'Becoming experts': learning through mediation

Purpose – This study is largely founded on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, Feuerstein’s theory of Mediated Learning Experience and Lave and Wenger’s ‘community of practice’, which concerned building a community of learners that places mediation as central in learning and teaching. While the overall study involved Malaysian Year One English and Mathematics classrooms, this article focuses only on the latter. Two research questions were posed: 1) How does the teacher/peers mediate learning? 2) How does mediation influence the individual’s identity? Method – This qualitative study was conducted within a period of three months. Data collection included intense classroom observations, interviews, classroom discourse and dialogic discussions with teachers and pupils. Microgenetic analyses of transcripts were made to show moment-to moment changes observed.Findings – Four types of mediation emerged from the data : Environmental mediation, cognitive mediation, affective mediation and metacognitive mediation (i.e., an ECAM model for mediation).Findings suggest that mediation enabled the Mathematics teacher to change, to take ownership and to sustain her new pedagogical approaches within the classroom. This re-focusing benefited her pupils, and dramatically changed a particular less able pupil from one who was initially ‘lost in his world,’ into one who was able to engage in the learning process, take ownership of his own learning, as well as mediate other pupils’ learning. Value – Hence it is argued that the ECAM model for mediation provided opportunities for this teacher and her pupil to expand their capacity to learn and develop their identities as individuals capable of learning and becoming ‘experts’

Pluriliteracies teaching for learning:Conceptualizing progression for deeper learning in literacies development

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Holistic perspectives on complexities and implications of translanguaging in multilingual contexts:A commentary

As reflected in the title of the opening commentary for this special issue, holistic perspectives on the nature and potential of translanguaging emerged as the authors shared deep reflection of issues inherent in and growing from empirical research focussing on multilingual practices in EMI/CLIL-related classrooms. Translating global education goals such as ‘quality education for all’ into realities, involves a collective responsibility to promote pedagogies that address contextually sensitive challenges, cultural diversity and social inequalities. Multilingual classrooms embody spaces where more than one language is known, used, learned, encouraged or ‘forbidden,’ built on ideologies, power dynamics and marginalisation that impact on the way learners learn, and teachers teach. Moreover, throughout the last decade attitudes towards translanguaging have shifted significantly, leading to its increasing legitimization in multilingual educational contexts. Yet, the transformative potential of translanguaging in promoting equity and social justice requires further critical examination that situates classroom pedagogies in transparent sociopolitical and linguistic contexts. By emphasizing holistic (re)conceptualisations of the potential of translanguaging across multilingual studies in this issue, five distinct yet interrelated themes are evidenced. These are: translanguaging for equity and social justice; classroom interactions as translanguaging spaces; teacher awareness of the complexities of translanguaging; multimodality and translanguaging in assessment; and integrating technology-mediated translanguaging considering teacher competence and foregrounding student voice. The findings in this collection contribute significantly to a challenging futures-thinking research agenda serving as the springboard for further nuanced context-sensitive classroom-based studies unravelling practices and guiding principles along the pathway towards advancing quality multilingual education for all.</p

Technology-enabled professional learning in remote rural minority language classrooms

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Developments in Generative Learning using a Collaborative Learning Environment

This paper describes and reflects upon the development of the on-line modules for the EdD in Teacher Education at the University of Nottingham, UK. This development has provided the course organisers with an opportunity to explore on-line collaborative learning involving knowledge transformation and creation. The course attracts mainly overseas students and consists of four taught modules followed by an equivalent period of research leading to a thesis. The paper presents the rationale for the pedagogic approach taken in developing the course including the rationale for the use of WebQuests and a collaborative learning environment (CLE) that is being developed by the University of Melbourne, Australia

Fortalecimiento de aprendizaje integrado: hacia una nueva era para pluri-alfabetizaciones y aprendizaje intercultural

