Frontline Learning Research (E-Journal - EARLI, European Association for Research on Learning)
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256 research outputs found
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The flash-preview moving window paradigm: Unpacking visual expertise one glimpse at a time
Full text linkHow we make sense of what we see and where best to look is shaped by our experience, our current task goals and how we first perceive our environment. An established way of demonstrating these factors work together is to study how eye movement patterns change as a function expertise and to observe how experts can solve complex tasks after only very brief glances at a domain-specific image. The primary focus of this paper is to introduce an innovative gaze-contingent method called the ‘Flash-Preview Moving Window’ (FPMW) paradigm (Castelhano & Henderson, 2007), which was recently developed to understand our shared expertise in scene perception and how our first glimpse of a scene is used to guide our eye movement behaviour. In keeping with this special issue on visual expertise and medicine, this paper will highlight how the FPMW paradigm has the potential to resolve long-standing theoretical issues as to how, right from the very first glance, experts are able to process domain-specific images and guide their eye movements better than novices. Since FPMW is a gaze-contingent eye-tracking method, the paper will first outline the current methodological and theoretical frontier, and how the FPMW paradigm bridges established methods used to investigate visual expertise. The paper will discuss a recent example in which the FPMW was employed to investigate medical image perception expertise for first the time (Litchfield & Donovan, 2016), and by confronting the insights and challenges this method offers, this should ultimately deepen our understanding of visual expertise
Intergenerational professional relationships in elementary school teams: a social network approach
Full text linkThis paper examines the extent to which school team members’ professional relationships are affected by being part of a certain generational cohort. These professional relationships provide opportunities for intergenerational knowledge flows and can therefore be relevant for intergenerational learning. Nowadays these topics have gained more attention due to worldwide demographic changes such as increased retirement rates and high levels of teacher dropout. Data were gathered through a survey with socio-metric questions among 299 school team members in 15 elementary schools in the Netherlands. Using social network analysis, in particular p2 modelling, we analysed the effect of being part of a generational cohort on teachers’ likelihood of having professional relationships in networks such as discussing work, asking and providing advice, and collaboration. Findings indicate that generational cohorts based on chronological age do matter in the formation of work related ties. These findings also support the importance of focusing on different professional networks since different age dynamics can be at play. Our findings also show that school team members of the youngest cohort tend to form intra-generational relationships, whereas older generational cohort members prefer inter-generational relationships. This study is innovative due to its application of social network analysis to investigate intergenerational knowledge flows.
Revisiting learning in higher education—Framing notions redefined through an ecological perspective
Full text linkIn this contribution, we employ an ecological approach as a resourceful means of revisiting the notion of learning in the knowledge society in general and in higher education in particular. Learning is re-conceptualised as a process entailing mutually constitutive, epistemic, social and affective relations in which knowledge, identity and agency become collective achievements of ecosystems. This process entails a trans-contextual and multimodal endeavour, through which both learners and their social and material environments change. Throughout the paper, we discuss implications of an ecological approach to framing notions central to current educational research, namely (a) knowledge co-construction and epistemic agency, (b) the role of (material) knowledge resources in the learning process and (c) the trans-contextuality that characterises learning in today’s knowledge society. We conclude by discussing prospects that an ecological perspective offer to higher education research and practice. The insights emerging from this re-conceptualisation imply changes in the ways we analytically account for and enhance the transformative potential of education. They also indicate a necessity for further advancing our understanding of learners’ ways of assembling the epistemic space necessary to engage in meaningful learning, their agency and authoritative positioning in this process, and their relationship with the (social, material) environment.
