Download - Inside-out thinking about distance teaching: Making sense of reflective practice

Inside-Out Thinking about Distance Teaching : Making Sense of Reflective Practice

Elizabeth J. Burge Adult & Vocational Education, Faculty of Education, University of New Brunswick, Bag Service #45333, Fredericton, NB E3B 6E3, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]

The Kolb experiential learning cycle organizes some critical reflections on years of distance education practice. The results include a list of conceptual confusions, technological challenges, and criteria that focus more on “classics” than “basics.”

This contribution is an “inside-out” reflection (Hunt, 1987). It outlines some results of thinking about my work as a distance educator. Having worked my way through various conceptual and practical thickets over the years, it is now time to reflect and claim my personal knowledge and concerns. But first some context.

Personal Experience as Context

Since 1978, I have studied adult and distance education, conducted research [distance tutoring (Burge, Ironside, & Howard, 199 I), library services (Burge, Snow, & Howard, 1989), audio (Burge & Snow, 1990)) and computer conferenced learning ( Burge, 1993 )] ; taught graduate courses [mainly by audio-conferencing (AC)] ; worked for professional associations; heard many students’ experiences of distance learning; and confirmed with my professional friends that we most value an enquiring, critical mind, and a focus on all kinds of thinking to learn. Such a mindset and focus are not easy to sustain, especially in these technocratic times ( Roszak, 1994; Stoll, 1995 ).

My teaching model for face-to-face classrooms is de- rived from acoustic classrooms, or, as one colleague said, “a classroom with the lights out.” Such classrooms use audio-conferencing equipment to connect learners and teachers simultaneously across a number of locations. My students are mature adults in their work lives, but many enter their learning lives in a state of passive de- pendency on the teacher [“they’re like little birds: They

0 I996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

don’t know if their wings work” (R. Rogers, personal communication, 1995 )] ; not sure if they can trust themselves to grow and mature as learners [“tell me what you really want and I’ll just do it” (MacLachlan, 1995)] ; very anxious to “second guess the professor” and “not skilled in making judgements for myself [ sic] and being expressive” (Plant, personal communication, 1995 ). But gradually, as they experience a non-lecture mode of teaching, they also experience something else: “Para- digm Shifting 10 1.” As students are asked to think about their learning and become self-responsible, they have to loosen old assumptions about learning and power rela- tionships, and develop interdependent strategies and skills. MacLachlan (one of our students and an ex-gun- nery instructor) has likened his 1995 shift to be equiva- lent to the move “from the British long bow to multiple launch rockets.”

My model of teaching is not the transmission (load and dump) one. I pay attention to group-based development stages and the engagement and withdrawal phases of self-direction in learning (Taylor, 1987)) but their effects can be unsettling on me and the students. I try to develop more the skill of constructive, rather than be- nevolent, tolerance when confronted by the anger of students who expect the security of reproducing knowledge, but encounter instead the unpredictability of “produc- ing” their own knowledge. I have to guide them into, but not guard against, the white-water rafting sensation of traveling through new information. Students are ex- pected to come to class already having finished some preparation, e.g., doing some field work, reading others’ knowledge in books and journals, assessing how that information relates to their own practical knowledge, looking for contradictions and ambiguities in real-life issues, and developing some questions they want answered by the end of the class. I help them design group and other activities in the class in order to revisit earlier knowledge, confront real-world problems, and acknowledge, with-

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out panic, the paradoxes and contradictions of “well-defined, ill defined and wicked problems” (Rowe, 1987, p. 40-41). My key roles are to help students create an activity agenda for each class, maintain a conducive climate for relaxed but rigorous discussions, connect learners to resources, confirm their learnings, correct their misunderstandings, and challenge them to more sophis- ticated thinking, be it intuitive, critical, analytical, or metaphorical. In general, I promote experiential and constructivist learning whepeby the learner has to assess and build her/his own meanings; in short, to be an ar- chitect, not a Xerox machine. All of these principles and strategies present “real-world” dynamics and difficulties. These are based much more on interpersonal communication problems and intrapersonal paradigm shifts than on the mediative effects of the loss of visual cues,

The results of my thinking come from many trips around the Kolb experiential learning cycle (Kolb, 1984). “To Kolb” is to learn experientially by moving from the immediacy of a “concrete experience” to the more detached stance of “reflective observation” in order to generate and analyze data about the experience, before developing personal knowledge and comparing it with the more public knowledge of others. The resulting “abstract conceptualizations” may be enlarged ideas and convictions, or transformed perspectives (Mezirow, 199 1) . Whichever, they may be used to generate new/ revised action strategies to inform the next concrete experience. And so the cycle continues. With each iteration of the full cycle, the learner also has a chance to broaden her/ his repertoire of four learning styles-divergence, assimilation, convergence, and accommodation, and understand how colleagues use their own preferred learning styles.

