scholarly journals Assessment for Learning in the Chinese Context: Prospective EFL Teachers’ Perceptions and Their Relations to Learning Approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengdong Gan ◽  
Fulan Liu ◽  
Chi Cheung Ruby Yang

This study examines how prospective EFL teachers conceive of assessment for learning (AfL) practices and how these perceptions relate to their learning approaches. The study evaluated, in three teacher training universities’ in China, 692 prospective EFL teachers’ responses to a self-report instrument regarding assessment for learning practices and students’ learning approach. Results indicate a significant positive correlation between their perceived AfL experience and their tendency to adopt an achieving or deep approach to learning. Results also reveal that a surface approach to learning was negatively correlated to AfL experience, suggesting that in the Chinese university environment, the more AfL features incorporated into the classroom teaching and assessment processes, the less likely students adopt a surface approach to learning. This study also provides evidence of the potential differences in students’ responses to AfL as a result of different institutional environments. Implications of the results for addressing potential barriers to implementation of AfL in the Chinese context are also discussed.

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Hemmings ◽  
Russell Kay ◽  
John G. Sharp

This study explored factors that influence academic achievement and hence, future career prospects. The relationships between the factors, academic trait boredom, approach to learning and academic achievement were examined using data collected from university students at a small English university and from their student records. The initial statistical analysis revealed significant effects of gender on learning approach and two of the three academic trait boredom subscales. Female students proved to be less prone to academic trait boredom than their male counterparts. A model was then developed that showed how a student’s choice of learning approach was influenced by academic trait boredom and impinged on academic achievement. This modelling also confirmed that students who are more prone to academic trait boredom are also more likely to adopt a surface approach to learning rather than a deep or strategic one. The results of this investigation have implications for students, lecturers, course designers and learning support staff both here in this one location as well as elsewhere across the higher education sector.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 620-632
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ahmad Alkhateeb ◽  
Osamah Abdel Qader Bani Milhem

The study attempted to characterize students’ conceptions of learning and approaches to learning and revealing the correlation between the students’ concepts and approaches to learning. The researchers used qualitative content analysis and a descriptive approach. The study population comprised 90 male and female students of the Faculty of Educational Science in the HU University, Jordan, during the 2019/2020 academic year. The quantitative concepts were dominating among students (87.77%), especially the concept of learning as a knowledge increase (33.33%). On the other hand, the qualitative concepts of learning were low (12.22%), especially on the person change (2.22%). In addition, there was an emergence of a new concept of learning outside the traditional concepts, namely learning as exam preparation. The results showed that the deep approach to learning was low, and the surface approach to learning was high. The results further showed a correlation between the quantitative concepts of learning and the surface approach to learning, as well as a correlation between the qualitative concepts of learning the deep approach to learning. Hence, the general conclusion implies that if teachers are to place learners at the heart of the learning process, they must be aware of the concepts of learning and learning approaches of the students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  

Learning activities constitute a very important component of distance education materials. They are associated with active learning and learning by doing, which are widely accepted as effective learning approaches. Learning by doing is particularly significant in distance education because distance learners have to teach themselves or learn on their own through doing and reflecting. This article reports and reflects on research which focused on the distance education materials designed by the University of Rwanda’s College of Education to provide professional development opportunities for high school teachers of English in Rwanda. Findings from a textual analysis of the materials and from interviews with a sample of teachers who had used these materials indicate that most of the activities were designed solely for ‘assessment of learning’ purposes and encourage a surface approach to learning. It is argued that activities which encourage a surface approach to learning limit learners’ engagement with, and understanding of, the content in the materials and improvement in quality teaching, a key goal of teacher professional development.


Author(s):  
Shreemathi Mayya ◽  
A. Krishna Rao ◽  
Ramnaryana K.

A locally developed ‘Approaches to Learning Inventory (ALI)’ was administered to explore the learning difficulties and learning approaches of undergraduate students of Bachelor of Physiotherapy, College of Allied Health Sciences, Manipal. University examination marks of these students were also collected. Learning approach and learning difficulties were summarized by computing mean, standard deviation and percentage of students experiencing some of the academic and non-academic problems. Spearman’s correlation was computed between standardized scores of examination marks, learning approach and learning difficulty scale scores. Academic performance has shown significant negative correlation with surface approach and various problems of learners like fear of failure and lack of confidence, non-academic distracters and poor English language ability. This study demonstrated significant positive association between surface approach and various problems of the learners. The students have also reported a number of academic and non-academic problems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-76
Author(s):  
Nurul Ainna Hashim ◽  
Nurliana Dalila Shaari

