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An increasing number of universities around the world have adopted a learner-oriented approach to teaching. Collective learning is regarded as a way to support teachers to enhance this approach. Collective learning processes arise when the teachers collaborate and consciously strive for a shared vision, dialogue, collective action and evaluation. The goal of this explanatory correlational study was to explore whether and how collective learning is related to both learner-oriented teacher beliefs and teaching behaviour. The sample consisted of 90 teachers from management and social-educational programmes at a University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Questionnaires were used to measure teacher beliefs and their perception of collective learning. Observations were used to determine teaching behaviour. Results indicated a discrepancy between beliefs and behaviour. Teachers of both programmes generally agreed with learner-oriented beliefs but demonstrated predominantly teacher-oriented behaviour. Teachers in social-educational programmes rated collective learning significantly higher than teachers in management programmes. A positive relationship was found between collective learning and learner-oriented beliefs, however, no relationship was found between collective learning and learner-oriented teaching behaviour. In further studies, a qualitative design could be used to explore to what extent teachers collectively develop their beliefs and behaviour.

The purpose of the contemporary university has been redefined across the world in terms of success in global competition, usefulness for moneymaking, and efficiency, meaning application of New Public Management ideas. My aim is to sketch an alternative and future-oriented ethico-political conception of the university to serve counterhegemonic purposes. First I discuss briefly the Humboldtian myth and legacy. Second, I summarize Jürgen Habermas’s analysis of the historical and practical limits of the idea of the university. Third, in response to Habermas’s criticism, I outline a nonspeculative, scientific realist way of understanding the unity of all sciences and humanities. Fourth, I locate the idea of the university in the twenty-first century global context, understood in part as world risk society. And finally, I argue that the autonomy of the university should be anchored in the rules, principles and institutional arrangements of multi-spatial metagovernance, rather than just those of territorial states. The future of the university calls for new cosmopolitan institutional solutions and world citizenship. Non

International audience; Collective learning has been advocated to be at the source for innovation, particularly as serendipity seems historically to have been the driving force not only behind innovation, but also behind scientific discovery and artistic creation. Informal learning is well known to represent the most significant learning effects in humans, far better than its complement: formal learning with predefined objectives. We have designed an approach—ViewpointS—based on a digital medium—the ViewpointS Web Application—that enables and enhances the processes for sharing knowledge within a group and is equipped with metrics aimed at assessing collective and informal learning. In this article, we introduce by giving a brief state of the art about collective and informal learning, then outline our approach and medium, and finally, present and exploit a real-life experiment aimed at evaluating the ViewpointS approach and metrics.

Depuis quelques années, de nouveaux espaces d’apprentissage et de production ont vu le jour sous forme de FabLabs. Cet article se propose de présenter et d’analyser l’intérêt de la robotique éducative au sein de ces nouveaux d’espaces, tout en montrant les conditions et les difficultés à transférer ces espaces et ces pratiques dans plusieurs contextes, à travers une première initiative au Mali. Recently, FabLabs have been used and considered as new learning and production spaces. This communication will present and analyze activities in the field of educational robotics within these new spaces, while showing the interest, conditions and limits to transfer these spaces and practices in other contexts, like in an initiative in Mali. En los últimos años, han surgido nuevos espacios de aprendizaje y producción en forma de “FabLabs”. Este artículo propone presentar y analizar actividades en el campo de la robótica educativa dentro de estos nuevos espacios, al tiempo que muestra las condiciones y dificultades para transferir estos espacios y prácticas en otros contextos, a través de una primera iniciativa en Mali.

Although collaboration is considered a key 21st-century skill, oftentimes it is only assessed through the outcome measures of individual learners. In this paper, we draw upon collaborative cognitive load theory (CCLT) to explain the process of collaboration in learning from the point of view of the collective, rather than an individual learner. Using CCLT we suggest a new method of measuring the process of collaboration regardless of its outcome measures. Our approach — Collaborative Learning as a Process (CLaP) — uses social network analysis to evaluate the balance between interactivity gains and coordination costs of learner communities. Here, we demonstrate the approach using real-world data derived from the digital tracks of two online discussion communities. We argue that our conceptual approach can enable instructors and learners to unlock the black box of collaboration in learning. It has the potential to support the development of learner skills that go beyond cognition. We conclude the paper with the results of our investigation of the value of the approach to the online module instructor.

