ERIC EJ978115: A Response to Hartley

2012·0.06 MB·English

by  ERIC

Open Dialogue peer review:
A response to Hartley
Christopher Knapper
University teaching in psychology and elsewhere: Why don’t we practise what we know?
Beginnings
J
AMES HARTLEY begins his paper on a themselves been students. How else to
personal note with recollections of his explain the fact that prevailing university
first university teaching experience at teaching methods have hardly changed over
Keele University. In fact our careers as a century or more, even though there is
psychology teachers began at the same time considerable evidence that, for example, the
at Sheffield University, where we met at the ubiquitous lecture has major limitations for
start of term in 1958 in our first psychology promoting learning (see Bligh, 2000), and is
class. We graduated together in 1961, and not even especially liked by students?
both worked as researchers in the Sheffield But if many teachers do not understand
psychology department until our paths much about the psychology of teaching and
diverged, with Jim heading to Keele and I to learning, it is probably also true that many
Canada. We have remained friends and students entering higher education have only
colleagues ever since then, and have had the vaguest understanding of what consti-
many conversations over the years about tutes effective learning – in part because the
post-secondary teaching and learning. topic of learning itself has probably never
Although I continued to teach under- featured in their education to this point. It is
graduate psychology for the whole 45 years rather as if an apprentice cabinet maker was
of my academic life, in 1977 my professional taught all about the history and structure of
interests changed focus when I became furniture, but never shown how to master the
director of a teaching and learning centre at basic tools and skills of woodwork.
a major Canadian university1, and became Jim Hartley and I went to the same type
engaged with the issue of how academics can of English grammar school in the 1950s, and
teach better and students learn more effec- I suspect the two of us formed rather similar
tively. This has been my primary work ever conceptions of ‘successful learning’, which
since, as an educational developer, consult- largely involved listening, noting, remember-
ant, researcher, and writer. ing, and writing. Of these the most challeng-
ing and valuable was probably the latter,
How teachers teach, how students learn which did allow for some integration and
It seems self-evident that how teachers teach expression of original ideas. My school
and how students learn should be seen inex- classes were lively and reasonably interactive,
tricably intertwined. After all, the only but there was little question that we were
purpose of teaching is that someone should there to do anything more than master
learn something. Yet in my experience, a received wisdom passed down by the teacher.
large number of university teachers In other words we were at the stage that
approach their work as if they had never William Perry (1970), in his classic study of
1 Against Jim Hartley’s advice: he wrote to me at the time that this was a risky career move, but by this time I had
taken the job, and he subsequently expressed delight at my temerity.
22 Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 18 No. 1, Spring 2012
© The British Psychological Society 2012
A response to Hartley
intellectual development in Harvard under- convivial dinner at which he expounded at
graduates, refers to as the ‘dualism’, in which length upon the implications his work for
the student's task is to learn the right answers improving human learning and making the
and ignore the others. Later researchers world a generally better place.
have described this conception of learning Needless to say, all this research did little
as ‘surface’ or ‘reproducing’ (e.g. Entwistle to change the way psychology departments
& Ramsden, 1983; Marton & Säljö, 1976a, did their teaching. In 1984 I prepared a
1976b). working paper on the teaching of psychology
in Canada for a major ‘state of the discipline’
Psychology and learning review being carried out by the Canadian
Learning has, of course, always been a Psychological Association (later published –
central concern of psychology, and when Jim see Knapper, 1986). I surveyed all Canadian
and I were undergraduates, the pre-eminent psychology departments (there was an envi-
figure in learning theory was B.F. Skinner. able 77 per cent response rate) to ask about
North American psychology textbooks of the teaching and assessment methods, staff train-
day (not normally ‘assigned’ in British ing, evaluation of teaching, research on
universities, but widely consulted nonethe- pedagogical issues, and instructional innova-
less) all had a fat chapter on the psychology tions. I concluded that ‘approaches to teach-
of learning. However, I suspect that the ing, assessment, and evaluation in Canadian
material there would give students very little psychology departments appear to be largely
insight into the sort of learning they did to conservative and traditional’ (p.61). Teach-
try and make sense of their courses or ing was largely by lectures, assessment relied
prepare for exams. Nor would it give teach- extensively on multiple-choice tests, there
ers any clues about how to promote more was minimal faculty involvement in educa-
effective studying on the part of their tional development, and very little teaching
students. The emphasis in the texts was innovation or pedagogical research. Even
largely on rats, pigeons, chimpanzees, or more telling was the finding that prevailing
occasionally young children and, although teaching approaches failed to reflect impor-
educational psychology (not part of Jim’s tant evidence about learning uncovered by
and my curriculum) had a slightly broader psychologists themselves. Jim’s paper
focus, even here there was little that seemed suggests that the situation today in Britain is
immediately relevant to teaching under- largely unchanged, and I would guess the
graduates. same applies in Canada – and probably
Skinner’s notion of ‘shaping behaviour’ North America more generally.