Flipping the classroom has given a lot of attention by many studies nowadays. Driven in by the technology widespread and its fast development, the flipped classroom is one of the recent trending in teaching practices. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate teachers’ perceptions and challenges towards the implementation of flipped learning approach. Several research studies showed that using flipped learning approach increases students’ understanding and confidence in learning. Flipped classroom allows students to have their own time of video-based (Vodcast) lecture session following with in-class exercises and practices. This paper briefly discusses on the history of flipped classroom, teachers’ perception and challenges issues of flipped learning approach to ESL/EFL teachers. A structured questionnaire was carried out to find out teachers’ perception and challenges in flipped learning approach to ESL/EFL teachers. The sample in this study consists of 50 respondents which are 9 males and 41 females. The results show that most teachers agreed that they find teaching through online is useful. It can be said that the biggest teachers’ challenge in implementing flipped learning approach as they feel teachers’ feedback is very important in the flipped learning classroom. Meanwhile, there is no significant relationship between teachers’ perception and teachers’ challenges. Keywords: ESL setting, Flipped Classroom, ICT in education, Teachers’ perception, Vodcast


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuf F. Zakariya ◽  
Simon Goodchild ◽  
Kirsten Bjørkestøl ◽  
Hans K. Nilsen

This study was framed within a quantitative research methodology to develop a concise measure of calculus self-efficacy with high psychometric properties. A survey research design was adopted in which 234 engineering and economics students rated their confidence in solving year-one calculus tasks on a 15-item inventory. The results of a series of exploratory factor analyses using minimum rank factor analysis for factor extraction, oblique promin rotation, and parallel analysis for retaining extracted factors revealed a one-factor solution of the model. The final 13-item inventory was unidimensional with all eigenvalues greater than 0.42, an average communality of 0.74, and a 62.55% variance of the items being accounted for by the latent factor, i.e., calculus self-efficacy. The inventory was found to be reliable with an ordinal coefficient alpha of 0.90. Using Spearman’ rank coefficient, a significant positive correlation ρ ( 95 ) =   0.27 ,   p <   0.05 (2-tailed) was found between the deep approach to learning and calculus self-efficacy, and a negative correlation ρ ( 95 ) =   − 0.26 ,   p <   0.05 (2-tailed) was found between the surface approach to learning and calculus self-efficacy. These suggest that students who adopt the deep approach to learning are confident in dealing with calculus exam problems while those who adopt the surface approach to learning are less confident in solving calculus exam problems.


Author(s):  
Margrét Sigrún Sigurðardóttir ◽  
Thamar Melanie Heijstra

Flipped teaching is a trend within higher education. Through flipped teaching the learning environment can be altered by moving the lecture out of the classroom through online recordings, while in-classroom sessions focus on active learning and engaging students in their own learning process. In this paper, we used focus groups comprised of male students in a qualitative research course with the aim of understanding the ways in which we might improve active student engagement and motivation within the flipped classroom. The findings indicated that, within the flipped classroom, students mix surface and deep-learning approaches. The online recordings, which students interact with through a surface approach, can function as a stepping stone toward a deep-learning approach to in-class activities, but only if students come to class prepared. The findings therefore suggest that students must be made aware of the importance of preparation prior to flipped classroom in-class activities to ensure the active learning process is successful. By not listening to the recordings (e.g., due to technological failure, as was the case in this study), students can result in only employing a surface approach.


2019 ◽  
pp. 146978741986020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Bunce ◽  
Melanie Bennett

The marketization of higher education and focus on graduate employability and earnings data has raised questions about how students perceive their roles and responsibilities while studying for their degree. Of particular concern is the extent to which students identify themselves as consumers of their higher education, for example, whether they view their degree as a purchasable commodity to improve future earnings. This is because research has found that a stronger consumer identity is related to lower academic performance. This study examined whether this relation could be explained by the impact of a consumer identity on the extent to which students adopt deep, surface or strategic approaches to learning. The hypotheses were that the relation between consumer identity and academic performance would be mediated by approaches to learning, whereby a consumer identity would be related to adopting a more surface approach, a less deep approach and less strategic approach. Undergraduates completed an online questionnaire that assessed the extent to which they identified as a consumer, their approaches to learning and academic performance. The analysis partly supported the hypotheses: a stronger consumer identity was related to a more surface approach to learning. However, a surface approach to learning did not mediate the relation between consumer identity and academic performance. Conversely, a deep approach to learning mediated the relation between consumer identity and academic performance, whereby a stronger consumer identity was related to lower academic performance through its negative impact on a deep approach to learning. There was no relation between consumer identity and strategic approach to learning. Implications of students identifying themselves as consumers of their higher education are discussed.


Author(s):  
Sonia Bharwani ◽  
Durgamohan Musunuri

Over the years, the education system in India has been following a surface approach to learning which is characterised by lecture-based classroom teaching and rote learning. However, there is a growing clamour for intersection of theory and practice in the field of management education. A shift in focus from a teacher-centric approach to a student-centric, learning-focused approach is required. There are many learning models which enable students to develop their cognitive abilities and to learn from experience. Several of these models are based on the practice of reflection. Reflection as a process is meant to facilitate self-awareness in the context of practice. This research paper aims at understanding the significance of reflection. It also proposes to throw light on the practice of reflection as understood by students and the role of the instructor in creating a learning environment in which reflective learning is facilitated.


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