PSYL10102 Critical Analysis

This paper aims to discuss a model which evaluates a group of adult students learning that results from utilising an online social constructivist tool. The paper aims to base the study on the utilisation of a discussion board for the sharing and also for construction of notion. Learning through critical thinking and social interaction is something which is increasingly becoming a very interesting approach specifically for the adult learners. This is the approach which is known to promote active leads and learning a better comprehension of the subject matter. Online interaction as it has been observed, that it evidently promotes a sense of active learning, critical thinking, knowledge construction and also problem- solving. The basic research problem that this paper aims to address is to explore more about the body of knowledge about the adopting of e- learning technologies at specific geographical area of Arab World for teaching the adult learners there. 

Review of Literature and Contribution of the Article:

The paper has used large sets of approaches through empirical data of investigations and they are all directly associated with the research problem. It has brought forth the arguments stating adult education which is focused on the critical reflection, the self- directed learning, the distance learning and the process of learning itself. There are theories which were referenced in the literature review section of this paper, like the andragogy theory which argues how adults learn diversely from children as the learning procedure of the adults is more self- directed, and more autonomous which demonstrates that they are more responsible for their own learning and they are capable of taking their own decisions more than children.

The literature review provides the procedure of motivation for the adult learners and states how they need to be engaged in certain activities for making them think, express and reflect upon their experiences and views. The literature Review of the paper has also highlighted the concept of social constructivism which explains about the construction of knowledge which is constructed through the act of social interaction and the basis of the philosophy of this concept is that the learning procedure of the students is made to be strong through the application principles and knowledge before the construction of the new knowledge that results from the new environment from such principles and knowledge.

The discussion boards that have been explored through the literature review of this paper have the potentiality to promote profound thinking and it can also lead into then random chat that eventually leads to the surface learning and also adding very little to their experience of learning. It is beneficial that the paper has pointed out the limitations in the literature review; the researcher has mentioned that regardless of the fact that the engaging students through online discussion board does not guarantee automatically about the meaning learning, neither does it provides the warranty the need for the appropriate assessment instruments for measuring the students learning and their performance.

The paper helps the readers to ask the question as to how it is possible to evaluate the learning process of the students through the investigation of the notion which is eventually constructed for making sure that the process of learning is occurring. The literature review basically evaluates the learning of the online discussion boards to meet the research objectives and provide the evidence to back up the argument that adult learning process is different than children’s process of learning and how their process of learning is impacted by the online social constructivist tool. However, the utilisation of the tool is not easily adoptable through faculty who are mainly interested in the measuring of the online discussion quality.

Theoretical model:

The researcher admits that the faculty of educational institutions should not adhere to the single measure; instead they should be experiential and thus they should develop a model of their own for the evaluation of the online learning experience of the student’s especially adult learners. The paper thus, formulates their own model for comprehending the learning experience of the students and also the approach of the researcher for being able to assess the level of engagement of an individual in terms of critical thinking. The contribution of this paper is significant in aspect that it helps the readers to know elaborately about the body of knowledge on the adopting of the e- learning technologies at educational institutions in the Arab World for the adult students.  This paper has utilised descriptive approach of methodology for formulating the structure to this paper.

It is their model of evaluation of online discussion boards, which helps in indicating the problem of research and in place of focusing on the question of “what” in the research; this approach focuses on asking “why” associated with the research problem (Watkins 2012). This paper has not left out the “what” portion of the research whatsoever, so that there is no issue in comprehending to the “why” section of the paper. Even though this paper has a model formulated to base the main section of the paper on, even then, the theoretical approach that the paper has taken describes all the facts and phenomenon to give adequate reasons which will potentially upsurge the credibility as well as the validity of this paper particularly as an academic source. The data in the paper is directly related to the adult learning process and the impact from the online sources on the learning process for adults. It shows the reasons why such an approach is needed for adult learners at Arab World.

