Teaching and Learning Process - Essay Example

Teaching and Learning Process 2006 Introduction Learning is the most basic of human activities. It involves two activities – perception and processing (McCarthy, 1987). Human perception refers to the way humans can experience and conceptualize new information while processing involves reflection and action. In the experience stage, learners connect new information with the existing knowledge; in the conceptualization stage, they take in more expert knowledge; in the application stage, learners use the existing and new knowledge and in the final creative learning stage, learners share the knowledge through reflection. The philosophy of constructivism states that the process of learning involves constructing our own understanding of the world through our experiences (Brooks, 1999). Further, the process of learning and teaching requires skills that need to be enhanced and modified according to the requirements. Teaching a primary school learner is not the same as teaching an adult learner. In particular, professional teaching is all the more difficult since the learners already have some rudimentary knowledge about the subject and often prone to resistance to change. In the organizational learning process, learners undergo the process of single-loop and double-loop learning process, as formulated by Argyris and Schon (1978, cited in Smith, 2001). The single-loop learning process is one in which the institutionalized goals, objectives, rules and behavioral patterns are followed while the double-loop learning process is one in which the established framework itself is questioned. The former follows the routine and less risky process while the latter, though more difficult, is more reflective and creative. This paper undertakes a survey of the literature on theories of teaching and learning and thereafter an application of the theories to a practical teaching process. In my exercise of a teaching session, which I video-taped for further scrutiny, I have attempted to use the various theories of teaching that I have read, testing the psychological process from the learners’ point of view. I realized that the teaching session, which was my first experience in teaching, also enriched my own learning process through the reflective action. Theories of teaching and learning Knowles' theory of andragogy (1984) is an attempt to develop a theory specifically for adult learning. Knowles emphasized that adult are self-directed and expect to take responsibility for decisions. The principle of androgogy dictates that the emphasis of teaching is very much on the process rather than the content. Knowles (1984) mentioned that learning process in adult learners depends primarily on four factors; 1) Self Concept – adults are self-directing learners, responsible for their own actions. 2) Experience – increased life experiences become a source of learning. 3) Readiness to Learn – gained following experience of a need to know, in order to perform certain task. 4) Orientation to Learning – orientation to learn develops from subject-centered to life-centered. For professional teaching, it is more like organizational learning process rather than classroom learning since both the teacher and the learners are part of the organization or the profession. As Agyris & Schon (1978) said, “our inquiry into organizational learning must concern itself not with static entities called organizations, but with an active process of organizing which is, at root, a cognitive enterprise. Individual members are continually engaged in attempting to know the organization, and to know themselves in the context of the organization. At the same time, their continuing efforts to know and to test their knowledge represent the object of  their inquiry. Organizing is reflexive inquiry.” The learners require external reference from the general field of nursing as well as the particular area of haemodialysis. The individual work of the learner needs to be connected with that of the teaching session so that the learners can draw up learning maps, involving the detection and correction of error in future. Only then, “discoveries, inventions, and evaluations must be embedded in organizational memory’ (Argyris and Schön 1978, cited in Smith, 2001). John Dewey (1933) defined reflective thinking as "active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends [that] includes a conscious and voluntary effort to establish belief upon a firm basis of evidence and rationality". Kolbe (1984) expanded Dewey’s learning cycle theory by postulating that learners observe and deduce inferences from their experiences through reflection. In professional life, experience is often not sufficient and requires reflective learning. Hence the need for the learning process for professionals. Boud et al (1985) suggests that structured reflection is important for the learning process, "Perhaps if we can sharpen our consciousness of what reflection in learning can involve and how it can be influenced then we may be able to improve our own practice of learning and help those who learn with us" (Boud et al., 1985). Argyris and Schon’s (1978) double-loop learning is different from Dewey’s learning cycle theory in that the latter postulates the trial and error model of experimentation while in the former, it is possible to readjust the learning process