scholarly journals Finally in the spotlight: How contemporary learning theory is saving education online during COVID

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. pp642-655
Author(s):  
Paula Charbonneau-Gowdy
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Student Body ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The Impact

A surge of literature documenting myriad challenges being faced online during the COVID pandemic strongly suggests that e-learning scholarship has fallen short of conveying an understanding of how to build highly effective e-learning spaces. Recent stories from practitioners abound with reports of absenteeism, cameras and microphones turned off, inaction in forums and a general reticence on the part of learners to engage online. Where have we missed the mark in our efforts to have contemporary e-learning theory affect online practice? Scholarship is indicating that the root of the disconnect often lies in the conventional instructional designs being used in these spaces and the teaching, learning and assessment practices they support. In response to such issues, we conducted a qualitative action research initiative to apply an instructional design (ID) model, based on contemporary learning theories and goals, in a teacher education program in Chile. The study took place in 2020 over 2 academic semesters. In this study, we focussed on the impact of these changes on a small group of first-year Pre-service Teachers (PSTs, n=17), experiencing online learning for the first time. Pre and post interviews, an open-ended questionnaire, field notes from self-assessment portfolios and observations of the digital environment were used to collect data. We also draw on two other data sources in the same context: 1) an earlier report of this initiative that focussed on the Teacher Educators (TEs) in the same program (n=4), and 2) survey data collected in a preparatory stage of the action research on the experiences of the greater university student body (n=1,054). Evidence revealed that initially learners’ epistemological views were heavily influenced by the teacher-centric and content-driven pedagogies of earlier schooling. Yet, results also showed that the contemporary learning design framework had positive implications for many students’ social, cognitive, and metacognitive competencies. Clear signs of more active investment in social interactive learning online on the part of the PSTs and of flexible, self-directed behaviours were evidenced. The results of this study provide an empirically based practical solution for connecting current learning theory to practice in online contexts, solutions that could endure even once the challenges of the pandemic crisis are behind us.

scholarly journals How it started/ how it’s going’: Aligning Teacher Educators’ designs, approaches and identities in our new online reality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Antoinette Gowdy ◽  
Jaime Pizarro Aura ◽  
Danisa Thamara Salinas
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Traditional Teaching ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
New Era ◽  
E Learning ◽  
The Impact

E-learning scholars have long predicted the conversion of conventional education to online learning spaces. That conversion has now happened. Regardless of what occurs in a post-pandemic era, teaching and learning will never be the same. Where does that leave teacher educators (TEs) who grapple with how to best prepare future teachers for the new era? The aim of our research was to determine the impact of supporting a small group of Chilean TEs in re-designing their online instructional approaches by aligning them with contemporary learning theories and goals. In the Chilean context, prior to the pandemic, e-learning was still on the periphery, and transitions from teacher-directed approaches had only just begun. In this 10-month qualitative inquiry, we focused on the TEs experiences online as they adopted sociocultural-based, 21st century instructional designs, and implemented strategies intended to promote agency and engagement in their students. The TEs long-held teacher-centric identities and approaches sometimes interfered in this trajectory. Yet, their heightened critical awareness of the ineffectiveness of traditional teaching paradigms in online settings combined with their grounded efforts and perseverance, resulted in positive evidence of ‘real’change to their designs, practices and identities – changes many have been seeking in educational systems for some time. 

scholarly journals E-Learning in Dental Schools in the Times of COVID-19: A Review and Analysis of an Educational Resource in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
pp. 207-224
Author(s):  
Daniel Chavarría-Bolaños ◽  
Adrián Gómez-Fernández ◽  
Carmen Dittel-Jiménez ◽  
Mauricio Montero-Aguilar
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Academic Courses ◽  
E Learning ◽  
The Times ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Dental Schools ◽  
The Impact

