Page 85 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

evaluation of learning materials. The first stage involves investigating the potential learning potential, i.e., the opportunities and challenges of the learning material and the competences to be supported while working with the material. The second stage refers to the actualised learning potential of learning materials, i.e., the learning potential where learning is organised through the integration of the learning material into a situation in a given context. The third stage analyses the actualised learning potential of learning materials, i.e., how participants actually develop their competences by working with the learning material. According to the authors, a single evaluation of learning materials cannot cover all three aspects of this complex structure. Therefore, in this study, E. Gomez-Parra and I decided to evaluate the actualised learning potential of learning materials selected from the course I designed in two cultural contexts, because a certain phenomenon can only be properly evaluated if it is compared with other facts or phenomena157, which in this study are cultural contexts. When introducing learning material in a specific situation, certain aspects of the potential of the material are realised through the integration of cultures in the situation, hence the choice of a non-random group of people in the above-mentioned study. Learners and teachers more or less consciously decide to supplement learning materials with different tools and content, and these phenomena make up the learning experience, which in turn makes up the updated learning potential. Therefore, we attempted to use and validate the Scenario-based Assessment of Learning Experiences questionnaire in order to(a) verify the correctness of the formulated research questions concerning aspects of potential learning opportunities and their actualisation, and (b) to verify whether the selected learning material works in our cultural contexts by contextualising these materials, in what respects the learning situation was successful, and to what extent the participants felt engaged in and motivated to work.
The direction of the study was to seek answers to the following questions.
1. Was the questionnaire selected correctly?
2. Were the questions constructed in English in a way that students could understand and
read?
3. Was the research group appropriately selected?
How do the recipients of the educational material assess its appropriateness? Including maturity, disability, special needs, subject area, cultural context of teaching/learning and language. (Perspective of learners and teachers – evaluation).
The tool used in the study was the Scenario-based Assessment of Learning Experiences questionnaire158
A group of 41 students from different countries took part in the pilot study. Students from the University of Lower Silesia formed a mixed group, consisting of students from Poland and three students from Spain and one from Germany. The second and third groups of students from the University of Malaga were also a mixed group made up of students from Spain and one student each from Italy, Palestine, Ukraine, Russia and China, and two students from Germany. The sample was purposively selected to represent cultural and linguistic diversity. The students from both universities were studying in the first year of their master's degree. The students from the University of Lower Silesia participating in the study were studying to be teachers. On the other hand, one group of
157Stochaj & Roman, 2013, pp. 178–197. 158 Haynes & Spence, 2009.
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