Pedagogical approaches supported by a CMS

In the lecture of last week we talked about pedagogies. A pedagogy is the teaching method: the principles and methods of instruction. In the lecture we also talked about several approaches of pedagogy. I would like to share some pedagogical approaches with you. I will explain how each approach can be supported in a course management system (CMS) such as Blackboard. A lot of the points that I will address in this post comes from the lecture of Pedagogies for flexible learning supported by technology.

Task-oriented learning

This pedagogical approach is working around a specific task that the learner has to solve. This approach has some characteristics. At first it is important that there is a problem or assignment available. The problem or assignment has to be presented in a meaningful context. To come to a good result there has to be worked through series of actions. Important is that there has to be information and tools available and students need to use theory. The central idea of this pedagogical approach is learning by doing a task that is presented to you.

In this approach there can be a lot of support from the CMS Blackboard. Blackboard can provide the learners with all the information that is necessary to work on the task. The teacher can give the student a real short explanation about the task and refer the learners to the Blackboard environment. In this environment can be found the whole description of the task, the expectations from the learners and very important the way of grading and the criteria for grading.

Traditional learning

This approach is familiar for almost everybody. A lot of teachers use this approach in their classes. When we talk about traditional learning, we talk about teaching in a face-to-face situation where the learner works in one single room and don’t move between different locations. The teacher is trying to work on the prior knowledge and make a link to the new information that will be discussed in the lecture. The assignments that need to be done by the learners are done by individually. Of course there is room for questions, but the learners have no other role then listening and watching the lecture of the teacher.

Although the teacher is saying a lot in the lectures there is also a possibility for using Blackboard as supporting environment for this pedagogical approach. The environment can be used for sharing the information that is given in the lecture with the student. It can also be used for giving the assignment and the place to hand it in or as a place to find information for the next lectures. But because of the traditional learning approach it is a good opportunity that the teacher will use Blackboard only for the essential points and won’t do anything more with it.

Inquiry learning

Inquiry learning approach is very different from the traditional learning approach. In inquiry learning the teacher uses a learner-centered approach. The learner is going to discover resources to learn things. In traditional learning the learner starts with explaining things to learners. In the inquiry approach the teacher only asks a question. This question has to be meaningful for the learners, but not directly be answered with the knowledge they have. The learners will look for their own resources that profit them with useful information to answer the question of the teacher. With these resources the learner forms answers to the question of the teacher. In this part of the learning the teacher provides the learner with process feedback. When the learner can’t find the right resources than the teacher can give hints or other information that the learner can use to find the answers.

When all the learners have made up an answer then the answers will be discussed between the other learners.  In this part of the learning the teacher still gives process feedback to the learners. After the discussing the learner will reflect their own outcome and in this phase the teacher will give product feedback. This feedback focusing on the product, thus the answer, and will provide the student maybe with the information that they have missed in the search.

This approach can be strongly supported by a CMS as Blackboard. Because the students work on their own to find the answer, the teacher can provide the students with feedback via Blackboard. The teacher can use Blackboard as well as an environment where the students can work in. In this way the teacher can see were the students are and what they have at this moment.

So, in this approach Blackboard can be used in different ways and not only for the basic options that this CMS has.

Problem-based learning

In this pedagogical approach the learner is also standing in the centre of teaching. In this approach the learner works on a problem that is stated within a meaningful context. When the context isn’t meaningful the learner can’t learn from it. The learners will discuss the problem in small groups and an important thing is that they talk about what they already know, so their prior knowledge and what they don’t know but need to know to work on the problem. After discussing in those groups every learner works alone to get the information and knowledge that is needed to work on the problem. After this search process the groups will come back together and everyone tells about his or her findings. In this way they build mental models with each other. The teacher is a coach in this pedagogical approach and is supporting the groups by giving hints or helps them to move on in their problem solving. But there is no face-to-face lecture; the teacher is only a coach.

For this approach Blackboard can be a good solution to work together. The teacher can use it of course to share the problem with the learners and maybe give them support if they need it. But the main support of Blackboard can be given by providing a discussion place and a workplace, so that the groups can talk to each other and share what they have, before they go and talk about it. In that way the whole group can work on building the mental models from the beginning.

Collaborative learning

The last approach that I will share with you is collaborative learning. In this approach the learners will work in groups and in that way they will work on a task. By working in groups the learner can share ideas and opinions with the other group members. The learner will learn from this collaboration and everybody has to work in the group, active participation is playing a very important role to succeed in collaborative learning. The teacher is in this approach responsible for the process that every group goes through, but he or she isn’t responsible for the product. That is the responsibility of the group. The teacher has a key role in deciding about the task that is appropriate for the group and also decides what the standards are for assessment. But the teacher won’t have a common role in the groups or as teacher in a face-to-face lecture.

For this approach Blackboard is also very useful. It gives the teacher the opportunity to share the statements for assessment and the task with his learners. So the basic things can be used by the teacher to get a better learning process. For the learners in this approach Blackboard can be an environment for communication. By giving a chat room to the groups they can discuss everything also outside the class hours and they can collaborate on a distance. Other opportunities are the use of workspaces were groups can share documents with each other and a forum for discussion where a group can ask questions to other groups or to group members of their own. Even discussing about the subject or task is possible in that way.

After sharing these five approaches with you I can conclude that those approaches have similarities and differences. But every approach has his own charm and I think that we can’t get away by choosing one. Of course I have a approach that really gets me. I really like problem-based learning, but also collaborative learning. Why? Because it give me the opportunity to work together with other people, who know different things and are looking to the world in another way. I think that I can learn more from a subject of problem, by talking to them and working together with those people. And also I have to say that looking for information by me is a challenge, because you never stop asking yourself if you have the good information.

But like I said I find it hard to choose really one, because I think that every pedagogical approach has something that should be used in a classroom. But not every approach can be connected to technology in my opinion. So, when I look to the combination with technology I see opportunities for a lot of approaches, but I know that they aren’t used in the real classroom. And the link with technology is what I want to get to know and what we want to come to in this course. I think that there are a lot of challenging approaches, but that a lot of teacher don’t know them or don’t want to know them. I really hope that someday teachers will see that a new approach isn’t always scary, it can also be a new world with new opportunities and chances. Let’s hope so that with this course I can find out how I can convince teacher to try a new approach and work together with technology to get the best out of the learner.