Group Learning Processes Research Articles

Medical students perceive better group learning processes when large classes are made to seem small.

ObjectiveMedical schools struggle with large classes, which might interfere with the effectiveness of learning within small groups due to students being unfamiliar to fellow students. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of making a large class seem small on the students' collaborative learning processes.DesignA randomised controlled intervention study was undertaken to make a large class seem small, without the need to reduce the number of students enrolling in the medical programme. The class was divided into subsets: two small subsets (n = 50) as the intervention groups; a control group (n = 102) was mixed with the remaining students (the non-randomised group n∼100) to create one large subset.SettingThe undergraduate curriculum of the Maastricht Medical School, applying the Problem-Based Learning principles. In this learning context, students learn mainly in tutorial groups, composed randomly from a large class every 6–10 weeks.InterventionThe formal group learning activities were organised within the subsets. Students from the intervention groups met frequently within the formal groups, in contrast to the students from the large subset who hardly enrolled with the same students in formal activities.Main Outcome MeasuresThree outcome measures assessed students' group learning processes over time: learning within formally organised small groups, learning with other students in the informal context and perceptions of the intervention.ResultsFormal group learning processes were perceived more positive in the intervention groups from the second study year on, with a mean increase of β = 0.48. Informal group learning activities occurred almost exclusively within the subsets as defined by the intervention from the first week involved in the medical curriculum (E-I indexes>−0.69). Interviews tapped mainly positive effects and negligible negative side effects of the intervention.ConclusionBetter group learning processes can be achieved in large medical schools by making large classes seem small.

The Benefits of Errorless Learning for Serial Reaction Time Performance in Alzheimer's Disease

Identifying the conditions favoring new procedural skill learning in Alzheimer's disease (AD) could be important for patients' autonomy. It has been suggested that error elimination is beneficial during skill learning, but no study has explored the advantage of this method in sequential learning situations. In this study, we examined the acquisition of a 6-element perceptual-motor sequence by AD patients and healthy older adults (control group). We compared the impact of two preliminary sequence learning conditions (Errorless versus Errorful) on Serial Reaction Time performance at two different points in the learning process. A significant difference in reaction times for the learned sequence and a new sequence was observed in both conditions in healthy older participants; in AD patients, the difference was significant only in the errorless condition. The learning effect was greater in the errorless than the errorful condition in both groups. However, while the errorless advantage was found at two different times in the learning process in the AD group, in the control group this advantage was observed only at the halfway point. These results support the hypothesis that errorless learning allows for faster automation of a procedure than errorful learning in both AD and healthy older subjects.

A dual approach to IS strategy: two cases illustrating a dynamic, interaction-driven approach to IS strategy

This paper discusses IS strategising and how the combination of the planning and the incremental approaches can enable successful IS strategising. IS strategising is conceptualised as a dual organisational process in which the network and the hierarchy positively coexist through group-learning processes. The findings from two case studies illustrate the theoretical framework. An analysis of 28 interviews reveal the complexity of IS strategising and show that IS strategising is best understood as a dual dynamic-interactive processing which the choice of strategic approach is not a dichotomy but more of a both/and decision. The overall conclusion is that IS strategy, because of increased uncertainty and environmental complexity, must encourage interaction between key stakeholders who implement and use the IS technology. The dual organisation and the experience-based group-learning processes help organise the process of IS strategising so that improvisational and dynamic competencies can emerge.

Indicadores de aprendizaje organizacional en grupos de investigación universitaria

<p align="justify">Una preocupación de las instituciones universitarias que asignan recursos para la investigación es cómo medir su resultado, más allá de los productos académicos. El presente trabajo propone el aprendizaje organizacional como un resultado importante del proceso investigativo. A partir de los resultados de la investigación, se proponen indicadores e índices para medir el proceso de aprendizaje y las condiciones facilitadoras de grupos de investigación. El trabajo fue realizado con investigadores de los grupos adscritos al Sistema de Investigaciones de la Universidad del Cauca, en Colombia.</p>

Automated instructional design for CSCL: A hierarchical task network planning approach

In Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), one of the most important tasks for instructional designers is to define scenarios that foster group learning. Such scenarios, defined as Units of Learning (UoLs), comprise different components and are organized according to pedagogical approaches to orchestrate group learning processes. Examples of UoL components are learning objects, student roles, student characteristics (e.g., background, preferences, learning styles, etc.), instructional/learning goals, and activities, among others. Thus, the instructional design (ID) of a proper UoL for CSCL is a complex task that requires practice and experience. This is particularly true when designing, developing, adapting, and customizing UoLs, taking into consideration different instructional/learning goals and individual preferences of students. This paper therefore proposes using a Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) planning approach to automate and optimize the tasks of designers. To accomplish that, we define an initial CSCL scenario as “an ID task” and “a set of information related to students and the domain to be taught.” Then we propose a model that formally describes ID for CSCL as HTN planning, where the initial CSCL scenario is adapted and refined according to student needs. In this model, the ID strategies are defined as hierarchical tasks and methods into a planning domain definition, and the initial CSCL scenario is defined as a planning problem definition. To validate our approach, we develop a CSCL courseware generator that (i) helps designers to set up an initial CSCL scenario; (ii) automatically generates a personalized UoL based on a given initial scenario; and (iii) supports the adaptation of UoLs.

