Pedagogical transformation and knowledge building for the Chinese learner

This study examines the Chinese learner in the current changing education contexts with their emphasis on 21st century learning goals of inquiry, teamwork, and learning how to learn. With socioeconomic and technological changes, internationalisation and educational reforms, pedagogical approaches developed in the Western countries, such as inquiry-oriented and technology-based learning are becoming increasingly common in Confucian-Heritage Culture (CHC) classrooms. This paper reports on a case study of an expert teacher implementing a computer-supported knowledge-building approach in Hong Kong classrooms over a period of three years. The analyses indicated that the Chinese learners used seemingly contradictory approaches to make meaning, given the contextual dynamics. Similarly, the teacher did not merely adopt the Western model; he developed a transformed pedagogy integrating Chinese and Western approaches to scaffold student learning. The Chinese learners and Chinese teachers employed approaches that transcended the polarised categorisation of surface vs. deep, student-centred vs. teacher-centred, and didactic vs. constructivist approaches in the Chinese classroom. Implications for teaching and learning for Chinese learners in the changing educational contexts are discussed

Bridging research and practice: Implementing and sustaining knowledge building in Hong Kong classrooms

Despite major theoretical progress in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), relatively less attention has been paid to the problem of how research advances may impact schools and classrooms. Given the global changes and educational policies for twenty-first century education, issues of how research in CSCL can be integrated with classroom practice for innovation pose important challenges. This paper draws on experiences in Hong Kong and examines research-based CSCL classroom innovations in the context of scaling up and sustaining a knowledge-building model in Hong Kong classrooms. It begins with an examination of the rationale for CSCL research in classrooms and then considers a range of problems and constraints for school implementation. Classroom innovations involve complex and emergent changes occurring at different levels of the educational system. The experience of CSCL knowledge-building classroom innovations in Hong Kong schools is reported, including: the macro-context of educational policies and educational reform, the meso-context of a knowledge-building teacher network, and the micro-context of knowledge-building design in classrooms. Three interacting themes-context and systemic change, capacity and community building, and innovation as inquiry-are proposed for examining collaboration and knowledge creation for classroom innovation. © 2011 The Author(s).published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Co-regulation of learning in computer-supported collaborative learning environments: A discussion

This discussion paper for this special issue examines co-regulation of learning in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments extending research on self-regulated learning in computerbased environments. The discussion employs a socio-cognitive perspective focusing on social and collective views of learning to examine how students co-regulate and collaborate in computer-supported inquiry. Following the review of the articles, theoretical, methodological and instructional implications are discussed: Future research directions include examining the theoretical nature of collective regulation and social metacognition in building models of co-regulated learning; expanding methodological approaches using trace data and multiple measures for convergence and construct validity; and conducting instructional experiments to test and to foster the development of co-regulated learning in computer-supported collaborative inquiry. © 2012 The Author(s).published_or_final_versio

Pedagogical transformation and knowledge building for the Chinese learner

This study examines the Chinese learner in the current changing education contexts with their emphasis on 21st century learning goals of inquiry, teamwork, and learning how to learn. With socioeconomic and technological changes, internationalisation and educational reforms, pedagogical approaches developed in the Western countries, such as inquiry-oriented and technology-based learning are becoming increasingly common in Confucian-Heritage Culture (CHC) classrooms. This paper reports on a case study of an expert teacher implementing a computer-supported knowledge-building approach in Hong Kong classrooms over a period of three years. The analyses indicated that the Chinese learners used seemingly contradictory approaches to make meaning, given the contextual dynamics. Similarly, the teacher did not merely adopt the Western model; he developed a transformed pedagogy integrating Chinese and Western approaches to scaffold student learning. The Chinese learners and Chinese teachers employed approaches that transcended the polarised categorisation of surface vs. deep, student-centred vs. teacher-centred, and didactic vs. constructivist approaches in the Chinese classroom. Implications for teaching and learning for Chinese learners in the changing educational contexts are discussed

Assessing integrative learning among engineering students using a structure-behavior-function framework

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Examining the growth of community knowledge in an online space

With theoretical advances conceptualizing learning as a social, distributed and collective process, there is a need to capture and assess community knowledge-knowledge as a social product that has an out-in-the-world existence and has value to a community. There has now been much progress in analyzing collaborative processes and interactions in CSCL, we propose extending the analyses including both collaborative processes and knowledge products. This paper explores the conceptual basis for examining community knowledge and reports on two specific tools for examining the growth of community knowledge: knowledge-building portfolios and inquiry threads analysis. We discuss design and research implications for integrating these two tools that may serve both purposes of assessing and scaffolding community knowledge building.postprin

Beliefs about learning and constructive strategies in text comprehension

This study investigated the roles of epistemological beliefs and constructive strategies in text comprehension among elementary-school children in Hong Kong. Specifically, three questions were addressed: (a) What characterized children s beliefs and did they vary with age, gender, and ability? (b) What strategies did children use when they learned from text and did these strategies vary with age, gender, and ability? And (c) Did beliefs contribute to text comprehension over and above the effects of age, ability, and strategy use? Eighty-two children, 40 grade-five and 42 grade-six, participated in the study. They were interviewed on their beliefs about learning and asked to think aloud to a scientific text passage. Several tasks including recall, summary, new learning, and questions were administered to assess their text comprehension. Qualitative analyses showed different beliefs ranging from reproductive to constructivist beliefs, and surface to deep text-processing strategies were identified. Quantitative analyses indicated that high achievers more often held constructivist beliefs and used deeper constructive strategies. Gender and age effects were not significant. Regression analyses indicated that constructivist beliefs contributed to text comprehension over and above the effects of age, achievement scores, and strategy use. Implications of examining children s beliefs about learning in strategy instruction are discussed.published_or_final_versio

Assessing student collaboration and learning in medical engineering from the perspectives of structures, behaviors, and function

Learning in biomedical engineering is highly interdisciplinary: students need to integrate concepts between engineering and life sciences, and be able to design and develop technologies with physiological considerations. In this study, biomedical engineering students’ artifacts were analyzed in detail according to the structure-behavior-framework (SBF) framework. The SBF framework has been investigated by educational researchers and learning scientists; in particular, the behavioral and functional dimensions were proved to be related to a sophisticated level of understanding of complex systems. Existing research results also indicate that experts (or expert-like learners) show a deeper understanding of the behavioral and functional aspects of systems. In the current study, a 5- level scale comprising structural, behavioral, andfunctional dimensions of integrated learning was constructed to assess student learning in a biomedical engineering project course. Our results indicate that high achievers and low achievers were different in the behavioral and functional dimensions. The results also indicate significant relationships between behavioral and functional dimensions of learning and students’ final course performance. These findings align with existing results in cognitive science and learning sciences on expert-novice differences, which help connecting engineering educational inquiries to the rich body of literature and findings in human learning

Initial use of knowledge forum for Chinese students: Productive discourse and knowledge building

published_or_final_versionCentre for Information Technology in Education, University of Hong Kon

Understanding the Chinese learner and teacher today

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