Collaboration scripts - a conceptual analysis

This article presents a conceptual analysis of collaboration scripts used in face-to-face and computer-mediated collaborative learning. Collaboration scripts are scaffolds that aim to improve collaboration through structuring the interactive processes between two or more learning partners. Collaboration scripts consist of at least five components: (a) learning objectives, (b) type of activities, (c) sequencing, (d) role distribution, and (e) type of representation. These components serve as a basis for comparing prototypical collaboration script approaches for face-to-face vs. computer-mediated learning. As our analysis reveals, collaboration scripts for face-to-face learning often focus on supporting collaborators in engaging in activities that are specifically related to individual knowledge acquisition. Scripts for computer-mediated collaboration are typically concerned with facilitating communicative-coordinative processes that occur among group members. The two lines of research can be consolidated to facilitate the design of collaboration scripts, which both support participation and coordination, as well as induce learning activities closely related to individual knowledge acquisition and metacognition. In addition, research on collaboration scripts needs to consider the learners’ internal collaboration scripts as a further determinant of collaboration behavior. The article closes with the presentation of a conceptual framework incorporating both external and internal collaboration scripts

Scoping a vision for formative e-assessment: a project report for JISC

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. If the relationship between teaching and learning were causal, i. e. if students always mastered the intended learning outcomes of a particular sequence of instruction, assessment would be superfluous. Experience and research suggest this is not the case: what is learnt can often be quite different from what is taught. Formative assessment is motivated by a concern with the elicitation of relevant information about student understanding and / or achievement, its interpretation and an exploration of how it can lead to actions that result in better learning. In the context of a policy drive towards technology-enhanced approaches to teaching and learning, the question of the role of digital technologies is key and it is the latter on which this project particularly focuses. The project and its deliverables have been informed by recent and relevant literature, in particular recent work by Black andIn this work, they put forward a framework which suggests that assessment for learning their term for formative assessment can be conceptualised as consisting of a number of aspects and five keystrategies. The key aspects revolve around the where the learner is going, where the learner is right now and how she can get there and examines the role played by the teacher, peers and the learner. Language: English Keywords: assessments, case studies, design patterns, e-assessmen

Designing postgraduate pedagogies: connecting internal and external leaders

Learning is the new resource driving the knowledge economy. Now everyone is expected to make themselves available to learn : un-learn : re-learn. Much has been written about new modes of learning, as well the new technologies that promise to deliver information 24/7. Paradoxically, however, in the field of educational sociology there has been little systematic theorisation of the pedagogies designed to facilitate learning in the knowledge economy. Nor have there been systematic efforts to connect macro economic, technological and social changes to state official policies and institutional pedagogic practices. The Bernsteinian theoretical corpus models the power and control relations generating pedagogic discourses, practices and identities from the macro level of policy formation to the micro level of pedagogic interactions. It is therefore useful in examining the new pedagogies designed to generate the learning resources of the knowledge economy. In this paper, we draw on and extend Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse and identities to analyse the design and implementation of a postgraduate unit in educational research. This unit aimed to be: rigorous in disciplinary knowledge, technologically innovative, cost efficient; and responsive to diverse student needs and market contingencies

Peer scaffolding in promoting critical thinking through asynchronous online discussion forum: the theoretical framework

Since 1960s, the use of technology in the educational field has been widespread. The internet, according to Becker (2001), has been playing a major role in enhancing educational technology, which has provided diverse opportunities to the education world. One of the opportunities is to teach and learn via online learning. This method has become popular since it encourages students to submit their ideas and opinions freely through discussions which is considered a powerful tool for developing pedagogical skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and reflection

Improving performance in quantum mechanics with explicit incentives to correct mistakes

An earlier investigation found that the performance of advanced students in a quantum mechanics course did not automatically improve from midterm to final exam on identical problems even when they were provided the correct solutions and their own graded exams. Here, we describe a study, which extended over four years, in which upper-level undergraduate students in a quantum physics course were given four identical problems in both the midterm exam and final exam. Approximately half of the students were given explicit incentives to correct their mistakes in the midterm exam. In particular, they could get back up to 50\% of the points lost on each midterm exam problem. The solutions to the midterm exam problems were provided to all students in both groups but those who corrected their mistakes were provided the solution after they submitted their corrections to the instructor. The performance on the same problems on the final exam suggests that students who were given incentives to correct their mistakes significantly outperformed those who were not given an incentive. The incentive to correct the mistakes had greater impact on the final exam performance of students who had not performed well on the midterm exam.Comment: accepted for publication Physical Review Physics Education Research in 2016, 20 pages, PACS: 01.40Fk,01.40.gb,01.40G-, Keywords: physics education research, learning from mistakes, pedagogy, quantum mechanics, teaching, learnin

