The Complexity of Learning: Exploring the Interplay of Different Mediational Means in Group Learning with Digital Tools

Abstract

The relationship between the different mediational means for supporting students' learning with digital tools in science group work in a Norwegian lower-secondary school is examined. Analyses of teacher-student and student-student interactions are located in cultural-historical theory and draw on Galperin's conceptualisation of learning processes. Findings show that digital tools, task design, peer collaboration, and teacher's interventions dialectically interplay to shape how learners use mediational means: (1) digital tools are the resources that enable students to explicate their (mis)understandings; (2) compare-and-contrast tasks promote analytical thinking; (3) peers present themselves as resources who promote development of conceptual understanding; (4) the teacher guides learners' attention towards the potential of the mediational resources, elicits, organises, and structures students' knowledge. The dialectical interplay of these mediational means creates a system that supports and guides students' learning. ARTICLE HISTORY

Teacher Roles in the Blended Classroom – Swedish Lower Secondary School Teachers’ Boundary Management between Physical and Virtual Learning Spaces

“…Previous research (Kreiner et al, 2009) has emphasised the importance of identifying specific boundary work practices in order to contribute with tools for individual workers to perform boundary work in an informed way, by finding a fuller array of options in specific practices available to individuals. Introducing new technology in work life often requires new ways of working, and new sets of competencies for the teacher, such as changed technical, cognitive, or social demands (Hagström & Hanson, 2003;Engeness & Edwards, 2017). Integrating virtual affordances of the classroom, with the aid of digital media, involves demands for technical and pedagogical skills to create a positive learning environment for pupils.…”

“…Through these potentials, technology-rich classrooms have often been regarded as pupil-centred. However, the role of the teacher as the manager of these potentials needs further attention (Engeness & Edwards, 2017).…”

“…Conclusions from their studies indicate that affordances of mobile applications in classrooms have to do with providing multiple entry points and learning paths, supporting multimodality and improvisation in situ, augmenting physical space and conducting the class. In another recent study, based on detailed analyses of teacher-pupil interactions in technology-rich classrooms, Engeness and Edwards (2017) found that much of the teacher's work in the classroom has to do with guiding learners' attention towards the potential of the mediational resources (which can be understood as affordances), organising and structuring their knowledge -in order to fulfil particular learning goals.…”

Developing teachers’ digital identity: towards the pedagogic design principles of digital environments to enhance students’ learning in the 21st century

“…According to Galperin, the transformation of the learning activity is described by the measure of its acquisition by the learners engaged in the activity: that is, when transferred from the social external plane to the internal individual plane. Galperin outlined the dialectically developing phases this transformation may go through: (i) motivation, (ii) orientation, (iii) materialised action, (iv) communicated thinking, (v) dialogical thinking and (vi) acting mentally (Engeness and Edwards 2017). In the motivation phase, a learner's attitude and relation to the learning outcomes that have to be achieved are formed.…”

Scientific legacy of P.Ya. Galperin and the challenges of the 21st century

“…Ра-бота ведется по целому ряду направлений и отечественными, и зарубежными учены-ми и специалистами-практиками. Это -особые требования к характеристикам умственной деятельности человека, фор-мирование которых предполагает все более масштабное развертывание циф-ровой экономики (Engeness & Edwards, 2017;, и новый этап ши-рокомасштабного разворачивания не утратившего своей актуальности движе-ния Instructional Design, вполне добро-желательно отнесшегося к подключению к своим разработкам Гальперинского на-правления (Seel et al, 2017). Интересным вызовом является использование прин-ципиальных и конкретных возможно-стей Гальперинского подхода к такому движению как Partnership for 21st Century Skills (Assessment and …, 2012).…”