according to the requirement of the organization. Service learning like the case being described requires more reflective thinking than simply information collection. Giles et al (1991) said, "An effective [service-learning] program provides structured opportunities for people to reflect critically on their service experience" and "It is crucial that service toward the common good be combined with reflective learning to assure that service programs of high quality can be created and sustained over time”. The authors further said that the curriculum of the service learning program should be continuous, challenging and contextualized so that it is found useful for the learners’ professional lives. Background I am haemodialysis staff nurse, working in the Renal Department that cares patient with end stage renal failure (ESRF). My link role as an infection control nurse, involves disseminating information relating to all aspects of infection control in the unit. I decided to choose “ Management of Methicillin Resistant in Haemodialysis Unit (MRSA)” as the topic of my teaching session. I have no experience in formal teaching but I engaged in informal bedside teaching to my patients and doing mentorship to the newly qualified nurses. I realized the teaching experience will be a learning process for me as well as the learners in the class since this will allow me to reflect on what I have learnt through my work experience. Daudelin (1996) defined reflection in relation to learning, "Reflection is the process of stepping back from an experience to ponder, carefully and persistently, its meaning to the self through the development of inferences; learning is the creation of meaning from past or current events that serves as a guide for future behaviour." Boud et al (1985) said that the reflective process cuts through the entire chain of events – preparation, lecture, assessment of learners and evaluation of teaching. I arranged a teaching session that would take place on my own time. Due to lack of teaching experience, I had certain level of anxiety and nervousness a week prior to my lecture presentation and due to my cultural background, my main concern was the delivery of my presentation, whether understandable or my accent and diction would affect the learning of the student. Sieber et al (1977) stated that anxiety could impair performance in a wide range of cognitive function including attention, memory, concept formation and problem solving. Everyone has his or her own idiosyncratic style and it is therefore difficult to say what techniques are most effective. However, it was apparent that if the learners were to reconstruct what I was saying within my own frames of reference then I should not go fast and must use pauses to give learners a chance to think. It was my expectation that developing my knowledge in this area would increase my confidence in teaching and decrease my feelings of anxiety and lead to be an excellent Practice Nurse Educator. Goals and objectives It is very important for the instructor to first set out the goals and objectives of the teaching session. According to Roger & Sando (1996, cited in Moskal, 2003), goals are the broad expected learner outcome and objectives the observable set of out of resultant behavior. As Moskal (2003) recommends, the goals and objectives should reflect the relevance of the knowledge and information that is being imparted and should ultimately define the pattern of assessment, which is likely to a set of complex behavioral outcomes including reasoning, knowledge, teamwork and so on. I decided to write down all the important objectives of the teaching exercise, encompassing the entire goal, following the objective-writing model developed by Gronlund (2000, cited in Moskal, 2003). The objectives form the basic framework of the module and should be designed according to the broad goals. In order to decide on the goal of the session, I undertook an informal discussion with the teacher and the Chief Infection Control Nurse in the hospital to check the context of my lecture, maintain accuracy of information to be delivered and to determine core aspects that need to be addressed prior to my teaching session. In line with the conceptual views of Tyler (1950) (cited Greaves, 1987), the curriculum followed a design set by goal and objectives. The goal could be described as a statement of intent on behalf of the teacher (Hinchliff 1986). The goals of the session were: To provide optimum care and management of patients colonised/infected with MRSA To minimize the risk of spread to other patients and health care workers. Information was gathered through informal discussion from the learner’s perspective three days prior to commencing the session to ensure that we had some conformity of the objectives. The expected learners were group of staff nurses, nursing assistant and clinical nurse specialist. After the discussion, learner requested additional subtopic to be added on my presentation. Due to mix skills from the learner’s group, I decided to subdivide the topic into what the learner must know and what they should know. Bradshaw (1989) cited that it is useful to hold such discussion at an earlier stage in order to determine the learner’s need. Reece and Walker (2003) mentioned that some teachers have very detailed plans while others appear to have little at all in the way of a