Learning In Formal Educational Settings Research Articles

The state of play in school: defining and promoting playful learning in formal education settings

ABSTRACTNoting a growing movement towards learning through play in schools, this article considers important areas of discussion and debate in what it means to incorporate play into learning in schools. It describes three models (the Five Characteristics of Learning through Play, the Indicators of Playful Learning, and a Continuum of Play-Based Learning) that help define what learning through play in school involves. The authors explain the complexities of promoting learning through play in school, and teacher-research is forwarded as a way that educators can learn to navigate the complexities. The article concludes by arguing that, despite resistance by some policymakers, school leaders, and other critics, the word ‘play’ is an appropriate and effective way for educators to describe playful approaches to teaching and learning.

Quasi-communities: rethinking learning in formal adult and vocational education

Situated learning theories such as communities of practice provide a rich conceptual framework for analyzing the processes by which newcomers become full participants in the communities they enter. However, some research shows that these concepts have shortcomings for theorizing learning in formal educational settings especially when it comes to adult academic and career preparation. To redress these problems, we propose the conceptual framework of quasi-communities, which retains some of the dimensions of the original concept while abandoning others. We use a case study of the continuing training of mariners as evidence to show how this framework is developed to identify and eventually improve learning in formal adult and vocational education. Our analysis illustrates the variable learning opportunities in these settings that are available or might be developed within this framework.

As technology and generations in medical education change, what remains is the intersection between educator, learners, assessment and context

The information era has begun to create major shifts in educational systems, including those in undergraduate medical and graduate psychiatric training programmes. Despite these changes, teaching and learning in formal educational settings remains predominately the product of the intersection between educator, learners, assessment and context. This article reviews intrinsic and external forces influencing each of these elements, such as intergenerational differences in teaching and learning styles, education technologies as they relate to delivery and maintenance of curricula, competency frameworks of assessment, and individual learning and teaching development plans. Maintaining a focus on the relationship between these factors and re-conceptualizing psychiatric education and formal medical education systems in general as a mutual two-way learning exchange between participants will promote careers of lifelong learning.

Facebook as a learning tool? A case study on the appropriation of social network sites from mobile phones in developing countries

AbstractThis exploratory research investigates how students and professionals use social network sites (SNSs) in the setting of developing and emerging countries. Data collection included focus groups consisting of medical students and faculty as well as the analysis of a Facebook site centred on medical and clinical topics. The findings show how users, both students and professionals, appropriate SNSs from their mobile phones as rich educational tools in informal learning contexts. First, unlike in previous studies, the analysis revealed explicit forms of educational content embedded in informal learning contexts in Facebook. Quizzes, case presentations and associated deliberate (e‐)learning practices which are typically found in (more) formal educational settings were identified. Second, from a sociocultural learning perspective, it is shown how the participation in such virtual professional communities across national boundaries permits the announcement and negotiation of occupational status and professional identities.Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic Social network sites (SNSs) support education‐related learning practices. What this paper adds Learners appropriate SNSs sites from their mobiles as tools for a wide range of educational practices in informal learning contexts in developing/emerging countries. The (e‐)learning practices identified include deliberate engagement by users with explicit forms of educational content such as quizzes and case presentations as well as participation in virtual professional communities that allows for the announcement and negotiation of occupational status and professional identities. Such technologies permit the students' educational engagement beyond local communities and facilitate loose connections to professional networks. Implications for practice and/or policy Overhasty claims regarding the more systematic use or the integration of such informal (e‐)learning in formal educational settings to support education and health in developing countries should be avoided. Instead, more systematic research is needed.

Critical Analysis of the Production of Western Knowledge and Its Implications for Indigenous Knowledge and Decolonization

There has been a persistent contest among contemporary scholars over what is considered legitimate knowledge. This contest has implications on ways of knowing, organizing society, and responding to environmental challenges. The Western education system is a hybrid of different knowledge, adopted through European global expansion, to enrich our learning in formal educational settings. This article examines the production of Western knowledge and its validation, imposition, and effects on indigenous people and their knowledge. The author argues that there is a relationship between knowledge producers and their motives with the society in which they live. This relationship influences what is considered “legitimate knowledge” in society, politics, and economy in non-Western contexts.

Dynamic and spatial representation of web movements and navigational patterns through the use of navigational paths as data

Solving real-world problems is an effective learning activity that promotes meaningful learning in formal educational settings. Problems can be classified as being either well structured or ill structured. Internet information search approaches have an influential role to play in the successful performance of problem solving. A better understanding of how students differentially model information search strategies and movements in tackling well- and ill-structured problems is essential for creating engaging problem-solving environments for students. Static measures, such as the number of accessed nodes or links, or the number of times particular web browser function buttons are clicked, are limited in their ability to analyze attributes of information search patterns. A more dynamic and spatial representation of web movements and navigational patterns can be realized through the use of navigational paths as data. The two path-specific structural metrics that can be used to assess network-based navigational paths in relation to the structuredness of the problem-solving task are compactness and stratum. These metrics are, respectively, the indicators of the connectedness and linearity of network-based structures defining students’ online navigational visitations during the problem-solving sessions. This study explored the relevance and utility of these two metrics in analyzing the navigational movements of learners in seeking out electronic information to accomplish successful problem solving. The outcome findings of this study show that well- and ill-structured problems demand different cognitive and information seeking navigational approaches. The differing values of the two path metrics in analyzing the search movements organized by students in attending to well- and ill-structured problems were a direct result of the contrasting patterns of navigational path movements. The search patterns associated with well-structured problem solving tended to be more linear and less connected, whereas those related to ill-structured problem solving were more distributed and inter-connected.

Tracing legitimate learning in formal vocational education

Situated learning theory and the concept of communities of practice provide a rich conceptual framework for analyzing the processes by which apprentices become full participants in their communities of practice. This article uses case study evidence from the maritime vocational education to show how this framework can be developed to identify and thus improve upon authentic learning in formal educational settings. We suggest that inter-related factors including students’ common objective, pedagogical method, nature of the course and affordances of the context underpin the creation and success of the students’ community in the classroom.

Measuring socioemotional functioning in a national birth cohort study.

An accumulating body of research suggests that the capacities children acquire that prepare them for learning in formal educational settings are multilevel and complex with multiple contributing factors that begin in infancy. A new U.S. longitudinal study, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), is designed to enable researchers to examine how an array of children's capacities and skills function individually and jointly to promote or hinder the acquisition of school readiness. The ECLS-B follows a nationally representative sample of 10,688 children born in the U.S. in 2001. Baseline data on the children and their families were collected at 9 months of age with follow-up at ages 2, 4, and kindergarten entry. Information on study children's socioemotional development is derived from several sources: videotaped mother-child interactions, parent interviews, and field staff observations. Because attachment is such an important indicator of children's socioemotional development during the toddler period, the study devoted considerable resources to designing an attachment measure. The Toddler Attachment Sort-45 (TAS-45) was designed to meet the need for a simple yet valid measure that did not require extensive training for field staff to administer easily. The TAS-45 generates the classical attachment categories and security and dependency scores.

Editorial

Editorial