Learning, Teaching and Assessing in Higher Education

Developing Reflective Practice

Anne Campbell, Lin Norton, Anne Campbell, Lin Norton

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781844451166
• eBook ISBN: 9780857252197
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Adult Education

This is an up to date guide to teaching and learning in higher education, addressing issues raised by the Professional Standards Framework. It encourages the development of thoughtful, reflective teaching practitioners in higher education, and is useful for the review of existing courses. The authors and editors acknowledge the distinctive nature of teaching in higher education, explore a variety of creative and innovatory approaches, and promote reflective, inquiry-based and evaluatory approaches to teaching. The book supports the professional development of staff involved in teaching, supporting and assessing students.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Anne Campbell and Lin Norton

The time seems ripe for this book. There has been a major focus on learning, teaching and assessment in higher education in recent years evidenced by the work of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), of which many university teachers are members. New postgraduate qualifications in learning and teaching in higher education also evidence the move to enhance and professionalise teaching and learning. A new UK Professional Standards Framework has been developed which informs institutions and enables them to determine their own criteria for application to their provision (www.heacademy.ac.uk/professionalstandards.htm). In addition, the implementation of the UK government’s agenda for widening participation has influenced teaching and learning approaches in many institutions, requiring them to adapt and develop strategies to support students. Taken together, these developments require university teachers to actively question existing practice, develop a solid understanding of the pedagogy of their subject and of how students learn, but above all else to become reflective practitioners.

The book covers the current context for teaching and learning in higher education from foundation degrees to postgraduate level. It also uses a range of courses to provide exemplars. These include, for example, initial teacher education students, undergraduate modular combined studies courses in music, business studies and health as well as postgraduate courses for professional practitioners. The chapters are all written by higher education practitioners and are based on ‘tried and tested’ strategies and materials as well as pedagogical research. Topics range across the following: developing reflective teaching; setting and meeting learning objectives; action and inquiry techniques; strategies for students with disabilities; assessment strategies; teaching generic courses to mixed cohorts of students; use of virtual learning environments and Intelligent Tutor Systems for supporting learning; learning and teaching on Foundation degrees; student perceptions of learning and teaching; and students as volunteers. The book is directly aimed at sharing and developing reflective practice.

The purpose of this book is not to provide a definitive text about learning, teaching and assessing in higher education but to bring an exploratory practitioner perspective to developing practice through a fusion of theory and practice and the use of actual practical activities and strategies. It also addresses issues raised by the new National Professional Standards Framework, previously unexplored by existing texts. Throughout the book reference is made to this framework, so readers can locate their own practice in conjunction with this reference point. The emphasis on reflective practice, on choice and on personal responsibility of the university educator is the underpinning rationale. As such, it is intended to be a stimulus to readers’ own reflective practice and, at the same time, provide practical and pragmatic suggestions for developing their own practice. The authors are drawn from across a number of departments in Liverpool Hope University, an acknowledged leader in the field of pedagogical research and practice and the host organisation of the first International Pedagogical Research in Higher Education Conference, Liverpool, May 2006 (http://hopelive.hope.ac.uk/PRHE/). Despite focusing on the work of one institution, a breadth of experience is evident which draws on authors’ previous experience in a variety of different institutions and settings.

In order to help readers determine how they might approach reading and using the book, each chapter is summarised and discussed in the rest of this Introduction. As already stated, this is a practical book that is meant to be used, as well as hopefully stimulating evaluation, review and reflection. As the editors, this posed us with a difficulty in deciding on the authorial style of the chapters, in particular whether we should insist that everyone should write in the first or the third person to ensure a consistent approach. In the end we decided that it would be more in keeping with the book’s purpose to allow both where appropriate. Thus the reader will find that some chapters predominantly use ‘I’ to indicate where the author is reflecting on her or his practice; others use both the first and the third person, and some of the chapters are written entirely in the third person.

Chapter 2 questions the value placed on learning in higher education (HE) and seeks to broaden the concept of a learner within the HE context. It discusses learning-how-to-learn (L2L) strategies. By helping students to see themselves as learners it hopes to aid the development and acquisition of new skills and knowledge. It draws on the fields of health and social marketing to illustrate these ideas.

Pat Hughes begins with a look back at her own experiences of learning in university and suggests that selling or marketing courses will become more important in the future. She also suggests that learning should not be a passive activity and that we should move away from the traditional teacher–student models to one of ‘lead learner’. She advocates tutors in higher education considering themselves as learners also and urges us to consider Claxton’s (2002) ‘Building Learning Power’ strategies adapted by Rush (2005) for teachers and students in the tertiary sector. Her first case study is a call to support students in identifying many different ways of learning effectively and to consider that some of these may be different from a student’s preferred learning style and provide an appropriate challenge to develop themselves as learners.

