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Teaching & Learning Matters
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Teaching effectively involves an understanding of pedagogical principles and teaching techniques, and how both are combined flexibly to the design and delivery of courses, lessons and assessments to create powerful learning experiences for your learners. This section introduces and develops upon some core teaching and learning principles and their application to the context of higher education.
We invite you to reflect on how they relate to your perspectives, practices and teaching contexts because teaching and learning matters. Greatly.
For support in this area, contact us at [email protected].
Good Teaching
Education research literature reflects vibrant debate on what good teaching is! Among the prominent themes relevant to NTU in the era of high content accessibility, courtesy of the Internet and Generative Artificial Intelligence, are that good teaching is learning-focused. It centres on the learner rather than the content. Here, the term “learner” is used interchangeably with students and refers to students of any age actively engaged in acquiring knowledge, skills or competencies through various educational experiences.
The research show that “learner-centred teaching” contributes to higher quality learning outcomes and hones skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, reflection and problem-solving.
It typically features the following dimensions – active learning, peer collaboration and formative feedback. As an indicator of NTU's commitment to good teaching, all three elements feature prominently in several questions in the Student Feedback on Teaching (SFT) instrument.
Course Design
As part of NTU's Education Strategy 2020, all NTU courses are designed using an outcomes-based teaching and learning (OBTL) approach, a curriculum design framework focused on “first identifying the intended outcomes or goals of a module or programme and then aligning teaching, learning, and assessment to maximise the likelihood that students achieve those outcomes or goals.”
(Deneen, Brown, Bond, & Shroff, 2013).
OBTL is underpinned by the principle of constructive alignment (Biggs, 1996) based on an earlier work by Ralph Tyler (1949) and Thomas Shuell (1986), where assessment and teaching activities are aligned to guide learners to achieve the defined learning outcomes.
Assessment
Assessment strongly influences the type of learning that takes place, as well as what learners pay attention to throughout the course. Thus, assessment is an integral part of a course rather than just a measure of achievement at the end of the course.
Assessment should yield meaningful feedback so learners know their learning progress and how to improve. Clear learning outcomes and grading criteria for each assessment item should be provided for learners to measure themselves against the requirements and standards.
Click for respective examples of assessment criteria in engineering and humanities.
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Feedback
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Feedback has been established as one of the top influences on student achievement. (Hattie, 2012). As lesson design evolves towards fostering interaction and dialogue between instructors and learners, feedback has become an
even more integral part of curriculum design and facilitation.
Content are merely symbols and sound until it is processed. It is processed when it is used. It evolves towards understanding and internalization when its use is reviewed to inform subsequent use.
Necessarily, for learning to take place, lesson time should involve opportunities for learners to discuss and apply the knowledge underpinning the instructor's planned learning outcomes, and feedback for learners on how they are doing. This might be followed up with opportunities for learners to integrate and use the feedback.