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This research aims at exploring the need for investigating the beliefs and perceptions related to online learners' roles and functions of constructing knowledge and learning in higher education. The study attempts to examine the contemporary literature on online education to review the perceptions around online learners' roles as well as the tutors' perspectives on learners' participation and responsibilities in learning and peer-learning. Since higher education learners are usually more aware of teaching and learning objectives than learners at other levels, then, using interviews and observations for such research instead of surveys could produce new and in-depth findings. Furthermore, understanding the conceptualizations of both teachers and students about the 'roles of learners' can be helpful to ongoing pedagogical improvement for quality learning to take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As appliable linguistics, systemic functional linguistics (SFL) has been widely applied in various areas of education - in studies of classroom discourse, in teacher training, curriculum development, etc. Zhihui Fang is a leading scholar who has applied systemic functional linguistics in the development of pedagogical models for secondary literacy education. In this interview, Yanmei Gao, Chengzhu Yin and Hanbing Li ask Zhihui Fang about the applicability of systemic functional linguistics in literacy education, especially in the United States. They also discuss the possible influence of the new developments of the Sydney School, such as genre relations, on content areas teaching practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the changes in student behaviors that resulted from the switch from face-to-face (F2F) learning to computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL) due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We constructed a triple-dimensional index with “thinking ability improvement”, “horizontal knowledge construction”, and “vertical social relationship evolution” to make comparisons. According to majors, we selected 23 students who registered for entrepreneurship courses from March to June 2019 in F2F and 23 students from March to June 2020 in CSCL formats. We utilized mixed methods, including experimental, content-based, and social network methods, to conduct evaluations. The results show the following: (1) Cooperative learning is beneficial in cultivating creative thinking for both F2F and CSCL groups. (2) The level of knowledge construction was slightly higher in F2F than that in CSCL in general. The effect of F2F learning in the early stage of the course was better, and in the later stage of the class CSCL attained a higher value. (3) For social abilities, the interactions in CSCL were closer than those in the F2F group. F2F cooperative learning was more prone to “fake cooperation” and free-riding behavior, whereas CSCL led to “pan-cooperation” and lacked the in-depth exploration of knowledge. Therefore, this pandemic provides opportunities for cooperative learning with in-depth exploration. CSCL offers sustainable and more hybrid learning activities that allow for the combination of online and offline learning to be experienced according to course contents.

Social reading is a common practice in higher education to engage students in critical reading and classroom dialogues around course materials. This paper introduces a study that integrated a social annotation technology and a scaffolding framework to support social reading in undergraduate classrooms. The framework, grounded in the computer-supported collaborative learning literature, specifies three participation roles—namely, facilitator , synthesizer , and summarizer —that have distinct responsibilities in each week's social reading activities. Using Hypothesis, the social annotation technology, we piloted the framework in a fully online undergraduate course. To examine how the framework facilitated social interaction and knowledge construction, we applied social network analysis and content analysis to a rich dataset. Results revealed that the framework fostered active participation in class with students followed the assigned roles properly. This study has practical implications for online teaching and collaborative learning in higher education. • We designed a scaffolding framework for social annotation, applicable to a wide range of college-level classes. • We developed a revised interaction analysis model for the analysis of student discussions in social annotation. • Social network analysis and content analysis were used to examine students' interaction and knowledge construction. • Students taking the designed roles effectively facilitated social interaction and knowledge construction in class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on whether biomedical knowledge contributes significantly to the clinical reasoning process is on-going. Despite this debate, one cannot underestimate that subjects such as anatomy and physiology play a key role in the understanding of the human body. Misconceptions that exist or arise in biomedical subjects, such as physiology and anatomy, can impact on the learning processes of medical students. The present paper presents an overview of research in the field of biomedical misconceptions and consists of two parts. First, the authors draw on three theoretical frameworks, constructivism, concept formation and element interactivity in complex reasoning, to offer insight as to why misconceptions in biomedical subjects could potentially arise and exist. In the second part, the authors synthesize empirical studies on biomedical misconceptions that draw on similar theoretical frameworks. The limited research available in this field suggests that the three theories discussed in this paper do provide valuable insights into how misconceptions in anatomy and physiology can hamper coherent knowledge construction, and potentially play an obstructive role when students are required to perform complex cognitive tasks such as clinical reasoning.

Whereas it is has now been generally recognised that multilingualism is important for society, for culture and (more recently) for the economy, the world of science still largely escapes notice. But science too is created and transmitted in and through communication, which means that thought needs to be given to the various forms of its communication. Today, the construction and transmission of knowledge is based on a growing monolingualism, with English as the lingua franca/ lingua academica regarded as a condition of any knowledge that seeks to be universal. However, this idea is based on the illusion that languages are transparent and that the modes of communication are universal, because they are mere vehicles in the service of ideas and discoveries. Although English has facilitated extraordinary advances in knowledge, it can also eventually lead to the impoverishment of knowledge. There are risks in developing a monoculture of knowledge and science in so far as languages are involved in shaping knowledge.

