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DESIGN EFFECTIVENESS VERSUS INTENDED OUTCOMES
It seems that the learning design has provided students with
a manageable, step-by-step, guided exploration of how to read,
think and write about different sources. The submitted annotated
sources lists generally demonstrate that students spend time
reading and thinking about the different sources and the type
of evidence and arguments they offer. They seem to appreciate
the focused nature of the tasks involved and the invitation
to be imaginative and take initiative in their own selections
of sources to include in their lists.
UNEXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Some students have demonstrated an inspiring imagination in
their selection of sources. They have absorbed the emphasis
on the diversity of sources available, browsed examples in
the resource sets made available for the unit, and produced
lists and annotations which show sophisticated and exciting
understandings of why and how different sources can be used.
For example, along with an extract from parliamentary proceedings
about federation, there might be a family heirloom with federation
symbolism, a local newspaper clipping commenting on federation
celebrations, and a cartoon capturing the sentiments of ‘white
Australia’ so central to moves towards federation.
HOW LEARNER ENGAGEMENT IS SUPPORTED
The learning design supports learner engagement in the following
ways:
- Students enter the first year Australian history unit
with varied expectations about its content and purpose,
and with varied prior learning experiences. Some have negative
views of Australian history due to school experiences of
the subject (it was always boring, we heard the same thing
over and over again); some are committed and experienced
local and family historians who are seeking to extend and
contextualise their research; some are starting on their
primary school teacher training programmes and recognise
that Australian history is an integral part of the curriculum
they will be required to teach. Many have an expectation
that (Australian) history is about collecting facts, constructing
narratives and discovering the ‘truth’. The
Sources for Courses learning design acknowledges
these varied expectations and experiences, and builds on
them by gently and, hopefully, inspiringly, demonstrating
that the skills and understandings offered through history
as a discipline can engage and extend prior experiences
and expectations in unexpected ways. History becomes a reflective,
imaginative and self-initiated search for sources and meanings.
- The learning design requires students to visit and re-visit
key concepts about primary and secondary sources, historiography,
and historical perspectives and a variety of ways.
- Some peer interaction and feedback happens informally
through online and class discussions. For internal students,
a more formal task in this regard (e.g. peer assessment of
tutorial presentations and annotated sources list) could
be instituted. A similar more formal task could be initiated
for external students via the online component of the unit.
This, however, requires that all students have online access:
a reality not yet in place for all external students.
- The ability of the assessment tasks and other activities
to provide learner engagement is evident in the imagination,
enthusiasm, innovation and initiative evident in many of
the annotated sources lists submitted for assessment, and
in the variety of sources and issues which extend beyond
those identified in the resource sets which are raised in
class and online discussion. Unit evaluations and feedback
indicate that many students emerge from the unit with new
or renewed enthusiasm for the subject and, importantly,
particularly for the analytical and challenging issues raised
through investigating, contemplating and practicing how
and why historians use a variety of sources.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF LEARNING CONTEXT
The learning design is clearly underpinned by an awareness
of the skills and concepts required to practise and/or teach
Australian history in a variety of contexts. It takes into
account the fact that for some students enrolled in the unit,
this may be their only formal study of the subject and that,
for others, it may be the beginning of long-term formal study
in the discipline. Whatever their future intentions, the learning
design aims to provide students with the critical skills which
will enhance not only their practise of history (as teachers,
family, local or public historians etc) but will enhance the
skills needed to engage effectively in debates and other activities
which focus on connections between the past, present and future.
Informed debate requires an ability to identify and evaluate
sources of information: this is one of the key skills enhanced
through the learning design and tasks in Sources for Courses.
HOW THE LEARNING DESIGN CHALLENGES LEARNERS
Challenging existing assumptions about the nature of history
and historical evidence is a central tenet in the approach
adopted in Sources for Courses. As outlined previously,
many students tend to see history as a subject with finite
information and answers. Sources for Courses emphasises
that history is about interpretation and re-interpretation,
about the different types of sources available for the exercise,
and about different ways of ‘reading’ not just
different sources but also the same source. Students are encouraged
to apply the understandings gained through the exercises and
examples supplied in the resource set to sources which they
identify and utilise.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR PRACTICE
Through online and in-class discussions, students share their
understandings of the learning processes and of the sources
which they identify through their independent research. They
have a variety of opportunities to demonstrate their understandings
of the different types of sources available to historians,
and the ways in which they can be used: in class, online,
written exercises. They provide feedback to each other and,
on submitted work, receive written feedback guided by established
criteria. Importantly, the practice entailed is not one of
repetitive learning of the same fact. Rather it requires regular
and varied application of key concepts and understandings
to a variety of different sources, in a variety of different
contexts and in relation to a variety of different historical
topics and issues.
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