A metacognitive feedback scaffolding system for pedagogical apprenticeship

This thesis addresses the issue of how to help staff in Universities learn to give feedback with the main focus on helping teaching assistants (TAs) learn to give feedback while marking programming assignments. The result is an innovative approach which has been implemented in a novel computer support system called McFeSPA. The design of McFeSPA is based on an extensive review of the research literature on feedback. McFeSPA has been developed based on relevant work in educational psychology and Artificial Intelligence in EDucation (AIED) e.g. scaffolding the learner, ideas about andragogy, feedback patterns, research into the nature and quality of feedback and cognitive apprenticeship. McFeSPA draws on work on feedback patterns that have been proposed within the Pedagogical Patterns Project (PPP) to provide guidance on structuring the feedback report given to the student by the TA. The design also draws on the notion of andragogy to support the TA. McFeSPA is the first Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) that supports adults learning to help students by giving quality feedback. The approach taken is more than a synthesis of these key ideas: the scaffolding framework has been implemented both for the domain of programming and the feedback domain itself; the programming domain has been structured for training TAs to give better feedback and as a framework for the analysis of students’ performance. The construction of feedback was validated by a small group of TAs. The TAs employed McFeSPA in a realistic situation that was supported by McFeSPA which uses scaffolding to support the TA and then fade. The approach to helping TAs become better feedback givers, which is instantiated in McFeSPA, has been validated through an experimental study with a small group of TAs using a triangulation approach. We found that our participants learned differently by using McFeSPA. The evaluation indicates that 1) providing content scaffolding (i.e. detailed feedback about the content using contingent hints) in McFeSPA can help almost all TAs increase their knowledge/understanding of the issues of learning to give feedback; 2) providing metacognitive scaffolding (i.e. each level of detailed feedback in contingent hint, this can also be general pop-up messages in using the system apart from feedback that encourage the participants to give good feedback) in McFeSPA helped all TAs reflect on/rethink their skills in giving feedback; and 3) when the TAs obtained knowledge about giving quality feedback, providing adaptable fading of TAs using McFeSPA allowed the TAs to learn alone without any support

Using Learning Management Systems to Scaffold Collaborative and Interactive Teaching and Learning

The Sustainable Development Goal 4 of the United Nations advocates for inclusive and equitable quality education for all despite the unique circumstances faced by the learners and the teachers. Such circumstances could be economic, social or natural such as the COVID-19 Pandemic, which led to disruptions on the school calendar. Although several institutions of Higher Learning transited to online teaching using Learning Management Systems (LMS), the use of technology in ensuring interactivity and collaboration, which are crucial aspects of learning, needs to be examined more closely to establish its effectiveness. Given the fact that COVID -19 will be with us in the unforeseeable future, online teaching is here to stay. It is thus imperative to improve it so that the quality of education is not compromised. Previous research has shown the importance of Technology, Pedagogy and Content knowledge in effective delivery. LMS and related tools have been used to change the view of technology in the classroom, and the facilitator’s role is being re-evaluated. Successful facilitators look for innovative ways to scaffold the learning process. Instructional scaffolding is the process of supporting students in order to enhance learning and aid in the mastery of tasks. The aim of this study was to establish how LMS tools are used to improve collaboration and interaction in online teaching. The objectives were to establish which LMS tools are used to aid in interactivity and collaboration, how these tools are used to scaffold the teaching and learning process and how different elements interact to complete the scaffolding process. This study used a qualitative methodology where two virtual focus groups consisting of faculty and students in online graduate courses were used to review the scaffolding process.  The findings were analyzed qualitatively and the results indicate that synchronous and asynchronous tools found in LMS and their plugins are used to scaffold collaboration and interaction. LMS tools were found to improve learning outcomes and to build a sense of community. The need for flexibility and the ability for LMS to be integrated with other tools and plugins was identified as crucial. The study established the need for both learners and faculty to be trained on the use of the tools was proposed as an additional requirement for the success of the scaffolding process. &nbsp

Metacognition and transfer within a course or instructional design rules and metacognition

A metacognitive strategy for doing research, included transfer, was taught in a course of nine afternoons. The success of this course raised some questions. How do the students learn? How does metacognition play a role? The course was designed in accordance with several instructional principles. The course was divided into three domains in which the strategy was introduced, practised, and applied respectively. Literature research revealed four possible metacognitive variants that correlate so it was supposed that implementing them all helped to reach the objectives of the course. The relation of the metacognitive variants with the instructional principles is described. To study learning the students were divided into three groups (weak, moderate, good) by their marks for other courses. The performance of the groups in each domain was monitored by their marks, scoring of metacognitive skills, questionnaires, observations, and time keeping. The moderate students scored as high as the good ones for the strategy in the last domain, a unique result. The metacognitive development of the other metacognitive skills was not linear. The conclusions are that the success of this course can be explained by a system of double sequencing and an interaction of all metacognitive variants, and that instructional design rules for metacognitive and cognitive objectives are differen