Public Experience as Context

The current distance education field is crowded. Three species walk on this field: Techies, newbies, and oldies. I am not sure how well each group interacts with each other, but I am sure that each group needs to reconcile the glamor and glut of high technology-based information with the capacities and limits of institutional and personal resources. The techies of distance education embrace the new with enthusiasm; the newbies explore new market territories; and the oldies try to reconcile their past experience with the new challenges. Many techies and newbies may already have had their con- sciences and pocketbooks hooked by the marketers of technology (better access and keeping up to date). And many oldies may already have had their values ques- tioned by the techies and the newbies. How each species helps the other, and who are the “needers, the feeders and the leaders” are moot points; but all of us-course designers, teachers, librarians, media producers, evalua- tors, administrators, and managers, regardless of our ex-

perience level and kind, need to “place” ourselves-eth- ically and practically-somewhere among the positive and negative elements in today’s technological climate. Neil Postman ( 1992) says it more elegantly:

Every culture must negotiate with technology, whether it does so intelligently or not. A bargain is struck in which technology giveth and technology taketh away. The wise know this well, and are rarely impressed by dramatic technological changes. and never overjoyed. (p. 5)

To me such a negotiation means first asking questions that focus on the “why?” and “when?” issues of principle before asking the “how?’ questions of procedure. It means being reflective in and on one’s actions (Schiin, 1983), and it presupposes having a set of professional principles and values, not just heuristics and procedures for quick action. In the words of a thoughtful Finnish educational leader, adapted from an unknown English source, it means having “good sense, common sense, and a sense of proportion” (Gustafson, personal communication, 1995 ). Those three criteria will be explored dur- ing this article. Now it is time to move from the “concrete experience” phase of Kolb into the reflection and analysis stage.

Reflective Observations

The distance education field contains some conceptual confusions. My list below is offered with the ratio- nale that to name the problem is to gain half the answer. At least I have a precedent for such a display of intellec- tual vexations. Our Newfoundland colleagues had the wit and nerve to compile a list of practical vexations called “Aspirin, anyone?: 27 things that can go wrong with a distance education course” (Mandeville, 1995, p. 13 ). What follows are my mental vexations that span 15 years.

How did such confusions arise? Seven thinking errors afflict me at various times. The first error lies in accepting uncritically others’ definitions of their reality, exemplified in once seeing distance as geography [ LC # 11, or in distance learning being valued because it is learning alone (as distinct from learning interdependently) [ LC #2], or in thinking that geographical distance had to be mediated ( as distinct from people-mediation ) [ LC #3 1. The second error lies in a reduced sense of proportion, exemplified in a focus on new technology as delivery ve- hicles (as distinct from thinking about destinations) [ TC #2], or in thinking about newness instead of usefulness [ TC #3 1. The third error is to ignore my common sense, exemplified in not listening enough to learners [ FC # 11, or taking a narrow fragmented approach [ FC #2], or keeping them “happy” [ FC #4]. The fourth thinking error is inadequate lateral thinking, exemplified in my early fear of silence in class (instead of using it as the

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Technological Confusions (TC)

1. Mediation of distance 2. Highways 3. Newness 4. Connecting wires 5. Software operation skills 6. Cognitive steroid effects, the “rush”

of apparent power, and access to information

7. Movement of data

is confused with are confused with is confused with is confused with are confused with are confused with

is confused with

mediation of people destinations usefulness connecting people people facilitation skills the dogged hard work of cognition

movement of minds

Facilitation Confusions (FC)

1. Teacher talking 2. Teacher-centered view 3.“Dead air” in class 4. Spoon-feeding students

5. Content instruction 6. Quantity of information

is confused with is confused with is confused with is confused with

is confused with is confused with

student learning holistic perspective acoustic space to think legitimizing the inevitable uncertainties

of meaningful learning meaning construction quality of teaching/learning

Learning Confusions (LC)

1. Geographic distance 2. Autonomy in learning 3. Mediation of distance 4. Mistakes as errors 5. Class discussion

is confused with is confused with is confused with are confused with is confused with

temporal and psychological distance interdependence in learning mediation of people mistakes as growth cooperative learning

sound of thought) [ FC #3], or my inability to accept that, regarding the number of readings, I should apply the principle of “less is more” [ FC #6]. The fifth error lies in relaxing my focus on learners, exemplified in pay- ing inadequate attention to those destabilizing and sometimes disconcerting processes (e.g., mistakes) that often accompany significant or even transformative learning, [ FC #4, LC #4] or in not helping learners work around the Kolb cycle in order to better learn from their own real world [ LC #5, FC #4, FC #5]. The sixth thinking error is one result of the seventh: Respectively, being caught up in the hype of new technological fashions, exemplified in fitting the context or the learner to the technology [TC #4, TC #5, TC #6, TC #7] because I have not a clear enough set of values and concepts.