Hughes discusses the current foci on accelerated learning, differing learning styles and multiple intelligences and alerts us to the issue of finding a ‘recipe’ approach to learning, a pitfall which many in the school sector may have failed to avoid. Her second case study builds on De Bono’s (1991) work on developing thinking skills and shows how activities can be adapted for students in higher education by designing effective strategies for developing interesting and varied approaches to learning. The chapter identifies the teaching academic as a ‘lead learner’, with a clear remit to support students in learning to learn (L2L) across the many different ways in which learning now takes place in HE.

Chapter 3 is based on collaborative action research undertaken by its authors, Christine Bold and Pat Hutton, with their part-time students on a Foundation degree. It details their development of students’ critical reflection-on-practice, based on Ghaye and Ghaye’s (1998) ten principles of reflective practice. It considers five broad areas of activity: a) developing reflective writing; b) self-managed learning agreements; c) developing reflection-on-practice in peer support groups; d) reflection-on-practice in asynchronous e-forums and e) online formative and summative assessment.

Bold and Hutton firmly believe that a capacity for reflection is central to effective learning, in particular deep learning as put forward by Leung and Kember (2003). They take the reader on a journey through a variety of strategies and practices in the development of reflection such as: a portfolio of reflective practice; self-managed learning agreements; asynchronous e-forums and assessment tools. These strategies and practices are illuminated by actual and fictional examples which bring the student voice to the work and provide a sense of reality to the chapter. They also tackle the use of ‘I’ in academic work and encourage students to draw on their experience and make use of personal reference where appropriate.

Bold and Hutton aim to enhance the quality of learning and teaching for students via increased levels of peer and tutor support and the provision of varied contexts for learning. The authors believe that developing student capability to reflect on practice within their work-based degree programmes is a fundamental requirement before focusing their thoughts on the contributions of other practical and theoretical perspectives. They conclude that not all students are consistent in their approach to learning and a range of factors influences engagement, such as maturity, previous learning experiences, academic qualifications, workplace experience and commitment.

Tessa Owens in Chapter 4 considers the introduction of problem-based learning (PBL) as an increasingly popular learning and teaching pedagogy in UK universities. She examines the claims for PBL’s development of transferable skills, in addition to the development of ‘deep’ learning in diverse curriculum areas and provides a theoretical rationale for PBL referring to the work of Biggs (2003), Yeo (2005) and Ramsden (2004). She espouses constructivist learning theory where learning is conceived as social construction and requires active learning.

Owens provides a case study from research in business studies (Owens and Norton, 2006), which compared students’ perceptions and performance on a PBL module with that of a traditionally taught module. The main findings from this study showed that although PBL was initially an unpopular learning and teaching approach, student evaluations ultimately revealed that they enjoyed their experiences and found the curriculum more relevant to real-life business issues. The assessed results following the first module, however, were no better (or worse) than in their traditionally taught modules. However, the research revealed that there was a statistically significant improvement in student grades in their next PBL module, which took place in the following semester.

Examples of PBL activities are provided with a commentary which supports the trialling by others. Owens also highlights the phenomenon of plagiarism and suggests that PBL approaches may help to reduce instances of plagiarism by making students’ progress more visible. Owens also provides discussion prompts, questions to support tutor reflection and useful proformas and student resources to support the development of problem-based learning in higher education.

In Chapter 5, Anne Campbell and Moira Sykes focus on the development of action learning and research and inquiry methods in postgraduate courses. They draw on approaches to teaching and learning that combine workplace and university learning contexts, which are based on their current and previous teaching. They tackle the differences between action learning and action inquiry and state that action learning is a process of investigating problems or concerns within a group or set (a small group of people who meet together on a regular basis), which results in new knowledge, insights and practices. Action research or inquiry can be undertaken either by individuals or collaborative groups. It uses previous literature in the field and is generally more rigorous in design and conduct than action learning and results in a form of publication or dissemination.

Practical examples of action learning sets and action inquiry projects are presented and discussed as effective learning activities for practitioners in the professions of education and social and health care. Many of the practices they describe have originated in business courses and are suitable for all subjects with carefully chosen case study examples to customise them for specific professionals. Activities involving critical friendship groups, where collaborative support and challenge for development is the aim, may lead to more specific peer coaching and critical evaluation techniques. The aims of these activities are to build communities of practitioners who continuously engage in the study of their craft and develop a shared language and a set of common understandings for collegial study and investigation of practice (Joyce and Showers, 1982).

The issues and difficulties in assessing reflective and collaborative work are addressed by Campbell and Sykes, who reference Winter et al. (1999) and their criteria for assessing reflective writing. Assessing an individual’s work within a collaborative group presentation is discussed with an actual example to illustrate the issues involved. The authors conclude their chapter by providing some useful further reading for those interested in developing action learning and inquiry approaches.

