A View on Personal Learning Environments through Approaches to Learning

This work was partially supported by the Junta de Andalucía – FEDER (Proyectos de Excelencia: SEJ-02670) and by the program “Educational Innovation Project” supported by the University of Granada (Spain).In the past years the impact of social media in students in Higher Education has been remarkably significant (Pew Research Center, 2010; Tapscott, 2009). In order to exploit the potential benefits of these tools on education, we carried out different experiments using wikis and private social networks. Although the results were positive, we decided to move towards a more open approach using tools not directly linked to educational purposes. This paper reports on an experience in the use of Personal Learning Environments (PLE) to develop competences needed by students for lifelong learning. PLE is a concept that refers to the set of tools, devices, connections and networks that we used to learn. Nowadays building a digital PLE is key to achieve the goals set by the European Union. The main objective of the paper is to analyse the influence of the approaches to learning of students in the reported effects of the PLE as well as in relevant aspects of the learning process. 245 students enrolled in a course on International Accounting participated in the experience of developing their own digital PLE. Some of the activities proposed used social networks, Twitter, blogs and wikis. The data were gathered through a web based questionnaire in two steps: 1) to obtain a priori self-confidence measures regarding communication in academic tasks and web related tasks, and 2) to obtain a measure of the approaches to learning of the students and self-confidence measures. According to students’ opinion, the experience was deemed as positive. In order to check the relationships between the impact of the experience and the approach to learning of students, a cluster analysis was performed. Students were classified into two groups. The cluster #1 presents lower scores on deep approach and higher scores on surface approach than students classified into cluster #2. Comparing the scores obtained in all the aspects of learning between the two groups, many differences arise. Students in the deep approach group indicated a significant higher impact in all measured aspects. Results suggest that certain a type of students, more flexible and likely to manage information in their own, is able to use PLEs more effectively to learn than those who present a more pragmatic orientation focussed on passing the course

Craft knowledge in medicine : an interpretation of teaching and learning in apprenticeship

The diagnosis and management of patients requires professional know-how or medical craft knowledge. To explain how this knowledge is acquired, this research asked 'How do medical experts pass on their craft?' Other questions arose through successive data collections and progressive focusing on what medical experts did well in their work and teaching. The programme comprised: pilot interviews with three expert physicians; a case study in a hospital medical unit; and paired consultant/SHO interviews. Participant observation, interviews, and expert-novice comparisons explored clinical work, teaching, and learning in apprenticeship.Data analysis of participants' responses and ward round discussions allowed identified categories to cluster within three inter-related constructs instrumental to the acquisition of medical knowledge: gaining experience in the experiential process of clinical practice (1); and the products of experience which manifest as experts' clinical expertise (2) and teaching/learning expertise (3). These constructs can be located within a model of apprenticeship based on Spady's (1973) analysis of authority in effective teaching containing two frames of reference: the social, 'traditional-legal'; and the individual, 'expert-charismatic'. The medical apprenticeship is associated with similar perspectives: the 'traditional-experiential' represents the professional process of learning through patient care with its infrastructure of clinical methods in presentation, discourse, and commentary; and the 'expert-charismatic' represents clinical and teaching expertise coupled with vocational enthusiasm.Experienced experts synthesised two repertoires of knowledge and skills derived from the craft knowledge of medicine and pedagogy, respectively. Both crafts are required for effective clinical education. While apprenticeship accommodates a range of teaching/learning experiences, in postgraduate education experts pass on knowledge through the deliberate engagement of junior doctors in diagnosis and management. The skills involved in this process were largely unrecognised by most senior and junior doctors and were not perceived as 'clinical teaching' although learning was structured through service-based work

Modelling the relationship between personality factor, perceptions of the school as a learning organisation and workplace learning of school teachers

