Exploring students ways of meaningmaking: Promoting engagement through constructivedevelopmental ped

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Exploring students ways of meaning-making
Promoting engagement through constructive-developm
ental pedagogy

• Professor Carolin Kreber
• Director, TLA
• Patersons Land
• 11th Course Organizers Forum

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Engagement

• Engaging students in learning and teaching
  activities through awareness of the beliefs about
  knowledge and learning that they hold
• Promoting student engagement in more complex ways
  of meaning making through challenge and support

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The wider context of higher education

• Critical, reflective thinking skills and the
  ability to make up one's own mind are essential
  learning outcomes in a world in which multiple
  perspectives abound and right action is often
  disputed.
• The complexities of todays world require higher
  education institutions to prepare not only
  discipline specialists, but also future leaders,
  independent thinkers, and responsible citizens.
• (Baxter-Magolda and Terenzini, 1999, Learning
  and teaching in the 21st Century).

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Two different perspectives from students on the
same course

• I wish we could get some kind direction in this
  course. I feel totally in the dark. The
  instructor depends too much on the views of other
  students. He doesnt seem to have the answers. I
  have no idea what to look for in the reading
  assignments and I dont know what points are
  important to talk about. Theres too much
  discussion. I just wish hed tell us what the
  point iswhat hes looking for.

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Second perspective

• This is a great course! Theres a good
  combination of both lecture and class discussion.
  I find I can relate a lot of the things Ive
  learned in here to the rest of the world. I
  really like hearing from other students. They
  bring in different viewpoints and it makes me
  think

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Different ways of meaning-making

• One perspective on student learning is concerned
  with how students understand the nature,
  certainty and limits of knowledge.
• What is knowledge?
• How do I come to know?
• Who is capable of really knowing anything?
• Who can I learn from?

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• What would help me learn?
• What roles should I adopt in the learning
  process?
• What is my understanding of Self?
• How do I make decisions?
• How should I be assessed?

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Can differences in meaning-making be observed
among students?

• Developmental psychologists studying
  undergraduate students have provided evidence
  that, overall, undergraduate students change as
  they develop increasingly more complex
  conceptions of knowing and learning.

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Research on students intellectual/epistemologica
l development since the late 1960s

• Students gradually move from an absolute or
  dualistic understanding of knowledge and a naïve
  trust in authority (there are right answers and
  wrong answers and experts usually have the right
  answers or will eventually get there)
• to a stage of multiplicity (knowledge is largely
  certain but uncertain in some areas)
• to a stage of (naïve) relativism (knowledge is
  essentially uncertain my opinion is as good as
  yourswe all have a right to our own opinion)
  and
• from there to a stage of contextual relativism
  (not all standpoints/opinions are equally
  valid a recognition that knowledge is
  contextual and needs to be validated within a
  given context).

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In contextual knowing

• knowledge is judged on the basis of evidence in
  context, and the student's role is to think
  through problems and to integrate and apply
  knowledge.

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Baxter Magoldas work on student
self-authorship and epistemological development

• By the time they graduate most undergraduate
  students have reached stage 2 but only 3 have
  reached stage 4.

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Baxter Magoldas findings suggest that

• two-thirds of entering students limit their role
  as learner to obtaining knowledge, and most will
  not be actively constructing meaning (independent
  knowing) until after they have graduated.

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Learning that is associated with (and promotes)
contextual knowing

• Learners exchange and compare perspectives, think
  through problems, and integrate and apply
  perspectives
• Teachers promote application of knowledge in
  context, encourage evaluative discussions of
  perspectives, and offer and accept critique
• Evaluation is characterized by student and
  teacher mutually measuring progress towards goal

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Link between beliefs about knowledge and beliefs
about learning, teaching and assessment

• Each developmental stage (or set of
  epistemological beliefs) is associated with
  certain assumptions students make about their own
  role as learners, the role of peers, the
  expectations they have of teachers, what they
  consider to be fair assessments, etc.

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The key challenge for universities

• To acquire a better understanding of how students
  learn in a research-intensive environment and how
  to translate this knowledge into educationally
  sound practice at the undergraduate level.
• To match learning activities to the students
  level of development or readiness and
• To promote further development.

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Main implication

• If knowledge is presented as a given, without
  real opportunities for students to question it,
  then the more likely it is that they will remain
  stuck in their current frame of reference.
• (e.g., Entwistle)

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Humboldts view of university educationThe
Times They Are A-Changin ?

• It is furthermore a peculiarity of the
• institutions of higher learning that they treat
  higher learning always in terms of not yet
  completely solved problems, remaining at all
  times in a research mode
• Schools, in contrast, treat only closed and
  settled bodies of knowledge. The relationship
  between teacher and learner is therefore
  completely different in higher learning from what
  it is in schools. At the higher level, the
  teacher is not there for the sake of the student,
  both have their justification in the service of
  scholarship.

