Comparative evaluation of PBL and traditional lecturebased teaching in undergraduate engineering courses : evidence from controlled learning environment

Project and problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely recognised as an active, collaborative, cumulative and integrative learning approach that engages learners, motivates team creativity and centres on practical education. On the other hand, traditional lecture-tutorial teaching is often criticised for being a passive, surface learning and exam-focused approach. In spite of these evidence-based observations and claims over the years, the traditional lecture-tutorial teaching approach still dominates as the preferred teaching approach at Australian universities. This study sets up a control environment to compare these two teaching and learning approaches by analysing data from students' actual performance, course evaluation and expectation in two large undergraduate engineering courses in 2009 and 2010. The evidence reported in this study is broadly interesting in that both courses were taught by the same teaching staff using two entirely different learning and teaching approaches to the same cohort of students in the same semester within the same degree program. The analysis shows that there are significant differences between the students' actual performance, course evaluation and their expectation. Such conflicting differences may be some of the reasons that may negatively impact teaching staff deterring them from switching to PBL from traditional lecture-tutorial teaching.

Learning how to teach chemistry with technology: pre-service teachers’ experiences with integrating technology into their learning and teaching

The Australian Government initiative, Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF), was a targeted response to improve the preparation of future teachers with integrating technology into their practice. This paper reports on TTF research involving 28 preservice teachers undertaking a chemistry curriculum studies unit that adopted a technological focus. For chemistry teaching the results showed that technological knowledge augmented the fundamental pedagogical knowledge necessary for teaching chemistry content. All the pre-service teachers demonstrated an understanding of the role of technology in teaching and learning and reported an increased skill level in a variety of technologies, many they had not used previously. Some students were sceptical about this learning when schools did not have technological resources available. This paper argues that teacher education courses should include technological skills that match those available in schools, as well as introduce new technologies to support a change in the culture of using technology in schools.

Redesigning learning through social media, Web 2.0 and F2F teaching : an action research study

The focus of this research was to explore how social and participatory media could be used to enhance the face-to-face teaching and learning process. Action research was used to design learning that valued the students’ own experiences and to encourage students to create, connect and form a partnership in the learning process: hence supporting students' strengths and abilities. To monitor and participate in the use of social media required an increase in the teacher's work time. As a partial counter-balance, it was found that the teacher/researcher successfully reduced her time spent on correction by implementing peer and self-assessment and by making more effective use of classroom observations. This led to a valuable triangulation of assessment data. Reviewing many of the screen clips collected in this study, one can see the diversity of roles and activities in which the students were engaged, and their development over time through the action research cycle. Combining Web 2.0, face-to-face teaching and social media, where students made online friends and used pseudonyms, provided students with more choices and flexibility when working, communicating and learning. This research may help curriculum developers interweave new technologies, new literacies and multimodal learning methods into day-to-day learning programs. The developed methods of learning and designs should also be transferable to other educational learning environments.

Teaching and research: establishing the vital link with learning

Much time and effort has gone into trying to demonstrate an empirical link between research activity and teaching performance. In general, the correlations between these factors have been shown to be low. This paper argues that the attempt to find such a link will always be confounded by different conceptions of the two enterprises. The debate about the relationships between teaching and research as presently conceived is not fruitful. It there is a link between the two it operates through that which teaching and research have in common; both are concerned with the act of learning, though in different contexts. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on the ways in which knowledge is generated and communicated. Those aspects of teaching which lead to learning and the learning which occurs through research provide the vital link. This is important if the debate is to progress beyond a political defence of the status quo and be of practical use to considerations of whether, in higher education, teaching without research is to be encouraged.

