Teaching and Learning to
achieve Learning Outcomes
1
Preparing & Developing Graduates
Graduate Attributes are the qualities, skills
& understandings a university community
agrees its students should develop during
their time with the institution.
These attributes include, but go beyond,
the disciplinary expertise or technical
knowledge that has traditionally formed
the core of most university courses.
2
My key question in designing any
Course or Programme
What kind of teacher, biochemist,
sociologist, historian are you trying to
prepare for- the 21st century, the
workplace, for citizenship, for change?
Take 5 minutes to jot down a few notes.
Share your thoughts with a colleague.
3
Graduate Attributes will be:
Subject specific and generic; Learning
Outcomes must be subject specific and generic
QAA encouraged benchmarking groups to focus
on attributes in formulating subject benchmark
statements. Outputs a high priority.
In the UK largely located in subject benchmark
statements
4
Profile of Attributes
•
•
•
•
Knowledge, skills, abilities & personal
Driven by employers’ demands?
Is the list getting longer?
Are attributes communicated to all staff &
students? How?
• What learning, teaching & assessment
experiences enable students to develop &
demonstrate the attributes?
5
Examples of Attributes
Graduates should demonstrate evidence,
as appropriate to their disciplines, that
they can:
1. Apply discipline knowledge, principles &
concepts
2. Think critically, creatively & reflectively;
3. Access, evaluate & synthesise
information;
4. Communicate effectively;
6
Continued
5 Use technologies appropriately
6 Utilise lifelong learning skills
7 Recognise & apply international
perspectives;
8 Demonstrate cultural awareness &
understanding
9 Apply professional skills
7
Employers want graduates with a
range of personal attributes:
• Intellect- analysis, critique,synthesis,
problem solving
• Knowledge-basic principles of a subject
discipline
• Willingness to learn, continue to learn
• Flexibility & adaptability
• Self-Regulatory Skills such as time
keeping, ability to deal with stress
8
Continued
• Self-motivation, resilience, tenacity,
determination
• Self-assurance, self-confidence, selfdirection, self-promotion
• Creativity
• Interactive attributes-interpersonal skills
team working
• Social skills
9
How do Graduate Characteristics relate
to programs, levels and learning
outcomes?
National Qualifications Framework for HE in
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Pages 15 to 27
10
How do graduate attributes relate
to learning outcomes?
Example of a learning outcome at final year Hons
Degree
At the end of the module (course) the student is
expected to be able to:
• Describe & explain the function of the basic
devices of optoelectronics; optical fibres; liquid
crystal displays; bipolar & surface field effect
transistors & MOS light emitting diodes
11
Continued
Final Year Bachelor of Arts in English:
At the end of the module (course), the learner is
expected to be able to:
• Demonstrate detailed understanding of the
influences of the historical & social context
within which the chosen text is set, both from the
study of the text itself & from the study of other
contemporary literature
12
Continued
Bachelor of Education Second Year of Degree
At the end of the module (course) the learner will
be expected to be able to:
• Explain the more common reasons for difficult
behaviour in primary school children in class
situations, indicating standard techniques for
ameliorating that behaviour
13
How to write the attribute
• The graduate will be able to......
• Clear, concise, demonstrable, action verbs
• Explicit & specific about whether it is
implicit in the entire curriculum or a part of
the curriculum, i.e. generic or subject
specific
14
Definition of Learning
It is a relatively permanent change in our
potential for performance as a result of our
past interaction with the environment; a
change in observable behaviour.
15
Different Types of Learning require different
types of Teaching and Facilitation
This idea is at the centre of NCAAA
documentation
16
NCAAA Documentation focuses upon 4
Domains & specifies conditions for learning
in each of the domains
• Knowledge
• Cognitive Skills
• Interpersonal Skills and Responsibilities
• Communication IT & Numerical
• Psychomotor Skills. Where applicable
17
What is the purpose of the
Learning?
•
•
•
•
Adding to your existing knowledge?
Transforming your existing knowledge?
Revising your existing knowledge?
Accumulation of facts or reorganising
underlying schemata?
Add some purposes to this list…….
18
Historical Overview:
Behaviourism
• Stimulus(environment)response(organism)-reward
• Stimulus=inputs:learned
behaviour=outputs
• What they do, rather than think
• Passive rather than active
• Thorndike, Pavlov, Watson
• Guthrie
21
Skinner
•
•
•
•
Pigeons!
