‘Ambitious teaching’ and ‘transformational learning’?

Jenny BruenSchool of Applied Language and Intercultural StudiesDublin City University

Can techniques such as Structured Academic Controversy actually facilitate the language learning process?

•Are there other potential applications for example in the preparation for study abroad?

Structured Academic Controversy

•Pedagogical technique•Borrowed from the political sciences•Designed to increase engagement

with content through development / transformation of belief systems•Constructivism• Transformational learning

Choose a controversial issueor ‘dilemma’

“an issue about which reasonable people disagree”

Dilemmas from other disciplines

• Literature: Different interpretations of a literary text

Hamlet is a complete and utter coward. • Politics/History: Opposing analysis of a

historical or current event The people of Crimea have a right to be accepted as Russian if that is what they want which they evidently do. - Eamonn McCann Irish Times, 20th March 2014, page 14

Dilemmas from other disciplines

• Environmental Science: Alternative approaches to dealing with species extinction

• Geography: Significance of evidence on climate change

Recent extreme weather conditions are a result of climate change.

SAC

• Provide students with or direct them to source information on the issue• Blended learning: • students source & share online

• Flipped classroom • Information in advance, interaction during contact hours • Is the class a time to receive or use

information?

SAC

• Divide learners into groups of 4. • Each pair presents a polarised, ‘advocacy’

position. Focus on 3 key arguments.

• Roles are reversed (& groups swapped in a double switch approach).

SAC• Dissolve pairs to reach consensus• Goal not to win but to uncover relevant arguments on both sides

• Direct students to seek reasoned, consensual positions. “Forge a position as a group. Feel free to change your mind. See if you can come to consensus on this issue.”

Why are learners engaged

• Cognitive dissonance• Psychological phenomenon - holding contradictory

beliefs causes stress – try to accommodate new ideas into existing understandings.• Uncomfortable process engagement.►

• Language learning research: engagement ► acquisition

Study: Does the use of SAC in the language classroom faciliate language learning?

Study

DilemmaFacebook facilitates cyberbullying and should be banned for those under 18.

Procedure

In advance:1. 18 students complete a C-test on

cyberbullying2. Given material in German on

cyberbullying to read in advance3. Asked to source additional

material themselves

5 Steps

Treatment Group

1. Participants divided into 2 groups of 4 (2 pairs in each group)2. Each pair argues an advocacy position3. Each pair argues the alternative position4. Each group of 4 attempts to reach a consensus5. Each group of 4 presents its ‘compromise’ position

Comparison Group

•Completes reading comprehension exercise on cyberbullying.• Open-ended written

questions and free writing

Post-test stage

•C-tests returned to both groups•All students ‘improve/correct’ their

C-test•Change in score determined.

Change in C-test score:Improvement for both groups

Change in C-test score treatment group

+ 17%

Change in C-test score comparison group

+ 14%

Nouns (17 )

Verbs (15 )

AdjectivalEndings (7 )

% Improvement Treatment

21% 26% 10%

% Improvement comparison

15% 22% 11%

Preliminary Findings

Useful technique in language teaching

Contributes more to vocabulary acquisition

Needs to be scaffolded by explicit grammar instruction

Participant feedback on SAC• …was helpful as it gave us a chance to form sentences, work

with others and try and hold a conversation/debate through German alone.

…was a good way to build up fluency with the language.

Implications

• Considerable potential for ‘borrowing’ methodologies such as SAC from other subject domains in a ‘post-method’ environment

• Need for explicit grammar instruction remains

Additional applications of SAC

Preparation of students for study abroad

Background

Study abroad will…‘….give students a better sense of what it means to be a European citizen’.

(Erasmus website)

Exploratory study conducted in DCU

Understanding of Citizenship Pre-Year Abroad – ‘What does citizenship mean to you?’

Belonging Rights

Obligations Responsibilities

European

Understanding of Citizenship Post-Year Abroad – ‘What does citizenship mean to you?’

Belonging Rights

Obligations Responsibilities

Language Representative Role

• European / global citizenship not always facilitated by a year abroad

Cicero’s concentric circles

Humanity

Country

Family

Self

Draw the circles closer - ‘enter the mind of the other’

Study abroad does not automatically result in transformational learning

• Fry, Paige, Jon, Dillow and Nam (2009)

Four D’s of study abroad•Demography•Destination•Duration &•Depth - Do students engage in a

meaningful manner with study abroad?

To encourage depth of experience & transformational learning….recommend:

• Pedagogical techniques from experiential pedagogy before, during & after study abroad:

Role play, cultural and political simulations

tandem work, virtual classrooms

Games

literature, project work

“scaffolded” or facilitated (critical) reflection, critical incidents

SAC & European Citizenship

DilemmaNational borders are irrelevant today. We are European not Irish/Czech.

SAC, Ethics & Tolerance of Ambiguity• DCUBS• MBA Ethics / Dilemma “Stealing is always wrong”• Base-line assessment of Tolerance of Ambiguity

before and after engagement with SAC.• Staying in uncertainty, or staying with the

question, despite the discomfort of not knowing the answer, or not knowing where we’re headed. …relinquishing control• Associated with Innovation & Creativity

Related PublicationsPublished• 2013 The impact of study abroad on language learners’ perceptions of the

concept of citizenship. AISHE-J. All Ireland Journal of Studies in Higher Education.

• (forthcoming) Translation in Language Teaching: A qualitative study of attitudes and behaviours. Language Teaching Research

Under review• The use of the L1 in the L2 classroom to reduce cognitive overload and learner

anxiety. The Language Learning Journal (first revision complete)

• Cognitive Dissonance and the Subjective Mind in Foreign Language Learning: The use of Structured Academic Controversy in the German language classroom In Arnd Witte and Theo Harden (eds). Language learning and the Subjective Mind. Peter Lang.