Peer support arrangements are an evidence-based practice for increasing interactions between students with severe disabilities and their peers in general education classrooms, but it is unclear how interactions vary across instructional formats or generalize outside the classroom. In this single-case design study, we tested the efficacy of peer…

This exploratory case study aims to examine how students benefit from a multimodal learning environment while they engage in collaborative problem-based activity in a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) university course. For 12 weeks, 30 students, in groups of 5-7 each, participated in weekly face-to-face meetings and online interactions.…

Introduction: This paper investigates participatory practices in library activities for young children and their care-givers in a specific cultural context. Method: Using an ethnographic approach data were collected through participant observations of songtimes for babies and toddlers, and interviews and group interviews with staff and…

There is considerable agreement about the fact that the presence of researchers in the classroom mediates teaching and learning. Why "should" two very different forms of human activity, one designed to study the other, interact and mediate each other? In this article, we propose cultural-historical activity theory as a framework for understanding…

There has been a growing body of research on the identification of particular characteristics or factors that can be used to predict learners' success in online learning environments. However, there still exists much uncertainty about the conditions that are essential to create a successful online venture for both learners and educators. The…

This study aims to replicate and extend a previous study which was conducted on primary school students' asynchronous online project-based learning. In this study, 276 high school students' participation and interaction in a project-based learning environment was mediated by an asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) tool. The students'…

This paper discusses interactional patterns in classrooms in primary school in rural Tanzania, based on an ethnographic study on literacy practices. The paper argues that the official policy of Swahili-only in primary school, together with the huge gap between high expectations on educational outcome and lack of resources, have resulted in the…

CSCL systems which follow the dual-interaction spaces paradigm support the synchronous construction and discussion of shared artifacts by distributed or colocated small groups of learners. The most recent generic dual-interaction space environments, either model based or component based, can be deeply customized by teachers for supporting…

Recently, there is a growing interest in the automatic analysis of learner activity in web-based learning environments. The approach and system SIAM (System for Interaction Analysis by Machine learning) presented in this article aims at helping to establish a basis for the automatic analysis of interaction data by developing a data logging and…

Analyzes an urban alternative school program to determine the extent to which the social relations underlying educational encounters were transformed. Found that students and teachers were both reproducing previously learned social definitions of roles and behaviors and altering the fundamental character of the social relations underlying…

Defines activity theory as a socio-cultural and socio-historical lens through which the interaction of human activity and consciousness within its relevant environmental context can be analyzed. Describes how activity theory can be used as a framework for analyzing activities and settings for the purpose of designing constructivist learning…

This article discusses the relationship between procedural and conceptual problem solving in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment designed within the field of science education. The contribution of this article, and our understanding of this phenomenon, is anchored in our socio-cultural interpretation, and that implies…

Indepth studies of micropolitics at the school level are presented in this book, which includes nine qualitative studies of school politics conducted by different researchers. Chapters 2 through 10 examine the formal and informal processes and structures that constitute everyday political life in the schools. The studies explore how individuals…

The purpose of this paper is threefold: (1) to discuss issues related to the design of interaction on the World Wide Web using models of interaction developed for distance education; (2) to examine several techniques for the analysis of interactions and the quality of the learning experience in a computer-mediated group conference; and (3) to…

Disciplinary didactics describes and designs the actualized/virtual learning and teaching relationships among disciplinary content, learner(s), and teacher. This article adopts a semiotic perspective to outline eight shared features of the various disciplinary didactics. The goal is to situate them within an integrated vision that helps shape a…