Tan, Seng Chee

Background: The use of multiuser virtual worlds (MUVWs) for collaborative learning has generated interest among healthcare educators. Published evidence to support its use is growing, but none has synthesized the evidence to guide future work. Objective: This study sought to provide a comprehensive and systematic evaluation of MUVWs in healthcare education. Design: A systematic review Methods: A systematic search of five databases including CINAHL, Cochrane library, EMBASE, PubMed, and Scopus, was conducted from inception up to January 2017. Two independent researchers selected studies that met the inclusion criteria and assessed for methodological quality using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI). A total of 18 studies were reviewed and their data were synthesized narratively using a 3-P model (presage-process-product). Results: Average scores in the MERSQI for methodological quality are 10/18, which is modest. A rally by the government or professional bodies towards more collaborative working among healthcare professionals is a key driver behind implementing MUVWs. Funding is important for its development and evaluation. Team training in acute care and communication training were the most frequent learning objectives, and predominant learning activities include practice on simulation scenario and debriefing. Two-third of the studies did not explain their theoretical framework that underpinned their design and implementation of MUVWs. While MUVWs in healthcare education is generally well-received, learning outcomes remain inconclusive. Conclusion: Despite a growth of studies on the use of MUVW in healthcare education, there is a need for more understanding of the application of theories to inform the learning activities. Therefore, we suggest educators to incorporate a theoretical model to explain the learning processes behind MUVWs. To improve the quality of evidence, we call for researchers to employ a more rigorous and broader approach to evaluation that explicates longer-term outcomes, including cost benefit analyses.

This paper discusses the issue of fostering or building learning communities among heads of department (HoD) in IT in Singapore schools. A preliminary study was conducted among 17 HoDs anchoring on the issues of IT MasterPlan II (MP2) in Singapore. The study reveals the issues of concern for these HoD ITs vis-à-vis the impending need to implement the pedagogically inclined stance of MP2. This paper presents a framework of an evolving community of practitioners (CoP) along a simulation, participation, and codetermined interactions continuum. Simulation, participation, and co-determined interactions are three models of learning, which describe how learners are brought through a scaffolded process within a community experience.

This paper investigated the differences between the online discourses of K12 and higher education students, in an effort to understand differences in knowledge building behaviors between them. The higher education students are represented by 13 in-service graduate teachers and K12 students include 20 eighth-graders. An idea-centric analysis was conducted, which showed that discourse in the K12 setting contained ideas less promising to the discourse community than those found in higher education discourse. By considering the differences in the build-on of notes and utilization of scaffolds in discourse, potential strategies were suggested to change the patterns of build-on and use of scaffolds in Knowledge Forum so as to improve the quality of ideas in knowledge building discourse. Teachers can focus resources on promising ideas and strategize the use of scaffolds to maintain engagement and idea improvement within knowledge building discourse for better understanding and attainment of knowledge building goals.

This paper presents a study of temporal analytics and discourse analysis of an online discussion, through investigation of a group of 13 in-service teachers and 2 instructors. A discussion forum consisting of 281 posts on an online collaborative learning environment was investigated. A text-mining tool was used to discover keywords from the discourse, and through social network analysis based on these keywords, a significant presence of relevant and promising ideas within discourse was revealed. However, uncovering the key ideas alone is insufficient to clearly explain students’ level of understanding regarding the discussed topics. A more thorough analysis was thus performed by using temporal analytics with step-wise discourse analysis to trace the ideas and determine their impact on communal discourse. The results indicated that most ideas within the discourse could be traced to the origin of a set of improvable ideas, which impacted and also increased the community’s level of interest in sharing and discussing ideas through discourse.

This study is situated in the field of knowledge building and teacher professional learning community (PLC). It describes a case study of eight elementary school teachers working on lesson design using knowledge building pedagogy to enhance student learning. The research question is: “How is knowledge building accomplished among teachers within a PLC?” The main method employed is the analysis of teacher’s discourse in the PLC. Results indicate that although not cognisant of it, these teachers functioned as a reciprocal layer of knowledge builders over their students’ work. Critically, teachers’ knowledge building was enabled by working with authentic classroom problems, embracing idea diversity and demonstrating epistemic agency in their knowledge advancement. Future work can focus on building teacher’s awareness of this layer of knowledge building and scripting creation of knowledge artefacts among teachers to mediate and record their collaborative inquiry.

Unprecedented global issues have caused large-scale disruption to preschools, requiring a rethink of existing teaching and learning approaches. This study examines the inception of a knowledge building approach in preschools using a case study method and a micro‑meso-macro (3M) analytical framework to understand impact and implications. We found that teachers and students, as micro units (individual agents) collaborated with each other at the meso level, where knowledge creation is carried out within communities, while interacting with macro units (school leaders). Analysis shows the knowledge building approach aided stakeholders in navigating organizational, technological, and pedagogical challenges. Elevating awareness and acknowledging impacts of the knowledge building approach can inspire critical discourse to understand and handle future disruptions in the educational landscape.

The application of digital technologies in science education is pervasive and has gained traction in the recent two decades. Research about the adoption of technologies in science education has progressed from examining science teaching and learning through technologies to with technologies, reflecting the evolving conceptualizations of digital technologies in science education. Teachers play critical roles in the purposeful engagement of technologies in the classroom, but there are still gaps in teacher’s knowledge and practices in using technologies in science classrooms. The effectiveness of technology-centric approaches of teacher professional development has also been questioned. In this regard, the emergence of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) has been used as a framework for more holistic professional development of teachers. This chapter discusses research related to technologies and professional learning of science teachers, including the rationales for the use of TPACK to frame science teachers’ professional learning, the theoretical underpinning of TPACK, the epistemological approaches of professional learning of science teachers from the TPACK perspective, as well as the methodological foci and key research outcomes. Suggestions on areas to build on the field of study on TPACK in science education are offered.

Research in disparate fields of education, psychology and neuroscience suggests that emotions play a central role in learning. We critically examine research at the intersection of emotions, adult learning and neuroscience. First, we review studies in the IJLE related to emotions and adult learning. In particular, we focus on the impact of an IJLE publication that argued using neuroscience research for the important role of emotions in transformative learning theory. We then highlight recent developments in neuroscience of emotions with links to transformative learning, before reflecting on ways to move forward by combining neuroscience research with transformative learning theory.

Singapore and Ontario, Canada, have been rated as among the top education systems in the world in terms of both student achievement and progressive management. This symposium brings together leaders and researchers working in these systems to discuss efforts to go beyond present achievements and to address new imperatives to educate for innovation. Both systems are experimenting with Knowledge Building as an approach to meet this need. How they propose to do this while also upholding other educational goals forms one facet of the symposium. The other facet concerns how this work fits into the larger picture of education for innovation as seen from the points of view of research in the learning sciences and OECD’s studies of innovation in education.