My current plan

My first idea was to use an instructional cycle as it is described in An introduction to cognitive education [1]- it consist of Assesment, Preparation, Instruction and Evaluation phases -. as basis of my learning project. As it is described in the book it is not really applicable for this project directly and I had a plan about how I would use it as guide to my learning. Instead as I was reading about proximal zone of development I encoutered concept of the zone of reflective capacity which is concept developed by Tinsley and Lebak.[2] Their Expanded Reflection Cycle for Transformative Professional Learning (from their Edge conference paper [3]) seems to be somewhat closer match for what I am looking for. As the name implies it is expanded version of standard learning cycle consisting of Planning, Acting and Reflecting. It expands on the reflection part of the cycle and show how teachers can work as peer group in their graduate projects to support each other in their learning. Collaborative reflection helped teachers to expand their skills and find more material to study and implement in their classroom teaching.

I modify their model of learning cycle for my purposes where my peer group consist of those I enlist to participate to this learning project with their own learning projects. We probably won't videotape our learning projects but we will try to document our learning through excercises we choose for ourselves in collaboration with our peers. When we are encoutering problems we try to share our concerns with our peers and try to understand our relevant situation through learning theories. Readings will be about relevant subjects in psychology, cognitive science and learning sciences for me (mostly - thought I foresee some need for brushing up my math and cs skills).

My next excercise is to try to summarise what are relevant ideas from cognitive psychology that I think I would benefit from reading more about at this part of the project.

Oh and if someone wants to join the fun they can contact me at thememeist@gmail.com

[1] Adrian F Ashman and Robert N.F. Conway An introduction to cognitive education, Theory and Applications (1997)
[2] Tinsley, R. & Lebak, K. (2009). Expanding the Zone of Reflective Capacity: Taking separate journeys together. Networks, 11 (2).
http://journals.library.wisc.edu/index.php/networks/article/view/190/211
[3] Tinsley, R. & Lebak, K. (2009) edge conference paper. A Collaborative Learning Model to Empower Teachers to be Reflective Practitioners
http://www.mun.ca/edge2009/displaypapers.php?id=30