Drama in Education and Self-Directed Learning for Adults

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-79
Author(s):  
Athina A. Karavoltsou ◽  
Carmel O'Sullivan

Drama in Education (DIE), as an artistic and educational experience, is sufficiently evidenced in the literature as a dialogical, liberating practice of education. This article discusses a practitioner research project in a second chance adult education school in Greece, where the use of a DIE teaching and learning approach was explored in an environmental adult education module. Self-directed learning in this study referred to learner-control and was used to uncover how power relations are constructed through the micro-politics of the classroom. The primary aim of the study was to establish whether the use of a DIE approach could enhance learners' motivation to participate in classroom choices and decisions, and thus take greater control and responsibility for their own learning process. The results indicate that resistance occurred when the teacher delegated greater responsibility than the learners were equipped to handle. The article concludes by advocating an educational encounter of shared authority and vulnerability between teacher and learners when working in and through the arts.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Līga Beļicka ◽  
◽  
Tatjana Bicjutko

The fast transition to fully online studies due to the pandemic made the universities around the world question many of their accepted notions on teaching foreign languages in general and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) methodology in particular. Putting stress on the synchronous remote teaching and learning has proven to yield a reductionist perspective missing asynchronicity, the dimension which makes reconsider the whole educational process. With its shift from the sole focus on learning terminology to training skills in authentic professional contexts, the task-based approach has long excelled in meeting the diverse needs of students. Thus, the research question is how well task-based teaching (TBT) solves the problems raised with asynchronous learning in a university ESP course. The research of available literature on TBT yielded the framework for constructing an extended task applicable in the advanced medical English. The case study with 120 first-year students of medicine organised around an informational interview with health professionals demonstrated easy adaptability of the task to the asynchronous nature of the educational process. Personal observations by the course instructor, summaries of student-conducted interviews, and student written feedback proved the responsiveness of the method to the learners’ needs and the potential of the approach in terms of motivation. The emphasis on self-directed learning, however, threatens the systematicity of the acquired language skills, as a more controlled teaching environment would not allow “skipping” any learning step. Additionally, TBT does not solve the problem of the voluminous teaching load.


Author(s):  
Marcos Levano

The following chapter shows the development of a learning methodology used to validate self-directed learning generic competences and knowledge management in a competence-based model in the engineering computer science program of the Universidad Católica Temuco (UCT). The design of the methodology shows the steps and activities of the learning-by-doing process, as shown gradually in the learning results of the competence. The designed methodological process allows creating working schemes for theory-based teaching and learning, and also for practicing and experimenting. The problematology as controlled scenarios is integrated in order to answer problems in engineering, allowing the process of validation in the self-learning and knowledge management competences. Thus, the achievements in the results have allowed helping the teachers to use their learning instruments.


2018 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 33-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Wei ◽  
Wing Yee (Jenifer) Ho

ABSTRACTIn this article, we present an analytical approach that focuses on how transnational and translingual learners mobilize their multilingual, multimodal, and multisemiotic repertoires, as well as their learning and work experiences, as resources in language learning. The approach is that of translanguaging, which seeks to push the boundaries not only between different named languages but also between different modalities and across language scripts and writing systems. We base our arguments on a study of self-directed learning of Chinese via online platforms in the context of mobility and aim to demonstrate the transformative capacity of translanguaging. In doing so, we highlight the need for a transdisciplinary approach to language learning that transcends the boundaries between linguistics, psychology, and education, and in particular, the need to go beyond the artificial divides of the different modalities of language learning to strengthen the connections between research on bilingualism and multilingualism and research on language teaching and learning.


Author(s):  
Mohammad Amro Mohammad Suleiman ◽  
Mahendran Maniam

The main aim of this study is to help EFL students’ improve their oral communication proficiency out-of-class. To achieve that, video-movie was chosen as a medium for improving the subjects' oral communication proficiency. It was hoped that movie could function as a pseudo-immersion for the students, an accessible and easy alternative to being in the English native countries. Based on that, this study aim has been transformed into this research question ‘what effect does self-directed learning using movies has on the students' perceived oral communication proficiency?’. To answer that, six first year students at the faculty of English language and literature, Ajloun University in Jordan, were selected based on purposive sampling and divided equally into two groups, treatment and control, based on random assignment. The subjects in both groups were asked to take the self-assessment language test twice, once before the beginning of the case study scheme and another after. Likewise, to be interviewed twice, and to fill in the study notes during the case study scheme. Only the treatment group were given eight movies with its guides and asked to self-study with it over eight weeks. The results from the case study indicated that movie could help improve the students' oral communication proficiency with higher post-test scores than pre-test scores. Methodological triangulation from both the interviews and study notes also supports the assertion that movie improved the subjects’ oral communication proficiency. The subjects in the treatment group revealed in the post-interview that movies helped improve their listening skills and two subjects suggested that it could possibly have helped improve their speaking skills as well. Their perception in their study notes also supports the results. In conclusion, it is very likely that self-directed learning using movies has improved the students’ oral communication proficiency. This study has implications for practical applications in language teaching and learning which suggests that movie can be effective out of class. In addition, the results suggest that further larger scale investigations into students' language improvement out of class will be worth carrying out.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 620
Author(s):  
Linda Katherine Newsome ◽  
Paul Cooper

