Revision as of 22:46, 24 November 2014

An Apprenticeship-based multimedia courseware for computer graphics studies provided on the world wide web - Amnon Shabo, Mark Guzdial, and John Stasko

Scaffolding is classified into three types: Communicating the process, coaching and eliciting articulation. To computerize cognitive apprenticeship, a case library, course notes and support for collaboration in an exercise based learning environment needs to be integrated. The case library involves the knowledge and the experiences of experts to provide multiple perspectives. The support includes suggested solutions from different experts, visualization that deal with exercise concepts, presentations and links to relevant stories in the case library and course notes. As a results, students can work through exercises with extra support and also have many resources available for learning. Implementing computerized scaffolding features is referred to as Software Realized Scaffolding. There are four modules that constitute the system of computerized learning environment (Graphica) with a cognitive apprenticeship approach. These are: Interactive Notes, which contains a textbook style of knowledge; Exercise, which is a focal module of the system; a Case Library, which has the knowledge and experiences of experts in the form of technical reports and papers; and a Collaboration Support. These involve linearity of the learning activities found in various modules and learning goals. This is to support the range of activities and learning goals. The Exercises module encourages working on exercises and links to other modules through the scaffolding features as needed. The advantages of developing courseware on the World Wide Web are cross-platforming and worldwide accessibility, ease of integration of multimedia materials, and the increasingly sophisticated technologies that are available. The best advantage is the ability to collaborate with other groups developing multimedia materials for the same domain. There would be more possibilities for shared access, shared use and synergy.

For Graphica, the experiment results showed that students have mixed perceptions about the software. The opinion on how enjoyable it was, was somewhat positive. However, the opinion on how much they learned from it was somewhat negative. From the features, the exercises, visualizations and the presentation of graphic images, and the notes were the most useful components. However, the case library and ties from the exercises into case library was not successful. The apprenticeship based design approach has led to a successful multi-purpose tool. The software was used successfully for an assignment and also voluntarily for other learning activities. Collaboration was implemented through a feature of posting messages to the newsgroup.

--Fulya 22:46, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

A cognitive apprenticeship approach to engineering education: the role of learning styles - Gerard Poitras and Eric Poitras

Problem based learning (PBL) is used as a teaching approach in education that helps active learning. This is done by making the students collaboratively and independently solve ill-defined problems by deciding what needs to be known, and afterwards developing an appropriate solution. The teacher ends up taking the role of a coach and they challenge the students’ inquiries. This is very similar to coaching apprenticeship. Coaching apprenticeship involves PBL approach whilst outlining additional instructional methods for enhancing learning. When implementing this approach in one of the experiments, the results showed that students were pleased about having their own freedom to explore a problem of their choice and the challenge of identifying and gathering the information they needed to solve the problem. There was another showing that resulted with the students being uneasy about deciding for themselves what they needed and assessing the relevance of their learning and applying it to a problem. However, in both cases, the value of applying acquired knowledge to real life solutions was understood.

Coaching apprenticeship involves content, method, sequence and sociology to design a learning environment. From the first experiment, the results showed that course taught according to a cognitive apprenticeship method facilitated their learning better. They indicated that the course allowed them to better develop teamwork skills. The course was rated as including more efficient activities aimed at attaining the course objectives. There was significantly more agreement that the course aided them in developing critical analysis and logical reasoning skills. During the course, students indicated that they asked the tutor more questions. Students accomplished learning activities which required them to consult information from various sources significantly more often. From the second experiment, the results showed that the course led students to develop better teamwork skills. Students also asked questions more often and failures to prepare for classes by reading the relevant course material occur less frequently. It was also more efficient in teaching and learning. In general, the cognitive apprenticeship method was rated as of better quality than the traditional method.

Results of the two experiments showed that the cognitive apprenticeship approach used was effective and favored by most of the students, regardless of their preferred learning style. Usually the effective learning requirements of students’ preferred learning styles are associated with the teaching method used. However, the cognitive apprenticeship method did not favor any learning styles. This study suggests that the cognitive apprenticeship approach fits a broader range of preferred styles, thus contributing to building an optimal learning environment that meets the requirements of every student.

--Fulya 22:46, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

A Cognitive Apprenticeship Approach to Facilitating Web-based Collaborative Problem Solving - Fan-Ray Kuo, Gwo-Jen Hwang, Szu-Chuang Chen, and Chen Sherry Y.

This study examines the effects of human factors on problem solving effectiveness in the cognitive apprenticeship model. Cognitive apprenticeship has been reported to be effective in promoting students’ high order thinking, cognitive skills and oral presentation abilities. For this study, a cognitive apprenticeship approach for conducting inquiry based collaborative learning activities is proposed.

Synder, found that the cognitive apprenticeship students showed significantly better problem solving performance. Researchers found that the cognitive apprenticeship model was helpful to elementary school students in promoting their cognitive skills and causal reasoning ability in a science course. Liu revealed that the course based on the web-based cognitive apprenticeship model improved pre-service teachers’ performance and attitudes towards instructional planning more effectively. Hwang et al. further indicated that the cognitive apprenticeship model was helpful to graduate students in promoting their learning efficiency and effectiveness in performing complex science experiments.

