Response: Dempster and Corkill's “Interference and Inhibition in Cognition and Behavior: Unifying Themes for Educational Psychology”

Dempster and Corkill present a persuasive case for the utility of the concepts of interference and inhibition in their review, Interference and Inhibition in Cognition and Behavior: Unifying Themes for Educational Psychology. We were especially attracted to their drawing attention to the role of inhibition in learning and to the argument that closer links of educational psychology to neuroscience are needed. At a general level of analysis, we agreed that the concepts of interference and inhibition can provide a unifying framework for describing phenomena in several areas of inquiry, but these concepts seemed to us to be less useful for understanding structured, meaningful learning in instructional domains. Overall, we viewed Dempster and Corkill's review as a creative effort that usefully redirects our attention to neglected basic learning processes.     

Appropriating Scientific Discourse: Findings From Language Minority Classrooms

Although it is common to see extreme case reasoning included in lists of expert heuristics for problem solving, little work has been reported on the role that extreme cases can play in learning that leads to conceptual change. Evidence is presented from video tapes of think-aloud tutoring sessions to document the learning from extreme cases in a unit about levers for seventh graders. The observations support the view that one role of extreme cases is to provide a firm data point or comparison that helps students to establish an ordinal relation between two given variables. Two new additional roles for extreme cases in fostering learning are also identified: (a) their role in activating an intuition, often in the form of a perceptual motor schema, that is used in constructing an imageable, intuitively, grounded, explanatory model as opposed to an empirical role; and (b) their role in facilitating the formation of new causal variables. Pending confirmation of similar effects in other subject areas, these roles are candidates for being included in a set of general learning strategies for science instruction. This illustrates the function that "learning-aloud" studies can play in documenting new types of learning processes and instructional strategies. The study highlights the importance for instructional design of research that uncovers students' existing knowledge structures and natural reasoning processes. The study suggests that explanatory model construction, causal relation construction, and concept formation can result from such instructional designs. The extent to which these three outcomes are evidence for strong conceptual change is also discussed.     

Mentoring beginning teachers in secondary schools: An analysis of practice

The conditions that promote best practice in the mentoring of beginning teachers in secondary schools are explored in this paper in relation to the experiential model of learning put forward by Kolb [(1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. New York: Prentice-Hall]. The underpinning processes of this learning cycle include the experience, the reflection, the learning that results and (further) experimentation.We present some empirical research from a two-year funded project on The Professional Development of Subject Induction Tutors and data derived from questionnaires completed by beginning teachers in three education authorities at the start and end of induction year and from semi-structured interviews with sub-samples of beginning teachers. The questionnaire data allowed us to distinguish three broad teacher ‘types’ in terms of their experiences of induction and the associated mentoring. In relation to these types we explored differences and similarities in the extent to which mentoring functions are distributed in schools, the extent to which different mentoring relationships allow beginning teachers to be empowered in their work, and the particular uses made of review and target setting and the value placed on these processes by beginning teachers and their mentors. Overall we found that best practice for ‘developmental mentoring’ involves elements of challenge and risk-taking within supportive school environments with clear induction systems in place and strong school ethos in relation to professional development.     

Learning Motivation and Activity Contexts

Learning motivation has a special explanatory status in educational psychology and educational practice. Motivation and learning often are studied separately. In the achievement motivation tradition, achievement situation is the connecting link between learning process and achievement need. The explanatory power of this link has limitations. The activity concept is proposed as a unit which is able to offer a broader basis for a unified concept of learning motivation.     

The Influence of Service Learning on Students' Personal and Social Development

Abstract. An explanatory methods design was used to evaluate the influence of a service learning course on learning, personal, and social outcomes for service learning (n = 142) students. These students showed improvements in diversity and political awareness, community self-efficacy, and civic engagement scores from the beginning to the end of the semester. In addition, the students' academic learning, personal and interpersonal development, and community engagement were detected as the major benefits from engaging in service learning. The findings of this study suggest that service learning contributes to students' academic learning and personal and social development through social-emotional processes.     

Interference and Inhibition in Cognition and Behavior: Unifying Themes for Educational Psychology

In this article, we review modern work on interference and inhibition in cognition and behavior. We begin by briefly reviewing the historical and conceptual roots of this new body of work. Next we discuss five new theoretical frameworks that use the concepts of interference and inhibition to explain cognitive and behavioral phenomena. In the section that follows, we review evidence of individual and developmental differences in inhibition and susceptibility to interference in at-risk students. We then consider the implications of this new body of work for research on educational psychology by discussing six selected areas of research: intelligence, strategies, reading comprehension, logical and mathematical reasoning, self-regulated learning, and retention. In the next section, we explore four critical issues that pose significant challenges to research in inhibition and interference. Finally, we discuss the relevance of this work to educational practice by focusing on its implications for the curriculum and instruction. Throughout, our principal goal is to bring this new body of work to the attention of the readers of this journal and to show how it might be useful in guiding research and theory in educational psychology.     

