Skip to main content

Home/ ETAP640/ Group items matching "importance" in title, tags, annotations or url

Group items matching
in title, tags, annotations or url

Sort By: Relevance | Date Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Diane Gusa

The Ed Techie: Using learning environments as a metaphor for educational change - 0 views

  • It has often been noted that when a new technology arrives we tend to use it in old ways (eg Twigg 2001), before we begin to understand what it really offers
  • t has often been noted that when a new technology arrives we tend to use it in old ways (eg Twigg 2001), before we begin to understand what it really offers
  • t has often been noted that when a new technology arrives we tend to use it in old ways (eg Twigg 2001), before we begin to understand what it really offers
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • It has often been noted that when a new technology arrives we tend to use it in old ways (eg Twigg 2001), before we begin to understand what it really offers. So, for example the television was initially treated as ‘radio with pictures’
  • In an attempt to move towards the possibilities offered by a completely digital, online world, they have started with the education model we are familiar with. They are, in effect, a virtual classroom, or course, with content (which map onto lectures) laid out in a linear sequence with discussion forums linked to this (mapping onto tutorials). In one LMS (the open source Bodington system, http://bodington.org) they even went as far as to make this mapping explicit by making the interface a building which you had to navigate to your lecture room.
  • Heppell (2001) argues that “we continually make the error of subjugating technology to our present practice rather than allowing it to free us from the tyranny of past mistakes.
  • Daniel (1996) has argued that elearning is the only way to cope with expanding global demand for higher education, claiming that “a major university needs to be created each week” to meet the proposed demand.
  • f we view our online learning environments not as analogies of how we currently teach, but rather as a metaphor for how we engage with changes required for a digital society, then this provides us with some insight in to how to tackle the issues above (and others).
  • Siemens (2008) argues that “Learning theories, such as constructivism, social constructivism, and more recently, connectivism, form the theoretical shift from instructor or institution controlled teaching to one of greater control by the learner.”
  • To learn is to acquire information Information is scare and hard to find Trust authority for good information Authorized information is beyond discussion Obey the authority Follow along
  • lecture hall ‘said’ about learning,
  • Why would we seek to recreate the sort of learning affordances Wesch highlights in a virtual environment, when we are free to construct it however we wish?
  • Arguably then there has never been a better alignment of current thinking in terms of good pedagogy – i.e. emphasising the social and situated nature of learning, rather than a focus on knowledge recall with current practices in the use of technologies – i.e. user-generated content, user-added value and aggregated network effects. Despite this, the impact of Web 2.0 on education has been less dramatic than its impact on other spheres of society – use for social purposes, supporting niche communities, collective political action, amateur journalism and social commentary.”
  • "Tools such as blogs, wikis, social networks, tagging systems, mashups, and content-sharing sites are examples of a new user-centric information infrastructure that emphasizes participation (e.g., creating, re-mixing) over presentation, that encourages focused conversation and short briefs
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Mashups are web pages or applications that combine data or presentation from two or more sources -WIKIpedia
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Mashups?
  • connectivism (Siemens 2005) places decentralisation at the heart of learning:"Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing"
  • Wikipedia succeeds by decentralising the authoring process, YouTube succeeds by both decentralising the broadcasting production process, but also by allowing embeds within blogs and other sites, thus decentralising the distribution process
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Two good examples
  • Knowing how to link to and locate resources in databases and search engines is a skill for a decentralised information world. The result is that online references are forced into an existing scheme, which has an inherent preference for physical resources. The traditional reference is often provided in papers, when it is the online one that has actually been used because the referencing system is biased towards the paper version.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I wonder what Alex's PLE would look like. I also wonder what our PLE will look like in 8 more weeks, next year?
  • ‘eduglu’
    • Diane Gusa
  • SocialLearn has been conceived as a deliberate attempt to discover how learners behave in this sphere, how to develop the appropriate technology and support structures, what pedagogies are required and what are the business models for education in a disaggregated educational market.
alexandra m. pickett

Lost in Translation: Importance of Effective Communication in Online Education - 0 views

  •  
    How communication differs f2f vs. online, and considerations for effective online communication
Michael Lucatorto

Social Aspects of Collaborative Learning in Virtual Learning Environments - 0 views