Personality types and languages learning strategies: chameleons changing colours

This exploration of associations between the reported Language Learning Strategy (LLS) preferences of learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) and their personality types is positioned within the contention that the two are generally related. Our findings unequivocally support the existence of this relationship. Moreover, they also provide a platform from which to understand the contribution to learning a second language of two very commonly cited personality traits, introversion/extroversion and neuroticism. However, they also provide the basis for the important caution that the association between personality types and LLS is quite volatile. We have found that it is variation rather than unwavering stability that features in how personality traits apply as predictive of ESL learners' specific LLS preferences. Such prediction is specified even further by the particular contexts of ESL learning where the LLS are applied, for example for listening or speaking and whether this occurs inside or outside a classroom. The implications of these findings for ESL teaching and learning are discussed as is the explanatory power of the chameleon metaphor.

Language background and language mastery in Indonesia : implications for the maintenance and teaching of the national language

The linguistic environment in Indonesia is extremely complex with some 700 local languages existing alongside the national language, bahasa Indonesia. The majority of Indonesians speak one of these local languages as their first language and begin formal study of the national language in school. This paper discusses some of the difficulties in creating a population that is fluent in the national language and considers the impact to those who are unable to master Indonesian to a degree that allows them to participate fully in the modern state. The role of teachers as models for language mastery is also considered in the context of their de facto role as language teachers, regardless of subject taught.

Fostering cultural diversity in Australia: a case study of teaching, learning and assessing African musical arts

Australia is forged by ongoing migration welcoming a range of cultures, languages and ethnicities thus celebrating a diverse range of musical arts. In this multicultural society, music and dance may serve as a positive medium to transmit and promote social cohesion. I argue that the inclusion of innovative and immersive practice of African music in particular where authentic teaching and learning is facilitated may help foster understandings of culture in educational settings and the wider society. As a migrant forming part of the African Diaspora in Melbourne, I am strongly connected to my ancestral homeland (South Africa) when teaching African music to Australian tertiary students. Having gained ethical clearance to undertake the two research projects at Deakin University in Melbourne (Attitudes and perceptions of Arts Education Students: preparing culturally responsive teachers and Pre-service teacher attitudes and understandings of Music Education), I discuss tertiary students experience in relation to the teaching and learning of African music within higher education courses. Drawing on interview, questionnaire, observation notes, anecdotal feedback and narrative reflection, I employ Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to analyse and code the data into themes. By offering a discussion of assessment and evaluation, I explore and invite international dialogue in regards to how best we can prepare, assess and evaluate our students to improve the quality of musical arts education.

Teacher stories of collusion and transformation: a feminist pedagogical framework and meta-language for cultural gender justice

This article examines data from two different studies concerning issues of social justice, gender and schooling and specifically the practices of secondary teachers, ‘Mr B’, a teacher from a school in Tasmania, Australia, and ‘Mr C’, a teacher from a school in Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom. Both teachers’ practices and relationships with students are analysed within a feminist interpretation of the Productive Pedagogies model of quality teaching and learning. The two different stories are presented as juxtapositions that serve to illuminate the capacities of pedagogy to, on the one hand, work in ways likely to re-inscribe the discourses of entitlement and privilege that perpetuate cultural gender injustice, and on the other, transform these discourses towards more equitable and just networks of multiple and intersecting differences.

Adopting an active learning approach to teaching in a research-intensive higher education context transformed staff teaching attitudes and behaviours

The conventional lecture has significant limitations in the higher education context, often leading to a passive learning experience for students. This paper reports a process of transforming teaching and learning with active learning strategies in a research-intensive educational context across a faculty of 45 academic staff and more than 1000 students. A phased approach was used, involving nine staff in a pilot phase during which a common vision and principles were developed. In short, our approach was to mandate a move away from didactic lectures to classes that involved students interacting with content, with each other and with instructors in order to attain domain-specific learning outcomes and generic skills. After refinement, an implementation phase commenced within all first-year subjects, involving 12 staff including three from the pilot group. The staff use of active learning methods in classes increased by sixfold and sevenfold in the pilot and implementation phases, respectively. An analysis of implementation phase exam questions indicated that staff increased their use of questions addressing higher order cognitive skills by 51%. Results of a staff survey indicated that this change in practice was caused by the involvement of staff in the active learning approach. Fifty-six percent of staff respondents indicated that they had maintained constructive alignment as they introduced active learning. After the pilot, only three out of nine staff agreed that they understood what makes for an effective active learning exercise. This rose to seven out of nine staff at the completion of the implementation phase. The development of a common approach with explicit vision and principles and the evaluation and refinement of active learning were effective elements of our transformational change management strategy. Future efforts will focus on ensuring that all staff have the time, skills and pedagogical understanding required to embed constructively aligned active learning within the approach.

