Applying Adult Learning Principles: Teaching a Challenging Course
Bulletin of Applied Computing and Information Technology Vol
2, Issue 1 (March 2004). ISSN 1176-4120.
Dr Xiaosong Li
UNITEC, New Zealand
xli@unitec.ac.nz
ABSTRACT
Web Application Development is a challenging course with rich contents
covered in a short time. This paper discusses the author’s efforts in
helping students learn this course effectively and complete this course
successfully. It also discusses five most relevant adult learning
principles and link the teaching strategies used by the author with the
corresponding principles.
Keywords
Web application development, course characteristics, adult learning
principles, teaching strategies
1. INTRODUCTION
Web Application Development is a third year undergraduate course.
The course components include developing web-based client-server
applications, and interacting with online database. While having the
server-side emphasis, the course covers both client-side and server-side
scripting. The course is run for 13 weeks. In each week there are two sessions:
the first is theory; the second is practical. The author has been teaching
the course for three semesters. During the teaching, the author
persistently finds that the course is challenging and the students are
well motivated. Appropriate delivery methods will help students to take
the challenge and gain more from the course.
Acknowledging the complexity of the teaching-learning relationship and
analyzing its characteristics for a course are helpful for enhancing
the
proficiency and effectiveness of teachers and students (Fenstermacher &
Richardson, 2000, p.12). In analyzing current Web Application Development
courses at the tertiary level, we sum up the characteristics of the
course, which are helpful for us to develop more appropriate delivery
methods.
In recent decades, there has been considerable research about the
needs of the adult learner and the effective teaching practices that are
required to meet these learner needs (Clark, 1986; Knox, 1986, Mezirow,
1983; Lieb, 2002). These are usually called adult learning principles.
Learning is facilitated when instructors comply with the principles.
This paper reports the author's teaching practices on using appropriate
delivery methods for the challenging course described above. Understanding
why this course is challenging is essential for overcoming the
challenges. Analysing the characteristics of the course and the students
helps us understand why the course is challenging and find suitable
teaching strategies. Adult learning principles have proven helpful for
learning. However, not all the principles are relevant to this course.
This paper analyses the most relevant adult learning principles and
explains why they are relevant. It also explains how the principles are
reflected by the author's teaching strategies. The rest of the paper
covers these sections: the characteristics of Web Application Development
course; the students; the selected adult learning principles and the
teaching strategies; conclusion. This paper will demonstrate how the
application of appropriate pedagogy can improve the experiences of both
teacher and learner.
2. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT COURSE
A number of Web Application Development related course descriptions
have been found on the Internet (Chao, 2002; Ellis, 2003; Giftos, 2002;
Lefkovitz, 2002). These are carefully studied and their characteristics
are discussed in the following subsections.
2.1. Rich contents for a short time
It is argued that there is a great deal of applicable technology and it
is not possible to include all web technology in a particular course, nor
is it desirable (Yang & Grove, 2002). However, to successfully implement
a typical non-complicated Web application, a student must master a minimal
set of techniques, and it is rich. And also by using at least two
comparative server-side technologies, the course provides the students a
broader picture of Web-based development and strengthens the students'
understanding of the underlying concepts and Web-based architecture (Yang
& Grove, 2002). Usually these courses are run for 9-14 teaching weeks
and they cover a wide range of concepts and technology.
2.2. Programming nature
By looking at the available course schedules, we found that at least
three typical Web programming languages are covered in each of the
courses. And each course gives at least one programming assignment, which
requires client-side scripting, server-side scripting and accessing
database. This makes the course featured with all the challenges of a
programming course, which includes problem solving, abstraction,
deduction, comprehension, reading, writing, creativity, composition and
understanding of the business sector.
2.3. Multiple disciplines
Web Application Development requires pre-existing knowledge from
multiple disciplines, which includes database design and implementation;
system analysis, design and implementation; and graphical user interface
design and implementation. The course continues to enhance the knowledge.
This causes difficulty for students to retain the learning materials. And
it requires instructors to reinforce the course knowledge frequently.
2.4. Changing quickly
The technologies used to develop Web applications are continually
changing. Not only are new tools being developed continuously, but also
the existing tools are being upgraded, enhanced, and modified. As a
result, a Web-based development course must be revised continuously and
the course itself becomes obsolete quickly (Yang & Grove, 2002). These
changes make the course challenging even for student with good
pre-existing knowledge.
