Personal Knowledge Construction Research Articles

I do and I understand: A virtual reality-supported collaborative design-assessing activity for EFL students

Instead of learning in a passive learning mode or aimlessly exploring VR scenarios, a collaborative design-based VR learning environment has great potential for developing classrooms. Through personal knowledge construction in a collaborative design-based learning (CDBL) environment, this study combines CDBL and VR technology to motivate students to build VR projects and practice speaking English in rich contexts through learning by design; students gradually generate knowledge from design experience and sufficient practice. Peer assessment was further introduced to enhance timely evaluation and reflection. Therefore, this study proposed a VR-supported collaborative design-assessing activity. 113 Chinese seventh-graders participated in a quasi-experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of this method. Compared to the collaborative design-assessing (CDA) activity, the results demonstrated that students in the VR-supported collaborative design-assessing (VR-CDA) activity greatly enhanced their English-speaking performance, collaboration tendency, and critical thinking awareness while lowering their English learning anxiety. In contrast to the VR-supported collaborative design (VR-CD) activity, however, the VR-CDA group activity did not significantly improve students’ English-speaking performance. The interview results proved that the students in the VR-CDA group were highly motivated to learn English because of the innovative classroom instruction. They also enjoyed designing the projects collaboratively, posting assessments, and self-reflection.

Biographical Narratives in Teaching: a Study of Professors on Postgraduate Courses

Abstract Literature and research have shown that professional development constitutes an essential dimension in constructing both work and professional identity. An important aspect in such development is training. In the field of adult education, different authors (Pratt, 1993; Mezirow, 1985; Schön, 1996; Silva, 2007) emphasize the importance of placing trainees at the center of the learning and cognitive processes and within their corresponding social and historical contexts. Training is supported by a comprehensive adult learning theory. Therefore, the acquired knowledge is not only the result of an external and objective reality but also of a complex construction in which the appropriation of experience plays a relevant role. This paper reveals the findings obtained through biographical narratives in a five-year work program with teachers at different levels (from pre-school to higher education) on postgraduate courses. The core issue is the importance of biographical narratives, as an identification strategy for personal experience, knowledge construction and professional identity. This strategy provided the opportunity for recognition of practical experience, as a provider of learning, as well as his/her own authorship, which are important conditions in the understanding of professional identity.

АНАЛІЗ МЕТОДІВ НАВЧАННЯ МУЗИЧНОМУ МИСТЕЦТВУ В ПАРАДИГМІ КОНСТРУКТИВІСТСЬКОГО ПІДХОДУ

The article considers the problem of choosing methods of teaching music in educational institutions in the paradigm of constructivist approach to the organization of educational activities. The purpose of the article is to provide an overview of some general approaches and strategies for teaching music based on the constructivist theory of learning in secondary school. Among the analyzed methods are a lecture, demonstration and modeling, opening method, video showing, tour, role play, project, survey technique, opening method. The article also highlights the factors that determine the choice of teaching method. The main tasks are as follows: to determine the key characteristics of the constructivist approach to learning, to analyze the key provisions of the basic theories of cognitive cognition; to analyze the main methods of teaching music in terms of their coordination with the constructivist approach to learning. Theoretical and empirical methods were used in the study. During the study, theoretical and methodological sources on the research problem were analyzed, the potential of teaching methods was practically assessed in order to organize the educational process in the discipline «musical art» in the context of constructivism theory, the factors determining the choice of teaching methods were identified. Analysis of the problem of selection of methods of teaching music in the paradigm of the constructivist approach allows us to note that the theory of constructivism provides for the possibility of personal construction of knowledge and educational activities by students. Under such a system of teaching, students' knowledge is an individual, variable interpretation of the presented and assimilated information, which provides a conscious perception of music and deep reflection during the educational process. The novelty of the study lies in the study and application of the theory of social constructivism in order to optimize the selection of teaching methods for the successful implementation of the educational process of music art in educational institutions. Key words: constructivism, cognitive cognition, cognitive development, lecture, method of demonstration and modeling, method of video showing, method of interrogation, method of exercises, method of learning through discovery, discussions and debates, role play, project, excursion.