While countries are facing different stages in their COVID-19 infection rates, worldwide there are millions of students affected by universities’ facilities closures due to the pandemic. Some institutions have enforced strategies to transfer some courses to a virtual modality, but many Dental Schools have been challenged to deal with a situation which requires emergency measures to continue the academic course in the middle of lock-downs and social distancing measures. Despite the fact that the number of online academic programs available, especially graduate programs, has increased in diverse modalities, this pandemic forced e-learning processes to develop abruptly. The likelihood of using e-learning strategies in dentistry was substantiated in the scientific literature and an overview of these opportunities is presented. Additionally, the experience of the University of Costa Rica Faculty of Dentistry is presented, as it was evident that some of the key elements in a e-learning environment needed a quick enhancement and initiation of some processes was required. First, it was necessary to categorize the academic courses depending on their virtualization's possibility (curricula analysis and classification), to better understand the extent of the impact and the work needed to contain, as far as the possibilities allowed, negative consequences on students learning process. Second, teachers needed further training in the application of virtual strategies which they hadn’t used before. do Third, an evaluation of the students’ conditions and needs was conducted in a form of a survey. Finally, teachers and students activated the available virtual platforms. For many Dental Schools, this virtualization process is an ongoing progress although it was abruptly imposed, but this moment indeed represents an enormous opportunity to move forward and get immerse in the virtualization environment as a teaching/learning experience.

scholarly journals Career Education and Integrated Curriculum

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 18-35
Author(s):  
Ana Isabel Gonzalez-Herrera ◽  
Yolanda Márquez-Domínguez
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Integrated Curriculum ◽  
Career Education ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Perspective ◽  
Critical Action ◽  
Curriculum Project ◽  
Critical Action Research ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The Impact

The article presents an action research process for the improvement of Vocational Guidance and Career Education in a school center in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands). The research perspective, from a collaborative and critical work, responds to the need to improve the teaching-learning practice. Priority is given to the ulterior need to improve learning for all students and increase the impact of their journey through school by means of an educational attention and guidance based on a curriculum project with an integrated and global Career Education and Guidance. Finally, results, process and conclusions are displayed of the two years of critical action research carried out by the different educational agents participating.

Curriculum Development in Technology-Enhanced Environments

2011 ◽  
pp. 492-504
Author(s):  
Mike Keppell ◽  
Eliza Au ◽  
Ada Ma ◽  
Christine Chan
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Implicit Theories ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Educational Beliefs ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Insight Into

As teacher-educators, we are acutely aware of our responsibilities in nurturing the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of pre-service teachers. As part of our interest in improving our teaching, learning, and assessment practices, we have been participating in an action-research project on technology-enhanced assessment over the last 12 months. Throughout this collaboration, we have become aware of our assessment practices and have been delighted that this has also resulted in a questioning of our current learning design for our modules and further clarity in our own thinking about why we teach the way that we do. The process of action-research has forced us to examine our educational beliefs and how these motivate our teaching and learning. This article focuses on why as teacher-educators it is our obligation to articulate our theories of teaching and learning. It is essential that we articulate these often-implicit theories not only as a means of engaging in dialogue with other teacher-educators, but also as a means of engaging in dialogue with our own students who are pre-service teachers. This cascading waterfall of dialogue and explicitness may allow pre-service teachers to gain insight into the decisions we make as teacher-educators and the rationale we use in our teaching. This obligation has important ramifications for the education of children in the Hong Kong setting, as pre-service teachers may see these explicit rationales as a guide to their own teaching within the early childhood, primary, and secondary settings.

Sustainability Education and Teacher Education: Finding a Natural Habitat?

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Sustainability Education ◽  
Primary Teacher ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Assessment Tasks ◽  
The Social ◽  
Teaching Learning

AbstractSustainability education competes for curricular space, both in schools and in teacher education. Opportunities and barriers for the inclusion of sustainability education in an Australian university primary teacher education program are examined in this article. The study focused on the roles, practices and perceptions of teacher educators in promoting sustainability education. Three focus groups were conducted with members of faculty staff from each of the K–6 Key Learning Areas to gather data, which were analysed according to three frameworks: espoused/aspirational and actual practices of staff members; barriers to and affordances for teaching sustainability education; and the nature of initiatives, in terms of teaching/learning activities, assessment tasks, and resources. Beyond the Social Sciences, and Science and Technology, we found that inclusion of sustainability education is somewhat sporadic. The article proposes some ways forward to promote and abet sustainability education in a tertiary context.

scholarly journals Teachers Understanding Towards COVID-19: A Case of Dhankuta Multiple Campus, Dhankuta, Nepal

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-99
Author(s):  
Kewal Ram Parajuli ◽  
Tika Ram Linkha
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Academic Environment ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Academic Challenges ◽  
Academic Activities ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The Impact

