Pupils in a Changing Learning Environment

Pupils in a changing learning environment

Larissa Vassilchenko , Tiia Pedastsaar

University of Tartu

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Paper presented at the ATEE Conference "Changing Education in a Changing Society" , Riga , 3 -5 May 2002

Abstract

Learning environment is changing very rapidly. During the last 10 years the introduction of new curriculum in Estonia led to replacing of the old textbooks by new ones from 1 to 12 grades. This article describes the results of empirical research, conducted in the late of 90s. The comparison of the results, obtained in 1993/94 and 1998/99, indicate that in spite of the significant changes in the learning environments, the same traits of information behaviour tend to be preserved even today.

Introduction

Rapid changes of information conditions is one of the most significant features of contemporary society. Similar tendencies also characterised the learning environment in the late of 90s. Radical changes may be observed in the sphere of all school subjects. During the last 10 years the new unified curriculum was introduced in Estonian and Russian schools. This difficult process of school reform was accompanied by renewal of textbooks and additional learning materials in all grades from 1 to 12. It was running parallel with abrupt changes in the sphere of mass media and realisation of project "Tiigryhype"(computerisation). Thus, today´s young generation lives and receives education in the new information conditions that are noticeably different from the previous period of 80s. (Asser H., 2001; Liiber Ü.,Pedastsaar T., 2001; Vassilchenko L.,2001)

Speaking about new information conditions in the sphere of school subjects we usually think about the "potential learning environment" that includes all sources of knowledge that are theoretically possible to use for every pupil in the process of study in a concrete area. The real picture of employment of different sources of knowledge (variety and frequency) is limited and depends on the level of motivation and the competence of learners. Furthermore, in this case it would be distinguished as the inner and external motivation. In other words, we must take into consideration students´ desire and opinions about the necessity of learning of each school subject.

This article describes the results of empirical research conducted in the late of 90s with a purpose to reveal the main factors which influence the information behaviour of Russian and Estonian pupils from 7 to 12 grades in the sphere of 9 school subjects. In the present study learners were asked to indicate their preferences in the different areas of knowledge and the level of significance of content for each of school subject.

The first step in the investigation of patterns of the employment of all possible sources of information with educational purposes was done more than 20 years ago, in 1979. Then it come to light, that the "picture" of information behaviour for one and the same subject was very similar in Estonian and Russian schools in spite of the essential distinction between their learning environments (different curriculum, textbooks and other additional sources of knowledge). The study conducted later in 80s and 90s indicated that "self-rating approach" allowed to reveal promptly the peculiarities of pupils` motivation and their "real learning environments" in connection with different school subjects. (Brazyliene A.,1994; Kirss A.,1993; Vassilchenko L., 1991,1995,2001)

During the whole period from 1979 to the present time essential changes in the learning environment have taken place (new syllabuses, new learning materials, new channels and programs of mass media, internet). Logical conclusion from these facts may be principally new patterns of information behaviour of pupils in the sphere of school subjects. But the comparative analysis of results from the different periods of the research showed that such changes were insignificant.(Pedastsaar T., Vassilchenko L.,2001).

The experiences of other researchers in this field confirm our suppositions that "the renewal of textbooks and introduction of new instructional technology; although require considerable expenditure, still takes less time then changing of habitual activities in educational process"(Ellington H., Race P., 1994). In our case, the minimum set of used sources of information was and is in the area of real subjects (mathematics, physics, chemistry). A teacher´s explanations even today is the main source of knowledge in the process of study of this traditionally very abstract material, in spite of the fact that mathematicians, physicists and chemists had been especially active in the renewal of learning resources. Little has changed in the patterns of learners real choices of sources of knowledge.

In seeking the explanations for revealed preservation of patterns of information behaviour, it was found that essential factor is the content of learning material and the quality of the textbooks. The correlation between the text clarity and the wideness of use of different sources of information was high for all subjects. Unfortunately, the new generation of textbooks contain much new materials but they have not become more interesting for the majority of pupils.

The research methods and findings

The greatest changes have taken place only in learning of languages. The mastering of English for many pupils has become even more important than the acquiring of knowledge in the sphere of the rest school subjects. It is typical for pupils from all grades in Russian and Estonian schools. Such flight of motivation in this area seems to be connected with the significant growth of activity in using the internet and the foreign channels of TV. Moreover, the forthcoming join of Estonia with European Union and everyday contacts with pupils from other countries play also important role in the strengthening of attention to acquiring of foreign languages.

At the same time, a quite different situation occurred for the Estonian language in a Russian school and for the Russian language in an Estonian school. While the study of the state language is the question of vital importance for Russian pupils, the Russian language is one of the most unpopular subject in Estonian schools. The latter circumstance has an effect on wideness of using of different sources of information. For Estonian pupils despite the very rich learning environment for the study of the Russian language in most cases the main source of information is a teacher's explanations.

In the other areas of knowledge, where the fundamental transformation of social life have not had a noticeable influence, the learning motivation and "picture" of using of sources of information was preserved on the former level. Such results of our study were not unexpected when considering the fact that during the last 10 years the number of attractive, intelligible publications and multimedia resources, addressed directly to school age learners, in the sphere of science changed insignificantly.

