Throughout the 5-day course, I have learnt about Learning Environments and am now able to relate it to the context of our SAF Learning Environment as follows:
The goals and expectations of training in the SAF have changed quite dramatically during the past decade, and new goals suggest to rethink such questions as what is taught, how its is taught, and how trainees are assessed. To review our training in the SAF is therefore to ask certain kinds of questions about the design of learning environments.
I also believe that the design of learning environments in the SAF can also be categorised into the 4 perspectives namely, the degree to which they are learner-centred, knowledge-centred, assessment-centred and community-centred. All of them are important in helping to influence the SAF environment
Learner-centred SAF environment
A focus on the degree to which SAF environments are learner-centred is consistent with the strong body of evidence suggesting that trainees use their current knowledge to construct new knowledge and that what they know and believe at the moment affects how they interpret new information. Sometimes the trainees' current knowledge supports new learning, sometimes it hampers learning; effective instruction therefore begins with what trainees bring to the setting; this includes cultural practices and beliefs as well as knowledge of the academic content.
Hence a learner-centred environment in the SAF attempts to help trainees make connections between their previous knowledge and their current military tasks.
Knowledge-centred SAF environment
Effective environments must also be knowledge-centred. It is not sufficient only to attempt to teach military skills but the ability to think and solve problems requires well-organised knowledge centered that is accessible in appropriate contents. An emphasis on being knowledge-centred raises the question of the degree to which instruction begins with the trainees' current knowledge and skills, rather than simply present new facts about the subject matter. While our young trainees are are capable of grasping more complex concepts than was believed previously, these concepts must be presented in ways that are developmentally appropriate.
Assessment-centred SAF environment
Issues of assessment also represent an improtant perspective for viewing the design of learning environments. Feedback is fundamental to learning. Trainees may receive grades on tests, but these are summative assessments that occur at the end of the course. Hence progress tests are necessary in providing opportunities for trainees to revise and hence improve the quality of their thinking and learning. Assessments must therefore reflect the learning objectives of the course.
Many of our SAF instructors have changed our approach to teaching after seeing how trainees failed to apply what they have learnt during their course.
Community-centred SAF environment
The forth perspective on learning environments involves the degree to which they promote a sense of community. There are several aspects of community, including Community of Practices (CoPs) that help to increase soldiers opportunities to interact, receive feedback and learn from each other.
Finally, there needs to be alignment among the 4 perspectives of learning environments. They all have the potential to overlap and mutually influence one another.
Hence, in an attempt to relook and improve the learning environment of the SAF, is to realise the changes that are taking place in today's training of our soldiers.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Reflections on Session 4 of Learning Environment
Today I learnt about the steps to take in assessing the learning environment and the perceptions of learning environments with reference to the example of an institution of higher learning as follows:
1. Perceptions of heavy workload and inappropriate assessment influence students towards surface approaches to study, but perceptions of workload have no systematic relationship to students’ use of deep approaches to studying.
2. Perceptions of a good teaching environment influence students towards deep approaches to studying, and conversely, students’ perceptions of a bad teaching environment influence them towards surface approaches to studying. The strongest predictors of students using a deep approach to studying are their perceptions of the quality of the teaching and the appropriateness of the assessment.
3. Perceptions of teaching environments influence learning outcomes both directly (perceptions to outcomes) and indirectly (perceptions to approaches to outcomes). Thus, changes in teaching environments may have an impact on students’ learning outcomes without necessarily affecting their learning approaches.
4. Positive perceptions of the teaching environment not only directly influence academic achievement but also, importantly, qualitative learning outcomes. Generic academic and workplace skills are perceived to be best developed in learning environments characterised by good teaching and independence.
5. While a student’s school achievement is a positive (but weak) predictor of their university achievement (GPA), how they perceive their current learning environment is a stronger contributor to all types of learning outcomes at university. Thus, perceptions of university learning environments make a clear contribution to academic outcomes above the prior academic success of a student.
