Transcript Document

WISER: Teaching
Constructing Learning Experiences
This session will outline some key ideas relating to the choice
and use of resources in university teaching with particular
reference to the context of Oxford University.
Hubert Ertl and Ashish Jaiswal (OUDES)
Keith Trigwell (OLI)
and Judy Reading (OULS)
Constructing Learning
Experiences
Active engagement
with knowledge
resources
Always enhancing the
learning circle
Learner
Subject
Research-Based
Activities
Learning
Experience
Teacher
Formal teaching
Supervision and mentoring
Personal contact
A new notion of learning
Traditional didactic
paradigm
Aims of learning
acquisition of (isolated)
facts
Constructivist
paradigm
conceptual, transferable
frameworks
Role of teacher
possessor and director of
knowledge
expert and mentor
Learning Activity
recall
discovery
‘one size fits all’
individualised
Static
Dynamic collaboration
between learners and
teachers
Exclusively determined
by teacher
Learners in a position to find
a variety of resources
Design of learning
Creation of
Learning
environment
Development of
learning
environment
Heuristic Knowledge Exchange Environment across Departments : Role of
Oxford Colleges
Deep and Surface approaches
Deep
SStudents focus their attention on the overall meaning or message in a class
session, text or situation. They attempt to relate ideas together and construct
their own meaning, possibly in relation to their own experience.
S
Surface
SStudents focus their attention on the details and information in a class
session or text. They are trying to memorise these individual details in the
form they appear in the class or text or to list the features of the situation in
order to pass the examinations.
Relating approach to outcome
Degree Class by Deep Approach Scale
Class I
Class II Div 1
Class II Div 2
Class III/Pass
3
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
4
Mean of DA (Scale 1-5)
Degree Class by Surface Approach Scale
Class I
Class II Div 1
Class II Div 2
Class III/Pass
2
2.5
3
3.5
Mean of SA (Scale 1-5)
4
EEffects of skills courses on
Student Approaches to Learning
40
Deep
Surface
25
Term 1
Term 3
Attenders
Non attenders
Approaches to Teaching
ITTF - Information transmission/teacher focus (Levels 1
and 2)
Staff focus their attention on what they do (forward planning,
good management skills, an armoury of teaching competencies,
ability to use IT …).
They attempt to transmit the information about the curriculum
on the assumption that students will learn from that process. That
information is often complex and requires presentation skill.
They see differences in learning outcome being due to
differing student ability or differing teacher competence in
presentation.
Approaches to Teaching
CCSF - Conceptual change/student focus (Levels 3 and 4)
Staff focus their attention on the students and monitor their perceptions, activity and
understanding. Transmission is not enough.
They assume students construct their own knowledge, and the task of the teacher is to
challenge current ideas through questions, discussion and presentation.
Includes mastery of techniques, including those associated with transmission, but this is an
empty display without learning.
DDifferences in learning outcome occur in the relation between student and context
RRelating Learning & Teaching
VVariable
Variable
SA
DA
ITTF
CCSF
Surface Approach (SA)
Deep Approach (DA)
-
IInform. Transm./Teacher-focus (ITTF)
CConceptual Change/Student-focus (CCSF)
-.21
-
.37** -.46**
-.14
.34*
-
-.23
Using an online teaching strategy
From a student-focused conception this might raise the following
two questions:
Is this strategy likely to achieve the student learning aims?
What type of learning is likely to be encouraged using this
strategy?
From a teacher-focused perspective, the questions raised are more
likely to include:
Is this strategy likely to be the most efficient method of
dissemination?
What amount of coverage is likely to be achieved using this
approach?
Using teaching resources
From a student-focused conception
Question:
If I use this resource, what type of student learning is likely to
be encouraged?
From a teacher-focused perspective
Question: :
What amount of coverage or dissemination is likely to be
achieved using this resource?
What learning resources are available to us?
