Mixing and matching teaching and learning approaches #EDUC90970

As part of my journey in the “Facilitating Online Learning” subject (#EDUC90970), I continued to read more about Heutagogy – or self-determined learning. Self-determined learning is a humanist approach to teaching and learning focused on learners’ autonomy and agency during the learning process. It differs from traditional pedagogy and self-directed learning on the degree in which learners are involved in shaping their own learning experience. In self-determined learning, learners can help define their own learning objectives and assessments.

According to Blaschke and Hase (2019), self-determined learning sits on a continuum that includes Pedagogy, Andragogy (self-directed learning) and Heutagogy (self-determined learning). These different approaches vary on the level of teacher support and student autonomy. Below are four images representing their characteristics (identified as Education 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, respectively; Gerstein, 2014):

Although for the majority of the current higher education system adopting a self-determined learning approach may seem like a distant utopia due to many constraints (e.g., large classes), it seems to be a good fit for my own teaching. I mainly teach highly autonomous and motivated higher education teachers on how to use learning analytics in their own teaching and learning (professional development workshops). However, there are some key concepts that I believe are crucial for them to be familiar with before even thinking about using learning analytics. A more traditional approach seems more appropriate for this part of the workshop.

Luckily, it’s not all or nothing when deciding what teaching and learning approach would be the best fit for our courses. We can mix and match them, according to our cohort, content and environment (Kenyon & Hase, 2013). We just need to be aware of their characteristics and counter-balance the downfalls with evidence-based instructional interventions.

For example, one of the downfalls of traditional approaches to teaching and learning is that they are not quite as motivating as in self-directed and self-determined learning experiences. While in the latter, learners’ motivation is fuelled by their autonomy and particularly freedom to pursue their own interest; in traditional approaches students mainly listen to lectures or read texts. The use of evidence-based practices to support students’ motivation can help to deal with this issue, such as using strategies to catch and hold their interest (Bolkan & Griffin, 2018).

On the other hand, one of the downfalls of self-determined learning is that many students may not be prepared to regulate their own learning in such autonomous environments (Kenyon & Hase, 2013). In this case, scaffolding (or other types of support) may be necessary to promote self-regulated learning (Dignath & Veenman, 2020).

References

Blaschke, L. M., & Hase, S. (2019). Heutagogy and digital media networks: Setting students on the path to lifelong learning. Pacific Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 1(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.24135/pjtel.v1i1.1

Bolkan, S., & Griffin, D. J. (2018). Catch and hold: Instructional interventions and their differential impact on student interest, attention, and autonomous motivation. Communication Education, 67(3), 269-286. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2018.1465193

Dignath, C., & Veenman, M. V. (2020). The Role of Direct Strategy Instruction and Indirect Activation of Self-Regulated Learning—Evidence from Classroom Observation Studies. Educational Psychology Review, 1-45. https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1007/s10648-020-09534-0

Gerstein, J. (2014, December 1). Experiences in Self-Determined Learning: Moving from Education 1.0 Through Education 2.0 Towards Education 3.0 [Blog post]. https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/experiences-in-self-determined-learning-moving-from-education-1-0-through-education-2-0-towards-education-3-0/

Kenyon, C., & Hase, S. (2013). Heutagogy fundamentals. In S. Hase & C. Kenyon (Eds), Self-determined learning: Heutagogy in action, (pp. 7-18). Bloomsbury.

Examples of innovative presentations in online learning at #EDUC90970 (part 2)

Continuing presentations on learning theories and frameworks from last week as part of the Facilitating Online Learning subject #EDU90970, here are the links and brief summary of interactive strategies used in this week’s presentations:

Adobe Spark

Sam John and Patrick Cobbinah presented about Problem-Based Learning.
Daniel Capurro and Helen Stitt presented about Flipped Classroom. They used breakout rooms in Zoom to pair up students and discuss about the pros and challenges to adopt flipped classroom. I really enjoyed being grouped in pairs rather than small groups, as it allowed a deeper exchange of ideas than my previous experiences in small groups.
Jeanette Tamplin presented about the Conversational Framework (ABC). She used Padlet to gather examples of activities according to the categories in the conversational framework.
I presented about Authentic Learning. I used Padlet for a “True or False” interactive activity about Authentic Learning (based on myths about authentic learning presented in Herrington, Reeves & Oliver, 2009). Upvote for true, downvote for false.

