Even though studies have shown that the impact of professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) tends to remain limited when it fails to consider teachers’ beliefs, there is little known ...about how these beliefs influence teachers’ adoption of IBL. In answer to this issue, the present study offers a framework that explains teachers’ use of IBL through three constitutive dimensions of beliefs systems, covering the constructs of education, the self, and the context. This framework is empirically investigated through a survey study with 536 secondary school history teachers. The resulting data are used to estimate a structural equation model (SEM), which indicates that the framework is able to explain a relatively large portion (38%) of the variance in teachers’ decision to implement IBL. Based on the findings, the implications for professional development and research on teachers’ use of IBL in general, and within history education in particular, are discussed.
This open access book explores new developments in various aspects of peer learning processes and outcomes. It brings together research studies examining how peer feedback, peer assessment, and small ...group learning activities can be designed to maximize learning outcomes in higher, but also secondary, education. Conceptual models and methodological frameworks are presented to guide teachers and educational designers for successful implementation of peer learning activities with the hope of maximizing the effectiveness of peer learning in real educational classrooms. There is a strong emphasis on how technology-enhanced tools can advance peer learning, both with respect to designing and implementing learning activities, as well as analyzing learning processes and outcomes. By providing empirical studies from different peer learning initiatives, both teachers and students in academic and professional contexts are informed about the state of the art developments of peer learning. This book contributes to the understanding of peer learning challenges and solutions in all level of education and provide avenues for future research. It includes theoretical, methodological, and empirical chapters which makes it a useful tool for both teaching and research.
The present study explores secondary school history teachers’ knowledge of inquiry methods. To do so, a process model, outlining five core cognitive processes of inquiry in the history classroom, was ...developed based on a review of the literature. This process model was then used to analyze think-aloud protocols of 20 teachers’ reasoning during an inquiry task. It was found that less than half of the teachers used all cognitive processes during the inquiry. Based on the results, a distinction can be made between an integral, fragmentary, and cursory approach to inquiry. Further analysis suggests that there exists no clear pattern in the relation between teachers’ beliefs about the subject of history and their approach to inquiry. The implications for teacher training are discussed and outline how the process model could serve as an instructional tool that can contribute to a comprehensive training program for history teachers.
Opportunities for collaborative work can support the process of information problem solving, although this is not a guaranteed outcome of collaborative work. Strong metacognitive regulation is ...necessary for successful web-based inquiry learning. In the light of these issues, the present study was intended to investigate the regulatory processes that come into play when individual learners work collaboratively in solving information problems on the web and if these can be supported by providing students with a collaboration script. The web-based project was implemented in 12 secondary school classes involving 202 students working in pairs. Six classes were provided with a collaboration script embedded in the learning environment, while the other six classes acted as the control group. Although it was hypothesized that students in the script condition would yield higher shared metacognitive regulation than students in the control condition, based on quantitative as well as qualitative analyses no significant improvement was found that could be attributed to the classroom script intervention. Yet it was found that shared regulation leads to better knowledge co-construction. Moreover, this study confirms that the overall implementation improved students' metacognitive awareness. Results are discussed concerning their theoretical relevance and practical implications for collaborative IPS on the web in face-to-face classroom settings.
•Collaborative problem solving on the web improve students' metacognitive awareness.•Shared regulation leads to better knowledge co-construction.•The collaboration script did not improve the learning outcomes.
The implementation of blended learning in higher education is increasing, often with the aim to offer flexibility in terms of time and place to a diverse student population. However, specific ...attention for the diversity of this group, and how to cater individual needs, is still scarce. Therefore, this study explores instructors' strategies for and beliefs about differentiated instruction in blended learning, together with how the differences between instructors can be explained. A total of 20 instructors working in two adult education centers participated in semi-structured interviews focusing on their (a) use of strategies for differentiated instruction, and (b) beliefs about designing blended learning to address student diversity. The findings reveal that the most commonly used differentiated instruction strategy in a blended learning context was providing students with additional support throughout product development. In addition, three instructor profiles about designing blended learning to address student diversity emerged from the data: (1) disregard: instructors considered no additional support in the blended learning arrangements to match students' needs, (2) adaptation: instructors believed that increased support in the existing blended learning arrangements was sufficient to match students' needs, and (3) transformation: instructors thought that blended learning arrangements should be designed in a completely different way, and be tailored to the characteristics of the students. The results show that half of the instructors considered a transformation of their blended learning arrangements in response to student diversity. Furthermore, instructors' beliefs appear to be strongly connected to the organization and trajectory in which they work. A major implication of these findings is that professional support focusing on instructors' beliefs is of crucial importance to unlock blended learning's full potential. As such, it is important for organizations to develop a clear stance on this issue, which pays explicit attention to responding to learners' needs in blended learning contexts.
•Some differentiated instruction strategies were commonly used, whereas others were not.•Three types of instructors' beliefs about blended learning were found.•Half of the participants considered to transform their blended learning arrangement.•Differences between instructors were mainly related to the organizational level.