Objects as Carriers of Engineering Knowledge

The role of previous products in evolutionary engineering design is often neglected. In design discourse, references to objects provide terse expressions of complex information that cannot easily be expressed otherwise. Previous artifacts serve in conjunction with more general engineering knowledge to enable designers and design teams in engineering companies to work in ways that would be very difficult or impossible without them. They trigger the retrieval and active construction of personal knowledge, but also provide a scaffold for sharing knowledge and using it collectively. For companies, their products encapsulate and carry a significant part of the collective knowledge of the organization.

Constructivist Approaches: A Budding Paradigm for Teaching and Learning Entrepreneurship Education

Constructivism is an approach to learning that believes in the personal construction of knowledge by learners through the interaction of prior knowledge to form a new experience. Constructivism represents the state-of-the-art in the teaching of Mathematics and Sciences at all levels of education. However, there is less work on constructivist teaching and learning in Entrepreneurship Education. This study reviewed theoretical and empirical studies on constructivism with emphasis on how it can help organizations achieve value creation through the vehicle of Entrepreneurship Education. Also, the study summarizes the pedagogical goals of constructivist learning and conceptualizes the dimensions of Entrepreneurship Education, the relevance of Entrepreneurship Education, teaching methods in Business Education, and brings out an understanding of the paradigm shift. The study reveals that the focus of Entrepreneurship Education is to promote innovation and value creation among learners. Consequently, the researcher has drawn a useful conclusion on the application of constructivist approaches in teaching Entrepreneurship Education, and it was recommended, among others; that stable industrial policy on the collaboration between small business entrepreneurs and research institutions for the exploitation of research findings of those institutions to achieve sustainable technological development.

Where is semiotic-cultural constructivism in psychology heading? Contemporary reflections on the trajectory of an approach to cultural psychology

This article aims to discuss the relationship between personal cultural experience and knowledge construction in psychology, from the perspective of the Semiotic-Cultural Constructivism. The thoughts here presented are, at the same time, from within psychology and about psychology. The researcher is culturally situated and science is a field of production of cultural works that aims to create perspectives of knowledge about the world. Researchers can and must create some detachment from their field of study to be able to understand the course of their own knowledge constructions. This detachment is achieved through a historical–philosophical view on the theoretical–methodological propositions of their field of research. As a case study, we selected for analysis the field’s pioneer productions, from the years 1982 to 2004. The material showed that the rationality that characterizes scientific research is directed, in this field, to creating semiotic resources for further developing reflexivity in psychology, as a recursive and open-ended process. The theoretical–methodological work of the researcher concerns its own personal cultural experience and the tradition of the already constructed knowledge, selected to a dialogue about the ethical implications of human action. Therefore, advances in psychological knowledge construction cannot be addressed from an external, allegedly neutral point of view, focused on the efficacy of the instruments resulting from the said “scientific progress.”

Tecendo saberes sobre as tecnologias assistivas para o sujeito surdo no ensino superior

Refletir sobre a educação dos sujeitos surdos no Ensino Superior, reporta-nos a encontrar possibilidades junto ao uso das tecnologias assistivas. Esta pesquisa, de cunho bibliográfico, busca analisar como vem sendo regulamentada a acessibilidade do sujeito surdo através de tecnologia assistiva no Ensino Superior e quais dessas podem diminuir as barreiras comunicacionais entre ouvintes e surdos. Traz as principais considerações em uma reflexão sobre a comunidade surda, buscando amparos teóricos para caracterizá-la. Também, abordamos a evolução das tecnologias, realizando uma reflexão sobre a inserção das mesmas no cotidiano, bem como, as principais regulamentações que amparam o cuidado com o sujeito surdo. Ainda, pesquisamos sobre como no campo teórico vem sendo discutida a inclusão dos sujeitos surdos no Ensino Superior e como as IES podem diminuir as barreiras comunicacionais entre os sujeitos ouvintes e os sujeitos surdos. Concluímos que as tecnologias assistivas são instrumentos capazes de facilitar a comunicação entre os sujeitos e que, para haver a inclusão dos sujeitos surdos, precisamos romper as barreiras físicas, metodológicas e atitudinais, visando uma constituir que as IES construam um desenho universal na qual todos se sintam cidadãos com os mesmos direitos para expressarem-se e terem acesso à construção do conhecimento profissional e pessoal.