Network analysis has become a major approach for analysing social learning, used to capture learner positioning in online forum networks. LA research investigated the association between positioning in forum networks with academic performance and discourse quality, the later two serving as proxies for learning. However, the research findings have been inconsistent, in part due to the discrepancies in the adopted approaches to network construction. Yet, it is still unclear how online forum networks should be modelled to assure that the learners' network positioning is properly captured. To address this gap, the current study explored if some existing approaches to network construction may complement each other and thus offer richer insights. In particular, we hypothesised that the post reply learner network could represent interpersonal positioning,whereas the network based on co-participation in discussion threads could encapsulate intergroup positioning. The study used learner social interaction data from a large edX MOOC forum to examine the relationship between these two kinds of network positioning. Te results suggest that intergroup and interpersonal positioning may capture different aspects of social learning,potentially related to different learning outcomes. We find that although interpersonal and intergroup positioning indicators covary, these measures are not congruent for some 37% of forum posters. Network coevolution analysis also reveals an interdependent relationship between the intergroup and interpersonal centrality in a forum network. Co-occurrence of learners in a discussion thread prior to direct exchanges is predictive of a direct post-reply interaction at a later stage of the course, and vice-versa, suggesting that intergroup positioning is a precursor of direct communication. Te study contributes to the discussion around the definition of learner forum positioning inlearning analytics, and validated approaches towards measuring it Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Practitioners of transdisciplinary inquiry, which we define to include research, learning, collaboration, and action, encounter innumerable tensions. Some tensions are universal, while others are unique to that particular inquiry at that point in time. Resolving these tensions requires innovative practices, which emerge through experience with transdisciplinary inquiry. In this article, we reflect on two decades of transdisciplinary inquiry at the Institute for Sustainable Futures. Drawing on that experience, we argue that one crucial innovative practice is to create space for collective, reflective learning. Such learning frequently takes place in spaces we call “crossroads”. These are formal and informal spaces where practitioners who have been on their own transdisciplinary learning journeys (experiencing diverse tensions and applying diverse approaches) come together in dialogue to share, reflect, critically and constructively question, imagine, challenge, and synthesize their experiences into collective organizational learning. Crossroads can emerge spontaneously but can also be consciously nurtured. In our experience, they help us to sustain the innovation needed for transdisciplinary inquiry and to avoid stagnation or routinization. At these reflective, and often times transformative, crossroads, we make sense of our messy, non-linear transdisciplinary journeys and develop innovations to take our transdisciplinary practices forward.

To boost the existence of career-learning environments in Dutch vocational education, the innovation project ‘Career Orientation and Guidance (COG) in Secondary Vocational Education’ started in 2012. In this article, we describe the effects of this project on the level of policy formulation and implementation by means of three case studies. Data were collected at three schools through interviews, observations of meetings and teacher training, and analysis of policy documents. We conclude that a dialogue between managers and teachers, as well as among teachers is essential for changes in the learning environment of the students, since formulating a school-wide strategic policy requires communication between the different levels of the organisation, and clear tactical policy or operational plans require teacher teams and their team leaders to engage in substantive dialogues about the Career Orientation and Guidance innovation process. Instructional as well as transformational leadership stimulates a dialogical work environment for teachers and their managers, which is necessary for a dialogical career-learning environment for students.

This paper examines the evolution in the conceptualization of Social Innovation (SI) with a view to elucidating the multiplication of uses of the term over the last half century. We performed a comprehensive and systematic literature review extracting 252 definitions of SI through a search of 2,339 documents comprising academic papers, books and book chapters, together research and policy reports. To guide the inductive analysis of pluri-vocal discourses we assume innovation to be a learning-based process involving actors’ interactions and social practices. We apply mixed qualitative methodologies, combining content analysis based on an interpretivist ontology with cognitive mapping techniques. Our findings show that SI was introduced as an analytical concept by incipient academic communities and has spread in the last decades as a normative concept fuelled by development and innovation policies. SI is defined by a set of common core elements underpinning three different and interrelated discursive ‘areas’: processes of social change, sustainable development and the services sector. We point to some policy implications and a number of promising avenues for research towards the advancement of a broader socio-technical theory of innovation., This work has been partly funded by the JAE-Doc grant for the programme ‘Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios’, co-financed by the European Social Fund (JAEdoc008) and the Spanish Ministry of Science (from January 2012 to December 2014).

