Involvement In Learning Research Articles

Exploring the Link Between Topic Initiation and Chinese Learner Involvement in NS-NNS Casual Conversations

Exploring the Link Between Topic Initiation and Chinese Learner Involvement in NS-NNS Casual Conversations

Digging Deeper, Flying Higher

While celebrating the achievements in Gifted Education in New Zealand over the last 15 years, this presentation/paper also challenges participants to examine the progress made and build on this success in order to “fly higher” in the future. It briefly examines researchbased issues and promising practices in: initial teacher education; professional learning and development; school and early childhood provisions for gifted learners; parental, family, whanau and gifted learner involvement and; Maori and multicultural matters. The presentation/paper ends with a challenge to consider wider social issues and their relevance to gifted education both in New Zealand and globally. Celebrating the achievements in gifted education in New Zealand Gifted education in NZ has much to celebrate. Notable landmarks have included the establishment in 1997 of the first National Advisory Committee for Gifted Education. This Committee has been disestablished and reestablished a number of times due to changes in the Government and Ministry of Education personnel. However its purpose has remained unchanged and this is to advise the Minister of Education on matters concerning gifted and talented education. Over the years this group has recommended many valuable initiatives in gifted education including the publication of Gifted and Talented students: Meeting their needs in NZ schools (2000), the gifted “bible” that has influenced provisions in many NZ schools. The combined experience and expertise of present Advisory Committee members is impressive so we can rest assured that the Minister and Ministry are continuing to receive well-informed advice. Another landmark has been the establishment in 2001 of a National Working Party on Gifted Education. Their recommendations led to: our first national policy on gifted education; the National Administration Guidelines (NAG) change which requires all schools to show they are identifying and providing for gifted and talented students; and the establishment of 38 innovative Talent Development Initiatives over the 2003-2008 period. Also deserving celebration is the establishment of giftednz - New Zealand's first national professional community in gifted and talented education whose brief includes improving the teaching and learning of gifted and talented learners through networking, sharing best practices, advocating for diverse needs, making links with international and national organisations, providing a shared voice to Government and other groups and, of course, running this present national conference. (http://www.giftednz.org.nz/goals.html) Over the last 15 years we have seen an increase in research in the gifted area. Of particular note is the government funded national investigation of gifted education which resulted in the publication in 2004 of The Extent, Nature and Effectiveness of Planned Approaches in

Fostering Learner Autonomy as Agency: An Analysis of Narratives of a Student Staff Member Working at a Self-access Learning Center

This study investigates narrative stories of a student staff member working at the Self Access Learning Center (the SALC) at Kanda University of International Studies, Japan in order to discover whether / how her working experiences in the SALC have an impact on her identities especially focusing on her development of learner autonomy as agency. Drawing on four layers of narrative positioning (Wortham & Gadsden, 2006), I will explore: 1) the ways that agency is projected; and 2) how the learner’s involvement in a SALC impacts on her identities. The examination revealed that the learner’s involvement as a student staff member enhanced her agency to access a target community of English in the SALC. Drawing on the Communities of Practice (CoP) framework by Lave & Wenger (1991), I discuss the possibility that gaining voice in the target community might enable a learner to be more autonomous. Finally, this paper addresses the importance of learner involvement in SALCs – not only for the learners involved, but also for other SALC users in order to provide opportunities to activate both agency and autonomy.

Acceptance of Learning Management System: A Comparison between Distance Learners and Instructors

