Promoting professionalism through preservice teachers’ collaboration

The professionalism of teachers through collaboration has become increasingly important in the last years. This paper describes the process of designing and validating a questionnaire for the analysis of future Primary and Pre-school teachers’ collaboration patterns. The psychometric properties of the scale were obtained from the analysis of the validity of content (expert judgement and pilot test to 293 students of Primary Education and Pre-school Education at a Spanish university and from construct (factor analysis) and reliability (Cronbach Alpha), obtaining appropiate results (KMO = 0.89; CFI = 0.91; GFI = 0.95; AGFI = 0.96; SMSR = 0.05). Four factors were identified in the questionnaire on collaboration and shared professional learning: Assertiveness and personal willingness to work together, Group Cohesion, Leadership Capacity and Group Awareness. The results obtained are consistent with empirical studies carried out on the teachers’ willingness towards collaboration, ongoing training and teacher professional development

Effects of Argumentation Prompts on Alternative Positions in Ill-Structured Problem-Solving

Little is known about the role of prompts to help learners solve ill-structured learning problems. Instructors do not devote adequate time to formulate pedagogically useful prompts, and the usefulness of different types of prompt is unclear. The question of whether prompt variation can generate superior argumentative depth has not been resolved. This mixed-methods study, using quantitative and qualitative data collected from 32 students, examined the role of argumentative prompts in the writing of essays based on business case studies. The research questions were: Is there a significant relationship between the type of argumentative prompt and argumentative depth? Is there a significant mediating effect of the frequency of alternative positions on the relationship between argumentative prompt type and argumentative depth? How are types of argumentation strategies utilized within alternative positions as represented in rhetorical prompts versus dialectical prompts? A significant (p \u3c .001) relationship with a large effect size was found between the type of argumentative prompt (rhetorical and dialectical) and argumentative depth. Alternative argumentative positions were found to significantly (p \u3c .001) mediate the relationship between argumentative prompt type argumentative depth with a large effect size. Verification and elaboration strategies were utilized in a similar way across both rhetorical and dialectical prompts. Dialectical prompts did not appear to be more effective than rhetorical prompts when using the evidence strategies. Rebuttal appeared to be utilized more in response to dialectical prompts. The implications are that instructors should ensure that both rhetorical and dialectal prompts are provided in assignments involving ill-structured learning problems

“The Illusion of Collaboration”: An Integrated Examination of the Antecedents, Processes, and Consequences of Online Group Work

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) presents postsecondary educators with a conundrum: how to design and support small-group activities without stifling deep and meaningful learning. The literature indicates that students are not consistently practicing higher-order cognitive activities, educators are not reliably designing or facilitating them, and/or researchers are not locating or identifying them where they are occurring. The aim of this dissertation is to explore these deficits by identifying the antecedent conditions that most affect collaboration. Specifically, I answer the question, how do learner’s prior knowledge, characteristics, and experiences manifest in their collaborative processes. Addressing a gap in the literature, this study employs distance ethnography to assess at a fine-grain level the social and cognitive interactions of a trio of collaborators in a natural setting—an object-oriented, small-group project in an online writing course. The results reveal several ways that learner dispositions and prior knowledge manifest as barriers to productive interactions, including tendencies toward indirect and unidirectional communication; siloed workspaces and individual orientations to group assignments; unequal coordination work; and the preservation of individual autonomy to the detriment of group knowledge objects. The study has pedagogical and theoretical implications related to the theory of transactional distance (TTD) and collaborative cognitive load theory (CCLT) and pedagogical and methodological implications for the integration of reflective-practitioner journals

Experiencias pedagógicas e innovación educativa. Aportaciones desde la praxis docente e investigadora

Este libro recoge las principales aportaciones al IV Congreso Internacional Virtual sobre Innovación Pedagógica y Praxis Educativa-Innovagogía 2018, organizado por el Colectivo Docente Internacional Innovagogía y AFOE Formación, que tuvo como preámbulo el II Seminario de Innovación Docente: nuevas perspectivas y temas emergentes, celebrado en la Universidad Pablo de Olavide, de Sevilla (España). En el Congreso están implicados tanto profesionales individuales como organizaciones e instituciones de ámbito internacional, preocupadas por la innovación, la práctica educativa y formativa de calidad. Está dirigido a profesorado, personal técnico y profesionales de la Educación de cualquier etapa y en todos sus ámbitos: maestros, docentes de secundaria, bachillerato y formación profesional, profesorado universitario, profesionales del trabajo y la educación social, formación ocupacional y permanente, animación sociocultural, tiempo libre, y animación juvenil, entre otros profesionales. Los trabajos incluidos recogen reflexiones y experiencias de un total de 540 participantes de 17 nacionalidades diferentes, pertenecientes a más de 100 entidades, 78 de ellas universidades. Las líneas temáticas en las que se insertan inciden en las buenas prácticas y aportaciones docentes e investigadoras sobre la praxis educativa en los niveles universitarios y no universitarios, hablan del impacto de las Nuevas Tecnologías en la educación y la formación, así como de la mejora de la calidad de vida de las personas, sostenibilidad medioambiental, cooperación para el desarrollo, estudios de género e igualdad, educación y formación de personas adultas. Estamos seguros que la amplitud, diversidad y profundización de las distintas aportaciones ofrecerá nuevas pistas y numerosas ideas para orientar la labor socio-educativa de los distintos colectivos profesionales involucrados.Facultad Ciencias Sociales. Departamento de Educación y Psicología SocialVersión del edito