Older learning engagement in the modern city

Abstract

This research employs novel techniques to examine older learners’ journeys, educationally and physically, in order to gain a ‘three-dimensional’ picture of lifelong learning in the modern urban context of Glasgow. The data offers preliminary analyses of an ongoing 1500 household survey by the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC). A sample of 1037, with 377 older adults aged 60+, was examined to understand older learner engagement in formal, in-formal, non-formal and family-learning contexts. Preliminary findings indicate that all forms of older learning participation are lower than younger and middle-age counterparts. However, there is a subset of ‘actively ageing’, socially and technologically engaged older adult ‘learner-citizens’, participating in educational, physical, cultural, civic and online activities (including online political discussions and boycotts). These older learners were more likely to be working, caretakers and report better health overall. Long-term disabilities were associated with less engagement in non-formal learning activities. Additionally, engaged older learners’ GPS trails show more city activity than their matched non-learning-engaged counterparts. Place-based variables, such as feeling safe and belonging to the local area, moderated adult participation in learning activities. The full data-set will be accessible to researchers and the general public via UBDC, providing a complex data source to explore demographically diverse learners’ within an urban context.     

Practices of effective writing teachers

This study analyses the practices of nine New Zealand teachers of upper primary and middle-school students (N = 210) whose classes had consistently shown gains in writing far greater than normative expectations. Data from observations of three writing lessons and related interviews with each teacher, plus interviews with three focus students after each lesson, were considered in relation to learner gains in writing. To analyse these data, a content analysis matrix was constructed from selected writing research literature, yielding eight dimensions of effective practice: expectations; learning goals; learning tasks; direct instruction; responding to learners; motivation and challenge; organisation and management; and self-regulation. Instructional moves associated with each were defined. There was a significant association between three dimensions (learning tasks, direct instruction and self-regulation) and learner gains. Analysis also indicated that these effective teachers of writing employed an interconnected range of instructional moves in a strategic and flexible way. Instructional actions and activities are particularly effective if regarded as purposeful by learners and if they include meaningful opportunities for learner involvement. The findings detail strategies for generating higher than anticipated gains by learners.     

基于辍学研究的电大课程教学反思——以“变化中的英语”课程为例

本文基于电大辍学归因研究中的学习负荷问题展开讨论。调查显示,学习负荷过高造成了许多电大学生在学习道路上的无功而返,而学习的高负荷是由课程难度与学生学术水平之间的落差所造成的。本研究旨在通过对电大课程教学过程的审视,探究其学术支持服务手段的有效性。本研究以2011年3-6月上海电大A分校2010春英语专业本科层次"变化中的英语"课程教学为个案,通过面授课堂观察、课程形成性考核记录、网上教学记录、课程期末考试成绩聚焦课程教学效果。研究结果显示,电大的课程教学支持服务手段仍停留于传统教学模式,而作为重要学习辅助手段的网上学习,其形式意义占据和弥漫于抽样所在班级师生的观念中,导致学习支持的可获得性受到制约;同时,由于任课教师在电大体制下被层层嵌于一个庞大的系统之中,教师的能动性在改善课程教学效果时会受到一定程度上的限制;第三,在多方原因的共同作用下,现行教学模式下学生的课业表现与预期课程教学目标之间存有潜在的些微差距,会在一定程度上影响任课教师对自身课程教学的判断和调整。改变这种状况,电大教学组织制度的变革和对教师支持服务力度的加强势在必行。     

Self Organising Wayfinding Support for Lifelong Learners

Lifelong learning puts learner self-direction centre-stage. However, increased responsibility should not come at the price of over-burdening or abandonment of learners as they progress along their learning journey. This paper introduces an approach to wayfinding support for lifelong learners based on self-organisation theory. It describes an architecture which supports the recording, processing and presentation of collective learner behaviour designed to create a feedback loop informing learners of successful paths towards the attainment of learning goals. The approach is presented as an alternative to methods of achieving adaptation in hypermedia-based learning environments which involve learner modelling. The article concludes with a discussion of the questions being addressed in our ongoing research.     

