But is it really student centred?
Many reforms introduced under the
theory of student centred learning, can sometimes result in more teacher
centric realities. This may still represent
a net improvement, but it is at best misleading, and at worst theoretically
dishonest to the original intention.
The institute I work for is a large capital
city-based TAFE delivering a higher education professional degree. The
classroom contains a majority of international students, many of Confucius
learning backgrounds. The institution
has an open access policy, with no minimum ATAR scores (High School) or academic hurdles to
entry. The largely non academically inclined cohort of students display a
strong preference passive learning styles and strongly avoid tutorial room
discussion at all costs. This reflective
report will review the feedback and reassess some of the teaching and
assessment strategies that are in place for Advanced Accounting
Theory. The problems and solutions
encountered are a product of the teaching and learning context.
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Accounting History is more
interesting than you might think |
This subject has undergone some
intensive reforms over the past 3 years, however reflection undertaken as part
of the Tertiary Teaching Practice module has demonstrated that some of these
changes may need to be re-evaluated. Originally
the course was 1 hour lectures and 2 hour tutes. The lectures were too short
and the tutes boring. To avoid the long silences, the tutorial was compressed
into 1 hour. The peer review of tutes
commented that as teacher I posed questions and went on to answer them. Although strongly teacher centred, this
delivery method was deemed appropriate for this cohort as students had
previously commented that the teacher’s reasoning was more valuable than their
own understandings built of their own construction. The compressed “1 hour of power” timeframe
meant students were more likely to try and write down “the answer” rather than
weakly discuss some concept and neglect to record anything. Thus, despite the strongly passive delivery,
student engagement lifted dramatically. This is adjustment to teacher centred
delivery consistent with the experience of Arenas (2009).
Potential Solutions
How can we maintain the engagement
levels but simultaneously give students the chance to find their own critical
voice? Any proposal needs to consider
structuring learning sufficiently to cater for the academically less prepared
cohort of students, including specific consideration for students’ preference
for effort avoidance strategies.
Tutorial
The current “1 hour of power”
tutorial should be retained in its current format. It builds engagement and demands
attention. Although it is strongly “Level
2” style teaching (Biggs & Tang, 2011, pp. 18-20),
this meets the needs of the academically less prepared in the classroom and
provides the structure for learners who need it most. Many in the classroom are comfortable
with it, and although brief, it is an efficient method.
The flip model
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| Lecture this |
In semester 1, 2013 I plan to
introduce a “flipped classroom” (Sams
& Bergmann, 2011), as made famous by the Khan’s
2011 TED Education talk (2011). The
basic concept is that online video lectures were set for homework, and the
homework activities were performed in the classroom. This enables better teacher student
interaction during class time as the teacher can now focused on students.
My proposal is to scrap the 2 hour
face to face lectures all together. Lectures are moved completely online as
video delivery (see diagram). This frees
up 2 hours weekly which can become a truly student focused activity period. Attendance during this time is (for the most
part) optional. The activity 2 hour would be timetabled as a lecture, so it
enables time for an introductory lecture face to face in week one, a mid
semester test, and a face to face final review lecture.
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| Click image to enlarge |
There is a need to ensure that
students have actually interacted with the lecture prior to coming to the
tutorial to address questions. Online checkpoint tests are the perfect tool to
ensure engagement on a weekly basis.
Therefore, students would need to watch the video and pass a small
online multiple choice based question test at the conclusion of the video. Students would be granted unlimited number of
attempts at the test. Questions would be
randomised to ensure that the test remains valid.
Students must have 80% attendance
at in order to qualify for a supplementary examination. The strongly vocational culture of this institution
is that of measuring “learning inputs” such as attendance.
Critically, attendance would be only recorded
at the tutorial. To ensure engagement,
only students who have passed the online test would be permitted into the
tutorial room, and others who have not engaged would be banned
for that week (
Mazur, 1997).
Administratively, this is not difficult
to achieve as the teacher would be able to print off a list from the LMS as to
who may be admitted, and who may not.
