Learner-centered Practice
Influences Impacting Non-Traditional, Senior Learner Degree Completion in Higher Education : A Qualitative Study
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alexa Landrus
What are the factors that influence the pursuit of degree completion by non-traditional, senior learners in four-year higher education institutions? The answer to this guiding research question will be presented based on data collected and analyzed that identifies and describes the strengths and limitations that are influencing non-traditional, senior learner degree completion in four-year higher education institutions presently. This study fills a gap in the research base, predominately occupied by traditional-age learner adult education research, by offering a better understanding of what is impacting four-year degree completion, in terms of both challenges and successes for this population. The paper will review the findings based on 12 participants interviewed who provided multiple perspectives on what the factors are influencing the pursuit of degree completion by non-traditional, senior learners in four-year higher education institutions, comprised of learners 40 years of age or above, male and/or female, who were attending a four-year college or university pursuing a bachelor’s degree in their junior or final year. The study reveals in-depth data about the types of challenges non-traditional, senior learners experience like the need for better advising, mentoring programs, and on-campus tutoring, as well as their successes in their degree pursuits like technology use, obtaining work-study positions leading to more inclusion on campuses, and family and job support key to motivation and persistence. The grounded theoretical framework for the study of Knowles’ Andragogy and McClusky’s Theory of Margin will be presented as well and their correlation to the research findings.
Personal Development Modules Making a Social Difference to Learners and Their Clients
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Geraldine Maughan
The Social Care lecturing staff at Limerick Institute of Technology have devised a personal development curriculum and pedagogy for Social Care learners for each year of their study. This integrated model can be traced back to elements of psychology, sociology and philosophy. The aim is that Social Care learners’ will enable adults and children in a range of social care settings who are sometimes marginalised and vulnerable to be empowered to recognise their own potential just as the social care learner recognised theirs during their engagement with the personal development modules. Personal Development is often a transformative process within the relationship dyad between lecturer and learner who co-create this pedagogical learning space. A person-centred methodology is at the heart of this teaching. Preliminary findings from a pilot study outline learners’ positive experiences with the module.
Supporting Learning to Make a Social Difference: Understanding of Assessment Theories
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maddalena Taras
Assessment is ubiquitous, we assess almost every moment of our daily lives to make decisions about our activities and, in the educational context, our work and our understandings. Understanding assessment theories and practices, particularly inclusive, learner-centered practices explicitly, is an efficient means of empowering and enabling the next generation to have the courage to challenge injustices in all levels and contexts of life. Shared explicit, transparent assessment processes can and should be put into practice in order to support learning and make a socially equitable difference. Assessment theories are varied and uncoordinated and pose a challenge to unravel. This paper analyses and evaluates different theoretical positions in international Anglophone research in order to ascertain how best practice can be supported for learner-inclusive assessment. The evaluation of assessment theories demonstrates that the main definitions of assessment (including summative and formative assessment) are viewed from two different perspectives: one base these on the processes of assessment while the other on functions of assessment. How these assessment theories may be reconciled is also examined. In practice, these differences tend to be reflected in explicit procedures when definitions are linked to processes, and to implicit procedures when definitions are based on functions of assessment. These different assessment perspectives result in very different consequences for the roles and responsibilities of students and tutors, and how learning may be viewed and supported. Clarifying assessment issues has a huge impact on both learning and teaching practices, and ultimately, on how society envisages justice.
The CRAFT Program: A Pilot Educational Experience and Preliminary Findings about Its Effects on Music Students' Psychological Wellbeing
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session María Pilar Posadas de Julián, Elena Fernández González
This study describes a pilot educational project aimed at applying the CRAFT program (Consciousness, relaxation, attention, happiness, and transcendence) for student musicians as part of their curricula, in order to improve psychological and physical abilities which are frequently affected in this population. CRAFT is a holistic program which tries to compile several meditational and psychological disciplines (i.e. emotional intelligence, positive psychology, mindfulness, yoga) in order to enhance their already proved benefits when applied in isolation. The program has been applied during two consecutive academic years through two elective academic subjects, the so called “mindfulness” and “emotional intelligence”, offered by the High Conservatory of Music “Victoria Eugenia” of Granada, Spain. First, we have found that these elective CRAFT subjects were largely accepted among students. The second part of the project was to empirically test whether CRAFT practice is able to produce significant improvements in several emotional, cognitive, and physical abilities among students. To do so, independent researchers asked students to voluntarily participate in a longitudinal study, taking several emotional, cognitive, and physical standardized measures at the beginning and end of the semester. Although still very preliminary, the first positive findings are related to mindfulness ability (FFMQ) and emotional regulation abilities (cognitive reappraisal, ERQ) which were improved after CRAFT practice. Taken together we can conclude that CRAFT program seems a promising tool to improve wellbeing among music students.
