The effects of portfolio-based advice on the development of self-directed learning skills in secondary vocational education

This experimental study was designed to investigate whether supervision meetings, in which students receive specific advice on how to use a development portfolio to monitor their progress and plan their future learning, helps them to develop self-directed learning skills and improve their learning in the domain. In the first year of a hairdressing program in vocational education, supervision meetings were used to provide students with either specific advice or not. Students in the advice group (n = 21) formulated better learning needs, selected more suitable learning tasks, completed more practical assignments, and acquired more certificates than students in the feedback-only group (n = 22). Interviews also showed that students in the advice group appreciated the supervision meeting more and perceived them as more effective than students in the feedback-only group. Guidelines are provided for the use of development portfolios and the organization of supervision meetings in on-demand vocational education.

Flexibility in higher professional education: A survey in business administration programmes in the Netherlands

In order to develop higher education in theEuropean Union there is a need to increase themobility of students and teachers. Improvingthe flexibility of educational programming isan educational policy in the Netherlands tosupport this development. To get a clearpicture of the operational characteristics ofcurrent educational programmes, theirflexibility and conditions for improvement, asurvey was carried out in Businessadministration programmes in higherprofessional education institutes in theNetherlands. The results indicate that theseeducational programmes are organised in ratherrigid operational formats that seem to restrictflexibility. The issue of developing newoperational models that allow for more flexibleeducational programme formats is discussed.Operations management and educationaltechnology are considered as potential domainsfor a re-engineering of educational systems.     

Timing of Information Presentation in Learning Statistics

This study in the domain of statistics comparesfour information presentation formats in a 2 × 2factorial design: timing of supportiveinformation (before or during taskpractice) × timing of procedural information(before or during task practice).Seventy-two psychology and education students(7 male and 65 female; mean age 18.5 years,SD = 2.85) participated. Theeffectiveness of the learning material wasmeasured by test performance. The instructionalefficiency was measured by a combination ofmental effort during practice and testperformance (i.e., a high test performancecombined with a low mental effort duringpractice denotes a high instructionalefficiency). ANOVA showed a main effect fortiming of supportive information: presentationduring practice led to more efficient learning than presentationbefore practice. Moreover, an interactioneffect was found. Simultaneous presentation ofprocedural information before andsupportive information during practiceled to the most efficient learning.     

Effects of self-assessment feedback on self-assessment and task-selection accuracy

Metacognition and Learning - Effective self-regulated learning in settings in which students can decide what tasks to work on, requires accurate self-assessment (i.e., a judgment of own level of...     

A motivational perspective on the relation between mental effort and performance: Optimizing learner involvement in instruction

Motivation can be identified as a dimension that determines learning success and causes the high dropout rate among online learners, especially in complex e-learning environments. It is argued that these learning environments represensent a new challenge to cognitive load researchers to investigate the motivational effects of instructional conditions and help instructional designers to predict which instructional configurations will maximize learning and transfer. Consistent with the efficiency perspective introduced by Paas and Van Merriënboer (1993), an alternative motivational perspective of the relation between mental effort and performance is presented. We propose a procedure to compute and visualize the differential effects of instructional conditions on learner motivation, and illustrate this procedure on the basis of an existing data set. Theoretical and practical implications of the motivational perspective are discussed.     

Fostering self-regulation in training complex cognitive tasks

In complex cognitive domains such as air traffic control, professionals must be able to adapt to and act upon continuing changes in a highly advanced technological work environment. To function optimally in such an environment, the controllers must be able to regulate their learning. Although these regulation skills should be part of their training, this is not usually the case. This study evaluates a training program that integrates air traffic control skills with regulation skills. The participants were 29 air traffic control students who followed either the original training program (n = 12) or a new program (n = 17) in which the development of regulation skills was embedded in the training of domain specific skills. Compared to students in the original program, the students in the new program showed increased self-efficacy in the use of self-regulated learning skills with improved performance in domain specific competences. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to the daily training practice of complex cognitive skills.     

Training self-regulated learning skills with video modeling examples: Do task-selection skills transfer?

Self-assessment and task-selection skills are crucial in self-regulated learning situations in which students can choose their own tasks. Prior research suggested that training with video modeling examples, in which another person (the model) demonstrates and explains the cyclical process of problem-solving task performance, self-assessment, and task-selection, is effective for improving adolescents’ problem-solving posttest performance after self-regulated learning. In these examples, the models used a specific task-selection algorithm in which perceived mental effort and self-assessed performance scores were combined to determine the complexity and support level of the next task, selected from a task database. In the present study we aimed to replicate prior findings and to investigate whether transfer of task-selection skills would be facilitated even more by a more general, heuristic task-selection training than the task-specific algorithm. Transfer of task-selection skills was assessed by having students select a new task in another domain for a fictitious peer student. Results showed that both heuristic and algorithmic training of self-assessment and task-selection skills improved problem-solving posttest performance after a self-regulated learning phase, as well as transfer of task-selection skills. Heuristic training was not more effective for transfer than algorithmic training. These findings show that example-based self-assessment and task-selection training can be an effective and relatively easy to implement method for improving students’ self-regulated learning outcomes. Importantly, our data suggest that the effect on task-selection skills may transfer beyond the trained tasks, although future research should establish whether this also applies when trained students perform novel tasks themselves.     

Participatory design in secondary education: is it a good idea? Students’ and teachers’ opinions on its desirability and feasibility

Research has shown the importance of students’ perceptions of a learning environment and the existence of discrepancies between students’ and teachers’ perceptions. Participatory design could be a helpful strategy to reduce such discrepancies and eventually improve the design of learning environments, as it has proven to be effective to optimize design in other domains. The current study investigated the desirability and feasibility of possible use of participatory design in education. Students and teachers in secondary education were interviewed about their opinions on the idea of participatory design of a learning environment. Both students and teachers displayed predominantly positive opinions towards possibly engaging in participatory design, supporting its desirability and feasibility. Practical suggestions for implementation are included.     

Dynamic task selection: Effects of feedback and learner control on efficiency and motivation

Structural features of learning tasks are relevant for problem solving but not salient for novice learners. Feedback in the form of Knowledge of Correct Response (KCR) during practice is expected to help learners recognize the structural features and to profit from learner control over the selection of learning tasks. A 2 × 2 factorial experiment (N = 118) was conducted to study the effects of the KCR feedback (present and absent) and control over the selection of learning tasks (learner control and program control). The presence of the KCR feedback yielded higher efficiency on a near-transfer test as well as higher learner motivation. An interaction between feedback and control, indicating extra beneficial effects of feedback when learners control the selection of learning tasks, was not found. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.