Assessment of situated learning using computer environments

Based on a theory of situated learning, assessment must emphasize process as much as product. Assessment must move away from a linear additive model, accepting at the outset the complex, nonlinear, and possibly chaotic nature of real learning. Assessment must adapt to and take advantage of students working with technologies that extend their perceptual and problem-solving capacities beyond what they could do alone. To illustrate these points, several assessment examples are given, including a computer-based planning assistant for a videodisc mathematics and science video, suggestions for computer-based portfolio assessment, and speculations about embedded assessment of virtual situations. In all cases, the theory of situated learning emphasized perception over memory and the codetermined nature of learning and thinking.     

基于情境学习理论的ITLSS系统设计

通过对情境学习理论的分析,提出了一种信息技术学习支持系统的理论模型,从理论上分析和确定系统的框架结构,并对所应用的技术进行了介绍。     

Learner perspectives on fully online language learning

This study builds on this author’s 2011 article in which the author reflects on the pedagogical challenges and resultant changes made while teaching two fully online foreign language papers over a four-year period (Y. H. S. Sun (2011). Online language teaching: The pedagogical challenges. Knowledge Management &; E-Learning: An International Journal, 3, 428–447). Drawing on current literature, the present study surveyed learners (n?=?46) in an attempt to investigate the difficulties that confronted them and the ways they had adapted to fully online learning. The quantitative and qualitative data obtained from a questionnaire were integrated and analyzed with an inductive method. Results identified six major difficulties: (1) following the schedule and studying regularly, (2) getting hold of classmates and finding suitable time to work together, (3) pairing/teaming up and working collaboratively, (4) ensuring constant engagement with the class, (5) keeping self-motivated and being a self-directed learner, and (6) socializing.     

An examination of digital game-based situated learning applied to Chinese language poetry education

By gradually placing more importance on game-based education and changing learning motivation by applying game-playing characteristics, students’ learning experiences can be enhanced and a better learning effect can be achieved. When teaching the content of Chinese poetry in Taiwanese junior high schools, most teachers only explain the meaning of Chinese poetry, while it is difficult for students to understand why poets write these poems, resulting in learning confusion. This paper implemented a digital game-based situated learning system based on Tang Dynasty poems for learning Chinese poetry to simulate the situations of hardship encountered by poets when writing poetry in animated form to help junior high school students in Taiwan to have greater understanding when learning the content of Chinese poetry. The research results show that students who used the Gourd Tang Dynasty system in game-based instruction had significantly better learning achievements than students who underwent traditional narrative instruction. Among them, students in the low learning ability group improved in their grades significantly more than students in the high learning ability group in terms of their Tang Dynasty poetry learning. Furthermore, the authors examined the predictive relationships between perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and behavioural intention related to the digital game-based situated learning system for Chinese language poetry. The factor of perceived usefulness was a key factor in the students’ positive attitudes towards the digital game-based situated learning system. There were no significant differences with respect to individual characteristics (i.e. gender, online game experience and digital learning experience). The results demonstrate that this type of system can be widely accepted by students with different learning experiences.     

Investigating agentive urban learning: an assembly of situated experiences for sustainable futures

ABSTRACT

In this article we explore the dynamic between the pedagogical and the urban, attending to ‘agentive urban learning’. By this we mean processes by which young people build agency in the urban context, in using the resources of the city to develop their own agency, and of developing agency to act within the city. By agency, we refer to the capacity to imagine and act to create individual and collective futures. Our interest is how young people develop such agentive urban learning themselves and how it might be enhanced pedagogically at school and university. Three case studies explore different facets—the first how young people themselves develop this agency in situated settings and the tools that they use to reflect upon the future; the second how digital tools might be used to enhance students’ understanding of the city as a site of change, in this instance, climate change; and the third how such agency might be developed collectively in partnership with other city dwellers. We conclude that a diversity of students’ engagement in urban contexts of learning offers ways from which to further investigate how identity, setting, and stakeholder relationships matter as part of potentially sustainable agentive learning futures.     

