1. ‘Ambitious teaching’ and
‘transformational learning’?
Jenny Bruen
School of Applied Language and Intercultural
Studies
Dublin City University

2. Can techniques such as Structured
Academic Controversy actually
facilitate the language learning
process?

3. •Are there other potential
applications for example in the
preparation for study abroad?

4. Structured Academic Controversy
•Pedagogical technique
•Borrowed from the political sciences
•Designed to increase engagement
with content through development /
transformation of belief systems
• Constructivism
• Transformational learning

5. Choose a controversial issue
or ‘dilemma’
“an issue about which reasonable people
disagree”

6. Dilemmas from other disciplines
• Literature: Different interpretations of a literary
text
Hamlet is a complete and utter coward.
• Politics/History: Opposing analysis of a
historical or current event
The people of Crimea have a right to be
accepted as Russian if that is what they want
which they evidently do. - Eamonn McCann
Irish Times, 20th March 2014, page 14

7. Dilemmas from other disciplines
• Environmental Science: Alternative
approaches to dealing with species
extinction
• Geography: Significance of evidence on
climate change
Recent extreme weather conditions are a
result of climate change.

8. SAC
• Provide students with or direct them to
source information on the issue
• Blended learning:
• students source & share online
• Flipped classroom
• Information in advance,
interaction during contact hours
• Is the class a time to receive or use
information?

9. SAC
• Divide learners into groups of 4.
• Each pair presents a polarised, ‘advocacy’
position. Focus on 3 key arguments.
• Roles are reversed (& groups swapped in a
double switch approach).

10. SAC
• Dissolve pairs to reach consensus
• Goal not to win but to uncover relevant arguments on both sides
• Direct students to seek reasoned, consensual positions.
“Forge a position as a group. Feel free to change your
mind. See if you can come to consensus on this issue.”

11. Why are
learners engaged
• Cognitive dissonance
• Psychological phenomenon - holding
contradictory beliefs causes stress – try to
accommodate new ideas into existing
understandings.
• Uncomfortable process ► engagement.
• Language learning research:
engagement ► acquisition

12. Study: Does the use of SAC in
the language classroom faciliate
language learning?

13. Study
Dilemma
Facebook facilitates cyberbullying and
should be banned for those under 18.

14. Procedure
In advance:
1. 18 students complete a C-test on
cyberbullying
2. Given material in German on
cyberbullying to read in advance
3. Asked to source additional
material themselves

15. 5 Steps
Treatment Group
1. Participants divided into 2
groups of 4 (2 pairs in each group)
2. Each pair argues an advocacy position
3. Each pair argues the alternative position
4. Each group of 4 attempts to reach a consensus
5. Each group of 4 presents its ‘compromise’
position

16. Comparison Group
•Completes reading
comprehension exercise on
cyberbullying.
• Open-ended written questions
and free writing

17. Post-test stage
•C-tests returned to both groups
•All students ‘improve/correct’ their
C-test
•Change in score determined.

18. Change in C-test score:
Improvement for both groups
Change in C-test score
treatment group
+ 17%
Change in C-test score
comparison group
+ 14%

19. Nouns
(17 )
Verbs
(15 )
Adjectival
Endings
(7 )
%
Improvement
Treatment
21% 26% 10%
%
Improvement
comparison
15% 22% 11%

20. Preliminary Findings
Useful technique in
language teaching
Contributes more to vocabulary
acquisition
Needs to be scaffolded by explicit
grammar instruction

21. Participant feedback on SAC
• …was helpful as it gave us a chance to
form sentences, work with others and try
and hold a conversation/debate through
German alone.
…was a good way to build up fluency with
the language.

22. Implications
• Considerable potential for
‘borrowing’ methodologies such
as SAC from other subject
domains in a ‘post-method’
environment
• Need for explicit grammar
instruction remains

23. Additional applications of SAC

24. Background
Study abroad will…
‘….give students a better sense
of what it means to be a
European citizen’.
 (Erasmus website)
 Exploratory study conducted in
DCU

25. Understandingof CitizenshipPre-YearAbroad
– ‘Whatdoes citizenshipmeanto you?’
Belonging
Rights
Obligations
Responsibilities
European

26. Understandingof CitizenshipPost-YearAbroad–
‘Whatdoescitizenshipmeanto you?’
Belonging
Rights
Obligations
Responsibilities
Language
Representative Role

27. • European / global citizenship not always
facilitated by a year abroad

28. Cicero’s concentric circles
Humanity
Country
Family
Self

29. Draw the circles closer -
‘enter the mind of the other’

30. Study abroad does not automatically
result in transformational learning
• Fry, Paige, Jon, Dillow and Nam (2009)
Four D’s of study abroad
•Demography
•Destination
•Duration &
•Depth - Do students engage in a
meaningful manner with study
abroad?

31. To encouragedepthof experience&
transformationallearning….recommend:
• Pedagogical techniques from experiential pedagogy
before, during & after study abroad:
Role play, cultural and political simulations
tandem work, virtual classrooms
Games
literature, project work
“scaffolded” or facilitated (critical) reflection, critical
incidents

32. SAC & European Citizenship
Dilemma
National borders are irrelevant today.
We are European not Irish/Czech.

33. SAC, Ethics & Tolerance of
Ambiguity
• DCUBS
• MBA Ethics / Dilemma “Stealing is always
wrong”
• Base-line assessment of Tolerance of Ambiguity
before and after engagement with SAC.
• Staying in uncertainty, or staying with the
question, despite the discomfort of not knowing
the answer, or not knowing where we’re headed.
…relinquishing control
• Associated with Innovation & Creativity

34. Related Publications
Published
• 2013 The impact of study abroad on language learners’ perceptions
of the concept of citizenship. AISHE-J. All Ireland Journal of Studies in
Higher Education.
• (forthcoming) Translation in Language Teaching: A qualitative study
of attitudes and behaviours. Language Teaching Research
Under review
• The use of the L1 in the L2 classroom to reduce cognitive overload
and learner anxiety. The Language Learning Journal (first revision
complete)
• Cognitive Dissonance and the Subjective Mind in Foreign Language
Learning: The use of Structured Academic Controversy in the German
language classroom In Arnd Witte and Theo Harden (eds). Language
learning and the Subjective Mind. Peter Lang.