A group intelligence-based asynchronous argumentation learning-assistance platform

Structured argumentation support environments have been built and used in scientific discourse in the literature. However, to the best our knowledge, there is no research work in the literature examining whether student’s knowledge has grown during learning activities with asynchronous argumentation. In this work, an intelligent computer-supported collaborative argumentation-based learning platform that detects whether the learners address the expected discussion issues is proposed. After each learner presents an argument, a term weighting method is adopted to derive input parameters of a one-class support vector machines classifier which determines if the learners’ arguments are related to the discussion topics. Notably, a peer review mechanism is established to improve the quality of the classifier. Besides, a feedback module is used to issue feedback messages to the learners if the learners have gone off on a tangent. The experimental results revealed that the students were benefited by the proposed learning-assistance platform.     

计算机辅助合作讨论中开放和性别对批判性思维培养的影响

这项研究考察了学生在参与计算机辅助合作讨论中,思想开放和性别对批判性教学的影响。研究发现：1）思想开放的学生在讨论问题时在提出的反驳次数上会有明显差异;2）性别不同的学生在提出反驳的次数上有显著差异;3）思想开放程度不同的男生之间,提出反驳的次数有显著差异;而在女生中则没有这种差异。4）思想开放程度不同的学生在面对挑战时作出的反应是一样的。这些发现表明了思想开放程度与性别之间是如何相互作用的、计算机辅助合作讨论中开放是如何影响学生的表现的,以及应对策略如何能用来分析和建构批判思维讨论的。     

The Effects of Conversational Language on Group Interaction and Group Performance in Computer-Supported Collaborative Argumentation

This study examined the effects of conversational language (e.g., asking questions, inviting replies, acknowledgments, referencing others by name, closing signatures, ‘I agree, but’, greetings, etc.) on the frequency and types of responses posted in reply to given types of messages (e.g., argument, evidence, critique, explanation), and how the resulting response patterns support and inhibit collaborative argumentation in asynchronous online discussions. Using event sequence analysis to analyze message-response exchanges in eight online group debates, this study found that (a) arguments elicited 41% more challenges when presented with more conversational language (effect size .32), (b) challenges with more conversational language elicited three to eight times more explanations (effect size .12 to .31), and (c) the number of supporting evidence elicited by challenges was not significantly different from challenges that used more versus less conversational language. Overall, these and other findings from exploratory post-hoc tests show that conversational language can help to produce patterns of interaction that foster high levels of critical discourse, and that some forms of conversational language are more effective in eliciting responses than others.     

Teacher professional development through curriculum development: teachers' experiences in the field trialling of on-line curriculum materials

ABSTRACT

This paper, which arises out of wider Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded research, examines the provision of information technology in ten British secondary schools. The longitudinal nature of the research allows us to test a model proposed by Wellington, which describes the evolution of information technology in secondary schools from a vertical to a horizontal approach, against the data from the ten schools. We explore tensions between vertical and horizontal approaches and show that the evolutionary process is more complex than suggested by the model. We focus on the role of the information technology co‐ordinator in promoting horizontal approaches to information technology and explore the conditions under which the role is carried out.     

Tracing discursive processes of shared knowledge construction in a technology-enhanced higher education setting

This study focused on combining both the group- and individual-level analyses in studying a collaborative activity in technology-enhanced interactions in a higher education setting. The aim was to make visible, with empirical examples, the quality of the students' web-based discussions and trace the route for shared understanding. By quantifying various communicative functions, the analysis provided general knowledge on the quality and purpose of the discussion in the group and highlighted the different functional positions each student had within the group. However, only a detailed interpretative analysis of the relationships between specific thematic contents, communicative functions, and the collaborative features of the discussion, in the temporal frame, made it possible to trace and gain a deeper understanding of the true acts of collaboration. It also highlighted the individual participants' different participatory and discursive positions in the different phases of the task. Over the study, it became evident that any attempts to define a collaborative activity from either the group's or individual's perspective would only result in a partial interpretation of the collaborative enterprise.     