Distance learning increases access to learning opportunities to the people in different geographical areas, ages and different learning capabilities. Learning management system (LMS) is a web-based tool used to manage implement, and assess online learning and teaching which is suitable for distance environment. LMS provides instructors a platform to create and deliver the course content, assess learners performance and monitor learner involvement. On the other hand, LMS provide the students with ability to access lecture notes, and use communication and interactive features in their learning activities. This study examined the factors that influence distance learning student’s and instructor’s acceptance and use of LMS and tests the applicability of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A survey was conducted to higher education students and instructors who involved in distance learning instruction. This study used a set of questionnaire which was developed based on TAM three factors which are Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and Behavioral Intention to Use. The finding of the survey has shown high acceptance level on LMS among distance learners and instructors. In addition, a regression analysis has revealed that perceived ease of use of the system give a significant impact on perceived usefulness. Furthermore, the Perceived Usefulness of the LMS has led to high Behavioral Intention to Use more than Perceived Ease of Use of LMS among learners. On the other hand, Perceived Ease of Use influences the instructor Behavioral Intention to Use of LMS more than Perceived Usefulness. In addition, the analysis also confirmed that Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness have positive effect on Behavioral Intention to Use in both users.

Editorial

Welcome to the June, 2011 issue of SiSAL Journal. Learner involvement is relevant to self-access learning in a number of ways and this special issue will highlight three of them through its contributions. Firstly, there is a learner’s involvement in his or or her own self-directed learning. Secondly, there is the emotional involvement with learning. Thirdly, there is learner involvement in the actual running of a self-access centre.

Learner Involvement at Arabian Gulf University Self-Access Centre

The English Unit self-access centre (SAC) at Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain, has been an important part of our English for medical purposes programme for first year students for over 12 years. During that time, efforts have been made to involve these students in contributing to the SAC in order to augment their experience of learning English, personalize the facility and increase their responsibility for out-of-class English learning within the institutional setting. This article describes an initiative to elicit student contributions to the SAC, as well as evaluating how successful it was in achieving these aims. The article concludes with a recommendation to those directing similar small scale self-access centres to encourage student participation and involvement in all aspects of their running, without imposing pre-selected ideas and practices for autonomous learning that may not accord with the perceived needs and wishes of the SAC users themselves.

The Role of Task‐Induced Involvement and Learner Proficiency in L2 Vocabulary Acquisition

Designing effective pedagogical tasks has been of critical interest among second‐language (L2) researchers and teachers. Accordingly, several claims about how to classify pedagogic task characteristics in terms of their effectiveness in L2 learning have been made. One such example is the involvement load hypothesis (Hulstijn & Laufer, 2001), which claims that learning new words during vocabulary‐focused tasks is dependent on the degree of cognitive processing required of an L2 learner by a given task. Building upon Hulstijn and Laufer's (2001) original research, which partially supported the hypothesis, the present study examined the hypothesis by exploring the interaction between task‐induced involvement and learners’ L2 proficiency on the initial learning and retention of target words. The study consisted of two experiments that were carried out with English‐as‐a‐second‐language learners at two different proficiency levels (i.e., matriculated undergraduate students vs. students in an Intensive English Program). Experiment 1 tested the hypothesis with three tasks imposing different levels of task‐induced involvement (n= 64), whereas Experiment 2 included two tasks hypothesized to represent the same task‐induced involvement (n= 20). In line with the predictions of the involvement load hypothesis, the findings of Experiment 1 indicated that a higher level of learner involvement during task performance promoted more effective initial learning and retention of target words. Additionally, Experiment 2 showed that different tasks with the same involvement load resulted in a similar amount of vocabulary learning. These results were generally consistent across different proficiency levels, suggesting no interaction effect between task‐induced involvement and L2 proficiency on vocabulary learning. The findings of the present study further the involvement load hypothesis by providing insights into how some individual differences—in this case L2 proficiency and cognitive involvement—might be more/less important to consider when implementing pedagogic tasks. Interestingly, the results indicated that as long as L2 learners’ cognitive and language abilities allow them to complete vocabulary tasks in a given time, a deeper level of processing of the new words, especially the evaluation component of task‐induced involvement during tasks, facilitates L2 vocabulary learning. Furthermore, the findings of Experiment 2 also provide insightful pedagogical implications demonstrating that it is possible to design different types of vocabulary tasks inducing similar amounts of involvement loads and that they can be equally beneficial for vocabulary learning. In task‐based language teaching, designing tasks involves a complex series of considerations such as understanding who the target learners are and what cognitive processes each task requires. The experiments presented in this article reexamined the involvement load hypothesis and utilized tasks designed with such considerations in mind in order to explore the effectiveness of various vocabulary learning tasks.

