Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:3135] Pre-discussion paper
From: Kinshuk (kinshuk@massey.ac.nz)
Date: Mon 08 Apr 2002 - 15:18:43 MEST
From: "Kinshuk" <kinshuk@massey.ac.nz> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:3135] Pre-discussion paper Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 01:18:43 +1200
Dear colleagues
Please find below the pre-discussion paper on the theme
"Principles of Best Practice for 21st Century Education"
by Mark Nichols, Universal College of Learning, New Zealand,
our moderator and summariser for the discussion. The
discussion will formally end on 126 April 2002.
The HTML version of the paper is available at:
http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss_april2002.html
Please send your comments on the paper to IFETS list at
ifets-discussion@lighthouse.valdosta.edu
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"Principles of Best Practice for 21st Century Education"
* Introduction
The change in education practice and tools over the last ten years has been
truly remarkable. The old dichotomy of traditional face-to-face and distance
education is becoming obsolete as more diverse mixed-mode forms of education
delivery emerge. However the relationships between what is now possible in
education, what various education stakeholders demand, and what is educationally
effective are not clear as yet.
The imperatives for 21st Century education are (Nichols 2001:13-14):
- Increased capacity and efficiency - through enabling institutions to cater for
the learning of a relatively large number of students at once.
- Improved effectiveness - by encouraging deep learning approaches and the
adaptation of knowledge to the real world.
- Easy accessibility - by removing distance barriers and catering for a variety
of learners' prior educational experience, physical abilities, and time commitments
/lifestyles.
- A competitive mindset - education with the potential to be offered internationally,
within industry, and at a distance; providing more choice and convenience for the
student.
- A resource-based emphasis - enabling more student control over what, where, when
and how they study and permitting non-linear learning; and
- The personal touch - with more interaction between students and between individual
student and tutor, enabling a degree of customisation and the pursuit of individual
students' learning goals in addition to the prescribed course learning outcomes.
The challenge to course designers and educators is how to realise these benefits
practically without compromising principles of sound education.
* So What Endures?
I will make the assumption that principles of sound education are enduring and apply
regardless of the media applied to facilitate them. Most of the questions for
discussion then relate to what these enduring principles are.
- What are those elements of course design that remain constant regardless of the
technologies and education mode employed? What works in face-to-face, distance and
the various forms of mixed-mode delivery?
- What factors of course design and delivery are indicative of best practice?
- What are those educational principles that underlie the effective application of
technology to education?
Once the underlying best practice principles of education are identified, means of
practically implementing them can be proposed. If the principles are sufficiently
broad they might apply to all forms and modes of education.
* The Wider Context
Best practice should consider the substantial theoretical corpus already in existence
on such issues as the characteristics of the adult learner, learning styles, and
student motivation.
* The Adult Learner
Using Malcolm Knowles' (1990) criteria, all learners in tertiary education can be
described as adult. Knowles' theory of andragogy is based on the following
assumptions about adult learners:
- Adults like to know why they need to learn something before undertaking to learn it,
so providing a reason and a context for learning about a particular topic is important.
- Adults have a self-concept of being responsible for their own decisions and for
their own lives.
- Adults bring their individual experiences with them into the educational situation,
and for many kinds of learning the richest resource for learning reside in the adult
learners themselves.
- Adults become ready to learn those things they need to know and be able to do in
order to cope effectively with their real-life situations.
- Adults are life-centred in their approach to learning; they learn new knowledge,
understandings, skills, values, and attitudes most effectively when they are presented
in the context of application to real-life situations; and
- All normal adults are motivated to keep growing and developing, but this motivation
is frequently blocked by such barriers as negative self-concept as a student,
inaccessibility of opportunities or resources, time constraints, and programmes that
violate principles of adult learning.
The picture of the adult learner is that of a person who brings many of their own
ideas and experiences into every learning situation, and whose learning will be shaped
by real-life relevance and real-life constraints. The adult learner is at the same
time independent and dependent, motivated and distracted by multiple responsibilities,
and rich in life experience.
* Learning Styles
The theory of andragogy provides a big picture of adult learning preferences. On a
more individualised level, it is widely acknowledged that students have different
learning styles and preferences. Of course, it is not possible to always give
instruction in the ways students prefer. A student studying automotive mechanics may
prefer to read about how to change an air filter, but for assessment he or she will
actually need to get their hands dirty! Likewise some students prefer to listen to
people explain things, but this is not always convenient. Developing as a learner
requires being exposed to forms of instruction that may not necessarily suit the
learner. Sanchez and Gunawardena (1998:55) make the observation that "while matching
teaching and learning styles may yield higher achievement, providing learners with
activities that require them to broaden their repertoire of learning styles more
fully prepares them to function in our diverse society. There is a need to provide
a delicate balance of activities that provide opportunities to learn in preferred
ways and activities that challenge the learner to learn in new or less preferred
ways."
Student learning style preferences should not be too quickly bowed down to however
they do need to be considered when designing courses. Research by Pask (from Sparkes
1993:26) has shown that "students' learning effectiveness could be approximately
doubled by matching the teaching style to their learning style". This potential for
improving students' learning should not be ignored.
