THE JOINT SEMINARS FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS – AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING METHOD

The main objective of the project PROMIS “Professional Master’s Degree in Computer Science as a Second Competence in Central Asia”, co-financed by Tempus Program, is the implementation of a new master’s degree program in ICT for non-IT graduates called “Informatics as a Second Competence". The new MSc program is implemented in 10 universities in 5 countries of Central Asia (CA) with the support of 5 universities from different European Union (EU) countries.

In the project one of the most important tasks to successful MSc program implementation are seminars conducted by lecturers from EU universities at universities in CA. The aim of seminars is to transfer to academics from CA universities specific domain knowledge and teaching methods used in EU universities.

One of important methodological challenge of these seminars is that they are attended by both students and lecturers from CA universities. While students are young people with low or selected knowledge, and sometimes without adequate theoretical basis, teachers are experienced educators with the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills in ICT technologies. In relation to these diverse groups of participants seminars should be led using a variety of teaching approaches.

The article presents the method used during the seminar "Human-Computer Interaction" which is the combination of David Kolb’s method, called Experiential Learning Model, with the classic method of explicit teaching, called Direct Teaching. Some elements of the Reverse Teaching method were also used. During the seminar the measurements of the method’s effectiveness in relation to the acquired skills by attendees were performed. The quantitative research results as well as conclusions arising therefrom are also presented in the article.