Magnusson, Lennart & Elizabeth Hanson
Action a means of information, education and support for older people and their family careers. The user's lived experiences of how information and communication technology affects their quality of life
A growing information society with an increasing number of older people who need care and significant numbers of family carers who provide this care is the background for the 36-month health informatics project, ACTION (Assisting Carers using Telematics Interventions to meet Older person's Needs) . The aim of the project is to support older people and their family carers, to maintain their autonomy, independence and quality of life by providing comprehensive information, advice and support in their daily life.
The key social phenomenon to be understood is how ACTION has influenced the quality of life of older people and family carers involved in the project. Their experiences will be explored via interviews as well as log diaries in order to gain a richer understanding of their lived experiences.
The results from this study will examine whether information and communication technology is useful in existing health and social care services and, if so, how it can be introduced.
Maharg, Paul
'Context cues cognition' Educational discourse and professional legal curriculum
This paper analyses the models and approaches taken to legal professional education in the Diploma in Legal Practice in the Law School of the University of Strathclyde. The Diploma curriculum is undergoing radical change at the moment, and in its new form allows individual law schools in Scotland considerable scope for local curriculum development. The nature of the research carried out with students regarding this change, the models of teaching and learning and the learning management structures underpinning them will be the focus of the paper. In particular, I shall describe and analyse the contextual factors, both legal and educational, which have determined our choice of curriculum design, and the interdisciplinary nature of the relationship between law and education.
Makochieng, Mark, Michael J. Spector & Andrea Vergari
Design implementation and evaluation of a web-enabled instructional database a case study of the orthodl system
Computers are increasingly becoming a major tool in educational settings, universities around the world are implementing innovative technologies into their curricula for a variety of reasons. The Department of Orthodontic at the University of Bergen has developed a web-enabled multimedia database. The database was implemented in Oracleä, a relational database management system (RDBMS) that is designed to allow simultaneous access to large amounts of stored data. The specification of patient record elements was coordinated and built in collaboration with other departments of Orthodontics at three European universities. The database is to be used by postgraduate orthodontic students as a learning tool. This paper discusses the conception, design, and implementation of the OrthODL multimedia database system, then presents the details and results of a formative evaluation (usability study) on the use of the database system.
Malmqvist, Johan
Alternative cognitive strategies while solving spatial-mathematical tasks pupils with mobility disabilities participating in a qualitative experiment
Constructivist Theory emphasises the importance of manipulating objects and movement in space for the development of spatial ability. This is, for example, demonstrated by teaching and learning Mathematics during the early school years. The prerequisites for such development, as seen in this theoretical perspective, seems limited when pupils' own explorations of objects and space are restricted.
The study, aims at analysing and describing individual cognitive strategies while solving mathematical-spatial tasks. The sample consists of nine pupils representing three age-groups and three different diagnoses for impairment related to mobility disabilities. These diagnose-groups represent different relations to the Central Nervous System. Pupils were interviewed and recorded on video in the process of solving mathematical problems.
As postulated by Constructivist Theory the development of spatial ability is deteriorated by restriction of movement as imposed by the participants' physical disabilities. The findings of the study indicate, however, that verbal-logic reasoning to some extent may function as an 'alternative' to visuo-spatial thinking. The results of the study may contribute to a deeper understanding of learning and instruction constituting spatial content.
Mandl, Heinz
DELPHI: Study on knowledge management
Multiple phenomenons indicate that knowledge management is already an important field of application. In the near future it will become an innovative goal of education and further education and therefore it is in need of interdisciplinary research. However, the term knowledge management and the connected tasks, goals, proceedings, methods, processes and abilities as well as the resulting contents, goals and proceedings of teaching and learning are still vage.
A Delphi Study is suitable to seek opinions and prognoses of experts from science and practice, to underpin and complement the conceptualisation of this new field empirically. Communalities and differences in the experts opinions help to separate probable opinions and prognoses from improbable and to inspire and intensify a discourse of contents about contradictions.
This Delphi Study on knowledge management is looking into the near future to judge tasks and procedures of knowledge management as well as the competencies for the handling of new information and communication technologies. It is not the goal to present a concrete prognose therefore the theme is to extensive. It is also not the goal, to create an immediately realizable concept therefore the group of participating experts is too small. With the process and the results of the Delphi Study a discourse about the handling of information and knowledge and its implications for science and practice should be inspired and a first model of knowledge management should be tested on its relevance and concretizised as well as enriched with the new ideas.
The Delphi Study on knowledgement management
Altogether 20 individuals from science and practice participated on the Delphi Study. We selected these 20 because we knew that they were either intensively involved with the theme knowledge management or with comparable fields in their individual context and therefore they can be designated as experts.
The Delphi Study included three phases. The first two phases had been conducted in written form. Considering the standard of Delphi Studies to realize a skilled change between a written questionnaire which can be quantified and a qualitative discourse between the experts, we created the third phase of the Delphi Study in form of a workshop.
In all three phases a balance between the number of participating scientists and experts from practice could be kept almost through every phase.
Starting point for the construction of the first questionnaire was a model for knowledge management. Knowledge management is understood as an individual organisational method and a social challenge. This model provided the pre-assumptions for the open questionnaire of the first Delphi Phase. The questionnaire is divided into two parts: "Knowledge management as innovative research and application field" with four open questions on knowledge management on the level of society, organisation, individual and technique as well as "Knowledge management as innovative goal of education" with also four open questions on tasks, competencies, courses of training and technical support of knowledge management.
The results of the open questions of the first phase of the Delphi Study presented the base for the construction of the second questionnaire with closed questions. The empirically established questionnaire includes five dimensions, 26 categories and altogether 204 items with a four stage rating scale.
The results of the quantitative evaluation from the second phase presented the base for the preparation of the third phase, which took place in form of a workshop. Hereby the major questions were: "If and to what extend are professional knowledge managers needed" and "how competencies for the handling of information and knowledge in school and university as well as in further education can be furthered"
Results: The first two phases showed the following results:
The participants placed learning and further education on the first place by answering the question which social goals they connected to knowledge management. They rated economic goals almost as high as learning and further education.
The experts agreed on the point, that the realization of actual knowledge management is worse than it could be expected when you look at the development of the new information and communication technology: knowledge transfer, connection of workplaces or the availability of intelligent information systems, are not developed enough yet from the experts point of view but they are extendable.
The new information and communication technologies are a necessary but not sufficient assumption for knowledge management: If only technical solutions are invented and organisational regulations and human aspects are not integrated, at most information management is applied not knowledge management.
So what does the individual finally need to cope with the increasing information and knowledge flood as well as with the technical tools, which are getting more and more complex? The results from the Delphi Study point out the abilities to critically judge information and knowledge, communication skills and the willingness to learn. Further important factors for personal knowledge management are from the experts point of view: The ability to ask relevant questions, the ability to share knowledge in groups, the ability for interdisciplinary and connected thinking, the motivational and emotional willingness, for openness and self motivation.
The third Delphi Phase took place in form of a workshop. The dialogue in the third phase showed, that in the discussion about knowledge management as an individual competence you are getting close to the discourse on key qualifications.
The exchange with the participants of the Delphi Study also showed that you will have to face a discussion about interdisciplinary abilities and skills: They are important for the individual and organisational mastering of the demands which the knowledge society poses.
Knowledge management so the final conclusion of the Delphi Study should in spite of all the qualified doubts be furthered as a kind of meta-competence in school, university and further education. The willingness and ability to learn on an organisational and individual basis is shown as one of the major points in the Delphi Study for successful knowledge management.
Mandl, Heinz
Developing learning communities in a medical school and smaller companies: Possibilities and limits
Important characteristics of learning communities are that they increase and optimize the knowledge of society and further individual development of knowledge. Learning communities require a culture of learning that includes everyone, accepts different interests and supports diversity of expertise. It is a culture that values the personal and the common processes of learning, as manifest in activities, resources and the sharing of knowledge. This presentation discusses efforts to realize learning communities in two areas, problem-oriented learning in medical training at the University of Munich, and the implementation of knowledge management strategies in smaller companies.
One central aspect of medical training in Munich is that learning takes place in smaller group tutorials on the basis of concrete clinical cases. The objective is that students acquire self-regulated, applicable, and practice-oriented knowledge in teams. Empirical studies show a high acceptance of the tutorials. The learning process in teams was rated by students and tutors as very productive. The students also were very successful in solving case-based problems.
In the knowledge-management project, managers of eight companies and two professional trainers meet twice a month for one-day-workshops. At each meeting the managers explain their problems and experiences working with concepts and instruments of knowledge management in their companies. Self-responsibility and learning-by-doing as well as the steady exchange of information and experience are the key features in this project.
The outcomes of both projects are discussed in terms of the principles of learning community efforts (Bielczye & Collins (in press).
Mandl, Heinz & Frank Fischer:
Discourse and learning: approaches, basic assumptions, methodologies
Discourse has become an important aspect in many empirical studies in the field of learning and instruction. Most of the studies on collaborative learning, for example, analyze verbal or semiotic interaction or try to promote specific processes of this verbal or semiotic interaction. A lot of different approaches to describing or facilitating discourse processes have been developed and used in educational research.
These approaches differ in their basic assumptions about what we measure when we analyze discourse and, as a consequence of these assumptions what aspects of discourse are emphasized. For example, discourse has been investigated as verbal structure, as interaction in society, as a window to and a precursor of cognition and as a catalyst of cognitive change. The methodologies for discourse analyses originate from a variety of disciplines like, among others, ethnography, semiotics, sociolinguistics, ethnomethodology, cognitive psychology and social psychology.
The focus of the proposed workshop will be on the relevance and validity of different approaches to discourse for aspects of learning and instruction. The workshop will bring together researchers working on discourse analysis to discuss the basic assumptions of their approach, methodological consequences , practicability in the field of learning and instruction as well as their empirical findings concerning the relation between discourse and learning.
Mandl, Heinz, R. Stark, A. Renkl & H. Gruber
Does knowledge help with the identification and control of a complex economics system?
In an earlier study we found that intermediate experts in the domain of economics did not surpass novices in complex learning and knowledge application with a computer-based business simulation. In the present study, it was investigated whether these contra-intuitive findings can be replicated. In order to scrutinize the reasons which led to these findings, some parameters of the learning environment were changed. The duration of the exploration phase and of the problem-solving phase as well as the complexity of the situations were increased, motivation and acquired declarative knowledge were assessed. In view of mastering recurring demands and the functionality of mental models, no differences were found between a group of novices (students of humanities with a supplementary training in economics) and a group of intermediate experts (advanced students of economics). The findings of the original study were replicated, motivation had no effect on the result. In terms of declarative knowledge, the novices turned out to be even better.
Marsh, H.W. & O, Köller
Reunification of East and West German school systems: Longitudinal multilevel modeling study of the big fish little pond effect on academic self-concept
The present study investigates longitudinally the social comparison processes that produce the big fish little pond effect (BFLPE; e.g., Marsh, 1990): students attending academically selective schools or classes where other students are particularly bright (i.e., selective schools or high ability tracks) are likely to experience lower academic self concepts than equally able students who are educated in a comprehensive setting. In 1991 East and West German students experienced a remarkable social experiment in which the very different school systems of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) were reunified. Based on a large scale longitudinal project designed to evaluate the implications of the reunification of the two school systems, the present investigation was conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (see Köller, 1998 for detailed information). The former East German system differed from the former West German system and the newly reunified system in two ways that were particularly important for the present investigation of social comparison processes in the formation of academic self concept. First, the former East German system placed considerably more emphasis on highly competitive, social comparison processes that are likely to undermine academic self-concept. Second, the former East German students had explicitly not been grouped into schools or classes according to their achievement levels whereas the former West German students had attended schools based largely on their achievement levels for the two years prior to the reunification of the two systems. Hence, we anticipate that the BFLPE should be initially larger for the West Germans at the start of the first year after the reunification of the two school systems, but that the relative size of the BFLPE should increase more during this first year for East Germans than for West Germans.
Method: A total of n = 3,787 7th graders (mean age M =13.4 years) were tested at three measurement points (at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the 1991/92 school year. For purposes of the present investigation, consideration was limited to students who had complete data for all three time points and to classes that were represented by responses from at least 10 students, resulting in a total sample of 2,778 students and 161 classrooms. The academic domain selected for this study was mathematics. Math self-concept was measured by means of a 4-item scale that was shown to be reliable for each of three occasions that it was used (all coefficient alphas >.8). An example items was: "I would like math much more if it weren't so hard." Students responded to each item on a 4-point (agree-disagree) response format. Three waves of self concept data were considered, at the start of 7th grade (T I ), at the middle of 7th grade (T2), and at the end of 7th grade (T3). A total of 30 math achievement items were taken from prior studies by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, in particular from the First and Second International Mathematics Study and from an investigation by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. The test covered different content areas, was judged to have curricular validity by different curriculum experts, and was reliable (rxx =.81). The track variable was coded 1 (upper track, in German: "Gymnasium") and 0 (otherwise), the region variable was coded 1 (East) and 0 (West).
Results: The BFLPE in the present investigation is represented by the negative effect of class average achievement after controlling for individual achievement. Two approaches, both based on multilevel modeling (e.g., Bryck & Raudenbush, 1992), were used to assess this effect. The first approach is based on a multilevel analogue to traditional path analysis. In the second approach we employ growth modeling in which polynomial trend components of individual student growth in self-concept over the three time points is modeled within each class, aggregated across students within each class, and related to class characteristics. Since the findings are quite similar, only results of the growth models are presented. The growth models considered here are constructed as three-level models: within individual students over time (level 1), a person model within classes (level 2), and between classes (level 3). The level I model is very simple in that self concept from the three occasions is modeled as a polynomial regression with an intercept term (scaled to the self-concept at T2 in this application), a linear growth term, and a quadratic growth term. At level 2, each of the level 1 terms (the intercept, linear growth, and quadratic growth) is modeled according to individual student characteristics such as individual student achievement. At level 3, class-average characteristics are related to characteristics of the level 2 parameters.