It has been argued that the educational mechanism consists of both presentation and
process factors. It is claimed that students have different preferences and styles
for both of these mechanisms. For example, the VARK set of learning styles
(http://www.active-learning-site.com) differentiates between learners who prefer
Visual, Audial, Reading / Writing, and Kinaesthetic (doing) activities. VARK relates
to preferences of information and skill presentation. For the process mechanism of
education, Rowntree (1997) provides useful coverage based on Honey and Mumford's
four learning styles as shown in Figure 1 - Student learning styles and process
preferences.
----------------------------------------
Learning Style: Activists - Here, let me do that.
Respond Well to: New problems, being thrown in at the deep end, team work.
Respond Poorly to: Passive learning, solidarity work, theory, precise instructions.
Learning Style: Theorists - Yes, but how do you justify it?
Respond Well to: Interesting concepts, structured situations, opportunities to
question and probe.
Respond Poorly to: Lack of apparent context or purpose, ambiguity and uncertainty,
doubts about validity.
Learning Style: Pragmatists - So long as it works.
Respond Well to: Relevance to real problems, immediate chance to try things out,
experts they can emulate.
Respond Poorly to: Abstract theory, lack of practice or clear guidelines, no
obvious benefit from learning.
Learning Style: Reflectors - I need time to consider that.
Respond Well to: Thinking things through, painstaking research, detached observation.
Respond Poorly to: Being forced into the limelight, acting without planning,
time pressures.
----------------------------------------
The challenge presented by Honey and Mumford's categories is how to provide a
learning process that suits all learners - a challenge made difficult by each
category preferring a different process. Some of the preferences are mutually
exclusive.
* Motivation
Newstead (1998:189) equates motivation with "willingness to overcome obstacles.
dogged determination to succeed, in some cases. sheer stubbornness." The perseverance
and effort a student is willing to demonstrate during a course is a vital ingredient
of their success in learning. Motivation may well be a better indication of a
student's learning potential than ability, but motivation is not easily created.
Rather, students come to a course with various motives, each of which largely
determines the amount of sheer stubbornness and determination they will apply. Much
of the motivation a student will show during a course has been determined long
before the first learning session takes place.
Entwistle (1998:16-17) links student motivation to student approaches to learning.
His three motivational types are:
- Intrinsic - reflects a personal interest and desire to succeed; leads to a deep
approach to learning (want to learn)
- Extrinsic - students are influenced by external rewards and pressures; leads to
a surface approach to learning (pressured to learn); and
- Achievement - competitive, focuses on personal need for achievement; leads to a
strategic and versatile approach to studying (learn what is required).
An extrinsically motivated student works under duress, committing key points to
memory, otherwise not spending a lot of time grappling with meaning and underlying
principles and concepts. Extrinsically motivated students are motivated by factors
outside of the actual learning itself, so they will tend to work hardest when
assignments are due. An achievement-motivated or 'strategic' student is in it for
the grades; he or she will pick out information that the tutor wants, and focus on
those areas specifically covered in assessment tasks. Strategic students are
frequently dedicated, however they are usually not independent thinkers. An
intrinsically motivated learner, however, searches through course resources
carefully with an eye for investigation, seeking meaning and linking different
concepts together. Intrinsically motivated students like to explore, have a zest
for learning the topic, and work hard - even though they may not think they actually
do.
Of course the link between motivation and learning approach is not an absolute one,
but the question is important: How can we encourage the intrinsically motivated,
make strategic learners more independent, and involve the extrinsic learners all
within the same course?
* Underlying Tensions
It may be that the imperatives identified earlier and the wider context issues above
set standards that are educationally undesirable.
- To what extent are the imperatives and wider context issues mutually exclusive?
For example, is it possible to achieve both 'increased capacity and efficiency'
and 'the personal touch' in a course, or to cater for both activists and theorists
in the same learning situation?
- Are the imperatives conducive to sound education, or do they assume things that
run counter to it? For example, is 'a resource-based emphasis' necessarily desirable
from an education perspective?
* Conclusion
A set of broad, enduring best practice principles that realise the imperatives of
21st Century education and the lessons of theory in such areas as andragogy, learning
styles and motivation would provide an invaluable set of landmarks for educators
navigating the largely uncharted waters of education technology and mixed-mode
delivery.
The best practice principles suggested:
- Should not be platform dependent (that is, they should not be based on a particular
technology).
- Should have an implementation bias.
- Will probably be based on successful education experience (think about what has
worked for you as a student, and what other students have appreciated).
Discussion suggesting best practice principles and the areas of tension identified
earlier is invited.
* References
Entwistle, N. (1998). Motivation and approaches to learning. In Brown, S., Armstrong,
S., and Thompson, G. (eds), Motivating Students, pp.15-23. London: Kogan Page.
Knowles, M. (1990). The Adult Learner. Fourth Edition. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co.
Newstead, S. (1998). Individual differences in student motivation. In Brown, S.,
Armstrong, S., and Thompson, G. (eds), Motivating Students, pp.189-199. London:
Kogan Page.
Nichols, M. (2001). Teaching for Learning. New Zealand: Traininc.co.nz
Rowntree, D. (1997). Making Materials-Based Learning Work. London: Kogan Page.
Sanchez, I. And Gunawardena, C. (1998). Understanding and supporting the culturally
diverse learner. In Gibson, C. (ed.), Distance Learners in Higher Education, pp.47-64.
Wisconsin: Atwood Publications.
Sparkes, J. (1993). Distance education and conceptual learning. In Parer, M. Designing
Open Courses, pp.15-37. Australia: Monash University.
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