Teacher educators are playing a significant role in managing pandemic situation at various ways. Their role is important to raise public awareness about epidemic and pandemic diseases, like COVID-19. It is mainly due to education and educators are to be considered as an initiator of changes at community level. Their preparedness, understanding, practices and participation can be reliable way to measure the impact of COVID-19 in Dhankuta district. In this context, the focus of this paper is to estimate teachers' knowledge, understanding and practices to preventive measures of COVID-19. In addition, the paper has also intended to analyze the opportunities and challenges that lockdown has bought in their academic environment. For this purpose, 51 teachers were chosen from Dhankuta Multiple Campus using proportionate stratified random sampling (SRS) method with covering gender and faculties. Web based cross sectional research design was applied and some of the variables, like knowledge about COVID-19, adoptive practices, challenges faced in academic environment and reduction strategy were considered to collect and analyze data. The findings of this paper indicate that the mean score of overall knowledge and practices are 6.90 and 6.4 respectively and 94.1 % faces academic challenges. Meantime, the respondent reported that hotels and markets were more vulnerable places as compared to other economic sectors. Their responses ranked such as use of mask, sanitizer, distance maintain, lockdown, and quarantine were some of the ways to prevent COVID-19. However, 70.6 % teachers were involved in online classes, e-library and continuing their academic activities. This paper concludes that the pandemic of COVID-19 has also created a new environment in teaching-learning with the application of ICT in pedagogy in changing situation.

Implementing CLIL techniques to History Classes: Action Research

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-154
Author(s):  
Rena Alasgarova
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Learning Content ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Tools And Techniques ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Given ◽  
History Classes

The given action research is aimed at investigating the impact the implementation of CLIL techniques may have on understanding and comprehension of the content in the teaching/learning environment where English is used as a medium of education. The research was conducted in Cambridge department of one of the private schools in Baku, Azerbaijan with two groups of 11-12-year-old learners. CLIL methodology was utilized in History of Azerbaijan classes to check whether the approach can facilitate the understanding of the content matter for the students who are proficient English users. The distinctive feature of this action research is that it allows for viewing CLIL approach from a perspective opposite to the common perspective where the focus is shifted from learning the language through content to learning content through CLIL tools and techniques.

Pedagogical Agents in Online Learning

2011 ◽  
pp. 699-704
Author(s):  
Kevin Carmody ◽  
Zane Berge
Keyword(s):  
Learning Theory ◽  
Cognitive Learning ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Pedagogical Agents ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Learning Mechanism ◽  
Instructional Role ◽  
Online Classrooms ◽  
Processing Information ◽  
E Learning

Lack of personalization and individualized attention are common issues facing distance education designers and instructors. This is a particularly important deficiency as research has shown that personalization can increase learning greatly in comparison to nonpersonalized, information to student, linear instruction (Clark & Mayer, 2003). Advocates of personalization cite cognitive learning theory as the basis for such an approach; when humans communicate with one another they are continuously processing information, either assimilating or disregarding data and forming an understanding of the information in context of the environment and of the person with whom they are interacting. This is a natural learning mechanism that cognitive learning theories state is the foundation for all deep and lasting instruction (Hein, 1991). Through an engagement of the natural learning mechanisms, or cognitive structures, an individual should be capable of learning efficiently and form a more thorough understanding of a topic. Personalization of text through the use of informal speech and the inclusion of virtual coaches known as pedagogical agents are used as personalizing devices. These are particularly relevant options in the design of nonmoderated e-learning, as personalization is meant to fill the void where the instructor once stood. There are exclusions however, as pedagogical agents have been used in “traditional” online classrooms as well. This article focuses on the use of pedagogical agents in e-learning that: -Provides information on pedagogical agents strengths and weaknesses -Provides research relevant to pedagogical agents instructional role -Provides examples of current use -Discusses possibilities of future implementation.

A Conceptual Framework for Animation Design Based on E-Learning System

2011 ◽  
Vol 267 ◽  
pp. 510-515
Author(s):  
Chai Gang ◽  
Xiao Yu Huang
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Principal Axis ◽  
Learning Model ◽  
Learning System ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Open Model ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Types Of Instruction

A conceptual framework for the design of PILE for animation design is sketched out. PILE for animation design takes the concept of project as principal axis and focuses on interaction, collaboration, communication and critical thinking. Three main modules (VLMS, PCLP and PFS) of PILE run synergistically under the cooperation of six types of instruction technologies. The application of these elements makes the important aspect of PILE for animation design. In order to center on improving learning, the model of learning is changed from unilateral and close model to multilateral and open model. Accordingly, the framework of PILE for animation design provides a implementation of learning theories, including interactions, Hill's learning theory and projected-based learning model.

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