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Policy, pedagogy, and priorities: Exploring stakeholder perspectives on active learning in the Maldives

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Abstract

Challenges of implementing active-learning reform have been reported across a range of countries and include the need for greater attention to contextual factors and practical realities in the reform process. This study investigates how teachers enact active-learning pedagogy within the Maldives. Using design-based research, it explores—through contextual analysis and pedagogical intervention—the conditions under which active learning can be enacted within the Child Friendly Schools framework. The article presents findings of the contextual-analysis phase, which sought to understand stakeholder priorities in order to inform the intervention phase. The World Café, a participatory approach to data collection, reveals the salient features of active learning considered important across the stakeholder groups: the active participation of students, the use of group work, the teacher as facilitator, a friendly classroom environment, and the potential of the reform to be tailored more equally to all students.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, 234 Queensberry Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Rhonda Di Biase

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  1. Rhonda Di Biase
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Correspondence to Rhonda Di Biase.

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I am indebted to the school community on “my island” for welcoming me into their school to conduct this research. I also thank the Maldives National University, Ahmed Ali Manik, Ameena Mohammed Didi, and Azra Abdul Raheem for guidance and support during my fieldwork. Finally, I thank Sally Godinho and the reviewers for their feedback and comments on this article.

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Di Biase, R. Policy, pedagogy, and priorities: Exploring stakeholder perspectives on active learning in the Maldives. Prospects 45, 213–229 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-015-9346-1

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