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In order to reach the main aims of modern education, powerful learning environments are designed. The characteristics of the design of PLEs are expected to have positive effects on student learning. Additionally, teachers' conceptions of learning and teaching do influence the implementation of a PLE. Moreover, students' perceptions of a learning environment affect their subsequent learning behaviour and the quality of the learning outcomes. The different perspectives of educational designers, teachers, and students are summarized in the Combination-of-perspectives (COOP) model. Combining these perspectives by mutual exchange of conceptions and perceptions is expected to have positive effects on the power of PLEs.

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Searching and processing information is a complex cognitive process that requires students to identify information needs, locate corresponding information sources, extract and organize relevant information from each source, and synthesize information from a variety of sources.This process is called information-problem solving (IPS). IPS can be characterized as a complex cognitive skill, which may need direct instruction to reach high levels of performance. However, IPS has been given little attention in schools, and instruction in this skill is rarely embedded in curricula. And yet, by giving students assignments in which students have to solve an information-based problem, teachers assume that their pupils have developed this skill naturally.A literature study was done to determine what kinds of problems students experience when solving information problems using the WWW for searching information, and what kind of instructional support can help to solve these problems. Results show that children, teenagers and adults have trouble with specifying search terms, judging search results and judging source and information. Regulating the search process is also problematic. Instruction designed specifically for IPS using the WWW for searching information is rare but indeed addresses the problematic skills. However, there are differences between various methods and it is unclear which method is most effective for specific age groups. Information Problem Solving 3 Information Problem Solving: A Review of Problems Students Encounter and Instructional SolutionsOur current society is an information society. Recent technological developments such as mobile communication, GPS, and the Internet provide us with large bodies of information every day. It is up to us to decide what to do with all this information. One could decide to ignore it altogether, but this will almost certainly result in alienation from society. A more fruitful approach might be to regularly gain access to new information. This approach requires people to identify their information needs, locate corresponding information sources, extract and organize relevant information from each source, and synthesize information from a variety of sources into cogent, productive uses (Bawden, 2001;Eisenberg & Berkowitz, 1990, 1992Marchionini, 1999;Moore, 1995Moore, , 1997Shapiro & Hughes, 1996;Spitzer, 2000). Together these activities constitute a process that we refer to as InformationProblem Solving (IPS).IPS is not only important in everyday life, but also in education. In the last decade educational systems have undergone changes. Instead of a system aiming at the reproduction of knowledge, new learning is aiming at learning outcomes that are durable, flexible, functional, meaningful, and applicable. Active pedagogical methods, in which students learn by doing instead of listening and in which the teacher has a guiding role, fit this new learning (Simons, Van der Linden, & Duffy, 2000). Students are given assignments, such as writing an essay on Tibet, that ...

Workplace simulations (WPS), authentic learning environments at school, are increasingly used in vocational education. This article provides a theoretical analysis and synthesis of requirements considering learner skills, characteristics of the learning environment and the role of the teacher that influence good functioning in WPS and foster students' learning. WPS appeal to students' self-directed learning (SDL) and self-regulated learning (SRL) skills, as students are required to work and learn independently in these settings. To achieve individual learning, the environments should be adaptive to the learners needs. Furthermore, the teachers should support learners to become competent in the domain but also guide them to become self-directed learners. To do so the interaction between the student, the teacher and the environment is of importance. The proposed model depicts the different elements and their relations.