Learner Empowerment Research Articles

Effective principles of informal online learning design: A theory-building metasynthesis of qualitative research

Informal online learning is the unstructured learning that happens in daily life while people are accessing the internet. Research on the use and design of interactive Web 2.0 platforms for informal learning is minimal, and often platform-specific. This theory-building metasynthesis aims to identify what is known about how informal online learning can be effectively designed outside a formal online course structure. The study reviewed 22 articles that investigated learning that happened primarily online, was self-directed in nature, and had a primarily adult audience. The author brought together the findings of these individual studies to identified two effective principles of informal online learning design that research dissemination organizations can utilize when developing online outreach education programs for adult audiences: (a) interaction opportunities support knowledge construction and learner empowerment; and (b) segmented, titled, and tagged learning objects facilitate personalized learning. The principles identified in this study not only describe what is known about how adults learn informally online, but also provide the common language and goals to frame the interdisciplinary collaboration likely necessary to employ them.

Interrater Scoring of Public Speaking Performances in English Language Teacher Education Program

Based on the constructivist learning principles, self-assessment has been a targeted topic for many studies in the field of teacher education. Its importance and its leading to learner empowerment have been discussed for long. This current study in this line tries to move one step further by adding a correlative comparison between instructors’ and students teachers’ grading as well as searching into students’ views on self-assessment in Oral Communication Skills Course at English Language Teaching Department of a private university in Turkey. Interrater consistency was examined throughout the study. This study involves 21 student teachers who assessed their speaking performances five times using a micro-analytic rating scale. In the analysis of data, both qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized. Both data sets suggest that there is a high correlation between instructor and student teachers grading. The study has got some implications for curriculum designers, instructors and teacher candidates.

Knowledge Center Initiative for Contributing to Catalyze the Transformation of Engineering Education in India

The processes of imparting and acquiring knowledge, skills and wisdom through educational institutes are key contributors in the cause of national development. However, if we examine the scenario of engineering education in India from this perspective, we find that it has been departing from these primary goals in recent years due to the rigid confinements of marks and degrees. Recently we have taken a knowledge center initiative in our institute that facilitates learning in an open and flexible way using a cafeteria approach that ensures enjoyment, employment, empowerment and enlightenment of learners. In this paper we discuss the impact and growth of this initiative in contributing to transforming education in our institute through development of new and innovative processes of imparting and acquiring knowledge, skills and wisdom that go much beyond the narrow boundaries of marks and degrees. We further discuss how this initiative can also contribute effectively to catalyze the transformation of engineering education in India.

"Is There a Class With This Content?" WebCT and the Limits of Individualization:

This essay traces the provenance of Internet-based course delivery and management systems such as WebCT and Blackboard, and thereby seeks insight into the ideologies and assumptions underlying the current diffusion of such systems into institutions of higher education. A historical perspective reveals that these purportedly revolutionary pedagogical tools originated with the low-tech teaching machines with which behaviourists of the 1950s and 1960s sought to individualize instruction. Although widely touted as an educational panacea and source of learner empowerment, individualization emerged from a drive to make instruction more efficient by replacing the human teacher with a machine that delivered standardized content to a large number of students. This goal underlay further developments in computer-assisted instruction, computer-managed instruction, and integrated learning systems. The potential of contemporary Web-based systems to enhance classroom dynamics in higher education is therefore severely constrained by the legacy of individualization and the long-standing premise, embedded within the design of such systems, that the goal of technology-based instruction is to achieve efficiencies by replacing human interaction in the classroom with access to mediated, individualized content.

Kebijakan Pendidikan Anti Korupsi di Perguruan Tinggi

Reasoning various negative perceptions towards the direction of national education that has been considered not to characterize the national personality, especially about the output of education that tends not to reflect the values and principles of anti-corruption in work and daily, so that through formal education there should be an increase in terms of intensity. Simplistically, the formal education sector in Indonesia can play a role in meeting the need for corruption prevention. Preventive measures can indirectly pass through two approaches, first: targeting learners, and second: using the empowerment of learners to reduce the environment from permissive to corruption.As for the problems in this paper is how the anti-corruption education policy in Higher Education and the extent of anti-corruption education policies in the prevention of corruption. With the aim to understand and analyze the role of anti-corruption education in growing the values and principles of anti-corruption from an early age.Through this anti-corruption education will be a provision for students to act honestly in the work. Of course, in order not to commit acts of corruption when later occupied a strategic position in an institution or served an important position in this bureaucracy. The facts show that highly educated people are vulnerable to the temptations of corruption because they usually occupy strategic positions in an institution or hold important positions in the bureaucracy.

