Review Jurnal

Blended learning in a teacher training course: Integrated interactive e-learning and contact learning

 

1. Research Questions

• How can we support students who are prospective teachers in gaining a teacher’s perspective on teaching and learning English?
• How can we support these students in gaining knowledge about basic TEFL issues?
• How can we support these students when observing and reflecting upon recorded teaching practice using a theoretical framework?

 

1. Review of Previous Research

a.        Research Question: 1)      How can we support students who are prospective teachers in gaining a teacher’s perspective on teaching and learning English? 2)      How can we support these students in gaining knowledge about basic TEFL issues? 3)      How can we support these students when observing and reflecting upon recorded teaching practice using a theoretical framework?
b.        Introduction
2.1 Purpose of the study	We want to develop a holistic concept for teacher training using a multimedia-based case story approach and a purposefully blended arrangement of activities, methods, materials and tasks. Furthermore, we want to evaluate this arrangement. The project presented could be considered as a pilot study to form hypotheses.
2.2  Theoretical background	·       Blended learning refers to the purposeful arrangement of media, methods and ways of organizing learning situations through combining traditional media and methods with e-learning elements and possibilities (Kerres, 2002; Reinmann-Rothmeier, 2003). ·       Multimedia-based learning (Mandl, Gruber & Renkl, 2002; Niegemann, 2001).
c.       Methodology
3.1  Design	·       The students worked with the case story in two scenarios. They were given a theoretical text to study and a problem-solving task, which was based on the real teaching context in the case story, as well as a printed and linear version of the case story. The task included making suggestions on how to introduce the new words the teacher had planned to introduce as part of a word cluster in class. ·       The students worked in groups. They were to analyze a textbook unit about New York with regard to vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, listening and speaking and to develop a mini-practice (approximately 20 mins) for a year 8 group at a grammar school with the help of a lesson plan. Due to the limited capacity of the partner school this was originally planned only for the group with the best lesson plan. However, in the end three groups out of eleven total groups had this opportunity. These three groups taught the mini-practice and reported back to the course using video recordings of their minipractices.
3.2 Sample characteristics	The study was conducted in the 2004 summer semester with 34 course participants as a pilot study to form hypotheses.
3.3 Main variables	Dependent: Teacher training course Independent: Blended learning, ntegrated interactive e-learning, contact learning.
3.4 Measure	The students participating in the course were asked to take part in the various activities throughout the semester and to complete two online questionnaires with both closed and open questions as well as reflect on their learning process in three guided learner diaries.
3.5  Procedures	·      The initial questionnaire was filled in online after the first class. It asked for the students’ experience with and attitude to multimedia-enhanced learning, their perceptions of their computer and Internet habits and skills, their experience with classroom observations, their expectations of the course as well as biodata (sex, age, semester, etc.). ·      The guided learner diaries after each course unit aimed at encouraging the students to reflect on the insights they had gained and the way the different course elements and methods had supported their learning. ·      The second questionnaire served as a course evaluation at the end of the semester. It contained Likert-scale questions and open-response questions. Students were asked to express their (dis)agreement with a selection of statements on a five point scale and to comment on their ratings. The statements had been derived from the categorial analysis of the learning potential of a given activity as perceived by the learners, that is, from their subjective theories. ·      Students who worked on the multimedia-based case story were observed and interviewed after the activity. ·      Documents produced by the mini-practice groups and the e-interview group (recordings of their mini-practices, forum and chat contributions, both the student teachers’and the moderators’written reflections on their activity) were analyzed; interviews were conducted, with a focus on blended learning.
d.      Results
4.1  Results from the course evaluation	·      Activities and knowledge construction More than 75% of the students agree that the multimedia-based case stories that centre around the video recordings have supported their learning and nearly 60% of them feel similarly about the mini-practice. However, hardly any students agree that the e-interview supported them. The multimedia-based case stories and the mini-practice are appreciated most in terms of their potential to support the individual’s learning process, in particular in terms of studying new topics and connecting various topics. Both activities are well accepted and function as learning tools. The e-interview, however, functions as a learning tool mainly for the moderators. This format was less accepted by the other course participants as their role was not clearly defined in the e-interview tasks. ·       The course as a whole and broadening perspectives The multimedia-based case stories and the discussions in class supported the change or even the broadening of perspectives distinctly. The guided learner diary which had been designed as a learning tool to encourage individual reflection on the course content (apart from being an instrument for data elicitation) helped only a smaller proportion to reflect about their perspectives on teaching and learning. They complain that the learner diary required a lot of work or even too much work. The overall gain was minimal considering the effort made. In sum the course is more than its components, and the majority of students feel supported by the course as a whole in broadening their perspectives.
4.2  Findings seen in the context of the paradigm of subjective theories	The positive perception of the classroom recordings and multimedia-based case stories as a learning tool became obvious through the quantitative analysis and is supported by the students’reflections in the learner diaries. Apreliminary categorial analysis of these reflections led to the forming of five categories of students’perceptions of their learning potential. ·       Understanding theory better The learners think they understand theory better with the help of the visual component. The classroom recordings help to deepen existing theoretical knowledge or may function as gateway to theoretical concepts. ·       Learning from examples Students experience, understand and recall topics and information better when examples are given. ·       Broadening perspectives They gain a new understanding of the complexity of a lesson and the variety of decisions a teacher has to make. ·       Developing guidelines for students’future teaching Students collect ideas for their own teaching. ·       Blended Learning in a Teacher Training Course. This preliminary analysis needs further investigation. It illustrates already how quantitative and qualitative data might complement each other to yield an intricate understanding of students’preferred ways of learning.
4.3  Hypotheses	Students appreciate their role as student teachers when planning and even more when teaching a mini-practice. They acknowledge the learning effect of both teaching and sharing their experience with those students who could not teach a mini-practice. The latter students learn indirectly from their peers’video-recorded lessons, which function as situational anchors. Yet learning by sharing experience is less accepted in the e-interview format due to the fact that the e-moderators were more involved than the other students and their roles were more clearly defined. The multimedia case story approach uses a situational anchor from teaching practice. The question is to what extent individual learning styles and/or the level of a learner affect how a learner works with the material, for example which path is chosen, either theory first and the recorded teaching practice second or vice versa. The “novice” tends to prefer a bit of theory before dealing with a case story to find a focus for the observation and background for the reflection. Moreover, the more advanced a prospective teacher is the better he/she can seemingly learn from case stories autonomously.
e.       Discussion	The learning potential of multimedia-based case stories and classroom recordings. Multimedia-based case stories and classroom recordings. ·      are a well-accepted and useful contact and e-learning course component ·      support an understanding of planning lessons and reflecting upon them in the context of basic TEFLissues ·      help the students to broaden their perspectives and see lessons from a teacher’s perspective. ·       offer the potential to blend ·      various learning spaces, such as university, home and school ·      contact and distance learning and ·      theory and practical teaching.