As the checkpoint tests are hurdles
to attendance but no longer form part of the final grade, the incentive to
collude is effectively removed. In fact,
allowing for student collusion was part of the original intentions of the test
structure (
Wong,
2011). Even still, interactive activity session will
more explicitly address goals of student collaborative learning (
Biggs & Tang, 2011, pp. 132-157).
The “flip model” is serendipitously
optimised for online and distance delivery.
The Bachelor of Accounting program is also to be delivered under a joint
venture arrangement with Metropolitan Southern Institute of TAFE with
Holmesglen. The delivery of integrated
online lectures and localised adaptive tutorial support means consistency of
learning outcomes delivered supported by genuine teacher contact.
Activity period
The 2 hours of scheduled lecture
now free, can be used to conduct true student oriented activities, group
discussion, introductory and some of this revision lectures, and mid-semester
test. There needs to make intentional
change of atmosphere in order to contrast with the teacher centred
tutorial. Activity period would be
optional to attend, with exception of its mid semester tests (outlined below).
Formative meta-assessment
 |
Students give feedback and grade
past students. They get marked
on their marking, and marked on
the quality of their feedback. |
Since students do not always
naturally teach each other, how can encourage peer assisted learning and at the
same time guarantee a high quality delivery and that students stay “on
message”? Poor examination performance can often be explained by either the
students struggle to understand the concept, or poor examinations technique. In order to cover both areas, we could let student
play the role of teacher and provide feedback to other students. Currently I publish all previous final examinations
and include facsimile student exam answers as examples. It is easy to turn these into actual assessment
questions themselves.
I propose a new form of assessment which
I call “formative meta-assessment”
.
The student is presented with three items:
a question, an answer and a rubric. The
question is drawn from a former final exam question from a previous semester,
the answer is of a pass standard and is provided by a student who has already
pass the course, and the grading rubric assist them numerically gauge the
quality of the answer. The current
student must then judge the appropriate grade for the former student, the
answer provide feedback on any good points, and items missed. The students’ grade received will depend on
both the grade they award, and the quality of feedback provided. This formative assessment could be
administered at 2 points through the semester, each iteration would be weighted
at 10% each, for a total of 20% final marks.
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| Click image to enlarge |
Students would receive examples on
the LMS, and also would have a chance to have a “dry run” during activity
period in the preceding week. Students
must think critically about their own answers that they will give in the final
examination. This requires that the
current student understands both the original content question, and also what
makes for good exam technique.
Formative meta-assessment is
constructively aligned, as there is a task in class which directly applies to
the assessment itself, which is then good preparation for the final
examination. It also builds engagement,
as students are effectively forced to study early, rather than leaving it all to
last minute.
Potential problems
These reforms are not without
potential downsides, primarily student workload creep. Simply piling more stuff
onto the students does not necessarily mean better outcomes. Effectively,
student contact just increased by 2
hours a week but deceptively, most students will believe workload decreased as they will focus on the
words “non compulsory” activity session.
Likewise student assessment just increased by two mid-semester
examinations.
Increasing workload and further
lifting student engagement may mean this subject steals attention from study in
other subjects. This can be either
negative (fear of failure) or a positive (attention grabbing engagement).
Either way at some point the students’ attention becomes a zero sum resource
and other teachers may complain.
It is also difficult to test of
efficacy of these measures as outcomes are biased by the cohort, and there is
no control group. Student may complain about
access and equity as they are disadvantaged by having to perform the online
checkpoint tests. The Khan Academy model
could also be criticised for being yet more teacher centric – not less. Likewise the student centred approach is also
questionable where the teacher used their cohesive imbalance of power to
enforce what they believe is in students’ bests interests (
Doherty & Singh, 2005).
Conclusion
This document describes a third
major round of reforms for this subject.
The report is largely an active planning tool, more than strictly a
reflective essay on current practices. The
praxis of teaching means that good planning necessitates reflection in order to
guide and subsequently measure improvements. Without this reflection, the bias towards
teacher centred practices would have gone unnoticed and no improvements could
have been made.
You know, I might actually start trying to refine these ideas. What is the role of the data? Isn't the raw data the light that is disorganised until the researcher filters it through the framework lens that shapes the light in a meaningful way? Indeed, the literature review is more like that aperture setting allows more or less light (types of data) depending on what paradigm you are operating in.