In the growth model representing this data set we focus on effects that influence the intercept, linear growth, and quadratic growth of each person Substantively important effects are the negative effect of class-average achievement (-.196, the BFLPE), the negative effect of region (-.100, lower East German self-concepts), the positive class-average x region achievement interaction (.117, bigger BFLPEs for West Germans), and the large effect of individual student achievement (.322, higher self concepts for more able students). The effect of gymnasium is positive, but not statistically significant. In contrast to the intercept, there are fewer and smaller effects on the linear and particularly the quadratic growth components. The mean intercept for the linear trend is negative (-.086), indicating that math self concept is decreasing somewhat over time. Whereas the mean intercept for the quadratic trend component (-.159) demonstrates an inverted U quadratic trend in self concept over time, individual differences in the quadratic trend were not significantly related to any of the effects considered here. Of particular importance, however, are the statistically significant effects of two interactions on linear growth. The positive individual achievement x class-average achievement interaction on linear growth (.04) shows that the size of the BFLPE is growing slightly smaller for high achieving students in classes where the class-average achievement is high. The negative class-average achievement x region interaction (-.04) indicates that the size of the BFLPE is growing larger over time for East Germans compared to West Germans.
Discussion: BFLPEs were clearly evident in this study. The growth model showed a -.20 difference in the self-concept intercepts of the two groups. Furthermore, there were clear and predictable differences in the growth of this BFLPE for East and West Germans. The critical difference in the former systems leading to this prediction is that the East German students had not previously been tracked according to achievement prior to the reunification whereas the West German students had already been in a highly streamed system for two years. Hence, we predicted that the West German BFLPE would be larger at T1 but that the size of the difference would decline over the first year following the intervention. Consistent with these predictions, the two-level models showed that the BFLPE was significantly more negative for West Germans (reflected in the positive class-average achievement x region interaction at TI and T2, but not at T3. This is also evident in the significantly negative class- average achievement x Region interaction on the linear change component in the growth model, demonstrating that the linear change in the East German BFLPE is more negative than that of the West German BFLPE. Thus, whereas the BFLPE was more negative for West Germans at the start of the reunification, there was little difference between the two groups by the end of the first year of reunification. These findings thus indicate how school policy influences the formation of academic self concept.
Martin, D.
Motivations for becoming bilingual and biliterate
This paper aims to explore what motivates, and demotivates, linguistic minority children to develop each of their languages in spoken and written forms. Each individual is motivated differently, where motivation is understood to be cognitive and emotional arousal, with a decision to act which is maintained by sustained intellectual effort in order to attain an identified goal (Williams and Burden 1997). Personal factors in motivation have been extensively studied but their relationship with societal factors is less researched (Teunissen 1992). Personal factors which influence children's motivations include gender, self concept, feelings of competence and personal agency. While societal factors include the influence of home, community and school on linguistic minority learners' motivations to become bilingual and biliterate. The paper explores a social constructivist theory (Williams and Burden 1997) to understand the motivations of linguistic minority learners to become bilingual and biliterate. The importance of this theory is that it analyses motivations through the interaction between internal and external factors which is highly relevant for the sociolinguistic position of linguistic minority learners.
Methodology and procedures: The paper looks at interview data from bilingual learners, aged 6-7 years in English primary schools, which focus on their feelings of becoming bilingual and biliterate. The linguistic minority learners are from transplanted Indian Panjabi communities, established for two generations in Birmingham, England. Families in the community continue to use spoken and written forms of Panjabi at home and to communicate outside, in the shops and Temple. Panjabi language and literacies are taught in special classes in the Temple and community school. The children had been in formal schooling for nearly three years.
The procedures for eliciting the data are innovative. The interviews are developed on Personal Construct Theory (Kelly 1955) and modify a procedure developed by Ravenette (1980) with young children. The linguistic minority children were asked to identify their feelings about language and literacy events, which they generated themselves and in response to events depicted in pictures with donated polarised constructs. The children were interviewed individually in both their languages with Panjabi and English adult interviewers, in school.
The data are analysed following Williams and Burden's (1997) categories of personal, cultural, contextual and societal factors, and, importantly, the interactions between them. Personal factors such as gender, self concept, notions of their competence and their sense of personal agency motivate children differently to develop two languages and literacies. The paper goes on to argue that personal motivation factors are influenced by social contexts. For young linguistic minority learners the contexts where they develop their languages and literacies are the classroom, school, home and their community. The paper explores these contexts and identifies factors which interact with personal motivation.
Outcomes: The contribution this paper makes to knowledge in the field is that it attempts to identify and analyse not only the personal and the societal influences on motivation but more importantly the interaction between them in the context of young bilingual learners towards developing their languages and literacies. The data suggest that linguistic minority learners are motivated to develop their languages and literacies by a complex interaction of internal and external factors. For example, their perception of their own competence in spoken forms of English and Panjabi influences their motivation to develop the written forms. Different social practices of literacy for English and Panjabi influence their motivation to become involved. The "cultural and linguistic capital" of the two languages (Bourdieu 1977) influences linguistic minority learners' personal motivation to develop both their languages and literacies.
Theoretical and educational significance: At a time when educationists in England are concerned about the academic achievement of linguistic minority learners in schools, it is timely that we try to identify factors which influence the motivations of young linguistic minority learners as they become bilingual and develop literacies. The implications for teaching and learning languages and literacies for bilingual learners are that motivation cannot be understood solely as an internal function. Societal factors and their interaction with internal factors need to be taken into account.
The importance of taking a social constructivist approach to understanding the development of and literacies in linguistic minority learners is that it tries to take account of the important dimensions which characterise linguistic minority learners in a majority language society. Namely, there are internal factors, and there are also external societal and cultural factors and there is the interaction between them which has a powerful influence and determines the motivation of linguistic minority learners to become bilingual and biliterate.
Martin, E., K. Trigwell, M. Prosser, P. Ramsden & J. Benjamin
What is it that university teachers constitute for teir students to learn in their classrooms?
Aims: The research reported in this paper is part of a larger study which investigates the relationship between teaching and learning and its leadership and management in higher education The work reported here grows out of two other areas of research. The first examines the different ways in which teachers in higher education make sense of and experience their teaching. Trigwell, Prosser and Taylor (1994), in a study of teachers of first year science, identified five qualitatively different ways of experiencing teaching. They found that different intentions for teaching were reflected in different strategies and different expectations for student learning.
The second argues that in teaching specific subject matter and bringing students into a relationship with this subject matter teachers constitute an "object of study' for their students (Patrick, 1992, Martin and Ramsden, 1998). The argument is that teachers working within the same general curriculum embody different conceptions of what is to be learned and how it is to be learned and they consequently create very different 'objects of study' for their students and can be seen as legitimate and necessary makers of curricula. Here, we build on this previous work to explore: (1) How university teachers intentions for teaching and for student learning (how they intend to approach their teaching and what their intended objects of study) are constituted in their dassroom practice, and (2) How teachers make sense of what went on in the dassroom, after the event - how they reconcile what they intended to do in the dassroom with what they experienced having done.
Methodology: The study uses pre-observation interviews, observations of teaching and post observation interviews. The aim is to the use a pre-observation interview, undertaken a day or so before the teaching takes place, as evidence on which to base a prediction of how the teachers will actually approach their teaching and constitute their object of study for their students. Observational hypotheses are formed as a result ofthe pre-observation interviews, and the observation and the follow up interview serve as a check to confirm or to modify the original prediction.
In the pre-observation interview the focus is on what the teachers are to teach and how they will teach this (their intended approaches to teaching and objects of study). In the observation the teaching is checked against the hypothesis formed as a result ofthe pre-observation interview. The question asked is: 'Do teachers approach their teaching and constitute the objects of study as predicted on the basis oftheir interview? In the post teaching interview teachers are asked to comment on the extent to which their expectations and intentions were realised in the teaching session.
The aim is to see how closely the pre-teaching interview can predict the approach teachers adopt and the object of study they create for their students. That is, how well their intentions are reilected in their classroom practice. Variation both within and between different fields of study is also explored
To report on the description of the object of study we use the structured learning outcome space described developed by John Biggs in his SOLO (Biggs, 1987) and we draw on Patrick's original work to represent how it is conceived (for example, given/taken for granted, or constructed and problematic, Patrick, 1992).
Similarly, we have initially operationalised the approaches to teaching in terms of those defined by Trigwell, Prosser and Taylor, (1994); conceptual development/teacher focused; conceptual change/student focus; conceptual development/student focus.
Outcomes: Categories of Description: We describe the categories of description of both the objects of study and approaches to teaching as identified in this study. These are presented in a relatively decontextualised way - consistent with phenomenographic analyses. We also analyse the empirical and logical relationship between the objects of study and the approaches to teaching. The analysis shows how university teachers who adopt, for example, information transmission/teacher focussed approaches to the teaching constitute their subject matter for their students in comparison to university teachers who adopt conceptual change/student focussed approaches.
Case Studies: Having provided a decontextualised analysis of the objects of study and approaches to teaching, we will show how these categories manifest themselves in practice by presenting brief case studies of two university teachers.
Significance: That background is phenomenography. From a phenomenographic perspective it is argued that knowledge does not exist within the knower or within the context but in the relationship between the knower and the context. From this perspective, that which the teacher wants students to learn is constituted in the relation between the teacher and the teaching and learning context. Teachers constitute knowledge within the teaching and learning context, and attempt to bring their students into relationship with that knowledge. Substantial previous research into teaching and learning in higher education from a phenomenographic perspective has shown that there is substantial variation in the way teachers in higher education conceive of, and approach their teaching. This paper focuses on describing the variation in the knowledge which is constituted for students by these teachers in their teaching and how that relates to the way they approach their teaching.
Conclusions: We will conclude by arguing that it is not just how we teach that is important to students learning, nor what we teach, but what it is we constitute in particular teaching and learning contexts. Teachers need to consider carefully what it is they are constituting for their students in their classrooms. That is, they are not just presenting subject matter or teaching content, but they are constituting the subject matter as they teach it. Programs of academic development for teachers in higher education need to focus on the vexed question of subject matter, how it is constituted for students before considering how teachers should approach their teaching.
Martin-Michiellot, S. & P. Mendelsohn
Is there an extraneous cognitive load while learning with a modern computer interface?
Computers have become unavoidable in our everyday life. Even if you don't have one at home, there are plenty of those "computerized information centers" in every airport, train station and probably at the city council of your town. Less than others, novice users of these systems (or tools) don't have time to waste to learn how to use the machine before being productive: they need to get the right information and the work to be well done as quickly as possible. It has been shown that the way a graphical environment is designed can enhance the quality and rapidity of what is done by the user (Gerhardt-Powals, 1996). However, we still don't know much what in the design affects the learning process. The cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988 ; Sweller & al., 1990 ; Sweller & al., 1991; Sweller & al., 1994) offers partial explanations of these facts as well as design recommendations. NevertheIess, only two different conceptual designs have been tested. Our study explores a third one and proposes alternative explanations as well as new recommendations.
The theory of the cognitive load is the fruit of a ten year research lead by Paul Chandler and John Sweller. According to the cognitive load theory, there are two sources of cognitive load sources when learning a material : intrinsic cognitive load (relative to the material to be learnt) and extraneous cognitive load (specific to the way the material is displayed).
The intrinsic cognitive load can be measured by the simultaneous number of informations to be considered (i.e. the low or high interactivity of the material) to learn a basic piece ofthe material. This reflects the fact that our working memory is limited (Baddeley, 1992a) and that we can only build a schema when all the informations are present at the same time (Bartlett, 1932; Schank & al., 1977; Gick & al.,1983; Johnson-Laird, 1983). The extraneous cognitive load corresponds to the complexity introduced by the representation itself. For example, Sweller & al. (1990) demonstrated that when two pieces of conceptually connected material are physically separated in a display, it is more difficult to learn the material than when it doesn't happen (split-attention effect). Chandler & al. (1991 ) shown an even more interesting result: it is more difficult to learn a material when there are parts of the material that display the same piece of information more than once (redundancy effect).
According to the cognitive load theory, when the sum of these two loads is too big, we are not able to learn the material. It is not always possible to reduce the intrinsic cogitive load. However, we can reduce the extraneous cognitive load (i.e. the cognitive load from the display) by preventing the split-attention and redundancy effects while designing a material. In fact, this is how we can test the theory:
A test for the split-attention effect can be done by comparing the measured quality and rapidity of learning between a group of subjects with a conventional written manual and a computer versus a group of subjects with an integrated manual alone (that is a manual in which every computer related information is included and physically related to the instructions: for example a manual showing computer screen captures with arrows connecting them to the corresponding sections of instructions).
A test for the redundancy effect can be done by comparing the measured quality and rapidity of learning between a group of subjects with an integrated manual alone and an integrated manual with a computer.
It seems reasonable to ask whether the mere fact of including screen captures in a conventional manual (that is designing a juxtaposed manual in which the computer screen captures are not connected with arrows to the instructions) would be enough to enhance the performance like an integrated manual would. Thus, we set up an experiment which replicated two of the three conditions of Chandler & al. (1996) using their conventional and integrated manuals and introducing our juxtaposed manual. We designed our experiment so that it would be as close as possible to the Chandler & al. (1996) experiment (which used the two tests of the theory) replicating two of their three experimental conditions. Nevertheless, because the software package to be learnt (a CAD/CAM software running in a proprietary graphical environment) ceased to be produced, we had to use another one, running under Windows 95 (well known high resolution graphical interface).
However, contrary to our expectations, there is no significant statistical difference between the performance of subjects on the high interactivity written tasks. There is neither any significant statistical difference between the performance of subjects on the whole written task or on the whole practical task.
Following this results, it appears that depending on the way information is displayed on the computer screen, learning can be faster but may be not better (nor worse). This is very surprising since we were expecting very massive, pervading and general effects as Chandler & Sweller (1996) observed. Two plausible hypotheses can be envisioned:
The intrinsic cognitive load was always too low for our subjects, possibly because the software allowed every task to be broken into its simplest elements even when the task reflected high interactivity
The extraneous cognitive load was always too low for our subjects whatever the manual, either because they knew the graphical interface commands too well (thus oven-iding the complexity ofthe new software) or because the graphical interface allowed many different methods to solve a task
Whatever the explanation, it appears that the graphical interface plays a major role in the cognitive load ofthe subject.
Thus, we decided to group every task into one of four categories depending on the activity of the user relative to the interface: environment configuration (not directly related to the work), command (transformation of a set of objects), working area (moving and selecting objects) and information reading (no action). We found that for every task in a category the (not statistically significant) relation of performance between groups is the same. For example, it seems that every environment configuration is easier to realize (no significant statistical difference however) when a manual is juxtaposed than when the manual is conventional (with computer at instruction) or integrated. Therefore, it seems that the way the information is presented may be beneficial for a certain category of activity. More studies, specifically tailored to test this hypothesis remain to be done in order to produce better ready-to-use environments.
