“Actually, I Wanted to Learn”: Study-related knowledge exchange on social networking sites

Social media open up multiple options to add a new dimension to learning and knowledge processes. Particularly, social networking sites allow students to connect formal and informal learning settings. Students can find like-minded people and organize informal knowledge exchange for educational purposes. However, little is known about in which way students use social networking sites for informal learning and about characteristics of these students. In this paper, three studies examined the study-related knowledge exchange via StudiVZ, the German equivalent of Facebook. Results indicated that about one fifth of participants exchange study-related knowledge through StudiVZ and that these students are especially freshers seeking contact with other students and orientation. Consistent with previous research, it is shown that students use social networking sites mainly for social interaction and integration. However, results also imply that communication about social issues on social networking sites goes hand in hand with study-related knowledge exchange.     

A feedback model for data-rich learning experiences

Feedback has been identified as one of the factors with the largest potential for a positive impact in a learning experience. There is a significant body of knowledge studying feedback and providing guidelines for its implementation in learning environments. In parallel, the areas of learning analytics or educational data mining have emerged to explore how to analyse exhaustive digital trails produced by technology mediation to improve learning experiences. Current conceptualisations of feedback do not take into account the presence of these trails nor the presence of knowledge extracted through analytics techniques. This paper presents a model to reconceptualise feedback in data-rich learning experiences. It acknowledges the presence of algorithms to analyse and predict learner behaviour and proposes an integrated view between these elements as part of the feedback process and aspects conventionally present in previous models. This new conceptualisation offers instructors, designers and researchers a framework to formulate feedback processes in scenarios with comprehensive data capturing, while retaining a solid connection with well-established educational theories.     

Research Methods and Types of Evidence for Research in Educational Technology

Recent concern about lack of scientific rigor in educational research has led to a reexamination of educational research methods. Methodology requires particular attention when researchers study learning in complex learning environments such as classrooms or computer-driven environments that simulate complex processes. This article reaffirms the importance of experimental research for answering some research questions. It argues that nonexperimental methods, such as design experiments and methods applied to the study of large-scale educational programs, such as randomized field trials, are useful for answering other kinds of research questions about learning in complex settings. This article discusses the validity of evidence gathered using these nonexperimental methods. Finally, it suggests that the study of the dynamics of learning can help integrate data from experiments that reveal details about learning and data from nonexperimental research that reveal how learning occurs in complex settings.     

Situated cognition and learning environments: implications for teachers on- and offline in the new digital media age

John Seely Brown suggested that learning environments should be spaces in which all work is public, is subject to iterative critique by instructors and peers, and in which social interaction is primary. In such spaces, students and teachers engage in a situated cognition approach to teaching and learning where “cognitive accomplishments rely in part on structures and processes outside the individual”. Here we describe a qualitative analysis of a socially situated learning setting that aimed to develop children who can design, analyze, critique, and transform media, subjecting existing social media, their designs, and their peers’ designs to public and iterative critique. In this setting, adult mentors supported children’s self-expression, self-reflection, and skillbuilding through authentic, socially situated reading, writing, and discussion, and media production. Creating and leveraging such spaces is essential for preparing all children for successful experiences in the new knowledge economy in formal and informal educational settings.     

Development and validation of the Place-Based Learning and Constructivist Environment Survey (PLACES)

Learning environment studies acknowledge that learning takes place within the social realm and that social conditions contribute to the quality of both learning and experience. This can be said to be especially true for environmental learning programs. To access information about students?? perceptions of their learning environment, a robust instrument for describing and measuring student perceptions of environmental education in place-based educational settings was developed and validated. Focus groups with environmental educators were formed to explore (from teachers?? perspective) the factors viewed as most important to environmental learning and as most likely to influence the unique type of learning environments fostered in place-based or community-based environmental education programs. Analysis of qualitative work resulted in the inclusion of eight scales developed/adapted from previous learning environment surveys for use in the new Place-Based Learning and Constructivist Environment Survey for use in secondary settings. In this article, validity and reliability data for this instrument are presented and the implications of these data for future research within environmental education, place-based education and teacher education programs are discussed.     

Spielen Studienschwerpunkte wirklich eine Rolle?

Due to a comparatively weak curricular structure in education faculties, student teachers may determine their study experiences and learning processes largely by themselves, by selecting their own priorities within educational foundation studies. This paper focused on the relationship between individually-chosen educational specializations, self-perceived competence in these chosen fields, and the measured educational knowledge. The study among teacher education graduates in the German state North Rhine-Westphalia showed that the individually chosen priorities within educational courses varied greatly; however, a focus on topics like classroom teaching, learning and development, and creating school environments was discernable. Results revealed that graduates with certain courses of specializations showed a significant higher level of knowledge in self-report in according areas. However, there were only small significant correlations between the self-reported competencies and the educational knowledge measured by the test. The results of the standardized test of educational knowledge indicated that the graduates in fact achieved better test results in their prioritized fields of studies. This suggests that individual course selection in educational foundations does have an effect on subsequent educational knowledge.     