Student' Strategic Actions in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) can be a powerful tool in creating learning communities in which students have a chance to construct knowledge collaboratively and to develop explanations of the subject to be studied. It is obvious, however, that collaborative inquiry is a cognitively-challenging task for an individual student. More evidence on the nature and quality of students' actions and strategic processes in CSCL is needed to make these models more applicable in different domains of classroom learning. The aim of this study was to analyse students' strategic actions in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning. Eighteen secondary school students, ages 13–14 years, participated in CSCL inquiries in their literature class. The networked technology environment used was CSILE. The students had three inquiry-based CSCL projects, each lasting for six weeks. The data-collection procedures used were questionnaires, students' written computer notes and repeated process-oriented interviews. The results show the dominance of a superficial approach toward inquiry. This is evidenced by the students' fact-oriented computer notes and their self-reported, surface-level strategic actions. However, the results show a growing amount of collaborative discussion in the networked database. Collaborative networked discussions manifest an increase in deeper-level cognitive strategies and progressive student inquiries. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

协作式教学设计的过程模式浅论

随着学习理论和教学理论的不断发展,教学设计无论在组织形式还是操作对象上都将产生相应的变化。协作不仅是学习活动的表现形式,同样对于开展教学设计活动也是可能的,而且是可行的。教学设计对象包括教学活动、教学环境、知识传递,其中教学活动处于三个层次的核心地位。在教学设计过程中,从学习活动的设计出发,协作式地进行教学过程信息的收集、教学方案的制定、实施及评价,构建起了以“学习活动”设计为中心的协作式教学设计的过程模式。     

Emergence of Progressive-Inquiry Culture in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

The study focused on analysing the emergence of a progressive-inquiry culture in two CSILE (Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environment) classrooms across a three-year period. A principal feature of this kind of culture is the processing of explanatory knowledge instead of merely factual knowledge. The results of the study indicate that the classroom culture changed over the three years following the introduction of CSILE. The explanatory level of knowledge produced by the students became increasingly deeper in tracking from the first to third year. In one of the classrooms, the children's levels of explanation reached substantial depth as we pass from year 1 to year 3; here the difference on this temporal variable was large and significant. In this classroom, the students' inquiry was more and more explicitly focused on construction of their own intuitive explanations, as well as the search for explanatory scientific information. Progress in inquiry culture emerged only through the teacher's extended efforts to expand students' practices of progressive inquiry. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Collaborative course design: changing the process,acknowledging the context,and implications for academic development

This research study describes the experiences and perceptions of an instructor and an instructional design specialist who collaborated on the design and implementation of a university course using a new course design process. Findings uncovered differences between an informal collaboration process and the adaptation of that process for implementation in a classroom setting. Recommendations support the concepts of a long‐term collaboration, consideration of classroom constraints, and the importance of course participant voices and perspectives. Thoughtful consideration of the interaction of the design and implementation processes and commitment to continual course design collaboration can have positive implications for academic development.

Cette étude décrit les expériences et perceptions d’un enseignant et d’un spécialiste du design pédagogique ayant collaboré au design et à la mise en ?uvre d’un cours universitaire à l’aide d’un nouveau processus de développement de cours. L’étude a permis de mettre en lumière les différences entre un processus informel de collaboration et l’adaptation de ce processus de façon à le mettre en ?uvre dans le contexte d’une classe. Les recommandations présentées soutiennent les concepts de collaboration à long terme, la considération des contraintes de classe, et l’importance de la voix et de la perspective des participants au cours. Une réflexion approfondie de l’interaction entre les processus de design et de mise en ?uvre, de même qu’un engagement à l’égard d’une collaboration continue en matière de design pédagogique peuvent avoir des implications positives sur les expériences de développement pédagogique.     