Incident reporting systems (IRSs) are used in many organisations as tools that promote safety by allowing to collectively learn from incidents. In this paper, we propose a social constructivist approach to learning from incidents, in which the focus is not purely on safety, but on the technology of incident reporting itself. We employ Wiebe Bijker’s work on the Social Construction of Technology to open up the analysis of a specific IRS in use at the Belgian Nuclear Research Center. For this purpose, we carried out 28 interviews with key local actors and collected documents and observation notes. Such social constructivist perspective provides detailed insight into the practices of reporting and the meanings of learning from incidents. Our research shows that various actors within the organisation frame the IRS differently. These framings each have their own implications for the vulnerability of the organisation.

Research shows that top‐down‐designed parenting programmes do not always meet the needs of postmigration parents. Bottom‐up programmes by migrant organizations hold a promise to fill this gap; however, research about these programmes and appropriate evaluation methodologies is scarce. Drawing upon Wenger's (2010) “communities of practice,” this paper explores an alternative perspective on parenting programme evaluation. Findings are presented from a study looking into social learning processes of postmigration parents who participated in a bottom‐up programme about raising teenagers in urban areas. Using an ethnographically inspired method combined with a preprogramme and postprogramme design, 115 Moroccan‐Dutch mothers and fathers from 15 programme groups participated. Results show that the programme provided a social learning space in which parents used themselves as resources to learn collectively about parenting. Moreover, parents consciously engaged in learning interactions across learning spaces stretched into their social networks. These analyses showed how parents' development of “learning citizenship” (Wenger, 2009) provides us with insight in collective learning dimensions present in a bottom‐up parenting programme, which is often not included in evaluation studies. Implications for practitioners as facilitators of parents' collective learning are presented.

Critical analyzing and reflective competence are essential objectives in all higher education. In academic professional education, it is a challenge for the teacher to support and develop the student´s critical reflection of both academic and placement studies. The aim of this study is to identify the characteristics of the teacher role and the challenges of the reflective seminar within higher education. Data were gathered through group interviews and analyzed with a phenomenological hermeneutic approach. The result shows four themes; the experience of control and uncertainty, building trust and challenging ideas, the alternation between closeness and distance, and the parallel processes of supervising learning and being in a learning state. One conclusion is that the seminar teaching practice stimulates a collegial learning environment. This practice promotes the teachers pedagogical and didactical competence and an open attitude to each other´s teaching practice.

Purpose: In this paper a new course design as a case study is presented. The course was given at bachelor level at Uppsala university, campus Gotland, within the division of quality technology. The purpose of the case is to give students an opportunity to practice acquired theoretical knowledge by offering them the opportunity to create an organization of their dreams, working in small groups.Methodology/Approach: This paper builds upon a case study approach, combining a literature review, document studies over the performed course and evaluations over the course.Findings: The case study shows that course design can be an important inspiration and a bridge between theory and practice for the students. Course design seems to support students’ learning processes according to evaluations of the course. Course design offers benefits of the collective learning, especially for distance students. It increases independence, understanding of one’s mission and accountability for it. Students are given the opportunity to practice the theoretical knowledge in their education in a creative and inspiring way. Still, there are further demands and challenges left of improvement in the course design.Research Limitation/implication: The research limitation is that this study consists of only one course in Quality Technology.Originality/Value of paper: This study contributes to the discussion about learning at university level through a case study.

This article reports the process of building a fuzzy set scale in order to value workers participation and their learning through a technical improvement project in metallurgical plants. The process starts with a practical question which stems from workers: ‘How can we value our own participation in collective improvement project and the learning related to it?’ Participation is structured in three subsets: participation in planning, in designing and in implementing the improvement project. These three subsets are aggregated in a global participation set. Learning is structured in two subsets: individual and group learning in the form of fuzzy inference system Mandami type. Participation (causal condition) constitutes a subset of achieved learning (the outcome), a sufficient but not necessary condition for the outcome. This subset relation is highly consistent providing support for the statement “participatory projects enable meaningful learning” between workers and organization.

