Formative peer assessment in a CSCL environment: a case study

In this case study our aim was to gain more insight in the possibilities of qualitative formative peer assessment in a computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. An approach was chosen in which peer assessment was operationalized in assessment assignments and assessment tools that were embedded in the course material. The course concerned a higher education case‐based virtual seminar, in which students were asked to conduct research and write a report in small multidisciplinary teams. The assessment assignments contained the discussion of assessment criteria, the assessment of a group report of a fellow group and writing an assessment report. A list of feedback rules was one of the assessment tools. A qualitative oriented study was conducted, focusing on the attitude of students towards peer assessment and practical use of peer assessment assignments and tools. Results showed that students’ attitude towards peer assessment was positive and that assessment assignments had added value. However, not all students fulfilled all assessment assignments. Recommendations for implementation of peer assessment in CSCL environments as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Understanding the concepts of proportion and ratio constructed by two grade six students

The purpose of this study was to construct an understanding of two grade six students' proportional reasoning schemes. The data from the clinical interviews gives insight as to the importance of multiplicative thinking in proportional reasoning. Two mental operations, unitizing and iterating play an important role in student's use of multiplicative thinking in proportion tasks. Unitizing a composite unit and iterating it to its referent point enables one to preserve the invariance of a ratio. Proportions involved the coordination of two number sequences, keeping the ratio unit invariant under the iteration. In the iteration process, one needed to explicitly conceptualize the iteration action of the composite ratio unit to make sense of ratio problems and to have sufficient understanding of the meaning of multiplication and division and its relevance in the iteration process. One needed to have constructed multiplicative structures and iteration schemes in order to reason proportionally. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The quality of peer assessment in a wiki-based online context: a qualitative study

Peer assessment (PA) provides opportunities for authentic assessment, autonomy and collaboration. Several authors advocate that students can benefit from PA and put forward the effects of PA on the students’ learning outcomes. Questions concerning the validity and reliability of PA and PA competences are also addressed by different researchers. This qualitative study is part of a wider project that seeks to develop and test evaluation and assessment strategies in online contexts. In a doctoral module, PA was used for summative and formative purposes. Formative PA aimed to give feedback about the ongoing group work, but also to increase online interaction between the different groups of students. The main module task was to write a literature review, about a selected topic, using a wiki. Criteria and indicators to assess the literature review were negotiated with the students. Different criteria were used to assess the quality of PA, such as, the use of the negotiated criteria, the adequacy of the chosen vocabulary or the provision of constructive feedback. The results show that overall the quality of PA can be improved. Groups did not provide sufficient criticism, questions and suggestions for improvement.     

Individualized acquisition of knowledge with the computer: Questioning and learning guided by the structure of knowledge

In the first part of this article, we define our view of knowledge acquisition by distinguishing it from text comprehension and memorization, and by presenting the principal characteristics of the concept of knowledge as the formalization used to shape the knowledge domains (Baudet & Denhière, 1988). In the second part, the computerized individual’s knowledge acquisition system we present permits a representation of memory knowledge in accordance with the formalization adopted. This also allows a diagnosis of the learner’s initial knowledge and, according to the diagnosis reached, presents texts and illustrations adapted with the learner’s initial knowledge and with the goal of reaching a particular state of knowledge (Poitrenaud, Denhière & Tapiero, 1987). Finally, in the last part, we relate the first experimental results of learning a particular knowledge domain: sea mammals. This experiment tested the system with children of 7 to 11 years of age (Tapiero, 1987).     

To learn and to construct knowledge in the context of work with adult education: a Portuguese case study

Work contexts are frequently referred to as spaces of learning and production of individual and/or collective knowledge. In such contexts specific dynamics are developed which cause the processes of learning and of knowledge production to have particularities. This paper aims at accounting for some dynamics that are associated with those processes, based on the main results of an ethnographic study on the adult educator team of a Portuguese local development association. The research identified ways of working/action rules based on the learning and knowledge production processes in the association. Mutual help, the reformulation and collectivization of practice, reflection in and about the action, and the negotiation of meaning about the practice are some of the mechanisms identified. The study also highlights how those dynamics of knowledge and learning and ways of doing may contribute to a practice which is closer to the needs of the adults to whom this team offers its education and training services.     

Engineering problem-solving knowledge: the impact of context

Employer complaints of engineering graduate inability to ‘apply knowledge’ suggests a need to interrogate the complex theory-practice relationship in twenty-first century real world contexts. Focussing specifically on the application of mathematics, physics and logic-based disciplinary knowledge, the research examines engineering problem-solving processes as enacted by recent graduates in a range of industrial settings. Theoretically situated in the sociology of education, the Bernsteinian concept of knowledge structures and Legitimation Code Theory epistemic relations are utilised to surface the disciplinary basis of problem solving in different sociotechnical contexts. It is argued that the relationship between the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of the problem gives rise to significantly different practice ‘codes’ between which successful engineering problem-solvers are required to shift. This paper presents two contrasting case studies which demonstrate the impact of the environment on code-shifting practices. Findings suggest that engineering curricula need to facilitate a more conceptual grasp of contextual complexities.     