  • Collaborative work and also learning is integrated in the daily working process but collaborative e-learning is a concept of which only few have heard off. However, collaborative work is one of the main strengths of the networked economy. Working with people, one has never met, forming dynamical teams over continents in order to solve problems, are common in many globalised or networked companies as well as in multinational project teams. The challenge for collaborative e-learning platforms is to design solutions for distributed networked learning and working teams by providing on the one hand solutions to share learning content and to interactively work on it. On the other hand the concept of collaborative learning also focuses on social aspects of learning which are less implemented in current systems. Not only theoretical models and research work but also the increasing importance of virtual learning communities show that future applications should and will take into account these collaborative and social aspects and enable especially small groups to learn and work together efficiently via computer networks.
Diane Gusa

Instructional Immediacy and the Seven Principles: Strategies for Facilitating Online Courses - 0 views

  • One approach is research in the area of instructional immediacy.
  • Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) seminal work, Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education and its subsequent applications of instructional strategies used in web-based classe
  • The IHEP (2000) report, a sequel to the widely cited 1999 report that identified “gaps in the literature” of web-based learning, cited 24 benchmarks considered essential for ensuring quality and excellence in web-based courses
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Ehrmann (1995) encouraged researchers to focus on (a) which teaching and learning strategies are best (regardless of technology used) for the specific content and audience, and (b) which technologies are best for supporting those strategies (p. 4).
  • he technology media, as Clark (1983) explained, are just “vehicles that deliver instruction but do not influence student achievement any more than the truck that delivers our groceries causes change in our nutrition” (p. 445).
  • While nonverbal immediacy is important, verbal immediacy may be more relevant to web-based instructional settings as the instructor is not physically apparent to provide nonverbal cues.
  • As students move through the different quadrants when learning a lesson, the teacher’s role changes from content expert (quadrants 1, 2) to facilitator and coach (quadrants 3, 4). The 4MAT cycle of learning centers on teaching to the learner where they are by considering their learning styles, left-right brain processing, and multiple intelligences (cf. Gardner 1999). The 4MAT model has been adapted to distance education by offering web-based educator training that mirrors the core principles of the 4MAT model.
  • immediacy training program
  • Faculty participating in such training increased their use of verbal immediacy behaviors by 42 percent and, consequently, experienced a 59 percent increase in student participation in class compared to those in the control group.
  • Immediacy also relates to course design, or how a teacher deliberately arranges a set of external events to support the (learner’s) internal learning process (Gagne? 1992).
  • The authors suggested programming the computer to issue personal greetings when a user logs on
  • students’ perception of increased interaction with the instructor occurred when they interacted with the course (regardless if they had direct contact with the instructor) on a consistent basis.
  • Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education, Chickering and Gamson (1986)
Diane Gusa

Interaction and Immediacy in Online Learning | Woods | The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning - 0 views

  • Interaction alone, however, is insufficient to create a positive social dynamic in the online classroom.
  • Research demonstrates that the integration of verbal and non-verbal immediacy communication behaviors lets instructors move from mere interaction to authentic intimacy and interpersonal closeness.
  • an instructor’s understanding of interaction and immediacy dynamics will affect the nature and quality of communication in the online learning environment.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Mehrabian (1967) defined immediacy as the extent to which selected communicative behaviors enhance physical or psychological closeness in interpersonal communication.
  • Anderson (1979) summarizes the impact of immediacy: The more immediate a person is, the more likely he/ she is to communicate at close distances, smile, engage in eye contact, use direct body orientations, use overall body movement and gestures, touch others, relax, and be vocally expressive. In other words, we might say that an immediate person is perceived as overtly friendly and warm (p. 545).
  • “Knowledge building occurs as students explore issues, examine one another’s arguments, agree, disagree, and question positions. Collaboration [learner-learner interaction] contributes to higher order learning through cognitive restructuring or conflict resolution, in which new ways of understanding the material emerge as a result of contact with new or different perspectives” (p. 55)
  • Kearsley (2000) declared: “The most important role of the instructor in online classes is to ensure a high degree of interactivity and participation” (p. 78)
Diane Gusa

