Frontline Learning Research (E-Journal - EARLI, European Association for Research on Learning)
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Horizontal Transition of Expertise
Full text linkExpert performance in a domain is often defined as maximal adaptation to stable task constraints. This definition is useful when analyzing the vertical transition when novices become experts. However, many workplaces undergo considerable changes and, thus, task constraints change as well. In this paper, a complementary conceptualization of expertise is offered, one that focuses on expert performance as recurring adaptation to dynamic task constraints. This definition is useful when analyzing the horizontal transition when experts adapt to dynamically changing work contexts. Using the documentary method, the aim of the present study was to analyze cases of horizontal transitions based on qualitative biographical interview data from five experts reconstructing different types of adaptation to technological change in their domains that they have experienced. Implications for studying horizontal transitions at dynamic worksites are discussed
With sensitive eyes: ECEC teachers’ visual gaze and related reflections on pedagogical actions in toddler groups using eye-tracking glasses
Full text linkThis study explored early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers’ visual gaze and related reflections on pedagogical actions during pedagogical activities in groups of children under three years of age in Finland. The data were collected from play and teacher-guided activities using mobile eye-tracking glasses, the retrospective thinking aloud (RTA) method, and semi-structured interviews. The results showed that even though the teachers were surprised about some aspects of the visual gaze metrics, they reflected on and gave reasons for their visual gazes on children. When observing gaze data from play, teachers explained the high amount of gaze by citing children’s particular needs. When observing gaze data from guided activities, teachers reflected on children’s unpredictable behavior and noted that the children’s need for support in concentration was linked to more gazes by the teacher. The findings showed that both during play and guided activities, children seeking a gaze and the position of children in the classroom influenced the number of teachers’ gazes. In the teachers’ explanations of their visual gaze and related pedagogical actions, five categories were identified: protection; physical and emotional availability, teaching and learning; facilitation; and initiatives. This explorative study showed that teachers utilize their knowledge concerning children’s individuality, development, and learning when they explain their decisions concerning their visual gaze and pedagogical activities with toddlers. The use of mobile eye-tracking technology is relatively new; therefore, its applications to ECEC are pioneering for the development of the field in relation to the practices and research of toddlers’ groups and groups with older children in ECE
Understanding the Promotion of Self-Regulated Learning in Upper Secondary Schools: How can Teaching Quality Criteria contribute?
Full text linkSelf-regulated learning (SRL) has gained increasing attention in educational science over the past four decades. Especially within the context of the lifelong learning debate, regulatory strategies play a crucial role, as they are essential not only within schools and classrooms but also in lifelong learning contexts. Concurrently, the discussion on teaching quality holds an equally central position in educational science. However, these two lines of discourse have, so far, been treated largely independently of each other and lack an alignment. In our exploratory study, we applied the three basic dimensions of teaching quality to assess an SRL-promoting learning environment from the perspective of students. We conducted seven focus groups involving a total of N = 49 secondary school students, and the data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Our analyses demonstrate that these basic dimensions can contribute to analyze the quality of an SRL environment. However, further adaptation is required as the three dimensions seem still to be interwoven with a more traditional conceptualization of teaching
The development of visual expertise in a virtual environment: A case of maritime pilots in training
Full text linkThis study connects to an ongoing discussion about the limits and affordances of simulators as realistic and relevant contexts for professional learning, in this case in the development of visual expertise. Earlier studies of simulator-based maritime pilot training conclude that there are risks associated with so-called negative skills transfer due to a lack of photorealism in simulator environments. The aim of this study is to carefully examine how visual expertise develops in and through training in a simulated environment. Through a practice-based approach to the development of visual expertise, and by using qualitative interaction analysis of video recorded training sessions, the analytical focus is directed towards maritime pilot trainees’ talk about imperfections and inconsistencies in the virtual environment during exercises in a high-fidelity bridge simulator. Considering the multi-layered nature of the maritime pilot’s visual expertise, findings show that the maritime pilots in training noticed and adapted to the specific methodological and technological challenges when manoeuvring a simulated vessel. During such reflection-in-action, they also commented on and explored the differences between, navigating in a simulator, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, navigating on board a ship. Instead of concluding that there is a risk for negative skills transfer that follows from the differences between the two contexts of navigating, we argue that the challenges introduced by representations encountered when training in a virtual environment may add to the expertise of the trainees and lead to enriched conceptual, methodological, and technical knowledge regarding the specificities of visually demanding and ambiguous navigation situations. In this way, this study contributes to advance our understanding of learning in virtual environments to the frontline of learning research
The Underlying Cognitive Processes of Thin Slices Judgments on Teaching Quality
Full text linkThin slices ratings (i.e., ratings based on first impressions) have yielded intriguingly accurate results in various domains. Among other, researcher have applied the thin slices technique to assess instructional quality, showing that teacher-student interactions can be reliably inferred by just very short snippets of classroom instruction. The accuracy of thin slices ratings is often explained by dual process theories of social cognition, whereby System 1 refers to an intuitive and fast way of processing, while System 2 denotes a more reflective and analytical way of processing. System 1 is considered the cognitive foundation of thin slices ratings. The central aim of the present study was to understand the underlying cognitive processes shaping the impression formation of thin slices raters of teaching quality. Therefore, an unconventional and innovative research design was required to gain insights into the cognitive “black box” of thin slices raters by examining their verbal data. In an exploratory mixed method research design, we set up Cognitive Laboratories with two different rating situations. In a thin slices rating situation, participants rated instructional quality based on short classroom videos (30 seconds). Participants in a long-video rating situation rated instructional quality based on longer classroom videos (10 minutes). We collected, coded and statistically analyzed participants’ verbal reports regarding their rating processes. The findings suggest that thin slices ratings evolve primarily based on typical processes of System 1 and not on those of System 2. For instance, thin slices ratings are associative and tend to be rather negative than positive. Moreover, an initially formed impression tends to remain stable and is resistant to alteration. Ratings of instructional quality based on longer videos rely on both cognitive systems, with System 2 possibly modifying an initial judgment. Thus, our study does not only explain the cognitive processes under-lying the thin slices ratings, but additionally provides valuable insights into the processes occurring in conventional rating settings