Geography students as constructors of classroom knowledge and practice: a case study from Botswana

This study reports on the strategies (overt and subtle) employed by students in one senior secondary school in Botswana to keep their teachers in an information‐giving position. Contrary to the prevailing view that the ‘teacher dominance’ of classroom activities so often reported in classroom studies results from teachers' desire for social control, this study sees the dominance as a negotiated product, resulting instead from teachers and students exercising power on one another. Such a view of classroom practice is only possible where power is conceptualized not as a negative force that dominates, but as a productive force that simultaneously constrains and enables human action. Viewed this way, classroom reality becomes a co‐construction, a ‘joint project’ by teacher and students. Attempts to change this reality, therefore, must include both teacher and students.     

Culture as a tool: facilitating knowledge construction in the context of a learning community

Knowledge construction is regarded as an effective learning model in practice. When more and more learning communities are organized to promote knowledge construction, it is necessary to know how to use different tools to support knowledge construction in the learning community context. In the literature, few researchers discuss how to construct knowledge with such tools in the contexts of learning communities. The purpose of this project is to explore how culture as a tool supports knowledge construction in the context of the Zhabei Learning Community in Shanghai, China. Social constructionism and the cultural diamond are employed as devices to frame the study. Some of the conclusions are influenced by postmodernism. Data from five learning cells indicate that culture is a bridge that connects multiple knowledge creators together; culture is a prop which transfers knowledge to a variety of receivers; culture is a lubricant nurturing an open learning environment; and culture is used as a toolkit to compose the new knowledge product.     

Constructing knowledge in the context of BioWorld

BioWorld is a computer learning environmentdesigned for high school biology students. BioWorldcomplements the biology curriculum by providing ahospital simulation where students can apply what theyhave learned about body systems to problems where theycan reason about diseases. Students workcollaboratively at collecting evidence to confirm orrefute their hypotheses as they attempt to solveBioWorld cases. The present study examined students'use of BioWorld to solve problems related to thedigestive system. Analyses of student actions andverbal dialogue were conducted to pinpoint the typesof features within BioWorld that were most conduciveto learning and scientific reasoning. An exploratoryanalysis of the types of assistance provided tostudents by a teacher, researcher, and BioWorld alonewas conducted to examine how scaffolding influencedstudent actions.     

Measuring mathematical knowledge for teaching: a longitudinal study using two measures

This longitudinal study examines growth in teacher knowledge as measured by two popular assessments—Learning Mathematics for Teaching (LMT) and Diagnostic Teacher Assessments in Mathematics and Science (DTAMS). Using data collected from 24 teachers, we compare the extent to which each assessment captured teacher learning during a K-8 mathematics content/pedagogy hybrid course and a general mathematics content course. Teachers made large gains on both measures, but the LMT better captured gains made during the hybrid course, whereas DTAMS better detected gains during the mathematics course. Patterns in teacher performance suggest substantive differences between specialized mathematical knowledge for teaching and everyday mathematics knowledge. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

历史的知识功能与大学生的人文素质教育

本文就如何发挥历史的知识功能,加强大学生人文素质教育问题进行了简略的探讨,认为在高等院校开展历史知识的教育,不仅必要,而且可能,它对大学生综合素质,特别是人文素质的提高,具有重要意义。     

以科学的方法研究学习：连接CSCL的研究与实践

自上个世纪80年代以来,计算机支持的协作学习（CSCL）迅速成长为一个跨学科的、充满生机的研究领域,在以科学方法研究学习方面产生了积极影响,并形成了一个国际化的研究共同体。作为一种有望用于实践教育变革的创新学习模式,计算机支持的协作学习也面临着将理论研究成果与教育实践相连接的挑战。从历史角度看,CSCL研究领域的这种趋势是必然的,正如CSCL2011年会主题所展示的,在CSCL领域所开展的研究,需要通过与实践的连接体现其意义和价值。因此,有必要从连接实践的角度对计算机支持的协作学习研究进行新的解读,试图将其视为一种社会性实践,并通过文献的回顾,发现对这种社会性实践如何加以分析,以及如何对这种社会性实践活动进行设计。     

The effects of guided elaboration in a CSCL programme on the learning outcomes of primary school students from Dutch and immigrant families

This study examined the effects of guided elaboration on students' learning outcomes in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. The programme provided students with feedback on their elaborations, and students reflected on this feedback. It was expected that students in the experimental (elaboration) programme would show better learning gains and that students from immigrant families would especially benefit. Two hundred primary school students of 9 different schools participated. The research can be characterized as a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test, control group design. In a multilevel regression analysis, no main effect of the intervention was found. However, there was a significant differential effect of the intervention; students from immigrant families in the experimental programme outperformed their counterparts in the control group. It can be concluded that guided elaboration in a CSCL programme through feedback and reflection is a promising approach.     

