As lecturers, we hope to inspire students to learn with the joy of learning. However, we are often confronted with the students’ lack of motivation to achieve various learning objectives.
With reference to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Root1 claims that once an individual’s basic levels of physical and social needs are satisfied, growth in learning results from internal motivating factors. While deep learning happens when a person’s basic needs are met, ‘fear of failure’ is often the cause of shallow learning. Creating a learning environment with clear learning objectives and carefully planned assessments matching the objectives can help the learner feel more secure.

Assessments are both formative and summative. When used effectively, assessments can encourage self-directed and in-depth learning.² However, assessments alone will not achieve deep learning. Creating an effective learning environment includes looking into many other factors that I shall highlight in this article.

The basis of student-centred learning method is to empower students towards learning on their own with the help of clear and easily accessible learning objectives. Rogers’3 approach to therapy as a learning process is based on the following hypotheses about learning:

1. We cannot teach another person directly but only facilitate their learning.

2. A person learns significantly when there is enhancement or maintenance of the structure of self. However, any learning that is a threat to the structure of self will be resisted or distorted. Hence, an effective learning environment should minimise threats to the learner and allow differentiated perception of the field of study. An undifferentiated perception, according to Rogers, is when an individual accepts an idea that he has heard or read about (e.g. rituals, superstitions) absolutely and unconditionally, without verifying it against practical experience and evaluating it with respect to the situation. In addition, the person is also unaware of multiple levels of abstraction associated with the idea, confuses fact and evaluation, and relies on the idea rather than real experience.

As opposed to the traditional subject-based approach4 where modules are designed by identifying the important content and looking into ways of transmitting the content to the student, instructional system design is a client or student based approach that follows a process similar to engineering design (See Figures 1 and 2).

In designing/re-designing modules, one should start by looking at the input conditions, what the learner knows and the desired outcomes. Outcomes and objectives can be classified into three components:

1. Knowledge

   In the traditional approach, the focus would be on the body of knowledge, whereas the student-centred approach focuses on the processing of knowledge. Knowledge refers not only to what the students know, but also how well the student applies the knowledge to a broader spectrum of problems or situations.

2. Skills

Skills that are expected from the learner must be identified and stated (e.g. the application of a particular method of experimentation or use of specific computer software could be skills that one expects from the learner).

3. Attitudes

Learning attitudes (e.g. independent problem solving, group activity, creative thinking) also need to be identified and stated.

In addition, learning methodology and assessment must be designed to complement each other. Assessments should match the learning objectives and provide feedback to the learner. Criterion-referenced assessment5 can help promote in-depth learning.

Last but not least, to close the loop effectively, whether learning has successfully taken place should be evaluated via student feedback on subject learning and workload. A student feedback form, consisting of selected questions from a question bank that are useful for evaluating the subject, learning, attitudes or specific learning objectives, could be provided. Lecturers may choose the relevant questions required to evaluate a particular objective that he or she wishes to assess. While lecturers can use student feedback to evaluate whether specific learning objectives of a particular module has been achieved, accreditation bodies such as Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (see Criteria 2 and 3) in turn evaluate the success and quality of entire educational programme by assessing the closed loop process.

To summarise, an effective teaching and learning environment can be implemented using a systematic approach to module design. As the core principle behind systematic module design is student centred learning, the focus is on empowering students to achieve self-directed learning. A systematically designed module allows lecturers to estimate the students’ present level of understanding, and then appreciate and respond to those needs. As a result, the design of teaching and learning is a cycle complete with continuous feedback from students. Instead of using a particular teaching strategy in a module, the more student centred solution may be to apply a unique mixture of different learning strategies depending on the circumstance. In other words, it is more important to facilitate learning than to forcefully implement a particular strategy.

Endnotes

Reference

Pan, Daphne. (2001). Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn: A Handbook for NUS Teachers. Centre of Development of Teaching and Learning, Singapore: National University of Singapore.