To What Extent are Tutors and Students Responsible for the Learning Experience in Higher Education - Essay Example

To What Extent are Tutors and Students Responsible for the Learning Experience in Higher Education? Learning experience of a student in Higher education entirely depends on his mind. So, as a critical factor, Boredom is considered to be one of the mindsets affecting the learning experience. Hence the entire essay revolves around this factor. The role played by teachers, students in catapulting the boredom in students shall be analysed. This in turn will determine the extent to which the entities are responsible for the learning experience in higher education. The proposed argument will show that the teachers are more responsible than students in affecting the learning experience. Information to be used Boredom description Effect of boredom in learning experience Teacher’s role and their teaching methods Research metrics developed using data analysis form several hundred students. Using this data to prove the concepts being discussed Examples to be used Teaching methods of teachers like PowerPoint presentations, laboratory experiments used to explain how boredom is instilled Students inner characterization examples like their mindset to read just to get pass rather than deep learning are discussed Approach to the essay Introduction about Boredom, learning interests, change from high school to university and their importance General analysis from teacher and student perspective Teacher’s effect on learning experience Students effect on learning experience Conclusion Introduction Much has been discussed about the interest of students and their learning experience in the school level. Many experiments have been done on the same and several critics have given the drawbacks and necessary steps that need to overcome them to have a better learning experience. On keeping this as a starting note, it is high time that equal importance is given to students and their learning experience at a higher education level. The primary factor that determines the scale of learning experience of every student is their boredom factor. So, in order to identify the extent to which the students and teachers are responsible for the learning experience in higher education, an analysis have to be made with boredom as a critical factor.( Mann & Robinson 2009) General analysis To give a brief explanation of what boredom is, it can be attributed to person’s state of mind when he has nothing to do that he likes. On an analysis on what causes boredom among students which in turn leads them to have a bad learning experience, it was found out that the teaching techniques of the lectures and the methods they follow to be the primary reason. Some of the teaching methods followed by teachers evoke a passive environment of learning. Also, a one way relationship between teachers and students could also lead to a dip in their learning curve. On the other side, a student’s individual interest also plays a part on the grade one earns in learning. (Gjesne 1977) If the student is not open towards learning new things, irrespective of whatever the teacher presents. Then, the student is at the receiving end for all the blames of having a lean learning experience. Hence a cognitive analysis is required on both sides to determine the extent of impact on learning experience. ( Mann & Robinson 2009) Teachers’ effect on learning experience The main teaching method that is followed in most of the universities is converting text to computer PowerPoint presentations and presenting them. Although studies have shown that these methods have improved the learning outcomes of students, there have been cases where it has had a negative impact on students. Hence a factual study of whether these presentations have improved the learning outcomes have not been provided yet. Another issue that has led a bad impact on this method is the change in the physical behavior of the tutor. Instead of having direct eye contacts with the students, tutors have started looking at screens. This will definitely affect the interest of the students in the lecture. (Gjesne 1977) They would get involve in different activities as the teacher doesn’t get involved with them. ( Mann & Robinson 2009) Several researches are done in order to identify the effect of lecturers in learning experience of higher education students. Some of the results that were identified in the researches are discussed below. Based on different methods of teaching, the analysis was done. It was found that the critical factor of learning experience, boredom, was found to be highest among students during Lab and computer sessions. It is a surprising result since the teachers play a passive role here and it is the students who actively participate. But then, the reason for such a consequence is explained to be the predictability of experiments carried out in labs and student find that repetitiveness to be boring. ( Mann & Robinson 2009) While in computer based labs, the reason for higher rating of boredom is due to the fact that there are less number of resources to support the students in their activity or they find I to be difficult. In either case, the final impact on learning gets double if the teacher is not able to provide the right scope and support materials for learning. The next in list is the power point presentations taken without providing reading handouts to students. If it is not given, students have to write on their own, which obviously would make anyone bored. So, these are the factors among the teacher perspective that could have a deep impact on the learning outcomes of students in higher education. ( Mann & Robinson 2009) Students effect on learning experience Students when they reach their college career, they become adults. They come with huge expectations to excel in life but most of them fail to prepare themselves to the mode of college education. They go in with a preconceived notion about college life and once it is not met, they end up disappointed. This can be said as the starting point of a decline in their learning experience. Their preconceived notions and huge expectations are real critical factors in determining their learning experience. This being said, the other faults from the students side include their time spent in preparing themselves everyday for every new session or a seminar. It is very important because it helps them understand much better whatever that would be thought. This would help them avoid boredom and make them much more involved in classes. But with increased college fees, the students are compelled to work for part time and they fail to cope with the preparations, which are the minimal expectation of every lecture from each student. Though it’s a very simple thing, it could have a huge impact on the learning experience if considered in a more global scenario. The effect of students’ attitude in their own learning experience is somewhat indirectly related to teaching. But then, on a higher education level, every student has to have their own self consciousness about their attitude towards learning. Students when transcending from high school to degreed education, tend to become surface learners where they only study a particular subject just to get a pass grade. This is not acceptable in any case. This would definitely affect their learning experience as they don’t know any kind of deep meaning of what they learn. Their kind of learning would actually only help them for a short term, but for a long term learning experience, it would definitely bring a negative impact. So researchers believe that the reason behind students learning technique is probably they are not interested or they may have lost interest by the method of teaching followed by the teacher. In any case, it is the learning experience of the student that is getting affected. (Carlson 2002) On the research side, the results show that the characteristics of the students highly mark their influence of their learning attitude. The result showed a normal percentage influence is present among all students towards boredom. This may be either due to the teaching methods followed in universities or the proneness towards boredom within the student. The above results and analysis show that effect on learning experience by students is highly attributed towards teaching effectiveness in most cases whereas personal behavior plays a minor role. (Carlson 2002) Conclusion The above discussion clearly indicates that there is lot of scope for improvement on the teaching methods followed by universities. It also points out the teachers need to be aware of the fact that lab sessions don’t really engage students in learning. They have to make it more innovative to allow the students engage actively. Moreover, the usages of PowerPoint sessions by teachers have to be done in a way that it engages the listeners. Some kind of boredom evaluation tools have to be frequently tested among students to identify their interest in their learning experience. Overall, the extent of effects made by teachers and students on the learning experience in universities has been detailed. References Mann, S. & Robinson, A. (2009) Boredom in the lecture theatre: an investigation into the contributors, moderators and outcomes of boredom amongst university students, British Educational Research Journal, 35:2 , 243-258 Carlson, S. (2002) Wired to the hilt, Chronicle of Higher Education, A33–A35. Gjesne, T. (1977) General satisfaction and boredom at school as a function of the pupil’s personality characteristics, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 21, 113–146. Read More