Generalizations #48 Smeplass, E., & Hylander, L. (2021)

At the current stage this project is about finding statistical generalizations in qualitative, danish educational research. That is to check my assumption that there is a tendency to make statistical generalizations on the basis of observations which cannot support such generalizations.

I will be posting excerpts from all those studies which to me seem problematic. This post is part of that and this is a link to the first post in the line.

Smeplass, E., & Hylander, L. (2021)

Reference:

Smeplass, E., & Hylander, L. (2021). Developing a Digital Learning Community: How a Campus Lockdown Made Us Rethink Our Teaching. Dansk Universitetspædagogisk Tidsskrift, 16(31). https://doi.org/10.7146/dut.v16i31.126208

Abstract:

Norwegian universities cancelled all campus activity as a response to a nationwide increase in Covid-19 cases. Lectures were moved to online platforms. The pandemic regulations forced us to redesign our teaching for a group of adult learners at the vocational lecturer education. Moving away from traditional lectures and discussion seminars, we designed new collaborative ‘work packages’ accompanied with various practical tasks. Our analysis is based on our teaching material, written student feedback and in-depth interviews. A combination of asynchronous teaching, collaborative groups and online meetings with supervisors created a confidence-building learning community and a safe learning environment. The study shows how students mastered the situation during a national lockdown and took responsibility for their own progress in the course. In the discussion, we highlight how an active two-way communication can foster an online learning community that has a positive impact on students’ learning experiences, and how our strategies led to student empowerment.

Testable hypothesis?:

Nej: "The  research  question  for  this  article  is:  How  can  a  digital  learning  community  ensure  a  positive  learning  environment? " s4

Method/materials:

"We initially set forth  a  research  plan  to  track  our  own  work  in  the  newly  designed  course  at  the  Department  of  Teacher  Education. Hence the interview guide did not originally include questions related to digital teaching and focused on  acknowledgement  of  prior  competence  and  the  experiences  of  being  an  adult  learner  in  academia  "s6

"The data in this study includes: a) Semi-structured in-depth  interviews  with  a  selection  of  voluntary  students  (see  Appendix  A);  b)  the  teaching  team's  own  evaluation and reflection notes; c)   unstructured conversations with students during and after classes; d) written feedback from the students at the end of the semester via questionnaire (see Appendix B). "

"Four students volunteered for in-depth interviews. In addition, twelve students gave written feedback on a digital and anonymous questionnaire, while three groups sent their joint course evaluation to the lecturers. "s6-7

Statistical generalizations:

1) "In order to achieve a learning community like the one described here, we would like to highlight some key factors based on these experiences:1.Maintain a  personal  and  ongoing  dialogue  with  students  throughout  the  semester  and  the  national  lockdowns.  Our  dialogue  consisted  of  a)  checking  the  groups’  progress  on  the  official  digital  platform (BlackBoard),  b)  organising  digital  meetings  with  all  students  attending  and  c)  providing  personalised  guidance by email, video conference or phone.2.Translate the abstract course description into a tangible set of work packages to create a useful overview of the material for the students. Our work packages encouraged different activities that could contribute to interaction and the exchange of knowledge between students. 3.Enable the students to freely decide both how to cooperate digitally, as well as deciding what each learning activity  should  entail  and  produce.  Our  students  made  interactive  blogs,  podcasts  and  various  digital  presentations that could be shared across the groups. 4.Encouragement and awareness of group dynamics. We pre-set the collaborative groups, but the students themselves  decided  their  methods  and  levels  of  cooperation.  Some  were  only  able  to  cooperate  asynchronously, which was possible as we did not intervene with their work methods. At the beginning of the semester, we openly discussed the challenges that group collaboration might bring about and told the students to contact us in cases of freeloading, overt competition or conflicts. We believe that pointing out these  perspectives  provided  our  students  with  a  reflective  basis.  The  semester  turned  out  to  be  uncomplicated in this regard, and the students were focused on preparing for their exams.5.Defined outcomes. As we prepared a new plan for the students, we explicitly explained the purpose of the various activities. They did not have to negotiate the outcome resulting from completing the various work packages. The data show that this specific pedagogical choice had a positive impact, as students felt they knew what our intentions behind each work package was. " 13-14

Comments:

I have flagged this study for generalizations of type 5 (see typology).

(Rest in danish in order to avoid the extra work of having to translate quotes - i might on request)

I det fremhævede citat gives en lang liste over retningslinjer/forslag som man kan følge for at imødekomme forskningsspørgsmålet. Citatet er nogenlunde forsigtigt, givet at der i starten fortælles at forslagene er baseret på de oplevelser som studiet raporterede. Ikke desto mindre er implikationen af den enkelte retningslinje at den vil have effekt i fremtiden, hvis den anvendes, og at studiet underbygger sådanne effekter (statistisk generalisering) (type 5).