Organism operating on the environment
Secure particular consequences
Search for rewards, following a
response
• Reinforcers-behaviours can be shaped
by control of rewards
22
Cognition 1
• Focus on meaning, the development of
ability to demonstrate understanding of
what has been learnt
• Focus on thinking: stimulus-thinking
response
• Focus on perception, memory,
attention, concept formation, pattern
formation
• Process which transforms, reduces,
extends, stores, recovers &uses
23
Cognition 2
• A change in the way we see the
environment
• Transact with environment- dynamic
• Perception-select cues, draw inferences,
to make sense of experience
• Dewey,Bruner,Piaget, Ausubel,Koffka,
Kohler
• Howard Gardner “Multiple Intelligences”
Enjoy listening to this music.
24
How do you teach to learner’s
multiple intelligences? Are you
reaching all seven categories?
Howard Gardner
25
Ausubel (1968)
• The most important single factor
influencing learning is what the learner
already knows. Ascertain this and teach
him accordingly.
• How important do you consider this to be?
• Pre-existing knowledge, anchoring
concepts, advance organisers, structuring
26
Norman(1977)
•
•
•
•
Tasks related to demand on learner
Accretion - add to existing knowledge
fine-tuning: refine knowledge
restructuring-extend or alter conceptions
Which do you think is the hardest to
achieve?
27
Humanism
• People are human beings, not human
doings
• thoughts, feelings, experiences,
attitudes;
• personal meaning of experience
• self-actualisation;
• Desires to do something & goals;
“Human nature is essentially positive,
productive& growth oriented. It is
essentially trustworthy”
28
Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of
Needs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Self Actualisation
Aesthetic Needs
Cognitive Needs
Esteem Needs
Love& belongingness
Safety Needs
Physiological needs
29
Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
• Realness or Genuineness in the
facilitator of learning
• Prizing, Acceptance, Trust
• Empathic understanding
30
Studies of Student Learning
Marton 1974
Hounsell & Entwistle 1984
Pask 1976
Entwistle & Ramsden 1983
Biggs 1987
Entwistle 1986
Entwistle & Tait 2003
31
Meaning Approach
• Deep approach
• Use of evidence
• Relating ideas
• Intrinsic motivation
32
Reproducing Orientation
• Surface approach
• Syllabus-boundness
• Fear of failure
• Improvidence
33
Strategic Orientation
• Strategic approach
• Extrinsic motivation
• Achievement motivation
34
Non-academic Orientation
• Disorganised study methods
• Negative attitudes
• Globetrotting
35
Effective Learning is:
•
•
•
•
Active
Relevant
Safe
Objectives
• Needs
Arson
36
Why Active learning?
•
•
•
•
Linked to deep approach
Student actively engaged with the content
Student actively engaged with the process
Student actively engaged with the
outcome
• Not a passive observer
• Combat too much teacher talk, note
research; avoid micro sleep, enhance
motivation, attention, memory
37
What Is Active Learning?
“Active learning implies above all that
whatever specific physical activities are
involved, students are encouraged to
engage with the content and to take
responsibility for their own learning. They
have to think about it for themselves, be alert
and independently critical, and care about
the quality of their own emerging
understanding.”
Entwistle1992, Enabling Active Learning in
38
Higher Education, UCOSDA
Matching teaching, learning & assessment
strategies to learning outcomes
Wide repertoire to draw upon:
Developments
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Small group work in large classes
Peer learning, peer tutoring, peer assessment, peer
support
Collaborative learning
Portfolio based learning
Work based learning
Fieldwork
Project based work
39
Large number of examples of effective practice on
the Higher Education Academy website,
The Australian equivalent, the Carrick Institute
in Ireland , All- Ireland Society for Higher Education
Many Australian, Irish, South African and UK
universities have centres for educational
development which have good practice guidelines
and examples of innovative approaches
40
Key Questions
• How can we help our students to learn
effectively/successfully?
• What prohibits learning?
• Why do we learn?
• Where do we learn effectively?
• What do we learn?
• What are the implications of this study of
learning for your teaching, assessment,
policy making?
41
How will Teaching, Learning & Assessment
be Evaluated for Quality Assurance &
Enhancement?
Range of mechanisms suggested in NCAAA
documentation
42
Some references for getting
started
Fry,H Ketteridge,S & Marshall, S(2008) A
Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher
Education. Kogan Page, London. Up to date & A
number of relevant chapters on learning
Ramsden, P(1992) Learning to Teach in Higher
Education, Routledge, London. Still much
valuable discussion of student learning, despite
date
43
Your follow up to the Session
• Observe and talk to a couple of your
students or colleagues about how they
approach a new learning task. What do
they say helps them to learn? Are there
implications for you as a Policymaker/
Senior Manager/Teacher arising from their
comments?
• Find out about the research on
teacher/tutor talk. What does it say? How
44
will this impact upon your practice?