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Addressing the learning crisis in low-income contexts remains a major concern. This paper analyses how active teaching and learning pedagogy (ATL) was implemented in secondary schools in Malawi to improve learning outcomes. Based on interviews with teachers and headteachers from five schools, the paper seeks to explore how ATL was understood and implemented, and what challenges were experienced from the perspectives of trained and untrained teachers. The findings reveal that ATL was positively viewed by all participants, as it was considered beneficial in improving students’ academic performance and skills development. All participants identified some key implementation challenges, including large classes, lack of materials, the use of English, long distance to school and poverty. The paper underscores the need to move away from a polarised view of pedagogy (direct instruction against ATL) and conceptualise active learning on a continuum.

The present experimental study examined whether a different focus during a pre-task planning observation task affects learners’ subsequent oral task performance. Forty-eight ninth-grade students learning German as a foreign language were randomly assigned to two different planning conditions: video observations with a focus on language (FonL) and video observations with a focus on content (FonC). With a communicative oral task we measured the effects on oral task performance, in terms of attempted (accurate) use of the target structure and complexity, in terms of number of words, subordination and coordination. In addition we investigated whether there was a trade-off between attempted (accurate) use of the target structure and complexity. Results showed that the focus of the observations at the pre-task stage did indeed lead to different outcomes: students in the language condition used the grammatical target structure more often and more accurately, whereas students of the content condition generated more coordinate and subordinate clauses. Trade-offs were found between attempted (accurate) use of the target structure and the use of subordinate clauses. These findings imply that, depending on the purposes of the lesson, the observation of peer-model videos with different planning foci can be effectively used to promote (accurate) use of targeted grammatical structures and improve complexity during subsequent task performance.

This study investigates a questionnaire that measures epistemological beliefs in history. Participants were 922 exam students. A basic division between naïve and nuanced ideas underpins the questionnaire. However, results show this division oversimplifies the underlying structure. Exploratory factor analysis extracted 5 factors, separating items connected to nature of knowledge from nature of knowing. Furthermore, EFA problematized the distinction between naïve and nuanced ideas on subjectivity. Experts also reported large variance on subjectivity; therefore, these items were excluded from the questionnaire. The final questionnaire contained 3 factors focusing on the objective nature of (1) historical knowledge and (2) historical knowing, and on (3) methodological criteria. Finally, differences between school tracks and relationships between epistemological beliefs, interest and history grade were explored.

Traditionally, teacher professional learning is often seen as something that mainly takes place in organized, formalized settings. This article takes a broader starting point: the idea that it can be understood as the result of the teachers’ confrontations and interactions with and within their professional contexts, and that context can thus serve as a source for learning. To gain a closer understanding of the nature of these contexts, we start with exploring these contexts from a theoretical point of view. We then look for evidence for the role of different contexts in teacher learning autobiographies and learner reports, produced by a diverse group of experienced teachers (n = 18), as part of their course work in a master’s programme. The findings suggest that three contexts can be identified – a perso3nal practice domain, a social domain, and a theoretical domain – and that confrontations in each of these domains can take place planned as well as unplanned. The relevance of the study is that understanding the ways in which context can serve as a source for learning can contribute to the debate on how to stimulate teacher professional learning.

This article discusses translation processes of proficient students who translate Latin fables into Dutch in secondary school. The participants performed two tasks on a computer. They translated a Latin fable and edited a Dutch translation of another Latin fable while their activities were monitored by eye-tracker, screencast and keystroke logging. Immediately after the tasks the participants were invited to view their eye-tracking film and retrace their thoughts at the time of translating (stimulated recall). The article focuses on the stimulated recall interviews, and more specifically on the role of revision in the translation process. It presents a case study of one participant, as well as the strategies participants described to have used in tackling two specific translation problems. Data suggest that proficient participants rely on text comprehension rather than morphological knowledge to solve translation problems. The research shows three key elements as indicators for successful translation process resulting in a coherent target text: (1) a wide variety of problem-solving strategies and the ability to switch strategies, (2) the availability and use of metalanguage to verbalise the chosen strategy, and (3) revision of the target text.

