A Paradigm for Global Student Interactions Through Digital Technologies in a Post-COVID Era

The widespread outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced almost every aspect of our lives to shift to online modalities. One outcome of the pandemic was to effectively establish digital learning as a major system for education. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the development and implementation of a web-based resource for college instruction. The foundation for this pedagogical tool is sociocultural learning theory. This instructional tool has been deployed with over 2000 students to date. Its successful employment with college students in India and the USA is outlined, and suggestions are included for its generalized use to other content and courses.

The influences of teacher aspirations and practices for children’s inclusive music education: The case of Muziki Changa

This article explores the concept of inclusion within a music education programme called Muziki Changa based in Kenya. Through the lenses of Vygotsky’s sociocultural learning theory and Wenger’s communities of practice, the article explores the aspirations and practices of one of the founders and two teachers at Muziki Changa, an informal music education programme, and their impact on children’s inclusive music education. Findings indicate that teachers’ informal learning practices within communities of practice inspire them to pursue children’s social inclusion in music education and to utilize inclusive pedagogies in teaching. The study concludes that early childhood music education through informal education initiatives is contributing significantly to increase opportunities for children’s inclusive music education in Kenya.

Instructional Design Models and Theories

Instructional design models help instructors to organize, develop, administer, and evaluate learning programs. Seven of the theories that drive these efforts are situated cognition theory, sociocultural learning theory, the ADDIE model, Merrill's principles of instruction, individualized instruction, Bloom's taxonomy of learning objectives, and the SAM model. All these models are highly iterative meaning that changes are frequent and interlocked. This makes the evaluation of learning that occurred highly important. Dr. Robert Mager is credited with being the father of the instructional objective. The effective performance objective consists of three parts: the terminal behavior, the conditions under which the behavior will be performed, and a standard of acceptable performance. Consequently, the complete objective contains the essence of what should be evaluated. A very key element in this learning process is the provision of immediate and detailed feedback. Several good authoring apps exist that can support computers in performing this task.

Interprofessional Education: Students' Learning of Joint Patient Care

This study examines how patient care is developed in meetings between students of occupational therapy, physiotherapy, nursing and medicine who are allowed to shape their own interprofessional collaboration. We conduct a thematic interpretative analysis of audio recordings and observations from the meetings and informal talks with the students. The analysis draws on traditions in sociocultural learning theory that deal with interaction on something in common between actors with different knowledge bases and the consequences of this interaction. The analysis showed that the students developed collaboration in patient care by sharing, assessing and determining professional knowledge of patients’ health conditions collectively. In conclusion, we argue that the students learned to use a multiprofessional knowledge base in the design of patient treatment when they were given responsibility to create the collaboration themselves. This demonstrates that students can be encouraged to independently develop professional collaboration in patient care within interprofessional education. Corrected and republished 22.12.2019.

Decolonizing English Language Teaching for Brazilian Indigenous Peoples

This paper investigates the design and methods of English language teaching (ELT) curricula in the Brazilian indigenous educational context. Under Brazilian federal law, English is a mandatory curricular requirement for all, including indigenous students. This paper analyzes contributions relevant to the decolonization of English teaching in indigenous contexts from postcolonial theories on education, perspectives on decolonized ELT, and sociocultural learning theory. An argument is made for the development of ELT curricula and methodology in collaboration with indigenous teachers, in order to prioritize their communities, cultures, and traditional knowledge.

Cultural Orientation Differences and Their Implications for Online Learning Satisfaction

The purpose of this chapter, which uses sociocultural learning theory as its framework and a mixed-methods study design, is to understand the differences between personal culture orientation and online learning satisfaction by examining culture at the macro and micro level in an online learning environment. More specifically, this chapter examines the cultural orientation differences among graduate students enrolled in at least one online course in the fall of 2011 at a Western institution of higher education and how these cultural differences impact their level of satisfaction with online learning. Both quantitative and qualitative data is collected, respectively, via surveys, and interviews indicate that, although culture does not directly affect satisfaction, there is a need to raise awareness about the critical factors that may affect online learning experience and to provide guidance for practice and future research.

Cultural Orientation Differences and Their Implications for Online Learning Satisfaction

The purpose of this chapter, which uses sociocultural learning theory as its framework and a mixed-methods study design, is to understand the differences between personal culture orientation and online learning satisfaction by examining culture at the macro and micro level in an online learning environment. More specifically, this chapter examines the cultural orientation differences among graduate students enrolled in at least one online course in the fall of 2011 at a Western institution of higher education and how these cultural differences impact their level of satisfaction with online learning. Both quantitative and qualitative data is collected, respectively, via surveys, and interviews indicate that, although culture does not directly affect satisfaction, there is a need to raise awareness about the critical factors that may affect online learning experience and to provide guidance for practice and future research.

Cultural Orientation Differences and their Implications for Online Learning Satisfaction

The purpose of this chapter, which uses sociocultural learning theory as its framework and a mixed-methods study design, is to understand the differences between personal culture orientation and online learning satisfaction by examining culture at the macro and micro level in an online learning environment. More specifically, this chapter examines the cultural orientation differences among graduate students enrolled in at least one online course in the fall of 2011 at a Western institution of higher education and how these cultural differences impact their level of satisfaction with online learning. Both quantitative and qualitative data is collected, respectively, via surveys, and interviews indicate that, although culture does not directly affect satisfaction, there is a need to raise awareness about the critical factors that may affect online learning experience and to provide guidance for practice and future research.

Toward a Sociocultural Learning Theory Framework to Designing Online learning Communities in Citizen Science

How can sociocultural learning theory inform design principles for citizen science online learning communities to inspire local environmental action? The purpose of this article is to identify themes in sociocultural learning theory that could inform the use and development of highly collaborative online learning communities that utilize community informatics tools for citizen science to enable on-the-ground environmental actions. Applying previously established socio-cultural theories provides an opportunity to build on what’s already known about how people learn and collaborate. Finally, this article explains how communities of practice theory, knowledge building theory, and place-based education theory can be woven together to create the basis for development of a conceptual framework.