Review of English for Ethiopia Grade 5 Textbook

Constructivism is considered as leading paradigm of Ethiopian educational policy. So, instructional approaches and preparation of teaching materials expected to be in line with this paradigm. In this regard, educational psychologists, expected to review and comment on the qualities of instructional approaches used in textbooks. Accordingly, the present study aimed to investigate if English for Ethiopia grade 5 textbook is prepared in line with basic principles of constructivism theory. To this end, qualitative approach is used to review English for Ethiopia grade 5 textbook. In the present review course syllabus of English for Ethiopia grade 5 textbook and the teacher’s guidebook is considered simultaneously with the textbook. The instrument used for the review developed by the present researcher and its’ validity checked by three educational psychologists. The result of the review show that, except few limitations, English textbook used to teach Ethiopian grade 5 students is prepared in line with major principles of constructivism. The contents and structure of English for Ethiopia grade 5 textbook is good in terms of promoting personal construction of knowledge, enhancing active learning, encouraging collaborative learning, making learning realistic, make learning situations relevant, activate learners’ prior knowledge, incorporating different concepts from different disciplines, integrating the four macro-language skills, and incorporating activities which have feature of enhancing learners’ critical thinking, creative thinking and problem solving skills. Even though majority of tasks in English for Ethiopia grade 5 textbook are designed in line with constructivism principles, the textbook has limitations, in terms of allowing learners to form topics, incorporating self-assessment questions, allocating proportional time for units and incorporating activities which encourage use of authentic learning materials.

Construction of personal knowledge maps for a peer-to-peer information-sharing environment

PurposeBrowsing knowledge documents in a peer-to-peer (P2P) environment is difficult because knowledge documents in such an environment are large in quantity and distributed over different peers who organize the documents according to their own views. This paper aims to propose a method for constructing a personal knowledge map for a peer to facilitate knowledge browsing and alleviate information overload in P2P environments.Design/methodology/approachThe research presents a method for constructing a personal knowledge map. The method adopts an ontology-concept-tree-based classification algorithm to recognize a peer’s personal knowledge structure and construct a personal knowledge map, and uses a self-organizing map algorithm to cluster and visualize the knowledge documents. The correctness of the created knowledge map is evaluated with a collection of abstracts of academic papers.FindingsThe method for constructing a personal knowledge map is the main finding of this research. The evaluation shows that the created knowledge map is good in quality.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed method provides a way for P2P platforms to understand their users’ knowledge background, as well as to improve the P2P platform environment. However, the proposed method will not help a peer when he has nothing in his individual knowledge document repository (i.e. the “cold start” problem). The method also requires a relatively good ontology base for a P2P document sharing system to use the method effectively.Originality/valueIt is novel that the proposed method organizes the knowledge documents related to a peer’s knowledge background into a personal knowledge map. Moreover, the created knowledge map combines the advantages of a hierarchical display and a map display. It has values for a distributed P2P environment to facilitate users’ knowledge browsing and to alleviate information overload.

Biographical Narratives in Teaching: a Study of Professors on Postgraduate Courses

Literature and research have shown that professional development constitutes an essential dimension in constructing both work and professional identity. An important aspect in such development is training. In the field of adult education, different authors (Pratt, 1993; Mezirow, 1985; Schön, 1996; Silva, 2007) emphasize the importance of placing trainees at the center of the learning and cognitive processes and within their corresponding social and historical contexts. Training is supported by a comprehensive adult learning theory. Therefore, the acquired knowledge is not only the result of an external and objective reality but also of a complex construction in which the appropriation of experience plays a relevant role. This paper reveals the findings obtained through biographical narratives in a five-year work program with teachers at different levels (from pre-school to higher education) on postgraduate courses. The core issue is the importance of biographical narratives, as an identification strategy for personal experience, knowledge construction and professional identity. This strategy provided the opportunity for recognition of practical experience, as a provider of learning, as well as his/her own authorship, which are important conditions in the understanding of professional identity.

