Essential to Robotics Social Club program is the opportunity for teacher professional learning with a focus on: a) identifying and meeting the needs of students with ASD, and the pedagogical practices that support student learning of the Personal and Social Capabilities, and b) knowledge, competence and confidence with robotics, programming/coding and technology.
For resources covering these two focus areas aimed at facilitating teachers, please refer to Identifying Teacher Professional Learning Needs.
Further to this is a wider goal that aims to transfer the professional learning that takes place within the Robotics Social Club setting to classroom practice, and to other teachers’ practice within the school environment. Below are a number of suggestions outlining how to go about this transfer of learning, based on the initial research outcomes. Schools are encouraged to choose an approach or mix of approaches to suit their professional learning culture and needs.
Teacher Mentoring, Observation, and Feedback
To facilitate the transfer of professional learning from the Robotics Social Club context to classroom practice and other teachers’ practice, it is recommended that other teachers in the school, particularly those who may teach the students with ASD participating in the Robotics Club, take part in a mentoring process/relationship with the teachers facilitating the Robotics Club. For example these teachers could be members of the Learning Support/Inclusive Education team; identified by the Learning Support/Inclusive Education team; or self-identified due to their interest in supporting students with ASD and interest in robotics. If this is not possible or practical, at the very least, the two facilitating teachers should engage in this process together.
Teacher mentoring has been shown to be an effective professional learning model, where mentoring interactions occur regularly over time, and is focused on diagnosing learning needs and implementing specific pedagogical practices (Jensen et al., 2014). To be most effective, the mentoring process should involve identification of needs, planning, observation of each other’s lessons, reflection, and provision of feedback on strengths and areas for improvement. Through active collaboration, this model can help teachers to identify effective practices to use within their school setting. It may also help to build teacher-student relationships, which enhance student engagement and have been identified as a positive outcome of the Robotics Social Club.
It is recommended that teachers who are engaged in the mentoring process:
- Identify their own professional learning needs (see Identifying Teacher Professional Learning Needs).
- Identify the specific learning needs of individual students they teach in the classroom, who are involved in the Robotics Social Club (see Identifying Individual Student Needs).
- Observe a minimum of two Robotics Social Club sessions and complete a brief reflection on how the pedagogical practices used in the Club can be transferred back to the classroom setting (use the Weekly Teacher Reflection (Word, 20 KB) as a prompt).
- Engage in a planning session with the Robotics Club facilitating teacher(s), provide and receive feedback, brainstorm, and plan for implementing the content and pedagogy in their classroom teaching.
- Ideally, observe each other’s classroom lesson in which the planned content and pedagogy is implemented. Meet to reflect, provide and receive feedback on this classroom lesson, and review effective pedagogical practices for individual students with ASD.
- Continue to plan and reflect on classroom practice individually, regarding effective pedagogy for particular students with ASD.
- Evaluate whether the identified student learning needs and professional learning needs have been met, and assess students’ response to intervention.
Sharing via Staff Meetings
Teachers facilitating the Robotics Social Club will undoubtedly develop:
- Content knowledge about the General Capabilities: Personal and Social Capability curriculum (ACARA, 2016);
- Pedagogical knowledge about effective practices for working with students with ASD; and
- Technological knowledge about robotics, coding and programming.
This professional learning could be shared with other teachers in the staff meeting forum. Options for how to structure this information sharing should be based on your school’s and teachers’ needs. For example:
- Sharing an overview of the learnings of the Robotics Social Club at a whole of staff meeting, highlighting take-home messages for all teachers;
- Sharing and exploring methods to teach and develop the Personal and Social Capabilities with the Pastoral Care team;
- Sharing effective pedagogical practices for particular students (especially students with ASD) with Year Level teams and Inclusive Education teams;
- Sharing technology, robotics and programming skills and applications with Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Information Technology, and/or Design and Technology departments.
- This could occur as repeat meetings so all involved are engaging in professional learning together over time (e.g. monitoring students’ progress and responding to evolving learning needs); or less frequently, depending on resourcing, identified needs and practicalities.
Informal Information Sharing
Encourage informal conversations and sharing between teachers as relevant and needed. For example:
- A weekly email could be sent to staff and/or parents after each Robotics Club session, with pertinent information e.g. the web link to the current robotics challenge, students’ achievements, particular friendships to foster or discourage, suggestions for strategies to implement or skills to reinforce in the classroom/playground/at home.
- The Robotics Social Club facilitating teachers could be listed as a contact person on individual students’ files, as someone who can provide information about their social functioning, or provide support to the student in question if needed at times of stress or anxiety. These teachers may also be able to provide advice in relation to identifying strategies that have worked in the Robotics Club to support the student in question and their learning and social needs.
- Facilitating teachers may be invited to have input into participating students’ Individual Education Plans.
The Robotics Social Club Interactive Learning Community
In addition to the Identifying Teacher Professional Learning Needs page, the Interactive Learning Community page provides a hub of resources, including:
- Links to further resources relating to robotics, and supporting students with ASD.
- Listings of relevant professional learning workshops and courses in your state.
- Networking contacts and suggestions in your state.
- The opportunity to interact with teachers in other schools who are implementing Robotics Social Clubs, to share experiences and learnings.
Please utilise this opportunity to share your experiences, and learn from others.