On Effective learning & teaching (or a heap of great things I have learned from the CERE course)
… Because life is too short for bad education.
O! This learning, what a thing it is.
-W. Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew
Ever stood in a class staring at your watch and hoping seconds will go faster? Or browsed relentlessly up and down your Facebook home page on your smart phone whilst somewhere ahead of you a lecture is given? Ever felt you have done the wrong course, or you were the “wrong” type of student? Ever got a grade lower than what you deserved? Ever looked for feedback or explanation and you never got one? Ever looked for help and been turned down?
Any of the above?
All of the above?
Well, if you are looking for a gleam of hope that there is a different scenario to this, look no further.
Content
This wiki page provides an overview of some of the topics that were brought up in the CERE module. For example, it will be suitable for any third year student who wants to get an idea of what the CERE course is about. It is by no means exhaustive and it does not provide comprehensive discussion of the arguments in favour and criticism towards each of those factors . What it does though, is create an imaginary scenario where (in my opinion) successful educational processes takes place. In addition, it includes recommended reading for each of the topics mentioned in the scenario
If you only want to spend 60 seconds on this wiki look out for the words in bold below.
Josh is a third year engineering student. He came to university after getting very high grades in high school. Yet university has been challenging for him, he started a course in mechanical engineering but he failed to submit his first assignment on time, he failed to submit his second assignment on time too. He was really confused what went wrong. He had five lectures a week and two lab sessions per week, he attended all of those. But he never knew how much time to allocate to for a certain task, he was used to having high school teachers to tell him what to do and when. He liked high school a lot and he did very well in it – he was capable of finishing his homework in the afternoon sessions. Yet, in university there was no one to schedule his time for him, and he struggled a lot. He met up with his Advisor of Studies who explained that this is the difference between high school and university – most of the learning takes places outside classes and self regulation of time and effort (1)to complete a task. His Advisor also questioned his choice(3)in subject choice and asked Josh to point out the reasons he choose to study mechanical engineering. Josh thought for a few minutes and then explained that his dad always wanted him to do mechanical engineering. Josh was not really sure whether he truly liked the subject or not, he just did whatever his dad told him to do. Josh has always been interested in making objects, changing their shape or colour. He also loved drawing too. His Advisor of Studies was thrilled with all the strengths (2)Josh listed he had and encouraged him to stay at university; removing Josh`s doubt that he wasn’t ready for it. His Advisor of study recommended (3)that he took up engineering that involved art as well. Josh changed to product design engineering and after a few difficulties on his way, his now a student who is on his way to get a first class degree and does a masters as well. Today is Thursday and Josh is on his way to his favourite class - Advanced Maths. Josh has always been very passionate for(4)Maths and he truly cares about the subject. It is a rainy day today, everyone feels a bit miserable. Yet Josh is excited about his lecture. He walks into the spacious, airy lecture theatre(5)that has loads and loads of windows. He greets his study partner, Matt and sits next to him on the front row(6). Professor A walks into the lecture theatre with a bag of wholegrain cereal bars(7)which he passes on to everybody in the lecture theatre. The students quiet down. Professor A puts on Mozart (8), very quietly and begins the class. Professor A has a few games (9)for them today, he makes Advanced Maths sounds as easy as ABC. For Professor A students involvement in a lecture is crucial. In addition, he views students acquisition of knowledge as a process, one they should be actively involved in and one that is never ending. A process that requires both acquisitionand participation (10).Students are encouraged to learn the class material and and also encouraged to have a debate with their study partner (each student has a study partner; i.e. all students always study in pairs(11) ; discuss each others ideas. Last week there was a class test. Today Josh has to go and see Professor A after the lecture to obtainfeedback(12)on his last performance. Firstly, he is asked to assess his own performance at the test, then professor A gave him his test back – he had B2. Josh was taken out of surprise, he really thought he had done really well on this test. He thought to himself : “ Oh no, I am not doing as well again. That reminds of my start in university – I wasn’t very good, oh maybe I should change my course again? Or I should call my mum?” Professor A can see the emotional effect of the mark and explains to Josh his feedbacks: the mark is by no means a reflection of how smart Josh is; rather it is a reflection of the fact that he has maybe not found the right revision method and suggests that maybe going to revision method workshops can help. Josh is happy to follow up on the suggestion and leaves the office. On his way he is thinking : “ Oh I have learned so much today!! Can not wait for this to happen again tomorrow!”
