Perspectives on Learning Theory

erodriguesdasilva General April 29, 2021 0 Comment

On April 23rd, the Study Support and the Library Teams read and discussed a chapter on Jarvis’s (2012) book on the topic of Adult Education and Life-Long Learning. The author focuses on 6 20th-century authors in the field of Adult Education, the first and the one most of the discussion revolved around, being Paulo Freire.

Another point of discussion this week was an Interview Freire gave in 1996 on the topics of Tolerance and Critical Thinking (discussing language, ideology and power).

View Full Discussion Video Here

The article can be quite a challenging read, especially for those without the background in education, or adult education, mainly due to its nature as a Literature Review and the way it has chosen to present information based on authors. However, a few interesting points of discussion were raised and the main ones can be seen below:

Language, Power and Identity (Freire)

The idea that the dominant “cultivated” language is a social, political construct (rather than an inherently lingustic determination).
The duty the educator has to provide students access to the dominant (in our case the academic) variant while at the same time recognising that the student’s variant is beautiful and acceptable (in a given context)
The importance of tolerance when dealing with the other (other nationality, other ethnicity)
The need to have a conversation with students about language, about meaning, about differences in cultures and how these end up translating in written expression
The fact that English is a reader-centered language and the implications that has in terms of what conventions writers need to follow.
A lack of understanding of this dominant/academic variant may lead students to a)go around in circles, rather than develop an idea and then proceed to another; b)use a thesaurus in an attempt to sound “sophisticated”
“Education as our practice of Freedom”
Freire’s Marxist view and its more direct application in scenarios where education is a gate-keeper to success, where the divide between “the have’s” and “the have not’s” is less blurred, or where people do not feel represented in the education they receive (such as Indigenous Peoples historically in Australia)
How to privilege difference over deficit (acknowledging students’ differences and respecting different variants when introducing the dominant one)

Nine Phases in Instruction (Gagne’s Model)

A good model to have in mind when designing a lesson

gaining attention;
informing the learner of the objectives;
stimulating recall of prerequisite learnings;
presenting the stimulus material;
providing learning guidance;
eliciting the performance;
providing feedback about performance correctness;
assessing the performance;
enhancing retention and transfer (as cited in Jarvis, 2012, p.102)

The differences in what “previous learning” different students have and the importance of acknowledging their individual previous learning rather than assuming they have none. This is important for adult learners to feel their identity is being respected and a more “tolerant” approach to introducing a different/dominant variant.

Feel free to add any comments on how this discussion has impacted your teaching or how these authors relate to your practice.

Communities of Practice in Landscapes of Practice

mmoloney General April 26, 2021April 26, 2021Communities of Practice, Landscapes of Practice, Learning and Growing, Networks of Practice, Professional Development, Study Group Australia 0 Comment

On the 16th of April we had an excellent discussion on the Pyrko, Dorfler and Eden (2019) article which focussed on understanding how engaging in communities of practice can be extended beyond functional groups (such as within the confines of the individual study support and library teams) but across broader areas of the organisation (known as the landscape of practice). This engagement allows for incidental learning, reinforcement of shared goals, and the adoption of norms that constitute an organisational culture.

Here is the recording of the discussion.

During the discussion, there was mention of the highly theoretical nature of the article that may have been challenging for those new to concepts within our learning session. I highly recommend this Introduction to Communities of Practice by the seminal authors on the topic (Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner): https://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/

Here are some key take-away points from the article:

The social constructivist view of learning whereby knowledge is a product of a social process that allows for group members to draw on others’ performance in their role as a “cue for action” (p.484)
This learning process within a community of practice is largely dependent on the buy-in from members and this often results in differing degrees to which a person interacts meaningfully with
other members, and invests their identity (p.484)
A landscape of practice is the sharing of meaning between different communities, which
may be more challenging than learning within the boundaries of one community of practice: “Learning between different communities requires practitioners to be prepared to go through acts of transformation as they seek to understand how knowledge from another community may fit within the context of their own work, enriching and altering what they know” (p.485).
Taking time to allow for communities of practice to enjoy a shared thinking process is essential for membership to be nurtured, more than would be the case in a simple “deployment of knowledge” from one group member to another (p.489)
It’s essential that mere “islands of practice” (p.494), for example, the Learning and Growing hour, do not stand alone but are the basis of a more integrated approach to improving our program delivery to students and our growth as practitioners.
Attaining, maintaining, and participating in Networks of Practice (this network includes members of a shared field) allow value to be re-invested in the Landscapes of Practice or Communities of Practice.

Please feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks, Monique

A University “Common Read”, Student Engagement & Libraries

phead General April 9, 2021 1 Comment

This week CSU Study Centre Study Support & Library Teams discussed the concept of Libraries and Student Engagement generally and Common Read Programs in particular. something we could implement?

The first paper is quite long. The second paper is a short two pager and gives a bit of an overview of universities using Common Read Programs to collaborate.