 

 

 

Reference

Butzkamm, W., Klippel, F. and Siebold, J. (2003) Das MELT-Projekt zum mediengestützten Englischlehrer-Training. Paper presented at the 20th congress of the DGFF, Frankfurt am Main.

Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV) (1990) Anchored Instruction and Its Relationship to Situated Cognition. Educational Researcher, 19(6): 2–10.

Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV) (1993) Anchored Instruction and Situated Cognition Revisited. Educational Technology, 33(3): 52–70.

Decke-Cornill, H. (forthcoming) Interaktionsanalyse einer medial unterstützten Englischstunde in einer 1. Klasse. 7th Conference on Language Teaching and Learning Processes with (New) Media, Hannover, Germany, 2004.

Decke-Cornill, H. (in press) Unterrichtsverfilmungen als Medium der Entwicklung eines kritischen Blicks auf Schule und Unterricht. In: Blell, G. and Kupetz, R. (eds.), Fremdsprachenlernen zwischen ‘Medienverwahrlosung’ und Medienkompetenz. Beiträge zu einer kritisch-reflektierenden Mediendidaktik. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang, 205-215.

Dirks, U. and Feindt, A. (2002) Fallarbeit als Brückenschlag zwischen Theorie und Praxis. In: Dirks, U. and Hansmann, W. (eds.), Forschendes Lernen in der Lehrerbildung. Auf dem Weg zu einer professionellen Unterrichts- und Schulentwicklung. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 37–45.

Felix, U. (2004) E-Learning Pedagogy in the Third Millenium: The need for combining social and cognitive constructivist approaches. ReCALL, 17 (1): 85–100.

Freeman, D. (1996) The ‘unstudied problem’: Research on teacher learning in language teaching. In: Freeman, D. and Richards, J. C. (eds.), Teacher learning in language teaching. Cambridge: CUP, 351–378.

Geertz, C. (1987) Dichte Beschreibungen. Beiträge zum Verstehen kultureller Systeme. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp.

Gerstenmaier, J. and Mandl, H. (1995) Wissenserwerb unter konstruktivistischer Perspektive. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 41(6): 867–888.