An Interview Study of Learner Motivation and Learner Involvement in Mandatory College-Level Academic Writing Classes

An Interview Study of Learner Motivation and Learner Involvement in Mandatory College-Level Academic Writing Classes

Leaner Support Requirements for Online Workplace Training in the South African Furniture Industry

In 2005, a qualitative research project was conducted to evaluate the suitability of e-learning as a means of delivering training to workplace learners in the South African furniture manufacturing sector. Twenty learners participated in a three-month pilot e-learning course and were monitored throughout. While the study was designed primarily to investigate the effectiveness of various pedagogical techniques in a South African context, the importance of providing adequate support to learners emerged as a critical theme during the research project, and this is the subject of this article. Issues included: poor awareness among learners’ superiors, IT staff, and financial managers about the e-learning activities that their employees were involved in; sensitivity about costs incurred by employees in connecting to the Internet; a ‘hands-off’ attitude to online training by human resources staff; and a failure in many cases to set aside adequate study hours for employees. Recommendations for companies undertaking training via e-learning include: performing a cost-benefit analysis of face-to-face versus online training; facilitating clear and timely communication within the organisation regarding e-learning activities; and establishing a study plan for each learner with the active involvement of learners’ supervisors, IT support specialists, human resources staff, and financial managers.

Case-based seminars in medical ethics education: how medical students define and discuss moral problems

Discussion of real cases encountered by medical students has been advocated as a component of medical ethics education. Suggested benefits include: a focus on the actual problems that medical students...

The learner as facilitator: moving outside the “same old cage”

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a critical, reflective examination of the organisation, delivery and evaluation of a training event conducted by postgraduate students undertaking a module on human resource development.Design/methodology/approachThe paper seeks to offer a triangulation of semi‐structured interviews, archival student written reflective accounts of the training event together with oral narrative from past participants on the module.FindingsThis paper examines the form and nature of a training event used as part of an assessment strategy on the human resource development (HRD) module of the MBA programme at the University of Abertay. The findings document the meanings and multiple realities that the participants ascribe to the training event. The interactional variable inherent in the informal and formal dichotomy of learning are also illustrated. Finally, the process of empowerment and reflection for all learners leads to a range of outcomes beyond the fulfilment of the assessment task.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is exploratory and the authors do not attempt to assess the generalisability of the findings.Practical implicationsThe significance of the assessment of the training event lies in the manner of its execution and the involvement of the postgraduate student learners. It is anticipated that the wider dissemination of the practice is deemed to be in the interests of the HRD community.Originality/valueThe paper highlights an innovative approach to the teaching and learning of human resource development at postgraduate level.

Demonstration-Based Training: A Review of Instructional Features

This article reviews instructional features used in demonstration-based training (DBT). The need for fast and effective training and performance support that can be accessed from anywhere is a growing need for organizations. DBT programs are one method to address these needs, but a better understanding of how to maximize the effectiveness of DBT activities is needed. Specifically, beyond the content of the demonstration (i.e., the dynamic example of task performance), what instructional features (i.e., information and activities in addition to the demonstration) can be used to improve the effectiveness of DBT interventions? The authors conducted a systematic review of the applied and basic science literatures relevant to DBT. Instructional features in DBT can be categorized according to the degree to which they encourage active learner involvement (i.e., active vs. passive), when they occur relative to viewing the demonstration (i.e., pre-, during-, and postdemonstration conditions), and the observational learning process they are intended to augment. Five categories of instructional features are described: passive guidance or support, preparatory activities, concurrent activities, retrospective activities, and prospective activities. There is a wide variety of instructional features used in DBT, but more systematic research is needed to understand the conditions under which each is most effective as well as to outline a method for sequencing of demonstration with other delivery methods, such as practice opportunities. The framework presented in this article can help guide the systematic development of training systems incorporating DBT as well as provide a direction for future research.

