Preparing teacher-students for twenty-first-century learning practices (PREP 21) : a framework for enhancing collaborative problem-solving and strategic learning skills

With regard to the growing interest in developing teacher education to match the twenty-first-century skills, while many assumptions have been made, there has been less theoretical elaboration and empirical research on this topic. The aim of this article is to present our pedagogical framework for the twenty-first-century learning practices in teacher education. We will first review the current status of policy frameworks for the twenty-first-century learning skills. Based on our previous work and current understanding in the field of learning sciences, we will next elaborate the processes and strategies for collaborative problem-solving skills and strategic learning skills to specify curre…

From Multiple Perspectives to Shared Understanding: A small group in an online learning environment

The aim of this study was to explore how learners operating in a small group reach shared understanding as they work out joint research questions and build a theoretical framework and to identify the resources and tools they used in the process. The learners' own interpretations of their group activities and learning were also taken into account. The data, consisting of group discussions and the documents produced by the group, were subjected to a qualitative content analysis. The group members employed a variety of resources and tools to exchange their individual perspectives and achieve shared understanding. Summaries of relevant literature laid a foundation for the group's theoretical di…

Meeting the Challenges of Generational Change in the Teaching Profession : Towards a European Model for Intergenerational Teacher Collaboration

In a European-wide effort to improve the professional development of teachers, the 2AgePro project was conducted from November 2008 to October 2010. One of its goals was to develop and test different forms of intergenerational teacher collaboration among junior and senior teachers in primary and secondary schools. Another aim was to utilise the results from these pilots, which were conducted in the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, to create a model for intergenerational collaboration that could be used in any national or cultural setting. This article reports on the national pilots and proposes a European model for intergenerational collaboration for teachers. …

Educational Perspectives on Scripting CSCL

This chapter discusses different educational approaches to collaboration scripts. When carefully designed, scripts can push learners to that kind of situations in which meaningful interaction can take place. However, many conditions need to be met for this to happen in authentic classroom contexts. One of the biggest educational challenges in instructional design of computer-supported collaboration scripts is to better integrate them into wider social planes such as overall classroom activities. Scripts could also be considered as contextual and situated resources in collaborative learning environments. Furthermore, a challenge for future research is to explore how external scripts can be g…

Computer-Supported Collaboration Scripts

Insights into Finnish first-year pre-service teachers’ twenty-first century skills

This study focuses on Finnish pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their twenty-first century skills, especially their learning strategies, collaboration and teamwork, as well as knowledge and attitudes related to ICT in education. The target group consist of 263 first-year pre-service teachers from three universities. The results outline how pre-service teachers perceive their twenty-first century skills, the relationships between different areas of these skills, and the differences among pre-service teachers in terms of perceived skills. The results indicate that the pre-service teachers perceive themselves as skilled learners in terms of learning strategies used as well as collaboration …

Computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning and classroom scripts: Effects on help-seeking processes and learning outcomes

This study examined the influence of classroom-script structure (high vs. low) during computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning on help-seeking processes and learning gains in 54 student pairs in secondary science education. Screen- and audio-capturing videos were analysed according to a model of the help-seeking process. Results show that the structure of the classroom script substantially affects patterns of student help seeking and learning gain in the classroom. Overall, students in the high-structured classroom-script condition sought less help but learnt more than those in the low-structured classroom-script condition. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475…

Stretching the limits in help-seeking research: Theoretical, methodological, and technological advances

Abstract This special section focuses on help seeking in a wide range of learning environments, from classrooms to online forums. Previous research has rather restrictively focused on the identification of personal characteristics that predict whether or not learners seek help under certain conditions. However, help-seeking research has begun to broaden these self-imposed limitations. The articles in this special section represent good examples of this development. Indeed, help seeking in the presented articles is explored through complementary theoretical lenses (e.g., linguistic, instructional), using a wide scope of methodologies (e.g., teacher reports, log files), and in a manner which …