Identifying the Effectiveness of Active Learning Strategies and Benefits in Curriculum and Pedagogy Course for Undergraduate TESL Students

Abstract

The teachers nowadays are trained properly, competently enough, excel academically with high grades but still considered as “incapable” or “unfit” to teach. There are still many problems and weaknesses among young graduates, despite the initiatives taken by the government to address the issue. The adoption and practice of active learning approaches into the component of course design offered in higher institutions is a common practice nowadays and is crucial in addressing these weaknesses among our young graduates. This case study identifies the effectiveness of active learning strategies and benefits in curriculum and pedagogy course which is a central concept of student-centred learning, derived from the constructivist approach. This article aims to ensure the course efficacy by integrating active learning to support their practice of active learning brought to learners by micro teaching, peer-reflections/feedbacks and self-reflections. Data were collected from documents in a form of e-reflections in ifolio and telephone interviews via WhatsApp Mobile Phone application. This qualitative study reports in detail the experience of 10 undergraduate students. The findings reveal the effectiveness of the three commonly used strategies associated with active learning strategies in this study. Among the beneficial of imparting active learning strategies are as follows; creates positive learning environment, allows direct interaction between lecturers and students, promotes open minded ideology, learn to respect someone else opinion, enhance communication skill, allows students to personally engaged with the learning activities and encourage participation. The findings and discussion of this study would be able to help the pertinent parties such as policy maker, teachers, facilitators and students with better guidance for utilising and maximizing different other selections of active learning strategies that could benefit teaching and learning process in the higher education scenario.