Over the last two decades, the expansion of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) on a global scale has brought to the fore challenges of how alternative, more holistic approaches to learning might transform classrooms into language-rich transcultural environments. Integrated approaches have the potential to offer learners the opportunity to engage in meaning-making and language progression through cognitively challenging and culturally-embedded sequenced activities, which are reflected in the 4Cs Framework (Content, Cognition, Communication, and Culture). However, the 4Cs also present many challenges—it is well documented that the potential of CLIL is difficult to realise due to the impact of complex contextual variables. The importance of classroom language is emphasised, as is the need for learners to access different kinds of language to enable them to learn effectively using a language which is not their first—as represented in the Triptych. Whilst the 4Cs bring together the components of CLIL, research by the Graz Group into how these might be integrated has led to the development of the Pluriliteracies Framework. The core of the Pluriliteracies model lies in the space where conceptualizing and communicating come together. Here learners are encouraged to language (or articulate) their learning in their own words. For this to happen, new ways of conceptualizing, planning, and sequencing activities that support learners in accessing new knowledge whilst developing existing and new language skills have to be shared and understood by teachers. The Pluriliteracies model is evolving, and there is a clearly a need for further work.La expansión de Aprendizaje Integrado de Contenidos y Lenguas Extranjeras (AICLE) en una escala global ha traído delanteros los desafíos de como los enfoques alternativos y más integrales podrían transformar las aulas en entornos transculturales ricos en lenguaje. Los enfoques integrados pueden ofrecer los alumnos oportunidades para participar en la creación de la significancia y la progresión de la lengua por medio de actividades secuenciadas cognitivamente desafiantes y culturalmente empotrados, como se refleja en el Marco de los 4C (Contenido, Cognición, Comunicación y Cultura). Estos enfatizan lenguaje del aula, así como las necesidades de los alumnos para acceder a la variedad de lenguaje que les ayuda a aprender un idioma adicional con eficacia, como se representa en el Tríptico de Lenguaje. Sin embargo, está bien documentado que las variables contextuales complejas hacen difícil realizar el potencial de AICLE. Investigaciones recientes realizadas por el Grupo de Graz en la manera de integrar mejor los componentes de las 4Cs ha llevado al desarrollo del Marco de Pluriliteracidades, en el que la conceptualización y la comunicación se unen y se anima a los alumnos a lenguar (o articular) su aprendizaje en sus propias palabras. Esto exige nuevas formas de actividades de conceptualización, planificación, y secuenciación que soportan los alumnos en el acceso a nuevos conocimientos mientras que desarrollan existentes y nuevas habilidades lingüísticas deben ser compartidos y comprendidos por los maestros. El modelo del Pluriliteracidades está evolucionando, y hay una clara necesidad de seguir trabajand

Adolescent voices speak out: if only they would - if only they could : a case study : the interplay between linguistic and strategic competence in classrooms where modern languages are used

This thesis focuses on groups of adolescent learners in two comprehensive schools. It explores the interplay between linguistic and strategic competence in classrooms where a foreign language is used i e. in French or Spanish lessons and in geography classes where the foreign language is also used as a medium for instruction. In Part 1, the research is positioned within a contextual, conceptual and theoretical framework, underpinned by Vygotskian socio-cognitive principles. Part 2 consists of an ethnographic-oriented.case study at two sites. The study uses methodological triangulation to co-construct the learning environments from different perspectives, based on document analysis, questionnaires, interviews, lesson observations and the microgenetic analysis of student interaction during linguistic tasks analysed at both an inter- and intramental level. The thesis is built on the metaphor of language games and identifies strategic and linguistic moves which could potentially bring about changing the rules in order to enable an alternative game to played. The thesis leads the writer to argue for a re-conceptualisation of learner strategies based on the notion of ‘strategic classrooms’ and recommends the integration of ‘alternative’ linguistic and strategic ‘moves' into everyday classroom practice if learners are to find a ‘voice’

Adolescent voices speak out: if only they would - if only they could : a case study : the interplay between linguistic and strategic competence in classrooms where modern languages are used

This thesis focuses on groups of adolescent learners in two comprehensive schools. It explores the interplay between linguistic and strategic competence in classrooms where a foreign language is used i e. in French or Spanish lessons and in geography classes where the foreign language is also used as a medium for instruction. In Part 1, the research is positioned within a contextual, conceptual and theoretical framework, underpinned by Vygotskian socio-cognitive principles. Part 2 consists of an ethnographic-oriented.case study at two sites. The study uses methodological triangulation to co-construct the learning environments from different perspectives, based on document analysis, questionnaires, interviews, lesson observations and the microgenetic analysis of student interaction during linguistic tasks analysed at both an inter- and intramental level. The thesis is built on the metaphor of language games and identifies strategic and linguistic moves which could potentially bring about changing the rules in order to enable an alternative game to played. The thesis leads the writer to argue for a re-conceptualisation of learner strategies based on the notion of ‘strategic classrooms’ and recommends the integration of ‘alternative’ linguistic and strategic ‘moves' into everyday classroom practice if learners are to find a ‘voice’