Interference and Inhibition in Cognition and Behavior: Comments on the Commentaries

In our target article (Dempster & Corkill, 1999a) we presented an overview of recent work on interference and inhibition in cognition and behavior. The commentators provided highly informative feedback about a range of implications of this new body of work for educational psychology, including learning disabilities. In our response to the commentators, we reply to two relatively broad topics they touch on: consciousness and the functionalist tradition of American psychology. We also remark on two relatively narrow issues raised by the commentators: what constitutes irrelevant information and perseveration in the missing addend task.     

Aesthetic Learning About,In, With and Through the Arts: A Curriculum Study

Aesthetic learning is a major issue in arts education. The ‘method of art’ is often expected to facilitate in‐depth learning not only in the arts but across the curriculum. This article defines aesthetic learning in terms of a conceptual framework based on two dimensions, one representing the goal and the other the means of aesthetic learning. The goal is described as convergent or divergent. Convergent learning is goal‐directed, focused and rational, while divergent learning is explorative, open‐ended and intuitive. The means are described as medium‐specific or medium‐neutral. Medium‐specific learning emphasises the forms of representation, for example words, pictures, algebra, dance. Medium‐neutral learning emphasises instrumental aspects of learning, such as academic achievement or personal development. Combining these dimensions two‐by‐two, the author arrives at a suggested definition of what is meant by learning about, learning in, learning with and learning through the arts. The rest of the article investigates the potential utility of this framework in various contexts and for different purposes. First, the author presents two temporary ‘Culture‐in‐School’ projects. Secondly, the framework is used to study aesthetic learning processes in sloyd (art & craft), based on student teachers’ portfolios in metalwork. Thirdly, the four modes of learning are compared to equivalent modes of teaching: the instructor, the facilitator, the advisor and the educator. Fourthly, there is a discussion on the role of aesthetics in a ‘balanced’ curriculum. Finally, there is an argument on the need for a variety of assessment tools based on the four modes of learning and teaching, such as copying, portfolios, projects and the repertory grid technique.     

The school leader’s role in school-based development

ABSTRACT

Background: While the school leader’s role is undoubtedly instrumental in school effectiveness, the specific influence of formal leadership on pupil learning is indirect and can be difficult to determine. Research findings suggest that school leaders can influence school organisation and pupil learning by acting catalytically, thus unlocking their schools’ existing potential. In school-based development, school leaders and their staff undergo a workplace development process, using school resources to contribute to it.

Purpose: This article explores the concept of leadership in school-based development, focusing on leading teacher learning processes in relation to pupil learning. The research problem is formulated in the following question: How is the school leader’s role enacted and experienced when enhancing teachers’ learning in school-based development? The intent of the study was to further the understanding of leadership in school-based development.

Sources of information and method: A qualitative interview study was conducted with teachers and leaders from three lower secondary schools, roughly 2 years after the schools participated in a formal school-based development project which was initiated by the Norwegian education authority. To present the findings based on the collected data, narrative texts were constructed.

Findings: The findings draw attention to the importance of leaders’ participation in the teacher learning processes of school-based development. The study highlights the importance of leaders building trust in their schools: development processes must be collegium-rooted with common goals for the whole school. The interplay of culture, structure and content is found to be necessary for successful school-based development. Furthermore, school leaders need to balance internal and external accountability, moving school practices towards local goals, which are constructed within national overall aims.

Conclusions: The study suggests that leaders require an overview of developmental processes to manage to support and progress development; leadership needs to be distributed. Further research on leaders’ learning in relation to school-based development can generate knowledge that serves as a thinking tool, thereby informing leaders’ actions in support of school-based development.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Negativity</Emphasis> and the <Emphasis Type="Italic">new</Emphasis> in John Dewey’s theory of learning and democracy

Zusammenfassung Negativit?t und das Neue in John Deweys Theorie vom Lernen und der Demokratie — Für einen erneuten Blick auf Lernkulturen Die Rolle des Neuen in Lernprozessen bezieht sich auf die grundlegende Frage, wie Lernen überhaupt m?glich ist und wo es beginnt. In diesem Beitrag wird zun?chst John Deweys Lernkonzeption als Basis für die Analyse entwickelt. Dann wird die Beziehung zwischen Negativit?t und dem Neuen erarbeitet. Beim übergang vom Alten zum Neuen und vom Gewussten zum Ungewussten entstehen Verwirrungen und Schwierigkeiten, die in diesem Papier als Negativit?t im Lernprozess untersucht werden. Au?erdem vermittelt der Beitrag Einsichten in praktische p?dagogische Probleme, etwa bezüglich der Frage, wie Lehrer und andere Erzieher Lernprozesse f?rdern und wie Lernkulturen als besondere Lernumwelten Lehr-Lern-Prozesse unterstützen k?nnen.

