Research on Motivation in Collaborative Learning: Moving Beyond the Cognitive–Situative Divide and Combining Individual and Social Processes

In this article we propose that in order to advance our understanding of motivation in collaborative learning we should move beyond the cognitive–situative epistemological divide and combine individual and social processes. Our claim is that although recent research has recognized the importance of social aspects in emerging and sustained motivation in collaborative learning activities, the social is mainly conceived as a unidirectional source of influence on individual motivation. In the article we examine the significance of motivation in research on collaborative learning. We discuss two characterizations of the role of the social in conceptualizations of motivation, namely, social influence and social construction, and outline our case for moving beyond the cognitive–situative divide and combining individual and social processes in research on motivation. Finally, we present illustrations from recent research on motivation in collaborative learning that has attempted to bridge the cognitive–situative divide across theoretical perspectives or using different methods.     

Self-regulatory private speech relates to children's recall and organization of autobiographical memories

We investigated relations between 4- and 7-year-olds’ (N = 58) autobiographical memory and their use of self-regulatory private speech in a non-mnemonic context (a cognitive planning task). Children's use of self-regulatory private speech during the planning task was associated with longer autobiographical narratives which included specific rather than general memories and which were recalled with greater narrative cohesion and more evaluative information. Children's use of private speech that served no regulatory function was unrelated to all memory variables. The relations between self-regulatory private speech and autobiographical memory were independent of children's age, general verbal ability, and gender. Our findings are discussed in the context of the social interaction perspective on autobiographical memory development.     

基于社会认知理论的服装设计活动研究

运用社会认知理论研究服装设计活动。分析了个体、行为及社会环境对服装设计活动的综合影响,认为设计师个体因素及社会环境因素都会影响设计师的设计行为,同时探讨了服装社会认知理论在服装设计行为过程中的指导作用。     

Effects of Training in the Use of Social and Cognitive Strategies: An Intervention Study in Secondary Mathematics in Co‐Operative Groups

ABSTRACT

This article reports on an intervention study into the effects of a training in the use of social and cognitive strategies on the learning outcomes of students in secondary mathematics education. Special attention is given to differential effects for high‐ and low‐achieving students. The focus on differential effects is derived from studies into learning in small co‐operative groups, and from the results of meta‐analyses into the effects of training in learning strategies. From these studies it can be concluded that in general such programs contribute to learning. However, it seems that low‐achieving students are unable to benefit from interventions of the kind investigated (i.e., co‐operative learning and training in learning strategies). The main question is whether it is possible to design an instructional program from which all students benefit, and from which the low‐achieving students profit more than their counterparts in the control‐program. In the present study three instructional programs for co‐operative learning were compared: (i) an experimental program with special instruction in the use of social strategies; (ii) an experimental program with special instruction in the use of cognitive strategies; and (iii) a control program without training in either cognitive or social strategies. The programs were identical with respect to mathematical content and general instructional settings (a combination of whole‐class instruction, working in co‐operative groups and individual work). The experiment addressed the following research question: what are the general and differential effects of a training in the use of social and cognitive strategies on the results of learning in secondary mathematics? The research was conducted in two schools for secondary education in a total of 21 classes, involving a total of 511 students. The design was a pretest‐posttest control group design, using two experimental groups and one control group. The data were analysed from a multi‐level perspective. The outcomes of the investigation clearly show the effects of the intervention. Teaching cognitive and social strategies has the expected, positive effects. In addition to this main effect, a compensatory effect for the low‐achieving students was found. The low‐achieving students in the experimental conditions outperformed their counterparts in the control group.

     

Etched Impressions: Student Writing as Engaged Pedagogy in the Graduate Sport Management Classroom

This article illustrates the pedagogical value of employing student narrative writing assignments in the graduate sport management classroom and advocates for cultural studies and critical pedagogy approaches to teaching sport management. The article considers students' autobiographical narratives within a theoretical framework of cultural studies, critical pedagogy, and critical sport studies in order to demonstrate how autobiographical writing exercises can provide students with an additional forum through which to express their individual voices and to link their personal experiences to course content as they prepare to enter a 21st century sport industry characterized by increasing diversity and globalization     

