An Architecture for Bidirectional Learning Games

Dynamic personalization of learning trajectories that integrate different perspectives and variable scenarios is a viable way to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of training and education. Serious games offer a designated platform for this, by aggregating learner interactions, and using these to dynamically configure, adjust and tailor the game to individuals and contexts. An architecture is presented to support the creation of serious games for specific scenarios, in a faster, more effective and efficient manner. Following a research-by-design approach, the architecture is simultaneously developed and applied in case studies, with the experiences infused as enhancements for subsequent design iterations.

Navigating European education in times of crisis? An analysis of socio-technological architectures and user interfaces of online learning initiatives

This study casts light on two online learning initiatives funded by the European Commission, and queries their role as policy actors in the long-term project of a “borderless” European Education Area and/or in the remediation of the so-called “refugee crisis.” Particularly, the study aims to contribute to existing research on the policy enactment of European education spaces, while also addressing their implicated times. Social topology has guided a theoretical-conceptual focus on bordering practices, socio-technological architectures, and user interfaces, and their enactment of forms of Europe. This informed the methodology to center around active navigations on user interfaces of these online learning initiatives, based on the argument that these concretize bordering practices and forms of spaces-times. The findings, presented as re-constructions of the active navigations, stress multiple possibilities EC-funded online learning initiatives to evolve, including shifting responsibilities and differentiated learning trajectories. By highlighting these possibilities, the study aims to interpose the relatively short development of digitalization in (European) education, in which digital technologies have been positioned as “flexible” solutions in times of crisis. The study thereby stirs up discussions on how European online learning initiatives could integrate long-term visions with crisis remediations and, accordingly, could support continuously renewable educational spaces-times.

Logical word learning: The case of kinship

We examine the conceptual development of kinship through the lens of program induction. We present a computational model for the acquisition of kinship term concepts, resulting in the first computational model of kinship learning that is closely tied to developmental phenomena. We demonstrate that our model can learn several kinship systems of varying complexity using cross-linguistic data from English, Pukapuka, Turkish, and Yanomamö. More importantly, the behavioral patterns observed in children learning kinship terms, under-extension and over-generalization, fall out naturally from our learning model. We then conducted interviews to simulate realistic learning environments and demonstrate that the characteristic-to-defining shift is a consequence of our learning model in naturalistic contexts containing abstract and concrete features. We use model simulations to understand the influence of logical simplicity and children’s learning environment on the order of acquisition of kinship terms, providing novel predictions for the learning trajectories of these words. We conclude with a discussion of how this model framework generalizes beyond kinship terms, as well as a discussion of its limitations.

Spelling patterns of plural marking and learning trajectories in French taught as a foreign language

Although French plural spelling has been studied extensively, the complexity of factors affecting the learning of French plural spelling are not yet fully explained, namely on the level of adjectival and verbal plural. This study investigates spelling profiles of French plural markers of 228 multilingual grade 5 pupils with French taught as a foreign language. Three analyses on the learner performances of plural spelling in nouns, verbs and pre- and postnominal attributive adjectives were conducted (1) to detect the pupils’ spelling profiles of plural marking on the basis of the performances in the pretest, (2) to test the profiles against two psycholinguistic theories, and (3) to evaluate the impact of the training on each spelling profile in the posttest. The first analysis confirms the existing literature that pupils’ learning of French plural is not random but ordered and emphasizes the role of the position for adjectives (pre- or postnominal) on correct plural spelling. The second analysis reveals the theoretical difficulties of predicting spelling of adjectival and verbal plural. The third analysis shows that strong and poor spellers both benefit from a morphosyntactic training and provides transparency and traceability of the learning trajectories. Together, the descriptive analyses reveal clear patterns of intra-individual spelling profiles. They point to a need for further research in those areas that have empirically provided the most inconsistent results to date and that are not supported by the theories: verbs and adjectives.

Agency Fluctuations and Identity Transformations in Chinese English-Majors on Their Learning Trajectories

This paper explores agency fluctuations and identity transformations in Chinese English-majors and how they are related to the process of English learning. By tracing a group of students for four years in a Chinese university and conducting qualitative analyses to their oral narrations of learning experiences at different periods, the study has found that most participants started and ended their university life at relatively high levels of agency, with inevitable ups and downs in between. Agency fluctuations in the learners are the result of their identity positioning and repositioning within a complex and ever-changing context. Concordant or conflicting identities may co-exist within an individual learner and keep changing across different situations. Learner identities will cause increase or reduction in their investment in English learning, while their learning experience will in turn reinforce or undermine their identities. The study sheds light on the intricate relationships between agency, identity and language learning and therefore has important implications for English learning and teaching in China.

Capability development by educational technology

The capability to identify and make a judgement about the quality of own and work of others is known as evaluative judgement. Such capability is crucial for learners and their learning trajectories, allowing them to become job-ready graduates and life-long learners. The overall concept is newly named but existed in different forms and shapes in the literature. There is sporadic literature investigation of evaluative judgement development by educational technology. Self-assessment, peer-assessment and portfolios in the online learning environment bring various educational values and benefits. Each of these pedagogical activities can contribute to the development of evaluative judgement in an online environment enhanced by educational technology. The primary purpose of this paper is to expand the discussion about the development of evaluative judgement using educational technology. This paper provides some rationale for the inclusion of selected pedagogical activities in the curriculum and actively using them in student-centred education.

Learning Trajectories Visualizations of Students Data on the Computational Thinking Context

Learning trajectories are paths that students may follow in order to achieve learning goals. The visualization of learning trajectories of students can support teachers in tracking students evolution and identify difficulties. We propose visualizations of learning trajectories in a new and interactive way, representing different concepts of computational thinking and learning goals in concise or detailed manner, according to interactions of the user. To evaluate our proposal, we chose to represent a series of exercises found in code.org, a free and well known platform that introduces and exercises computational thinking through visual programming. These visualizations were evaluated by 20 elementary school teachers in usability perspective.