was perhaps unduly mechanistic, but it did at
least appear to have practical implications Research on undergraduate learning
for teaching both children and adults. and its implications
Indeed, in the 1960s there was a flurry of I have already referred to some of the key
interest in so-called teaching machines and research on learning in undergraduates that
programmed instruction. The Sheffield could and should inform teaching practice.
psychology department developed its own It mostly began in the 1980s, continues to
teaching machine, and I worked on this the present, and is associated with the names
project for a while. Meanwhile Jim of Marton and Säljö (Sweden), Entwistle and
completed a PhD on the effectiveness of Ramsden (UK), Kember and Gow (Hong
programmed instruction, and later wrote Kong), and Perry (US). Briefly summarised,
and edited several books on the subject (for the body of this research suggests that:
example, Hartley, 1972; Hartley & Davies, (a) university students approach learning in
1972). Skinner visited the Sheffield depart- different ways that can be characterised as
ment during this period, and I recall a ranging from surface (reproducing facts) to
Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 18 No. 1, Spring 2012 23
Christopher Knapper
deep (searching for meaning); and (b) most tunities for interactions among students
students are able change their approach in themselves. In contrast, sheer number of
response to the learning context, in particu- hours devoted to teaching was unrelated to
lar the methods used by the teacher (Gow & cognitive development, suggesting it is the
Kember, 1993; Kember & Gow, 1994) and quality of teacher-student contact, not the
the nature of assessment (Watkins & Hattie, quantity, that is of critical importance.
1981). Pascarella and Terenzini (1991, 2005)
To expand on the second point, Rams- analysed the results of over 2600 empirical
den and Entwistle (1981) in a study that studies dealing with the impact of higher
involved 2000 British university students education on student learning and develop-
enrolled in 66 different academic depart- ment. They concluded that student learning
ments in the humanities, social sciences, is ‘unambiguously linked to effective teach-
sciences, and engineering, identified a set of ing, and we know much about what effective
factors that seemed to encourage a shift teachers do and how they behave in the class-
from surface to deeper learning. These room’ (1991, p.619). Such behaviours
include: include the instructor's ability to establish
● faculty who like students, like teaching, rapport with students, faculty accessibility,
take teaching seriously, and are good at it feedback to students, active learning strate-
(e.g. pitch material at the right level, give gies, opportunities for students to interact
help and advice on study methods); with their peers, and ‘a curricular experi-
● manageable workloads for students; ence in which students are required to inte-
● relative ‘freedom in learning’ (allowing grate learning from separate courses around
students a choice of tasks to complete a central theme’ (1991, p.619).
course requirements, and a choice of Elsewhere (Knapper, 2010) I have tried
learning methods to accomplish these to identify the implications of this growing
tasks); and impressive body of research in terms of
● setting clear goals and standards for what is wrong with our current practices and
academic work; what we might do to remedy the situation.
● vocational relevance (perceived links Here first are the problems:
between what was being studied and ● Teaching remains overwhelmingly
students' later lives and careers); didactic and reliant on traditional lectures
● positive social climate (good relations and assessment methods are often trivial
between students and teachers); and inauthentic;
● less emphasis on formal teaching ● Curriculum development relies far too
(attending classes) compared to much on disciplinary tradition and faculty
individual study and group projects. interests, rather than on student and
These findings are in many ways comple- societal needs;
mented by data from the US. For example, ● There is a tendency to compartmentalise
Astin (1993) in a massive on-going project knowledge that mitigates against
that has involved more than 20,000 students, integration of ideas, skills, and insights
25,000 academic staff, and 200 different from different fields;
institutions, showed that the characteristics ● Evaluation of teaching effectiveness and
and behaviour of teaching staff had major learning outcomes is often superficial.