Asian lifelong learning in the context of a global knowledge economy: A task re-visited

This article revisits and reinterprets my previous paper. It is a snapshot of the lifelong learning system building in selected Asian countries, reflected in the mirror of the Asian Financial Crisis in the 1997s and the aftermath of that event. I reconsidered the arguments (1) the economic recession had delivered a global dimension of lifelong learning to the re-shaping of the local education system beyond local attributes; (2) and that the divergent tradition of adult education in this context was to meet the global market standards. Additionally, (3) I tried to further the discussion about the relationship between global forces and the lifelong learning system in the context of a knowledge economy, but with a number of different approaches. I argued that the lifelong learning system under the global forces of capitalism, as per the Asian experience in the 2000s, can be apart of a knowledge economy itself, not a tool of it, and in this sense, a knowledge economy sets the conditions of a lifelong learning system as an embryo of its attributes.     

Professional knowledge learned and professional knowledge applied: A case study of two trainee English teachers

This article reports on one strand of a collaborative research project undertaken at the Faculty of Education, which sought to explore trainee teachers' development of assessment understandings and practices during their PGCE, and over the following two years. Using two case studies of English trainees, we explore the ways in which they seek to bring together effective assessment principles embedded in the research literatures they encountered in their training with the classroom focused, 'tried and tested' approaches in their placement schools. The resulting demands on professional knowledge 'pure' and 'applied', and some resulting tensions are investigated though interviews with the trainees concerned.     

Philosophical education and cultural relevance: discipline-affirmation in the context of the knowledge economy

The following paper proposes a discipline-affirming response to the challenge facing higher education in the context of the knowledge economy. It resists the drive to reduce the value of a humanities based education to the mere production of skills and instead affirms the substantial body of knowledge of specific disciplines. It uses as its model the degree programme in Philosophical Studies at Newcastle University in order to show how a discipline-affirming approach to learning has the advantage of not only developing and making students aware of educational skills that can contribute to the knowledge economy, but doing so without downgrading the worth of the knowledge and concepts of the students' discipline. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate that a learner involved in a personalised, object-based project will not view the acquisition of knowledge as merely a means to an end and also be able to communicate the value of the knowledge gained to laypeople.     

Analytical reflection on teachers' practical knowledge: A case study of exemplary teachers in an educational reform context

The present qualitative study investigates the practical knowledge of primary school exemplary teachers in an educational reform context. Data were collected through detailed classroom observations and notes, checklists, shadowing the teachers, along with semi-structured and stimulated recall interviews. The findings suggested that the participants possessed eight categories of practical knowledge: subject-matter, pedagogical, learners, classroom management, learning environment, curriculum, school environment, and self. Moreover, a conceptual model was developed couching in the content of teachers' practical knowledge in terms of content-centered versus learning-centered orientations. The findings have significant implication to link theory and practice in the teacher education and development programs.     

背景知识与大学生英语听力理解能力的相关研究

随着英语听力教学的不断深入和发展,背景知识越来越受到重视。本文通过实证研究,论证了背景知识与大学生英语听力理解能力存在一定的相关性,丰富的背景知识有利于培养英语听力理解能力。在实证研究的基础上,笔者阐述了背景知识对提高大学生英语听力理解能力的重要性,从而进一步探讨了在英语听力教学中导入背景知识的有效途径,以期更好地提高大学生的英语听力理解能力。     

Reading against all odds: a pilot study of two deaf students with dyslexia

Learning to read and write is a challenge for most deaf children due to their limited experiences with, and access to, spoken language. In the case of deaf students who have difficulty processing visual print, literacy becomes an even greater challenge. The study piloted an intervention procedure that incorporated the principles of automaticity, repetition, functional vocabulary, and a positive teacher-student relationship as recommended in programs for struggling readers and adapted them to the needs of two deaf high school students with dyslexia in an American Sign Language-English bilingual program. The findings reveal gains in reading ability on the formal measures, though not more than would be expected over a 6-month period simply due to development. The real improvements were noted in the students' attitudes toward literacy, improved social interaction, and increased self-confidence.     

A study on the tacit knowledge of university faculty: a case study in Taiwan

The tacit knowledge of university faculty might take roots deep down in their own cognition system and influence their ways of thinking and reasoning. This study aims at (1) the exploration of the characteristics of university professors’ tacit knowledge in Taiwan and (2) the disentangling of the factors underlying its development. Drawn from the data collected by qualitative observations and analyses, this study concludes: (1) In general, Taiwanese professors are of strong motives for self-fulfillment to be social elites and to pursue excellence form the backbone of the academic career. (2) The inner factors relating to faculty’s tacit knowledge include a high level of intelligence and analysis ability, the consciousness of being elite, the strong motives of constant pursuit of accomplishments, and the self-adaptation to the campus culture. (3) Its outer factors contributing to the faculty’s tacit knowledge include the peer consensus and competition pressure on campus, and the expectations of being a professional and a role model stereotyped by the society. Finally, several suggestions are provided for the cultivation of wide and open tacit knowledge so that the university faculty’s profession can be upgraded and more social responsibility can be shouldered.