Learning Dispositions Research Articles

DEVELOPING CREATIVE THINKING SKILLS IN ECONOMICS SUBJECTS THROUGH A GOOGLE CLASSROOM-BASED BLENDED LEARNING MODEL AND SELF REGULATED LEARNING FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

This study aims to enhance high school students' creative thinking skills in the field of Economics through the implementation of the Google Classroom-Based Blended Learning model and self-regulated learning strategies. The study's population comprises all students of SMAN 62, with the sample encompassing students from class XI IPS 1 (designated as the control group) and XI IPS 2 (assigned as the experimental group). Employing an experimental approach with a 2x2 factorial design, the research employed questionnaires, pre-tests, and post-tests as data collection tools. The data analysis reveals notable disparities in creative thinking skills between conventional classrooms and blended learning environments. Furthermore, variations in creative thinking skills are observed between students exhibiting low and high levels of self-regulated learning. The study also identifies significant interactions between the learning models and self-regulated learning concerning creative thinking skills. This interaction extends to the distinction in creative thinking skills between conventional classes and blended learning settings for students demonstrating high self-regulated learning as well as those displaying low self-regulated learning. Moreover, the research underscores disparities in creative thinking skills within conventional classes, differentiating students with high and low self-regulated learning. Analogously, differences in creative thinking skills are noted within blended learning classes, differentiating students with high and low self-regulated learning. In conclusion, the study establishes that students' creative thinking skills can be effectively enhanced by deploying the Google Classroom-Based Blended Learning model while cultivating a proactive self-regulated learning disposition. The augmentation of students' creative thinking skills is evident through post-treatment assessments based on a creative thinking indicator questionnaire.

Savremeni pristup menadžmentu kao faktor efikasnog funkcionisanja dječijih vrtića

The provision of open opportunities, the acquisition of experiences where it is possible to develop the capacities of the child's personality and their potential in the period of early age are elements on which his future activities, opportunities and functioning as an active member of society will depend. Through communication, children of pre-school age gain freedom of speech, are independent, learn to navigate different situations, are creative, inquisitive, curious, and this way contributes to the development of dispositions for active action and learning. Quality preschool upbringing and education should be based on this development of preschool children, on the competence of educators, active participation of parents of children in the organization of work and life of their children, and other systems with the aim of progressive changes. All these systems condition the presence of managers in all educational institutions, including kindergartens. We see the development plan and program as an opportunity to raise awareness of the value of the system of organizing educational work in kindergartens, as well as the joint activities of all factors that participate in the process of raising and educating preschool children, through the prism of management in kindergartens.

Preschool children's dispositions of collaboration: A Chinese study

AbstractThere is converging evidence that young children's development of peer collaboration is crucial for their later success in life. However, little attention has been paid to how children develop collaboration as a lifelong capability. Drawing on the notion of learning disposition, this study explored Chinese children's dispositions of collaboration. Our aim was to identify the characteristics of these dispositions and considered how they might suggest a possible direction of growth. The research was conducted in a preschool classroom. Findings reveal an interwoven relation between children's collaboration and their learning decisions, where ideas of interest, fun, friend, help and responsibility were embedded.

Examining the Relationship between High School Students' Lifelong Learning Tendencies and Problem Solving Self-Appraisal

Lifelong learning, which is an uninterrupted learning approach, means that individuals learn to adapt to changing social, cultural, technological, or economic conditions, and thus advance their lives. Educating individuals as lifelong learners for their equal participation in society is an important educational ideal. For these reasons, it is important to investigate the variables that will facilitate individuals to adopt lifelong learning. The study aimed to reveal experimental results about how positive self-appraisal in problem solving will create a motivation on lifelong learning tendency. In this study conducted on high school students, it was first examined whether the change in perceptions of problem solving and lifelong learning differed according to gender, and then the relationship between these two variables was aimed to be revealed. This study offers important implications about the effect of problem-solving self-appraisal on lifelong learning disposition. According to the findings, individuals with high problem-solving self-evaluation are more inclined toward lifelong learning.