6. Prior academic achievement has no significant influence on how students evaluate their learning environment.
7. The above patterns are evident not only at the general level of the individual student, but also in three contrasting disciplinary contexts.
An example of an survey conducted to investigate students’ perceptions of assessment is as follows:
Comparative Perceptions
How does the assessment in this subject compare with assessment you have experienced in other subjects?
In what ways is it similar or different? Novel or repetitive?
Relationship to Learning
In what ways, if any, did the assessment in this subject help your learning, hinder your learning, or was not relevant to your learning?
Priorities
If all you knew about this subject was the forms of assessment used, then what conclusions would you reach about it?
What ‘messages’ do you take from the ‘assessment package’ about what we value?In discussions with staff about assessment pieces, what impressions did you get about what was ‘desirable’ or would be ‘rewarded’?
What is your reaction to this?
Congruence
How consistent are the espoused goals of this subject and the actual goals addressed by the assessment?
How congruent are we in your eyes in what we say is important and what we actually assess?
Scope
What is your sense of how well the assessment matched the curriculum? In your opinion, what, if any, were important aspects of the curriculum (e.g. knowledge, behavioural competence, values, etc.) that were not
assessed or could be better assessed?
In what ways did the assessment give/not give you an appropriate chance to show what you had learnt?
Timing
What are your perceptions of the relative timing and sequencing of assessment pieces in the subject?
For example, was the first piece ‘too early’ for people to do it justice or ‘too late’ to provide feedback on progress? Were pieces too close together to allow improvement between efforts?
Equity
What do you think about the ‘fairness’ of the assessment? Difficulty? Amount? Marking procedures?
Justification of grades/marks?
Feedback
What do you think about the feedback you have received on your assessment? What comments, if any, would you like to make about its quality, extent, effect on your motivation, and value in helping improve your performance?
Arousal
How anxiety or stress producing was the assessment in this course? Are arousal levels affecting your learning or enjoyment? How?
Informal Systems
What is your perception of the type or extent of informal assessment or feedback systems in this subject (e.g. peer interaction/feedback, informal ungraded exercises)?
Are there sufficient means, apart from formal graded assessment, for students to get feedback on ‘how they are going’?
Involvement
What is your opinion of the level of involvement or participation you have as students in the assessment process? Would you prefer more/less or different involvement or level of choice in the negotiation of the forms or content of assessment?
I also learnt to make use of the SPSS to conduct analysis and make valid conclusions in order to recomment improvements (if any), to the Learning Environment aessessed.
In summary, the data collected from our classroom survey using the preferred and actual WIHIC forms enabled me to better understand how to make good analysis of the statistical data from the SPSS computations thereby making sound recommendations on improving the classroom environment. In this case, the findings indicated that the actual was very close to the preferred WIHIC indicating that the cohort's perceptions met the learning objectives of the AILE course.
Kudos to Dr Quek for enabling the class to meet the learning objectives of the AILE course!
1. Perceptions of heavy workload and inappropriate assessment influence students towards surface approaches to study, but perceptions of workload have no systematic relationship to students’ use of deep approaches to studying.
2. Perceptions of a good teaching environment influence students towards deep approaches to studying, and conversely, students’ perceptions of a bad teaching environment influence them towards surface approaches to studying. The strongest predictors of students using a deep approach to studying are their perceptions of the quality of the teaching and the appropriateness of the assessment.
3. Perceptions of teaching environments influence learning outcomes both directly (perceptions to outcomes) and indirectly (perceptions to approaches to outcomes). Thus, changes in teaching environments may have an impact on students’ learning outcomes without necessarily affecting their learning approaches.
4. Positive perceptions of the teaching environment not only directly influence academic achievement but also, importantly, qualitative learning outcomes. Generic academic and workplace skills are perceived to be best developed in learning environments characterised by good teaching and independence.
