Pedagogical Values in Online and Blended Learning Environments in Higher Education

Introduction

Many educators venture into the field without taking time to reflect on the pedagogical values they bring with them to the learning environment. When educators talk about pedagogy, often teaching strategies and assessment practices become the main topics of discussion. However, the pedagogical values that underpin specific educational practices are based in our worldviews, beliefs, perspectives, and biases about teaching and learning. What do you deem to be necessary for student success in various learning environments, and why? What do you deem to be important, and why? What do you deem to be beneficial, and why? Articulating your pedagogical values depends on critical reflection on such questions. So, why is it important to articulate our pedagogical values? In the big picture, broad knowledge about values serves as the foundation to a democratic educational experience (Heasly, 2015). On an individual level, this is important because the act of teaching is imbued with values as it encompasses ongoing personal choices in action, judgement, and evaluation (Gudmundsdottir, n.d.).

What educators believe about teaching and learning is critically important, because values drive practices that may be beneficial – or not – for learner success. What pedagogical values guide your own choices, actions, judgements, and evaluative decisions in your teaching practice? What worldviews, beliefs, and perspectives inform your values? Before responding to these questions, educators must first acknowledge that pedagogical decisions, actions, and behaviors aren't solely related to the development of content or design and development of learning activities. It is imperative that educators reflect on how they interact with students, how they engage students, how they support students, and how they aide in the holistic development of students, versus merely addressing content and outcomes (Lovat, Dally, Clement & Toomey, 2011). This chapter examines four essential pedagogical values that enhance student success: ethics of care, diversity, community, and justice.

We propose that when educators critically reflect on their pedagogical values, they can increase their effectiveness in building engaged, creative, and inclusive learning environments. Philosopher and educator Toulmin (1996) observes that we need well-founded ethical judgement to describe, explain, and improve practices in human studies, due to clear moral and political implications in their effects on people’s lives. Toulmin also reminds us that criticism of value commitments in any science only have “bite” when assumptions, beliefs, and biases are not made explicit. In our view, the Western democratic ideals of education that emphasize inclusion and equitable participation are worth pursuing. One early statement of these ideals is Dewey’s (1916) conception of education as a social process to create a desirable society, i.e. one that

In one contemporary framing of these ideals, Veletsianos and Kimmons (2012) identify open scholarship values for the ideals of democratization, fundamental human rights, equality, and justice and highlight challenges associated with the movement’s aspirations of broadening access to education and knowledge, such as the commodification of MOOCs, and unequal access to technology and/or lack of digital literacies. Veletsianos and Kimmons propose that,