Integrating assessment tasks in a problem‐based learning environment

The purpose of this study was to get more insight in the effects of written assessment tasks integrated in a problem‐based learning environment. Both the influence on students' performances and students' perceptions were investigated. Students' final exam results were used to find out whether students who make the assessment tasks do better than students who do not. Answers from questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews were used to discover the most important concerns in students' and teachers' perceptions of the assessment tasks. The results indicate that making the assessment tasks had positive influence on the students' overall performance. From the questionnaires and interviews it appears that both the students and the teachers see the benefits of the assessment tasks. It is concluded that small steps in the change of the assessment system can result in relatively big changes in students' learning and results.     

The acquisition of integrated science process skills in a web‐based learning environment

Web‐based learning is becoming prevalent in science learning. Some use specially designed programs, while others use materials available on the Internet. This qualitative case study examined the process of acquisition of integrated science process skills, particularly the skill of controlling variables, in a web‐based learning environment among grade 5 children. Data were gathered primarily from children’s conversations and teacher–student conversations. Analysis of the data revealed that the children acquired the skill in three phases: from the phase of recognition to the phase of familiarization and finally to the phase of automation. Nevertheless, the acquisition of the skill only involved the acquisition of certain subskills of the skill of controlling variables. This progression could be influenced by the web‐based instructional material that provided declarative knowledge, concrete visualization and opportunities for practise.     

Explaining school‐based curriculum satisfaction: a case study

This paper examines the contradictory effects of teaching multicultural education in two American white women's university classrooms. The authors use discourse analysis to understand the confusing results of teaching about difference. In this analysis, course readings and a field trip to an urban school are examined in regard to the instructors' intentions and students' responses. The authors understand the puzzling results of their teaching by examining the positivist dimensions of their pedagogy, including the belief in rational approaches to overcoming racism, sexism and other systems of oppression, the belief in the possibility of replacing 'bad ideas' with 'good' ones, and the perpetuation of knowledge grounded in a binary system of meaning-making and language use. The authors conclude with ideas for a postpositivist approach to knowledge, experience and action, that emphasizes the production of interpretations.     

Devising inequality: a Bernsteinian analysis of high‐stakes testing and social reproduction in education

High‐stakes, standardized testing has become the central tool for educational reform and regulation in many industrialized nations in the world, and it has been implemented with particular intensity in the United States and the United Kingdom. Drawing on research on high‐stakes testing and its effect on classroom practice and pedagogic discourse in the United States, the present paper applies Bernstein’s concept of the pedagogic device to explain how high‐stakes tests operate as a relay in the reproduction of dominant social relations in education. This analysis finds that high‐stakes tests, through the structuring of knowledge, actively select and regulate student identities, and thus contribute to the selection and regulation of students’ educational success.     

Does the curriculum matter in peer mentoring? From mentee to mentor in problem‐based learning: a unique case study

Peer mentoring has been used for many years by the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine to integrate new students into the academic and social culture of the institution. In 2001, an unusual situation arose. A problem‐based learning (PBL) curriculum was introduced and the first cohort in this programme was mentored by senior traditional curriculum students. The present study, by canvassing the 2002 PBL mentors, set out to determine whether the mismatch in curricula impacted on students' mentoring experiences. There was overwhelming agreement that curriculum did matter—it is only when mentors are able to share the same experiences as mentees, can they fully understand student problems. Notwithstanding this and other difficulties (e.g. timetable clashes), some 2001 mentees did form bonds with their traditional curriculum mentors. Some even identified them as role models. The 2002 PBL mentors also indicated that they had undergone considerable personal development as a result of their experiences.     

Learning to label: socialisation,gender, and the hidden curriculum of high‐stakes testing

Although high‐stakes tests play an increasing role in students’ schooling experiences, scholars have not examined these tests as sites for socialisation. Drawing on qualitative data collected at an American urban primary school, this study explores what educators teach students about motivation and effort through high‐stakes testing, how students interpret and internalise these messages, and how student hierarchies develop as a result. I found that teachers located boys’ failure in their poor behavior and attitudes, while arguing that girls simply needed more self‐esteem to pass the test. Most boys accepted their teachers’ diagnosis of the problem. However, the boys who felt that they were already ‘doing their best’ and ‘working hard’ began to doubt that educational success is a function of merit and effort. I conclude that students learn about much more than the three Rs through their experiences with high‐stakes testing, and argue that future research should attend to the social dimensions of these experiences.     

