Abstract:

This research paper examines how, through a nine-year international research collaboration, the evaluation of the Pedagogical Variation Model (PVM, Rogers 2013) for Learning and Teaching Information, Communication Technology (ICT) is sucessfully recognised in the Natural Sciences, Biology and Chemistry. The methodology is survey-based involving the distribution of a specific evaluation questionnaire (Rogers, 2013) that identifies, firstly, four teaching strategies, namely constructivist, self-directed, collaborative, and instructivist, based on a pedagogical leadership paradigm inspired by two concepts of leadership namely: (i) Transactional (task-giving) and (ii) Transformational (empowering / motivational) developed by researchers Avolio, Bass and Jung (2000). Secondly, the questionnaire identifies four learner characteristics, namely highly collaborative/with strong knowledge acquisition, less collaborative/strong knowledge acquisition, less collaborative/ weak knowlege acquisition and high collaborative/ weak knowledge acquisition. The sample population includes pre-service teacher undergraduates for the acquisition of professional qualified teacher status in the Natural Sciences, Biology and Chemistry. The PVM is constructed with a graphical design known as the Boston Matrix consisting of four quadrants where one such matrix format, regarding learner characteristics, is based on two variable identifiers, namely: (i) their collaborative capabilities and (ii) their knowledge construction and practical skills. A second Boston Matrix Format elucidates pedagogical leadership characteristics of teachers / lecturers, namely: (i) Transactional (task-giving) and (ii) Transformational ((empowering / motivational). These two matrices are then ´matched´ quadrant by quadrant, where the evaluation questionnaire elicits from research respondents in the sample population whether the matches between the quadrants for online teaching style and the quadrants for e-learner capabilities are “good”, “bad”, “doesn’t matter” or “don’t know”.
This research paper is based on the evaluation of the PVM (Rogers, 2013) by sample groups of students on the pre-service teacher course in Natural Science, from Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS), participating in the PVM evaluation questionnaire. The same lecturer, namely, Associate Professor Aline Grunewald Nichele, a co-author of this research paper teaches all the students. Interestingly, this collaborative research highlights comparative significant outcomes regarding pre-service teacher students’ perceptions of matching online teaching strategies with e-learner preferences depending on their online collaborative and knowledge construction abilities.There are indications that the PVM is recognised in efforts to decrease attrition rates for online learning and teaching, thereby, increasing retentions rates.

Keywords:

Online learning and teaching, e-learning, e-moderating, pedagogical leadership, attrition, retention, constructivist, instructivist, collaborative research.