Situated Learning Context Research Articles

Exploring Design-Based Research as a framework for addressing pedagogical problems faced by higher education

Design-Based Research presents a pragmatic approach to addressing both pedagogical problems and innovations within a rigorous framework that aims to build transferable practice. This panel discussion will explore four examples of implementing DBR in various higher education contexts and draw participants into a discussion of how they might apply DBR to address identified pedagogical problems or innovations in their own contexts. Why DBR? This panel discussion is a focal point for exploring how design-based research (DBR) in higher education in 2024, can address pedagogical problems brought about by the global pandemic and the explosion of generative artificial intelligence use in assessment and learning (For examples). In a period of continuous disruption in higher education, flexible and ethical research strategies that embrace unexpected influences in teaching and learning is paramount (Cochrane et al., 2023), leading to a new generation of educational researchers embracing DBR. Furthermore, practical examples demonstrating students as partners in curriculum design to inform ‘what works’ in practice are essential for researchers to gain confidence in adopting research-teaching-practice methods of inquiry (Bakker, 2018; Cochrane & Munn, 2020). Understanding how the processes and outputs of DBR can meet these needs is crucial to alleviating both business and educational tensions about timing, funding, resources, and workload planning (Cochrane, 2022; McKenney & Reeves, 2019; Reeves & Lin, 2020). At the core of DBR is the opportunity to explore pedagogical problems or innovation through four phases: problem analysis, develop solutions to the identified problem, explore and evaluate the impact of the design in iterative interventions in real learning situations, leading to the development of transferable design principles and theory building (McKenney & Reeves, 2019) Various research methods can be applied to progressively ask participant perspectives, including students, teachers and learning designers, on appropriate approaches or technologies to solve an identified problem (McKenney & Reeves, 2019). The intended outcome of this panel discussion is to collaborate with participants in implementing DBR in higher education in response to specific pedagogical problems identified by the participants. Beginning with a brief background to DBR followed by four examples to stimulate discussion on its application in broader contexts to address identified problems in curriculum design. Relevance to Higher Education The relevance of debating the role of design-based research in higher education in 2024 is to stimulate discussion for how this pragmatic research approach informs ‘what works’ in situated learning contexts to develop cutting edge design principles and theory that can be transferrable (Galvin & Cochrane, 2023). The methodological framework of DBR invites students, teachers, and learning designers to collaborate from the conception of a design artefact or educational approach to solve a learning problem through to iterative stages of delivery. Following a new normal in higher education where change is inevitable, and fast-paced, research design that does not shy away from the progressive and ‘messy’ elements of educational settings to improve real time learning is essential. Finding a balance between naturalistic and interventionist research methods to explore this complexity is a way forward that DBR can provide. It is acknowledged that greater understanding for the value of DBR and how to plan practical stages with multiple participants is needed for teachers, researchers, and leaders in higher education to confidently adopt this approach (Haagen-Schützenhöfer et al., 2024). Opening discussion with peers models the collaborative ethos of DBR and opens potential connections and networking avenues to establish and generate knowledge for DBR in higher education. The Panel Members The panel will be comprised of project leaders from four DBR projects: Clinical reasoning development, interdisciplinary engineering education, biomechanics, performance anxiety. These projects were introduced in a concise paper for the ASCILITE 2023 conference (Cochrane et al., 2023) and the authors are in the process of collaborating on a full journal article analysing these DBR projects (Cochrane et al., 2024) that should be published in time for the ASCILITE 2024 conference.

First-order sense-making in L2 academic discussions: A distributed view of teacher languaging dynamics in embodied and situated learning context

The study explores teacher's situated and embodied interactions with students in second language (L2) academic discussions and how the teacher languaging dynamics facilitate students' learning when they are engaged in an academic discussion outside the classroom. The situated learning enables learning to take place in contexts other than classroom that affords the environment for embodied interaction and legitimizes the learning community with shared communicative purposes. The first-order teacher languaging dynamics are recontextualized in the situated learning contexts that encourage knowledge exchange as social learning engagements to enable students to bodily experience learning and develop the process of knowing. With a distributed view to language, a multi-scalar approach to multimodal interaction analysis is employed to investigate how the teacher dynamically interacts with students through embodied semiosis in the situated learning context and how academic knowledge is bodily enacted by the teacher languaging behaviours in the dynamic embodied environment. The findings show different embodied strategies are deployed by the teacher to bodily ground the academic knowledge in both vocal tract gesturing and hand movements where the meanings are generalized, visualized, objectified, concretized and symbolized in first-order languaging dynamics to facilitate and afford student sense-making and learning in academic discussions.