plan. It was also necessary to plan the sequence in which different aspects would be presented, providing logical, systematic order to the tutorial (Greaves 1987). The sequence of the presentation appears on a logical way (Appendix A). I decided to use lecture and group interaction as the preferred way of my teaching instruction with the use of PowerPoint and flipchart. Jarvis (1985) suggest that audio-visual stimuli and handouts can help adult learning in order for them to recall the information received and knowledge gained. Flipchart helps me to cover my presentation better and it gives learners a chance to synthesize what they've just heard. Reece and Walker (2003) mentioned that teachers vary in their views about handouts and I decided to give handouts at the end of the presentation to provide students with data and facts about the topic presented. Matron in the unit suggested sending a copy of the handouts through work-email. Curriculum The theory of constructivism (Bruner, 1966, cited in Kearsely, 1994) says that learners should be allowed to set up their own learning process through their experience (Brooke, 1999). It is based on the principle of cognition, which implies that "learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge" (Kearsely, 1994). According to this theory, the curriculum should be presented in a manner that is prepared in the most effective and comprehensible way. I decided to choose a curriculum which they would reflect situations familiar to their experience but difficult for them to handle because of lack of adequate knowledge. The focus my teaching session was about the Management of MRSA in Haemodialysis Unit. It was chosen for several reasons. The MRSA positive patients in haemodialysis unit reach up to 25 cases and it is very important for the healthcare workers to know the methods of prevention and spread of MRSA. According to Reece and Walker (2003), one of the duties of a teacher is to review the curriculum that involves reviewing what you will teach. Kelly (1983, quoted in Smith, 2000) defined the curriculum as “All the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school” and set out the basic parameters for designing a curriculum, which is a set of information that is to be transmitted to the learners through a process of teaching. Curriculum is different from the syllabus, which is a textbook version with a set table of contents. In my case, since the learners are already professionals in the healthcare practice, it would be no good to draw up an intangible content list. Rather, a curriculum that reflected their field of practice and related the information to be transmitted was of utmost importance. In this regard, it would be useful to quote Bobbitt’s (1918, quoted in Smith, 2000) view on curriculum: “The central theory [of curriculum] is simple.  Human life, however varied, consists in the performance of specific activities.  Education that prepares for life is one that prepares definitely and adequately for these specific activities.  However numerous and diverse they may be for any social class they can be discovered.  This requires only that one go out into the world of affairs and discover the particulars of which their affairs consist.  These will show the abilities, attitudes, habits, appreciations and forms of knowledge that men need.  These will be the objectives of the curriculum.  They will be numerous, definite and particularized.” The process of professional training, therefore, does not consist of armchair speculation of possible outcomes of events but the product of systemic study based on experience. Tyler (1949, cited in Smith, 2000) expanded on Bobbitt’s (1918) theory by saying that “Since the real purpose of education is not to have the instructor perform certain activities but to bring about significant changes in the students' pattern of behaviour, it becomes important to recognize that any statements of objectives of the school should be a statement of changes to take place in the students” (Tyler 1949, cited in Smith, 2000). Taba (1962, cited in Smith, 2000) went a step ahead and formulated the curriculum-building process as 1) Diagnosis of need, 2) Formulation of objectives, 3) Selection of content, 4) Organization of content, 5) Selection of learning experience, 6) Organization of learning experience and 7) Determination of what to evaluate and ways and means to do it. Modern theories of curriculum, however, distinguish it as a product of the objectives of teaching set out at the inset from the process of transmission of information. Stenhouse (1975, quoted in Smith, 2000) says, “The idea is that of an educational science in which each classroom is a laboratory, each teacher a member of the scientific community...  The crucial point is that the proposal is not to be regarded as an unqualified recommendation but rather as a provisional specification claiming no more than to be worth putting to the test of practice. Such proposals claim to be intelligent rather than correct.”  However, it should be noted that the theory of curriculum, which was initially designed for schools, cannot be exactly replicated in informal education that I undertook. Jeff and Smith (1990, quoted in Smith, 2000) said, “At any one time, outcomes may not be marked by a high degree of specificity.  In a similar way, the nature of the activities used often cannot be predicted.  