Students’ Perceptions of Independent Learning and Reflection in a Technical English Course Dr. Ken...

Students’ Perceptions of Independent Learning and Reflection in a Technical English Course

Dr. Ken LauCentre for Applied English Studies

The University of Hong [email protected]

Outline

Independent Learning

& Reflection

Course Description of ProTech & Out-of-class ComponentData Analysis 1:

Pre- and Post-Course QuestionnairesData Analysis 2:

Semi-Structured Interviews

Data Analysis 3: SAR Corpus

Conclusions

ProTech

• Professional and Technical Oral Communication for Engineers

• Compulsory for all first-year Engineering students (>400 students)

• 12 weeks, 24 contact hours

• Three presentation assessments(Diagnostic Pair, Group and Individual)

• Out-of-class learning component• Self-Access and Reflection (SAR) Record

• Diversity of students’ abilities

– Learners taking charge of their own learning;

acknowledgement of ownership (Gardner and

Miller, 1998)

• Coherent Learning Experience

– Sustainable feedback (Carless, et al., 2010)

Self-Access and Reflection Record

Two weaknesses identified by the teacher

Weakness identified by the student

Self Assessment and Reflection

Improvement shown in the next presentation

Evaluation of resources chosen and used, and the quality of reflection

Coherent Learning Experience

1st Presentation

2nd Presentation

3rd Presentation

Feedback, Self-Access

and Reflection

Feedback, Self-Access

and Reflection

Teacher’s Evaluation of Improvement

Teacher’s Evaluation of Improvement

Students’ Perceptions of Independent Learning and Reflection: Data Set

Pre-Course

Questionnaire:

221 (49.55%

)

Post-Course

Questionnaire:

157 (35.20%

)

Semi-Structure

d Interview:

9

SAR Corpus:

853,215 words

Paired Sample:95 (21.30%)

Students’ Perceptions of Independent Learning and Reflection:

Questionnaire Surveys

Self-Perceived Types of Learners

Types of LearnersPre-Course Questionnaire

Post-Course Questionnaire

Do you consider yourself an active/passive learner?

Active: 121 (54.75%)

Passive:100 (45.25%)

After taking ProTech, do you think you have become a more active/passive learner, or same as before?

More Active:120 (76.43%)

More Passive:2 (1.2%)

Same as Before:35 (22.29%)

Paired Samples: Perceived Change in Types of Learners

Active -> More Ac-

tive

Active -> More

Passive

Active -> Same As Before

Passive -> More Active

Passive -> More Passive

Passive -> Same

As Before

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

5046

(85.18%)

1 (1.85%)

7(12.95%)

27 (65.85%)

0

14(45.16%)

• Used by psychologists

• Utter one-word responses to stimulus words within split-seconds

• "Semantic Proximity" (Bahar & Hansell, 2000)

Word-Association

Independent Learning

Reflection

• Actional Terms activities or processes of accomplishing them e.g. respond, react, improve

• Physical Terms physical objects or scientific phenomena e.g. mirror, resources, video

• Mental Terms cognitive activities or appraisal of entities e.g. joyful, spontaneous, difficult

• Personal Terms references to human beings e.g. audience, myself, self

• Compound Terms Hyphenated items Often prefixed with “self-” , e.g. self-discipline, self-evaluation

Word-Association Analysis:Categorisation

• Mental terms dominant in both pre-course (34.85%) and post-course (31.58%) surveys

• Physical terms and personal terms decrease by 6.62% and 2.58% in the post-course surveys

• Actional terms increase by 9.05% (pre-course: 21.21%; post-course: 30.26%)

• Compound terms increase by 2.09%– self-access, self-learning, self-study, self-assessment,

self-awareness, self-control, self-consciousness, self-evaluation, self-driven, self-motivated, self-replying

Word-Association Analysis:Independent LearningPre-Course Questionnaire Post-Course Questionnaire

1. Active 2. Reading 1. Active 2. Reading

3. Library 4. Individual 2. Reflection 4. Improvement

5. Alone 5. Self-Study 5. Myself 6. Self-Access

5. Free 8. Difficult 6. Resources 6. Important

8. Internet 8. Self-Discipline

9. Learn 9. Internet

-- -- 9. Practice 9. Research

• Actional terms dominant in both pre-course (36.5%) and post-course (40.94%) survey responses

• Mental, physical and personal terms decrease in the post-course survey by 2.77%, 4.79% and 1.29% respectively

• Compound terms increase by 3.44%

– self-assess, self-criticism, self-correction, self-work, self-exposure, self-order

Word-Association Analysis:ReflectionPre-Course Questionnaire Post-Course Questionnaire

1. Improvement

2. Mirror 1. Improvement 2. Learning

3. Thinking 4. Response 3. Thinking 4. Review

5. Feeling 6. Refraction 5. Weakness 6. Compare

7. Comment 7. Feedback 7. Experience 7. Self-Learning

7. Light 10. Physics 9. Evaluation 9. Feedback

Usefulness for Language Enhancement: Independent Learning (N=151)

Very Useful Quite Useful Not So Useful Not Useful At All

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

After taking ProTech, do you consider independent learning useful for enhancing language skills?

