Seven Affordances of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: How to Support Collaborative Learning? How Can Technologies Help?

This article proposes 7 core affordances of technology for collaborative learning based on theories of collaborative learning and CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) practices. Technology affords learner opportunities to (1) engage in a joint task, (2) communicate, (3) share resources, (4) engage in productive collaborative learning processes, (5) engage in co-construction, (6) monitor and regulate collaborative learning, and (7) find and build groups and communities. We elaborate our framework using in-depth explorations of how technologies are actually used to support collaborative learning in CSCL research and identify representative design strategies and technology examples. While technology can play an important role in addressing the demands of collaborative learning, it needs to be considered in conjunction with pedagogical strategies and other social and cultural supports for collaborative learning. The supports also need to remain at an appropriate level so as not to interfere with long-term learning goals.     

Work Situations Triggering Participation in Informal Learning in the Workplace: A Case Study of Public School Teachers

Interviews and site visits were conducted with 22 teachers to identify the work situations that trigger their engagement in informal learning and the personal characteristics that enhance their motivation to engage in informal learning when dealing with such situations. Analysis of the data found that three types of work situations triggered engagement in informal learning: new teaching tasks, new leadership roles, and adherence to policies and procedures. Motivation to engage in informal learning was enhanced by teachers' initiative, self‐efficacy, commitment to life‐long learning, and interest in their content area. Implications of the findings for theory, research, and the facilitation of informal learning are discussed.     

A model of factors affecting independent learners’ engagement with feedback on language learning tasks

In independent learning contexts, the effectiveness of the feedback dialogue between student and tutor or, in the absence of a tutor, the quality of the learning materials, is essential to successful learning. Using the voices of participants as the prime source of data through a combination of data-driven and concept-driven approaches, this investigation attempts to gain deeper insights into the dynamics of the learning process as students express emotional reactions to the learning environment and in particular the written feedback from their tutors and the learning materials. To account for the different ways in which adult learners studying independently engage both cognitively and emotionally with external feedback, we propose a model based on four key drivers: goal relevance, knowledge, self-confidence, and roles. We conclude that only when these key drivers are aligned with each other can learners in independent settings engage with external feedback and learn from it.     

Direct instruction as a pedagogical tool in religious education

Recent advances in the cognitive sciences along with theoretical perspectives from a Vygotskian learning paradigm are used to provide a justification for direct instruction in religious education. Direct instruction is not seen as the end of the learning process but one way in which students can be equipped to engage in more complex learning tasks which both challenge and engage them. To be pedagogically effective, direct instruction must be part of a wider teaching strategy and be based on a number of key principles, such as coherence, signalling and recognition of prior learning. The paper argues that direct instruction is especially relevant when dealing with conceptually difficult material. In addition, it also has a place when working with students who lack strong content knowledge.     

Engaging Students in Macro Issues Through Community-Based Learning

Abstract

This paper describes the revision of a curriculum that was initiated to engage and sustain students' interest in the macro dimension of social work practice. Specifically, we describe how two junior policy courses, a seniormacro practice course, and a research methods course were revised to include a service learning approach. This article provides a review of the literature and focuses on the development of service learning in two social work courses. Results of subsequent research are discussed, indicating service learning provides successful opportunities to engage students in macro social work practice.     

Why mentor? Linking mentor teachers’ motivations to their mentoring conceptions

Current mentoring models for teacher preparation and induction emphasize the need to engage novice teachers’ learning through collaborative professional learning communities. Mentors in such communities are expected to engage in joint knowledge construction with novices, and to be ‘co-thinkers’ who enact a developmental view of mentoring, as well as ‘co-learners’ who are willing to engage in mutual learning with their novices. These two aspects are assumed to be associated in mentor thinking. The aim of this questionnaire study was, therefore, to explore the relationship between mentors’ mentoring conceptions and their mentoring motives. Participants were 726 secondary education mentor teachers, associated with 13 institutes for teacher preparation in the Netherlands. Results showed that a motivation to mentor for personal learning was more strongly associated with a developmental conception of mentored learning to teach than with an instrumental mentoring conception. The same was found for a motivation to mentor for contributing to the profession, but less pronounced. These findings suggest potential strategies for the selection and preparation of mentor teachers for programs that intend to foster collaborative inquiry approaches for novice teacher support.     

The Learning Benefits of Being Willing and Able to Engage in Scientific Argumentation

Engaging in science as an argumentative practice can promote students’ critical thinking, reflection, and evaluation of evidence. However, many do not approach science in this way. Furthermore, the presumed confrontational nature of argumentation may run against cultural norms particularly during the sensitive time of early adolescence. This paper explores whether middle-school students’ ability to engage in critical components of argumentation in science impacts science classroom learning. It also examines whether students’ willingness to do so attenuates or moderates that benefit. In other words, does one need to be both willing and able to engage critically with the discursive nature of science to receive benefits to learning? This study of middle-school students participating in four months of inquiry science shows a positive impact of argumentative sensemaking ability on learning, as well as instances of a moderating effect of one's willingness to engage in argumentative discourse. Possible mechanisms and the potential impacts to educational practices are discussed.     