A dialogic approach to online facilitation - 0 views

  • Social construction of understanding has long been a significant underlying principle of learning and teaching
  • Learning through dialogue with others has a long history.
  • main themes of learning theory
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • cognition is situated in particular social contexts (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991); knowing is distributed across groups (Cole, 1991; Perkins, 1993); and learning takes place in communities (Lipman, 2003; Scardemalia & Bereiter, 1996; Wenger, 1998).
  • "a space where conversation can occur
  • the integration of concrete experience and abstract thought; the integration of reflection and action; the spiral nature of these two; the relationship between separate and connected knowing; and the balance between collaboration and leadership.
  • The learning process must be constituted as a dialogue between tutor and student" (1993, p. 94)
  • Community of Practice and Community of Inquiry theory
  • The Community of Inquiry model is based not on the Community of Practice model but, at least in part, on Lipman's work with children (2003) in which "tutor and children collaborate with each other to grow in understanding, not only of the material world, but also of the personal and ethical world around them" (Wegerif, 2007, p. 139)
  • Although reflective dialogue has strong connections with Lipman's notion of multidimensional thinking, in that reflection allows synthesis, there may be difficulties with the use of this term as it has been used elsewhere with different connotations (Brookfield, 1995; Schon, 1983).
  • Yet students often find this kind of thinking difficult to express when they are learning something new, perhaps because emerging ideas are very vulnerable to criticism
  • the dialogic space is broadened to include other types of dialogue which contribute to the development of understanding yet which are easier for students to express. Creative dialogue opens up a reflective space in which issues can be explored with encouragement and trust.
  • Another technique is "thought shower" - similar to but perhaps less intense than brainstorming - in which even implicit judgement is suspended. Creative thinking, or dialogue, is not the same as creativity, which is often associated with art and design, yet it appears to have an important role in discovery
  • A third aspect of this reflective space is caring dialogue,
  • each of the participants really has in mind the other or others in their present and particular being, and turns to them with the intention of establishing a living mutual relation between himself and them."
  • Buber calls this intersubjectivity
  • The focus is on listening and understanding (Bakhtin, 1986), or reading and understanding in an asynchronous online environment
  • Caring thinking also includes caring about the topic or subject (Lipman, 2003, p. 262), which Sharp (2004) calls pedagogic caring,
  • Identifying (information responsive): Students explore the knowledge base of the discipline in response to questions or lines of inquiry framed by teachers ("What is the existing answer to, or current state of knowledge on, this question?") Pursuing (information active): Students explore a knowledge base by pursuing their own questions and lines of inquiry ("What is the existing answer to, or current state of knowledge on, my question?") Producing (discovery responsive): Students pursue open questions or lines of inquiry, framed by tutors or clients, in interaction with a knowledge base ("How can I answer this open question?") Authoring (discovery active): Students pursue their own open questions and lines of inquiry, in interaction with a knowledge base ("How can I answer my open question?") (Levy, 2009).
  •  
    AJET 26(1) Swann (2010) - another approach to think about for my discussion forum.
Diane Gusa

RESEARCH IN ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY - 0 views

  • RESEARCH IN ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY
  • High Social PresenceLearning in an online learning community occurs as an active social process that is defined as: "the level of social presence depends upon social context, online communication, and interactivity (Tu & McIsaac, 2002)." Online social presence (Hiltz, 1998) is required to ensure the online interaction necessary to sustain community activity. Social presence is a critical factor that affects the online learning community. Gunawardena and Zittle (1997) found that social presence is the predictive of the satisfaction of online learners with their learning. Social presence, online learners' social relationships, tasks being engaged in (Tu & Corry, 2002b), communication styles and personal characteristics have impacts on online learning (Tu & McIsaac, 2001). Therefore, researchers concluded that to foster an ideal online learning community, one should increase and idealize the level of social presence
  • Computer-mediated communication democratizes the online learning environment (DiMatteo, 1990; Rheingold, 1993; Sproull & Kiesler, 1991a
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • ..for anyone to become an information provider for others, thereby both democratizing information access and enabling new roles for network users. In the most successful online courses, students assume some of the roles that traditionally belong to the instructor" (p. 208).
  • Because of the blurred roles of students and teachers, more weight is placed on the learning process/experience than upon roles. In other words, both students and teachers, as learners, share their responsibilities in online learning. Morrison (1995) argued that the learning process is unbounded by time (when one learns), space (where one learns), mode (how one learns), pace (the rate at which one learns), level (the depth of learning) and role (with whom one learns). Therefore, it is not merely learner-centered; in fact, an online learning community is a learner-driven process. While the learning is in transition from teacher-centered to learner-driven, the focus which had emphasized the needs of organization, government, and institutional is moving to a focus on community-centered needs. This shift has made lifelong learning more important.
  • Effective learning occurs in active approaches that present learning as a social process that takes place through communication with others (Hiltz, 1998; Mead, 1934)
  • Social interaction is a key component in social learning according to Vygotsky's theory.
  • "The level of social presence depends upon social context, online communication, and interactivity. When the level of social presence is high, there is a potential that online learners will engage more interactively in online activities (Tu & McIsaac, 2002).
  • In a knowledge construction community, one should have the opportunity to make contributions that will enhance the total learning value of the community. L
  • Chih-Hsiung Tu
  •  
    conference paper
Diane Gusa