Enculturating a Community of Action: Health Professions Educators' Perspectives on Teaching With Wikipedia.

Health professions educators are increasingly called on to engage learners in more meaningful instruction. Many have used Wikipedia to offer an applied approach to engage learners, particularly learning related to evidence-based medicine (EBM). However, little is known about the benefits and challenges of using Wikipedia as a pedagogic tool from the collective experience of educators who have sought to improve their instructional practice with it. This study aims to synthesize the perspectives of health professions education (HPE) instructors on the incorporation of Wikipedia editing into their HPE courses. Applying a constructivist approach, the authors conducted semistructured interviews from July to December 2020, with 17 participating HPE instructors who had substantively integrated Wikipedia into their curriculum at 13 institutions. Participants were interviewed about their experiences of integrating Wikipedia editing into their courses. Thematic analysis was conducted on resulting transcripts. The authors observed 2 broad themes among participants' expressed benefits of teaching with Wikipedia. First, Wikipedia provides a meaningful instructional alternative that also helps society and develops learners' information literacy and EBM skills. Second, Wikipedia supports learners' careers and professional identity formation. Identified challenges included high effort and time, restrictive Wikipedia sourcing guidelines, and difficult interactions with stakeholders. Findings build on known benefits, such as providing a real-world collaborative project that contextualizes students' learning experiences. They also echo known challenges, such as the resource-intensive nature of teaching with Wikipedia. The findings of this study reveal the potential of Wikipedia to enculturate HPE students within a situated learning context. They also present implications for HPE programs that are considering implementing Wikipedia and faculty development needed to help instructors harness crowd-sourced information tools' pedagogic opportunities as well as anticipate their challenges.

From Hybrid Spaces to In‐between Spaces: A Journey with Contemporary Art and Situated Knowledge

AbstractTheoretical knowledge taught in the classroom forms the bulk of lectures in Initial Teacher Training today. Persuaded that knowledge constructed in the community ought to permeate Teacher Training, Zeichner has developed the notion of Hybrid Space – a space for reflection, training and educational improvement where the background of academic/professional knowledge merges to create new learning opportunities, and where the voices of all participants emerge inclusively. Drawing on but also nuancing Zeichner’s Hybrid Space, this paper examines how (1) incorporating working with (in, about, through) contemporary art into our teaching, and (2) putting this pedagogical approach into play by means of situated learning contexts that work with and in the community offers the opportunity to create an innovative teaching approach. This innovation takes the form of transdisciplinary and nomadic learning inputs that operate within an in‐between space and result in unique and unrepeatable learning experiences for all the participants involved.

Implementation of local culture curriculum in an English Scenario Classroom on Taiwanese sixth graders’ environmental and vocabulary knowledge

ABSTRACT The study investigated the influence of the implementation of the local culture curriculum in an English Scenario Classroom on twenty Taiwanese sixth graders’ environmental and vocabulary knowledge. The analysis of quantitative data (environmental and vocabulary knowledge pre- and posttests) and qualitative data (interviews and teaching reflections) provided the major findings. First, the integration of local culture into environmental education effectively provided students with relevant background knowledge, and the implementation of the curriculum in an English Scenario Classroom facilitated learners’ situated learning. Second, the issue-integrated curriculum was also effective in increasing the students’ environmental knowledge. Third, realia, images, technology, and hands-on activities helped students recognise the spoken forms and word meanings of the target vocabulary. The challenge faced by the teacher was to deliver the content knowledge of a specific topic through the medium of English. Suggestions on designs and implementations of the environmental education in situated learning contexts were provided.

