The AVIVA model (E-Book) E-Book

Christoph Städeli

• Herausgeber: hep verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 106

Beschreibung

This e-book contains high-resolution graphics and tables that can only be read on e-readers capable of enlarging images. The AVIVA model of teaching and learning has received great attention in teacher education since it was first published in German in 2010. AVIVA is a trusted teaching framework suited to a rapidly changing society. It emphasises competence-oriented education and training based on an accessible phase structure, with a range of practical examples. This new English edition brings the AVIVA model to a much larger audience and includes new detailed examples of blended learning and problem- based learning.

Leseprobe

Christoph Städeli, Markus Maurer

The AVIVA model

A competence-oriented approach to teaching and learning

With a foreword by John Hattie

ISBN Print: 978-3-0355-1502-2

ISBN E-Book: 978-3-0355-1503-9

First edition 2020

All rights reserved

© 2020 hep verlag ag, Berne, Switzerland

www.hep-verlag.com

Table of contents

Foreword

About the book

1Introduction

1.1Competencies and resources

1.2Core elements of the AVIVA model

2The AVIVA model: Phase by phase

2.1“Arriving and engaging” phase

2.2“Activating prior knowledge” phase

2.3“Informing” phase

2.4“Processing” phase

2.5“Evaluating” phase

2.6Summary

3Three aspects of teaching and learning seen through the lens of AVIVA

3.1Classroom management

3.2Problem-based learning (PBL)

3.3Blended learning

4Literature

Foreword

My major claim in Visible Learning research is that achievement is maximised when teachers see learning through the eyes of the student and when students are taught to become their own teachers. The AVIVA model is an excellent example of how to put these ideas into action. It balances the involvement and direction of the teacher with the opportunities for students to explore, see errors as opportunities for learning and learn to think as teachers. Students learn to know what to do when they do not know what to do.

The model notes the many interpretations of ‘learning’ and specifically asks teachers to consider the cognitive and other strategies needed by students in any lesson, to distinguish between surface and deep strategies and mandates that teachers teach students various strategies alongside the content of the lesson. In our own work, we speak of “teachers are to DIIE for” (Diagnose, Intervene, Implement and Evaluate), and this is mirrored in the AVIVA model. Arriving and engaging highlight the importance of excellent diagnosis about what the student brings to the lesson in terms of prior skills, their will and their thrill (motivations) and how it is critical to activate prior knowledge. The critical decisions are to choose high probability interventions (informing), attend to the fidelity of implementation (processing) and apply skills in evaluation as to the impact on student learning. Yes, learning is hard work, requires perseverance and skills (in content, relating ideas and having various learning strategies such that if the first does not work they have alternative strategies) and requires skills to be accomplished alone and in groups with the teacher and with peers.

AVIVA is a way of thinking as well as a method of planning – and thus sits ‘above’ many teaching methods. These methods are used to illustrate this way of thinking throughout this book, inviting educators to focus more on their impact on students than on whether or not their methods are implemented (they may be well implemented but have little impact on learning!). Thus, the focus should be less on ‘how teachers teach’ and more on ‘the impact of their teaching’. We also need more ways of thinking about how students grow, such as understanding the students’ extent and use of various learning strategies, their skills of perseverance, as well as their ability to consolidate knowledge, relate ideas and transfer to near and far new problems and situations. I find it fascinating that many 5-year-olds can do this, but by the age of 8 too many children think their role is to come to class and watch the teacher work. AVIVA turns this on its head and helps educators see their impact through the eyes of students and enables students to become their own teachers.

AVIVA is also a Hebrew name meaning youthful, so there is much more to come as this model is implemented, grows in its evidence base and refines and enhances its reach. This book is a wonderful start for educators to learn more about the model, to see beyond the methods and to impact in worthwhile ways on the learning lives of students.

John Hattie

Laureate Professor at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and Chair of the Board of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership

About the book

The AVIVA model of teaching and learning was first presented in a book by Christoph Städeli and his colleagues, published in German in 2010 (Städeli, Grassi, Rhiner, & Obrist, 2010). Since then, the model has received considerable attention from those involved in the field of teacher education and training in Switzerland and other German-speaking countries. Interest has also grown in non-German speaking countries, particularly amongst teacher trainers, policy makers and other experts working in the field of vocational education and training (VET). It is for this reason that we decided to publish this book on AVIVA in English.

We used the original German version as the basis but complemented it with sections on three key topics that we developed for this volume. We also decided to stick to the model’s name, “AVIVA”, even though the terms which this acronym represents have been changed in the English translation of this book (cf. section 1.2.4).

Acknowledgements go to Claudio Caduff and Dario Venutti, who commented on earlier drafts of this English version of the book, as well as to Johanna Rodda for the translation, Maurice Hutton for the copy-editing and Susie Nelson for her work on the illustrations. Furthermore, we would like to thank Tatjana Straka from hep publishing house, who, as always, carefully managed the publication process, as well as Peter Egger, hep’s chairman, who has been very supportive in making this book possible.

1Introduction

1 Introduction

1.1 Competencies and resources

Today, curricula and teaching models tend to be oriented towards competencies that learners are expected to acquire during the course of their training or period of study. These include not just professional competencies but also competencies that applied beyond the professional sphere, including specific personal and social competencies.

