Abstract
Designing courses that are meaningful to diverse learners and still align them to the goals of a university and its general education requirements is not a mean task. This course redesign project focuses on redesigning a course that we are currently teaching and outlines the spiral-reflective process that the instructors used to conduct learner and learning needs analysis, incorporating learners’ input, and course redesign phases that were adapted from Dee Fink (2013). It also includes reflections of struggles and challenges faced by both researchers. One of the researchers is an Adjunct Instructor, and the other, a full-time Instructor in higher education. Those struggles and challenges were the major motivation behind this course redesign project. The major goal for this spiral-reflective project is advancing knowledge and providing new understanding of issues related to course design and instruction for learners from diverse backgrounds. The researchers sought to understand how to introduce nonlinear approaches and a pedagogy that is integrated, using spiral and critical ways of learning into instruction within an environment of traditional Western linear methodologies of passive teaching and learning. Minority students continue to struggle to learn in higher education because the main model of instruction is based on a linear Eurocentric style of learning that does not integrate spiral or circular learning, diverse languages and codes of communication. The outcome of the study was a redesigned undergraduate college course in the African American and African Studies program at the Institute for Intercultural and Anthropological Studies.
Author Information
Fredah Mainah, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, United States
Mariam Konate, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, United States
Paper Information
Conference: KAMC2020
Stream: Education / Pedagogy
This paper is part of the KAMC2020 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Mainah F., & Konate M. (2021) Course Redesign: A Case of Critical Spiral Pedagogy ISSN: 2436-0503 – The Kyoto Conference on Arts, Media & Culture 2020: Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2436-0503.2021.2
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2436-0503.2021.2
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