Critical Learning Process Research Articles

Developing critical geopolitical awareness in management education

The impact of geopolitics on business activities is an undeniable reality, as reflected in the fact that a growing number of companies consider geopolitical risks as a substantial risk to their cross-border operations. Against this background, this article advocates developing the critical geopolitical awareness of management learners to allow them to better understand the risks and challenges posed by the rapidly changing and highly uncertain external environment. After explaining the specificities of the critical geopolitical approach, we discuss three selected case studies that show how it can be applied to complex crisis situations in which companies can become involved. We then highlight how developing critical geopolitical awareness could be beneficial to management learners as part of an incremental critical learning process. The latter is presented as a three-step process, aiming to: (a) increase knowledge of the international and local context by using the triangular framework of analysis (space-power-representations), which provides a deeper understanding of the external environment and how the strategies of both state- and non-state actors may affect business activities; (b) enrich traditional political risk models with a relational and multiscale approach to geopolitical risk; and (c) reconsider the role of corporate leaders and companies as (geo)political actors.

Implementation of Formative Assessment in Engineering Education

Formative assessment is an assessment of student learning that aims to improve students' skills or understanding of certain course themes. Formative evaluations are often conducted in class, can be conducted anonymously, and are typically much more focused on certain abilities or knowledge. This article presents a comprehensive literature analysis on formative assessment in engineering education. As an integrated narrative review, this study's methodology included a systematic search, review, and writing of the literature in order to synthesize the important themes and conclusions of research in this field. The authors selected and reviewed the available literature using qualitative thematic criteria, focusing on the relationship between formative assessment and students' attitudes, FA and self-regulation skills, online formative evaluation, validity, reliability, and dishonesty of assessment, and engagement with critical learning processes. An increase in student involvement and centrality in the process as primary actors, as well as the building of a learning community, are among the cited benefits. According to the primary results, effective online formative assessment can generate a student- and assessment-centered emphasis through formative feedback and enhanced learner engagement with significant learning experiences. In the context of online formative assessment, it has been discovered that ongoing authentic assessment activities and interactive formative feedback are vital for overcoming validity and reliability concerns.

Research Collaboration with the Architectural Design Process: Co-Development of Problems and Solutions

This research aims to investigate what a possible framework design research can be integrated withthe architectural-design process. The process of design embodies dialectics between generation of form andresearch. How strategic design research is cooperative into design processes to achieve the design solutionhas been barely examined in a broad range of the architectural-design practices. The study thus explores acomparative analysis of the design processes in different design practice between third-year architecture students,fifth-year architecture students, and architects, to examine various forms of design research taking place infinding and solving problems.Findings reveal that design research lies in investigative modes and processing of external knowledgerelevant to problems, thereby enabling for a decisive solution. Research cooperates with the design process aslearning tensions between problems and solutions. However, the problem-solution pairing and research takingplace do not promise the successful solution. The acceptable design unfolds continuous improvement betweena series of problems-solutions through which research induces the co-development of problems-solutionsframework from an abstract idea to concrete levels of design development in three situations: “understandingcriteria and formulating goals,” “exploring possibility,” and “examining reality.” Moreover, practitioners mostly drawupon more design visions to direct problem-framing, research, and working methods to meet design goals thannovice students operate research into the process of design.To effectively implement research into the design process, a designer could consider design activity asa critical learning process as the co-development of problems-solutions framework to operate design strategiesand thinking. This mode of design thinking will allow design research roles to collaborate with problem-framingand design methods into the design process.

Rethinking Community-based ESD in the COVID-19 Era

In the search for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), two approaches are integral: local community-based and multi-stakeholder participation and partnership. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which is addressed in Target 4.7, is at the heart of these approaches to attract diverse stakeholders for the efforts at the local community level. The stakeholders share their diverse experiences and knowledge to create a new knowledge for sustainability. Therein, tension and conflict that they may experience can lead to a critical learning process for individual and social transformation. This article reports the preliminary results obtained from the project, which examines the effectiveness and relevance of local community-based and multi-stakeholder approaches to the efforts for sustainable community development during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project focuses on the experiences of member organizations of the Regional Centre of Expertise on ESD (RCEs) in the Asia-Pacific region, which was established by the United Nations University, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS). The article proposes further direction of research based on the key findings at this stage, including digitalization and youth participation, which are to be further analyzed for the advocacy and relevant international and national policies on SDGs and ESD for 2030 from the perspectives of local communities.

