Informal Theory Research Articles

Students’ Perceptions Towards the Use of Dialogic Feedback in Mobile Applications for Students’ Writing: A Qualitative Case Study

Previous feedback research has shown its limitation – students were unable to receive feedback after school hours for their assignments. In this study, mobile Applications (m-Apps) dialogic feedback was used to enhance and improve weak students’ writing tasks. Students were able to stay in contact with their instructors after school hours for feedback. Informal learning theory was use as the theoretical framework to design the research. Twenty students participated in this study. The outcomes of the research have shown that students were in favour of using m-Apps to provide feedback to students. However, students were not adapted to continuous correction for the contents. They were bored and sometimes confused with their work. Future research can focus on the influence of sociocultural aspect in giving m-Apps dialogic feedback to students’ writing tasks.

Why not? Examining college students’ reasons for avoiding an online course

A large number of studies have compared learning outcomes in fully online courses to those in face-to-face courses. Fewer studies have examined why students choose to enrol in fully online courses to begin with, and no study has yet addressed the question of why some students choose not to register in online courses. This study contributes to scholarly understanding of online education by examining for the first time why students may choose to take a large lecture course face-to-face, when they know that the same course is offered by their institution online in the same semester, for the same credit and at the same tuition cost. Through a survey, 48 students in a face-to-face offering of an introductory Educational Psychology course reported why they chose to attend lectures and tutorials in person when they could have earned the same credit without doing so. A majority of respondents suggested that they believed they would learn better face-to-face, and expressed informal theories about why this would be the case. We examine these informal theories, and the possible implications they may have for future research and institutional planning with regard to online course offerings.

Design and Implementation of the Intelligent Mobile Phone Platform for English Learning

With the rapid development of computer and the mobile communication technology, mobile learning arises at the historic moment, which makes people gain learning environment and resources anytime and anywhere. As English has the characters of weak systematic and trivial knowledge, the paper makes a research of the development of resources to provide learners Flake Learning. Firstly, people make a research of Informal Learning Theory, Situated Cognition and Learning Theory and then discusses their guidance for mobile learning; Secondly, in order to realize Situated Learning, the platform designs modularly learning resources and combine subject type with media formats, based on the characteristics of M-learning; Thirdly, this paper discusses the problem about interaction and question-answering and import the intelligent Q&A system to our design. Fourthly, under the guidance of above theories, the mobile English learning platform is implemented.

Nuevos horizontes en la formación de opinión pública

El siguiente trabajo presenta los avances del proyecto <em>Democracia virtual y participación política en redes sociales: el microtargeting</em>, <em>un estudio de comunicación</em>, realizado por la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales y cuyo propósito es saber cómo inciden las redes sociales en la democracia y la participación política en México. A partir de la hipótesis de dicha incidencia, se creará un perfil psicotípico del usuario mexicano de redes sociales. Este estudio es el primero de su índole que se realiza en México, y busca determinar las características del usuario de las redes sociales, así como la forma en que socializa conocimiento, intercambia pensamientos, comunica ideas y, de esta manera, crea una cultura política. Temas como la teoría de redes, sociedad de la información, Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC), espacio público, teoría de la organización informal, comunicación política y cultura política sirven de apoyo para la formación del marco teórico y marco histórico de la investigación, para así diseñar, aplicar, procesar, analizar e interpretar el estudio de campo que se realizará. El objetivo general de este proyecto es generar conocimiento sobre los usuarios de redes sociales en México a través de la documentación y la contrastación con evidencia empírica.

Linguistic participation as a manifestation of second language learning in the primary L2 classroom

This article seeks to apply the informal learning theory of guided participation to the formal primary L2 classroom. Utilising the concept of guided participation, in which the process of learning is defined as a collaborative interaction between expert and novice leading to a transformation of participation in community activity, the author analyses the respective mediational roles of teachers' guidance and peer assistance. In addition to the identification of transformation in participation, the microgenetic processes by which individual learners' L2 use emerges are also traced. This study reveals how active language use is associated with participation and changes in behaviour during microgenetic development. In order to understand this transformational process of language learning manifest through evolving engagement and language use, the author suggests the notion of transformational linguistic participation. This construct also draws attention to the importance of affordances: complementarity of task design, pupils' perception and utilisation of linguistic challenge, interaction and the discovery of purpose in tasks. The author argues that application of a guided participation perspective to the L2 classroom highlights the social nature of the learning process, drawing attention to how learner engagement is created, learner agency facilitated and linguistic challenge promoted.

A New Theory-to-Practice Model for Student Affairs: Integrating Scholarship, Context, and Reflection

In this article, we synthesize existing theory-to-practice approaches within the student affairs literature to arrive at a new model that incorporates formal and informal theory, institutional context, and reflective practice. The new model arrives at a balance between the rigor necessary for scholarly theory development and the adaptability needed to implement theories. Finally, the model elevates the importance of reflective practice among student affairs professionals as the means to evaluate both formal and informal theories.

