The role of collaborative argumentation in future teachers' selection of online information

(Future) teachers should acquire skills in sourcing science-related information online, so they can use evidence appropriately in their pedagogical practice. To successfully use such evidence, it is vital that teachers critically question their selection of online information. Based on findings from collaborative learning, we hypothesized that collaboration promotes teachers' critical elaboration of their selection of online educational information. Additionally, collaboration allows for social comparison and may thus impact teachers' self-efficacy in seeking information. In a 2 × 2 mixed-design study with the between-participants factor reasoning (individual vs. collaborative) and the within-participants factor self-reported information seeking self-efficacy (pre vs. post the reasoning task), each of N = 83 future teachers individually sought online information regarding the educational use of mobile phones in classrooms. This constituted a realistic search on the Internet, in a natural setting. Based on each participant's particular search, s / he was asked to select the online sources that s / he perceived relevant for reasoning whether mobile phones should be used in class. To foster reflection on how they selected information, participants were asked either to reason individually (individual group, n = 33) or to chat collaboratively (collaboration group, n = 50 in 25 dyads) about their selections. Participants in both groups reported higher information seeking self-efficacy after the reasoning task. Yet participants who collaboratively reflected on their selections more frequently showed elaborated reasoning behavior, than did participants in the individual group. Nonetheless, participants in both groups referred to certain criteria that guided their selection (i. e., criteria related to the information, the provider of information, or media) with the same frequency. Considering the potential benefits and challenges of collaboration, we discuss the findings in terms of how to promote future teachers' ability to critically reflect on their selection of online educational information.(Zukünftige) Lehrkräfte sollten ihre pädagogische Praxis auch auf der Basis von bildungswissenschaftlichen Evidenzen begründen. Dazu müssen sie Fähigkeiten erwerben, wie sie angemessen wissenschaftsbezogene Online-Informationen recherchieren können. Um Evidenzen aus Online-Informationen sinnvoll nutzen zu können, ist es wichtig, die Auswahl von Online-Informationen kritisch zu hinterfragen. Basierend auf Forschungsarbeiten zum kollaborativen Lernen wurde angenommen, dass Kollaboration eine kritisch-reflektierte Auseinandersetzung mit der Auswahl von Online-Informationen fördern kann. Zusätzlich bietet die Kollaboration die Möglichkeit zum sozialen Vergleich mit anderen und kann daher die erlebte Selbstwirksamkeit der Lehrkräfte beim Suchen nach Informationen beeinflussen. In einem 2 × 2 Mixed-Design mit dem Zwischensubjektfaktor Erörterung (individuell vs. kollaborativ) und dem Innersubjektfaktor selbstberichtete Selbstwirksamkeit bei der Suche nach Online-Informationen (Prä- vs. Post der Erörterung) suchten N = 83 Lehramtsstudierende individuell nach Online- Informationen zum Thema Handynutzung im Unterricht. Basierend auf ihren Rechercheergebnissen wählten sie diejenigen Webinhalte aus, die sie für eine Entscheidung für ihre didaktische Vorgehensweise als relevant einschätzten. Die Lehramtsstudierenden wurden dann gebeten entweder alleine (individuelle Gruppe, n = 33) oder gemeinsam im Chat mit einer weiteren Lehramtsstudierenden (kollaborative Gruppe, n = 50 in 25 Dyaden) zu erörtern, welche Kriterien die Auswahl ihrer Webinhalte leiteten. Im Anschluss berichteten die Lehramtsstudierenden beider Bedingungen eine höhere Selbstwirksamkeit in Bezug auf die Suche nach Online-Informationen. Die Lehramtsstudierenden, die sich kollaborativ austauschten, konnten ihre Auswahl jedoch argumentativ elaborierter begründen. Des Weiteren verwiesen die Lehramtsstudierenden beider Bedingungen ähnlich häufig auf die jeweiligen Kriterien, die sie für ihre Auswahl nutzten (d. h. Kriterien in Bezug auf die Informationen, die Autoren und Autorinnen, oder die Online-Medien). Die Rolle von Kollaboration bei der Beschaffung von bildungswissenschaftlichen Online-Informationen wird hinsichtlich der Förderung einer kompetenten und kritischen Reflexion über mögliche Vorgehensweisen diskutiert.Peer Reviewe