Digital Justice

As technology use permeates many parts of society there are still groups where the penetration of technology is low: adults with little exposure to technology during their traditional learning years, users from lower SES, lower education levels, resulting in a digital divide between the digital haves and have-nots. This paper presents a community-based, mixed methods research project that endeavored to study the phenomenon of digital divide through a set of theoretical frameworks: Rawls’ principles of justice as fairness provided the overall social justice umbrella, Sen’s capability approach grounded the study in the specificities of learners’ lives and acknowledged learner diversity, and Horton’s cultural education, Freire’s critical consciousness, and Eubanks’ critical technology education provided the pedagogical lens to understand the importance of the critical learning process in digital education. The findings from the study support the concept of situated or contextual technology that seeks to increase the benefits of technology for adult learners while providing them the tools to manage complex digital environments through relatable instruction, user-centric design for technological tools and interfaces, and more robust government action in alleviating the digital divide through well-designed digital literacy programs.

The Strategies to Improve Critical Thinking Skills through Problem-Based Quantum Learning Model at Primary School

The urgency of this research is to get the idea of students with critical thinking at Primary Schools of Karanganyar Sub-district. Currently, the learning process is considered as a non-critical thinking method for students. This research used descriptive statistical method to illustrate students’ critical thinking in detail at primary schools. Analysis of critical thinking was conducted on 156 students. The process of this analysis was measured by indicators of interpretation, analysis, evaluation, explanation, and conclusion. The results show that the students' skill in interpretation, analysis, explanation, and conclusion is at high level whereas there is a necessity to create a critical learning process of students to evaluate at the basic level in terms of improving critical thinking skills especially in the students’ problem-solving aspect.

False Starts and Breakthroughs: Senior Thesis Research as a Critical Learning Process

False Starts and Breakthroughs: Senior Thesis Research as a Critical Learning Process

Modeling College and Career Readiness for Adolescents With and Without Disabilities: A Bifactor Approach

Nonacademic skills related to college and career readiness (CCR) have become more prevalent in the literature as proposed conceptual models and frameworks, yet little empirical research exists in their support. We employed latent variable modeling to empirically test a previously proposed six-domain framework of CCR for adolescents with and without disabilities. Results support four specific factors of CCR: Academic Engagement, Critical Learning Processes, Mind-Set, and Transition Knowledge. Using a bifactor model, we confirmed one general factor (CCR) and one specific factor (Transition Knowledge), established measurement invariance on the basis of disability, and found latent mean differences between these groups; students without disabilities had greater overall CCR and transition knowledge. Findings support the use of a CCR measurement model with two potential factor scores in future research and practice and may inform efforts to measure CCR nonacademic skills.

Mapping the Far Right: Geomedia in an Educational Response to Right-Wing Extremism

Across Europe, and probably the world, messages of the extreme right surface with increasing and alarming regularity in both public and virtual space. Within the virtual space, geomedia are increasingly used in nationalist propaganda, a trend which is embedded in a wider development in public discourse, election results, and policies. In Austria and Germany, particular sensibilities due to the responsibility for the Holocaust have developed, leading to various specific education initiatives that address this part of history. This paper presents an activist learning environment using geomedia to deconstruct right-wing extremist discourses, and has been tested used in university settings in Salzburg and Vienna. Using a combination of Instagram and geospatial technologies not visible to learners, results of reflection and learning processes are analyzed qualitatively across two slightly different enactments of the learning environment. Experiences suggest an encouraging potential of geomedia use in critical learning processes, as long as the technology is hidden from learners, forming an incentive, support, and contextualization of the learning process.