The Effect of Digital Literacy on Creative Thinking Disposition: The Mediating Role of Lifelong Learning Disposition

This study aimed to determine whether digital literacy has a direct effect on creative thinking disposition and an indirect effect through lifelong learning disposition. The study was conducted with 327 teachers working in Siirt Province, Turkey in 2021-2022 academic years. “The Marmara Creative Thinking Dispositions Scale”, “Digital Literacy Scale” and “Lifelong Learning Trends Scale” were used in the data collection process. Correlational survey method was employed in this study. The structural equation modeling technique was also used to analyze the relationships of variables. Two models, which explain the direct effect of digital literacy on creative thinking disposition and its indirect effects through lifelong learning disposition, were developed. As a consequence of the analysis, it was determined that structural models were in good agreement with each other. In this study, digital literacy has a statistically significant and positive effect on creative thinking disposition both directly and indirectly through lifelong learning disposition.

Learning analytics and flipped learning in online teaching for supporting preservice teachers’ learning of quantitative research methods

Research methods, including those of a quantitative nature, are an important part of preservice teacher training in Finland. However, quantitative research methods are considered challenging, often feared, and even hated among preservice teachers. This may be due to previous negative experiences and emotions associated with their use, which also influence other aspects of learning such as self-regulation, self-efficacy, and orientations. Given such circumstances, new ways to teach and support the learning of quantitative methods are needed. Here, we investigate the self-regulation, self-efficacy, orientations, and emotions of preservice teachers (N = 38) enrolled in a quantitative methods online course incorporating learning analytics and a flipped learning approach. Dispositional learning analytics data from five measurement points were used, and data were analyzed via descriptive statistics, internal consistency (Cronbach alpha), bootstrapped paired sample t-test (between first and final measurement point), and profiles based on mean. The results demonstrate that in this teaching context, preservice teachers’ time management skills can be improved, and task avoidance, anxiety, and boredom towards quantitative methods decreased. The meaning of these results from the teaching context perspective are also examined, as are the limitations and implications of this study.

The Effect of University Students' Achievement Orientations on Lifelong Learning Tendencies: A Structural Equation Model Study

In this study; İt is aimed to determine the effect level of achievement goal orientations on lifelong learning tendency. In the study, the general survey model and probability-based random sampling method, which are among the quantitative research methods, were preferred. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 1312 students, 726 female and 586 male, who continue their education in different faculties and vocational schools in the city center of Sivas Cumhuriyet University in the spring semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. The data of the study were obtained by applying the "2x2 Achievement Orientation Scale" developed by Arslan and Akın (2015), which was adapted to Turkish by Elliot and Murayama (2008), and the "Lifelong Learning Disposition Scale" developed by Diker-Coşkun (2009). Research data were analyzed using normality tests, independent groups t test, ANOVA, Tukey, SEM, and CFA statistical methods. In the findings obtained in the research; It is observed that the mean scores obtained by the students from both scales differ significantly according to the variables of gender, type of school, type of education, economic status, place of residence, the type of high school graduated from, and achievement orientation has an effect on lifelong learning.

Building collaborative competencies through play with outdoor loose parts materials in primary school

ABSTRACT This paper reports on the findings from a study investigating the provision of outdoor loose parts materials for upper primary school aged children. Conducted in Queensland, Australia, the study focused on loose parts materials as cultural tools, following the sociocultural argument that tools mediate activity and outcomes. The findings suggest that loose parts materials are used by children in the formation of sociodramatic play, including episodes of trading, bartering and advertising that support their shared understandings. Shared understandings precede collaborative competencies, including engagements with others, working towards and achieving common goals. With collaboration recognised as an important learning disposition for children in twenty-first-century societies, the findings suggest loose parts materials may be pedagogically appropriate for supporting these competencies in primary school settings.

