centre for the enhancement of learning & teaching the robert gordon university aberdeen a...
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Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
A Powerful Learning Environment
Professor David LinesThe Robert Gordon University
Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
Two Cultures of Assessment
• Assessment of Education
• Assessment for Education
The first has ‘crowded out’ the second
Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
The Void theory – Instructional Approach
• The student’s brain is an empty vessel into which facts can be poured.
Result:• Encourages superficial (rote) learning;• Regurgitation of ‘facts’;• Lazy teaching?
Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
Constructivism
• Essentially (but not uncontroversially) learner has to make his or her own sense of the information supplied.
• Teacher supplies ‘scaffold’ for learning
i.e. provides support on which learning rests, rather than the learning itself (which the student has to construct internally).
Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
Scaffolding
• Teacher has to build in Gardner’s notion of multiple intelligences, Ebbinghaus’ ‘curve of forgetting’, Tony Buzan’s mind maps, ShÖn etc in building the scaffold, hence:
• Case studies, role-plays, memory games and so on.
• Thus, learning (and the learner) becomes ‘active’.
Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
Active LearningDrefus (1986) described a pattern.
We:• Observe (parents, peers, teachers
employers);• Copy (but mediated by our
personal experiences);• Use heuristics (rules of thumb);• Use intuition and pattern
recognition, until• As experts we develop short-cuts.
Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
Assessment & Active Learning
• The teacher becomes more a mentor or critical friend and given this change in the teaching and learning environment, the assessment regime must change as well.
• Learners must ‘self-discover’ in a ‘safe’ environment (i.e. where mistakes are accepted) and assessment must provide ‘feed-forward’.
Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
From Testing to Assessment
Assessment must shift from pass/fail notions, from high-stakes to low(er), from end-of course, from summative to formative;
in other words, from testing to (true) assessment.
Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
Constructive alignment
• Unless assessment changes in this way all else will fail:
• Dochy (2001) describes the ‘Backwash effect’ – the educational equivalent of Gresham’s Law.
Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
A Powerful Learning Environment
(Direick & Dochy, 2001)1. Teaching, learning and assessment
are carefully aligned;2. The student is an integral part of
the process;3. Both the outcomes and the process
of achieving them are assessed;4. The assessment process uses a
variety of approaches, including real-life scenarios that require decisions to be made;
Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
A Powerful Learning Environment
5. Evidence for success is presented in a portfolio – a shift from quantification to a portrayal (Birenbaum, 1996; Palomba & Banta, 1999). Possibly not time constrained;
6. The process of learning involves tasks that engage the student, are meaningful, challenging and ‘authentic’;
7. A reflective diary is maintained by the student and is central to the learning process.
Centre for the Enhancement of
Learning & Teaching
THEROBERT GORDON
UNIVERSITYABERDEEN
Pie in the Sky?
What are the alternatives:
Throwing books off the bridge?
or
Shifting the paradigm?