Interactivity: A Forgotten Art? - 1 views

  • Interactivity: A Forgotten Art?
  • Interactivity in learning is "a necessary and fundamental mechanism for knowledge acquisition and the development of both cognitive and physical skills" (Barker, 1994:1)
  • Interaction is intrinsic to successful, effective instructional practice as well as individual discover
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Interacti
  • The implementation of interactivity can be perceived as an art because it requires a comprehensive range of skills, including an understanding of the learner,
  • the importance of rigorous instructional design and the application of appropriate graphical interfaces
  • Support Interactivity
  • Similarly, Ambron & Hooper (1988) described interactivity as a state in which users are able to browse, annotate, link and elaborate within a rich, non-linear database
  • In contrast, Jonassen (1988) identified five levels of interactivity which focused more on the user's involvement with the application and the subsequent effect on learning.
  • The five levels included the modality of the learner's response, the nature of the task, the level of processing, the type of program and the level of intelligence in design. In relation to these levels, it was also suggested that the level of interactivity would affect whether surface or deep learning would occur
  • The taxonomy however does provide a useful starting point for developing our understanding of interactivity. The three levels, which significantly extend the definition of Rhodes & Azbell (1985), range from basic stimulus:response interactions (reactive) to learner construction and generative activity (proactive) to mutual "artificial or virtual reality designs, where the learner becomes a fully franchised citizen in the instructional environment" (Schwier & Misanchuk, 1993:12)
  • understand that quality in an instructional resource is a function of the design effort, not the technology.
  • from simple help messages to complex tutorial systems.
  • The construct class of interactivity (proactive elaboration) is an extension to update interactivity, and requires the creation of an instructional environment in which the learner is required to manipulate component objects to achieve specific goals
  • With hyperlinked interactivity (proactive navigation), the learner has access to a wealth of information, and may "travel" at will through that knowledge base.
  • The first dimension, engagement, refers to interactivity which is either navigational (where the user moves from one location in the application to another) or instructional (where the user is involved with the content in a way designed to facilitate learning). The second dimension, control, refers to the extent to which the system (program control) or user (learner control) is making the instructional or navigational decisions. The third dimension, interactive concept, provides an indication of the type of interaction which might be expected under the varying conditions defined by the model.
  • proposing three dimensions by which interactive instruction may be viewed.
Michael Lucatorto

In One Room, Many Advantages - WSJ.com - 0 views

  • In the 1960s, some liberals praised the one-room school of yore as "the precursor to group learning" and "open classrooms"
  • Decades after consolidation had obliterated one-room schools, researchers discovered their advantages. The child in the small school is not just a statistic on a government chart. She receives "individual attention and recognition." She works at her own pace. She has, most important, a place. As Mr. Zimmerman remarks, recent alternatives to "the large, alienating modern school," from charter schools to homeschooling, have sought to foster "the snug, communal aspects of the one-room school." But the one-room-school model entails community control, which liberals and conservatives alike resist if the "community" sings from the wrong hymnal.
  • By World War II, the little red schoolhouse whose razing had been a New Deal project became a symbol of homefront democracy. In the 1960s, some liberals praised the one-room school of yore as "the precursor to group learning" and "open classrooms" -- daily Bible reading not included. At the same time some conservatives extolled its alleged (and exaggerated) hickory-stick discipline.
Diane Gusa

