Older learning engagement in the modern city

Abstract

This research employs novel techniques to examine older learners’ journeys, educationally and physically, in order to gain a ‘three-dimensional’ picture of lifelong learning in the modern urban context of Glasgow. The data offers preliminary analyses of an ongoing 1500 household survey by the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC). A sample of 1037, with 377 older adults aged 60+, was examined to understand older learner engagement in formal, in-formal, non-formal and family-learning contexts. Preliminary findings indicate that all forms of older learning participation are lower than younger and middle-age counterparts. However, there is a subset of ‘actively ageing’, socially and technologically engaged older adult ‘learner-citizens’, participating in educational, physical, cultural, civic and online activities (including online political discussions and boycotts). These older learners were more likely to be working, caretakers and report better health overall. Long-term disabilities were associated with less engagement in non-formal learning activities. Additionally, engaged older learners’ GPS trails show more city activity than their matched non-learning-engaged counterparts. Place-based variables, such as feeling safe and belonging to the local area, moderated adult participation in learning activities. The full data-set will be accessible to researchers and the general public via UBDC, providing a complex data source to explore demographically diverse learners’ within an urban context.     

Using causal models to bridge the divide between big data and educational theory

An extraordinary amount of data is becoming available in educational settings, collected from a wide range of Educational Technology tools and services. This creates opportunities for using methods from Artificial Intelligence and Learning Analytics (LA) to improve learning and the environments in which it occurs. And yet, analytics results produced using these methods often fail to link to theoretical concepts from the learning sciences, making them difficult for educators to trust, interpret and act upon. At the same time, many of our educational theories are difficult to formalise into testable models that link to educational data. New methodologies are required to formalise the bridge between big data and educational theory. This paper demonstrates how causal modelling can help to close this gap. It introduces the apparatus of causal modelling, and shows how it can be applied to well-known problems in LA to yield new insights. We conclude with a consideration of what causal modelling adds to the theory-versus-data debate in education, and extend an invitation to other investigators to join this exciting programme of research.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• ‘Correlation does not equal causation’ is a familiar claim in many fields of research but increasingly we see the need for a causal understanding of our educational systems.
• Big data bring many opportunities for analysis in education, but also a risk that results will fail to replicate in new contexts.
• Causal inference is a well-developed approach for extracting causal relationships from data, but is yet to become widely used in the learning sciences.

What this paper adds

• An overview of causal modelling to support educational data scientists interested in adopting this promising approach.
• A demonstration of how constructing causal models forces us to more explicitly specify the claims of educational theories.
• An understanding of how we can link educational datasets to theoretical constructs represented as causal models so formulating empirical tests of the educational theories that they represent.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Causal models can help us to explicitly specify educational theories in a testable format.
• It is sometimes possible to make causal inferences from educational data if we understand our system well enough to construct a sufficiently explicit theoretical model.
• Learning Analysts should work to specify more causal models and test their predictions, as this would advance our theoretical understanding of many educational systems.

     

Social inclusion in two worlds: the conceptualization of the social role of lifelong learning in the education policy of Brazil and the UK since the mid 1990s

Aspects of post‐16 education, particularly with reference to vocational education and training, have acquired a degree of common presentation in the policy making of many national and international organizations in recent years. This paper compares similarities and differences in the rhetoric and reality of policy implementation in Brazil and the UK in post‐16 education, particularly Technical and Vocational Education and Training. It finds an increasing alignment between these two very different countries at the levels of both discourse and practice. It argues that this reflects the dominance of international and regional agencies on whom both countries draw in developing policy, and the subsequent dissemination of those agencies' particular assumptions about the relationship between education, skills and economic performance.     

Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning

A Personal Learning Environment or PLE is a potentially promising pedagogical approach for both integrating formal and informal learning using social media and supporting student self-regulated learning in higher education contexts. The purpose of this paper is to (a) review research that support this claim, (b) conceptualize the connection between PLE, social media, and self-regulated learning, and (c) provide a three-level pedagogical framework for using social media to create PLEs that support student self-regulated learning. Implications for future research in this area are provided.     

Using blended learning and out-of-school visits: pedagogies for effective science teaching in the twenty-first century

Background: Recent research and curriculum reforms have indicated the need for diversifying teaching approaches by drawing upon student interest and engagement in ways which makes learning science meaningful. Purpose: This study examines the integration of informal/free choice learning which occurred during learning experiences outside school (LEOS) with classroom learning using digital technologies. Specifically, the digital technologies comprised a learning management system (LMS), Moodle, which fits well with students’ lived experiences and their digital world. Design and Method: This study examines three out-of-school visits to Informal Science Institutes (ISI) using a digitally integrated fieldtrip inventory (DIFI) Model. Research questions were analysed using thematic approach emerging along with semi-structured interviews, before, during and after the visit, and assessing students’ learning experiences. Data comprised photographs, field notes, and unobtrusive observations of the classroom, wiki postings, student work books and teacher planning diaries. Results: We argue, that pre- and post-visit planning using the DIFI Model is more likely to engage learners, and the use of a digital learning platform was even more likely to encourage collaborative learning. The conclusion can also be drawn that students’ level of motivation for collaborative learning positively correlates with their improvement in academic achievement.     

