Social Dimensions Of Learning Research Articles

Social learning from public engagement: dreaming the impossible?

Learning that transcends participation processes is critical if public engagement is to translate into a legacy of enhanced environmental citizenship. However, a lack of empirical evidence has limited discussion to date to largely ‘aspirational’ claims. This paper offers the first rigorous examination of whether public participation does generate beyond-process social learning. Initially we review the literature on public participation and environmental citizenship to identify the key dimensions of social learning. We then re-visit a well-worked case study of an innovative public engagement process on the Hampshire waste strategy from the 1990s. Approximately one third of the original participants have been interviewed to identify whether and how the experience had a lasting effect on them. Key methodological difficulties are discussed, not least the analytical difficulties of attributing learning to a process that happened ten years previously. However, we argue that there is evidence that both instrumental and communicative learning have taken place, and conclude by identifying key areas that require further research.

Information Literacy and IT Fluency

Academic librarians are currently challenged by a variety of nomenclature issues, nowhere more evident than in the expanding cluster of terms centered on concepts and processes of accessing, evaluating, and using information. This development is undoubtedly caused by the nature of library and information science itself, which is a soft applied discipline, or one without a prevailing explanatory paradigm, and with an overriding concern for application rather than pure theory. (1) It is also partly caused by the multiplying educational reform agendas connected with critical thinking, resource-based learning, and a variety of pedagogies of engagement, and also by the sometimes overlapping and sometimes diverging cluster of terms centered on technology skills--information technology (IT) fluency, technology literacy, computer literacy, digital literacy, and others. This welter of terminology with converging and diverging meanings can indeed be challenging in professional discourse, particularly because librarians see a greater need than ever to collaborate with other academic professionals and with interest groups and stakeholders beyond their home restitutions. The two primary terms that have emerged in the United States that address the concepts of accessing, using, and evaluating information are information literacy and IT fluency. The two concepts have distinct lineages that are now converging in program development and curricular applications at some institutions. Information literacy is now understood by most tn the academic library community as an evolving set of abilities focused on defining information needs, searching, evaluating, using, and managing information, and also understanding something of its social and legal implications. This conception of information literacy, developed in the United States, is primarily attribute- and standards-based, and assumes that there are normative and definitive characteristics of information literate students. (2) IT fluency is another normative conception, with requisite knowledge and skills of IT fluent students promulgated by a group of experts from the research and academic computing communities. (3) While these are the concepts used in the United States, other conceptions using the same or similar terms have emerged internationally that provide a broader context for understanding the two United States-based concepts. These other conceptions are either relational and research-based (the Bruce tradition originating in Australia), or developmental in orientation-the Seven Pillars model created by the Society of College, National, and University Libraries (SCONUL) group in the United Kingdom. (4) The potential for each of these traditions to compensate or correct for deficiencies in the others is only beginning to be understood in the international arena. In the United States, only recently have the sociocuhural dimensions of information literacy, as an educational reform agenda, begun to be explored. (5) This article explores three diverging concepts and terms--information literacy, IT fluency, information fluency--and examines how their divergences and convergences are manifested in such emergent agendas as ICT assessment and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. During the late 1980s and throughout most of the 1990s, information literacy was the preferred term in the academic library community in the United States to describe a programmatic, curriculum-infused, institutional approach to research and information competency. During this time, academic librarians were challenged to consider the full implications of information literacy as a catalyst for change. A new agenda that aims to reform the curriculum includes questions of how to make sure that information literacy is not just library-sponsored, but includes many stakeholders who claim ownership. (6) Equally important new agendas include the idea that learning, not just teaching or pedagogy, should be the overarching concern in program development; that the concept must include a major focus on the digital, networked environment and that the focus on the individual student as the locus of learning should be transformed to considering the social dimensions of learning. …

Collaborative Learning with Group Interactive Technology

Learning is not just about the acquisition of knowledge but is an activity contributing to change and enrichment of the individual. The focus in this article on the socio-cultural aspects of learning has been influenced by the work of Vygotsky and Leont’ev. Engeström’s triangle was used as a framework to conceptualize the effect of the technology on postgraduate tutorials. It helped in the analysis and understanding of the impact of using group process technology to support the social dimensions of learning. The framework in this article builds on the interrelationships between three themes: individual and collective learning in groups; conversational learning; and the role of technology as an aid to learning. The article discusses explorations into improving debate, increasing participation, and supporting a cooperative learning environment with interactive technology with postgraduate business students.

DomoSim‐TPC: Collaborative problem solving to support the learning of domotical design

AbstractDomotics is a subject taught in engineering and in technical training and refers to the methods followed to introduce the technology of service automation in housings and buildings. One of the most important aspects while learning this subject is the design of installations to satisfy a set of requirements. In order to design and to test these installations it is necessary to carry out practical works with expensive and dangerous materials. In this situation the use of a computer‐supported collaborative learning environment can be a good complement to facilitate this engineering task and to provide a social dimension of learning by creating group work habits. In this paper, we present a proposal of a teaching model for this discipline and a telematic environment developed to give support to the realization of practical works of domotical design in group. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 14: 9–19, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.20062

Multiple perspectives on online learning

This paper advocates an approach to the design, use and impact of new learning technologies that incorporates the view from multiple perspectives. This includes considering the questions and goals of students, faculty, administrators and co-workers, as well as social dimensions of learning, professional socialization, family dynamics, career, community formation, and institutional change.