The growing practice of transdisciplinary research and teaching is shifting its focus from disciplines to problems, driving the need for new paradigms. To achieve this requires a re-examination of, and an opening up of, ontological, epistemological and methodological framing of knowledge and understanding, as well as an adaptive approach to teaching place and space.For most university teachers, the process of shifting from traditional conceptions of pedagogy towards a more transdisciplinary approach requires adaptation of their thinking and practice. We have focused here on shifts at the micro scale of the classroom or ‘learning space’, rather than at the faculty or institutional level. We do this to enable teachers and students to maintain or reclaim agency in the pedagogical process at the classroom or micro level. This is particularly important for learning outcomes, given that greater control over their environment is identified as a key success factor in student learning. We describe the micro-context as a ‘sociomaterial assemblage’ to convey our holistic, multi-dimensional, systems approach in which our pedagogical context is a gathering of people and things that combine to form a whole that is different to the parts. We describe four key adaptive shifts in these assemblages: (1) from a disciplinary focus to to a problem focus, (2) from a unified, hegemonic approach to foundational thinking (or paradigmatic change) to an approach which embraces a diverse, inclusive plurality of world-views, (3) from compartmentalization to the co-production of knowledge, (4) a shift to an approach which reinforces the adaptive use of space, time and things. To address and work with the complexity, we use multiple perspectives to understand and adapt these assemblages by using five epistemic lenses (biophysical, cultural, ethical, relational and aesthetic). We address the inevitable tensions which change generates via an iterative process, requiring multiple learning cycles, and a process of reflection and reflexivity, particularly given that every partial solution to a wicked problem uncovers new problems.

This paper proposes models of learning process in teams of individuals who collectively execute a sequence of tasks and whose actions are determined by individual skill levels and networks of interpersonal appraisals and influence. The closely-related proposed models have increasing complexity, starting with a centralized manager-based assignment and learning model, and finishing with a social model of interpersonal appraisal, assignments, learning, and influences. We show how rational optimal behavior arises along the task sequence for each model, and discuss conditions of suboptimality. Our models are grounded in replicator dynamics from evolutionary games, influence networks from mathematical sociology, and transactive memory systems from organization science., Comment: A preliminary version has been accepted by the 53rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control. The journal version has been submitted to IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control

This paper looks at the effect of identifying alters as direct competitors on their selection as advisors. We differentiate between two kinds of competition: cut-throat vs friendly. We argue that, unlike cut-throat competition, friendly competition makes collective learning possible as a social process: when knowledge is built in interactions that are able to mitigate the negative effects of status competition and take place in homophilous social niches; and when the quality of this knowledge is guaranteed by members with epistemic status in these niches. Social niches and status facilitate advice seeking and collective learning because advice seeking between direct competitors is not obvious even when members have a common interest in sharing advice – a learning-related dilemma of collective action. We apply this reasoning to a network dataset combining identification of direct competitors and selection of advisors among the elite of cancer researchers in France. We use a procedure of multiplex stochastic block-modeling designed by Barbillon et al. (2015) to measure the effect of these identifications of direct competitors on the structure of the advice network. Results obtained with this dataset support our theory.

International audience; In this paper, we describe a process of validation for an already published model, which relies on the M2M paradigm of work. The initial model showed that over-confident agents, which refuse to communicate with agents whose beliefs differ, disturb collective learning within a population. We produce an analytical model based on probabilistic analysis, that enables us to explain better the process at stake in our first model, and demonstrates that this process is indeed converging. To make sure that the convergence time is meaningful for our question (not just for an infinite number of agents living for an infinite time), we use the analytical model to produce very simple simulations and assess that the result holds in finite contexts.

Past studies relate small business advisory program effectiveness to advisory characteristics such as advisory intensity and scope. We contribute to existing literature by seeking to identify the impact of different advisory program methods of delivery on learning and subsequent firm innovation behavior. Our research is based on a survey of 257 Australian firms completing small business advisory programs in the three years preceding the research. We explore the range of small business advisory program delivery methods in which our surveyed firms participated and, with reference to the literature on organizational learning and innovation, we analyze predictors of firms' learning ability and innovativeness based on the identified delivery methods. First, we found that business advisory programs that involved high levels of collective learning and tailored approaches enhanced firms' perceptions of their learning of critical skills or capabilities. We also found that small business advisory programs that were delivered by using practice-based approaches enhanced firms' subsequent organizational innovation. We verified this finding by testing whether firms that have participated in small business advisory services subsequently demonstrate improved behavior in terms of organizational innovativeness, when compared with matched firms that have not participated in an advisory program.

