Filled with Peace – New Album of Original Piano Improvisations Released

My solo piano album, recorded in the summer of 2017 at Roy Barnett Recital Hall at the UBC School of Music, is now streaming globally on all streaming channels (Spotify, Google Play, Amazon, CDBaby – with liner notes, and iTunes, among others). It’s called Filled with Peace (a bit of a play on the meaning of my name, which means ‘peace’ in Turkish) and is a set of original jazz improvisation pieces. For those of you who may have not known my musical background, I’ve written an artist’s profile to give some history.

Many of the pieces on the album are inspired by the natural beauty, peace and tranquility of West Coast British Columbia, Canada, specifically the beaches and forests surrounding the University of British Columbia (Acadia Beach, Pacific Spirit Regional Park, UBC Botanical Gardens). I’m hoping that the album transfers the feelings you get when you go to these places as well as moments of joy, calm, spiritual reflection, gratitude and wonder; these were the source emotions of the album.

The overall shape of the album is an arc going from a feeling of gratitude, joy and remembrance to a more somber and spiritually reflective mood. The album culminates in two longer, meditative pieces inspired by the sanctuary of botanical gardens and the peace induced by gently rolling waves on a West Coast beach.

Here are some notes on each of the pieces:

1. Crystal Joy
I composed Crystal Joy in 2011 and dedicated it to my brother Martin and his wife Melanie on their wedding day. Both of them are incredibly talented, visionary painters.

2. Lourdes: In Memoriam
I wrote this piece in 2012 for the memorial service of Lourdes Gonzalez, my wife’s mother, who was an amazing woman of courage, determination, hard work and talent. We miss her spirit dearly.

3. Haydee
This is for my wife, Ana, the love of my life and my better half, who completes me in so many ways.She loves 80’s music so there is a subtle nod to Queen at the end.

4. Crysalis
I named this piece from my daughter’s middle name, Crysalis. The idea of this name is a cluster of consonants that emerges into a playful, flowering melodies.

5. Anjel
This is for my son, who loves viral YouTube songs like “It’s Raining Tacos”. This is a bit of a variation on that tune.

6. Acadia Beach
Acadia Beach is my absolute favourite spot in Vancouver for spiritual reflection and prayer.

7. Hommage à Ludovico
I love Ludovico Einaudi’s work and he is an inspiration for my journey in music.

8. Magnolia
I had never seen such amazing Magnolia blossoms until I came to Vancouver, where they are everywhere in spring. This motif was originally part of a documentary on mental health, so it’s reflective. Planning to turn this into a full EDM track coming soon!

9. through a glass, darkly
This is a piano excerpt from my chamber music piece from 1996 by the same name, first performed at the Ottawa National Art Gallery. In the original piece, the ending is for piano solo over drum and bass, inspired by the Keith Jarrett trio. I wanted to resurrect the piano solo for this album.

10. Love: the most excellent way
This piece is based, word for word coinciding with the melody, on the chapter on love in 1st Corinthians 13, possibly the most eloquent statement on the centrality of love in this life, in my humble opinion.

11. The Sanctuary
There is a beautiful space at the University of British Columbia Botanical Gardens in spring where the birds and flowers create this very calming and peaceful atmosphere.

12. Filled with Peace
This piece was inspired by the rolling waves at Acadia Beach, Vancouver and the feeling you get when you stare out at the north shore and look up at the distant mountains.

Virtual Liberating Structures Meetup – Monday, August 28th at 7pm PST

As part of the Vancouver Liberating Structures User Group, I’ll be coordinating our first Virtual LS meeting on this last Monday of August, the 28th at 7pm. If you’re interested in Liberating Structures and in particular applying LS in a virtual environment, you’re welcome to join! You can access the Zoom meeting here: https://zoom.us/j/889505883

Please arrive early (we’ll open at 6:45pm) to iron out any tech glitches and make sure you have the Zoom software downloaded on either your phone or laptop (check http://zoom.us)

Here is a detailed structure for the session and also includes links to great resources that one of the Virtual LS specialists Jim Best has put together: https://barishgolland.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/4th-liberating-structures-user-group-meetup-online-aug-28-2017.pdf

We’ll also invite those interested in V-LS from around the community. Hope to see you all there!

Authentic Experiential Learning – Reflections on UBCO Learning Conference Keynote

Reflections on Keynote at #UBCOLearnConf with Dr. Linda B. Nilson.

