Humanities New Academics Programme

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Humanities New Academics Programme Enquiry-Based
Learning (EBL) Julia McMorrow EBL
Fellow Geography, School of Environment and
Development The University of Manchester Frank
Manista Learning Development Officer, Centre for
Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning (CEEBL)
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Aims

• To understand and experience Enquiry-Based
  Learning (EBL)
• To see first-hand some examples of current
  EBL-focused courses and projects
• To become familiar with some techniques for
  facilitating EBL with small groups
• To discuss practical concerns about using EBL and
  facilitation in your own small group classes.
• To gain some insight into students perspectives
  of EBL
• To learn what CEEBL is doing to promote EBL.

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Overview of EBLthe what, why and how

• Frank Manista

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2nd year MBS, Organisations Management and
Technology EBL project
An example of EBL

• Students select a technology management scenario
  and formulate their own research topic
• Boundaries of process (e.g. seminars, team
  work) and final report spelt out up-front and
  supported with documents and Blackboard links
• Students examine the resources they need to
  research the topic and acquire knowledge
• Learning is student centred, with an emphasis on
  group work, time management and organisation
• Keep it real report underpinned by theories and
  tools covered in lectures and informed by student
  research
• Report assessed by group, but individual marks
  weighted by contribution (determined by students)
• paul.dewick_at_mbs.ac.uk

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The scenario (trigger) 2nd year MBS,
Organisations Management and Technology

• You are a technology management team advising the
  Board of Directors on the technology strategy of
  the firm. You have been asked to produce a report
  on the following issues
• The drivers for change in the industry
• The role of technology in responding to change
• The opportunities and challenges of
  adopting/developing a specific technology.
• It should draw recommendations (supported by an
  appropriate theoretical framework) for the firm
  about whether or not to invest in a specific
  technology.

paul.dewick_at_mbs.ac.uk
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Enquiry-Based Learning is

• Not new
• Learning driven by a process of enquiry
  research-led learning
• Active not passive. Student-centred
• Recognises the learning process as well the end
  product Learning how to learn
• A supported process tutor as facilitator

• Grounded in your discipline
• Learning through realistic problems / scenarios/
  tasks
• Reflective What have I learnt? How did I learn
  it? What would I do differently next time?

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Shift in tutors role
Tutor-centred
Student-centred
Sage on the stage
Facilitator
continuum

• Lighting the fire
• and controlling the blaze? devolving authority,
  building trust
• Active mode, thinking on your feet

• Filling the pot
• Authority
• Safety of a script
• Feeling of greater control over outcome, grades,
  etc.

• Degree and style of facilitation
• how directive, proactive, responsive?
• personal teaching style comfort zone
• students experience

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Why use EBL?

• Deeper learning higher levels of Blooms
  taxonomy of cognitive educational objectives

• Greater responsibility for own learning
  student-centred
• Improved motivation, especially when real-life
  examples
• Improved confidence authentic mastery, self
  efficacy
• Social interaction, teamwork
• Skills development employability, learning to be
  researchers

Bloom, B.S. (ed.) (1956) Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives The Classification of Educational
Goals Handbook I, Cognitive Domain. New York
Toronto Longmans
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EBL process skills the how and why
FINAL PRESENTATION /SOLUTION
TOPIC
TRIGGER
Apply whats been learnt
Define the problem
Identify whats already known
Collate research
REFLECT
Do individual or joint research
Allocate tasks to fill gaps

• Student-centred learning
• Tutors facilitate

http//www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ceebl/resources
/general/guide_to_fac_v1_bookletlayout.pdf
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EBL triggers

• Scenario,
• Role play
• Text
• quote, press cutting, academic paper, book
• Graphics
• photo, cartoon, graph
• Data
• Artefact
• Others

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Student perspective interns role

• Purity Oby Ikezogwo,
• CEEBL Student Intern

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What students think of EBL
I felt that I was at university rather than at
school UG IDTP
This has been a very demanding course in terms of
how challenging the work has been. PG IDTP
We didnt have any teaching. We had to learn it
ourselves! Comp Sci
Learning independently and presenting what youve
learnt is very exciting, although can be
nerve-racking French TBL
You had to plan and so you learnt so much.it was
work you WANTED to do because YOU CHOSE to do it
UG IDTP
I found this very frustrating but have come away
with some positive things French TBL

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EBL in the Faculty Overview  

• Julia McMorrow

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Whats in a name EBL?
EBL, IBL
Some Humanities examples of team EBL projects
Enquiry, Inquiry
Project-centred learning (PCL)
Small-scale empirical Investigations
Problem-based Learning (PBL) messy, wicked
problem
Task-based Learning (TBL) crisp problem
Client-based Green City projects 3st yr Planners,
Engineers, etc. work with Manchester City Council
on sustainable development projects. Disciplines
compare process product
Phonetics fieldwork 1st yr Linguistics learn how
to elicit, transcribe and analyse words in live
interviews with native-speaker participant
informants
Radio script, press release, poetry booklet 3rd
Yr English American Studies
Virtual museum catalogue Manchester Access
Programme
Invitation to tender Yr 3, Environmental
consultancy scenario, SED
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Invitation To TenderEarth Observation (Geog),
year 3 team project

• Scenario Assessing the extent and severity of
  erosion of upland organic soils in Scotland by
  remote sensing
• The Scottish Executive wish to assess the area of
  active peat erosion in Scotland (approx.
  78.000km2) to an accuracy of /-1 by area. They
  would like to use remote sensing but are aware
  that other spatial data may also be needed.

