INDUCTION FOR PART TIME LECTURERS (8)

UNIT FIVE: INDIVIDUAL APPROACHES TO LEARNING

1. Introduction

As already explained, students follow different approaches to learning. For instance, one can differentiate between deep-level learning and surface-level learning. A student may follow different approaches at different times, but generally an individual student tends to subscribe to one particular approach. These approaches to learning are not set in stone, and a student may change his approach over time.

1.2 Measuring instrument

Various types of questionnaires were developed both at the UFS and CUT to determine students’ approach to learning. The scales and subscales of one of the questionnaire tools are as follows:

Meaning orientation characteristics of such a learner
Deep-level approach seeks meaning
Use of evidence investigates critically
Linking ideas links new information and
previous ideas
Intrinsic motivation honour for the sake of learning

 Reproduction orientation
Surface-level approach mechanical learning
Syllabus commitment keeps to syllabus
Fear of failure anxiously aware of evaluation
Carelessness Focuses on facts; does not seek
relationships

 Strategic orientation
Strategic approach meets examination requirements
Intrinsic motivation wants to achieve qualifications
Achievement motivation competitive with an expectation
Of success

 Non-academic orientation
Disorganised study methods ineffective time management
Negative attitudes uninvolved in studies
Floundering over-generalises and flounders

The questionnaire also contains a section that measures learning styles. The two learning styles are:

• Learning with understanding and
• operational learning

Students’ course observations could be expressed in terms of the following subscales and scales (Bitzer and Venter, 2002)):

 Effective teaching lecturers are well prepared
 Freedom in learning students have a say when it
 comes to content and method
 Openness towards students
 Workload syllabus is full, with high
demands
 Social climate high-quality relationships
 Formal methods lectures are important
 Clear goals and standards
 Career relevance course is suited to career
 Student centeredness combination of freedom in
learning and effective teaching
 Control centeredness workload score minus freedom in
learning.

The deep-level approach leads to better learning in all subject fields. However, “better” is defined in terms of the quality of understanding, satisfaction, self-assessment of performance compared to other students, and long-term retention of learning material.

Preliminary research with the questionnaire confirms the following tendencies:

The meaning orientation is consistently associated with academic progress.

 The reproduction orientation is consistently negatively associated with academic progress.

 The non-academic orientation is consistently negatively associated with academic progress.

The strategic orientation is consistently associated with academic progress.

• Implications for lecturing:

o Overloading of curricula is to be avoided.

o Fair and just examination (assessments) must be applied.

o The learning context must be such that students do not see it as being focused on surface-level learning.

o Lecturer development programme must not focus solely on lecturing methods, but should emphasise lecturers’ awareness of students’ learning experiences.

o Lecturers must actively participate in their students’ learning development programs; usually in co-operation with learning development specialists.

o Do-it-yourself modules, linked to lectures, tutorials and group discussions, must be systematically employed.

Lecturers who are interested in learning more about their students’ learning orientations can approach the Unit for Academic Development of the CUT to apply for alternative questionnaires to their students. Feedback can then be given on the students’ learning orientations and how they experience the teaching process.

2. Learning styles

2.1 Introduction

Lecture orientation materials of the University Free State (1999) define learning styles for example as a relatively stable preferential action that a person employs somewhat rigidly in a variety of learning situations. Learning styles are stable and general traits are sometimes not suited to the task at hand.

Different writers and researchers have described different learning styles. Where Human’s description, based on the experiential learning cycle, is possibly the one most suited to the objectives of tertiary education (Cf. Jacobs, H. 2005).

2.2 Measuring instrument

An example of a learning style questionnaire used by the UFS for example firstly measures the position of students on two continuums, namely active experimentation and reflective observation. Secondly, it measures the position of the student on the concrete experience and abstract conceptualisation continuum. On the basis of the scores achieved, students are then placed into one of four quadrants.







