THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.7 Kember’s open learning model
2.7.4 Academic integration or incompatibility
Academic integration deals with academic focus on approach to study, motive, course evaluation and language. It covers all facets of a course and contact between the institution and the students including academic, administrative and social. It is in two forms. Collective affiliation develops through interaction between tutors and students, or by good impressions created by efficient operations. It includes moral and value integration between the academic conventions and norms of the institution and the perceptions and performance of the student. Kember splits integration into positive and negative tracks. The positive variable is academic integration while the negative one is academic incompatibility. Both measures: approach to study, motivation, course evaluation and language (Kember 1995; Lowe 2005).
In DL, the image of the course is in form of the study package delivered through the mail. Contacts with faculty may be less and more through telephone, video link and mail through computer messages. More contacts are with administrators than faculty.
Everything to do with teaching and learner support is deemed to be part of the academic sphere. This includes the study package. It covers all contacts, face-to-face
or by media, with faculty, administrators and colleagues, for study, administrative or social purposes ( Moore and Kearsley 1996; Mooodley, De Lange et al. 2001).
Integration is the degree to which the student is able to fit in the academic environment and to accommodate the demands of the university. A student who has insufficient collective affiliation and moral or value integration is said to have low normative congruence and fails to cope with the programme (Kember 1995). To encourage persistence both sides should develop a sense of belonging between the student and the institution. Normative congruence is the degree of fit between the student and the institution‘s expectations of each other. Educational institutions have expectations posed as assignments, tests and examinations. Faculty may have expectations about examinations and assignments which are not stated. Colleges may also have less explicit expectations of students in the form of academic norms and conventions ( Moore and Kearsley 1996; Mooodley, De Lange et al. 2001).
There are typical academic facets that determine the extent of students‘ academic integration. Positive integration is shown by deep approach to study adopted by students who seek to understand what they read and relate it to their experience and needs. Students with academic integration display intrinsic motivation manifested by being interested in the subject for its own sake. They also show a positive course evaluation through positive feedback on course materials, tutoring, assignment marking and administration. Such students enjoy and engage in enthusiastic and extensive reading which indicates congruence with being a DL student since the mode of study involves extensive reading (Kember 1995.
Negative academic integration or academic incompatibility is exhibited by students who display surface approach to study and focus on surface aspects of texts. They concentrate on rote-learning facts which they presume are relevant to examination questions. Some of these students reveal dependency on extrinsic motivation
provided by rewards external to the course such as promotion or pay rise on passing the course. They also display negative course evaluation through giving feedback that is negative on course materials, tutoring, assignment marking and administration. The language component gives an indication that the student is less confident and incapable of using the language of instruction. The student finds it hard to discern the meaning behind the reading. Such students operate at sentence or even word level rather than examining a coherent passage. Second language speakers often find the studying process difficult (Kember 1995).
Course evaluation is done on study packages, mediated lessons, interaction via assignments, tutorial assistance and other academic or administrative interactions between students and the institution. Evaluation of the package determines its normative congruence or whether the content and curriculum design are compatible with student‘s perceived career needs. There should be congruence between the student‘s approach to study and the instructional design of the course. Ideally the media mix employed should suit the learning style of students (Kember 1995).
Collective affiliation is established through the interactions associated with academic support for the courses. Frequency and nature of contacts, the speed of response to student initiated contacts, the provision of local tutorials or the use of telephone or satellite conferencing can all contribute to whether or not the student has any positive feelings of association with the institution. Collective affiliation is also influenced by administrative support or lack of it. The student who meets no administrative snags and has queries answered promptly and accurately develops an impression of a competent professional organisation which the student is happy to associate with. On the other hand, students who encounter overpowering bureaucratic requirements, administrative incompetence or slow responses to queries develop disenchantment and even hostility towards the organisation. Both components dealing with academic
integration have sub-components addressing course evaluation issues (Moore and Kearsley 1996; Mooodley, De Lange et al. 2001).
Negative course evaluation is indicated by students who express dissatisfaction with the course and its support. Either these are inadequate for the student‘s needs or the student is incompatible with the mode of course offering. Kember (1995) says, either way there is lack of normative congruence. Students express dissatisfaction with the course material, the tutoring, assignment marking and course administration. For example, students dislike: inadequate module content, irresponsible and disrespectful tutors, superficially marked assignments and poor communication by administration which may lead some students to miss some tutorials (Kember 1995).