Self-repair in EFL learners’ speech in two contrasting institutional school settings in China: An activity theory informed analysis

This article uses activity theory to consider how L2 learners' self-repair behaviour takes shape in their situated learning contexts. It compares and investigates EFL learners from two secondary schools in China that differed in their L2 pedagogical systems and overall educational cultures: a mainstream public school and a private school that provides an international curriculum. Data from classroom interactions, lesson observations and interviews with teachers and students were triangulated. Analysis of data reveals that tension or affordance could arise out of the interaction within or between different constituents of an activity system of a school setting. This exerts further mediating influences on L2 learners' self-repair behaviour, including the frequencies, underlying problems, strategies used and changes incurred. This paper concludes by suggesting that EFL practitioners should be more mindful of students’ self-repair features in order to reflect on possible sources of tension that can stem from different elements of an activity system, to consider potential forms of conflict resolution, and to create an environment that is conducive for the creation of affordances for learning. Further research using activity theoretical reconceptualization and the concept of expansive learning is called for.

Social media and learners-as-ethnographers approach: increasing target-language participation through community engagement

This study investigates to what extent a language learners-as-ethnographers (LAE) approach utilizing social media helped English language learners (ELLs) become fuller participants in a face-to-face target language community. The pedagogical design of this LAE project was based on bridging activities and legitimate peripheral participation in situated-learning principles. The instruction was designed to develop awareness of social media literacy as a means for community practice in ELLs’ target language. The study was conducted through analysis of students’ narratives, post-task questionnaires, and individual interviews, including 36 ELLs’ experiences engaging in local communities and their journey from peripheral toward fuller participation. The findings suggest that being exposed to authentic language and situated learning contexts by using social media in an LAE approach helped ELLs gain knowledge in (1) information literacy, (2) target language culture, and (3) sociocultural learning in both online and in-person environments. This study contributes to the current literature by proposing a conceptual model for increasing participation in online contexts based on these three key knowledge and skills, emphasizing the potential of these factors in enabling ELLs to become fuller participants within the face-to-face target language community.

Facilitating Contextual Vocabulary Learning in a Mobile-Supported Situated Learning Environment

The aim of this study was to investigate how the contextual vocabulary exploration processes of English as a Foreign Language learners can be facilitated in a mobile-supported situated learning environment. A Science and Technology Museum populated with interactive science experiments was chosen as the situated learning context. A mobile application was designed to support learners in completing the authentic tasks and facilitate learners in contextual vocabulary learning. During a 5-week period, 25 university students completed authentic tasks in the situated learning environment. An embedded mixed design, embedding a quantitative phase within a qualitative phase, was employed. The quantitative phase consisted of a pretest–posttest design and system logs, while the qualitative phase consisted of retrospective reviews and observation. The results indicated that contextual vocabulary learning can be supported and enhanced with mobile technologies by considering some factors, including contextual clues, word frequency, authenticity of the tasks, learners' domain knowledge, interest, and focus.

Connections between e-learning, web science, cognitive computation and social sensing, and their relevance to learning analytics: A preliminary study

In this paper we explore the interrelationship between the sociotechnical-pedagogical culture of e-learning, the emerging disciplines of Web science, Social Sensing and that of Cognitive Computation–as an emerging paradigm of computation. We comment in particular on the importance of this relation for the development of learning-analytics discourse. Moreover, we present an initial relational framework between these disciplines and suggest how these relations can be exploited to solve problems in each area. This paper argues for (a) the particular importance of the abstract class of ‘learning machines’ for Web science, (b) understanding cognitive computation as a necessary practical framework for the increasingly dominating, situated informal learning context, and (c) the potential benefit of Web science frameworks for investigating both, contemporary research questions in e-learning and the development of theories for informal ubiquitous learning. Finally, we argue that exploring links between these disciplines is necessary for improving practical research, for the purpose of developing learning-analytics methodology for evaluating the growing types of modern e-learning contexts such as the informal situated learning context.

A university’s strategic adoption process of an PBL-aligned eLearning environment: an exploratory case study

Much has been written about the promise and peril of technology in education. This paper presents an empirical study that explores how technology can play a pivotal role in student learning and how teaching staff can adopt innovative technology-based approaches in the creation of interactive online problem-based learning (PBL) resources, allowing students to interact with authentic, complex and realistic problems designed within a framework of PBL methodology. The application of PBL approaches within authentic situated learning contexts has been shown in the literature to deepen student learning outcomes. This paper demonstrates how innovative authoring tools that promote problem-solving skills and the acquisition of domain-specific knowledge were introduced as part of a University-wide elearning strategic blueprint. Overall, student feedback is very positive, with many students commenting on the realism, and even the enjoyment of the online problem simulations. However, major challenges were met in the implementation requiring several support activities across the organisation.

