Framing scholarly accounts for learning and teaching in higher education

Stephen Billett, GALTS

Purposes ……….

Open up discussion about and considerations of the scholarship of learning and teaching (SoLT)

Delineate some key elements of and bases for those scholarly activities

Assist participants identify issues of interest which could become focuses for scholarly activities

Commence a process that might led to individual or collaborative scholarly projects

Inform about and make accessible the support available through Griffith and GALT, in particular

Progression

Defining key terms and setting out the terrain

Scholarship of learning and teaching (SoLT)Accounts of learning and developmentTheories of learning

Education intentsGoals for higher education: Knowledge to

be learnt

Curriculum, Teaching and learning practices Curriculum practicesPedagogic practicesEpistemological practices

Definition

However, much and perhaps most of what is taken as being ‘informed’ is contested and still contestable.

The nature of social sciences i) few unambiguous truths; ii) evolving understanding of human learning and

development, and iii) how it can be intentionally promoted through teaching

and other educational efforts.

Martin, Benjamin, Prosser and Trigwell (1999) propose three related activities constitute the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL):

• engagement with the existing knowledge on teaching and learning,

• self-reflection on teaching and learning in one’s discipline, and

• public sharing of ideas about teaching and learning within the discipline.

Why engage in the scholarship of learning and teaching (SoLT)?Trigwell (2012) suggests this scholarship is a:• way to raise the state of teaching• means to through which teachers can be become more

knowledgeable• means to assess the quality of teaching• way to enhance students’ experience of learning.

However, there are other reasons to engage in SoLT:• advancing your thinking, procedures or theorising• securing employment and improving prospects of tenure and/or

promotion• securing teaching and learning scholarships and grants• enriching your work life• making your research on teaching accessible to others • addressing issues impacting upon you, your community or discipline• others ………….

Issues that attract your attention

As we progress make note of some issues that concern you and might form a basis for the kinds of scholarly work in which you might engage.

For instance, ……….

1. Time jealous students

Some ‘new’ challenges for higher education ............

Educational provisions are nothing more or less than invitations to change

2. Time jealous teachers !!

3. Resource jealous practice settings

But there are many other issues and challenges that warrant scholarly consideration

Nascent state of educational science The science and informed practices of education still in its

infancy

Understanding the knowledge to be learnt and processes of that learning are nascent, and are often overturned by what was accepted earlier

Curriculum and pedagogic concepts and practices are relatively immature (e.g., curriculum studies 1949, educational psychology 1930s)

Development not always scientific (e.g. psychological thought, political imperatives, history, fads)

Uncertainty about what experiences are generative of what kinds of knowledge

What constitutes effective higher education teaching?

... new cultural means are being elaborated at an accelerating rate in industrialised nations. Hardly have we approached the problem of understanding

the intellectual impact of the printing press, than we are urged to confront the psychological implications of computerisation. (Scribner 1985: 138)

The limits education and the schooled society

‘Schooled’ societies have orthodoxies and assumptions about the inherent value and privileged status of ‘schooling’

Education and ‘schooling’ have brought many benefits, yet its discourse offers narrow accounts about:

• human knowing (i.e. what can be observed)• learning (i.e. what can be measured)• knowledge (i.e. what can be declared)

Such accounts are increasingly emphasised in prescriptive standards and educational provisions

Please note: the critique of teaching and educational institutions here is advanced in the belief that teachers and these institutions make a positive difference – the concern is to improve those differences

Yet, not captured, articulated or privileged in this discourse:

• Many procedural capacities (i.e. strategic and specific) needed by graduates to effectively practice

• Embodied learning (i.e. knowing through the sensory system)

• Haptic qualities (i.e. feel, tactile competence)

• Dispositions (i.e. values, interest, intentionality – ethical conduct, for instance)

Yet, these capacities are central to much of occupational performance required by graduates

So, there is lots of scope for drawing, yet also building, upon what is known about promoting learning in higher education

But let’s start somewhere …………..

Accounts of learning and development

Broad orientations

Evolution of theories of learning and development

Perspectives on human cognition and learning (nativist vs. empiricist accounts)

Chomsky, Fodor, Kant, Barsalou

Pavlov, Skinner, Bruner, Rousseau

NativistIndividuals are genetically endowed with knowledge

EmpiricistIndividuals construct all they

know from experience

Let’s, for argument’s sake, follow through with the empiricist account

Definitions ……

Learning: Change in individuals’ knowledge

Arises from experiences that are either externally (i.e. inter-psychologically) or internally (i.e. intra-psychologically) initiated

Moment by moment and continually - not reserved for particular kinds of experiences, although there may be specific legacies –

“activities structure cognition” (Rogoff & Lave 1984)

Change by degree – transformational through to refinement and honing of what is already known

Person dependent, by degree

Development: accumulation and legacy of moment by moment learning across individuals’ life courses – (i.e. ontogenetic development) shapes how they learn

Some questions

What do the empiricist views suggest in terms of approaches to learning (and, therefore, teaching)?

