 minutes
• Voice of experience -- Opportunities, strengths and limitations and lessons learned Shironica Karunanayake Short oral presentation 5 minutes
• Critical reflection – what are the unanswered questions? Kuldip Kour Short oral presentation 5 minutes
• Open discussion moderated by Mohan Menon and Som Naidu Small group discussion 30 minutes
• Group presentation Som Naidu and Mohan Menon Group presentation 15 minutes