“以赛促学”模式优化设计——基于协同学习理论场域视角

以赛促学是提高教学质量和培养人才的有效途径。为优化技能类课程教学模式,从协同学习理论的场域视角出发,分析传统竞赛模式中影响促学效率的多维要素。结合场域理论进行系统分析,参考支持协同学习的教学过程模型,从认知、动作、情感层次方面对以赛促学模式进行系统优化设计。以《现代教育技术》课程为例开展“以赛促学”。实证分析表明,该模式强化了深层知识构建,有利于全面提升师生素养,提高学习效率。     

Supporting productive collaboration in a computer-supported instructional activity: peer-feedback on critical incidents in health care education

One important feature of vocational education is to provide students with solid conceptual knowledge along with substantial practical experience, acquired in school and workplace contexts, respectively. However, the research provided evidence that students do not spontaneously articulate the knowledge acquired in different contexts, and that specific instructional activities have to be designed and introduced. The present study deals with this type of activity conducted in a vocational school for health and social care assistants, which involved the use of collaborative writing about workplace critical incidents. The goal was to identify the patterns of interactions, and specifically the type of peer-feedback that engage students in productive collaboration. Qualitative analyses show that the writing productions could be categorized in four collaboration patterns differing in the level in which students would elaborate on their peers’ experience and profit from the peers’ suggestions in order to improve their understanding. On this basis, we propose a series of recommendations for implementing effective and instructionally relevant collaborative writing activities in vocational education.     

Teachers' knowledge in argumentation: contributions from an explicit teaching in an initial teacher education programme

Many researchers have highlighted the important role of teachers in creating and managing argumentative, as well as the need for teachers, during their training, to have opportunities to develop knowledge about arguments, enabling them to work from the perspective of argumentation. This study investigates to what extent a context of explicit teaching of argumentation contributed to developing this knowledge. The data sources include video records of explicit teaching of argumentation, collection of materials produced and used by pre-service teachers, and field notes. Analysis of the data indicates that the explicit teaching of argumentation influenced the conceptual learning of pre-service teachers concerning the elements interwoven into argumentative practice, especially evidence and justifications, and the development of pedagogical aspects in the context of argument. Although the pre-service teachers had expressed some teaching knowledge of argumentation in classroom discussion situations, the use of this approach in teaching situations still appears to be challenging for these teachers. The findings of this study highlight contributions to the area of teacher education in argumentation in terms of knowledge that is essential to plan and conduct argumentation-based teaching, and also to the structure of the initial teacher training programmes directed at teaching in argumentation.     

国际视野中的CSCL研究与发展的十个主题——访CSCL研究国际著名专家皮埃尔·狄隆伯格教授

国际学习科学协会(ISLS)前主席,皮埃尔.狄隆伯格(Pierre Dillenbourg)教授是瑞士洛桑联邦理工大学(EPFL)培训及其技术研究与支持中心(CRAFT)的主任,也是《计算机支持的协作学习丛书》(CSCL Book Series)的主编。本次访谈为中国读者提供了一个关于计算机支持的协作学习(CSCL)的研究与发展概要。狄隆伯格教授认为,CSCL的贡献不仅在于为专业培训领域提供了增进知识生产的学习技术,更在于其所包含的一系列的概念、思想和取向等对整个教育系统的渗透。协作学习,无论有没有计算机,都不是一个可以自动导致预期学习结果的处方。CSCL研究者已经研究了导致小组(或团队)生产积极学习结果的必要互动类型,并将技术运用于设计、研究和增进必要的互动。应当从一个"整合的学习"的视角认识CSCL,可以借助对情节的设计和不同工具的支持,将CSCL活动嵌入到正式或非正式学习场景更为综合的活动系列中。与此相应,CSCL研究者提出了十个方面的研究主题:即社会互动与个人化、媒体有效性、共享知识的建构、模仿倾向、中介作用、脚本、互动分析、表征、计算装置和虚拟共同体。     