Learning, linking and participating : transmitting African music in Australian schools

Considered in this paper is the concept of "change"for practising teachers who are teaching and learning African music in Melbourne, Australia. African music and culture is seen as an effective way for these teachers to experience a cross-cultural odyssey through both social and situated learning. This chapter reports on a music project where teachers perceived African music to be an effective way to leam link and participate with a new music and culture. The chapter summarises pertinent findings relating to why and how teachers are engaging with African music.

Developing and asynchronous learning network

Deakin University, Australia, has committed resources over a number of years to developing the use of information and communication technologies in all aspects of teaching and learning. This paper focuses on the development over a four year period of an Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN) for distance education students studying undergraduate introductory macroeconomics. The research is based on quantitative and qualitative data gained from student evaluations, academic staff interviews, participation levels and an analysis of the online communication. Key findings from the research relate to the quality of the learning environment, the level of communication, and the role of academic staff in the learning experience. Strategies discussed for the successful use of an ALN include the nurturing of a collaborative learning environment, the adaptation of curriculum and pedagogy, the role of assessment, and the role of academic staff training and development.

Enhancing quality in online learning : scaffolding planning and design through proactive evaluation

A major issue confronting educators is the extent to which they wish to conform to so-called paradigm shifts in teaching and learning. In the contemporary world of tertiary education these shifts embrace both pedagogy (from instructivist to constructivist) and technology (from classroom to online). As teachers and learners are faced with the potential of these new learning environments, the extent to which learning outcomes are achieved remains a high priority and subject to a wide range of evaluation strategies. Conventionally, evaluation has been positioned at the end of the instructional development cycle, to assess first whether or not the creative effort achieved the original product goals and second whether or not the desired learning outcomes were realized. In the context of online teaching and learning environments, however, the level of understanding teachers, learners and developers have of the medium can impact the ultimate effectiveness of the product. This paper articulates an additional dimension to post-development evaluation processes in proposing proactive evaluation, a framework that identifies critical online learning factors and influences that will better inform the planning, design and development of learning resources. This notion of proactive evaluation advocates resource development being undertaken where all planning activities are assessed against the evaluation criteria that would normally be applied during formative assessment. By performing these evaluation checks proactively, online learning resources will, in principle, work first time as all relevant factors and issues will have been considered and resolved. More importantly, for those participants who are new to online environments, proactive evaluation will perform a scaffolding and professional development role by enhancing online teaching or learning competencies.

Experiential learning in social science theory: an investigation of the relationship between student enjoyment and learning

This paper provides an analysis of student experiences of an approach to teaching theory that integrates the teaching of theory and data analysis. The argument that supports this approach is that theory is most effectively taught by using empirical data in order to generate and test propositions and hypotheses, thereby emphasising the dialectic relationship between theory and data through experiential learning. Bachelor of Commerce students in two second-year substantive organisational theory subjects were introduced to this method of learning at a large, multi-campus Australian university. In this paper, we present a model that posits a relationship between students' perceptions of their learning, the enjoyment of the experience and expected future outcomes. The results of our evaluation reveal that a majority of students:

•enjoyed this way of learning;
•believed that the exercise assisted their learning of substantive theory, computing applications and the nature of survey data; and
•felt that what they have learned could be applied elsewhere.

We argue that this approach presents the potential to improve the way theory is taught by integrating theory, theory testing and theory development; moving away from teaching theory and analysis in discrete subjects; and, introducing iterative experiences in substantive subjects.