It may be that we can say something about how the informal educator will work.  However, knowing in advance about broad processes and ethos isn't the same as having a knowledge of the programme.  We must, thus, conclude that approaches to the curriculum which focus on objectives and detailed programmes appear to be incompatible with informal education.” Conditions of Learning Reece and Walker (2003) defined classroom management as managing the classroom situation to ensure that the atmosphere is general where the most effective learning takes place for all the students. Ewan and White (1984) described conditions for learning as those factors, which influence the attitudes of the learner towards the learning process. The teaching session took place around 14:00 to 15:00 hrs Friday afternoon, in accordance with the shift patterns. It is usually a less busy day but there are two staff nurses off sick and one patient had cardiac arrest at lunchtime. It is difficult to postpone the date of my presentation because I already booked the venue, computer and overhead projector for the PowerPoint on the only day where the seminar room was available. In view of the non-availability of another suitable date until end of March and some unexpected circumstances happen to the staff and patient, I decided to hold the teaching session as scheduled. Certain constraints were encountered and I had high level of nervousness and anxiety. The seminar room of the department was chosen due to the convenient location and easy accessibility to the learners. It was also possible that certain participants may have experienced stressful encounters during the course of the day and consequently brought with them emotional factors that could affect their learning experience (Rogers 1994). The environment was the small seminar room, which had another office leading off it. The chairs were laid out in “C” formation and I could observe and maintain eye contact with the learners (Appendix B). The schedule of the teaching session was posted on the staff room, green and red team and on the staff toilet five days prior to my schedule date of presentation (Appendix C). Lecture Presentation Four members of the staff attended the teaching session; includes two nursing staff, anemia nurse specialist and clinical nurse specialist. It was based on their availability to attend the teaching session. It was voluntary and learners were not forced to attend, certain level of coercion existed due to the fact that the learners and teacher were colleagues. Brookfield (1986) mentioned that it is possible that the learners may have felt a certain amount of pressure to attend the teaching session out of loyalty to the teacher, leading to a decrease in the facilitation of effective learning. One of the learners asks if he can bring drinks during my presentation and I agreed. It relates Maslow’s Motivational Theory (1968), which highlights hierarchy of basic needs that must be taken into consideration when assessing the environment for learning. Written consent for videotaping was taken prior to my presentation (Appendix D). This was my first teaching session being videotaped. One of the learners attended the teaching session on her own time and three were attending during work hours. Due to lack of resources, one of the learners operated the video camera. Due to an old version of my video camera, the cameraman was having difficulty in operating and it increases my anxiety and uneasiness. I was trying to pretend that it wasn’t being videotaped but luckily, at the end on my teaching session it was played back. The video camera is facing towards me. The lecture has been described by some sage as a method of transferring information from the notes of the teacher to the notes of the learner – without it passing through the mind of either (Garrison and Archer 2000). The learners were tired from the morning shift and the most direct problem to tackle was their attention. I decided to ask some questions during my presentation in order for them to be active in thinking and responding questions put to them. To maintain good communication it was essential to make frequent glances around the learner rather than reading what was written on the computer screen. I tried my expression to be enthusiastic and have a confident gesture rather than bored expression and fidgety movement, which could be enormously distracting and off-putting. According to McCarthy (1987), learners can be classified according to two types – 1) concrete, that is, learners who take in information through hands-on activities and 2) abstract, that is, learners who take in information through analysis, thinking and reflection. Although traditional schooling usually favors the abstract, reflective process and in my classroom session, I could only adopt this path, I knew that the concrete process of showing them the process of haemodylisis first-hand would have been more effective. There was a distraction during my presentation. One of the learners is a clinical nurse specialist and there was a phone call for him. Since he was away from his office, one of the members of the staff in the unit received the call and knocked the door. It broke the concentration of the learners and the teacher and it increased the level of my anxiety. It was difficult to get back the cue of my lecture and the learners’ attention