Modeling the Mind and the Milieu

Theorists in management and organizational science rarely use computational modeling to support theoretical development or refinement, particularly at the micro level of analysis. This article argues that organizational scholars, who strive to understand dynamic behavior in a complex context, are particularly in need of the support computational models offer. Moreover, organizational scholars can build on (a) the plethora of informal theories extant in the literature and (b) the computational architectures and model building platforms developed in recent years. To increase the number of organizational scholars building and evaluating computational models, the article provides a tutorial in model building and simulation. Specifically, a new computational model is built and assessed. Surprising realizations emerge in the process. There is also an extensive section on model evaluation involving empirical observations.

Informal Theory: The Ignored Link in Theory-to-Practice

Applying theory to practice in student affairs is dominated by the assumption that formal theory is directly applied to practice. Among the problems with this assumption is that many practitioners believe they must choose between their lived experiences and formal theory, and that graduate students are taught that their experience “does not count.” What is missing in the discourse on theory-to-practice is the recognition of the role of informal theory that serves as the bridge between formal theory and practice. This article describes the conceptual connections among formal theory, informal theory, and practice, and presents strategies for improving the use of informal theory. Applying theory to practice in student affairs is dominated by the assumption that formal theory is directly applied to practice. Among the problems with this assumption is that many practitioners believe they must choose between their lived experiences and formal theory, and that graduate students are taught that their experience “does not count.” What is missing in the discourse on theory-to-practice is the recognition of the role of informal theory that serves as the bridge between formal theory and practice. This article describes the conceptual connections among formal theory, informal theory, and practice, and presents strategies for improving the use of informal theory.

Response to Patrick Love’s “Informal Theory”: A Rejoinder

This rejoinder to Patrick Love’s article, “Informal Theory: The Ignored Link in Theory-to-Practice,” which appears earlier in this issue of the Journal of College Student Development , was written at the invitation of the Editor. In the critique, we point out the weaknesses of many of Love’s arguments and propositions. We provide an alternative point of view regarding application of theory in practice and encourage further discourse on the definition and role of informal theory in student affairs practice.

Rethinking Theory

‘Capitalist racist patriarchy’ is how Zillah Eisenstein (1998) characterizes global inequalities and the hierarchies of ‘difference’ they constitute. This article assumes that feminist theory aims not only to ‘empower women’ but to advance critical analyses of intersecting structural hierarchies; that this entails not only a critique of patriarchy but its complex conjunction with capitalism and racism; and that such critique requires rethinking theory. Through a critical lens on devalued (‘feminized’) informal work worldwide, the article explores how positivist, modernist and masculinist commitments variously operate in prevailing theories of informality – including those of feminists – with the effect of impeding both intersectional analyses and more adequate critiques of capitalist racist patriarchy.

Mass media content as cultural theory

Scholars often examine mass media as operating within one of several specific theories. Studies examine press operations to determine the governing theory. This article proposes an approach in which mass media act to develop and disseminate informal cultural theories that govern institutions. These theories are derived from the primary culture within which mass media operate. Disagreements over the role and function of mass media, such as the renascent NWICO debate, revolve around cultural differences. With culture as a foundation, the press serves to define social components and institutions, even itself, and the relationships between them.This study suggests analyzing relationships asserted through mass media as monadic, dyadic or triadic, depending upon the number of components. Two basic relationship types are symmetrical and complementary. In symmetrical relationships, the components have equal status. In complementary relationships, one or more of the components have superior or inferior status. Conflict may occur when one or more of the components reject or ignore an asserted relationship type.Communication has two aspects: content and relationship. In the debate over press role and function across cultures and national boundaries, emphasis on content often ignores implicit relationship. In the absence of explicit relationship definition, culture defines the relationships in press content. Actual press freedom requires freedom from cultural restraints that can be difficult to recognize.

Children’s unit concepts in measurement: a teaching experiment spanning grades 2 through 5

We examined ways of improving students’ unit concepts across spatial measurement situations. We report data from our teaching experiment during a six-semester longitudinal study from grade 2 through grade 5. Data include instructional task sequences designed to help children (a) integrate multiple representations of unit, (b) coordinate and group units into higher-order units, and (c) recognize the arbitrary nature of unit in comparison contexts and student’s responses to tasks. Our results suggest reflection on multiplicative relations among quantities prompted a more fully-developed unit concept. This research extends prior work addressing the growth of unit concepts in the contexts of length, area, and volume by demonstrating the viability of level-specific instructional actions as a means for promoting an informal theory of measurement.

Off the Books in Salvador

Informal economic activity has been increasing in Brazil in the midst of neoliberal reforms, skyrocketing unemployment, and business strategies designed to cut labor costs. Today half of the Brazilian economically active population works informally, as do 40 percent of private-sector employees, now the largest group of informal workers. In both Salvador and Brazil there are more informal salaried workers than there are informal self-employed entrepreneurs, contrary to what most theories of informality would predict. The state is not adequately enforcing its labor legislation, and employers increasingly contract their employees informally. Outsourcing (subcontracting to smaller firms) also contributes to informality, since micro-enterprises are less likely to formalize their employees’ status. Theories of informality need to recognize that there is no such thing as a separate “informal sector” of the economy and that informality increasingly extends to employees of formal firms.

