Session Information
02 SES 08 A, Youth With Special Needs and at Risk
Paper Session
Contribution
Distance learning settings in tertiary education require self-regulation of learners. Therefore, the development of personal, task-oriented and social/cooperative competences is crucial for the success of learning activities. In the context of the characteristics of and the requirements on vocational teacher education the following research question is derived:
Which impact do distance learning programs in vocational teacher education in Germany and Austria have on the development of personal, task-oriented and social/cooperative competences?
The cross-national comparison of Austria and Germany allows an insight into training programs for the professionalization of prospective teachers. Both countries train vocational teachers at universities with specifically designed programs. This study provides a comparison of the university programs and the competence development in a distance learning environment, and the results are discussed.
1 Distance Learning in the Context of Digital Learning Environments
The major challenge in designing distance learning studies lies particularly in an organized, media- driven communication between learners und teaching organization irrespective of spatiotemporal distance. (Kerres & Jechle, 2002; Kerres 2018) That opens up opportunities for learners for a flexible organization of learning space, learning time, learning pace and learning intensity, supported by web-based learning environments. (Chen, 2009)
Moore and Kearsly (1996) describe "transactional distance" as the relation of structure and open dialogs: The more structured a learning program is, the less dialog is visible and vice versa. Programs can be divided into these with high transactional distance, as are computer-based trainings, asynchronous e-lectures and podcasts, and those with less transactional distance, as are group discussions, chats and synchronous video seminars. The transactional distance determines the amount of the learners' autonomy, like participation in defining learning goals and organizing the learning and evaluation process. (Lehmann, 2012)
2 Characteristics of Vocational Teacher Education in Austria and Germany (Bavaria)
In Austria, after a professional education and professional experience, the potential teacher students start as teachers in vocational schools, before they begin their bachelor study at a university for teacher education. Therefore, they remain in a full-time employment as teachers but they receive a time pool of 120 days for studying. The limited time demands flexible learning environments, as could be provided by digital distance learning. In contrast, in Germany, prospective vocational school teachers complete a bachelor's and master's degree program followed by an internship. The studies are accompanied by school practice. Compared to Austrian students, student teachers have little teaching experience. University education takes place in classroom, blended and distance learning formats.
3 Learning Theories
The implementation of digital learning environments and the use of social media open new opportunities for co-operation and communication, feedback, assessments etc., but also requires a high amount of self-regulation and cooperation skills. In e-learning settings, the learners have to plan, organize, control and reflect their own learning activities, thus essential competences can be developed. (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002; Kitsantas & Dabbagh, 2010, Erpenbeck & Sauter, 2015) In our study we refer to the competence definition in the sense of disposition for self-organization, based on the premise that competences enable humans to cope with new situations by learning and problem-solving. (Erpenbeck & von Rosenstiel, 2003) In this understanding, competences are cognitive, social-communicational and emotional-motivational preconditions for coping with complex tasks. (Hacker, 2006; Ericsson, 2006) Digital learning environments support developing learners' competences, if they provide open scenarios with social-communicative, emotional-motivational and cognitive learning opportunities.
Self-regulated learning implies that learners do know how to set aims, define requirements for the realization of the learning process and achieve aims. Therefore, learners have to develop intentions and strategies. Nenniger (2011) refers to three fields of self-regulation, as are behavior-orientated adaptions, meta-cognitive measures and self-efficacy.
Method
For answering the research question, a mixed-methods design is applied. In a first step a questionnaire was developed, investigating the development of students' competences, based on characteristics of self-regulated learning. In the next phase, focus group interviews (N = 15, performed in January 2020) with teacher students and university teachers will be moderated by a member of the research team. This should give a deeper understanding of the quantitative data. With respect to the hypothesis, that the relation of distance learning and presence learning has effects on teacher students' competences, three types of different courses (seminar – 30 % distance learning, lecture – 100 % distance learning, and school practice seminar – 100 % distance learning) were analyzed. To answer the research question, it is required to reflect digital settings in teacher education courses, and evaluate them for their effectiveness in a cyclic, continuous quality improvement process (Brandhofer, Buchner, Groißböck & Wegscheider, 2017). For the illustration of the findings, a cyclic process of action research was chosen (Altrichter & Posch, 2018). It maps the research steps, starting from an initial point, followed by actions (such as interventions), new data collection and further actions (interventions); if the results are insufficient, the cycle will be repeated. The quantitative survey phases include pre- and post-testing. The intervention derives from focus group interviews and will be implemented in the courses in summer term 2021. In total, three survey cycles with focus group interviews are planned. The quantitative data will be analyzed by uni- and multivariate statistical methods including statistical hypotheses tests as well as linear modelling. The qualitative data will be evaluated by content analyses (Mayring, 2000), using the software MaxQDA. In the presentation we will focus on the questionnaire data. Based on the theoretical foundations, a set of dimensions was developed, and further split into sub-dimensions. Main dimensions are personal competences (motivation und engagement, reliability, developmental and learning readiness), task-oriented competences (digital media proficiency, goal-orientation, learning behavior), and social/cooperative competences. After a pilot testing (N = 25), 55 students in Austria and 64 in Germany (Bavaria) of vocational teacher education answered the questionnaire. MS Forms was used as an online platform to deliver the questionnaire and collect data. The data were analyzed by statistical methods, psychometric analyses revealed sufficient internal consistencies ranging from .67 for a 3-item scale up to .85 for the overall scale on personal competence.