after the disruption. According to the social learning theory propagated by Bandura (1973, cited in Omrod, 1999), the necessary conditions for learning are: 1) the learner must pay attention to the teaching session, 2) the learner must be able to remember the information transmitted, 3) the learner must be able to replicate the actions shown and 4) the learners must be motivated to learn. Bandura (1973, quoted in Keasley, 1994), “Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” The distraction during the learning session and the schedule of the lecture at the end of the day’s work was in a way an unsuitable condition for learning. The design of the presentation followed Gagne’s (cited in Kearsely, 1994) conditions of learning theory, in which the sessions followed increasing level of complexity such that the learners could comprehend easily. Following Bruner (1960), who said, “The teaching and learning of structure, rather than simply the mastery of facts and techniques, is at the center of the classic problem of transfer... If earlier learning is to render later learning easier, it must do so by providing a general picture in terms of which the relations between things encountered earlier and later are made as clear as possible”, I tried to design the module in a very lucid form. However, it was difficult to motivate the learners who were tired after the day’s work. Bruner (1960) said, “motives for learning must be kept from going passive... they must be based as much as possible upon the arousal of interest in what there is be learned, and they must be kept broad and diverse in expression”. It was perhaps my lack of teaching experience and my anxiety over my accent that affected the level of motivation of the learners. Assessment of learners Bradshaw (1989) mentioned that in professions like nursing, assessment is of paramount importance in determining a learner’s ability of following a teaching session. The initial aims are very general in nature. In order to determine how they are to be achieved, it is necessary to further refine such aims into specific learning objectives (Neary 2000). Specific learning objectives should not be unambiguous, specific and should indicate the desired standard to be reached (Hinchliff, 1986). Performance assessment of learners demonstrates their skill, knowledge and reasoning. It can take many forms like written, oral or group assessment. According to Wiggins (1990, cited in Moskal, 2003), "The best tests always teach students and teachers alike the kind of work that most matters; they are enabling and forward-looking, not just reflective of prior teaching". Since my learners are staff nurses, they already have prior knowledge although not in the specific area of haemodialysis. Although I did not have enough time to undertake a detailed performance assessment through project reports, presentations, etc., I devoted some time for a question and answer session so that I could understand the level of reasoning and comprehension among the learners. Besides, this process also allowed me to clarify some of the questions and doubts that the learners might still have. The list of questions that I asked the learners was already prepared beforehand in alignment with the goals and objectives. I took care that the discussion did not go out of the way, including unrelated topics, since I had to be sure that the learners were fully acquainted with the area of haemodialysis at the end of the limited session. However, since I had adopted the process model of curriculum, in which the teaching session was not set out as a product of the objectives but rather as a process to share experience, I did not really undertake a strict process of assessment. Stenhouse (1975) said that the process model could not be a marking model: “It can never be directed towards an examination as an objective without loss of quality, since the standards of the examination then override the standards immanent in the subject.  This does not mean that students taught on the process model cannot be examined, but it does mean that the examinations must be taken in their stride as they pursue other aspirations.  And if the examination is a by-product there is an implication that the quality the student shows in it must be an under-estimate of his real quality.  It is hence rather difficult to get the weak student through an examination using a process model.  Crammers cannot use it, since it depends upon a commitment to educational aims.”  Evaluation of teaching process Although this was my first experience in teaching, I tried to be creative and innovative. However, I needed to know whether my experiment got across to the learners. As Anderson (1997 cited in Smith, 2001) said, a unilateral lecture module without assessing the learners’ aptitude is “driven by my not wanting to be seen as incompetent, this may lead me to hide things from myself and others, in order to avoid feelings of incompetence. For example, if my behaviour is driven by wanting to be competent, honest evaluation of my behaviour by myself and others would be welcome and useful”. The unilateral module involves ‘making inferences about another person’s behaviour without checking whether they are valid and advocating one’s own views abstractly without explaining or illustrating one’s reasoning’ (Edmondson and Moingeon 1999 cited in Smith, 2001) Evaluation