Using student-centred learning environments to stimulate deep approaches to learning: Factors encouraging or discouraging their effectiveness
TL;DR: In this paper, a review outlines encouraging and discouraging factors in stimulating the adoption of deep approaches to learning in student-centred learning environments, which can be situated in the context of the learning environment, in students' perceptions of that context and in characteristics of the students themselves.
About: This article is published in Educational Research Review.The article was published on 2010-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 727 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Active learning & Cooperative learning.
Summary (3 min read)
Jump to: [1. Introduction] – [1.1. Approaches to learning] – [1.2. Student-centred learning environments] – [2. Methodology] – [3.1. Which factors encourage or discourage the adoption of deep approaches to learning in a student-centred learning environment?] – [3.2. How do these encouraging and discouraging factors influence students' approaches to learning?] – [3.2.1. Contextual factors] – [3.2.2. Perceived contextual factors] – [3.2.3. Student factors] and [4. Conclusions and discussion]
1. Introduction
- Over the past decades, a large amount of research has been conducted on students' learning in higher education.
- These efforts have not always been successful.
- Therefore, this review focuses on factors that may encourage or discourage the adoption of a deep approach to learning in student-centred learning environments.
1.1. Approaches to learning
- With Marton and Säljö being pioneers in the 1970s (Marton, 1976; Säljö, 1975) , the concept of approaches to learning has been a firmly established concept in the educational research literature for several decades now.
- In the current review, the authors focus on two of the most frequently used questionnaires to measure students' approaches to learning in higher education (Entwistle & McCune, 2004; Leung, Ginns, & Kember, 2008; Richardson, 2004) , i.e. the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) (Entwistle & Ramsden, 1983 ) and the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) (Biggs, 1987) .
- The achieving approach refers to students making an effective use of space and time (=strategy) in order to maximise grades (=motive) (Biggs, Kember, & Leung, 2001) .
- The conceptualisation of learning (meaning/deep versus reproducing/surface), which is grounded in the original conceptualisation of Marton and Säljö, is similar in both questionnaires (Entwistle & McCune, 2004 ) and central to the current review.
- Recent research on the SPQ has shown that approaches to learning are best described through the use of two factors, namely a deep and surface approach, without the need for a separate strategic approach scale (Zeegers, 2002) .
1.2. Student-centred learning environments
- The past decennia, a wide range of new teaching methods came up due to the influence of the constructivist learning theory, which defined learning as an "active process in which learners are active sense makers who seek to build coherent and organised knowledge" (Mayer, 2004, p. 14) .
- Characteristics of these student-centred teaching methods are: (1) an activity and independence of the student, (2) a coaching role of the teacher, and (3) knowledge which is regarded as a tool instead of an aim (Dochy, Segers, Gijbels, & Van den Bossche, 2002) .
- Those studies did not show univocal results.
- After the identification of these factors, a second literature search will be done to investigate the nature of the relationship between the suggested encouraging and discouraging factors and students' approaches to learning.
2. Methodology
- To answer the first research question, studies that investigated the influence of student-centred learning environments on students' approaches to learning were explored in order to identify encouraging and discouraging factors.
- Search terms were "approach(es) to learning" and "learning approach(es)" combined with key words that referred to, or were examples of, student-centred learning environments: "student-cent(e)red learning", "student-cent(e)red teaching", "active learning", "constructivist learning", "student-activating", "problem-based learning", "powerful learning environment", "minimal guidance", "discovery learning", "open-ended learning environment", "collaborative learning", "cooperative learning", "project-based learning", and "case-based learning".
- This literature search was conducted by means of the electronic search platform LibriSource+, which made it possible to search several electronic databases simultaneously.
- As a result, 25 articles were retrieved regarding the first research question.
- Those 93 articles investigated the nature of the relationship between these encouraging and discouraging factors and approaches to learning.
3.1. Which factors encourage or discourage the adoption of deep approaches to learning in a student-centred learning environment?
- The results of the studies addressing the effects of student-centred learning environments on students' approaches to learning were not univocal.
- Chung and Chow (2004) , Herington and Weaven (2008), McParland, Noble, and Livingston (2004) , and Wong and Lam (2007) did not find any significant difference between pre-and post-test measures of students' deep and surface approaches in a student-centred learning environment.
- While some studies emphasised the surplus value of student-centred teaching methods for fostering deep approaches (Richardson, Dawson, Sadlo, Jenkins, & McInnes, 2007; Tetik, Gurpinar, & Bat, 2009; Wilson & Fowler, 2005) , other studies found the opposite, i.e. more surface approaches in student-centred learning environments (Nijhuis et al., 2005; Segers et al., 2006) .
- In the 25 retrieved articles, the authors tried to explain their results by indicating encouraging and discouraging factors, based on literature, previous empiric research, interviews with students and their own ideas.
3.2. How do these encouraging and discouraging factors influence students' approaches to learning?
- To investigate the nature of the relationships between encouraging and discouraging factors (see Fig. 1 ) and students' approaches to learning, 93 articles were retrieved from their literature search.
- Next, the results concerning contextual factors, perceived contextual factors, and student factors are presented separately.
