Learning Environments: Contributions from Dutch and German Research PDF
Preview Learning Environments: Contributions from Dutch and German Research
Recent Research in Psychology J.M. Pieters K. Breuer P.R.J. Simons (Eds.) Learning Environments Contributions from Dutch and German Research Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo Hong Kong Barcelona Editors Jules M. Pieters Department of Education, University of Twente PO. Box 217, 7500AE Enschede, The Netherlands Klaus Breuer Department of Educational Sciences, Paderborn University 4790 Paderborn, FRG P. Robert-Jan Simons Department of Educational Sciences, Nijmegen University P.O. Box 9103,6500 HD Nijmegen, The Netherlands ISBN-13 :978-3-540-52903-3 e-ISBN-13 :978-3-642-84256-6 DOl: 1O.l007/978-3-642-84256-6 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is only permitted under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its version of June 24,1985, and a copyright fee must always be paid. Violations fall under the prosecution act of the German Copyright Law. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1990 2126/3140-543210 - Printed on acid-free paper PREFACE In April 1989 Dutch and German educational researchers met each other at the Campus of the University of Twente, for the third time in a joint meeting. This meeting was organized by the Dutch OTG Onderwijsleerprocessen, the German Arbeitsgruppe fUr Empirische Padagogische Forschung and the Fach gruppe Padagogische Psychologie. A selection of papers presented at that meeting contributed to this book about learning environments. Different perspectives have been bundled and an overview is presented of Dutch and German research carried out within the domain of learning environments. These perspectives pertain to various system levels (learning activities, classroom and school) and to various disciplinary views (pedagogical, psychological, sociological). Most contributions pertain to the psychological view. The book deals with several aspects of learning environments: classroom environments, evaluation of learning environments, computer-based environ ments, environments for meta-learning, and theoretical issues of learning environments. We are grateful to Jan van den Berg for his editorial assistance and to the Institute for Educational Research in the Netherlands for making this publi cation possible. Jules M. Pieters Enschede, The Netherlands Klaus Breuer Paderborn, West-Germany P. Robert-Jan Simons Nijmegen, The Netherlands CONTENTS Preface v GENERAL INTRODUCTION Learning environments: An introduction I.M. Pieters, K Breuer & P.RI. Simons 3 Part I: CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS Facilitating adults' learning by coaching: Development and evaluation of an andragogical model of continuing vocational education within industrial companies 1. Reischmann 19 Concepts of schooling and the learning environment: A relationship tested in law faculties I.K Oosthoek 31 Work simulation: A natural environment for learning job skills and job attitudes M.I. Treep & I.M. Pieters 45 Teacher enthusiasm: Congruence between ratings and behaviour e. Schwaner & W. Schreiber-Neumann 55 Teacher praise and classroom climate: Another paradoxical relation P.e. van der Sijde, S. Dijkstra & EA.M.M. Bennink 67 PART II: EVALUATION OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS Assessing the quality of kindergarten environments with the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale H. G. Rofibach 77 VIII School-provided measures against truancy and drop-out BJ. van Kesteren & K Tj. Bos 91 Some school effectiveness indicators and their relation to school characteristics K Tj. Bos, A.M. Ruijters & A.l ViSscher 105 PART TIl: COMPUTER-BASED ENVIRONMENTS The use of a computer microworld as a learning environment to develop conceptual change in the field of mechanics F.E. van 't Hul, P.L. Lijnse & A. Moes 121 Intelligent tutoring system for learning English G. Kanselaar, H. Wichmann, M. Giezeman, 1 Zuidema, 1 van der Veen & L. Koster 133 A genetic model for tutoring addition and subtraction skills in an adaptive computer program M Beishuizen, E. Felix & 11 Beishuizen 151 A production system explaining errors in long division of learning disabled students in junior vocational education CM van Putten & MA. de Ronde 163 A computer simulation of the acquisition of a computational skill in a discovery-oriented microworld M.l /ppel & CIM Meulemans 177 A systematic problem approach in business administration: A methodology to make knowledge explicit for Computer Assisted Instruction A.T.l Vemooij 193 On the surplus of computerized traffic education M Wierda, A. van den Burg & P. Tromp 207 IX PART IV: ENVIRONMENTS FOR META-LEARNING Metacognition: Learning to learn and learning to think M.A. Wolters 221 General and differential effectiveness of learning-to-Iearn programs F.P. Buchel 235 Teaching problem solving in higher education: 'From field regulation to self-regulation C. Terlouw & A. Pilot 253 Executive control, self-regulation trained in mathematics F.P.C.M. de long 267 Children's reflection on text-coherence during reading IH. Boonman 279 The Leittext method: Learning to learn in commerce and industry C. C.l Teurlings 287 Training self-regulation in several educational fields B.H.A.M. van Hout Wolters 299 PART V: THEORETICAL ISSUES OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS Measuring individual differences in cognitive processes: How a speed-accuracy methodology can improve the results D.F. Lohman 307 The influence of topic interest, prior knowledge and cognitive capabilities on text comprehension U. Schiefele 323 Instructional implications of recent research and empirically based theories on the effect of prior knowledge on learning F.IR C. Dochy 339 Contributors' addresses 357 General introduction Learning Environments: An Introduction J.M. Pieters, K. Breuer and P.R.J. Simons University of Twente, The Netherlands, University of Paderbom, F.R Germany University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands ABSTRACT This chapter presents an overview of the chapters of the book Some recent theoretical and design characteristics of learning environments are discussed. Different disciplinary perspectives can be discerned: pedagogical, psychological, and sociological. But also the characteristics of the learning environments can be studied as being part of the system level on which they are pertinent: the global school leve~ the intennediate classroom leve~ and the local learning activity level. INTRODUCTION Recently there has been a growing interest in the characteristics of the task environment of the learner. Not only the physical environment is meant by this, but also the intellectual environment that facilitates the learning process. Traditionally, this environment consisted of teacher(s) and stu dents. In ancient times the learning environment was created by the master who taught the novice student by introducing him to an environment that was almost identical to the real context of performing a job. In medieval times in Europe the so-called guild system was very prominent as a voca tional-training system. Students learned professional skills by interacting with real tools also used by experts. They gradually became experts themselves through a process in which the influence of the master faded. This form of apprenticeship learning has almost disappeared in the West ern educational system of nowadays. Apprenticeship-like practice became a small part of the curriculum of vocational-training systems, at the end of the formal training within schools. Within these systems more emphasis is put on the acquisition of basic skills and also of cognitive skills that are supposed to transfer to other situations, in particular the job context. There is no dyadic interaction of teacher and student any more. Less collabora- 4 Pieters, Breuer & Simons tive learning takes place. Instruction is to be given by a teacher before a class of 20 to 30 students or even more. Learning research therefore concentrated on the conditions that make effective learning within these environments possible, e.g. instructional strategies to be used by the teacher, communication between teacher and students, and interaction between students. Before the technological revolution came to an important impetus within the field of learning and instruction, theories of instructional design were assumed to pertain to instruction presented to groups of students through traditional means such as lectures, demonstrations and texts. A limited form of communication, almost always one-way, was permitted due to technological inadequacies and constraints. But quite recently, great progress has been made in computation and storage capacity of technologi cal aids and this has a positive effect on designing intelligent learning environments. Still, the main goal to accomplish is to promote the relevant cognitive processes and also to promote their immediate use in context. By the time technological resources became more available research was concentrated on text design and text processing, audio-visual design and even computer-based instruction. Individual learning became possible and there was a tendency to ban the teacher. Information technology runs our life, so why cannot it run our schools and our learning processes? But quite recently, maybe due to a nostalgic tendency to the good old days there has been a growing interest in apprenticeship learning (e.g. Resnick, 1987; Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989; Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). Their work on apprenticeship learning originates from cognitive anthropological studies by Scribner, Rogoff and Lave (in Rogoff & Lave, 1984) ..T hey stated that effective learning has to be situated in a context similar to the one in which the skills will be used, that student and master or coach have to be active participants in this intellectual enterprise, and that cognitive processes are to be externalised and displayed for inspection and reflec tion. Success depends on the instantiation of these design features of cognitive apprenticeship. Thus, realistically simulated environments play a major role in transferring inert knowledge into workable procedures to apply in the context of their use. Learning environments can become effective instructional environments if the purpose of the design is to facilitate the cognitive processes by letting the student solve authentic problems within the defined learning environment. In this way it is possible to create what Montague (1988) calls a working environment or functional context for learning. The heuristics in the study of Montague for a func-
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