What should come first a consideration of teaching or learning in higher education?

What is emphasised in current educational experiences in which you are involved?

How well are your students prepared to be active and self-initiating learners?

What needs to happen for them to be more active constructive learners?

Human learning and development …Across human history most learning and development

premised on individuals’ active learning, not teaching

Teacherly acts appear to be largely a product of schooling and schooled societies

Active processes of learning seem to predominate, although teaching was available to some

… Whatever the origins of the didactic mode, it has always been a minor mode of knowledge acquisition in our evolutionary history. In the West, however, the didactic mode of teaching and learning has come to prevail in our schools to such an extent that is often taken for granted as the most natural, as was the most efficacious and efficient way of going about teaching and learning. This view is held despite the many instances in our own culture of learning through observation and imitation.

(Jordan 1989: 932)

So, what accounts inform teaching and learning in higher education?

Three major movements (see elaborations in handouts)

Behavioural accounts – responses to stimulus – person mediating responses

Cognitive account – emphasises intra-psychological processes – ability to manipulate knowledge (cleverness)Key contributions: i) individuals’ domains of knowledge, ii) role and extent of memory, iii) limitations of processing capacity andiv) development of expertise

Sociocultural, cultural psychological and anthropological accounts – emphasises inter-psychological processesContributions of history, culture and situations as mediated through the suggestion of the social world sources of access to knowledge generated in society

Behavioural accounts of knowing (Skinner, Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson)

Learning - a learnt response to a stimulus

Stimulus Response

Stimulus Response(i.e. learning)

Organism

Neo-behavioural knowing - learnt response is mediated, in part, by the organism (Watson & Kantor)

Secondary reinforcement might be required, can be used

From here, the discussion is largely about the degree by which what is experienced and responded to – perception – action – is shaped by the organism (person) or by factors ‘beyond the skin’

Sensory input(experiencing)

Organism(mind)

Change in knowledge

Intra-psychological capacities (cognitive structures)General capacities – strategic and specific functions (literacy, numeracy)

Domain specific capacities (e.g. occupational knowledge)Abilities and cleverness (i.e. ability to manipulate knowledge)

Cognitive psychological account

Learning arising from individuals’ manipulation of knowledge and experience

Importance of: i) individuals’ domains of knowledge, ii) role and extent of memory, iii) limitations of processing capacity and iv) development of expertise

Historical, cultural and situational factorsDomain specific capacities (e.g. occupational knowledge)

General capacities – strategic and specific functions (literacy, numeracy)Projection of social suggestion

Experiencing Individual Changes in knowledge

Micro-genetic actions leading to ontogentic development

Intra-psychological capacities (cognitive structures)General capacities – strategic and specific functions (e.g. literacy, numeracy)

Domain specific capacities (e.g. occupational knowledge)Abilities and cleverness (i.e. ability to manipulate knowledge)

Sociocultural/cultural psychological/anthropological accountsLearning (intra-psychological change) arising from the mediation of the social suggestion

So what?Suggests that higher educational provisions need to account for both:i) experiences provided for students and

ii) how they will come to experience them

Affordances and engagement• Affordances – the degree by which students are invited

and supported in their learning)

• Engagement – how students engage with and learn through what they are afforded

Need to consider these in the provision of educational provisions

Educational intentsEducational programs and provisions need to be guided by

clear and informed intents (i.e. what is intended to be achieved)

Also, often used to assess students’ learning, teaching efficacy and course evaluations

Aims – broad statements

Goals – more specific statements

Objectives – detailed statements, such as those against which students might be assessed

How adequately are statements of educational intents in your courses and programs addressing the learning required for your students?

How should they be changed?

Concerns about educational intentsWho should formulate them?

A range of perspectives adopted in considering these intents.