城乡初中生教育期望的差异研究:个人、家庭与社会结构的影响

本研究考查了我国初中生教育期望的城乡差异现状,并从个人家庭与学校社会两个视角探究了差异产生的机制。研究发现,我国初中生对于获得普通高等教育的期望存在显著的城乡差异,城市户籍学生的教育期望高于农村及流动学生。这种差异受学生认知能力、家庭背景及学校环境共同影响,其中家庭背景的影响大于认知能力,学校户籍结构的影响作用最为明显。研究认为,营造良好学校教育氛围、缓解学校户籍分割、增强学校融合是促进我国教育公平与社会公平的重要举措。     

More evidence that cognitive complexity is not loquacity: A reply to Beatty and Payne

Beatty and Payne (1984) recently presented data allegedly demonstrating that assessments of cognitive complexity based on Crockett's popular Role Category Questionnaire (RCQ) are severly confounded by “loquacity,” the simple amount of verbal response to stimuli. The present paper responds critically to the claims of Beatty and Payne, arguing that these researchers employed a flawed measure of loquacity and inappropriate data analytic procedures. In order to better clarify the influence of loquacity on sophisticated social‐cognitive and communicative functioning, two empirical studies are reported in which alternative measures of loquacity were employed. In neither of these studies was loquacity found significantly associated with social‐cognitive or communicative abilities.     

Environmental learning in regions: a social capital based approach. The case of Latvia

How do people learn about the environment and behave accordingly? What is the cognitive process at the base of this learning mechanism? The present paper is a pilot work investigating the dynamics of individual environmental knowledge on the basis of social capital theory. Using Tsai and Ghoshal’s findings, a well known framework widely accepted in organizational studies which supports the existence of a relationship between structural, relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital, and between social capital and knowledge exchange, these dynamics are then tested in the context of environmental behaviour studies. The quantitative analysis is carried out by means of a structural equation model based on data collected in the Republic of Latvia. Results support main theoretical hypotheses, but several effects are found to be highly sensitive to control variables (residence place dimensions, ethnic affiliation, age, personal income), leading to hypothesise a strong dependency of environmental learning patterns on the socio-demographic, socio-economic and cognitive context.     

Educational experience and cognitive development 1 , 2

This paper examines the relationship between general educational experiences and cognitive development during the school years, kindergarten through high school, and also the effects of focused instruction on learning across short time intervals. Children appear to acquire concepts and other outcomes of learning in the cognitive domain gradually, rather than abruptly, although qualitatively different cognitive operations are presumed to emerge which make possible successively higher levels of concept attainment. The quality of “general education” of the kind experienced by American children under compulsory, universal education appears to influence both the rate of cognitive development and also the maximum level of development that is achieved. Focused instruction clearly aids students to attain concepts to successively higher levels during short time intervals and also to use their concepts in understanding principles and in solving problems. From these conclusions and the results of other studies and analyses, the inference is drawn that the quality of educational experience exerts a strong influence on both the rate and the final level of cognitive development.     

Following One's Nose in Reading W. G. Sebald Allegorically: Currere and Invisible Subjects

In education, we are concerned with the teaching and learning of subjects, but the word “subject” can refer to the discipline being studied as well as the individual who is studying. In this essay, Teresa Strong‐Wilson explores this “double entendre” (which William Pinar refers to as the “double consciousness”) of curriculum studies through the analogy afforded by German author‐in‐exile W. G. Sebald's working through of difficult subjects by way of semi‐autobiographical writing that takes the form of an “invisible subject”: a preoccupation with an unnamed injustice entangled with his own upbringing. Curriculum theory, as currere, has foregrounded the autobiographical. While the place of autobiography in curriculum studies has often been taken to mean writing (especially of a confessional sort), currere is more an allegorical method of study, of intellectual engagement, of learning through reading and writing, and of teaching so as to open spaces for agency. Strong‐Wilson suggests that Sebald can provide a strong example for us in curriculum studies of how to ethically bring into being an allegorical, autobiographical practice focused on “invisible” subjects of deep concern.     

The place of cognition in explanations of teaching: A dialog of interpretive and cognitive approaches

This debate contrasts interpretive and cognitive approaches to explaining teachers' thoughts and actions, exploring epistemological and ontological assumptions that broadly underlie research on teaching. Fundamental to the discussion is whether cognition should be construed as individual mental processing of privately held information structures or as a social event in which thinking is situated, shared, intersubjective, and practical. Also addressed is whether an effective explanation of teaching can rest mainly on an account of a teacher's cognition or whether it must attend equally to an examination of the place in which the teaching occurs and, if the latter, how place exerts its influence.     