enables the teacher to make any necessary adjustment or modifications (Neary 2000) and can be considered a vital part of teaching and learning process (Rowntree 1997). In order to evaluate my teaching performance and the learners’ needs, evaluation form has been handed over to the learners after my presentation and was collected before leaving the classroom (Appendix E). Bradshaw (1989) cited that the process of evaluation can be best implemented via the use of formal framework and it provides information required for effective evaluation. One of the learners suggested an area for further improvement about my presentation and the other three just completed the evaluation form. The feedback was encouraging. Since the learners are my colleagues and I have interpersonal relationship with them, there is a potential bias and influences the responses given. Erickson (1985) mentioned that learners could be reluctant to comment in any detail or make suggestions for future improvement in completing written evaluations. It is ideal to conduct an informal group evaluation from the learners after the presentation in order to get more accurate reflection of the learners’ experience. As I previously mentioned, there was a distraction during my lecture presentation. It is ideal to conduct lecture off ward location to prevent risk of interruption and distraction. Conclusion According to the theories of learning and teaching developed since the 1950s, the learning process is partly cognitive, that is through the process of experience and reflective, and partly through the dissemination of information. Learners can be taught in set paradigms of learning conditions or through innovative and challenging methods. Professional learning is distinctive from the traditional learning platforms since it is directed towards enhancement of skills and required to be in context of existing skills and knowledge. For any learning process, it is essential to have the basic aims and the detailed objectives chalked out so that the curriculum can be designed accordingly. My lecture was very teacher-centered and was best suited for transmitting information and not particularly suited to facilitate critical thinking. Considering that the main purpose of my lecture was transmitting subject matter, the most important task and challenge was to identify the essence of the topic. In preparing a lecture, one should first consider that the learners wish to learn. Intrinsically, the communication channel tends to be one way, with only limited opportunities for feedback from the learners about their perceptions, needs etc. I am unsure as to whether the initial aims of the session were achieved. Only four members were able to attend the lecture, the learning that took place may easily be passed on to others members of the staff in form of “end of bed” teaching at relevant intervals during duty hours in the unit and the handouts already forwarded to each member of the staff through work-base email. The teaching process is also a learning process for the instructor since it gives one to reflect on the subject matter at every stage – during conceptualizing the problem, designing the curriculum, presenting the lecture and during the interactive session. Since the learners were also healthcare professionals, they could provide useful tips on prevention of spread of infection. I gained a great deal from my experience. I believed that the main aspect on which I need to work is learning to adapt my teaching to the needs of the learners. This is my great challenge due to lack of my teaching experience. The knowledge that I gained has provided me with the confidence to grasp the future teaching and learning opportunities to gain experience and develop my skills. Works Cited Boud, D., R. Keogh and D. Walker (Eds.). (1985). Reflection: Turning Experience into Learning. London: Kogan Page. Brooke, Jacqueline G and Martin G Brooke (1999), In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classroom, Assn for Supervision and Classroom. Bruner, Jerome (1960), The Process of Education, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press Dewey, J. (1933). How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process. Lexington, MA: Heath. Giles Jr., D. E., E. Porter Honnet, and S. Migliore (Eds.). 1991. Research Agenda for Combining Service and Learning in the 1990s. Raleigh, NC: National Society for Internships and Experiential Education. Kearsley, G. (1994). Conditions of learning (R. Gagne). [Online]. Available: http://www.gwu.edu/~tip/gagne.html [December 1, 1999]. Kolb, D. A. 1984. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Moskal, Barbara M. (2003). Recommendations for developing classroom performance assessments and scoring rubrics. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 8(14). Retrieved March 17, 2006 from http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=8&n=14 . Omrod, J.E. (1999). Human learning (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Smith, M. K. (1996, 2000) 'Curriculum theory and practice' the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/b-curric.htm. Last updated: January 30, 2005 Smith, M. K. (2001) 'Chris Argyris: theories of action, double-loop learning and organizational learning', The Encyclopedia of Informal Education, www.infed.org/thinkers/argyris.htm. Last update: January 28, 2005 Read More