Dimensions of educational transactions in a videoconferencing learning environment

Abstract

Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance suggests that dialogue, structure, and learner autonomy are the key elements delineating the educational transaction in distance learning environments. However, the conceptualizations of these concepts in a telecommunication era have not been systematically addressed. By investigating 121 learners’ experiences with videoconferencing, this study identified the dimensions (factors) constituting dialogue, structure, and learner autonomy in such a learning environment. Exploratory factor analysis using a principal axis factor method was carried out. It was concluded that each of these three concepts represented multi‐faceted ideas. Dialogue consisted of three dimensions: in‐class discussion, out‐of‐class electronic communication, and out‐of‐class face‐to‐face interaction. Structure contained the dimensions of course organization and course delivery. Learner autonomy was comprised of independence and interdependence. The results of this study can inform videoconferencing researchers and practitioners of the factors of the educational transaction that should be considered in videoconferencing courses.     

高职学生英语学习策略研究

学习策略是为了提高学习效率,解决学习过程中所遇到的问题而作出的种种选择和采取的措施,它包括学习者的心理过程,也包括其具体行动。良好的学习策略是学生学好英语的关键,因而,英语教学应将对学生学习策略方法的研究与指导,纳入日常教学工作之中。     

We are what we do: Examining learner‐generated content in the anatomy laboratory through the lens of activity theory

Video and photography are often used for delivering content within the anatomical sciences. However, instructors typically produce these resources to provide instructional or procedural information. Although the benefits of learner‐generated content have been explored within educational research, virtually no studies have investigated the use of learner‐generated video and photograph content within anatomy dissection laboratories. This study outlines an activity involving learner‐generated video diaries and learner‐generated photograph assignments produced during anatomy laboratory sessions. The learner‐generated photographs and videos provided instructors with a means of formative assessment and allowed instructors to identify evidence of collaborative behavior in the laboratory. Student questionnaires (n = 21) and interviews (n = 5), as well as in‐class observations, were conducted to examine student perspectives on the laboratory activities. The quantitative and qualitative data were examined using the framework of activity theory to identify contradictions between student expectations of, and engagement with, the activity and the actual experiences of the students. Results indicate that learner‐generated photograph and video content can act as a rich source of data on student learning processes and can be used for formative assessment, for observing collaborative behavior, and as a starting point for class discussions. This study stresses the idea that technology choice for activities must align with instructional goals. This research also highlights the utility of activity theory as a framework for assessing classroom and laboratory activities, demonstrating that this approach can guide the development of laboratory activities. Anat Sci Educ 7: 361–369. © 2014 American Association of Anatomists.     

Using blended learning to increase learner support and improve retention

Improving retention and identifying ‘at risk’ learners are high profile issues in higher education, and a proposed solution is to provide good learner support. Blending of online learning with classroom sessions offers the potential to use a virtual learning environment to deliver learning activities, and to support learners using a distance learning model. Online tracking can also help to target ‘at risk’ learners quickly. In an action research project to improve retention, a blended module with proactive tutor support was compared with a previous cohort of the module and with similar classroom-only modules where there was no focus on learner support. Learners were also interviewed and the tutor kept records of the learner contact time. The resulting improved coursework submission rate was attributed to learner motivation as a result of peer and tutor support. The total teaching time was no greater in this model, although the workload distribution changed, and the tutor needed to be highly skilled in e-learning.     

From learners to volunteers: A qualitative study of retirees’ transformative learning in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

In Taiwan, older adults over the age of 65 made up 12.51% of the population in 2015, causing the government to promote older adult education to help achieve active aging. As a result, more elderly people have attended learning activities and applied new skills to volunteering. The researcher conducted focus group interviews with 93 older adults from 13 service learning groups to illuminate this process of transforming from learner to volunteer. The findings are as follows. (a) The retirees and empty-nesters undergo discovery during the learning process in order to become learners. (b) These learners then become volunteers through the support from teachers and key persons, through the desire to share learning outcomes, and through answering the call to serve others. (c) The transformative learning rewarded the older adults with improved physical, spiritual, and mental health, as well as gratitude and a new sense of meaning in life.     

The effect of inquiry‐based learning on the achievement goal‐orientation of grade 10 physical sciences learners at township schools in South Africa

Due to apartheid policies, Black African learners in South Africa have been severely disadvantaged in school science. Despite policy changes to redress these historical imbalances, Black African learners continue to underperform in science. Previous research has identified motivation as a key factor that impacts performance. Achievement goal orientation is a construct of motivation that explains learning behaviour. In an attempt to address the problem of learner motivation, this study investigated the effect of inquiry‐based learning on the achievement goal‐orientation of grade 10 physical sciences learners at historically disadvantaged township schools in South Africa. In South Africa, the term “township” usually refers to under‐developed urban areas that were historically created for “non‐whites” during the apartheid era. The findings showed that the experiment group of learners who experienced inquiry‐based learning significantly gained in mastery goal orientation, while the control that were taught through a traditional direct didactic approach had an insignificant change in their mastery goal orientation. From these results, it can be concluded that inquiry‐based learning does support a mastery goal orientation in learners. This orientation is regarded as desirable because mastery approach goals could support positive outcomes in conceptual learning, leading to an improvement in science achievement of learners.     