CE
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4 | 1
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AE | RO
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3 | 2
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AC

Adapted from Lecture orientation Materials of the University of the Free State (2002)

AE = active experimentation
RO = reflective observation
CE = concrete experience
AC = abstract conceptualisation

1 = divergent learning style
2 = assimilative learning style
3 = convergent learning style
4 = accommodative learning style

The learning style questionnaire is not extremely reliable or valid, since students do not always fully understand the meaning of the words used.

The learning style questionnaire accompanies this manual as appendix one.

The characteristics of the different learning styles are briefly mentioned below:

2.3 Divergent learning style

o Characteristics

• Imaginativeness.
• Gestalt.
• Brainstorming.
• Interest in people and culture.
• Emotional.
• Listening skills.
• Sharing of ideas.

o Weak points

• Overwhelmed by alternatives.
• Neglects details.
• Finds it difficult to define problems.
• Takes too few risks.
• Bored with the profession.
• Broad goals.
• Insufficient experimentation.

o Study directions

• Science, Engineering and Technology (SET).
• Art and Communication.
• Health and Environmental Sciences.

2.4 Assimilative learning style

o Characteristics

• Creates theoretical models.
• Assimilates different observations.
• Explanation.
• Not interested in people.
• Wants to test theory in practice.
• Important that theories are logical and precise.
• Relates problems to one another.
• Seeks explanations and causes.
• Founds opinions carefully.

o Weak points

• Does not take changes easily.
• Reacts slowly.
• Needs much support and reinforcement.
• Prefers theory to practice.
• Finds it difficult to concentrate on one thing.
• Goals are theoretical.

o Study directions• Basic sciences and mathematics.
• Research and planning divisions.

2.5 Convergent learning style

o Characteristics

• Practical application of ideas.
• Prefers a single correct answer to a problem.
• Hypothetical-deductive reasoning focuses on specific problems.
• Unemotional: prefers to focus on objects rather than people.
• Has narrow interests.
• Attends to details.
• Likes to experiment.
• Prefers to specialise.
• Has to test things personally.

o Weak points

• Neglects social involvement.
• Makes hasty decisions before all information has been gathered.
• Focus is too narrow.
• Finds it difficult to deviate from planned actions.

o Study directions

• Physical sciences.
• Engineering.
• Communication Sciences.

2.6 Accommodative style

o Characteristics

• Can carry out things.
• Can carry out plans.
• Becomes involved in new experiences.
• Takes risks more readily than other groups.
• Adapts well to specific circumstances.
• Tends to solve problems through intuitive attempts.
• Relies on other people rather than own analytical abilities for information.
• Pragmatic.
• Resourceful with techniques.

o Weak points

• Does not integrate theory and practice.
• Finds planning difficult.
• Relies too much on intuition.
• Takes a head-over-heels approach.
• Does not always know why something is done.

o Study directions

• Business (marketing, sales, management).
• Education.

2.7 Implications for lecturing

o Lecturing methods according to the experiential learning
Cycle

Each of the experiential learning elements is related to a personal growth dimension. The growth dimension and the environmental factors that promote it are described in the following section:

2.7 Affective complexity (concrete experience)

• Focuses on here-and-now experiences.
• Facilitates the expression of feelings.
• Ambiguity.
• High level of personal adjustment skills.

2.8 Perceptual complexity (reflective observation)

• Opportunity to observe subject material from different perspectives.
• Time for afterthought.
• Listening and observing roles adopted.
• Complexity and multiplicity accepted.

2.9 Symbolic complexity

• Emphasises the calling up of concepts.
• Accepts rules of logic and inference.
• Certainty through structures that are created.
• Figures of authority are overseers of knowledge.

2.10 Behavioural complexity (active experimentation)

• Sets own learning objectives.
• Opportunities to take risks are created.
• Self-initiated action.

Specific learning styles are promoted by certain teaching methods. Thus, the discussion and interaction method promotes the personal meaning of learning material and the divergent learning style. A method of information provision enhances knowledge and the assimilative learning style. The instructional method, in turn, promotes application and the convergent learning style, while the self-discovery method leads to personal adjustment and the accommodative learning style.

