Learning Strategies and Learning Styles

Questions: 1. Session Context (environment, group size, gender balance, support needs, group dynamics etc.2. How does this session relate to the focus of the current module?3. What do you hope to achieve and how in relation to the session learning outcomes?4. Explain your teaching approaches and strategies. 5. How will you assess the students learning?6. What resources do you intend to use and why? Answers: 1. In this session there are a total of 26 students, the majority undertaking a full time applied science foundation degree whereas the rest are studying a computer and engineering foundation degree. Males are the majority gender within the group, only having 7 females in the session. The students range in age between nineteen years of age and early forties. Throughout the group there appeared to be a diverse range of techical ability and confidence, the minority of students carrying out further studies in their specialism at home. All learners appear to have no support needs (Schmeck 2013). Having only recently taken over the contemporary issues module the teacher is unsure on group dynamics. The aim of this session is to create an atmosphere that the students can socially express their thoughts and opinions to falisitate their own learning with their peers. 2. At present all students are undertaking their foundation degree (level 3). Todays session explores global warming which is appropriate as the module itself is to explore various contemporary issues. In addition, each contemporary issue being explored each week is to be reflected upon as part of the assignment. Moreover, the work based learning as included in all the foundation sessions and degrees help in developing the practical knowledge of the students, which is the main objective of the current module. The work based session also help the establishment of an appropriate environment for establishing an environment related to the particular topic of the current module. The session also incorporates the assurance checks for the students make them learn about the concepts and rectify any inaccurate information related to the current topic. 3. I hope to equip the students with the skills and confidence required to fulfill the learning outcomes identified at the beginning of the session. This session will allow all learners to build on prior knowledge gathered socially or from the News. Although this session doesnt appear to be relevant to ICT which their foundation degree is based on, the session promotes soft skills such as verbal communication, confidence, analysing, critically thinking which will overtime enhance employability in higher education. In addition to this, the students will become more aware of recent events (Yee and Partin 2014). The session learning program need to include appropriate strategy that would help in developing the understanding of the students. 4. Having only recently started teaching the contemporary issues module a week ago the teacher is still attempting different teaching techniques. When teaching the previous session the teacher attempted to break up the 45 minute pre recorded lecture and try to promote a discussion throughout (Orlich et al 2012). However the students failed to engage until after the lecture had finished. Reflecting on the session the teacher came to the conclusion that every student is simply to accustom to the repetitive session structure. As a result it was decided to not modify the pre recorded lecture. As an alternative, it was decided to attempt to introduce a group activity for this session. However, feeling unsure on the group dynamics and knowing the students may not take to the different session structure the teacher is rather dubious in whether or not the students will actually engage in the group activity. Regardless, these teaching approaches and strategies are to be attempted, not only to grow as a teacher but to introduce new ways of learning that the students havent received whilst carrying out this module. Unfortunately as mentioned earlier, a huge proportion of the session (45 minutes) is taken up by a pre recorded lecture (panopto) which the teacher has no real control over (Cilesiz 2015). However the remainder of the session promotes social learning by allowing all learners the opportunity to contribute as much as they please in a group discussion. In addition to this a group activity will be given to hopefully get the students engaging in the session. This group activity promotes peer learning and gives the students the chance to discuss in groups the main findings and issues being reported at the moment. The groups will then share the main finding to the class. 5. Assessing students learning will commence when carrying out the activities, allowing the teacher to observe the students discussing with their peers. In addition to this, assessment of learning will also be observed when carrying out group discussion (Arends 2014). The various steps involved in the assessment of the students can be illustrated below as: Brainstorming The steps involved with the brainstorming technique include: Presenting the students with an open minded question for discussing Enable the sharing of the ideas with the class by making notes on board Challenging the responses of the students and correcting any misconceptions of the students Concept map Providing the students with a list of terms related to their course work Asking the students to create a meaningful pattern Allowing the sharing of the concept map with the class Decision Making Providing the students with the problem that they are required to work on Ask the students about the answer to the questions Suggesting proposals for any changes Quick thinks Correcting the errors that may seem to be inaccurate or illogical Presenting the student with sentence starters and making them to complete the same 6. PowerPoint (ponopto) is used as the main body of the session as it allows the students to have a visual aid. Pens and flip chart paper are used to carrying out the group activity. The group activity is important as it promotes prior knowledge and allows the students to work with their peers. As a collective the activity will be reviewed assessing and building on prior knowledge. The teacher will also provide material on Moodle which may help them when carrying out the contemporary issues assignment. The main drive for providing students with material on Moodle is to avoid concerns such as: Absent students Student failing to take notes during lecture Student socially isolated themselves from the group activity and as a consequence may struggle with the assignment A student refused to take part in both the activity and discussion (Erol 2016) Reference Erol, C.., 2016. New approaches in art education: Moodle learning and content management system based art education.Global Journal of Arts Education,5(2). Arends, R., 2014.Learning to teach. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Orlich, D., Harder, R., Callahan, R., Trevisan, M. and Brown, A., 2012.Teaching strategies: A guide to effective instruction. Cengage Learning. Cilesiz, S., 2015. Undergraduate students experiences with recorded lectures: towards a theory of acculturation.Higher Education,69(3), pp.471-493. Yee, K. and Partin, C.M., 2014. Thatsa wrap: overcoming obstacles for successful video design in flipped classes.International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments,2(4), pp.393-404. Schmeck, R.R. ed., 2013.Learning strategies and learning styles. Springer Science Business Media.