Active Learning: Effects of Core Training Design Elements on Self-Regulatory Processes, Learning, and Adaptability

This research describes a comprehensive examination of the cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes underlying active learning approaches, their effects on learning and transfer, and the core training design elements (exploration, training frame, emotion-control) and individual differences (cognitive ability, trait goal orientation, trait anxiety) that shape these processes. Participants (N = 350) were trained to operate a complex computer-based simulation. Exploratory learning and error-encouragement framing had a positive effect on adaptive transfer performance and interacted with cognitive ability and dispositional goal orientation to influence trainees’ metacognition and state goal orientation. Trainees who received the emotion-control strategy had lower levels of state anxiety. Implications for developing an integrated theory of active learning, learner-centered design, and research extensions are discussed

Toward a Theory of Learner-Centered Training Design: An Integrative Framework of Active Learning

[Excerpt] The goal of this chapter, therefore, is to develop an integrative conceptual framework of active learning, and we do this by focusing on three primary issues. First, we define the active learning approach and contrast it to more traditional, passive instructional approaches. We argue that the active learning approach can be distinguished from not only more passive approaches to instruction but also other forms of experiential learning based on its use of formal training components to systematically influence trainees\u27 cognitive, motivational, and emotion self-regulatory processes. Second, we examine how specific training components can be used to influence each of these process domains. Through a review of prior research, we extract core training components that cut across different active learning interventions, map these components onto specific process domains, and consider the role of individual differences in shaping the effects of these components (aptitude-treatment interactions [ATIs]). A final issue examined in this chapter concerns the outcomes associated with the active learning approach. Despite its considerable versatility, the active learning approach is not the most efficient or effective means of responding to all training needs. Thus, we discuss the impact of the active learning approach on different types of learning outcomes in order to identify the situations under which it is likely to demonstrate the greatest utility. We conclude the chapter by highlighting research and practical implications of our integrated framework, and we outline an agenda for future research on active learning

Work Teams

Work teams are composed of two or more individuals; who exist to perform organizationally relevant tasks; share one or more common goals; interact socially; exhibit interdependencies in task workflows, goals, and/or outcomes; maintain and manage boundaries; and are embedded in a broader organizational context that sets boundaries, constrains the team, and influences exchanges with other units in the organization. Work team effectiveness is enabled by team processes that combine individual efforts into a collective product

Adaptive Guidance: Enhancing Self-Regulation, Knowledge, and Performance in Technology-Based Training

Considerable research has examined the effects of giving trainees control over their learning (Steinberg, 1977, 1989; Williams, 1993). The most consistent finding of this research has been that trainees do not make good instructional use of the control they are given. Yet, today’s technologically based training systems often provide individuals with significant control over their learning (Brown, 2001). This creates a dilemma that must be addressed if technology is going to be used to create more effective training systems. The current study extended past research that has examined the effects of providing trainees with some form of advisement or guidance in addition to learner control and examined the impact of an instructional strategy, adaptive guidance, on learning and performance in a complex training environment. Overall, it was found that adaptive guidance had a substantial effect on the nature of trainees’ study and practice, self-regulation, knowledge acquired, and performance

A Typology of Virtual Teams: Implications for Effective Leadership

As the nature of work in today\u27s organizations becomes more complex, dynamic, and global, there has been an increasing emphasis on far-flung, distributed, virtual teams as organizing units of work. Despite their growing prevalence, relatively little is known about this new form of work unit. The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical framework to focus research toward understanding virtual teams and, in particular, to identify implications for effective leadership. Specifically, we focus on delineating the dimensions of a typology to characterize different types of virtual teams. First, we distinguish virtual teams from conventional teams to identify where current knowledge applies and new research needs to be developed. Second, we distinguish among different types of virtual teams, considering the critical role of task complexity in determining the underlying characteristics of virtual teams and leadership challenges the different types entail. Propositions addressing leadership implications for the effective management of virtual teams are proposed and discussed

Team Learning, Development, and Adaptation

[Excerpt] Our purpose is to explore conceptually these themes centered on team learning, development, and adaptation. We note at the onset that this chapter is not a comprehensive review of the literature. Indeed, solid conceptual and empirical work on these themes are sparse relative to the vast amount of work on team effectiveness more generally, and therefore a thematic set of topics that are ripe for conceptual development and integration. We draw on an ongoing stream of theory development and research in these areas to integrate and sculpt a distinct perspective on team learning, development, and adaptation

Distributed Learning System Design: A New Approach and an Agenda for Future Research

This article presents a theoretical framework designed to guide distributed learning design, with the goal of enhancing the effectiveness of distributed learning systems. The authors begin with a review of the extant research on distributed learning design, and themes embedded in this literature are extracted and discussed to identify critical gaps that should be addressed by future work in this area. A conceptual framework that integrates instructional objectives, targeted competencies, instructional design considerations, and technological features is then developed to address the most pressing gaps in current research and practice. The rationale and logic underlying this framework is explicated. The framework is designed to help guide trainers and instructional designers through critical stages of the distributed learning system design process. In addition, it is intended to help researchers identify critical issues that should serve as the focus of future research efforts. Recommendations and future research directions are presented and discussed

Team Learning: A Theoretical Integration and Review

With the increasing emphasis on work teams as the primary architecture of organizational structure, scholars have begun to focus attention on team learning, the processes that support it, and the important outcomes that depend on it. Although the literature addressing learning in teams is broad, it is also messy and fraught with conceptual confusion. This chapter presents a theoretical integration and review. The goal is to organize theory and research on team learning, identify actionable frameworks and findings, and emphasize promising targets for future research. We emphasize three theoretical foci in our examination of team learning, treating it as multilevel (individual and team, not individual or team), dynamic (iterative and progressive; a process not an outcome), and emergent (outcomes of team learning can manifest in different ways over time). The integrative theoretical heuristic distinguishes team learning process theories, supporting emergent states, team knowledge representations, and respective influences on team performance and effectiveness. Promising directions for theory development and research are discussed

Report of the sensor readout electronics panel

The findings of the Sensor Readout Electronics Panel are summarized in regard to technology assessment and recommended development plans. In addition to two specific readout issues, cryogenic readouts and sub-electron noise, the panel considered three advanced technology areas that impact the ability to achieve large format sensor arrays. These are mega-pixel focal plane packaging issues, focal plane to data processing module interfaces, and event driven readout architectures. Development in each of these five areas was judged to have significant impact in enabling the sensor performance desired for the Astrotech 21 mission set. Other readout issues, such as focal plane signal processing or other high volume data acquisition applications important for Eos-type mapping, were determined not to be relevant for astrophysics science goals

Disentangling Achievement Orientation and Goal Setting: Effects on Self-Regulatory Processes

The Heckhausen and Kuhl (1985) goal typology provided the conceptual foundation for this research, which examined the independent and integrated effects of achievement orientation and goal setting approaches on trainees’ self-regulatory activity. Using a complex computer-based simulation, the authors examined the effects of three training design factors cutting across these two theoretical domains – goal frame, goal content, and goal proximity – on the nature, focus, and quality of the self-regulatory activities of 524 trainees. Results revealed that all three factors had a significant influence on self-regulation, with goal content exhibiting the greatest influence. In line with expectations, congruent learning frame and content relative to congruent performance frame and content was beneficial for trainees’ self-regulatory activity, incongruent combinations of goal frame and content were better than congruent performance frames and content, and effects for the incongruent combinations cutting across the domains were asymmetrical. Theoretical extensions for further disentangling these distinct domains and training design implications are discussed