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Negativity and the new in John Dewey’s theory of learning and democracy Toward a renewed look at learning cultures

Summary The role of the New in learning processes relates to basic questions of how learning is possible, and where learning begins. Using John Dewey’s concept of learning as the basis for analysis, this inquiry looks into the relation between Negativity and the New and seeks to uncover the negativity in learning processes associated with the perplexities and difficulties which arise in the transitions from Old to New and Known to Unknown. Furthermore, it offers insight into practical pedagogical issues, such as how teachers and educators can support learning processes and how learning cultures, as particular environments for learning, can assist processes of teaching and learning.

     

Learning opportunities in the outdoor school–empirical findings on outdoor school in Germany from the children’s perspective

This article examines learning processes and learning opportunities in the outdoor school based on 13 focus-group interviews with children (ages 8–9) at three German elementary schools. For 1 year, cross-curricular teaching had taken place once a week outside the classroom—in natural settings, at cultural sites or on school grounds. The article discusses the learning potential of the outdoor school in terms of activities that the children perceive as dominant, i.e. playing, moving and social cooperation. It will discuss and reflect upon the learning opportunities that arise as well as on the limitations of learning in out-of-school settings and the role of learning in the children’s perception. The study reveals that the outdoor school as a place of teaching, play, exploration and experience offers formal and informal learning opportunities and encourages children to engage among themselves and within their social and inanimate surroundings by challenging them physically, cognitively, perceptually and socially. Learning processes initiated through play, activity and social cooperation are often not perceived by the children as ‘learning’ in the formal sense. Apparently, a significant proportion of the outdoor school’s potential lies in the combination of teacher-structured and informal learning processes that arise spontaneously.     

Negotiation,embeddedness, and non-threatening learning environments as themes of science and language convergence for English language learners

In this review, we explore the notion of teaching science to English language learners (ELLs) as a balancing act between simultaneously focusing on language and content development, on the one hand, and between structuring instruction and focusing on student learning processes, on the other hand. This exploration is conducted through the lens of a theoretical framework embedded in the Science Writing Heuristic approach, an approach exemplifying immersive orientation to argument-based inquiry. Three learning processes (learning through the language of science, learning about the language of science and living the language of science) and three classroom structures (collective zone of proximal development, symmetric power and trust relationships and teacher as decision-maker) are explored in relation to learning theories and empirical findings from second language acquisition and science, multicultural and teacher education bodies of work. Three themes – negotiation, embeddedness and non-threatening learning environments – to inform ELL science education emerged from the review.     

Towards a Learning Profession: changing codes of occupational practice within the new management of education

Professionals were once considered to be the civic leaders, the deliverers of the good society. However, the old order has cracked under the pressure of social change, leaving a very different relation between professionals and their publics. This paper addresses some of the questions occasioned by these changes: Where does the altered power relation between parents, students and teachers leave the notion of teacher professionalism? What is the role of professionals within the emergent order? The paper is a product of the ESRC‐funded New Forms of Education Management Project (Local Governance Programme). It argues that, within the new management of education, the professional codes and practices point to a changing relation between teachers and what has traditionally been seen as their specialist knowledge. An outcome of this altered relation is the empowerment of parents and students in relation to teachers. However, the new relation depends upon new shared understandings and new sets of agreements; and these in turn depend upon new processes of agreement‐making and a radically altered power relation between parents, students and teachers as they jointly develop these processes. The paper reviews the changing purposes of professionalism during the second half of the 20th century and outlines a new version of teacher professionality based upon the enabling of learning, the accommodation of difference, and the practice of agreement. Agreement is then ‘theorised’ in terms of the nature of agreement and the institutional structuring of agreement.     