Teaching Creativity - 0 views

  • Most five year olds are totally confident that they can draw, sing, and dance.  Tragically, within three or four years this child, if she is typical, will experience a crisis of confidence
  • She will no longer feel competent or creative. 
  • When allowed to do what we want to do, we are most likely to revert to whatever we previously found enjoyable and/or successful.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I have experienced this with my students, but now I also understand that they need more confidence to be risk-takers
  • ...11 more annotations...
  •   In order to force a new idea to the surface, an artist might reverse the order of work, change the medium, change the scale, forbid a certain common component in the work, and so on.  These are limitations to jog or jump start the creative impulse.
  • In creative teaching, assignment limitations provide a way to change the student's habits of work
  • people have developed problem solving habits that lack confidence in their own ability to bring any life experience or judgement to the situation.
  • a society that values conformity above indiviual creativity and choice making probably should teach drawing as a series of prescribed symbols rather than teaching actual observation, thinking, feeling, and interpretation skills.
  • Teach creativity by giving TIME FOR THE CREATIVE PROCESS Assign HOMEWORK OF THE MIND
  • When we show an end product in order to help explain something, we risk that students will not be challenged to think creatively
  • To teach process, we avoid posting charts that gives answer unless the students themselves have invented the charts.
  •   The scientific method says that questions must be answered experimentally and the results are repeatable.
  • the scientific method takes more time in the short run, but if a student learns that they can design experiments to solve their own problems, they have learned not only the scientific method, they have learned one of the important components of artistic thinking and artistic behavior. Ultimately, time is saved because students have learned to figure out how to answer their own questions. They are empowered.
  • True creativity happens when intuitive imagination brings forth the previously unknown and unimagined
  • The creative process includes preparation, incubation, insight, elaboration, and evaluation.
Diane Gusa

Multimodal Learning Blog - 0 views

  • As Siegel (2006) points out, “children have always engaged in what are now called multimodal literacy practices” (pg.65) Children naturally talk about, dramatize and draw ideas that they are reading and writing about. Furthermore, using multiple modes or sign systems can provide new and deeper meaning (Siegel, 2006, pg. 71)
  • Research to date shows that when curricular changes include multimodality, those youth who experience substantial success are the very ones who’ve been labeled “struggling reader” or “learning disabled” (Siegel, 2006, pg. 73)
  • Many progressive pedagogies such as constructivism, experiential learning and inquiry learning emphasize the importance of building upon students’ experiences, knowledge, skills and interests (Rowsell, Kosnik & Beck, 2009.)
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • In his recent video, An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube,  Michael Wesch (2008) persuasively outlines the ways in which the world has changed through new media, and how education can and should harness the potential of this new world.
Diane Gusa

Teachers as experts in . . . inquiry? « Fires in the Mind - 0 views

  • Browse: Home / Featured Posts / Teachers as experts in . . . inquiry? Teachers as experts in . . . inquiry? A study just published in Science magazine sure makes one think twice about how we deliver “content knowledge” the classroom. The method by which a course is taught, it indicates, may be even more important than the instructor’s background. In a college physics class, listening to a lecture by a highly experienced and respected professor yielded fa
  • a control group performed more than twice as well when their teachers—a research associate and a graduate student—used discussions, active learning, and assignments in which students had to grapple with both new and old information.
  • “deliberate practice,
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • These students had time to synthesize and incorporate new ideas from the lecture into their prior knowledge and experiences.
  • ombined in-class practice and frequent formative assessments (such as pretests) with an emphasis on real-world applications.
Diane Gusa

Student Self Assessment - 0 views

  • Student Self-AssessmentIntentionally involving your students in the assessment process helps students to become lifelong learners.  Peter Senge (2000) says, “A cornerstone of lifelong learning is the capacity for objective self-assessment – the ability to judge for yourself how well you are doing.”  Similarly, William McKeachie (2011) relates the importance of helping students become lifelong learners to faculty members who intentionally involve students in self-assessment:“After the course is over, students will not be able to depend on you to assess the quality of their learning.  If one of your goals is the development of lifelong learning skills, students need practice in self-assessment.
  • To encourage students to learn from past tests, faculty can assign a worksheet that asks students to look at more than the grade on the returned exam.  “Exam wrappers direct students to review and analyze their performance (and the instructor’s feedback) with an eye toward adapting their future learning” (Ambrose, et al, 2010).
  • Questions on an exam wrapper for a physics course might include the following:
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Student Check Sheet for Literary Critical Essay
  • McKeachie, W. J., & Svinicki, M. D. (2005). McKeachie's teaching tips:  strategies, research and theory for college and university teachers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Diane Gusa