“Transformative looks”: Practicing Citizenship Through Photography

Purpose: The article discusses the meanings of citizenship and citizenship education when formal citizenship is restricted by exploring the potential of photography education and practice as a tool that promotes the exercise of citizenship in the context of non-formal critical adult education. By doing it, this text aims to enhance our understanding on the ways art education can improve the achievement of the goals of citizenship education. Method: This article analyses the experience of the collective and collaborative project: “Con la camara a cuestas: Transformative Looks”, in Bilbao, Spain, with a group of fifteen to twenty migrant women from eight Latin American countries. Findings: Citizenship as a life-long learning process involving individual as well as collective action leading to the promotion of new shared values for more inclusive communities benefits greatly from the use of artistic expressions such as photography. Because of migrant women’s marginalized position as non- formal -citizens, citizenship as participation effectively becomes a fundamental route of influence in the public sphere. Conceptualizing citizenship as struggle and as a critical learning process opens up possibilities for generating new shared ‘habitus’, where ‘recognition’ can be achieved leading to more inclusive societies.

Coactive Vicarious Learning: Towards a Relational Theory of Vicarious Learning in Organizations

Vicarious learning – a process of individual belief and behavior change that occurs through being exposure to, and making meaning of, another’s experience – has long been recognized as a key driver of individual, team and organizational success. Yet existing perspectives on this critical learning process have remained fairly limited, seeing vicarious learning as simply a one-way process of observation and imitation, facilitated by formal organizational structures and conduits. Indeed, absent in these prior approaches is a consideration of the underlying process and interpersonal dynamics that guide a vicarious learning interaction. Integrating theories of experiential learning and symbolic interactionism, I offer a theoretical account of coactive vicarious learning, capturing these co-constructed, interpersonal learning interactions between individuals at work. These interactions involve the mutual processing of another’s experience, built around discourse and analysis, and I argue that they lead to not only linear growth in individuals’ knowledge, but also growth in their individual and relational capacity for future learning. I discuss implications of this approach for both theories of vicarious learning, as well as the practice of learning from others’ experiences in organizations.

Needs for Thai Teachers to Become a Reflective Teacher: Mixed Methods Needs Assessment Research

Reflection is a type of critical learning process that teachers share and learn from their direct teaching experiences. This study aimed to assess needs for Thai teachers to become a reflective teacher. Quantitative data from a survey of 608 teachers suggested that to become a reflective teacher, one needs to possess two key components of the Becoming a Reflective Teacher (BRT) attribute: (1) the Belief and Confidence for Learning Reflection component; and (2) the Reflection Behaviors and Skills component. Results showed that Thai teachers had BRT components at moderate levels. As confirmed by the priority need index, the development of critically reflective skills for Thai teachers should be the top priority. Data from interviews additionally revealed that learning through reflection was an unpleasant experience for Thai teachers.

Transforming the negotiator: The impact of critical learning on teaching and practicing negotiation

A long-standing debate in the negotiation field is whether negotiators can actually change their styles. In this article I offer two contributions to the literature and its pedagogy by suggesting that we shift the focus of the debate. Instead of considering negotiator styles as fixed predispositions, I propose that we view them as actions resulting from learning. From this perspective, the conflict-negotiation dynamic can be conceived as a critical learning process and negotiators as critical learners. We can then trace and incorporate the impact of negative emotions on learning and on the action it informs. I offer a system dynamic model to account for the cyclical links between actual conflicts, defensiveness, learning, and negotiators’ habitual responses to conflicts. Pedagogically, the model can be used descriptively to help negotiators understand such responses to actual conflicts, and prescriptively to garner their potential to change and transform. I share the experience of using the model in my classes and provide examples from helping negotiators unsettle their frames of reference and the assumptions they hold.

Economics of clinical nephrology practice

Economics of clinical nephrology practice

Successful Distance Learning Graduate Education in Human Services

SUMMARY There is a critical learning process unique to graduate human services education. This process needs to be applied in the distance-learning environment. The planning and designing of course material, along with instructional strategies, need to incorporate the five phases of this learning process. Faculty who use this process to develop and deliver their distance programs will utilize the technology and educational environment of distance learning to the fullest. This paper gives readers the framework for designing human services courses so that graduate students benefit from the structure and presentation of course material in the unique environment of distance learning.