The informal sector in a colonial regime: the Jewish economy of the lower classes in Casablanca between the two world wars

The subject of this article is the economic and cultural history of the impoverished Jews of Casablanca between the two world wars. The case study of the lower classes of Casablanca Jewry is based on the informal sector theory in third world countries and includes two focal points: employment (Jewish craftsmen, hawkers, manual labourers, beggars and prostitutes) and accommodation (the residential neighbourhood and its physical and cultural characteristics). The discussion on the ways in which the poor workers were organised in the labour market and in the housing market allows for a critical examination of the basic assumptions in Jewish historiography and the raising of alternative explanations regarding the issue of their status, cooperation, and degree of participation in the urban life of Casablanca in two spheres: the (new) European city and the (old) indigenous town.

PRICE MATCHING AND THE DOMINO EFFECT IN A RETAIL GASOLINE MARKET

Using gasoline station price data collected eight times per day for 103 d for 27 stations in Guelph, Ontario, it is found that, consistent with an informal theory of competitive gasoline pricing, stations set prices to match a small number of other stations. However, these matched stations are not necessarily the closest. While retailers frequently respond to price changes within 2 h, many take considerably longer. Finally, while price decreases do ripple across the market like falling dominos, increases propagate across the city based more on geographic location and source of price control than on proximity to leaders of these increases. (JEL L13, L40, L81)

Resubsumption: A Possible Mechanism for Conceptual Change and Belief Revision

Successful learning sometimes requires that the learner abandons or rejects one or more prior concepts, beliefs, or intuitive theories. Such nonmonotonic changes are widely believed to have a low probability of occurring spontaneously and to be difficult to promote with instruction. A theory of nonmonotonic cognitive change should explain both why such changes are difficult and why they are possible. The purpose of this article is to develop the idea that nonmonotonic change happens when the learner resubsumes a domain of experience under a conceptual system originally developed for some other domain. The resubsumption theory is built on three main cognitive processes: In the course of routine knowledge formation, people grow informal theories for different domains of experience in parallel, maintaining local but not global coherence. The trigger for conceptual change is bisociation, the realization that an informal theory developed to make sense of one domain also applies to some other domain, giving the learner two alternative ways of thinking about the latter. The conflict between the two alternative ways of thinking is settled through competitive evaluation of their cognitive utility. The pedagogical implications of the resubsumption theory differ from those of prior theories but are as yet untested.

Chaos and scaling of the main crack

We propose a generation model for the main crack surface profile and parameterization of the chaotic regime of crack development. Chaos parameters allow predicting strength properties and can be used for the informal theory of fracture.

STATISTICAL DEPENDENCY IN CHAOS

This paper is concerned with the statistical dependency effects in chaotic map processes, both before and after their discretization at branch boundaries. The resulting processes are no longer chaotic but are left with realizable statistical behavior. Such processes have appeared over several years in the electronic engineering literature. Informal but extended mathematical theory that facilitates the practical calculation of autocorrelation of such statistical behavior, is developed. Both the continuous and discretized cases are treated further by using Kohda's notions of equidistribution and constant-sum to maps which are not onto. Some particularly structured chaotic map processes, and also well-known maps are examined for their statistical dependency, with the tailed shift map family from chaotic communications receiving detailed attention. Several parts of the paper form a brief review of existing theory.

Kriminologische Verlaufsforschung zu Jugendkriminalität

This paper presents a short overview of the developmental research of antisocial behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. We first discuss offending patterns based on official and self-reported data and their limitations and problems. Secondly, we discuss the idea of the ubiquity of juvenile delinquency and the frequent occurrence of desistance in the transition to adulthood. The cessation of criminal activities is also found by so called „chronic juvenile offenders“. We than discuss two important developmental theories of crime: the taxonomic theory of Moffitt and the age-graded informal social control theory of Sampson and Laub. Based on the qualitative desistance study of serious young offenders, Stelly and Thomas not only demonstrate the different pathways out of crime, the results also demonstrate the limitation of the available theories.

Authority and Its Implementation in Enterprise Information Systems

The concept of power is inherent in human organizations of any type. As power relations have important consequences for organizational viability and productivity, they should be explicitly represented in enterprise information systems (EISs). Although organization theory provides a rich and very diverse theoretical basis on organizational power, still most of the definitions for power-related concepts are too abstract, often vague and ambiguous to be directly implemented in EISs. To create a bridge between informal organization theories and automated EISs, this article proposes a formal logic-based specification language for representing power (in particular authority) relations. The use of the language is illustrated by considering authority structures of organizations of different types. Moreover, the article demonstrates how the formalized authority relations can be integrated into an EIS.