Capabilities‐based educational equivalency units: Beginning a professional dialogue

Abstract

This article proposes a basic model for the transformation of academic equivalency in distance education, shifting from a unit of measurement that relies on time in the classroom (the Carnegie unit) to one that focuses on learner achievement. The Capabilities‐Based Educational Equivalency (CBEE) model puts forward a framework of academic equivalency that is founded on valid and useful instructional design objectives. While allowing time to be variable (rather than constant) and holding academic achievement relatively constant, the CBEE model permits the comparison of student achievement in face‐to‐face and distance education, as well as between programs delivering instruction via a wide variety of media.     

Premature closure and guided reinvention: a case study in a web‐based learning environment

Just as linguistic errors have provided insights into the nature of linguistic competence(s), detailed analyses of blind spots or marked trajectories in the reflection cycles of novice teachers may provide a window on their underlying beliefs, and thus on relevant zones of proximal development. In this paper we analyse a case study in an experimental web‐based learning environment in which a novice teacher demonstrably just reproduces the assumptions she started out with rather than re‐inspecting them. Having located a problem of motivation uniquely inside the learners’ heads, she pointedly ignores hints in the feedback that her own verbal and nonverbal behaviour in the classroom might be a relevant domain of enquiry. Our findings show the need for structural interventions within a priori hypothesized, linearly ordered, stages in reflection models. We report on two small‐scale experiments that implement suggested changes in the architecture of the web site which yield more context‐sensitive ways of scaffolding reflection. In conclusion we argue that detailed discursive accounts of successful and less successful reflection trajectories are needed to refine and further develop models in teacher thinking.     

Evidence‐based practice in educational research: a critical realist critique of systematic review

The paper argues that a critical realist perspective can contribute to a critique of evidence‐based practice, while at the same time not abandoning the idea of evidence altogether. The paper is structured around a number of related themes: the sociopolitics of ‘evidence‐based’; epistemological roots and a critical realist critique; the debate in action based on the recent systematic review of personal development planning; and theory to practice gaps. The advocacy of evidence‐based practice is currently being used to undermine professional autonomy and to valorise the ‘gold‐standard’ of randomised controlled trials. However, the paper proposes that evidence can properly be claimed for critique and emancipatory projects, and that its current discursive location at the core of New Labour thinking is not the only one available. Moreover, thinking from a critical realist perspective liberates the space for theoretically informed work, whereby arguments about method, and in particular randomised controlled trials, do not become a proxy for the open examination of ontological and epistemological assumptions. One of the underlying themes in critical realism is that of critique and emancipation, and evidence properly understood aligned to clear theoretical argumentation is part of this project. Existing models of systematic review fall far short of this aspiration and are of little help to practitioners. As researchers and practitioners we have every reason to maintain a critical stance towards the way evidence is being deployed in debates about policy and practice.     

Growing scholarly teachers and educational researchers: a curriculum for a Research Pathway in pre‐service teacher education

This paper advocates the development of high‐level research capability in some students in their undergraduate Bachelor of Education course. The rationale for this viewpoint is presented in relation to three questions: ‘What is educational research?’ ‘Why should universities develop high‐level research capability in some pre‐service teacher education graduates?’ and ‘What type of curriculum can support the development of high‐level research capability in some pre‐service teacher education graduates?’ The first two questions are addressed broadly. The latter question is addressed with reference to an existing Research Pathway within a Bachelor of Education course. The paper concludes with the identification of a priority issue for subsequent iterations of the Pathway and a reflection on the shift in my role as a teacher in this Pathway from ‘teacher researcher’ to ‘scholarly teacher’.     

Web‐delivered,problem‐based learning in organisational behaviour: a new form of CAOS

Recent calls have been made for a fundamental reorientation in higher education from a curriculum that simply transmits information (learner as receiver) to one that encourages students actively to construct their own knowledge and practice using new skills and concepts (learner as constructor). In response, the Case Analysis in Organisational Situations (CAOS) assessment tool was developed for use in teaching organisational behaviour. It follows the principles of problem‐based learning and group work, using an unfolding case design. A pre‐test (n=365), immediate post‐test (n=323) and delayed post‐test (n=129) design was implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of this new learning tool. The assessment of student approaches to learning revealed that students were more likely to adopt a deep approach to learning at the end of CAOS than at the beginning. In general, the results show that CAOS is a useful web‐based tool that promotes learning in organisational behaviour. The benefits of CAOS and some suggested improvements to the existing CAOS format are discussed.     

