Does anyone have experience in culture or teaching and learning (COTL)? I have done some research about COTL, but still need more new ideas and resources about this concept in school.
"Culture" is a term which has a precise meaning in the educational ontology, it usually refers to the cultural background of the students and/or teacher. It is therefore not clear what a "culture of teaching and learning" could be.
COTL in general refers to the attitude of all the role players (school principals, teachers, parents and students) towards teaching and learning and the presence of quality teaching and learning processes in schools. This attitude in another words regarded as classroom climate, and commitment of teachers regards to teaching and learning activities.
I believe you are on the wrong track - you may of course look on the attitude of the players, but this does not have much to do with the quality of the processes.
Quality of teaching has much more to do with methods used than with "commitment" and "attitude". Even worse: "commitment" and "attitude" can never replace a good methodology, like e.g. a good cognitive mapping of the learning content.
Quality of learning is a very highly individual thing - all learners are different. Therefore, if you ask too many people, these differences average out and you obtain the smallest possible common factor for quality of learning - and that may be your "COTL".
There is an actually very nice example for what I mean by this critical view of "attitude": One thing which has become very successful in professional education is "Serious games", or "Game based learning". Slowly it is dawning to many people that actually "to play" means "to learn" in a very broad sense. In the LEARNTEC conference (of which I am the scientific director, see http://www.learntec.de) therefore Serious Games play a major role for several years - and last week the European Union has launched its new research framwework programme, where this idea of gamification in education plays a big role already in the first call. Well, to make my point: Putting "games" back into education is not a question of "culture" or "attitude" - but of methodology.
I would argue that even a systemic approach such as gamification is subject to the attitude of those presenting it to students. Neither commitment & attitude nor methodology can stand alone successfully. It is the synthesis of both that make good education. In this sense, the 'culture' of a school is critical as it impacts on the acceptance & implementation of good methodology.
Back to the original question, my experience is all in practical development and changing school culture to maximise learning, esp. social learning and mindset (or worldview). My greatest successes have been in the development of a school culture that is productive for all students & staff.
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