Self-Regulated Learning in Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments: lessons of a European peer review

This article first describes the state-of-the-art of model building and empirical research in the field of self-regulated learning (SRL) and then focuses on self-regulated learning in Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments (TELEs). We present recent research results obtained in a European project (TELEPEERS) in the context of which we evaluated TELEs in a peer review manner with respect to their potential for supporting self-regulated learning. In addition, data were obtained on a sample of TELEPEERS students working in these environments and comparative analyses were made across the European project partners.     

基于结构不良问题解决的数学学习环境设计

当前数学课堂教学主要关注解决结构良好的问题,较少涉及真实情景中结构不良的问题,从而常造成学校数学教育与社会生活的脱节。本研究在分析已有关于结构不良问题解决研究的基础上,借鉴乔纳森建构主义学习环境设计理论,从学习环境设计视角出发,构建基于结构不良问题解决的数学学习环境,以期对培养学生使用数学知识解决真实情景中结构不良问题能力有所启发。     

Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments to Solve Performance Problems: A Case of a Korean Company

This is a case describing how technology enhanced learning environments can be used to improve employees’ competence development. For this purpose, specific problematic situations in a Korean insurance company are portrayed. These situations demonstrate that everyday life in a workplace provides opportunities for learning and performance improvement using integrated technology-enhanced learning environments, such as Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS), Knowledge Management Systems (KMS), e-learning, and online Community of Practice (CoP).     

Supporting Teachers Learning Through the Collaborative Design of Technology-Enhanced Science Lessons

This study used the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth in Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 947–967, 2002) to unravel how science teachers’ technology integration knowledge and skills developed in a professional development arrangement. The professional development arrangement used Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge as a conceptual framework and included collaborative design of technology-enhanced science lessons, implementation of the lessons and reflection on outcomes. Support to facilitate the process was offered in the form of collaboration guidelines, online learning materials, exemplary lessons and the availability of an expert. Twenty teachers participated in the intervention. Pre- and post-intervention results showed improvements in teachers’ perceived and demonstrated knowledge and skills in integrating technology in science teaching. Collaboration guidelines helped the teams to understand the design process, while exemplary materials provided a picture of the product they had to design. The availability of relevant online materials simplified the design process. The expert was important in providing technological and pedagogical support during design and implementation, and reflected with teachers on how to cope with problems met during implementation.     

Shaping and Being Shaped by Environments for Learning Science

Environments of learning often remain unnoticed and unacknowledged. This study follows a student and myself as we became aware of our local environment at MIT and welcomed that environment as a vibrant contributor to our learning. We met this environment in part through its educational heritage in two centennial anniversaries: John Dewey’s 1916 work Democracy and Education and MIT’s 1916 move from Boston to the Cambridge campus designed by architect William Welles Bosworth. Dewey argued that for learning to arise through constructive, active engagement among students, the environment must be structured to accommodate investigation. In designing an environment conducive to practical and inventive studies, Bosworth created organic classical forms harboring the illusion of symmetry, while actually departing from it. Students and I are made open to the effects of this environment through the research pedagogy of “critical exploration in the classroom,” which informs my practice of listening and responding, and teaching while researching; it lays fertile grounds for the involvement of one student and myself with our environment. Through viewing the moon and sky by eye, telescope, airplane, and astrolabe, the student developed as an observer. She became connected with the larger universe, and critical of formalisms that encage mind and space. Applying Euclid’s geometry to the architecture outdoors, the student noticed and questioned classical features in Bosworth’s buildings. By encountering these buildings while accompanied by their current restorer, we came to see means by which their structure and design promote human interaction and environmental sustainability as intrinsic to education. The student responded creatively to Bosworth’s buildings through photography, learning view-camera, and darkroom techniques. In Dewey’s view, democracy entails rejecting dualisms endemic in academic culture since the Greek classical era. Dewey regarded experimental science, where learners are investigators, as a means of engaging the world without invoking dualism. Although Dewey’s theory is seldom practiced, our investigations cohered with Deweyan practice. We experienced the environment with its centennial philosophy and architecture as educational agency supportive of investigation that continues to evolve across personal and collective history.     

Technology-Enhanced Physics Programme for Community-Based Science Learning: Innovative Design and Programme Evaluation in a Theme Park

Journal of Science Education and Technology - In this study, a new physics education programme is specifically developed for a famous theme park in Hong Kong to provide community-based science...     

Understanding Conceptual Change and Science Learning through Educational Neuroscience

Although the field of educational neuroscience has grown in recent years, little research has been conducted on conceptual change and science learning through an educational neuroscience framework. Educational neuroscience is frequently used to study processes of language and mathematics cognition, but is not extensively applied to conceptual change and science learning. This review integrates insights from extant conceptual change educational neuroscience studies to inform the fields of educational psychology and science education. These new insights shed light on the persistence of misconceptions and the roles of error detection, inhibition, executive function, and memory in conceptual change. Future directions for the study of conceptual change and educational neuroscience are discussed.     