• Wilhelm von Humboldt 1810

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By implication this means that

• traditional teaching approach (teaching that is
  led by research but characterized largely by
  transmission of disciplinary content knowledge
  from teacher to student) is, in and of itself,
  inadequate to the goals of developing the
  thinking skills and attitudes undergraduates need
  for later life.
•  

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One way of translating what we know about how
students learn and develop

• Constructive-developmental pedagogy
• (Way of promoting student development towards
  self-authorship including the development of
  complex thinking skills)
• Based on three principles (these principles
  can be enacted in different ways principles are
  not the same as strategies)

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Applicability of this pedagogy

• Baxter Magolda showed how these principles
  applied in three very different courses
• Biology
• Maths
• and socio-cultural studies in education
• (see Baxter Magolda, M., 1999, Creating contexts
  for learning and self-authorship Constructive
  developmental pedagogy.)

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First principle

• Validating students as knowers
• Acknowledging their capacity to hold a point of
  view
• Recognizing their current understandings
• Supporting them in explaining their current views

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Second principle

• Situating learning in the students experience
• Using students experiences as a starting point
  for knowledge
• Bringing experiences into the learning context or
  drawing on existing experiences

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Third principle

• Defining learning as mutually constructing
  knowledge
• Both teacher and students are active players in
  the learning
• Teacher and students put their understandings
  together by exploring students views in the
  context of the knowledge the teacher introduces
• Both experiences and evidence are taken into
  account in the process of knowledge construction

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Implications

• The kind of learning that Baxter Magoldas work
  encourages universities to promote in
  undergraduate students
• Is active and inquiry-based
• Is collaborative/dialogical/relational
• Is situated in real life issues or problems (so
  that they can connect it with their own
  experience)--PBL
• Is deep level (encourages students to explore
  connections to other issues, problems,
  disciplines, etc.)
• Is based on critique or justification of
  knowledge claims (evidence-based)
• Promotes student engagement (see also Kuh et al.)
• Models the research process

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Why this is important

• Baxter Magoldas research suggests that
  epistemological development goes hand in hand
  with identity development
• This resulting self-authorship (integration of
  epistemological and identity development) is what
  undergirds students preparedness for the
  challenges associated with todays world
• Self-authorship prepares for lifelong learning,
  employment and citizenship
• Self-authorship can be promoted through the
  disciplines (through regular undergraduate
  courses)

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Assessing students development

• The Learning Environment Preferences
  (recognition-task instrument developed by William
  Moore. Based on Perrys intellectual and ethical
  development model for college students).
• Scores of independent student learners are
  highly correlated with the higher stages in
  Perrys scheme.
• The LEP addresses five domains
• course content,
• the roles of instructors
• the role of peers,
• classroom atmosphere and activities,
• and course evaluation.

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So what?

• What might be some concrete ways in which you
  could be supporting and challenging
  dualistic/absolute thinkers through meaningful
  course design?
• What might be some concrete ways in which courses
  could be built around the three principles of a
  constructive developmental pedagogy?
• Please think about this and discuss it with
  someone else in the room.

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Constructive-developmental pedagogy

• Ways to promote development towards higher stages
  of development
• 3 principles guide this pedagogy
• Students need to be validated as knowers
• New knowledge needs to be connected with the
  students existing experience
• Learning needs to be interpreted as mutually
  constructing knowledge

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Approaches to teaching characterized by the
following features have been associated with
intellectual development of students

• 1. Variety and choice of learning tasks.
• 2. Explicit communication and explanation of
  expectations.
• 3. Modeling, practice, and constructive feedback
  on high-level tasks.
• 4. A student-centered instructional environment.
  
• 5. An attitude of respect and caring for
  students at all levels of development.

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Instructional design models

• Example Knefelkamp and Widick (1984)
• Developmental Instruction model includes four
  variables of challenge and support
• structure, diversity, experiential learning, and
  personalism

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Structure

• Framework and direction provided to students.
• Placing course in context of the curriculum
• Offering opportunity to rehearse assessment tasks
• Providing detailed explanation of assignments
• Using specific examples that reflect the
  students experience
• (ranges from low to high)

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Diversity

• Presenting and encouraging alternatives and
  different perspectives.
• Diversity can be introduced via readings,
  assignments, perspectives presented, methods of
  teaching
• Quantity (from few to many) and quality (from
  simple pieces of information to complex set of
  tasks)

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Experiential learning

• Concreteness, directness and involvement
  contained in learning activities.
• (helps students make connections with the
  subject matter)
• Methods Case studies, role play, exercises that
  facilitate reflection and the application of
  material
• (Ranges form direct involvement to vicarious
  learning)

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Personalism

• Creating safe learning environments where risk
  taking is encouraged.
• Interactive environment
• Enthusiasm for the material
• Teacher availability
• Comprehensive feedback
• (Ranges from moderate to high)