Mary Harrsch (mharrsch@oregon.uoregon.edu)
Tue, 19 Jan 1999 16:36:31 -0800
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 16:36:31 -0800 From: Mary Harrsch <mharrsch@oregon.uoregon.edu> Subject: [ifets] Discussion Summary #3
In comments following Karen's summary of January 15, Martin Owen agrees
with the value of Kolb's model of experiential learning to an extent but
points out that the assumption that professional communities constitute a
"reified" body of professional practice into which one can become inducted
is a weakness. He states that an "individualist" approach places too much
emphasis on individual "learning styles". "We need to emphasize learning as
a collaborative goal," he says. He points out that the advantage of
'collaborative/group' learning is that each learner type contributes to the
discussion and the discussion is enriched by each strength.
John Bottomley pointed out that there is little hard evidence supporting the
view that taking student learning styles into account leads to positive
learning outcomes. He mentioned a counter view discussed by David Brooks in
his text 'Web Teaching: A Guide to Designing Interactive Teaching for the
World Wide Web' Brooks says the best outcome for students is to expose them
to many kinds of learning experiences ultimately enabling students to learn
under a wide range of situations and circumstances.
Chris O'Hagan raised the issue that students should be enabled to see
"broader horizons and why certain learning activities are important." He
described a successful experience in which a colleague prepared video tapes
of a lecture on 'Learning To Learn' which were offered to first year
students. The tapes were very successful because they created an
environment where the instuctors had to engage the topic and learned as much
about how students learn as the students did.
He also mentioned a personal experience which illustrated the difficulty of
trying to adapt a large system to individual learning styles. As a faculty
member of a tutorial college where he tutored six different students per
hour he discovered that a single textbook did not provide explanations that
were successful with every student. "I suspect that even with the level of
knowledge of have today, I still would not have been able to predict which
explanation would work with a particular student."
>From his own experience, he supports providing a lot of different ways to
learn the same thing, support for students who are have real difficulty, and
in larger institutions particularly, educating students in learning "so they
*know* when they are having difficulty and have the confidence to admit
ignorance and ask."
As a personal reflection on points made by Karen Kaminski in her previous
summary, I would like to distinguish between the "media" and the "message".
Whether an adult prefers a book, a video, or a group project is not as
important as whether the desired instructional message is being delivered in
a way that is clearly understood by the majority of students. A process
animation can often demonstrate a concept visually that is very difficult to
grasp using words. A simulation in which the interactive forces are clearly
defined can result in understanding cause and effect as each variable is
manipulated by the student. A dramatic reading accompanied by images and
music of the period may reveal social differences that may have influenced
the author of the piece. Hyperlinks to word definitions or graphics provide
"just in time" knowledge to students attempting to understand a complex
discourse. These strategies would be as successful with adult learners as
with younger students. The key difference with adult learners is that they
usually have enough life experience and self esteem to question the results
rather than accept them at face value. Instructors must be willing to
explore alternatives and, like Chris O'Hagan observed, they may find they
learn as much as the students.
END OF SUMMARY
I do ask that all future posts reference the discussion topic or "current
discussion" in the subject line of each post. Digests contain multiple
topics and a reference to IFETS #92 is not terribly helpful to indicate if
it is related to the current discussion or just someone's spontaneous topic
mentioned in that digest. In today's summary I did not include information
about the use of simulations in education because I don't think those posts
were intended to be part of the current discussion on adult education
although I do feel that simulation is needed in all educational
environments. If those individuals wish their remarks to be included in the
summary of our present discussion, please advise and I will submit a summary
addendum.
Mary Harrsch
Network and Information Systems Manager
College of Education
102-K Education
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
(541) 346-3554
http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~mharrsch/index.htm
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