5. While a student’s school achievement is a positive (but weak) predictor of their university achievement (GPA), how they perceive their current learning environment is a stronger contributor to all types of learning outcomes at university. Thus, perceptions of university learning environments make a clear contribution to academic outcomes above the prior academic success of a student.
6. Prior academic achievement has no significant influence on how students evaluate their learning environment.
7. The above patterns are evident not only at the general level of the individual student, but also in three contrasting disciplinary contexts.
An example of an survey conducted to investigate students’ perceptions of assessment is as follows:
Comparative Perceptions
How does the assessment in this subject compare with assessment you have experienced in other subjects?
In what ways is it similar or different? Novel or repetitive?
Relationship to Learning
In what ways, if any, did the assessment in this subject help your learning, hinder your learning, or was not relevant to your learning?
Priorities
If all you knew about this subject was the forms of assessment used, then what conclusions would you reach about it?
What ‘messages’ do you take from the ‘assessment package’ about what we value?In discussions with staff about assessment pieces, what impressions did you get about what was ‘desirable’ or would be ‘rewarded’?
What is your reaction to this?
Congruence
How consistent are the espoused goals of this subject and the actual goals addressed by the assessment?
How congruent are we in your eyes in what we say is important and what we actually assess?
Scope
What is your sense of how well the assessment matched the curriculum? In your opinion, what, if any, were important aspects of the curriculum (e.g. knowledge, behavioural competence, values, etc.) that were not
assessed or could be better assessed?
In what ways did the assessment give/not give you an appropriate chance to show what you had learnt?
Timing
What are your perceptions of the relative timing and sequencing of assessment pieces in the subject?
For example, was the first piece ‘too early’ for people to do it justice or ‘too late’ to provide feedback on progress? Were pieces too close together to allow improvement between efforts?
Equity
What do you think about the ‘fairness’ of the assessment? Difficulty? Amount? Marking procedures?
Justification of grades/marks?
Feedback
What do you think about the feedback you have received on your assessment? What comments, if any, would you like to make about its quality, extent, effect on your motivation, and value in helping improve your performance?
Arousal
How anxiety or stress producing was the assessment in this course? Are arousal levels affecting your learning or enjoyment? How?
Informal Systems
What is your perception of the type or extent of informal assessment or feedback systems in this subject (e.g. peer interaction/feedback, informal ungraded exercises)?
Are there sufficient means, apart from formal graded assessment, for students to get feedback on ‘how they are going’?
Involvement
What is your opinion of the level of involvement or participation you have as students in the assessment process? Would you prefer more/less or different involvement or level of choice in the negotiation of the forms or content of assessment?
I also learnt to make use of the SPSS to conduct analysis and make valid conclusions in order to recomment improvements (if any), to the Learning Environment aessessed.
In summary, the data collected from our classroom survey using the preferred and actual WIHIC forms enabled me to better understand how to make good analysis of the statistical data from the SPSS computations thereby making sound recommendations on improving the classroom environment. In this case, the findings indicated that the actual was very close to the preferred WIHIC indicating that the cohort's perceptions met the learning objectives of the AILE course.
Kudos to Dr Quek for enabling the class to meet the learning objectives of the AILE course!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Reflections on Session 3 of Learning Environment
I have learnt that, in assessing a Learning Environment, we can either use existing instruments or modify the existing instrument to suit the type of environment to be assessed.
In addition to the instrument used, the assessor would also need to conduct follow-up actions (e.g. interviews, informal conversations, observations and checking-out of documents) after a survey questionaire has been completed, in order for the assessor to find out more about the Learning Environment.
An example of an instrument used is the School Learning Environment (SLE) applied to 3 schools A,B,C to find out about the climate of each of the 3 schools surveyed. My group was tasked to evaluate the findings of School A to determine the following:
1. Profile of School A
2. Teachers' views of School A
3. Profile of the students in School A
From the survey results of school A, the findings were as follows:
What makes the School LE positive?