Kompetenz- und Lernzielorientierung in Projektseminaren

Die aus dem Bolognaprozess hervorgehenden Änderungen im Hochschulwesen betonen neben der Fachkompetenz auch die Methoden-, Sozial- und Personalkompetenz als zentrale Bereiche der Handlungskompetenz. Der Erwerb fachspezifischen Wissens wird nicht mehr losgelöst von dem jeweiligen Anwendungskontext betrachtet. Vielmehr gilt es Lerngelegenheiten zu schaffen, die die Aneignung fachlicher und überfachlicher Kompetenzen gleichermaßen ermöglichen. Dies erfordert eine Sensibilisierung der Studierenden für die jeweiligen Kompetenzbereiche und Lernziel-Taxonomien sowie die Unterstützung bei der Reflexion des eigenen Lernfortschrittes. Das in diesem Beitrag vorgestellte Projektseminar bietet Lehrenden eine Orientierung zum Umgang mit diesen neuen Herausforderungen. 21.06.2013 | Ahmet Derecik & Elisabeth Paus (Münster

Reflexives Schreiben als Seminarkonzept in den Lehramtsstudiengängen

Schreiben hat positive Effekte auf die Auseinandersetzung mit und Aneignung von Lerninhalten (ein Überblick bei TYNJÄLÄ, MASON & LONKA, 2001; BANGERT-DROWNS, HURLEY & WILKONSON, 2004). In der Hochschullehre bietet das Lernen durch Schreiben einen vielversprechenden Ansatz, um den Wissens- und Erkenntnisgewinn von Studierenden in einem selbstregulierten Rahmen zu unterstützen (siehe z. B. NÜCKLES, HÜBNER & RENKL, 2009) und damit einen Weg der Forderung nach mehr Selbstregulation und Eigenverantwortung der Studierenden im Lernprozess (GERHOLZ, 2012) nachzukommen. In diesem Beitrag wird ein Seminarkonzept vorgestellt, das die Tätigkeit des Schreibens als Instrument zur Reflexion und Erkenntnisgenerierung integriert. Ziel ist es, die Fähigkeit zur systematischen, theoriegeleiteten Reflexion der eigenen Lehr- und Lernvorstellungen von Lehramtsstudierenden im Master of Education (weiter) zu entwickeln. Kooperative Schreibaufgaben, die Teil eines Portfolios sind, sollen dies bewirken. 23.01.2013 | Elisabeth Paus & Regina Jucks (Münster

A review of technologies for collaborative online information seeking: On the contribution of collaborative argumentation

In everyday life, people seek, evaluate, and use online sources to underpin opinions and make decisions. While education must promote the skills people need to critically question the sourcing of online information, it is important, more generally, to understand how to successfully promote the acquisition of any skills related to seeking online information. This review outlines technologies that aim to support users when they collaboratively seek online information. Upon integrating psychological–pedagogical approaches on trust in and the sourcing of online information, argumentation, and computer-supported collaborative learning, we reviewed the literature (N = 95 journal articles) on technologies for collaborative online information seeking. The technologies we identified either addressed collaborative online information seeking as an exclusive process for searching for online information or, alternatively, addressed online information seeking within the context of a more complex learning process. Our review was driven by three main research questions: We aimed to understand whether and how the studies considered 1) the role of trust and critical questioning in the sourcing of online information, 2) the learning processes at play when information seekers engage in collaborative argumentation, and 3) what affordances are offered by technologies that support users’ collaborative seeking of online information. The reviewed articles that focused exclusively on technologies for seeking online information primarily addressed aspects of cooperation (e.g., task management), whereas articles that focused on technologies for integrating the processes of information seeking into the entire learning processes instead highlighted aspects of collaborative argumentation (e.g., exchange of multiple perspectives and critical questioning in argumentation). Seven of the articles referred to trust as an aspect of seekers’ sourcing strategies. We emphasize how researchers’, users’, and technology developers’ consideration of collaborative argumentation could expand the benefits of technological support for seeking online information.Peer Reviewe

