Browsing by Author "Case, Jennifer M"

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    The influence of podcasting on student learning: a case study across two courses
    (Taylor & Francis, 2013-04-09) Collier-Reed, Brandon I; Case, Jennifer M; Stott, Angela
    There is a growing literature on the educational benefits of using podcasting of lectures in higher education, but to date little research that interrogates closely its impact on student learning. The present study investigated how students used lecture podcasts when produced in two engineering courses at a South African university. The findings confirm much of the growing consensus in the literature. Firstly, a majority of students in the courses elected to use the podcasts. Secondly, the study notes that lecture attendance, in contexts where lectures are seen as beneficial, is not adversely affected. Thirdly, few students use podcasts in the mobile mode but most rather use them as an additional resource in their private study spaces. There is intense use in the build up to tests and examinations, and there is a particular benefit for students who are not first language speakers of the medium of instruction. This study also points to the existence of both deep and surface approaches to engaging with podcasts, with substantial evidence of many students using podcasts as a means towards better understanding.
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    Learning as acquiring a discursive identity through participation in a community: improving student learning in engineering education
    (Taylor & Francis, 2009) Allie, Saalih; Armien, Mogamat Noor; Burgoyne, Nicolette; Case, Jennifer M; Collier-Reed, Brandon I; Craig, Tracy S; Deacon, Andrew; Fraser, Duncan M; Geyer, Zulpha; Jacobs, Cecilia; Jawitz, Jeff; Kloot, Bruce; Kotta, Linda; Langdon, Genev
    In this paper, we propose that learning in engineering involves taking on the discourse of an engineering community, which is intimately bound up with the identity of being a member of that community. This leads to the notion of discursive identity, which emphasises that students' identities are constituted through engaging in discourse. This view of learning implies that success in engineering studies needs to be defined with particular reference to the sorts of identities that students develop and how these relate to identities in the world of work. In order to achieve successful learning in engineering, we need to recognise the multiple identities held by our students, provide an authentic range of engineering-related activities through which students can develop engineering identities and make more explicit key aspects of the discourse of engineering of which lecturers are tacitly aware. We include three vignettes to illustrate how some of the authors of this paper (from across three different institutions) have applied this perspective of learning in their teaching practice.
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    The nature of engineering and science knowledge in curriculum: a case study in thermodynamics
    (2017) Smit, Reneé; Case, Jennifer M; Muller, Johan
    Abstract The study explores the nature of disciplinary knowledge differences and similarities between the sciences and the engineering sciences as these appear in curriculum texts. The work is presented as a case study of curriculum knowledge in thermodynamics, and the epistemic properties are investigated in four sub-cases in mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, physics and chemistry. Data was collected from prescribed undergraduate textbooks in the four disciplinary fields. The work is theoretically informed by two fields of scholarly work: the sociology of educational knowledge (in particular the work of Basil Bernstein) and the applied philosophies of science and engineering science, in order to develop a theoretical framework for analysis of the data. The framework allows the study to move beyond the typical binary classification of the sciences as 'hard-pure' and engineering sciences as 'hard-applied' disciplines. Starting from broad teleological considerations, the philosophical concepts of specialisation, idealisation and normativity are explored and developed into modalities and modal continua of variance to allow investigation of the epistemic differences and similarities in the recontextualised disciplinary knowledge from these contiguous conceptual fields. The empirical study identifies important differences in thermodynamics curriculum knowledge in terms of specialisation, normativity and idealisation across the broad disciplinary fields, rendering more complex Bernstein's notions of singulars and regions. The epistemic modalities and modes provide a way to conceive in more detail how the professional engineering science knowledge is orientated towards its field of practice. Curriculum knowledge in the engineering sciences is shown to be remarkably different from the knowledge in the sciences: both mechanical and chemical engineering knowledge emphasise particulars, rather than universals, have stronger normative aspects, and employ a limited form of idealisation in their commitment to physical realisability. By contrast, knowledge in the sciences is more universal, normativity is incidental, and idealisation is used expansively. In addition, the research findings suggest a negative correlation between idealisation and normativity as epistemic modalities: a commitment to normative concerns in the engineering sciences constrains the extent to which knowledge idealisation is pursued, compared to what is observed in the bodies of science curriculum knowledge. Furthermore, over and above differences in curriculum knowledge between the broad fields of science and engineering science, discernible variation exists between the engineering sciences investigated, raising cautions against a monolithic view of curricular epistemic properties across broad disciplinary areas.
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    Student-centredness: the link between transforming students and transforming ourselves
    (Taylor & Francis, 2010) Blackie, Margaret A L; Case, Jennifer M; Jawitz, Jeff
    It is widely accepted in the higher education literature that a student-centred approach is pedagogically superior to a teacher-centred approach. In this paper, we explore the notion of student-centredness as a threshold concept and the implications this might have for academic staff development. We argue that the term student-centred in the Rogerian sense implies a focus on the person of the student and is deeply resonant with Barnett's assertion that the emergent being of the student is as important as the development of skills and knowledge. To facilitate transformative learning in higher education an academic must know how to value the person of the student in the learning process. Academic staff development initiatives need to work with the person of the academic and take into account the level of personal development required for each academic to be able to facilitate this kind of learning.