Modelling a learning environment: Towards a learning organization

Abstract

The role of the academic developer mirrors that of the current day academic. It is increasingly diverse and complex. Staff employed in academic development units are expected to respond to the needs of individual academics and are also expected to provide leadership in teaching and learning, conduct research into higher education, contribute to policy on a broad range of issues, and undertake community service. In addition they are expected to take responsibility for their own professional development. They are constantlyjuggling priorities of personal, professional and organizational commitments. To maintain competence in the face of multiple demands there must be significant overlap between work and learning. The learning opportunities inherent in working within a large multi‐dimensional organization must be acknowledged and embraced through the concept of a ‘learning organization’. It is important that the organizational culture of the Academic Development Unit (ADU) values learning, encourages reflection and fosters collaborative practice. This paper outlines an organizational model of academic development highlighting the opportunities for intervention at the level of organizational culture, staff development and student learning. It also suggests strategies for organizing and managing an ADU that provides a positive model of an effective working and learning environment.     

Distributed leadership for personalized learning

Abstract

Personalized learning refers to a collection of practices designed to place student interests and needs at the heart of schooling. Schools that implement personalized learning need leaders that support educators and students in redesigning the core practices of teaching and learning in K-12 schools. To answer the question of how leaders support this redesign, we use distributed leadership theory to focus on the macrotasks and microtasks that leaders enact to create the conditions for personalized learning practices. Drawing on a five-year, qualitative study of 11 personalized learning programs in the Midwest, we identify three macrotasks supporting personalized learning: reorganizing learning environments to support student voice and choice, assembling idiosyncratic technology ecosystems to distribute teaching and learning tasks, and redesigning instructional time to prioritize student’s interests, agency, and learning relationships. After we describe a number of microtasks associated with each macrotask, we discuss how a consideration of these kinds of leadership tasks can open the contemporary discussion of personalized learning from a narrow focus on learning technologies to an expansive vision of student-centered school reform.     

Active learning in a constructivist framework

An important tenet of constructivism is that learning is an idiosyncratic, active and evolving process. Active learning, operationalized by cognitive, metacognitive, affective and resource management learning strategies, is necessary for students to effectively cope with the high level of demands placed on the learner in a constructivist learning environment. Case studies of two students detail contrasting passive and active learning behaviours. Examples of their strategic learning behaviours illustrate that having students involved in activities such as discussions, question answering, and seatwork problems does not automatically guarantee successful knowledge construction. The nature of students' metacognitive knowledge and the quality of their learning strategies are seen to be critical factors in successful learning outcomes.     

Teacher adaptation to personalized learning spaces

Personalized learning spaces are emerging in schools as a critical reaction to ‘industrial-era’ school models. As the form and function of schools and pedagogy change, this places pressure on teachers to adapt their conventional practice. This paper addresses the question of how teachers can adapt their classroom practice to create personalized learning spaces. Personalized learning spaces draw conceptually from several decades of attempts to personalize learning and open up classrooms, both physically and virtually. They are characterized by deliberate and active interactions between the context, teacher and students. Two case studies are presented of teachers in Australian regional schools reacting to new open plan school buildings by adapting their practice. Key findings discussed are the influence of context on teacher reasoning, and teacher agency when establishing alternative learning environments.     

数字图书馆中基于本体的个性化推荐框架

为了提高数字图书馆信息服务的能力,描述了一个基于本体的用户浏览和搜索个性化推荐系统框架.该框架将本体的优点应用于检索周期中,包括提问相关测度、语义化的用户兴趣表达和自动更新、以及个性化的检索结果排序等.在用户访问数字图书馆的交互过程中,可通过本体来构造用户提问和文档内容的匹配机制以实现语义化的内容检索,并可进一步使用本体来构造用户兴趣偏好的概念向量以实现面向用户的个性化推荐反馈.     

Investigation of multiple human factors in personalized learning

In the past decade, a number of personalized learning systems have been developed and they mainly focus on learners' prior knowledge. On the other hand, previous research suggested that gender differences and cognitive styles have great effects on student learning. To this end, this study examines how human factors, especially gender differences and cognitive styles, affect learners' reactions to a personalized and non-personalized learning systems based on learners' prior knowledge. Forty-four university students participated in this study. The results show that females and Serialists show positive reactions to the personalized learning system, while males and Holists demonstrate similar reactions to the personalized learning system and the non-personalized learning system. The implications of these results for the design of personalized learning systems are discussed.     

