Lifelong learning ecologies in online higher education: Students' engagement in the continuum between formal and informal learning

Lifelong learning opportunities are readily accessible through the hybridization of digital learning contexts—from formal to informal—in today's globally networked knowledge society. As such, expanded learning opportunities generate a continuum of learning contexts and experiences mediated through digital technology. Consequently, there is an urgent need to actively examine the interconnections and complex relations between what is learned in formal university scenarios and the everyday learning that happens outside of the classroom, particularly the informal learning that is afforded through expanded and emerging digital contexts. The current research problem illustrates that expanded and emerging professional development scenarios require new pedagogical designs for empowering lifelong learners to harness the affordances of the web across both formal and informal contexts and practices. This study outlines ways in which students shape their learning ecologies in virtual contexts to support formal academic learning in online higher education. The paper presents qualitative results from a larger mixed methods interpretive case study. The multicase and multisite study examines three fully online graduate programmes in Education and Digital Technology during the 2017–18 academic year, collecting data in the form of online programme documentation, student interviews and online participant observation. Purposeful and criterion sampling were used to select 13 participants across three sites in Spain, the UK and the USA. The study was underpinned by a lifelong learning ecologies theoretical perspective to analyse learning processes across a continuum of practices and contexts. Findings illustrate how students conceive of, as well as how they organize their learning ecologies through a unique configuration of activities, digital resources and networked social support, indicating that academic programmes and teachers have an essential role in empowering student learning ecologies across contexts, recognizing past trajectories and supporting the development of valued disciplinary practices and perspectives across a continuum of learning.     

Structured creative processes in learning playwriting: invoking imaginative pedagogies

The concept of the ‘creative’ in creative writing has a vexed history. This article explores the myths surrounding creativity and how they have influenced the way teachers have approached playwriting pedagogy. It reports on research into the teaching and learning experiences of students and teachers in secondary schools, focusing on the participants’ understanding of creativity and the impact this had on the pedagogical process. The research found that a counterproductive idealist view of creativity persists in classrooms: the teachers and students were operating on a conception of creativity and creative practice that reflected a belief in a mystical and unknowable creative process. This article explores the experiences of creativity through systems theory and argues that this approach can inform teaching and learning for creative processes and products. The article concludes that the teaching and learning practices were unnecessarily tentative and that knowledge of creativity theory would improve the students’ development of both playwriting proficiency as well as creativity-relevant skills. It suggests that demystifying the creative process should result in greater student proficiency and improved teaching and learning experiences for teachers and students.     

Teaching and learning in rural Mexico: a portrait of student responsibility in everyday school life

In this study, we examined on the sociocultural environment and personal experiences of children from a rural Mexican escuela unitaria (one-room, one-teacher school), because many of our immigrant children come to the US from rural Mexican communities. We present a portrait of everyday school life in which students assume responsibility: (a) for oneself, (b) to classmates, (c) for making decisions related to curriculum, and (d) to family and community. The findings have implications for challenging teacher beliefs about culturally diverse students and for supporting educational professionals in developing more culturally responsive teaching.     

Problem-based learning in formal and informal learning environments

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered instructional strategy in which students solve problems and reflect on their experiences. Different domains need different approaches in the design of PBL systems. Therefore, we present one case study in this article: A Java Programming PBL. The application is developed as an additional module for the Learning Management System (LMS). This way the LMS is extended by PBL functionality and the LMS learning resources can be used in PBL.     

Space and embodiment in informal learning

Changes in pedagogy to emphasise independent study and group work have increased the need for informal learning spaces on campuses. University libraries have been quick to respond to this need, partly because of the decline in book lending and partly because of technology enablers. Furthermore, new types of buildings that combine many types of facility, including libraries and informal learning spaces, are being built. This research aimed to explore students’ experience of such informal learning spaces, through focus groups and walk with interviews. It was found that the creation of different types of learning atmosphere, should be understood as a multi-sensory experience, and actively constructed by learners themselves. Informal learning spaces are important destinations for students, who have favourite places to study, where they often work alongside companions and find motivation to work in the presence of others.     