The Application of Learning Style Theory in Higher Education Teaching - 0 views

  • A learning style is: "A complexus of related characteristics in which the whole is greater than its parts. Learning style is a gestalt combining internal and external operations derived from the individual's neurobiology, personality and development, and reflected in learner behaviour" (Keefe & Ferrell 1990, p. 16).
  • general tendency towards a particular learning approach displayed by an individual.
  • Riding & Cheema (1991), from an extensive review of the literature, conclude there are only two principal styles "families", the holist-analytic, and the verbaliser-imager. These two broad groupings relate to the type of cognitive activities normally ascribed to the two hemispheres of the brain. Curry (1983) suggests there are three different perspectives on styles: those relating to a preference for a particular instructional approach, those relating to the individual's intellectual approach to assimilating information independently of the environment, and those relating to the individual's intellectual approach to assimilating information with the environment.
  • ...26 more annotations...
  • Dunn, Deckinger, Withers & Katzenstein (1990), who found that teaching students based on their diagnosed learning style did significantly increase their achievement level (see also Napolitano 1986).
  • Research indicates learning style is not a stable construct, so one may alter instructional style to meet a learning style that will itself change, requiring a further change in instructional strategy.
  • Researchers have failed to address the question of how it is possible to achieve a tailoring of instructional approaches on anything other than an individual level.
  • What may be possible is to promote an educational environment developed for flexibility at the individual student level.
  • What is required is a stimulus-stimulus approach, where the student and the lecturer are actively involved in both learning and the mechanics of the learning process, the aim being to facilitate learner empowerment by developing in students a critical awareness of material studied and the delivery and structure of the material. Learners can then tailor flexible education strategies to their requirements to optimise the quality of the learning experience.
  • his ability of an individual to actively select from a personal style or skills portfolio, is part of what can be termed self-directed learning
  • In an educational setting, a self-directed learner no longer operates as a passive receiver of information, but takes responsibility for the achievement, and ultimately setting, of learning outcomes. In essence, the traditional lecturer-student divide becomes increasingly blurred, as the learner begins to pro-actively structure the programme to match their own learning attributes.
  • facilitator, and finally to that of a resource to be tapped
  • lecturer's role
  • Under such an approach, higher education ceases to be simply something that is done to people, and becomes a platform from which individuals can go on to, in effect, educate themselves
  • "causer of learning".
  • This approach will tend to create learned helplessness in people
  • Higher education should be concerned with not only enhancing learning in a specific situation, but should also constitute a catalyst for further self-initiated development of the individual, above and beyond the contents and aims of a particular course. T
  • The lecturer must avoid removing traditional barriers to self-direction, such as a rigid programme structure, only to erect new barriers through the use of prescriptive self-direction strategies imposed on the student.
  • allow the individual the freedom to define and devise learning strategies, and to make mistakes. T
  • The role of the lecturer must be essentially non-interventionist, unless the student seeks guidance
  • as people may still not choose to direct their own learning due to: a lack of belief in their own ability, a failure by them to recognise that self-direction is needed or preferable, the setting of an inappropriate learning goal(s) that fails to act as a motivator, and previous learning and education experiences.
  • That educational system primarily tends to concentrate on didactic approaches that often view learning as being of secondary importance to memory, where information acquisition and subsequent information regurgitation predominate.
  • This will require that the lecturer breaks down barriers to learning and self-direction that may be present. This covers: those barriers created by the student during the course (wrong choice of learning approach, poor motivation, lack of confidence), those barriers that the course itself may indirectly create (lack of flexibility, lack of direction and guidance, poor structure), and those barriers that the student brings to the course (reason for attending the course, poor learning skills, previous bad learning experiences).
  • In the initial stages of a programme, the lecturer will need to ensure the existence of an appropriate control structure, as students undergo the transition from being other-directed in their learning by external influences, to being self-directed.
  • caffold structure
  • clearly communicated and understood aims and objectives for the students at regular intervals.
  • allows students to progressively take control of their learning,
  • but that also offers sufficient guidance and direction in the early stages to prevent individuals from becoming lost.
  • The application of learning style theory in higher education teaching
    • Diane Gusa
       