<em>This qualitative study examined international students’ experiences with Western pedagogy using data collected through case studies and semi-structured, in-depth, informant style interviews. Participants were all international students (n=18), mostly postgraduate from Asian and Far Eastern countries studying at a British University. This paper focuses on students’ engagements with Western pedagogy as they struggle to adjust to what they experience as unfamiliar and alien approaches to teaching and learning. Reported here is a detailed case study of the lives of these students as they engage with specific pedagogical demands, including: academic self-expression and critical argumentation, self-directed learning, class discussions, presentations, and English language proficiency. It also exposes students’ perceptions of the value of the instructional methods of their tutors and their impact on approaches to learning.</em>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ha Thuong Vu

<p>This narrative study explored the adjustment experiences of six Vietnamese international students at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Data for the study were based on two sources; in-depth interviewing and the researcher's field notes. Each of participants was interviewed twice on their adjustment experiences in New Zealand. Thematic analysis was applied to their stories and positioning theory provided a theoretical lens to further analyze and interpret the participants' stories.  The findings of the study indicated that the participants experienced many new and different things. Most experienced a stressful academic environment during their first few weeks but they felt better as time passed. The most common challenges they faced related to language issues. Difficulties came from differences between cultures with a mismatch between the participants' previous learning experiences and teaching and learning in the new environment. The participants felt stressed by the amount of self-directed learning expected. These challenges brought benefits such as becoming independent and self- regulated learners. After one trimester one participant had happily adapted and thought of a future life in New Zealand. Three participants had gradually adapted and come to enjoy their new life Two of the six students were clear that they did not belong in New Zealand and wanted to finish their degree and then go back to Vietnam.  The study concluded that the participants had diverse difficulties studying and living in New Zealand, mostly related to the different academic environment, language and culture. The participants used various coping strategies to deal with their challenges in the new environment and the main source of their support was from friends and families.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 06 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
MAROUA ROGTI ◽  

In the last decade, there has been an eminent shift towards a relative emphasis on achievement, competence, and autonomy in the language teaching and learning arena. Prior to this, educationalists had a growing concern in how to gain academic achievement through considering learning strategies as part of classroom discourse. Further, instructional strategies can also gain a strategic position in the curriculum, so that learners can be self-directed and strategic learners. This can help them choose the appropriate learning strategy to successively accomplish tasks and meet the desired goals. This study would like to be a part of increasing the effectiveness of implementing Strategy-based Instruction for achieving self-guided learning and autonomy in the language class. It adapts a survey administered to three teachers of English literacy in order to elicit their views about dealing with tasks in teaching literature through instructional strategies to graduate students and their impact on achieving self-directed learning. Hence, it reported affirmative and practical outcomes from the previous studies and assumed the need for integrating instructional strategies prosperously into an ordinary literature task in class.


Author(s):  
Amy Beavers

Effective communication with teachers is a critical element of any successful professional development.  Teachers are the foundational component of any educational system.  It is vital that adequate attention is focused on appropriate and effective training of these teachers.  Ideally, professional development offers a means of collaborative support and training to collectively conquer challenges facing teachers both in and out of the classroom.  The need for continued professional development is widely accepted.  Certainly, programs based on high-quality and meaningful teacher development can affect teachers’ skills and attitudes in the classroom, further increasing the quality of education the students receive.  There are numerous resources and studies detailing the components of effective professional development; however, these models can be quite extensive and potentially overwhelming to an administrator who already has enough tasks to occupy their time.  By incorporating a few basic principles established within the field of adult education, teacher professional development can dramatically increase its effectiveness.  This paper outlines very briefly some of these concepts and offers simple and applicable suggestions for teacher professional development programs such as: the characteristics of adult learners, self-directed learning, transformative learning and critical reflection.


Author(s):  
Don D. Coffman

This chapter examines three approaches to teaching and learning that resonate with community music principles and that can help inform the theoretical bases for community music practice, because there are similarities between the facilitating behaviours of community musicians and the teaching behaviours of educators. Specifically, this chapter portrays a continuum of viewpoints about guiding others—pedagogy, andragogy, and heutagogy—and illustrates how aspects of each approach can be applied to community music practice. These approaches range from authoritarian ideas that are teacher-centred and learner-dependent to more autonomous ideas that embrace learner-centred and self-directed learning. The New Horizons Band of Iowa City, Iowa, in the United States, is presented as an illustration.


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