Adapting mentoring to individual differences in novice teacher learning: the mentor’s viewpoint

Being adaptive to the individual novice teacher is considered a condition for effective teacher mentoring. The aims of this study are therefore to explore (1) mentoring activities through which mentors intend to adapt to the individual novice teacher and (2) characteristics of adaptive mentors. Information was collected through on-site, post-mentoring conversation interviews with 18 mentors holding different mentoring conceptions, from different programs for Initial Teacher Education in the Netherlands. Four adaptive mentoring activities were identified: (1) aligning mutual expectations about the mentoring process, (2) attuning to the novices’ emotional state, (3) adapting the mentoring conversation to match the reflective capacity of the novice teacher, and (4) building tasks from simple to complex relative to the novices’ competence level. Adaptive mentors were (1) more likely to mention activities intended to support construction of personal practical knowledge and (2) less likely to mention activities intended to create a favourable context for novice teacher learning. Suggestions for using findings to enhance mentor adaptiveness are discussed.

Classroom Orchestration

The nature of vocational education needs has changed. In authentic vocational classroom contexts, there is a rising need to develop new ways to integrate ongoing and overlapping processes of students' personal learning environments and collaborative knowledge construction. However, there is currently very little knowledge about how teachers integrate these two approaches in arranging learning. This creates new challenges for teachers when creating instructional activities, especially regarding teacher-student interactions. This case study illuminates teachers' instructional activities in empowering the students' knowledge construction in a technology-enhanced learning setting. The results showed six main teacher-student interactions related to orchestrating learning. In addition, this study illustrates how vocational education teachers enhance students' learning in ways that meet working life needs (e.g., by selectively restructuring knowledge from the viewpoint of work settings).

Comparative and International Education: A Bibliography (2009)

Comparative and International Education: A Bibliography (2009)

Students' personal professional theories in competence‐based vocational education: the construction of personal knowledge through internalisation and socialisation

Competence‐based vocational education is based on a constructivist learning paradigm, where the development of students' personal professional knowledge is emphasised. However, there is a lack of insight into how students construct their own professional knowledge and what the content and nature of personal professional knowledge is. This article elaborates the concept Personal Professional Theory (PPT): a personal knowledge base in which professional knowledge and beliefs are internalised. PPTs are built upon a combination of declarative and procedural knowledge and are stored in the long‐term memory. Furthermore, knowledge in PPTs refers to compiled knowledge which can be specified and applied to different professional situations. These PPTs develop through an interrelated process of internalisation and socialisation, in which students grow into the existing body of shared knowledge and collective norms, values and beliefs of professionals of an occupational domain. It is concluded that the elaboration of PPTs can be used to stimulate and monitor personal professional knowledge development in vocational education, but further research into the content and nature of PPTs is required.

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning and Higher Order Thinking Skills: A Case Study of Textile Studies

The scarcity of readily usable instruments to resea rch learning in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments has posed a great challenge to devise appropriate analytical tools to investigate how individuals change their u nderstanding or create a new personal construction of knowledge as a result of social intera ction and negotiation within the group. Given this scenario, the Activity System Model (Engestrom, 1987), based on a socio-cultural perspective, was adopted as a framework for analysing the quality of a CSCL community in this research project. Data were analysed to examine how interactivity had contributed to the fostering of higher order thinking skills in the CSCL community. Findings of this study confirmed that there was a positive correlation between the quality of collaborative pr ocess engaged by groups and the quality of cognitive skills fostered. High levels of social in teraction and collaboration contributed to the establishment of a community of learning, nurturing a space for fostering higher order thinking through co-creation of knowledge processes. Lessons learnt and limitations of the investigation in this study in light of the methodological issues re lating to coding reliability and difficulties in translating Chinese text involved in the CSCL for c omputerized coding process were discussed as well.