Reflection involves self-debriefing and helps students know what to look for through an educational experience. Reflection leads the way to metacognition and self-regulated learning. That can encapsulate self-observation, self-monitoring, self-analysis, self-evaluation. Students, upon reflecting, can start creating decision-making rules and patterns to take with them to other similar experiences. Ultimately, as a teacher, it is the reflection that you will assess. You as a teacher will be able to see the quality of their reflection

Reflective Probes

The term “probes” is new to me in this kind of educational context. “The authentic experience & reflection require corresponding outcomes” – Dr. Linda B. Nilson. Here are some examples of probes:

• What skills did you gain or improve?
• How did you overcome your challenges?
• Describe your decision-making process?
• What steps did you take along your research process?
• What problems did you encounter?
• When and how will these skills be useful in the future?

Learning Outcomes

Questions teachers need to ask themselves before creating authentic learning experience reflection assessments are:

• What are my learning outcomes for your students’ authentic experience?
• Given these outcomes, what are your most effective reflective probes to ask and assess (detail important here)

Thoughts on the presentation

It was fascinating to see the breadth and depth of best practices in student reflection on authentic learning. What I would have loved to see was more opportunities for the audience themselves to do some reflection on the presentation itself. Dr. Linda B. Nilson would have benefited from using one or two Liberating Structures such as 1-2-4-All or 15% Solutions!

Reflections on PIDP Courses so far

I’ve taken so far 6 courses in the VCC Provincial Instructor Diploma:

• PIDP 3100 Foundations of Adult Education
• PIDP 3210 Curriculum Development
• PIDP 3230 Evaluation of Learning
• PIDP 3240 Media Enhanced Learning
• PIDP 3250 Instructional Strategies
• PIDP 3260 Professional Practice

3100 opened me up to the world of Adult Learning. I had never studied that before, so words like Andragogy and Heutagogy were new to me. Concepts like transformative learning, self-directed learning were brand new. This course definitely broadened my view of all the varieties of adult learning and adult learning theories there are out there. And certainly it helped me start reflecting on my own learning.

3210 helped me get acquainted with curriculum development in the sense of planning out all aspects of how to shape a curriculum into a workable document. Especially helpful was guidance on how to create proper learning outcome statements, and also studying the difference between competency and outcomes based learning.

3230 brought me into the world of assessments and how to properly assess students, especially in informal assessment contexts. Formative/Summative assessment instruments were looked at and constructed. Knowledge instruments were built, norm versus criterion based tests were compared.

3240 introduced me to “Teaching Naked”, how higher education is changing rapidly and ways to incorporate more creative uses of technology in learning. I had never heard of Pecha Kucha slides! That was interesting.

3250 – biggest revelation was the myth of learning styles! Huge revelation for me. I had been sold on this idea until then. That was very insightful, how it’s not that we have different learning styles but that we all are capable of using different learning styles depending on what the learning demands. I think it’s here where I learned about Hattie’s ground breaking Visible Learning research. Very cool!

3260 – Ethical dilemmas, The Skillful Teacher and how student learning experiences must be brought to the light, CIQ and how simple it is to implement to get anonymous feedback from students about their learning. Really interesting, eye-opening stuff!

David Helfand’s out-of-the-box thinking on higher ed

Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” – Chinese Proverb

David Helfand gives a fascinating TEDTalk on “Designing a university for the new millennium” at TEDxWestVancouverED:

What I found insightful about this TEDTalk was how out of the box Helfand is about his thinking on higher education. He doesn’t believe in tenure (turned it down at Columbia University), believes faculty should not be divided into hierarchies and that their focus should be on the student learning, that they should not silo themselves into departments but instead interact with other disciplines. What he has done as president of Quest University is astounding. Quest University “offers only one degree, a bachelor of arts and sciences, has no departments, and students take just one four-week course at a time through its block plan” (Charbonneau 2015).

This is a radical break from the traditional university, and they’ve not only succeed, they are influencing other similar initiatives around the world. What I especially like about it is the focus on student learning, engaging students in ways that help them learn. Quest University was ranked “highest among Canadian universities on five key criteria: academic challenge, student-faculty interaction, supportive campus environment, active and collaborative learning, and enriching educational experience” (MacQueen 2011). That is pretty astounding, and there are certainly many lessons that traditional universities can and I believe, must learn, to stay viable in the 21st century higher education landscape.

 

References:

Charbonneau, L. (2015). David Helfand reflects back on a decade at the head of Quest University. Available at: http://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/david-helfand-reflects-back-on-a-decade-at-the-head-of-quest-university/ Accessed May 1, 2016.

