The need for a culturally inclusive andragogy for collaborative design learning

In recognition of the apparent paradox between the cultural-systems of Asia and the West and the teaching and learning styles they promote, this platform paper aims to propose how research might investigate differences between achievement and diverse learning preferences at various stages of the design process in the multi-cultural studios of Deakin University. The paper presents a Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant project currently running at Deakin as a reflexive research program aimed at resolving the learning difficulties of international students collaborating in three undergraduate design studios. The primary aim of this program is to inform a new culturally inclusive andragogy for problem-based design teaching through experiential
learning theory.

Strategies for accommodating individuals` styles and preferences in flexible learning programmes

There has been a considerable growth in the use of flexible methods of delivery for workplace learning and development. However, in designing programmes of flexible learning there is often the assumption that learners will exhibit uniformity in the ways in which they process and organise information (cognitive style), in their predispositions towards particular learning formats and media (instructional preferences) and the conscious actions they employ to deal with the demands of specific learning situations (learning strategies). In adopting such a stance one runs the risk of ignoring important aspects of individual differences in styles, preferences and strategies. Our purpose in this paper will be to: (i) consider some aspects of individual difference that are pertinent to the delivery of flexible learning in the workplace; (ii) identify some of the challenges that extant differences in styles and preferences between individuals may raise for instructional designers and learning facilitators; (iii) suggest ways in which models of flexible learning design and delivery may acknowledge and accommodate individual differences in styles and preferences through the use of an appropriate range of instructional design, learning and support strategies.

The academic acclimatisation difficulties of international students of the built environment

Teaching models common to Australasia can be antithetical to those of its Asian neighbours. Australasian andragogy is a bottom-up student-centred mode of knowledge transmission promoting extroverted learning styles, whilst in Asia andragogy is commonly a top-down teachercentred model promoting introspective learning. Yet these teaching styles are in opposition to the cultural-systems attributed to Asia and the West. Such socio-cultural differences are recognised in this research as contributing to the difficulties international Built Environment undergraduates experience when asked to learn in multi-disciplinary collaborative teams. This paper presents the initial stages of a study currently running as a reflexive research program aimed at resolving these learning difficulties. The primary aim of this program is to inform a new culturally inclusive andragogy for design teaching. The outcome of the research questions are addressed through a triangulated analysis including: the formative appraisal of student satisfaction through questionnaires; the summative evaluation of student achievement through the analysis of grades and the assessment of knowledge and skills gained through the measure of student design projects; and illuminative evaluation through focus group discussions and the observation of tutorials.

Teaching in context : some implications for e-learning design

One of the major advantages of e-learning technologies is the expanded opportunities that they offer for when and where learning takes place. Until recently, little attention has been given to the implications that variation in the learner’s context creates for e-learning design. The context of learning with technologies is often considered quite narrowly, sometimes at the level of specific learning transactions, with limited acknowledgement of whether learners will be engaging with them on-campus, off-campus, across national boundaries or in some other contexts. While there are limitations to teachers’ control of contextual variation, their knowledge of the student cohorts to whom a particular unit of study will be offered provides some clear implications for choices to be made in relation to e-learning design. This paper illustrates these choices through the use of examples from e-learning showcase sites at two institutions. The examples are analysed within a selected theoretical framework to provide preliminary guidelines for accommodating contextual variation in elearning.

Learning style drift : correlation between built environment students' learning styles and the learning styles of their teachers

This paper focuses on the results of a cross-curriculum learning style survey conducted in an Australian School of Architecture and Building as part of an ongoing project aimed at resolving the learning difficulties of students collaborating in multi-disciplinary and multicultural team assignments. The research was conducted to determine how learning style differences in heterogeneous design teams might be addressed through pedagogy. We will argue that the likelihood of and reasons for learning style fluidity in student design cohorts needs determining if learning style theory is to provide a workable model for informing the teaching of design.
In light of evidence in student cohorts of learning style changes as students progress through their studies (Tucker, 2007), this research discusses one explanation of what appears to belearning style fluidity in architecture student cohorts. If, as prior research has indicated, the learning styles of academics are quite different from practitioners, evidence of a learning style drift in built environment students towards the predominant learning styles of their design teachers might suggest that students are learning how to be academics rather than practitioners. This, of course, might have serious implications for built environment teaching and for practice.

Newbs vs. geeks : encouraging creativity in an online learning community

This article explores the development and creative practices of an online  community within an Australian university. The authors argue that creativity can be enhanced and supported by the development and implementation of purpose-specific learning environments, such as an online learning community. Within such a community the participants are exposed to a number of requisite elements designed to support the exploration of their own learning process and the development of creativity. The following study discusses the establishment of such a community and the social, cultural and learning practices of the student participants.

Students' experiences of e-learning at school

The dissertation describes the experiences of senior secondary students taking an online course for the first time to further their language education. The experiences are presented from the perspective of students, of supervising teachers and the 'virtual' teacher. Issues of importance with younger learners are identified and discussed and guidelines for the conduct of online courses at school level developed. It is proposed that online courses may have a worthwhile place in school education if specific learning needs can be met using this medium.

