Situated Learning Environment Research Articles

Fostering Autonomous Learning in Oral English Through Role Play: An Exploration in Course Setting

Enhancing student motivation to manage their learning process and attain self-transformation in Oral English learning presents a notable challenge. This study emerged from a Role Play Oral English Course (RPOEC) which utilizes English cartoon film clips to enhance primary students’ oral English skills through role play, facilitating meaningful language input and output. Implemented in a Chinese context where English language exposure is limited, this qualitative case study, combined with action research, explores how autonomous learning is fostered through RPOEC. The study engaged a Grade Six class of 30 students (25 girls and 5 boys) in northern China, investigating strategies to trigger learners’ interests and form their independent learner identities autonomously, empower learners in their educational journey, encourage reflective practices in oral English learning, and involve learners in evaluative processes. Data, collected through a combination of observations, focus group discussions, and document analysis for three months, were thematically analyzed across four intertwined perspectives: situated learning, interactive communication, cooperative learning, and evaluative discussions. The paper posits that the outlined curricular approach can be tailored to educators’ needs aiming to cultivate students’ oral English skills within a situated, interactive, and collaborative learning environment, pushing learners towards autonomous engagement.

Using augmented reality games to support sustainable development goal learning among young students: a true-experimental study

PurposeWe applied a true-experimental randomized control posttest design to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to compare the effects of the AR and traditional board games on students’ SDG learning achievements.Design/methodology/approachWe applied a true-experimental randomized control posttest design to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to compare the effects of AR and traditional board games on students' SDG learning achievements.FindingsOur analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data revealed that the effects of AR and traditional board games on the students' cognitive outcomes differed significantly, indicating the importance of providing a situated learning environment in SDG education. Moreover, the students perceived that the incorporation of the AR game into SDG learning improved their learning effectiveness – including both cognitive and affective dimensions – thus confirming its educational value and potential in SDG learning.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the effectiveness of different learning tools (AR and traditional board games) and to evaluate the importance of providing a situated learning environment through a true-experimental randomized control posttest design.

“I felt like I was on campus” creating a situated learning environment through Instagram

The transition to online learning due to COVID-19 brought opportunities for applying Situated Learning Theory through mobile social media to enhance individual cognitive growth and community sense of belonging in online learning environments. In this study, we invited students from an Environmental Psychology course to participate in a semester-long project, during which they were required to post Instagram photos of their surrounding environments every week. We intend to understand the mechanism of integrating social media (Instagram) into a hybrid class amid the global pandemic, and how the project affects students’ learning experience. Through in-depth interviews with 22 study participants, we found that integrating Instagram into the course helped students effectively connect with both real contexts and their peers. The project enhanced participants’ situation awareness and a sense of belonging through posting, interacting with peers, and browsing profiles and posts. We then proposed a framework of creating a situated learning environment through social media using conjecture mapping to inform design implications and future studies in social and mobile learning communities.

Nonformal learning approaches and the professional development of teachers in higher education

PurposeAs universities find new ways of implementing professional development programs (PDPs), very few scholarly studies have examined how teachers could advance their knowledge and skills through PDPs that are developed based on nonformal learning approaches. To address this knowledge gap, the current study examines how PDPs could be facilitated using nonformal learning approaches to enhance the current and future professional practice of teachers in a South African University.Design/methodology/approachData for the current study were gathered using semistructured face-to-face interviews among 28 teachers who were purposively sampled from the university. The interview data gathered were analyzed using thematic analysis.FindingsThe four themes that emerged from the narrative data analyzed were: developing teacher professional practice through diverse nonformal learning arrangements; challenges associated with PDPs that are designed using nonformal learning arrangements; teacher rationale for participating in PDPs that follow nonformal learning arrangements and; the role of leadership in professional development. The findings reveal that nonformal approaches are used widely in the professional development of teachers and teachers have diverse reasons for joining PDPs. Further, leadership also plays a major role in the professional development of teachers.Practical implicationsWhen HEIs use nonformal learning approaches to facilitate PDPs, they could 1) enable teachers to easily transfer the knowledge they acquire from the PDPs to the teaching and learning setting and 2) create a situated learning environment where experienced teachers and other experts support the professional development of young teachers.Originality/valueThis paper presents original ideas on how nonformal learning approaches could be used to facilitate PDPs and to enhance the professional practice of teachers in HEIs.

