Social Aspects of CSCL Environments: A Research Framework

Although there are research findings supporting the positive effects of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), problems have been reported regarding the learning process itself, group formation, and group dynamics. These problems can be traced back to impeded social interaction between group members. Social interaction is necessary (a) for group members to learn from each other in a CSCL environment and (b) for socioemotional processes to help create a social space where trust, sense of community, and strong interpersonal relationships exist. This article introduces a theoretical framework consisting of three core elements: sociability, social space, and social presence, along with their relationships with group members’ mental models, social affordances and learning outcomes. It postulates that the three core elements influence the social interaction needed for both learning and the emergence of a social space. This framework serves as a basis for a research agenda for systematic social CSCL research.     

Effects of contrasting colour patterns of the ball in the volleyball reception

The effects of three different colour patterns on the surface of volleyballs (versus that of a plain white ball) on the behaviour of a reception player were examined by presenting sidespin volleyball serves. Expert (n = 10) and novice (n = 10) volleyball players intercepted volleyballs projected straight at them or at an initial angle of 9.5° outwards but eventually curving towards the players' original position. In the latter trajectories, players generally took one or more steps laterally before returning to the landing position of the ball. These excursion patterns were significantly more pronounced with the white balls than the coloured balls. Differences between balls of different colour combinations were also observed. The first finding supports the thesis that next to a prospective type of control, such as on-line maintenance of a certain spatiotemporal relationship between the player and the ball, properties of the ball itself allow prediction of the future path of the ball. Differences between types of colour patterns are explained within the framework of the between-colours wavelength contrasts of each type of ball.     

Measuring strategic processing when students read multiple texts

This study explored the dimensionality of multiple-text comprehension strategies in a sample of 216 Norwegian education undergraduates who read seven separate texts on a science topic and immediately afterwards responded to a self-report inventory focusing on strategic multiple-text processing in that specific task context. Two dimensions were identified through factor analysis: one concerning the accumulation of pieces of information from the different texts and one concerning cross-text elaboration. In a subsample of 71 students who were also administered measures of intratextual and intertextual comprehension after responding to the strategy inventory, hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that self-reported accumulation of information and cross-text elaboration explained variance in intertextual comprehension even after variance associated with prior knowledge had been removed.     

Spelling Remediation: a systematic long‐term approach to teaching spelling to an aphasic boy

TJ, a 10‐years, 7‐months‐old spelling‐disabled boy suffering from aphasia, was exposed to a spelling remediation programme introduced in the autumn term of Grade 4 and concluded in the spring term of Grade 6. A systematic strategy instructional approach was used to teach the boy 65 phonetically irregular words. The remedial spelling programme was successful in developing appropriate spelling strategies which were applied to the processing of these words and maintained at follow‐up at 2 months. Generalisation of programme effects was shown on standardised spelling tests administered during training. However, the programme did not seem to be very successful in lessening the disparity between the boy's spelling performance and average spelling performance for his grade. It was concluded that spelling‐disabled students suffering from neurological impairment probably need more cumulative training than other spelling‐disabled students. The potential role of a verbally orientated strategy approach in spelling remediation was also discussed in relation to a visually orientated approach.     

Summary versus argument tasks when working with multiple documents: Which is better for whom?

This article reports on two experiments where undergraduates read five documents on a scientific topic and afterwards answered comprehension questions and wrote either summaries or argument essays on the topic. In the first experiment, students who were instructed to work with the documents for the purpose of summarizing their contents displayed better comprehension and integration of document contents than did students instructed to construct arguments from the documents. In the second experiment, focusing on whether the effects of task instructions on multiple-documents comprehension and integration could be moderated by students’ prior knowledge, it was found that only students with high prior knowledge were able to take advantage of instructions to construct arguments while reading, whereas low-knowledge readers seemed to be more hindered than helped by such task instructions. Theoretical as well as educational implications of these findings are discussed.     

Optimizing Conditions for Learning: Situating Refutations in Epistemic Cognition

A refutation text is designed to promote conceptual change by explicitly acknowledging commonly held misconceptions about a topic, directly refuting them, and providing an accurate explanation. In this study, we determined the impact of different types of refutation texts on adolescent readers’ conceptual change learning in science. Specifically, we manipulated the way the correct conception was justified and explained following work in epistemic cognition. Three different types of justification were compared to a control condition: justification by authority, justification by multiple sources, and justification by personal opinion. The findings showed that learning effects were optimized when the correct conceptions were presented in terms of a corroborated consensus among multiple sources.     

When law students read multiple documents about global warming: examining the role of topic-specific beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing

In this study, law students (n = 49) read multiple authentic documents presenting conflicting information on the topic of climate change and responded to verification tasks assessing their superficial as well as their deeper-level within- and across-documents comprehension. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that even after variance associated with readers’ prior knowledge about the topic was accounted for, their epistemic beliefs related to the simplicity of knowledge and the justification for knowing about climate change uniquely predicted their comprehension performance. The findings are interpreted with reference to the strong emphasis on multiple-documents literacy in the law degree program.     

Leisure time reading and orthographic processes in word recognition among Norwegian third- and fourth-grade students

Third- and fourth-grade Norwegian children completed a battery of tasks that measured indicators of orthographic and phonological processing skill, leisure time reading, home literacy environment, and nonverbal intelligence. Using latent variable structural equation modeling, it was found that home literacy environment influenced leisure time reading, and that leisure time reading contributed to orthographic processing skill beyond the prediction provided by phonological processing skill. Home literacy environment influenced orthographic processing skill indirectly by its influence on leisure time reading. In addition, some children with poor phonological skill and good orthographic skill were found to score high on a leisure time reading measure. Even though Norwegian has much more regular orthography than English, these results are consistent with previous findings in the United States linking variance in orthographic processing skill to differences in leisure time reading. Thus, this study showed the robustness of orthographic skill independent of phonological processing even within the context of an orthographically regular language.     

Effects of contrasting colour patterns of the ball in the volleyball reception

The effects of three different colour patterns on the surface of volleyballs (versus that of a plain white ball) on the behaviour of a reception player were examined by presenting sidespin volleyball serves. Expert (n = 10) and novice (n = 10) volleyball players intercepted volleyballs projected straight at them or at an initial angle of 9.5 degrees outwards but eventually curving towards the players' original position. In the latter trajectories, players generally took one or more steps laterally before returning to the landing position of the ball. These excursion patterns were significantly more pronounced with the white balls than the coloured balls. Differences between balls of different colour combinations were also observed. The first finding supports the thesis that next to a prospective type of control, such as on-line maintenance of a certain spatiotemporal relationship between the player and the ball, properties of the ball itself allow prediction of the future path of the ball. Differences between types of colour patterns are explained within the framework of the between-colours wavelength contrasts of each type of ball.