3.2.1. Contextual factors
- Different encouraging and discouraging factors were identified in the context in which the student learns.
- Kwok and Ma (1999) studied students' approaches in a collaborative assessment setting, in which both teachers and students participated in the assessment process.
- It proved to be that the deep approach of the former group was significantly higher than that of the latter group.
- They investigated whether students' deep approaches improved in an interactive lecture where the teacher posed questions to the students at appropriate points in time.
- A final study indicating the surplus value of human sciences in stimulating the adoption of a deep approach is the one of Eley (1992) , who showed that students studying English literature, politics and philosophy scored higher on the deep approach than students in (bio)chemistry, microbiology, mathematics, statistics and accounting and business courses.
3.2.2. Perceived contextual factors
- It has often been stated that it is not the learning environment in itself that influences learning, but the way students perceive it (Entwistle, 1991; Zeegers, 2001) .
- Research results on the relationship between perceived workload and approaches to learning are quite univocal, except for the study of Karagiannopoulou and Christodoulides (2005) who did not find any significant relationship.
3.2.3. Student factors
- A lot of encouraging and discouraging student factors were identified as an answer to research question 1, indicating the student-dependent nature of approaches to learning.
- Many of these student factors have been empirically investigated in relation to approaches to learning.
- Their results showed that the approaches to learning for the different learning profiles converged, i.e. students with a high ambivalent (=high deep/high surface) and deep approach-profile significantly decreased in their deep approach while the deep approach of students with a surface approach or fallen angels-profile (=moderate/low deep and surface) significantly increased.
4. Conclusions and discussion
- Empirical research in higher education did not show consistent findings.
- While students' deep approaches often result in qualitatively better learning outcomes (Minbashian et al., 2004; Trigwell & Prosser, 1991a , 1991b) , the use of deep approaches is not always reflected in higher quantitative learning outcomes (Byrne et al., 2004; Gijbels et al., 2005; Kember, Jamieson, Pomfret, & Wong, 1995) .
- Quasi-experimental research in which these factors are manipulated could answer these questions.
- As to the student factors, several relationships have been found with approaches to learning.
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TL;DR: In this paper, a report on an introduction of a flipped classroom approach to lectures in a final-year actuarial course is presented, where students were surveyed both at the start and end of the semester to obtain their views on lectures in general and the flipped classroom structure.
Abstract: A report on an introduction of a "flipped classroom" approach to lectures in a final-year actuarial course is presented. At the heart of the flipped classroom is moving the "delivery" of material outside of formal class time and using formal class time for students to undertake collaborative and interactive activities relevant to that material. Students were surveyed both at the start and end of the semester to obtain their views on lectures in general and the flipped classroom structure. After experiencing the entire course with this teaching style, student views became, on average, far more positive towards the flipped classroom approach.JEL: A22KEYWORDS: Flipped Classroom, Inverted Classroom, Student PerceptionsINTRODUCTIONThe face-to-face model of a number of lectures plus a single tutorial each week has been a standard approach to course delivery in higher education for decades. Despite the revolution that the internet has been to education in providing flexible access to course material, tradition dictates that a number of hours each week be set aside for formal lectures and tutorials.The maintenance of the formal lecture and tutorial structure is despite significant evidence that the traditional lecture format is not the most effective way for most students to learn. One approach to a more active student experience is through a "flipped classroom" model (first introduced by Baker, 2000, and Lage et al., 2000, and popularized through online videos and activities by, among others, Karl Fisch, Jon Bergmann and the Khan Academy). At the heart of the flipped classroom is moving the "delivery" of material outside of formal class time (through the use of extensive notes, video recorded lectures and other appropriate means) and using formal class time for students to undertake collaborative and interactive activities relevant to that material.This paper reports on a move to a flipped classroom approach in a compulsory final-year course in the undergraduate actuarial program at the Australian National University (ANU). There are two specific research questions of interest. First, do students value the traditional lecture format compared to other learning activities? This is a question that has been extensively researched in the literature, although in this case it will flow into a second and less well researched question, how do students' perceptions of the use of class time change after being involved in a flipped classroom structure? Both of these questions are answered through the use of a two-part survey taken of students in July and October of the 2012 edition of the course, which was the first time the flipped classroom approach had been used in the course.The next section of the paper reviews relevant literature, in particular that on the use of the flipped classroom approach. Following that is a data and methodology section outlining the flipped classroom approach undertaken and the survey methodology used in answering the two research questions. Following that is the results of the analysis and then concluding comments.LITERATURE REVIEWPrince (2004) provides an overview of the literature on "active learning" and notes the difficulty in measuring its effectiveness due to the different definitions of and approaches to active learning across the literature. In its broadest sense, Prince (2004) describes active learning as requiring students "to do meaningful learning activities and think about what they are doing". These learning environments are "student-centred" in that it is through student activity with the guidance of the teacher that learning occurs. In general, Prince (2004) presents significant evidence of the benefits of active learning. There has been a wealth of research into student perceptions of didactic compared to active learning environments, in both discipline-specific and general higher education literature. In addition to the benefits of active learning described by Prince (2004), Baeten et al. …
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10,772 citations
"Using student-centred learning envi..." refers background in this paper
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