Purpose – In this study, a structural model based on Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory was proposed to explain how the interrelationships between a person (i.e. personality factors) and his or her environment(i.e. how one perceives the school as a learning organisation) can influence the person’s behaviour. The outcome behaviour of interest in this study is the teacher’s engagement in workplace learning activities.Method – This is a a causal-comparative study which utilises a survey method for data collection. The sample involved a total of 400 school teachers who were selected through a multistage cluster analysis sampling procedure. The data analysis involved an adoption of the two-step procedure. The fi rst step was the analysis of the overall measurement model, followed by the analysis of the proposed structural model through structural equation modelling(SEM).Findings – Results indicated that three of fi ve personality factors (conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience) and how the teacher perceived the school as a learning organisation, are significant infl uences of teacher’s engagement in workplace learning activities. Based on the holistic approach in model evaluation, both the overall measurement model and the structural model were found to be adequately fit.Value – The study proposed a model which highlights the importance of personality factors and perceptions of the school as a learning organisation, and as signifi cant contributors of workplace learning.Practical implications such as the improvement of personality items in the current teacher selection tool and the application of learning organisation in the school context are elaborated in this paper

Patient experience and reflective learning (PEARL): a mixed methods protocol for staff insight development in acute and intensive care medicine in the UK

INTRODUCTION: Patient and staff experiences are strongly influenced by attitudes and behaviours, and provide important insights into care quality. Patient and staff feedback could be used more effectively to enhance behaviours and improve care through systematic integration with techniques for reflective learning. We aim to develop a reflective learning framework and toolkit for healthcare staff to improve patient, family and staff experience. METHODS & ANALYSIS: Local project teams including staff and patients from the acute medical units (AMUs) and intensive care units (ICUs) of three National Health Service trusts will implement two experience surveys derived from existing instruments: a continuous patient and relative survey and an annual staff survey. Survey data will be supplemented by ethnographic interviews and observations in the workplace to evaluate barriers to and facilitators of reflective learning. Using facilitated iterative co-design, local project teams will supplement survey data with their experiences of healthcare to identify events, actions, activities and interventions which promote personal insight and empathy through reflective learning. Outputs will be collated by the central project team to develop a reflective learning framework and toolkit which will be fed back to the local groups for review, refinement and piloting. The development process will be mapped to a conceptual theory of reflective learning which combines psychological and pedagogical theories of learning, alongside theories of behaviour change based on capability, opportunity and motivation influencing behaviour. The output will be a locally-adaptable workplace-based toolkit providing guidance on using reflective learning to incorporate patient and staff experience in routine clinical activities. ETHICS & DISSEMINATION: The PEARL project has received ethics approval from the London Brent Research Ethics Committee (REC Ref 16/LO/224). We propose a national cluster randomised step-wedge trial of the toolkit developed for large-scale evaluation of impact on patient outcomes

Moving through MOOCS: pedagogy, learning design and patterns of engagement

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are part of the lifelong learning experience of people worldwide. Many of these learners participate fully. However, the high levels of dropout on most of these courses are a cause for concern. Previous studies have suggested that there are patterns of engagement within MOOCs that vary according to the pedagogy employed. The current paper builds on this work and examines MOOCs from different providers that have been offered on the FutureLearn platform. A cluster analysis of these MOOCs shows that engagement patterns are related to pedagogy and course duration. Learners did not work through a three-week MOOC in the same ways that learners work through the first three weeks of an eight-week MOOC

Assessment of students’ cognitive–affective states in learning within a computer-based environment: Effects on performance

Students’ cognitive-affective states are human elements that are crucial in the design of computer-based learning (CBL) systems.This paper presents an investigation of students’ cognitiveaffective states (i.e., engaged concentration, anxiety, and boredom) when they learn a particular course within CBL systems.The results of past studies by other researchers suggested that certain cognitive-affective states; particularly boredom and anxiety could negatively influence learning in a computer-based environment.This paper investigates the types of cognitive-affective state that students experience when they learn through a specifi c instance of CBL (i.e., a content sequencing system). Further, research was carried to understand whether the cognitive-affective states would infl uence students’ performance within the environment.A one-way between-subject-design experiment was conducted utilizing four instruments (i) CBL systems known as IT-Tutor for learning computer network, (ii) a pre-test, (iii) a post-test, and (iv) self-report inventory to capture the students’ cognitive-affective states. A cluster analysis and discriminant function analysis were employed to identify and classify the students’ cognitiveaffective states.Students were classifi ed according to their prior knowledge to element the effects of it on performance.Then,non-parametric statistical tests were conducted on different pairs of cluster of the cognitive-affective states and prior knowledge to determine differences on students’ performance. The results of this study suggested that all the three cognitive-affective states were experienced by the students. The cognitive-affective states were found to have positive effects on the students’ performance.This study revealed that disengaged cognitive-affective states, particularly boredom can improve learning performance for lowprior knowledge students