Kommunikation und E-Learning: Bedingungen, Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten und Qualitätssicherung beim Einsatz von Foren in der Hochschullehre

Aufbauend auf pädagogisch-psychologischen Hintergründen zum Lernen durch Kommunikation und aktuellen Forderungen zur Entwicklung von Medienkompetenz wird im Artikel der Einsatz von Foren in der Lehre aus theoretischer und praxisorientierter Perspektive betrachtet. Zunächst werden die Potentiale und Besonderheiten von Foren als asynchrones und schriftliches Kommunikationsformat anhand zentraler lernpsychologischer Theorien und Befunde herausgestellt. Dann werden didaktische Maßnahmen zur Unterstützung einer regelmäßigen Partizipation sowie lernförderlichen transaktiven Kommunikation vorgestellt. Der Fokus wird auf die Rolle von Moderationsprozessen durch Lehrende und Peers sowie auf Möglichkeiten des Einsatzes von Kooperationsskripts als instruktionale Strukturierungshilfe für Argumentations- und Austauschprozesse gelegt. Auf dieser Grundlage werden konkrete didaktische Szenarien und deren Umsetzung im virtuellen Raum abgeleitet und veranschaulicht. Im Anschluss werden Vorschläge gemacht, wie die Wirksamkeit der vorgestellten Maßnahmen anhand von Indikatoren für Partizipation und Lern- und Kompetenzerwerb überprüft und gesichert werden kann. Abschließend werden Implikationen für die praktische Umsetzung und zukünftige Forschungsvorhaben diskutiert.Based on educational-psychological backgrounds on learning through communication and current requirements regarding the development of media skills this article examines the use of online forums in academic teaching from a theoretical and a practical perspective. First, the potential and the specific characteristics of asynchronous and text-based communication in forums are outlined. Then, didactical methods to support frequent participation and transactive communication are introduced. The main focus lays on the role of moderation processes by university teachers or peers as well as on the potentials of using cooperation scripts as instructional guidance for argumentation and exchange processes. Against this background concrete didactic scenarios as well as recommendations on how they might be realized in virtual environments are deduced and illustrated. Subsequently, suggestions are made on how the effectiveness and quality of these approaches can be proved and secured by using the indicators of participation and knowledge and skill acquisition. Finally, practical implications and future research perspectives are discussed

Constraints and Affordances of Online Engagement With Scientific Information - A Literature Review

Many urgent problems that societies currently face—from climate change to a global pandemic—require citizens to engage with scientific information as members of democratic societies as well as to solve problems in their personal lives. Most often, to solve their epistemic aims (aims directed at achieving knowledge and understanding) regarding such socio-scientific issues, individuals search for information online, where there exists a multitude of possibly relevant and highly interconnected sources of different perspectives, sometimes providing conflicting information. The paper provides a review of the literature aimed at identifying (a) constraints and affordances that scientific knowledge and the online information environment entail and (b) individuals' cognitive and motivational processes that have been found to hinder, or conversely, support practices of engagement (such as critical information evaluation or two-sided dialogue). Doing this, a conceptual framework for understanding and fostering what we call online engagement with scientific information is introduced, which is conceived as consisting of individual engagement (engaging on one's own in the search, selection, evaluation, and integration of information) and dialogic engagement (engaging in discourse with others to interpret, articulate and critically examine scientific information). In turn, this paper identifies individual and contextual conditions for individuals' goal-directed and effortful online engagement with scientific information

A 24,000-year ancient DNA and pollen record from the Polar Urals reveals temporal dynamics of arctic and boreal plant communities