Change orientated learning and the Greek disability movement - a mutually beneficial encounter between knowledge and action

This paper is a qualitative survey based on the exploration of disabled peoples’ existing experience of participating in non-formal forms of education, which take place in the context of the Greek disability movement. Its aim is to record the way in which this kind of education can be a catalyst in the empowerment of disabled people. Data was obtained through semi-structured interviews held with both learners with disabilities and educators and from direct observation of the educational process. The main findings of this study explore the ways in which educators can contribute to the empowerment of disabled people. It is found that the empowerment of learners cannot simply be regarded as an aspect of education but rather as an integral part embedded in the content, in the educational methods and in the role of the educator. Finally, the paper highlights the necessity for disability organisations to cooperate with the fields of disability studies and adult education, in order for them to jointly conceive and try out new more transformative pedagogical methods.

Blended Learning for Learner Empowerment: Voices from the Middle East

Blended learning (BL) is still in its infancy in the United Arab Emirates, but is gaining growing attention and acceptance. The particular university under investigation offers its nationally accredited graduate programs with a BL format that makes use of synchronous virtual classrooms, asynchronous self-study, and face-to-face sessions. The current qualitative research study investigates students' perceptions about their experience with the BL model within their relatively conservative cultural context. In addition, the project aimed at gauging their suggestions for course design considerations that would meet their needs as adult learners and enhance their learning experience. Twenty-one graduate students participated in the study, with findings indicating an overall positive perception about the BL experience with a strong positive impact on female empowerment. The most salient themes for successful instructional strategies indicated the importance of student-centered practices, particularly collaborative projects and student-led activities.

Integrating Reflective Problem-Solving and Mindfulness to Promote Organizational Adaptation Toward Conflict Sensitivity

This article is an analysis and synthesis of the outcome of our efforts to integrate reflective problem-solving and mindfulness to promote organizational adaptation toward conflict-sensitive approach to managing and resolving land-related conflicts. The purpose of the article is 2-fold. The first part of the article describes the methodological and epistemological processes we followed to engage the candidates in reflective problem-solving and mindfulness. The second part of the article analyses the participants’ reflections on the meanings they had drawn from the thinking and learning processes. The article draws on transformative learning principles, principles of situated experiential learning, the notion of interactive problem-solving and social–psychological approach to conflict analysis, resolution, and negotiation. All of these principles and approaches emphasize the empowerment of learners and practitioners as agents of social transformation. At the end, the article presents the implications of our findings for future improvements.

Response, Resistance, or Restraint: A Triadic Model of Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions on the (F)utility of Educational Therapy and Life Skills Education in ELT

The improvement of mental health has been given considerable attention in educational settings since more than four decades. Accordingly, many programs were developed with the purpose of enabling children not only to deal with educational issues, but also to resolve their psychosocial problems. This study used an Explanatory Mixed-Methods Research Design to investigate the extent to which pre-service English teachers in Iran believed that educational therapy and life skills training should be included in English Language Teaching curricula. The collection of quantitative data was accomplished by administering the Life-Responsive Language Teaching Beliefs Questionnaire (LLTBQ) to 97 Iranian pre-service English teachers. Accordingly, among the four constructs of life-responsive language teaching (i.e., life-wise empowerment, adaptability enhancement, prosocial development, and life-over-language preference), teachers were more likely to highlight the importance of enhancing the adaptability enhancement and life-wise empowerment of language learners. The follow-up phase involved face-to-face interviews that were conducted with eight pre-service English teachers who were selected based on purposive sampling. While pre-service teachers’ responses to the questionnaire items as well as the initial comments provided by the interviewees indicated an overall interestedness on the part of most participants, their conceptions of what educational therapy and life skills training might actually entail appeared to be incomplete. Finally, the authors put forward a three-facet model of life-wise language teaching perceptions and a detailed hierarchy thereof.

