Learning is not a natural process, believes Professor Som Naidu, Associate Professor and Director of Teaching and Learning Quality Enhancement and Evaluation Services in the Division of Learning and Teaching Services, Charles Sturt University, New South Wales.
“Learning and teaching are far too important a process to leave to chance,” says this educational technologist, who is also executive editor of the journal ‘Distance Education' and co-series editor of the Routledge Book Series on Open and Flexible Learning.
Learning resources
Som Naidu argues that while we can learn many things by ourselves, efficient, effective and engaging learning cannot be left to chance alone. “It requires careful orchestration of the learning experiences of students with appropriate scaffolding or support, and timely feedback and guidance provided by the teachers, tutors, mentors and with the support of appropriate learning resources.”
An Australian national now, Som Naidu was born in the Fiji Islands. His grandfather was one of the hundreds that migrated to the islands and worked in the sugarcane fields there. “Going to school and learning was a passion, a happy diversion. The sad part is that we have been cut off from our native land, Andhra, for so long that we have no roots here,” remembers says Som Naidu who was in the city to participate in the 6th Pan Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning recently.
He was educated initially in Fiji, then in New Zealand and later in Canada. He has a PhD in Educational Technology from Concordia University, Montreal and his professional work experiences include high school teaching, curriculum design and development, instructional design and development, and teaching and research in the tertiary education sector.
“Great teaching is about placing learners in authentic problem situations, presenting them with a goal or problem to resolve and requiring them to achieve that goal or solve the problem with the help and advice from their teachers, and with the help of appropriate learning resources.”
This form of learning is called ‘situated learning' and it is grounded in the belief that learning is most effective and efficient when it is situated within a meaningful context for learners. “Learning designs that promote this kind of learning experience are called ‘situated learning designs'.
One such learning design is Scenario-Based Learning. This is a model of learning and teaching that is grounded in the belief that knowledge is derived from one's interaction with facts, principles and procedures within a meaningful context. It places learners in learning situations with authentic problems to resolve. In so doing learners are required to consult learning resources, develop skills and competencies in order to achieve their goal.”
In order to be able to do this, they have the support of teachers, technologies, parents and many other agents or stakeholders who are there to provide learners with the essential learning scaffolds or supports.
Because of its practice-based approach to learning and teaching, and its focus on developing higher order skills of analysis, evaluation, synthesis, and problem solving, Scenario-Based Learning is particularly well-suited for educating for the professions. Professions such as nursing and medical practice, teaching, management and accounting etc.
Teaching and learning in these fields, for far too long, have been very content-centric. “We need to move our focus away from this overly content-centric approach to a more practice-based approach to learning and teaching when educating for the professions.”
Learning is is a lot more about developing one's ability to apply one's knowledge of facts, principles and procedures to resolving real world problems, says Som Naidu.
He believes that in time we are very likely forget but what we will not forget that easily is our capacity to apply that knowledge to recurring problem situations. This is what should be the focus of our learning and teaching in the professions, and Scenario-Based Learning enables us to do that.
E-learning, distance education
Som Naidu is an ardent proponent and practitioner of this system of learning. He and his associates, including Prof. Mohan Menon of Kochi, now with Unesco and formerly of the Commonwealth of Learning, and professors Ram Takwale and M. N. Deshmukh (of I-CONSENT, Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited, Pune, Maharastra), have applied Scenario-Based Learning in distance learning, e-learning and online learning programs in India and abroad. Prominent among these are the Bachelor of eEducation program of I-CONSENT, Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited, and Yashwant Rao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nashik, and the Master of Arts in Teacher Education Program of the Open University of Sri Lanka.
But Som Naidu concedes that there is no need to throw out the baby with the bathwater. “Not all of our current teaching and learning practices are poorly conceived,” he says. There is plenty of evidence of great teaching going on everywhere. “Let us closely examine our current practices, and let us keep those that are working well and change those that are not working so well. Let us see if we can do better. My hunch is that we will find, more often than not, that we can do better.”
