" Glocal " Teaching -- Sharing with the World "What Works" in Small Community Schools and Why

1. "Glocal" Teaching -- Sharing with the World "What Works" in Small Community Schools and Why Not all “best practice” is in research journals. Not all good research is discipline specific. Not all good teaching comesfrom the content area . Likewise, communityschools have unique strengths and needs to decide “what works” for them in their own towns. By using technology,these ideas can now be shared with a “Glocal” audience.

2. “Local” to “Glocal” Technology makes possible the sharing of many aspects of education to a global community, even “what works” in local public schools in context of community need translated to a universal need, especially in the educational needs of students with disabilities.

3. Research Is Useful in Many Areas! • The focus of this presentation uses results of motor research, common to physical education and athletics, and applies those results to how “homework” was generally approached for students with exceptional needs in one school in one town in order to achieve better success.

4. Why Is This Important? • Most persons with disabilities never venture far from their homes and families; therefore, the community-based needs in their learning is critical to their future success in their lives. Homework must be relevant. • As adults, more are living on their own, receive limited support in apartment settings, or are in group homes. Their participation in community is expanding. Homework must be “locally useful.”

5. Homework Is Practice of Learned Skills “Outside of School” • Most students with disabilities enjoy lives much like the rest of us, but they need more support to generalize much more of their learning to their community situations. Therefore, homework must be generalized to the community itself rather than “abstract task element practice” which is widely practiced in typical community schools.

6. The Research • Research regarding learning motor skills common in physical education curriculum supports that the manipulation of practice variables of task elements (simple elements) that result in their enhanced learning are actually detrimental to the learning of complex skills as they relate to the entire task. Wulf, G., & Shea, C.H. (2002) • This suggests that repeated practice of simple skills (such as using homework to practice elements of a task through a “drill and kill” approach”) may be detrimental to learning the entire task, and should be replaced with transfer of learning opportunities through using the skill in different ways?

7. What Questions DoesTeaching Transfer Skills Ask? • Does “peddling” a stationery bike for hours teach us how to ride a bike? • What might be the reasons we might be unable to ride a bike by learning peddling? • What are the entire skill set about riding a bike be generalized to driving a car? • Therefore, what experiences in a lesson plan might we use to begin the transfer of the skill of bike riding to driving a car?

8. What Is The Difference Between Practice and Transfer? There are three common types of Practice: • Fixed or Massed - a specific skill element is practiced repeatedly in isolation, without a break, known as a drill (most common type of school homework). • Variable - the skill is practiced in the range of situations that could be experienced in the local environments. (common in community based instruction). • Distributed - breaks are taken while developing skill sets over time and situation (best for students with exceptional needs.)

9. What Is The Difference Between Practice and Transfer of Skill? • Transfer refers to the degree a learned skill will be repeated correctly in a new situation, or a learned skill will be applied, or “tweaked,” in a new situation. • In special education, transfer of skills is the most critical concept in teaching and learning. If the learned skill is not generalized and maintained through a transfer of learned skills to everyday problems, those skills may be lost because of a “silo” or lack of relevance to community.

10. Questions To Ask When Planning for a Transfer of Skills Lesson • Was skill expected to be learned in isolation with little collaboration or demonstration and then generalized? • Is the skill needed for use in the school or home environments over a period of time? • Is there motivation to use the skill because of its function? • Does the educational standard required to be taught and learned generalize to many uses that will naturally occur? • Was feedback in the applied skill planned in several modalities (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)? • Is “mastery of a skill” also equally evaluated in a generalized use or in differing environments? • Are the assessments in learning a skill inclusive of transfer of difference or complexity to community culture and need? • What plan of maintenance of the skill would be suggested for each student’s needs within the community?

11. Concluding Thoughts … • Special Education is still a very new profession – we are always learning new ways to be more effective, efficient, and supportive for our students and their environments. • American education is built more on practicing and assessing segments of larger concepts than application to new problems. Emphasis on transfer of skills is critical for improved quality of life for exceptional persons as communities grow and change.

12. Thank you so much! • Now I will transfer my learned skill in how to make a pie to making a pizza!

13. References • Mackenzie, B. (2000) Teaching Methods [WWW] Available from: http://www.brianmac.co.uk/teaching.htm [Accessed (08/03/2012 • Wulf, G., & Shea, C.H. (2002). Principles derived form the study of simple motor skills do not generalize to complex skill learning. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 9, 185-211.