Creating an Effective Learning Environment for a Secondary Photography Course
Problem:
Student apathy and an unwillingness to learn the large amount of frontloading of information associated with photography.
Background Information:
Understanding that, as an educator, I needed to engage my student learners academically, emotionally and socially became blaringly apparent when I became a high school teacher in 2009. My teaching assignment was a Fine Arts position for grades eight through twelve. Included in the Fine Arts assignment was a Photography 10-12 course. The photography course was a content-driven course. My teaching style was very much like that of “instructionism”, a term used to describe educational practices that are teacher-focused, skill-based, product-oriented, non-interactive, and highly prescribed (Johnson, 2005). I struggled with student apathy and an unwillingness to learn the large amount of frontloading of information associated with photography. I lectured and students fell asleep. I put the information on power points, assigned chapters of reading in texts and then provided tests. I gave class demonstrations and half the class would be absent that day. I was not reaching each student nor assessing what the needs were of the class and the individuals. Many students “fell through the cracks”, not really understanding key concepts by the end of the course. What I was doing was not working for the majority of the students. A span of four years has taken place since I first began searching for various teaching methods to improve student engagement. My investigations led me to inquiry-based learning, creation of a class wiki, and a trial run of “flipping my classroom”. I needed to explore how to best teach using 21st century skills and technology. I began searching for a better way to teach photography so students would understand the fundamentals and develop a love of photography that they could carry with them throughout their lives. Crucial to the search for this answer is the focus of 21st century learning environments and the attempts by educators to try new and innovative approaches to implement 21st century skills in their teaching.
What is 21st Century Learning?
De Corte believes “the current understanding of learning aimed at 21st century or “adaptive” competence is characterized as “CSSC Learning” (2010, p.35). De Corte describes CSSC Learning as: “constructive”, as learners actively construct their knowledge and skills; “self-regulated”, with people actively using strategies to learn; “situated”, best understood in context rather than abstracted from the environment; “collaborative”, not a solo activity (2010, p. 35). “Adaptive competence” is seen as the ability to apply meaningfully learned knowledge and skills flexibly and creatively in different situations (Bransford et. al 2006). De Corte emphasizes that “an important component of adaptive competence consists of skills in self-regulating one’s own learning and thinking and it is obvious that teacher-directed or guided learning is not the appropriate way to achieve it” (2010, p.47).
What is Self-regulated Learning?
Self-regulated learning, or self-regulation, is “an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior, guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features in the environment” (Pintrich, 2000, p. 453).
Research Support:
The exploration of how to increase student engagement has led to an investigation into current research on learning, potential benefits of online learning and the design of effective learning environments.
Learning
Effective Learning Environments
This major project involves the creation of an online photography course as the direct result of searching for ways to increase student engagement by creating a 21st century learning environment where students are the centre of their learning, take ownership of their learning and are actively engaged in their learning.
References:
Clayton, K., Blumberg, F., & Auld, D. P. (2010). The relationship between motivation, learning strategies and choice of environment whether traditional or including an online component. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(3), 349-364. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.viu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&Auth,cookie&db=eric&AN=EJ880156&site=ehost-live; http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00993.x
Corte, E. de (2010), “Historical developments in the Understanding of Learning”, in The Nature of Learning: Using Practice to Inspire learning, In OECD (2010), pp. 35-59. OECD Publishing Paris.
Dixson, M. D. (2010). Creating effective student engagement in online courses: What do students find engaging? Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(2), 1-13. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ890707&site=ehost-live
Dumont, H., Istance, D. “Analysing and designing learning environments for the 21st Century.” The Nature of Learning, In ECD (2010), pp 35-67, OECD Publishing Paris.
Dumont, H., Istance D., & Benavides, F. (2010). “Future directions for learning environments in the 21st century”, In Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (2010), pp. 317-337, OECD
Jaggars, S. S., Edgecombe, N., Stacey, G. W., & Columbia University, Community College,Research Center. (2013). Creating an effective online environment Community College Research Center, Columbia University. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.viu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&Auth,cookie&db=eric&AN=ED542153&site=ehost-live
Johnson, G. (2005). Instructionism and Constructivism: Reconciling Two Very Good Ideas. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED490726.pdf
Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., and Jones, K. (2009). Evaluation of evidence-20 based practices in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, Policy and Program Studies Service. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf
Pelz, B. (2010). (My) three principles of effective online pedagogy. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 14(1), 103-116. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.viu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&Auth,cookie&db=eric&AN=EJ909855&site=ehost-live; http://sloanconsortium.org/jaln/v14n1/my-three-principles-effective-online-pedagogy
Pintrich, P. R. (2000b). The role of goal orientation in self-regulated learning. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 451–502). San Diego, CA: Academic.
Student apathy and an unwillingness to learn the large amount of frontloading of information associated with photography.
Background Information:
Understanding that, as an educator, I needed to engage my student learners academically, emotionally and socially became blaringly apparent when I became a high school teacher in 2009. My teaching assignment was a Fine Arts position for grades eight through twelve. Included in the Fine Arts assignment was a Photography 10-12 course. The photography course was a content-driven course. My teaching style was very much like that of “instructionism”, a term used to describe educational practices that are teacher-focused, skill-based, product-oriented, non-interactive, and highly prescribed (Johnson, 2005). I struggled with student apathy and an unwillingness to learn the large amount of frontloading of information associated with photography. I lectured and students fell asleep. I put the information on power points, assigned chapters of reading in texts and then provided tests. I gave class demonstrations and half the class would be absent that day. I was not reaching each student nor assessing what the needs were of the class and the individuals. Many students “fell through the cracks”, not really understanding key concepts by the end of the course. What I was doing was not working for the majority of the students. A span of four years has taken place since I first began searching for various teaching methods to improve student engagement. My investigations led me to inquiry-based learning, creation of a class wiki, and a trial run of “flipping my classroom”. I needed to explore how to best teach using 21st century skills and technology. I began searching for a better way to teach photography so students would understand the fundamentals and develop a love of photography that they could carry with them throughout their lives. Crucial to the search for this answer is the focus of 21st century learning environments and the attempts by educators to try new and innovative approaches to implement 21st century skills in their teaching.