Subjectivity, Learning and Work: Sources and Legacies

Individuals’ dispositions have long been held to direct and energise cognition in ways that shape how they experience and respond to events in the social world. Therefore, a consideration of these dispositions is likely to be helpful in understanding the inter-psychological processes between individual and social world that frame contemporary socio-cultural accounts of learning. Here, the specific concern is to elaborate the sources, legacies and potency of individuals’ dispositions in the learning of occupational practice through these processes. Having reviewed ideas about the dispositional underpinnings of individuals’ construal and construction of the knowledge required for work, these conceptions are exercised through illuminating the roles dispositions play in the process of constructing the knowledge required for an occupational practice (i.e. hairdressing). The study reported here combines workplace ethnography and problem-solving tasks to identify the source of these subjectivities, how they shape individuals’ cognitive processes at work tasks and their learning through participation in vocational practice. In all, it identified how individuals’ dispositions arise through socially-shaped life histories or ontogenies, albeit in person-dependent ways. The participants’ conceptions, preferences and procedures that shape their learning and the enactment of their practice were found to be products of earlier socially-derived experiences, thereby making them personally-subjective. These personally-subjective dispositions were identified as shaping how these individuals engage in work, learning and the ongoing remaking of work activities, because they influence inter-psychological processes that comprise the immediate experiences that constitute the enactment of these activities. So, this suggests that the sociogeneses of knowledge and learning likely includes personally unique social contributions that arise through ontogeny.     

Same place,different experiences: exploring the influence of gender on students’ science museum experiences

Providing learning environments that are motivating for female students and male students alike is a challenge for science educators. This overview of the research conducted in science museums provides initial insights into informal educational settings that allow female visitors to have experiences which foster development of science interest and learning. The discussion of the influence of gender on learning experiences in informal science environments raises questions and calls for further research and more comprehensive reporting of research results. Findings related to gender‐equitable learning in settings such as science museums would be beneficial and extend the present knowledge base in science education.     

Ensuring good character and civic education: connecting through service learning

Character and citizenship education are part of the vision of many countries, including Singapore. Ensuring they are implemented in academic environments, service learning has been shown to be a natural bridge between the two. Research has shown that service learning, when done well, produces outcomes related to character development and citizenship education. As a modern educational movement, its early founders described it as a pedagogy to engage individuals in service activities dictated by the community, whereby the learning applies academic subject matter to the service. It is also a philosophy where the service is developed in collaboration with the community, where the goal is empowering those most affected by social and economic challenges. It is often delivered through academic course connections, but is effectively developed through constructivist approaches to curriculum, where the community prescribed needs define the subjects required for study and service. Service learning and character education are mutually connected constructs where service learning becomes the vehicle for delivery of character development. Individuals learn good character by applying those character traits in social settings through service. Good learning is assured when the nature of the service and character are intertwined, and the knowledge and skills gained connect directly to the actions of the people involved.     

The cohesion of small groups in technology-mediated learning environments: A systematic literature review

The development of group cohesion for small groups in face-to-face educational learning settings has been widely studied for decades. The calibre of group cohesion within these contexts is typically associated with increases in performance, resulting in a productive collaboration that helps drive knowledge building and innovation within a learning environment. However, understanding and measuring cohesion in technology-mediated learning experiences still requires additional research. This paper reports on a systematic literature review of small groups in technology-mediated learning settings to explore the definitions of cohesion and the methodologies used for the measurements that have been identified arising in this area. Furthermore, the review provides a characterisation of the factors that impact collaborative learning in computer-supported environments, highlighting two important aspects: i) there is a significant gap in measuring cohesion using unobtrusive methods, such as relying on log or trace data and ii) there is a lack of longitudinal approaches to understand the emergence of cohesion. Finally, we discuss implications for future research in studying group cohesion.     

Beyond the Walls: Conceptualizing Natural Environments as “Third Educators”

This research examined preservice early childhood educators' perceptions of outdoor settings and their intentions to use outdoor settings in their teaching practice. Students enrolled in an early childhood education program (n?=?110) at a university in the Great Lakes region completed surveys that assessed perceptions of natural settings, intentions to use natural settings in future teaching, knowledge of the benefits of nature for children, and personal nature relatedness. Participants reported relatively high intentions to use natural settings in future teaching, as well as knowledge of the benefits of nature for children, but moderate levels of personal nature relatedness. Participants were more likely to select “maintained” settings such as parks for educational purposes, and more “natural” settings, especially those with water, for personal purposes. Knowledge of the benefits of nature experiences, the perceived difficulty in using natural settings, and personal levels of nature relatedness each significantly predicted intention to use natural settings in future teaching. We recommend that teacher preparation programs provide: opportunities for students to observe and/or interact with children as they engage in unstructured play in natural environments; opportunities to engage in both structured and unstructured learning experiences in natural environments; and preparing students to provide appropriate supervision in natural environments.     