Computer-Supported Collaborative Concept Mapping: Study of Synchronous Peer Interaction

The paper studies undergraduate students' synchronous peer interaction using a shared Activity Space and a text communication tool. Several groups of students collaborated in order to accomplish a data-modelling task in the context of a Databases University undergraduate course. The paper presents the collaboration support environment, i.e. a concept-mapping tool, used in this study. Subsequently, evaluation of the effectiveness of the environment in the educational process is discussed along various dimensions, like group synthesis, task control, content of communication, roles of the students and the effect of the tools used. Special emphasis is given in the ways the tools and the representations used complement each other and support the process. A discussion on the use of computer-supported collaborative problem solving environments is also included.     

Interactivity Between Protégés and Scientists in an Electronic Mentoring Program

Interactivity is defined by Henri (1992) as a three-step process involving communication of information, a response to this information, and a reply to that first response. It is a key dimension of computer-mediated communication, particularly in the one-on-one communication involved in an electronic mentoring program. This report analyzes the interactivity between pairs of corporate research scientists (mentors) and university biology students (protégés) during two consecutive implementations of an electronic mentoring program. The frequency and structure of the interactions within each pair were examined to provide context: 542 messages were posted among the 20 mentors and 20 protégés. These messages were formed into 5–10 threads per pair, with 3–4 messages per thread, indicating a high level of interactivity (there were more responses posted than independent messages). Mentor–protégé pairs rated as effective by both mentors and protégés posted more messages overall, had well-structured threads, had protégé and mentor postings that were similar in topic coverage and message length, and had little overt “management” behavior by mentors. However, there appears to be no clear recipe for successful interaction. Not only are there a variety of factors at play in developing an online relationship in this context, but mentor–protégé pairs can falter at various stages in the process and in various ways.     

"提出问题往往比解决问题更重要"--如何在物理教学中培养提问能力

本文在探讨“发现问题、提出问题”对探究学习具有重要意义的基础上 ,介绍在物理教学中应如何培养学生“发现问题、提出问题”的能力 ,及其在提高学生合作学习、自主学习、终生学习和信息交流等科学探究能力方面的作用     

Effects of Collaborative and Individual Learning in a Blended Learning Environment

In courses using a virtual learning environment (VLE), some students like to work together, and some do not. If we give students the opportunity to choose either teamwork or individual study, how does this affect their marks and their appraisal and assessment of the course? This question has been investigated in the context of an English Literature course at the University of Utrecht. In this course, students work intensively with a VLE, and attend lectures: a blended learning environment. Previous research has shown that the pedagogical design used provides a powerful learning environment. This time, students had the choice of working on the course assignments in small teams (2–4 students), or individually. Both groups were compared based on their study results, and the answers to a questionnaire. Students valued the choice. Mainly those students with high marks for a previous course, which had a similar pedagogical design, preferred collaboration. Statistical analysis showed that collaboration resulted in significantly better marks.     

Learning of argumentation skills in networked and face-to-face environments

In a teaching experiment 16 face-to-face and 11 e-mailFinnish university students studied academic debatingin an argumentation course. The 19 students of thecontrol group did not engage in the course. The courseinvolved two lectures, exercises with argumentativetexts, and face-to-face or e-mail seminar discussionsbased on these texts. Free debate, role play,problem-solving and panel discussion were the devicesused in organizing the course. The level of thestudents' argumentation skills were measured in apretest before the course and in a post-test after it.The results were compared between and within thegroups. The results indicated that during the e-mailstudies the students learned to identify and chooserelevant grounds, while the face-to-face studentsimproved in putting forward counterargumentation. Thecontrol group did not improve in these skills. Thestudy suggests that argumentation skills can bepromoted by short-term e-mail and face-to-faceteaching, and that practising argumentation indifferent learning environments develops differentkinds of argumentation skills.