• Nem Talált Eredményt

KRISZTINA GASKÓ & ORSOLYA KÁLMÁN

2. RESEARCH FINDINGS

2.3. The opinions of students about teaching

In the third focal point of our research, which is exceeding the context of the Effective learning course, we examined with the help of the BaBe questionnaire: how our students experience the training from the aspects of sense of success, independence and teacher support. We were interested in these fi elds as we thought that with respect to supporting learning these opinions of the students could be the most important in revising and shaping the training programme. Getting to know the opinions students formulated about the training programme appeared to be useful as we thought that these provide us with important feedback on the Effective learning course, and we can get to know how our students learn later on, and what affects their learning in the period following their completion of the introductory course.

In addition, we believed that the three factors we examined in connection with teaching (sense of success, independence, received support) would also provide us with important information considering the self-regulated learning of students, and reviewing this self-regulated learning through a longer period of learning may help us in understanding the initial diffi culties that may arise in connection with this, and by doing so, in rethinking the goals and activities of the introductory course. For the sake of all this we analysed the set of questions in connection with learning in the BaBe questionnaire (question 4.2. in questionnaire SQ-4 ).

2.3.1. Success experienced in connection with learning assignments and activities

In this set of questions students had to judge fi rst on a four-point scale how much success they generally experience during the completion of the different learning assignments and activities of the courses of the training programme. Out of the given 23 activities we highlight only those in Table 4 below in which students felt they were the most or the least successful (the table contains the data of both years that were surveyed).

Table 4: The relative frequency distribution of the answers given to the question:

‘How much success do you experience during the completion of the different learning assignments and activities?’ in the full student sample (indicating the assignments

and activities judged as the most and the least successful)

Learning assignments and activities Answers in %

1 2 3 4

observation during visits to institutes 0 2.1 53.2 44.7

preparing presentations 0 4.3 53.2 42.6

planning and organising work on the fi eld 0 11.1 57.8 31.1

participating in pair or group work 0 14.9 42.6 42.6

delivering a presentation in pairs or in groups 2.2 13 52.2 32.6

writing an essay 2.1 14.9 44.7 38.3

writing self-refl ection 2.1 17 38.3 42.6

creating a portfolio 4.3 17.4 50 28.3

preparing for oral examination 2.2 19.6 47.8 30.4

creating a research plan 10.6 42.6 31.9 14.9

developing the Moodle interface 23.9 32.6 28.3 15.2

creating web content 23.4 27.7 38.3 10.6

developing digital content 21.3 38.3 23.4 17

The results suggest that students encounter a number of learning assignments and activities in the course of the training in which they can experience being successful, moreover, there are four such activities in the case of which none of the students thought that s/he was totally unsuccessful. With reference to the results we presented before it is an especially important set of data for us that students felt they were successful during cooperative type of tasks (‘participating in pair or group work’, ‘pair or group presentation’). This implies that the support and feedback they received from the training could effectively aid students in developing their characteristics in connection with cooperative learning. The main reason for this is probably the fact that activities that build on cooperative learning are frequent in the entire bachelor training programme in Education, as one of the graduation competencies of Education assistants that is to be developed is cooperation and organising activities with the different members of communities and society, and furthermore, making students more conscious of cooperative learning was really emphatic in the introductory Effective learning course.

According to the results, students experienced the least success during assignments in connection with research and ICT tools and the fact that they were having diffi culties was confi rmed by their personal remarks, partly by data obtained from questionnaires and the refl ections they created during the course (for more details see Chapter 6). One of the reasons for the diffi culties was presumably that students could not gain experience in these two fi elds beforehand, and so they had to face the tasks expected to be completed during the course as utterly new challenge. We think it is also possible that as teachers of the training programme we assumed that students had already possessed more knowledge, or their could have been greater individual differences in terms of this than we assumed, and so they felt that they received less support from the training programme and consequently

experienced less success in this fi eld. Considering all these, we think it would be worthwhile to strengthen the training of students for these activities during the introductory courses, however, we also see that this would have exceeded the framework of the Effective learning course.

