Abstract
ABSTRACTStudents’ ability to build knowledge, and transfer it within and between contexts is crucial to cumulative learning and to academic success. This has long been a concern of higher education research and practice. A central part of this concern for educators is creating the conditions that enable their students' deep learning, as this is an area of significant struggle for many students. Legitimation Code Theory, in particular the dimension of Semantics, is proving useful in examining the kinds of conditions that may be necessary for students to build disciplinary knowledge cumulatively over time. Using illustrative data from one case study, this paper suggests that the conceptual tools offered by Semantics can provide academic lecturers and academic development staff with a set of conceptual and analytical tools which can enable them to ‘see’ and understand the ways in which knowledge can be cumulatively acquired and used, as well as the possible gaps between what they are teaching and what their students may be learning. The hope is that these new insights will provide new directions for change in teaching and learning where these may be needed.
Highlights
If you asked a broad cross-section of lecturers teaching undergraduate students today what their goals for teaching and learning are, they would probably mention students’ need to learn holistically and deeply (Biggs, 1999), to connect learning between courses and years of study, and to build knowledge over time, rather than seeing each assignment or course as a discrete learning event that has little bearing on other learning events
This paper has engaged with the issue of how teaching and learning in higher education enables students to achieve deeper, more holistic learning through successfully transferring skills, knowledge and dispositions towards learning across different courses and learning contexts, over time becoming different kinds of knowers or future professionals
Recasting deep learning as cumulative learning, and contrasting this with segmented learning (Maton, 2009), and arguing that cumulative learning is necessary for successful ‘transfer’, this paper argues that rather than making cumulative learning primarily students’ responsibility, the question of enabling this needs to be one for teaching as well
Summary
If you asked a broad cross-section of lecturers teaching undergraduate students today what their goals for teaching and learning are, they would probably mention students’ need to learn holistically and deeply (Biggs, 1999), to connect learning between courses and years of study, and to build knowledge over time, rather than seeing each assignment or course as a discrete learning event that has little bearing on other learning events. A generic notion of transfer tends to assume an autonomous student learner who is open and ready to receive and learn a range of knowledge and generic skills (Boughey 2002; Lea and Street, 1998), packing a metaphorical suitcase as they move through their degree courses, and unpacking knowledge, skills and so on selectively in different locations according to their ability to understand what is required. This packing and unpacking is further complicated when literacy ‘skills’ students are expected to use to make connections are construed as generic, and outsourced to literacy development modules outside of the disciplinary curriculum (Jacobs, 2013). In contexts where students are entering higher education from a range of home, school and literacy backgrounds (Kapp and Bangeni, 2009; Lillis, 2001), entering disciplines that are entirely new to them, and needing to adopt a mode of learning different from that which helped them through secondary school (Boughey, 2013; Kapp and Bangeni, 2009), this is problematic
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
