Shaping Learners Research Articles

Apprenticeship in England – the continued role of the academic–vocational divide in shaping learner identities

Successive governments have pledged to enhance the quality of apprenticeship in Britain so as to achieve ‘parity of esteem’ with academic study. Yet, at the same time, the discourse of the academic-vocational divide has dominated the academic, policy-maker and practitioner debates. This paper draws on two recent studies designed to explore the learner identities of apprentices on different apprenticeship programmes: motor vehicle maintenance (level 2) and engineering (level 3). Through this work, we are able to explore the role of the academic–vocational divide in identity construction and to challenge assumptions about vocational learners. It will be argued, that, far from being ‘naturally practical’, the young people draw on normative discursive categories in their construction of continuous identities. The findings raise important questions about the UK apprenticeship system as currently conceived, while at the same time drawing attention to the possibility for change.

ENGAGING UNMOTIVATED EFL LEARNERS IN CLASSROOM TALK

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate a teacher’s efforts in engaging her unmotivated EFL learners in classroom talk. The paper identifies the teacher’s elicitation techniques during the third turn of triadic exchanges for extending turn-taking. It also identifies the types of learner initiatives that created learning opportunities. The teacher and author of this paper introduced eight Saudi EFL learners (aged 18) to a short mystery story, before requiring them to take turns in classroom talk. 40 minutes of classroom interaction were recorded and analysed qualitatively. Informed by the principles of Conversation Analysis (CA) methodology, the paper shows that the teacher’s role moved beyond giving negative or positive feedback. Her role involved extending learners’ responses by inviting disagreement, suggesting alternatives, paraphrasing and shaping learners’ responses, linking learners’ contributions and increasing wait-time. These efforts engaged learners in different types of turn taking, including presenting new ideas, building on classmates’ ideas, disagreeing with others and extending one’s turn. It was found that learners not only engaged in turn taking during interaction but also learned how to use the new language. These findings add to the small body of available literature on elicitation techniques that involve learners in extended turns when creating space for learning. It is hoped that the findings discussed in this paper will inform EFL teaching practices. More investigation is needed to shed light on how to engage unmotivated EFL learners in classroom interaction using appropriate teaching methods. Keywords : unmotivated learners, EFL, elicitation techniques, turn taking, learner initiatives, learning opportunities

Thresholds of Principle and Preference: Exploring Procedural Variation in Postgraduate Surgical Education.

Expert physicians develop their own ways of doing things. The influence of such practice variation in clinical learning is insufficiently understood. Our grounded theory study explored how residents make sense of, and behave in relation to, the procedural variations of faculty surgeons. We sampled senior postgraduate surgical residents to construct a theoretical framework for how residents make sense of procedural variations. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, we used marginal participant observation in the operating room across 56 surgical cases (146 hours), field interviews (38), and formal interviews (6) to develop a theoretical framework for residents' ways of dealing with procedural variations. Data analysis used constant comparison to iteratively refine the framework and data collection until theoretical saturation was reached. The core category of the constructed theory was called thresholds of principle and preference and it captured how faculty members position some procedural variations as negotiable and others not. The term thresholding was coined to describe residents' daily experiences of spotting, mapping, and negotiating their faculty members' thresholds and defending their own emerging thresholds. Thresholds of principle and preference play a key role in workplace-based medical education. Postgraduate medical learners are occupied on a day-to-day level with thresholding and attempting to make sense of the procedural variations of faculty. Workplace-based teaching and assessment should include an understanding of the integral role of thresholding in shaping learners' development. Future research should explore the nature and impact of thresholding in workplace-based learning beyond the surgical context.

