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There is a greater diversity of students in Australian
universities than at any time in the past. Differences in age, gender,
ethnicity, language background, ability/disability and socio-economic
status require approaches to teaching and learning that are supportive
of the diversity of backgrounds, abilities and interests represented
in the student population (
UWA,1997). Teaching/ learning methods that are inclusive of
this diversity establish an environment in which students feel they
can express themselves, by enabling students to find, use and learn
from examples that reflect their interests and experiences. Teaching/learning
activities need to provide support for students with disabilities,
encourage all students to engage in creative learning tasks, and
apply student-centred learning activities in a way that enables
the students to bring their unique interests and skills to the learning
process (
Biggs, 1999).
Student centred approaches to teaching and learning
can be structured to accommodate a variety of interests and learning
styles. Some students prefer to concentrate on reading to extend
their knowledge, while others may learn better by testing their
ideas in discussion and debate. Some may learn more from interviewing
practitioners than from articles. Carrying out tasks that require
reports and presentations are valuable learning experiences. Assessment
can be organised to enable individual and group projects that allow
a variety of approaches to learning tasks, to assist students to
build on their strengths and to overcome their weaknesses (
Boud et al, 1999).
Educational technology materials can be used
to provide a rich variety of resources for learning; such as interviews
with practitioners, websites and full-text journal articles, interactive
quizzes and tutorials, custom-designed calculators and spreadsheets,
databases, and other specialized forms of resource including email
or discussion list access to expert practitioners. With this range
of potential resources, the preferred path to learning can differ
in accordance with individual choices. Teachers can use the online
resources to help organise and track, moderate and review, to allow
a greater variety of approaches.
Some guidelines on how you can use educational
technologies to support this:
Relevant external websites:
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