Reflections on problems of educational practice in a project course design for professional authenticity, cultural relevance, and sociotechnical integration

ABSTRACT This paper examines specific problems of educational practice that I, an undergraduate engineering educator and education researcher, have encountered in creating an interdisciplinary engineering project course. I reveal my process of theorising about problems of practice to position engineering educators’ pedagogical theorising as worthy of scholarly focus. In a reflective scholarship of teaching and learning paradigm, I take the iterative design of this course as the object of inquiry, across semesters and institutional contexts. I discuss the iteration of five key dimensions of the course: (1) authenticity to engineering professional work, (2) promoting learning of teamwork skills, (3) complexities and equity dimensions of situated project-based learning environments, (4) valuing social sciences and social context reasoning for engineers, and (5) creating a responsive curriculum for students. I distil insights related to each of these dimensions. I conclude with a consideration of the interplay between these dimensions and a reflection on the form of scholarship for engineering education.

A Short Film Interpreting the Chinese Characters: ‘Trace Back’

In this study, a group of students worked as a team to create and cocreate a short film in a situated learning environment. The film presents Chinese Han characters in a narrative that employs the poetic audio-visual features of Han characters. We used expert interviews to verify the teaching and learning effects of a short film to interpret the Chinese Characters: ‘Trace Back’.

Learning Information Ethical Decision Making With a Simulation Game.

Taking advantage of the nature of games to deal with conflicting desires through contextual practices, this study illustrated the formal process of designing a situated serious game to facilitate learning of information ethics, a subject that heavily involves decision making, dilemmas, and conflicts between personal, institutional, and social desires. A simulation game with four mission scenarios covering critical issues of privacy, accuracy, property, and accessibility was developed as a situated, authentic and autonomous learning environment. The player-learners were 40 college students majoring in information science and computer science as pre-service informaticists. In this study, they played the game and their game experiences and decision-making processes were recorded and analyzed. The results suggested that the participants’ knowledge of information ethics was significantly improved after playing the serious game. From the qualitative analysis of their behavioral features, including paths, time spans, and access to different materials, the results supported that the game designed in this study was helpful in improving participants’ understanding, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of information ethics issues, as well as their judgments. These findings have implications for developing curricula and instructions in information ethics education.

Do Personality Traits Matter? Exploring Anti-drug Behavioral Patterns in a Computer-Assisted Situated Learning Environment

Drug abuse has been and continues to be, a common social issue worldwide, yet the efficiency of widely adopted sweeping speech for anti-drug campaigns has proven inefficient. To provide students with a safe and efficient learning situation related to drug refusal skills, we used a novel approach rooted in a serious learning game and concept map during a brief extracurricular period to help students understand drugs and their negative effects. The proposed game-based situational learning system allowed all students to participate simultaneously and individually in multiple scenarios of drug temptation posed by peers and classmates to practice responding and refusing drugs in school and community settings. Moreover, to explore whether different personality traits (such as the Big Five personality traits) result in different anti-drug responses, we used a serious game to conduct an anti-drug experiment on 53 junior middle school students aged 13–15. Each participant’s decision-making process was recorded in the serious game as behavioral patterns for lag sequential analysis (LSA). The outcomes revealed seven behavioral patterns including differentiation (D), acceptance (A), effective (ER) and ineffective responses (IR), effective (ES) and ineffective solution-seeking (IS), and failure to refuse (F). The GSEQ (Generalized Sequential Querier) which is a computer program for analyzing sequential observational data was used. The results indicated the following: (1) Neuroticism was performed at a relatively low level under the guidance of a concept map. (2) “Neuroticism” was associated with the lowest risk of accepting drugs. (3) Students with “openness to experiences” were at high risk of accepting drugs. (4) Almost all personality behavioral transition diagrams showed that failure to refuse (F) drugs was followed by inefficient seeking of help (SI) and inefficient refusal (RI). These findings provide reference points for designing adaptive anti-drug education programs.