Microcultures and informal learning: a heuristic guiding analysis of conditions for informal learning in local higher education workplaces

This article contributes to knowledge about learning in workgroups, so called microcultures in higher education. It argues that socially constructed and institutionalised traditions, recurrent practices, and tacit assumptions in the various microcultures influence academic teachers towards certain behaviour. In line with this perspective, we present a heuristic with the potential to differentiate various types of microcultures: the commons, the market, the club, and the square. The heuristic is based on a socio-cultural perspective and research on collective action. Its purpose is to assist academic developers to fine-tune their approaches while engaging with colleagues, but also to aid further inquiry into how institutionalised norms and traditions influence academic teaching and student learning.     

非正式环境中的科学学习及其评价

在终身教育的背景下,发生在非正式环境中的科学学习逐渐受到国内外研究者们的重视。相比课堂上的科学课程的学习研究,目前国内关于非正式科学学习的研究还处于起步阶段。欧美研究者对于非正式环境中科学学习的目标、特征以及评价做了系统研究,本文主要通过梳理文献概述非正式环境中所关注的结果的种类及其评价,为我国的相关研究提供资源,为我国在此领域的研究提供借鉴。     

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.     

Informed learning design: teaching and learning through engagement with information

ABSTRACT

While higher education teachers are able to use information in sophisticated ways to learn and communicate within their disciplines, they may not be accustomed to teaching their students to use information creatively and reflectively to support their work in a course. This article introduces informed learning design, a curriculum design model by which teachers specifically enable students to learn course content through intentional engagement with information. Drawing from informed learning pedagogy and the variation theory of learning, the design model outlines an instructional pattern for enabling student awareness of critical aspects and features of the object being studied related to both information use and course content.     

Age Friendly Universities and engagement with older adults: moving from principles to practice

Abstract

The global society is facing a new burgeoning element: an ageing population. Response to the educational needs and interests of older adults requires innovative pedagogies and practices of teaching, research, and community engagement. While traditionally geared towards provision for younger adults, the case is presented that universities have the potential to play a major role in innovation for later life learning for older adults. This article outlines one approach, the Age Friendly University (AFU) and highlights 10 principles that offer a possible guide for innovation and institutional change. The integration of AFU’s mission and principles into three universities is reflected in stories from three university cases in Ireland, the UK (Scotland) and the USA exploring potential merits and also major challenges. It is argued the AFU has the potential to bring social, personal and economic benefits to older adults and universities alike.     

Assimilatory tools for informal learning: prospects in ICAI

This section was introduced in Volume 16, No. 2, for such purposes as: rapid publication of summaries of work in progress (normally in the issue following receipt); outlines of projects or research themes in particular institutions; short papers expressing a strongly-held view or highlighting gaps in the literature; and conventional letters to the editor. We reserve the right to reject submissions or to require changes before publication.     

Investigating learning from informal sources: Listening to conversations and observing play in science museums

The knowledge that pupils bring to science lessons can come from many sources, including some that are deliberately educative and some that contain scientific information, although education is not necessarily their primary purpose. Museums provide a useful setting to investigate the process of learning from informal sources; samples of data obtained from listening to groups of people as they interact with different types of exhibit in the British Museum (Natural History), and from systematic observation of pupils investigating phenomena in the Discovery Room at the Parc de la Villette, illustrate the information that can be obtained.

     

Formal,nonformal and informal learning: Some North-South contrasts

It is argued that in the countries both of the South and of the North, inadequate attention has been given to the interactive dimensions of informal and formal learning. The differences between informal and formal learning have often been stressed in the past, but it is equally important to acknowledge the critical similarities as far as individual motivation and interest in learning are concerned. Before erecting new models for the integration of all three modes of learning, formal, nonformal and informal, into a system, it should be noticed that they already constitute a single comprehensive system — at least for the middle-class child. The problem in both the North and the South is often that the individual's learning is unsupported by any strong infrastructure of informal or nonformal education. This can happen in the industrialised countries, where the resources for informal learning are rich and varied, as well as in the developing world, where all too often the formal school has to operate without the support of a rich environment of literacy and learning.

