Preparing teacher-students for twenty-first-century learning practices (PREP 21): a framework for enhancing collaborative problem-solving and strategic learning skills

With regard to the growing interest in developing teacher education to match the twenty-first-century skills, while many assumptions have been made, there has been less theoretical elaboration and empirical research on this topic. The aim of this article is to present our pedagogical framework for the twenty-first-century learning practices in teacher education. We will first review the current status of policy frameworks for the twenty-first-century learning skills. Based on our previous work and current understanding in the field of learning sciences, we will next elaborate the processes and strategies for collaborative problem-solving skills and strategic learning skills to specify current, rather general claims presented regarding the discussion on twenty-first-century skills. We will also provide concrete case examples facilitating strategic learning skills, collaborative problem-solving skills, and the skills to use information and communication technologies in contexts of our previous studies.     

The applicability of social network analysis to the study of networked learning

In this study, the aim was to examine how small-group collaboration is shaped by individuals interacting in a virtual multiplayer game. The data were collected from a design experiment in which six randomly divided groups of four university students played a voice-enhanced game lasting about 1 h. The ‘eScape’ game was a social action adventure developed as a part of the study. In the analysis of the video data, students' discourse functions during the game were analysed with content analytic methods for studying the nature of their interaction. An effort was made to analyse the data on both group and individual levels, and therefore the participants' prior social ties and experience in gaming were studied as well. The results showed that the students' main discourse functions in their conversation were Question, Content Statement, Instruction or Order and Response. It was found that individual students, especially those with prior knowledge of gaming or prior social ties, can have a major impact on the social interaction and the outcome of collaboration. It can be concluded that the eScape game allowed the students to engage in true and constructive collaborative activity, and in the future multiplayer games could be used, for example, to promote group cohesion and development, when employed in a pedagogically meaningful manner.     

What does physiological synchrony reveal about metacognitive experiences and group performance?

There is a growing body of research on physiological synchrony (PS) in Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS). However, the current literature presents inconclusive findings about the way in which PS is reflected in cognitive and affective group processes and performance. In light of this, this study investigates the relationship between PS and metacognitive experiences (ie, judgement of confidence, task interest, task difficulty, mental effort and emotional valence) that are manifested during CPS. In addition, the study explores the association between PS and group performance. The participants were 77 university students who worked together on a computer-based CPS simulation in groups of three. Participants’ electrodermal activity (EDA) was recorded as they worked on the simulation and metacognitive experiences were measured with situated self-reports. A Multidimensional Recurrence Quantification Analysis was used to calculate the PS among the collaborators. The results show a positive relationship between continuous PS episodes and groups’ collective mental effort. No relationship was found between PS and judgement of confidence, task interest, task difficulty or emotional valence. The relationship between PS and group performance was also non-significant. The current work addresses several challenges in utilising multimodal data analytics in CPS research and discusses future research directions.     

Authentic,dialogical knowledge construction: a blended and mobile teacher education programme

Background: Knowledge construction and technology have been identified as critical for an understanding of the future of teacher education. Knowledge is discovered, applied and created collaboratively from authentic starting points. Today’s new mobile and blended learning environments create increased opportunities for such processes, including learner-centred approaches, authenticity and dialogical knowledge construction. However, teaching still requires appropriate learning design and structuring. The presented study explored, and was designed and implemented, using the ‘Dialogical Authentic Netlearning Activity’ (DIANA) pedagogical model, which is seen as one of the learning designing models for existing digital, open and mobile learning environments.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges and opportunities inherent in the adoption of the DIANA model and to examine student-teachers’ reflections concerning authentic and dialogical knowledge construction. The focus is on the learning process.

Sample: Participants were 63 student-teachers who were following the study module ‘Networks in Vocational Education’ at the School of Professional Teacher Education, in Hämeenlinna, Finland.

Design and methods: This qualitative study uses a deductive content analysis to discern relationships between the data and the existing theory. The data for this study were drawn from an online questionnaire and participants’ self-reflective accounts.

Findings: The results indicate that achieving deep-oriented learning through dialogical actions is the most challenging part of using the DIANA model. Some of the students had difficulty understanding the concept of ‘authenticity’.

Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest enhancing learner-centred scaffolding and guidance, particularly at the outset of the learning process. In addition, methods that develop dialogical skills and competences ought to be integrated into teacher education as extensively as possible, in order to make collaborative work and problem-solving genuinely dialogical and equal.     

Student' Strategic Actions in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) can be a powerful tool in creating learning communities in which students have a chance to construct knowledge collaboratively and to develop explanations of the subject to be studied. It is obvious, however, that collaborative inquiry is a cognitively-challenging task for an individual student. More evidence on the nature and quality of students' actions and strategic processes in CSCL is needed to make these models more applicable in different domains of classroom learning. The aim of this study was to analyse students' strategic actions in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning. Eighteen secondary school students, ages 13–14 years, participated in CSCL inquiries in their literature class. The networked technology environment used was CSILE. The students had three inquiry-based CSCL projects, each lasting for six weeks. The data-collection procedures used were questionnaires, students' written computer notes and repeated process-oriented interviews. The results show the dominance of a superficial approach toward inquiry. This is evidenced by the students' fact-oriented computer notes and their self-reported, surface-level strategic actions. However, the results show a growing amount of collaborative discussion in the networked database. Collaborative networked discussions manifest an increase in deeper-level cognitive strategies and progressive student inquiries. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Third wave of measurement in the self-regulated learning field: when measurement and intervention come hand in hand

Measurement is a central issue for the self-regulated learning (SRL) field as SRL is a phenomenon difficult to measure in a reliable and valid way. Here, 3 waves in the history of SRL measurement are identified and profiled. Our focus lies on the third and newest one, which combines measurement and intervention within the same tools. The basis for this approach is located in the reactivity principle via students’ self-monitoring: when students are aware of their actions, they can react and change what is needed. That happens when the measurement tools promote students' self-monitoring which turn part of the intervention then. Examples of this new approach to SRL measurement and guidelines for implementing it are presented.     

New models of teacher-student interaction: A critical review

The two instructional models, cognitive apprenticeship and reciprocal teaching, introduced in this article, have attracted wide attention among researchers. Although many empirical experiments using these models have been carried out in different settings with good results, there is still no evidence about the situational conditions or the ability of the individual students to benefit from different methods. In this article empirical experiments based on these two models are reviewed and critically evaluated in an attempt to determine whether the main principles of the models applied to the practice fulfill the general theoretical expectations upon which they are based.     

Higher education students’ learning challenges and regulatory skills in different learning situations / Desafíos de aprendizaje y habilidades de regulación en distintas situaciones de aprendizaje en estudiantes de educación superior

First-year higher education (HE) students experience different challenges during their studies. These challenging learning situations can trigger self-regulated learning (SRL) skills, which students use to handle these situations. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate (a) first-year HE students’ cognitive, motivational and emotional challenges experienced in both individual and collaborative learning situations and (b) the relationship between SRL skills and experienced learning challenges. Participants included 107 first-year pre-service teachers. Data consisted of students’ self-reports via (a) open-ended answers on a challenge questionnaire and (b) Likert-scale items from MSLQ and MRS questionnaires. Based on students’ SRL profiles, differential effects on the challenging experiences were investigated. The results show that different aspects related to students’ cognition, motivation, emotions and well-being were challenging for students. Also, connections were found between students’ SRL skills and the types of experienced learning challenges. Students with high SRL reported fewer learning challenges related to motivational aspects and more challenges related to cognitive aspects than students with low SRL.     

The production of ‘context’ in information seeking research: a metatheoretical view

Context is hot in information science as well as in numerous other disciplines, but what exactly does this mean in and for research? The paper discusses the differences between objectified and interpretative approaches to context. It is argued that in information needs and seeking research (INS), the former approach has thus far been more common. Contextual entities are usually described to provide a background for the study of individuals' or groups' information behavior, not in order to point out how contextual knowledge is. From a metatheoretical viewpoint, context is the site where a phenomenon is constituted as a research object. One way of understanding INS phenomena is to define them as patterns of behavior; another way is to understand them as phenomena mediated by social and cultural meanings and values. A large proportion of current theory and research in INS studies is located within the behaviorist framework which has become so familiar and taken-for-granted that it is rarely seen as a paradigm.