1. Good discipline observed by students
2. Good collegiality among teachers
3. Principal’s strong leadership
a. Setting clear goals
b. Maintaining orderly environment
c. Emphasising need for frequent evaluation of student progress towards the goals.
d. Strong personal drive and vigour
e. Leading by example (work hard & active in new educational developments)
What makes the School LE negative?
1. Principal’s autocratic leadership styles
a. Lack of staff freedom
b. Lack of participatory decision making
c. High work pressures & stress
d. Over emphasis on academic achievement
e. Participation in too many new initiatives
f. Constraint of space
2. Lack of motivation among Normal course students
Summary
I have learnt to select the appropriate instrument for the type of learning environment being assessed, by applying it on a case study involving a school being researched upon.
In this way, I am better able to conduct an assessment on a learning environment using not only the survey instrument, but also to follow up with interviews, informal conversations, observations and looking up of relevent documents to support my findings.
In addition to the instrument used, the assessor would also need to conduct follow-up actions (e.g. interviews, informal conversations, observations and checking-out of documents) after a survey questionaire has been completed, in order for the assessor to find out more about the Learning Environment.
An example of an instrument used is the School Learning Environment (SLE) applied to 3 schools A,B,C to find out about the climate of each of the 3 schools surveyed. My group was tasked to evaluate the findings of School A to determine the following:
1. Profile of School A
2. Teachers' views of School A
3. Profile of the students in School A
From the survey results of school A, the findings were as follows:
What makes the School LE positive?
1. Good discipline observed by students
2. Good collegiality among teachers
3. Principal’s strong leadership
a. Setting clear goals
b. Maintaining orderly environment
c. Emphasising need for frequent evaluation of student progress towards the goals.
d. Strong personal drive and vigour
e. Leading by example (work hard & active in new educational developments)
What makes the School LE negative?
1. Principal’s autocratic leadership styles
a. Lack of staff freedom
b. Lack of participatory decision making
c. High work pressures & stress
d. Over emphasis on academic achievement
e. Participation in too many new initiatives
f. Constraint of space
2. Lack of motivation among Normal course students
Summary
I have learnt to select the appropriate instrument for the type of learning environment being assessed, by applying it on a case study involving a school being researched upon.
In this way, I am better able to conduct an assessment on a learning environment using not only the survey instrument, but also to follow up with interviews, informal conversations, observations and looking up of relevent documents to support my findings.
Reflections on Session 2 of Learning Environments
I have learnt the following lessons:
Learning Environments
In addition to stand-up lectures, there exists other forms of Learning Environment that have been explored by Dr Quek, as follows:
1. Virtual Environment - e.g. Blogs
2. Semantics - e.g. Mindmapping
3. eLearning - e.g. Lesson box, on-line learning:facilitation discussion
4. Learning Community - e.g.Sharing of blogs and gmail files
Assessment Instruments
The scales involved in an assessment of Learning Environment (LE) can be categorised according to Moo's 3 schemes namely:
1. Relationship
2. Personal Development
3. System Maintenance and System Change
There are a total of 20 Instruments used for assessing the Learning Environment. Use of the relevant instrument will much depend on the age group and the type of scales required as classified according to Moo's 3 Schemes.
The maximum number of items per scale is also recommended for each instrument as indicated in the list. It is also highly recommeded to provide a 4-point or 5-point likert scale in a survey form.
Summary
I have learnt how learning environment is assessed using validated instruments taught during day 2.
Learning Environments
In addition to stand-up lectures, there exists other forms of Learning Environment that have been explored by Dr Quek, as follows:
1. Virtual Environment - e.g. Blogs
2. Semantics - e.g. Mindmapping
3. eLearning - e.g. Lesson box, on-line learning:facilitation discussion
4. Learning Community - e.g.Sharing of blogs and gmail files
Assessment Instruments
The scales involved in an assessment of Learning Environment (LE) can be categorised according to Moo's 3 schemes namely:
1. Relationship
2. Personal Development
3. System Maintenance and System Change
There are a total of 20 Instruments used for assessing the Learning Environment. Use of the relevant instrument will much depend on the age group and the type of scales required as classified according to Moo's 3 Schemes.