Teaching science in fifth grade: Instructional goals that support conceptual change

How one teacher in a fifth-grade classroom (student ages 10–11) facilitated learning as conceptual change is the subject of this research. The teacher presented her students with seven learning goals that she believed would allow students to engage in conceptual change learning. Student outcomes as a result of this teacher's instruction included significant changes in the ability of students to engage in conversations that are characterized as metaconceptual and metacognitive. These changes are attributed to instructional activities of the teacher that established her learning goals. Characteristics of the learning environment created by this teacher are presented and an analysis of the instructional activities she presented to students are used to answer the following question: How did the learning goals presented by this teacher support students as they engaged in learning as conceptual change? The implications of this study for teachers in different contexts are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 1091–1101, 1998     

From the outside in: Lessons in learning beyond the school walls

Major discontinuities exist between the way learning is conceptualized in schools and the way learning happens outside school. The author challenges educators to engage in a serious conversation about methods for mending the mismatch.     

Rethinking reflective practice in professional lifelong learning using learning metaphors

Studies relating to reflection and reflective practice in learning, specifically workplace learning, have gradually emerged from within the professional education literature. Evidence has seen a shift from an individualistic to a more collective approach to reflection, in an attempt to move away from viewing learning as an individual action. Simultaneously attention has been given to socio-cultural theories which view learning as social practice inherent in our everyday lives, including work. This paper aims to engage in the current debate regarding the polarised conceptualisations of reflective practice within the context of professional learning. Drawing on this debate, as well as on learning metaphors, this paper proposes that professionals should engage in collective reflective practice for both individual and organisational development within workplaces; locations which could be seen as increasingly ambiguous and unpredictable throughout individuals’ working lives. Hence, we need to rehabilitate and extend some of the key aspects of the traditional concept of reflective practice to accommodate the changing terrain of professional practice within an individual professional's lifelong learning.     

Applying HOPSCOTCH as an exer-learning game in English lessons: two exploratory studies

This article describes HOPSCOTCH, a design concept for an exer-learning game to engage elementary school children in learning. Exer-learning is a new genre of digital learning games that combines playing and learning with physical activity (exercise). HOPSCOTCH is a first design concept for exer-learning games that can be applied to support the acquisition of factual knowledge. HOPSCOTCH is based on the popular playground game in which a course is drawn on the pavement with numbers that indicate the course to be hopped. In two exploratory studies at a German elementary school, we investigated the potential of HOPSCOTCH to engage students, as well as to facilitate the acquisition of factual knowledge (English vocabulary) and to improve the attitudes of students towards learning English as a second language. The results of these studies indicated that the students remembered and correctly spelled about the same number of new vocabulary words after learning with HOPSCOTCH as they did after a teacher-centred lesson. Importantly however, the students enjoyed playing this exer-learning game very much and they reported better attitudes towards studying English after learning vocabulary with HOPSCOTCH compared to a teacher-centred lesson. These encouraging first results support the assumption that HOPSCOTCH as a design concept may have the potential to actively engage players in learning activities leading to a virtuous circle of reduced low level disruption and self-exclusion, increased assimilation of knowledge and greater engagement in lessons to the benefit of the whole class, not just the better-motivated individual. As such we suggest that exer-learning games could serve as additional classroom control and teaching aids in schools.     

Taking active learning into the primary school: a matter of new practices?

This paper examines the extension of active learning pedagogical practices familiar in preschool settings to the first class of primary school. Policy and practice guidance in the UK is advocating the benefits of experiential learning as a way of engaging young children as they move into primary school but for teachers this means a move to new practices which can be in tension with other expectations. In this paper, the rationale for active learning is considered along with an account of the classroom activities of teachers and children in five primary schools that were implementing the policy shift to active learning. The children in these classes spent varying amounts of time in whole class activities led by the teacher or in small groups directed to engage with specific activities. They had opportunities to engage and respond verbally, through manipulating objects and with physical actions but the emphasis was on planned, teacher-directed learning activities. The characteristics of active learning as introduced in these innovative classes are compared with the expectations of practice guidance and theorising about early learning.     