Instructional strategies integrating cognitive style construct : a meta-knowledge processing model

The overarching goal of this dissertation was to evaluate the contextual components of instructional strategies for the acquisition of complex programming concepts. A meta-knowledge processing model is proposed, on the basis of the research findings, thereby facilitating the selection of media treatment for electronic courseware. When implemented, this model extends the work of Smith (1998), as a front-end methodology, for his glass-box interpreter called Bradman, for teaching novice programmers. Technology now provides the means to produce individualized instructional packages with relative ease. Multimedia and Web courseware development accentuate a highly graphical (or visual) approach to instructional formats. Typically, little consideration is given to the effectiveness of screen-based visual stimuli, and curiously, students are expected to be visually literate, despite the complexity of human-computer interaction. Visual literacy is much harder for some people to acquire than for others! (see Chapter Four: Conditions-of-the-Learner) An innovative research programme was devised to investigate the interactive effect of instructional strategies, enhanced with text-plus-textual metaphors or text-plus-graphical metaphors, and cognitive style, on the acquisition of a special category of abstract (process) programming concept. This type of concept was chosen to focus on the role of analogic knowledge involved in computer programming. The results are discussed within the context of the internal/external exchange process, drawing on Ritchey's (1980) concepts of within-item and between-item encoding elaborations. The methodology developed for the doctoral project integrates earlier research knowledge in a novel, interdisciplinary, conceptual framework, including: from instructional science in the USA, for the concept learning models; British cognitive psychology and human memory research, for defining the cognitive style construct; and Australian educational research, to provide the measurement tools for instructional outcomes. The experimental design consisted of a screening test to determine cognitive style, a pretest to determine prior domain knowledge in abstract programming knowledge elements, the instruction period, and a post-test to measure improved performance. This research design provides a three-level discovery process to articulate: 1) the fusion of strategic knowledge required by the novice learner for dealing with contexts within instructional strategies 2) acquisition of knowledge using measurable instructional outcome and learner characteristics 3) knowledge of the innate environmental factors which influence the instructional outcomes This research has successfully identified the interactive effect of instructional strategy, within an individual's cognitive style construct, in their acquisition of complex programming concepts. However, the significance of the three-level discovery process lies in the scope of the methodology to inform the design of a meta-knowledge processing model for instructional science. Firstly, the British cognitive style testing procedure, is a low cost, user friendly, computer application that effectively measures an individual's position on the two cognitive style continua (Riding & Cheema,1991). Secondly, the QUEST Interactive Test Analysis System (Izard,1995), allows for a probabilistic determination of an individual's knowledge level, relative to other participants, and relative to test-item difficulties. Test-items can be related to skill levels, and consequently, can be used by instructional scientists to measure knowledge acquisition. Finally, an Effect Size Analysis (Cohen,1977) allows for a direct comparison between treatment groups, giving a statistical measurement of how large an effect the independent variables have on the dependent outcomes. Combined with QUEST's hierarchical positioning of participants, this tool can assist in identifying preferred learning conditions for the evaluation of treatment groups. By combining these three assessment analysis tools into instructional research, a computerized learning shell, customised for individuals' cognitive constructs can be created (McKay & Garner,1999). While this approach has widespread application, individual researchers/trainers would nonetheless, need to validate with an extensive pilot study programme (McKay,1999a; McKay,1999b), the interactive effects within their specific learning domain. Furthermore, the instructional material does not need to be limited to a textual/graphical comparison, but could be applied to any two or more instructional treatments of any kind. For instance: a structured versus exploratory strategy. The possibilities and combinations are believed to be endless, provided the focus is maintained on linking of the front-end identification of cognitive style with an improved performance outcome. My in-depth analysis provides a better understanding of the interactive effects of the cognitive style construct and instructional format on the acquisition of abstract concepts, involving spatial relations and logical reasoning. In providing the basis for a meta-knowledge processing model, this research is expected to be of interest to educators, cognitive psychologists, communications engineers and computer scientists specialising in computer-human interactions.

Vignette 6 Pluridisciplinary learning and assessment : reflections on practice

While designing group assessment for student learning outcomes is always difficult, the task is made more challenging in an interdisciplinary context. How much focus should be placed on assessment of discipline-specific knowledge, how much on the interdisciplinary knowledge that emerges as students work together in a non-linear, co-rational design and how much on the group dynamic (generic capabilities) being developed? While additional learning outcomes can be expected from the activities in which students engage in an interdisciplinary context, there is also an expectation, particularly for disciplines such as accounting, engineering and architecture where courses are professionally accredited, that discipline-specific learning outcomes are not compromised. This vignette presents some of the complexities that surfaced during the implementation of a pilot course designed as an experiential real world of work challenge for student.