Formative Interventions for Expansive Learning and Transformative Agency

This article examines formative interventions as we understand them in cultural-historical activity theory and reflects on key differences between this intervention research tradition and design-based research as it is conceived in the learning sciences tradition. Three projects, including 2 Change Laboratories, are analyzed with the help of conceptual lenses derived from basic epistemological principles for intervention research in activity theory. In all 3 interventions, learners expansively transformed the object of their activity. The Change Laboratory cases, however, show that this learning process included productive deviations from the researchers’ instructional intentions, leading to significant outcomes, both practical and theoretical, that were not anticipated by the interventionists. Together these cases illustrate that an activity-theoretical formative intervention approach differs from design-based research in the following ways: (a) formative interventions are based on design done by the learners; (b) the collective design effort is seen as part of an expansive learning process including participatory analyses and implementation phases; (c) rather than aiming at transferable and scalable solutions, formative interventions aim at generative solutions developing over lengthy periods of time both in the researched activities and in the research community.     

Reframing research on learning with technology: in search of the meaning of cognitive tools

Previous research and development with cognitive tools has been limited by an inadequate conceptualization of the complexity underlying their nature and affordances for supporting learning and performance. This paper provides a new perspective on cognitive tools through the lens of the theories of distributed cognition and expertise. The learner, tool, and activity form a joint learning system, and the expertise in the world should be reflected not only in the tool but also in the learning activity within which learners make use of the tool. This enhanced perspective is used to clarify the nature of cognitive tools and distinguish them from other types of computer tools used in learning contexts. We have classified cognitive tools considering how expertise is classified: domain-independent (general) cognitive tools, domain-generic cognitive tools, and domain-specific cognitive tools. The implications are presented in reference to research, development, and practice of cognitive tools. The capabilities of cognitive tools should be differentiated from those of the human, but regarded as part of the system of expertise. Cognitive tools should be accompanied by appropriate learning activities, and relevant learner performance should then be assessed in the context of tool use.     

手势交互虚拟实验对学习体验的影响机制

手势交互作为一种理想的虚拟现实交互技术,其在虚拟实验中的应用能够很好地满足学习者多样化的交互需求并提升交互体验。然而,当前关于手势交互虚拟实验的研究大多聚焦于提高手势识别的准确率、设计开发不同领域的虚拟实验应用等方面,而对学习者在虚拟实验中的学习体验并未进行深入地研究。为了探索手势交互虚拟实验对学习者学习体验的影响机制,利用设计开发的基于Leap Motion的"计算机组成原理"虚拟实验,采用混合研究范式对学习者的沉浸感、学习动机和态度分别进行了测量与分析。结果表明:在手势交互虚拟实验中,学习动机作为中间因素会影响学习者的学习体验;身临其境的感觉和自然丰富的交互体验能够有效增强学习者的物理沉浸,进而提高学习者的学习动机,改善学习者的情感体验并增强其使用意愿,由此来促进学习者学习体验的提升。从改进实践的层面来看,未来应合理设计交互手势,创设高度沉浸的实验环境,优化虚拟实验任务设计,注重对学习反思的引导,以不断提升学习者在心理沉浸和学习效果方面的表现。     

Language anxiety caused by the single mode of instruction in multilingual classrooms: The case of African language learners

ABSTRACT

The capacity to use language is unique from one individual to another. This could also depend on the individual's exposure to a language. This article aims to contribute to the growing area of research on language anxiety by exploring the extent to which language anxiety affects learners’ performance in learning in multilingual classrooms, especially African learners who are learning English as a second language. Learners, especially in the Intermediate Phase in South Africa who are learning in a second language for the first time, may experience a certain level of anxiety because that language is foreign to them. The discussion idea is further advanced by exploring the use more than one language in teaching in order to promote learner autonomy in the learning process. The conclusion will try to provide possible means to deal with language anxiety amongst learners in order to improve learner performance.     