Pedagogical documentation as a curriculum tool: making children’s outdoor learning visible in a childcare centre in Singapore

ABSTRACT The Singapore government has laid out a regulation for daily minimum time spent outdoors and the Outdoor Learning Guide (OLG) to support children’s outdoor experiences in full-day childcare programmes. However, there is scarce research on young children’s outdoor learning experiences from children’s and teachers’ perspectives. This study aims to make sense of children’s outdoor learning using the child-sensitive tool – pedagogical documentation – in a Singapore childcare centre. It highlights the value of outdoor learning experiences for children as well as teachers’ views of outdoor learning through the implementation of pedagogical documentation. Pedagogical documentation as an in-depth, qualitative research approach has allowed us to generate two learning stories, revealing the impact of children’s outdoor learning experiences on their social-emotional development and learning dispositions. Additionally, the reflective discussions with teachers uncovered their perspectives of outdoor learning and pedagogical knowledge. Pedagogical documentation made children’s outdoor learning visible while keeping a balance between children’s and teachers’ voices.

The VOTIS, part 2: Using a video-reflexive assessment activity to foster dispositional learning in interprofessional education

ABSTRACT Effective interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) requires a new way of working characterized by distributed leadership skills, shared decision-making, and the adoption of uniprofessional and interprofessional identities. Health professional educators are tasked with preparing clinicians for IPCP through interprofessional education (IPE). Numerous IPE teaching interventions have been developed, ranging in length from hours to semesters, designed to introduce students to interprofessional ways of working – usually evaluated in terms of student satisfaction, perceptions of other disciplines and conceptual knowledge. However, working interprofessionally also requires integrating dispositional knowledge into one’s emerging interprofessional habits and values. In this paper, we describe a learning activity, inspired by a new video-reflexive methodology, designed to foster dispositional learning of interprofessional skills using a video-based assessment tool: the Video Observation Tool for Interprofessional Skills (VOTIS). Based on focus group and interview data, we suggest the activity’s usefulness in fostering conceptual, procedural and dispositional knowledge, as well as reflexive feedback literacy. Overall, our qualitative evaluation of the VOTIS suggests the merits of drawing on video-reflexive methodology and pedagogical theory to re-imagine IPE as a dynamic process, requiring the development of interprofessional skills that must be appropriated into students’ emerging (inter)professional identities.

‘In the cracks between freedom and fear’: student reflections on identity and confidence learning in a creative music ensemble

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative study examining ‘real-world’ jazz performance contexts within an Australian tertiary music course. Course projects were designed to offer students opportunities to gain a better understanding of the intersections of working and performing with their teachers in an improvised music ensemble. The study investigates reflection of students’ experiences and perceptions of learning dispositions, identity and creative growth across a nine-month academic year. Students’ individual and collective improvisational learning and development were investigated by examining perceptions and reflections upon identity making, confidence, as well as cultivation of creative voice. A framework of student reflective practice for creativity provides implications for creative ensemble approaches, strategies, goals and aims.

Evaluation of Dentistry Students’ Lifelong Learning Tendencies During the COVID-19

Aim: Dentistry education is a life-long, continuous education. The aim of this study was to determine the lifelong learning (LLL) tendencies of the dental faculty students who were receiving distance education during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods: 258 dentistry students participated the study. Research data was collected by 'Lifelong Learning Disposition Scale' (LDS). In the first part of the questionnaire, students were asked to reply socio-demographic questions and their ability to learn during the distance education process of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the second part, there were questions about LLL. The low score obtained from the scale indicates that the LLL tendency is high. ANOVA and t-test were used for analysis of LDS score, and the Mann Whitney-U and Kruskal Wallis tests were used for sub-dimensions. Results: During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 40.3% of the students stated their status of learning skills as medium, 28.7% as bad and 11.6% as very bad. Students' mean score on the LDS scale was 88.26 ± 9.8. The mean LDS score was statistically significant according to their class, gender and their assessment of learning skills during the COVID-19 pandemic (p <0.05). There was no correlation between the monthly income and academic success levels of the students and their LDS scores (p> 0.05). Conclusion: In this study, it was determined that the students made their own evaluations correctly during the Covid-19 pandemic. LDS scores of the students who stated their learning status as bad were significantly higher by 1,187 times. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to communicate using educational methods that aim to support students' learning skills. Therefore, new interventions should be planned to increase students' LLL tendencies.

Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills and Dispositions Through Community Dialogue in an Academic Writing Programme

The ability to think and write critically is a core outcome in higher education. Many universities provide writing programs for undergraduates to develop sound argumentation skills and build the foundation to engage in academic conversations. Still many students struggle with academic writing. This paper argues that teaching using instructional frameworks is not sufficient; learning will be more effective when situated within a community of practice. Drawing from the learning experiences of students who participated in a community-based activity in a freshmen academic writing class in Singapore, I share my insights on how reframing learning from a structure-driven approach to a community-based experience had enhanced learning dispositions and outcomes. Results show that when learners viewed academic writing as a socially situated practice, and not a task to be completed to fulfil academic requirements, the dispositions needed for critical thinking were honed to drive them towards writing with more criticality.

Making space for children’s agency with playful learning

ABSTRACT Playful learning has garnered supporters and research evidence, and also can be seen as nebulous and, therefore, reliant on practitioners’ intuitions in early education settings. In this paper, we offer an explicit theoretical account, grounded in developmental psychology of how play might support the acquisition of broad skills and dispositions for lifelong learning. We argue that play develops self-regulation and motivation, both of which support the child’s agency in their learning. We discuss a culturally inclusive view of agency that is distinct from autonomy, and which is visible in many existing early childhood pedagogies. We conclude by suggesting practical strategies that educators can adopt to enhance learning through play and children’s agency in their learning.

Opportunities to Develop Lifelong Learning Tendencies in Practice-Based Teacher Education: Getting Ready for Education 4.0

Education 4.0 prepares new generations to develop the skills required to perform in a technological, dynamic, and unpredictable world. The main barrier to implementing Education 4.0 in schools is that teachers have not been trained for it. Given the advances and new resources of the technological field, teacher preparation will be insufficient if it focuses on technological skills but does not incorporate the necessary dispositions for lifelong learning. Universities have the ethical imperative to update teacher education so teachers can become lifelong learners. The objective of this study was to understand whether practice-based curricula offer opportunities to promote lifelong learning tendencies. We used a sequential explanatory method. Quantitative and qualitative instruments were applied to pre-service teachers (survey: n = 231, semi-structured interviews: n = 8), and causal and descriptive approaches were supported by a structural equation model and constant comparative method, respectively. Data triangulation confirmed and added depth to the relationship found. Practice opportunities provided by teacher educators in learning activities and assessment tasks promote curiosity, motivation, perseverance, and self-learning regulation, when they are (i) systematic; (ii) relevant to the classroom work; (iii) presented with clear instructions and effective rubrics; (iv) accompanied with feedback focused on the task, soliciting reflection, and performed by peers and teacher educators in a trustworthy environment. This research may be of value to universities looking to renew their Education 4.0 programs because it shows that practice-based curricula not only transform pre-service teachers into teaching experts but also into lifelong learners.

Using Rich Narratives to Engage Students in Worthwhile Mathematics: Children’s Literature, Movies and Short Films

Using children’s literature to support mathematics instruction has been connected to positive academic outcomes and learning dispositions; however, less is known about the use of audiovisual based narrative mediums to support student mathematical learning experiences. The current exploratory, qualitative study involved teaching three lessons based on challenging, problem solving tasks to two classes of Australian Year (Grade) 5 students (10 and 11 year olds). These tasks were developed from various narratives, each portrayed through a different medium (movie clip, short film, picture story book). Post lesson interviews were undertaken with 24 students inviting them to compare and contrast this lesson sequence with their usual mathematics instruction. Drawing on a self-determination theory lens, our analysis revealed that these lessons were experienced by students as both highly enjoyable and mathematically challenging. More specifically, it was found that presenting mathematics tasks based on rich and familiar contexts and providing meaningful choices about how to approach their mathematical work supported student autonomy. In addition, there was evidence that the narrative presentation supported student understanding of the mathematics through making the tasks clearer and more accessible, whilst the audiovisual mediums (movie clip, short film) in particular provided a dynamic representation of key mathematical ideas (e.g., transformation and scale). Students indicated an eclectic range of preferences in terms of their preferred narrative mediums for exploring mathematical ideas. Our findings support the conclusion that educators and researchers focused on the benefits of teaching mathematics through picture story books consider extending their definition of narrative to encompass other mediums, such as movie clips and short films.

