Where to start

Introduction

Where you need to start if you are thinking about introducing technology into your teaching or assessment is really in the same place that you would start if you were planning any new teaching activity. You need to think about how students learn and the nature of good teaching practice in higher education, in conjunction with:

 the characteristics of your students;

 your own characteristics as a teacher;

 the nature of the learning and teaching context; and

 the learning objectives (or learning outcomes) that you hope your students will achieve.

This information will inform your detailed planning.

In this chapter, we will begin by focusing on how students learn and the nature of good teaching practice as this will provide us with some generic principles about learning and teaching against which you can consider your own circumstances. These principles will also guide us as we reflect on issues related to online learning and assessment. We will be suggesting that the principles are relevant whatever the mode of learning, but that you nevertheless need to reconceptualise your teaching and assessment practices when you implement them online. We will consider why this is so towards the end of this chapter.

How students learn

How do you think students learn? How do you learn? Evidence from many lecture theatres around the world might suggest that learning is about students receiving knowledge from the lecturer. Indeed, as you are probably aware, during the mid-twentieth century, behaviourism was a dominant learning theory, with its roots in scientific positivism and the concept of the teacher passing objective truths to the student. This concept was very influential in the development of the field of educational technology. However, most currently accepted theories of learning in higher education suggest that learning is an internal, intentional change and that there are multiple ways of knowing. From this perspective, learning is not primarily about knowledge transmission and acquisition but, following Dewey and subsequent 'progressive' educators, involves the active engagement of learners in the experience of learning: 'It is not enough to insist upon the necessity of experience, nor even of activity in experience. Everything depends upon the quality of the experience which is had' (Dewey, 1963, p. 27).

In this tradition there have been two dominant learning theories in higher education in recent years. They are phenomenography and constructivism.1 We will briefly outline these theories now, and will add a few more theoretical perspectives in Chapter 3. In this book we support the idea that learning is embedded in the student's experience but we take the view that, depending on your learners, your context, and the online approaches you might consider, it may be useful to have a few different theoretical lenses which might help you to conceptualise your learning design and the process of learning.

Phenomenography

Phenomenography arose from studies in the 1970s which identified 'deep' and 'surface' approaches to learning by students. It generated the field of study which came to be known as student learning research in higher education. It has been influential in the United Kingdom, Northern Europe and Australia but as Brew (2006) notes, it is virtually absent from American literature. According to this theory, the student's perspective is fundamental to the experience of learning: the world is not external and only exists through the student's eyes. The implication for teaching is that:

. [when] teachers mold experiences for their students with the aim of bringing about learning . the essential feature is that the teacher takes the part of the learner, sees the experience through the learner's eyes, becomes aware of the experience through the learner's awareness. (Marton & Booth, 1997, p. 179)

While the curriculum is the same for all students in a unit of study, the way they will 'experience' and 'encounter' it and thus 'learn about' it may differ. In this context it is relevant to know about the characteristics of your students which describe how they learn. You can use this information to facilitate their learning.

Constructivism

As the name implies, from a constructivist viewpoint, learning is conceptualised as an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their own knowledge, both old (from the past) and new. Learning is seen as occurring best when it is situated in authentic contexts. Hence, problem-based and case-based learning are founded on constructivist ideas.

Constructivism has its basis in cognitive psychology. Individual constructivism refers to the construction of meaning by individual students while the idea of social constructivism is that meaning is constructed socially through the interactions that occur in a group. Constructivism became very influential in the American educational technology literature during the 1990s, highlighting the dichotomy between 'objectivist' (positivist) conceptions of learning associated with behaviourism, and constructivist perspectives focusing on the engagement of the learner in the learning experience (e.g., Jonassen, 1991; Duffy & Jonassen, 1992).

Table 1.1 from Oliver (2000), based on Grabinger (1996, p. 667), summarises the main differences between 'old' assumptions about learning and 'new' (constructivist) assumptions which focus on the individual processes involved in learning.

Table 1.1

Old versus new assumptions about learning

Source: Adapted from Oliver, 2000, p. 19.

Developments in online learning have resulted in further support for ideas from social constructivism to explain how students learn as they engage with each other in the online environment. This concept is based on the theoretical perspectives of Vygotsky (1978) who focused on the social and dialogical aspects of internal development. He identified a zone of proximal development (which is the distance between the actual developmental level of a learner and the level of potential development as determined through the guidance of the teacher or collaboration with peers) and recognised the importance of support or scaffolding by the teacher until the learner becomes self-regulated and independent.

Comparing phenomenography and constructivism

An important distinction between phenomenography and constructivism relates to the view of the relationship between the learner and the environment. Phenomenography places emphasis on the learner, the object of learning, and other contributors to the experience of learning as a single entity, seen through the learner's eyes. It is therefore non-dualistic. In contrast, constructivism assumes that students are making meaning from a world that is external to them: there is a separation (duality) between the learner and an outside world. Richardson (1999, p. 67) notes that in 'focusing upon interindividual differences in conceptions, phenomenography appears unable to handle interindividual identity'. This may be one of the reasons that constructivism has been more influential in guiding thinking about online learning, especially its social aspects. However, phenomenography has also had an impact in guiding teaching with technology, particularly through the work of Laurillard (2002).

As Biggs and Tang (2007, p. 21) say, 'Whether you use phenomenography or constructivism . may not matter too much, as long as your theory is consistent, understandable and works for you.' This also goes for other theories that we will consider later.

What is good teaching practice in higher education?

It is obvious that if you are able to articulate what you think learning is, and how students learn, as a teacher you will be trying to make that happen. Ramsden (2003) suggests that the aim of teaching is to make learning possible and that improving teaching is about understanding students' learning.

Chickering and Gamson (1987, p. 3) proposed a set of seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education which have become widely accepted as guidelines for improving learning and teaching in higher education. The seven principles state that good practice:

1. encourages contact between students and staff;

2. develops reciprocity and cooperation among students;

3. uses active learning techniques;

4. gives prompt feedback;

5. emphasises time on task;

6. communicates high expectations; and

7. respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

Ramsden (2003)...