3. THE STUDENTS
The students in this course usually have a wide range of diversities,
but they have one thing in common, i.e. they are all well motivated. Take
the student group from the second semester of 2002 as an example. In this
group, there were female (33%) and male (67%). The most of them were
young. Ethnically, there were 5 nationalities and 5 different native
languages. Culture not only shapes the thinking process, it also defines
modes of communicating and receiving information, so students’ experiences
with multiple languages and cultures influence their learning. In terms of
pre-knowledge, some of them had just finished a basic programming course,
while a couple of students had self-learned a lot of Web Application
Development concepts. These students were quite excited about the new
technology.
These students are quite excited about the new technology. Adults are
goal-oriented (Lieb, 2002); they usually know what goals they want to
attain. In this case the goals are preparing for industry project or
employment opportunities. As a result, they worked very hard on the
course. They voluntarily do extra work and attend additional practical
sessions.
Differences between students are real and individual preferences in
their ways of learning are also real. Culture not only shapes the thinking
process it defines modes of communicating and receiving information, so
students’ experiences with multiple languages and cultures influence their
learning.
4. ADULT LEARNING PRINCIPLES AND TEACHING STRATEGIES
In this section, we select five most relevant adult learning
principles. We discuss why they are relevant to our course. For each of
the principles, the corresponding teaching strategies used by the author
are described and discussed.
4.1. There is a positive learning environment
Adults learn best in a safe and secure social environment in which they
can test new ideas and ways of doing things without threat to their
self-esteem (Clark, 1986). In our course, students from different social
groups are brought together into the same classroom. This might make them
feel strange and uncomfortable. A positive learning environment is
particularly important to these students.
The students need to digest a huge amount content with big complexity
within a short time. They certainly need to make use their time
efficiently and effectively. A positive learning environment will motivate
students, increase student opportunities to learn, help students learn and
maintain appropriate behavior. As indicated in section 2, this course
requires pre-existing knowledge from multiple disciplines, such as
database design, HTML and so on. However, some of the students are very
weak on the knowledge. Because of the time limit, there is no enough room
in the course to teach or review such pre-required knowledge, the students
have to learn or review that knowledge by themselves. A positive learning
environment will promote student self-responsibility, and foster
accountability.
A number of efforts have been made on creating a positive learning
environment, for example, using an orientation section in the first
lecture. In each first lecture, the lecturer does self-introducing first.
Then the students are paired up to talk. Finally each student introduces
the partner to the whole class. This can shorten the distance between the
students and the lecturer. It would start good interpersonal relations in
our diverse group. This will not only lay the foundation for a working
relationship, but also encourage student participation and stimulate
student interest.
Another strategy is to promote learner independence/responsibility.
Given the students have a number of diversities on this course; a single
approach is obviously not sufficient. The students are often given
options. All the lecture notes and exercises are published in advance, so
the students have an opportunity to decide whether they need to come to a
particular session. In the exercises and assignments, the students have
the option to add their own features and to choose their own scripts. The
purpose of these options is to let the students benefit the most from
their most favoured approaches and not waste time on something not very
helpful to them. This forms a part of a positive learning environment.
4.2. Learners participate actively
As indicated in Section 2, this course has got a programming nature
and is featured with all the challenges of a programming course. Some
of the
attributes of a typical programming course that make it unattractive to
students are its stereotyped image, its abstract nature, and the fact
that
the practical exercises are “tedious” (Prasad & Fielden, 2002; Lowe,
2002, Marks, Freeman & Leither, 2001). These attributes can make
the students easily get
bored if they just listen to a lecture. And also this course covers a lot
of content on how to do something, which can only be learned by actually
doing it. People learn best when they work actively in ways such as trying
out techniques, talking about ideas, presenting information in their own
words (Unitec, 1996).
The activities in active learning also include discussion, practice and
problem solving (Knox, 1986). Ramsden (1992, p. 101) indicates these kinds
of method permit a degree of student control over learning and can
accommodate individual differences in preferred ways of reaching
understanding.
To help the students learn more contents in a limited time, we have
used teaching strategies that facilitate active learning. The common one
is to encourage class discussion. Another one is to let students learn
certain new techniques by doing it in the practical sessions. Some
“how-to” techniques are sequence of actions, for example, how to make a
“datagrid” editable. Explaining these steps in a lecture would result in
very poor understanding and retention. We give the students a sequence of
instructions to follow in the practical sessions. The lecturer guides them
while they are doing these. At this moment, because the students are doing
it and are thinking actively, they accept the lecturer’s idea easily and
understand deeply, thus learning is efficient and effective.
