Bridges over troubled waters – facilitating engaged learning

1. Bridges over troubled waters – facilitating engaged learning By Gerda Mischke and Paul Prinsloo

2. Programme • Welcome by Dr Willa Louw, • Coordinator: Learning development (ICLD) • Paul Prinsloo & Gerda Mischke • Questions and Discussion • Closure

3. Looking for bridges…. Higher education Learner Institution, educator Open and Distance Learning

4. Different types of bridges….

5. Looking for bridges…. Higher education Learner Institution, educator Open and Distance Learning

6. The background of this discussion... • The active student debate • Deep learning versus rote learning • The throughput paradox • The autonomous and self-directed learner • The need for authenticity and relevance

7. Why worry about Engagement?

8. Research indicates that the more engaged the learner is, the bigger the chances of his or her success in the module. • An exploration of student failure on an undergraduate accounting programme of study (Gracia & Jenkins 2002). • The influence of active learning experiences on the development of graduate capabilities (Kember & Leung 2005).

9. Some ways in which we facilitate engagement… • Lists of outcomes • Activities • Self-evaluation • Assignments • Work Integrated Learning … but are the students engaged?

10. New perspectives on engaged learning... • Andragogy (Adult learning) • Neurobiology and psychoanalysis • Transformative teaching • Lifelong and life-wide learning • Whole-person teaching and learning

11. Andragogy (Adult learning) • Adults need to know why they need to learn something. • Adults need to learn experientially. • Adults approach learning as problem-solving. • Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value. • Adults bring prior experience and beliefs into the learning experience (Merriam 2001).

12. Neurobiology • Emotions are indispensable for rationality (Dirkx 2001; Yorks & Kasl 2002). • A lot of learning takes place outside cognitive processing (Taylor 2001). • Change in perspective happens through a combination of emotions, cognitive thoughts and the unconscious (Dirkx 2001).

13. Neurobiology (cont) • Rote learning leads to inflexible knowledge. • Learners cannot apply competencies to new situations, or deal with complex issues and diversity (Taylor 2001).

14. Transformativeteaching • Changing perspectives start with “disorienting dilemmas”(Mezirow 2003). • The learner should be allowed to discover what they already know, believe and can do (Rieber & Robinson 2004). • Whole-person learning requires that critical reflection and affective learning are integrated into the main learning experience (not added on) (Yorks & Kasl 2002).

15. Transformativeteaching (cont) • For real transformation to take place, there is a need for learning to take place in a “safe, open, and trusting environment” (Kovan & Dirkx 2003). • They discover what they don’t know in communities that care (Kovan & Dirkx 2003). • Instead of individualisation, individuation is facilitated (Glastra et al 2004).

16. Lifelong and life-wide learning • Certification should not be the only goal, but being competent human beings in an uncertain and risk society (Glastra et al 2004). • Adults need to deal with the “pathologies that mobility may entail” (Glastra et al 2004).

17. Lifelong learning …(cont) • The amount of choices learners face, leads to a “tyranny of choice” (Beck 2001). • Learners are no longer sure of the preconditions of the choices they make, nor can they predict the consequences. • They must choose and will be held responsible for their choices (Glastra et al 2004).

18. Lifelong learning …(cont) • Not only skills and “just-in-time” driven, but should allow learners to live their “unlived lives” (Kovan & Dirkx 2003). • Lifelong learning as transitionallearning (Glastra et al 2004). Critical social analysis, dealing with diversity, learning about boundaries and membership.

19. New perspectives on engaged learning... (revisited) • Andragogy (Adult learning) • Neurobiology and psychoanalysis • Transformative teaching • Lifelong and life-wide learning • Whole-person teaching and learning

20. With this as a background, we understand the need for engaging learners … but How?

21. Layers of learner-engagement • with the text • with him or herself • with his or her peers • in his or her community • with the discourse of the subject • with the Institution • with the educator

22. Engaging learners in knowledge construction – different perspectives… Fads or facts?

23. Critical perspectives Consider how power is sustained and reinforced and how the development of independent, critical thinking gets undermined in the process (Welton 1995).