Marton, Ference
Variatio est mater studiorum
By means of participating in known, culturally and contextually situated, learning communities of today, learners are supposed to be enabled to participate in yet unknown learning communities of tomorrow, cutting across current cultural and contextual categories. In order to make this happen, learning environments must necessarily have certain specific characteristics.
Marton, Ference & Pang Ming Fai
Two faces of variation
The object of study in phenomenography has long been the qualitatively different ways in which people experience, understand, conceptualize, make sense of, etc. various kinds of phenomena in the world around them. Phenomenography has essentially been a study of variation variation between different ways of seeing, experiencing, understanding the same phenomena.
Recently this research has moved on to attempts to addressing questions like "What is 'a way of experiencing something'?" or "What is the actual difference between two 'ways of experiencing the same thing'?" "A way of experiencing something" has been depicted in terms of the critical aspects of the phenomenon in question discerned and focused on simultaneously by the "experiencer". The capability of discerning a critical aspect is then seen as a function of the variation experienced in the dimension corresponding to that aspect.
So in these new developments, to the study of variation between different ways of experiencing something seen by the researcher the study of variation in respects corresponding to the critical aspects of the phenomenon as experienced or seen by the experiencer has been added. The proposed presentation will deal with these recent developments in phenomenography, implying a shift in primary emphasis from methodological to theoretical concerns.
Mason, L. & P. Boscolo
Writing to learn, writing to transfer
Aims. This study is focused on elementary school students' processes of historical and scientific understanding within a classroom learning environment characterized as a community of discourse. In particular, the role of written discourse is investigated both on the plane of knowledge development and of the perception and evaluation of the writing activity itsel£ The purposes ofthe study are: (a) see whether the students can use for the first time writing as a means to express, reflect, reason on ideas, descriptions and explanations, monitor, and communicate in the process of historical understanding; (b) see whether there is a progress in the students' written production, especially whether along the curriculum units they use writing in a more advanced way, for istance, shifting from more narrative to more argumentative texts; (c) see whether writing in the service of learning facilitates the understanding of the new historical topic; (d) see whether writing to understand history affects the conceptualization of the writing activity itself, that is, to see whether the use of writing as a learning tool in historical understanding processes can also contribute to changing the students' perception and evaluation of writing functions; (e) see whether the use of writing to learn history can be transferred to learning in another domain, that of science. In other words, to see whether for the frst time the students can use writing also in the service of understanding scientific concepts, showing they can write for different purposes as they have done in the history domain, in particular to produce reflective writing and argumentative texts.
Rationale. The study tries to relate and combine the most recent research issues concerning writing and curriculum content learning. There is a growing field of research which has pointed out the importance of writing in helping students to better understand disciplinar material, as by its very nature it facilitates integration and synthesis of ideas, establishment of relationships, clarification of thoughts (e.g. Connolly, 1989; Emig, 1977; Hollyday, Langer, & Applebee, 1987; Rivard, 1994; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994; Schumacher & Gradwohl Nash, 1991; Zinsser, 1998). In particular, what has been studied is writing for science learning (e.g. Mason & Boscolo, 1997; Fellows, 1994; Keeling Olness & Finley,1996; Keys,1994; Prain & Hand, 1996; Rivard & Straw,1996; Yore & Alvermann, 1994). However, writing for history learning has not received attention and needs to be explored. Actually, in educational psychological research, all aspects related to history understanding in students have been neglected until recently (Carretero & Voss, 1994; Halldén, 1994, 1998; Leinhardt, Beck, & Stainton, 1994). Litte is still known about how students of different ages reason on historical problems, in particular about cognitive processes involved in evaluating documentary and pictorial evidence (Wineburg, 1991 ), and the effects of instructional intententions on their understanding. Moreover, in the present study writing is not only conceived as a variable which can affect learning in curriculum domains, but also as a variable that can be affected by its own use within a meaningful process of knowledge building. In fact it can help students in the process of revising or refining concepts and explanations but it can also change their representations of the meaning and functions of writing because of a meaningful way to write in the history class (Mason & Boscolo, 1997). Such interdependence between domain knowledge construction and writing needs to be further explored.
Method Participants. Thirty-two fifth graders attending a public elementary school are involved first in the implementation of two curriculum units on the discovery of America in history education, and then in a curriculum unit on the human digestive system in science education. They are divided into treatment group and control group. Only in the former writing for learning for the first time is used first in the history class and later in the science class.
Coom context. In both conditions true dialogue among the students themselves and between the teacher and the students is given great value. Crucial importance is attributed to the learners' expression, comparison, questioning, and critical evaluation of their own explanations about the examined phenomena in large- and small-group discussions. The activities in history educatiqn are mainly based on collaborative analysis ofhistorical documents. Only in the experimental condition writing in the service of learning is carried out with different aims: to explicit an explanation, to communicate developing understanding, to reason and reflect on ideas, descriptions and explanations, and puzzling points.
Data source. Data are collected by: (i) pre- and post-instruction tasks made up of open-ended questions on the historical topic; (ii) pre- and post-instruction writing tasks in history and science; (iii) pre- and post-instruction questionnaire with questions on how liked are various classroom activities (among them different forms ofwriting) to be rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale; (iv) pre- and post-instruction questionnaire with statements for the attribution of several school activities to the oral or written "category" to be rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale; (v) individual and group written production during the historical and science activities; (vi) transcripts from some audiotaped group discussions; (vii) post-instruction individual interviews with selected students.
Results. The analysis ofthe data is currently in progress. With respect to the research purposes, preliminary findings show what follows: (a) the students can use writing as a tool to explicit, reflect, reason on, monitor, and communicate their developing historical understanding; (b) there is a progress in the students' written production which shows how they become gradually able to produce argumentative texts by coordinating theory and evidence; (c) in the experimental group the students seem to reach a better understanding of the historical topic and greater metacognitive awareness of the changes in their own knowledge structures; (d) in the experimental group the students' conceptualization of the writing activity changes seems to change as well. Writing for learning history leads to perceive writing itself in a different manner: the students who use writing to reflect and reason on explanations, to express their own doubts and what puzzles them, to argue on specific issues seem to evaluate the writing activity more positively and have a less rigid and more articulated representation of the relationship between school activities traditionally conceived either oral or written; (e) in the experimental group the students seem to transfer their new learning that writing can be used for better understanding topics to be known. They show they can use writing for the different purposes they have newly learned in the service of scientific understanding.
Theoretical and educational importance of the research. From a theoretical point of view the study can open a new line of research to compare writing for learning in different domains. When writing is used as a meaningful tool for a meaningful activity, it facilitates students' knowledge understanding and leads them to perceive writing itself as a more interesting, helpful, and effective activity. In other words, the representations of the examined phenomena as well as the representations of the writing activity change. Moreover, such a kind of writing can be transferred to another domain to assist new learning and understanding. From an educational point of view the study indicates that writing can be successfully introduced in history class. In writing for learning and not for showing taught knowledge, students can think in their own language, with the opportunity to create or refine their awareness of the change in their own ways of interpreting examined phenomena. In that respect learning which deeply involves students in elaboration, reflection, and reasoning represents a particularly suitable experience for the need of using and transferring writing meaningfully, as well as to evaluate it as a meaningful activity.
Mauri Majos, Teresa & Isabel Gomez
Regulation of interactivity in the classroom strategies to regulate content development
The teaching-learning process is an interactive process controlled by a series of regulatory mechanisms. This article reports on a study of teacher regulation of classroom activity and teacher-student behavior. The analysis of this behavior can provide a better understanding of what happens during a class session, the context in which students construct meaning and progressively acquire greater control of their own learning process.
The strategies employed by the teacher to regulate the teaching-learning can be classified in two categories: those directed primarily towards regulating the social structure of participation and those directed primarily towards regulating content development and the learning task. This article identifies and analyzes instances of the second kind of strategy, though both kinds are often simultaneous, inter-related and mutually supportive.
The investigation reported here was based on the observation, recording and analysis of teacher-student interaction in Social Studies classes in a secondary school in Spain.
Maury, Pascale & Estelle Blanquer
Forward inferences in expository texts Lexical decision task vs. talk-aloud protocols
Although some previous research supports the conclusion that Forward Inferences are unlikely to be activated during reading, these findings have been largely obtained by using narratives associated with lexical decision latencies or naming measures (Potts, Keenan, Golding, 1988 -exp 3 and 4-; Whitney, Ritchie & Crane, 1992 - exp 3A-; Magliano et al., 1993). Thus, the purpose of this study is to compare the activation degree for forward inferences by using an on-line lexical decision task versus a talk-aloud protocol based on "what happens next" questions.
74 subjects were required to read 12 expository texts and 8 filler texts in order to answer final comprehension questions. A segment by segment, self-paced procedure was used. Implicit and explicit versions were created for each text. The results showed that subjects who verbalized the target words expressing causal consequences had not necessary faster lexical decision latencies.
Mayer, Richard
The promise of multimedia learning
How can we help students to understand scientific explanations such as how a bicycle tire works, how the human respiratory system works, or how lightning storms develop? Instructional communication has traditionally relied on verbal modes of presentation, such as text or speech. In contrast, multimedia learning occurs when learners receive materials in two or more presentation modes--such as text and illustrations or speech and animation. During the past 10 years my colleagues and I at the University of California, Santa Barbara have found consistent evidence that students learn more deeply when they receive multimedia explanations (i.e., involving words and pictures) rather than single-mode presentations (i.e., with words alone). For example, students who viewed an animation depicting the steps in lightning formation and listened to a corresponding narration describing the steps in lightning formation performed better on answering transfer questions (e.g., "How could you reduce the intensity of a lightning storm?") than students who only listened to the narration. However, our research demonstrates that all multimedia learning environments are not equally productive. Students are better able to solve problems based on the explanation when the words and corresponding pictures are near rather than far from each other on the page or screen (spatial contiguity principle), when the words and corresponding pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively (temporal contiguity principle), when extraneous words, pictures, or sounds are excluded rather than included (coherence principle), when words are presented as speech rather than as on-screen text in a computer-based environment (modality principle), and when words are presented as speech rather than as both speech and on-screen text in a computer-based environment (redundancy principle). In addition, principled multimedia design has stronger effects for students who score low rather than high in prior knowledge and for students who score high rather than low in spatial ability (individual differences principle). These results contribute to a cognitive theory of multimedia learning based on dual information processing channels, working memory limitations, and constructivist learning.
Mazens, Karine & Jacques Launtrey
Knowledge organisation in physics sound and heat in children
There is a debate concerning the nature of naive knowledge, how it is formed and how it changes: ontological categories, knowledge in pieces, naive theories.
The aim is to determine how knowledge about sound and heat is organized. We examine if children of 6, 8 and 10 years old apply to these concepts, object's properties as substantiality, weight, permanency, trajectory.
Children assign matter's properties with a hierarchical organization. Permanency is first abandoned, then comes weight, and last, substantiality. For substantiality, four different mental models appear: (1) sound and heat can not cross solids except if there are holes ; (2) sound and heat can cross solids if they are harder ; (3) sound and heat are immaterial ; (4) sound and heat start to be processes. These mental models are developmentally ordered for sound. Conceptual change seems to be slow and gradual. Sound and heat are organized in the same way.
McAlpine, L. & C. Weston
How does professors' reflection improve their teaching and their student's learning?
Aim: In this presentation, we will describe our research in two universities in Canada into: (i) how reflection leads to the improvement of university teaching, (ii) the relationship between reflective teaching and student experience of learning With this as a basis, we will explore with participants three questions: (1) How does reflection contribute to the development ofteaching expertise? (2) Does reflective teaching improve student experience of learning? (3) What does this mean for faculty or staff development?
Of principal interest to us (and we hope to others) is the extent to which national, local and institutional contexts may influence the answers to these questions.
How reflection leads to the improvement ofteaching: The discussion of reflection in learning can be traced back to Dewey ( 1910, 1916). In the 1980's Schon (1983, 1987) suggested its role for professionals in coming to understand and improve professional practice. Reflection can be useful in learning from any experience. However, like some others in higher education, (e.g., in Europe, Ramsden, 1992 and in North America, Centra,1993), our interest is in how reflection serves as a mechanism for improving teaching. We see parallels between reflection and metacognition, in that reflection is a process ofthinking about one's teaching by monitoring cues and making adjustments to better achieve teaching and learning goals. A number of years ago we noted along with others (e.g., Kremer-Hayon, 1988; Lanier & Little, 1986) that no one had explored the (meta)cognitive processes of reflection. To address this gap, we conducted research which led to the development of an empirical model of reflection that enables professors to improve their teaching.
Methodology: The study that documented the process of reflection
This empirical model of reflection is the result of an analysis of professors' recall of their teaching: both retrospective and stimulated accounts. In their retrospective accounts, they recalled aspects of instruction that were most salient. In the stimulated accounts, they viewed videotapes of classrooms sessions and these enabled them to retrieve additional aspects oftheir reflections.
Six professors recognized for their teaching excellence participated in the study: three at McGill University in Montreal and three at Queen' s University in Kingston. Three worked in Faculties of Education (and had degrees in teaching) and three in Faculties of Science (and had no formal educational training). There were two women and four men. All were experienced professors having worked in universities a minimum of ten years.
The professors were all teaching undergraduate introductory level math courses they had taught before. All courses had students from Faculties of Education and other faculties where students might be assumed to have minimal knowledge of math. All the professors noted that helping students overcome their fear of math was an objective for them. The classes ranged in size. Three (two in Science and one in Education) were given in tiered lecture halls (with 90-100 students) and three were more seminar-like in regular size classrooms (with 20-30 students). The professors were each followed for an entire course and were involved in a series of interviews, videotaping of 1/3 oftheir classes, and a review of their videotapes.
A detailed three-tiered coding system was developed to analyze the interview transcripts after they were verified by the professors (McAlpine, Weston, Beauchamp, Beauchamp and Wiseman, in submission). The nature and extent of the codes emerging from the analysis expanded and refined our understanding of how the professors reflected. When coding was complete, we held a symposium with the six in order to present the codes and the model to them. We asked them to validate or verify our interpretation of their reflection as represented in the processes of the model. None had previously attempted to articulate their reflection during teaching. In fact, most had not even been aware of what they were doing. By the end of the symposium, however, they were using the language ofthe model to discuss how they went about reflecting on their teaching.