Week 1. Set-up meeting Week 2. QA session
with client Week 3. Team submit executive
summary. Give presentation Week 4. Plenary
compare responses process
Write reflective report for line manager to
assess process. Content assessable in exam.
Scenario within a scenario, ITT as an exercise
in mock graduate training programme.
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e-EBL, UG Interdisciplinary Team Project

• Week 1 Icebreaker
• Introduction to course, teams and WebCT
• Week 2 Topic statement students selected topics
• Week 3 Key problems and questions
• Week 4 Storyboard
• Week 5 Symposium
• Posters with oral presentations
• Week 6 Question Time and Plenary
• Cross-discipline briefing
• Peer and faciltator assessed

• Scaffolded process WebCT posting required for
  each stage, Worked AIDS example for each.
• VLE for all documents, poster archive, etc.
  Discussion Board for group interaction feedback

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Practicalities fit with the curriculum

• Catering for different learning styles
• Balancing prescribed, subject-specific content
  with process transferable skills

Lectures? Content? Structure?
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Practicalities How much structure?
Scaffolded
Free-style

• Students as partners in curriculum design
• Students select topic and trigger
• Minimal guidance on milestones
• Self-regulating

• Tutor-led design
• Tutor selects topic and trigger
• Provides worked examples of milestones
• Sets deadlines

• Common elements
• Clear guidance on LO and assessment
• Preparation for EBL and team-working
• Monitoring progress
• Incorporating feedback

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EBL in the Faculty Examples from French  

• Annie Morton,
• Catherine Franc

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French EBL for EBL phonetics scenario

• You work for an export company. You have noticed
  that even if your colleagues somehow master the
  French language, they are still making the type
  of pronunciation mistakes which stop them being
  fully understood by their French speaking
  customers who do not speak English.
• Your boss has asked you to help them improve
  their pronunciation. You have noticed that they
  particularly mispronounce the following groups of
  letters qu, gn,gu.
• Give a short presentation to explain the
  pronunciation of these letters and their phonetic
  transcriptions.
• Provide a series of exercises to help your
  colleagues recognise and work on these letters.

annie.morton_at_manchester.ac.uk,
catherine.franc_at_manchester.ac.uk
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Applying EBL to your own practice workshop
activity

• Aims
• Content-related
• To get a feel for different types EBL activity.
• To plan how to apply it in your own discipline
• To discuss practical issues raised and ways to
  tackle them
• Process-related
• To experience small group EBL work (and learn
  tips for designing and implementing it)
• To experience some facilitation techniques
  (pyramiding, or think-pair-share, harnessing the
  negative)

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• Goal
• 3 min feedback back, outlining one example of EBL
  and how you could adapt or develop it for own
  teaching.
• Discussion points on issues in implementing it

• Process
• Preparation research an example
• Share examples and choose one (25 mins)
• Brainstorming (5 mins) What practical issues
  does it raise?
• Harnessing the negative (10 mins) turn it round
  how could these be overcome?
• Feedback
• Discussion (10 mins) on issues raised and
  strategies to overcome them.

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Applying EBL to your own practice workshop
activity

• Task Sketch out an EBL task for students (any
  level or discipline). Identify the practical
  issues raised.
• Learning objectives
• Apply some of the ideas presented
• Consider further the issues raised
• Outcomes requested
• Report back to group. Discussion of ideas,
  issues raised experience of doing the exercise.
• Time available 15 minutes

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Reflection

• What was learnt by doing the exercise?
• Content about what EBL involves
• Process, skills about the experience of tacking
  the task as a group
• The learning process can be assessed by learning
  logs/blogs and reflective reports
• Group contributions by peer evaluation

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Plenary  

• Some common concerns, response to questions
• Frank Manista, Julia McMorrow

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Some issues raised by EBL

• Tensions with a hybrid syllabus content versus
  process
• Absence of familiar frameworks
• Group dynamics
• Assessing group work
• Physical spaces unsuitable
• Increased workload
• Rigidity of process for PBL

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New funding possibilities from CEEBL  

• Adele Aubrey

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Conclusion

• One thing Ill try is
• What one thing will you take away from today?
• Jot down it on a Post-it note to take away as a
  reminder.
• Evaluation form
• Help us to improve the workshop
• CEEBL courses
• CEEBL website
• www.manchester.ac.uk/ceebl  

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Additional sources

• Helling, B (1988) Looking for good teaching a
  guide to peer observation Journal of Staff,
  Program and Organisational Development Vol. 6,
  No. 4
• Habeshaw, Habeshaw and Gibbs (1984) 53
  Interesting Things to do in Your Seminars and
  Tutorials, Technical Educational Services Ltd.
• University of Central Lancashire. Small groups,
  http//www.uclan.ac.uk/ldu/resources/toolkit/sm_gr
  oups/index.htm
• Biggs, J. (1995) The Role of Meta-learning in
  Study Processes. British Journal of Educational
  Psychology, 55, 185-212.
• Dimitrios Thanasoulas (2007) What is Learner
  Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered? The
  Internet TESL (Teaching English as a Second
  Language) Journal, http//iteslj.org/Articles/Than
  asoulas-Autonomy.html
• Healey, D. (1999). Theory and Research Autonomy
  in Language Learning. In J. Egbert E.
  Hanson-Smith (Eds.), CALL Environments Research,
  Practice, and Critical Issues (pp.291-402).
  Alexandria, VA TESO
• Healey, M., Kneale, P, Bradbeer, J. (2005)
  Learning styles among geography undergraduates
  an international comparison, Area, 37.1, 3042.
• Healey M and Jenkins A 2000 Learning cycles and
  learning styles the application of Kolbs
  experiential learning model in higher education
  Journal of Geography 99 18595
• Kolb D.A. (1984) Experiential learning
  experience as a source of learning and
  development Prentice Hall, New York
• Kolb D A 1981 Learning styles and disciplinary
  differences in Chickering A W (ed) The modern
  American college, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.