Educators cannot claim to have privileged role in stating educational intents - a range of interests

Yet, without engaging educators in their development it is unlikely that others’ intentions will be faithfully enacted

Often, highly measurable educational intents focus on relatively unimportant kinds

Case study: CBT in vocational education

Adaptability and flexibility was the stated goal

Let’s now consider the kinds of knowledge that higher students needs to learn – to progress smoothly into practice on graduation – these should be sources for such intents

Knowledge required for disciplinary or occupational practice

• Occupational specific capacities (i.e. domain-specific conceptual, procedural and dispositional knowledge)

• Also, capacities that augment and are embedded in occupational activities (e.g. communication, calculation, values, working with others, problem-solving)

• These capacities exist at the canonical (i.e. occupational) and situational (e.g. workplace) levels

• … yet need to be constructed by individuals as their personal domains of occupational knowledge

Domain-specific conceptual knowledge – ‘concepts, facts, propositions – surface to deep) (e.g. Glaser 1989)

Domain-specific procedural knowledge – how to achieve goals - specific through to strategic procedures) (e.g. Anderson 1993, Sun et al 2001)

Dispositional knowledge - (i.e. values, attitudes) (e.g. Perkins et al 1993), includes criticality

Knowledge required for effective practice

Conceptual knowledge

Procedural knowledge Dispositional knowledge

What kinds, combinations and sequencing of experiences can generate these interlinked forms of knowledge?

Curriculum considerations

What is the best sequencing of experiences?

What should be the intended learning from these experiences?

What should be the duration of experiences?

How might those experiences be integrated?

Definition – provision and pathway of experiences

Formulating and enacting curriculum Three conceptions of curriculum

Intended curriculum – what is intended to occur by sponsors or developers in terms of educational outcomes (e.g. syllabus, course outline etc).

Enacted curriculum – what is enacted as shaped by available resources, teachers and others’ experiences and expertise, interpretation of intentions and, values

Experienced curriculum – what students experience and learn when they engage with what is enacted

Increasingly the first one is becoming the key imperative across most sectors of Australian education, and higher education is no exception

Curriculum considerations

Sequencing and purpose of learners’ experiences

e.g. midwifery students’ follow throughs and clinical practice

How might these experiences be ordered?

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Follow throughs Follow throughs

Clinical placements

Clinical placements

Considerations for the ‘experienced’ curriculum include:

Students' interest and readiness central to their engagement and learning in higher education immediate concerns and goals focus of students' interestearly and staged engagement in practice settings boosts many students' confidence to re-engage and learn effectivelychallenges to personal confidence and competence can be redressed by effective group processes, including sharing of experience

Strong emphasis here on readiness to participate

Pedagogy – kinds of guidance provided to assist students’ learning, - augmenting and supporting learning in specific ways

Where to begin!!!.. A whole range of pedagogic practice (e.g. direct teaching, project work, group work, independent studies, internet enhanced learning support, guided learning etc.)

Pedagogic practices

For example, some pedagogic practices adopted to integrate experiences

Debrief - journalismClassroom group discussion – journalism Preparatory and debriefing activities – applied theatre/law/public relationsPortfolio preparation - creative artsReflections on prior experiences – medicine, teacher educationPracticum preparatory workshops – health sciences, social workReflections on current experiences of work – business, music Project based activities - tourism

Pedagogic practices directed to achieve particular outcomes

Findings ways of engaging students with experiences through which they will construct the knowledge they need to learn – need aligning with what is to be learnt

Learners’ (students’) personal epistemologies

Personal epistemologies – how individuals construe and construct knowledge premised on what they know, experience, including their interests, intentionalities and subjectivities.

It is they who learnEducators merely offer an invitation to changeIt is their taking up of that invitation that is most important ...

Some focuses for developing agentic personal epistemologies

orient students to requirements for effectively engaging in higher education

preparing students to participate as agentic learners

develop procedural capacities required to be an effective learner

make links to, and reconcile between, what is taught (learnt) in the academy, and what is experienced elsewhere (e.g. practice settings)

facilitate the sharing and drawing out of students’ experiences

generate in students critical perspectives on their learning processes

So what………?Much important scholarly work to be done to inform, design, enact and evaluate effective learning experiences in higher education

That is, to identify what constitutes effective learning and teaching in higher education

Effective higher education provisions require careful and informed planning, enactment and clear educational intents

All of these need informing by scholarly activities, …… Also, …

i) teacherly processes can enrich those experiences, but need guiding by informed and intentional (i.e. scholarly) practices

ii) students likely need to be convinced, guided and assisted to realise and secure the worth of higher education experiences

iii) processes of engaging students in knowledge constructing activities likely to be more effective than ‘just telling’

All this requires higher education teachers to be scholarly practitioners whose practice is informed and developed through their own practice

Questions, clarifications etc etc

Questions, clarifications, contestations etc etc

What are the kinds of learning and teaching issues that motivate your interest in scholarly work?

What kinds of scholarly outcomes would you like to achieve?

What kinds of support do you need to achieve those outcomes?