Description of Data, Problems and Limitations:

This research paper has utilised the data from empirical sources to meet the research objectives. This is the type of study when the researcher has to come to a conclusion through the testing of the empirical evidences that are accessible to the researcher by utilisation of either quantitative or qualitative observation procedure. The resources from where the information for incorporating in the research has been taken are completely verifiable and credible to rely upon. The researcher has correctly as well as accurately referenced every piece of information so it makes the readers to explore more about a section of information for their own convenience. For this research, two authentic scholarly literature has been utilized. In order to ensure that the data collected is relevant, only articles that has been published within the previous 10 years has been selected. A series of key terms has been used for researching for the most relevant articles to be used for this research paper. Some of the key terms used while searching for relevant articles includes “online communication”, “learning and online communication”, “qualitative research for online communication” and others. In order to ensure the authenticity of the research articles selected, Google Scholar has been used. 

This verifiable information also helped the researcher to come to a conclusion and a research outcome that has been pointed out can also be relied upon as per the thorough observation by the author. The method of collecting the data is all scientific and usually the researcher selects either qualitative or quantitative type of data. One of the key limitations of this research paper includes lack of quantitative data. Given the fact that the information collected from this research are from secondary sources, no direct interview or survey has been performed for this research. This has enhanced the risk of biasness in this research.

Empirical research is generally known to be carried out using these two methods mentioned above; given the evidence that this paper has no numeric data, it certainly proves that the type of data used for conducting this research is primarily qualitative and secondary for analysis. Most of the empirical data that has been used in this study contain portions from the previous studies conducted by other authors who have conducted their researches which are not just remotely connected to the research problem, but has it as the primary focus of the study as research aim.

There is an issue with this paper and it lies on the fact that the researcher has used information from the sources which were published a long time back; there are chances that the information used from such resources are out- dated and the information might not be up to dated enough to rely upon in terms of advancement. Moreover, given the fact that the paper deals with online education and e- learning, it would have been better that the researcher had used papers in more recent times to have a more advanced grasp about e- learning and the impact that it has on the learning process of the adults in Arab World. The old data could have been used to compare and contrast in between the scenario of those times and the time this article was written, otherwise, the usage of information from these sources might not be credible to full extent. Also, the evaluation of the paper could have used some quantitative data to be incorporated in for strengthening the position that the researcher has attempted to make in the whole research problem.

The paper doesn't mention guidance how the group can implement the four categories in the most efficient way, so it is very important to start with a forming stage to ascertain there is a share understating of the vision and scope of the discussion to limit the scope creep outside the main vision. As example of the that in the paper the example discussion about E-Business, then the discussion is deviated to be a social issue discussion "spinsterhood" that is not the main objective of the discussion , that maybe can be an interactive engagement but will not lead to the useful knowledge construction of the main discussion topic, and just be a general discussion. Another major limitation of the paper includes lack of effective data to evaluate the impact of e-learning on students across the world. Considering the fact that both the article are focused on students studying online in Arab, the research lacks data that can define the impact of online learning on students residing in order parts of the world

Conclusion:

From all the data in the paper and the argument presented in it by the investigator, it can be concluded that the article has discussed a model which evaluates a group of adult students learning that results from utilising an online social constructivist tool. The paper had based the study on the utilisation of a discussion board for the sharing and also for construction of notion. The author had researched available sources and discovered that learning through critical thinking and social interaction is increasingly becoming a very interesting approach specifically for the adult learners. This helped the author to argue stating adult education which is in fact gained mainly through critical reflection, the self- directed learning, the distance learning and the process of learning itself. There are some issues with the paper, however, it is evident that the author has taken the help of relevant sources to make his research statement and delivered the arguments credibly to the readers.

References:

Abdallah, S. and Albadri, F., 2013. Meaningful Learning from Sustained Online Communication: A Reflection with a Group of Adults. In Information Systems Applications in the Arab Education Sector (pp. 208-216). IGI Global.

Watkins, D.C., 2012. Qualitative research: The importance of conducting research that doesn’t “count”. Health promotion practice, 13(2), pp.153-158.

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