The design of blended learning environments brings with it four key challenges: (1) incorporating flexibility, (2) stimulating interaction, (3) facilitating students' learning processes, and (4) ...fostering an affective learning climate. Seeing that attempts to resolve these challenges are fragmented across the literature, a systematic review was performed. Starting from 640 sources, 20 studies on the design of blended learning environments were selected through a staged procedure based on the guidelines of the PRISMA statement, using predefined selection criteria. For each study, the instructional activities for dealing with these four challenges were analyzed by two coders. The results show that few studies offer learners control over the realization of the blend. Social interaction is generally stimulated through introductory face-to-face meetings, while personalization and monitoring of students’ learning progress is commonly organized through online instructional activities. Finally, little attention is paid to instructional activities that foster an affective learning climate.
•This review identifies four challenges to the design of blended learning.•Few studies offer learners control over the realization of the blend.•Social interaction is often encouraged during an in-class meeting.•The online learning environment is often used to monitor students' learning process.•More attention should be paid to fostering an affective learning climate.
It is well established that students' motivation for writing is a key predictor of their writing performance. The aim of the current study is to study and map the relations underlying different ...motivational constructs (i.e., implicit theories, achievement goals, self-efficacy, and writing motives) and to investigate how these contribute to students' writing performance. For that, 390 Flemish students in stage three of the academic track of secondary education (16-18 years old) completed questionnaires measuring their implicit theories of writing, achievement goals, self-efficacy for writing, and writing motives. Furthermore, they completed an argumentative writing test. Path analysis revealed statistically significant direct paths from (1) entity beliefs of writing to performance avoidance goals (
= 0.23), (2) mastery goals to self-efficacy for writing (
= 0.14,
= 0.25,
= 0.18), performance-approach goals to self-efficacy for writing (
= 0.38,
= 0.21,
= 0.25), and performance-avoidance goals to self-efficacy for writing (
= -0.30,
= -0.24,
= -0.28), (3) self-efficacy for regulation to both autonomous (
= 0.20) and controlled motivation (
= -0.15), (4) mastery goals to autonomous motivation (
= 0.58), (5) performance approach and avoidance goals to controlled motivation (
= 0.18;
= 0.35), and (6) autonomous motivation to writing performance (
= 0.11). This study moves the field of writing motivation research forward by studying the contribution of implicit theories, achievement goals, and self-efficacy to students' writing performance, via writing motives.
University students are frequently required to collaborate, often in the form of collaborative writing tasks. The process as well as the outcomes of the collaboration depend on choices made during ...the group formation phase. Studies on why students select partners for collaborative writing tasks are, however, lacking. Therefore, the present study aims to gain insights into (1) university students’ preferences with regard to teacher-assigned and self-selected group formation, (2) which motives they take into account when self-selecting a partner, and (3) the degree to which students select a partner similar to themselves. Sixteen dyads collaboratively wrote a research paper. Prior to the collaboration, 30 students individually completed questionnaires and 28 students were individually interviewed. The findings show that most students have mixed opinions regarding teacher-assigned or self-selected group formation (n = 18), while the others bar one prefer to self-select a partner (n = 9). Students’ main motive for self-selecting is familiarity, and, more in particular, prior collaboration experience with a specific partner. Other motives include friendship, ability, convenience, and attitude. Furthermore, students tend to select a partner with a similar attitude, ability, task approach, and perspective towards the content of the task. Predictability seems to be the most important driver for self-selection.
This study focuses on vocational education teachers’ instructional activities in a new technology-enhanced learning (TEL) setting. A content analysis is applied to investigate teachers’ and students’ ...interactions in a 3D game context. The findings illustrate that when teachers’ and students’ interactions are mediated by a game, teachers seem to apply different discussion activities to empower vocational learning than they do in traditional classroom settings. Additionally, the present study shows that teachers spontaneously develop new ways of supporting vocational learning processes. In more detail, two main types of instructional activities were identified: a “knowledge-providing” approach and a “joint problem-solving” approach. Additionally, findings illustrate how teachers using different types of instructional approaches are followed up with different processes by students. The article is concluded with a general discussion of the emerging challenges regarding the technological and pedagogical development of vocational education and teachers’ instructional activities in new TEL settings based on a more long-term design-based research project (ongoing since 2004).
A collaboration script is a set of instructions used to improve collaborative learning among students in technology-enhanced environments. Previously, university students’ perspective has been ...under-represented in the study on collaboration scripts. In this article, we focus on understanding students’ experiences in a scripted collaborative writing task, especially from the perspective of following the script. The study was conducted among undergraduate students (
N
= 91) taking a master-level educational science course at one university each in Finland and Belgium. Divided into 25 groups, each with three to five members, the students worked on collaborative writing tasks. During their shared writing process within these groups, all students were introduced to a four-phase simultaneous sequential integrating construction script (SSCIS). Then, data from the students’ reflection notes on the collaborative writing process were analysed. The thematic analysis revealed that over half of the students highlighted how the introduced script provided them with appropriate support for the writing process; therefore, they used a
script-based collaborative writing approach
(
52%
). However, almost as many students (48%) viewed the script as inadequate or even impeding their accomplishment of the mutual writing task; therefore, they chose to deviate from it. In this group of students decided not to follow script-based writing engaged in
the collective writing approach
(
32%
), characterised as free form compared to sequential script-based writing. Other students opted for the
separate writing approach
(
16%
), leading them to divide the writing assignment into single parts among the group members and to compose the text without authentic collaboration. By focusing on students’ individual reflections, the findings of our study suggest that to enhance script-based learning processes, it is essential to provide guidance for the implementation of the script, additional content-related support or tailored choices.
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