The effect of situated learning environment in enhancing mathematical reasoning and proof among tenth grade students

This study investigated the effect of situated learning environment in enhancing mathematical reasoning and proof among tenth grade students. To achieve the aim of the study, a pre-post-test of mathematical reasoning and proof was used, and its validity and reliability were verified. The sample of the study consisted of 50 female students who were distributed equally into two groups; the experimental who were taught the circle unit in geometry by situated learning environment, and the control group who were taught by the traditional method. The results indicate a significant improvement in the students’ ability of reasoning and proof in favor of the experimental group. Moreover, a diversity of mathematical reasoning and proof strategies were used by the experimental group.

Robots in situated learning classrooms with immediate feedback mechanisms to improve students' learning performance

Because of time and space restrictions and the limited interaction capabilities of robots, it is preferable for teachers to construct a learning environment using digital reality in conjunction with robots. Doing so enables students to learn and interact in any scenario relevant to textbook material that can be effectively digitalized, while also promoting human-robot interaction. Here, an interactive situated learning approach was developed to improve students' learning performances. The students and robot role-played characters and immersed themselves in digital situated learning tasks and challenges. This approach included a real-time feedback mechanism to guide and evaluate the knowledge application of the students. The evaluation was performed during interactions with the robot, virtual objects, and virtual characters based on textbook context and content. The experiment was conducted during an English as a second language course for junior high school students. A total of 101 students were assigned to three groups with different approaches and their learning performance was evaluated. The experimental results indicated that students who learned with the proposed approach exhibited better learning achievement and significant positive effects in terms of learning motivation and engagement. Furthermore, interaction with physical robots improved student learning achievements significantly compared with virtual interaction. Moreover, motivation in the learning process could be enhanced using authentic objects and scenarios in the digital situated learning environment.

Reducing students’ foreign language anxiety to improve English vocabulary learning in an online simulation game

Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) is considered a central affective factor influencing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning. This study thus developed an online simulation game to create a virtually situated learning environment for reducing EFL primary school students’ FLA levels and improving their English vocabulary learning. A total of 110 fifth graders from four classes participated in this study. Two classes were randomly assigned to the experimental group (N = 57) using the online simulation game, and the other two classes were the control group (N = 53) using onsite instruction. Each participant was then classified as a low, moderate, or high anxiety student based on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). This study found that, compared to the onsite instruction, the online simulation game more effectively assisted the low, moderate, and high anxiety students in reducing their FLA. Situated learning in the online simulation game made a connection between English vocabulary learning and the real world explicitly and visibly, which could further promote their English vocabulary learning. In particular, the moderate and high anxiety students’ English vocabulary learning was significantly improved after the online simulation game. These results suggest that an online simulation game can create a situated learning environment that helps reduce EFL students’ FLA and subsequently facilitate their English vocabulary learning.

Becoming musicians: learning strategies among Palestinian Arab wedding musicians in the Galilee region

ABSTRACT This article probes the socially embedded musical pathways and learning strategies followed by professional Palestinian Arab wedding musicians active in the Galilee region of northern Israel from the late 1960s until the present day, from their first childhood experiences of music until the point when they step onto the platform for the first time to perform for payment at a wedding party. Following Susan O’Neill’s model of the thick learning ecologies – interconnected and situated learning environments – that young people draw upon in order to build their musical competence (2017), and based on data from narrative interviews, we examine the processes by which young Palestinian Arab musicians in the Galilee acquire the musical, technical, social and entrepreneurial knowledge required to enter the wedding scene.

The designability paradox: rethinking authenticity and situatedness in educational video games

Video games’ capacity to facilitate complex and interactive modes of engagement has led to their portrayal as particularly effective means for designing authentic and situated learning environments, which overcome the artificial and abstract nature of conventional teacher-centered schooling. Focusing on the intentional use of progressive-oriented video games (or “serious games”) towards educational aims, this paper sets out to go beyond this dichotomy by introducing the designability paradox of educational video games—arguing that video games’ designed nature both attenuates and accentuates the artificial and abstracted nature of conventional schooling. While video games are more authentic and situated in terms of the modes of participation available to players and intricateness of the simulative environment, they concurrently intensify the artificial and abstracted characteristics of conventional schooling as they represent an increase in the intentional design of learning environments and their separation from external contexts. Based on these analyses, the second part of the paper offers a more nuanced characterization of the types of authenticity and situatedness facilitated by educational video games along two axes: distinguishing between fictional and conceptual authenticity, and between situatedness that embeds or elicits learning. This classification is intended to offer a more nuanced understanding of learning in educational video games, and how they should be integrated into educational settings. Accordingly, the paper concludes by identifying three diverging foci of the integration of video games into classrooms: generalizing the learning taking place in the game, formalizing players’ in-game experiences, and contextualizing gameplay via critical analysis of the game.