Expected Outcomes
The research as well as data analyses are still going on at the moment of writing this proposal. The results of the first survey and the focus group interviews will most likely be available in July 2021. Questionnaire data will give an overview of the (self-reported) personal, task-oriented, and social/cooperative competences in the two countries involved, which are characterized by a similar system of dual vocational education and training, but differ in approaches to vocational teacher training. Appropriate comparisons will reveal commonalities and/or differences between countries, courses, or professional fields among others. Qualitative data from focus group discussions are expected to both enrich findings from quantitative data analyses of questionnaire data as well as provide a backdrop for interpreting them and place them in a broader theoretical context. On the long run, longitudinal data will provide information on the development of the respective competences over time. Uni- and multivariate analysis will reveal information on potential differential effects of distance learning on the development of particular competences. Findings of this research project will be fed back to the design of vocational teacher training courses in the two countries involved.
References
Altrichter, H., Posch, P. & Spann, H. (2018). Lehrerinnen und Lehrer erforschen ihren Unterricht: Unterrichtsentwicklung und Unterrichtsevaluation durch Aktionsforschung. Stuttgart: UTB. Brandhofer, G., Buchner, J., Groißböck, P. & Wegscheider, W. (2017). E-Learning in der Aus-, Fort- und Weiterbildung an der Pädagogischen Hochschule für Niederösterreich. Baden: Handbuch für Lehrende. Chen, C.-M. (2009). Personalized e-learning system with self-regulated learning assisted mechanisms for promoting learning performance. Expert Systems with Applications, 36(5), 8816–8829. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2008.11.026. Ericsson, K. A. (2006). The Influence of Experience and Deliberate Practice on the Development of Superior Expert Performance. In K. A. Ericsson, N. Charness, P. J. Feltovich & R. R. Hoffmann (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert performance. (S. 685-706). Cambridge Press. Erpenbeck J., Sauter S. & Sauter W. (2015). E-Learning und Blended Learning. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien. Erpenbeck, J. & Rosenstiel, L. v. (2003). Einführung. In J. Erpenbeck & L. v. Rosenstiel (Hrsg.), Handbuch Kompetenzmessung. Erkennen, verstehen und bewerten von Kompetenzen in der betrieblichen, pädagogischen und psychologischen Praxis (S. IXXL). Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschel. Hacker, W. (2006). Allgemeine Arbeitspsychologie. Psychische Regulation von Arbeitstätigkeiten. Bern: Hans Huber. Kerres, M. & Jechle, T. (2002). Didaktische Konzeption des Telelernens. In L. J. Issing & P. Klimsa (Hrsg.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia und Internet. 3. Auflg. S. 267–281. Weinheim: Beltz. Kerres, M. (2018). Mediendidaktik. Konzeption und Entwicklung digitaler Lernangebote. 5. Aufl., Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. Kitsantas A. & Dabbagh, N. (2010). Learning to learn with integrative learning technologies (ILT): A practical guide for academic success. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing. Lehmann, B. (2012). Aus der Ferne Lehren und Lernen – zu den Grundzügen eines außergewöhnlichen Bildungsformats. In: A. Fogolin (Hrsg.), Bildungsberatung im Fernlernen. Beiträge aus Wissenschaft und Praxis. Bielefeld: wbv. Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative Content Analysis. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1(2), Art. 20, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0002204 Moore, M. G. & Kearsley, G. (1996). Distance education: A systems view. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing. Nenniger, P. (2011). Autonomy in learning and instruction. In P. Martin, F. M. Cheung, M. C. Knowles, M. Kyrios, J. B. Overmier & J. M. Prieto (Hrsg.), IAAP Handbook of Applied Psychology (S. 162–184). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Pintrich, P. R. & Schunk, D. H. (2002). Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
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