Significant Abstract Concepts

What have I learned from my reflections that I now value? In a nutshell, I value even more trying to move learners into constructivist ways of learning; and I understand better how Gustafson’s advice applies to my practice.

Constructivist Learning

Adult and feminist educators and qualitative researchers understand this approach to learning. They help learners to situate their learning in real world contexts, analyze and refine their own constructions of knowledge, and engage in active and sustained dialogue, reflection, and expression ( MacKeracher, 1996 )” Wilson ( 1995 ) and Jonassen, Davidson, Collins, Campbell, and Hang ( 1995 ) outline the concept and strategies to imple- ment constructivist learning, but its actual practice is not easy, especially when mature adult learners are learning in “Paradigm Shift 101” how to trust and discipline themselves and how not to regard the professor as a god.

Good Sense

I have learned more about the concepts of “good sense, common sense, and a sense of proportion” (Gus- tafson, personal communication, 1995 ). Matti Gustaf- son defined good sense as “taste and style,” but I use the term “elegance,” meaning (i) to act with economy of effort; (ii) to design for style, i.e., for aesthetics, simplicity, function, and timelessness (Enbom, 1995); and (iii) to provide appropriate action for specific contexts.

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Having “taste and style” or valuing elegance leads me to think of the concept of designing “classics.” “Classics” in design terms are “user friendly, durable, versatile and suited to a variety of. . . uses” ( Stenros, 1995, p. 3) and they would meet Enbom’s criteria. How useful is this concept for educators? Can educators design classics when such work demands time, skill, courage, and per- sistence? Ask a colleague to explain the characteristics of elegant librarianship or elegant course design. Look for balanced discussion about the new technologies. Read Stall’s Silicon Snake Oil ( 1995), Postman’s principles of technological change in Technopoly ( 1992)) Roszak’s exploration of mature technologies and the “true art of thinking” in The Cult of Information ( 1994), or Birk- erts’s reminder about the muscular activity of the thinking mind in The Gutenberg Elegies ( 1994). Listen to cli- ent-centered librarians who understand distance education (Canadian Library Association, 1993), who think critically about the impact of information technologies (Johnston, personal communication, 1995; Stone, 1995), or who feel stressed by trying to reconcile time spent on learning new software with time spent helping learners work through information searches (Benedict, Morrison, & Burge, 1995). Listen to women teachers and researchers who point out the male gender bias evi- dent in many technologies (Damarin, 1993; Wajcman, 1994)) who identify classroom inequities regarding teacher and student behavior (Beer, 1994; Kirkup, 1995 ), and who suggest ways to avoid “new technology as old social process” (Kramarae & Taylor, 1993, p. 54).

Common Sense

Common sense is imperative, but not always popular. Such a sense in distance education means keeping a place for print (e.g., books) when access to education is the overriding issue. Or thinking about one’s own learning styles and needs when designing learners’ services, instead of looking first for research results (which are often unhelpful anyway). Or recalling that Jean Sibelius or Clara Schumann did not need high technology to create great music. Or in seeing where technology gives and takes. Or feeling disappointed with past practices and institutional politics when a colleague has to remind us of the following:

The general goals of learner services are as follows: ( 1) development of independent learners; (2) student em- powerment; (3) personalization of the learning system; (4) democratization of the learning system; (5 ) early engagement of students and facilitation of connectedness. (Brindley, 1995, p. 112)

Institutions that offer distance mode courses are doing so mainly because they want to maintain or increase student numbers and/or research funding in times of re-

duced resources and increased competition. They would be foolish to pay little attention to learner services, especially those which help attract and keep their clients in a successful experience. Such services include learner counseling, adequately educated library staff, trained tu- tors who do not feel as if they are academic vagrants when they work on part-time contract, and the use of user-friendly information delivery and communications technologies. A librarian, for example, who has studied adult learning processes and principles will be able to act more appropriately when approached by a learner suffering from the inevitable pain of significant learning or coping with unhelpful home conditions. I am not suggesting that librarians be psychiatric counselors; I am suggesting that learners should be helped to regard the librarian as the nearest person to whom they can talk “safely” because the librarian is not in a grading power relationship with the learner. I recall many occasions in Australian libraries learning to reassure mature adults that they were not “dumb” and that they should ignore unhelpful stereotypical thinking by family members or friends. Now I realize how that reassurance would have improved if I had known more about adult learning. I wonder how many reader services librarians today are educated formally in such skills regarding adult learning.

