Models of Learning & Teaching in

Higher Education

Dr. John Milliken

School of Education
Queens University
Belfast
3 Types of people/lecturers

• Those that make

things happen,
• Those that watch
things happen,
• Those that wonder
Prof. Frank Pantridge
what happened!
Learning
 Learning Outcomes
By the end of this session you should:-
• Be aware of the policies effecting change in
higher education
• Understand why an accredited teaching
qualification in necessary for a career in HE
• Appreciate the context within which HE
teaching is undertaken
• Identify some implications for teaching in the
future
 Learning and Teaching

“One learns by teaching;

one cannot teach except
by constantly learning”.

Eble, 1988

5
 Teaching
I do not wish to be a teacher, I
am employed as a lecturer
and in my naivete I thought
my job was to 'know' my
field, contribute to it by
research and to lecture on my
specialism! Students attend
my lectures but the onus to
learn is on them. It is not my
job to teach them.

(Guardian 1991)
Curriculum model

Specified

Enacted

Experienced
Teaching and Curriculum 1960s

Specified

Enacted

Experienced
Teaching and Curriculum 1980s

Specified

Enacted

Experienced
Teaching and Curriculum 2000

Specified

Enacted

Experienced
Teaching and Curriculum today

Specified

Enacted

Experienced

Hidden

(Postmodernism vs Professionalism in Higher Education – J. Milliken)

 What is learning?
“Learning is …. A way of interacting with the world. As we
learn, our conceptions of phenomena change, and we
see the world differently. The acquisition of information
itself does not bring about such a change, but the way
we structure that information and think with it
does…Education is about conceptual change, not just the
acquisition of information”
(Biggs, 2002)
Words of Wisdom

• I hear, I forget
• I see, I remember
• I do, I understand

(Confucius)
 Conditions for learning
• Clear objectives: expressed as learning outcomes;
• Students feel a need to achieve those objectives;
• Motivation: a PRODUCT of good teaching;
• Students engage with the material;
• Students can work collaboratively in dialogue with
others;
• Students receive positive feedback.
 Learning about learning
• Learning about learning has been connected with higher levels of
performance
• Understanding of learning has advanced significantly in last decades
• Stems from ‘student-centredness’
• Also: ‘Learner autonomy and learner independence’
• Learning is specific to the social situation in which it was originally
learned
• Thinking about Thinking - ‘metacognition’
• Learning about Learning – ‘meta-learning’ which includes goals,
feelings, social relations and context of learning
 Learning styles

•Visual learners
•Auditory Learners
•Kinesthetic /tactile learners

(Neill Fleming ‘s Vark)

 The Kolb Cycle

Now What? What?

So What?

Kolb, David A., (1984)

Learning
 Frameworks for student learning

 Bloom’s taxonomy of
learning
 Behaviourist theories of
learning
 Cognitive theories of
learning
 Humanistic theories of
learning
 Learning and motivation
 Bloom’s Taxonomy

• Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives

• 1950s- developed by Benjamin Bloom
• Means of expressing qualitatively different kinds of thinking
• Adapted for classroom use as a planning tool
• Continues to be one of the most universally applied models
• Provides a way to organise thinking skills into six levels, from the most basic
to the higher order levels of thinking
• 1990s- Lorin Anderson (former student of Bloom) revisited the taxonomy
• As a result, a number of changes were made
(Pohl, 2000, Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn, pp. 7-8)
 Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Bloom’s taxonomy is an attempt to classify forms of
learning.
• It identifies three “domains” of learning each of which is
organised as a series of levels or pre-requisites.
• Lower levels must be covered before moving on to higher
levels – adopts a ‘building blocks’ view of learning.
• The three levels are:
cognitive
affective
psycho-motor
 Bloom’s domains

Cognitive
Domain
Blooms Taxonomy (1956)

The judgement and evaluation of characters, actions

outcome etc., for personal reflection and understanding

The organization of thoughts, ideas, and information from the

content
The comparison and contrast of the content to personal
experiences
The converting of abstract content to concrete situations

An understanding of what was read

The recall of specific information

http://www.stedwards.edu/cte/files/BloomPolygon.pdf
 Original Terms New Terms

• Evaluation •Creating
• Synthesis •Evaluating
• Analysis •Analysing
• Application •Applying
• Comprehension •Understanding
• Knowledge
•Remembering
(Based on Pohl, 2000, Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn, p. 8)
Using the revised taxonomy
 Why use Bloom’s Taxonomy?
• Objectives (learning goals) are important to establish in a
pedagogical interchange so that teachers and students alike
understand the purpose of that interchange.
• Teachers can benefit from using frameworks to organize
objectives because
• Organizing objectives helps to clarify objectives for
themselves and for students.
• Having an organized set of objectives helps teachers to:
– "plan and deliver appropriate instruction";
– "design valid assessment tasks and strategies“ and
– "ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with
the objectives." QUIZ
 Frameworks for student learning

