Abstract:

What makes teaching elective courses for first-year students of pedagogical university specific and challenging, is the fact that they unite students from various academic areas. As teachers involved in elective courses aptly put it, there exist “limited literature and lack of scientific foundation with which to support the process of merging elective courses into architectural curricula” [1]. Humanities face the same challenge. Therefore, we tend to build theoretical background for merging such courses with various disciplines in the process of teaching (see, e.g. [3]).

Case Study:
93 students, majoring in Linguistics, Philology, Mathematics, Music, IT and Social Studies, opted for “The Dialogue in Various Communication Spaces” elective course that combines three disciplines: “Speech Strategies and Tactics”, “Project-based Learning” and “American Cinematography”. Practical seminars are preceded by six lectures in each discipline. We argue that to meet the students’ educational, cultural and professional needs, it is relevant to organize lecturing process based on the theory of small groups. During the first lecture, students are encouraged to form ten groups and within these groups they are attributed various roles (a team leader, a vice-chairman, a researcher, an architect, a chronicler, a “working bee”). The groups consist of students pursuing degrees in various disciplines, which encourages them to be involved into a continuous dialogue. The lectures are interactive: every 40 minutes students name the three “quanta” of knowledge. Every group discusses the information they have learnt and after a 5-minute discussion team leaders present the results in front of the audience. Importantly, it is not just naming of the new: it is presenting the product of the collaborate discussion. Students from diverse majors have different styles of and approaches to information processing – the answers they provide vary considerably in depth and width across the groups.

Therefore, when teaching such a multi-dimensional elective course, one can trace specific learning outcomes:
- Professionally, learners interact within the group like colleagues who perform specific and equally important functions for achieving the group’s goals.
- Educationally, when discussing what they have just learnt, and when actively listening to the delegates from other groups, students revise new information and understand it better.
- Culturally, when trying to understand other person’s point of view in the process of voicing the most relevant “quanta” of knowledge, they learn the basics of solid work ethic.

Home assignments are also done within the groups, which ensures “getting every student ready for every class” [2].
Therefore, elective courses is an innovative teaching practice that empowers students and teachers to discover learning process from a goal-oriented angle and fulfills students’ educational, professional and cultural needs.

References:
[1] M. Ghonim, N. Eweda (2018) Investigating Elective Courses in Architectural Education, Frontiers of Architectural Research, Vol. 7, pp. 235-256.
[2] E. Mazur (2018) Getting Every Student Ready For Every Class, Edulearn18 Proceedings, p. 11287.
[3] O. Suleimanova, A. Vodyanitskaya (2019) `Elektivnyj kurs kak innovacionnaya obrazovatel'naya sreda, Vestnik MGPU, Moscow (in print).

Keywords:

Elective course, innovative teaching, small groups theory.