Alternative Learning Experiences: An Innovative Project Stimulating Creative Faculty of Humanities Students

Abstract

What and how can teachers do the best to facilitate successful leaner involvement in learning? Perhaps, by giving them the charge of their own learning. This case study, thus, highlights an initiative to incorporate students in innovative practices facilitating learning beyond classroom through active learning. Active learning is said to have significant impact on graduate’s workplace skills and positive self-perceptions, too (Goss and Sonnemann, Engaging students: creating classrooms that improve learning. https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Engaging-students-creating-classrooms-that-improve-learning.pdf, 2017). The research focus, here, is to equip a group of responsible soon-to-be and out-to-the-job-market graduates with inventiveness, communicative skills, confidence, teamwork, time management, and also a sense of ownership. Many of which have been identified by (Wagner, The seven survival skills for college, career, and citizenship. Adviser’c Corner in The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach The New Survival Skills Our Children Need—and What We Can Do About It. Basic Books, New York, 2008) Wagner in 2008 at Harvard’s Innovation Lab as Seven Survival Employability Skills. Findings of this study, undertaking task-based learning (TBL) framework (Ellis, The Methodology of Task-Based Teaching, 2002; Ellis, Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003), were obtained through alternative data instruments in the forms of info-graphics and screen shots of responses from participants’ notes. Findings suggest varied observations favouring their experience of paradigm shift through mixed feelings.

Appendices

Appendix 1. Lesson Map of STS-1, STS-2, and STS-3

Topics	Warm-up	Materials	Skill focus
Personality factors in second language learning	Video clips showing several personality factors	Video clips from movies, custom-made worksheet	Intrapersonal intelligence; speaking and writing
Conditionals	Popular superstitions using conditionals	Video clips, song, and custom-made game to complete conditional clauses	Logical and mathematical intelligence; writing skill
Affixation	Children nursery rhyme: “if you are happy and you know it”	Story books; board-game: complete the flower with correct petals using prefixes and suffixes	Linguistic intelligence
Asking for direction	Video clip from an English TV series on the topic	Video clips, engaging game activity in class, and worksheet	Visual and spatial intelligence
Preposition	English song and tailor-made worksheet	English song; custom-made worksheet to assess the use of preposition	Musical intelligence; basic proficiency
Transitional words	Asking about the ‘how to’ or a process like ‘how to make a paper plane?’ with random student in class revealed the topic	Creative game: how to make a paper boat? relating the lesson topic	Bodily kinesthetic intelligence; writing skill
Cultural differences between Bangladesh and Turkey	Small talks	Board game, worksheet, and video clips
Lexical relationship	Picture puzzles	Worksheets, video puzzles, and a game in group on collocation
Learning styles	‘Key to explore about you’	Tactile: picture puzzle, kinesthetic: toy making, visual: toy puzzle to observe the changes, auditory: English and Bangla karaoke, to name a few	Various
Word formation process	Jokes	Worksheet and video clips	Writing
Giving direction	Riddles	Self-made Google map for giving direction to DIU, UC from Rajlaxmi campus	Speaking
Motivation	Video clip of a little girl climbing upon a pony on the 17th attempt	Video clips, custom-made worksheets, and so on	Various
Personality traits	Whole class discussion on general related to the topic	Worksheets, role play, game in class	Various

Appendix 2

Appendix 3