24. Constructivist perspective Consider learning as a negotiated, social process – students are seen as co-owners of the knowledge construction process and self awareness is promoted (Honebein 1996).

25. Post modernperspectives Perceive the knowledge construction process as a multi-faceted, tentative one which involves a consideration of multiple perspectives and a negotiated consensus on what is ‘fact’ (Kilgore 2001).

26. Psycho analyticalperspectives Depart from the notion of ‘whole person learning’ – the view is held that successful learning can only occur if all four modes of human psyche are addressed (affective, imaginal, cognitive, practical) (Yorks & Kasl 2002).

27. Points of agreement • Knowledge is socially constructed, it takes form in the eyes of the knower rather than being acquired from an existing reality. • Power is a major force in the knowledge construction process, to have power is to have knowledge and visa versa.

28. Points of agreement (cont) • Knowledge (and thus power) is multifaceted and tentative • New knowledge is constructed (learning takes place) in contexts where people are acknowledged as individuals with emotion, imagination, intellect, and physical ability.

29. What are the implications?

30. Power is a major force in the knowledge construction process, to have power is to have knowledge and visa versa. • Possible bridge: • Empower students, let them: calculate, check, conclude, demonstrate, discover, establish, estimate, experience, find, indicate, prove, reason, recall, reflect, reveal, show. • Cut down on letting them: accept, believe, consider, know, note, understand, perceive, realize, remember, suppose.

31. Knowledge is constructed (learning takes place) in contexts where people are acknowledged as individuals with emotion, creativity, intellect, and activity. • Possible bridge: • Consider the principles of whole person learning.

32. Practical C o n c e p t u a l P e r c e p t u a l A f f e c t i v e

33. Inclusion of affect #@!? All cognition, because it is embodied, is necessarily also affective. We do not think without feeling. When a kind of thinking is a good‑feeling, we tend to become good at doing it; and when it feels bad to us, we dither, defer, get distracted, and reject it. (Goodwin 2000).

34. ‘Recent research not only provides support that emotions can affect the processes of reason, but more importantly, emotions have been found to be indispensable for rationality to occur’ (Taylor 2001:218).

35. Engaged student • Affective engagement • How do you feel about these groups or sectors of society? • If you feel unsure, don’t panic, just go through … • What did you find useful … • You might find this chapter rather boring, however … • What do I do if I don't like accounting? • It's not as difficult as you imagine.

36. Engaged student • Perceptual engagement • Now we want all your attention – imagine a world without poets [accountants, teachers …], what would the implications be? • How would you interpret this situation in your culture? • What do you think is the glue that holds our community [roman law, Christianity …] together? • Graphics.

37. Engaged student • Conceptual engagement • First of all you need to decide how you are going to indicate each value. • Demonstrate to yourself that you understand … by completing the following flow chart …

38. Engaged student • Conceptual engagement (cont) • It is really important that you establish if your • conclusions are valid. Do it by comparing … • You should regularly consider the impact of • advertisements by asking yourself: • At what age group are they pitched? • What market sector do they address? • What language features are used?

39. Engaged student • Practical engagement • We would like you to discover for yourself that food has social, religious and economic value. • Ask your father if he’s ever attended a wedding where no food was served. • Ask a Muslim friend … • Ask your friend how much she or he budgets for food?

40. Engaged student • Practical engagement (cont) • After having considered our suggestions, re-write your CV [report, summary … ] • Share your perspectives on … a person older than sixty. Then ask that person for his or her opinion about it.

41. Deconstructing butterflies… • Through consciousness raising, students come to see the world and their place in it differently. • ‘Disorientating dilemma’ – people realize something is not consistent with what they hold to be true. • Students look to education to help them make sense of lives whose fabric of meaning has gone frayed (Baumgartner 2001).