Scaffolding translation skills through situated training approaches: progressive and reflective methods

Contemporary translation studies (TS) have long embraced context-based professional frameworks. Situated learning perspectives relate to vocational, functionalist notions of translation practice. Situated translation learning introduces different training practices designed to prepare students for professional activity. These include a plethora of different practice-based proposals, such as tasks and projects, portfolios, professional emulations, and apprenticeships. This article analyses the main debates regarding scaffolding in learning processes and presents practical situated learning and assessment experiences at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide (Spain) to illustrate the importance of reflective strategies in situated learning contexts. Particular emphasis is laid on the role of translation portfolios as comprehensive learning tools.

Communicating through body: a situated embodiment-based strategy with flag semaphore for procedural knowledge construction

Situated learning suggests that knowledge is grounded in and influenced by the learning context, the activity, and the culture. Thus, learning in such situated learning contexts can improve learners’ learning performance. Based on embodied cognition and situated learning, this study proposes a situated embodiment-based strategy to help learners learn flag semaphore through real signaling practices with their body movements in a richly perceived learning context. With the support of natural user interface technologies and educational robots, the situated embodiment-based strategy provides a realistic learning context via learners’ body movements to help learners easily construct procedural knowledge. In order to evaluate the effects of the situated embodiment-based strategy, a flag semaphore learning activity was designed and a quasi-experiment was conducted with 60 participants. Three variables were assessed, namely practical signaling performance, attention, and cognitive load. The results showed that the situated embodiment-based learning group had significantly higher practical signaling performance and attention, and significantly lower extrinsic cognitive load than the embodiment-based learning group. The findings suggest that the situated embodiment-based learning strategy is an effective design that can improve the procedural knowledge construction and enhance the attention level with the lower extrinsic cognitive load in a learning process.

Extending the pedagogy of mobility

Direct student experience of the real organism, object, place or environment is recognised by teachers as having powerful potential for high-quality learning. Mobile technologies offer a way for students to capture their authentic learning experiences, but rendering this rich experience into explicit and highly situated learning contexts for students remains an ongoing pedagogical challenge. After reviewing the changing nature of smart learning tools, several examples are explored to identify how they provide a novel learning context. Each example uses the integration of the smart device’s capabilities, such as the rapid capture of images and the juxtaposition of motion and static display. When comparing the incorporated tools of only a few years ago with the current tools available with the latest smart mobile devices, general principles can be generated to inform effective professional practice, specifically when teaching spatially dependent tasks, and in mobile collaborative learning environments.

Literacy and Music in Early Childhood

This review of literature examines relevant research that supports new ways of viewing children as active transmitters of culture in situated learning contexts, where case studies explore children’s redesign of semiotic modes of music and verbal linguistics. Some recent research discussed in this article supports the premise that cognitive abilities of children in early learning settings may be transformed through embodied ways of representing prior knowledge. Young children have been observed enriching prior knowledge during interactions in music invention, using the gestural mode to interpret rhythmic and melodic motifs, structure and phrasing through movement to music, or extending these elements of music (audio mode) in invented song or instrumental play. In engaging literacy tasks, they co-construct texts by drawing on semiotic resources of visual symbols and spatial design elements in written linguistic modes. This cognitive structuring is also revealed in the underlying patterns found in their embodied music invention. How knowledge is represented is crucial to children’s apprehension of knowledge through co-construction. It enables their selection of media and mode for redesign, to promote their understanding of concepts and facilitate problem solving. Multimodal redesign in young children’s music and verbal linguistics is explored as a rich source for communicating meaning and developing higher thinking.

Feeling the difference in the languages classroom: explorations of teacher understanding of diversity

In this article, the authors examine the fourth stage of their research into diversity in the languages classroom, focusing specifically on the teacher perspective in planning for and managing diversity in adult student groups. The article discusses findings from a day with experienced Open University language teachers working together on lesson planning. It examines differentials in teacher approaches to diverse student needs. Some participants demonstrated this as instinctive to their practice, whilst others focused more on issues of language, the classroom mirroring real life and methodological expectations. To achieve greater and more dynamic understanding of different needs in groups of adult students in current society, the authors advocate more discussion and reflection around how we interpret and engage with diversity in situated learning contexts and its impact on planning, implementation and feedback on classroom tasks, management and teacher and student focus.