Intelligent analysis of the quality of education through teaching practices on virtual campuses

ICTs have been increasingly involved in teaching–learning processes due to the potential offered by the tools as well as to the set of demands derived from the political and health situations of the social environment. In this sense, the introduction of virtual campuses as complex systems that centralize the entire technological component that complements traditional teaching processes has meant a change of paradigm with repercussions at the teaching and pedagogical level. In this context, the purpose of this study aims to analyze students’ perception of the use of virtual campus and how to enhance the quality of the educational process using intelligent systems. For this purpose, 318 students that use virtual campus have been surveyed. The results show that there are three variables that predominantly influence the quality of teaching–learning processes using virtual campuses: frequent contact with teachers through the platform, the digital competence of the student, and the adaptation of training content to the students’ prior knowledge. This information can be useful, as it allows them to establish guidelines to guide the practices of their teaching teams in technological environments, guaranteeing the suitability of the teaching–learning process and improving the evaluation processes and the assessment of their own educational work.

     

Tool-mediated authentic learning in an educational technology course: a designed-based innovation

This design-based research project is concerned with the design, development and deployment of interactive technological learning environments to support contemporary education. The use of technologies in education often replicates instructivist positions and practices. However, the use of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (C), authentic learning (A), and educational technologies as tools (T) to mediate learning provides an integrated CAT framework to design and use learning experiences that transform not only individuals but also their world view. The work reports on the design, redesign, and evaluation of an honors course on the use of information communication technologies in teaching and learning. Analyses identified a number of design principles useful in conceiving learning tasks to support the theoretical framework. The CAT framework fosters the use of learning mediation through the use of educational tools that support collective knowledge construction of individuals and their communities, rather than replicate the use of technology for instruction.     

The role of educational context in beliefs about knowledge,information, and truth: an exploratory study

Beliefs about knowledge have been found to relate to a variety of student outcomes and to vary across educational domains and instructional contexts. However, there are limited data on students’ beliefs about information and truth, vis-à-vis knowledge (i.e., epistemic beliefs) and how these beliefs differ across instructional settings. Undergraduates from two educational contexts, in the USA (n?=?240) and the Netherlands (n?=?72), participated in this study. While students in the USA were enrolled primarily in lecture and discussion classes, students in the Netherlands followed a problem-based learning curriculum. Beliefs about knowledge, information, and truth and their interrelations were examined across these two contexts through graphical and written justification tasks. Results from this exploratory study indicate that Dutch students were more likely than American students to depict knowledge, information, and truth as subjective and to define knowledge and information as synonymous. Commonalities and differences associated with educational backgrounds are considered in relation to instructional implications.     

Climate change education: quantitatively assessing the impact of a botanical garden as an informal learning environment

Although informal learning environments have been studied extensively, ours is one of the first studies to quantitatively assess the impact of learning in botanical gardens on students' cognitive achievement. We observed a group of 10th graders participating in a one-day educational intervention on climate change implemented in a botanical garden. The students completed multiple-choice questionnaires in a pre-post-retention test design. Comparing the test scores revealed a significant short-term knowledge gain as well as a long-term knowledge gain. Consequently, our results show the potentials of botanical gardens as effective learning environments, and for complementing formal school-based learning settings regarding climate change education.     

Learning in the circumstances of practice

Learning in the circumstances of practice stands as the commonest and most enduring way occupational capacities have been learnt across human history, and, likely, are currently learnt. Yet, a comprehensive account of this means of learning remains absent, which limits the legitimacy of workplaces as sites of learning, the learning arising from them and understandings of how to organize, promote and evaluate that learning. When advancing this account, it is necessary to avoid being constrained by the discourse of schooling and orthodoxies of schooled societies, which can distort considerations of learning through practice on its own terms. When reviewed, anthropological and historical literature on learning occupational practices outside of educational provisions offers fresh suggestions including that such an account likely comprise elements of practice curriculum and pedagogies and personal epistemologies, albeit set within particular complexes of cultural, societal and situational factors. A key distinction arising from such a review is the emphasis on individuals’ active processes of learning and how these are enacted in the circumstances of practice, rather than on teaching or instruction. Such a distinction runs deep in this literature and has consequences for conceptions of understandings and efforts to promote and improve learning through practice.     

Motivational orientations in work

The rapid development in working life during recent decades has changed the structures of work organisations and expectations of employees’ work. Differing forms of professional employment and different types of organisational environments likely promote different types of motivational patterns in workers. The aim of this study was to apply a systemic motivational orientation model, originally developed for the educational context, to study work motivation. Altogether, 584 persons, from 11 organisations, representing work with different levels of knowledge intensity, responded to the questionnaire. The key finding is that rapidly changing, increasingly complex, and fundamentally networked organisations are challenging environments for worker motivation. For some employees, these environments open opportunities for intellectually inspiring activities and continuous learning in socially encouraging environments. However, for many high level employees, not only is working in these environments an intrinsically motivated flow-like experience, but also they are emotionally demanding and anxiety generating environments with conflicting duties and roles.