Learning as boundary-crossing in school–university partnership

This paper points out that globalization has raised fundamental questions about knowing and learning and that it is essential for educators to engage in collective knowledge generation by crossing community boundaries. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Activity Theory, this paper reports on a study on the expansive learning that was afforded by a school–university partnership as university tutors, mentor teachers and student teachers engaged in a new activity system mediated by lesson study. The study showed that in the course of resolving contradictions that were inherent in the boundary zone, they negotiated the mediating tool and consequently, the activity system was transformed from helping student teachers learn to teach into learning for all participants. This paper concludes that it is essential for teachers and teacher educators to develop the capability to engage in expansive learning through tackling ill-defined problems in boundary zones.     

The twin-cycle experiential learning model: reconceptualising Kolb's theory

Experiential learning styles remain popular despite criticisms about their validity, usefulness, fragmentation and poor definitions and categorisation. After examining four prominent models and building on Bergsteiner, Avery, and Neumann's suggestion of a dual cycle, this paper proposes a twin-cycle experiential learning model to overcome identified problems and integrate the experiential learning field. In the model, an initial response to a learning stimulus or intent occurs at the intersection of a concrete/active/primary learning cycle and an abstract/passive/secondary cycle. The model accommodates four classes of variables that describe six broad learning activity types (engage in, write about, observe, hear/see, read, hear), the three senses these activities predominantly engage (kinaesthetic, visual, aural), six learning modes (concrete, active, primary, abstract, passive, secondary) and four learning stages. Importantly, instead of assigning learning modes to stages of learning as Kolb does, the model assigns them to the two cycles as a whole.     

Developing teacher‐student relationships through out of class communication

This study investigated student perceptions of control, trust, and intimacy as dimensions of teacher‐student relationships, and. the correlation between these relational variables and reports of learning. Control, trust, and intimacy are viewed as core dimensions of interpersonal relationships, and it is hypothesized that students who engage in out of class communication have relationships that are more interpersonal in nature than students who do not engage in out of class communication with teachers. This hypothesis was supported. Additionally, students who perceived their teachers as exhibiting higher levels of shared control, trust, and intimacy reported greater learning.     

Preparing Children for Visual Encounters with Art

Many students perceive science to be a difficult subject and are minimally engaged in learning it. This article describes a lesson that embedded an activity to engage students in learning science. It also identifies features of a science lesson that are likely to enhance students’ engagement and learning of science and possibly reverse students’ negative attitudes toward science.     

Effects of metacognitive and elaborative activity on cooperative learning and transfer

The effects of instructing pairs of students to engage in metacognitive activities (error correcting and key idea detection), elaborative activities (use of imagery, analogies, etc.), or neither during cooperative learning were examined for both initial cooperative learning and transfer to an individual learning task. The results suggest that metacognitive activity facilitates cooperative learning and elaborative activity facilitates transfer to individual learning. These findings have strong implications for the tailoring of cooperative learning strategies to instructional goals.     

Quality Learning of Physics: Conceptions Held by High School and University Teachers

This paper reports an exploration of the conceptions of quality learning held by two samples of physics teachers – final year, high school physics teachers and academics teaching first year university physics. We begin by outlining our view of quality learning, that is a view of learning in which learners take control of their own learning and engage with active construction and reconstruction of their own meanings for concepts and phenomena. This view of quality learning recognises the crucial role of the affective dimension of learning on the extent to which students engage with and maintain such constructivist and metacognitive approaches to learning. The study explored the qualitatively different ways in which individuals conceptualise quality learning in physics, using semi structured interviews that explored aspects of learning that the respondents regarded as worth fostering in their classrooms. The interview approach was a modification of the Interview-About-Instances approach that allowed the possibility of interviewees suggesting instances of particular relevance to their view of quality learning. This process resulted in a considerable quantity of rich and complex data related to a large range of aspects of physics learning. These data are summarised here, and the qualitatively different conceptions of the respondents with respect to four significant aspects of physics learning are discussed. These aspects are: doing experimental work; linking physics to the real world; students taking responsibility for their own learning and being confident/feeling proud of what you can do.     

泛在学习中自适应学习管理系统设计

泛在学习的目的更加倾向于培养学生的兴趣,根据学生的兴趣进行自愿的自主探究的学习。根据泛在学习的特点,分析了现有的自适应模型同时结合实际情况,提出了泛在学习自适应模块的设计方案。该设计方案主要是体现个性化的学习,根据不同的学习者的学习兴趣,系统会提供相应的学习资料,满足学习者不同的学习要求。     

East-West Perspectives on Elder Learning

This paper describes and conceptualizes the meaning of lifelong learning from two cultural perspectives—East and West. It examines the different principles underpinning lifelong learning that explain why and how elders in the two cultures engage differently in continued learning. Finally, it discusses the cultural impact on elder learning by examining the reasons, choices and processes used by elders in the two different cultural contexts as they conceptualize, experience, and negotiate ongoing lifelong learning.