Student and Teacher Perspectives in Computer-Mediated Learning Environments in Teacher Education

Rapid advances in technology, particularly with the Internet, have led to the availability of numerous tools to support teaching and learning. This study involved the use of an Internet application, Connecting Communities of Learners (CCL), in courses for prospective teachers. Unlike earlier studies involving the use of the CCL, the context of this study related to full-time graduate students who used the CCL to augment weekly face-to-face instruction. An interpretive study was undertaken to ascertain student and teacher perceptions of the learning environments associated with the use of the CCL. Through the use of the CCL, students were able to be autonomous in regard to their own learning, co-participate with their peers and the instructor, and establish and maintain a community of learners in which participants could interact with others as co-teachers and co-learners. The CCL was perceived as a useful tool for building learning environments in which all participants can contribute written texts as evidence of what is known and as objects from which others can learn. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Mathematics and Science Learning Opportunities in Preschool Classrooms

Research Findings: The present study observed and coded instruction in 65 preschool classrooms to examine (a) overall amounts and (b) types of mathematics and science learning opportunities experienced by preschool children as well as (c) the extent to which these opportunities were associated with classroom and program characteristics. Results indicated that children were afforded an average of 24 and 26 min of mathematics and science learning opportunities, respectively, corresponding to spending approximately 25% of total instructional time in each domain. Considerable variability existed, however, in the amounts and types of mathematics and science opportunities provided to children in their classrooms; to some extent, this variability was associated with teachers' years of experience, teachers' levels of education, and the socioeconomic status of children served in the program. Practice or Policy: Although results suggest greater integration of mathematics and science in preschool classrooms than previously established, there was considerable diversity in the amounts and types of learning opportunities provided in the preschool classrooms. Affording mathematics and science experiences to all preschool children as outlined in professional and state standards may require additional professional development aimed at increasing preschool teachers' understanding and implementation of learning opportunities in these 2 domains in their classrooms.     

Targeted Support for Using Technology-Enhanced Science Inquiry Modules

Designing effective professional development experiences for technology-enhanced inquiry instruction is the goal of the Technology Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) NSF funded Center for Learning and Teaching. In order to provide this type of support to a large number of teachers, we devised a targeted professional development approach. Participating teachers implemented short inquiry modules that featured interactive scientific visualizations. We collaborated with 16 schools in eight districts and five states. This paper reports the design, implementation, and refinement of the targeted approach. Findings from interview data show that teachers faced challenges that are often associated with enacting technology innovations in K-12 classrooms. The targeted professional development approach addressed the challenges and allowed teachers to successfully implement the modules in their classrooms. The interview data clarify teachers’ perspectives on how using technology impacted their teaching practices and their ideas about student learning. This work contributes to a growing body of literature that identifies and addresses barriers to integrating technology into K-12 classrooms.     

Representation and Process in Learning Environments for Mathematics: A Commentary on Three Systems

Three computer‐based systems for teaching arithmetic and algebra are discussed. The systems embody several pedagogical tactics: To provide students with augmented repre‐sentations that reveal the structure of problem solutions; to make mathematical symbols meaningful by giving students concrete referents for those symbols; to provide students with enriched feedback about the consequences of their mathematical operations; and to adapt instruction to the cognitive processes of the students. Weaknesses in the three systems are discussed and two general problems, called complexity trade‐off and scaffold removal, are put forward as possible explanations for why the systems are not more effective. The alternative view that mathematics is difficult because it requires abstract thinking is outlined and some of its implications discussed briefly.     

Evaluation Strategies for Developing and Using Effective Computer-facilitated Learning Environments in Science and Engineering

Comprehensive evaluation is often ignored in much of the development of computer-facilitated learning materials. We need to understand what learning difficulties students have, offer them experiences which allow them w construct coherent and useful mental constructs, and then find out whether we are successful. Formative evaluation involves considering how students perceive elements such as navigation, visual material, formats used for questions, etc. This process of information interchange between developers/teachers and students can provide valuable insights into how students approach learning. Summative evaluation focuses more on whether students can demonstrate attainment of certain learning objectives. Both formative and summative evaluations are needed. In this paper qualitative methods of evaluation will be emphasized. Some evaluation questions are posed in the paper and suitable evaluation strategies which can assist in answering these questions are suggested, such as expert reviews, usability testing, instructional modelling, observations, individual and group interviews, questionnaires, performance measures, and computer logging of student work. Evaluation data from three innovative science projects will be described in the paper.     

Exploration and Authority in Science Learning Environments: an International Study

Summaries

English

Scales derived from student responses were used to describe the science learning environments of 14‐year‐old students in 14 different countries. It was found that the best science achievement occured in countries which combined exploratory and authoritarian teaching styles. Within countries, exploratory teaching styles were again associated with high science‐achievement, although the relationship was less strong. These results suggest that some science teachers might improve their pupils’ performance if they adopted more exploratory teaching styles. But no firm conclusions can be reached until the results have been replicated in an experimental study.