Marjan Vermeulen

Social Aspects of CSCL Environments: A Research Framework

Although there are research findings supporting the positive effects of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), problems have been reported regarding the learning process itself, group formation, and group dynamics. These problems can be traced back to impeded social interaction between group members. Social interaction is necessary (a) for group members to learn from each other in a CSCL environment and (b) for socioemotional processes to help create a social space where trust, sense of community, and strong interpersonal relationships exist. This article introduces a theoretical framework consisting of three core elements: sociability, social space, and social presence, along with their relationships with group members’ mental models, social affordances and learning outcomes. It postulates that the three core elements influence the social interaction needed for both learning and the emergence of a social space. This framework serves as a basis for a research agenda for systematic social CSCL research.

Toward a Model of Explaining Teachers’ Innovative Behavior A Literature Review

Innovative behavior can be described as a process in which new ideas are generated, created, developed, applied, promoted, realized, and modified by employees to benefit role performance. Various reasons, such as rapid technological and social changes in society, underline the necessity for innovative behavior of employees and certainly of teachers. However, little research has been conducted that explores teacher innovative behavior and which factors influence this behavior or what effects can be achieved through such behavior. In this systematic literature review, we develop a preliminary model of factors that enhance innovative behavior in educational organizations. Similar to findings of studies in other human behavior fields, self-efficacy plays an important role as well as a variety of individual and environmental factors. Based on this review, we urge for more systematic research on teacher innovative behavior to enhance the future quality of education.

Adopting the Integrative Model of Behaviour Prediction to explain teachers’ willingness to use ICT: a perspective for research on teachers’ ICT usage in pedagogical practices

Information and communication technology (ICT) can enable, support, and reinforce the introduction of new pedagogical practices that comply with the educational demands of the twenty-first-century knowledge society. However, despite this potential and despite the delivering of skills-based professional development and the increase in the level of ICT infrastructure, teachers are more often reluctant rather than willing to use ICT. This article reviews existing literature to 1) select a theoretical model that is suited to explain this, and 2) uncover important variables at various levels, including the individual and school organisation that should be included in the model. As a result, it adopts Fishbein’s Integrative Model of Behaviour Prediction (IMBP). This model forces the explicit consideration of dispositional variables including attitude, self-efficacy and subjective norm that are the direct and indirect antecedents of intentional ICT usage and real ICT use. Rather than concentrating on general ICT usage, IMBP is concerned with the use of specific ICT tools, such as digital learning materials. The authors believe that IMBP as a diagnostic tool will shed more light upon the issues surrounding teachers’ ICT usage.

Why teachers use digital learning materials: The role of self-efficacy, subjective norm and attitude

Although Information and Communication Technology (ICT) seems a promising tool in an educational context, many teachers are reluctant to integrate it in their daily practice. A large scale survey was undertaken amongst primary and secondary school teachers in the Netherlands to explore possible determinants of the educational use of digital learning materials (DLMs) in order to develop interventions to reduce teachers’ reluctance to use ICT and more specifically to stimulate the use of DLMs. Basing on the Integrative Model of Behaviour Prediction it was conjectured that self-efficacy, attitude and subjective norm would take a central role in explaining the intention to use DLMs. Several other predictors were added to the conceptual model whose effects were hypothesized to be mediated by the three central variables. All conjectured relationships were found using mediation analysis on survey data from 1,484 teachers. Intention to use DLMs was most strongly determined by attitude, followed by self-efficacy. ICT skills was in its turn the strongest predictor of self-efficacy. Subjective norm played only a limited role in the intention to use DLMs. Basing on the outcome of this study, persuasive communication focusing on positive outcomes and skills based training seem appropriate interventions to promote a positive attitude towards DLM and improve self-efficacy in using DLMs.

Development of the Teacher Feedback Observation Scheme: evaluating the quality of feedback in peer groups

Research suggests that feedback is an essential element in learning. This study focuses on feedback that teachers provide in reciprocal peer groups to improve their performance in the classroom. The Teacher Feedback Observation Scheme (TFOS) was developed to identify feedback patterns, which approaches feedback as a multidimensional process. The TFOS helps acquire insights into the effectiveness of feedback, and provides information regarding the situations in which possible interventions can be undertaken if feedback is declining and becoming ineffective. This may especially be necessary when the communication of feedback is mediated by information and communications technology (ICT). The TFOS was piloted using videotaped sessions of three face-to-face groups, as well as one virtual group, using discussion wikis. All four groups of teachers used the Video Intervision Peer-coaching (VIP) procedure. The findings reveal that feedback in the virtual group was less effective than it was in the face-to-face groups. In addition, ineffective feedback patterns in the face-to-face groups transitioned into more effective feedback patterns. The TFOS appears to be adept at identifying feedback patterns in peer groups.