Making sense of learning for work. Towards a framework of transitional learning

In this article a framework is presented to understand the changing character of individual learning processes and of educational practices related to work and employment. Based on two research projects - a research on women's biographical learning in relation to work and a European research on the socio-economic integration of young adults - a perspective of transitional learning is developed. It is argued that nowadays individual learning processes can be understood as processes of transitional learning aimed at creating meaningful connections between individual life and society via work and adult education. This interpretation, together with the changing educational landscape, calls for a reconsideration of the interventionist role of the adult educator. In order to stimulate and support these learning processes, guidance, training and counselling are becoming reflexive activities in need of interpretive professionals.     

通用本体学习框架研究

提出了一种通用本体学习框架GOLF,通过对网络上各专业领域web文档集进行挖掘来实现本体自动构建,讨论了本体学习中本体概念的抽取、概念之间语义关系的抽取和分类体系的自动构建等关键技术,通过实验对算法进行了测试,并对本体评价方法进行了探讨.由于集成了多种机器学习算法,该方法在概念抽取和语义关系学习方面具有更高的准确性.采用通用本体WordNet和HowNet作为语料库,它可适用于不同的专业领域.同时,通过按需获取web文档,该方法能实时生成本体.     

Understanding the learning of values using a domains-of-socialization framework

The narratives that emerging adults wrote about a time when they learned an important moral, value or lesson were explored in order to determine the characteristics of events that lead to internalized values as well as to compare the way different kinds of moral values are socialized. Lessons resulting from misbehavior were reported most frequently. Those involving direct teaching of values were most highly internalized, with internalization assessed by importance and current impact. Self-reflection and self-generation of values was identified as a key means to value learning and was reported more frequently than any other source of values (e.g., parents, peers). Finally, it appears that a framework for understanding socialization that involves different domains can reflect how individuals categorize their value-learning experiences.     

Technology functions for personalized learning in learner-centered schools

Personalized Learning (PL) has been widely promoted. Despite the increasing interest in PL, it is difficult to be implemented, because it can be complicated, costly, and even impossible without the help of powerful and advanced technology. This national survey study aimed at systematically investigating technology usage and needs of teachers in learner-centered schools in the U.S based on the conceptual framework of the Personalized Integrated Education System (PIES). PIES specifies four major functions: recordkeeping, planning, instruction, and assessment. A total of 308 learner-centered schools were identified that met at least three of the five criteria of PL: (1) personalized learning plans, (2) competency-based student progress, (3) criterion-referenced assessment, (4) problem- or project-based learning, and (5) multi-year mentoring. Survey responses of 245 teachers from 41 schools were analyzed. Results indicate that only 12% of teachers responded that they had a technology system that integrated the four major functions. Among the rest, 21% reported that they had no such systems. Technology was most widely used for planning and instruction but not for recordkeeping and assessment.     

Empowering personalized learning with an interactive e-book learning system for elementary school students

Today various types of tablet computers are used, including iPad and Android Tablets. These individual portable digital devices can be used as e-book readers to support mobile personalized learning. Though many studies have investigated e-books by targeting undergraduate students, yet less attention has been paid to children. Therefore, an Interactive E-book Learning System (IELS) was developed for elementary school students in this study. The interactive principles in multimedia learning were adopted to empower students?? personalized learning experiences with e-books. Meanwhile, in order to meet student??s learning needs, a group of in-service teachers were consulted for acquiring their domain expertise. Personalized learning functions, such as e-annotation and bookmarks, content searching, and learning process tracking, were designed to reinforce student learning. Two investigations were conducted for evaluation of the developed system. The first investigation was conducted with 166 elementary school students to evaluate the usability and functionality of the developed system and the feedback from the students. It was found that the usability and functionality of the developed system were well-suited for most of the students. The second investigation was to evaluate the learning effect of the developed system. The results showed that using an e-book or printed book made no significant difference to the students?? reading accuracy; however, the learning process tracking technique of IELS can provide detailed logs about the actual learning processes which can be used by the system to provide further assistance to individual learner. This study concludes that such a tailor-made e-book learning system could achieve a better personalized learning experience for elementary school students.     

Using learning principles as a theoretical framework for instructional consultations

Learning theory provides a powerful framework for analyzing instructional consultations and increasing their effectiveness. In this paper, the authors review the main tenets of learning theory, apply them to consultation scenarios, and present a complex case study to show how they can guide analysis and problem solving around challenging consultations.     

