A Study on the Competence-based General Education and the Development of Convergent Thinking : Focusing on the Analysis of the Learner Centered Teaching-learning Practices Using Poster Presentations

Abstract

This paper explored the expansion of learners' convergent thinking and the practice of convergence general education through the analysis of poster presentation cases. This course is based on interdisciplinary content in the STS, and operates in a standardized flipped learning, which is learner-centered. Learners from different majors will participate in these classes, and student presentations take the form of poster presentations, consisting of a single PPT slide presented by an individual student followed by a Q&A session. In this class, students can, first, learn to integrate their majors with the unit theme through self-directed exploration, starting from an understanding of the unit's theme. Second, through the Q&A process, students can develop their convergent abilities through inquiry and interaction among their learners. At this time, the use of crosscutting themes, which allows reflection from the perspectives of humans, technology, and society, provides an opportunity to further promote the learners' convergent thinking. Thus, poster presentations utilizing crosscutting themes can be used as a teaching-learning device to cultivate the convergent abilities of learners with diverse majors from the aspects of major convergent thinking with the unit theme, as well as extended thinking through Q&A sessions. This study examined the flow of convergent thinking extended through the learners' own exploration and interaction through the analysis of the poster presentation cases utilizing crosscutting themes. This is significant in that it proposed a teaching-learning model that enables students from diverse majors to share their awareness of issues concerning humans, technology, and society, and to cultivate their abilities for connected and creative thinking.