Re-inventing model-based decision support with Australian dryland farmers. 1. Changing intervention concepts during 17 years of action research

The idea that simulation models of agricultural production can serve as tools for farmers remains a compelling idea even after 3 decades of mostly disappointing development efforts. This paper is the first in a series that reports on 17 years of systems research that used models differently from the Decision Support System idea that has dominated the field. The starting point of FARMSCAPE (Farmers’, Advisers’, Researchers’, Monitoring, Simulation, Communication And Performance Evaluation) was finding whether farmers could value simulation when conditions for appreciation were improved by (a) specifying the simulator for individual paddocks in question and (b) delivering customised simulation to decision makers as a supporting service rather than software as a decision support product. The first aim of the program has been to learn how to effectively intervene in farm management practice using complex, abstract models of croplands, specified with local soil, climate, and management data. The second aim has been to learn how a resulting service that farmers value can be delivered cost effectively by a third party. This first paper deals with an aspect of the first aim, i.e. valued decision support intervention. In the terms used by Checkland (1981), the activities that served this systems practice aim were guided by ‘what we thought we were doing’ in intervening in farmers’ practice, i.e. our systems thinking. This first paper concerns FARMSCAPE systems thinking and how it evolved over 17 years as we learned successively through discovery of a new concept or representation in the literature to overcome limitations of the then-current conceptual framework. Subsequent papers deal with customising scientific monitoring and simulation for farmers, communication as engagement in situations of practice, understanding decision support intervention as facilitation of personal knowledge construction, and piloting commercial delivery of a simulation-based service to farmers and their advisers.

On Social Interaction and the Communicative Construction of Personal Identity, Knowledge and Reality

After a note on the main assumption of all science — the existence of a world — the implications of this ontological realism are pointed out. The subject of the social sciences is a human world — no doubt an evolutionary emergent one — that is built up, modified and sometimes partly destroyed by human social interaction over the generations. The constitution of meaning in experience and action is described (with a lengthy footnote on the phenomenological details of the matter) as the foundation of social, and most importantly, communicative interaction. This provides the basis for a formal analysis of the communicative formation and transmission of personal identity, knowledge and historical social words.

Toward a broader conception of creativity: A case for "mini-c" creativity.

In this article the authors argue that a new category of creativity, called “mini-c” creativity, is needed to advance creativity theory and research. Mini-c creativity differs from little-c (everyday) or Big-C (eminent) creativity as it refers to the creative processes involved in the construction of personal knowledge and understanding. The authors discuss how the category of mini-c creativity addresses gaps in current conceptions of creativity, offers researchers a new and important unit of analysis, and helps to better frame the domain question in creativity research. Implications for creativity research are also discussed.

Articulation of information requirements for personalised knowledge construction

The quality of information provision influences considerably knowledge construction driven by individual users’ needs. In the design of information systems for e-learning, personal information requirements should be incorporated to determine a selection of suitable learning content, instructive sequencing for learning content, and effective presentation of learning content. This is considered as an important part of instructional design for a personalised information package. The current research reveals that there is a lack of means by which individual users’ information requirements can be effectively incorporated to support personal knowledge construction. This paper presents a method which enables an articulation of users’ requirements based on the rooted learning theories and requirements engineering paradigms. The user’s information requirements can be systematically encapsulated in a user profile (i.e. user requirements space), and further transformed onto instructional design specifications (i.e. information space). These two spaces allow the discovering of information requirements patterns for self-maintaining and self-adapting personalisation that enhance experience in the knowledge construction process.

Park visitors' understandings, values and beliefs related to their experience at Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, USA

Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park provides visitors with a unique opportunity to experience rare geothermal features, extreme environments and associated micro-organisms. These associated organisms are considered one of the world's most valuable resources for biotechnology innovations. In this study, the authors investigated the development of park visitors' knowledge, values and beliefs during their visit to the Midway Geyser Basin. The study draws on prior work in the areas of museum and informal education, public understanding of science and cognitive psychology. A total of 191 visitors were interviewed before and after their experience in the geyser basin. Results of the studyinclude an in-depth description of the personal, social and physical contexts of the visitors' experience in the geyser basin. The results are interpreted in terms of park visitors' knowledge systems, how theexperience stimulates personal understanding, knowledge construction and value development among groups of visitors. Conclusions provide a unique perspective on the role of typical park visitors' prior knowledge, on the social construction of knowledge during the park experience and on the development of complex value structures related to unique biological resources. Conceptually, the results indicate the value of using a theory of knowledge systems to help us to better understand learning in informalsettings. Practical implications of the study include a number of cognitive 'anchors' or 'bridges' that can facilitate further learning by park visitors about these unique environments and associated biologicalresources.