Transnational Communities of Practice: Their Development, Operation, and Contribution

Critical to the successful maintenance and survival of a transnational education partnership is the role of faculty. Our study documents the operational and social relationships between faculty teaching transnationally. Through interviews and observation, we find that informal communities of practice (CoP) spontaneously evolve, serving to improve faculty’s teaching and learning practice while in situ. The key to CoP effectiveness is members’ cultural intelligence and adoption of a reflective practice. These findings have significant implications for university internationalization practices. CoP should be nurtured and encouraged to develop organically in a transnational environment, and formally supported by university systems and processes. Furthermore, we recommend universities facilitate development of faculty cross-cultural capabilities. Our study contributes to international education and CoP literature through its rich and detailed portrayal of the development and operation of CoP, and mapped member participation, in a culturally distant situated learning environment.

Research and application of situated teaching design for NC machining course based on virtual simulation technology

AbstractAs virtual simulation technology can display three‐dimensional materials as well as their dynamic cutting process and the learners’ motivation is enhanced in the situated learning environment, a virtual‐situated learning system for numerical control (NC) machining course is proposed to explore the learning effectiveness of learners when combining virtual simulation technology and the situation learning theory. This study aims to use the concept of embedding NC machining simulation system and the situated learning into a real situation to improve the learners’ situated thinking ability and innovative literacy. The features of the system include (a) the learning activities and contents that are planned and designed using the key factors of situated learning based on the specific teaching contents and objectives, (b) combining virtual objects with a real environment using virtual simulation technology to provide a project‐based learning situation for learners, and (c) probing into the specific methods of implementing situated teaching design in NC machining course. To assess the acceptance of the proposed system, an independent sample t‐test was then applied to evaluate the learning achievement of learners. The results show that the research scale is highly reliable and that all assumptions made are valid. In addition, the effect of the situated teaching was investigated through questionnaire survey. The experimental results suggest that the virtual‐situated teaching design has significant positive impact on improving the students' learning efficiency and performance skills and indicates that the participants were attracted to and willing to use the system, which directly enhances their incentive to actively learn and promote learning achievement.

RETAIL SAFARI: SYSTEMATICALLY WALKING THE RETAIL STORE WITH BUYERS AND SUPPLIERS

ABSTRACT Building on active, experiential, and situated learning, the Retail Safari brings together students and executives in a retail setting to witness first-hand how course knowledge will play out in the aisles and shelves of the retail world. Retail Safari was evaluated favorably in terms of pedagogical affect, perceived value of the course content, and willingness to recommend while also ranking favorably compared to nine other teaching activities. It is easily adapted to a variety of courses and content. The authors present an actionable GUIDE for implementing this activity, bringing to life marketing theories and tactics in a situated learning environment.

The Effects of Pre-service English Language Teachers’ Making Vocabulary Learning Materials in Web-Supported Situated Learning Environment on Their Vocabulary Learning

The aim of this study was not only to help pre-service English language teachers (PS-ELTs) to design vocabulary learning materials for a web-supported situated learning (SL) environment but also to have them learn the vocabulary they used to prepare those materials in the web-supported SL environment. Also, the effects of this process on the PS-ELTs’ academic achievement, self-efficacy beliefs in designing situated learning environments (SEB-SLE), and technological pedagogical content knowledge self-confidence (TPACK-SC) were revealed. One of the advanced mixed-method designs, intervention design, was employed, and 56 PS-ELTs participated in the study. The data were collected via quantitative measurements (two scales, a vocabulary achievement test) and qualitative measurements (student diary, online messaging logs, open-ended interview form, and focus group interview records). For the quantitative data, independent samples t-test, related-samples t-test, and 2X3 repeated measures ANOVA test were used; for the qualitative data, content analysis. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the within-group gain scores and retention test scores in terms of the vocabulary achievement test and the SEB-SLE scale. However, despite a significant difference in the within-group gain scores in terms of the TPACK-SC scale, no significant difference was found between the post-test and retention test scores. Moreover, although both groups revealed no significant differences in the scores of the vocabulary achievement test and the TPACK-SC scale, the scores of the SEB-SLE scale showed a significant difference in favor of the treatment group. Related to the procedure, PS-ELTs highlighted that preparing vocabulary learning materials according to the web-supported SL model had a considerable effect on their vocabulary learning. Besides, the application process supported permanent learning and vocabulary knowledge development. What is more, the procedure helped them gain critical thinking, problem-solving, synthesis, and research skills as well as improving their TPACK.