Google Slides

Lea Frermann presented about Rhizomatic Learning.

Prezi

Rebecca Morris presented about the Pedagogy-Andragogy-Heutagogy Continuum. She used a poll from Poll Everywhere to collect info about how other students teach in relation to this continuum and would be the challenges to implement a more self-determined learning and teaching approach.

The recording of these presentations can be viewed on Thomas Cochrane’s YouTube Channel.

I quite enjoyed using Adobe Spark for my presentation. It suited well my preferred way to create presentations: lots of images and not much text. I liked how integrated it is with free photos from Unsplash and automatically creates the credits at the end of the page.

Reference:

Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C., & Oliver, R. (2009). A practical guide to authentic e-learning. Routledge.

Double-loop learning about Heutagogy #EDUC90970

As part of my course “Facilitating online learning” #EDUC90970, I’m having the opportunity to read more about education. I’m quite familiar with most educational concepts, so I was quite intrigued when a new word came along: Heutagogy.

Heutagogy is a humanistic instructional strategy based on many well-established theories, such as self-efficacy, self-determination, self-regulated learning, self-directed learning and constructivism (a summary of these can be found in Blaschke & Hase, 2019). It has been defined as a student-centred self-determined learning experience. Below some of the original authors of Heutagogy defined it one tweet:

@LisaMBlaschke @mrkrndvs @jca_1975 @jackiegerstein @robert_schuetz Explore, test out the world, create, fail, try again, succeed, fun, learn
— Stewart Hase (@stewarthase) July 24, 2015

An Heutagogic learning design gets students to explore, create, collaborate, connect, reflect and share as part of their learning experience. At its core, it puts students in a position where they become an active agent of their learning process.

The learner is in much more control of their own learning in this approach than in Andragogy, for example. Although there may be some environmental constraints, learners are involved in each step of the way. This includes their participation in co-creating a learning contract, activities and outcomes, as presented below in an image of the Heutagogic Design Process (Blaschke & Hase, 2016).

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-heutagogic-design-process_fig1_280717279

Such autonomy and involvement is believed to promote a deep learning experience, or a double-looping learning, in which students acquire new knowledge while also changing their believes and views of the world. As Hase and Kenyon (2013) stated, “learning results in a whole new set of questions to ask” (p.24), taking students in an individual and self-motivated learning journey. Which, in turn, shifts the teacher to a facilitator role, or a partner of the learning process, helping students to shape and achieve their own goals, and monitor their journey to get there.

To be honest, I couldn’t quite understand or visualise how to apply Heutagogy until I got into the double-looping learning about it myself. Our #EDUC90970 teacher Thom Cochrane mentioned in a comment of a previous post here that an example of this approach included Montessori education in early-learning education. This is when it all started to make sense to me. I went to a Montessori school for most of my childhood, until I was 11 years old. I remember being very enthusiastic about learning and loving the freedom to move between learning objects as I pleased. I often wondered whether there would be a similar approach to adult education – so here it is – Heutagogy.

So how could I as a teacher re-create similar experiences to my own students, particularly in online environments? This seems to be the beginning of a journey, as the more I read about Heutagogy more questions I have and the more I notice my thinking about teaching changing. Over the last two weeks, I already noticed that my thinking started to move from “How am I going to teach this?” to “How am I going to facilitate and support students’ to learn about this?”. I would like to provide students with freedom to explore the content, while connecting it to their own interest and prior knowledge. I’m not quite sure how this would look like, but there seems to be many more articles for me to read about it to help me in my journey. As this course progresses I hope to go deeper into it, particularly when designing my online course as part of the assignment for the #EDUC90970 subject.

References

Blaschke L.M., Hase S. (2016) Heutagogy: A Holistic Framework for Creating Twenty-First-Century Self-determined Learners. In Gros B., Kinshuk, Maina M. (Eds), The Future of Ubiquitous Learning. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology (pp. 25-40). Springer.

Blaschke, L. M., & Hase, S. (2019). Heutagogy and digital media networks. Pacific Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 1(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.24135/pjtel.v1i1.1

Hase, S., & Kenyon, C. (2013). The nature of learning. In S. Hase & C. Kenyon (Eds.), Self-determined learning: Heutagogy in action (pp. 19-35). Bloomsbury Academic.