New Perspectives in Science Education
“Know Yourself” a strategic prerequisite to encourage academic studies
Gabriella Giulia Pulcini, Ph.D. Student, International School of Advanced Studies. University of Camerino (Italy)
Daniela Amendola, School of Biosciences an Veterinary Medicine-University of Camerino (Italy)
Valeria Polzonetti, School of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine. University of Camerino (Italy)
Abstract
In the university studies the construction of significant learning takes place when the role of the teacher or tutor changes from informer and transmitter into facilitator of learning. This methodology promotes a student-protagonist that can develop and improve his/her talents starting from: (i) a clear self-knowledge; (ii) the self-assessment of skills; (iii) the self-regulation of abilities.
If one of the main objective of the education should be to provide to the students the opportunity to regulate independently their own learning, our research team starts from a more general purpose: to provide to the students of the scientific academic courses the possibility to understand how learning takes place and how it can be regulated. Starting from learning styles methodology, we built a blended-learning course entitled "Know yourself. Discover your learning styles" based on metacognitive strategies.
The aim of this course is to contrast the abandon of the university students and to improve their motivations and academic performances. The course “Know yourself” offers to the students a path, that starting from the analysis of their approach to the knowledge, leads the students to reflect on the possibilities to change or improve their way to take on the challenges of the courses.
To deliver our course to the students, we use as learning environment the e-learning Moodle platform. After an initial seminar in the class, the students start to work in the platform. The on-line pathway offers teaching materials and several activities (video, readings and collaborative activities) that give the opportunity to the students to:
- know and strengthen their learning styles;
- reflect about their way to organize their study;
- rethink the implemented strategies to assimilate the knowledge and test their skills.
At the end of the course we propose to the students to fill in an on-line questionnaire on their perception about the course, focusing their attention on the strengths and weaknesses.
In this work we intend to analyze the students’ perceptions about the course and their opinion on the possibility to extend the proposed methodology to specific topics of the university courses which should require a more extended support.
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