MacQueen, Ken (24 February 2011), “The student’s Quest”, Maclean’s. Available at http://www.macleans.ca/culture/the-students-quest/

Having a constant awareness of student learning and teacher perception

Brookfield’s core assumption #3 of skillful teaching in Chapter 2 of his book, The Skillful Teacher, is that “Teachers need a constant awareness of how their students are experiencing their learning and perceiving their teachers’ actions” (Brookfield 2015, p. 22).

Student Learning Awareness

What Brookfield means by an awareness of how students are experiencing their learning is “having some insight into what students are thinking and feeling” (p. 22). He argues that it is crucial to have some awareness of what is going on in the classroom in terms of actual student learning about the subject.  Without that awareness the teacher can be blinded to what is really going on, where the understanding is happening or not happening in the classroom. As a result the choices a teacher makes can be erroneous in trying to address the learning gap in the classroom.

The implications of this are that a teacher’s day to day decisions on how to lead the class, what content to introduce, what problems to go over, what exercises to give, etc.,  must be guided by a very real awareness of how student learning is happening. This ties in with Hattie’s concept of making learning “visible” (Hattie 2012).

Brookfield goes on to note how incredibly tricky it is to get into a student’s mind and really know what’s going on in their heads, so the cardinal rule for getting student learning feedback is to ensure the anonymity of the students’ responses to the questions teachers would ask them about their learning (Brookfield 2015, p. 23). They need to feel safe to express whatever concerns they have, whether positive or negative, about what is going on in the classroom. This holds especially true for “perceiving their teachers’ actions”. Students simply don’t feel safe to openly express any concerns they have in their instructor’s abilities to teach. This can be especially pronounced with students coming from cultures where the teacher as  authority figure is highly respected and where it would be taboo to openly criticize anything they do, with possible harsh repercussions.

 

Winning the trust of your students is hard work but crucial in getting real honest feedback on how learning is happening. When students see that you take their anonymous feedback seriously, there will be a much healthier dynamic of transparency in the classroom. Students are able to reflect and describe how their learning is happening, including what helps and what hinders them from learning, and the instructor is able to bring up these issues with the whole class, especially those issues which impact the majority of the classroom, and provide solutions and teaching improvements moving forward.

References:  

Brookfield, S. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. Routledge.

Hattie, J. (2013). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge.

Featured image from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Awesome_PBL_group.jpg

 

Using Liberating Structures for Instructor Feedback in Higher Ed

Summary: Using the Liberating Structure known as What, So What, Now What? W³, students give feedback to an instructor in term so how the learning is progressing in the classroom. As well, student get a chance to reflect on and evaluate the effectiveness of the teachers instructional strategies.

Reflections:

I am fascinated with the concept of Liberating Structures being “simple rules that make it easy to include and unleash everyone” in purposeful, productive work to improve the learning in the classroom (Lipmanowicz & McCandless 2013). Since I had attended a workshop on how to use a variety of liberating structures in various group configurations, I was interested in seeing whether I could apply one of the structures to a classroom setting related to giving feedback to an instructor on their teaching style and other factors in the student experience. In particular, the Liberating Structure known as “What, So What, Now What?” allowed for a collaborative activity for students to look back on the progress of the course and see what adjustments were needed in the teaching/learning approach. This liberating structure would allow students to “reflect on a shared experience in a way that builds understanding and spurs coordinated action while avoiding unproductive conflict” (Liberating Structures website). I felt like using Liberating Structures would offer a new, novel and likely not done before activity for students to engage in reflection on their shared classroom experience with the teacher, with a result of getting everyone involved with coming up with solutions for how to improve the learning experience.

 

It was really interesting to adapt an activity from what would be more of a corporate/business context to a classroom teaching context. I found that the Liberating Structures material and resources were adaptable enough to be re-designed for a classroom context. I would learn more if I had the opportunity to actually apply this to a real-life classroom situation, but because I have not had that opportunity I could only speculate that this activity would give all students an opportunity to engage in a non-threatening, productive way to discuss what would otherwise be a sensitive issue.

I found that the way that the liberating structure divided up the steps into What, So What, Now What was helpful in breaking down what the students needed to do in a methodical way. It’s definitely not as simple as a “Muddiest Point”, but a great solution for an instructor who wants to be very thorough in getting feedback from everyone in a rigorous manner.