Outcomes: There are four components of the model which are of interest in this discussion: monitoring, decision making, knowledge, and experience. As teaching plans and actions are implemented, the professors monitor (track and evaluate) a variety of cues to assess their progress towards different teaching and learning goals. The cues monitored vary from 'time' to 'management', but the bulk of them are cues related to students (e.g., writing, non-verbal and verbal behaviours). Different domains of knowledge provide the rationale for what the professors choose to monitor. For instance, all professors drew extensively on a number of the domains suggested by Shulman (1987), e.g., content, pedagogical and pedagogical content domains. As well, these knowledge domains provide the rationale for making decisions about what to change as a result of monitoring. Decisions to change represent adjustments to teaching that are believed to better achieve teaching and learning goals than the present actions, e.g., changing the content or the teaching method. Experience is where the process ofreflection begins, and where resulting decisions are enacted.
We believe these professors are skilled teachers because through reflection they have developed the knowledge that enables them to be more pointed in their reflection: to monitor and evaluate the responses to their teaching and to make decisions to enhance their instruction. Thus, the ongoing use of the process of reflection contributes to an individual's development as a teacher.
Impact of the results on our research program: The relationship between reflective teaching and student experience of learning: 'To document teaching without documenting effects on student learning is to miss the important half of the equation' (AAHE, 1994, section 4, 3). This important issue is one we have been grappling with for some time. After all, reflection is not an end in itself, but a mechanism for improving teaching and hence maximizing learning.
As noted earlier, the higher education literature incorporates reflection into models or theories ofteaching. The assumption is that teaching reflectively will enhance student learning. And, although there is research that looks at the relationship between conceptions ofteaching and student approaches to learning (e.g., Gow and Kember 1993), we are not aware of research that directly links reflective teaching to student learning. To address this gap, in our current research we are investigating how reflection on teaching affects teacher actions, and how these teacher actions are connected to student experience of learning. We will describe how we are doing this.
Significance: We and others have come to understand the evolution of expertise in teaching as a complex process requiring experimentation, practice, feedback and reflection over time (e.g., Ho, 1998; Kember, 1997; Saroyan, Amundsen and Li, 1997). Reflection is a key factor in this evolution of teaching since it is a process for making sense ofexperience and for developing one's knowledge (McAlpine,1993). Thus, we would expect less experienced professors to have less diverse and rich knowledge bases to draw on during teaching which would then be manifested in differences in the nature of their reflection (e.g., what cues they monitor, what kinds of adjustments they make to their teaching actions).
We will explore with participants three major questions emerging from this research: How does reflection contribute to the development ofteaching expertise? Does reflective teaching improve student experience of learning? What does this mean for faculty or staff development? Of principal interest to us (and we hope to others) is the extent to which national, local and institutional contexts may influence the answers to these questions.
McCracken, J. & M.W. Dobson
Illuminating learner conceptions: A needs assessment
This paper describes a phenomenographic interview method for illuminating student conceptions. We argue that the method can be profitably integrated into systematic processes of designing and developing computer based learning materials. The integration is illustrated with an example of a recent project that built successful computer based courseware for learning about phase diagrams in material science. An earlier version of our method was used in the design of courseware for learning to interpret geological maps. That study showed results of phenomenographic interviews are usefully integrated into needs assessment studies. Our interpretation and use of the "phenomenographic interview" provides valuable information about the particular conceptual difficulties of the target learner group. Provided with this information, the designer and evaluator are able to focus on new strategies to overcome those difficulties. A later formative evaluation of the product that resulted from these studies, showed impressive improvements with the conceptual difficulties identified in the interviews.
A phase diagram is a difficult theoretical construct that represents the states of different combinations of materials over a range of temperatures. One instructor in the study described phase diagrams as, " maps with temperature and composition coordinates, where the intersection of those coordinates indicates the states of each compound (liquid, solid or gas), and their compositions.
A needs-assessment study was requested by the developers. Twelve first year metallurgy students from University College London, participated in a series of "phenomenography" inspired evaluation studies. An initial review of the metallurgy learners' exam results revealed they were able to construct accurate phase diagrams from necessary data about material elements, but answers to exam questions indicated they did not fully understand the intended meaning of those diagrams.
Interviews were carried out with twelve learners. The evaluator discussed a phase diagram involving two metals. Conversation about specific elements of the diagrams, such as the "liquidus" and "solidus" lines, led to discussion about how the diagrams are created from empirical data. The interviews were directed only by perceived opportunities to find out more about the learners' domain models.
An iterative analysis of transcribed interviews produced two main categories of learners' conceptual difficulties. Well over half of the learners were confused by the representation of time in the phase diagrams. Learners regularly used language that indicated they believed phase diagrams represent dynamic changes over time. They believed phase diagrams are practical tools that can be manipulated by changing time or temperature parameters. The diagrams are actually independent of time and are only accurate in empirically unlikely (ideal) conditions.
Just as many learners believed falsely that "phases" are represented by identifiable regions in a phase diagram. Phase diagrams represent homogeneous portions of matter, and in the case of alloys, are homogeneous based on the crystal structures. Phase regions do not represent mixtures. Excerpts from the interview data demonstrate this confusion.
The two errors are related by the concept of "equilibrium" which helps to explain both errors. This concept was rarely mentioned in the interviews which explains that learners models of the diagrams were inadequate through lack of this particular idea.
These misconceptions are complex and subtle. They were not tested by the assessment items used prior to the study, nor were they apparent to the course instructor. The method was successful were other methods had previously failed. We believe this model of study design can be used profitably at several stages in the design and development of computer based instruction. In this case the method has helped to clarify the aims and goals of the instruction. In other cases, the method can help to focus on; organization and sequencing of the content, modification of the representations used to illustrate the material, selection of instructional strategies, and even identifying where the instructor may have been responsible for the misconception.
In this study the misconceptions emerged from a study done prior to the development of the computer based module. Identifying the misconceptions led to the articulation of a specific learning goal for the development team that would not have been included without the study. One of the explicit goals was that, given a binary phase diagram, learners will be able to distinguish between phase regions and phases, and explain the distinction.
For learners to achieve these goals, the designer must create learning activities to help the learner understand the material. Our methodology provides a criterion for selecting a learning strategy. Between the designer and the evaluator, activities were selected to promote understanding while constructing and interpreting the visual representation. The software eventually allowed learners to examine underlying micro structures of the elements represented while consulting visual glossaries for explanations. The design enabled learners to match several levels of abstraction in one conceptual space by comparing the representations appropriate at each level.
A formative evaluation of the material science learning system revealed a 42% increase in performance on questions designed to assess the new learning objective.
McCune, Velda & Noel Entwistle
Development of first year students' conceptions of essay writing
Findings are presented from a longitudinal interview study of first year Psychology students' learning. Three related developmental hierarchies were identified, which described different aspects of the variation in students' conceptions of essay writing. The students all showed development in their conceptions, but only one student reached the top of all three hierarchies. Only one of the hierarchies showed a significant positive correlation with students' grades. The effects on students' development of advice given to the students and of the tutors' conceptions of a good essay were investigated. Students were given advice that was relevant to developing their conceptions, but there was little evidence, however, that this help made an impact on students' developing conceptions. Students often engaged minimally with advice and feedback, providing support for the idea that differences in conceptions between tutors and students lead to difficulties in communication, causing students to see advice as less helpful.
McDowell, Liz & Kay Sambell
Students' experiences of self-evaluation in higher education preparation for lifelong learning?
A range of experiences offered to students in Higher Education which engage them in self-evaluation activities were investigated using a qualitative, case study methodology. The main source of data was student interviews. A typology of students' conceptions of self-evaluation has been derived within which an important dimension may be termed a 'quantitative-qualitative' dimension. At the quantitative end, attention is focussed on self-evaluation as a measurement or rating activity with external purposes, whilst qualitative conceptions emphasise self-evaluation as a tool for learning and enhancing student control over learning. Qualitative conceptions are more likely to assist students to develop as autonomous lifelong learners. The nature of self-evaluation activities in which students engage have considerable impacts on their developing conceptions, and potential as lifelong learners.
Medwell, Jane
The use of electronic books to develop reading
The teaching of reading in UK primary schools has, until recently, involved a high level of individual adult-child interaction with reading books. Such interaction involves sophisticated patterns of support in which children take a degree of responsibility which allows success and learning whilst adults offer carefully measured support to encourage confidence, learning and to prevent failure. This sort of interaction is time consuming and presents teachers with class management problems. It is not surprising, then, that electronic books which allow children independent access to books, with censure free support for reading, have become common in early years classes and are popular with children (Matthews, 1996).
The aim of this research was to explore whether electronic books could help young children learn to read traditional, print texts, and if so, how they supported children's reading. This project addressed four questions. (1) Do electronic books help young children to learn to read? (2) How do children interact with electronic books? (3) How do electronic books support young children in their interactions with books? (4) How do teachers use electronic books in ordinary classes?
The project involved studies of electronic book use with 5/6 year old children. The study design aimed to examine how well a child read a particular book before and after having different types of support. The types of support were: (i) traditional reading support from the teacher; (ii) use of the computer electronic book; (iii) reading with both the teacher and computer; (iv) a control condition in which no support was offered between readings.
Early results of this project have been reported in Medwell (1996).
Do electronic books help young children to learn to read?
In order to estimate how well children understood the stories, researchers recorded children's retellings at the second readings and then judged the level of detail and fluency as one of four grades. The results suggested that using the electronic books enabled the children to retell the story more accurately than reading alone. The percentage of excellent second retellings was much higher when the computer books were used, suggesting that the computer books helped children to understand the stories.
The project also aimed to consider whether the electronic books helped children develop reading accuracy by comparing the number of words read correctly at the first and second running record sessions. The improvement in word accuracy among children who had used the computer was generally greater than for those children who received no extra support. This suggests that the use of the electronic book had helped children to read the traditional book texts more accurately.
How do electronic books support beginner readers?
To inquire further into how the electronic books helped readers the children using the computer were observed for one half day in each class. There were many ways in which this computer use included the features of a shared book session with the teacher. The children interacted with and talked about the electronic books in a number of ways that can be considered as a learning cycle of demonstration, joint activity, supported activity, and individual reading.
Electronic books and literacy teaching: The results reported here suggest that the electronic books helped children to improve their reading of traditional print books and the evidence from their retellings and error analysis suggests that the electronic books particularly helped children to understand the meanings of the stories, rather than teaching them word recognition.
Literacy teaching in the UK is changing in response to the introduction of the literacy hour, and the time available for individual reading is likely to be reduced. This may offer further scope for using electronic books as individual reading practice, the way they were used in the classes in this study. There may also be a place for electronic books as a basis of group work using the computer or away from the computer. Chu (1995) has investigated children's discussion of electronic books after using the computer and discovered high level discussion from young children. Activities which ask children to transform meaning, respond to the stories or highlight
graphophonic aspects of text may be particularly useful. In the context of the literacy hour, electronic books can offer children individual and group support.
Megalakaki, Olga, Stella Vosniadou & C. Ioannides
Children's understanding of the concept of energy and force
Previous studies have shown that students have an undifferentiated force/energy concept, which, depending on the situation, can be closer to what physicists call energy or force. For instance, many elementary school students believe that there is an internal force/energy within moving objects. This notion is closer to the scientific notion of energy than to the scientific notion of force. The focus of this study was to further investigate the changing concepts of energy and force in students ranging in age from 10 - 13 years. Forty elementary (5th grade, approximately 10 years old) and forty high school students (8th grade approximately 13 years old) were interviewed. All students were presented with a set of phenomena involving force and/or energy and were asked to say whether there was a force (or forces) exerted on the objects (Condition I), or energy (Condition II). Preliminary results have shown that elementary school students in most cases use the same criteria (e.g. the size, weight, and motion of an object) to decide whether a phenomenon can be explained in terms of forces exerted or in terms of energy. The older students continue to use these criteria to explain phenomena that involve the concept of energy but change their criteria for the use of the concept of force. More specifically, our results have shown that high school students focus on the interaction of the object with its environment in the case of force and as a result they refer to different forces exerted such as the force of gravity, the force of friction, the tension of the rope, etc.
Meijer, Joost & Marianne Elshout-Mohr
An instrument for assessment of cross curricular skills
We constructed an instrument to assess the level of competence in general, cross-curricular skills of students aged 15 to 16 years. The instrument consisted of 56 multiple-choice items. In the paper we discuss the selection of the eight general skills that were included in the test and we justify the decision to use multiple choice items rather than other item formats. Item construction took place according to a method developed by Norris (1989). This procedure includes analysis of the mental processes of students who work on test items while thinking aloud. The procedure thus allows 'a priori' validation of test items. Results concerning a pilot study (N=465) as well as a larger study (N—9000) will be presented. In particular, psychometrical data, such as p-values, reliability, and internal structure, will be discussed, but also the issues of convergent and discriminative validity.
Mercer, Neil
Bringing it into the open: Developing teachers' and children's shared understanding of using talk for reasoning
This paper uses data from an action research project in British primary school classrooms to analyse the process whereby teachers and pupils make joint sense of "ground rules" for the effective use of talk-in joint activity. The main data consists of recordings and transcriptions of teacher-pupils interactions and pupil-pupil interactions, which is analysed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods of discourse analysis.
Although it is widely accepted that one of the aims of education should be the induction of children into ways of using language for seeking, sharing and constructing knowledge, observational studies of classroom life reveal that this induction is rarely carried out in any systematic way. Teachers very rarely offer their pupils explicit guidance on such matters, and researchers have found that pupils commonly lack any clear, shared understanding of the purposes of many of the activities they are engaged in and the criteria by which they are judged by teachers. One result of this is that pupils are often confused, unfocused and unproductive in their use of language. Many researchers therefore conclude that the educational, developmental potential of conversational interaction in the classroom especially that amongst pupils is being squandered. It is therefore interesting to consider whether instituting changes whereby teachers make such matters more explicit and provide direct guidance will result in pupils becoming more effective at grasping "educated" ways of using language for sharing and constructing knowledge.
Working closely with teachers in a series of school-based action research projects, Rupert Wegerif, Lyn Dawes, Karen Littleton and I have developed a programme of teacher-led and peer-group activities for enabling teachers and pupils to develop an explicit, shared understanding of using talk as a tool for effective reasoning and joint problem-solving. Building on earlier research, we have defined some parameters for the effective use of talk for reasoning and constructing knowledge (which we call "exploratory talk"). These parameters, or ²ground rules", form the basis for the programme. The programme thus has two strands:
(a) the in-service training of teachers in appropriate strategies and methods;
(b) the induction of children, by their teachers, into an awareness and use of exploratory talk as a tool for thinking and acting together. We have then observed the effects of this programme on both teachers' and children's activity. This research has required us to develop an eclectic methodology in which qualitative discourse analysis is combined with quantitative measurement and controlled experimentation.