基于现代网络的个性化学习

联合国教科文组织将人的潜能得到充分的发展作为人的基本权利。从古到今,这些观念反映到学习就是学习者的个性化学习,现代网络教育因其教育目的、内容、方法的极大丰富和多重组合,学习手段的多元选择、学习支助的日趋完善等为学习者提供更多选择,使个性化学习成为可能。     

Activity theory as a framework for designing constructivist learning environments

The epistemic assumptions of constructive learning are different from those of traditional instruction, so classical methods of needs and task analysis are inappropriate for designing constructivist learning environments (CLEs). This paper argues that activity theory provides an appropriate framework for analyzing needs, tasks, and outcomes for designing CLEs. Activity theory is a socio-cultural, socio-historical lens through which designers can analyze human activity systems. It focuses on the interaction of human activity and consciousness within its relevant environmental context. Since conscious learning emerges from activity (performance), not as a precursor to it, CLEs should attempt to replicate the activity structures, tools and sign systems, socio-cultural rules, and community expectations that performers must accommodate while acting on some object of learning. After explicating assumptions of activity theory and briefly describing the components of CLEs, this paper describes a process for using activity theory as a framework for describing the components of an activity system that can be modeled in CLEs.His current research focuses on designing constructivist learning environments, cognitive tools for learning, knowledge representation methods, problem solving, computer-supported collaborative argumentation, cognitive task analysis, and individual differences and learning.His current research focuses on designing constructivist learning environments, cognitive tools for learning, knowledge representation methods, problem solving, computer-supported collaborative argumentation, cognitive task analysis, and individual differences and learning.Her research interests include activity theory and structural knowledge.     

Reconceptualise a dynamic framework of the learning constructs in higher education

This paper reconceptualised the interrelated learning constructs in higher education based on the Dynamic Systems Theory (DST). The university students' learning experience before, during and post the Emergency Online Learning (EOL) was investigated to explore the dynamic changes among the learning constructs in higher education. A case study of a Chinese university was conducted, and one hundred and ninety-three university students participated in the questionnaire. The data collected from this empirical research identify different hierarchical constructs of the conceptualised learning environment and reconceptualise the period of system reformation influenced by the EOL. The key findings include the identifications of the attractors and repellors framed by the DST and the impact on the changes in the learning constructs. The results of this paper contribute to further understanding of the university constructs' changes to better plan and support students' active learning in higher education.     

Fostering personalized learning in science inquiry supported by mobile technologies

In this paper, we present a mobile technology-assisted seamless learning process design where students were facilitated to develop their personalized and diversified understanding in a primary school??s science topic of the life cycles of various living things. A goal-based approach to experiential learning model was adopted as the pedagogical design to support the student??s personalized learning process. We chose to report the student??s inquiry into the life cycles of the spinach plant and the butterfly to pinpoint the how the student??s personalized learning was fostered in the experiential learning. The learning process consisted of (a) in-class enculturation and question posing; (b) out-of-class field trip observation; (c) on site reflection after observation; (c) data collection and conceptualization of life cycles in the field trip; (d) the hands-on experimentation of growing the spinach plant and rearing a butterfly after the trip at home; (e) creation of animations and composition based on the hands-on experience individually either at home or in class to re-conceptualize the life cycles of the spinach plant and the butterfly, and (f) sharing and evaluation of their work in class. Each student was assigned a smartphone on a 1:1, 24?×?7 basis, which was used by individuals to mediate their seamless learning experience across multiple contexts. Through our analysis of the learning content, processes and products, we illuminate how the goal-based approach applied to mobile-assisted experiential learning facilitates students?? personalized learning and helps them to fulfill their agency in such learning experiences.     

Evaluating the quality of work-integrated learning curricula: a comprehensive framework

There are many different forms that work-integrated learning (WIL) takes and variants go by a range of different names. Based on current literature, key dimensions, shared by the various and disparate forms of WIL curricula, were identified and operationalised in a measurement model. The key dimensions identified were: authenticity, integrated learning supports (both at university and the workplace), alignment (of teaching and learning activities and assessments with integrative learning outcomes), supervisor access and induction/preparation processes. It is suggested that variations in the way that WIL courses or subjects are designed within these dimensions are the basis for different expressions of the quality of such courses. A latent construct measurement model was developed and validated with a sample of Australian and UK students. This paper presents the model and discusses the results of the validation study. It is proposed that the measures validated in this study will be useful for evaluating a wide variety of WIL curricula.