 Bloom’s taxonomy of
learning
 Behaviourist theories of
learning
 Cognitive theories of
learning
 Humanistic theories of
learning
 Learning and motivation
 Behaviourist theories of learning

– Learn by being rewarded for ‘right responses

(Stimulus-Response model)
– Law of ‘positive reinforcement’
– Highly structured materials/externally imposed
goals
– ‘traditional’ teaching pattern ‘teacher initiates-
student responds’ Common in work on managing
classroom behaviour
Difficulties – Behaviour & Learning
– Making mistakes and taking risks is an
important part of learning
– Learning more process than content based
– Reducing process to conditioning
– Invisible things about learning as
important as the visible- or observable
– Learning is active not passive
– External rewards not always motivating
 Frameworks for student learning

 Bloom’s taxonomy of
learning
 Behaviourist theories of
learning
 Cognitive theories of
learning
 Humanistic theories of
learning
 Learning and motivation
 Cognitive theories of learning: social
– Human beings constructivism
are active meaning-makers who construct
knowledge rather than ‘receive’ it (Vygotsky)
– Centres around ’student-centred’ teaching
– Teacher has to be able to identify the learner’s state of
development and ‘learning readiness’
– Learners pass through a series of stages of learning
development. ZPD: zone of proximal development.
– Constructivist approaches encourage and promote self-
directed learning as a necessary condition for learner
autonomy.
 The social nature of knowledge.
• Learning regarded as interpsychological, taking place
with others who may be more experienced. It is defined
as a social activity.
• As new ideas and knowledge are internalised, learners
use language to comment on what they have learnt;
language is used to both transmit and clarify new
information and then to reflect on and rationalise what
has been learnt.
• learning moves from the interpsychological to the
intrapsychological.
 Learning and Teaching as
Social Activity: implications
• Importance of not waiting till a student is deemed ready
to absorb things
• Development of independent processes of learning
• Learning from cross-curricular perspective
• Student-teacher relationships change
• Forms of classroom organisation – collaborative learning
• Active challenge to notions of intelligence and ability
• A forum in the classroom where students can have their
say.
 Scaffolding
• Support given by a tutor to a learner (Bruner,
1990). Support is given up to the point where
a learner can “internalise external knowledge
and convert it into a tool for conscious
control”.
• Learners are led to an understanding of a task
by a teacher’s provision of appropriate
amounts of challenge to maintain interest and
involvement, and support to ensure
understanding.
 Frameworks for student learning

 Bloom’s taxonomy of
learning
 Behaviourist theories of
learning
 Cognitive theories of
learning
 Humanistic theories of
learning
 Learning and
motivation
 Humanist framework
• They emphasise the "natural desire" of
everyone to learn. Whether this natural desire
is to learn whatever it is you are teaching,
however, is not clear.
• It follows from this, they maintain, that
learners need to be empowered and to have
control over the learning process.
• So the teacher relinquishes a great deal of
authority and becomes a facilitator.
 Frameworks for student learning

 Bloom’s taxonomy of
learning
 Behaviourist theories of
learning
 Cognitive theories of
learning
 Humanistic theories of
learning
 Learning and
motivation
 Learning and motivation
• Deep and Surface are two approaches to study,
derived from original empirical research by Marton
and Säljö (1976) and since elaborated by Ramsden
(1992), Biggs (1987, 1993) and Entwistle (1981),
among others.
• Although learners may be classified as “deep” or
“surface”, they are not attributes of individuals: one
person may use both approaches at different times,
although she or he may have a preference for one or
the other.
Deep & surface learning

Based on Ramsden (1988)

 Learning and motivation (2)
• “Deep” correlates closely with intrinsic
motivation and “surface” with extrinsic
• There is a third form, known as the “Achieving”
or strategic approach, in which the motivation
is to get good marks.
• The Surface learner is likely to be motivated
primarily by fear of failure. (Ramsden, 1988)
 Surface and Deep Learning
• Many current university students have been
"coached" by their teachers to get the grades they
need for admission: they have been trained to be
surface learners, and their experience is that it
"works". Why should they take the risk of working in
a different way?

• Surface learning is more likely when learning is

isolated from practice. There is a need then to relate
academic content to ‘real world’ practices
 Teaching role in learning
• Giving feedback to learners
• Helping learners become better learners
• Focusing on motivation
• Comparing deep and surface learning
• Experiential learning
• Looking at the learning process
• Looking at learning styles
 Challenges for the future
• The need to develop an understanding of holistic learning (intellectual,
social and emotional components);
• Internationalisation of education;
• Greater emphasis on self-directed learning;
• Greater understanding of diversity in HE and its impact on approaches
to teaching/learning;
• Focus on classroom research (action research) to gain a greater
understanding of learning strategies;
• More research needed on learning styles;
• Enhanced understanding of collaborative learning;
• HE management must become more aware and accept the needs of
enhanced learning and teaching;
• Increased use of technology