Our main findings are that: (a) if teachers take time to share, explain, justify and model the use of "exploratory talk" for carrying out joint activities in the classroom, children react enthusiastically by using that kind of talk appropriately in peer-group activity; (b) following the "ground rules" for exploratory talk enables children to become better at carrying out problem-solving and other joint activity; (c) the combined use of teacher-led, whole-class activities and structured peer-group activities is particularly appropriate and effective for the development of children's language communication skills.
We therefore conclude that through engagement in structured dialogic training and practice, children can be helped by teachers to gain access to culturally-based discursive procedures for reasoning which are strongly related to the discourses of important communities of practice (such as those of science, law, business) in many societies. Our main aim has been to help improve classroom education as a process for developing children's communication and reasoning skills, as reflected in the main findings listed above. On a theoretical level, the main findings should help develop an educationally relevant socio-cultural account of the role of teachers in providing "scaffolding" support for children's learning. But our research is also relevant to socio-cultural theory's claims about the relationship between "intermental" and "intramental" activity, and about the role of language as a toll for thinking. This is because a further finding was that the dialogic experience provided by the programme of activities had positive effects on children's ability to reason as individuals. When children who had experienced the programme on exploratory talk were compared with other similar children in similar schools who had not had that experience (using a pre/post-test design), it was found that those who had the talk training made greater improvements in their individual performance on a test of reasoning (Raven's Progressive Matrices). In sociocultural terms, "intermental" discursive activity appeared to have provided a basis for "intramental" development.
Merenluoto, Kaarina & Erno Lehtinen
The problems in the extensions of number concept are there "synthetic" models in the number concept of the students?
In learning mathematics, every extension to the number concept demands, not only accepting new concepts, but new logic as well. This new logic more or less contradicts the prior fundamental logic of natural numbers. Therefore misconceptions and learning difficulties are possible at every enlargement. A number concept test was administered to 640 students (mean age 17,25) from randomly selected Finnish upper secondary schools. The test included identification, classification and construction problems in the domain of rational and real numbers. We found that conceptual change, which was measured through questions in the domain of rational and real numbers, was not adequately carried out by a majority of the students. While working on the tasks they subconsciously used the logic and general presumptions of natural numbers. The number concept of these students had features of both the logic of the natural numbers and of the more advanced numbers. The students' subjective feeling of certainty was highest in the domain of natural numbers. These findings suggest important theoretical implications to plan conceptual change supporting learning environments.
Mertens, Wendy & Jan van Damme
Academic self-concept and achievement cause and effect
In this study we address the question of the causal ordering of academic self-concept and academic achievement during the secondary school period. We test the assumption of the existence of a reciprocal causal relationship between these two variables. This network of causal relations is examined using the data of seven waves of the Flemish longitudinal study in secondary education (LOSO). In this study 6411 students of 59 different secondary schools were followed for a period of seven years. Structural equation modeling analyses evaluate the effect of prior academic self-concept on subsequent achievement and the effect of prior achievement on subsequent academic self-concept. The results of the analyses in the first four waves only support the latter causal path.
Mevarech, Zemira & Zeichner Orit
The effects of metacognitive feedback on mathematical reasoning
The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of computer based learning environments embedded within either Metacognitive Feedback (MF) or Result Feedback (RF) on students' mathematical reasoning. The study is based on current research in the area of cognitive-metacognitive learning in general and self-regulated learning (SRL) in particular. Participants were 186 eleventh grades Israeli students who studied in 11 classrooms, each of which was randomly selected from a different high-school. Results indicated that MF students significantly outperformed their counterparts who were exposed to RF on mathematics achievement, the solution of transfer problems, the quality of students' mathematical explanations, and the way students communicated their mathematical ideas. The theoretical and practical implications of the study will be discussed.
Mevorach, Miriam
Teacher educators in-action mental models of preservice student learning
Previous research shows that teachers have an in-action mental model that is quite general, i.e., we found the same in-action MM among teachers regardless of their teaching experience, the subject matter and the age of the pupils they teach (Mevorach, 1994; Mevorach, Strauss, & Litman, in preparation). One of the aims of the present research was to determine if there are limits to the generality of teachers' in-action mental model, i.e., are there contexts in which it will not be found. In order to make this determination, we chose to study teacher educators' in-action MM when they teach preservice teachers. There is precious little in terms of theory and research dealing directly with teacher educators' cognition. As a consequence, the present research is grounded in empirical precedents on cognitive research about teachers. In prior research we found that teacher educators, who teach pedagogy classes to preservice teachers, have the same in-action mental models as teachers who teach children. In the present research, we attempted to determine if teacher educators have the same or different implicit in-action mental models when teaching adult preservice teachers in mentoring and supervisory teaching situations.
Method: The present research is based on the methodology developed in previous research (Mevorach & Strauss, 1998). Both qualitative-interpretative and quantitative methods were used. We videotaped 4 teacher educators' feedback sessions to student teachers in elementary school. We analyzed the video sessions using Mevorach and Strauss' (1998) category system. It enabled us to find the places in the feedback sessions where we could identify the general in-action mental model previously found among teachers, and the places where it couldn't.
Results: Our main research goal was to determine if teacher educators have the same in-action MM while giving the student teacher feedback as found among teacher educators when they teach content courses, such as literature. Our findings were that the feedback sessions included: one general in-action mental model like the one we found in previous work, and three different kinds of in-action quasi-mental models. General In-Action Mental Model has the following basic unit: the teacher asks a question the student responds and the teacher concludes or responds. We interpreted the in-action MM on the basis of this triarchic structure, which includes basic assumptions about teaching strategies that would enable cognitive processes (recognize, arouse, generalize) to occur in child's mind. Those cognitive processes enable the child to achieve cognitive goals. This MM is the same as that found in prior research. Open model -This is kind of a student monologue where the teacher educator listens to and documents the discussion. Most of the time, this kind of mental model occurred at the beginning of the feedback session. Reflective model This model promoted the student's reflective, critical and implicit thinking. The student provided her/his professional analysis of her/his external teaching behaviors. Connective model Recall of a theory that was part of the course on pedagogy, and the way it was presented in the feedback discussion. Overall, we found several implicit in-action MMs used during supervision sessions with feedback.
Discussion: We tried to determine if teacher educators during supervision meeting have the same in-action mental model as they have while teaching pedagogy in class. We found that in different teaching situations, such as supervision feedback discussion, the teacher has several implicit in-action mental models that he uses during the feedback session. Of the various models we found one that is identical to the one found in previous research and three that are different from the MM found to date (Mevorach & Strauss, 1998) in both structure and essence. These findings allow us to argue that the same person has several MMs of learning, which inform and guide his teaching. The interchangeable interactions enable the student teacher to build their professional understanding through various kinds of implicit teacher educators' intervention. We believe that we found these models because they are grounded in the special context that is unique to supervisory roles which is tutorial, located out of classes, involved in practical aspects of teaching and not intended to teach new knowledge.
Educational Implications: Teachers' in-action mental models about students' learning are different in different teaching contexts classes at colleges versus supervision sessions in mentor schools. Teacher educators are not aware of their implicit, tacit mental models of students learning. Our research can provide teacher educators with important information about their implicit professional thinking, and can help them become aware of their different contextualized in-action mental models they hold about students' learning. It may be important to expose teacher educators and student teachers to several in-action mental models, and enable them to improve their interactive professional communication.
Meyer, Jan H.F.
Variation in contrasting forms of 'memorisation' and and associated obsevables
Aims: Theoretically the process of 'memorisation' is an important source of explanatory variation in the manner in which students engage the content and context of learning. For many western students, 'memorisation' may be simply conceptualised and experienced as a process of repeated written or verbal rehearsal that is used to commit to memory that which has to be 'learned'. 'Memorisation' in this undifferentiated sense is usually associated as a learningprocess with accumulative and reproductive rather than transformative learning intentions and outcomes.
A basic argument is that a student who is reliant on 'memorisation' in an accumulative engagement of 'learning' cannot generally be expected to demonstrate an 'understanding' of what has been 'learned'. Insofar as 'surface' level learning may incorporate 'memorisation' as a substantive process, a more sophisticated restatement of the argument is that 'surface' level learning cannot, by definition, produce 'deep' level learning outcomes. And yet this is precisely what appears to happen in what has been referred to in the student learning literature as the 'paradox of the Chinese learner'.
Marton, et al (1993), in particular, draw attention to the apparent observed paradox of Asian, and particularly Chinese, students who manage to exhibit high levels of academic achievement on the basis of learning engagement directed towards 'memorisation'. The 'paradox of the Chinese learner' essentially arises on the basis of at least two complementary arguments, at least from a Western research perspective: (a) Conceptually, the process of 'memorisation' material does not, indeed cannot, lead to an 'understanding' as an outcome of what the underlying meaning of the material is. (b) Empirically, and insofar as a 'surface' approach to learning may be synonymous in some contexts with 'memorisation', there is generally a negative (or weaker) association between learning outcome and such an approach compared to a 'deep' approach.
Phenomenographic research, prompted by a need to explain this 'paradox', has confirmed that, from students' own experiences, 'memorisation' is a term that can be used in two quite distinct senses in relation to 'understanding'; 'memorisation' before 'understanding' and 'understanding' before 'memorisation'. Most ofthis research has been carried out on what might conveniently be referred to as Confucian Heritage students. A remarkably similar finding has been reported by the present author in relation to an interview study carried out on Black South African engineering in their African language mother tongue as illustrated in the following two translated excerpts taken from Meyer (1997): "To memorise means to say exactly the words of that particular thing without changing or adding anything - to understand means to say things in your own words and then learning is what you have been taught Š I say learning is what you have been taught - understanding is what you have gained from the teaching - memorising is to say exactly the same words from the book without changing them Š Firstly I can say I memorise, then I study from the book - and I understand, after that I practise to see if I have gained."
"Learning goes together with understanding - if there's no understanding learning will fail or will not work Š if you learn something and understand then you can memorise and even keep that memory in mind so it will be very easy to memorise it Š you cannot learn if you don't urrderstandand you cannot even memorise."
A conjecture is thus that contrasting forms of 'memorisation' may be differentiable in the responses of students beyond the cultural-linguistic contexts in which they have strictly been observed.
This paper reports on the quantitative operationalisation of these two contrasting forms of 'memorisation' and explores, in different contexts, their empirical relationship with one another, as well as their respective relationships with other sources ofvariation in student learning.
Methodology: Meyer and Boulton-Lewis (1997) have reported on the development on an instrument (the Reflections of Learning Inventory: RoL1) that is intended to capture variation in students conceptions of learning and related proximal and developmental effects. The RoLI, now in the second stage of its development presently being trialled on a number of intemational student samples and it contains, in particular, two subscales intended to capture variation in 'memorisation' in two conceptually distinct forms: 'memorisation before understanding' and 'understanding before memorisation'. A short form ofthe RoLI, also containing these two subscales was administered to two samples of entering first-year university students at the Universities of South Australia (n=937) and Adelaide (n=460) in l 998 together with another instrument, also presently under development, but containing established process subscales ('relating ideas' and 'use ofevidence') derived from the Approaches to Studying Inventory as reported in Entwistle and Ramsden (1993).
Results: Preliminary analyses of resultant data indicate that the conceptual distinction between 'memorisation before understanding' and 'understanding before memorisation' are empirically sustainable in terms of exploratory factor analyses at an item level of response. The items associated with these two observables are respectively exhibited, largely intact, in separate factors across both samples. Item correlation analyses confirm that the responses respectively associated with these two observables exhibit satisfactory levels of alpha which range from 0.79 to 0.86 across the two samples). There is relatively weak, but significant, linear (correlation) relationship between responses to these two observables for both samples (South Australia, r=+0.26, p=.0001; Adelaide, r=0.12, p=0.009). Analyses of linear, and non-linear, patterns of association between the two contrasting forms of 'memorisation' and the additional process observables is still underway and will be reported at the Conference. The value ofthe work described in this paper lies essentially in its capacity to contribute to the modelling of student learning outcomes. In this case there are specific sources of variation related to contrasting forms of 'memorisation' that have been successfully operationalised in psychometric terms.
Meyer, Jan H.F. & Gillian Boulton-Lewis
Variation in students' conceptions of learning and related factors
Conceptions of learning are a theoretically important aspect of prior knowledge that students bring to bear in their engagement of learning. Phenomenographic analyses of pooled interview data have generally proposed a hierarchy of conceptions of learning that traverse an accumulative-transformative description of experiences of learning. Whilst the conceptions are mutually exclusive it must be noted that any one student may hold more than one conception of learning, although it is possible to determine a student's most typical conception of learning. It is posited that a student with a strong transformative conception of learning may also express an accumulative conception; however it is unlikely that a student with a predominantly accumulative conception will also express a transformative conception. It is also possible that a student may hold different conceptions in different learning contexts.
Quantitative research by Meyer and Boulton-Lewis (1997) has (a) confirmed that some of these previously identified conceptions represent a source of variation in a statistical sense, (b) failed to support the existence of a single invariant hierarchy of conceptions and other related factors across different cultural settings, and has (c) provided an alternative means (the Reflections of Learning Inventory) to further address the important research question of how conceptions and other sources of explanatory variation in student learning may jointly be empirically modelled.
This symposium responds to this research question by bringing together a number of quantitative and qualitative studies, undertaken in diverse settings. These studies have conceptions of learning as a common focus in relation to developmental and other factors such as learning processes, approaches to learning and affective experiences of learning.
Meyer, Jan & Martin P. Shanahan
The modelling of learning behaviour in first-year economics
First-year university economics is perceived as a difficult subject for students by virtue of high attrition and fail rates. First-year economics, however, is a fundamental subject for business, accounting and commerce students. One factor affecting student success in economics, a factor little appreciated by many academic staff, is students' preferential or habitual approaches to learning. Entering first-year university students bring with them, as part of their 'learning history', a diversity of approaches to learning. These approaches, in particular, are frequently shaped detrimentally by prior learning experiences over which students' often have little or no control.
This paper reports on the development and initial evaluation of an instrument, aspects of which are discipline-specific to economics, that is being developed to be sensitive to explanatory sources of variation in students' learning behaviour. This work is part of a larger project aimed at the construction of an inferential model of student learning that is specifically contextualised in terms of the study of first year economics.
Michalopoulou, Aikaterini
Constructing knowledge in kindergarten practising comparison
The object of our research is to see how capacity to compare can be cultivated in a kindergarten setting. Our conceptual framework is shaped by the works of J. Brunet, A. de La Garanderie and Torrence.