References

Brookfield, S. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Diamond, M. R. (2004). The usefulness of structured mid-term feedback as a catalyst for change in higher education classes. Active Learning in Higher Education, 5(3), 217-231.

Lipmanowicz, H., & McCandless, K. (2013). The surprising power of liberating structures. New York: Liberating Structures Press.

Liberating Structures. (2016). What, So What, Now What. Liberating Structures Website. Available at: http://www.liberatingstructures.com/9-what-so-what-now-what-w Accessed on: April 26, 2016.

Creative Commons License

Liberating Structures content, including the images used in this PowerPoint, is licensed under a Creative Common License (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported).

Best Practices in Teaching Online from Brookfield’s The Skillful Teacher

Brookfield (2015) claims that the key to effective online instruction is adhering to the same fundamental principles of good teaching that are applied in any environment (p. 170). These principles include:

• setting clear expectations
• establishing the relevance of the learning early in the course
• chunking the content in a manageable way
• using a range of learning modalities
• questioning skillfully
• providing continuous feedback to students
• organizing learning tasks from simple to complex

All of these principles can be applied in an online or blended environment very effectively using standard Learning Management systems. I would add to this list some of Hattie’s most impactful influences on student achievement (Hattie 2013), namely:

1. Formative evaluation (see my blog post on this)
2. Self-report grading 

In addition, Brookfield notes that the online classroom environment is still plagued by the same classroom management problems that face to face classrooms have (see Brookfield 2015, p. 170):

• Reluctant students not wanting to contribute
• Highly articulate minorities wanting to dominate the class discussion
• The needs of diverse learnings needing to be addressed
• How to work with larger groups of students
• Allowing students to work at different paces.

Brookfield offers some suggestions for best practices in an online environment:

• Chunk lecture videos into 10-15 minute blocks
• Set clear expectations (syllabus contains objectives, chief topics and content to be covered, due dates, resources, how students’ work will be assessed)
•  Set ground rules for discussion posting
• Providing grading rubrics
• Create teacher presence (daily summaries, critical incident questionnaires
• Keep online discussion focused
• Require students to appraise and critique peer work.

A lot of these principles apply equally well to the blended classroom, and really there comes a point when a teacher needs to decide the level of “blending” they want to do: more face to face, or more online.

Reflections on my context:

I think there is a huge opportunity in a university setting to enhanced otherwise fully face-t0-face classrooms with a more blended learning approach, taking the best of both worlds. It’s important to note and Brookfield has reminded me that best practices in teaching apply equally to the online environment as well as the classroom. A teacher can’t simply put the online course on autopilot and expect good results. That teacher needs to be “present” in some way – either by weekly video posts, online synchronous collaboration, or prompt feedback to assessments and even personal messages to students. Some instructors automate a personalized email for continuous enrollment courses, so students get timely feedback based on when they began the course. So there are lots of ways to enhance the face-to-face classroom so that students can get more out of the learning outside the classroom. More blogging on that later!

References:

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2006). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Granada Learning.

Brookfield, S. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. Routledge.

Hattie, J. (2013). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge.

Formative Evaluation in Higher Education

Among Hattie’s most impactful influences on student achievement descibed in his book Visible Learning (Hattie 2013), is formative evaluation. It has an effect ranking of 0.9, so highly impactful on student achievement. Formative evaluation refers to “any activity used as an assessment of learning progress before or during the learning process itself” (Hattie 2012 and Visible Learning Website). Formative evaluation is arguably more important than summative evaluation, because it gives a chance for the students to get relevant feedback on where they are and where they need to go. Watch this video that best explains the difference between formative and summative evaluation:

This is also a great video on formative evaluation based on William & Black 1998:

I love the analogy in the above video about how formative assessment is really like taking a car for air inspection. They don’t just tell you, “Your car failed the test. Now go away.” Instead they say, “Your car failed. These are the reasons (brakes, radiator, muffler, etc.). Go and fix those and come back for another inspection.” That’s exactly what we need to do with students! A summative assessment may tell a student “you failed this course” but then provides no pathway to success. It leaves the student demoralized and discouraged.

Response/Reflection:

My immediate thought is that formative evaluation is not being done enough in the Higher Education classroom. Summative assessment (large end of term final exams worth %40) are given much more focus. But summative assessment that will not affect student learning in the way that formative assessment can, because formative learning allows the student to change course after given constructive feedback from their instructor.  Summative assessment is easier to deploy because no detailed feedback is necessary because now the course is over. It’s therefore less work for the instructor. They’re less involved in the student learning process because they don’t have to work with the student from then on. However Hattie’s research of over 800 meta-analyses proves that formative evaluation is much more effective in improving the quality of student learning.

