Assessment of student learning: Evolution of objectives in engineering education and the consequences for assessment

The focus of objectives of engineering education has evolved from knowledge to skills. This is a logical consequence of the changing demands of employers of graduated engineers. This change is referred to as a paradigm shift in engineering education. It is therefore not surprising that the views on assessment of student learning are changing as well. In this paper the relation between the demands and the educational objectives are reviewed. Consequently, the implications for assessment are discussed. Assessment is introduced as a feedback procedure. It is discussed that in fact four different feedback pathways can be identified. Finally, the relation between educational methods and their relation to assessment is discussed in detail. As an example, the problems in assessment of group work are discussed.     

“人是价值的存在”及其教育学意蕴

教育的根本目的是“成人”,教育学乃是“成人之学”。但价值“关系说”由于从“物”的层面来把握价值 ,因而不能提供一个很好的考察教育的视角。为此 ,需要从根本上树立“人是价值的存在”的思想。这一思想的确立赋予教育学一种新的内涵 :它内在地要求把人性化、个性化和创造性放在首要位置。这对于扭转教育的“无人”局面 ,确立一种以人为本、以人为目的的教育观具有重大意义     

Creating spaces for pedagogy: Research as learning

As teacher-educators, we designed and implemented a small study that mapped teacher-education students' understandings of their own identities and how they made sense of ethnicity and class differences among their secondary students while on teaching rounds. While we didn't set out to ‘teach’ our research participants, it was during the analysis of data from the research project, that we began to realise the potential of research to create opportunities for learning. In this paper we speculate on the ‘conditions’ of knowledge production and suggest that the dialogic nature of interviews and focus group discussions can offer pedagogical spaces for learning. Research designs that incorporate opportunities for participants to re-tell narratives over periods of time, may position participants as experts in knowledge production and may reposition them and researchers in more equitable power relations. We present an example of one participant's narrative together with our interpretations to explore how research potentially offers ‘evidence’ of learning. While this is tentative only, we suggest there is a need to create spaces for pedagogy in the design and execution of educational research.     

Open learning: Politics or pedagogy?

This paper is intended to contribute to the discussion of the meaning of open learning. The trend in higher education in Australia towards open learning is seen to be politically driven. We argue that the lack of educational debate over its meaning and implications allows us to presume that open learning is of social value, while in reality it may have the power to create anew binary divide in higher education or to re‐fashion entirely what constitutes knowledge within society. In order to ‘de‐reify’ the term we argue that a critical examination of its meaning, from a political as well as pedagogical perspective, is necessary.     

Transformative learning approaches for public relations pedagogy

Public relations educators are frequently challenged by students' flawed perceptions of public relations. Two contrasting case studies are presented in this paper to illustrate how socially-oriented paradigms may be applied to a real-client project to deliver a transformative learning experience. A discourse-analytic approach is applied within the case studies as a technique for identifying changes in students' understandings of the ideological structures, power relations and knowledge systems that underpin public relations and for determining whether transformative learning has taken place. The discourse engagement and normative/critical/ethical paradigmatic orientations examined in this paper provide conceptual foundations for developing civic responsibility that needs to be underpinned by salient social theory.     

Toward a scientific pedagogy of learning disabilities: a sameness in the message

The development of a scientific pedagogy of learning disabilities as called for by Kirk and Bateman (1962) requires the rendering of a science of learning disabilities and a pedagogy derived from that science. But such a pedagogy is necessarily incomplete if it fails to recognize that the structure of the curriculum significantly shapes the act of teaching students identified as learning disabled. The current thinking about curricula is that the universe of information that a curriculum program comprises need only be organized around subject area topics (e.g., mathematics, reading, language arts, science, social studies) and hierarchically arranged in a scope and sequence that has as its main characteristic the general ordering of skills from simple to complex. For all practical purposes, information is viewed as raw material (Kaufman et al., 1990) that can be nominally organized and readily packaged. The information is then consumed as curriculum that requires little or no transformation of its form or structure. The articles in this series of the Journal of Learning Disabilities provide examples of how transforming information by identifying and developing curricula around structural samenesses can lead to a pedagogy that is efficient and effective. The development of a scientific pedagogy of learning disabilities requires that the field acknowledge the importance of curriculum structure and the complexity of information. The field must also examine the intricacies of designing curricula with the same kind of commitment and passion it has demonstrated in the last 30 years in investigating the etiology and organic basis of learning disabilities.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Cooperative learning that features a culturally appropriate pedagogy

