Understanding the Congruence Between Teacher Intention and Student Learning Outcome

<p>Research into what takes place between the instructional intent of a teaching act and students’ experience of the same act is central to better understanding teaching and learning. In this case study, individual teacher and student interviews, qualitative observation and textual analysis were used to compare teacher intention with student learning outcome, to judge congruence between the two. The study, in a large urban primary school, focused on two classrooms of students from 9-­‐13 years old. Congruence between teacher intention and student learning outcome, was examined over five consecutive lessons that aimed to achieve a particular outcome. It was found that teachers’ and students’ explanatory context was influential. In particular, the alignment between conceptions of learning informing teacher intention and task was significant. Where the conceptions aligned, there was greater congruence. Where there was a disjuncture, congruence was compromised. In addition teacher knowledge of curriculum content, the pervasiveness of task perception and the impact of outcome space was material. The study highlights an opportunity for further research into the congruence between teacher intention and student learning outcome where deep conceptions of learning inform instructional intent and into the impact of teacher belief systems on the conceptions of learning held.</p>

Understanding the Congruence Between Teacher Intention and Student Learning Outcome

<p>Research into what takes place between the instructional intent of a teaching act and students’ experience of the same act is central to better understanding teaching and learning. In this case study, individual teacher and student interviews, qualitative observation and textual analysis were used to compare teacher intention with student learning outcome, to judge congruence between the two. The study, in a large urban primary school, focused on two classrooms of students from 9-­‐13 years old. Congruence between teacher intention and student learning outcome, was examined over five consecutive lessons that aimed to achieve a particular outcome. It was found that teachers’ and students’ explanatory context was influential. In particular, the alignment between conceptions of learning informing teacher intention and task was significant. Where the conceptions aligned, there was greater congruence. Where there was a disjuncture, congruence was compromised. In addition teacher knowledge of curriculum content, the pervasiveness of task perception and the impact of outcome space was material. The study highlights an opportunity for further research into the congruence between teacher intention and student learning outcome where deep conceptions of learning inform instructional intent and into the impact of teacher belief systems on the conceptions of learning held.</p>

Towards Dialogic Metaphors of Learning – from Socialization to Authoring

The background of the article is an interest in theories of learning and the metaphors of learning they build on and propagate. The basic argument is that the discursive construction of learning plays a central role in theoretical perspectives in research but also in discussions of societal issues in a wider sense. An initial observation is that current metaphors of learning oscillate between emphasizing socializing/reproductive dimensions and perspectives which foreground new-thinking transformations of existing collective knowledge; the culturally given. Hence, our aim is to explore conceptions of learning underpinning dominant theoretical perspectives as behaviorism, cognitivism, pragmatism, and various sociocultural traditions, in the light of this theoretical tension. Our conclusion is that the views of communication and learning inherent to the radical dialogic perspective on communication that stresses the unfinalizable nature of knowing, offered by Bakhtin, add to our understanding of how learning may be conceptualized in contemporary society. Such a dialogic perspective, emphasizing open-ended agency, plurality of voices, and performative potentials of creatively expressing opinions when learning from each other, offers a perspective on learning worth considering in times of diversity, unpredictable risks, and the need for critical self-reflexivity.

Dialogic pedagogy and semiotic-dialogic inquiry into visual literacies and augmented reality

Technological determinism has been driving conceptions of technology enhanced learning for the last two decades at least. The abrupt shift to the emergency delivery of online courses during COVID-19 has accelerated big tech’s coup d’état of higher education, perhaps irrevocably. Yet, commercial technologies are not necessarily aligned with dialogic conceptions of learning while a technological transmission model negates learners’ input and interactions. Mikhail Bakhtin viewed words as the multivocal bridge to social thought. His theory of the polysemy of language, that has subsequently been termed dialogism, has strong correlations with the semiotic philosophy of American pragmatist Charles Sanders Peirce. Peirce’s semiotic philosophy of signs extends far beyond words, speech acts, linguistics, literary genres, and/or indeed human activity. This study traces links between Bakhtin’s dialogism with Peirce’s semiotics. Conceptual synthesis develops the semiotic-dialogic framework. Taking augmented reality as a theoretical case, inquiry illustrates that while technologies are subsuming traditional pedagogies, teachers and learners, this does not necessarily open dialogic learning. This is because technologies are never dialogic, in and of themselves, although semiotic learning always involves social actors’ interpretations of signs. Crucially, semiotic-dialogism generates theorising of the visual literacies required by learners to optimise technologies for dialogic learning.

CONCEPTIONS OF LEARNING SCIENCE IN INFORMAL ENVIRONMENTS AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN MAINLAND CHINA

Previous studies on students’ conceptions of learning science (COLS) have focused primarily on formal environments. In these studies, students’ COLS were positively associated with their approaches to and outcomes for science learning. However, little research has been conducted to explore students’ conceptions of learning science in informal environments (COLSIE), despite its importance to students’ academic achievement. To fill this research gap, this study qualitatively and quantitatively explored Chinese primary school students’ COLSIE. First, in Study I, interview data gathered from a group of 80 students were analysed using the phenomenographic method, and ten hierarchical categories of COLSIE emerged (e.g., communicating and explaining). Based on these categories, a survey was developed and distributed to another group of 414 students in Study II. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to validate the survey, which revealed nine factors matching the ten categories except for the initial categories of applying and understanding. This study also revealed the commonalities and uniqueness of COLSIE in comparison with students’ COLS in formal environments. The findings suggested that informal science learning experiences may strengthen students’ impressions of science practices. Science educators are encouraged to provide their students with opportunities to engage with science practices in informal environments. Keywords: primary school students; Mainland China; conceptions of learning science; informal environments; phenomenographic