Sharing Challenges in Higher Education
A reflection of a teaching
practitioner with 20 years of experience
By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano
School of English
Faculty of Social Sciences
Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Monday, February 29, 2016
Post 223
Reflecting upon my challenges as a
seasoned college professor with over 20 years of experience in English language
teaching (ELT) over here in tropical Costa Rica, I must be honest with the
truth and confess that a deep change in our local students’ mindset is still a
need that has not been yet satisfied. This need for a change is stated over
here because there are multi-factors that can directly influence learners’
success at the university level or a drastic failure for students majoring in
any study program. Let us review some of these worrisome challenges we all face
–from time to time- at our higher level education institutions.
Though I have more than 20 years of
experience teaching at the university level, and over 25 years teaching English
as a foreign language, it is difficult to work on the change of our local students’
preset mindset in regards to
education and “learning” practices. I cannot say that I am overtly encouraging
a “surface” approach to learning among my learners, but this is what I
sometimes get to see as their response in class or in the papers they have to
write as part of their English Language Teaching major: surface learning
because, in terms of hierarchical thinking skills, learners find their comfort
zone right there where thinking is not a condition for learning. Because I
mostly work with technology-driven courses in education and literature classes
now, I insist on the importance of reaching a higher hierarchical thinking
process among my pupils, but some of them are still resilient to accept that
learning is in their hands and not in mine. They tend to forget that they are
part of the learning equation.
Students’ mindset is the one challenge
I get to face on a quarterly basis, with the change of university instruction
periods, and that challenge prevents them to access deep learning in any
college subject. It does take some time for pupils in college to transition
from their high school way of studying, -at least in my country (Costa Rica)-,
which prevents them from moving from a merely memorization-oriented way of
studying to a more deeper understanding and reflective way of learning the
subject-mattered for each course they are taking. When confronted with moving
away from that comfort zone they seem to enjoy greatly, you experience lots of
complaints from their part, but in the end, they set their feet out of the
comfort zone that –professionally speaking- will not make them succeed in
higher education, especially when it comes to discuss their possible and
realistic opportunities to get a well-paid job.
If I sit down for a while to consider
more teaching challenges I currently face in the encouragement of deep learning
with my college students, I have to cope with several other ones. I have come
across indecision on the learners’ part to acknowledge whether they are
interested in becoming a professional in the area they have opted to enroll. At
the college level, I have seen students changing majors because of their inner
dissatisfaction with what they originally thought about their “favorite” study
program. Another issue I have witnessed for quite a long time is linked to
concentration problems due to Internet surfing and the powerful influence social
media has on them. Their cognitive focus regularly shifts from what it is
really transcendental for their learning, and their cognitive load for apprehending
the gist of the subject-matter is insufficient due to distractions they do not
know how to deal with. A higher level of concentration is required from them
because of the amount of distractors people are exposed to nowadays.
There are more teaching challenges to
have in the lookout to work on the development of deep learning in higher
education. If college learners are easily seduced by social media and their
needs to be connected with their social circle(s), what can be done to catch
their attention longer? Though this is not the place to venture an answer, we
teaching professionals need to develop our ability to catch students’ attention
for longer periods. We need to find ways to stimulate students cognitively to
go for deep learning and its immediate and long-life benefits. In addition to
student attention for learning, another area connected to our ability to
capture learners’ attention is their willingness to participate. In my college
setting, participation willingness is always an issue that needs to be
addressed. But it is not just participation in in-class activities, but in any
other blended learning task that gives students their chance to express
themselves without being exposed to social environments they are not
comfortable with. If these two challenges are connected to learner
child-raising background, the need to understand this situation is a must to
help pupils succeed in college and in their professional life.
To finish with my considerations of
teaching challenges, whether they are linked to learner child-raising
background or not, competency formation must be part of learning in university
classrooms. The need to learn new competencies to excel in this new world of
technology-oriented jobs is a must; we cannot overlook this need for
competences that can help students fit in the working world. It looks like the
panorama for challenges in education is quite vast and needs to be taken care
of and studied. A bit of research on challenges faced by teaching professionals
and ways to cope with them should be part of the training provided to guarantee
that learners can become fully-equipped with what it is needed to succeed in
college life.
Monday, February 29, 2016
