Beyond the Indexical Role of Contexts in Educational Research and Learning Design

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Eleven
  In Roundtable Session: Diverse Contexts in Learning Sciences Research (Table 14)

Abstract

Educators agree that learning contexts are essential elements for students’ learning and authentic engagement. However, what constitutes learning contexts lacks clarity and how they are articulated in research and learning design determines whether contexts are used as a background where the action (e.g., learning) takes place or as constitutive elements of learning, where students have the agency to interactively modify and make use of that context. In this paper we examined what researchers considered as contexts for students’ learning in articles published in the Journal of the Learning Sciences (JLS) between 1991 and 2021. Preliminary findings revealed that descriptions of contexts are often indexical (as opposed to constitutive) and revolve around technologies, instructional approaches and formal and informal settings

Authors

• Engida Hailye Gebre, Simon Fraser University
  Presenting Author

• Addisu Leyew Bailie, University of the Fraser Valley
  Presenting Author

• Joseph L. Polman, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author