Learning in context: Technology integration in a teacher preparation program informed by situated learning theory

This investigation explores the effectiveness of a teacher preparation program aligned with situated learning theory on preservice science teachers' use of technology during their student teaching experiences. Participants included 26 preservice science teachers enrolled in a 2‐year Master of Teaching program. A specific program goal was to prepare teachers to use technology to support reform‐based science instruction. To this end, the program integrated technology instruction across five courses and situated this instruction within the context of learning and teaching science. A variety of data sources were used to characterize the participants' intentions and instructional practices, including classroom observations, lesson plans, interviews, and written reflections. Data analysis followed a constant comparative process with the goal of describing if, how, and why the participants integrated technology into their instruction and the extent to which they applied, adapted, and innovated upon what they learned in the science teacher preparation program. Results indicate that all participants used technology throughout their student teaching for reform‐based science instruction. Additionally, they used digital images, videos, animations, and simulations to teach process skills, support inquiry instruction, and to enhance student engagement in ways that represented application, adaptation, and innovation upon what they learned in the science teaching methods program. Participants cited several features of the science teacher preparation program that helped them to effectively integrate technology into their instruction. These included participating in science lessons in which technology was modeled in the context of specific instructional approaches, collaborating with peers, and opportunities for feedback and reflection after teaching lessons. The findings of this study suggest that situated learning theory may provide an effective structure for preparing preservice teachers to integrate technology in ways that support reform‐based instruction. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50:348–379, 2013     

Competent performances of situated identities: Adult learners of English accessing engaged participation

The Communities of Practice (CofP) framework and theories of engaged participation have profoundly shaped how we theorize, investigate, and represent a variety of learning and teaching processes, both in and out of classroom contexts. Within this framework, useful distinctions have been made between a teaching curriculum and a learning curriculum, with the former being interrogated for ascribing limited identities to its learners and the latter valued for the ways it prioritizes learning (and its resources) from a learner's perspective. Analysis of data collected utilizing ethnographic methods (e.g. document collection, participant observation, interviews) demonstrates that, even though the teaching curriculum of one adult ESL program itself provided limited “structuring resources” (and learning opportunities) to its learners, the learners' participation in the program helped them to recognize and value the kinds of engaged participation necessary to access membership in local workplace communities of practice. However, findings also show that while these adult learners of English managed to learn and adopt the practices of one community of practice, they remained excluded from legitimate membership in other communities of practice. The analysis raises questions about the limits and possibilities of a teaching curriculum that values “real world” experiences (and situated learning) in theory but does not prioritize them in practice.     

Fight the power: situated learning and conscientisation in a gendered community of practice

In this paper, I employ situated learning theory to explore gendered processes of marginalisation and conscientisation in a social movement organisation. Using a student activist organisation as a case study, I explain women's awareness of and resistance to masculine performances of leadership and decision-making through the concept of gendered communities of practice and legitimate peripheral participation. I explore how gender inequality is performed in a community of practice, and how it both impedes and facilitates learning and resistance through legitimate peripheral participation. I attempt to bridge situated learning and conscientisation to better theorise the learning and resistance that occur when people are marginalised within communities of practice.     

Feedback processes in multimedia language learning software

Feedback has been one of the important elements of learning and teaching theories and still pervades the literature and instructional models, especially computer and web-based ones. However, the mechanisms about feedback dominating the fundamentals of all the instructional models designed for self-learning have changed considerably with the interactive multimedia technology of today, which have recourse to a wider range of potential in terms of use and functionality. The study intends to indicate that feedback has double functions： On one hand, it has classic ＂triad＂ functions--feedback as motivator, reinforcement and information--in terms of computer-assisted instruction and, on the other hand, as it is emphasized in this study, it forms the core and maintains the continuity of the machine-learner interaction in multimedia software designed today. This work, originally a discussion paper, consists of a review of the related literature and analyses of the software programs designed for teaching French to adults as foreign language in French module of Multimedia Language Learning Centre at Charles-de-Gaulle University （Lille-France）.     

中亚留学生语言学习风格调查与研究

本研究通过问卷调查的形式对新疆境内中亚留学生的语言学习风格及其特点进行了调查了解,在比较不同年级中亚留学生语言学习风格的特点的基础上,提出了相应的教学启示,希望能够为中亚留学生的培养提供有价值的参考。     

外语学习过程中的学习策略培养模式

外语教学的历史是一部不断探询一种万灵的教学方法的历史。传统外语教学主要是强调教师建立在语言层面上教学方法的科学性和合理性，忽视了学习者因个体差异而采用的不同学习策略。在外语教学过程中，如何发现和培养学习者的学习策略成为当今外语教学过程中的重要环节。本文的目的主要是介绍外语学习过程中的学习策略以及六种不同学习策略培训模式。文章首先介绍了什么是学习策略，然后对策略培训培养模式的具体方法和利弊进行了初步探讨，并主张在外语教学过程中融入以策略培养为基础的教学模式。     