In the last years, we have witnessed to an increasingly heightened awareness of the potential benefits of a challenging and promising educational research area : Adaptive Learning [1]. It has become one of the central technologies in education [2] and was recently named, by Gartner, as the number one strategic technology to impact education in 2015 [3]. In fact, adaptive learning systems become more accessible to educational institutions, corporations, and individuals, however, the challenges encountered are more structural and operational rather than technological [4]. While a lot of research has focused on development and evaluation of technological aspects [5], serious questions remain about the motivation of learners [6],[7] and also the design of the content (or domain) model [8],[9] including the learner's autonomy issues [9],[10],[11] and the lack of the learner's control [9],[12],[13]. In order to overcome those challenges, we propose CLE “Connected Learning Environment” which is an ubiquitous learning environment [14] that provide to the learners of this generation a learning environment adapted to their expectations and their lifestyle habits and stimulate also their motivation. As a pedagogical approach, CLE adopts the connectivism [15] and take advantage from its benefits (adaptation to the current technological advances [16], management of learning in communities [17], openness with respect to external resources[18], etc.) and adapts this approach in a formal context even though the connectivism was conceived as an informal pedagogical approach [19][20]. CLE introduces a new pedagogical process including four phases detailed later (Knowledge construction, Decision making, Validation, Evaluation) and the knowledge construction phase is characterized by the collaboration and communication between heterogeneous communities composed of humans and smart objects [14]. However, the ability to distinguish relevant information among the knowledge constructed by the actors is a vital point. As part of this article, we focus on the decision making process. To do this, a comparison is made between C4.5 [21] decision tree and MLP [22] neural network on the same data set using the same performance measures in order to take a decision on the relevance of knowledge constructed by the CLE actors.

Higher education in design, scholarly research and design research need to be continuously clarified in relation to evolving concepts such as knowledge, theory and practice. Being awarded a Ph.D. in design about 25 years ago, when scholarly research in design was in its infancy, and working with students in master and Ph.D. programmes in design for more than two decades, I share with the reader what I keep on learning in this educational milieu. It is my own perspective, based either on past experience or on the ongoing perception of local concerns. More broadly, a number of underlying general issues are reported to highlight the spread of design research practice encompassing aspects such as theory as a practice; the lack of fully consolidated design research frameworks where design paradigms may be embedded; and the need to nurture and strengthen the process of theory-making in design doctorates. What it is finally claimed is the advantage of theory as formae mentis, intended as a habitus for design research learners. While education in design often collectively addresses the professions of design, architecture and engineering, the following reflections will mainly address the manifold domains of industrial design, intended as a comprehensive term for either tangible or intangible design domains, intersecting product, graphic, communication, visual and interaction design fields. This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND). To view a copy of the licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

The study focuses on a task-driven context to investigate two issues, including “informants’ information use behavior in a learning context” and “how the knowledge structure has changed after utilizing the information”. Qualitative methods were employed in this study, including observation, in-depth interview, and document analysis. One of the authors entered the setting as an observer-as-participant to observe the interaction between the lecturer and participants. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to better understand informants’ information use behavior and their cognition toward major concepts of the learning topic. Knowledge construction commenced with evaluating learning tasks assigned by lecturer, examining knowledge structure, deciding the ways of processing information, and then putting into action. During the process, the participants used information in different manners, including browsing, examining, re-examining, marking up, extracting, translating, reconstructing or setting aside. Findings indicate that information use behavior varied in different tasks, and knowledge structures were mainly expanded based on prior knowledge. Several factors influence information use behavior, such as the importance of learning tasks, different forms of knowledge representation, and the time limit, which are the key facts influencing how the information will be used.

The choice of films to approach school contents implicate the deconstruction, identification and discrimination of the elements that make up your set and the articulation with the theme worked. We conducted a survey to answer the following question: there are passages of the filmic plot that can be deployed to better stimulate the interest of students in the construction of scientific concepts? In this article, we examined two animated films of the genre, "A bug's life" and "Bee Movie", with the objective of identifying passages of the plot which facilitate the appropriation of scientific concepts of Ecology. The study was qualitative in nature, anchored the analysis of images and films that make up the plot. In the movies, the music and the plot makes it possible for the construction of scientific knowledge. However, science fiction deals with an imaginary world, which can counteract the reality, and the films feature some scientific conceptual flaws of the biological point of view.