Evaluating Knowledge and Assessment-Centered Reflective-Based Learning Approaches

Abstract

This paper addresses the development of knowledge and assessment-centered learning approaches within a reflective learning framework in a first year physics class in a university faculty. The quality of students’ reflections was scored using a Self-reporting Reflective Learning Appraisal Questionnaire at the end of each learning approach. The results showed the differences between the approaches based on reflections on the learning control through self-knowledge, by connecting experience and knowledge, as well as through self-reflection and self-regulation. Assessment-centered activities fundamentally help students identify aspects of their attitudes towards, as well as regulate, their sustainability learning education.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflections on Cooperative Learning: Instructional Approaches and Identity Construction

“…Therefore, Higher Education Institutions should transfer sustainability competences to the teaching profession by developing curricula competences in education for sustainability, linking sustainability to both student learning and in-practice teaching [2,5]. It entails promoting student interaction and fostering relationships in socialization and learning [7][8][9]. Education for Sustainable Development is directed towards promoting the development of critical thinking, strategic action, and interpersonal relationships The basic characteristics and conditions for cooperative learning were defined by Johnson and Johnson [8].…”

“…But, their emerging identities as reflective practitioners and adaptive experts should further be enriched and extended through reflective thinking and engagements [20]. Therefore, reflection after the action (on-action) is needed to gradually broaden and deepen a primarily descriptive reflective narrative [9][10][11][12].…”

“…In support of the quantitative analysis, the analysis of both the written narratives and the discussions from the focus group provided insights into using the collaborative activities at the schools. As in the work of Colomer et al [9], the first step in analyzing the contents of the written narratives of each student was to identify complete units of information understood, as a simple idea/concept or thought, about a particular learning process. Among the 63 narratives per approach describing the nine cooperative activities, in the structured approach corresponding to the first narrative, there were 480 units, while for the second narrative corresponding to the semi-structured approach, there were 531 units, and for the non-structured approach, there were 363.…”

Competences to Address SDGs in Higher Education—A Reflection on the Equilibrium between Systemic and Personal Approaches to Achieve Transformative Action

“…From the point of view of professional practice, there is a need to break the perpetuation of established teaching practises that are insufficient for developing sustainability competences, and encourage competences related to building capacity for making change in different dimensions. However, in the study by Cebrian and Junyent [72] that is related to competences for ESD, the authors found that student teachers felt more secure in the process of acquiring the knowledge and practical skills related to nature and natural sciences than learning how to guide their future primary school students in the process of developing ethical values, managing their emotions and developing a positive relationship towards sustainability.…”

“…For this purpose, several theoretical frameworks addressed specifically to teacher training have been developed in different universities. Two examples are the KOM-BiNE competency model [71] and the 'Professional Competencies in Education for Sustainability' model [72] -both of them include affective and interpersonal domains and offer different contexts to promote action, reflections and critical thinking, and envisioning future and different scenarios, among other competences.…”