The study of literature and culture in a web‐based environment

The rationale behind the project is based on the belief that the study of a work of literature can effectively open a window of opportunity for pupils to study other countries’ cultures and identities as well as contribute to pupils’ own identity construction and to the understanding of the identity of others. Information and communication technologies serve as an educational catalyst for collaborative learning which transcends national boundaries and presents pupils with the opportunity to study cultural and identity similarities and differences, to strengthen their national identities and, at the same time, to appreciate the characteristics of other identities and cultures.

L’étude de la Littérature et de la Culture dans un environnement fondé sur la Toile

L’idée qui sous‐tend ce projet repose sur le fait que l’on croit que l’étude d’une ?uvre littéraire peut effectivement constituer une fenêtre pour les élèves, l’occasion d’étudier les cultures et les identités d’autres pays tout en contribuant à la construction de la propre identité de ces élèves et à la compréhension de l’identité des autres. Les TIC servent de catalyseur éducatif pour faciliter l’apprentissage collaboratif qui transcende les frontières nationales et offre aux élèves l’occasion d’étudier les ressemblances et les différences de cultures et d’identités, de renforcer leurs identités nationales et en même temps d’apprécier les caractéristiques d’autres identités et cultures.

Das Studium von Literatur und Kultur in einer Web‐basierten Umgebung

Die logische Grundlage dieses Projekts ist die Überzeugung, dass ein Studium im Bereich von Literatur wirksam sowohl ein Fenster zum Einblick in andere Kulturen und Identitäten öffnen kann, als auch zum eigenen Identitätsaufbau der Schüler und zum Verständnis der Identität anderer beitragen kann. ICT dient damit als Bildungskatalysator für kooperatives Lernen, damit die nationalen Grenzen überwunden werden können und bietet den Schülern die Gelegenheit, kulturelle‐ und Identitätsähnlichkeiten und Unterschiede zu erkennen, um ihre nationalen Identitäten zu stärken und gleichzeitig die Merkmale anderer Identitäten und Kulturen kennen und schätzen zu lernen.     

Identifying low‐progress readers: Comparing teacher judgment with a curriculum‐based measurement procedure

Identifying low‐progress readers easily and quickly is an essential prerequisite for effective literacy intervention in schools. In this study, teacher judgment of reading performance is compared with a curriculum‐based measurement procedure. This study involved 33 teachers and their Year 3 to Year 5 classes. Twelve students were randomly selected from each class and their teachers were asked to rank them based on their judgments of student reading performance. All students were also assessed on a Passage Reading Test (PRT) based on the principles of curriculum‐based measurement. The obtained oral reading fluency measures for the students were ranked for each class and compared with teacher judgment rankings. The results indicated that only one‐half of the teachers identified the same poorest reader as did the curriculum‐based PRT. Moreover, only 15% of the teachers identified the same 3 lowest performing readers as the PRT. These findings suggest that over‐reliance on teacher judgment for identifying low‐progress readers may be misplaced and that curriculum‐based PRTs may provide a more objective and quick alternative procedure.     

Religious freedom and rendering to Caesar: reading democratic and faith‐based values in curriculum,pedagogy and policy

In this article I synthesise and apply elements of political and reading theory to demonstrate how central themes in learners’ lives (such as freedom, faith, autonomy, equality, rationality and rights) can be read and interpreted differently. I suggest that policy and pedagogy for citizenship and democratic education informed by research into reader response can shift the locus of control not simply from state to citizen but towards an understanding of the transaction between the two. To promote ethical participation I propose changes to the ‘text’ of the curriculum and the ‘reading’ stance of learners so that learners are liberated to bring legitimate moral and religious conviction to their readings of state‐sponsored values. I conclude that young citizens are respected and freedom is protected when educational readings become more nuanced and move beyond the polarities of freedom and restraint, autonomy and heteronomy, public and private, aesthetic and efferent, faith and reason, secular and religious or even democratic and faith‐based.     

