Metaphors we’re colonised by? The case of data-driven educational technologies in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This article discusses issues concerning the spread of data-driven educational technologies in Brazil. Here, as elsewhere, educational technology continues to be promoted optimistically as the bearer of a panacea for historically-rooted social problems. Whilst some of these technologies have indeed contributed to important widening-participation programmes in the last two decades, widespread advocacy of technological ‘solutionism’, reflected in gradually stronger policy demands for efficiencies to be improved through ‘innovation’, has supported a relentless marketisation of the country’s educational systems. As transnational corporations position themselves to take control of key areas of these systems, threatening to restructure the whole sector, data-driven educational technologies provide the latest example in a series of ‘new’ ideas offered in an ever-expanding market. Based on the notion of ‘conceptual metaphors’, which encapsulate specific ways of perceiving, thinking and relating with the world, this article examines key metaphors underpinning discourses surrounding data-driven educational technologies in Brazil. In particular, the article analyses ways in which these specific metaphors may be promoting perspectives that ignore difference and obscure broader questions concerning education, thus contributing to the reproduction of previously existing problems and supporting new forms of colonisation.     

Conceptual change through vicarious learning in an authentic physics setting

Recent research on principles of best practice for designing effective multimedia instruction has rarely taken into account students’ alternative conceptions, which are known to strongly influence learning. The goal of this study was to determine how well students of quantum mechanics could learn ‘vicariously’ by watching a student-tutor dialogue based on alternative conceptions. Two video treatments were created to summarize key aspects of quantum tunneling, a fundamental quantum mechanical phenomenon. One video depicted a student-tutor dialogue, incorporating many of the common alternative conceptions on the topic, and resolving inconsistencies in reasoning through discussion. The other presented the same correct physics material in an expository style without alternative conceptions. Second year physics students were randomly assigned to one of the two treatments and were tested before and after watching the video during a lecture. Results show a statistically significant (p < .01) advantage for the learners in the dialogue treatment (d = 0.71). Follow-up interviews of students yielded insight into the affective and cognitive benefits of the dialogue video.     

Great expectations: a critical perspective on Open Educational Resources in Brazil

ABSTRACT

Nearly two decades have passed since the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement was launched. Its success in Brazil can be illustrated with the establishment of a UNESCO Chair in Open Education in 2014, in one of the country’s most prestigious universities. Crucially, OER were included in the 2014–2024 National Education Plan, a key piece of national educational legislation, as a category of educational technologies framed as tools. Assuming metaphors such as this play a key role in the ways we think, speak and act, this article presents a critical perspective on OER in Brazil. Examining the implications of the main metaphors used to construe OER in local media and academic sources, the text argues that these metaphors reflect hegemonic discourses on educational technology, concealing the non-neutrality of technological artefacts, obscuring issues concerning curriculum and pedagogy, and overlooking actual local needs. The article discusses issues concerning local OER advocacy, positioned in respect to specificities of a context where education, albeit a constitutionally established right, may be poised to undergo radical changes in the near future.     

What’s in a word? Practices associated with ‘feedforward’ in higher education

Abstract

The term ‘feedforward’ is increasingly employed in higher education, and this paper focuses on the way in which it fits into contemporary debates about feedback and its impact on practitioners. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate the practices academics associate with feedforward and the ways in which their intentions and understandings varied. The term resulted in practices being framed as a process and prompted academics to consider the points in the future when students were expected to deploy information and improve. Three future horizons were identified: the ‘within-module’ future horizon dominated, while the challenges of ‘beyond-module’ and ‘beyond-programme’ horizons became apparent. Written comments, guidance, formative assessment and design practices were associated with feedforward, comprising both transmission and student-focused approaches. It is concluded that the modular system restricts longer-term future horizons and sustainable practices, and more must be done to address the divide between theoretical and practitioners’ perspectives.     

Using Collaborative Assessment to Examine the Relationship between Self-Reported Beliefs and the Documentable Practices of Preschool Teachers

A team of researchers used a collaborative assessment protocol to compare the self-reported teaching beliefs of a convenience sample of preschool teachers (N = 57) to their documentable practices (i.e., practices that could be observed, recorded, and categorized using a deductive strategy). Data were examined from survey instruments, detailed classroom observations and time-sampling, curriculum materials, and program artifacts. Results indicated that when child-directed choice/play time, emergent literacy and language development activities were emphasized, teachers self-reported beliefs were more strongly aligned with developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) as a philosophy of practice. When consistent routines, organized classrooms, preplanned curriculum, and teacher-directed learning were the dominant behaviors, the teachers were found to report more “traditional” or academic-oriented beliefs.     

Enhancing learning from hypertext by inducing a goal orientation: Comparing different approaches

As learning from hypertext requires a highdegree of self-monitoring, having a clearlearning goal in mind should enhance learning.Our concern in this study was to investigatethree different kinds of approaches forinducing learning goals: A Tutorial providedexternal and specific learning objectives, aGoal-Based Scenario (GBS) for inducing externaland general learning goals, and a Strategytraining leading to internal goal generation. Ahypertext resource was combined with each ofthese three learning arrangements. The threeconditions were compared regarding learningoutcomes and motivational effects. A total of 60adults participated in our study.Results suggest that GBS students are moremotivated, acquire a better overview and arebetter able to apply their knowledge in anargumentation task. Students in the Tutorialperformed better in fact-relatedknowledge-tests as a result of their directaccomplishment of learning objectives, butfailed to create a coherent overview on thetopic and were less motivated. Participantsthat received a strategy training onself-questioning failed to apply thismeta-cognitive strategy in order to formulatetheir own learning goals when working with thehypertext.     

Learning about assessment: the impact of two courses for higher education staff

This interview-based study investigated the impact of two academic development courses about assessment. Participants learnt concepts and terminology that enabled them to better understand and communicate about assessment. The courses also stimulated critical thinking about assessment practices and conceptual change, with ‘assessment for learning’ emerging as significant with the qualities of a threshold concept. Certain learning activities stood out as transformational as they supported the examination of assessment from different perspectives and the integration of implicit with explicit knowledge, but only if participants had sufficient workplace experience that they could link to the formal knowledge taught in the courses.     

Health sciences libraries in Germany: new directions

This feature is part of a series about medical library services in various countries. It gives an overview of the state of and selected current developments of medical library services to support research, education and clinical practice in Germany. Findings from an online survey and issues of access to health information are discussed in relation to the German health care system.J.M.     

Sport activities differentiating match-play improvement in elite youth footballers – a 2-year longitudinal study

This study examined contributions of different types of sport activities to the development of elite youth soccer performance. Match-play performance of 44 German male players was assessed by expert coaches twice, 24 months apart (age 11.1–13.1 years), based on videotaped 5v5 matches. Player pairs were matched by identical age and initial performance at t₁. Each player was assigned to a group of either “Strong” or “Weak Responders” based on a higher or lower subsequent performance improvement at t₂ within each pair (mean Δperformance 29% vs. 7%). A questionnaire recorded current and earlier amounts of organised practice/training and non-organised sporting play, in soccer and other sports, respectively. Group comparison revealed that “Strong Responders” accumulated more non-organised soccer play and organised practice/training in other sports, but not more organised soccer practice/training. Subsequent multivariate analyses (multiple linear regression analyses (MLR)) highlighted that higher resultant match-play performance at t₂ was accounted for R²_adj = 0.65 by performance at t₁, together with more non-organised soccer play and organised engagement in other sports, respectively, and greater current, but less earlier volume of organised soccer. The findings suggest that variable early sporting experience facilitates subsequent soccer performance development in German elite youth footballers.