A 24,000-year record of plant community dynamics, based on pollen and ancient DNA from the sediments (sedaDNA) of Lake Bolshoye Shchuchye in the Polar Ural Mountains, provides detailed information on the flora of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and also changes in plant community composition and dominance. It greatly improves on incomplete records from short and fragmented stratigraphic sequences found in exposed sedimentary sections in the western Russian Arctic. In total, 162 plant taxa were detected by sedaDNA and 115 by pollen analysis. Several shifts in dominance between and within plant functional groups occurred over the studied period, but most taxa appear to have survived in situ. A diverse arctic-alpine herb flora characterised the interval ca. 24,000–17,000 cal years BP and persisted into the Holocene. Around 17,000 cal years BP, sedges (e.g. Carex) and bryophytes (e.g. Bryum, Aulacomnium) increased. The establishment of shrub-tundra communities of Dryas and Vaccinium sp., with potentially some Betula pubescens trees (influx ∼290 grains cm2 year−1), followed at ca. 15,000 cal years BP. Forest taxa such as Picea and ferns (e.g. Dryopteris fragrans, Gymnocarpium dryopteris) established near the lake from ca. 10,000 cal years BP, followed by the establishment of Larix trees from ca. 9000 cal years BP. Picea began to decline from ca. 7000 cal years BP. A complete withdrawal of forest tree taxa occurred by ca. 4000 cal years BP, presumably due to decreasing growing-season temperatures, allowing the expansion of dwarf-shrub tundra and a diverse herb community similar to the present-day vegetation mosaic. Contrary to some earlier comparative studies, sedaDNA and pollen from Lake Bolshoye Shchuchye showed high similarity in the timing of compositional changes and the occurrence of key plant taxa. The sedaDNA record revealed several features that the pollen stratigraphy and earlier palaeorecords in the region failed to detect; a sustained, long-term increase in floristic richness since the LGM until the early Holocene, turnover in grass and forb genera over the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, persistence of a diverse arctic-alpine flora over the late Quaternary, and a variable bryophyte flora through time. As pollen records are often limited by taxonomic resolution, differential productivity and dispersal, sedaDNA can provide improved estimates of floristic richness and is better able to distinguish between different plant assemblages. However, pollen remains superior at providing quantitative estimates of plant abundance changes and detecting several diverse groups (e.g. Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Asteraceae) which may be underreported in the sedaDNA. Joint use of the two proxies provided unprecedented floristic detail of past plant communities and helped to distinguish between long-distance transport of pollen and local presence, particularly for woody plant taxa

The new molecular markers DDIT3, STT3A, ARG2 and FAM129A are not useful in diagnosing thyroid follicular tumors

Preoperative characterization of thyroid follicular lesions is challenging. Fine-needle aspiration specimens cannot differentiate follicular carcinomas from benign follicular neoplasias. Recently, promising markers have been detected using modern molecular techniques. We conducted a retrospective study to confirm the usefulness of immunohistochemical staining for the protein markers, DDIT3, STT3A (ITM1), ARG2 and FAM129A (C1orf24) in separating benign and malignant thyroid follicular lesions. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded thyroid tissue from 30 in-house cases (15 follicular carcinomas and 15 follicular adenomas), as well as 8 follicular carcinomas and 21 follicular adenomas on tissue microarray slides were stained immunohistochemically for DDIT3, STT3A, ARG2 and FAM129A expression. Control tissue consisted of thyroid parenchyma adjacent to the tumors and 11 separate cases of normal thyroid parenchyma. All in-house cases of follicular adenomas, follicular carcinomas and adjacent normal thyroid tissue showed positive immunostaining with anti-DDIT3 and anti-STT3A. Anti-ARG2 and anti-FAM129A polyclonal antibodies showed positive staining in 20 and 60% of in-house follicular adenomas, and 40 and 87% of in-house follicular carcinomas, respectively. Monoclonal anti-FAM129A demonstrated positive staining in 13 and 33% of in-house follicular adenomas and follicular carcinomas, respectively. Polyclonal anti-DDIT3, -STT3A and -FAM129A antibodies showed positive staining in all tissue microarray slides of follicular carcinoma and in 76, 85 and 81% of the follicular adenomas, respectively. Monoclonal anti-STT3A stained 81% of the follicular adenoma cores. Anti-ARG2 stained positive in 13% of follicular carcinomas and 10% of follicular adenomas on the tissue microarray slides. In conclusion, DDIT3, STT3A, ARG2 and FAM129A immunohistochemistry does not appear to be useful in the diagnosis of thyroid follicular neoplasias, as they do not reliably distinguish follicular thyroid carcinoma from follicular thyroid adenoma