      This would take a very brave instructor to do this. However, I know of colleges (Goddard for one) that does exactly this in their graduate program.
Diane Gusa

IIER 20(2): Khine and Hayes - Investigating women's ways of knowing: An exploratory study in the UAE - 0 views

  • Personal epistemological beliefs, one's beliefs about the nature and acquisition of knowledge, and their role in the learning process have become a focus of a growing body research in recent years. Studies show that a person's epistemological beliefs play an important role in their intellectual development as well as in learning specific subjects (Hofer, 2008)
  • Research in personal epistemology looks into ways of knowing, focusing on the nature of knowledge (certainty, structure and source of knowledge) and beliefs about learning (speed and ability to learn). The exploration of different learning or cognitive styles and in particular the relationship between gender and epistemological beliefs in tertiary education contexts is an area of much current research focus.
  • Their subjects described five ways of knowing - received knowledge, subjective knowledge, constructed knowledge, procedural knowledge, all similar to those of Perry, and silence. From their data Belenky et al. distilled these five epistemological positions down to focus on two: preprocedural and procedural knowing, which corresponded to 'relativism' in Perry's scheme. In 1986 this work culminated in the publication of "Women's ways of knowing: The development of self, voice and mind".
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Importantly, they saw that CK and SK scores were not related to performance and thus concluded that 'ways of knowing' were more reflective of a learning style or approach rather than a reflection of ability or intellectual capacity (Gallotti et al., 1999)
  • Baxter Magolda (1992) describes ways of knowing as being "related to, but not dictated by gender" (p.8)
  • Students' separate knowing and connected knowing scores, however, did predict preferences for different kinds of teaching.
  • Separate knowing scores were always higher in males whereas females had always higher connected knowing scores. The connected and separate knowing scores of males were not significantly different, whereas females typically showed significantly higher connected scores.
  • , learning occurs in different ways for different people in different situations, and may be affected by the learning styles of others who are present. According to Gallotti et al. (1999), students tend to prefer teachers whose style reflects their own. Schommer-Aikens and Easter (2006) find it likely that teachers' personal epistemological paradigms would impact on their decisions about forms of instruction, curriculum and evaluation. Should this be the case, an awareness on the part of the teacher and the learners of the predominant or favoured ways of knowing within a learning context might be seen as a useful tool in designing classroom activities which take into account student diversity.
Diane Gusa

Indigenous Knowledge Systems/Alaska Native Ways of Knowing - 0 views

  • This article seeks to extend our understanding of the processes of learning that occur within and at the intersection of diverse world views and knowledge systems, drawing on experiences derived from across Fourth World contexts, with an emphasis on the Alaska context in particular
  • Until recently there was very little literature that addressed how to get Western scientists and educators to understand Native worldviews and ways of knowing as constituting knowledge systems in their own right, and even less on what it means for participants when such divergent systems coexist in the same person, organization or community.
  • issues on a two-way street, rather than view them as a one-way challenge to get Native people to buy into the western system.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • ecognize the limitations of a mono-cultural education system,
  • While western science and education tend to emphasize compartmentalized knowledge which is often de-contextualized and taught in the detached setting of a classroom or laboratory, indigenous people have traditionally acquired their knowledge through direct experience in the natural world.
  • The incongruities between western institutional structures and practices and indigenous cultural forms will not be easy to reconcile
  • The complexities that come into play when two fundamentally different worldviews converge present a formidable challenge.
  • As a concept, indigenous knowledge benchmarks the limitations of Eurocentric theory — its methodology, evidence, and conclusions — reconceptualizes the resilience and self-reliance of indigenous peoples, and underscores the importance of their own philosophies, heritages, and educational processes. Indigenous knowledge fills the ethical and knowledge gaps in Eurocentric education, research, and scholarship (2002:5).
  • The study of indigenous knowledge systems as it relates to education falls into three inter-related research themes: documentation and articulation of indigenous knowledge systems; delineating epistemological structures and learning/cognitive processes associated with indigenous ways of knowing; and developing/assessing educational strategies integrating indigenous and western knowledge and ways of knowing.
Diane Gusa