Forming a change environment to encourage professional development through a teacher study group

This study is grounded in the context of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) teacher education in Taiwan and aims to promote the potential of teacher study groups. The Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth provides a framework to design this teacher study group and to analyze the learning process as experienced by the participating teachers within the collaborative inquiry. The study illustrates the group's learning process by characterizing the major patterns of the teachers' changes in beliefs and practices. The results support the claim that the design of the teacher study groups plays a major role in shaping various sequences of teacher change.

Aspectos cualitativos del aprendizaje en el Programa de Ética de la Investigación Biomédica y Psicosocial del Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios en Bioética de la Universidad de Chile

This article reflects on the ten years experience of group learning processes and skills acquisition by trainees of the ethics of biomedical and psychosocial research international training program from the Interdisciplinary Center for Studies on Bioethics of the University of Chile, Fogarty Grant R25TW6056. It takes into consideration the role of bioethics in training in its transdisciplinary character.

Towards Understanding Collaborative Learning in the Social Media Environment

Towards Understanding Collaborative Learning in the Social Media Environment ‘Social media’, ‘Web 2.0’, ‘collaborative learning’ and user co-creation are just some of the terms that describe changes in the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in business, private life and society. The changing face of ICT has finally brought about the fulfilment of the term ‘Information Society’ and made an important impact on many fields of research, including collaborative learning. The effective use of ICT in support of group collaboration has been researched and discussed. The effectiveness was attributed to systematically organized and facilitated processes. Nevertheless, the results are not always better when group support systems (GSS) are used in comparison to face-to-face work. In contrast to the well-organized GSS-supported learning process, the social media environment is non-structured, rule-free and even chaotic. In this paper, we research the possibilities of eliciting group knowledge in the group-learning process in a social media environment. A total of 24 students assigned into three groups participated in the three-week long study. Their task was to solve a given research topic by solely using an unfamiliar social media environment and to present their findings after three weeks. Students were observed in their natural learning environment (school, home, the Flowr virtual environment), and their attitudes on collaborative work using social media tools were measured with a questionnaire at the end of the study. The results suggest that non-structured social media environment stimulates self-management of the group. Some insights into trust, motivation and conflicts in the collaborative problem solving are discussed.

E-Assessment of Individual and Group Learning Processes

E-Assessment of Individual and Group Learning Processes

Designing Learning Experiences Together with Children

Children's participation in the early childhood education context has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Participation means involving and enabling children to take part in decision-making processes in their everyday lives. Educators are supporters and enablers of participatory practices. The process of planning activities is an important part of an educator's profession in early childhood education and it can be viewed as designing a learning process. Not only should educators design children's learning and participation, but children should also take part in designing their own learning. In this paper, we focus on children's opportunities to participate in the design learning process in Finnish day care groups. The research data were collected from teams of educators working in day care groups via survey. The results indicate that children's participation in the design learning process is average: They can participate more in the evaluating activities than in planning or implementing them.

Bridging the Disciplinary Divide: Co-Creating Research Ideas in eScience Teams

Collaboration within eScience teams depends on participants learning each others' disciplinary perspectives sufficiently to generate cross-disciplinary research questions of interest. Participants in new teams often have a limited understanding of each other's research interests; hence early team interactions must revolve around exploratory cross-disciplinary learning and the search for interesting linkages between disciplines. This article investigates group learning and creative processes that impact the efficacy of early team interactions, and the impact of those interactions on the generation of integrated conceptual frameworks from which co-created research problems may emerge. Relevant learning and creativity theories were used to design a management intervention that was applied within the context of an incipient eScience team. Project evaluation indicated that the intervention enabled participants to effectively cross disciplines, integrate conceptualizations, and generate research ideas. The findings suggest that attention to group learning and creativity issues may help overcome some barriers to collaboration on eScience teams.