Some instructors, especially those teaching large courses on campus of 200 or more student, might cringe at the thought of having to give formative assessment feedback to every single student. This process can be simplified through providing rubrics to students that show them how they measure up in the grading process, and some feedback can be automated or pre-written to cover different ranges of student abilities. All that to say that large classrooms should not be a reason to avoid formative assessment considering it is so effective.

For Teacher Training / Professional Development

In order to help change the culture of instructors avoiding formative evaluation, required reading should be Hattie (2012, 2013), Brookfield (2015) and Black & William (2006). Workshops on how to do effective formative evaluation should be set up, guiding instructors step by step in the process. And advocating what Brookfield (2015) calls “critical reflection” should be communicated by administration to faculty, along with tools for classroom research into how the students are experiencing the learning and perceiving the teaching.

References:

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2006). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Granada Learning.

Brookfield, S. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. Routledge.

Hattie, J. (2013). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge.

Wise Crowds Liberating Structure – a supplement to CIQ?

The Liberating Structure known as “Wise Crowds” seeks to “tap the wisdom of the whole group in rapid cycles” (see LS 13 – Wise Crowds). I believe it can be used as a different approach to what Brookfield recommends in his The Skillsful Teacher as the CIQ or Critical Incident Questionnaire (Brookfield 2015, p. 34).

Normally in an anonymous CIQ, students are asked to describe their most engaging, confusing, helpful or surprising moments in the class that week. Their comments are then considered, tabulated and analyzed by instructors, who then respond by adjusting their teaching, lecturing, or assessment instruments for the following week.

I believe the CIQ is an incredibly powerful and sadly underused (at least at my institution) classroom research technique that has many merits. It’s an excellent way to get a snapshot of how students are doing with the learning at any point in the course. The challenge comes when you try to address the issues raised in the CIQ in order to help students better learn. Often you may not have time to address every single question or every confusing concept students raised in the anonymous survey. That’s where the Wise Crowds Liberating Structure comes in.

Rather than have the teacher trying to solve all of the students problems with the learning, she can use the  Liberating Structure (LS) known as “Wise Crowds” (Lipmanowicz & McCandless 2013, pg. 217) to allow students to take control of their learning and consult their peers, the Wise Crowds, for answers to their questions. The Wise Crowds LS allows students to  “gain more clarity and increase their capacity for self-correction and self-understanding” by consulting the expertise and inventiveness of everyone in a group (p. 217). A spinoff benefit of Wise Crowds is that students grow in supportive relationships and “deepen inquiry and consulting skills”. This is because student alternate in being a “client” and also a “consultant” to others. Here’s how you would structure it and set it up in real time.

 Applying Wise Crowds to the Classroom

The following is an adaption to a higher education classroom setting of the “Five Structural Elements – Minimum Specifications for a small Wise Crowds” in Lipmanowicz & McCandless 2013, pg. 217.

1. Structuring Invitation
   1. Inform students they will be tapping the wisdom of their peers to help them clarify the most confusing  aspects of the course experienced this past week. They will also get the opportunity to be consultants to other students with their own specific needs for clarity.
   2. Each student briefly describes his or her challenge and asks their peers for help. Peers are consultants who ask clarifying questions and offer ways for student to be more clear about the concept raised.
2. How Space is arranged
   1. Students get into groups of 4 or 5 facing each other, adapting the classroom chairs and setup as necessary
3. How Participation is Distributed
   1. All students allowed to raise their most confusing concept they had last week
   2. All students given equal amount of time to ask for or get help
   3. All students have an equal opportunity to offer help to other students
4. How Groups are configured
   1. 4-5 students
   2. Can either be randomly organized to allow for mix of students, or grouped by team based on the teams that are already set up to work on specific projects
5. Sequence of Steps and Time Allocation
   1. Every student given 5 minutes, broken down as follows: 1 minute to explain most confusing concept, 1 minutes for peers to ask clarifying questions,  2 minutes for advice given by consultants, 1 minute for client to provide feedback to consultants on how useful the advice was.

References:  

Brookfield, S. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Lipmanowicz, H., & McCandless, K. (2013). The surprising power of liberating structures. New York: Liberating Structures Press.

Liberating Structures content, including the image used in this blog post, is licensed under a Creative Commons License.