E-Coaching Tip 25: Discussion Wraps - A Useful "Cognitive Pattern" or "Collection of Discrete Thought Threads?" - 0 views

  • Here are some roles/tasks that are pertinent for online weekly discussion groups. Information and opinion giver. Offers facts, opinions, ideas, suggestions, and relevant information to help group discussion. Information and opinion seeker. Asks for facts, opinions, ideas, suggestions, and relevant information to help group discussion. Summarizer. Pulls together related ideas or suggestions and restates and summarizes main point discussed. Coordinator. Shows relationships among various ideas by pulling them together and harmonizes activities of various subgroups and members. Diagnoser. Figures out sources of difficulties the group has in working effectively and the blocks to progress in accomplishing the group's goals. Reality tester. Examines the practicality and workability of ideas, evaluates alternative solutions, and applies them to real situations to see how they will work.
  • "Each of us has a typical way of acting in a group. Some people like to lead, some act to keep the group focused on the task and some serve to keep the group from taking itself too seriously." (Svinski, 2006
  • Mayer et al. (1996), showed not only that students remember more of the important material when it is presented as a summary but that they also better understand the material.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Svinicki, M. (2006). "The Discussion Class: Interaction Functions." from <www.utexas.edu/academic/diia/gsi/coursedesign/interaction.php> Accessed on 10-20-06.
  • Schallert explains why she uses the technique of creating a separate word document for weekly summaries. <www.utexas.edu/academic/blackboard/examples/videos/schallert_02.html>
  • Create a closing discussion thread labeled "Summary," "Wrap-up" "Key Ideas"
  • Create a separate word document that encapsulates the key postings of the week integrating these statements with the key conceptst
  • Create a group summary be asking each student to identify the key concept for t
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I do this in my weekly essay assignment.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I guess this is the role I access the most in my posts.
Diane Gusa

Information maps - 0 views

  • In doing a little research, I came across a book by Terry Anderson called, "Theory and Practice in Online Learning." He has some suggestions for giving students an outline, or what he calls an information map, at the beginning of a lesson or module. He talks about the importance of how content is presented initially, and how that affects memory.
Diane Gusa

Center of Learning: Summary - 0 views

  • The nature of the learning process: McCombs and Whisler (1997) defined the learning process as a natural one of pursuing personally meaningful goals.  This process is active, volitional, and internally mediated.
  • It is a process of discovering and constructing meaning from information and experience, filtered through each learner’s unique perceptions, thoughts, and feelings (p. 5
  • Motivational influences on learning: These influences reflect the importance of learner beliefs, values, interests, goals, expectations for success, and emotional states of mind in producing either positive or negative motivations to learn.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The continuing impulse to learn  is characterized by "intense involvement, curiosity and a search for understanding as learners experience learning as a deeply personal and continuing agenda” (Oldfather, 1992, p. 8).
  • Thus a student-centered curriculum teaches each learner to select and sequence his own activities and materials (individualization); arranges for students to center on and teach each other (interaction); and interweaves all symbolized and symbolizing subjects so that the student can effectively synthesize knowledge structures in his own mind (integration). (Moffett & Wagner, 1992, p. 21)  
  • students develop a sense of their active roles as producers – not only consumers of knowledge. They perceive themselves as competent knowers and learners
Diane Gusa

Metacognitive Skills - 0 views

  • Metacognition refers to learners' automatic awareness of their own knowledge and t
  • Metacognition refers to learners' automatic awareness of their own knowledge and their ability to understand, control, and manipulate their own cognitive processes.2
  • Metamemory
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Metacomprehension. T
  • Self-Regulation.
  • They focus their attention on what it is that they or someone else does that is metacognitively useful. T
  • Learners with good metacognitive skills are able to monitor and direct their own learning processes.
  • They establish a motivation to learn a metacognitive process.
  • metacognition often has important affective or personality component
  • Students typically learn metacognitive skills while they are involved in learning something else
« First ‹ Previous 221 - 240 of 268 Next › Last »
Showing 20 items per page