Category: Memorial Award

This paper examines a self-learning activity implemented during my Web Technology class. Over the semester, I observed that many students were reluctant to engage with the assigned reading materials or supplementary study resources. They go by the traditional way of taking notes home. This behavior is indicative of passive learning tendencies. Given the critical role of reading in fostering self-directed learning, this research explores strategies to transform students into active self-learners by introducing a structured reading procedure integrated with collaborative group work. The SQ4R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review, Reflect) reading method was employed, with students organized into small groups of eight. During lecture sessions, each group was assigned a concept to study using this procedure. Following 15-minute group discussions, students presented their findings to the class. To provide deliberate practice, this activity was repeated four times, drawing from readings in the recommended textbooks. The results were encouraging, as students reported enjoying the activity and noted that it facilitated their understanding of the subject matter through reading. Additionally, the Think-Pair-Share sessions were particularly beneficial, enabling students to articulate their thoughts, engage in peer discussions, and interact more effectively with both classmates and lecturers to clarify challenging topics. These findings suggest that integrating structured reading strategies with collaborative learning can significantly enhance student engagement and promote self-directed learning. I am confident that this research will contribute to ongoing efforts to enhance teaching practices in higher education, while also supporting educators in transforming passive learners into active readers and self-directed learners.

Background for teaching changes:Improved learner engagement in a class is the ultimate expectation of an educator with the belief that more inquisitive and motivated the learner is, the more s/he learns. However, making students engaged in a mixed ability ESL classroom can usually be a challenging task. This was no exception in the ESL class of 60 students that I was teaching in a well-known state university. In this class, the relationship among students of different proficiency levels was not satisfactory. A writing activity on self-limiting beliefs about learning English disclosed that the affective filter of the less proficient learners was high when they were learning with the advanced learners in English. On the other hand, the advanced learners wished the content of the class to be more challenging, and appeared to be bored when working with the less proficient peers. This suggested the need of turning the class to a learning community where students appreciate, acknowledge the presence of each other and learn to positively depend on one another. Above all, it is known that students should be taught to be more empathetic as empathy involves bridging the gap between the self and the other. To achieve this, I used Bourdieu’s (1986) concepts of cultural, social and linguistic capital to make the students get to know about each other well and to develop empathy. First, I used energisers in the class which reinforced rapport between the students and gave a sense of togetherness. Second, I encouraged students exchanging personal narratives of learning English in order to develop empathy among students. In this activity students wrote their stories of learning English contemplating the opportunities and obstacles they had and have at present in learning English. This was then followed by an open-class discussion about what they learnt about each other. The feedback collected later revealed that these activities had made the learners recognise how the capital learners bring into the class, results in differences in their English language proficiency. It was fascinating to watch how this led to more open-mindedness, attunement to others and nonjudgmental interactions among students in the class. In fact they started to mingle with peers despite their varied proficiency level and to prefer pair and group work over working individually. This whole experience made me realise the potential we have as teachers in making our learners’ learning experience more meaningful.

Informatics Institute of Technology, Colombo 6, Sri Lanka.
abarnah.k@iit.ac.lk

Department of Computational Mathematics, Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
dhanushika83@gmail.com

Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
surangika@cse.mrt.ac.lk

Background for teaching changes:

Post millennials are a group that uses internet, social media and email facilities from school going age.  It is reported that they have a considerably less attention span, less focus, and have greater expectations, while wanting to be early starters, and importantly challenge teachers when they commence their higher education.  A majority of such learners do not prefer traditional methods of learning.

Having experienced this first hand, I was keen to explore  whether changing to a flipped classroom would create and interest among them to learn and hence to fulfill their learning needs.  I have combined the flipped classroom with lesson breaks in a first-year computer programming course with 20 students.  It turned out to be a success, where it helped them to research on prescribed topics before a lecture, and to make them actively engage during the class. Even though students did not like it at the beginning, later them seem to enjoy this interaction.  Student feedback showed agreement as they viewed the change positively, meeting their learning needs.  I have shared these methods with my colleagues and have motivated them also to follow interactive learning techniques to make the learning process more enjoyable.  Once I started working on this area, I got interested towards it and started exploring more. Now I am continuing to practice these methods and I am implementing different techniques to give learners a better learning experience.

Background for teaching changes:

Higher Education (HE) teaching to meet today’s needs and to deliver quality learning, need a mind-set change.  Every teacher aspires to be an effective teacher, and some may still hold the view that transmission of knowledge can make learners competent.  There are many aspects that should be considered during the development and the delivery of courses.  As a novice teacher, I found it to be a huge challenge to introduce such changes, while maintaining learner interactions.

Having followed a teaching development course, I now could easily implement improvements while relating to documented prior knowledge given in the literature.

Therefore, in this paper, I have explored the use of Bloom’s Affective learning taxonomy to design and integrate a course to a holistic teaching philosophy (TP), which would deliver the required teaching quality and also self-satisfaction.  Curriculum and course planning should be grounded on a TP.  TPs should be flexible and may evolve when new experiences and knowledge are gained.

Currently, I am researching on how to improve learning skills among weak students.  In this regard, I am engaging with such learners to discover the root of such weaknesses, to address this issue.

I strongly believe that we academics should be effective in producing competent learners via the courses we teach, while not confining ourselves in transmitting information.

Background for teaching changes:

Moving students from lower order thinking skills (LOTS) to develop as graduates with higher order learning and inquiry skills is challenging.  The use of questioning strategies in class could develop students’ elaborative interrogation skills, during this transformation.

However, in the South Asian culture, many students hesitate to ask questions at lectures due to lack of confidence in what they have just learnt, and due to poor English communication skills.  As a lecturer, I found this silence very frustrating, and hence wanted to make a change.

Therefore I implemented two supporting actions in my Semester 2 engineering course, namely, to allow students to write their questions on a piece of paper and to pass it to the lecturer; and to move around the classroom so that they gain access to ask questions in private.  The effectiveness of these interventions were evaluated using direct observations and through a  questionnaire.  The initial opportunity to forward written queries helped later to have a  dialogue with them, when I moved around in class.  Motivated by this success, I  now have introduced lecture breaks where they could seek direct feedback from me, especially when a new concept is introduced.

These results clearly indicate the importance of creating a discursive environment for students to ask questions.  I have encouraged my colleagues to try out this intervention providing an opportunity to seek clarifications later.