Chinese students’ perceptions of a collaborative e-learning environment and factors affecting their performance: implementing a Flemish e-learning course in a Chinese educational context

This study was set up in a Chinese university in Beijing by implementing a Flemish e-learning course in a Chinese setting. A main feature of the e-learning environment is the asynchronous ‘task-based’ online group discussion. The purpose of the study is to understand Chinese students’ perceptions of a collaborative e-learning environment and the factors that affect their online performance and academic achievement. The results of the study indicate that the students had less positive perceptions of the e-learning environment as compared to their perceptions of a more conventional environment. However, the students reported to a higher level of preferences of peer learning, critical thinking, and problem-based learning (PBL) after one semester e-learning experience. In addition, we examined variables that might have affected students’ performance in e-learning environments. The results show that students with higher motivational orientations perform better in the online group discussions.     

High‐school students’ reasoning while constructing plant growth models in a computer‐supported educational environment

This paper highlights specific aspects of high‐school students’ reasoning while coping with a modeling task of plant growth in a computer‐supported educational environment. It is particularly concerned with the modeling levels (‘macro‐phenomenological’ and ‘micro‐conceptual’ level) activated by peers while exploring plant growth and with their ability to shift between or within these levels. The focus is on the types of reasoning developed in the modeling process, as well as on the reasoning coherence around the central concept of plant growth. The findings of the study show that a significant proportion of the 18 participating dyads perform modeling on both levels, while their ability to shift between them as well as between the various elements of the ‘micro‐conceptual’ level is rather constrained. Furthermore, the reasoning types identified in peers’ modeling process are ‘convergent’, ‘serial’, ‘linked’ and ‘convergent attached’, with the first type being the most frequent. Finally, a significant part of the participating dyads display a satisfactory degree of reasoning ‘coherence’, performing their task committed to the main objective of exploring plant growth. Teaching implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Curriculum strategy framework: investigating patterns in teachers’ use of a reform‐based elementary mathematics curriculum

The goal of this paper is to introduce the curriculum strategy framework as a way to characterize teachers’ interactions with curriculum materials. The framework focuses on three key interpretive activities: reading, evaluating, and adapting curriculum materials. Describing an individual teacher’s curriculum strategy involves identifying the manner in which a teacher engages with each of these activities before, during, and after instruction. This paper presents the results of a study in which the framework was used to identify patterns in the curriculum strategies of 10 elementary‐school teachers who were using a reform‐based mathematics curriculum for the first time. It concludes with directions for further research using the curriculum strategy framework, and implications of this work for curriculum designers.     

Online collaborative learning in a project‐based learning environment in Taiwan: a case study on undergraduate students’ perspectives

This case study investigated undergraduate students’ first experience in online collaborative learning in a project‐based learning (PBL) environment in Taiwan. Data were collected through interviews of 48 students, instructor’s field notes, researchers’ online observations, students’ online discourse, and group artifacts. The findings revealed interesting phenomena as results of cultural influences as well as educational system impacts. Students experienced learning benefits from PBL in the intensive six‐week period, yet voiced serious concerns about the changed role of the instructor, as well as strong reservations on peer collaboration as a result of the competitive tradition in education. Online collaborative learning and PBL critically challenged some culturally‐rooted traditions in Taiwan. The study generates practical insights into the applications of online collaborative learning and PBL in Taiwan’s higher education as well as implications for cross‐cultural implementation of online learning.

Online‐kooperatives Lernen in einer projektbasierten Lernumgebung in Taiwan: Eine Fallstudie aus Sicht der Studenten

Diese Fallstudie untersuchte die erste Erfahrung von Studenten in Online‐kooperativem Lernen in einer projektbasierten Lern‐ (PBL) Umgebung in Taiwan. Die Daten wurden durch Interviews von 48 Studenten, den Feldnotizen, den Online‐Beobachtungen, den Online‐Diskurs‐ und Gruppenartefakten der Studenten der Forscher gesammelt. Die Ergebnisse zeigten interessante Phänomene als Ergebnisse von sowohl kulturellen Einflüssen als auch Bildungssystemwirkungen auf. Die Studenten erfuhren in den intensiven sechs Wochen den Nutzen von PBL zu kennen, trotzdem äußerten sie sowohl ernste Sorgen über die geänderte Rolle des Ausbilders als auch starke Bedenken in Bezug auf gleichrangige Kollaboration als Folge der wettbewerbsgeprägten Tradition in der Bildung aus. Online‐kooperatives Lernen und PBL forderten kritisch einige kulturell verwurzelte Traditionen in Taiwan heraus. Die Studie ermöglicht praktische Einblicke in die Bewertungen von Online‐kooperativem Lernen und PBL in Taiwans höherer Bildung wie auch Auswirkungen auf interkulturelle Durchführung des Online‐Lernens.