Commentary: Expanding conceptualizations for the study of learning: Implications for theory and research
Full text linkRe-animating the mathematical concept: A materialist look at students practicing mathematics with digital technology
Full text linkThis paper proposes a philosophical approach to the mathematical engagement involving students and a digital tool. This philosophical proposal aligns with other theories of learning that have been implemented in mathematics education but rearticulates some metaphors so as to promote insight and ideas to further support continued investigations into the learning of mathematics. In particular, this philosophical proposal takes seriously the notion that a priori to activity, there are no objects which in turn challenge the notions of intention, affordance and/or representation. To exemplify this perspective, two episodes of grade nine students using a dynamic geometry software are analysed to elaborate how mathematics can be seen to emerge from working with a tool
Examining expertise using interviews and verbal protocols
Full text linkTo understand expertise and expertise development, interactions between knowledge, cognitive processing and task characteristics must be examined in people at different levels of training, experience, and performance. Interviewing is widely used in the initial exploration of domain expertise. Work and cognitive task analysis chart the knowledge, skills, and strategies experts employ to perform effectively in representative tasks. Interviewing may also shed light on the learning processes involved in acquiring and maintaining expertise and the way experts deal with critical incidents. Interviews may focus on specific tasks, events, scenarios, and examples, but they do not directly tap the representations involved in task performance. Methods that collect verbal protocols during and immediately after task performance better probe the ongoing processes in representing problems and accomplishing tasks. This article provides practical guidelines and examples to help researchers to prepare, conduct, analyse, and report expertise studies using interviews and verbal protocols that are derived from thinking aloud, dialogues or group discussions, free recall, explanation, and retrospective reports. In a multi-method approach, these methods and other techniques need to be combined to fully grasp the nature of expertise. This article shows how the cognitive processes in data collection constrain data quality and highlights how research questions guide the development of coding schemes that enable meaningful interpretation of the rich data obtained. It focuses on professional expertise and provides examples from medicine including visual tasks. This comprehensive review of qualitative research methods aims to contribute to the advancement of expertise
The measurement of collaborative culture in secondary schools: An informal subgroup approach
Full text linkResearch on teacher collaboration underlines the importance of a collaborative culture for teachers’ functioning. However, while scholars usually regard collaborative culture as a school team characteristic, this study argues that subgroups may be more meaningful units of analysis to conceptualize and assess teachers’ perceptions of collaborative culture. Based on the assumption that collaborative culture is developed, expressed, and maintained in frequent work-related interactions, this study hypothesizes that collaborative culture is not homogenously spread over the school but rather varies between informal subgroups. Data from 760 Flemish teachers were examined using social network analysis and consensus analyses. The results provided evidence that perceptions on collaborative culture are more homogeneous within informal subgroups that are characterized by frequent interactions than the entire school team. This finding stresses the importance of assessing the meaningful unit of analysis for collective-level and socially-constructed concepts, such as collaborative culture. Moreover, the benefits and potential of a social network approach to identify (socially stable) subunits within the school team are illustrated
Analysis of person-situation interactions in educational settings via cross-classified multilevel longitudinal modeling: illustrated with the example of students’ stress experience
Full text linkThe investigation of learning processes by assessing students’ experience along with objective characteristics within a classroom context has a long tradition in empirical learning process research (e.g. Sembill, 1984 et passim; Wild & Krapp, 1996). However, most of the existing studies confine themselves to psychological variables that seem to be too narrowly considered, as there is theoretical and empirical evidence proving the involvement of somatic and psychological processes in learning and in stress reactions. Furthermore there is a lack of studies that investigate situation-related experience (states) as an outcome of interactions between relatively stable characteristics (traits) and continuously changing “objective” context conditions. Against this background, we will present an approach for cross-classified multilevel longitudinal modelling of person-situation interactions in naturalistic educational settings. We illustrated our model with the example of students’ stress experience referring to empirical data that we measured within a multidisciplinary research project (pedagogy, psychology, adolescent medicine). 53 students at a public German vocational school were investigated during 9 lessons. There are up to 38 state measurements per person, resulting in 2,014 measurements in total. Taking into account that states are nested within persons and within situations we applied a cross-classified multilevel model to analyse effects on students’ stress experience. The analysis shows significant person-situation interactions between academic self-concept and classroom demands and between baseline cortisol concentration and classroom demands: the relation between classroom demands and stress experience depends on relatively stable person-related characteristics. A deeper knowledge about the complex interrelations between traits, states, and continuously changing context conditions seems to be essential for a more holistic understanding of learning at school and for the identification of crucial aspects for an evidence-based design and implementation of teaching and learning arrangements
Using the ‘Expert Performance Approach’ as a Framework for Examining and Enhancing Skill Learning: Improving Understanding of How Experts Learn
No full textThe expert performance approach is reviewed as a systematic framework for the study of expertise. Its potential as a framework for the study of how experts learn is presented. The need to develop representative tasks to capture learning is discussed, as is the need to employ process-tracing measures during acquisition to examine what actually changes during learning and to use realistic retention and transfer tests. A focus on individual differences in learning within groups of expert performers is recommended in order to identify characteristics of more efficient and effective learning. The identification and study of how experts learn will enhance our understanding of skill acquisition and how this may be promoted using instructional interventions and practice opportunities. The challenge for scientists is to generate knowledge that helps those involved in facilitating skill acquisition continue to help experts acquire and refine skills across professional domains.
Executive functions in the context of complex learning: Malleable moderators?
Full text linkExecutive functions are crucial for complex learning in addition to prior knowledge. In this article, we argue that executive functions can moderate the effectiveness of instructional approaches that vary with respect to the demand on these functions. In addition, we suggest that engagement in complex activity contexts rather than specific cognitive training paradigms may enhance executive functions and yield practically relevant transfer effects to other cognitive abilities. We develop several hypotheses and principles for how to improve executive functions in these contexts. For future research, we suggest to systematically investigate the moderating role of executive functions in learning environments with varying degrees of instructional support and varying context characteristics. We identify potential factors influencing the improvement of executive functions to be considered in a systematic research program