However, the wealth of "personal real learning environment" in different school subjects depends not only on existing information conditions and motivation, but also on pupils' competence and previous experience in the corresponding area of knowledge or, in other words it depends on his/her level of readiness to study concrete material. With the purpose of evaluation of actual level of lexical and thematic competence of learners the above-mentioned self-rating approach was applied. The possibility of using this method was examined in the comparative study on the basis of mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography and biology. (Pedastsaar T., 1995) In this research it was revealed that the level of competence in all subjects in pupils estimation proved to be even lower than the corresponding average indexes from the class register, thus learners were more critical towards their state of knowledge than their teachers. At the same time researchers came to a conclusion that both these characteristics can be used for the studying of pupils level of competence in the area of school subjects.

Russian schools / Estonian schools
Mathematics
Biology
English

Fig.1 The percentage of pupils with high inner and external motivation in the different fields of school subjects.

The analogous experiments with students assessments of their own lexical and thematic competence in the Estonian language convinced us of the acceptability of this method for further investigations.(Vassilchenko L.,1991; Asser H.,1995) The self-rating in the sphere of inner , external motivation and thematic competence was carried out with the aid of special scale, which may be easily transformed into numerical ones for statistical processing ("++ "- 5 ; " +" - 4 ; " ?" - 3 ; " -" - 2 ; "- - " - 1). The results of the research conducted during the last years are presented below.

In the study of 1998/99 participated 2260 pupils from 7 to 12 grades (1680 from Russian schools and 588 from Estonian schools). Predominance of Russian pupils took place for the reason that the study was organised mainly for the evaluation of the state of learning environment of a Russian school in different regions of our country , where occurred significant distinctions, especially in connection with teaching of the Estonian language. Analogous information about Estonian schools was more homogenous and we

were interested in using it mainly as the material for comparison. Foregoing number of them was suitable for us, because the previous results of our research showed, that the main features of informational behaviour come to light already in the process of analysis of data of one of the schools. Moreover we had the possibilities to compare the results of 1998/99 and 1993/94 school years.

What was found in the process of study and in the comparison of obtained results? First, all 9 subjects in grades from 7 to 12 , irrespective of gender and nationality of pupils, during the whole period of investigation (more than 20 years) continually reveal significant distinction between the level of inner and external motivation. The necessity of study of a subject always turned out to be higher than a personal desire to know it. (fig.1.)

Boys / Girls

Fig.2. The distribution of boys' and girls' answers in connection with the study of physical geography. " How interested are you in studying of this subject?" (150 pupils from 7 grades of Russian schools)

On the basis of these results it has become obvious that in the field of school subjects the "business reading"(reading without inner motivation, mainly under teacher orders) may be the prevailing way to acquire necessary knowledge, that is required according to the curriculum of compulsory school.

Second regularity; which also has a tendency to preservation during the whole period of our research, is the divergence of results of boys and girls in connection with certain themes of the parts of theprogram. For example, the content of the course of anatomy ("Biology 9") is more interesting for girls than for boys. At the same time, the boys are more enthusiastic (more positively disposed) about the study of questions of physical geography. (fig.2.)

But the most "contrast picture" in connection with gender differences, that were continually observed over the whole period of the study from 7 to 12 grades ,was discovered for physics and literature. Boys traditionally are more enthusiastic in the sphere of physics, especially when their attention is focused on the technical application of theory. Girls feel themselves more confident in the world of human relations, which is the main theme of the literature course and psychology. Such regularity is common for both Russian and Estonian schools.(Fig.3.)

Physics / Literature

Fig.3. The distribution of average indexes of inner motivation of boys and girls in the sphere of physics and literature. (741 girls, 655 boys)

The comparison of results of Russian and Estonian schools demonstrated, that we have very close (similar) distribution of answers in most cases in connection with the same subjects and grades. Only one sphere, where we observed significant distinctions between them in all characteristics, were Estonian and Russian as second languages. The state of matters in these subjects differs noticeably from the situation in the study of English, regarding to which pupils from Russian and Estonian school demonstrated remarkable resemblance of opinions and interests. Minimum motivation in all grades was revealed for the study of the Russian language in Estonian schools, whereas the state language in Russian schools took the second place on the list, having the very similar indexes with the "subject number one"- English. As stated above these great distinctions in motivation are influenced by large- scale changes in our society during the 90s. (fig.4)

Russian language in Estonian school / Estonian language in Russian school
Inner motivation - interest
External motivation - necessity
Level of competence

Fig.4. The distribution of pupils with different inner and external motivation in the sphere

of Russian and Estonian as a second language.

In the process of comparison of the results of the study of 1993/94 and 1998/99 school years came to light another distinction between Russian and Estonian pupils, which

is not so contrast as in the sphere of above-mentioned languages, but has occurred during the long period of time. In the field of real subjects many pupils from Russian schools have a higher motivation, they are more interested in the study of such material.

This peculiarity reflects the generally acknowledged fact, that traditionally Russian schools were good in mathematics and science because these aspects were very significant in the previous curriculum and teachers continue to keep the same respectful attitude to real subjects.

At the same time the findings from this comparative research allows to affirm that revealed tendencies in the sphere of learning motivation, preferences, the level of competence and the use of sources of information in most of school subjects are common for the majority of pupils of the same age, irrespective of their nationality. The decisive factors, that influence the information behaviour of learners, are the vital intelligibility and vital importance of material.

Conclusion

In this paper we have described the results of comparative study, conducted in the last years. From our point of view the findings of this empirical research, which show the contemporary traits of information behaviour of pupils, are important for teachers and authors of new learning materials. Such information allows to take into account the peculiarities of pupils motivation and different levels of their competence in the sphere of 9 school subjects. It ensures further growth of the effectiveness of instruction in learner-centred school and improvement of the quality of new textbooks and on-line resources.

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