Reflection amplifiers in self-regulated learning

248 Pages·2012·2.52 MB·English

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Reflection amplifiers in
self-regulated learning
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The research reported here was carried out at the Open University in the Netherlands in the

and in the context of the Dutch Research School for Information Knowledge Systems.

ISBN: 9789491465697

SIKS-dissertation series n°2012-42

Copyright © 2012 by Dominique Verpoorten.
Printed by Datawyse / Universitaire Pers Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Cover visual: René Magritte, La Reproduction interdite (1937). Courtesy of Museum Boijmans
Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands and the Belgian Society of authors, composers and
publishers (SABAM).
Digital image from O. Borisov, https://plus.google.com/photos
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Reflection amplifiers in
self-regulated learning

Proefschrift

ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor
aan de Open Universiteit
op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. mr. A. Oskamp
ten overstaan van een door het
College voor promoties ingestelde commissie
in het openbaar te verdedigen

op vrijdag 9 november 2012 te Heerlen
om 16.00 uur precies

door

Dominique Verpoorten
geboren op 15 mei 1969 te Verviers, België
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Promotores
Prof. dr. M.M. Specht, Open Universiteit
Prof. dr. W. Westera, Open Universiteit

Overige leden beoordelingscommissie
Prof. dr. M. Bannert, University of Würzburg, Germany
Prof. dr. R.L. Martens, Open Universiteit
Prof. dr. M. Valcke, University of Gent, Belgium
Prof. dr. R.W.J.V. van Hezewijk, Open Universiteit
Prof. dr. L. Kester, Open Universiteit
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Foreword

“As a secondary-school teacher, I am used to asking my pupils around January,
how many courses we had together. I am year after year fascinated by the an-
swers. It is bewildering to discover that even hard working and well performing
pupils in my class are largely incapable to refer to the what, how, when, where,
and why of learning. Also, I sometimes raise the question “why do you go to
school?” or, interrupting a lecture, “why do we study this?”, causing a mix of
surprise and interest, reflected in the debates that follow. It is also my habit
from time to time to defer a lesson by asking students to write down what they
have experienced so far. Most of the time the answers are rather poor and only
a very modicum mention procedural elements of learning. In addition, I have
noticed that the below-average students are usually those who finish this as-
signment the fastest, some of them asking, before giving back their account,
whether this is “the good answer”. In an action-research also conducted at my
school, students were asked to use a personal learning environment to book-
mark resources about historical characters. In their report of what they learnt,
pupils mentioned only that they had acquired academic knowledge and no one
that they got acquainted with a new tool organising knowledge and resources.
Methodologically unsafe, these grassroots experiences nevertheless anchored
the idea that pupils hardly conceptualise the learning situation they are commit-
ted to and their own identity as learners.”
Dominique Verpoorten, teacher at the European School Mol, Belgium.

1998

2012

“This dissertation was undertaken to confront two premises to empirical data.
The first premise was that reflection-in-action requested a specific type of tool
to be trained: compact, structured, and repeated “reflection amplifiers”. The
second premise was that these structured reflective episodes, devised to be
practised in a “zapping-like” manner, did not have to be long to reap benefits.
One main benefit could be for students to realise that they are learners and that
constant mental moves between action and reflection should steadily become
the key feature of their inner intellectual life.”
Dominique Verpoorten, researcher at the Open University in the Netherlands.
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Contents

Foreword.........................................................................................5

Chapter 1: General introduction................................................15
THE SOCIETAL CONTEXT OF THIS STUDY
REFLECTION AMPLIFIERS (RAS) - REINVESTING THE MOMENT OF LEARNING
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND SCIENTIFIC RELEVANCE
Definitional issues
Reflection-in-action training - Obstacles
Factor 1 – Lack of time
Factor 2 – Lack of empirical evidence
Factor 3 – Competing demands
Factor 4 – A swampy concept
Factor 5 – A concept for adults only
Factor 6 – A foreign learning goal
Theoretical models
Boud, Keogh, and Walker’s model of the reflective process
Mezirow’s model of critical reflection
Le Cornu‘s working model of the process of reflection
Schön’s model of reflective practice
Nelson and Narens’ framework of meta-memory
Endsley’s three-level model of situational awareness
Ryan and Deci’s taxonomy of human motivation
INSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND AND PRACTICAL RELEVANCE
Interactive content
Web application framework
Open Educational Resources
TECHNOLOGICAL RELEVANCE – HARNESSING WEB 2.0 TO EDUCATION
OVERVIEW OF THE DISSERTATION

Chapter 2: RAs – A classification framework...........................37
EXISTING RAS
A GENERAL CLASSIFICATION FRAMEWORK OF RAS
Relevant attribute 1: the Interaction type (input)
Interaction type 1: Receiving information
Interaction type 2: Giving information (Responding)
Interaction type 3: Verbalising information
Relevant attribute 2: the Instructional purpose (output)
Instructional purpose a: training reflection on content and task
Instructional purpose b: training reflection on learning processes
Instructional purpose c: training reflection on learning experience
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MAPPING RAS TO THE CLASSIFICATION FRAMEWORK
A FIRST VALIDATION
FURTHER LINES OF INQUIRY
Challenge 1 – Acceptance of the idea
Challenge 2 – Exploration of the value of tracked data for instruction
Challenge 3 – Links between reflection and personalisation
APPENDIX: COMPACT DEFINITION OF 35 RAS

Chapter 3: Infusing reflective practice – Can widgets help?...51
WIDGETS FOR REFLECTION
THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHERS’ VOICES
Widgets for education, really?
Discussions saturated with technical concerns
METHOD
RESULTS
DESIGNING WIDGETS AS RAS
Candidates to “widgetisation”
Category 1 – Widgets for the mirroring of interaction footprints
Category 2 – Widgets for student-driven evaluation
Reasons to give a trial to widgets for reflection
Reason 1 – Contextualisation of reflection
Reason 2 – Cockpits for learning
Reason 3 – Pick-and-mix and progressive approach
Reason 4 – Instant opportunities for reflection
CONCLUSION AND FURTHER WORK
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Chapter 4: Using RAs while learning.........................................63
REFLECTION AMPLIFIERS
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
METHODOLOGY
The online course
Three types of RAs
RA 1 – Compare with yardstick
RA 2 – Rate your mastery of this page
RA 3 – Write on the content
Sample and schedule
Measure instruments
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
Primary research questions
Questioning RAs
Questioning learners
Questioning the course
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Questioning the notion of performance
Questioning the experimental setting
Secondary research questions
CONCLUSION

Chapter 5: Annotations as RAs...................................................77
PAST AND RECENT RESEARCH ON ANNOTATIONS
REFLECTION AMPLIFIERS
HYPOTHESES
METHOD
APPARATUS
QUANTITATIVE RESULTS
Measures between groups
Within-treatment measures relating to learning effectiveness
Amount of reflective enactments and mark at the test
Rate of reflective enactments and mark at the test
Isolated/combined reflective enactments and mark at the test
Within-treatment measures relating to learning efficiency
Amount of reflective enactments
Rate of reflective enactments
QUALITATIVE RESULTS
Overall satisfaction
Sense of control
Stimulation of reflection by the annotation process
Extra annotations
CLUSTER ANALYSIS
DISCUSSION
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
CONCLUSION

Chapter 6: RAs – A systematic literature review .....................95
DEFINITIONAL ISSUES
Reflection
Reflection-on-action prompts
RAs
Boundaries of the review
METHOD
Selection of articles for the main review database
Specific criteria and mapping of the domain
In-depth review
RESULTS
Instructional context
RAs’ domains of application
RAs’ deployment contexts and exposure times