The High Five!!

There are many pedagogical approaches which instructors worldwide use. Each of these approaches influence the instruction strategy, the role of the learner and the teacher and the role of the overall learning environment where learning takes place. Increasingly the role of the technology and web based tools to help learners and teachers offer flexibility and learning environments is significant. In this assignment, I have described (in short) five pedagogical approaches with an indication as to how they can be used in an environment like blackboard.

Well, when we talk of pedagogical approaches to instruction, there are five basic ones which mostly instructors use to design their instructions.

Traditional approach:

A popular approach, widely used even today in most of the educational settings, the main characteristic of this approach is that it is teacher centered. There is direct, face to face interaction between the teacher and the student.  The role of the teacher is to impart knowledge students are seen as passive recipients of knowledge. The teacher takes all decisions regarding instruction, assessment, and resources to be used.  

The blackboard environment can reinforce what teachers have presented in classrooms and provide structured practices for students to learn and apply the knowledge learnt in classrooms. Teachers can use blackboard to give such individual assignments and exercises, can use blackboard for online grading. The role of the student, though limited can be for asking questions or clarifying concepts and knowledge learnt.

Workplace Learning:

As more and more people become part of the ever changing work world, they also become life long learners. Workplace learning offers professionals opportunity to learn while they earn. In broad term workplace learning is the learning of specific competencies while working or on-the-job. There are usually coaches at the workplace as well as the institute/college where the learner is enrolled.

Major benefits of workplace learning, especially in the professional courses stem from experiential learning. This bridges the gap between theory and practice. There is application of the knowledge learnt, reflection after practice and therefore essential knowledge, skills and attitudes are internalized.

An environment like Blackboard (BB) can be used to create professional learning communities, which can interact, share and learn from each other as well as experts.

Collaborative learning:

Collaborative learning is a situation, where more than two people learn something together. The essential component here is that there should be people to collaborate on a common goal or objective. The main characteristic is that the knowledge and responsibility is shared amongst the members. Members create meaning out of their interactions and understanding amongst themselves. Such groups can be externally supported by a facilitator or a teacher who usually have the role of presenting the group with the objective or the task and guiding the group where necessary.

With Blackboard kind of an environment, collaboration can happen in the virtual world. It is not necessary for the learners to meet face to face. Even the teacher/ facilitator can meet the group through this virtual world.

Inquiry Learning:

Inquiry based learning means that students start with something to inquire about. This is open learning where the results of the inquiry are not known. The students, individually or through collaboration seek to inquire about a phenomenon systematically through a step by step process. Usually there is a teacher who helps guide the students through the various stages of inquiry learning and helps them draw conclusions from their findings. Inquiry learning is extensively used for science education, though there are other subject areas where it can be used

Blackboard like environment can be used effectively for helping students seek information or data, process that data and draw conclusions, find evidences, share results, seek expert advice and present findings, all online without the need for direct interaction.

Problem based approach:

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered instructional strategy in which students collaboratively solve problems and reflect on their experiences. (Wikipedia, 2010). There is a problem which is a real life problem and the students are asked to work in teams to solve that problem. Through this process, students not only learn the content knowledge, but also its application, essential skills and attitude in problem solving and  learn to work in groups. It based on the constructivist theory where students create meaning out of their experiences and interactions with each other.

Blackboard environment can help students with essential problem solving mind tools, tools for communication and collaboration and tools to find resources to solve the problem at hand.

These pedagogical approaches have great influence on the kind of content that can be taught, the kind of learning goals that can be achieved, the kind of technology that can be used and the kind of assessment that can be used to measure learning. Each approach has an important influence on the role of teachers, students and the learning environment. When we add technology here, the content (what is to be taught) and pedagogy (how is it to be taught) also change. Ultimately the teachers have to strike a balance between these three to see that learning objectives are achieved. This is a difficult proposition and teachers need active support in doing so!!

References:

Reeves, T. C. (1994). Evaluating What Really Matters In Computer-Based Education. In: M. Wild & D. Kirkpatrick (Eds.), Computer Education: New perspectives, pp. 219-246.