Conceptions of teaching and their relationship to student learning

Abstract

It is now well established that students can hold differing, but readily identifiable, conceptions of learning. This study attempted to discover whether parallel conceptions of teaching can be identified and, if so, whether they are related to student learning outcomes. Initial investigation was through semi‐structured interviews with lecturers at a polytechnic. Constructs identified from the interview transcript were transformed into scales for a questionnaire. Different sets of polytechnic lecturers responded to trial and final versions of the questionnaire. Analysis of the final version of the questionnaire identified two main orientations to teaching — learning facilitation and knowledge transmission — made up of five and four subscales respectively. Mean scores for the two orientations were then computed for 16 departments in two institutions. The departmental scores were found to correlate with data on student learning from longitudinal surveys employing repeated applications of the Study Process Questionnaire. Departments with high scores on knowledge transmission discouraged students from adopting a deep approach to study. Departments in which learning facilitation predominated seemed less likely to induce surface approaches.

Student and tutor perceptions of effective tutoring in distance education

“…We utilised an amended version of Gow and Kember's (1993) original questionnaire to investigate students' and tutors' conceptions of a 'good tutor'. Four of the 46 items were concerned with the use of audiovisual aids, and these were dropped as Open University tutors are not expected to provide audiovisual support materials.…”

“…Gow and Kember (1993) constructed a 46-item questionnaire that measured two broad 'orientations' to teaching in higher education: an orientation towards knowledge transmission and an orientation towards learning facilitation. Norton, Richardson, Hartley, Newstead, and Mayes (2005) Most of the research on conceptions of teaching has been carried out in campus-based environments, where tutor support traditionally takes place in face-to-face situations.…”

Identidades profesionales, concepciones de enseñanza-aprendizaje y estrategias docentes del profesorado universitario

“…Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el profesorado que concibe la docencia como transmisión de información tiende a emplear estrategias centradas en el profesor. Por su parte, el profesorado que concibe la enseñanza como una forma de desarrollo y cambio del pensamiento de los estudiantes y que define su rol como facilitador de aprendizajes, suele emplear estrategias de enseñanza orientadas al estudiante (Åkerlind, 2003, 2007Gow y Kember, 1993;Kember y Gow, 1994;Kember y Kwan, 2000;Lindblom-Ylänne y otros, 2006;Prosser y Trigwell, 1998;Trigwell y Prosser, 1996a No obstante, en algunos de estos estudios también encontramos inconsistencias, pues muchos de los docentes que tienen concepciones de la enseñanza orientadas al estudiante, sin embargo, ponen en práctica estrategias de enseñanza más centradas en el contenido que en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes (Donche y Van Petegem, 2011;Fang, 1996;Murray y McDonald, 1997;Trigwell y Prosser, 1996b). Este caso podría darse en aquellos profesores que a pesar de haber recibido una formación pedagógica, ésta ha sido más teórica que práctica y, por tanto, no han sabido extrapolar su pensamiento a la acción.…”

Student Teachers’ Reflective Practice on a Tutorial Teaching Approach

“…The tutorial system, with its smaller classes, presents a teaching context that allows a student-centred teaching approach can be used (Prosser & Trigwell, 1997). Additionally, it utilizes a learning approach with an emphasis on the development of an individual understanding of the course materials (Gow & Kember, 1993). This is of great significance because students with a deep learning approach are apt to obtain better results in terms of learning outcomes than those students with a surface learning approach (Prosser & Trigwell, 1999).…”