Revise and resubmit: How real-time parsing limitations influence grammar acquisition

We present the results from a three-day artificial language learning study on adults. The study examined whether sentence-parsing limitations, in particular, difficulties revising initial syntactic/semantic commitments during comprehension, shape learners’ ability to acquire a language. Findings show that both comprehension and production of morphology pertaining to sentence argument structure are delayed when this morphology consistently appears at the end, rather than at the beginning, of sentences in otherwise identical grammatical systems. This suggests that real-time processing constraints impact acquisition; morphological cues that tend to guide linguistic analyses are easier to learn than cues that revise these analyses. Parallel performance in production and comprehension indicates that parsing constraints affect grammatical acquisition, not just real-time commitments. Properties of the linguistic system (e.g., ordering of cues within a sentence) interact with the properties of the cognitive system (cognitive control and conflict-resolution abilities) and together affect language acquisition.

Shaping learners’ attention in Massive Open Online Courses

Shaping learners’ attention in Massive Open Online Courses

Shaping learners’ attention in Massive Open Online Courses

We present an eye-tracking study in the context of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) videos. We propose to use a pre-test as a way of priming students about the video content before they watch the video. In this study, we used two versions of the same pre-test: textual and schema based. The results show that priming has an effect on the learning gain as well as the gaze patterns of students as they watch the videos; the type of priming has an effect on whether students spend more time looking at textual or schema video elements.

Shaping learner contributions in an EFL classroom: Implications for L2 classroom interactional competence

This study investigated the interactional patterns for shaping learner contributions in an EFL classroom with reference to Walsh’s classroom interactional competence (CIC). In doing so, an EFL class at an English preparatory school in a Turkish state university was both videotaped and audiotaped in the course of six classroom hours. Conversation analytic methodology was adopted for the data analysis. The analysis revealed various interactional patterns in post-expansion sequences for shaping learner contributions both in the form-and-accuracy and meaning-and-fluency contexts. There was evidence in the data for repeating, translating, extending, clarifying, summarising, modelling and paraphrasing learner contributions. In addition, there were instances when the teacher used clarification requests and confirmation checks, asked elaboration questions and used the board to shape learner responses and, hence, to construct learning opportunities. As well as revealing parallel findings with those of Walsh’s studies, differently from his findings, this study also uncovered that the teacher shapes learner contributions by translating them into L1/L2 and by using the board. It is also illustrated that the nature of these interactional features showed variation in different L2 classroom contexts. As a result, the findings have implications for teacher education which should encourage prospective teachers to improve their CIC.

Soft skills assessment: theory development and the research agenda

Soft skills have become a subject of increasing interest in lifelong learning. Soft skills development is intended to enable and enhance personal development, participation in learning and success in employment. The assessment of soft skill is therefore widely practised, but there is little in the way of research or evidence on how well this assessment is done. Critically reviewing soft skills assessment requires both theory development and establishing a research agenda. Theory development can draw on a number of established theories which help to explain how the cognitive, emotional and social dimensions interact to shape learner behaviour around getting feedback. These include control theory, goal theory and attribution theory. Theory development following an assimilative integration approach based on attribution theory, which combines both ‘self-regulation’ and ‘socially situated’ aspects, is suggested as the most fruitful. Three areas of research can be associated with this; researching the context, the content and the consequences of soft skill assessment. The challenges of this research agenda are outlined and explored. Dealing with these challenges will enable a more robust and critical review of the assessment of soft skill, and the impact of that on both life chances and employment opportunities.

Development of a Scale to Explore Technology Literacy Skills of Turkish 8th Graders

The use of emerging technologies shape learners’ knowledge creation and transformation processes. In this regard, this study aimed to develop a scale to investigate 8th graders’ competencies regarding the educational technology standards based on ISTE-NETS. After a review of relevant literature, an item pool was prepared. The pool was improved through expert opinions and pilot implementations. The items were administered to 620 Turkish students from six different cities for the exploratory factor analysis (EFA). A four-factor structure with a total of 21 items emerged and explained 51 percent of the total variance. Factors were named technical proficiency, creativity, digital citizenship and participation, and innovativeness. Each factor had acceptable internal consistency coefficients. For the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the scale was administered to 210 new participants from a different city in Turkey. A few modification indices led to acceptable fit values. Thus, the suggested factor structure was considered plausible. Implications of the study were provided, followed by the recommendations for further research.