With regard to the level of comparison, we note the following degrees: (1) Zero comparison: The child names attributes or examples of one of the concepts to be compared. (2) Description: The child names, without structure, examples of the two concepts to be compared. (3) Non-relevant comparison: The child compares non-comparable things. (4). Successful comparison: (4a) Lower level: The child compares the two concepts by reference to a category and gives examples. (4b) Higher level:The comparison is made in reference to several categories and with several examples. (5) The child can indicate resemblance or difference on a Venn diagram by redistributing the elements on the basis of symbols drawn for visual support.
In conclusion, we think that it is possible to acquire a systematic method permitting better observation and comparison of two objects and thus of two ideas, two characters in a story, two geographical regions, two climates, etc.
Such a method could help the child discover a greater number of ideas (fluidity), a greater variety of ideas (flexibility) or ideas that are unique(originality). Fluidity, flexibility and originality are some of the criteria of creativity, a creativity that can, to a certain extent, be taught and learned.
Miell, D. & R. MacDonald
Creative collaboration: Music as a mediator
Examining children's work on creative and open-ended tasks is becoming an area of interest within the established literature on collaborative learning, partly in order to extend some of the existing findings from studies of scientific or moral reasoning to these new contexts. The research reported here examined the nature of the interaction that takes place between children as they collaborate on a musical composition. The study focused on the role played by the relationship between the children (i.e. whether or not they were friends with each other) and their different experiences of musical training in affecting how they communicated and composed together.
The verbal and non-verbal communication during the collaborations was analysed using measures developed by Kruger (1992) and used in previous work on more structured tasks (Miell & Faulkner, 1995) and focused on the transactive nature of the communication. Of particular interest for this symposium was the analysis of the ways in which the instruments used (and indeed the music itself) mediated the collaborative process between the children. A new system was developed by the authors for coding the musical elements of the interaction, also based on the relative distribution of transactive and non-transactive elements.
It was hypothesised that the friends' interactions would contain more transactive communication (both verbal and musical), drawing on their established relationship and existing mutual understanding. It was also expected that the level of musical training would affect the nature of the music produced by different children, although this might be modified by the nature of the relationship between children in a pair.
Analysis of the outcome of the interaction was based on the independent ratings of the final compositions by an experienced music teacher. The study was conducted at a middle school in Milton Keynes using 20 pairs of children sampled from the school's Year 7 group (11-12 year olds). Questionnaire procedures identified each child's level of music training (ie experience of instrumental lessons) and the names of three close friends. The children were then allocated to pairs based on each pair being made up of one child with some experience of instrumental lessons and the other with no experience. Half the pairs were mutual friends from the same class and the other half of the pairs were from different classes who had not nominated each other as friends. There were equal numbers of male and female pairs. The pairs of children were asked to compose and then perform a piece of music about the rainforest. All interactions were video taped and then transcribed. This transcription included all speech, descriptions of non-verbal behaviour and music played including instruments used. From the transcripts, the verbal communication was then coded by a research assistant, and a musician coded the musical elements. An experienced school music teacher listened to each of the compositions recorded on audio tape at the performance stage of the experimental session and rated them on a number of scales derived from the National Curriculum for music and from previous research work on teachers' ratings of children's compositions.
The results of this study showed that friends talked more and produced more musical elements overall during the interaction than the pairs of non-friends. The friends not only played and said more in total, but also produced more examples of transactive language and more transactive musical motifs than the non-friend pairs. As predicted, then, the relationship between the children had a profound effect on the nature of their interaction. A significant main effect for gender was also found on the total number of verbal utterances, indicating that the females talked more than the males. No significant effects on any variables were found for children's level of musical experience. On the outcome measure (teacher's rating of the final composition), compositions by friends received higher scores than those composed by non-friends.
The ways in which children communicated and built on each others' ideas through music is particularly explored in this paper, since the music coding scheme allowed us to examine for the first time the processes through which music can mediate learning. Specifically, the coding system allowed for fine grained analysis of the musical communication taking place. This is of particular importance as many authors have speculated upon the communicative function of music and the parallels that exist between musical communication and language (Fiske, 1996; Sloboda, 1985). Insights from the music therapy literature are useful here, since researchers in this field have emphasised the role played by musical communication between therapist and client in therapeutic interventions (Aldridge 1998; Andsell, 1997), but there is a need for systematic investigation of the nature of this communication and the present study begins this necessary process.
This study has shown that the relationship between children holds the key to the nature of the collaborative process. It is suggested that other studies of collaborative learning might also consider friendship between children as a factor influencing the interaction. The study also illuminated some of the ways in which the instruments and indeed the music itself mediated the children's collaboration in interesting ways.
Miettinen, Reijo & Seppo Peia
Studying change in work through a network of learning
A constitutive problem of vocational education is how the content and methods or studying and learning are connected to the rapid change in working life. A new type of vocational education was developed in Finnish Commercial colleges to solve this problem. It is a network comprised of student groups, a teachers' group, partner firms and other actors from outside the school. Working with partner firms, student groups from commercial colleges make business plans for a hypothetical new firm, which can be characterized as a comparative firm. In making their business plan, the students investigate how the main functions of the partner firm are organized. They try to develop a better or alternative solution for their own firm. The paper analyzes results of this kind of project realized in the schoolyear of 1996-1997 in Rauma, Finland in collaboration with a technical colleges, a commercial college, and a partner firm, Laimu Inc
Mikkilä, Mirjamaija
Reading skills, text design and conceptual change
This study investigated the interaction between reading skills and conceptual change text concerning photosynthesis. 200 children, 11-12 years old, participated in this study. The participants were first given a text comprehension test. Then they were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions: a conceptual change text vs. traditional text design. Conceptual change was measured through questions tapping into the construction of an adequate mental model of photosynthesis. The results indicate that the conceptual change text design improved learners' conceptual change about photosynthesis significantly better than the traditional text design. Average readers and high-achieving readers seem to benefit most from the conceptual change text design. The findings of this study implicate that the conceptual change text design is a relevant tool to promote conceptual change in science lessons.
Mikkilä, Mirjamaija & Varpu Eloranta
Children's naive theories concerning plants
This study investigated children's (8-12 years old) theories about plants. The study was theoretically motivated by the research on conceptual change (Vosniadou & Schnotz 1997; Hatano & Inagaki 1997). The first phase of the research project was targeted at the 209 children (11-12 years old) who were asked through a questionnaire about their conceptions concerning plants. The aim of the second phase of the project was to find out whether there are developmentally based differences among children (531) who were 8-12 years old. A drawing test was also used. Our preliminary analyses indicate that children's naive theories concerning plants consist of misconceptions. These naive representations do not include the critical distinction between plants and animals. Most school children think even at the age of 12 years that plants take their ready-made food i.e. water, sun and soil like human beings through eating. Practical implications for science curriculum and instruction are drawn.
Minnaert, Alexander
Performance-based assessment of reading comprehension
Students cannot profit profoundly from self-assessment and feedback on reading comprehension because most of the scores on standarised tests are biased by test anxiety, and by the availabitity and retrieval of prior knowledge. Accordingly, the learning process and progress of students with for example a high level of test anxiety might be continuously underestimated. A performance-based assessment of reading comprehension (i.e., comprehension monitoring) was developed especially to assess students' higher order thinking skills and to account for test anxiety. Students with high scores on reading comprehension performed better on a comprehension monitoring task as well. Individual differences in reading comprehension with a multiple-choice response format emerged as a function of the interaction between test anxiety and prior knowledge. Students with low prior knowledge and high test anxiety performed worst of all. We found, however, a far less detrimental effect of test anxiety and prior knowledge on comprehension monitoring than on reading comprehension.
Miras, Mariana, Isabel Sole, Nuria Castells & Samantha Lopez
Assessment practices in reading and writing in primary and secondary education (616)
This paper will present some preliminar data related to the reading and writing assessment activities designed and applied by Primary and Secondary school teachers.
Data were obtained from the analysis of these teachers' answers to a questionnaire handed out at the initial stage of a boarding Research Project (1) .
The aim of the Project was to study the characteristics of the assessment practices as well as the difficulties linked to such practices with respect to three different curriculum areas (language, mathematics and social sciences).
The analysis enabled the identification of the reading and writing content areas that are prioritized in the assessment, the problems found, and the continuities and discontinuities displayed by these assessment practices.
Mitchell, Christine & Bill Rawson
The function of writing in developing young children's mathematical reasoning
Within the Using and Applying Mathematics programme of study (National Curriculum for England, 1995) there is a requirement that teachers should provide pupils with opportunities to 'develop mathematical reasoning'. In particular, children aged between five and seven should 'explain their thinking' and children aged between seven and eleven should 'ask questions and follow alternative suggestions' in order to support the development of reasoning. Gardiner (1993) suggests that mathematical correctness depends on reasoning 'which is far more precise than the every day meaning of this word might indicate'. He suggests that 'reasons and reasoning are the mortar that bind mathematics together' (p.20). Encouraging young children to explain the "how" and "why" of their thinking would seem to be an important first step towards the later requirements of rigorous mathematical proof. Nevertheless there is growing research evidence (Askew et al, 1993; Hughes et al, forthcoming) which highlights that providing pupils with opportunities to develop their reasoning is problematic. At the same time, research into children's writing in mathematics, for example Marks and Mousley (1990), has identified a paucity of different writing genres in teaching styles, children's work and mathematics textbooks. Hence our research is concerned to explore possible links between children's writing in mathematics and the development of mathematical reasoning.
Research Aims and Methodology: Our research explores the function of writing in challenging children's thinking and developing their mathematical reasoning. More particularly, we are concerned to pursue alternative patterns of pedagogy which can expand the range of writing genres available to children and to explore the effect on developing children's reasoning skills.
The initial research was carried out as part of the Exeter Extending Literacy project examining non-fiction writing (Lewis and Wray, 1995) and funded by the Nuffield Foundation. Lewis and Wray conjecture that children's early attempts at non-fiction writing might successfully be assisted by framing structures. The model of teaching underpinning the project was based on Vygotsky (1978) with particular attention being given to the teacher as expert and learner as novice relationship.
An action research approach was followed involving twenty-five experienced teachers in the first instance and at a later stage a further twenty eight experienced teachers were recruited. In the early stages of the research project time was given to identifying a range of writing genres in mathematics. The teachers then began to trial, redesign, collect and analyse examples of children's work using mathematics writing frames.
Outcomes: An important feature of the frames is the link with an explicit, structured teaching model. Work of this kind is teacher intensive if the children are to be challenged to extend their thinking. Nevertheless, this is only a temporary state as the children move from a state of teacher dependency through to a stage of independent working. Similarly, there is an initial stage whereby the forward movement of the rest of the mathematics curriculum can be slowed down as more explicit attention is given to explanation and reasoning. Whether this period of concentrated attention to the development of mathematical reasoning in this way has beneficial effects on later work with mathematical proof is a further long term research question. Similarly, the relationship between children's verbal and written explanations is the focus for the current action research cycle.
Written fluency for some young learners comes through a slow, difficult and often painful process. It might be argued that the use of writing frames to help pupils with their writing in mathematics is too prescriptive and may obstruct their creativity. On the other hand, we are encouraged by the results of our study that reveal children using writing frames to help them to formulate, organise and share their thinking on paper. Particularly noteworthy is the extent to which writing frames support children in their use of logical connectives in order to produce a reasoned explanation. To what extent children are able to transfer their reasoning skills beyond the context of the frames remains to be researched.
Moeller, J.
Internal comparisons and self-concept: A quasi-experimental approach to the I/E-model
Introduction: The I/E Model (Marsh, 1986, 1990) is empirically based on correlational data. None of the studies appear to have asked students about their internal comparison processes immediately following the announcement of an exam result. The present investigation explores the impact of different directions of internal comparison processes. The I/E-Model implies the following predictions: if students carry out internal downward comparisons (compare their math achievement with their usually worse achievement in another area) their math self concept should increase. If students do internal upward comparisons (compare their math achievement with their usually better achievement in another area) their math self concept should decrease. No changes in area-specific self concept are postulated for students who compare their math achievement with an area in which they usually achieve a similar result.
Method A few days before a test in math, math self concepts of seventh and eighth grade students (n=281; 61.9% female) were recorded. The self-concept of math ability was tested by means of a 4-item scale with 4-point ratings (1=strongly disagree to 4=strongly agree) for each item (e.g., "Even if I do my best in school, I do not perform as well as the other students in my class"). The reliability was satisfacory. The responses of students between 13 and 14 years of age (M 13.73 years; SD=.85) at junior high schools in the northern part of Germany were recorded. Students then completed a short questionnaire to reveal their expectations. The instructions read as follows: "What grade do you think you will get in the exam?" "I think I will get a __________". (Grades in Gernzan schools range between 1 (very good) and 6 (very poor) with 6 as a very infrequent grade. The questionnaire included some demographic items (such as gender and age).
Immediately after the announcement oftheir results (usually two weeks later), the second questionnaire was administered. After writing down their code words students were asked: "Which grade did you get in the exam?" As a manipulation check, the confidence of the students was obtained using a 10-point item. Students were subdivided into three groups with respect to their exam results. Students who got the best grades (1 and 2) were labeled as good (N=81; 28,9%), students with a 3 were labeled as moderate (N =5; 33.9%) and students worse than 3 were labeled as poor (N=104; 37.1"%). As expected there was a correlation between grade and confidence (r=-.68; p<.001).
Then, students were asked with which domain they were most likely to compare their math grade. They had to write down the name of the domain ("Often, people compare their math achievement with their achievements in other areas. If you compare your math achievement with your achievement in another area, which area do you choose for comparison?" "As a comparison area I take ________") and to answer the question on the comparison direction. They were asked: "In this area I usually achieve better than (vs. achieve similar results as vs. achieve worse than) in math". With respect to these answers students were subdivided into the three comparison groups. Finally their math self concept was recorded again.
Results: Internal upward comparisons ocourred 37.9% of the students whereas 30.0% compared their math achievement with an achievement in an area in which they usually performed as well as in math. 32.0% carried out internal downward comparisons.
To analyse the impact of the different comparison directions following the announcement of the exam results math selfconcepts of students who did upward, downward, or similar comparisons were compared. To exclude a priori differences between the three groups the a priori math self concept should be treated as a covariate. To test our hypotheses a 3(exam result: good vs. moderate vs. poor) x 3(comparison direction: upward vs. similar vs. downward)-ANCOVA was camed out.