The scenario deals with a few aspects of the educational process:
importance of self regulation of time and effort as main difference between school and university ( Draper, 2009)
enhancing performance by focusing on strengths approach (Simmons, 2009)
the importance of having an Advisor of Studies to discuss challenges/ideas with
intrinsic motivation of the learner; students who have higher intrinsic motivation to do a course have a tendency to perform better (Moneta, 2001)
importance of context
importance of seating position : students who sit at the front of the lecture do better than students who sit at the back of a lecture ( (Bennedict, 2004)
effect of food on brain performance (Wenk, 2010)
“Mozart effect “ : listening to Mozart has positive effect on intellectual skills (Campbell, 1997)
Execution of the teaching process (Professor A delivers the lecture in intriguing and fun way) – increases likelihood that information will be encoded and retrieved better (Riddel, 2011)
10 education : acquisition metaphor and participation metaphor (Sfard, 1998)
11 studying in pairs (Smith, 2009)
12 Effective Feedback and helping students interpret it correctly ( Draper, 2009)
If you are only going to read two papers for the CERE course , read those: (my choice of two great papers)
Sfard,A. (1998) "On Two Metaphors for Learning and the Dangers of Choosing Just One"Educational Researcher Vol.27 No.2 pp.4-13
Paper reviews two metaphors that have been used to describe education – the acquisition metaphor (AM) and the participation metaphor (PM). The AM has to do with explaining education as an act of “acquiring” knowledge : initially education was looked at as passive reception of knowledge then it was suggested that educations actively constructed by the learner. The problem with accepting AM as the only explanation for education is that education becomes a private possession. The second metaphor (PM) helps overcome this problem by explaining education as a “discourse” and “communication” which suggests a way of turning knowledge (as private possession) into act of public possession.
Although the scenario at the start does not discusses Sfard`s ideas directly, I believe it is an important paper to read because it represents the various dimensions of the education process. Its about learner, teacher and the public.
Draper,S.W. (2009b) "What are learners actually regulating when given feedback?" British Journal of Educational Technology vol.40 no.2 pp.306-315
The paper discusses the importance of receiving feedback and interpreting in . It is discussed how most students look at feedback only as an indicator of their grade. Yet, Draper argues that in order for the feedback to be effective the student should take notice of other possible interpretations as well: it is suggested that one of the most frequently seen interpretations is to do with not having used best information or method for the task but can be improved. There are some other interpretations as well. The difficulty lies in communicating what the feedback actually means to the students in order that their future performance improves. It is important for the student to understand feedback with the suggestions and ideas for improvement in order that they take self -regulatory action. better time management techniques; prioritising“persist: try, try, try again”
How to change learners interpretation rapidly?
Simply telling learnersto interpret feedback in one way rather than another is easy to do and can be very effective. Evidence comes from several studies. ( Cohen et al, 2006), Dar- Nimrod & Jeine (2006). A particularly interesting study was carried out by Smpson (2009) , it involved 5000 students and was done over three years. The results of the study suggested that a single phone call made before the course reduced drop-out rates in the Open University by 4-5 % over the first year of study compared to the group that did not receive a phone call. The concept of the phone call was derived from the positive psychology literature and involved highlighting the students strengths
References
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education
Benedict, M.E., and Hoag, J. (2004). Seating location in large lectures: Are seating preferences or location related to course performance?Journal of Economic Education, 35(3), 215-231.
Campbell, Don (1997).The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit
Draper,S.W. (2009b) "What are learners actually regulating when given feedback?" British Journal of Educational Technology vol.40 no.2 pp.306-315
Sfard,A. (1998) "On Two Metaphors for Learning and the Dangers of Choosing Just One"Educational Researcher Vol.27 No.2 pp.4-13
Smith, M.K., Wood, W.B., Adams, W.K., Wieman, C., Knight, J.K., Guild, N., & Su, T.T (2009). Why Peer Discussion Improves Student Performance on In-Class Concept Questions, Science, 323, 122-124.
Wenk,G. Ph.D. author of Your Brain on Food (Oxford, 2010);http://faculty.psy.ohio-state.edu/wenk/