3. Learning strategies

3.1. Introduction

In contrast with learning styles, learning strategies are specific methods or tactics selected from a variety of possibilities for a particular learning task. Students who are familiar with a variety of learning strategies, know how to apply them, and see themselves as learners, and will probably be able to select and use appropriate strategies for a particular learning task (Human, 2000).

3.2. Implications for lecturing

o Learning-training programmes

Human (2002) confirms that there is currently sufficient empirical support for learning-training programs. By means of such programs, learners are helped to extend their repertoire of strategies; better understand themselves as learners and utilise their strategies to master specific tasks. Learning experts and lecturers should work together in such programs.

Human (2002) mentions a number of learning strategies that should be included in the student’s repertoire:

Preparative strategies:

• Overview:
• Reading design markers;
• selecting subject clauses;
• reading introductory and concluding paragraphs and
• Reading large sections quickly.

o Study objectives:

• Determining clear and logical objectives.

o Specific learning strategies:

• Attention:
• Setting questions;
• active reading;
• adapting reading speed;
• relating to existing knowledge;
• understanding and
• Formulating own ideas; developing them.


• Arrangement:

• Summary of main points;
• network summary;
• notes;
• consolidating class and textbook notes;
• selecting key words;
• associating key words and detail and
• Mind-maps.

• Revision:

• Putting into own words;
• summarising;
• answering questions (direct; logical);
• relearning and
• Repeated learning.

o Memory:

• Organisation:
• Chunking and
• Discovering organisational pattern.

• Meaning:

• Visualising;
• creating analogies;
• reformulating in own words and
• Story schemes.

• Memorisation tricks:

• Words formed from first letters of other words;
• highlighting central parts or phrases and
• Rhymes.

• Practice:

• Repeated learning (more then one repetition);
• Reciting and
• Reconstructing.

• Summarisation:

• Summarising key ideas and
• Summarising textbook.


• Revision:

• Cramming.

Students must be made aware of these strategies and taught how to use them. In individual and group counselling, these strategies are explained to students, often through self-discovery methods (Human, 2000). Furthermore, the skills are applied to the learning material (Human, 2000).

The lecturer who is aware of the different learning strategies can also make a contribution by explaining the strategies to students, by demonstrating them during class and by incorporating relevant discussions and exercises in the learning material. Take note of the following examples:

 Strategy A (1.2)

Ask students to summarise the work done by writing down all the subject clauses – to be handed in during the following class.

 Strategy B (1.1)

Ask students to read through the material scheduled for the next lecture and formulate any questions that they would like to hear explained during the lecture.

 Strategy B (2.7)

Ask students to summarise the material covered in a mind-map and to take turns to explain their mind-maps to the class (students to take turns, with the student due to present his mind-map being given a transparency).

 Strategy A (1.4)

Ask students to read through a certain part of the work within a set time limit and administer a comprehension and knowledge test on the work.

 Strategy C (2.2)

Give an exercise where students must clarify learning material from a certain part of the book using an analogy; individual students can present their analogies to the class.

The imaginative lecturer can find innovative ways to incorporate the above strategies into the curriculum, lecturing, tutorials and discussions.

Conclusion

You have been given a significant amount of information on the student as learner. At the same time, you have received guidelines on practical application possibilities in the teaching situation. As mentioned, the different concepts can be applied to curriculum design, teaching opportunities, lectures, feedback to students and evaluation. Lecturers are in an excellent position to explain skills and create opportunities to put these into practice. Staff of the Unit for Academic Development is available also to provide part time lecturers with the necessary advice.

The Central University of Technology, Free State strives for excellence. The students are only able to achieve excellence if the fundamental objective of tertiary education, i.e. to facilitate personal development is pursued. Your job as part time lecturer is to work together with academic support services to evaluate your students’ cognitive and affective development and to bring about academic growth.