Student self-assessment: processes and consequences

Empirical research signals that self-assessment is an important factor supporting and engaging students with learning. Despite this, there has been no explicit comparison or evaluation of recent models used across educational sectors or within them. To the uninitiated, self-assessment often appears as an amorphous, unique process. This paper evaluates four basic models used in higher education to permit tutors to compare the different processes, timing and the degree of involvement of learners and tutors (weak and strong models) and discusses how each model could develop expertise in different contexts. It also summarises the main issues which have fuelled debate over half a century. This evaluation will benefit the educational community by providing a concise overview of self-assessment processes thus providing an expedient means of making an informed choice and encourage the take-up by practitioners.

Chinese and Japanese Students’ Conceptions of the ‘Ideal English Lesson’

In developing strategies for increasing learner involvement, a key factor is the extent to which these strategies are compatible with learners’ own expectations and preferences. In order to explore this factor, tertiary students in four Asian countries were asked (in an online survey designed on the basis of exploratory interviews) to give their conceptions of their ideal English lesson. Factor analysis revealed three main types of lesson that different groups of students preferred: the communication-oriented lesson, the form-oriented lesson and the control-oriented lesson. Students expressed preference for communication-oriented lessons in all countries except Japan and there were differences between countries in the degree and details of students’ preferences. Overall, however, students expressed positive attitudes to a varied range of teaching strategies, giving encouragement to teachers who wish to renew their pedagogy in order to suit new individual and social needs.

Realising the Right to Education in South Africa: Lessons from the United States of America

Despite a crisis of inequality in education and the formidable socio-economic rights jurisprudence of our Constitutional Court, not a single case has yet come before the Court based squarely on the right to a basic education.The long history of litigating for education and equality in the United States, where educational disadvantage has played itself out in ways remarkably akin to contemporary South Africa, is instructive. The retreat woven by the federal judiciary subsequent to the landmark case of Brown v Board of Education, in which strategies against de facto segregation have been severely circumscribed, has led to innovation in the state courts, under state constitutions that enshrine a right to education. Rose v Council for Better Education, in which the Kentucky Supreme Court declared the state’s entire school system unconstitutional, shows that when a social movement builds moral consensus it can pave the way for systemic change to be brought about by courts. Fundamental to the outcome of that case was the active involvement of local teachers, learners and other ordinary citizens in devising and campaigning for particular standards of educational reform.Similarly, the cases of Grootboom, Treatment Action Campaign, Mazibuko and Joe Slovo make clear, in their different ways, that firstly, a finding of constitutional breach is frail unless harnessed to a practicable and appropriate remedy, and secondly, that social justice litigation operates best as part of a broader strategy of mobilisation and organised mass-based activism, before, during and after the court process.The formulation of creative remedies is increasingly important. This is referred to in the United States as the ‘non-court-centric remedy’ and in South Africa as ‘meaningful engagement’. Particularly in cases where there is widespread activism and public participation, courts are able to formalise standards that have been devised by civil society, making the body politic itself central to the enforcement of judgments.

Concrete models and dynamic instruments as early technology tools in classrooms at the dawn of ICMI: from Felix Klein to present applications in mathematics classrooms in different parts of the world

Most national curricula for both primary and secondary grades encourage the active involvement of learners through the manipulation of materials (either concrete models or dynamic instruments). This trend is rooted in the emphasis given, at the dawn of ICMI, to what might be called an experimental approach: the links between mathematics, natural sciences and technology were in the foreground in the early documents of ICMI and also in the papers of its first president, Felix Klein. However, the presence of this perspective in teaching practice is uneven. In this paper, we shall reconstruct first an outline of what happened in three different parts of the world (Europe, USA and Japan) under the direct influence of Klein. Then, we shall report classroom activities realized in the same regions in three different research centres: the Laboratory of Mathematical Machines at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy (http://www.mmlab.unimore.it); the pedagogical space of Kinematical Model for Design Digital Library at Cornell, USA (http://kmoddl.library.cornell.edu/); and the Centre for Research on International Cooperation in Educational Development at Tsukuba University, Japan (http://math-info.criced.tsukuba.ac.jp/). They have maintained the reference to concrete materials (either models or instruments), with original interpretations that take advantage of the different cultural conditions. Although in all cases the reference to history is deep and systematic, the synergy with mathematical modelling and with information and communication technologies has been exploited, not to substitute but to complement the advantages of the direct manipulations.