A partir de l’étude du cas de « La Ruche », espace collectif de travail pour entrepreneurs sociaux à Paris (France), nous proposerons un modèle d’accompagnement entrepreneurial original reposant sur des apprentissages collectifs. Contrairement à la démarche traditionnelle de l’accompagnement dans laquelle l’accompagnateur a un rôle de prescription, ici la figure de l’accompagnateur disparaît au profit du collectif formé par les entrepreneurs. Les conditions de fonctionnement de ce dispositif reposent sur la sélection, articulant une tension entre diversité des projets et partage de valeurs communes, la dynamique interactionnelle supportée par la programmation d’événements, et le rôle de l’environnement physique de travail., From the case study of “La Ruche”, collective workspace hosting social entrepreneurs in Paris (France), we propose an original model of entrepreneurial support based on collective learning. Unlike the traditional approach of entrepreneurial support in which the guide role is about prescription, in this case the figure of the guide disappears in favor of a collective formed by entrepreneurs. Operating conditions of this model are the selection process, articulating a tension between diversity of projects and shared values, the interaction process relying on events, and the role of the physical work environment., A partir del estudio de caso “La Ruche”, espacio de trabajo colectivo para emprendedores sociales en París (Francia), proponemos un modelo de acompañamiento al emprendimiento original que se basa en aprendizajes colectivos. A diferencia del enfoque tradicional de acompañamiento en el cual el acompañante tiene un rol de prescripción, en este caso la figura del acompañante desaparece para dar paso a un grupo compuesto de emprendedores. Las condiciones de funcionamiento de este dispositivo son la selección basada en la diversidad de los proyectos y los valores comunes, la dinámica de interacción favorecida por la programación de eventos y el rol del espacio físico de trabajo.

This paper looks at dialogue and collective learning across borders through personal networks of judges. We focus on judges participating in the Venice Forum, bringing together European patent judges involved in institutional lobbying for the construction of a European Patent Court. Empirical observation shows that personal networks of discussion with foreign judges, reading of their work and references to their decisions do exist in this milieu and can be mapped. Our network study shows that judges from some European countries are more active in this dialogue than judges from other countries. The learning process is driven, to some extent, by a small subset of super-central judges who frame this dialogue and can be considered to be opinion leaders in this social milieu. We measure a strong level of consensus among the judges on several controversial issues surrounding the procedure of a possible future European Patent Court. But strong differences between them remain. Dialogue and collective learning do not, by themselves, lead to convergence towards a uniform position in these controversies.

En este artículo exploramos las redes de consejo inter-organizacionales, apoyándonos en la idea de que la naturaleza de las interdependencias funcionales entre los actores es diferente a nivel intra-organizacional y a nivel interorganizacional. Esta diferencia influye en la manera en la que los miembros de un colectivo tratan de resolver los problemas relacionados con la evaluación de la pertinencia de los conocimientos. A nivel intra-organizacional, los conflictos epistémicos se resuelven por un movimiento de centralización y de alineamiento en torno a algunos pocos actores que detentan una autoridad formal. Esta hegemonía, formal y cognitiva, les permite imponer un consenso y ejercer un control elevado sobre el colectivo. En cambio, a nivel inter-organizacional, los conflictos epistémicos se resuelven por un movimiento de polarización, que es mantenido en parte por el activismo relacional de varios líderes de opinión, cuyo poder coercitivo no es absoluto. Ilustramos este proceso de aprendizaje a través de las redes de consejo entre empresarios científicos en la industria biotecnológica francesa., In this article we explore inter-organizational advice networks to build on the idea that the nature of the functional interdependencies between actors is different at the intra-organizational and the inter-organizational level. This difference influences the way in which members of a collective attempt to solve problems associated with evaluating the relevance of knowledge. At the intra-organizational level, cognitive conflicts are resolved by a movement of centralization and alignment around a few actors who benefit from formal authority. This hegemony, formal and cognitive, allows them to impose a consensus and to exercise high control over the collective. In contrast, this paper shows that at the inter-organizational level, cognitive conflicts are resolved by a movement of polarization, which is maintained in part by the relational activism of several opinion leaders whose coercive power is not absolute. We illustrate this learning process through advice networks between scientific entrepreneurs in the French biotechnology industry.