Beyond individualism: professional culture and its influence on feedback

Although feedback is widely considered essential to learning, its actual influence on learners is variable. Research on responsivity to feedback has tended to focus on individual rather than social or cultural influences on learning. In this study, we explored how feedback is handled within different professional cultures, and how the characteristics and values of a profession shape learners' responses to feedback. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, we conducted 12 focus groups and nine individual interviews (with a total of 50 participants) across three cultures of professional training in, respectively, music, teacher training and medicine. Constant comparative analysis for recurring themes was conducted iteratively. Each of the three professional cultures created a distinct context for learning that influenced how feedback was handled. Despite these contextual differences, credibility and constructiveness emerged as critical constants, identified by learners across cultures as essential for feedback to be perceived as meaningful. However, the definitions of credibility and constructiveness were distinct to each professional culture and the cultures varied considerably in how effectively they supported the occurrence of feedback with these critical characteristics. Professions define credibility and constructiveness in culturally specific ways and create contexts for learning that may either facilitate or constrain the provision of meaningful feedback. Comparison with other professional cultures may offer strategies for creating a productive feedback culture within medical education.

How College Learners of German Envision Their Final Attainment: Between Community and Future Self

AbstractThis study explores the ways first‐, second‐, and third‐year college students (n=352) perceived their likely attainment of 19 morpho‐syntactic, phonological, pragmatic, and lexical features of German. Analyses further differentiated perceptions by the learner variables of year of enrollment, gender, achievement, motivation for language study, focus in class, experience with native speakers, and travel abroad. Results indicate experiential variables, particularly achievement and authentic experiences, to be of primary importance in shaping learners’ expectations. Grammatical features, especially nominal morphology, subjunctive, and passive were considered particularly difficult to attain, and more advanced learners were overall more optimistic than their less experienced peers. Learners’ belief in their eventual ability to use language in a socially appropriate manner was associated with actual or desired authentic experiences. The study concludes with a discussion of how learners’ imaginings of their future, more proficient selves can benefit from connections with a language‐using community.

Conversations as space for learning

This paper reports on a microanalytic study which examines the ways in which teachers create ‘space for learning’ Using data from two English language classes recorded in China, we identify specific interactional features which create space, enhance participation and increase opportunities for learning. Adopting the theoretical underpinnings and principles of conversation analysis, we demonstrate how teachers create space for learning through the use of specific practices such as increased wait‐time, extended learner turns and increased planning time. Space is also created by teachers according to their ability to manage learner contributions in a positive and focused way: by shaping learner contributions through the use of scaffolding, paraphrasing and re‐iterating. We also argue that space for learning may be created when pedagogic goals and the language used to achieve them are aligned. Implications for teacher education and classroom practice are discussed.

Nauczyciele i kształtowanie kompetencji międzykulturowej uczniów

Nauczyciele i kształtowanie kompetencji międzykulturowej uczniów

Teacher Talk and Learner Involvement in EFL Classroom: The Case of Iranian Setting

The present study was an attempt to investigate the ways through which teacher talk can create opportunities for learning in an EFL classroom. In addition, it identified how the teacher talk can lead to more and more learner involvement in an EFL context. The study also determined the types of the teacher talk which can decrease learning a foreign language. To achieve such aims, three experienced teachers who were teaching English as a foreign for more than 5 years were selected based on the purposeful sampling procedure to serve as the participants of the study. Their talk was audio recorded for three subsequent sessions and then analyzed based on the interactional features proposed by Self evaluation of teacher talk (SETT) framework. The findings supported the role of the teacher talk as being a determinant one in the performance of the foreign language learners. Also, the results of this research play a significant role in ascertaining the ways in which Iranian foreign language teachers improve their talk to optimize learner contribution. Therefore, a teacher should be able to shape learners contribution and make strategic decision in the moment by moment of lesson according to SETT framework which is regarded as a crucial factor for developing foreign language learning in L2 classroom context.

