The methods used and the classes themselves are praised by students, lecturers and tutors alike.
L2 and S2 describe the learning process itself as “easier”. According to L2, this is achieved by her as a tutor who provides her personal context as a background for the content (Interview with L2). In S2’s opinion, learning is easier due to the relationship she has with her Aboriginal tutors which allows her to easily ask questions (Interview with S2). In addition, she mentions audiovisual material, which makes the content “more real life” (Interview with S2), as another facilitator in comprehending the information.
All three students have the feeling that they learn more in the tutorial (e.g. Interview with S3) and through the research they do for their assignments than in the lecture (e.g. Interview with S2). They describe the lecture as containing too much information and being too dense (Interview with S1 & Interview with S2). According to S3, however, “the lecture is a good place to get a knowledge base and understanding” (Interview with S3) in preparation for the tutorial. S3 thinks she is learning more and getting a better insight in general in her Aboriginal Studies class compared to other classes due to the stories the teachers tell (Interview with S3).
With the help of a number of methods, the content is also made more memorable: “Since it’s more conversational () the conversations are more memorable”, explains S1 (Interview with S1). S2’s idea goes in the same direction as it attributes the high memorability to the relationship between students and tutors (Interview with S2). In L3’s opinion, on the other hand, excellent storytelling skills make information the easiest to remember (Interview with L3).
Another aspect which is addressed by some participants is the active engagement the students have with the content. According to L3, actively engaging and connecting with information is easiest, “[i]f you can place it back into your own world” (Interview with L3). In addition, personal experience draws an audience into the topic, he believes (Interview with L3). The students S1 and S2, however, attribute their increased engagement with the information to the teacher-student interaction. Whereas S2 thinks that the relationship with her lecturers and tutors makes the content “more stimulating” (Interview with S2), S1 particularily points out purposefully asked questions which challenge the students and allow them to challenge the teachers (Interview with S1).
Finally, L2 emphasises that none of her “classes ran over time and […] that we always covered the topic that we were meant to cover” (Interview with L2). The only problem she sees with the flexible tutorials is that “it makes it very hard for the students to all get the same information”(Interview with L2). S1 praises the fact that courses at this university mostly consist of a combination of lecture and tutorial (Interview with S1). Although L3 citicises that the format of the course only allows a limited time for “interactive group-orientated” learning (Interview with L3), he generally believes that the Indigenous educational practices used within the Institute are good (Interview with L3) and that “the rest of the world is understanding and catching up with” them (Interview with L3).
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