The maximum number of items per scale is also recommended for each instrument as indicated in the list. It is also highly recommeded to provide a 4-point or 5-point likert scale in a survey form.
Summary
I have learnt how learning environment is assessed using validated instruments taught during day 2.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Reflection of Session 1 on Learning Environment
I have learnt the follow lessons:
BIG PICTURE OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
The big picture of Learning Environments can be divided into People and Measurement/Assessment
People
It starts with the question "Who am I?", which will reciprocate into "What are my immediate needs?". This will eventually lead them to behaving in a certain manner that will fulfil their immediate needs. Learning environments will either support or hinder the fulfillment of their needs. Hence, learning environments have great influence over the behaviours of people in fulfiling their personal needs or goals. For example, if a person has a need to become rich, the learning environment that is able to give him the opportunity to do so will influence or encourage him to take the path of becoming rich.
Measurement/Assessment
There are 2 ways of assessing a Learning Environment: Internal (Beta press) and External (Alpha press). In Beta press, the assessors (i.e. participants) can either be a single person or group of people or participants from within, participating in the assessment. In Alpha press the assessor is usually a detached observer (i.e. neutral party).
DESIGN OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
In the design of learning environments, we nedd to consider 4 perspectives of the learning environment namely :
1. Learner-centred environments
Here the learner is given opportunities to practise self-directed learning by which they explore the answer themselves thereby making learning effective. The teacher plays a facilitative role to the learner.
2. Knowledge-centred environments
Here the learner is provided with sufficient relevant knowledge for him to develop an understanding of discipline by himself thereby enabling him to transfer the acquired learning.
3. Assessment-centred environment
Here the learner is being assessed either by way of written or oral tests or feedback to determine whether the learning outcomes have been sufficiently met.
4. Community-centred environment
Here the learner will apply what he has acquired and most importantly perceived, into the community at large. It usually involves cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills that have been acquired during the learning process.
Summary
I have learnt about the big picture of Learning Environment and to appreciate the links between each node.
BIG PICTURE OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
The big picture of Learning Environments can be divided into People and Measurement/Assessment
People
It starts with the question "Who am I?", which will reciprocate into "What are my immediate needs?". This will eventually lead them to behaving in a certain manner that will fulfil their immediate needs. Learning environments will either support or hinder the fulfillment of their needs. Hence, learning environments have great influence over the behaviours of people in fulfiling their personal needs or goals. For example, if a person has a need to become rich, the learning environment that is able to give him the opportunity to do so will influence or encourage him to take the path of becoming rich.
Measurement/Assessment
There are 2 ways of assessing a Learning Environment: Internal (Beta press) and External (Alpha press). In Beta press, the assessors (i.e. participants) can either be a single person or group of people or participants from within, participating in the assessment. In Alpha press the assessor is usually a detached observer (i.e. neutral party).
DESIGN OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
In the design of learning environments, we nedd to consider 4 perspectives of the learning environment namely :
1. Learner-centred environments
Here the learner is given opportunities to practise self-directed learning by which they explore the answer themselves thereby making learning effective. The teacher plays a facilitative role to the learner.
2. Knowledge-centred environments
Here the learner is provided with sufficient relevant knowledge for him to develop an understanding of discipline by himself thereby enabling him to transfer the acquired learning.
3. Assessment-centred environment
Here the learner is being assessed either by way of written or oral tests or feedback to determine whether the learning outcomes have been sufficiently met.
4. Community-centred environment
Here the learner will apply what he has acquired and most importantly perceived, into the community at large. It usually involves cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills that have been acquired during the learning process.
Summary
I have learnt about the big picture of Learning Environment and to appreciate the links between each node.
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