Perceptions of the learning environment,learning preferences,and approaches to studying among medical students in Pakistan

Students at a Pakistani medical college were surveyed using instruments taken from Western research. The students who rated their courses positively tended to adopt an organised approach in their learning and studying. The students who perceived that their assessment and workload were inappropriate preferred a transmissive approach to teaching and adopted a surface approach in their learning and studying. The students who preferred a student-centred approach to teaching tended to adopt a deep approach in their learning and studying. This confirms the idea, well established in Western research, that there exists a strong relationship between students’ perceptions of their courses and the approaches that they adopt on those courses. However, the incorporation of problem-based learning in the medical curriculum had not led to any enhancement of their perceptions and preferences, nor had it led to an unambiguous improvement in their approaches to studying. This is attributed to the hybrid nature of their programmes, in which problem-based activities were combined with more conventional forms of teaching and assessment, and to the anxiety and stress which seem to be common among students at medical schools in Pakistan.     

Attracting mature students into higher education: The impact of approaches to learning and social identity

This paper reports on data collected during an evaluation of two higher education courses designed to attract mature entrants aged between 21 and 60 to undergraduate degree programmes. Employing an evaluation design informed by a critical realist approach, the study utilised a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the outcomes of the two courses through the participants' constructed experiences. Two factors were inferred as being important in determining whether participants on these courses proceeded to higher education: whether participants adopted a deep or surface approach to learning, and the extent to which the experience of being on the courses had generated a shared social identity. Our analysis draws attention to interactions between (psychological) explanations of variation in learning and (social) explanations of participation.     

Inequality in adult learning and education participation: the effects of social origins and social inequality

ABSTRACT

This comparative study examines patterns of inequality in participation in two different types of adult learning and education (ALE) – job-related formal ALE (JFALE) and job-related non-formal ALE (JNFALE) – as related to social origins at the micro-level and three categories of social inequality at the macro-level at the macro level (economic, education, and skill inequality). Using data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), two methods are used to analyse 19 selected OECD countries: multivariate binary logistic regressions to explore the extent to which individuals’ social origins are associated with ALE participation and two-stage multilevel analysis to examine the relationship between social origins’ advantages in ALE participation and social inequality. Statistically significant advantages in ALE participation of social origins were observed in some countries. Additionally, statistically significant positive relationships between social inequality and social origins’ advantages in JNFALE participation are found, which implies that increases in social inequality strengthen advantages associated with social origins.     

Researching the influence of teaching assistants on the learning of pupils identified with special educational needs in mainstream primary schools: exploring social inclusion

As a result of their high contact time with children, particularly children identified with special educational needs, it is widely acknowledged that teaching assistants (TAs) have great influence on pupils' education (Balshaw). However, recent research into the impact of TAs on pupils' learning has questioned TAs' usefulness in improving pupils' learning (Blatchford, Bassett and Brown; Higgins). This paper argues that TAs' influence on pupils' education has not yet been researched effectively. Previous research has primarily focused on determining TAs' influence on pupils' achievement in terms of academic outcomes and has neglected to explore social outcomes. Two interconnected literature bases are reviewed in this paper; the current research exploring TAs' role and influence on pupils' learning is first explored, followed by a critical discussion of the literature regarding the process of social inclusion in mainstream primary schools. This paper concludes that for TAs' influence on pupils' learning to be effectively researched, TAs' influence on the process of social inclusion must be researched within mainstream primary schools.     

Connected learning in the library as a product of hacking,making, social diversity and messiness

Learning is most effective when intrinsically motivated through personal interest, and situated in a supportive socio-cultural context. This paper reports on findings from a study that explored implications for design of interactive learning environments through 18 months of ethnographic observations of people's interactions at “Hack The Evening” (HTE). HTE is a meetup group initiated at the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and dedicated to provide visitors with opportunities for connected learning in relation to hacking, making and do-it-yourself technology. The results provide insights into factors that contributed to HTE as a social, interactive and participatory environment for learning – knowledge is created and co-created through uncoordinated interactions among participants that come from a diversity of backgrounds, skills and areas of expertise. The insights also reveal challenges and barriers that the HTE group faced in regards to connected learning. Four dimensions of design opportunities are presented to overcome those challenges and barriers towards improving connected learning in library buildings and other free-choice-learning environments that seek to embody a more interactive and participatory culture among their users. The insights are relevant for librarians as well as designers, managers and decision-makers of other interactive and free-choice-learning environments.     

