Flexible Learning Approach Research Articles

A Flexible Learning Approach to Foundation Maths

SUMMARY The conventional pedagogy of maths teaching in Higher Education is one of transmission. These methods have been shown to fail on a number of counts. The paper describes how a foundation course maths unit was transformed from being teacher and content led into one in which students took almost complete responsibility for their own learning. The way of working is refeRIIE to as ‘Supported Open Learning’ — the materials used are free‐standing, but teachers have a central role in supporting, directing and giving feedback to the learner. The scheme was designed to encourage students to collaborate and to use a range of other materials, including books and computers. The assessment of the course was designed to encourage the learners to develop ownership and understanding of the mathematical concepts. In 1995/96 the course was run for 100 students within a plethora of institutional constraints. Students reported positive attitudes to the new methods.

The Foundation Programme in Science and Engineering at Loughborough University of Technology

University Foundation courses in Engineering were run for the first time in the 1988-9 academic year. The Science and the Engineering faculties at Loughborough University of Technology instigated a Foundation Programme in Science and Engineering at the start of the 1991-2 academic year. Of the 100 or so students on the programme four on average go on to continue their studies in physics. This year sees the first two graduates in the physics department to have come via the Foundation route. One studied PE, Sports Science and Physics and the other Engineering Physics. Both of them achieved lower second class honours degrees. There is an extremely heterogeneous intake into the Foundation Programme and a multitude of exit routes, currently up to 30 different science or engineering degrees. These two factors provide interesting challenges to the course planners in terms of both the choice of course content and the teaching styles adopted. The lecturer responsible for the physics input to the programme believes that the use of Resource- Based Learning materials may be a partial solution to the problems faced by students with non-standard entry qualifications. Such materials are being produced by the FLAP (Flexible Learning Approach to Physics) team, of which she has been a member since 1989. The Foundation Programme continues to evolve and is being redesigned to fit the University's plans for semesterization, which will be put into effect from October 1995.

Can staff development in the UK further education sector meet the challenge of flexible learning?

This article promotes the view that in further education in the United Kingdom, the part of the education system that needs to be most responsive to adult learners, there is a growing need to develop staff specifically to cope and respond more flexibly to the needs of an increasingly diverse clientele. The role of staff in the college is seen as not only a change agent to bring about the changes in delivery, but also to ensure the implementation, stabilization and self‐renewal of the programme. Staff development is seen as the key to this change. The centrality of the learner is established and the basic components of a flexible learning approach are identified as a four‐stage model. The implications of each of these stages is explored in terms of the needs of a staff development process and how these needs might affect the institution. Finally, the developing role of management in this process is viewed as critical to success thereby ensuring that staff have the opportunity to respond to continual change...

The Flexible Learning Approach to Physics: FLAP

Major changes in the teaching of physics at university are already underway and more are imminent. These are driven by the need to accommodate changes in schools and to effect the planned general expansion of the higher education sector. The Flexible Learning Approach to Physics (FLAP) is one major response to this situation.

A curriculum model for a community development approach to community-based rehabilitation

ABSTRACT Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) is not a new concept but has become the focus for groups such as the World Health Organisation and other international aid agencies in facilitating the availability of rehabilitation services in developing countries throughout the world. Although much of the literature debates institutional versus community-based services and auxiliary versus fully trained personnel, little information is available to address the curriculum issues relating to training personnel to undertake CBR activities. The purpose of this paper is to present a curriculum model for preparing and implementing short programme workshops to encourage the development of CBR in different cultural settings. The curriculum model has foundations which are firmly rooted in curriculum and educational theory and concepts. It provides a flexible adult learning approach to introduce the broad concepts of CBR, providing the participants with culturally relevant, concrete, practical tools to allow the impl...