Firstly, Ancova showed a significant effect of the covariate on math selfconcept (F(1,243)=284.02; p<.001) and significant effects of exam result (F(2,243)=13.97; p<.001) and comparison direction (F(2,243)=6.47; p=.01). Post hoc Scheffe-tests with the residuals showed a lower math self concept for students who did upward comparisons (Mres=-.25) than for students who compared their math achievement with their lower achievement in another area (Mres=.29). Additionally, Scheffe-tests revealed a higher math self concept for students with a good grade (Mres=.27) or a moderate grade (Mres=.19) than for students with a poor grade (Mres=.41). There was no interaction between both variables (F(4,243) =.30; ns).
Conclusions: This investigation deals with the question regarding the impact of exam feedback in classrooms. The different internal comparison directions affected students self esteem in a way that corresponds with the I/E Model and our hypotheses. Immediately following the announcement of their grades in a math exam, students who did internal upward comparisons revealed lower math self concepts than students who did internal downward comparisons, even if the a priori self concept differences is taken into account. This result is found across the three achievement levels, underlining the importance of internal comparisons. Even good students who perceive their math achievement as being lower than their English achievement tend to discount their math self concept. Thus, the assumption that internal comparisons lead to lower correlations between the self concepts in different areas is supported.
Mok, A. H. Chee Ida, P. M. Chik, P.Y. Ko, T. Kwan, L. M. Lo, F. Marton, F. P. Ng & H. Sze-To
The anatomy of a Chinese lesson
Studies about Chinese classrooms have portrayed them as having high teacher-control and passive students. These descriptions form a dipolar extreme when comparing with classrooms in some Western countries such as Sweden, where typical classrooms are portrayed as one with very little teacher-control and active students. Hong Kong, being consistently under the influence of the cultures from the East and the West, has been trying to promote changes from the high teacher-control model towards a less teacher-control model in recent top-down curriculum reform. On the one hand, the scenario of passive students are disappearing in some classrooms; and on the other hand, the nature of high teacher-control remains dominating. Thus, the incidence of learning depends greatly on how the teacher demonstrates the art of teaching. The paper has dual aims. First, it acts as a model for describing the nature of interactions in a lesson. Second, it captures some key features of a teacher-dominated Chinese lesson with highly active students. It presents an analysis of a primary-two Chinese lesson with reference to a theoretical framework of variations. The analysis is aimed at capturing the different dimensions of variations which the teacher creates in the lesson. The variations at the macro level included a change of acts such as performing a drama and teacher-led discussions. The variations at the micro level included such as application of spoken/written forms of languages, gradual refinement of verbal descriptions of a specific scene, and capturing the surface and deep meaning of a passage. The lesson thus can be described as a series of nested movements conducted by the teacher.
Molnár, Edit Katalin
European ideas in national curricula: The case of communication skills in the Hungarian and the English National Curricula
The processes of creating a new understanding of the concept of Europe have already highlighted two characteristics of the future European community. One is the formation of generally shared values and common understandings, a framework of unity. The other is a growing significance of regional identities, the preservation of distinct characteristics. These twin features are present in every field of life, in the economy, in culture, and of course in education as well.
In the present paper we highlight one problem of developing compatible European curricula through the treatment of communication in the Hungarian National Core Curriculum (NAT) and the English National Curriculum (NC). The objective of the analysis is to show how the two basic documents implement a common objective in their respective and different cultures. This shared objective is the development of the communicative abilities of students through mother tongue education. We will pay attention to the values that define the two curricula, the way these values are related to communication and the steps through which the development of the latter is operationalised. The basic tension of the comparison comes from the interplay of the shared objective on the one hand and the cultural differences in understanding what the school is expected to teach future generations on the other.
To this, a noteworthy feature of the NAT adds yet another twist. It is a document bearing many signs of a paradigm shift in process from a literary to a functional paradigm in mother tongue education where the former is considered to be necessary for preserving the national heritage (which is understood as almost equivalent to preserving national identity).
The NAT is defined by a double perspective on the improvement of content knowledge as well as the development of skills. It expressly targets both giving a linguistic and literary education and fostering effective communication skills. In this respect it is similar to the NC. At the same time, however, there is a marked difference between the two documents regarding the interpretation of the role language plays. The analysis of the NAT reveals a tendency for the subordination of linguistic abilities to learning about literature as one distinguished language form. In contrast, the NC seems to promote the mechanisms working behind different language functions.
Because of its background, the NAT, emphasising and requiring a good introduction to Hungarian culture, finally places content knowledge in the focus, whereas the NC stresses skills and abilities. In the former it will be the ever deepening knowledge of canonical texts that will develop the students' communicative abilities, whereas in the latter this will be propelled by the observation of their own discourse as well as the observation of, and active participation in, the discourse of their environment. In other words, the NAT hands down the heritage of the past so that students will learn what is important for them in the present, while the NC teaches them skills and knowledge useful at present to enable them to receive their cultural heritage.
The important differences between the fundamental values of the NAT and the NC may result in a consequence worth considering. It appears that the NAT wishes to initiate students into a body of knowledge. The intentions of the NC appear to be the presentation of the culture (or, rather, the tools used in that culture) within which a body of knowledge can be designated as an educational minimum requirement. As a result, the basics of education will have different interpretations in the two documents. The NAT will define them as familiarity with a tradition, the NC as behaviour always appropriate in the given situation. Consequently, we will find that with regards to the development of communicative abilities, the NAT will be dominated by skills and knowledge of reception while the NC by those of production.
We selected an example that is extreme enough to highlight the issue of harmonising old and new. The case is made even more sharply because old and new here are often translated as a clash of values. Our analysis has uncovered a mechanism through which the NAT balances out the conflict of new objectives and old traditions. Defined this way, the phenomenon and our analysis draw attention to the processes of innovation, change and negotiation as well as the
conflicts and difficulties that surround curriculum development and implementation in the context of integration and regionalism.
Molnár, Edit Katalin
European ideas in national curricula: The case of communication skills in the Hungarian and the English National Curricula
The processes of creating a new understanding of the concept of Europe have already highlighted two characteristics of the future European community. One is the formation of generally shared values and common understandings, a framework of unity. The other is a growing significance of regional identities, the preservation of distinct characteristics. These twin features are present in every field of life, in the economy, in culture, and of course in education as well.
In the present paper we highlight one problem of developing compatible European curricula through the treatment of communication in the Hungarian National Core Curriculum (NAT) and the English National Curriculum (NC). The objective of the analysis is to show how the two basic documents implement a common objective in their respective and different cultures. This shared objective is the development of the communicative abilities of students through mother tongue education. We will pay attention to the values that define the two curricula, the way these values are related to communication and the steps through which the development of the latter is operationalised. The basic tension of the comparison comes from the interplay of the shared objective on the one hand and the cultural differences in understanding what the school is expected to teach future generations on the other.
To this, a noteworthy feature of the NAT adds yet another twist. It is a document bearing many signs of a paradigm shift in process from a literary to a functional paradigm in mother tongue education where the former is considered to be necessary for preserving the national heritage (which is understood as almost equivalent to preserving national identity).
The NAT is defined by a double perspective on the improvement of content knowledge as well as the development of skills. It expressly targets both giving a linguistic and literary education and fostering effective communication skills. In this respect it is similar to the NC. At the same time, however, there is a marked difference between the two documents regarding the interpretation of the role language plays. The analysis of the NAT reveals a tendency for the subordination of linguistic abilities to learning about literature as one distinguished language form. In contrast, the NC seems to promote the mechanisms working behind different language functions.
Because of its background, the NAT, emphasising and requiring a good introduction to Hungarian culture, finally places content knowledge in the focus, whereas the NC stresses skills and abilities. In the former it will be the ever deepening knowledge of canonical texts that will develop the students' communicative abilities, whereas in the latter this will be propelled by the observation of their own discourse as well as the observation of, and active participation in, the discourse of their environment. In other words, the NAT hands down the heritage of the past so that students will learn what is important for them in the present, while the NC teaches them skills and knowledge useful at present to enable them to receive their cultural heritage.
The important differences between the fundamental values of the NAT and the NC may result in a consequence worth considering. It appears that the NAT wishes to initiate students into a body of knowledge. The intentions of the NC appear to be the presentation of the culture (or, rather, the tools used in that culture) within which a body of knowledge can be designated as an educational minimum requirement. As a result, the basics of education will have different interpretations in the two documents. The NAT will define them as familiarity with a tradition, the NC as behaviour always appropriate in the given situation. Consequently, we will find that with regards to the development of communicative abilities, the NAT will be dominated by skills and knowledge of reception while the NC by those of production.
We selected an example that is extreme enough to highlight the issue of harmonising old and new. The case is made even more sharply because old and new here are often translated as a clash of values. Our analysis has uncovered a mechanism through which the NAT balances out the conflict of new objectives and old traditions. Defined this way, the phenomenon and our analysis draw attention to the processes of innovation, change and negotiation as well as the conflicts and difficulties that surround curriculum development and implementation in the context of integration and regionalism.
Molnár, Edit Katalin
Defining academic tasks in higher education
The aim of the present paper is the introduction of an instrument for exploring the definitions of seminar papers and presentations. These two tasks are commonly used in higher education but their definition is often implicit, belonging to a supposed expository tradition. Thus it is possible that students are not aware of the requirements they have to satisfy, or that workloads on courses intended to be compatible are in fact not comparable. The piloting showed the questionnaire to be a good instrument for identifying the expectations of an academic community toward its students and for detecting students' awareness of these requirements. In this double diagnostic function it can serve as a tool for addressing problems, raising awareness, or facilitating consensus on what constitutes acceptable work standards for students in the academia.
Molyneux-Hodgson, Susan & K. Facer
A theorisation of mathematical practices in science
The relationship between mathematics and science, and the learning of these domains, continues to pose problems for the educational community. Studies of peoples' mathematical work in everyday settings have provided insights into the ways in which these practices are distinct from practices within mathematics communities. In particular, studies with pre-university students in schools and colleges have shown that the practice of mathematics within science-related subjects may not be as straight-forward as once assumed and that the mathematical practices are shaped by the ongoing science activity and resources within the setting. In this paper I will present some characteristics of mathematical practices in science and discuss an emergent theory which builds upon these results. This theorisation offers the means to reconsider students' difficulties with mathematical work with resulting implications for science and mathematics teaching.
Molyneux-Hodgson, Susan & K. Facer
The textual (re) production of scientific community
Drawing on the fields of science education and cultural studies, we have undertaken an analysis of pedagogic texts as one aspect of an investigation of the enculturation of learners into communities of practice. Using the example of a university textbook for engineers, we will consider the mechanisms by which textbooks inform the apprenticeship of students into scientific communities of practice. Two key discourses have been identified within the textbook, "core" (relating to professional practice) and "framing" (relating to professional participation). Using this categorisation we will describe the scientific community that the text constructs. Further, we will consider the ways in which particular under-represented communities of students might read this text by generating possible negotiated or oppositional readings to this construct of the scientific community. The implications that these readings may have for pedagogical practice and the (re)production of the scientific community will also be discussed.
Mooij, Ton
Pedagogical management of learning differences with ICT
Five symposium contributions concentrate on research possibilities to develop education including ICT in pedagogically and educationally responsible ways. First, an overview is presented of characteristics which seem essential in defining optimum education, including education for pupils at risk. Five guidelines to the pedagogical use and management of ICT in education will be formulated and concretised. Second, theoretical aspects of a contingent teaching computer program to foster metacognitive strategies in basic geometry will be treated. The CD-ROM is to be used with pupils of 8 to 12. Information will be reported about the formative evaluation of the module in different European schools. A third presentation is concentrated on profiles of interactivity with respect to Ecolab software. Individual differences in children's interactivity occur in characteristics like busyness and exploration. Collaboration profiles appear in number of instances of support, and depth of support. Empirical data will be presented. Fourth, an Action-Research project carried out in twenty primary school classes with children aged 5 and 6 years, over a period of 12 weeks, will be in the focus. A programme of direct teacher intervention using a range of ICT to support writing was devised, taught and evaluated in collaboration with the class teachers. Fifth, concentration is directed at educational or management characteristics which are part of software designed to support both teachers and pupils in early childhood education. Information is given about developmental research concerning successive versions of prototypes of software used in about six different classes in early childhood education. A prototype for children of four - six years old will be demonstrated and discussed.
Mor, Nili & Gavriel Salomon
Training teachers for novel learning environments - does it make a difference?
Educating teachers of new environments, in which learning is a constructive process of collaboration and mindful involvement (e.g. Salomon & Perkins, 1998), is the focus of the present study. In order to change teachers` tendency to teach the way they were taught (Weber & Mitchel, 1996) and their conception of teaching as a process of pouring of knowledge into students' minds (e.g., Strauss & Shiloni, 1995) there is a need to re-design teachers' beliefs. This can be done through the combined processes of experience and reflection (Nisbett & Ross, 1980). The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that having student-teachers experience, design, and reflect upon novel, technology-intensive learning environments would result in the ³unfreezing² of their strongly held views (Kruglanski, 1989; Schon, 1987).
Only weak support expressed in interviews was found for the study's major hypothesis, although the interviews revealed some changes in the expected direction. Teachers in the experimental group did not show clear changes of their teaching conceptions in the ³constructivist² direction,
Morais, Ana M. & Alice Fontes
Political and educational systems a study of reproduction processes in a dictatorial regime
The paper analyses the relation between state and education to see the extent to which mechanisms of social and cultural reproduction are present and the form they take. The study is based on Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse and takes the educational reform of a dictatorial regime as object of analysis.
The results show that, through the school curriculum and other agencies of cultural reproduction parallel to the school, the state ensured an efficient reproduction of the values of a dictatorship. They also show that the strong classification and framing between agencies, agents and discourses which characterized the reform under study constitute a reproducing socializing matrix. The recontextualizing of the general regulative discourse was reduced/unexistent. Spaces of change were absent. The study shows the importance of analysing the characteristics of the socio-political context in which curricular reforms are implemented to understand the meaning of the texts legitimized by these reforms.
Mortari, Livigne
Educating to think in small groups A research with university students
Educating to the critical, reflexive thinking is an aim of the school; the problem is to identify the conditions facilitating this kind of education. Starting from the vygotskian theory, according to which higher mental functions develop as internalization of social shared activity, it is founded to assume that in order to educate to think it is useful to organize small working groups. The purpose of this study is to examine the social interaction in small groups of university students engaged in "thinking together" about questions without certain and verifiable anwers. It has been hypothesized that the level of freedom in discussion can be an important factor influencing the possibility of constructing a "community of thinking". For testing this hypothesis students were organized in eight groups: four groups were asked to discuss with a binding task and four to reason freely about problematical cases. The precise task of this research was that of elaborating a "grounded coding system" able to face the complexity of this kind of interactions.
