E-journal of All India Association for Educational Research (EJAIAER)
VOL.20
Nos: 3
& 4 September
& December, 2008
PERCEPTIONS OF FACTORS INFLUENCING
STUDENT-FOCUSED TEACHING APPROACHES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: OUTCOMES OF AN ACTION
RESEARCH
Peter Van Petegem
Vincent Donche
INRODUCTION
Previous research has shown that how teachers
teach can be explained to a certain extent by their conceptions of learning and
teaching (Calderhead & Robson, 1991; Hollingsworth, 1989; Lortie, 1975;
Tabachnick & Zeichner, 1984). The interrelationship between conceptions of
teaching and teaching strategies has been described in the literature in terms
of ‘approaches to teaching’. It is often said that teachers’ approaches to
teaching can be placed within two different fields: a conceptual
change/student-focused approach and an information transmission/teacher-focused
approach (Prosser & Trigwell, 1999). The conceptual change/student-focused
approach is intended to help and develop students’ conceptions by means of a
student-focused teaching approach. In the information
transmission/teacher-focused approach the aim is to transmit information and a
teacher-focused strategy is adopted. The relationship between teachers’
conceptions of teaching and their actual teaching behaviour in the classroom is
not as straight-forward and direct as might be expected. In a qualitative
study, Trigwell and Prosser (1996) found that the expected consistency between
similar learning and teaching conceptions and teaching strategies is not always
encountered in practice as a number of teachers were found who were less
learner-focused in teaching strategies than would have been expected from their
reported conceptions. Similar inconsistencies or disjunctions were also found
in other studies (Fang, 1996; Murray & MacDonald, 1997; Van Petegem &
Donche, 2006). These findings suggest that there may be a large number of factors
which limit teachers’ freedom to teach according to their conceptions of
teaching (Stes, Donche, & Van Petegem, submitted).
These may be contextual factors which act as a constraint
on teachers when, for example, implementing student-focused approaches to
teaching. Previous research by Lindblom-Ylänne, Trigwell, Nevgi, and Ashwin
(2006) shows that teachers working in a ‘pure hard’ discipline (e.g. chemistry)
exhibit student-focused teaching approaches to a significantly lesser extent
than teachers of ‘soft’ disciplines (e.g. history, education). It may also be
the case that class size and class level are influencing factors with regard to
the adoption of a student-focused teaching approach. However, in addition to
contextual factors, personal factors may also prove valuable in explaining
differences in teachers’ conceptions of teaching and the relationship to
teaching strategies. Many studies have found that teachers’ conceptions of
teaching; their beliefs with regard to teaching and their own theories of
teaching, are influenced by their many years of classroom observation during
their own time as students (Calderhead & Robson, 1991; Kagan, 1992; Lortie,
1975; Pajares, 1992; Wubbels, 1992). Teachers’ learning styles were also found
to be related to how they prefer to teach (Van Petegem, Donche, & Vanhoof,
2005).
Although it may be possible to identify some of the influencing factors by examining previous studies which have addressed the issues of ‘learning approaches’ and ‘teaching approaches’ in relation to the influence of personal and contextual factors, in the exploratory study which follows we have adopted a different basis. We specifically set out to study the factors which teachers themselves perceive as exercising an influence with regard to the application of student-focused approaches to teaching. Previous research carried out by Prosser and Trigwell (1997) already showed that teachers’ perceptions of the context can affect the approach of teachers such as feelings of control over how and what to teach, perception of appropriateness of class size, view on the (diverse) ability of students, feelings of departmental support for teaching, and perception of appropriateness of teaching load. It was shown that a conceptual change/student-focused teaching approach is related to a feeling of control over teaching and the perception of an appropriate class size, ability of students and teaching load. An information transmission/teacher-focused approach was found related with a feeling of lack of individual control and departmental support.
Our empirical study took place within the
context of a longitudinal action research project in higher education aimed at
implementing more student-focused teaching in classroom practice (Donche &
Van Petegem, 2004). We interviewed teachers who were involved in action
research processes at the end of their projects. This proved particularly
interesting and enlightening as, since the teachers involved were engaged in
conducting their own action research project, they had not only a formal, but
also an emerging practical knowledge of student-focused teaching and those
factors which are crucial to the implementation of a student-focused approach to
teaching. We viewed those teachers involved in the action research project as
‘rich’ sources of information given that they were actively dealing with – and
reflecting upon – the complexity of effecting the transfer from theoretical
change conceptions to actual student-focused teaching. In a first step we
explored teachers’ conceptions of teaching and then went on, in a second step,
to investigate which personal and contextual factors – according to them –
constrained or fostered their use of student-focused teaching approaches in
practice.