“Whatever Happened to the Social Dimension?” Aspects of Learning in a Distance-based Teacher Training Programme

In this article we discuss distance-based teacher trainees' understandings of learning and education in a computerised learning environment. Educational research today often stresses the importance of a social dimension in learning and education and computerised learning environments are said to create and fulfil the social dimension in on-campus education as well as in distance education. This social dimension of learning and education is investigated, in a Swedish distance-based teacher training programme supported by ICT, through semi-structured interviews with 19 teacher trainees. The study shows that there is a complex relationship between the use of the computerised learning environment and the physical meetings in the programme. One conclusion is that, even though theories emphasise the social dimension of learning through participation, teacher trainees view participation with others as important primarily in relation to social aspects of well-being and not in relation to learning. The use of ICT for creating a community of learners through participation seems to individualise the students' learning rather than bringing them together in their learning.

‘We can giggle about being thick together’: utilising the social dimensions of learning in the workplace

Whilst the economic agenda continues to dominate adult learning policy, evidence from national surveys indicates that vocational and other learning opportunities continue to be unevenly distributed according to social class. This article argues that the concept of social capital can usefully be employed to increase participation for adults who do not normally engage in learning activities in the workplace. Drawing from research with low-skilled workers in Glasgow, Scotland, the article explores the relationship between social networks and workplace learning. It contends that the normative nature of workplace networks can operate to inhibit participation where learning is not integral to the norms of the group. It suggests, however, that workplace networks could positively reinforce, rather than inhibit learning and that they could easily be capitalised upon in organisations. Doing so requires trust at different levels and the article also addresses how this trust can be built.

Transformative Learning in the Perspective of a Comprehensive Learning Theory

This article outlines a contemporary and comprehensive theory of learning that has been developed to match the modern concept of competence and therefore includes not only cognitive learning but also emotional and social dimensions. In relation to this, different kinds of learning are discussed and a framework is suggested comprising four learning types, including, as the most complex, transformative learning. The article also identifies three main types of nonlearning defined as mislearning, learning defence, and learning resistance . Two kinds of learning defence are described as everyday consciousness and identity defence , respectively. Finally, the terms habits of expectations (Mezirow) and sets of assumptions (Brookfield) are taken up as the key expressions to understand nonlearning in transformative learning theory, and it is concluded that this theory could profit from dealing more specifically with the emotional and social dimensions of learning and nonlearning.

'That's what scientists have to do': Preservice elementary teachers' conceptions of the nature of science during a moon investigation

In a science methods course for elementary education majors, students investigated the phases of the moon for six weeks. The moon investigation emphasized that scientific knowledge: a) is empirically based; b) involves the invention of explanations; and c) is socially embedded. After the moon investigation, students realized that scientists make observations and generate patterns, but failed to recognize that observation could precede or follow theory building. Students could separate the processes of observing from creating explanations in their learning, but did not articulate the role of invention in science. Similarly, students valued the social dimensions of learning, but were unable to apply them to the activity of scientists. Although our teaching was explicit about students' science learning, we did not help them make direct connections between their science learning activities and the nature of science [NOS]. We provide a set of recommendations for making the NOS more explicit in the moon investigation.

LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION. Jon Roberts. London: Arnold, 1998. Pp. viii + 346. $70.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

This volume is a valuable contribution to the field of language teacher education (LTE) because of its innovative approach to language learning and teaching as well as its consistent organization. As noted in the introduction, the book is intended for language teachers “who will make, or have made, the step from teaching to training” (p. 1). To this end, the author relates the teachers' experience and understanding of the classroom context to a broadly social constructivist perspective, based on the relevance of the personal and social dimensions of learning to teach.

Building a Case for a Sociocultural and Inquiry-Oriented View of Science Education.

Much constructivist writing has ignored the affective and social aspects of learning, concentrating instead on the rational appraisal of evidence involved in large scale cognitive change. This article identifies some of the social dimensions of learning and advocates a teaching approach that is sensitive to the various barriers encountered by a diverse body of students seeking to negotiate access into the subculture of school science.

Maximising the language and learning link in computer learning environments

In studies on the implementation and educational uses of computers there are reports of changes in students' behaviour as a result of working with computers (Rowe, 1993; Crook, 1994). Social, collaborative and dialogic exchanges have been observed as students engage in tasks around computers. This research provides evidence that the computer is a social facilitator in the sense that it provides opportunities for collaboration, group work and interaction which fosters cognitive change (Wild, 1995).This article recognises the social role of the computer, and supports the view that computers can be used to facilitate learning through language. There is growing awareness that if we are to realise the full potential of computers in education, consideration must be given to their role as catalysts in the learning process, rather than technological tools (Hawkridge, 1990). Computer assisted learning has progressed through many phases, and through investigation of underlying theoretical frameworks it is possible to recognise the change of focus from individual accounts of learning to social perspectives.Theoretical frameworks which emphasise the social dimensions of learning (Vygotsky, 1978) legitimise the link between computers, language use and learning and indicate that computers must be integrated into the social life of classrooms if their pedagogical benefits are to be realised.

Anthropological Research and Collaborative Computing

Computers and computer interfaces form the critical access points to the National Information Infrastructure. Recent polls reveal that as much as 30% of the American population feels intimidated by computers. The design of new interfaces adding three-dimensional worlds, models, and visualizations to text-based interfaces will not necessarily encourage broader use of the Internet among certain groups in the population. Other issues, such as navigational difficulties and the social dimensions of learning (including learning about computers), suggest nontechnical, social-science-oriented solutions.

Marathon group therapy with users of illicit drugs: dimensions of social learning.

A research study is described which uses the Hill Interaction Matrix to analyze the group process of a 16-hour-long marathon group conducted with users of illicit drugs. The group quadrant scales and the 16 cells of the HIM-G are used to provide an indication of the types of interactions among members that occurred during this group. This group rated high on scales with strong loadings on the work and interpersonal threat dimensions of the HIM-G.