Qualitative insights into the experience of teaching shared decision making within adult education health literacy programmes for lower-literacy learners.

BackgroundEnhancing health literacy can play a major role in improving healthcare and health across the globe. To build higher‐order (communicative/critical) health literacy skills among socially disadvantaged Australians, we developed a novel shared decision making (SDM) training programme for adults with lower literacy. The programme was delivered by trained educators within an adult basic education health literacy course.ObjectiveTo explore the experience of teaching SDM within a health literacy programme and investigate whether communicative/critical health literacy content meets learner needs and teaching and institutional objectives.Design and participantsQualitative interview study with 11 educators who delivered the SDM programme. Transcripts were analysed using the Framework approach; a matrix‐based method of thematic analysis.ResultsTeachers noted congruence in SDM content and the institutional commitment to learner empowerment in adult education. The SDM programme was seen to offer learners an alternative to their usual passive approach to healthcare decision making by raising awareness of the right to ask questions and consider alternative test/treatment options. Teachers valued a structured approach to training building on foundational skills, with language reinforcement and take‐home resources, but many noted the need for additional time to develop learner understanding and cover all aspects of SDM. Challenges for adult learners included SDM terminology, computational numerical risk tasks and understanding probability concepts.Discussion and conclusions SDM programmes can be designed in a way that both supports teachers to deliver novel health literacy content and empowers learners. Collaboration between adult education and healthcare sectors can build health literacy capacity of those most in need.

Is second language teaching enslavement or empowerment? Insights from an Hegelian perspective

Whether second language (L2) teaching contributes to the enslavement or empowerment of learners has become a branch in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages research. More and more discussions are emerging, and they tend to base on more and more diverse theoretical frameworks. This article aims to shed light on this issue by exploring it from a Hegelian framework of language. Among Hegel’s theories of language, two notions, namely, mutual recognition and universalisation of culture are selected for discussions. The conclusion is that based on Hegel’s theories of language L2 teaching has a stronger tendency of contributing to the empowerment of learners.

The Underdeveloped Transformative Potential of Human Rights Education: English Primary Education as a Case Study

In order for learners to become empowered human rights activists, they must be equipped with relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes. Learner empowerment therefore forms a central element of international Human Rights Education provisions. This article draws upon empirical research to gauge the nature and extent of empowerment in English primary schools, and seeks to better understand the reasons for any deficiencies in its practice. It argues that whilst empowerment-related concepts may be encouraged to a certain extent, learners are unlikely to be emerging from formal schooling with the means to contribute significantly to transformation of the broader human rights culture. Two important barriers are identified: (i) teacher attitudes towards empowerment; and (ii) current government curriculum policy. The article argues on the first of these points that teachers are only likely to become comfortable and confident about such teaching if they are equipped with human rights knowledge, skills and experience in their own training. And on the second, that there needs to be a shift in government policy towards greater learner engagement with empowerment-related skills and relevant community engagement if the current trend towards didactic rote learning is to be reversed.

The Flipped Classroom for Teaching Millennials: A Competency-Based Pedagogical Approach

This paper describes a competency-based pedagogical framework as the basis for designing a flipped classroom for millennials taking an undergraduate course on sustainable business. Its theoretical underpinnings are culled from the literatures on learner empowerment, epistemological belief systems, and the social construction of knowledge. The desired learning outcomes of this pedagogical framework include the development of cognitive competencies, collaborative knowledge acquisition skills, and motivational skills. In a flipped classroom of an undergraduate sustainability course, students acquired these competencies and skills to use intelligently information about sustainability which they found on the Internet. The paper describes in some detail how the course was taught in an actual class to impart such competencies and skills. The flipped-classroom pedagogy allows for better student learning outcomes by incorporating student collaboration, and by fostering critical thinking and ethical reasoning. The paper demonstrates how teacher and student benefit from the competency-based pedagogical approach within a flipped-classroom format. This approach moves beyond the traditional giver and receiver format to a more fellow-explorer format.

