{"title":"Collaborative spaces: investigating the relationships between students’ group-based learning and lecturers’ approaches","authors":"Chan Chang-Tik","doi":"10.1080/00131881.2023.2256747","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTBackground Enabling teaching approaches that promote active learning can require a certain amount of organisational reorientation. For example, structural and cultural shifts may be needed to accommodate moves towards student-centred learning. In higher education environments, lecturers can play a significant role in supporting students’ collaborative learning. More needs to be understood about the connections between lecturers’ pedagogical approaches and the enhancement of student learning through group-based activities.Purpose With the context of a journey towards active learning in mind, this qualitative study sought to explore the relationship between lecturers’ pedagogical approaches and students’ group-based learning, and consider how student learning may be enriched through collaborative activities.Method Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 lecturers who were teaching a range of subjects in a higher education institution in Malaysia. Observations of teaching were also undertaken. Data were analysed thematically.Findings The in-depth analysis of rich data identified the many different ways in which lecturers enabled and promoted students’ group-based learning, through the design and delivery of appropriate and engaging collaborative tasks. Some challenges in the journey towards active learning development were identified in terms of supportive and procedural information provision.Conclusion Findings offer insight into how group activities may enhance student learning, when supported with carefully designed learning tasks which help students acquire the necessary collaborative skills. More broadly, they also highlight the need for institutional professional development support for higher education lecturers in order to engender a sustained culture of collaborative teaching and learning.KEYWORDS: Group-based learningcollaborative learninglearning taskscollaborative learning spacesactive learninghigher education AcknowledgementsThe author is grateful to all participating lecturers and research assistants.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by the Monash University Malaysia Learning and Teaching Grant 2021 [STG-000068].","PeriodicalId":47607,"journal":{"name":"Educational Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Educational Research","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2023.2256747","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACTBackground Enabling teaching approaches that promote active learning can require a certain amount of organisational reorientation. For example, structural and cultural shifts may be needed to accommodate moves towards student-centred learning. In higher education environments, lecturers can play a significant role in supporting students’ collaborative learning. More needs to be understood about the connections between lecturers’ pedagogical approaches and the enhancement of student learning through group-based activities.Purpose With the context of a journey towards active learning in mind, this qualitative study sought to explore the relationship between lecturers’ pedagogical approaches and students’ group-based learning, and consider how student learning may be enriched through collaborative activities.Method Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 lecturers who were teaching a range of subjects in a higher education institution in Malaysia. Observations of teaching were also undertaken. Data were analysed thematically.Findings The in-depth analysis of rich data identified the many different ways in which lecturers enabled and promoted students’ group-based learning, through the design and delivery of appropriate and engaging collaborative tasks. Some challenges in the journey towards active learning development were identified in terms of supportive and procedural information provision.Conclusion Findings offer insight into how group activities may enhance student learning, when supported with carefully designed learning tasks which help students acquire the necessary collaborative skills. More broadly, they also highlight the need for institutional professional development support for higher education lecturers in order to engender a sustained culture of collaborative teaching and learning.KEYWORDS: Group-based learningcollaborative learninglearning taskscollaborative learning spacesactive learninghigher education AcknowledgementsThe author is grateful to all participating lecturers and research assistants.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by the Monash University Malaysia Learning and Teaching Grant 2021 [STG-000068].
期刊介绍:
Educational Research, the journal of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), was established in 1958. Drawing upon research projects in universities and research centres worldwide, it is the leading international forum for informed thinking on issues of contemporary concern in education. The journal is of interest to academics, researchers and those people concerned with mediating research findings to policy makers and practitioners. Educational Research has a broad scope and contains research studies, reviews of research, discussion pieces, short reports and book reviews in all areas of the education field.