This online resource aims to support a collegial conversation around the POISE Framework.
POISE Framework | POISE Resources for Tutor Groups | POISE Workshop for Faculty | POISE Videos
Pace | Ownership | Innateness | Simplicity | Exactness
Who is it for?
The intention is to support faculty running a workshop amongst colleagues, but with some adaptation, this can also be used with students, or between student groups.
What is it?
This is the sequence and supporting materials for a 90-minute workshop. If you have more time, you can extend certain exercises or add additional scenarios for participants to consider. Likewise, if time is short, you may want to cut out some later activities, though the workshop is designed to cover all the intended learning outcomes in just 90 minutes (which isn’t very long!).
How should I prepare?
You should review all the materials associated with the workshop and try to get a head around the basic five dimensions of the POISE Framework. You don’t have to agree with them (!), but understanding the structure helps facilitate discussion around it.
Try to make sure you have a room with a high-quality sound and image projection system. Ideally, you will have a good internet connection that allows you to watch YouTube videos. This is not essential, but it would be helpful.
You can, of course, substitute any of the material included with your own creations, but if you do so, I would be grateful if you could share them with me at spa@sijen.com
The Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Identify the advantages for internationalised students of developing a personal profile of their epistemological beliefs (affective)
- Articulate five dimensions of epistemological beliefs that can be used to structure interactions with and between students (metacognitive).
- Recommend the appropriate dimension of epistemological belief to be used to elucidate specific learning challenges (cognitive)
- Formulate an approach to establishing the beliefs of their colleagues and students for their specific context (affective)
- Document alternative questions or approaches that further explore the five binary dimensions under discussion (psychomotor)
Workshop Materials
- An internet connection, sound system and projection capabilities
- A printer to print out two handouts (ideally on A3, but A4 works too). You will need at least one copy of each handout per pair of participants.
- Ideally, a room set-up in ‘cabaret’ style, with four people per table.
Workshop Sequence
The following is based on 90-minute workshops I have run with course design teams. It is intended as an indicative structure. Feel free to make it fit your context.
| Action | Time (mins) | Brief |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Introduction: Overview of Workshop and documentation as a ‘take away’ | 5 | Explain the structure of the workshop and provide an overview of the ‘take-away’ from today. Include an overview of the Intended Learning Outcomes |
| 2. Activity: Orientation to your epistemological beliefs | 10 | Working in pairs (or a trio), working through Paper Activity One: Orientation to Our Epistemological Beliefs Make sure you remember to write down your responses in a legible way so a colleague can read them (this works best if you print them out on A3) |
| 3. Activity: Feeding back within a small group | 10 | Have people exchange their completed sheets with another pair. Ideally, not the people immediately next to you. Have them annotate the new piece to indicate whether they said the same thing or something new emerged. Any annotation convention is equally valid. I like to have a big ‘tick’ if it’s a simple agreement, I would encourage a ‘star’ if it’s a new idea or concept. |
| 4. Activity: Discussion within each small group to establish common beliefs | 5 | Have each pair decide which of the four conditions cited on their piece of paper are common to their own original list. Have each pair re-write the common belief(s) on the reverse of the piece of paper in the form of a statement that begins: “a necessary condition for successful academic learning is…” |
| 5. Plenary: Feedback from the whole group (whiteboard/flipchart) | 10 | Collect the groups’ focus on a plenary session and ask each pair to share one of their common belief statements. Go around the group until all the common beliefs have been noted. Invite group reflections on the results. |
| 6. Presentation: Overview of the POISE approach | 10 | A short video (9’46”) that provides an overview of the POISE approach. Video will load in a new window. Make sure you have sound enabled. Video: https://youtu.be/PORIu1X6-q8 Alternative: Workshop Handout and explore videos on this site. |
| 7. Activity: Role play student responses to POISE questions | 10 | In new pairs – paper-based Activity Two Discuss the likely epistemological beliefs of TWO of the individuals described on the piece of paper marked Activity Two: Scenarios |
| 8. Plenary: Themes and discussion that emerge from whole group | 10 | Collate responses to Activity Two. Record responses on the whiteboard or flipchart. Is there agreement as to the likely epistemological beliefs of the individuals outlined? What information is missing in order to determine their epistemological beliefs? |
| 9. Activity: Scenarios prompted by student profiles | 5 | Working again in pairs, identify one learning challenge to ‘overcome’, an epistemological belief that you believe represents an obstacle to academic learning. Consider the specific POISE challenges of individual students? What are the consequences of different epistemological beliefs on cohort behaviour? |
| 10. Plenary: Feedback from the whole group | 10 | Collate responses and record on the whiteboard/flipchart Is there a consensus amongst workshop participants that a particular epistemological belief poses a challenge to learning in the United Kingdom higher education context? Can participants envisage having a dialogue with students guided by the POISE questions as beneficial and practicable? |
| 11. Presentation: Concluding comments | 5 | Review the sessions’ intended learning outcomes Point out support resources and outline the ‘take-away’ documentation. Invite comments on the workshop itself Ask participants what they think their own next steps might be. |