THE ECONOMICS OF E-LEARNING PRODUCTION

1.IntroductionThis study builds on a substantial literature of empirical investigations on the fact that taking into account the favorable reception of online and blended instruction in established pedagogical practice in addition to prevalent technological advance (Mircica, 2011a, b; 2012; 2014), the reframing and obstreperous effect that e-learning has on training should be pointed out. People who can succeed in a linked and swiftly altering knowledge society (Popescu and Predescu, 2016) have grasped how to think, assimilate knowledge, and perform in collaborative learning settings. E-learning can set up asynchronous groups of inquiry which may back the advancement of collaborative groups of learning and simultaneously enable anytime-anywhere connection by learners. Such technology, when associated with successful instruction and reflective teaching, may improve higher education. Communications technologies have impacted the unparalleled advancement of e-learning. Aside from the numerous incursions that information and com-munication technologies have operated in instruction, unreceptive information transmission still monopolize the didactic undertaking. (Randy Garrison, 2017)2.Literature ReviewThe unsteadiness, discrepancies, and opacity brought about via the technological speeding up present an unsuitable likelihood and a potential of a thoroughly different prospect through pursuing university's vital inconsistencies and inequalities. The incessant self-resistance of the higher education scheme has been cleared up by technologies of increasing speed assisting neo-liberalism. University's standards of self-determination, recognition, fairness, accuracy, and social equality (Mihaila, 2016a, b) have become transferred into the entitlements of proficiency and work rate. The criticism of cybernetic systems of ascendancy reacts to the required hopefulness of the higher education scheme. To successfully evaluate e-learning priorities and proposals on their praised good points of learner empowerment, they should be positioned in the broader regional and worldwide socio-economic setting (Popescu, Coma nescu, and Sabie, 2016) from which they developed and persist in having a progressively decisive function. Novel instructions and their technologies bring about feasible groundbreaking types of disempowerment through furthering particular approaches of expanding flexibility while disapproving others. (Hoofd, 2017)Reconsidering established instruction by taking into account technological advancements and the demand for higher-order didactic results means affecting the underpinning of the instructional undertaking. E-learning is the relationship between technological and educational advancements which has generated an analysis of substantial and eloquent learning practice (Nica and Molnar, 2016), being transformational in how individuals assimilate pedagogical practices with reference to continuous interaction and collaboration. Learners should be involved in feasible learning groups that back reflective dialogue and multifaceted advances to education. The affordances of pervasive and dominant communications technologies having the capacity to generate and back groups of students have driven e-learning into the centrality of pedagogical cognition and experience. Favorable outcome in designing a pedagogical group of inquiry necessitates training, unceasing potentiality, and significant educational and content know-how. (Randy Garrison, 2017)3.MethodologyFor the investigation of the formulated issues, we develop first-rate recent literature and prove that new media are not merely unbiased mechanisms that definitely link learners with instructors or moderate learning goals and results, but can thoroughly alter and are generated by the cultural and conceptual setting in which they and higher education perform. Media technologies are intrinsically preoccupied in intensifying the conundrum at the center of higher education (Radulescu, 2015), being a many-sided and indefinite potential in the foundation of any educational platform and its instructional goals, notwithstanding the module's particular material and the projects that are distributed via these media. …

Keynote: What is the State of E-Learning? Reflections on 30 Ways Learning is Changing

This paper is based on a keynote talk delivered at the biannual DEANZ Conference, at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand in April 2016. As highlighted in that talk, we have entered Education 3.0; an age filled vast resource abundance and extensive opportunities for learner empowerment. During the past decade, there have emerged at least 30 different ways in which learning in changing; for instance, it is becoming increasingly collaborative, global, mobile, modifiable, open, online, blended, massive, visually-based, hands-on, ubiquitous, instantaneous, and personal. These 30 learning and technology-related changes reflect three distinct “mega-trends;” namely, (1) learner engagement, (2) the pervasive access to learning, and (3) the customisation and personalization of learning.