Examining the differences between the two years by using the chi-square test we found that the second year students (2007) sensed more success (see Table 5) during writing self-refl ections (p=0.021) and creating the portfolio (p=0.035), which indicates that the training could support these activities more during the second year. We had already experienced during the preceding academic year that students fi nd it diffi cult to understand what self-refl ection and the portfolio mean, and even if they understand the concept, they hardly know the goal of applying and the method of implementing them. Besides the intentions of the teachers in reaction to these diffi culties (recurring clarifi cation of the concepts on each course, preparation for the process of creating the portfolio during the courses etc.) that student booklet has been created (KÁLMÁN & LÉNÁRD 2008), in which we tried to provide practical answers to the questions of students about self-refl ection and the portfolio among other issues.

Table 5: Relative distribution of answers provided by the students of two years on the sense of success in connection with writing a self-refl ection (p=0.021)

and creating a portfolio (p=0.035) Learning I feel unsuccessful rather than successful in this 19.1 15.4 I feel successful rather than unsuccessful in this 57.1 23.1 I have a great sense of success in this 19.1 61.5

creating a portfolio

I do not have a sense of success at all in this 4.8 4 I feel unsuccessful rather than successful in this 14.3 20 I feel successful rather than unsuccessful in this 71.4 32 I have a great sense of success in this 9.5 44

2.3.2. Autonomy experienced in connection with learning assignments and activitieS

We also asked the students in connection with the same 23 learning assignments and activities which three they would select as the ones during which they felt to be the most autonomous. The answers indicate that students think they are the most autonomous when creating presentations, but they also indicated in similarly high numbers writing an essay, preparation for oral examinations, writing a self-refl ection, observations during visits to institutions and preparation for written examinations (see Table 6).

Table 6: Relative distribution of answers in the sample provided on the experienced autonomy in connection with learning activities, assignments

(the activities and assignments that were selected by the most and the least number of students are highlighted)

Learning activities, assignments Percentage of students who answered

creating presentations 34

writing essays 29.8

preparation for oral examinations 23.4

writing a self-refl ection 23.4

observations during visits to institutions 21.3 preparation for written examinations 21.3

developing the Moodle interface 2.1

creating web content 2.1

developing digital content 2.1

delivering a presentation in pairs or groups 0

It is an interesting result that none of the students thought that s/he is autonomous during ‘making a presentation in pairs or groups’, which we may explain in a way that students simplifi ed the concept of autonomous work to some activity that is done alone. However, if we have a look at the answers provided on ‘participation in pair or group work’, we fi nd that only 17% of the students think that they are autonomous in those assignments.

So besides the simplifi ed understanding of the concept of autonomy the possibility arises that students really feel that they need more external support in terms of these activities. This can be easily related to the fi ndings we quoted above (see part 2.1.2.) saying that students interpret the role of peers in learning ambivalently as they view their peers as extrinsic motivators and mutual partners as well. As consequently, if they do not think clearly

about the role of their peers, it is hard to expect them to take part in these assignments confi dently and feel autonomous. Finally, we must highlight that there are hardly any students (2.1%) who feel autonomous during assignments connected to web contents and their development, which did not really surprise us in the light of the fi ndings in connection with the sense of success (cf. part 2.3.1.). Moreover, it supported our notion that these activities are critical fi elds for the students in the course of their studies, and that especially in the beginning of their studies the training programme should pay more attention to preparing students for these activities.

2.3.3. The teacher’s support experienced in connection with learning assignments and activities

With the BaBe questionnaire we also intended to examine how students think about the support they received from their teachers. For this reason we asked them to select those 3 assignments and activities out of the same 23 mentioned above in connection with which they received the most and the least support from the teachers in the course of their studies that far.

The answers of the students (see Table 7) indicate that they experience the most support in connection with the creation of their research plan; however, they classifi ed creating research methods and tools as activities in which they sensed the least amount of support from the teachers. This ambivalent result can hardly be interpreted without the in-depth analysis of the research methodology courses, but we are also aware of the fact that although creating a research plan is present among the activities of several courses, probably only the research methodology seminars are able to provide help in creating the concrete methods and tools. The question can be further elaborated by considering that the results also indicate: that there is a signifi cant difference between the two examined years in terms of the amount of teacher support (p=0.036) they experienced during the creation of the research plan, as a signifi cantly larger group of students (43%) of the fi rst BA year (2006) marked this activity in terms of support while less students (15%) marked it from the second BA year (2007). This result on the one hand draws our attention to the fact that it would be worthwhile to reconsider what we did differently, in connection with the creation of the research plans for the fi rst BA year what we as teachers invested more energy in; and on the other hand it points out that supporting such learning activities that are key elements of the development of the output competencies as well (see Recognition, examination and scientifi c interpretation of pedagogical phenomena and problems) cannot be considered only in the framework of one course without the other courses that are concerned.

