Geraldine Clarebout

Tool use in computer-based learning environments: towards a research framework

Computer-based learning environments often confront learners with a number of tools, i.e. non-embedded support devices. Such environments assume learners to be good judges of their own learning needs. However, research indicates that students do not always make adequate choices for their learning process. This especially becomes an issue with the use of open learning environments, which are assumed to foster the acquisition of complex problem solving skills. Such open learning environments offer students tools to support their learning. Consequently, it is needed to understand factors that influence tool use and acquire insight in learning effects of tool use. Both issues are addressed in this contribution. A review of the existing literature has been undertaken by performing a search on the Web of Science and the PsycInfo database. Results indicate that there is some evidence for learner, tool and task characteristics to influence tool use. No clear indication was found for a learning effect of tool use. The conclusion proposes a research framework for the systematic study of tools.

Assessing Epistemological Beliefs: Schommer’s Questionnaire Revisited

The questionnaire constructed by Schommer is regularly used in studies on epistemological beliefs. This contribution raises some questions about the appropriateness of this instrument to measure epistemological beliefs. This paper presents a critical review of the relevant literature and discusses the use of (a translated version of) the questionnaire in two empirical studies. In the review section, the construction, validation and use of the questionnaire by Schommer and some other authors are analysed. The results of the empirical studies are reported in the second section. In neither of these two studies, the factor structure of Schommer (1990) could be retrieved. Moreover, in both studies, a different factor structure was found. Given the differences in the factor structures, in both studies attempts were made to construct reliable scales. These attempts reveal counter-indications for using the instrument: all scales contain only a limited number of items and are not very reliable.

Review: The contribution of learner characteristics in the development of computer-based adaptive learning environments

The development of learner models takes an active part in upcoming adaptive learning environments. The purpose of learner models is to drive personalization based on learner and learning characteristics that are considered as important for the learning process, such as cognitive, affective and behavioral variables. Despite the huge amount of theoretical propositions of learner characteristics considered as relevant for learner models, practical payoffs are rather sparse. This study aims to overview the empirical research on the mere value of learner models in the development of adaptive learning environments. The results show that a lot of high-quality studies are situated in a rather shattered research field, building few bridges from theory to practice. We conclude with the call for a theory or framework integrating current and past research results that is able to guide theory-based and systematic empirical research having concrete hypotheses on the merits of learner characteristics in adaptive learning environments.

Student-centred and teacher-centred learning environments: what students think

This contribution explores the relationship between teacher-centred and student-centred learning environments from a students perspective. Three different views with respect to this relationship can be retrieved. The balance view suggests that the more teacher-centred a learning environment is, the less student-centred it is and vice versa. The transactional view stresses the continuous renegotiation of teacher- and student-roles. The independent view argues that teacher- and student-centredness are independent features of learning environments. Results from three survey studies of higher education students’ conceptions of quality education are discussed. While the practice-oriented literature regularly seems to adopt a balance view, factor analyses did not reveal evidence for the balance view in any of these studies. In students’ minds student-centredness and teacher-centredness seem to be mutually reinforcing features of high quality education. From a curricular point of view, and especially with regard to teacher training, the results warrant to argue for the development of so-called powerful learning environments rather than for the transition from teacher-centred towards student-centred learning environments.

University Assistants' Conceptions of Knowledge, Learning and Instruction

way teachers design their learning environment, how they define their tasks and how they interact with students (Kember, 1997; Tillema, 1994, 1995). However, no research seems to take all three conceptions into account at the same time. Moreover, conceptions of knowledge and learning have been studied predominantly among a student population, whereas conceptions of instruction have been examined mostly among a teacher population (Hativa, 1997). It therefore remains unclear how and to what extent conceptions of instruction are associated with conceptions of knowledge and learning. With the present research an attempt was made to fill this gap. Conceptions of knowledge, learning and instruction were questioned among the same population of first and second-year research and teaching assistants. Being (Ph.D.) students as well as beginning teachers, this subject population allowed us to link up with the student-based literature on conceptions of learning and knowledge and with the teacher-based literature on conceptions of instruction.

