Andy Barfield
Chuo University
About
Hi, I hope you can make it to the conference and look forward to talking with you there ---Sessions
Learner Development Challenging Conventions: Opening up New Spaces in Learner Development (ONLINE SESSIONS) more
Sun, Jul 10, 11:45-13:15 Asia/Tokyo
This forum will examine how new learning spaces can help learners grow beyond conventional education environments. Presenters will explore holistic and ecological perspectives on learners’ growth, taking into account multiple aspects of their experiences, their interactions with others, and different affordances in diverse learning environments and spaces. The forum will include both studies that shed new light on the impact of sociocultural and psychological factors on the development of learner autonomy, as well as practice-related accounts that explore learners’ practices in a range of learning spaces outside of conventional classroom settings. In the forum participants will have opportunities in pairs and small groups to discuss and reflect on different non-conventional environments, spaces, and processes that learners can access and/or use. The combination of these theoretical and practice-based perspectives will encourage us to think about learner development from fresh angles, not only under the current and post-pandemic situation, but also beyond, so that we can come away from the forum with fresh ideas for challenging conventions and opening up new spaces in learner development in our own learning, teaching, and research. Round One 11:50 to 12:20 Phillip A. Bennett and Isra Wongsarnpigoon and Andrew Barfield Round Two 12:20-12:50 Yuri Imamura and Michael Kuziw
Learner Development Exploring Project-Based Learning (PBL): Understandings, puzzles, practices more
Sat, Jul 9, 16:00-16:40 Asia/Tokyo
This presentation focuses on how students and teachers at a university in Japan understand Project-Based Learning (PBL), what practices they see as central to PBL, and what puzzles come up for them as they do PBL. The background is a curriculum reform whereby an existing first- and second-year university research and writing programme is transitioning in 2022 and 2023 into PBL courses. In the new curriculum students will do at least three projects in one year where they identify and choose a problem in society that interests them, plan and do research, journal, and create a written product for each project - often using digital technology - to be published in a public forum beyond their immediate class. While students will, as now, do online research in each project, the new PBL courses will have a clear emphasis on students talking in each project with “close others” (other students, family members, people in local communities or local networks that students are part of). Other important differences and challenges will emerge as teachers and students experiment with PBL in 2022. From interviews, discussions, and written reflections, this poster presentation explores key learner development puzzles in teachers’ and students’ diverse PBL understandings and practices.