Navigating the paradox between professional challenges and teacher well-being: The role of strategies within the resilience process
Full text linkTeaching is an immensely complex profession that often requires managing multiple and varied professional challenges. Despite these challenges, teachers tend to report moderate to high levels of well-being. This qualitative study explored this paradox by investigating the professional challenges reported and the coping strategies Swiss teachers use to support their well-being. Relational problem-solving was identified as a commonly used strategy when professional challenges occur. The unique contribution of this study lies in its further elucidation of the complex relationship between teachers’ professional challenges and well-being embedded in a resilience process. The results of this study provide implications for understanding how to support teachers’ resilience and to design interventions to enhance teachers’ well-being
Student self-regulated learning in teacher professional vision: Results from combining student self-reports, teacher ratings, and mobile eye tracking in the high school classroom
Full text linkTeacher professional vision as a concept is gaining importance in research on teaching, and recently models for studying teacher professional vision and student self-regulated learning (SRL) have been proposed. There are interview and video intervention studies investigating teacher professional vision for SRL, but no real-life classroom research so far. This study investigated the role of student SRL behaviour, as it was reported by students themselves and teachers, in teacher attention distribution as part of teacher professional vision. Ten teachers and their 158 students at high school level in Lithuania took part in the research. The first step of the study resulted in identifying four student SRL-profiles, which differed based on student level of SRL and the extent to which teacher and student assessments coincided: mixed lower-regulated, mixed higher-regulated, systematic lower-regulated, systematic higher-regulated. The profiles demonstrated only a partial overlap in teacher and student judgement of student SRL. The second step of the study explored whether scores of students’ SRL from student and teacher reports were related to teachers’ distribution of visual attention in one lesson. The results showed that only one teacher rating scale of student information-seeking behaviour had a slight correlation with teacher attention. The results imply rather bottom-up trends in teacher attention to students in the classroom when it comes to SRL. Besides, the study results highlight the not directly observable nature of SRL processes and imply a difficulty for teachers to assess student SRL
Platformised Affinity Spaces: Learning communities on YouTube, Twitch and TikTok
Full text linkOnline, informal learning communities bring youth opportunities for learning that schools cannot offer. Yet, there are concerns about the impact of social media platforms’ control over online learning. We argue for a re-evaluation of what an ‘online informal learning community’ is by looking at such active communities on three platforms: YouTube, Twitch and TikTok. We do this by reconsidering Gee’s ‘affinity spaces’ and by asking: how can we understand online informal learning communities in the current sociotechnical context? We observed and analysed interactions of six learning communities on YouTube, Twitch and TikTok. Our results show that in today’s platformised online context, Gee’s concept of ‘affinity spaces’ should be reconsidered in three ways. First, platforms call for discussion about affinity spaces’ boundaries through the visibility regimes that play a part in access. Second, platforms challenge the affinity spaces’ grammar; to maintain a focus on their interest, platforms need to engage with interests provided by platform cultures. Third, a more fixated hierarchisation, informed by platforms’ focus on creators, impacts affinity spaces’ social structures. We introduce the concept of ‘platformised affinity space’ as a first step to specific dynamics that platforms introduce to online informal learning communities. We conclude that we only understand these communities when acknowledging how these dynamics are appropriated as well as resisted to achieve community goals
New perspectives on civic engagement as outcome of higher education: an exploratory case study
Full text linkThis study explores the potential of a new perspective on research into the impact higher education has on the civic engagement of students. We propose a shift from viewing engagement itself as the key dependent variable to two ‘fundamental constituents’, political interest and agency. Both constituents have been presented as either static or determined entirely by factors external to education such as maturation, but also as dynamic and affected by various aspects of the educational experience in higher education. Furthermore, as analyses of these effects based on sample means do not account sufficiently for the intersectionality of background variables that define the student experience, we propose that data are explored through cluster analysis. Employing this type of analysis, a case study conducted at a small international liberal arts college in the Netherlands showed four distinctly different patterns in the development of both constituents of civic engagement. Based on further data obtained from the same sample, we offer suggestions for specific foci in further research about the impact of higher education on the development of civic engagement
Towards an Integrated Perspective of Teachers’ Technology Integration: A Preliminary Model and Future Research Directions
Full text linkTechnology integration is regarded as a crucial and complex endeavour to enhance students’ learning and prepare them to participate in a digital society. Although the research landscape on teachers’ technology integration is vivid and stimulating, an analytical model which synthesises different strands of research to model antecedents (i.e., teachers’ professional competences), processes and outcomes of technology integration in an integrated manner is missing. That said, previous research was often rather product-oriented and ignored potential effects on students’ learning processes and their achievement. To fill this gap, in this paper, we outline a preliminary model, the TPTI-model (teachers’ professional competence for technology integration), in which we deliberately link different research perspectives on teachers’ professional competences, professional vision and students’ learning (processes) to model technology integration during teaching. Based on the preliminary TPTI-model, we propose future research directions, which may allow to gain a better understanding of the teacher- and student-related conditions as well as processes of technology integration and their effects on students’ learning