What is 21st Century Learning?
De Corte believes “the current understanding of learning aimed at 21st century or “adaptive” competence is characterized as “CSSC Learning” (2010, p.35). De Corte describes CSSC Learning as: “constructive”, as learners actively construct their knowledge and skills; “self-regulated”, with people actively using strategies to learn; “situated”, best understood in context rather than abstracted from the environment; “collaborative”, not a solo activity (2010, p. 35). “Adaptive competence” is seen as the ability to apply meaningfully learned knowledge and skills flexibly and creatively in different situations (Bransford et. al 2006). De Corte emphasizes that “an important component of adaptive competence consists of skills in self-regulating one’s own learning and thinking and it is obvious that teacher-directed or guided learning is not the appropriate way to achieve it” (2010, p.47).
What is Self-regulated Learning?
Self-regulated learning, or self-regulation, is “an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior, guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features in the environment” (Pintrich, 2000, p. 453).
Research Support:
The exploration of how to increase student engagement has led to an investigation into current research on learning, potential benefits of online learning and the design of effective learning environments.
Learning
- What we know depends on the kinds of experiences that we have had and how we have come to organize these into existing knowledge structures (Kanuka & Anderson, 1998).
- “Learning happens not by recording information but by interpreting it” (Resnik,1989,p.2).
- The constructivist view of learning has become the “common ground” among educational psychologists (de Corte, 2010).
- De Corte states that constructivism and social constructivism are active concepts of learning that explore what takes place within the individual’s mind and also encompass the interaction between learners and their contextual situation (2010).
- Schunk’s general conclusion is that students who display more adaptive self-regulatory strategies demonstrate better learning and high motivation for learning (2005).
- Students who preferred non-traditional learning environments displayed a higher degree of self-efficacy that they would be successful in an online course. The findings from this study clearly highlight the importance of self-efficacy in learning (Clayton et al., 2010).
- A necessary component to an effective online learning environment is collaborative and interactive activities(Dixson, 2010).
- Multiple ways of interacting with students must be created by instructors to create their own social presence(Dixson, 2010).
- Paying close attention to teacher and student expectations and how they might differ might make online courses more effective and satisfying for students and instructors(Jaggars and Edgecombe, 2013).
- Means et al. (2009) discovered that students who take courses that are either completely or partially online will perform better than students taking traditional, face-to-face courses. The best of all delivery models was the hybrid courses that combine classroom learning with online learning.
Effective Learning Environments
- Pelz’s principles for an effective online learning environment are about “personalization” where students are at the centre of their learning, about” interactivity” where students discuss, problem solve and collaborate, and about a strong “presence” where all participants, including the teacher, create a community of learning(Pelz, 2010).
- Effective learning environments for the 21st century learners can be characterized as: learner centered but with a strong central role for teachers, structured with professionally designed learning environments that allow plenty of room for inquiry and autonomous learning, personalised in being sensitive to individual differences, and fundamentally social in nature (Istance and Dumont, 2010).
This major project involves the creation of an online photography course as the direct result of searching for ways to increase student engagement by creating a 21st century learning environment where students are the centre of their learning, take ownership of their learning and are actively engaged in their learning.
References:
Clayton, K., Blumberg, F., & Auld, D. P. (2010). The relationship between motivation, learning strategies and choice of environment whether traditional or including an online component. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(3), 349-364. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.viu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&Auth,cookie&db=eric&AN=EJ880156&site=ehost-live; http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00993.x
Corte, E. de (2010), “Historical developments in the Understanding of Learning”, in The Nature of Learning: Using Practice to Inspire learning, In OECD (2010), pp. 35-59. OECD Publishing Paris.
Dixson, M. D. (2010). Creating effective student engagement in online courses: What do students find engaging? Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(2), 1-13. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ890707&site=ehost-live
Dumont, H., Istance, D. “Analysing and designing learning environments for the 21st Century.” The Nature of Learning, In ECD (2010), pp 35-67, OECD Publishing Paris.
Dumont, H., Istance D., & Benavides, F. (2010). “Future directions for learning environments in the 21st century”, In Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (2010), pp. 317-337, OECD
Jaggars, S. S., Edgecombe, N., Stacey, G. W., & Columbia University, Community College,Research Center. (2013). Creating an effective online environment Community College Research Center, Columbia University. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.viu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&Auth,cookie&db=eric&AN=ED542153&site=ehost-live
Johnson, G. (2005). Instructionism and Constructivism: Reconciling Two Very Good Ideas. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED490726.pdf
Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., and Jones, K. (2009). Evaluation of evidence-20 based practices in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, Policy and Program Studies Service. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf
Pelz, B. (2010). (My) three principles of effective online pedagogy. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 14(1), 103-116. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.viu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&Auth,cookie&db=eric&AN=EJ909855&site=ehost-live; http://sloanconsortium.org/jaln/v14n1/my-three-principles-effective-online-pedagogy
Pintrich, P. R. (2000b). The role of goal orientation in self-regulated learning. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 451–502). San Diego, CA: Academic.
Chapter 2 Literature Review OLTD 510: Creating an effective learning environment for a secondary photography course
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