Grotjahn, R. (1991) The Research Programme Subjective Theories: A New Approach in Second Language Research. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13: 187–214.

Grotjahn, R. (1998) Subjektive Theorien in der Fremdsprachenforschung: Methodologische Grundlagen und Perspektiven. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen, 27: 33–59.

Jarz, E. M., Kainz, G. A. and Walpoth G. (1997) Multimedia-Based Case Studies in Education: Design, Development, and Evaluation of Multimedia-Based Case Studies. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 6(1): 23–46.

Klauer, K. J. (2001) Situiertes Lernen. In: Rost, D. (ed.), Handwörterbuch Pädagogische Psychologie (2nd ed.). Weinheim: PVU, 635–641.

Kerres, M. (2002) Online- und Präsenzelemente in Lernarrangements kombinieren. In: Hohenstein, A. and Wilbers, K. (eds.), Handbuch E-Learning: Expertenwissen aus Wissenschaft und Praxis. Köln: Deutscher Wirtschaftsdienst, 1–19.

Kupetz, R. and Ziegenmeyer, B. (2005) Hannoveraner Unterrichtsbilder als Lehr- und Lernmittel zur Konzeptualisierung von ausgewählten Problemfeldern des Sachfachunterrichts auf Englisch. In: Mühlhausen, U. (ed.), Unterrichten lernen mit Gespür. Barthmansweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren, 67–86.

Mandl, H., Gruber, H. and Renkel, A. (2002) (3rd rev. ed.) Situiertes Lernen in multimedialen Lernumgebungen. In: Issing, L. J. and Klimsa, P. (eds.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia und Internet. Weinheim: Beltz, 139–148.

Merseth, K. K. (1996) Cases and Case Methods in Teacher Education. In: Sikula, J. (ed.), Handbook of research on teacher education: a project of the Association of Teacher Educators. (2nd ed.) New York: Macmillan Library Reference USA, 722–744.

Messmer, R. (2001) Lernen aus Fallgeschichten in der Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung. Beiträge zur Lehrerbildung, 19(1): 82–92.

Niegemann, H. M. (2001). Neue Lernmedien konzipieren, entwickeln, einsetzen. Bern: Huber.

Powell, R. (2000) Case-based teaching in homogenous teacher education contexts: a study of preservice teachers’situative cognition. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16: 389–410.

Reinmann-Rothmeier, G. (2003) Didaktische Innovation durch Blended Learning: Leitlinien anhand eines Beispiels aus der Hochschule. Bern u.a.: Huber.

Richards, J. C. and Nunan, D. (1990) Second language teacher education. Cambridge: CUP.

Scheele, B. and Groeben, N. (1998) Das Forschungsprogramm Subjektive Theorien. Theoretische und methodologische Grundzüge in ihrer Relevanz für den Fremdsprachenunterricht. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen, 27: 12–32.

Shulman, L. S. (1992) Toward a Pedagogy of Cases. In: Shulman, J. H. (ed.), Case Methods in Teacher Education. New York: Teachers College Press, 1–30.

Siebold, J. (in press) MELT – ein multimedialer Baustein für die Englischlehrerausbildung. In: Blell, G. and Kupetz, R. (eds.), Fremdsprachenlernen zwischen ‘Medienverwahrlosung’ und Medienkompetenz. Beiträge zu einer kritisch-reflektierenden Mediendidaktik. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang, 217–219.

Spiro, R. J. et al. (2003) Cognitive Flexibility Theory: Hypermedia for Complex Learning, Adaptive Knowledge Application, and Experience Acceleration. Educational Technology, 43(5): 5–10.

Thonhauser, J. (1996) Fallgeschichten als didaktisches Instrument. In: Schratz, M. and Thonhauser, J. (eds.), Arbeit mit pädagogischen Fallgeschichten: Anregungen und Beispiele für Aus- und Fortbildung. Innsbruck: Studien-Verlag, 61–90.

Wallace, M. J. (1991). Training foreign language teachers. A reflective approach. Cambridge: CUP.

Wolff, D. (2003) Web-based teaching and learning: A research perspective. EUROCALL 2003, Limerick, Ireland.

Woolfolk, A. E. (1998) Educational Psychology. (7th ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Ziegenmeyer, B. (in press) Multimediale Fallgeschichten in der Englischlehrerausbildung. In: Blell, G. and Kupetz, R. (eds.), Fremdsprachenlernen zwischen ‘Medienverwahrlosung’ und Medienkompetenz. Beiträge zu einer kritisch-reflektierenden Mediendidaktik. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang, 221-232.