In search of the new engineer: gender,age, and social class in information about engineering education

ABSTRACT

It is widely argued that engineering education needs to change in order to attract new groups of students and provide students with knowledge appropriate for the future society. In this paper we, therefore, investigate and analyse Swedish universities’ websites, focusing on what characteristics are brought to the fore as important for tomorrow’s engineers. The data consist of text and pictures/photos from nine different Engineering Mechanics programme websites. Using a critical discourse analysis approach, we identify three societal discourses concerning ‘technological progression’, ‘sustainability’, and ‘neoliberal ideals’, evident in the websites. These discourses make certain engineering identities possible, that we have labelled: traditional, contemporary, responsible, and self-made engineer. Our analysis shows that universities’ efforts to diversify students’ participation in engineering education simultaneously reveal stereotypical norms concerning gender and age. We also argue that strong neoliberal notions about the self-made engineer can derail awareness of a gendered, classed, and racialized society.     

The social experience of early childhood for children with learning disabilities: inclusion,competence and agency

This paper tells of the social experiences of three four‐year‐old children with learning disabilities as they negotiate their daily lives in their homes and early education settings in England. We apply a social model of childhood disability to the relatively unexplored territory of young children and use vignettes drawn from video observation to explore the interactive spaces contained in settings with different cultures of inclusion. Using a multimodal approach to the data we show the nuanced ways in which the children enact their agency. We explore the relationships between agency, culture and structure, and argue that children with learning disabilities are active in making meaning within social and relational networks to which they contribute differently depending on the barriers to doing and being that each network presents. Thus, the paper provides an original use of the notion of distributed competence.     

Learning with their peers: Using a virtual learning community to improve an in-service Biology teacher education program in Brazil

This study investigated the use of a virtual learning community (VLC-Bio) combined to an online teachers' professional development program. VLC-Bio enabled the sharing of biological knowledge, teaching methods and didactic resources. Although they presented a limited initial profile of internet use directed to socialization, the results indicated that participation in the VLC-Bio focused internet use for teaching and learning purposes. The VLC-Bio offered opportunities to develop the ability to learn from their peers about how to deal with matters of difficult approach in everyday school life, as well as of sharing resources for Biology education that are frequently lacking.     

高校智慧学习空间:内涵、发展与趋势

新媒体新技术支持下的高校各学科教与学的变革越发受到重视,作为教学载体的学习空间从传统型向智慧型的演化成为人们的关注焦点,是未来学习环境改革的重要方向。以对现有相关文献和应用实例的深入分析为基础,总结并提出了高校智慧学习空间的特征与结构模型;采用关键词共现分析等方法,对近年来高校智慧学习空间的建设与发展开展了探究;剖析了高校智慧学习空间在实际建设中存在的一些问题,并预测了其发展趋势。     

Empowering learners with personalised learning approaches? Agency,equity and transparency in the context of learning analytics

Abstract

The emergence of personalised data technologies such as learning analytics is framed as a solution to manage the needs of higher education student populations that are growing ever more diverse and larger in size. However, the current approach to learning analytics presents tensions between increasing student agency in making learning-related decisions and ‘datafying’ students in the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting data. This article presents a study that explores staff and student experience of agency, equity and transparency in existing data practices and expectations towards learning analytics in a UK university. The results show a number of intertwined factors that have contributed to the tensions between enhancing a learner’s control of their studies and, at the same time, diminishing their autonomy as an active agent in the process of learning analytics. This article argues that learner empowerment should not be automatically assumed to have taken place as part of the adoption of learning analytics. Instead, the interwoven power relationships in a complex educational system and the interactions between humans and machines need to be taken into consideration when presenting learning analytics as an equitable process to enhance student agency and educational equity.     

Investigating the interrelationships among conceptions of,approaches to,and self-efficacy in learning science

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations between primary school students’ conceptions of, approaches to, and self-efficacy in learning science in Mainland China. A total of 1049 primary school students from Mainland China participated in this study. Three instruments were adapted to measure students’ conceptions of learning science, approaches to learning science, and self-efficacy. The exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were adopted to validate three instruments. The path analysis was employed to understand the relationships between conceptions of learning science, approaches to learning science, and self-efficacy. The findings indicated that students’ lower level conceptions of learning science positively influenced their surface approaches in learning science. Higher level conceptions of learning science had a positive influence on deep approaches and a negative influence on surface approaches to learning science. Furthermore, self-efficacy was also a hierarchical construct and can be divided into the lower level and higher level. Only students’ deep approaches to learning science had a positive influence on their lower and higher level of self-efficacy in learning science. The results were discussed in the context of the implications for teachers and future studies.     

Twitter,cyber-violence,and the need for a critical social media literacy in teacher education: A review of the literature

Multiliteracies and new literacies pedagogies advocate for expanded ideas of literacy, which focus heavily on the use of digital technologies within the classroom. Yet there is little discussion within the discipline regarding the ethical implications of using social media in teacher education. This is of particular concern given the potential for online spaces to be unsafe. In particular, the social media site Twitter, used and promoted by many educators to collaborate within professional learning networks, is rife with misogyny and racial violence. Through a review of the current literature on social media use in teacher education, and a multi-disciplinary perspective on issues of cyber-violence, I will discuss the ethical implications for teacher educators who want to use Twitter as a pedagogical tool and offer strategies to develop critical social media literacy practices.