Christina Preston

MirandaMods: From Practice to Praxis in Informal Professional Learning Contexts

This chapter focuses on a variant of the “unconference” called MirandaMod. “Unconference” is a generic term for relatively informal partly facilitated participant-driven meetings focused on a theme or a purpose. In an unconference, the agenda is set by the participants, subverting the hierarchical nature of conventional academic conferences. Teachers in England have led the development of two kinds of “unconference”: the TeachMeet, that concentrates on the craft of the practitioner, in which teachers present their techniques and ideas to their peers, and the international MirandaMod, a themed unconference variant that encourages a focus on “praxis” – the melding of learning theory, pedagogy and practice. This chapter investigates the MirandaMod model that reflects the complex, social, intellectual and practical process of professional learning and facilitates this under three headings: the opportunities for teachers to record changes in their beliefs and understandings in relation to changing practice and developing skills; the variety of locations and modes that reflect different cultural contexts for learning and, the potential for professionals to re-evaluate their identity in relationship to their role and their pedagogical observations. MirandaMods also enrich social learning over time, particularly when opportunities for face-to-face meetings are limited because of economic restraints.

Taking the tablets: has the long-predicted revolution in teaching and learning finally arrived?

Keeping up to date in education innovation is not an easy option for the classroom practitioner. In particular, digital technologies present a challenge because they are expensive to implement; teachers require technical training; and, professional development programmes that concentrate on pedagogy and impact are not always available. This chapter explores the ways in which the MirandaNet Fellowship ‘community of practice’ tackled the implementation of personal tablets in schools through reading members’ studies, international online discussion and practice based professional development projects in the classroom that aimed to build policy and strategies on the basis of teachers’ and pupils’ evidence.