Assessed Activity 2.1 (2015) Pedagogies [Factual and Personal Pieces with References]

Inquiry-based learning

Inquiry-based Learning is when teaching direction is dictated by giving an overarching question as a learning goal, and a facilitator, tutor, or teacher will guide the students in how to discover the materials used to answer that question.

EXAMPLE:

In highschool, my last year of English studies were this:

We were presented with reading or viewing materials - Shakespeare's Hamlet, say - and walked through how to pick out in-text story-telling elements that reflected themes, like those of Hamlet's insanity. This method didn't work very well for me personally in this specific subject, because of the subjectiveness of literature and my inability to create an answer that satisfied the tutor.

Case-Based Teaching

CBT is when students are presented with realistic and usually rather serious situation in which the subject they are learning is a cornerstone. Analytical thinking and reflective judgement are encouraged by this method through deep conversation about the topic in question.

EXAMPLE:

Most of my science classes in highschool were this. Granted, there were plenty of practicals, and a few other pedagogies were used, but most of my Physics and Biology classes involved using problems (escaping earth's orbit in the former and how to evolve a creature to a specific environment in the latter, for example) to reverse-engineer the information our tutor was trying to teach us.

Project-Based Learning

Project Based Learning is a pedagogy dependent on lengthy times to study the subject and a student-driven desire to study the subject. It encompasses means to diversify learning, including sharing work with outside influences and receiving and working on criticism.

Game-Based Learning

While pretty self-explanatory, the nuances of Game-based Learning pedagogy are rather immersive:

Games can be designed by collaboration between software programmers and teachers/tutors which allows the teaching aspects to be integrated easier. The techniques of game creation can be passed on to students which not only gives them IT skills but also the skills in which they're actually studying. Also, it exploits a medium which most students thoroughly enjoy and will be willing to sink much, much time into and as a result will likely learn the material very proficiently.

How can these be integrated with E-Learning?

Inquiry:

This could be integrated by allowing students to search the internet on information on the subject they're inquiring into. However, care must be taken to teach students beforehand to look in the right places and how to critically think about articles they use as proof or self-teaching resources.

Case-Based:

This would probably benefit most from integration into a forum-type setting, where opinions and thought can be expressed and contemplated across multiple platforms, from home, and even outside regular class time. It also ties in with the idea directly above this one for Inquiry-based.

Project-Based:

Integration into a social network or forum would allow the project to be criticized by enormous numbers of people who may or may not be familiar with the subject. The internet has also been proven to be a powerful resource for those with the drive to learn, which is partly what PBL is founded on.

Game-Based:

Creating games that are for one thing internet-based and for another require cooperation amongst students, will make the experiences there considerably more engaging and broad. Capitalising on the idea of making education fun, integrating Game-based learning with e-learning makes the experience more interesting and allows the student to involve their friends, which will engage them more.

References:

 Stephenson, N (Unknown date). In Introduction to Inquiry Based Learning. Retrieved 13:56, March 9, 2015, from http://www.teachinquiry.com/index/Introduction.html

Inquiry-based learning. (2015, February 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:57, March 9, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inquiry-based_learning&oldid=647689864

Unknown Author. (Unknown date). In Case-based Teaching and Problem-based Learning. Retrieved 14:07, March 9, 2015, from http://www.crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies/tscbt

Unknown Author. (Unknown date). In What is Project BasedLearning (PBL)?. Retrieved 14:12, March 9, 2015, http://bie.org/about/what_pbl

Educational game. (2015, February 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:30, March 9, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Educational_game&oldid=648795281