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Jun

2017

The power of dialogic learning: let's talk about...

By Alyson Simpson

In the current political climate, there is an increasing emphasis placed on the assessment of pre-service teachers’ ‘classroom readiness’...

How do we ensure such assessment is meaningful? We propose that the notion of dialogic learning offers a useful approach to provide evidence of teachers’ intellectual work as well as simultaneously supporting their learning. Dialogic learning can be summarised as the systematic use of talk to “engage, […] stimulate and extend thinking […] [and] advance learning and understanding” (Alexander 2004: 37).

Jun

2017

2 + 2 can equal 5 when we learn in groups

By Sanri LR

Some things in life work better when we do them with other people. Obvious examples that come to mind are playing board games, riding on a see-saw and taking part in a parade! Another example that might not be quite as obvious is learning. For many students the mental image associated with learning is sitting somewhere quiet with a stack of books staring and a "Do Not Disturb" sign. However, it turns out our best learning is done in groups.

Researchers agree that something “magical” (or at the very least surprising) happens when people come together in a group to learn or solve a problem. Chi and her colleagues put forward a framework called ICAP that illustrates how learning gains increase when students move from passive (P) to active (A) to constructive (C) and finally to interactive (I) learning activities.

Jun

2017

Group memory and team meetings

By amanda-lacy

Have you ever been on your way to a team or study group meeting and wondered what happened at the last meeting or the meetings before? Or perhaps looked in your diary, realised that a meeting was on that day and wondered what and where the information was about a particular agenda item or what actions and research/study actions you needed have completed?

You are not alone. Group memory when working in teams or study groups is often implicit or a sub-conscious after thought of the team work.

Remembering the plethora of previous and current team meeting artefacts, objects, actions and activities is something most of us find a challenge. Yet meetings aren’t new and are a typical part of study groups, team and organisational life. It would be fair to say that most of us have this group memory challenge...

May

2017

Design patterns for team collaboration competences

By Ling Wu

The aim is to collectively develop a number of educational design patterns. These patterns provide answers to two questions:

how to develop collaboration competencies
how to assess them for formative purposes, so that students can be provided with feedback.

Communication and collaboration competencies are mentioned prominently amongst the graduate attributes of the University of Sydney. They are also listed as essential skills on job descriptions worldwide. However, how to systematically develop such competencies remains largely unspecified, and how to assess them is a matter of widespread and contentious discussion.

Mar

2017

Understanding the flipped classroom with learning analytics

By Courtney Hilton

In the last couple decades, one of the most talked about ideas in education has been that of the "flipped classroom"—see for example flippedlearning.org. In a traditional classroom, we receive a lecture on a topic, then get practice in applying the topic for homework. A flipped classroom "flips" this structure. In other words, we watch a video of a lecture at home and then practice and apply the concept in the classroom. The advantage of a video lecture is that one can pause or rewatch sections of a video if one fails to understand, all without time pressure or peer pressure (e.g. not being confident enough to ask a question). The advantage of 'homework' in the classroom is that the teacher can more actively support the students during formative stages of applying a concept and intervene more immediately when needed.

Feb

2017

Why learning from teaching works - and when not

By Peter Reimann

Learning by teaching is one of the most prevalent contemporary educational practices, but we still don't understand when it works, and why.

Learning by teaching is one of the most prevalent contemporary educational practices, including peer-assisted learning (Healey, Flint, & Harrington, 2014; Stoddard, Rieser, Andersson, & Friman, 2012), peer tutoring (King, 1998), problem-based learning (Leary, Walker, Shelton, & Fitt, 2013), cooperative classrooms (Slavin, 1995), on-line learning (Jopling, 2012), and computer-supported collaborative learning (Dillenbourg, Baker, Blaye, & O'Malley, 1995). While the practices of peer teaching and tutoring vary widely (Topping, 2005), there is reliable and representative empirical evidence for benefits to both tutees (or pupils), and tutors. For instance, a meta-analysis of 81 peer tutoring studies in elementary school (Rohrbeck, Ginsburg-Block, Fantuzzo, & Miller, 2003) found a positive effect size of 0.33 for peer tutoring compared to control groups. In another widely cited meta-analysis, coving 65 studies, the effect size for pupils (tutees) was 0.4, and the learning gains for tutors was 0.38 (Cohen, Kulik, & Kulik, 1982). A more recent review (Roscoe & Chi, 2007) estimates the average tutor effect size to be around 0.35, combining tutor and pupil learning.