WISER: Teaching Constructing Learning Experiences This session will outline some key ideas relating to the choice and use of resources in university teaching.

WISER: TeachingConstructing Learning ExperiencesThis 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

Learner Teacher

Formal teachingSupervision and mentoring

Personal contact

Subject

Research-Based Activities

Active engagement with knowledge

resources

Learning Experience

Always enhancing the learning circle

A new notion of learningTraditional didactic

paradigmConstructivist

paradigm

Aims of learning acquisition of (isolated)

facts

conceptual, transferable frameworks

Role of teacher possessor and director of knowledge

expert and mentor

Learning Activity recall discovery

Design of learning ‘one size fits all’ individualised

Creation of Learning

environmentStatic

Dynamic collaboration between learners and

teachers

Development of learning

environment

Exclusively determined by teacher

Learners in a position to find a variety of resources

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

3 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4

Class III/Pass

Class II Div 2

Class II Div 1

Class I

Mean of DA (Scale 1-5)

Degree Class by Surface Approach Scale

2 2.5 3 3.5 4

Class III/Pass

Class II Div 2

Class II Div 1

Class I

Mean of SA (Scale 1-5)

EEffects of skills courses onStudent Approaches to Learning

40

25

Term 1 Term 3

Deep

Surface

AttendersNon attenders

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

Approaches to Teaching

 RRelating Learning & Teaching

VVariable Variable 

SA DA ITTF CCSF

Surface Approach (SA) - -.21 .37** -.46** 

Deep Approach (DA) - -.14 .34* 

IInform. Transm./Teacher-focus (ITTF) - -.23 

CConceptual Change/Student-focus (CCSF) -

 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 paradigmsFrom 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 information-handling

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 Essay, product, animation, model

Productive

  More ideas to consider …

• 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:

• 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

• 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