Clinical reasoning sessions: back to the patient

Problem-based learning (PBL) was developed as a facilitated small group learning process based around a clinical problem. Originally designed for pre-clinical years of medical education, its application across all years poses a number of difficulties, including the risk of reducing patient contact, providing a learning process that is skewed towards an understanding of pathophysiological processes, which may not be well understood in all areas of medicine, and failing to provide exposure to clinically relevant reasoning skills. Curriculum review identified dissatisfaction with PBLs in the clinical years of the Sydney Medical School's Graduate Medical Program, from both staff and students. A new model was designed and implemented in the Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine rotation, and is currently being evaluated. We describe an innovative model of small-group, student-generated, case-based learning in psychiatry - clinical reasoning sessions (CRS) - led by expert facilitators. The CRS format returns the student to the patient, emphasises clinical assessment skills and considers treatment in the real-world context of the patient. Students practise a more sophisticated reasoning process with real patients modelled upon that of their expert tutor. This has increased student engagement compared with the previous PBL programme.

A system dynamics-based simulation study for managing clinical governance and pathways in a hospital

This paper examines the development of clinical pathways (CP) in a hospital in Australia based on empirical clinical data of patient episodes. A system dynamics (SD)-based decision support system is developed and analysed for this purpose. The study highlights the scenarios that will help hospital administrators to redistribute caseloads among admitting clinicians with a focus on multiple diagnostic-related groups (DRGs) as the means to improve the patient turnaround and hospital throughput without compromising quality patient care. DRGs are the best known classification system used in a casemix funding model. Casemix is a DRG-based government funding model for hospitals with a mix of performance measures aiming to reward initiatives that increase efficiencies in hospitals. The classification system groups inpatient stays into clinically meaningful categories of similar levels of complexity that consume similar amounts of resources. Policy explorations reveal various combinations of the dominant policies that hospital management can adopt. With the use of visual interfaces, executives can manipulate the DSS to test various scenarios. Experimental evidence based on focus groups demonstrated that it can enhance group learning processes and improve decision making. The findings are supported by other recent studies of CP implementation on various DRGs. These showed substantial reduction in length of stay, costs and resource utilization.

Exploring the Impact of Integrated Fieldwork, Reflective and Metacognitive Experiences on Student Environmental Learning Outcomes

AbstractAlthough the important role of providing fieldwork experiences for students in the natural environment is now well-established within environmental education literature, there is still little research evidence to guide teachers in their choice of effective teaching strategies. This paper presents findings from an interpretive case study designed to investigate the value of combining experience-based fieldwork in a mangrove and coastal environment with reflective and metacognitive activities. Analysis of video recordings, researcher observation notes and interviews of a class of Year 11 biology students who participated in the activities resulted in the emergence of five themes. These themes together provided evidence of enhanced student environmental learning, and included student appreciation for various learning contexts, self-awareness of group learning processes, and awareness of the integration of cross-curriculum knowledge. The study supports and illustrates the contention that the most effective environmental learning experiences are likely to be those that integrate learninginthe natural environmentwithclassroom learning strategies.

Analyzing the Influencing Factors of Group Learning: A Mixed Approach

The purpose of this paper is to explore which factors influence group learning content, and content analysis is chosen as the research method. The sample for this study is the literature of group learning. 35 books and 1 paper was examined. The coding system for the content analysis is an opened and a self-expanded system in this study, which means that the original coding system can be updated if the new coding item is developed during the data collection. A total of 62 influencing factors are identified in terms of the content analysis. In order to organise them systematically, we categorised them into four aggregations according to one model of the group learning processes: planning, organising, learning process, and evaluation. The result of this study may be used to design a questionnaire and to model group learning process in our further research.

The foundations of a theory-aware authoring tool for CSCL design

One of the most useful ways to enhance collaboration is to create scenarios where learners are able to interact more effectively. Nevertheless, the design of pedagogically sound and well-thought-out collaborative learning scenarios is a complex issue. This is due to the context of group learning where the synergy among learners’ interactions affects learning processes and, hence, the learning outcome. Although many advances have been made to support the designing of collaborative learning scenarios through technology, a more systematic approach is lacking. With the limitations of the current designing methods and tools, it is difficult to develop intelligent authoring systems that can guide users in order to produce more effective collaboration. One of the main difficulties with creating a more consistent (computer-understandable) approach to designing collaboration is the necessity of proposing better ways to formalize the group learning processes. In this paper, we present an innovative approach that uses ontologies and concepts from learning theories to create a framework that represents collaborative learning and its processes. Ontologies provide the necessary formalization to represent collaboration, while learning theories provide the concepts to justify and support the development of effective learning scenarios. Such an approach contributes to establish the foundations for the development of the next generation of intelligent authoring systems referred to as theory-aware systems. To verify the viability and usefulness of our proposed ontological framework in the context of systematic design, the development and use of an intelligent authoring tool for CSCL design is presented. This system is able to reason on ontologies to give suggestions that help users to create theory-compliant collaborative learning scenarios. We carried out several experiments with teachers in a geometry drawing course and the results indicate that the system helps teachers to create and interchange their scenarios more easily and facilitates the selection of important pedagogical strategies that influence positively the designing and effectiveness of group activities.