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Zusammenfassung Sowohl in den südlichen als auch in den nördlichen Ländern der Welt ist nach Ansicht des Verfassers den interaktiven Dimensionen des informalen und formalen Lernens nicht genügend Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet worden. Zwar sind die Unterschiede zwischen informalen und formalen Lernen oft hervorgehoben worden, doch ist es gleichermaßen wichtig, die kritischen Ähnlichkeiten von individueller Motivation und Lerninteresse zu beachten. Bevor neue Modelle für die Integration aller drei Elemente — formal, nicht-formal und informal — in ein System aufgestellt werden, sollte man bedenken, daß diese bereits ein einziges umfassendes System darstellen, zumindest für Kinder der Mittelklasse. Im Norden wie im Süden besteht das Problem darin, daß das Lernen des Einzelnen durch keine feste Infrastruktur informaler und nicht-formaler Frziehung gestützt wird. Das kann auf Industrieländer, wo verschiedenartige Möglichkeiten für Lernen außerhalb der Schule reichlich zur Verfügung stehen, ebenso zutreffen wie auf Entwicklungsländer, wo die Schule allzuoft ohne Unterstützung durch eine an Lese-, Schreib- und anderen Lernmöglichkeiten reiche Umgebung arbeiten muß.

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Résumé Il est montré que l'attention que l'on accorde à l'importance de l'interaction de l'apprentissage scolaire formel et de l'apprentissage diffus, tant dans les pays du Nord que dans ceux du Sud, est insuffisante. La différence qui existe entre l'apprentissage scolaire formel et l'apprentissage diffus a souvent été soulignée dans le passé mais il est également important de reconnaître les similitudes criticables en ce qui regarde la motivation et l'intérêt individuels relatifs à l'apprentissage. Avant que d'ériger de nouveaux modèles d'intégration des trois modes d'apprentissage: scolaire formel, non formel et diffus, en un système, il convient de remarquer qu'ils constituent déjà bel et bien un système global en soi — du moins pour l'enfant de la classe moyenne. Le problème est que souvent, au Nord comme au Sud, l'apprentissage de l'individu n'est pas aidé par une infrastructure solide d'enseignement diffus ou non formel. Et ceci peut se produire tout aussi bien dans les pays industrialisés, où abondent les ressources de tout ordre offertes à l'apprentissage diffus, que dans le monde en développement où, trop fréquemment, le système scolaire formel doit fonctionner sans être soutenu par un milieu alphabétisé propice à l'apprentissage.

     

Religious engagement and attitudes to the role of religion in society: their effect on civic and social values in an Asian context

This paper explored the impact of religious engagement (religious background, religious service attendance and religious activities participation) on adolescents’ civic and social values. Attitudes towards the influence of religion on society were investigated as a possible mediator/moderator of religious engagement. A model based on Western literature was tested using a sample of over 2000 Hong Kong students. Secondary data were drawn from the International Civics and Citizenship Education Study 2009. Multi-level modelling was used to assess individual and school level effects on civic and social values. Results indicated that religious engagement exerted varied effects. Religious background showed small and negative effects on students’ civic and social values. Participation in religious services indicated a small, positive and significant effect on social but not on civic values. Participation in religious activities showed no significant effect on either social or civic values. These variables exerted a small moderating effect on social and civic values through attitudes to the influence of religion on society. The latter exerted a positive and significant effect on civic values and a negative effect on social values. These results suggested that Western models depicting the positive relationship between religious engagement and citizenship values may not hold for Asian societies.     

Educational policy through service learning: Preparation for citizenship and civic participation

This article describes a course designed to prepare undergraduate students to participate effectively in civic life and in public decisions about education and schooling. The course includes an examination of the theoretical and conceptual basis of civic responsibility and service learning, a review of the process of educational policymaking, and an in-depth exploration of a number of current educational policy issues. The course is taught with service learning pedagogy. Experiences in a service placement yield personal knowledge that has the potential to inform students' critical analysis of theoretical, research, and policy literature and to make students more effective active classroom learners.Susan G. Forman is Vice President for Undergraduate Education at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. She obtained her B.A. and her M.S. at the University of Rhode Island and her Ph.D. in School Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Vice President Forman is responsible for oversight of university-wide curriculum and teaching issues and has substantially expanded service learning courses as a means of increasing students' understanding of citizenship. Louise C. Wilkinson is Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Her B.A. is from Oberlin College, her Ed.M. from Harvard University, and her Ph.D. in Human Development also from Harvard. Dean Wilkinson's interests in education span primary through higher education and include a focus on teacher education and how educational policies are formulated and implemented.