网络环境下有效学习行为特征及影响因素研究

在网络环境下,学习者由于高度自由同时又缺乏有效的监管,学习很容易受到外界事件的干扰,并不能完全保证学习者的学习行为是有效的。为保证网络环境下学习的质量与绩效,有必要对网络环境下的有效学习行为进行深入研究。文章在“有效学习”定义基础上,提出网络环境下有效学习行为的概念及其特征,并详细讨论了网络环境下有效学习行为的主要影响因素,最后从中得到提高网络环境下学习行为有效性的启示:在课前,教师要做好学前分析,检查学习者是否已有本次学习必要的基础知识储备,并帮助学习者明确自己的学习目标,给学习者提供必要的学习环境;在课中,教师要注重学习者信息技术应用能力的培养,同时给学习者施加一定的外部动机,并结合具体情况,给予学习者有效的引导;在课后,教师需要及时对这节课进行反思总结。     

The role of learners’ epistemic beliefs in an online Community of Inquiry

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model provides a lens to examine online learning through three elements: teaching presence (the design and facilitation of learning experiences), social presence (the extent to which learners project themselves as real people) and cognitive presence (the extent to which learners are able to construct meaning through inquiry and reflection activities). While research to date has established the importance of these essential presences in online learning environments, recent research on the CoI model calls for the need to explore the role of learner characteristics. The current study responded to the call by examining the role of learners’ epistemic beliefs (EB) (ie, individuals’ fundamental beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing) in an online CoI. Multiple linear regressions analyses revealed that EB moderated the relationship between learners’ perceived teaching presence and cognitive presences. Future studies on CoI should take learners’ epistemic beliefs into consideration, especially in the case of low teaching presences. Theoretical and practical implications for designing and investigating online learning are discussed.     

Supporting learners with special educational needs and disabilities in the foreign languages classroom

Due to misconceptions about the challenges of language learning, foreign languages classrooms have not always been accessible spaces for all learners. This article seeks to address the needs of students with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in the foreign languages classroom and challenge the notion that this group of students cannot or should not learn languages. Current research tends to focus on specific learning difficulties in language learning, but little research considers the language learning experiences of children with SEND more broadly. Accordingly, this article delineates the advantages of language learning for learners with SEND, drawing on emerging research that shows that second language acquisition is not only possible but positive for many learners with additional needs. It then considers some of the specific challenges that SEND learners may face in the foreign languages classroom before outlining key strategies to facilitate inclusion among this diverse group of learners.

Key points

• Learners with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) should not routinely be removed from the foreign languages classroom, but instead should be provided with opportunities to thrive within it. This article discusses the unique importance of foreign language learning for learners with SEND.
• Research evidence suggests that learning new languages is, on the whole, possible—and perhaps hugely beneficial—for children with developmental differences and learning difficulties, but will depend on the circumstances and profile of the individual child.
• The article explores some specific challenges that students with different additional needs might encounter in their foreign languages education, based on the four areas of need outlined in the SEND Code of Practice: communication and interaction; cognition and learning; social, emotional and mental health difficulties; and sensory or physical needs.
• To conclude, the article presents a range of key strategies that foreign languages teachers might implement in the classroom to support learners with different special educational needs and disabilities.

     

建模学习软件“学习者中心”设计理念探讨

建模软件应用于课堂教学,能够支持学生通过建模学习有关学科的知识,培养思维建模的能力。由于学习情境与专家工作情境的差异,建模学习软件应当采用"以学习者为中心"的设计,支持复杂教学情境中的学习活动。"以学习者为中心"的设计考虑学习者的目标、需要、活动以及教学情境,以友好的界面、多样化的认知工具和脚手架策略,为学生的建模活动提供支持。     

Learner Resistance to English-medium instruction practices: a qualitative case study

The internationalization of higher education has resulted in the growth of English-medium instruction (EMI) practices and research. The existing EMI research has documented learners’ favorable attitudes toward EMI but not necessarily its practices. Learners’ dissatisfaction has not been viewed as a form of resistance. Through the notion of learner resistance that underscores agency in defiance, this study examined the occurrences of learner resistance and the reasons for it by investigating Chinese learners’ experiences in an undergraduate business English-taught program in Taiwan. Multiple sources of data, including interviews, stories, and class observations, were gathered for analysis. The findings showed that most Chinese learners resisted an unhelpful curriculum, pedagogy, and context. Their resistance may be related not simply to academic disciplines but more importantly to a Confucian Heritage Culture of learning. Such findings highlight learner agency in resisting actions and call for further investigation into potential learner resistance in EMI practices.