The students will participate actively when they are interested and
enjoy what they are doing. Making assignments relevant to students' lives
is a way to stimulate student interests. Given the students are young and
male majority, cars are interesting and relevant to their lives. In one of
the assignments, we asked them to develop an online car purchase order
system. This made the students very excited. As a result, they did a lot
of extra work and gained more from the assignment.
4.3. Feedback is provided and used
Because of the linguistic diversity, communication between the students
and the author becomes a key issue. Providing feedback is an effective
communication method. According to Zemke and Zemke (1984), the
learner is dependent on the instructor for confirming feedback on skill
practice. Adult learners need positive, instant feedback on their
progress. This provides encouragement and direction.
The author frequently gives students feedback on their assignments,
exercises and class discussions. For example, the students have an option
to demonstrate their assignment to the lecturer. During the demo, the
author constantly gives the students feedback on how to improve their
work. By means of the feedback, the students can clarify, verify and
confirm the concepts learned from lectures.
4.4. Correct learning behaviour is reinforced
Reinforcement should be part of the teaching-learning process to ensure
correct behavior. Instructors need to use it on a frequent and regular
basis in the teaching process to help the student retain what they have
learned (Lieb, 2002). Due to the multiple disciplines and the rich
contents of Web Application Development, reinforcement is particularly
important for this course.
In each practical session, we let the students practice the concepts
they’ve just learned from the theory session in the same week. So the
concepts are reinforced quickly and regularly. Sequential exercises are
used, i.e. each exercise is based on the previous week’s exercise. This
allows the concepts covered by the previous exercises to be reviewed and
reinforced. The students are given answers for each exercise. The answers
are given after one week. This will allow students to put in enough of
their own efforts. The answers reinforce the correct learning behaviors.
The sequential exercises provide an ongoing basis case study. Having a
consistent case study throughout the course provides students a familiar
context in which new techniques can be practiced on, and it helps to
illustrate how various techniques are integrated (Yang & Grove, 2002). The
case study also serves as an example for the assignments. When all the
exercises are completed, a nice Web site is created. This will increase
the students’ confidence and interest.
4.5. There are multiple examples of concepts and principles
The learning style diversity in our group requires a variety of teaching
methods. Zemke and Zemke (1984) indicate that a concept needs
to
be "anchored" or explained from more than one value set. It is
always easier to explain things the way we understand them, but when we
teach a
particularly diverse group of students we must learn to explain things
in other ways. It’s important for a lecturer belonging to a particular
ethnical group learn to explain things in the ways preferred by the
students from other ethnic groups. Multiple examples are helpful on
this.
The author often gives multiple examples. This allows the students
learn the concept in a comparative way. It facilitates critical thinking
and deeper understanding. In the assignments, students are asked to
implement the same application twice, one in ASP and another in ColdFusion.
In the second assignment, the students are asked to include a paragraph to
critically reflect on the two tools. This helps the students with
different learning styles achieve the same level of understanding.
5. CONCLUSION
Web Application Development is a challenging course with rich contents
covered in a short time. We have described the author’s teaching
strategies in helping the students take the challenge and gain more from
the course. These strategies comply with the selected adult learning
principles, so learning should be facilitated.
The students’ reaction can be observed partially from their evaluation
sheets. For the group of the second semester of 2002, there is only one
incomplete in the course. In the evaluation sheets, 40% students
absolutely agreed that the lecturer was well organized and well prepared,
27% strongly agreed, and 33% agreed. 13% students absolutely agreed that
the lecturer was enthusiastic with a responsive and interactive style of
teaching, 53% strongly agreed, and 34% agreed. 13% students absolutely
agreed that the lecturer had encouraged their learning and study, 53%
strongly agreed, and 27% agreed. There is no disagreement on these items.
In general, the results of applying selected adult learning principles
are positive, although there still is room for improvement. Due to the
diversities of the students, we don’t expect all the students gain the
same amount from the course; but each student gains the most from the
course within their own capability. The course structure and content are
still changing. The author is still looking for better teaching practice.
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Copyright © 2004 Xiaosong Li
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