Degrees of difficulty : an ecological account of learning in Australian higher education

In this article, the difficulties some Australian university students experience in academic learning environments are explored. Particular attention is given to the experiences of students whose difficulties are often portrayed as intrinsic to them, and who are diagnosed as having learning disabilities or 'disorders'. In so doing, dominant neuro-psychological perspectives on students' learning 'problems' are challenged, broadening the discussion to include sociocultural explanations of students' difficulties. Research that foregrounds these students' own accounts of their problems is reported, identifying a number of tests of time, association and dissimulation that they experience in coming to terms with the particular institutional requirements of university life. At the very least, these explanations draw attention to the need for university teaching scholars to also be learners, and to consider their own practices in the construction of learning difficulties for their students.

Helping university students to 'read' scholarly journal articles : the benefits of a structured and collaborative approach

Academics often treat students’ discipline-specific literacy as unproblematic. In doing so they may underestimate the difficulties for university students as they move between subjects of study that may involve different disciplines, language genres and academic practices. This paper describes an initiative aimed at supporting students in reading academic articles in preparation for completing an essay for an assessment task. This initiative involved a structured and collaborative two-week tutorial exercise that provided students with practice in using a framework to extract the main ideas from academic readings. Students were surveyed after this exercise, and their reflections of its value are described in this paper. The findings of this study will inform further stages of the project which aim to develop and investigate practical ways to develop student’s academic literacy across several business disciplines.

Facilitating the highly bonded cohort : should more be done to anticipate and reduce the potential for hyper-cohesiveness and deindividuation in therapy training cohorts in universities?

Successfully facilitating learning for small therapy training programmes requires a special understanding of the psychological work of group processes. Students in therapy training spend almost every class together over two or more years. In these student groups, or cohorts, individuals manage themselves within a unique interpersonal and intragroup dynamic. Course instructors must develop their capacity to work effectively with this specific learning milieu. At the same time, the particular dynamics of the cohort context might not be understood by university management where increasingly few cohort contexts exist for students. Consequently, phenomena arising from the specialised nature of the group environment may not be well understood outside of the expertise of the course. In the first part of the paper, the international literature about learning in cohorts is reviewed. In the second part, this reflection is further developed to explore facilitation of a group that has some features of what might be described as negative cohesiveness, or what is described in family theory as enmeshment. Some consideration as to how to anticipate and off-set potential difficulties for groups in therapy training courses is also contributed.

Aprendizagem de conceitos geométricos pelo futuro professor das séries iniciais do Ensino Fundamental e as novas tecnologias

Com o movimento da Matemática Moderna, a partir de 1950, o ensino da matemática passou a enfatizar o simbolismo e a exigir dos alunos grandes abstrações, distanciando a matemática da vida real. O que se percebe é que o aluno formado por este currículo aprendeu muito pouco de geometria e não consegue perceber a relação deste conteúdo com sua realidade. Por outro lado, o professor que não conhece geometria não consegue perceber a beleza e a importância que a mesma possui para a formação do cidadão. A geometria estimula a criança a observar, perceber semelhanças, diferenças e a identificar regularidades. O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar o nível de conhecimento dos alunos do Centro Específico de Formação e Aperfeiçoamento ao Magistério (CEFAM), futuros professores da 1ª a 4ª séries do Ensino Fundamental do Estado de São Paulo, quanto aos conceitos de ponto, reta, plano, ângulos, polígonos e circunferências e também verificar as contribuições do computador para a construção de conceitos geométricos. Para atingir esses objetivos, foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa com 30 alunos do CEFAM de Presidente Prudente-SP, na qual, com base no diagnóstico das dificuldades de aprendizagem, organizaram e desenvolveram-se os momentos de formação, que utilizaram o computador como ferramenta de aprendizagem e projetos de trabalho tendo como aporte teórico a abordagem construcionista. O futuro professor que não dominar a geometria e não perceber sua relação com a natureza não conseguirá contribuir para o desenvolvimento do pensamento geométrico da criança. Esse pensamento é que permite a criança observar, compreender, descrever e representar, de forma organizada, o mundo em que vive.

Intervenções em linguagem escrita: Uma revisão da literatura com vistas à redução dos transtornos funcionais de aprendizagem

The importance reading and writing and being able to use these skills in a variety of situations is an absolute reality. In our society in which reading and writing are widely used, Brazil still faces severe problems with literacy, as revealed in literacy statistics and in the large number of students with learning disabilities. Thus, our text aims to present a survey of the research that focuses on intervention programs highlighting the needs of this group, with special attention on the use of narrative or storytelling. Specific criteria were established, the main one being the period of the publications (2000 to 2010). The results of the analysis of 15 texts showed that intervention is the most neglected area. International literature presents concerns related to scientific rigor or greater control of variables related to ongoing programs, as well as measures for generalizing the effective use of these programs, within verbal communities, with special focus on schools. Our revision enabled us to conclude that, even though production on written language is large, international literature is much more expressive with reference to intervention programs. Furthermore, in both national and international literature, production concerning the understanding of written language processes of acquisition and development prevails.

Eficácia do Programa de Treinamento Auditivo em escolares com distúrbio de aprendizagem

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)