Considering How Educational Psychologists Use Learning as a Theoretical Core in Online Classrooms

• In Event: A 360 View of Learning: Educational Psychologists Grapple With the Contemporary Higher Education Landscape

Abstract

Enrollment in online courses has increased incredibly in the last decade; many K-12 students experience this type of format to personalize learning, accelerate learning or even remediate learning. In addition, school districts often utilize online offerings to supplement face-to-face offerings giving students more choice. A recent report by Allen et al., (2016) found that 5.8 million students in higher education were enrolled in online courses with 2.85 million taking all courses online while 2.97 million took some courses in this format. Within K-12 education, approximately 5 million out of 54 million students have taken at least one online course; more than 300,000 students received their education entirely online in the 2013-14 school year. Despite increasing numbers, little is known about students’ experiences in online classrooms at either the collegiate or K-12 level (Pazzaglia et al., 2016). In order to learn more about students’ educational experiences in online classrooms, educational psychologists and educators must partner together to understand this unique context of teaching and learning.

At the midsize comprehensive university where I teach, we have responded to this need by creating an Online Teaching Endorsement program focused on preparing current teachers to effectively teach in online classrooms. One of the courses within this program Responding to Individual Learners was designed by a collaborative team of educational psychologists and K-12 partners. Recognizing challenges inherent with the legacy psychologizing of education described by Alexander (2017), we sought to break down barriers between practitioners and educational psychologists by recognizing our school partners’ valuable insight about students opting into online offerings. For example, one partner, a school counselor who works closely with at-risk students in online courses, offered expertise in a podcast featured in the course during lessons about at-risk students. Reciprocally, educational psychology had much to offer in outlining the varied factors, including context, that impact student learning. In lessons on why families choose online learning and how to engage them in meaningful ways, Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) ecological systems theory is used to analyze influential factors related to student success. There is no doubt that the outcome of our collaborative discussions led to a final syllabus for the course that utilized learning as a theoretical and empirical core (Alexander, 2017).

As we face the progenies outlined by Alexander (2017), we need to consider how to negotiate the balance between information management and knowledge building. This is of specific concern in online classrooms where task performance is somewhat distanced from the reality of a traditional classroom where students interact with peers and teachers in a physical space. Of course, quality online classrooms have interaction at their core, but this interaction is different in virtual classrooms and is only beginning to be understood. In this presentation, I will also discuss how we negotiate information management and knowledge building to motivate students to be “...thoughtful in the data they extract from the informational universe, and ...critically examine that information and formulate some representation that can be retained in memory” (Alexander, 2017, p. 9).

Author

• Sandra A. Deemer, Millersville University