浅谈学生在高中化学必修课学习中的参与度

高中化学必修课的教学是一个全新的领域,要求教师拥有全新的理念,运用各种先进的教学手段和教学方法,以进一步提高学生的科学素养,激发学生学习化学的兴趣,尊重和促进学生的个性发展。教师除了对化学必修课的教学在每节课的备课、上课、作业、辅导和考试力求做好外,更重要的是提高学生在高中化学必修课学习中的参与度。     

Learning to mark: exemplars,dialogue and participation in assessment communities

The problems of shifting from norm-referenced assessment to criterion-referenced assessment have been identified by several scholars in recent years. These important critiques touch on a number of areas, but neglect a key question about how assessors learn to accomplish what Shay calls a ‘socially situated interpretive act'. Research that does exist tends to focus on salaried, full-time academics. This overlooks the heterogeneity of the academic labour force in higher education and the substantial contribution made by contract (hourly-paid) lecturers, particularly in applied disciplines such as Business and Management. This study explores how nine newcomers to a UK Business School – including salaried and contract staff – attempt to understand local assessment practice. We use a situated learning lens to analyse their diary entries and interviews about their experiences of learning to mark. Drawing on scholars such as Sadler, we examine the suggestion that exemplars are important for newcomers coming to understand local assessment practice. We argue for the fundamental importance of dialogue about exemplars and other aspects of practice, both to develop inter-subject understandings of assessment ‘anchor points' and also to foster among newcomers (and especially contract lecturers) a greater sense of participating in, and being valued by, the local assessment community.     

计算机辅助语言教学在少数民族学生英语教学中的应用研究

计算机辅助语言教学已成为英语教学手段中必不可少的一部分,本文从计算机辅助语言教学的本身出发,旨在为如何在少数民族班英语教学中运用计算机辅助语言教学模式提出建议,以此更好地指导教师英语教学,提高少数民族学生英语水平。     

Cross-cultural language learning and web design complexity

Accepting the fact that culture and language are interrelated in second language learning (SLL), the web sites should be designed to integrate with the cultural aspects. Yet many SLL web sites fail to integrate with the cultural aspects and/or focus on language acquisition only. This study identified three issues: (1) anthropologists’ cultural models mostly adopted in cross-cultural web user interface have been superficially used; (2) web designers deal with culture as a fixed one which needs to be modeled into interface design elements, so (3) there is a need for a communication framework between educators and design practitioners, which can be utilized in web design processes. This paper discusses what anthropology can contribute to language learning, mediated through web design processes and suggests a cultural user experience framework for web-based SLL by presenting an exemplary matrix. To evaluate the effectiveness of the framework, the key stakeholders (learners, teachers, and designers) participated in a case scenario-based evaluation. The result shows a high possibility that the framework can enhance the effective communication and collaboration for the cultural integration.     

Why first language learning is not second language learning — Wittgenstein's rejection of St. Augustine's conception of learning

The Philosophical Investigations starts with a quotation from St. Augustine on language learning. The usual reconstruction of Wittgenstein's criticism of St. Augustine's view on language focusses on meaning — that is, the picture theory which he had in common with Wittgenstein's own earlier views. This paper shows that Wittgenstein in discussing ostensive definition, understanding, and the private language argument also attacks St. Augustine's notion of learning. In recent years the Augustinian conception has been resurrected in cognitive theories postulating an innate language of thought (e.g., Fodor), making Wittgenstein's claims that this conception of learning is paradoxical very relevant.     

虚实情境融合的交互式外语自主学习模式研究

外语自主学习模式的发展要以现代信息技术为支撑。针对目前外语自主学习在实行上遇到的问题,文章结合情境学习理论,应用虚实融合的增强现实技术构建交互式外语自主学习情境,分析并设计了系统的整体环境架构,阐述了其中采用的关键技术和方法,在此基础上探讨了增强现实虚实交互环境下的新型外语自主学习模式并进行了实例分析。研究表明,此类学习模式能够有效提高学习者在外语学习中的主动性和自主学习能力。     

基于二语学习方法研究的英语教学

外语学习与第二语言学习是不同的。第二语言学习是指学习者大量接受可理解的语言输入,自然而然的习得语言。本文根据学习者对二语的学习方法等,针对英语教学中出现的问题提出具体的解决对策,具有一定的借鉴意义。     

Dornyei二语学习动机框架在军校学员英语学习中的运用

Dornyei动机三层次模式是继Gardener和Lambert社会心理模式后的最有影响的第二语言习得的动机学习理论模式。本文拟从介绍Dornyei的动机框架着手,分析其三层面动机因素在军校大学英语学习中的运用,以及对教学改革中的启发。