Elements in a university course, designing courses backwards and approaches to

learning

TOT PhD supervisor course

Elmina Feb 5, 2013

Jens Dolin

Various framing factors

7. Your strengths and weaknesses as a teacher/instructor

1. Duration of the course (ideal, tactical, resource etc. considerations)

2. Placing in academic calendar

3. The target group (experienced supervisors, not-experienced, PhD-students, specific disciplines, …)

4. Mandatory course for all supervisors? For PhD students?

5. Criteria for approval

6. Participants’ implied conditions (supervisors’ approaches, students’ attitudes)

8. Which course material (books, articles, power points, …)

9. Which course formats will you use?

10. Which form for evaluation (written-oral, anonymous-no anonymous)?

Different course formats

• Cases

Exemplary cases chosen by the course leader and/or concrete examples from participants. Could be written, video, oral.

• Exercises

Learning by doing

• Homework

To the first part or to do between two parts of a course

• Lectures

By the course leaders or by invited speakers (experts) or participants

• Groupwork and plenary sessions

Find a good balance between small group work and common discussions

• The most important format is variation !!!!!!

Designing courses backwards

STEP 1 What is most important to learn? What do you burn for?

STEP 2 Select three to five major learning outcomes. Think in broad categories (attitudes, foundational knowledge, …)

STEP 3 Work backwards. What competencies and skills demonstrates the achievement of the goals? What content is required to obtain these competences? Which formats supports the different aspects?

COMPETENCES

5

Definitions of Competence

Competencies reflect expectations of workplace performance

(Rolls, 1997) … competence is a […] roughly specialized system of abilities, proficiencies, or skills that are necessary or sufficient to reach a specific goal. This can be applied to individual dispositions or to the distribution of such dispositions within a social group or an institution … (Weinert, 2001)

Competence is an expression for the ability to manage and to act in a social and cultural diversity. … A bit simplified you can say that competence is something you have, because you are able to meet the challenges in a given situation.(Jørgensen, 1999)

There is no basis for a theoretically grounded definition or classification from the seemingly endless inventory of the ways the term competence is used. … There (is) … no single common conceptual framework. (Weinert, 2001)

6

The concept of competence

• refers to the necessary prerequisites available to an individual or a group of individuals for successfully meeting complex demands

• should be used when the necessary prerequisites for successfully meeting a demand are comprised of cognitive and (in many cases) motivational, ethical, volitional, and/or social components

• implies that a sufficient degree of complexity is required to meet demands and tasks

• implies that much must be learned, but cannot be directly taught.

Competence is

- a preparedness for action

- based on knowledge

- displayed in a concrete situation

7

Why this shift towards competencies?

• Generel social trends: Increased complexity and contingency → difficult to formulate precise demands → increased emphasis on generel, social, and personal competencies

• Requirements from the business world – the insufficiency of the school or university as an independent actor

• Insight from learning theory: The lack of transfer of traditionel school/university/institutional knowledge (the situatedness of learning)

• Pragmatic reasons: You need a floating denominator to catch something new

Central connections

How do you learn to complete a PhD study?

What is (the purpose of) a PhD study?

How do we learn?

Organizing the supervision

Regulations

Traditions

Conceptions of the professionConceptions of research

What is it to learn?Learning Theories

Conceptions of learning

Attitudes toward the PhD-stSupervision model

Feedback format

The Practice Triangle

Actions

Justifications

Value basis

Supervision form, texts, forms of talk, …

Experiential (based on experience)Theoretical (litterature, courses, …)

Ethical (attitudes towards students etc.)Conceptions of learning and teaching (Understanding of knowledge, …)

Own reflections on learning

1. Individually: Reflect on what you mean by ‘learning’. When has someone learned something?

2. Exchange your reflections with those around you

Different conceptions of learning

All learners say that learning is …

1. an increased quantity of knowledge 2. to be able to remember and reproduce3. to acquire facts and procedures for later use 4. to understand5. to interpret and give meaning to reality 6. to change your interpretation and hence change as a person

RECEIVING

ACTING, DOING

There are strong connections between a person’s conceptions of learning and the person’s (ofte unconscious) choice of study strategies:

The conceptions of learning co-determine the learning outcome!

When have you learned science?

• when you know (?) the concepts• when you master the theory• when you can solve the equations• when you can work out the solution of a problem• when you can pass the test• when you can speak the science jargon• when you can pose the right questions• when you are able to do practical work in the lab or in the field• when you can cope with everyday situations involving science• …

Pipe-line approach to science education

Citizenship approach to science education

44 % of the 1.& 2. year students at the Technical University of Denmark passed their tests (written exercises) without understanding the underlying concepts (Jakobsen&Rump 1999)

Very small correlation between the achievements in the core items from TIMSS1995 and in the achievements in the performance assessment problems (Weng&Hoff 1999, p. 231)

Students focus their attention on the overall meaning or message in a class session, text or situation. They attempt to relate ideas together and construct their own meaning, possibly in relation to their own experience.

Students focus their attention on the details and information in a class session or text. They are trying to memorise these individual details in the form they appear in the class or text or to list the features of the situation in order to pass the examinations.

Surface approach

Deep approach

Surface vs Deep approach towards learning

Three approaches to teaching

Content/discipline

Teacher Student

Approach to teaching

Teacher centrered/ content oriented position

Student centrered/ learning oriented position

Teacher/student interplay position

Constructivistic learning theories Practice learning theories

Psycho dynamic learning theories

Constructivist learning

Existing knowledgeNew information

New phenomenon

interpret

modify

New knowledge

Constructivism versus Transfer

Constructivism: learning is determined by the individual’s development, and the individual must him- or herself construct the knowledge - it cannot be transferred

Activate the student – it is he or her that are going to do the work!•don’t always tell the ‘solution’, what’s ‘right’•give time and space for the students’ own knowledge construction•relate to earlier knowledge and give examples and metaphors

Elements in a learning process

Experiences (examples,

hands on, …)

Reflection

Theory

Acting consciously

Dialogue

(Kolb)

Teacher role in ‘traditional’ vs. constructivist teaching – an oversimplified dichotomy

Student role in ‘traditional’ vs. constructivist teaching – an oversimplified dichotomy