“A sense of proportion” now has more differentiated meanings. Having a sense of proportion means manag- ing, but not reducing, the dimensions and dynamics in learning. These include action and reflection, concrete and abstract forms of information, autonomous and re- lational styles of learners ( MacKeracher, 1993)) order and disorder ( Wheatley, 1994)) and episodes of engagement and withdrawal (Taylor, 1987). Many faculty members who encounter non-lecture distance teaching models for the first time anticipate a loss of the power of their status; they fear that their image will be out of proportion. The irony here is that their “image” and power will depend on how they render themselves less like parents and more like partners. They therefore need to be reassured that for the non-lecture demands of two- way communications, their role is changed, but not di- minished. They also need to be encouraged to resist accepting large numbers of students in a high technology interactive setting, because too many students reduce the time and space for all to talk in order to think.

Active Experimentation

The final results of my reflection relate to the fourth stage in the Kolb experiential learning cycle. Now I plan new action and refine/redevelop strategies for testing. The new actions are grouped by Gustafson’s criteria.

To Develop Good Sense l Think more about developing the concept of a “clas-

sic” (as designers define it), and less about “going back

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to basics.” In a “classic,” are enough criteria for excel- lence in practice?

l Walk my talk about constructivist learning and revisit colleagues’ writings and ideas (e.g., Bates, 1995; Evans & Nation, 1993; Haughey, 1995; Lockwood, 1995; Moore 1994; Roberts & Keough, 1995), and the five established substantive international distance education journals: Journal of Distance Education (from Canada), Open Learning (from the UK), The Ameri- can Journal of Distance Education, Distance Educa- tion (from Australia), and Epistolodidaktika (from Europe).

l Take some initiative and negotiate with the companies that design the new technologies, such as cable TV and telephone services, about what adult learners need from their products. Demand that form follows function, and that elegance may apply in designing markets as well as learners.

l Think holistically and directly, e.g., avoid false, method-based distinctions such as face-to-face and distance education. Learners are interested in the quality of their experience, not in keeping up with the quantity of educators’ terms.

l Help my students and myself make sense and meanings, not generate answers (Jonassen et al., 1995 ).

l Be more elegant about using research paradigms and methodologies: Be qualitative in approach and listen first to how learners and others construe their experiences.

l Remember the simplicity and holism of the two human motivating tendencies-“autonomy and connection” ( MacKeracher, 1996), and avoid setting up de- motivating conditions. Autonomy, or mastery, refers to us wanting to feel that we can operate in the world with competence; connection refers to our need to be- long, to feel affiliated in meaningful ways with other human beings.

To Develop Common Sense . Do not even think of such unhelpful research questions

as “which is the best technology to use?“, for thereby I betray my ignorance of real world complexities.

Use new metaphors that convey values-congruence and context-appropriate behaviors; e.g., drop the highway metaphor and use a weaving-loom metaphor to illustrate the multiple and cumulative threading of activity in learning (von Weiler, personal communication, 1995 ). Avoid such oxymorons as “constructivist instruction” (Jonassen et al., 1995). Respect the knowledge of many women who are already socialized to interact collaboratively.

Remember that thinking is not necessarily experienced as a linear, sequential, logical process controlled by a teacher. Recall Woolf’s elegant and evocative fishing

metaphor of thinking in A Room of One’s Own (cherished by Birkerts, 1994, p. 12).

l Let students guide each other about their new ways of learning-they have more credibility with each other than I do.

To Develop a Sense of Proportion

Look in other directions for writers and practitioners who are creative and interdisciplinary, and who are in- tellectually courageous to fit this wonderful but unex- plained description in 1946 by Canada’s eminent communications philosopher Harold Innis: “Most for- ward-looking people have their heads turned sideways” (Innis, 1980, n.p.). Read the theories and strategies from other disciplines, e.g., chaos theory, so- ciology, feminist theories, design, gerontology, mental health, natural sciences, philosophy, the arts, communication, and culture.

Use the reversal strategy to test my assumptions. Re- verse the meaning of single words e.g., “instruction” (construction?) or phrases, e.g., “the absence of presence” (the presence of absence) to look for the positive learner-centered not institution-centered elements of distance education (Haughey, 1995).

Finally, recall Roby Kidd’s Commandment #9 for adult educators: “Thou shalt cherish a sense ofhumour which may save you from becoming shocked, de- pressed or complacent” (Kidd, 1973, p. 307 ).

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