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Content archived on 2024-06-18

An Alternative Model of Learning: Implications of Learning Sciences Research for the Creation of Effective Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments

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Improving the learning environment

European research is contributing to EU efforts to enhance education and training systems in the move towards a knowledge-based society. Project work looks to students, instructors and their environment to advance research in interdisciplinary learning sciences.

The Rethink Learning project is working towards a more comprehensive understanding of how students come to understand learning, as well as how faculty can support this, so as to create effective technology-enhanced learning environments. With EU-funding support, the project has taken an interdisciplinary approach to the study of cognition to produce an extensive literature review and outline a sensitising framework. Three case studies have been conducted at Harvard Graduate School of Education in the United States, as a means of exploring factors involved in the design of effective learning environments that can fully engage students. The knowledge derived will be used to inform and support the study’s theory-building process, so as to arrive at a proposed alternative model of learning. In continuing project work, research results will be published in a scientific book, and a faculty training session will be offered in support of developing and strengthening related competences. The outcomes of ongoing research will also facilitate the transfer and implementation of insights gained from the American environment to a European context.