Developing Learning Environments: Creativity, Motivation and Collaboration in Higher Education

Part II: Motivation In Learning

,฀Par t฀II:฀ Motivation฀In฀Learning฀ All the chapters in this section deal in one way or another with the issue of student motivation . As elsewhere, this has received considerabl e attention in Hong Kong over the past few years, along with growing challenges to the stereotype of 'Chinese learners' as passive rote learners, extrinsically motivated, and relying on rote memorization as a study strategy. Like all stereotypes, this was always agross generalization. The veracity o f even the broadest generalization ha s been throw n int o increasing doubt in a number of recent publications (e.g., Watkins and Biggs 1996,2001; Kember 2000). The following suggestions emerge out of this work, which derives from a broad range of research and reflections on practice in Hong Kong higher education: • 'Th e Chinese Learner' is driven by a range of motivations: career, achievement, intrinsic interest, and asense of collective responsibility to family and peer groups. • Hon g Kong students, in common with thos e across the world , respond to different educational contexts and demands in ways that aim to cope with those demands. • Hon g Kong students' emphasis on memorization is not necessarily *a bad thing'; in many {perhaps most) cases it is an integral part of a strategy that is aimed at understanding and the construction of meaning. * Hon g Kon g student s ar e not natura l passiv e learners ; i n a n appropriate educational environment they are capable of becoming active and autonomous learners and of enjoying the experience. The terms 'deep' and 'surface' learning have been used to describe two approaches to learning, though Kember (2000) suggests that these terms are better viewed as two ends of aspectrum. Conventionally, deep approaches (aiming at understanding) have been associated with intrinsic Parttl or internal motivation, whereas surface approaches have been linked to external or extrinsic motivation. Much recent educational innovation has been aimed at engendering deep/intrinsic approaches in students, on the grounds that better learning outcomes will result. Fundamentally, those innovation s hav e involve d th e constructio n o f learnin g environments that will appropriately motivate students. Key elements of the learning environments are associated with: • curriculu m content that is perceived to be intrinsically interesting and relevant to future careers, • assessmen t practices that are fair and reward the desired learning approaches and outcomes, and« teachin g practices that facilitate collegial/coilaborativ e studen t learning activities. The chapters in this section focus on and discuss various classroom practices an d assessmen t mode s tha t ai m t o motivat e student s appropriately. Chapters 6, 7 and 10 all deal with English language education and ways in which students can be motivated and persuaded to put more effort int o improving their language ability. The contribution fro m Pemberton, Carmichael and Lam (Chapter 6) focuses on a curriculum innovation that was designed to enhance students' learning strategies. Rather than addressing the specific detail of students' language needs, the emphasis was on helping students to develop confidence that they could improve their language skills, and teaching them broad strategies to approach that improvement in an autonomous fashion. Further, the assessment for the course was changed to a simple pass/fail judgement Evaluation of the course, based on students' learning journals and a feedback questionnaire, suggests strongly that students do in fact fin d this approach to be more motivational and effective. Burton and Lau (Chapter 7) present a case study of the use of the Web to promote dialogue among students and staff. This dialogue is based around student diaries and a discussion forum based on students' own experience . They argu e tha t th e succes s o f thi s approach i n promoting dialogue depends upon active teacher participation an d Part II modelling of appropriate response: interestingly, the desirability of teacher involvement may be dependent upon cultural factors. Hill (Chapter 10) describes a Web site that is designed to enhance students' vocabulary (general and discipline-specific), partly through their involvement in a set of interactive games. Preliminary results are promising and suggest that students do in fact find the interactive element motivational, consequently improving their vocabulary. Hill also stresses the importance of an assessment system that rewards appropriate student activities and effort. This last paper also explores some of the difficulties of interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching and learning which can arise from different...