The essence of the collective affiliation side of academic integration is the quality and quantity of contact between the student and the organisation. Personal contact during tutorials is effective at providing collective affiliation. Tutors who assist students with both academic and personal challenges strengthen learners‘ self - confidence. Direct personal contact is beneficial in building collective affiliation. It is also possible to develop collective affiliation through telephone contact and even by mail. Students‘ negative reactions to academic staff indicate incompatibility.
Students either withdraw or delay completion of programmes due to overbearing, inconsistent and arrogant staff (Kember 1995).
Another element of integration is that of value integration or normative congruence.
This denotes whether there is congruence between the curriculum and student‘s career needs. The instructional design needs to gel with the approach to study of the students and the media package should be congruent with the students‘ learning style. Academic integration is often strongly influenced by the educational background facet of students‘ characteristics. Those with limited exposure to the educational system will find it more difficult to integrate with the norms of academic
study. Their ability to adjust will be influenced by their goal commitment. To be successful a student has to learn the rules and integrate behaviour with the accepted norms. Sometimes working with other students in groups helps learners to remedy cases of normative incongruence (Kember 1995).
Both positive and negative academic integration have sub-components for an approach to learning. Academic integration has deep approach while academic incompatibility has surface approach. The motivation sub-components are intrinsic motivation for the positive track and extrinsic motivation for the negative. The course evaluation sub-components are labelled positive and negative respectively.
The final sub-component refers to language and reading ability. Students on the positive track express enjoyment from reading. Students on the negative track struggle with language ability in courses which normally rely on reading. Collective affiliation and normative congruence apply across the academic and social integration. Students with limited educational experience find difficulties achieving normative congruence with the academic demands and conventions. For example, they may find that their conception of academic study is inconsistent with that expected by faculty. Collective affiliation between students and faculty and/or institution or among groups of students can have a very positive influence on student progress. Collective affiliation is likely to develop through positive experiences of personal contact, though such contact can also damage relationships if the students are disenchanted with the nature of the experiences (Kember 1995; Lowe 2005).
Chen (1998) notes that the implications derived from Kember's model have received much attention from distance educators and organizations. Due to that model, many are working to improve academic integration "by developing collective affiliation and ensuring congruence between student expectations and course procedures"
(Moore and Kearsley 1996: 210). Improvement of academic integration increases the rate of students' successful completion of DL programmes (Kember 1995).
Kember's theory can help the teacher to identify at risk students and prepare them for remedial tutoring and support than the students that are not at risk (Young 1998).
Dillon in Kember (1995) argues that, unlike other researches in DL, Kember‘s model explains the interrelationships among learners and their contexts, learning and instruction, organization and context, and culture and policy. The model suggests policy and practice recommendations which link the principles of instructional design and the provision of learner support. Rarely are these two important elements of DL addressed in the same model. Kember‘s research identifies practical approaches to the design of instruction which can be used to meet the needs of learners with different styles of learning. His research on deep and surface learning translates into specific recommendations for both course design and learner support.
Although it focused on open learning, the model highlights understanding of DL designs and systems ( Moore and Kearsley 1996; Mooodley, De Lange et al. 2001).
In Kember‘s model, academic support to DL students includes pre-prepared learning materials that are delivered or transmitted to the students. These can incorporate media such as audio and video, video discs, computer assisted learning and home experiments kits. Even today when multi-media is widely available, print is still the most common medium. Some support services via the technical medium can operate while the course is in progress and involve human interaction. Academic support services concern interactions that facilitate learning progress. These may include video links, outreach visits, contact tutorials and written assignments. Other types of support services associated with learning at a distance are administrative support like enrolment advice and counselling (Kember 1995).
While in his theory, ―Attrition rates are a performance indicator used to assess the success of educational institutions‖ (Kember 1995:22) in my study, I used completion time of the programme as the indicator of success in the B.Ed.
programme at ZOU. The aim in this study was to determine, ―the factors which are
most important in contributing to students completing a course and satisfying their academic goals‖ (Kember 1995:23). This study did not only have students‘ intrinsic interest but also had policy implications. It sought to suggest ways to arrange courses and how they are taught in order to maximize the chances of students to successfully complete the programme. This theory explores academic and social integration to increase learner success. Another strength of Kember‘s model when compared to others is that it conceptually links theories relating to psychological, social, economic, organisational and instructional factors which impact on adult learners‘
progress in educational programmes. Hence Kember‘s theory was vital as a guide in my exploration of structures and strategies used by B.Ed. students to balance their social and academic commitments in order to cope with the DL programme at ZOU.