Task complexity and learning styles in situated virtual learning environments for construction higher education

This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion and research on the role of 3D virtual learning environments in teaching and learning. It specifically focuses on the use of video games as an enabling technology in construction higher education. As such, it investigates whether task complexity has any influence on an individual's preferred learning style while learning through virtual reality (VR) technology. To answer this question and address relevant issues, an educational experiment has been designed and conducted. An experimental virtual learning environment, the Situation Engine, was set up as a virtual construction site for undergraduate construction students to experience construction work in progress. The design and development of the Situation Engine has drawn on powerful pedagogical theories such as situated and experiential learning. 253 undergraduate students participated in the educational experiment. Three tasks of different complexity levels were designed as the experimental environments; with level of complexity being the independent variable. The hypothesis that students would adopt different learning styles when engaged in learning tasks of different complexities was rejected. No significant difference in the preferred learning styles was identified among the three experimental groups. It was concluded, therefore, that when using virtual reality technology for construction education there is no evidence to suggest the level of task complexity has significant influence on how people learn. The study presented in this paper is the first empirical study in the construction higher education field that reveals the relationship between the task complexity and students learning styles when Virtual Learning Environments are engaged.

‘We teach, we record, we edit, and we reflect’: Engaging pre-service language teachers in video-based reflective practice

The significance of reflective practice (RP) has been widely recognized in both general education and language education. The past years have witnessed an exponential growth of studies in examining how technology can be utilized to promote teachers’ RP and video-based RP has been extensively reported as a powerful tool for teacher learning in many educational contexts. While existing literature has documented the potential benefits that student teachers may reap from video-based RP, there is a lack of attention to the complex interplay between the process of their RP and the contextual factors in their situated learning environment. This article reports on a study which aims to promote video-based RP among student teachers in a pre-service language teacher education course in Hong Kong. Drawing on data from post-course interviews with and the videoed reflection of six student teachers, the study uncovered the complex and dynamic process of the student teachers’ video-based RP. This article offers practical implications for language teachers, teacher educators and school leaders on how to promote RP in second language teacher education.

AR videos as scaffolding to foster students’ learning achievements and motivation in EFL learning

AbstractAugmented reality (AR) is capable of providing students with proper situated scaffolding via overlaying rich media objects on the real‐world learning context. This paper examines the potential of AR to address existing problems with insufficient scaffolding in video learning materials for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Thus, an AR video‐enhanced learning (ARVEL) method was designed to assist students’ EFL learning. Furthermore, an experiment was carried out to investigate the influences of the implemented method on students' EFL learning outcomes. The experimental results displayed that the ARVEL method significantly improved the students' learning achievements and intrinsic motivation, and enhanced their satisfaction with EFL learning, compared to the students learning EFL with conventional video‐based learning. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic Learning experience of English as a foreign language (EFL) is highly related to the experience in actual learning contexts. The significance of providing students with proper assistance in a situated learning environment has been emphasized. Just observing videos might be inadequate for advancing students' reflection on learning tasks in video‐based learning. What this paper adds An augmented reality (AR) video‐enhanced learning method was proposed to assist students' EFL learning. An AR video‐enhanced learning (ARVEL) system was designed based on the implemented method. It was evidenced that the implemented method effectively improved students' learning achievements and motivation. The students display a higher degree of satisfaction with EFL learning than with the video‐enhanced learning method. Implications for practice and/or policy The ARVEL method could be a good reference for implementing an EFL learning environment. More kinds of assistance could be designed as scaffolding for assisting students' EFL learning. It is worth probing the influences of the ARVEL on students' learning of more abstract vocabulary and concepts.