4C/ID in medical education: How to design an educational program based on whole-task learning: AMEE Guide No. 93

Abstract Medical education increasingly stresses that medical students should be prepared to take up multiple roles as a health professional. This requires the integrated acquisition of multiple competences such as clinical reasoning and decision making, communication skills and management skills. To promote such complex learning, instructional design has focused on the use of authentic, real-life learning tasks that students perform in a real or simulated task environment. The four-component instructional design model (4C/ID) model is an instructional design model that starts from the use of such tasks and provides students with a variety of learning tools facilitating the integrated acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes. In what follows, we guide the reader on how to implement educational programs based on the 4C/ID model and illustrate this with an example from general practice education. The developed learning environment is in line with the whole-task approach, where a learning domain is considered as a coherent, integrated whole and where teaching progresses from offering relatively simple, but meaningful, authentic whole tasks to more complex tasks. We describe the steps that were taken, from prototype over development to implementation, to build five learning modules (patient with diabetes; the young child with fever; axial skeleton; care for the elderly and physically undefined symptoms) that all focus on the integrated acquisition of the Canadian Medical Education Directives for Specialists roles in general practice. Furthermore, a change cycle for educational innovation is described that encompasses practice-based challenges and pitfalls about the collaboration between different stakeholders (students, developers and teachers) and the transition from traditional, fragmented and classroom-based learning to integrated and blended learning based on sound instructional design principles.

The ParlEuNet-project: problems with the validation of socio-constructivist design principles in ecological settings

Abstract Current proposals for the design of technologically supported learning environments are heavily influenced by socio-constructivist ideas about learning and instruction. While numerous general ideas have been brought forward, there is a lack of clear empirical tests of these ideas. In this contribution such an empirical test is presented and discussed. First, the instructional design principles and their operationalisation in the ParlEuNet-project are presented. Next, the design and outcomes of an empirical study are discussed. It was hypothesised that students’ epistemological beliefs, metacognitive skills and instructional beliefs would evolve by working in a rich technological, problem-based collaborative learning environment. Secondly, it was hypothesised that by participating in the project, students’ beliefs and skills would develop in the direction of that learning environment. The first hypothesis was partly confirmed; however the second was not, students’ beliefs and skills changed in a direction opposite to the one expected. The contribution concludes with an attempt to explain these unexpected results.

Metacognition and the Use of Tools

In this chapter the relationship between metacognition and the use of tools is addressed. Being able to determine when the use of a tool would be beneficial for one’s learning is seen as a metacognitive skill. Different assumptions are made with respect to this relationship between metacognitive knowledge (including instructional conceptions) and tool usage. A series of studies are addressed in which different instruments were used to measure metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive skills to provide empirical underpinning for these assumptions.

Supporting learners: Increasing complexity?

The different papers in this special issue all addressed learning with complex tasks. All of these papers reached only partially the expected results. This discussion on possible factors that may explain these unexpected results. A first issue that is questioned is the functionality of the tools in the studies. Secondly, the learners lack of compliance is addressed. It may have been that the learners did not take the opportunities offered to them. Third, the use of the support by the learners itself is questioned. Although some methodological issues can be raised, the different papers made a worthwhile attempt to grasp the complexity in a learning environment. Moreover, they highlight the importance of a consolidated framework to determine relevant factors that should be considered when dealing with complexity.

Personal Epistemology: Nomenclature, Conceptualizations, and Measurement

Personal epistemology pertains to empirical observations of the epistemology of laypersons. This area of study is of consequence to researchers due to its perceived significance to thinking and learning (see Hofer and Pintrich, Review of Educational Research 67:88–140, 1997; King & Kitchener, Educational Psychologist 39(1):5–18, 1994; Kuhn, The Skills of Argument, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991; Schommer, Educational Psychology Review, 6(4):293–319, 1994). One form of learning for which the learner’s personal epistemology is theoretically relevant is cognitive flexibility; however, the relationship between the two constructs is apt to be confounded by how each is interpreted. In this chapter, we address basic questions for the construct of personal epistemology, hoping to assist the reader in apprehending its significance to cognitive flexibility. We begin by asserting that personal epistemology is best regarded as having a dual nature: the first form we describe as conception oriented and the second as process oriented. Stemming from this foundational argument, we make three specific arguments defended by a review of the literature. Our first argument is that the conception-oriented form is sufficiently referred to as epistemological beliefs and defined as the abstract beliefs of lay folk that address questions relevant to professional epistemologists, typically about the nature of knowledge and knowing. Our second argument is that the process-oriented form is suitably referred to as epistemological judgments and defined as the judgments of lay folk that mimic those of professional epistemologists, normally pertaining to the evaluation and justification of certain assertions. Our third argument is reserved for the measurement of epistemological beliefs, which relies extensively upon inference, that is, knowing and interpreting the visible manifestations of the underlying beliefs. We assert multiple methods of measurement should be synchronized in instrumentation to support inferences and that novel methods should be actively pursued. We conclude with some remarks clarifying how the two forms of personal epistemology may uniquely relate to cognitive flexibility.