Classroom discussion is frequently proposes as an essential part of democratic citizenship education. Literature, however, pays little attention to what kind of discussion is most effective and how teachers can facilitate a discussion. This study aims to contribute to the development of a framework for analysing the characteristics of classroom discussions and the different roles teachers can adopt in guiding a discussion on controversial issues. In addition, we investigated how the way teachers guide the discussion is related to the structure and content features of the discussion. The framework was used to analyse five classroom discussions in secondary education. Our framework appeared to be useful for revealing differences in the structure and content features of the classroom discussions and in the way teachers guide the discussion. The results also indicated that a high degree of teacher regulation was related to high content quality and more participation from students. A high degree of student regulation was linked to more genuine discussion among students. The study underlines the importance of taking account of the teacher’s role in research into the effectiveness of classroom discussions for democratic citizenship education and the study makes useful suggestions for teachers when preparing for a classroom discussion.

The implementation of educational reforms requires behavioral changes from the teachers involved. Theories on successful behavioral change prescribe the following conditions: teachers need to possess the necessary knowledge and skills, form strong positive intentions to perform the new behavior, and have a supporting environment for change. However, existing approaches to teacher professional development in the context of educational reforms are predominantly aimed at the development of knowledge and skills and at creating a supporting environment, but lack attention to teachers’ intentions to change. In the study described in this article, we performed “motivating-for-educational-change” interviews (MECI) and explored the influence on teachers’ intentions to change in the direction of the proposed national biology education reform, that is, the introduction of a context-based curriculum. The MECI comprised two tools: building on earlier successful experiences and using lesson segments to rearrange instructional approaches. We explored the influence of the MECI technique on the strength and specificity of participating teachers’ intentions. When conducting the MECI, many participants expressed that they now realized how they had already implemented aspects of the reform in their regular instructional approaches. Furthermore, all the participants formulated stronger and more specific intentions to change their regular instructional approach towards that of the proposed reform while taking their regular instructional approach as a starting point.

Contains fulltext : 102461.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) The aim of this study is to test the effects of dynamically scaffolding social regulation of middle school students working in a computer-based learning environment. Dyads in the scaffolding condition (N = 56) are supported with computer-generated scaffolds and students in the control condition (N = 54) do not receive scaffolds. The scaffolds are dynamically adjusted to dyads’ progress with an attention management system. The scaffolds support two aspects of socially regulated learning namely the metacognitive and cognitive activities. We analyzed the effects of dynamic scaffolding on dyads’ performance, their perception of the learning environment and students' knowledge acquisition. We found that scaffolding had a positive effect on the dyads’ learning performance, but did not affect students’ domain knowledge. The repeated measurements of perception of the learning environment showed that dyads in the experimental condition were more positive about their teachers and their collaborators than students in the control condition. With respect to their perception of the software and the 3D embodied agent delivering the scaffolds, we found a stronger decrease of appreciation over time in the scaffolding condition compared to the control condition.

Metacognitive scaffolding in a computer-supported learning environment can influence students’ metacognitive activities, metacognitive knowledge and domain knowledge. In this study we analyze how metacognitive activities mediate the relationships between different avatar scaffolds on students’ learning. Multivariate, multilevel analysis of the 51,339 conversation turns by 54 elementary school students working in triads showed that scaffolding has an effect on students’ learning. Students receiving structuring or problematizing metacognitive scaffolds displayed more metacognitive knowledge than students in the control group. Metacognitive activities mediated the effects of scaffolding, and increased metacognitive activities supported students’ metacognitive knowledge. Moreover, students who were engaged in proportionately more cognitive activities or fewer off-task activities also outperformed other students on the metacognitive knowledge test. Only problematizing scaffolds led to more domain knowledge and metacognitive activities mediated the effects of the problematizing scaffolds. Moreover, students in the problematizing condition who engaged in more cognitive activities or whose group mates used more relational activities had greater domain knowledge acquisition than other students.

This study examined the effects of metacognitive scaffolds on learning outcomes of collaborating students in an innovative learning arrangement. The triads were supported by computerized scaffolds, which were dynamically integrated into the learning process and took a structuring or problematizing form. In an experimental design the two experimental groups receiving scaffolds were compared with a control group. The experimental groups differed in the form of scaffolding used: structuring scaffolds versus problematizing scaffolds. We analyzed the effects of metacognitive scaffolding and of different forms of scaffolds on the learning outcomes at group and individual level. The results showed no effect of scaffolding on group performance, nor on the acquired individual domain knowledge, but a small effect on acquired individual metacognitive knowledge. With respect to the effects of different forms of scaffolds, we found a small effect on group performance, on transfer of individual domain knowledge and on the individual metacognitive knowledge acquired.