People:
Teachers, peer group, experts, visiting speakers, librarians, other support staff …
Learning spaces, virtual and physical:
Study space, laboratories, virtual learning environments, libraries …
Learning materials:
Print books and journals, e-books and online journals, video, television, slides,
audio-tapes, practical kits, games, online databases, CD-Roms, interactive
multi-media, internet, online tutorials and other forms of computer-assisted
learning including simulations, computer-mediated conferencing …
Other:
Museums, art galleries, corpses, local industry, government departments and
research institutes …
Some useful educational paradigms
From behaviourism we have the principles of:
• Activity – the learner is more effective when actively engaged
• Repetition – learning is improved through practice
• Reinforcement – the reward of success improves learning and is the principle
source of motivation
From cognitive theory we have the principles of:
• Learning with understanding – new knowledge should mesh with old
• Organization and structure – a logical structure of information is important and
sequencing of information improves learning
• Perceptual features – the form of presentation of information is important
• Cognitive feedback – learners should be given information on their progress
• Individual differences – intellectual ability and personality affects learning
From socio-cultural theory we have the principles of:
• Learning as a natural process – people have a natural curiosity
• Purposes and goals – defined goals increase motivation
• Social situation – group atmosphere affects learning
• Choice, relevance and responsibility – learning is improved when learners
perceive relevance and are responsible for their own learning
• Anxiety and emotion – fear inhibits learning and learning is more effective
when it involves a student’s emotions as well as intellect
Applying paradigms to Computer-Assisted Learning
Paradigm:
Instructional
(Skinner and Gagne)
Revelatory
(Bruner and Ausubel)
Conjectural
(Piaget and Papert)
Key concept
Mastery of content
Discovery, intuition, getting
a ‘feel’ for ideas
Articulation and
manipulation of ideas and
hypothesis-testing
Curriculum emphasis
Subject matter as the object
of learning
The student as the subject of
learning
Understanding, ‘active’
knowledge
Educational means
Rationalisation of
instruction, especially in
sequencing presentation and
feedback reinforcement
Providing opportunities for
discovery and vicarious
experience
Manipulation of student
inputs, finding metaphors
and model building
Role of the computer
Presentation of content, task
prescription, student
motivation through fast
feedback
Simulation or informationhandling
Manipulatable space/field/
‘scratch-pad’ language/ for
creating or articulating
models, programs, plans or
conceptual structures
Assumptions
Conventional body of
subject matter with
articulated structure;
articulated hierarchy of
tasks, behaviourist learning
theory
(Hidden) model of
significant concepts and
knowledge structure; theory
of learning by discovery
Problem-oriented theory of
knowledge; general
cognitive theory
Diana Laurillard’s ‘conversational framework’
“… there must be … a continuing iterative dialogue between teacher and student,
which reveals the participants’ conceptions, and the variations between them,
and these in turn will determine the focus for the further dialogue”
She analyses each type of educational medium in terms of the Conversational
Framework to see how far it serves the needs of a principled teaching strategy.
Educational media
• Narrative media are the linear presentational media print, audio, video
and others – non-interactive
• Interactive media – presentational media which includes hypertext,
multimedia resources, web-based resources and internet-delivered
television- essentially linear media delivered in an open user-controlled
environment
• Communicative – allow people to discuss
• Adaptive – computer-based media which are capable of changing their
state in response to user’s actions
• Productive – enables people to produce their own contributions
Learning experience
Methods,technologies
Media forms
Attending, apprehending
Print, TV, video, DVD
Narrative
Investigating, exploring
Library, CD, DVD, Web
resources
Interactive
Discussing, debating
Seminar, online conference Communicative
Experimenting, practising Laboratory, field trip,
simulation
Adaptive
Articulating, expressing
Productive
Essay, product, animation,
model
More ideas to consider …
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Resource-based learning (Gibbs and others)
Information literacy skills
Resources as ‘emancipatory’ ie they save time for ‘authentic’ labour
Advance organisers (Ausubel) and scaffolding (Vygotsky and others)
Orchestrating the resources you use – for example constructing
learning activities around a particular resource
• Learning styles (Kolb and Entwistle)
• Specific learning needs
Some practical considerations: Access to resources is key.
Does the last to reach the Library have as much chance as the
first of gaining access to the texts you are referring to?
Make life easier for your students:
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Tell the Library in plenty of time what you will be asking the students to read.
Try and include chapters or individual articles rather than whole books
Consider putting together a course reader and selling it to students
Give students a wide choice of focus or stagger assignments so that they are
not all chasing the same material at the same time
Choose a few books which will be relevant throughout the course and ask the
students to buy them
Write course materials yourself (this can be an expensive option and you need
to remember to update)
Spend time finding out what is available for you to use
Talk to Library and other support staff
Be clear in your guidance to students so they know what is expected of them
Ensure students have the requisite skills to make the most of the learning
environment.
Suggestions for further reading
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Researching into Learning Resources in Colleges and Universities / Chris
Higgins, Judy Reading and Paul Taylor – Kogan Page, 1996 – 0749417714
Rethinking University Teaching : a Conversational Framework for the
effective use of learning technologies / Diana Laurillard – 2nd ed. – Routledge,
2002 – 0415256798
Understanding Learning and Teaching / Michael Prosser and Keith Trigwell
SRHE and Open University Press, 1999 – 0335198317
Look under “Education” on OXLIP
Come to the Department of Educational Studies Library