Predicting teachers’ use of digital learning materials: combining self-determination theory and the integrative model of behaviour prediction

In this article, we report on a study that investigated the motivational (e.g. intrinsic motivation) and dispositional variables (e.g. attitudes) that determine teachers’ intention to use or not to use digital learning materials (DLMs). To understand the direct and indirect relationships between these variables, we replicated a study in which self-determination theory (SDT) and the theory of planned behaviour/integrated model of behaviour prediction (IMBP) are combined and a distinction was made between global level psychological needs, and contextual level as well as situational level motivational constructs. Using a sample of 1273 teachers, our preliminary findings support the findings of the previous study. The combined model potentially provides us with a more comprehensive explanation of teachers’ volitional behaviour regarding their use of DLMs in their pedagogical practices than would be possible on the basis of SDT or IMBP alone.

Measuring student teachers' basic psychological needs

In Self-Determination Theory, basic psychological needs for relatedness, autonomy and competence are distinguished. Basic psychological need-fulfilment is considered to be critical for human development and intrinsic motivation. In the Netherlands, the concept of basic psychological need-fulfilment is introduced in the curricula of many teacher education institutes. This study reports on five teacher education institutes for primary school teachers where study coaches made use of a Dutch version of the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPNS) to collect data to be used in a discussion with student teachers about their intrinsic motivation for a specific part of the teacher education course. On the basis of the outcomes of this discussion, study coaches and student teachers derived consequences for day-to-day practice in their classrooms. The data which resulted were also used to establish whether the theoretical distinction between three basic psychological needs was found in this sample of student teachers in the Netherlands. The results show that the constructs of relatedness, autonomy and competence were found and could be measured using a 14-item five-point scale, based partly on the original BPNS and partly on new items that focus on different sources of perceived need-fulfilment, namely teacher education in general, the study coach and fellow students.

Job Demands, Job Resources, and Flexible Competence: The Mediating Role of Teachers’ Professional Development at Work

Building upon previous research that focused on the relationships between job demands, job resources, and employee psychological well-being, this longitudinal research makes a unique contribution by relating job demands and job resources to teachers’ professional development (TPD) at work and flexible competence, the latter being a key factor in teachers’ career development. This study was carried out among 211 teachers working in primary and secondary education in the Netherlands. TPD at work appeared to be related to flexible competence and proved to be a mediator between job resources, on the one hand, and flexible competence, on the other hand. Job resources positively enhanced TPD at work and in turn were related to flexible competence. Moreover, a direct negative relationship between job demands and flexible competence was found.

Teachers’ professional development: an analysis of the use of Professional Development Plans in a Dutch school

Professional development of teachers has become an essential condition in today’s knowledge-based society to sustain the quality of teaching. Therefore, the Dutch government promotes this professional development. As a result, Professional Development Plans (PDPs) are now increasingly used to stimulate and support the professional development of teachers. A PDP is used to encourage teachers’ professional development and structure their development path in terms of learning goals and plans of action. However, it cannot be taken for granted that teachers will formulate high-quality PDPs on their own. Previous research suggests that guidance is important in supporting teachers’ development. This study examined the effects of guidance on the quality of PDPs. An experimental group of Dutch teachers from a school for secondary vocational education was offered a series of workshops whereas the control group did not have such guidance. Both groups had to fill out a simple structured PDP. To determine the quality of the PDPs, an assessment tool was developed. The results suggest that guided teachers are more capable of identifying their strengths and in formulating learning goals. The guided teachers’ PDPs also showed more consistency. No differences were found regarding the action plans which teachers described.

Does transformational leadership encourage teachers’ use of digital learning materials

To gain insight into how to promote teachers’ use of digital learning materials (DLMs) in their pedagogical practices we adopted the Integrated Model of Behaviour Prediction to investigate the relationships between organizational and teacher-related variables. A representative sample of 772 teachers from primary, secondary or vocational education took part in a survey study. Conjectured combinations of direct and indirect relationships between the variables were tested for the best model fit with structural equation modelling. The results suggest that a model with mediating relations from leadership through information and communication technology (ICT) policy and professional development activities to the variables self-efficacy, attitude and social norm, combined with direct relations from leadership to the latter, has the best fit for predicting teachers’ intention to use DLMs.