implications for student development. In Among my suggestions for change are the
particular, opportunities for student-faculty following:
interaction had ‘positive correlations with ● Teaching methods that stress student
every self-reported area of intellectual and activity and task performance rather than
personal growth’ (p.383), and there were just acquisition of facts;
similar positive effects associated with oppor- ● Opportunities for meaningful personal
24 Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 18 No. 1, Spring 2012
A response to Hartley
interaction between students and work of Marton and Säljö, Entwistle and
teachers; Ramsden, Kember, or Perry, even though
● Opportunities for collaborative team their research has direct bearing on univer-
learning; sity-level teaching and considerable practical
● More authentic methods of assessment implications for the way we go about our
that stress task performance in naturalistic work as academics.
situations, preferably including elements This is not to say that psychologists do no
of peer and self-assessment; research on teaching and learning. For
● Making learning processes more explicit, example, the American Psychological Associ-
and encouraging students to reflect on ation has long had a Division on teaching,
the way they learn; and sponsors the journal Teaching of Psycho-
● Learning tasks that encourage integration logy. There is a similar section in the Cana-
of information and skills from different dian Psychological Association, though it is
fields; largely dormant. Few of the papers in Teach-
● Curriculum planning that focuses on ing of Psychology reflect any familiarity with
realistic student-learning outcomes rather the approaches to learning literature or its
than disciplinary traditions and faculty North American counterparts. Rather, the
preferences. By realistic, I mean outcomes dominant research approach involves meas-
that will equip students with knowledge uring the effects of a small and controllable
and skills, both generic and discipline- instructional innovation on discrete learning
based, that can be transferred to the world outcomes – the latter most usually measured
beyond the university throughout their by performance on a multiple-choice test
lives and careers. that largely stresses retention of information.
Weimer (1993, 2008) reviewed the many
Learning research and departmental discipline-based journals on post-secondary
practice teaching and concluded that the research
Almost all the research I have referred to paradigm of the papers they publish gener-
above was done by psychologists, and often ally reflects the dominant methodological
published in mainstream psychological jour- philosophy and approach in the discipline
nals – although it would be fair to say that concerned. This she finds limits their utility
many of the researchers were not based in and potential to change practice because
psychology departments, but in faculties of research done in other contexts using differ-
education or teaching and learning centres. ent paradigms is on the whole ignored.
Much of the relevant research that could In the case of psychology it perhaps
inform good teaching practice had already makes little difference since I suspect Teach-
begun in the early 1980s when I published ing of Psychology is read by very few faculty
my review of teaching methods in Canadian members (at Queen’s the University Library
psychology departments. I concluded then, does not even have a subscription) and
as did Jim, that these studies were largely would be regarded as a marginal publication
unknown to most psychologists and – even if when it came to claiming credit for scholarly
known – had had virtually no influence on work in the annual performance review
prevailing teaching and assessment process. Indeed Weimer believes that this is
approaches. My impression is that little has the situation for almost all disciplines when
changed since 1986, at least in Canada. she writes that ‘discipline-specific periodicals
When I give workshops and short courses on are not read widely within the discipline but
effective teaching it is a rare participant they are not read at all by faculty outside the
(psychologist or not) who is familiar with the discipline’ (Weimer, 2008).2
2 This is an unpaginated web-based journal.
Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 18 No. 1, Spring 2012 25
Christopher Knapper
Teaching and change buffet. You might select a balanced diet in
In his paper Jim comments on the many which all the elements reinforce each other
changes in the Keele psychology department to provide an integrated nutritious balance –
over the past 40 years. Unlike the situation in but then again you might not, especially if
Britain, large classes have long been a you find certain subjects unappetising or too
feature of Canadian universities during my difficult to digest. And, as the discipline of
time as an academic (I taught an introduc- psychology has grown, so have the sub-
tory class of several hundred when I arrived specialities and range of courses available to
at the University of Saskatchewan in 1966). students, with the result that – a few required
Of course, in Canada we have always had courses excepted (typically, introductory
what the British call ‘modular instruction’ psychology and statistics) – two students can
with its concomitants of continuous assess- easily graduate from the same programme
ment, credit hours, and cumulative grade- with completely different educational expe-
point averages. Since I have worked in this riences.
country there have never been external Lastly, the undergraduate thesis, which
examiners, so we never felt their loss. And we was never particularly common in the US,
have always relied extensively on assigned has virtually disappeared, though at my own
textbooks and multiple-choice examina- university it is still a popular option for
tions, rather than reading lists and essays. students, especially those wishing to go on to
Nonetheless, there has been some graduate work – and understandably so, for
change. The most striking is the preponder- this is one of the few opportunities an under-
ance of women studying psychology – in my graduate has to interact meaningfully with a
last class at Queen’s there were only two men faculty mentor and undertake a piece of
in a class of 25 – which has interesting impli- truly independent work.
