Reminded me of a paper entitled I came across entitled 'Putting the
Education Back into Modularisation'
Agree there is a delicate balancing act between the need to have some
learning outcomes in mind, and the danger of marginalisaing less
measurable aspects of learning and of teaching
-----Original Message-----
From: learning development in higher education network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Bradbeer
Sent: 07 December 2004 16:42
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: generalism vs specialism - teaching vs. learning
Len Holmes has raised some interesting points in his recent posting.
I am not sure that we want to pursue varieties of language games too
far, but I wonder if the problems alluded to only arise because of the
conquest of HE by leraning outcomes? I suppose that I am ambivalent
about learning outcomes because I remember a time when rather too many
university teachers were not at all clear what they wanted their
students to do as a result of the teaching. So learning outcomes, by
making explicit the tacit, were useful. The problem comes with the
injunction to make learning outcomes measurable. This has lead,
regrettably, to an equation of learning with skill, competence,
capability etc and the marginalisation of significant attributes like
critical understanding and personal transformation. There is some value
in learning outcomes but the system is probably rapidly evacuating most
of it!
Now, I certainly have had the experience of seeing students read books
and journal papers, do fieldwork etc and not learn anything.
So there clearly is a complex relationship between activity visible and
demonstrable, even mensurable, and learning. This is where I find the
work of Marton and the phenomenographers helpful, for they would argue
that these students have impoverished conceptions of
learning and shallow approaches to study. And John Biggs would
tell us that we have poorly aligned curricula if we allow students to
get away with this sort of behaviour and still graduate.
So I think that we do need to keep using, but also to keep checking and
refining our use of learning in order to talk about it to ourselves, but
especially to our students. Constructing shared understandings of
learning must surely be central to the enterprise of the university.
Is this all too profound for the end of winter's day?
John Bradbeer
Principal Lecturer in Higher Education
School of Education and Continuing Studies University of Portsmouth
141 High Street
Old Portsmouth
Portsmouth
PO1 2HY
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