Starting from neurobiological hypotheses on the existence of place cells (PC) in the brain, the aim of this article is to show how little assumptions at both individual and social levels can lead to the emergence of non-trivial global behaviors in a multi-agent system (MAS). In particular, we show that adding a simple, hebbian learning mechanism on a cognitive map allows autonomous, situated agents to adapt themselves in a dynamically changing environment, and that even using simple agent-following strategies (driven either by similarities in the agent movement, or by individual marks - “signatures” - in agents) can dramatically improve the global performance of the MAS, in terms of survival rate of the agents. Moreover, we show that analogies can be made between such a MAS and the emergence of certain social behaviors.

SummaryA popular argument about economic policy under uncertainty states that decentralisation offers the possibility to learn from local or regional policy experiments. Often, an analogy between market competition as a discovery procedure and political competition is used to corroborate this argument. We argue that political learning processes are not trivial and do not occur frictionlessly: Voters have an inherent tendency to retain a given stock of policy-related knowledge which was costly to accumulate, so that yardstick competition is improbable to function well particularly for complex issues, if representatives’ actions are tightly controlled by the electorate.We show that factor mobility does have the potential to endogenously disturb equilibria on regional markets for political theories, and therefore does provide for improved political learning processes compared to unitary systems. But the results we can expect are far from the ideal mechanisms of producing and utilising knowledge often described in the literature. In particular, collective learning may occur in the relatively efficient region, while the status quo may be fortified in the relatively inefficient region.

In this paper, we deal with collective learning in a distance context and with information technology to support it. A limit of distance situation leads in the difficulty to have a feedback on users’ actions and behaviors. In distance education, this difficulty is an obstacle to the monitoring of teacher and to the collective work of learners. We think that computer system can contribute to solve this problem by giving feedback on users’ behavior. We propose an approach to automatic analysis of learners’ social behavior, like moderator or independent, during computer-mediated synchronous textual conversations. This approach is based on the specification and design of a conversation tool semi-structured by communicative acts., Dans cet article, nous nous intéressons à l’apprentissage collectif dans un contexte de distance et à l’utilisation des technologies informatiques pour le soutenir. Une des limites de la distance réside dans la difficulté d’avoir un retour d’information sur les actions et comportements des utilisateurs. En formation à distance, cette difficulté est un obstacle pour le suivi pédagogique des tuteurs et pour la réalisation d’activités collectives entre apprenants. Nous pensons que l’informatique peut contribuer à résoudre ce problème en recueillant des informations sur le comportement des utilisateurs. En particulier, nous proposons ici une approche pour la détermination automatique de comportements sociaux, comme des comportements d’animateurs ou d’indépendant, lors de conversations textuelles synchrones. Cette approche est fondée sur la spécification et la conception d’un outil de conversation semi-structuré par des actes de langage., George Sébastien. Analyse automatique de conversations textuelles synchrones d’apprenants pour la détermination de comportements sociaux. In: Sciences et Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication pour l'Éducation et la Formation, volume 10, 2003. Technologies et Formation à distance. pp. 165-193.

Resume Cet article presente les resultats d’une etude de terrain (enquete d’usage) portant sur les caracteristiques des Situations d’Apprentissage Collectives Instrumentees (SACI) dans l’enseignement superieur selon le point de vue des acteurs (concepteur et tuteur) qui ont participe a leur conception ou a leur utilisation avec des etudiants. Notre propos est de determiner les formes que prennent les SACI (en termes de scenario, d’outils, de type d’activite...) et les demarches pedagogiques mises en pratique par les acteurs enseignants. Nous detaillons les resultats de notre etude, faisant principalement ressortir une demarche « artisanale » des acteurs, c’est-a-dire fondee sur une utilisation opportuniste et pragmatique des outils disponibles pour s’adapter aux contextes de formation.