The university student experience of face-to-face and online discussions: coherence, reflection and meaning

This paper reports on an investigation into learning through discussions by undergraduate social work students. Second‐year students studying psychology for social work experienced discussions began with face‐to‐face tutorials, and then continued for some time after online. This study used closed‐ended questionnaires to investigate what students thought they were learning through discussions (their concepts), and how they engaged in the discussions face‐to‐face and online (their approaches). Significant associations were found among students’ concepts of discussions, approaches and levels of achievement. The results suggest that students who do not understand how discussions can help them to interrogate, reflect on and revise their ideas tended not to approach either face‐to‐face or online discussions in ways likely to improve their understanding or their levels of achievement. This type of insight is critical for teacher/designers wishing to create university experiences in which discussion is used to promote learning

Communities of practice in academia

Up to now, the relationships among the fundamental notions of communities of practice (CoPs), i.e. knowledge, participation, identity, and artefact development have been based mainly on results from qualitative studies; they are not yet sufficiently based on quantitative evidence. Starting from a literature review, we formulate a quantitative, causal model of CoPs that describes these variables in the context of academic communities, and aim to validate this model in two academic CoPs with a total of N = 208 participants. A cluster analysis classifies the participants into clusters that are in line with the core-periphery structure known from previous qualitative studies. A regression analysis provides evidence for the hypothesized model on the basis of quantitative data. Suggested directions for future research are to focus on factors that determine CoP participants’ contributions to artefact development and on approaches to automated monitoring of virtual CoPs

Teachers learn about student learning assessment through a teacher education process

This study aims to understand the extent to which university professors adopt new pedagogical voices in their learning assessment practices through a teacher education process. Participants (N = 32) were interviewed before and after the teacher education process, and data were analysed using qualitative and quantitative methods. The results of the study demonstrated, first, that teachers renamed their educational discourse about learning assessment significantly, increasing it in assessment for learning practices, particularly in the themes of timing and agents, and reducing it in all themes referred to the assessment of learning practices. And second, three clusters of faculty were identified, which differed in terms of the way they merge both learning assessment practices: professors with a slight prevalence of the assessment for learning conceptual voice, professors with a slight prevalence of the assessment for learning practical voice, and professors with a strong prevalence of the assessment for learning voice

A Survey of the Learning Behaviour of Open University students

This survey forms a crucial part of research completed by the Learning Innovation team to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying study habits and learning behaviour of Open University (OU) students to inform the future development of systems, tools and platforms. This research validates the themes that emerged from the previous report, ‘Study behaviours in an increasingly digital world: Learning habits, top tips and 'study hacks' questionnaire survey’ (Ellis, Gallagher and Peasgood, 2017). Analysis carried out on the data from that survey revealed eight possible learning behaviours that underpinned the student responses. In order to validate those original findings a new survey was designed. This report explains the findings of that survey. The survey consisted of 55 behavioural and attitudinal statements aligned to the learning behaviours, some of which were based upon survey instruments from the literature. Survey statements were written to explore each of these on a five-point scale (‘Very true for me’ to ‘Not at all true for me’) in order to identify the concepts that describe the behaviours and preferences of OU students through a process of Principle Component Analysis (PCA). In addition, the survey included questions to inform the analysis and explore potential confounding factors: accessing OU content, access to the web, and technological self-efficacy. The technological self-efficacy statements were selected from the OU’s Digital Competency Framework for Level 1 students. The survey was peer reviewed and piloted, before being sent to a generalised student population. The overall response rate was 12.7% with 524 valid responses received. Seven clear learning behaviours were identified through PCA, and a cluster analysis of the data was carried out. These learning behaviours are: • Goal-setting • Time • Focus • Note-making • Digital-preferred • Help-seeking • Elaboratio