Dispositional Learning Analytics for Supporting Individualized Learning Feedback

An important goal of learning analytics (LA) is to improve learning by providing students with meaningful feedback. Feedback is often generated by prediction models of student success using data about students and their learning processes based on digital traces of learning activities. However, early in the learning process, when feedback is most fruitful, trace-data-based prediction models often have limited information about the initial ability of students, making it difficult to produce accurate prediction and personalized feedback to individual students. Furthermore, feedback generated from trace data without appropriate consideration of learners’ dispositions might hamper effective interventions. By providing an example of the role of learning dispositions in an LA application directed at predictive modeling in an introductory mathematics and statistics module, we make a plea for applying dispositional learning analytics (DLA) to make LA precise and actionable. DLA combines learning data with learners’ disposition data measured through for example self-report surveys. The advantage of DLA is twofold: first, to improve the accuracy of early predictions; and second, to link LA predictions with meaningful learning interventions that focus on addressing less developed learning dispositions. Dispositions in our DLA example include students’ mindsets, operationalized as entity and incremental theories of intelligence, and corresponding effort beliefs. These dispositions were inputs for a cluster analysis generating different learning profiles. These profiles were compared for other dispositions and module performance. The finding of profile differences suggests that the inclusion of disposition data and mindset data, in particular, adds predictive power to LA applications.

Delivering Music Education Training for Non-Specialist Teachers through Effective Partnership: A Kodály-Inspired Intervention to Improve Young Children’s Development Outcomes

A priority area identified by the Department of Education (England) and the Economic Social and Research Council is the development of teachers, especially in primary music education where the limited opportunities for training offered by teacher training providers have raised concerns. This paper reports on an evaluation of a collaborative partnership training of non-specialist teachers, using a Kodály-inspired pedagogy to teach music in a classroom setting. Participants included 54 teachers (and 1492 pupils, aged 5–6), selected from 55 schools, as part of a large randomised control trial (RCT) in the north of England. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that was conducted alongside the RCT, but which was not part of the RCT itself or the RCT’s implementation and process evaluation. Results from the study, which include a pre-post survey of teachers, focus group interviews and reflective journals, suggest promising effects on teachers’ pedagogical skills, their self-efficacy and competence, and children’s self-confidence and disposition for learning.

Learning dispositions in the Early Years Learning Framework: two VET teachers’ experiences of walking the learning dispositions talk

ABSTRACT The Early Years Learning Framework guides the work of Australia’s early childhood educators and teachers, with Outcome 4 including a focus on children developing dispositions for learning. In this article we report on an investigation how two vocational education and training (VET) teachers who taught the Diploma of Early Childhood and Care course encouraged their students to develop their own dispositions for learning. A narrative research methodology was used, with data gathered via interviews and teachers’ journals of their learning experiences. The theory of practice architectures (TPA) was used to frame and interpret the teachers’ accounts of their teaching practices. The TPA interpretative framework enabled aspects of the two teachers’ sayings, doings and relatings to be considered in the context of their practice traditions. Findings suggest that the teachers had a superficial understanding of what ‘learning dispositions’ meant and were therefore limited in the ways they were able to develop their students’ learning dispositions.

Meeting Cognitive Demands of Lesson Planning: Introducing the CODE-PLAN Model to Describe and Analyze Teachers’ Planning Competence

This article proposes a new research approach to teachers’ lesson planning. While numerous guidelines have been dominating lesson planning as an object of teacher education, we utilize teacher cognition and expertise research to view lesson planning from a different perspective: We argue that lesson planning typically demands specific cognitive skills that teachers must master to create high quality instructional practice. The so-called CODE-PLAN model (cognitive demands of lesson planning) forms the general theoretical framework for our conceptualization of six demands (content transformation, task creation, adaptation to student learning dispositions, clarity of learning objectives, unit contextualization, and phasing) to empirically describe and analyze teachers’ planning competence. We investigate how these demands are met through content analysis of 337 plans for demonstration lessons written by teacher candidates during induction in Germany. Statistical findings on the construct, curricular, and predictive validity of planning competence measures show that the CODE-PLAN model may open new empirical research perspectives on teacher planning competence and stimulate curriculum design in teacher education.