28 (17.95%)

107 (68.59%)

19 (12.18%)

2 (1.28%)

Usefulness for Language Enhancement: Reflection (N=157)

Very Useful Quite Useful Not So Useful Not Useful At All

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

After taking ProTech, do you consider reflection useful for enhancing language skills?

28 (17.83%)

109 (69.43%)

19 (12.1%)

1 (0.64%)


Semi-Structured Interviews

Interviewees

Identi-fier

Sex Nationality Change in perception of type of learner

Perceived usefulness of independent learning

Perceived usefulness of reflection

Wilfred M Mainland Chinese

Passive More Active

Very useful Not so useful

Don M Hong Kong Chinese

Passive More Active

Quite useful Quite useful

Wan M Mainland Chinese

Active Same As Before

Very useful Quite useful

Jeff M Hong Kong Chinese

Active Same As Before

Quite useful Quite useful

Wilfred (Mainlander)

Before taking ProTech

After taking ProTech

Learner type Passive More Active

Perception of reflection calm, alone, repetition

survey, learn, improve

Usefulness of reflection in enhancing language skills

Not so useful

Perception of independent learning

study, discuss, discover

reflection, solution, optimization

Usefulness of independent learning in enhancing

language skills

Very useful

Independent Learningstudy, discuss, discover solution, reflection, optimization

Reflectioncalm, alone, repetition survey, learn, improve

• Learning styles and approaches driven by the physical environment of teaching and learning

• “My ideas have changed a lot during the semester”

• IL as an important transferrable skill • “the most important thing is

to learn the way to learn”

• “I think we learn more by ourselves… without the independent learning, I would have learned nothing”

• Considered reflection as a solitary act, a “one-man show”

• Recognised the role of ‘others’ and picked up knowledge along the way

Wilfred (Mainlander)

Don (Hong Konger)



Learner type Passive More Active

Perception of reflection feedback, opinion, response

opinion, react, feedback


Quite useful


self-studying, problem-solving, critical-thinking

flexible, management, self


language skills

Quite useful

Don (Hong Konger)

Independent Learningself-studying, problem-solving, critical thinking flexible, management, self

Reflectionfeedback, opinion, response opinion, react, feedback

• Typical Hong Kong student; will not go beyond what was required

• Responses very confined to ProTech experiences, failing to show an understanding of the potential application of Independent learning and

reflection in other contexts

• “flexible because it’s not a rigid timetable, you may want to do the research before you do the outline, or you do the outline before you do the research first”

• “management is the most important criteria of independent learning because you are given a deadline”

• “self … you do the whole process yourself”

• “Because reflection is what you can understand yourself more, because you have done your preparation, you have 100% and you think your presentation is best, but some other people may think that you have some other areas to improve, therefore I think reflection is useful for yourself to improve”

Don (Hong Konger)

Wan (Mainlander)



Learner type Active Same As Before

Perception of reflection important, self, every day

importance, very hard, learning


Quite useful


hard, necessary, important

necessary, valuable, new


language skills

Very useful

Wan (Mainlander)

Independent Learninghard, necessary, important necessary, valuable, new

Reflectionimportant, self, everyday importance, hard, learning

• Former experiences heavily directed by teachers and ideologies

• “in 18 years, my teachers and parents they tell me what you should do,

you don’t have to think what’s right, you just go that road they told you

to go. But here, lots of choices, you have to choose, to do this…”

• Very conscious of one-country-two-systems academic practice

• “There are lots of difference between 2 systems. I have to think in this

new system but I don’t have think in that system. And the feeling is very

different because you really do something very responsible to yourself.”

Wan (Mainlander)

Independent Learninghard, necessary, important necessary, valuable, new

Reflectionimportant, self, everyday importance, hard, learning

• “I didn’t say “hard” this time because I got used to it”

• “And I always think what is the meaning of independent learning. It’s not just doing things teacher told you. It’s to remember what she taught and to combine these together and really to digest it. And I really did so I think it’s necessary.”

• “I think all these jobs (reflection) are done in Mainland by our teachers. We don’t think ourselves, she told you what you do better next time.