Let's Be PALS

An evidence-based approach to professional development is described on the basis of the findings from a series of research syntheses and meta-analyses of adult learning methods and strategies. The approach, called PALS (Participatory Adult Learning Strategy), places major emphasis on both active learner involvement in all aspects of training opportunities and instructor/trainer-guided learner experiences. The use of PALS practices has been found to be associated with improved learner knowledge, use, and mastery of different types of intervention practices. Implications for in-service training are described.

GAMTAMOKSLINIO UGDYMO PROCESAS: SĄVOKŲ INTERIORIZACIJOS ASPEKTAS

The article presents the results of the research in adoption of the content of the programme “Water” developed by the scientists from the University of Rostock. The sample of the research included school learners from the 2nd and 3rd forms. The data of three testings were analysed and the evaluated change in the school learners’ knowledge development proved that application of the methodology of the programme “Water” significantly improved the respondents’ knowledge of water, its structure, states, the water cycle, the mechanism of water treatment and self-cleaning. This knowledge includes and expands not only learning about the environment, but also develops school learners’ ecological attitude to nature and natural resources. However, only well-established long-term knowledge (which is the focus of the programme under discus-sion) will ensure the application of this knowledge in the further process of natural science education. The article also presents the analysis of school learners’ reflections on learning, which shows that the respondents, involved in the investigation of the discussed object (i.e. water in this case) demonstrated a better acquisition of the presented material since visual aids, motivation and active involvement of learners are as relevant as the presented information itself. The conducted research allowed to evaluate the role of the programme “Water” in long-term knowledge adoption, that is, learning and internalisation of concepts. The change in test results showed that information provided together with the concepts daily used by children, which gradually are changed into scientific ones, has a positive effect on formation of concepts of natural science education, their understand-ing and learning. Key words: natural science education, teaching process, long-term adoption of knowledge, interior-ization of concept.

HOW INVOLVED ARE AMERICAN L2 LEARNERS OF SPANISH IN LEXICAL INPUT PROCESSING TASKS DURING READING?

This study examines the nature of the involvement load (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001) in second language (L2) lexical input processing through reading by considering the effects of the reader-based factors of L2 reading proficiency and background knowledge. The lexical input processing aspects investigated were lexical inferencing (search), attentional allocation during target word (TW) verification (evaluation), TW episodic memory after verification, TW retention, and changes in lexical input processing. This study also addresses the relationships between inferencing and retention as well as the relationships among the various phases of lexical input processing. A questionnaire on self-reported strategy use during the TW verification task was designed to examine motivation and cognitive involvement. A repeated-measures design was used with a cross-sectional sample of 35 adult L2 learners of Spanish. Participants read narratives (one more and one less familiar) that contained nonsense words. They guessed the meanings of the TWs. After reading all of the stories, participants completed an online inference verification task whose goal was to confirm or to correct guesses and to encourage deeper processing of TWs. This was followed by a test of TW episodic memory (yes/no verification) and a strategy questionnaire. Afterward, participants completed two tests that measured receptive retention of meaning. Analyses reveal differential effects of the reader-based variables across the different aspects of lexical input processing and negative changes in lexical input processing due to an interaction between reading proficiency and background knowledge. Results illustrate how reader-based factors also affect learner involvement and lexical input processing.

Learner Involvement: A Review of the Elements of More Effective Distance Education

Learner Involvement: A Review of the Elements of More Effective Distance Education