Group items tagged

a recognition that the world is irreducibly complex, not determinist and predictable, and that the task before us is no longer to identify the simple elements of reality underlying complex appearances, but to work out how to study complexity in its own right

Such a view leads to an emphasis on meaning rather than decontextalised content, an emphasis on creativity, a sense of connection to learners’ worlds and the development of a sense of ownership over what is learned

Complexity-based educationalists (for example, Doll, 1989a; 1989b; Iannone, 1995; Sawada & Caley, 1985) see the contemporary focus on objectives and learning outcomes as representative of an obsession with domination, control and reductionism and an undermining of emergent learning.

‘Curriculum becomes a process of development rather than a body of knowledge to be covered or learned, ends become beacons guiding this process, and the course itself transforms the indeterminate into the determinate

An explicit intention of the course described in this paper was to encourage these future teachers to become life-long computer learners and users – to assist them to develop computer learning attitudes, skills and learning strategies required to adapt to change.

the desire to draw students away from expectations of directive-style teaching and instead to focus on them establishing self-directed and self-responsible approaches to their learning, including exploratory learning and ‘play’.

an emphasis on self-directed goal setting, but also on acknowledging and embracing ‘emergent’ learning – ‘you don’t always know what you don’t know’!

The non-linear online learning environment developed through the research was certainly found to not only guide but prompt such learning ‘discoveries’.

you will realise that the Web is exactly that – a big tangled spider’s web of information. Bits of it lead to other bits and there is no ‘start’ and ‘finish’. There is also so much information available on the Internet that we could never access even a small portion of it. Learning in such an environment can feel uncomfortable at first, particularly if you have been used to learning in a context where the ‘teacher’ told you exactly what you had to learn, and how you should learn it

… think about how we learn in contexts other than schools and universities. Lets think about one of the biggest challenges people experience in life – becoming a parent… There is no single course you can do on ‘how to become a good parent’. There is no single set of steps or guidelines or rules to follow. There is no ‘beginning’ or ‘end’, no structure or sequence to things that you need to learn. Yet many, many people parent, and parent well.  They do so because they are motivated to do the best for their child. They don’t know everything there is to know, but when issues or challenges arise they seek out information and advice, and adopt strategies that they feel are appropriate. Generally they reflect on whether their strategies are working or not and will seek other information, or adopt other strategies if they don’t. Sometimes parents turn to friends and family for advice, sometimes they go to courses, sometimes they will consult ‘self-help’ books and other times they will turn to professionals (such as doctors). Most of the time, however, they experiment with different approaches themselves. One further point here is that parents of new-borns will vary rarely read the chapter of the ‘self-help’ book on coping with adolescents, although it doesn’t hurt for them to have the book on the shelf, ready for the coming years!

Many students initially approached the course with a belief that computer learning entailed memorizing steps and computer processes.