Many recent intercultural studies have shown that people cooperate with each other differently across cultures. We argue that cooperative learning (CL), an educational method originating in the USA and with fundamental psychological assumptions based on Western values, should be adjusted to be culturally appropriate for any non‐Western cultures in which it is applied. In the light of this assertion, this paper reports a series of experiments conducted in Vietnamese upper‐secondary schools. One group was provided with a series of lessons designed according to mainstream CL practice. Another group was provided with similar lessons but these were modified so as to be more culturally appropriate in terms of leadership, reward allocation and group composition. Findings show that (1) the role and the type of leadership, although not a key element of mainstream CL theories and practice, proved to be influential; (2) groupings based upon existing friendships, rather than upon cognitive ability, appeared to be important. A key finding was that the group receiving a culturally modified programme appeared to work harder during, and gain more satisfaction from, collaborative learning activities.     

Centering embodied learning in anti-oppressive pedagogy

Academia has traditionally valued cognition and intellectual processes, eschewing the significance of other bodily domains involved in teaching, learning, and theorizing. Grounding the analysis in our experiences as diversely positioned academics, we argue that embodied teaching and theorizing provide a unique means of delivering material consistent with the aims of social justice education, while simultaneously challenging neoliberal paradigms. Acknowledging both students' and faculty members' discomfort and/or resistance to embodied approaches, this analysis contributes to discussions about critical approaches to dismantling neoliberalism and developing an alternative framework of understanding through which conventional paradigms of thought may be challenged.     

Educational objectives in engineering design courses

The article addresses the general educational concepts of engineering design together with the contrast of current instruction techniques in tertiary institutions. Work at Melbourne is reviewed in this context with particular reference to matching educational objectives to current educational theory. A case study in engineering design is evaluated against this frame of reference and some educational hypotheses are proposed. It is concluded that testing of the proposed hypotheses will require considerable research effort by design educators.     

Affordances of ICT in science learning: implications for an integrated pedagogy

This paper presents an analysis of how affordances of ICT‐rich environments identified from a recent review of the research literature can support students in learning science in schools within a proposed framework for pedagogical practice in science education. Furthermore other pedagogical and curriculum innovations in science education (promoting cognitive change, formative assessment and lifelong learning) are examined to see how they may be supported and enhanced by affordances of ICT‐rich environments. The affordances that I have identified support learning through four main effects: promoting cognitive acceleration; enabling a wider range of experience so that students can relate science to their own and other real‐world experiences; increasing students' self‐management; and facilitating data collection and presentation. ICT‐rich environments already provide a range of affordances that have been shown to enable learning of science but integrating these affordances with other pedagogical innovations provides even greater potential for enhancement of students' learning.     

Schematic pedagogy: supporting one child's learning at home and in a group

In this paper, we identify ways in which the learning of very young children can be supported by practitioners developing a schematic pedagogy which focuses on structures of children's thinking. First, we provide a critical overview of relevant literature on schemas and schematic approaches to pedagogy. We then outline an original study undertaken to identify and support the learning of seven young children. Taking one child, whom we call Annie, we illustrate how her attention to the fine detail of elements of her home and group environments as she played offered strong clues to her pedagogues about her persistent interests (schemas). We show how careful observation by practitioners can be used to understand and support future learning encounters through a schematic pedagogy, and we consider implications of such an approach for practice in toddlers’ early learning.     

Reconceptualising higher education pedagogy in online learning

The purpose of this collaborative inquiry project was to examine teacher education practices in two early childhood degree programmes in a school of education at a regional university in Australia. All students are enrolled in these online courses as distance learners. The reconceptualised online pedagogy immersed students, peers and their lecturers in ‘teaching through assessment’ (Edwards, 2010) in a collaborative online environment that mirrors the complexity that students are experiencing in their workplaces. This article describes the pedagogical and conceptual underpinnings we used to reconceptualise our degree programmes. It also outlines our evolving conceptualisations of learning as knowledge creation (Hong & Sullivan, 2009) in the context of our teaching and learning in online courses.     

