oer-integrated teaching and learning in a post-war northern sri lanka

OER-INTEGRATED TEACHING AND LEARNING

IN A POST-WAR NORTHERN SRI LANKA

Sasikala Kugamoorthy, M. Rajini, Shironica P. Karunanayaka and Som Naidu

The Open University of Sri Lanka

Monash University, Australia

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

• ROER4D Project - Faculty of Education, Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) (2015/2016)

• Aim - To engage student teachers of Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE)

programme to integrate OER in their teaching-learning process and study it’s impact.

• Implementation – 09 centres of OUSL representing 09 Provinces of Sri Lanka

• Present study – Jaffna Regional Centre - Northern Province

• Explored the experiences of a group of student teachers in the process of the adoption of

OER in their teaching and learning activities.

• Reflections of a group of people who were affected by twenty six years’ civil war and have

lost the fruitful experiences of new technologies and modern approaches during their

school education, but who very recently got the exposure and an opportunity to use, create

share and integrate OER in their teaching and learning processes.

Kugamoorthy_Rajini_Karunanayaka_Naidu_OEGlobal_CapeTown_09March2017 2

INTRODUCTION

• Education as an Agent of Social Change…

• Social change comprise modifications in the

systems/sub-systems in structure, functioning or

process during a period of time.

• Education can initiate social changes by bringing about

changes in patterns of thinking and social behaviors of

individuals.

• The concept of Open Educational Resources (OER)

provides opportunities for teachers to adopt more open

and innovative approaches in the teaching-learning

process that can make such changes happen. 3 Kugamoorthy_Rajini_Karunanayaka_Naidu_OEGlobal_CapeTown_09March2017

CONTEXT

Northern Sri Lanka

Capital of Northern Province : Jaffna

Peninsula.

Severely affected by 26 years of civil war.

Slowly but steadily moving forward with the

hope of regaining its past glory.

Emerging from its sufferings towards

development using Education as a key tool.

Enacting social changes through

Education.

4 Kugamoorthy_Rajini_Karunanayaka_Naidu_OEGlobal_CapeTown_09March2017

FOCUS OF THE STUDY

• Agency of OER-integrated teaching and

learning in bringing about social change in a

post-traumatic social setting in Sri Lanka.


RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. How the adoption of OER has affected changing

teacher perceptions on sharing knowledge?

2. To what extent the OER-integrated teaching-learning

process has affected changing teachers’ professional

behaviours?

3. What is the role of OER-integrated teaching and

learning as an agent for social change among teachers

in a post-war context?


METHODOLOGY

o Research Design: Case study

o Participants: 38 student teachers of the PGDE programme at

Jaffna Regional Centre of OUSL

o Data Collection:

oQuestionnaire Surveys

oInterviews

oClassroom Observations

oSelf-Reflections

o Data Analysis - Mainly qualitative techniques using coding and

categorizing


PARTICIPANTS

Aspect Categories Number Percentage

1 Gender Male 24 63%

Female 14 37%

2 Age 20-40 Years 38 100%

41-50 years - -

3 Subject taught

Science 13 34%

Maths 13 34%

ICT 8 21%

Social Sciences 2 05%

Health Sc 1 03%

Aesthetic 1 03%

4 School location Urban 12 32%

Rural 24 68%


FINDINGS

• Teacher Perceptions at Initial Stage

Statements Yes No

N % N %

I have heard of OER before 01 03 37 97

I have used OER before 0 0 38 100

I shared teaching learning materials developed by me with others 33 87 05 13

I shared them openly available to anyone who requests 11 29 27 71

I used teaching learning materials developed by someone else 38 100 0 0

I used resources from the internet 28 74 10 26 9 Kugamoorthy_Rajini_Karunanayaka_Naidu_OEGlobal_CapeTown_09March2017

Changes in Teachers’ Perceptions

Categories Codes Supportive Quotes

Pre-Intervention Post Intervention

Perceptions OER ...completely didn't know

about OER…

....got more clear idea about integrating

OER…

Copyrights …used resources

without any

consideration about their

copyrights or licenses…

…got to know about the CC licenses,

4Rs and the advantages of the OER…


Changes in Teachers’ Thinking Patterns

Awareness

on OER

Perceptions

Awareness and

concern about

Copyrights/Licenses


Changes in Teachers’ Professional Behaviors



Professional

Behaviors

Sharing We shared teaching

aids…but only with our

colleagues….

Now we realize…shared OERs with

colleagues and any other teachers ….

Innovation Because of the language

problem we felt its

difficult to use web

based resources in our

teaching…

I integrated several OER available in

English and I realized the importance of

mother tongue and designed an OER

page on 'tamil.wikipedia'….

Creativity …difficult to find the

proper subject

materials… had to spend

more time…

..realized the benefits of OER

…published a handbook on OER which

is a good resource for relevant OER

links… 12 Kugamoorthy_Rajini_Karunanayaka_Naidu_OEGlobal_CapeTown_09March2017

Changes in Teachers’ Professional Behaviors


Changes in Teachers’ Social Behaviors

Codes Supportive Quotes


Social

behaviors

Forwardness ….teaching in remote area

schools ….resettlement is still in

progress after the war….

struggled and faced many

challenging situations…

…we are the pioneers ….came forward

as resource persons to conduct OER

awareness workshops at schools….

Interaction ...fear to interact and to express

our ideas….

…..came forward and shared the

knowledge through seminars with our

colleagues….

Personality …some barriers demotivated us

at many instances….

…. OER enhanced our thinking

capabilities and contributed to the

development of our personalities as

well….

Leadership ….no opportunities to take

leadership roles…felt

demotivated….

…..I lead and organized the workshop

and conducted it in a successful

manner…. 14 Kugamoorthy_Rajini_Karunanayaka_Naidu_OEGlobal_CapeTown_09March2017

Changes in Teachers’ Social Behaviors (contd..)


Social

behaviors


Team

spirit

…teach in remote areas…

work alone…no opportunities

to work as a team…

…successfully conducted an awareness

raising programme as a team……

Sharing …due to language issues…

shy to share…

….. found and shared OER in English and

Tamil…shared ideas…

Facing

challenges

…… faced many challenging

situations…computer labs and

internet facilities at schools,

technical issues…

…great interest in OERs…motivated us to

overcome these barriers with great

enthusiasm…


Changes in Teachers’ Social Behaviors


DISCUSSION At the Initial Stages…

• Student teachers seemed to be low-motivated and not-confident

• Reluctant to break their barriers

• Not ready to come out of the cocoon of fear formed around them by war

• Not ready to open-up themselves to the technically advanced world

Through engagement in the OER Project…

• Student teachers became innovative participants in the project

(Received the “Best Centre” Award..!)

• Opened-up their minds to progress with modern

educational advancements

• Their professional and social thinking patterns, behaviours

and practices have changed positively

17

Kugamoorthy_Rajini_Karunanayaka_Naidu_OEGlobal_CapeTown_09March2017

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

• OER-integrated teaching-learning has served

as a significant agent of social change, in

opening up teachers’ minds to progress with

the technological advancements and innovative

teaching-learning approaches, and changing

their professional as well as social thinking and

behaviors in a positive manner, in a post-

traumatic social setting in Sri Lanka.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the

International Development Research Centre, Ottawa,

Canada, through the Wawasan Open University of Penang,

Malaysia, as part of the research on Open Educational

Resources for Development (ROER4D) programme.

• Active participation of all student teachers in JRC of OUSL

and the support extended by all the research team members

are much appreciated.