David Walters, in Chapter 6, focuses on a study of a group of first-year students in music looking at their perceptions of themselves as learners in order to better understand their attitudes and approaches to study. The research studied student responses to a constructivist questionnaire, a version of the Ideal^*** Inventory (Norton, 2001), namely ‘The Ideal Self Inventory: A new measure of self esteem’, applied at the beginning and end of the first year.

In this chapter Walters attempts to find a manageable method of investigating learners’ conceptions of learning (in context), their epistemological beliefs, their understanding of their personal learning processes as well as their understanding, or personal view of their practical and academic skills. He proposes that motivations for learning can be summed up as: academic; vocational; self-development; peer pressure; and family expectations. In considering motivation, he borrows ideas from the world of music, as the study on which this chapter is based focused on work with music students. Walters investigates the process of learning a musical instrument – a process which may not be totally unfamiliar to many readers, either through trying to learn an instrument themselves or through observing the efforts of others.

He addresses confidence, competence and autonomy, which are identified as being essential skills in learning. He uses case studies to illustrate approaches to investigating what makes a ‘really good learner’ or a ‘not very good learner’ and uses students’ self-reported perceptions at the beginning and end of the year to measure this. The Good Learner Inventory is recommended as a useful research tool for those wishing to investigate the effects of their teaching on student perceptions. Walters identifies the next stage as finding ways of using the inventory as the basis for discussion with students, either in class or one to one, to promote awareness of the meta-learning ‘requirements’ for truly successful study at this level. Walters concludes with a number of reflective discussion points to develop practice.

In Chapter 7, Edwards and McKinnell explore the vexed question of how new technologies can be applied to teaching and learning in universities. The term ‘e-learning’ is used in the chapter to apply to activities that involve some form of interaction with information networks such as web-based and virtual learning environments. The authors discuss Heppell’s (2006) 13 features of transformation in education and discuss the benefits and challenges involved in applying e-learning. Edwards and McKinnell present a case study illustrating how e-learning can be used to accommodate individual need, support curriculum enrichment and offer a wide variety of opportunities to track student progress.

Four modes of e-learning are presented and evaluated and the authors, to borrow their words, conclude that we are in the age of the learner rather than the digital age, stressing the underlying tenets of this book. They ask the question of where and how the boundary between the virtual and physical classroom in higher education should be established. They state that there are no shortcuts and that all the skills, knowledge and understanding we currently possess in traditional approaches need to be applied with the same vigour to the development of e-learning packages. They see it as essential that tutors employ sound pedagogical reasoning in the design of such packages and warn that inappropriate use of the technology can be highly counterproductive. They urge us to retain balance in teaching and learning, otherwise there is a real danger that the tutor can become marginalised and the only relationship the student has with the institution is two dimensional. Edwards and McKinnell provide 13 points to aid reflection and to avoid lack of balance in curriculum design and learning and teaching approaches for the future.

Chris Beaumont in Chapter 8 examines the development of pedagogical agents as learning companions and explores how artificial intelligence (AI) technology has been applied to assist learning. He traces the development of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) and the more recent research into learning companions, using agent technology. He critically analyses the relationship between pedagogy and technology in such systems and discusses aspects important for achieving success. The development of ITS/learning companions requires detailed consideration of the context in which the student will be working, and the chapter examines relevant factors, using examples to illustrate the points. Beaumont also discusses if, and how, such technology has a place within higher education

Beaumont offers a brief review of the development of Intelligent Tutor Systems and artificial intelligence in education through agents and learning companions and simulations. With regard to pedagogy and technology, he considers the challenges for developing useful systems such as: epistemological assumptions (social constructivist/behaviourist); implicit student models and knowledge representation; interactions: student-content; student-agent; student-student. The place of the human tutor in the system is also considered with reference to: affective factors, interaction styles, learning styles; interface design issues and animation and dialogue; student reactions and help-seeking behaviour when using agents. Examples of ITS and pedagogical agents are presented and they cover the domains of use and context, the interaction models and pedagogical assumptions, effectiveness, and research challenges and directions. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how intelligent agents can effectively support learners.

Lin Norton e...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Learning about learning or learning to learn (L2L)
• Chapter 3 Supporting students’ critical reflection-on-practice
• Chapter 4 Problem-based learning in higher education
• Chapter 5 Action learning and research and inquiry methods on postgraduate courses for professional practitioners
• Chapter 6 Who do they think they are? Students’ perceptions of themselves as learners
• Chapter 7 Moving from dependence to independence: the application of e-learning in higher education
• Chapter 8 Beyond e-learning: can intelligent agents really support learners?
• Chapter 9 Using assessment to promote quality learning in higher education
• Chapter 10 Formative assessment of the practice-based element of degree work
• Chapter 11 Building on vocational competence: achieving a better workforce by degrees
• Chapter 12 Combining service learning and social enterprise in higher education to achieve academic learning, business skills development, citizenship education and volunteerism
• Chapter 13 Supporting students with disabilities in higher education
• Chapter 14 The development of reflective practice in higher education: a theoretical perspective
• Index