Engaging pedagogy: One student's lesson in teaching and learning

The semester José‐Luis Riera spent on both sides of the desk—as a student and an instructor‐opened his eyes to the challenges and responsibilities of both roles in the process of engaged learning.     

From learning community to community learning: pedagogy,technology and interactivity

The authors of this article discuss three pedagogical approaches, learning community, community of practice and community learning, and analyse their significance for knowledge acquisition and construction in higher education. The authors also explore the roles of technology in creating adequate environments for educators to implement teaching practices supported by these approaches and explain, through an illustrative course example, how technology and teaching methods can be used together to promote interaction among learners and help them achieve course goals.

De la communauté apprenante à l’apprentissage communautaire: la pédagogie’la technologie et l’interactivité

Les auteurs de cet article examinent trois approches pédagogiques:la communauté apprenante, la communauté de pratique et l’apprentissage communautaire et analysent leur signification pour l’acquisition et la construction des connaissances dans l’enseignement supérieur. Les auteurs étudient aussi le rôle de la technologie pour créer les environnements adéquats permettant aux éducateurs de mettre en place des pratiques d’enseignement reposant sur ces approches et ils expliquent au moyen d’un exemple de cours significatif,comment la technologie et les méthodes d’enseignement peuvent être utilisées ensemble pour favoriser l’interaction chez les apprenants et les aider à atteindre les objectifs du cours.

Von der lernenden Gemeinde zum gemeinsamen Lernen: Pädagogik, Technik und Interaktivität

Die Autoren dieses Artikels erörtern drei pädagogische Ansätze: Lerngemeinschaft, Übungsgemeinschaft und lernende Gemeinschaft. Sie analysieren ihre Bedeutung für Wissenserwerb und Aufbau einer höheren Ausbildung. Die Autoren erklären außerdem die Rolle der Technik beim Schaffen von adäquaten Umgebungen für Pädagogen, damit diese von diesen Ansätzen unterstützte Lehrübungen durchführen und durch ein illustratives Kursbeispiel erklären, wie Technologie und Lehrmethoden zusammen verwendet werden können, um Interaktion unter Lernern zu fördern und ihnen zu helfen, Kursziele zu erreichen.     

Pedagogy in practice: the pedagogy of a learning setting as students experience it

This paper opens a theoretical discussion regarding the pedagogy of a learning setting as students experience it. Students’ experience of learning deserves particular attention because it may differ from the pedagogy that is designed and campaigned for by the school, or even from the one that is ‘experienced’ by the teacher in the same situation. In order to open up such a discussion, we introduce the term ‘pedagogy in practice’ (PiP). This new term describes the pedagogy that actually acts on students’ thought and affects; it relates to the interaction between the school’s pedagogy and students’ experience of it. In this paper, we define the concept of PiP and examine its implications and differentiation from related pedagogic concepts. By doing so, we question educators’ and policy makers’ ability to understand, evaluate, make sense of, and eventually improve pedagogies or curricula in general without looking at PiP in particular.     

Service-learning in early childhood teacher education: Using service to put meaning back into learning

Service-learning is defined as a teaching/learning method that connects meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility. In this study, conducted at an American University, we describe a cascading model of integrating early childhood teacher education and service-learning for preservice teachers who then implemented the combined model in their field classrooms with young children. Examples of the projects from the two cohorts of 25 and 26 undergraduate students are provided. We demonstrate that service-learning projects provide an instructional avenue for preservice students to teach in an integrated and/or experiential manner in their field classrooms and discuss why service-learning is an appropriate and meaningful strategy to use with preservice teachers and children.     

学习方式研究对我国教学的启示

学习动机和策略是不可分割的整体,称之为学习方式。学习方式决定了学习效果。不同的学习个体对学习的认识不同,采用的学习方式不同,导致学习结果上的质的差别。通过对学习方式研究理论成果与国内学者的相关实践的透视,发现通过对学生在学习过程中学习方式的测定,能反映学生的真实学习;通过鼓励学生在学习过程中采用深层式学习方式,能引导学生进行深层式学习,达到高的学习质量。这在中国也具有普遍性。学习方式研究的思想、方法也切合素质教育的需求和现代教学观的转变。