Pedagogies

Yesterday we had our second lecture, in which we talked about the theme ‘pedagogies’. First we repeated something about flexibility what we discussed last week and about the blogging. After that we all expected to get a normal lecture.. But we had to work actively on an assignment!  We had to find out what the consequences are for this course if another pedagogical approach should be used by the instructor. We were split up in groups of 4 students and every group chose a pedagogical approach to apply in the course.

There are a lot of pedagogical approaches, such as traditional learning, problem- based learning, workplace learning, collaborative learning, inquiry learning, project- based learning, experiential learning, task- oriented learning and thematic learning. All these approaches (or teaching methods) have different aspects and views on learning. In the lecture each group had to think of characteristics of a specific approach and what consequences these characteristics would have for this course. At the end of the lecture we also got a homework assignment in which we have to apply what we have learned about these approaches by asking yourself the question how these approaches can be supported by a course management system (CMS). I’ll describe here five different pedagogical approaches and in what way I think that the approaches can be supported by a CMS.

Problem- based learning (PBL)

This are characteristics that are related to problem- based learning (Hmelo- Silver, 2004):

-          student-centered instructional strategy, whereby students direct their own learning

-          the learning is driven by problems that are real, challenging, open-ended, ill-defined and ill-structured,

-          students learning centers on a complex problem that does not have a single correct answer,

-          students work and reflect collaboratively in groups to solve the problem,

-          students identify together what they need to learn to be able to solve the problem,

-          teachers are facilitating the learning process rather than he is providing knowledge.

The teacher can provide the problem to the students on a CMS. Because the teacher takes the role of a facilitator, he can provide all the materials to the students that they need to identify what the problem is, for example by posting a video of the problem. In PBL student have to work collaboratively, in a CMS they can do that in different ways; by using the discussion board, using the chat tool and the mail tool. Whit these tools they can discuss their thoughts with each other. Students can also use a planning tool where they can make a plan for their learning. The teacher can follow where the students are working on, and can help them if they are asking for some help or if he sees that students are missing some important parts.

Inquiry learning
These characteristics are related to inquiry learning (based on this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry-based_learning):

-          Learning starts with a question of the teacher; teacher poses questions for students to solve

-          Students search for information to solve the problem, teacher guides the students

-          No prescribed target or result which the students have to achieve

-          Student determines the problem and topic to be studied and method to find answers

-          Learner centered

A CMS can support this kind of learning because students can collaborate by using a CMS, they can discuss their findings on a discussion board and the methods how they want to find answers to the questions. The students can also pose questions to the teacher in the chat room or by email. Students can make a schedule by themselves.

Workplace learning

Characteristics of workplace learning (Geldens, 2007):

-          Learning in practice; learning at the workplace, learner centered

-          Coach is mentoring and coaching the learning process and learning from peers

-          A balance between theory and practice

-          Learning by experiencing

A CMS can support this kind of learning by giving the students the opportunity to share their experiences with each other. They do not have to collaborate, but they can still learn from experiences of other students. Students can write what they are learning in for example a blog and other students can respond to the blog. This is a good way to keep in touch with each other, because every student is at his own workplace.

Collaborative learning

The following characteristics are typical for collaborative learning (Smith & MacGregor, 1992):

-          Students are working in groups and are together searching for understanding, solutions or meanings, or creating a product

-          Course material is explored or applied by the students

-          Students work actively with the course materials, for example in discussions alongside normal lectures

-          Teacher is not transmitting knowledge to students but acts as an expert designer of intellectual experiences

-          Learning is an active and constructive process.

A CMS can support collaborative learning with tools for collaboration, such as the discussion board, mail function and chat room. The teacher can design an inspiring workplace in the CMS by providing multimedia materials for the students.

Traditional learning

Characteristics of traditional learning are (retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Traditional_education)

-          Teacher gives lectures, students listen, teacher is provider of knowledge, teacher centered

-          Theoretical learning and all students are learning from the same material

-          Learners learn individual

-          Learning materials are mostly books

Although it seems not so logical to use a CMS in a traditional approach, I think that there are some possibilities. The teacher can, for example, video- tape the lectures and make the video available on the CMS. The teacher can also provide the learning materials, books or text or his lectures slides, on the CMS.

Conclusions

 There are a lot of different pedagogical approaches that teacher can use in their courses. They have all different characteristics and implications for teaching and the use of a CMS. However there are a lot of possibilities, I as a student do not prefer to use all these possibilities. For example: I like a to discuss about interesting topics, but I would prefer to do that face- to- face, because it is direct and synchronic. Maybe I do not have enough motivation to do that in my spare time? If I have to, I would do it, and probably even like it.. But some possibilities of using a CMS I like and use by myself: I compare my own work with that of other students and so exchange my work.

References:
Geldens, J. (2007). Leren onderwijzen in een werkplekleeromgeving: Een meervoudige casestudy naar kenmerken van krachtige werkplekleeromgevingen voor aanstaande leraren basisonderwijs. Retrieved form: http://repository.ubn.ru.nl/bitstream/2066/30228/1/30228_lereonine.pdf

Hmelo- Silver, C. (2004). Problem- based learning: What and how do students learn? Educational Psychology Review,16 (3), 235-266. Retrieved from: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/ pdfviewer?vid=1&hid=107&sid=7ee59d86-2ba2-4bd6-bfe7-bd3f475a0215%40sessionmgr114

Smith, B., & MacGragor, J. (1992). What is collaborative learning? Retrieved from: http:// learningcommons.evergreen.edu/pdf/collab.pdf