Reading 5 (Theme Two)

Reading 5

Third reading on Theme Two: Underpinning teaching with technology: Theory and research Foundations

Martens, R., Bastiaens, T., & Kirschner, P. (2007). New Learning Design in Distance Education: The impact on student perception and motivation. Distance Education, 28(1) pp.81-93.

Downloaded on 20 April 2008 from http://kea.massey.ac.nz/search~S4?/fDistance+Education/fdistance+education/1,2,2,B/l856~b1405259&FF=fdistance+education&1,1,,1,0

Motivation (learner-centred psychological principles 7-9 cited in McCoombs & Vakili’s, 2005 ) resulted in this article arresting my attention. Written from a constructivist perspective this is a report on a study into the actual perception of electronic authentic learning tasks in which perceptions of students at Open University of the Netherlands were contrasted with the designer’s expectations.

A table adapted from Dalgarno (1998) showing 10 constructivist design principles is given but the authors comment that designing by these principles does not guarantee success. The effort in CEEs (constructivist e-learning environments) relies on intrinsic motivation therefore learners’ perceptions are critical. Reference is made to Simons et al’s instructional models of the new learning (competency-based education that integrates constructivism and ICT) viz. guided learning (awakening students’ curiosity); experiential learning (let students follow own curiosity and interest) ; action learning ( organise action to arouse curiosity).

Constructivist principles require CEEs to be challenging and contextually authentic so that learners become intrinsically motivated to explore and control their own learning process. Designer challenges are:

• Difficult to determine what ‘new learning skills” are
• What is delivered is driven by what is technologically possible rather than what is educationally desirable
• Designers must gauge students’ perception
• Paucity of clear guidelines for designing new learning tasks
• Little empirical evidence for claims re supposed motivational impact of “constructivist” e-learning programs

Questions researched: - How do students learn in CEEs that provide a “virtual” reality and authentic problems? - How do students perceive it? - How do student opinions relate to the opinions and expectations of developers?

Tasks used in study were authentic, ill-structured - designed to stimulate intrinsic motivation to resolve the “confusion” thus constructing required knowledge and skills.

Findings:

• mismatch between positive expectations about CEEs and student perceptions;
• amount of intrinsic motivation correlated with amount of self-reported explorative behaviour.

Conclusions

• limited understanding of how complex key variables influence student behaviour;

• crucial variable is intrinsic motivation

Feelings of competence, relatedness and autonomy are crucial for the development of intrinsic motivation. The amount of intrinsic motivation highly correlated with the amount of self-reported explorative behaviour.

Discussion:

1. According to the fourth principle of Androgogy, adults become ready to learn "when their life situations create a need to learn.” (Huang, 2002) . This would contribute to the intrinsic motivation referred to in this article and existing as principle 9 of the learner-centred psychological principles. If intrinsic motivation is crucial to success of CEEs, can they be as effectively implemented indiscriminately with younger (e.g. secondary) students ?

2. What struck me was that not only are the ‘design guidelines vague” but “once the task is delivered to the students there is relatively little control over student perception”. (p.84) What can designers do between design and early online delivery to ensure the appropriate levels of challenge when designers can only “gauge” the students?

References

Huang, H. (2000) Toward Constructivism for Adult Learners in Online Learning Environments.
British Journal of Educational Technology. 33(1), 27-37.

McCombs, B.L. & Vakili, D. (2005). A learner-centred framework for e-learning. Teachers
College Record, 107, 1582 – 1600.