不同依恋类型对个体发展影响研究述评

依恋的研究是西方儿童社会性和个性发展领域的主导理论之一.依恋是个体对特定他人持久而强烈的情感联结,有广义和狭义之分,依恋类型一旦形成就会对个体的认知、情感、行为产生影响.探讨广义依恋类型对认知品质及应对策略、人际交往(同伴、恋人、亲子)、人格发展三个方面的影响.近20年来依恋研究在不断发展,但存在一定的局限性.     

论传媒的教育功能

信息时代，传媒的教育的功能日益凸显出来。从大教育的理念出发，传媒不仅具有传承社会遗产的功能，还会对人的终生社会化发展及人的认知水平的提高，起到积极的推动作用。     

Strengthening the Affective and Behavioral Dimensions of Learning About Human Diversity

Abstract

This article describes an autobiographical writing assignment completed by students and faculty that is shared in an off-site retreat. It highlights an approach to learning about human diversity that blends affective and behavioral approaches with more traditional cognitive methods. It supports the interrogation of student and instructor assumptions, biases, attitudes, and experiences that result from living in a diverse and inequitable world. Such interrogation is critical if students are to develop the capacity to engage a broad range of clients with varying constellations of social identity. The paper narrates the issues and processes involved.     

Epistemic Foundation for Teaching Critical Thinking in Group Discussion

I argue for a view of critical thinking and learning as a fallibilistic epistemic process of inquiry and evaluation, which is grounded in human fallibility. I show how this plausible view is different from other views, in that it is predicated not only on individual thinking alone but also on group thinking as it affects the individual in the context of a group discussion. The individualistic rational view of critical thinking only specifies the process or method that one may individually use to evaluate beliefs or the evidence that one brings to bear on one's doxastic attitude or judgment. This view does not specify the nature and scope of evidence that one may need to evaluate. I argue that evaluating a belief in the context of having a substantial amount of available evidence in a social group is important for determining whether one thinks critically. There is epistemic advantage in evaluating a broad scope of available evidence in a group discussion, which does not exist otherwise. I assume that group discussion is a pedagogical tool, which under the right social conditions, is likely to bring about learning and the acquisition of critical thinking abilities. The right social conditions for group discussion can optimize reasonableness by a process which involves cognitive division of labor and epistemic prudence. An individual can evaluate on his or her own only a limited amount of evidence; sometimes we may need to rely on the evidence that others have already evaluated which they may reasonably accept, given their cognitive comparative advantage. I distinguish among three plausible learning outcomes of the process of critical thinking, which indicate cognitive division of labor and comparative epistemic advantage in a group discussion.     

《"天才"》:艺术审美的异化与大众意识的裂变

在美国文学史上,德莱塞的自传体小说<"天才">一直备受争议.他以辩证的认识,多维地处理了他的创作对象.他摈弃了片面性和绝对性,使善与恶、自然与社会、艺术与现实等在<"天才">中辩证地统一起来.本文以19-20世纪之交美国自然主义作家的自身经历为研究起点,追溯美国工业化进程中社会价值观的变迁,集中分析作家艺术审美的形成和异化,揭示大众意识的转变,探索工业化进程中现实与精神链接失败的原因.     

哲学视域下译者的社会心理研究——从翻译的认知转向谈起

认知转向后的翻译研究更多地注意到译者的语言认知和双语转换机制,但对译者的“非语言认知”如社会认知和文化认知却关注不够.然而,从哲学的观点来看,无论是体验哲学还是现代主体性哲学抑或是翻译学科框架的本体论哲学,都为译者认知研究的社会视角提供了理论依据.认知范式下的译者研究,不仅应继承文化范式下对译者主体身份的关注,而且应从跨学科角度借助社会心理学来考察译者的群体身份和社会身份.     

Research Methods to Investigate Significant Life Experiences: review and recommendations

This article reviews different research approaches to understanding the significant experiences that influence people's environmental concern and behavior, with an emphasis on identifying the strengths and weaknesses of existing studies. It also reviews relevant findings regarding the validity of autobiographical memory, as memory is the medium which selects and interprets the significant events reported to researchers. The review notes promising new directions in recent studies, but makes several concrete suggestions regarding how researchers in this field can refine existing methods and broaden their approaches.