In the Fall of 2019 I embarked on a new adventure, earning a Master of Education Degree from Lamar University in Digital Learning and Leadership. I have finally reached the culminating capstone course where I have the opportunity to pause and reflect on my learning experiences and growth over the past months.
It was in the first days of the first course that I realized this learning experience would be unique, challenging, and meaningful in ways I hadn’t ever anticipated. During this time, I was introduced to COVA - “Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic learning opportunities (Thibodeaux) and CSLE (Creating a Significant Learning Environment) (Harapnuik). I was tasked with choosing a project that would extend through all of my coursework in the program along with one that was personally meaningful within my own realm of teaching experience. While this was refreshing in comparison to other coursework I’ve completed, it was a little scary sailing in those unchartered territories. Having so much freedom was a burden at first because I worried about making mistakes; however, we spent a lot of time in this first course learning about Growth and Fixed Mindsets which helped me to feel more confident in the challenge of learning in a program where COVA is used. Having a growth mindset helped me think about my learning in a new way that made the previously thought of “loosey goosey” assignments one of golden opportunities.
Taking control of my own voice and tailoring the pieces of my project along the way for my audience, my colleagues, was uncomfortable at first. I’m not used to putting myself out there so to speak as any kind of expert; although, through all of the research I’ve performed, the sources provided throughout the coursework, and creating the supporting elements to my innovation project, I’ve realized that I have become fairly knowledgeable about the topic for my innovation plan.
I hadn’t quite grasped the idea of voice as it’s used in COVA until I found out that my audience would be my colleagues at my own school, not my professors at Lamar University. Furthermore, it would be my colleagues I’d be persuading to join me and act on my innovation plan. This was odd at first and a little uncomfortable, but like anything new in life the more time I spent actively learning the more comfortable I became. As time passed, those uneasy feelings using my own voice to persuade others within my organization have faded into the background. Promoting change within my own campus was equally uncomfortable at first as well. I didn’t really see myself as one who could lead my colleagues through a campus wide change, but each course I’ve taken has prepared me to do just that. The courses in the DLL program have given me the knowledge and resources to be a change agent and leader in my school.
My perspective on learning and my learning philosophy has changed a lot over the past decade. I used to structure my classroom around myself, the “sage on the stage”. Today, I view myself as a coach and my focus is on helping my students to learn through hands on activities that are meaningful to them. My focus is my students' learning, skills being acquired, and on authentic assignments. Being a part of the DLL program and experience COVA + CSLE in my own learning has solidified my current philosophical learning tenants.
Creating Significant Learning Environments (CSLE) through giving students the opportunity to use Choose, Own, and use their unique Voice through Authentic assignments (COVA) is something that I'm currently introducing to my organization through my innovation plan: school-wide EPortfolio creation and ongoing use. I also have the ability to create these learning opportunities for my students by adding assignments which use COVA within the current curriculum. By using the COVA approach through the EPortfolio initiative, all stakeholders within my organization will have an example of what COVA looks like for our students.
One area that could easily include COVA at my school is within our PE courses. Currently, students are assigned an article they annotate, answer closed questions, write a short summary, and perform 200 minutes of physical activity a week. Health and fitness, which is what is covered in our articles, are very broad topics and it will be very refreshing to give learners the ability to choose their own article and the way in which they would like to convey what they learned and what it means to them. This also affords the perfect opportunity to mentor skills such as evaluating sources, narrowing a topic, and using a boolean operator. Students will add a page to their EPortfolios where they have the option of working on a specific area/ theme for the course or framing their time spent investigating health and movement in another way that fits into their needs and interests.
A challenge that could come into play are teachers who don't want to change their pedagogical approach. There are vital tools though that I've used and will continue to use that will help me face this challenge. One is the example process of our EPortfolios that all teachers will have personal experience with in terms of creating their own and the experience of mentoring students in the EPortfolio process. Another is to utilize the resources and planning I've compiled in the DLL program
. I've learned how to put my audience first and lead organizational change through the "Six Sources of Influence" (Greeny, Patterson, Maxfield, McMillan & Switzler, 2013. pgs 28-34). Equally important, I've prepared for and have learned about The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) and the Stages of Change (McChesney, Covey, & Huling, 2012). I have no doubt that these resources and planning will help me lead site wide positive habit forming behavior changes that will ultimately lead to overall change and success in using a COVA approach within my learning organization.
References:
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer:
The new science of leading change: 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Harapnuik, D. (2018, July 14). CSLE+COVA. Retrieved February 26, 2020, from
McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution (4DX).
New York, NY: Free Press
Theories_History of Learning Theories. (2018). Retrieved February 27, 2020, from
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