Role of B cell antigen receptor in regulation of V(D)J recombination and cell survival.

B lymphocytes learn through the interaction of the B cell receptor with antigens in the context of B cell developmental stage and environmental cues. B cells can respond by proliferation and antibody secretion, programmed cell death, or modification of the antibody genes themselves through secondary immunoglobulin gene rearrangements or somatic point mutation. A critical learning process is that of self/nonself-discrimination. We have shown that one potent mechanism for immune self-tolerance in B cells is ongoing antibody light chain gene rearrangements, which can result in "receptor editing" that changes antigen receptor specificity. This process appears to be developmentally regulated, because it is confined to cells at an immature stage of development. Cells at later stages of development can be tolerized by apoptosis, but probably not by receptor editing.

Professional development as intellectual activity: Features of the learning environment and evidence of teachers’ intellectual engagement

Professional development has moved from the periphery of teachers’ professional lives to center stage, more recently seen as the key to educational reform. Considerable time and money have been invested in professional development with little effect on teachers’ practices in ways that improve student learning. Some argue that the focus of professional development has been overly concerned with technique and power, ignoring the fundamental tools of teaching work—knowledge and intellect. This research describes a professional development program for 16 experienced elementary school educators that focused on teacher learning. Data were collected over 18 months and qualitatively analyzed for setting features and learning processes indicative of an intellectual focus. Five setting features were identified: (a) a warrant for thinking and studying, (b) models of thoughtfulness in the environment, (c) access to superior mediation, (d) maintaining a focus on learning, and (e) acknowledging barriers to thoughtfulness. “Time to learn” and opportunity‐to‐use key concepts appear to be critical learning processes in professional development activity that seeks to focus on the teacher as learner. Implications for further research are briefly discussed.

Learning to Coconstruct Critical Learning Processes in an Urban School-University Partnership

This article tells the story of how university and school personnel collaborated to revise a fifth-grade writing program. The project was named Rethink/Rewrite because it focused on having students consider contrasting portrayals of people and events in their social studies textbooks and in alternative materials about the same historical periods by African Americans and native peoples. Using participant observations, field notes, artifacts, and meeting records, this article describes the evolving nature of the 2-year collaboration from a top-down model of communication to one of equitable participation and how the university and school personnel eventually reconceived literacy instruction as part of their collaboration.

Is the relation between phonological memory and foreign language learning accounted for by vocabulary acquisition?

ABSTRACTIn an earlier study, Service (1992) found that phonological short-term memory, reflected in the ability to repeat English-sounding pseudowords, was a good predictor of learning English as a foreign language over a period of three school years. This study attempts to find out to what extent foreign vocabulary learning is the critical learning process related to pseudoword repetition accuracy. Regression analyses on repetition data and learning measures revealed significant correlations between pseudoword repetition and foreign language learning, even after a measure of general academic achievement had been partialed out. In a fixed-order multiple regression analysis – with predictors entered in the order of general academic achievement, foreign language vocabulary, and pseudoword repetition – no additional variance in any foreign language measure studied could be accounted for by pseudoword repetition in the third step. When vocabulary in the second step was replaced by performance in foreign language essay writing or the correct reproduction of dictated discourse – both highly related to overall foreign language performance – repetition significantly increased the proportion of accounted variance, especially for two foreign language vocabulary tasks and a listening comprehension task. Phonological memory may, therefore, be specifically related to foreign vocabulary learning.

Planning and Organizing Alternatives Stemming from the Sphere of Reproduction

The paper reminds us of the historical starting point by describing the three dimensions of the household patriarchate After the workplace and the dwelling became segregated, they founded the core of two separate systems. The separation of paid work on the market from unpaid work in the home gradually changed the reproductive relations. The critical learning processes in production and reproduction convey different critical learning processes. The article proceeds to compare the experiences that are built into the way in which production is organized with the message that is transmitted through the unpaid reproductive work. The comparison indicates that the experiences clearly clash with one another point after point This thorough-going conflict raises the questions: what has steered the organization of reproduction? What do the tendencies outlined signify for alternative planning?