Search results for "Cooperative Learning"

Supporting Learning Groups in Online Learning Environment

2015

In this paper, we report on the initial findings on how to effectively support learning groups in online learning environments. Based on the idea that learning groups can enhance effective learning in online learning environments, we used qualitative research methods to study learning groups (interviews and observation of learning group interactions in online learning environments) and their facilitators. Preliminary results reveal that in order to have effective learning groups you need to take care of the following online design issues: develop comprehensive study guides, train online tutors, motivate learners through feedback, and foster high cognitive levels of interaction through quest…

Investigating technical and pedagogical usability issues of collaborative learning with wikis

2012

Published version of an article in the journal: Informatics in Education : an International Journal. Wikis have been recently promoted as tools that foster collaborative learning. However, there has been little research devoted to the criteria that are suitable to address issues pertinent to collaborative learning. This paper proposes a set of criteria to explore technical and pedagogical usability issues of collaborative learning with wikis. The criteria are then used to evaluate students’ collaborative writing activities. The units of study are wikis that groups of students developed collaboratively using MediaWiki. This paper also reports on technical and pedagogical implications for the…

Participation and collaborative learning in large class sizes: wiki, can you help me?

2016

AbstractCollaborative learning has a long tradition within higher education. However, its application in classes with a large number of students is complicated, since it is a teaching method that requires a high level of participation from the students and careful monitoring of the process by the educator. This article presents an experience in collaborative learning adapted to large class sizes using wikis. The objective is to check if wikis allow for effective collaborative learning methods to be introduced into large groups. The results show how effective wikis can be in encouraging collaborative learning and active participation by the student, as well as facilitating the monitoring and…

The Interplay Between Gesture and Discourse as Mediating Devices in Collaborative Mathematical Reasoning:A Multimodal Approach

2008

This article aims to identify the mathematical reasoning strategies expressed through gestures and speech used by two groups of sixth-grade pupils when solving a task related to the transition between two semiotic representations: figure and Cartesian diagram. The article also identifies the difficulties the pupils meet in the solution process. The analyses of the group dialogues focus particularly on the gesture dimension of deixis. The pupils in both groups have used the following deictic gestures: pointing, held-point, linear point-slide, and circular point-slide in their solution process, while repeated pointing has been identified only in one of the groups. These pointing gestures are …

From canon to chaos management: blogging as a learning tool in a modern Finnish literature course

2015

This article is based on the teaching experiment implemented in summer 2013 in a modern Finnish literature course organised by the Centre for International Mobility (CIMO) and the University of Jyvaskyla Language Centre. In order to break away from the traditional conception of literature and text, students’ independent blogging was chosen as the final course assignment instead of a traditional final project. Our aim has been to determine what blogging as an activity can add to second-language learning (i.e. learning the language in a country where it is spoken as a native language) in the context of modern Finnish literature. Our special interest is how new learning environments and approa…

2018

Although generic skills have received widespread attention from both policymakers and educationalists, little is known regarding how students acquire these skills, or how they should best be taught...

E‐learning in a university interdisciplinary and bilingual context

2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of virtual learning environments in multicultural higher education of two different subjects: foreign language and marketing.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes the aims, development and results of an interdisciplinary collaboration project was held between two European universities through a webCT system, where students had to work on linguistic aspects and economic and management topics.FindingsUnivariate analysis shows students to have a great interest in the project. Different multivariate techniques determine a strong positive relationship between students' participation, implication and motivation in the project and the…

The resources and obstacles of creative collaboration in a long-term learning community

2008

Abstract In the framework of a subject-centred socio-cultural approach, this study investigates creative collaboration and the resources for and obstacles to it in a long-term learning community of ten teacher students. The study focuses on five different learning situations over a 2-year period. The data were taken from teacher students’ evaluations and accounts (on given criteria) of their videotaped group-learning sessions, and their reports of the obstacles to creative collaboration. Using the students’ evaluations of the five videotaped group learning situations, the sessions they assessed as the least and most creative were compared, the aim being to discover the most important situat…

Teaching Physics Concepts Using Educational Robotics

2019

This paper reports a study included in the national project PROMISE funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. It examines the application of an educational robotics laboratory with secondary school students for learning concept about physics. In the paper we describe the didactic strategies that have been implemented during the activities and we give some qualitative outcomes related to effectiveness of the laboratory. Indeed we observed interesting results in students both in term of learning and of interest and participation. The importance of teacher involvement in this type of intervention will also be discussed.

Collaborative business planning in initial vocational education and training

2015

There is a growing demand to enhance entrepreneurship. This study aims at producing knowledge that can assist teachers in designing and supporting collaborative learning of entrepreneurship in vocational education. A qualitative case study approach was adopted. The outcome of this study provides a better understanding of the factors that hinder and enable collaboration, as related to entrepreneurship education in initial vocational education and training. In practice, nine dimensions of descriptive factors that hindered the exercise and nine distinct descriptive factors that acted as enablers were identified. This study suggests that, although the script of the learning task creates the set…