cations for curriculum planning, choice of
examples used to illustrate constructs, and Future prospects
the social dynamics of the classroom. Tutori- Will the rapidly diminishing resources avail-
als in Canadian psychology departments able to universities in both Canada and the
were a rarity even in the 1960s, but now they UK mean the psychology departments keep
have disappeared almost entirely. Although on as they are now – but with even greater
we have always had huge classes (at the difficulty? Or might the funding crisis
University of Toronto the introductory class provoke a radical re-thinking of the way we
is held in Convocation Hall for up to 1800 approach undergraduate education? For
students), these now predominate through- example, when my colleagues complain to
out the first and second years, and it is only me about the impossibility of teaching well
in the final year of the degree that students with student-faculty ratios around 35:1
can expect a ‘small’ class of around 25. I wonder if we need to abandon our tradi-
In the US a psychology programme tional ways of thinking about teaching, and
comprises a number of discrete courses about learning, and start afresh.
(modules), and the notion of a cohort, such For example, supposing we were to forget
as Jim and I experienced 50 years ago, with a about modules, timetables, and all adminis-
group of students going through the trative structures we so much take for
programme in a lockstep fashion, is non- granted, and instead assign each of my
existent. This is a pity, since the possibility of colleagues one group of 35 and ask them to
integration, peer support and social cohe- plan an engaging and challenging
sion (not to say good friendships) that is programme of learning experiences in
offered through the cohort has been lost. psychology that would take three or four
Taking a psychology degree in the US has years, involve a good deal of independent
always been a little like choosing a meal at a work, and an entirely new role for the
26 Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 18 No. 1, Spring 2012
A response to Hartley
teacher (more project manager and mentor role, and absence of any tradition of contin-
rather than information repository and gate- uing professional development, means that
keeper). Is this really impossible? Might it many faculty members are largely ignorant
indeed be more stimulating and motivating of relevant pedagogical research or alterna-
for both teachers and students? Of course it tive teaching strategies, and have scant time
would mean some full and frank discussions or inclination to change from the methods
about educational goals, and require they experienced as students.
confronting hard questions about just why Yet a further barrier is perceived to be
students study psychology and what they will student resistance to change in teaching
do with what they learned. approaches they already know. For example,
More prosaically, what are the prospects Jim believes that British students form their
for change over the next 50 years – in partic- ideas about learning and studying in second-
ular for change of the sort I have been ary school. However, evidence from the
recommending to make teaching and learn- many focus groups I have conducted with
ing more responsive to the needs of students students entering Queen’s suggests that they
and the requirements of an increasingly arrive at university with open minds and
complex and challenging world? Many (but considerably optimism and idealism, both
by no means all) of the faculty members concerning the nature of the discipline they
I meet across Canada and abroad would will study and the process of learning itself. It
largely agree with the learning and teaching is only later that acculturation causes cyni-
goals I have been advocating here, and even cism and a regression to the norm. In fact
with some of the solutions I propose. But at confronting first-year students with huge and
the same time they would argue that desir- largely impersonal classes and multiple-
able changes are generally impossible choice tests is about the worst thing we could
because teachers are hamstrung by lack of do to if we wish to encourage risk-taking, self-
resources, overwhelming student numbers, exploration, and cognitive development.
and too many demands on their time. So the blueprint for change exists, and is
There has been some suggestion that grounded in convincing research evidence
technology might offer a solution for some largely accumulated by psychologists. Yet the
of these pressures, and indeed systems such barriers and perceived barriers are powerful
as WebCT and Moodle have proved effective disincentives. Neither Jim or I will be here in
for course management and have stream- another 50 years to see if our predictions are
lined a lot of routine teaching tasks. But on correct, but I suspect that if we were we
the whole I agree with Jim that most educa- would find university psychology depart-
tional technologies have served to reinforce ments doing more or less the same things
traditional (didactic) teaching practices that they do now and did in 1960, but with
rather than empowering the sort of teaching even fewer resources and even more grum-
and assessment changes that educational bling.
research suggests are needed.
Another factor in changing teaching is Correspondence
the academic reward structure which Christopher Knapper
increasingly emphasises research and publi- Queen’s University,
cations, even if it means neglecting under- Kingston,
graduate students. And in Canada the lack of Canada.
preparation of academics for their teaching Email: [email protected]
Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 18 No. 1, Spring 2012 27
Christopher Knapper
References
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28 Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 18 No. 1, Spring 2012