The role of Reflective, Informed and

Collaborative In-house (RICI)

Material Design in Teacher
Development and Students’ learning
By Esperanza Vera Rodríguez

Universidad Pedagógica
Nacional, Bogotá-Colombia
 What processes are involved in RICI
Material Design?

 Reflection about theories, practices,

attitudes, social context?

Collaboration with peers & students?

 Informed decisions?

Semiotics?  Visual Design?

 Creativity? Action?
 RICI Material Design and Teacher
Development

RICI Material Design should involve…

cyclical RICA

 Reflection
 Informed Decisions
 Collaboration
 Action
 RICI Material Design and Teacher
Development
RICI MD…
 Leads to “Learning Teaching”
 Fosters inquiry on theory-practice relation
 Provides input for teacher research
 Fosters reflection and collaborative work
 Strenghtens the bounds between Ss and T-
Ss and helps them grow and
 Fosters creativity, criticality and tolerance
RICI Materials Design leads
to Learning Teaching
What is “Learning Teaching”?

 It is a desire to move forward in

teaching, to keep learning from what
happens.
 It involves feedback from others and
from ourselves about what happened.
 It involves reflection on what happened,
together with an excitement about trying a
slightly different option next time.
 It is an aware and active use of the
experiential learning cycle in one’s own life
and work.
 It is a belief in creativity, understanding,
experience and character continue growing
throughout one’s life.” (Scrivener, 1998, p.
195)
 It can be summarized in the Experiential
learning cycle.
The Experiential Learning Cycle
Do

Prepare Recall

Conclude Reflect

(Scrivener, 1998)
 RICI Materials Design
fosters reflection and
collaborative work
 Reflection about…
 My system of Beliefs

 Other Ts’ systems of beliefs

 My experience as a learner

 Other Ts’ experiences as learners

 Theories of language,  Our teaching

learning practices
 Our students’ attitudes, beliefs
 Collaborative work to…
 Analyse needs, preferences, learning
styles, policies, theories, practices
 Get to know our students and learn from them
 Establish dialogue with others
(teachers, students, communities)
 Let students’ voices to be heard
 Allow inner dialogue
 Change classroom practices
RICI Materials Design
fosters inquiry on
theory-practice
relationship
 RICI MD fosters inquiry on
theory-practice relationships

• Goals of education
(related to Philosophies of
education)

• My system of beliefs
Philosophies of Education

 Classical Humanism
 Reconstructionism
 Progressivism
 Social Theory
 Elements in the Relation Theory-
practice about Teaching & Learning
 Goals  Language theories:
structuralism,
 Learners functionalism,
 Contents interaccionism
 Learning theories:
 Skills, competences
Constructivism,
 Methodologies Constructionism, Situated
cognition, etc.
 Learning outcomes  Approaches

 Assessment  Ecology of learning?

 Learner’s multiple intelligences
 RICI Material Design
strenghtens the bounds
between Ss and T-Ss
and help them grow
RICI Material Design helps T & Ss
to
 Diagnose together strengths and
weakness.
 Agree on common goals and useful
methodologies.
 Tackle together specific learning
problems.
RICI Material Design helps T & Ss to
 Agree on updated and interesting
topics to include in materials.
 Become more conscious on the
micro-skills required to face tasks
and to develop language, thinking
and social skills and competences.
 Determine which principles for
sequencing activities work best for
them.
RICI Material Design helps T & Ss to
 Share learning strategies to promote
life-long learning
 Plan jointly the outcomes to be
achieved in tasks and projects and
decide on the criteria to assess
outcomes.
 Promote reflection on the process
and sharing of achievements and
difficulties.
RICI MD fosters creativity, criticality
and tolerance (Eg.Reading)
 Write meaningful questions to analyse the
text and address Qs to the author.
 Read between the lines (about intentions,
suggestions, worldviews) and react.
 Go beyond the text connecting it to their
lives.
 Develop a critical stance about their
realities.
 Propose new ways of doing things
respecting everybody’s rights and fulfilling
duties.
Steps to design your
RICI materials
Steps in RICI Materials Design
 Phase 1: Doing a Needs Analysis
 Phase 2: Constructing a Platform
(Goals and our system of beliefs)
 Phase 3: Unit Design
 Phase 4: Planning assessment
and reflection
 Phase 5 Evaluating your Unit
Phase 1: Doing a needs analysis

• Ss’ attitudes towards L2 learning

• Ss’ preferences about topics,
learning activities, texts
• Ss’ perceptions of their strenghts
and weaknesses
Phase 2: Constructing a
Platform

Reflecting on:
• Goals of education
according to Philosophy of
education
• Our system of beliefs
Phase 2: Constructing a
Platform

• Goals of education

Coherent
with

• A Philosophy of education
 Philosophies of education & goals

 Classical Humanism: To transmit the

cultural heritage
 Reconstructionism: To offer a pre-planned
and measurable education
 Progressivism:To promote personal growth
 Social Theory: To foster critical thinkers
who can transform society
• To transmit • To promote • To foster
the cultural personal growth critical thinkers
heritage & change
makers
• 1. Goals of education
• To prepare Ss for • To prepare
life-long learning people for work
 A view of  A view of  A view of
learners & Language Teaching
Learning

• 2. My system of beliefs

 A view of the  A view of

social context of Language
Language learning-
Approach
Phase 3 Unit Design: Negotiating…
 A. Definition of Goals
 B. Definition of language, thinking and
social skills to be developed (linguistic,
pragmatic, sociolinguistic, and strategic
competences, critical thinking skills, values,etc)
 C. Selection of topic for the unit
 D. Number and structure of lessons (e.g.
4-5 per unit) & topic of project(s) to
promote inquiry and multiliteracies
Phase 3 Unit Design:
Negotiating…
 E. Nature and number of tasks per
lesson: real world tasks/pedagogic
tasks; creative, problem solving, etc.
 F. Sequencing and grading principles
for activities or tasks:
(Simplecomplex; familiarunfamiliar;
concreteabstract;individualcollective)
 G. Creativity to design tasks
Phase 3 Unit Design:
Negotiating…
 G. Learning Strategies (For Reading,
Writing, Listening, etc.)
 H. Outcomes (results, products)
students are expected to achieve
 I. Structuring tasks and lessons
 J. Structuring project and guidelines
for students’ Project development
and presentation
Phase 4 Assessment & Reflection
 K. Assessment (kind, activities)
Criteria of assessment for students’
oral and written discourse and
project development
 L. Promoting reflection on the
process of MD
 M. Providing time & spaces for
sharing reflections
Phase 5 Evaluating RICI
 Creativity
 Balance in the development of skills and
competences
 Balance: language learning-culture learning-
general knowledge
 Coherence: platform - activities &
methodology proposed
 Coherence: platform - outcomes
 Inclusion of principles for materials design
 Inclusion of principles for graphic design
Phase 5 Evaluating RICI
 Accuracy of the contents presented (No typos,
no errors)
 Attractiveness of the layout of the material for
your group average age
 Engagement the activities and the project
produce in your students
 Connections students may build with the real
world through the project
 Completeness of the criteria of assessment
 Results of the socialization of knowledge
acquired
I hope you
enjoyed and
learned
something
new today!

Thanks!