Intelligent design: student perceptions of teaching and learning in large social work classes

Abstract

Research into the effects of large classes demonstrates that students are disadvantaged in terms of higher order learning because interactions between teachers and students occur at lower cognitive levels. This has significance for social work education, with its emphasis on the development of critical thinking and problem solving, both higher order cognitive skills. This paper reports on quantitative and qualitative research that explored social work students' perceptions of different teaching and learning strategies in a large mental health course designed with reference to principles of student-centred learning and constructive alignment. Findings revealed that well-integrated design, relevance to the real world and teacher enthusiasm were seen as most useful by students, rather than particular learning strategies per se. Higher satisfaction ratings and grades were also associated with this student-centred course compared with an earlier traditional lecture-style course. The paper concludes that design based on the interplay between diverse learning activities, including lecture input, strengthened the student-centred orientation of learning and recommends further research that compares learning outcomes associated with these contrasting approaches to professional education.

What went wrong? A critical reflection on educator midwives’ inability to transfer education knowledge

“…[20] The participating educator midwives were encouraged to integrate knowledge, skills and attitude components as foundational knowledge, and then progress to conditional knowledge with integration of clinical information, which culminates in functional knowledge as evidenced by sound clinical judgment. [21] The facilitators concur with Moulding [22] that knowledge is specific to the context, experience and circumstances; therefore, authenticity is of paramount importance. It is essential that students should be engaged in classroom activities that portray the reality of the clinical world, in other words, activities or paper cases should be authentic.…”

Changing the Departmental Learning Culture to Enable Student-Centred Learning in Large Classes

“…The research is not limited to health education. One of the benefits that are relevant to large classes is that peer assessment is a social process and can assist to counter the feeling of isolation that many first year students experience in large classes (AUTC 2001in Moulding 2010. However, Cartney (2010) warns that if peer assessment is used for grading, students can feel that they are treated unfairly and it can thus create feelings of anxiety or anger, which can jeopardise cognitive functioning.…”

“…To develop these skills, which can equip graduates to cope in a fast developing and ever-changing workplace (Naidoo & Searle 1997;Schapper & Mayson 2004), a student-centred approach to teaching, learning and assessment is necessary (Switzer 2004). However teacher-and student-centred teaching, learning and assessment methods are necessary in large classes (Moulding 2010).…”

“…To cope with the large numbers of students in classes, the general trend, as indicated in international literature, is to use traditional lecturing as teaching method (Mulryan-Kyne 2010). Students are expected to passively absorb information while taking notes of the knowledge transferred in class (Moulding 2010). Electronic assessment by means of multiple-choice questions (MCQs) seems to be the practical assessment method and is thus often used (Switzer 2004).…”

Reflective Learning in Social Work Education in the Field of Substance Abuse

“…Cuseo (2007) reported that most of the studies that he reviewed tended to rate class sizes of less than 25 as small and those with more than 50 as large. The Australian Universities Teaching Committee (Moulding, 2010) stated that any class of more than 80 students can be considered to be a large class. In reviewing what he considered to be best practice, Cuseo (2007) suggested that that ideal class size was 15.…”