42. Transform Engaged learners Pass

43. Implication of whole person engagement: Praxis cycle 2. Whole-person, whole situation analysis 3. Rich and diverse learning environments 1. Immersion 5. Reflection 4. Authenticate the learning

44. Acknowledgements No learning takes place in a vacuum. We both have learned so much from the Unisa community and specifically our colleagues at the Institute for Curriculum and Learning Development (ICLD) at Unisa. We celebrate the impact you had and has on our learning. Articles We have electronic copies of many of the articles in the Bibliography. Should you wish us to send you a copy, please feel free to contact us.

45. Thank you! Gerda Mischke Institute for Curriculum and Learning Development (ICLD), UNISA 012-429 8208 mischge@unisa.ac.za Paul Prinsloo Institute for Curriculum and Learning Development (ICLD), UNISA 012-429 3683 prinsp@unisa.ac.za

46. References and recommended reading Ardicvill, A.2003. Constructing socially situated learning experiences in human resource development: an activity theory perspective. Human Resource development International, 6(1):5-20. Baumgartner, L.M.2001. An update on transformational learning, in Merriam, S.B, New directions for adult and continuing education: 15-24. Beck, U.2001. Living your own life in a runaway world: individualization, globalization and politics. In Hutton, W & Giddens, A (Eds), On the edge: living with global capitalism. London: Vintage: 164-174 Biesta, G.2004. The community of those who have nothing in common: education and the language of responsibility. Interchange, 35(2)1-16. Dirkx, J.M. 2001. The power of feelings: emotion, imagination, and the construction of meaning, in Merriam, S.B. New directions for adult and continuing education: 63-72. Doll, W.E. 1986. Prigogine: a new sense of order, a new curriculum. Theory into Practice, 25(1):10-16.

47. Dubouloy, M. 2004. The transitional space and self-recovery: a psychoanalytical approach to high-potential managers’ training. Human Relations 57(4):467-496. Glastra, F.J, Hake, B.J & Schedler, P.E. 2004. Lifelong learning as transitional learning. Adult Education Quarterly, 54(4):291-307. Goodwin, C. 2000. Action and embodiment within situated human interaction.  Journal of Pragmatics 32 (10): 1489 - 1522. Gracia, L & Jenkins, E. 2002. An exploration of student failure on an undergraduate accounting programme of study. Accounting Education 11(1):93-107. Honebein, P.C. 1996. ‘Seven Goals for the Design of Constructivist Learning Environments’, in Wilson, B.G. (ed.), Constructivist Learning Environments: Case Studies in Instructional Design, pp. 11-24. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications. Kember, D & Leung, D.Y.P. 2005. The influence of active learning experiences on the development of graduate capabilities. Studies in Higher Education, 30(2):155-170

48. Kilgore, W. 2001. ‘Critical and Postmodern Perspectives on Adult Learning’, pp 53-61, in S.B. Merriam (ed.), The New update to Adult Learning Theory, Number 89. Jossey Bass.. Kovan, J.K & Dirkx, J.M. 2003. “Being called awake”: the role of transformative learning in the lives of environmental activists. Adult Education Quarterly, 53(2):99-118. Merriam, S.B. 2001. Andragogy and self-directed learning, in Merriam, S.B. New Directions for adult and continuing education, pp3-14. Mezirow, J.2003. Transformative learning as discourse. Journal of Transformative Education, 1(1):58-63. Rieber, R.W & Robinson, D.K. 2004. The essential Vygotsky. New York: Kluwer. Taylor, E.W. 2001. Transformative learning theory: a neurobiological perspective of the role of emotions and unconscious ways of knowing. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 20(3):218-236. Welton, M. 1995. ‘The critical turn in adult education theory’, in M. Welton (ed.), In defense of the lifeworld, pp 11-38. NY: State University Press. Yorks, L & Kasl, E. 2002. Toward a theory and practice for whole-person learning: reconceptualizing experience and the role of affect. Adult Education Quarterly, 52(3):176-192.