Pedagogies Student-centered Learning
Students’ Views of e-Pedagogical Support Strategies in an Online Course
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Micheal M Van Wyk
Student support strategies play an integral part in teaching for success in an open distance learning context. Scholars have concluded that support structures for e-pedagogical strategies must be implemented to achieve lifelong learning. This exploratory research investigated and documented student teachers’ views pertaining to supportive e-pedagogical strategies the Teaching Methodology of Economics course at a distance education university. This article employed a pragmatic approach, using an exploratory mixed methods design to conduct the research process. Convenient and purposive sampling of postgraduate students (n=179) was used, to select the sample. Students voluntarily completed the online survey, the e-pedagogical strategies supportive value questionnaire (ePSSVQ), and used e-pedagogical support tools. To ensure success for every student, the researcher employed various student support strategies including myUnisa, the myLife e-mail account, e-tutors, telephone calls, as well as an online library and teacher centers. The current study found that student teachers agree that continuous support in the course is vital for their success. Introducing e-pedagogical support in completing the ePortfolio required by the course, called on the lecturer to support and guide students to assume greater responsibility for their own learning.
Peer-to-peer Learning in a University-level Immersion Context
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hélène Knoerr
This mixed-methodology study reports on a program pairing up first-year Anglophone students registered in a University-level French immersion stream with Francophone students enrolled in the same first-year content course in a bilingual university in Canada. This program had three main goals: (1) improving immersion students’ academic success; (2) facilitate their integration in the student community; (3) improve their French language skills. The program was offered over the course of an academic term and assessed via questionnaires and participants’ journal entries. Although the number of respondents was limited, results indicate that students view the program as a way to improve their language and academic skills and to facilitate their integration into the student community. It also seems to foster closer ties between the two linguistic and cultural communities.
Moses’ Five-Step Approach as a Student-centered Scaffolding Framework to Teach Diverse Learners
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jennifer Mahlke, Yam Lee, Ruth Ahn, Amy Gimino
When examining education in the world, nurturing critical thinkers in post-secondary education is a more serious challenge today than ever before at a time when the classrooms have undergone significant demographic changes. This presentation aims to address the needs of effectively teaching diverse populations by examining an innovative student-centered pedagogical framework (Author, 2018; Moses & Cobb, 2001). Findings from this study suggest that the strength of Moses’ framework lies in incremental steps of scaffolding: 1) physical experience, 2) pictorial representation, 3) people talk, 4) feature talk, and 5) symbolic representation. It integrates students’ previous experience and knowledge, provides multi-layered scaffolding, and enables rich use of informal and formal languages. It is particularly helpful in teaching underserved populations, including English language learners who need appropriate scaffolding to make their learning meaningful. Furthermore, the study indicates that it can be used across a wide spectrum of disciplines and grade levels and provides step-by-step pedagogical scaffolding that is founded on social constructivism. Beginning the lesson with Step 1 provides a non-threatening and common entry point for diverse learners, which lowers down their affective filter that may hinder their learning. Engaging diverse learners through a common activity, followed by expressing their learning non-verbally and verbally with their peers using their own language empowers them to take ownership of their learning. This liberating pedagogical framework holds promise to teach today’s diverse populations, freeing students from being passive participants of traditional teacher-centered approach to active agents of their own learning.
Assisting Underprepared Students to Become Successful Graduates in the Technology-based, Network Society through Transformative Assessment
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Erna Oliver
One of the biggest challenges that South African universities are faced with is the under-preparedness, and consequently high failure and dropout rates at first-year and undergraduate levels. The university of South Africa requires students to take progressive responsibility of their own learning and research, but diverse backgrounds, social and economical circumstances, insufficient basic education, and unequal levels of competencies and capabilities seem to set students up for failure. Although higher education aims to support students to become responsible, active citizens with sound morals who can act as positive change agents in their communities, national statistics shows a constant degeneration of society. The three pillars of effective education (teaching, learning and assessment, Huerta-Macias, 1995) are expanded in the e-learning context to student-centered teaching, blended learning and transformative assessment. Through transformative assessment strategies, underprepared students can be 1) met on their level of competency, 2) made aware of the skills needed to be successful graduates in a fast-changing environment and 3) motivated to, in addition to mastering the course content, also actively explore the opportunities created through assessment tasks designed to assess both learning outcomes and critical life skills. Some of the transformative assessment outcomes that are implemented to support student development are positive behavioral change, transferable skills such as digital literacy, communication skills, critical thinking skills, creativity and innovation, capacity and capability building, cognitive flexibility and emotional intelligence development. Assessment should move away from a measurement model towards one of student empowerment and the development of lifelong learning.