Mulder, Regina H.
Conditions for instructional design and innovation in vocational education
Introduction and research question: Nowadays there still are discrepancies between education and the labour market. The rapidly changing world does not make it easier to inprove this relation. Recent developments as the ongoing technological developments (should) have their impact on vocational education as a result of for example changes in demands of qualifications at the labour market. Therefore vocational education has to react adequately to provide instruction for effective job preparation. Effective means that students acquire the knowledge and skills that are required for working on the job. Vocational education can react in several ways, for instance in redefining the learning goals and altering the content of instruction (e.g. Nijhof & Streumer, 1994).
Designing instruction is one way of reacting to the changes in the society. When instruction is designed for the practice of education several problems can and do occur in different phases of instructional design. For instance the lack of cooperation with the implementation of the instruction in the curnculum. Or the lack of control on the (experimental) conditions that are necessary for succesfull research and succesfull instruction. Such difficulties of designing instruction that can decrease the chance of succesfull instruction in the practice of the current education, leads the attention to conditions and determinants for succesfull instructional design. Possible conditions are for instance the neeessary tools and the amount of people that have design the instruction. For succesfull instruction however, more is needed. For instance the characteristics of the current education, the content of the change, the method of innovation and the support of the process by the relevant actors as teachers, are important aspects in relation to educational change (Fullan,19??; Lagerweij, 1987).
In this paper we we are trying to increase the insight in the problems and questions that arise during instructional design with the purpose of improving education, so that the conditions for succesfull design of instruction and innovation get clearer.
The research question is: What are conditionsfor succesfull instructional design and innovation that can lead to improving education?
The research: For this paper we use a case study method. One research in particular will be described in relation to the problems with instructional design in vocational education. This specific research has been carried out in secundary commercial education. For this research project instruction was designed at the basis of ideas of recent theories on learning and instruction as cognitive apprenticeship theory, situated learning and components of constructivism. One of the popular methods that can be used to design instruction is the system approach (Romiszowski, 1984) in which different phases are being described. The first phase consist of defining the problem. That is in this case improving the job preparation.
Muller, Nathalie & Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont
Cultural, institutional and interpersonal issues of 'thinking and learning settings'
In the field of adult training in rural context, a Swiss development institution project in Madagascar, realized several years ago that proposing clearly defined training courses was not successful. They have thus proposed a preliminary analysis, before the training event itself, to farmers living in the Betsileo area (centre of the island). Farmers are invited to discuss and analyse their problems in order to express their needs of training courses. The Swiss team proposes the setting but it is a Malagasy farmer who guides the discussion.
The results presented in the paper are based on the analysis of data recorded during a stay of six months in Madagascar. Our focus is on these negotiation and transformation issues where farmers are analysing their own life situation, referring thereby to cultural codes and values, to their ideas of the Swiss institution and to their previous experiences.
Two main axes will draw our attention: (i) At a microlevel of the interactions, we will study the communicative dimensions: How is the interaction managed? Who does propose new ideas? How are they developed by others? (ii) At a macrolevel, we will study how these interventions can be understood with the reference to cultural, institutional and historical dimensions of the context.
Murphy, P. & S. Hennessy
A case study of collaborative problem solving in design and technology
Our work explores the potential suitability of Design and Technology (D&T) as a supportive environment for collaborative learning and problem solving. The literature on collaboration indicates that it is an important aspect of problem solving which enhances learning by making thinking more explicit and accessible and enabling students to construct joint understandings of tasks and solutions. However, peer collaboration has not generally been exploited by teachers or explored by researchers in the context of D&T (see review by Hennessy & Murphy, 1998). The latter is unique in involving procedural problem-solving activity where talk between peers relates to physical manipulation and feedback and both concrete models and graphical representations play an important mediating role. Our view is that the global task of product design and construction potentially constitutes a vehicle for technological learning through peer collaboration.
The established literature on collaboration and classroom talk, especially from a sociocultural perspective, offered some insight for constructing our own framework for investigating and analysing collaborative problem-solving activity in D&T. This work characterises the kinds of strategies and skills typical of effective peer collaborators as they construct shared meanings through discussion and negotiation. 'Exploratory talk' (Mercer, 1995) in particular has significant implications for analysing our records of collaborative practical activity. However, our analyses examine the role of exploratory talk in constructing procedural knowledge. Action such as sketching, 2-D and 3-D modelling and physical interactions with objects may also make thinking explicit.
The work of Rogoff provided some further inspiration, from a slightly different sociocultural perspective; her analysis portrays cognitive development as involving mutual personal, interpersonal, and cultural processes, namely participatory appropriation through guided participation in dynamically changing events within a system of apprenticeship (Rogoff, 1995). Our primary concern is with the interpersonal plane, whereby small groups of peers along with experts serve as resources and challenges for each other in exploring an activity. The key notion of guided participation is also helpful in examining teacher support for students' problem solving. Finally, partners individually appropriate the products of shared activity, preparing themselves for later participation in related activities.
Our focus is on the reflective processes of designing, for which the sociocultural perspective on planning has significant implications. In the D&T context, planning is not only verbal and collaboration is an important facilitator in the process as students trial ideas and share conceptions through the different mediating representations of talk, sketching and action. The developing artefact thus becomes an object of shared cognition (Medway, 1996). Our view of children's joint planning in D&T extends the sociocultural perspective on planning to a previously uncharted domain. The empirical investigation of planning by pairs of students in the course of designing a joint product provided an excellent opportunity for examining the available tools, the nature of the social interactions and the situational (pedagogical) constraints which facilitate or hinder collaborative planning in a D&T context. We will report two exemplary case studies which offered an opportunity to observe teacher-supported student collaboration in a number of settings.
The study took a naturalistic approach in investigating the participation of students aged 13. Our methodology involved detailed observation and video recording of all sessions of each project. Outcomes in writing, drawings and photographs products were also collected and a series of individual interviews were undertaken with the students and their teachers. These sources of data provided a detailed picture of the participants' activities and thinking. Our analysis of the data focused upon identifying the tasks as presented by the teacher, the students' behaviour and decision making, and 'critical incidents' initiated by the teacher or students.
The impact of the students' changing participation on collaborative problem solving was explored. Our analyses yielded evidence of effective collaboration in each case but with valuable teacher support in the early design stage of the projects, including unique evidence of cognitive strategies which students may use in this context (e.g. thinking through sketching). However the students' collaboration and their progress were influenced by the perceived status of the individuals and their ability to negotiate shared reference and allocate tasks. In one case this led to a successful product but many lost opportunities for learning. Nevertheless, we were able to observe an atypical teacher who used collaborative work as a tool for pooling student expertise and ideas. Detailed scrutiny of the complex process of elaborating a design additionally allowed us to see how plans are articulated to a partner, how conflict is resolved and how goals may change.
Our analyses yielded a set of pedagogic strategies for supporting joint planning and problem solving in this context. These are summarised as follows. A task context with an explicit, negotiated purpose, linked to a genuine need or function in the world, is the first prerequisite. Then, differing individual perspectives must be accomodated. Partners in collaboration have to perceive the 'same' task and goal at least. Opportunities for developing this perception through both allowing students to develop the problem or task for themselves and encouraging them to make thinking processes explicit must be built into an activity.
Classroom organisation, effective management and teacher strategies for supporting autonomous learning are also absolutely essential for mediating collaboration. In our view, the most important teacher behaviours are (a) engaging students in discussion and evaluation of their own and others' ideas, (b) continuously monitoring their progress, interactions and understandings of the task, and (c) modelling potential strategies for students to draw upon during peer collaboration. For example, questioning students to elicit ideas, diagnose problems and prompt them to plan ahead and anticipate problems. Prior research indicates an absence of children's strategic planning and decision making in D&T (McCormick, Murphy, Hennessy & Davidson, 1996). Guided participation through providing 'sensitive' assistance often nonverbal is particularly relevant to facilitate planning throughout a project. Such strategies, exemplified in our case studies, have been underplayed in much of the general research literature on collaboration.
Murray, Jean
Integrating research and teaching within initial teacher education
The involvement of teacher educators in learning communities which enable research to inform and develop teaching is part of the rhetoric of teacher education. International research (for example, Hatton 1996, Acker 1997, Ducharme and Ducharme 1997, Reynolds 1995) indicates however that, whilst teacher education communities are characterised by scholarship and a devotion to teaching, teacher educators' involvement in research activity is variable. The degree of involvement in personal research is seen as dependent on the nature of the institutions within which the tutors work and on the nature of the individual biographies and teaching experience which tutors bring into Higher Education from schools. The available research indicates a particular problem in integrating teaching and research involvement for tutors teaching on Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes.
This paper uses analyses of institutional provision in English teacher education institutions to identify factors at institutional levels which lead to recognised achievements in research and teaching. These analyses include the nature of ITE provision in different institutions, the outcomes of the Research Assessment Exercises of 1992 and 1996, and the outcomes of the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspections of 1994 to 1997/8 on ITE programmes. A further aspect of the analysis identifies the conditions of working for tutors in ITE from 1992 to 1998. A number of factors relevant to the institutional development of research based learning cultures are identified.
Insights into the individual factors which affect tutors involvement in research activity are based on the findings of in-depth interviews and questionnaires conducted with twenty eight tutors in four teacher education institutions. This data is analysed using grounded theory to establish the factors influential at individual level in generating engagement in research. These include the impact of teaching experience in the school sector on tutors' practices and models of professionalism, individual conceptions of the nature of learning and teaching, and the number of years spent in Higher Education.
For a number of the tutors interviewed learning through research was seen as extrinsic to their models of professionalism. They did not see themselves as researchers, rather they prioritised teaching as the major focus of their work, and saw learning in teacher education as predominantly experiential. Another group of tutors had created research identities which were integral to their teaching. This group of tutors was engaged in collaborative research, had distinctive biographical profiles, and was working under institutional conditions which facilitated the development of research-based learning communities.
The paper explores the reasons for the importance attributed to the establishment of research-based learning communities in ITE departments. It defines the key factors underpinning the development of a learning community in which the syzygy of teaching and research is appreciated in ITE. A further outcome is the identification of strategies for developing the cultures of scholarship and teaching expertise which exist in ITE departments into research-based learning and teaching communities. The findings have implications for staff development in teacher education departments and for the enrichment of ITE programmes through research-based learning for teacher educators.
Murtonen, Mari
Science beliefs, achievement and experienced difficulties in methodology studies
Research methodology university studies are considered difficult by many social science students. Especially quantitative method studies are experienced troublesome and even frightening by some students. It is still unclear, why these methods are so hard for students. There are many possible factors, which may be reasons for difficulties, like inadequate prior knowledge, previous experiences and self efficacy or something in the research methodology domain itself. In this study, the aim was to investigate if there are differences in students' scientific beliefs and how different beliefs are connected to prior knowledge, experienced difficulties in quantitative method studies and study achievement. Different science beliefs were found among students. The beliefs had an effect on experienced difficulties and experienced difficulties were in connection to low prior knowledge and low study achievement.
Muukkonen, Hanni, Kai Hakkarainen, Lasse Lipponen & Minna Lakkala
Cognitive scaffolding for progressive inquiry process
The design of a new-generation networked learning environment, called the Future Learning Environment (FLE) relies on recent achievements of cognitive research on educational practices and computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). In the design of FLE, special emphasis has been given to developing metacognitive tools for structuring users' activity. The aim of these tools is to support collaborative knowledge building and progressive inquiry. This study examines the actual benefit of providing such tools, not discussed by prior research.
The users (approx. 120) participated in university courses. Qualitative methods were used to analyze the data that was collected from the database, from user-log information, self-evaluations and by participant and tutor interviews.
Two patterns for using the metacognitive tools appeared: skillful-users showing ability to flexibly operate with the tools of the environment, and apprentice-users who gradually adopted these skills by collaboration in the open environment. Nevertheless, the development of metacognitive skills is dependent on tutor guidance.
Muukkonen, Hanni, Marjaana Rahikainen, Kai Hakkarainen, Lasse Lipponen & Liisa Ilomäki
Students conceptions about practices of progressive inquiry and its prerequisites
In order to meet the future challenges, school should be transformed into a community in which construction of knowledge is a primary goal of both students and teachers. This study aims at describing the interdependencies of students' conceptions of learning and knowledge, and classroom practices.
The study was carried out by using a self-report questionnaire, consisting of Likert-type questions. Answers were obtained from 785 students in five upper primary and secondary schools in the city of Helsinki. Nine scales were analyzed by factor analysis and ANOVA. In general, the results indicated that although older girls have a more dynamic conception of learning and orientation for progressive inquiry, they seem to look for external structuring of learning situations. Younger students seem to be less structure-bound. As an implication, it is important to encourage and provide scaffolds for student initiated problem-setting and knowledge-seeking when introducing the progressive inquiry process to students.
Mäkinen, Jarkko & Erkki Olkinuora
Study orientations in higher education theoretical expectations and empirical findings
The aim of this study is to analyse empirically the dimensions of study orientations in different academic contexts. The subjects of the study are students within various fields of higher education in the era of growing information technology. This is a current topic of research because of the great variation of students' socio-cultural backgrounds, motivational goals and actual learning abilities in mass higher education. For the needs of the teachers it would be useful to know which kind of contents and emphasis of study orientations are carried out by students of their respective subjects. For this reason, the study is especially looking for contextual differences and internal variance within different student groups. The empirical part of the study uses a pre-tested questionnaire which includes 50 items related to different dimensions of orientations.
Mæland, Kjellfrid
Cultural meeting Conflict or dialogue
The project is a ongoing case study in a Norwegian compulsory secondary school (the 6.form) The aim is to develop a deeper understanding with regard to cultural meeting in school. According to the National Curriculum (Läreplanverket), cultural meeting through dialogue is a central aim. What is children's conceptions and experiences related to their meeting with and learning about the cultural shift in Norway in the Viking Period? The focus is on historical events in the region of Sunnhordland (on the Western coast of Norway), where Olav Tryggvason arrived in 995 with priests and celebrated a Christian Mass. A few years later a new Christian legislation was established. How do children today describe cultural patterns in everyday life in the Viking Period, and how do they describe the meeting between Norse belief and Christianity? How do they relate this to their own culture? In the project I will analyse how
children describe patterns of meaning, relevance and the process of dialogue in order to gain a successful cultural meeting.