Experiences in "Learning by Doing" : teaching at a community college and in a university abroad

Abstract

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This report focuses mainly on my own experiences in ‘learning by doing’. The main aim was, by teaching at a community college and a university abroad, to compare whether the same teaching methods would apply to both student groups. The students at the community college were first year journalism students whereas the learners abroad were third year Finnish language students. The main conclusion was that the student groups were too different in order to make definite comparisons. The Finnish language students were already used to lecturing, as lectures were the most common teaching methods used in that university. On the other hand, the journalism students did not yet have any established working habits. Naturally, it was easier to introduce a working method – learning by doing - to journalism students than to language students. The main difficulty with the Finnish language students abroad was their inefficient language skills, which caused difficulties in understanding and learning a new subject that was Media in modern Finnish culture. However, the language students relatively soon adapted new working habits – working in pairs and using a learning log. The feedback I received from them indicated that, despite of the reluctance at the beginning, they enjoyed the new learning experience. Journalism students in Finland were interested in using the same learning method again and did not have any difficulties completing the given tasks. This experience taught me that a teacher must be prepared to teach in different ways in different situations.