Abstract
<p>Shifting from an emphasis on teaching to learning is a complex task for both teachers and students. This paper reports on a qualitative study of teachers in a nurse specialist education programme meeting this shift in a distance education course. The study aimed to gain a better understanding of the teacher-student relationship by addressing research questions in relation to the students’ role, the learning process, and the assessment process. A didactical design comprising three phases focusing on distinct learning outcomes for the course was adopted. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with teachers and were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The results indicate a shift towards a problematising and holistic approach to teaching, learning, and assessment. This shift highlighted a teacher-student relationship with a shared responsibility in the orchestration of the learning experience. The overall picture outlines a distance education experience of process-based assessment characterised by the imposition of teachers’ rules and a lack of creativity due to the limited role of ICT merely as a container of content.</p><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden" /><input id="jsProxy" onclick="if(typeof(jsCall)=='function'){jsCall();}else{setTimeout('jsCall()',500);}" type="hidden" />
Highlights
Shifting the emphasis from teaching to learning involves a complex process of changing structures in the education system (Barr & Tagg, 1995)
The first turning point was the increased use of information and communication technologies (ICT) that became a catalyst for distance education, and the second was the Bologna reform of higher education
In relation to the assessment process, a changed practice was highlighted through the relationship between curriculum and pedagogy
Summary
Shifting the emphasis from teaching to learning involves a complex process of changing structures in the education system (Barr & Tagg, 1995). The decision to adopt distance education as the main approach to teaching and learning resulted in the integration of ICT into distance education courses This created a bottom-up response (Richards, 2004) in the process of shifting the emphasis from teaching to learning. This prompted change in both the learning environment and the pedagogy, which was a result of limiting the regular face-to-face course meetings and shifting towards communications through e-mail and an online approach. The increased use of ICT can be seen as an example of Richard’s (2004) notion of a changed rhetoric towards new ideas and models for developing this kind of practice and context For these teachers, the rhetoric was characterised by increased demands for developing flexible courses every year and for alternative approaches to assessment. The changed rhetoric is part of curriculum reforms towards outcome-based models of education
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