Creating belonging and transformation through the adoption of flexible pedagogies in masters level international business management students

ABSTRACTFlexible pedagogies [Ryan and Tilbury 2013. Flexible Pedagogies: New Pedagogical Ideas. York: Higher Education Academy] place learner empowerment at the centre of curriculum development. Learner empowerment requires students to feel that they belong and are active in the learning process. This paper illuminates how, through the adoption of flexible pedagogies, belonging and trust were created in a cohort of 52 international postgraduate students, and the impact that this had on student learning. A qualitative interpretative approach captures students’ perceptions of aspects of curriculum design and delivery that aided their transition, promoted belonging, and empowered them as learners, leading to transformational change. This paper uses Ryan and Tilbury’s Flexible Pedagogies Framework [2013. Flexible Pedagogies: New Pedagogical Ideas. York: Higher Education Academy] to exemplify practice and discuss principles for curriculum design. Themes include; learner empowerment, future-facing education, decolonising education, crossing boundaries, transformational capabilities, and social learning. Recommendations highlight the need to challenge institutional constraints, employ creative teaching practices, embed assessment that promotes reflective practice, and create belonging through social learning.

Feminist pedagogy and social media: a study on their integration and effectiveness in training budding women entrepreneurs

ABSTRACTThe Constitution of India ensures equal treatment to all its citizens without any discrimination. On the contrary, the patriarchal roots of the Indian society have subjected women to experience severe inequalities. This has resulted in a wide gender gap, which has been perceived to affect all the facets of a woman’s life. The field of entrepreneurship is also witnessing an intensified gender gap due to the lack of adequate education/appropriate training among budding women entrepreneurs. To bring out more successful entrepreneurs, an empowering learning system is an indispensable need. Hence, the present experimental study aims to build and analyse the effectiveness of an innovative learning environment incorporating feminist pedagogy and the social web. Feminist pedagogy – a democratic system that facilitates active, collaborative and communal learning – was adopted for offering entrepreneurial training. For reaching the socially oppressed and geographically diverse Indian women, Facebook was used as a virtual learning system.

THE CHALLENGES OF ADULT EDUCATION POLICY IMPLEMENTATION IN MOZAMBIQUE

The current socio-economic development in Mozambique is characterized by growing social inequalities, in particular concerning the imbalanced access to education and the increased poverty of women and the unemployed. Adult education is a way to provide youth and adults with opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills. Through education they can gain power and they can learn how to cope with social and economic challenges. The purpose of this research is to examine how far policies concerning adult education, especially with respect to Non-Formal Vocational Education and Training (NFVET) are implemented. The research is qualitative in nature, based on document analysis with a focus on the policies that have guided the implementation of adult education and training in Mozambique during the period 2000-2015. The findings reveal that Mozambique has been strongly influenced by international initiatives within the framework of ‘Education for all’ and ‘Education for development’. There is an apparent need to strengthen policy implementation strategies, particularly in the area of NFVET in order to ensure the real empowerment of learners and teachers. Key words: adult education, activity theory, power and development.

The Influence of Teacher Power on English Language Learners' Self-Perceptions of Learner Empowerment

English language learners (ELL) are students with a primary language spoken other than English enrolled in U.S. educational settings. As ELL students take on the challenges of learning English and U.S. culture, they must also learn academic content. The expectation to succeed academically in a foreign culture and language, while learning to speak and comprehend the language itself, would be a stressful and challenging task for almost anyone. In comparison with non-ELL students, ELL students tend to demonstrate lower levels of academic achievement. The current study examined ELL students' perceptions on teacher power and its' influences on self-perceptions of learner empowerment. Quantitative data was collected measuring perceptions of teacher power use and self-perceptions of learner empowerment. Qualitative data consisted of twenty in-depth interviews with ELL students illuminating their perceptions of teacher power and its relationship to their perceptions of learner empowerment. Differences were found by language in coercive, legitimate, and expert teacher power. Four themes emerged from interviews; what good teachers do, what bad teachers do, what teachers should know, and understanding ELL students. Implications for educators and future research are discussed.

Instructor strategic ambiguity: delineation of the construct and development of a measure

ABSTRACTThis article presents research to delineate the construct of instructor strategic ambiguity (ISA) and develop a measure. The first study analyzed instructor uses of ambiguity, identified 18 strategies, and classified them into four categories. The second study developed an Instructor Strategic Ambiguity Measure (ISAM) for the college classroom. This 15-item scale consisted of four factors: application, challenge, assignments, and leadership. The ISAM is positively correlated with learner empowerment, learning indicators, need for cognition, and student motivation, which offers evidence of construct validity. The results of the study suggest student perceptions of ISA complement instructor clarity.