Created: 30.8.2022, Last edited: 6.10.2022
Traveling to Oulu to meet my new tutors and colleagues was a wonderful experience,
especially after all the remote working during the coronavirus pandemic [1].
Our tutors, Kimmo and Riikka, are great: really supportive, full of energy and enthusiasm.
My colleagues are also great. They have varying cultural backgrounds which is a bonus because
it means we can learn a lot from each other.
Day 1
After getting to know each other, we already started working in groups. Our goal was
to understand what competence-based learning is. We did this on a toy-example where we
had to define the competences of a cyclist. Our team created 5 assessment criteria
using active verbs (relating to Bloom's taxonomy [2]).
Our assessment criteria of a successful cyclist were:
Our second task was to consider a self-proclaimed cyclist, K.P., who uses a bicycle in his work at a delivery company. In a good week he cycles up to 1,000 km and knows numerous shortcuts to get around town effectively. He assesses himself as a competent cyclist (3/5).
We consider his continues employment as proof of the abiligy to pedal (1) and balance (2) as well as the ability to reach the correct destination (4). What is unclear from the description is the ability to avoid accidents (3), which we would need proof of. One way to do this is a test evaluating the knowledge of cycling rules [3]. Another thing that is unclear is the maintenance of the vehicle (5), which could be demonstrated by keeping a maintenance log. Therefore, based on the current information we assessed K.P. as competent (3/5) which matched his self-evaluation.
Day 2
New day, new teams and a new exercise: to plan a teaching session.
Our theme was to teach the main traits of the ideal adult learner.
We brainstormed during lunch and concluded that an ideal learner needs to be:
We then decided to make an interactive session where students have to discover these traits by themselves. To help steer them in the right direction we made a short video which demonstrates some of these traits. Our video depicted two scenarios, both starting in the same way: with a teacher giving students the task to draw an apple. In the first scenario, each student works individually, coming to different results. In the second scenario, the students collaborate and solve the task as a group.
Our lesson had two discussion sessions. One in-between the two scenarios and another at the end. The interactive session went well, with students behaving as expected. The feedback we got was mostly positive, only negative side was that video was a bit too shallow, only demonstrating creativity, motivation and the ability to teamwork, however, as students were able to notice this and identify even more traits, we considered the lesson a success.
We were also taught by other groups different topics like the importance of teamwork and the role of a teacher. It was interesting to see how everybody realised the importance of making interactive lessons instead of simply explaining the concepts.
Day 3
Was optional and about technicalities: how to use OSSI, Teams and how to create a Blog.