L’apprentissage collaboratif en ligne dans un environnement d’apprentissage fondé sur les projets à Taiwan: étude de cas sur les perspectives des étudiants de premier cycle

La présente étude de cas porte sur la première expérience d’apprentissage collaboratif en ligne qu’ont eue des étudiants de premier cycle dans le cadre d’un environnement d’apprentissage (AFP) fondé sur les projets. On a rassemblé des données grâce à des entretiens avec 48 étudiants, grâce aux notes de terrain des professeurs, grâce aux observations en ligne des chercheurs, grâce au discours en ligne des étudiants et aux productions de groupe. Les résultats obtenus ont fait apparaître des phénomènes intéressants, résultant des influences culturelles et du poids d’un système éducatif. Les étudiants ont vécu une progression de leur apprentissage grâce à l’AFP au cours de la période intensive de 6 semaines mais ils ont toutefois fait part de l’inquiétude sérieuse que suscitait le changement de rôle du professeur et de leurs fortes réticences sur la collaboration entre étudiants du fait de la tradition de concurrence en éducation. L’apprentissage collaboratif en ligne et l’AFP représentaient un défi critique pour certaines traditions enracinées dans la culture de Taiwan. La présente étude ouvre des perspectives pratiques sur les applications de l’apprentissage collaboratif en ligne et l’AFP dans l’enseignement supérieur à Taiwan avec des conséquences pour la mise en place de l’apprentissage en ligne dans un cadre transculturel.

El aprendizaje colaborativo en línea dentro de un entorno de aprendizaje basado en proyectos, en Taiwan: un estudio de caso sobre las perspectivas para los estudiantes de primer ciclo

El presente estudio de caso trata de la primera experiencia de estudiantes de primero ciclo con el aprendizaje colaborativo en línea dentro de un entorno de aprendizaje basado en proyectos (ABP) en Taiwan. Los datos han sido recaudados a través de entrevistas con 48 estudiantes, a través de los apuntes de terreno de los profesores, de las observaciones en línea de los investigadores, del discurso en línea de los estudiantes y de las producciones de grupo. Los resultados han arrojado fenómenos interesantes que son el resultado tanto de las influencias culturales como del impacto del sistema educativo. Los estudiantes han experimentado los beneficios del aprendizaje ABP durante la sesión intensiva de 6 semanas pero han expresado inquietudes serias sobre el cambio de papel del profesor y fuertes reservas acerca de la colaboración entre alumnos como consecuencia de la tradición competitiva en educación. El aprendizaje colaborativo en línea y ABP representan desafíos críticos para algunas tradiciones con fuertes raices en Taiwan. Este estudio abre perspectivas prácticas sobre las aplicaciones del aprendizaje colaborativo en línea y el ABP en la enseñanza superior de Taiwan además de implicaciones para la puesta en práctica transcultural del aprendizaje en línea.     

Contextual challenges of implementing learner‐centred pedagogy: the case of the problem‐solving approach in Uganda

This article explores teachers’ experiences of implementing the problem‐solving approach; a learner centred pedagogic innovation prescribed by a centrally mandated curriculum in Uganda. It presents teachers’ interpretations of the pedagogic principles suggested by the innovation as well as their accounts of challenges of implementing the pedagogic approach. The findings suggest that the teachers’ implementation of the problem‐solving approach was far more regulated by contextual affordances and constraints within schools and the broader education system and society than by their interpretations of the official curriculum. These findings highlight the influence of structural contextual factors in regulating pedagogic practice and teachers’ take‐up of learner‐centred pedagogies in Africa. The evidence from this paper suggests the need for education researchers in developing countries such as Uganda to focus on helping teachers develop strategies for teaching large classes as learner‐centred pedagogies have a bleak future in the region.