Competencies usually apply to actual situations in both professional life and personal, day-to-day experiences. Competent behaviour is only possible in these situations if certain resources are available to the practitioner – specific knowledge sets, skills and attitudes. These resources – some of which are acquired prior to training, but most of which are developed through formal education and training programmes – constitute the basic tools required to master challenging situations.

An example can best illustrate how to imagine the interplay of resources: Consider a hairdresser advising a customer who is wondering whether to have her hair dyed or not:

First, attitude plays a role. It is essential that the hairdresser is interested in providing the customer with the best possible advice and meeting their wishes. At the same time, she also has to develop sound business acumen and be interested in selling services. But, let’s stay first with the advising: the hairdresser needs a degree of empathy and intuition; she must feel whether the customer wants to dye her hair fully or whether she wants to leave a few strands of hair white. She must thus put aside her own preferences in favour of those of the customer. She must take responsibility and inform the customer honestly about the consequences of changing her hair colour chemically.

In the end, her responsibilities also include choosing the right means for executing the task and carrying it out correctly and carefully. Thus, her knowledge and skills come into play.

The hairdresser must first know the most varied materials and procedures for colour changes; she must show the customer the possibilities and limits and choose the right material based on their wishes (knowledge).

In order to be able to correctly use the product, the hairdresser must understand the application procedure. She must know the consequences of not adhering to the recommended exposure time but must likewise understand that there are different application techniques for different situations. Therefore, she must consider the actual situation.

Once the hairdresser has decided on an application technique and a product, her skills come into play. When mixing the colour, she considers the exact instructions for use and follows them carefully and correctly. In the end, again, attitudes play a core role when she assumes responsibility for careful execution and adheres to the application time.

1.1.1 Our understanding of competency

Just as in the example above, in this book we use the term competency to refer to a given capacity to activate certain resources – that is, knowledge, skills and attitudes – with respect to a particular practice and to combine these resources with one another in a creative and functional way in order to master concrete situations (cf. Figure 1 and Ghisla, Bausch, & Boldrini, 2008, p. 441). We concentrate in particular here on the domain of schools, but note that what is transmitted and learned in school is just one part of the broader process of developing competencies. Conversely, it is very important that the knowledge, skills and attitudes that learners acquire outside school are embedded, used and reflected upon in the classroom. Teaching should always be linked to the experiences of the learners in the best, most productive sense.

Figure 1 The competencies-resources model

1.1.2 Knowledge, skills, attitudes

A few general notes on the three types of resources

Knowledge: Knowledge can take different forms (cf. e.g. Brühwiler, Hollenstein, Affolter, Biedermann, & Oser, 2017, p. 211). One form can usually be conveyed in statements and is therefore referred to as declarative knowledge. Learners must, for example, know technical terms, understand their meaning and be able to comprehend and name relationships between them. This type of knowledge, however, is not limited to factual contents. Declarative knowledge is also important in techniques for working and learning: learners gain knowledge about possible procedures and workflows. But even that, of course, is not enough. They also need the “know-how” to carry out that action using specific techniques, which we call procedural knowledge (cf. Euler & Hahn, 2007, p. 109). And furthermore, they need to know when and under what conditions they can use certain working and learning techniques to gain an advantage. Such expert knowledge, adapted to a concrete situation, is referred to as conditional knowledge. Finally, there is also what we call meta-knowledge: this includes the knowledge that a learner has about themselves (e.g. learning habits, personal repertoire of learning strategies), about the learning situation (Metzger, 2001, p. 43) and about specific tasks and various types of tasks (Büchel & Büchel, 2010, pp. 33–38).

Skills: Secondly, learners need to be able to apply their knowledge in certain situations. For this they need specific skills, i.e. an observable ability to perform a learned psychomotor action, which, in many cases, is specifically developed through repetitive training (in the form of learning and working techniques), such that over time it becomes second nature.

Attitudes: Thirdly, the values and norms a person holds are important, as they substantially influence behaviours. Responsibility, empathy, tolerance and interest in the environment are important attitudes of a competent practitioner.

Based on these definitions of “resources”, we propose the following principles for our book:

1.If a competent practitioner requires the ability to mobilise resources, then these resources must already be to hand, and the function of the school is to develop and systematise them.

2.Competence is always situational – and every situation is different. However, situations can also be typified and simulated, which is a central assumption of school education.

1.2 Core elements of the AVIVA model

The design of the lesson has a substantial influence on the way in which learning goes on in schools. If the teacher always controls every single activity in the classroom, learners will never be allowed to manage their own learning. Equally, if the teacher entrusts learners with the responsibility of defining the contents and methods of their own learning process, it is unlikely that the learners will acquire the requisite knowledge and skills, as they will not know how they should proceed in certain situations. Therefore, it is essential to strike a good balance between control and instruction by the teacher, on the one hand, and elements of self-regulated learning by the learners, on the other, according to a clear roadmap of the phases the lesson has to go through. It is this phase model that has given AVIVA its name. To better understand this model, we must consider some further essential elements:

1.2.1 Three-layer model of learning

Learning – be it in school or elsewhere – is a complex process, the important aspects of which (cf. Reinmann-Rothmeier & Mandl, 2006; Reusser & Reusser-Weyeneth, 1994) must always be taken into consideration in the lesson:

1.Learning is an active process. Learners must develop the motivation to learn, with regard to both the specific subject matter they are dealing with and to the general activity of learning.

2.Learning is a self-directed process. Learners use their initiative to control and monitor the process of learning (to varying degrees according to the type of lesson). Learning without some degree of self-direction is inconceivable.

3.