There is also a problem that come from conducting such a complex instructional activity. This is due to the difficulty of providing one-to-one cognitive apprenticeship-based learning. Middle- and low-achieving students are unlikely to experience in-depth cognitive development without sufficient supports from their teachers or peers.

Collaborative learning has been recognized as being a highly potential way of assisting students in dealing with complex problems. According to social development theory, students can improve their cognitive skills via collaborative interactions with more competent partners. Many positive results have demonstrated the importance of collaborative learning. Li reported the effectiveness of group work in promoting students’ critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, social skills and self-esteem. Researchers have indicated that collaborative learning often leads to better learning outcomes. Researchers found that students’ problem-solving abilities could be significantly enhanced by using computer supported collaborative learning strategies. However, researchers also say that positive benefits do not automatically happen in a collaborative learning environment unless an instructional design is provided.

Cognitive style has a significant effect on learners’ information seeking because it influences the way individuals collect, analyze, evaluate, and interpret information. In this experiment, a web based searching behavior analyzing system called Meta-Analyzer was used. The study investigates the problem solving abilities of Field Independent and Field Dependent students. FD students have a tendency to undertake global and passive learning strategies, since they are influenced by format structure and need salient cues in learning. FI students rely more on internal references and are less affected by format-structure in learning. FI students prefer to employ analytical and active learning approaches. Students’ learning performance could be determined by matched or mismatched conditions based on their cognitive styles. It can be seen from the research results that FD students are suitable for the cognitive apprenticeship model with collaborative learning strategy, while FI students prefer the cognitive apprenticeship model without the collaborative learning strategy.

The integration of cognitive apprenticeship and collaborative learning strategies brings FD students significantly better problem-solving performance, while demonstrating the personal traits of Field Dependent students. The result also reveals that the FI students demonstrated better problem-solving ability, while considering the personal trait of Field Independent learners. The integration of the cognitive apprenticeship model and collaborative learning theory could promote FD students’ high-order thinking, cognitive skills and oral presentation abilities. The study concludes that the integration of cognitive apprenticeship and collaborative learning mechanisms within online inquiry-based learning environments has great potential in promoting FD students’ problem-solving abilities and learning attitude toward social science through the assistance of FI students.

--Fulya 22:46, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

An Investigation of an Open-Source Software Development Environment in a Software Engineering Course - Xun Ge, Kun Huang, Yifei Dong

This is about a study done in order to investigate project based learning in a software engineering course by using an open source software development learning environment. This features authentic projects, learning community, cognitive apprenticeship and technology affordances. The study demonstrated key interplays between project authenticity and learner characteristics.

The authentic nature of the OSSD environment stimulated the students’ interest and kept them persistent in their pursuit of the projects. Not every individual was able to embrace the new learning culture, as they are too used to the traditional teaching style. Some students were concerned about the fact that they would have to complete a real-world project within a course. Being situated in the school system and classroom context, the OSSD learning environment was distinctively different from the OSSD community of practice. Time would become a constraint.

It was found that cross-team interactions were minimal in terms of user testing and providing feedback to each other. The purpose of interacting with the other teams was rather to obtain relevant information that could benefit their own project. The pair programming principle was used in one team. This method maximizes and develops their personal learning experience. Other teams separated themselves by having people work on tasks based on their strengths while the leaders worked on the large portions. This results with less learning and uneven task distribution.

The professor met with each of the teams, listened to their reports on the project status, addressed their concerns, and helped some individuals to find a role in the team. The feedback and encouragement given by the mentor was regarded positively by the teams. Some students saw the professor like a boss and found not having a “progress track” for the course to be ineffective. If students considered themselves as learners preparing for a future career or as software developers, then they would recognize the professor’s role as a mentor and appreciate his feedback and guidance.

With the open source software development collaboration system, it was found that the students only used a small portion of the system, mainly the source code repository. Most of the students felt that the repository was very useful because they could save all the source codes and documents in one place without worrying about the possible fi le loss. Some students valued the opportunity to learn and use the system. Some students found the system “pointless” and believed they were forced to use it because the professor required them to. Also, some were not motivated enough to learn how to use the system.

The findings confirmed the benefits of an OSSD learning environment, which gave the students opportunities to collaborate on real-world projects, interact with real clients, and use technology tools to develop software solutions. It also helped motivate the students to develop their software engineering skills, which would enable them to become creative problem solvers, reflective thinkers, and strategic leaders in their future careers. There were also complexities and challenges in this environment. This study showed that there was a gap between the ideals and the reality in the process. In a classroom environment, there is the restriction of semester structure, the organization curriculum and courses, students concerned about getting grades, and the needs for learners to obtain all aspects of learning experiences through rotating roles and tasks instead of dividing up tasks based on individuals’ strengths.

This study shows that implementing a community of practice in a classroom setting is a complex enterprise. Learner characteristics must be taken into account when making effort to motivate and scaffold learners. The findings indicate that the practice doesn’t automatically address motivation issues. The efforts must be made to communicate the expectations of the OSSD learning environments to students, help them understand those expectations, and strategically manage and align their perceptions with the goals of a project-based learning environment.

--Fulya 22:46, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

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