This exchange between Claire Brooks and Carole McCulloch took place in General Forum.
Claire:
The latest edition of global ed has been released (comes out once a month and free subscription). Lead article is about an Edith Cowan course in security. I thought that Bob Cooper and others interested in exploring constructivist theories and practice might be intrigued to note the distinctions made and examples given of exogenous and endogenous constructivism.(Nice examples of simulations and student engagement, too.) As Bob suggested these terms are used frequently and rarely fully explained what precisely is meant by the term.
Carole:
Hi Claire, thanks for this update. I was particularly taken with the snippet from Zane Berg:
NEW ROLES FOR LEARNERS AND TEACHERS IN ONLINE HIGHER EDUCATION - Zane Berge
With the emergence of technologies that make it easier for two-way communication, such as teleconferencing and web-based, computer-mediated communication, the image of the independent distant learner is changing. Historically, in higher education there has been a teacher-centered focus on transferring knowledge from expert to novice. Today, the goals of education, demographics of the population, and the lifestyles of students are converging to cause a focus on students being transformed into self-directed, life-long learners who construct meaning, both individually and socially. Taken together, these factors demand a cultural change within higher education that both necessary and painful to teachers and learners.
This certainly resonated for me as I considered the wealth of new technologies available now for Voice Chat, Webinars, Web conferencing, Blogging, etc. But it also spoke volumes about the differences in approach from University to TAFE about the pathway for learners to construct meaning in their learning. Is this a true summary of technique: instructor-led in Universities v. learner-led in TAFEs.
What's your opinion on these differences? (in 500 words or less :-))
Claire:
Guess, I'd have to say that you have set up a pretty extreme dichotomy there Carole. I haven't seen all that much evidence that TAFE's are in any way learner-led despite the hype of professional development and huge investment in 'flexible delivery' initiatives.
I'd need to tease out a little more exactly what you mean by *learner led* and *instructor led* as they are not neutral terms, and *instructor led* would sit a little uneasily with most of my colleagues.
To set Zane's quote in context - he is a US based distance educator, and therefore his comments reflect that environment- low level of TAFE equivalent organisations, a strong distance focus, reflecting an older style distance mode before communicative technologies were widely available, rather than blended or resource based learning or the signficant advantages ICT has had in enabling peer and teacher communication.
Zane said "Historically, in higher education there has been a teacher-centered focus on transferring knowledge from expert to novice." In my view that holds for all education...trick seems to be in how to do it better and most effectively and that might be by developing communities of practice ( after the old style apprenticeship schemes for example or in our case supporting distributed professional associations of cross industry workers), in creating high quality resources that students can experiment/interact with,( Toolboxes,and see some of our resources at http://www.infodiv.unimelb.edu.au/telars/cds/index.html), in enabling acccess to world leader expertise through face to face lectures,video and online discussion and so on ( this community? and see http://events.unimelb.edu.au/), among the variety.
Any way, in a few words Carole: No, I don't think that is what Zane Berge was saying at all. I think he was saying that education (and higher education) is going through a period of extreme change caused in part by the rapid changes in technology and its impact on society including means of production and distribution of goods and services, and that necessarily means that roles of teachers and learners have changed."....these factors demand a cultural change within higher education that both necessary and painful to teachers and learners."..... and I would add inevitable, but that we still have opportunities to shape our responses and to mold the cultural change that is occurring.
Carole:
Hi Claire, you're right to take me to task on this extreme dichotomy - it is certainly not a valid summary at all in current practices. However, as Zane Berg points out, historically, in higher education there has been a teacher-centered focus on transferring knowledge from expert to novice.
I would have to say that historically this is true for the TAFE scenario too and that in some cases we still have teachers clinging to that philosophy. And the 'pain' expected by them when challenged to move outside of comfort zones is still the 'final frontier' in responding to change.
My argument is that we still need further funding, strategies and programs to assist and support those teachers in the final frontier.
To read the article for yourself, visit http://www.globaled.com/articles/BergeZane2000.pdf