O papel da interação no processo de ensino-aprendizagem de português para alunos surdos em uma escola inclusiva

Neste artigo, discute-se o papel da interação no processo de ensino-aprendizagem de alunos surdos em uma escola inclusiva. No contexto pesquisado, a professora-sujeito, que é ouvinte e não-usuária da língua de sinais, tem em sua sala, além dos alunos ouvintes, quatro alunos surdos, e três deles comunicam-se somente em Libras - Língua Brasileira de Sinais. Como a comunicação entre a professora ouvinte e os alunos surdos ocorre em códigos distintos - português e língua de sinais - e tendo-se por base uma visão sociointeracional da linguagem (MOITA LOPES, 1986; FREIRE, 1999), observou-se se a interação entre os diversos participantes pode levar esses alunos surdos a aprenderem e a compreenderem o que estava sendo ensinado. Como resultado, ficou evidente que o fato de haver quatro alunos surdos usuários de Libras estudando em uma mesma sala permitiu a eles trabalharem de maneira cooperativa, o que fez com que não ficassem isolados. Além disso, a língua de sinais tornou-se visível nessa instituição. Entretanto, a interação entre professora ouvinte e seus alunos surdos mostrou-se pouco significativa para a aprendizagem desse grupo.

Individual, Group, and Organizational Instructional Systems Development Models

Contrary to the growing popularity of learning at group and organizational levels, instructional systems development (ISD) models and processes have been primarily focused only on individual-centered learning while lacking in reflection about group and organizational learning processes. Moreover, most instructional and facilitation processes at group and organizational learning levels continue in a state of general prescription such as a problem-solving approach which needs to be translated into specific instructional processes. For addressing the problems, this paper presents exploratory individual, group, and organizational learning ISD models based on four conditions: 1) integration of the questions of what and why in instruction and learning, 2) reflection of impacts of environmental factors, 3) non-linear and flexible instructional processes, and 4) future-centeredness in instruction and learning. The proposed exploratory ISD models provide a framework as an alternative ISD approach to group and organizational learning, as well as individual learning.

The learning kit project: Software tools for supporting and researching regulation of collaborative learning

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is a dynamic and varied area of research. Ideally, tools for CSCL support and encourage solo and group learning processes and products. However, most CSCL research does not focus on supporting and sustaining the co-construction of knowledge. We identify four reasons for this situation and identify three critical resources every collaborator brings to collaborations that are underutilized in CSCL research: (a) prior knowledge, (b) information not yet transformed into knowledge that is judged relevant to the task(s) addressed in collaboration, and (c) cognitive processes used to construct these informational resources. Finally, we introduce gStudy, a software tool designed to advance research in the learning sciences. gStudy helps learners manage cognitive load so they can re-assign cognitive resources to self-, co-, and shared regulation; and it automatically and unobtrusively traces each user′s engagement with content and the means chosen for cognitively processing content, thus generating real-time performance data about processes of collaborative learning.

The German guideline for intellectual capital reporting: method and experiences

PurposeThis paper seeks to describe a methodology for intellectual capital reporting which was successfully tested in Germany. Special focus is on developing a short list of IC drivers for urgent management intervention.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on established self‐assessment methodologies from quality management and concepts of system dynamics, an action research design was applied to develop an intellectual capital reporting framework.FindingsIt is possible to identify and to assess intellectual capital drivers for corporate results and to prioritize them according to marginal economic contribution. Based on concepts from system dynamics, group learning processes and organizational learning processes are stimulated. Investing scarce resources in specific drivers of intellectual capital with high impact on the organization and additional high levels of managerial control supports long‐term performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe research builds on self‐organizing principles; the quality of intellectual capital assessment thus depends massively on the rigour of the team involved. Comparability of assessments is limited, as the standard reference is the organization's strategy.Practical implicationsThe suggested methodology builds heavily on methods already established in SMEs and is compatible with general management approaches. It is economical by design and delivers insight into the functioning of the organization as well as insights on future fields for management intervention.Originality/valueThis methodology combines two established concepts of self‐assessment and system analysis and applies them to intellectual capital in order to resolve the decision problem of allocating funds based on economic efficiency and impact.