METHODOLOGY
Context And Respondents
The action research project Student Centred
Education (SCE) was the result of a collaboration between an external
university research team and in an institute of higher education, department of
commercial sciences and business administration. Both at the start and in the
course of the project teachers were given various formal training sessions by
external coaches on the concept of student-focused teaching and a number of
student-focused teaching strategies. In addition to providing these sessions
external coaches were also responsible for supervising teachers in developing
and implementing educational changes using collaborative action research (Carr
& Kemmis, 1986). Action research stresses participation, collaboration and
critical analysis and was regarded in this study as a strategy which is aimed
not only at optimizing educational practice but also at arriving at a better
understanding of the complexity of implementing educational innovations
(Elliot, 1991).
Teachers were expected to carry out development
and implementation activities aimed at increasing the use of student-focused
teaching in their own professional practice. 5 teams were formed, grouped
according to the discipline taught by the participants: French, Information
management and support, accountancy, management, and marketing. The project
began with 17 teachers taking part, but 8 subsequently withdrew largely as a
result of external factors, inter alia
pressure of work. The remaining action research teams developed and implemented
an initiative towards more student-focused teaching in a variety of ways, which
included the development of open learning materials, self-study guides,
enhancing active and cooperative learning and computer-supported self-guided
learning. Participants were required to keep a logbook during the project in
which they could make notes of their experiences and reflections The various
teams met at regular intervals to share knowledge and reflections regarding the
activities they had carried out and what they had learned from this.
Interviews
In the end phase of the project (2-year
educational innovation program) a series of individual semi-structured
interviews (45 to 60 minutes) were held with the remaining 9 teachers
concerned. These interviews were aimed at ascertaining their conceptions of
teaching and teaching strategies and their reflections with regard to the
personal and contextual factors which exercise an influence on transforming these
conceptions into actual teaching practice.
Analysis
As a preparation to the analysis of the data,
all the data collected were typed verbatim using a word processing programme
(total of 9210 lines) and were subsequently analyzed using the software programme
Atlas.ti. This was done in a series of steps which are commonly used in
phenomenographic research (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Strauss & Corbin,
1998). In a first step the text files were coded to each research question,
thereby creating a sub-division of text-fragments. We then looked for codes
which we could attach to text-fragments. In a second step, the codes were
categorized on the basis of their difference and similarity with regard to
content domains. In a third and final step of analysis we investigated the
feasibility of the coding and category system by re-reading the text-fragments.
At this stage we investigated whether multiple codes could be attached to the
text-fragments selected.
These analyses were primarily aimed at trying
to establish an underlying structure to the conceptions of teaching. We also
looked at how the diversity of conceptions could be organized in a structured
way. In putting together the factors relevant to the translation of conceptions
into teaching practice we took also into account the frequency of the factors
listed.
RESULTS
Conceptions of Teaching
The teachers
involved described student-focused teaching conceptions as bringing about a
change process with regard to the following domains: The pedagogical –didactic
relationship between teachers and students, the didactic design and learning
contents.
Pedagogical didactic relationship between
teachers and students
The teachers agreed that the role and attitude
of the teacher changes in student-focused teaching. In general, they were of
the opinion that the role of the teacher needs to be directed towards the
remediation of learning; more supervision of learning processes and more
communication and interaction between student and teacher. Most of the teachers
also indicated that their task consisted of encouraging students to learn in a
more self regulated manner. They also thought that it was the teacher’s job to
motivate students to study the subject. They advocated a less strongly
directive style from the teacher, which means, however, that the teacher still
retains control with respect to organizing the lessons, determining the
learning content and assignments and the evaluation of learning content. Almost
all the teachers agreed that a change is needed with regard to the role and
attitude of the student, who needs to be more actively involved in the learning
and teaching process. Students need to learn in a more independent way and must
take on more responsibility for their own learning.
Didactic Design
The teachers’ conceptions of how education
needs to be changed with regard to didactic design varied considerably. In
general, they were of the opinion that students must be able to deal with tasks
and assignments more self regulated and that enhancing active learning is a
central element in this. In most cases, they also mentioned group work or types
of project work which they feel should be alternated with traditional
lecture-based lessons. Teachers observed that during the Student Centred
Education Project they became convinced of the importance of changing
traditional learning materials into more open learning materials and self-study
guides as possible tools for implementing a more student-focused approach to
teaching. A minority of teachers also argued that a didactic design must also
aim to encourage alternative forms of evaluation in which the student is better
equipped to evaluate him or herself. The focus on differentiation was also
mentioned by a minority of teachers. A number of teachers pointed out that
student-focused teaching means a large-scale change which not only involves
changes in classroom practice but also important changes to the curriculum in
its wake. Various participants sketched
out the
basis of a modular educational system.