Emotion Labeling Among Young Children in Foster Care

Research Findings: Emotion knowledge is a core developmental process that has a documented relation to other aspects of social-emotional functioning, including social competence, emotion regulation, and behavior problems. Children who are maltreated have been found to have compromised emotion knowledge skills as well as higher levels of behavior problems. The current study was designed to add to the small literature on emotion knowledge in children who have been maltreated and are in foster care, with an examination of child and family processes that contributed to their emotion labeling skills. Young children in foster care were administered the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the Affect Knowledge Task while their foster mothers completed a background questionnaire during a data collection home visit. Findings revealed that participant children's verbal ability contributed greatly to their capacity to accurately label emotions. Family processes also contributed to this skill above and beyond verbal ability. Practice or Policy: Parenting interventions for foster parents should be designed to address core developmental processes of early childhood, such as emotion knowledge.     

Tug‐o‐where: situating mobilities of learning (t)here

This article explores ‘mobilities’ as a research framework for learning not so much in terms of what has to be done to enhance learning using mobile technologies. Instead it focuses on our embodied ways of knowing and learning by ‘being mobile’ in physical and mediated spaces. It reviews current mobility frameworks used in mobile learning research and other technology integration studies. It proposes a practice‐based mobility agenda for learning by ‘setting in motion’ not just technologies, but also bodies and spaces from a sociological perspective and a phenomenological standpoint. It seeks to understand what is being done – the re‐configurations of bodies, spaces and technologies in a mobile society that is increasingly characterised by media convergence and ubiquitous connections and communication. To move educational research, a conceptual framework that articulates body‐types in relation to technologies is discussed.     

Shifting sands: a case study of conceptual development as competition between alternative conceptions

Conceptual change may be considered as a process of coming to view one theory or model as having more explanatory power than others. Various theorists have described how an individual's understanding of a concept may be multifaceted; how conceptual frameworks develop in a cognitive ecology, and are subject to selection pressures; and how alternative frameworks compete in terms of their explanatory coherence. The present paper applies these ideas to a case study of learning in science. It is argued that conceptual development may be described in terms of a gradual shift in which of several alternative explanatory principles is the learners' preferred choice. The case study illustrates the long-term nature of conceptual change, as a learner comes to see the limitations of one explanatory framework, and the scope for exploring and developing another.     

Doing,knowing, caring and feeling: exploring relations between nature-oriented teaching and preschool children's learning

Research has shown that early childhood science education is based on education and care, sometimes stressed as a dichotomy. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the relations between teachers' teaching and children's learning in preschool practice, both in terms of educative processes and nature-oriented content. The ambition is also to develop and present an analysis method that facilitates these investigations. Outdoor nature experiences of preschool children (aged one to three) were video-recorded, transcribed and analysed. The methodology is based on John Dewey's pragmatic philosophy. Here, epistemological move analysis (oriented towards teachers' guiding processes as moves) and substantive learning quality analysis (oriented towards multi-dimensional learning qualities) are developed and used as analysis tools. The analyses show that the relations between teaching and learning processes and nature content are intertwined and include education and care. The teachers guide towards aesthetical, moral, cognitive and physical qualities in learning by challenging, admonishing, instructional, confirming, generative, reorienting and reconstructing moves. The results contribute to nature-oriented teaching practice and nature-oriented preschool research when discussing and investigating teaching and learning processes and nature content.     

Measuring the demand for agricultural information

Abstract

Networked learning aims to foster students’ knowledge construction processes as well as the quality of knowledge construction. In this respect, it is crucial to be able to analyse both aspects of networked learning. Based on theories on networked learning and the empirical work of relevant authors in this domain, two coding schemes are presented to analyse the nature of learning processes and the quality of knowledge construction in networked learning. The coding schemes were used to analyse the learning processes and learning results of students in an MSc course on land use planning at Wageningen University in which networked learning played an important role. The inter-rater reliability of both instruments appeared to be satisfactory. The relation between the two coding schemes is discussed and recommendations for future research and educational practice are formulated.     

Analysis of self-regulated learning processing using statistical models for count data

Researchers often use measures of the frequency of self-regulated learning (SRL; Zimmerman, American Educational Research Journal, 45(1), 166–183, 2000) processing as a predictor of learning gains. These frequency data, which are really counts of SRL processing events, are often non-normally distributed, and the accurate analysis of these data requires the use of specialized statistical models. In this study, we demonstrate how to implement and interpret count statistical models in path and latent profile analyses to investigate the role of SRL as a mediator of the relation between pretest and posttest conceptual understanding. Our findings from a sample of 170 college students using a computer to learn about the circulatory system show that SRL does mediate the aforementioned relation, and that count models are a more accurate representation of SRL processing data than standard analysis models based on ordinary least squares estimation. The results of our path analyses revealed which specific SRL processes were related to learning, above and beyond the effect of prior knowledge. Our latent profile analysis revealed two groups of participants, indicative of Brophy’s (2004) model of schematic and aschematic learners. We conclude with implications and future directions for basic and applied SRL research.