Interactive Distance E-learning for Isolated Communities

This paper provides information on the policy strand of an investigation into the Australian Research Council Linkage research project into 'interactive distance elearning‘ [IDeL] following the introduction in New South Wales and in the Northern Territory of Australia of satellite-supported two-way broad-band internet services for school-age and adult distance education. The 'policy strand‘ context is the expansion and reform of educational services to these communities. One key conceptual development, explored on the basis of early data collection, is that of the shared nature of the IDL project, between governments and between public and private sectors. In particular, this is being explored within the concept of 'knot-working'; that is, how the project has built up a distributed network of expertise. This aspect of the presentation draws upon the concept of communities of practice. The attraction of this approach is reinforced by the notion that leadership development is best facilitated in situated learning contexts and that participants desire development support from 'fellow travellers' rather than designated experts. The concept of learning from 'fellow travellers' is central to the notion of 'communities of practice' (Wenger, 1998).

Commentary: Student Cognition, the Situated Learning Context, and Test Score Interpretation

Although it is assumed that student cognition contributes to student performance on achievement tests, it may be that current testing models lack the degree of specification necessary to warrant such inferences. With test score interpretations as the referent, the authors in this special issue address the role of student cognition in learning and educational measurement. The practicality of their recommendations is viewed through the filter of No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) testing requirements. Commentary on the broader learning context is also shared. Although a focus on student cognition is an important one, the situational context within which learning occurs and tests are administered warrants consideration of a variety of social factors in order to fully specify the measurement construct and to interpret test scores meaningfully.

Improving situated learning in pharmacy internship

Aim: The study objective is to evaluate whether a pharmacy internship linked to a practice research project produces student-learning outcomes that are more relevant to new and extended roles of community pharmacists than traditional apprenticeship learning. Method: A study combining undergraduate pharmacy education, pharmacy practice development and practice research in a participatory action research design. Students contributed to the study during the internship by collecting data and presenting the results to the training pharmacy. A triangulation of methods assessed both internally and externally was used to evaluate student learning for project participants and non-participants alike. Conclusion: Pharmacy students are incorporated into a situated learning context during an internship. Most pharmacy students learn from the internship experience, but students who participated in the Pharmacy-University Study learned more than those who did not. This implies the creation of a more appropriate situation for learning for future pharmacy students.

Construction of Teacher Knowledge in Context: Preparing Elementary Teachers to Teach Mathematics and Science

The purpose of this study was to further the understanding of how preservice teachers construct teacher knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of elementary mathematics and science in a school‐based setting and the extent of knowledge construction. Evidence of knowledge construction (its acquisition, its dimensions, and the social context) was collected through the use of a qualitative methodology. The methods course was content‐specific with instruction in elementary mathematics and science. Learning experiences were based on national standards with a constructivist instructional approach and immediate access to field experiences. Analysis and synthesis of data revealed an extensive acquisition of teacher knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Learning venues were discovered to be the conduits of learning in a situated learning context. As in this study, content‐specific, school‐based experiences may afford preservice teachers greater opportunities to focus on content and instructional strategies at deeper levels; to address anxieties typically associated with the teaching of elementary mathematics and science; and to become more confident and competent teachers. Gains in positive attitudes and confidence in teaching mathematics and science were identified as direct results of this experience.

Contextualization and the Negotiation of Social Identities in a Geographically Distributed Situated Learning Project

This article identifies theoretical and analytical tensions between two approaches to situated learning: prescriptive approaches design learning contexts intended to produce improved participation in some “official” practice; critical approaches have begun to focus on how participants use resources from multiple practices to negotiate what it means to participate. The article critically analyzes a situated learning context designed with prescriptive aims. It examines processes of linguistic contextualization to show how participants index both “official” and “unofficial” contexts, and the consequences of tensions between these for their social identities. The article concludes that critical analyses of contextualization are essential in understanding situated learning.