Learning by starch potato growers: learning in small businesses with no employees

In small businesses with no employees, learning environments have a low learning readiness. Consequently, learners need to rely on their own agency to shape their learning experiences. Results from a study of agricultural entrepreneurs indicated that the components of motivation and self-regulated learning strategies shape learner's agency and explain learning environment configuration in small businesses with no employees. Configuration of the learning environment was found to be a weak determinant of the learning performance of these learners. However, results showed that prior performance of learners in small businesses with no employees dictates how their agency operates and what learning effect is achieved; higher prior performance results in higher learning effects. We conclude that mechanisms that underlie learning in traditional learning environments work similarly in learning environments in small businesses with no employees.

Examining the integrated influence of fairness and quality on learners’ satisfaction and Web‐based learning continuance intention

Abstract. As with any other information system (IS), the success of Web‐based learning depends largely on user satisfaction and other factors that eventually increase users’ intentions to continue using the service (continuance intention). This research integrates the IS success model and fairness theory to construct a model for investigating the motivations behind learners’ intentions to continue using Web‐based learning. Our model theorizes that the three dimensions of quality (i.e. information, system and service) and the three dimensions of fairness (i.e. distributive, procedural and interactional) affect learners’ satisfaction. We also argue that satisfaction and the three dimensions of fairness will influence learners’ intention to continue using Web‐based learning. The hypothesized model is validated empirically using data collected from 289 learners of a Web‐based learning service. The results show that information quality, system quality, system use, distributive fairness and interactional fairness exhibit significant positive effects on satisfaction. Also, procedural fairness and satisfaction play significant roles in shaping learners’ intention to continue using Web‐based learning.

An empirical analysis of the antecedents of web-based learning continuance

Like any other product, service and Web-based application, the success of Web-based learning depends largely on learners’ satisfaction and other factors that will eventually increase learners’ intention to continue using it. This paper integrates the concept of subjective task value and fairness theory to construct a model for investigating the motivations behind learners’ intention to continue using Web-based learning. The model theorizes that four components of subjective task value (i.e., attainment, utility, intrinsic, and cost) and three dimensions of fairness (i.e., distributive, procedural, and interactional) affect learners’ satisfaction. We also argue that satisfaction and four distinct components of subjective task value influence learners’ intention to continue using Web-based learning. The hypothesized model is validated empirically using data collected from 202 learners of a Web-based learning program designed for continuing education. The results showed that attainment value, utility value, intrinsic value, distributive fairness, and interactional fairness exhibited significant positive effects on satisfaction. Utility value and satisfaction play significant roles in shaping learners’ intention to continue using Web-based learning.

Troubling identities: teacher education students' constructions of class and ethnicity

Working with diverse student populations productively depends on teachers and teacher educators recognizing and valuing difference. Too often, in teacher education programs, when markers of identity such as gender, ethnicity, ‘race’, or social class are examined, the focus is on developing student teachers' understandings of how these discourses shape learner identities and rarely on how these also shape teachers' identities. This article reports on a research project that explored how student teachers understand ethnicity and socio‐economic status. In a preliminary stage of the research, we asked eight Year 3 teacher education students who had attended mainly Anglo‐Australian, middle class schools as students and as student teachers, to explore their own ethnic and classed identities. The complexities of identity are foregrounded in both the assumptions we made in selecting particular students for the project and in the ways they constructed their own identities around ethnicity and social class. In this article we draw on these findings to interrogate how categories of identity are fluid, shifting and ongoing processes of negotiation, troubling and complex. We also consider the implications for teacher education.

Textbook representations of science-technology relationships

One way of viewing curriculum content is to regard it astext: i.e. as a collection of narrative and argument which helps shape learners' views of the world. School and university textbooks form part of that collection. At university level, texts encountered by future teachers help shape views of the discipline which may be transmitted to later generations of school learners. This paper is concerned with how the relationships between science and technology are portrayed in school and university textbooks. Criteria are offered for evaluating these portrayals, and examples are presented of material which meets (or fails to meet) these criteria.