Table 7: Relative frequency distribution of students’ answers concerning those learning activities and assignments in connection with which they experienced

the most and the least support from teachers

Most support Least support

creating a research plan 27.7% creating web content 29.8%

planning and organising

fi eldwork 25.5% developing digital content 29.8%

writing self-refl ection 21.3%

creating research methods

and tools 21.3%

processing the literature 21.3%

Preparing for fi eldwork is also an activity where students experienced more support from the teachers and this is probably due to the meticulous preparation for the practices at institutions. It is important to see that planning and organising the fi eldwork is a learning opportunity for the students where they really feel successful (cf. part 2.3.1.) which indicates that the efforts made by the teachers to prepare the practices successfully support the related competencies and self-evaluation of students.

Writing a self-refl ection appeared among the positive results in terms of sense of success and autonomy (see parts 2.3.1. and 2.3.2.), and this is further underpinned by the fact that one quarter of the students fi rmly believe that they received the most support from the teachers in connection with this.

This result is an important feedback to us, as supporting self-refl ection is an essential element of the constructivist approach of the training programme;

moreover, it shows that according to the students we as teachers were able to react well to the problems in connection with writing a self-refl ection detected at a really early phase.

Students experienced the least amount of support in connection with the activities related to web and digital contents as almost one third of them think that they received the least amount of help in this respect during their studies.

This is an extremely important feedback from the training programme’s point of view, and becomes especially problematic considering the fact that according to the results (cf. 2.3.1. and 2.3.2.) students feel that they are the least successful and the least autonomous in this role.

Processing the literature is also an activity where most of the students lacked the support of their teachers. Utilising and comprehending professional texts is a learning process that poses diffi culties for students in any training programme, so we do not consider this result surprising in itself.

However, we must highlight that during the teachers’ discussions about the formation and transformation of the training programme the dilemmas in connection with the utilisation of the literature have regularly emerged

(the comprehension and utilisation of how much and what type of literature can be expected of the students), which called our attention to the fact that the teachers in the training programme think differently about the possible workload and learning competencies of the students. We assume that this ambivalent attitude of the teachers is refl ected in the result that students sensed little support from the teachers in this respect. However, in the third year of the Effective learning course (2008) for example, we already had targeted development and support of the students’ comprehension of the professional literature, which also demonstrates the training programme’s ability to transform rapidly.

We detected signifi cant difference between the two examined BA years in terms of two learning assignments, activities; in connection with the above already mentioned creation of a research plan and the creation of the portfolio (p=0.026). The data show that students of the fi rst year experienced more support than the students of the second year during the creation of the portfolio. If we compare this result with the sense of success in connection with learning assignments and activities (see part 2.3.1.), we can claim that as we paid more attention to the diffi culties of the fi rst year students concerning the creation of the portfolio, we provided more support, as a consequence, they felt more successful in this respect as second year students. So this result is another important and positive feedback on the training programme.

3. SUMMARY

We intended to utilise the fi ndings of our research in connection with the learning of students on different levels, and made an effort to take advantage of their interrelation. However, in retrospect we see that we did not thoroughly consider a lot of aspects, so in this chapter, besides the fi ndings of our research in connection with learning, we would also like to sketch the possibilities for moving forward.

In summary, the objectives of our research in connection with learning among students of the training programme in Education were the following:

1) to support the students’ self-knowledge in connection with learning, their thinking about learning and in becoming more aware of their learning processes; 2) to get to know those learning characteristics of incoming students that are relevant in terms of the training programme and the course;

3) developing the course (Effective learning) that supports the learning competencies of Education majors; 4) getting to know and assessing the effectiveness of the bachelor training programme in Education in terms of organising learning. Today we conceive that we were less conscious in

attaining the fourth goal, and we made less steps towards that direction;

however, it is also true that attaining that goal needs the most time and data collection.