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Inglese

Modifying teaching and learning approaches to enhance student engagement and empowerment

DAL BIANCO S
2020-01-01

Abstract

Inglese
2020
Inglese
Silvia Dal Bianco
Chapter 27
Mawani S; Mukadam AA
Student Empowerment in Higher Education
413
421
9
978-3-8325-5089-9
https://www.logos-verlag.com/cgi-bin/engbuchmid?isbn=5089&lng=eng&id=
Logos Verlag
Berlin
GERMANIA
Student Empowerment, Higher Education, Learner Centered Syllabus, Mixed Assessment, E-Learning
Introduction The higher education landscape has changed dramatically in the past 20 years. Participation rates and students’ mobility have increased in both developed and developing economies. As a consequence, today’s student bodies are more diverse in terms of nationalities and educational backgrounds. Moreover, the so-called Bologna process, aimed at promoting harmonised academic standards in European countries, has boosted the competitiveness of higher education institutions. Overall, these trends seem to have inspired new teaching approaches, among which is Biggs’ (1996) influential constructive alignment teaching and learning strategy. Under Biggs’ (Ibid.) paradigm, the focus shifts from what students learn to how students learn and learning activities are explicitly aligned with learning outcomes. Hence, constructive alignment is student-centred and concerned with what students are doing. Fung (2017) notes that teachers are not repositories that unilaterally hand out knowledge to students; rather, their role is to enable and empower students in the process of knowledge creation. This creates a relationship between students and staff in which they are partners. In this partnership, teachers listen to and learn from students, trying to make the learning experience more accessible and engaging. Hence, students become active participants in shaping the curriculum and their perspective becomes essential for improving educational practice (Dahl, 1995; Cook-Sather, 2002; Healey and Jenkins, 2009). The key element of the teacher-student partnership is learner-centred teaching, which leads to student empowerment (Colsant, 1995). Empowering students is about fostering and enhancing students’ belief in their own capability and competence, thus building their confidence and ultimately triggering active student participation in the construction of their own education (Ashcroft, 1987). This chapter illustrates how my own practice is student-centred and how this has enabled student empowerment, in the context of the Economics of the Public Sector module that I teach in the Department of Economics at University College London (UCL). More specifically, the chapter describes a number of module modifications I have designed following an open dialogue with students. I will focus here on the learner-centred paradigm of education, as well as on student-staff partnerships. With respect to the latter aspect, it is worth noting that I have benefited from two layers of partnership: first, my partnership with students enrolled in the module, and second, my partnership with student observers. I will begin with a description of the context of this study, namely the UCL Connected Curriculum Framework, UCL ChangeMakers project on student observers, and the Economics of the Public Sector module. I will then present the ways in which I have redesigned some selected teaching tools and learning activities for this module, with the aim of empowering students. I will highlight how I introduced a learner-centred syllabus, made changes in the assessment, and provide an overview on how technology, in particular a virtual learning environment (VLE), can be employed to promote a better learning experience. The chapter ends with concluding remarks and suggestions for further lines of research.
Internazionale
1
2 Contributo in Volume::2.1 Contributo in volume (Capitolo o Saggio)
268
none
DAL BIANCO, S
info:eu-repo/semantics/bookPart
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14085/4792
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