• “…I discovered that education system or method in HK is very different … I discovered that reflection or evaluation is very common in HK. I have participated in orientation camp. Every night we have to evaluate, so I think it’s very important for HK people”

Jeff (Hong Konger)



Learner type Active Same As Before

Perception of reflection meaningful, improvement, recall

evaluation, improvement, weakness


Quite useful


worried, lost, fruitful life-long learning, active, motivation

Usefulness of independent learning in

enhancing language skills

Quite useful

Jeff (Hong Konger)

Independent Learningworried, lost, fruitful life-long learning, active, motivation

Reflectionmeaningful, improvement, recall evaluation, improvement, weakness

• Highly motivated and a long-term planner

• Can see the usefulness of independent learning and reflection in his studies and future careers

• “In the long run, it is very useful to me because I cannot always be supervised by teachers”

• “you have to learn this from time to time, not only in the engineering field, but also in the others …You have to be motivated and to have a thirst for learning”

• “I think that this is a learning process. If you want to improve, of course you cannot just look forward, you need to look back, and do the evaluation, not only the feedback from the teacher, but also to think about the performance by yourself so that I can recognize the problem and find any way to improve. Because I should be the master of my learning, and only I know myself best”


SAR Corpus

• Assisted by WordSmith 6.0

• Keywords FunctionIdentifying keywords with statistically higher

instances in the SAR corpusComparing against a reference corpus –

British Academic Written English Selecting text files of comparable genres

(narrative recount and critique)Reference Corpus – 407 texts, 862,336 words

SAR Corpus Analysis

• Try/Tried/Trying (3,075 instances)– Plan for action,

commitment to change (present and future)

– Review of action taken, often not successful (past)

• Concordancing Function– Qualitative analysis

of context of use of the lexical term identified

SAR Corpus Analysis

• Try + to-positive action/manner (1,427 instances)– improve, read, use, memorize, add

– SAR corpus• I should try to improve my pronunciation as I read transferred as

transferr-ded. (SAR056)

• There is no doubt that grammar is one of the most difficult parts in learning English. In order to improve this situation, I try to read the newspaper on the internet every day. (SAR232)

• I have checked the dictionary of the pronunciation of different words and I have rehearsed for a few times to try to be more fluent in the presentation. (SAR057)

– Ref corpus (84 instances)• I will try to concentrate on a strong CPD programme within my future.

SAR Corpus Analysis: Try

• Try my best + to-positive action/manner (86 instances)– Strong commitment to change/improve

– SAR corpus• Learning from successful speakers is a good way to

enhance myself. I will try my best to be a good speaker. (SAR624)

– No examples found from the Ref corpus


• Try + to avoid + action / Try not to + negative action/manner (28 instances)

– SAR corpus• In the coming presentation, I will try to avoid unnecessary stop

and try to make use of the technique of changing talking speed. (SAR629)

• I was nervous and not used to speaking English or giving a presentation in front of people. So, I will get used to it and try not to be nervous. (SAR238)

– Ref corpus (2 instances):• I relate to these points and am often told I am over-critical of

myself; I will therefore try to avoid this and will try to focus on the positives


• Tried + to-positive action/manner (918 instances)– learn, imitate, practise, read, speak, use

– SAR corpus:• Besides learning the pronunciation of IPA symbols from

the websites above, I also tried to learn the rhythm of speech by repeating what had the speaker said because I thought the speaker had performed a good delivery for me to understand the IPA lesson. (SAR302)

– Ref corpus (74 instances): • As part of a module called "second language teaching and

learning" in my postgraduate studies I tried to learn a limited amount of conversational Persian, with associated grammar and vocabulary.

SAR Corpus Analysis: Tried

• Tried my/our best (18 instances)– Self-reassurance of the efforts

– SAR corpus:• Different people have different ability in these

areas. I believe that my group mates and I have already tried our best to give a fluent and clear speech. Indeed, there are some areas that we can improve. (SAR813)

– Ref corpus (only 1 instance): • We tried our best to do accurate forecasting but

forecasting is never accurate and we had penalties

SAR Corpus Analysis: Tried

• Mixed methods (surveys, interviews and discourse analysis) to present a more complete picture of ProTech students’ perceptions of independent learning and reflection.

• ProTech was generally successful in raising the learners’ awareness of:– the value of independent learning and reflection in

skills development– the roles of the ‘significant others’ (e.g. peers) in

independent learning and reflection– independent learning and reflection as transferrable

skills

Conclusions

Bahar , M. & Hansell, M.H. (2000). The relationship between some psychological factors and their effect on the performance of grid questions and word association tests. Educational Psychology, 20(3), 349-364.

Bolton, G. (2010). Reflective practice: Writing and professional development (3rd edition). London: Sage.

Carless, D., Salter, D., Yang, M. and Lam, J. (2011). Developing sustainable feedback practices. Studies in Higher Education, 36(4), 395-407.

Gardner, D. and Miller, L. (1998). Establishing self-access: from theory to practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lau, K. (2012). Self-access and reflection in an ESP course. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 16(1), 155-160.

Luk, J. (2008). Assessing teaching practicum reflections: Distinguishing discourse features of the ‘high’ and ‘low’ grade reports. System, 36(4), 624-641.

White, J. (2008). The use of reflective writing in exploring students experiences in surgery. Journal of Surgical Education, 65(6), 518-520.

Williams, J. M. (2002). The engineering portfolio: Communication, reflection and student learning outcomes assessment. International Journal of Engineering Education, 18(2), 199-207.

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