Changes in Learning Content
A number of teachers took the view that
student-focused teaching implies a number of changes with regard to learning
content. Some of these teachers emphasize teaching which focuses less on the
simple acquisition of knowledge by students and more on the acquisition of
skills such as, for example, learning to process study material critically and
a greater emphasis on learning to apply theoretical knowledge in specific
situations.
The results show that teachers’ conceptions of
learning and teaching are broadly consistent with a constructivist educational
paradigm (Simons, van der Linden, & Duffy, 2000). Teachers’ conceptions can
also be related in general terms to what is known in the literature as
‘conceptual change’ conceptions (Kember, 1997; Prosser & Trigwell, 1999).
Personal and Contextual Factors
In the interviews conducted, teachers were of the opinion that a
considerable number of personal and contextual factors play a role in
transforming conceptions of student-focused teaching into classroom practice.
The factors mentioned show a considerable diversity: (1) personal factors
relating to the teachers concerned; (2) teachers’ doubts with regard to the
students’ capacity for self regulated learning; (3) their own learning activities;
(4) the influence of external supervision; (5) the reactions of
fellow-teachers; (6) the reactions of their students; (7) aspects of school
culture; and (8) various preconditions. The direction of the influence was questioned
in the interviews. Thus teachers took the view, for example, that by means of
experiential learning they were better able to transform their conceptions of
student-focused teaching into classroom practice. They perceived teaching large
groups as having a negative impact on the possibilities of being able to
implement student-focused teaching. Figure 1 offers an exploratory overview of
the various factors and directions (see below). It is definitely not intended
to simplify the complexity of influencing factors or to pin down the
directionality of the relationships. It is possible, for example, that the
assumed effects of certain positive influencing factors (indicated with a +
sign) may disappear when the negative influencing factors (indicated with a –
sign) which affect the transformation of conceptions of student-focused
teaching into classroom practice are also taken into account. In order to draw
conclusions of this kind more research is necessary, however.
Figure 1: synthesis of personal and
contextual factors
CONCLUSIONS AND
DISCUSSION
Our research shows that there are differences between
teachers as to what they understand by conceptions of ‘student-focused’
teaching. We find that in defining their conceptions of teaching, most teachers
stress different dimensions such as changes with regard to the
pedagogical-didactic relationship between students and teacher, the didactic
design and learning content. The direction in which these changes have to take
place points to a more constructivist approach of teaching.
Our research into teachers’ conceptions was not
able to demonstrate whether teachers attach more or less importance to one of
the dimensions distinguished in student focused teaching. It is possible, for
example, that certain teachers may perhaps regard the implementation of the
pedagogical didactic relationship between students and teachers as more
important than a change in learning content. If this aspect is explored in
follow-up research this may lead to more refined research results with regard
to what teachers perceive as of prime importance in the implementation of student-focused
teaching. In this connection it would also be interesting to further explore
and validate the dimensionality of ‘conceptual change’ conceptions in follow-up
research.
Our research into influencing factors which
play a role in the process of transforming conceptions into classroom practice
reveals a complex picture and has also made a further empirical contribution with regard to the
factors which teachers perceive as playing an important mediating role in
putting conceptions of teaching into teaching practice (Prosser & Trigwell,
1997). The overview of influencing factors presented in figure 1 appears to
have a large number of points of overlap with previous conceptualisations such
as inter alia that of Entwistle et al.(2003), including the assumed
influence of assessment and feedback, and preconditions such as contact hours
and pressure of work, the students’ skills and the context of courses. The
exploratory overview of these various personal and contextual factors can be
regarded as an interactive framework of influences which can positively and/or
negatively influence the relationship between teachers’ conceptions and their
actions. Yet this is not able to show to what extent teachers regard certain
factors as more important than others with regard to the transformation of
conceptions into classroom practice. Ideally, therefore, these qualitative
findings of this study should be tested on a larger scale and preferably also
in combination with quantitative research methods. A study of this kind would
permit us to further examine the differences in impact of different factors on
conceptions and strategies.
This study succeeded in demonstrating that
there may be a large number of other factors behind the reason why the presence
of student-focused conceptions of teaching among teachers does not always
coincide with the presence of likewise teaching strategies. This overview can
serve as an initial exploratory basis for further research into the explanation
of disjunctions between student focused teaching conceptions and strategies.
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