1. IZMIR, JUNE 2008 Romanian activity presented by Roxana Lica
LEARNING TO LEARN
IZMIR, JUNE 2008
Romanian activity presented by Roxana Lica

2. LEARNING TO LEARN Introduction
Final report on the questionnaires that evaluate the teachers and students’ level of satisfaction concerning the student - centered methods applied in our schools.
These questionnaires were applied to 20 teachers and to 415 students, during January – May 2008, in the 3rd year of the Comenius Project.

3. LEARNING TO LEARN The Teams:
TEACHERS participating at the evaluation process
TURKEY: Izmir Ozel Fatih Koleji
Muge Yalcynkaya - teacher of English
Asli Dolen - teacher of Chemistry
Kubra Arican - teacher of Biology
Engin Yilmaz - teacher of Psihology
GERMANY: Hessenkolleg Wetzlar
7 teachers out of 16 teachers in the school

4. LEARNING TO LEARN The Teams:
GREECE: Technico Epagelmatiko Ekpetheftirio Epanomis,
Thessaloniki,
Georgiou Maria - teacher of Baby caring
Chatziarapis Konstantinos – teacher of Informatics
Chalkia Maria – teacher of Informatics
Tsouga Panagiota – teacher of Baby caring
ROMÂNIA: Grup Şcolar Industrial Energetic, Ploieşti
Libertina Vasilescu - teacher of English
Gabriela Dumitrescu - teacher of English
Cristina Jilaveanu - engineer, teacher of Technical studies
Clarisa Cojocaru - engineer, teacher of Technical studies
Roxana Lica - teacher of Maths.

5. LEARNING TO LEARN The Questionnaires:

6. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Question 1

7. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Question 1

8. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Question 1

9. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Question 2

10. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Question 2

11. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Question 2

12. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Questions 3 and 4

13. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Questions 5 and 6

14. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Questions 7 and 8

15. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Questions 9 and 10

16. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Questions 11 and 12

17. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Questions 13 and 14

18. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Questions 15 and 16

19. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Questions 17 and 18

20. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Question 19

21. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Question 20
Student-centred learning is not a waste of time, because:
-we understand the lesson better, it is a more effective method
-helps students to communicate with one other and with teachers, to cooperate, the lesson is more interesting, and time passes more pleasantly
- students involve themselves in the development of the lesson more
- we can change opinions
- it’s easier to learn like that, it’s more fun
- it prepares you for a future career when you probably work in teams
- students learn the lesson in the class, not at home
- we can interact and feel at ease
- we practise a lot and we understand better and more
- being organized in groups we are more relaxed
-it’s an opportunity for each of us to exercise, to be more active
- the teachers don’t put a pressure on us
- the classes aren’t boring anymore, they are more attractive; it would be a good idea to have all classes like this, I think we would have better results.
Student-centred learning is a waste of time because:
-it needs team spirit and collaboration among students, something which is not usually feasible because there is lack of experience on student-centered learning. Finally the students in the technical schools are more or less not interested in the course.
-we don’t learn and we don’t understand
-the same subject can be learned in a shorter time than in traditional teaching.
-it’s better the teacher to teach and the student to write
-we don’t learn anything new.

22. LEARNING TO LEARN Students questionnaires / Conclusions
- the most often used active methods are: group work and learning stations
- the less used active methods are: fishbowl and double circle
- students like expert group, group work and learning stations and they do not enjoy fishbowl and double circle
- the majority of their answers are situated in the middle of the scale starting with 1-no, not at all to 5-yes, a lot: an average of 3, 4 points which indicates a middle to high degree of satisfaction towards these active methods
- most students think that these methods are not only suitable for good students, they do not think they become leaders during these classes
- important percentages of students consider that these methods improved their communicative skills (22%) and they feel at ease during classes (23%)
- very few students consider that teachers are the same like in traditional teaching, they are not perceived as being too passive or having discipline problems
- 18% of the students think that the methods are overused, but the majority of their answers (31%+ 23%) are situated in the middle of the evaluation scale

23. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Question1

24. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Question1

25. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Question1

26. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Question 2

27. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Questions 3 and 4

28. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Questions 5 and 6

29. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Questions 7 and 8

30. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Questions 9 and 10

31. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Questions 11 and 12

32. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Questions 13 and 14

33. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Questions 15 and 16

34. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Questions 17 and 18

35. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Question19

36. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Question20
I feel comfortable with student-centered teaching because:
-it’s suitable for foreign languages classes
-I got used to it I have discovered that some shy students have the chance to express their opinions and these active methods encourage them to communicate.
-I feel that students like it and benefit from that way of learning. It makes lessons more pleasant, although it is harder for me to plan the lesson, more time consuming and tiring. Nevertheless it gives lesson the sense of fresh and modern teaching.
-students are more active, more communicative and they feel more free to express their opinion. I feel that I can do better my job and give to the students better motives for learning.
only the double circle is too nosy
-I don’t have to keep the students quiet and they
don’t forget easily when they learned by themselves.
I become more creative and active. My students become more honest, spontaneous, co-operative and active.
I feel that students response to transfer of knowledge, and my job become more creative. -
I feel not comfortable with student-centered teaching because:
-I can strain for discipline.
-I don’t have a lot of experience about the … student centred learning.
-These methods cost too much time for the teacher.

37. LEARNING TO LEARN Teachers questionnaires / Conclusions
- the most often used active method is group work;
- teachers used  double circle and fishbowl less than any other active method
- students become more active and benefit a lot of these methods - is the opinion of half of the teachers
- most teachers think that their students can share knowledge (4 points-65%+5 points-16%) and interact actively (60%+30%) during these kind of classes- active methods improve students' communicative skills (55%+25%) and help them prepare for future careers (40%+25%)
- almost all teachers (1 point-65%+2 points-30%) consider that these methods are not suitable only for good students
- most of the teachers think they are not passive at all (60%) and they do not consider their students too noisy or lacking discipline
- 20% of the teachers do not see any difference to traditional learning while 30% think that there is a big difference; the rest of the teachers, almost half of them, couldn’t decide yet if there is any difference. It seems that they need more time to apply these active methods in their classes.
- 40% of the teachers consider that changing from traditional teaching to student-centred teaching is not so easy and 65%+10% think that it is more difficult to prepare the lessons
- evaluation of the students is considered of a medium difficulty by 60% of the teachers
- school administrations provide support for student-centred learning in a large amount (4 points-30%+5 points-35%)

38. LEARNING TO LEARN Comparing the results: Students questionnaires

39. LEARNING TO LEARN Comparing the results: Teachers questionnaires

40. LEARNING TO LEARN Comparing the results of the questionnaires/ Students
Conclusions
- the results obtained after students answered their questionnaire are more compact than the teachers'; there are no big differences among the 4 countries
- the students of the 4 countries consider that they become more active, can share knowledge with the others and can benefit from student-centred learning in a large amount (3 points and over 3,5 points)
- students from Germany and Turkey see a certain improvement in their communicative skills (3 points) and Romania and Greece a little bit more (3,5 points)
- the benefits for their future career and the role as leaders are situated in the middle of the scale for all students (2,5 to 3,5)
- again all of them consider that these methods are not suitable only for  good students (1,5 to 2,5) and they feel at ease during classes in a normal way (3 to 3,5)
- Greek, Turkish, Romanian and German students appreciate, in this order, that they gain more knowledge than in teacher-centred class (over 3,5 to 2,5)
- Greek students consider that the class is very noisy (over 4 points), while the rest are around 3 points
- students grouped their answers about the teachers' active role or their passivity during these classes this way: Germany + Romania under 3 and Turkey + Greece around 3
- the last answers for the resemblance to the traditional teaching, over usage of these methods and evaluation are almost the same for all countries and they are situated in the middle of the scale (over 2, 5 to over 3).

41. LEARNING TO LEARN Comparing the results of the questionnaires/ Teachers
Conclusions
-teachers from Turkey and Greece consider that students become very active, share their knowledge a lot, improve their communicative skills and benefit a lot (over 4 points), while teachers from Romania and Germany pointed these questions around 3,5
- all countries agreed with the fact that students interact actively very much (4 to 4,5)
- Turkish teachers appreciate that these classes help students prepare for future careers very much (over 4,5) while the rest of the countries pointed it around 3,5
- Romanians consider that  teachers do not reduce their active role (over 1,5) while Germans consider that their role is very much reduced (over 3,5)
- all agreed: the active methods are not suitable only for good students
- Romanian teachers think that the classes are too noisy (over 3,5) and the rest pointed it at over 2,5
- Turkish teachers see almost no difference to traditional learning (1 point), the Germans scored over 2 points and Romanians and Greeks see a lot of differences (around 4)
- the difficulty to prepare the lessons is bigger for Romania, Turkey and Germany, but easier  for Greece
- evaluation is difficult for Germany, Romania and Greece (3,5 to 4), but very easy for Turkey (1,5)
 - school administration provides very much support for the Turkish teachers (over 4,5), but also for the other countries: Romania-4; Germany-over 3,5 and Greece-over 3

42. LEARNING TO LEARN Thank you!